All entries by this author

Prosecutors see what he did

Jul 16th, 2018 2:48 pm | By

More reactions.

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 2 comments
Tags:


Where is the server?

Jul 16th, 2018 11:53 am | By

This. This part is just absolutely staggering. CNN:

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Russian interference in the 2016 US election. (Meanwhile, US intelligence agencies insist Russians did interfere.)

Trump declined to endorse the US intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election, saying Putin was “extremely strong and powerful” in his denial.

Instead, the US president repeatedly asked about the Democratic National Committee’s email server and Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.

Here’s the moment:

So let me just say that we have two thoughts: You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I’ve been

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 6 comments
Tags:


Unbelievable

Jul 16th, 2018 11:14 am | By

Oh christ. This one is so damning.  SO DAMNING.

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags:


What you are seeing right now in real time is treason

Jul 16th, 2018 11:01 am | By

More reactions:

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog


The timing was exceptionally awkward

Jul 16th, 2018 10:34 am | By

The Times was live updating.

Mr. Trump refused to say that he believed American intelligence agencies’ findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 United States election, as a news conference where international affairs were expected to dominate turned again and again to the president’s domestic political troubles. The timing was exceptionally awkward, just days after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence agents on charges of hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, in an attempt to aid Mr. Trump.

For “exceptionally awkward” read “treasonous.”

Asked whether he believes his own intelligence agencies, which say that Russia interfered in the 2016 United States election, or Mr. Putin, who denies it, Mr. Trump refused to say, but

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 10 comments
Tags:


Everyone is numb and in shock

Jul 16th, 2018 9:55 am | By

Reactions to the Trump-Putin press conference:

https://twitter.com/RogueSNRadvisor/status/1018895593958019073

https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1018891344520142848

In plain sight.

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 1 Comment »
Tags:


Hiding in plain sight

Jul 16th, 2018 9:31 am | By

Greg Sargent at the Post points out that Trump is colluding with Putin right now, as we watch.

In Helsinki today, Trump and Putin spoke to reportersbefore entering their private meeting. Trump predicted that “I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship,” adding that “getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.” But as The Post’s write-up puts it: “Trump did not mention Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign as one of the topics to be discussed.”

On Friday, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicted a dozen Russian military intelligence officials in an extraordinary and wide-ranging set of cyberattacks on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic National Committee officials, alleging

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 3 comments
Tags:


Trump tells Putin how foolish and stupid the US is

Jul 16th, 2018 9:15 am | By

That went well.

President Donald Trump on Monday said at a briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin that while he had “great confidence” in the U.S. intelligence community, Putin was “extremely strong and powerful in his denial” that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.

But Obama was born in Kenya and the Central Park 5 were guilty.

The president blamed “both countries” for the strained relationship. When a reporter asked the president if he would denounce Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election, Trump raised the issue of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

“I think it’s a disgrace we can’t get Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 e-mails. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags:


The war on journalism escalates

Jul 16th, 2018 8:53 am | By

Trump and Putin held a press conference. The Secret Service (or Finnish security, some people on Twitter say) dragged Sam Husseini of The Nation out of the room.

An Op-Ed reporter from the publication The Nation was forcibly removed from a press briefing between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday, before the two leaders were set to take questions from the press.

The man removed was Sam Husseini, said Vice President of Communications at The Nation Caitlin Graf. Husseini is the communications director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes progressive experts as alternative sources for media reporters.

Husseini was holding a sign that Russian authorities reportedly called a

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 1 Comment »


Donnie and Piers

Jul 15th, 2018 5:26 pm | By

Trump talks to Piers Morgan for the Daily Mail after his meeting with Brenda:

‘Did you get the feeling she liked you?”

‘Well I don’t want to speak for her, but I can tell you I liked her. So usually that helps. But I liked her a lot.’

‘What were her opening words?’

‘Um, “Welcome”. Just “Welcome”. Just very elegant. And very beautiful. It was really something special.’

‘Did you mention your mother?’

‘I did, I said: “You know, my mother was your big fan. She was born in Stornaway in The Hebrides. And that’s very serious Scotland as you know, there’s no doubt about that.’”

Ah, nice of him to explain about serious Scotland.

Trump revealed the Queen told

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 7 comments
Tags:


Data collecting

Jul 15th, 2018 4:02 pm | By

This is funny, in a painful sort of way. Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute blog in 2009:

I’ve been marooned in Paris the last three days, waiting for a plane home after the snowstorm mess (“Poor Charles,” you’re all saying). Last night, having been struck by how polyglot Paris has become, I collected data as I walked along, counting people who looked like native French (which probably added in a few Brits and other Europeans) versus everyone else.

Oooh super-professional Data Collection there, counting the people you think look like native French,  and allowing that you may have accidentally counted a few “Brits and other Europeans” by mistake.

