All entries by this author

No objections

Feb 1st, 2018 12:58 pm | By

Trump has said sure, go ahead.

President Trump cleared the way on Thursday for the release of a secret memo written by Republican congressional staffers and said to accuse federal law enforcement officials of abusing their surveillance authorities.

Mr. Trump, who had a brief window to block the memo’s disclosure on national security grounds, was expected to tell Congress on Friday that he had no objections and would likely not request any material be redacted, according to a senior administration official. It would then be up to the House Intelligence Committee, whose Republican leaders have pushed for its release, to make the document public.

The president’s decision came despite a growing chorus of warnings from national security officials who

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No one will ever find out

Feb 1st, 2018 12:32 pm | By

Another This Looks Bad item for Mueller’s note pad: last July, that Times story about the Russia meeting at Trump Tower, the scramble on the flight home from Yurrup to put out a statement by Team Trump saying we talked about adoption and nothing else.

The latest witness to be called for an interview about the episode was Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team before resigning in July. Mr. Corallo received an interview request last week from the special counsel and has agreed to the interview, according to three people with knowledge of the request.

Keep that bit about resigning in July in mind; it’s important.

Mr. Corallo is planning to tell Mr. Mueller

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Self-conscious contrarianism throughout history

Feb 1st, 2018 12:04 pm | By

John Elledge at the Staggers:

Crack opinion-haver Brendan O’Neill reports throughout history

WAR 2 July 1916

Don’t listen to the virtue-signallers and their lazy contempt for the noble Tommy

It’s just a bit of mud – why the hysteria over the Somme, asks Field Marshal O’Neill.

384 comments

CONQUEST 17 October 1066

The revealing hysteria over the Norman Invasion

Anglo-Saxon elites finally reveal how much they despise ordinary people.

2,316 comments

FEAR 10 October 1940

Keep calm and carry on? No thanks

Brendan O’Neill makes the case for abject panic in the face of German onslaught.

121 cmments

And more.

Feel free to add your own.

Updating to add:

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Grave concerns

Feb 1st, 2018 11:50 am | By

The crazy is ratcheting up. Even a Republican senator is urging Nunes and his gang not to be in such a hurry to release the memo.

Mr. Thune’s note of caution joined a growing chorus of warnings from national security officials who say that releasing the memo would jeopardize sensitive government information, including how intelligence is gathered, and from Democrats who say it is politically motivated and distorts the actions of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. by omitting crucial context.

President Trump, who has made clear that he wants the memo to be public, was expected to indicate as early as Thursday that despite strong objections by the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, he did not intend to

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That contract has now been spectacularly broken

Jan 31st, 2018 6:15 pm | By

Adam Schiff (the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee) explains why the release of Nunes’s memo is such a terrible move.

As multiple investigations work to unearth the full truth, the president has lashed out with Nixonian ferocity at the Justice Department, the FBI, congressional investigators and the media.

However, unlike President Richard Nixon, who waged his Watergate fight without the same kind of vocal allies, Trump not only has an entire media ecosystem dedicated to shielding him from accountability but also senior Republicans on the Hill who have cast aside their duty to uphold the law and perform oversight in favor of protecting the Trump presidency — no matter the cost. Nunes may have wielded the committee

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R U my devoted slave?

Jan 31st, 2018 4:04 pm | By

Chapter 785 of Trump doesn’t know what the rules are and he doesn’t care either. CNN reports:

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein visited the White House in December seeking President Donald Trump’s help. The top Justice Department official in the Russia investigation wanted Trump’s support in fighting off document demands from House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes.

But the President had other priorities ahead of a key appearance by Rosenstein on the Hill, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Trump wanted to know where the special counsel’s Russia investigation was heading. And he wanted to know whether Rosenstein was “on my team.”

We know he’s been told repeatedly that the whole entire Justice Department is purposely and carefully … Read the rest



The reality of being born female

Jan 31st, 2018 12:45 pm | By

https://twitter.com/vonny_bravo/status/958296320808292352

https://twitter.com/vonny_bravo/status/958296899152437248… Read the rest



Horrors

Jan 31st, 2018 12:39 pm | By

The drawbacks to being born female:

An eight-month-old baby girl has been raped, allegedly by her cousin, in the Indian capital Delhi.

Police say she is in a critical condition after being admitted to hospital on Sunday. They have arrested the 28-year-old cousin.

Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal, who visited the girl, described her injuries as “horrific”.

Ms Maliwal tweeted that the baby had undergone a three-hour operation and that her cries could be heard in the hospital.

Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi, has analysis:

This distressing case of assault on an infant has shocked India and made national headlines. The extent of her injuries has horrified many and prompted them to wonder whether we have

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Some people are happy

Jan 31st, 2018 11:42 am | By

Al Jazeera gently points out mash notes to Trump’s speech from white supremacists.

White supremacists quickly took to social media to comment on the president’s comments, with many of them praising the characterisation of Americans as “dreamers”.

In a Twitter post, David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a racist organisation popular in the southern US for over a century after slavery ended in the 1860s, thanked the president.

https://twitter.com/DrDavidDuke/status/958534057159249921

Yes, some Americans Dream of a White Country.

During Trump’s electoral campaign in 2016, he came under fire for hesitancy to disavow Duke, who had pledged his support for the then Republican candidate.

In an interview with CNN, Trump had said of Duke and other white supremacists

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Wisdom digested

Jan 31st, 2018 11:20 am | By

John Crace at the Guardian does a Digested Read version of Jordan Peterson’s already brisk 12 rules for being like Jordan Peterson.

1 Stand up straight with your shoulders straight
Most lobsters are complete bastards left to their own devices. Most humans are complete bastards left to their own devices. This proves there is a God who wants us to have Order. Order is Masculine and Chaos is Feminine. Therefore to move towards Order, we all need to man up.

Order is Masculine and Chaos is Feminine except when it’s the other way around. Men are the rebels, the lone geniuses, the innovators, the disrupters, while women are the boring anal petty rule-followers and tidiers of messes who stay home … Read the rest



Immigrants bad, American bombs good

Jan 31st, 2018 10:36 am | By

Roger Cohen at the Times is scathing.

Trump portrayed a dark and menacing world in which immigrants, who stand at the heart of the American idea, were equated with gangs, murderous criminals and “horrible people.”

In his 80-minute speech, the word “woman” did not come up once. Other words or phrases never mentioned included “peace,” “human rights,” “equality,” “Europe,” “multilateral,” “civil rights” and “alliance.”

Those are all bad, liberal concepts, not fit for a Real Man™.

If there was a theme, it was the demonization of immigrants and of the rest of the world, combined with an exaltation of American might.

So pretty much a fascist-xenophobic type theme.

In perhaps his clearest signal of contempt for the views of

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Reviews

Jan 31st, 2018 10:19 am | By

How did Trump’s big evening out go?

Greg Sargent at the Post says he lied a lot.

President Trump’s State of the Union speech is being widely described as an effort to move past the chaos, anger, polarization and divisiveness that have been unleashed by his first year in office.

Oh please. Don’t be ridiculous. If Trump wanted to move past the chaos, anger, polarization and divisiveness that he sprays all over us every day, he could just do that. He delivered a speech that Stephen Miller (no rose himself) wrote for him; it would be criminally credulous to treat anything conciliatory he said in it as meaningful.

The speech tried to “move past tumult,” proclaimed the front page

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State of the Union for sale for $35 & up

Jan 30th, 2018 5:00 pm | By

Also:

President Trump is seeking to parlay his first State of the Union address Tuesday into cash for his reelection campaign by offering supporters a chance to see their name flashed on the campaign’s website during the speech.

In a fundraising solicitation Monday, Trump offered those willing to pay at least $35 the opportunity to see their name displayed during a live-streaming of the address on the website.

“This is a movement,” the solicitation says. “It’s not about just one of us. It’s about ALL of us. Which is why your name deserves to be displayed during Tuesday night’s speech.”

The Web page to which the solicitation links offers donors the opportunity to contribute as much as $2,700 —

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Cheat here, cheat there, cheat everywhere

Jan 30th, 2018 4:27 pm | By

Donnie the Grifter:

Donald Trump says the Trump National Golf Club in Florida is worth more than $50m. Palm Beach County property tax appraiser Dorothy Jacks disagrees, saying the Jupiter course, where Trump plays when he visits nearby Mar-a-Lago, is actually worth $19m.

Oh burn. She’s dissing his valuable golf club resort luxury escape.

The president’s lawyers are now suing Jacks, saying her estimate and the nearly $400,000 property tax bill it generates are too high, even if her appraisal is only 40% of what the president listed in his 2017 financial disclosure form.

Oh so he’s saying it’s worse less than 50 million…and less than 19 million too. Or I suppose that it changes value depending on whether … Read the rest



Guest post: The females don’t stick around to make the Alpha sandwiches

Jan 30th, 2018 4:04 pm | By

Originally a comment by Anna Y on Top lobster.

Yet another guy who thinks he’s very “Alpha” spouting off about how all the feeeemales should be irresistibly attracted to him (and conveniently picking a species where this is the case; admittedly lobsters are a novel choice, normally this sort goes for lions; funny how no one talks about hyenas, or elephants, or bonobos, etc, with a female topped hierarchy). But, even accepting his premise that all women should be irresistibly (and exclusively) attracted to Alphas, I don’t think he’d like that in practice.

For one, in the animal kingdom, high status males don’t just magically spring forth full-formed: they rise up through the ranks by competing with other males, … Read the rest



A piety too many

Jan 30th, 2018 3:50 pm | By

No. I think this is completely wrong, however highminded it sounds.

Yes it does. The fact that the norms this POTUS flouts are the norms that say we should treat other people with respect and fairness and basic empathy does mean that we should not reward him with attention and deference. This POTUS is an evil bullying monster, and he should not be … Read the rest



“Get legal!!”

Jan 30th, 2018 3:28 pm | By

The shithole Trump has made:

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include strong denials from pro-Trump protesters of allegations they singled out dark-skinned individuals, as well as video links showing their interactions during a protest at the Capitol on Jan. 25.

Supporters of President Donald Trump singled out dark-skinned lawmakers, legislative staffers and children at the Capitol on Jan. 25 as they protested congressional efforts to pass immigration reform, according to staffers of the Arizona Legislature and two Democratic legislators.

Waving large flags in support of Trump while standing between the House and Senate buildings, the protesters, who were also armed, asked just about anyone who crossed their path if they “support illegal immigration.”

They called some

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Show your papers

Jan 30th, 2018 12:09 pm | By

Peak hate-mongering xenophobic immigrant-bashing racism?

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), an immigration hardlinerannounced this afternoon that he has asked the U.S. Capitol Police and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to check the identification of all State of the Union attendees and arrest any illegal immigrants.

Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress. Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported.

— Rep. Paul Gosar

Why it matters: At least 27 members of Congress plan to bring immigrants with DACA or Temporary Protected Status as their guests to Trump’s address, per CNN.

He … Read the rest



Can we arrest him?

Jan 30th, 2018 11:06 am | By

NBC reports that Trump has A Plan.

Sources say that Trump has adopted a two-track strategy to deal with the Mueller investigation.

One is an un-Trumpian passivity and trust. He keeps telling some in his circle that Mueller — any day now — will tell him he is off the hook for any charge of collusion with the Russians or obstruction of justice.

But Trump — who trusts no one, or at least no one for long — has now decided that he must have an alternative strategy that does not involve having Justice Department officials fire Mueller.

“I think he’s been convinced that firing Mueller would not only create a firestorm, it would play right into Mueller’s hands,”

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Beautiful women that become a horror

Jan 30th, 2018 10:20 am | By

When you have an ego that blots out the sun, everything is for you and nothing is for anyone else. Other people owe you whatever you demand of them, and you owe no one anything. You are Just That Special.

Seven months before an alleged tryst with porn star Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump told radio host Howard Stern that he would give his pregnant wife, Melania, a couple of days — or maybe a week — to regain her model figure after giving birth.

“You know, Howard, she’s got the kind of a body and makeup where, about one day after the baby, it’s going to be the same as it was before,” Trump said during an appearance on

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