I can’t vouch for the representativeness of the sample,

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 11 comments
Tags:


Turnberry and tweets

Jul 15th, 2018 11:38 am | By

The usual ethics-obliteration:

“The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible!” Trump tweeted Saturday morning, promoting his own money-losing property in Turnberry.

“This place is incredible, so spend your money here!”

Says the president of the US about his own golf club.

Today he took a little time to assure us how great he is.

Because the … Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 2 comments
Tags:


Void calling to void

Jul 15th, 2018 9:47 am | By

Masha Gessen tells us the Trump-Putin date tomorrow is nothing meeting nothing.

The deliberately empty gesture is the ultimate innovation of the Trump Presidency. Beginning with his transition-era announcement of saving American jobs at a Carrier plant—an accomplishment of no consequence for the country as a whole and little, if any, consequence for many Carrier employees—Trump has trafficked in hollow symbols. Each gesture is designed to affirm his image as a dealmaker, even though the deals are devoid of substance at best and costly at worst. In this context, the Trump-Putin summit, a meeting without an agenda, appears entirely logical.

For his part, Putin has spent nearly two decades hollowing out Russian politics, media, and public language. His system

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 1 Comment »
Tags:


Beware the foe

Jul 15th, 2018 9:29 am | By

It turns out we’re in a cold war with the EU.

In an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor in Scotland on Saturday, President Trump named the European Union — comprising some of America’s oldest allies — when asked to identify his “biggest foe globally right now.”

“Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn’t think of the European Union, but they’re a foe. Russia is foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitive,” Mr.

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 2 comments
Tags:


Just one

Jul 15th, 2018 9:09 am | By

Even more lies about “TERFs”:

https://twitter.com/aedison/status/1018266260264685568

Oh really. Many people replied asking for just one example, but answer came there none.… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 4 comments


Casting call

Jul 14th, 2018 5:16 pm | By

Scarlett Johansson has withdrawn from the role of a butch lesbian / trans man because of the outrage that the part wasn’t being played by a trans man.

Scarlett Johansson has opted to withdraw from a film in which she was set to play a transgender man after her casting drew criticism from the LGBTQ community.

No, not the “LGBTQ community”; from some people in that “community.”

Johansson had been set to play transgender man Dante “Tex” Gill, who owned a string of massage parlors in Pittsburgh that were fronts for prostitution in the 1970s and 1980s, in a film about his life.

Johansson’s casting, however, came at a moment when the LGBTQ community and allies are encouraging the casting

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 9 comments


He knew

Jul 14th, 2018 3:46 pm | By

The choreography of the whole thing was interesting. Trump went bopping off to Europe to insult more allies and fantasize aloud about his future friendship with Putin…when all the time he knew about the indictments that were in the pipeline.

President Trump had been aware all along about the charges against Russian actors, and had been briefed on them by the Justice Department even before he left for Europe. “The President is fully aware of the department’s actions today,” Rosenstein told reporters as he announced the indictments, which lay out in methodical detail the ways in which agents of the Russian government systematically worked to infiltrate the Democrats’ 2016 campaign with the apparent goal of helping Trump win

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: ,


Threats no problem

Jul 14th, 2018 3:28 pm | By

Also charming.

https://twitter.com/aedison/status/1015939719430115329

https://twitter.com/aedison/status/1015939722038906880

Except when they are. Some threats are just blowing off steam. Some threats are real and get carried out. They don’t come marked as one or the other.

https://twitter.com/aedison/status/1015939724584869888

Because raping “TERFs” to death is just what you do when you get worn down.… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 15 comments


Some echo

Jul 14th, 2018 11:14 am | By

The AP sidles cautiously up to the obvious:

President Donald Trump’s lament this week that immigration is “changing the culture” of Europe echoed rising anti-immigrant feelings on both sides of the Atlantic, where Europe and the United States are going through a demographic transformation that makes some of the white majority uncomfortable.

It doesn’t so much “echo” it as simply express it. Trump is a xenophobic and racist reactionary who detests immigration from anywhere south of Norway. He’s also a mean selfish shit.

Trump, in an interview with the British newspaper The Sun, blamed immigration for a changing culture in Europe: “I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad. I think you

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 1 Comment »


Isn’t lynching kind of fascist?

Jul 14th, 2018 10:46 am | By

There’s this winsome image:

I haven’t been able to find it on that group’s Facebook, so maybe Facebook has now removed it. But it’s interesting that people who seem to consider themselves to be on the left think that is a fine woke lefty image – a lynched woman with the inscription DEAD TERFs. The word “TERF” is a free pass for men to express loathing and contempt for women and be seen as awesomely progressive for doing so.… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 16 comments
Tags: