Trump punishes Alaska

Jul 27th, 2017 1:18 pm | By

Trump is taking revenge on the people of Alaska for Murkowski’s refusal to vote the way he wants. Yes really. He’s telling her that’s what he’s doing, too.

The Alaska Dispatch News reported Wednesday night that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Murkowski and fellow Alaskan Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) after Tuesday’s health care vote to let them know her position had put some of their state-specific projects in jeopardy ― particularly those pertaining to energy.

Sullivan told the outlet that Zinke’s phone call carried a “troubling message,” and the interior secretary made it clear to him that the call was in response to Murkowski voting no on the motion to proceed on Tuesday.

Nice little state ya got here; too bad we’re gonna have to fuck it up.

They’re gang bosses; that’s all they are.



Sir, point of order, Sir

Jul 27th, 2017 1:12 pm | By

So the question of the hour is: does a Twitter blurt from the Toddler President equal a direct order to the military if it announces a new policy on who can join that military?

It seems to be blindingly obvious that it doesn’t, but not everyone agrees. Some say it’s a direct order and the military is disobeying a direct order by saying they’re not doing anything until they hear from the White House.

I just don’t see how it can be a genuine order to the military. It’s not addressed to them. It’s much closer to a “who will rid me of this meddling priest?” than it is to a direct explicit do it now order. Telling the world about a new policy isn’t the same thing as directing the relevant agency or department to carry out that order. A generalized tweet isn’t an order just as a press release isn’t an order. A tweet actually addressed to the Secretary of Defense or the head of the Joint Chiefs might qualify as an order, but a general unaddressed tweet? It can’t be. Something that addresses everyone can’t be an order to someone specific, surely?

(And an order delivered via a tweet addressed to the Secretary of Defense or the head of the Joint Chiefs would be grotesque. What non-deranged head of state would ever do that?)

But I ain’t no lawyer and I ain’t no expert on military procedures, neither.



Sir, not so fast, Sir

Jul 27th, 2017 12:07 pm | By

Subtext: Yet again Trump shot off his mouth on Twitter as if he were three years old and having a meltdown at the supermarket checkout because he wants the candy bar HE WANTS IT WAAAAAAAH. Literal text: no change unless and until the White House talks to the Defense Department by a more reliable and discreet channel than fucking Twitter.

The nation’s highest-ranking military officer said Thursday that the Defense Department was making “no modifications” to current policy regarding transgender service members until President Trump gives more direction.

“I know there are questions about yesterday’s announcement on the transgender policy by the President,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said in a statement. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.”

Which hasn’t happened yet because no oddly enough just blurting about it on Twitter does not equate to the President’s sending direction to the Secretary of Defense, no even though Toddler Donald did say very official-like “please be advised.”

“In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect,” he added. “As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions.”

Sort of admits that in future they might stop treating all of their personnel with respect, if Toddle Donald orders them to.

The Department of Defense echoed that message, saying it was “awaiting formal guidance from the White House,” according to a statement by chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White. “We will provide detailed guidance to the Department in the near future for how this policy change will be implemented.”

Subtext: Mr President, Sir, with all due respect, you fucking fool, TALK TO US BEFORE YOU ANNOUNCE A NEW RULE FOR THE MILITARY ON FUCKING TWITTER.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the White House and the Pentagon would work together to implement the policy, with the Defense Department taking “the lead.”

But the statement from Dunford pushes back on that idea — and instead indicates the Pentagon is waiting for guidance from Trump.

Guidance from an enraged toddler. What a world we live in.



Rape transfer

Jul 27th, 2017 6:56 am | By

Oh god. Brace yourselves. From the Times:

 The Pakistani police arrested 25 people in a rural village on Thursday, after the village council ordered a man to publicly rape a teenage girl to avenge the sexual assault of his sister.

Earlier this month, the council told Mohammad Ashfaq, 20, to rape the 16-year-old girl after Mr. Ashfaq’s family accused the girl’s brother of raping his 12-year-old sister, the police said.

Hell and damnation! It just can’t get any more stark than that – a man is accused of raping a woman so the solution is to rape the man’s sister.

We’ve been here before. I wrote post after post about it when B&W was young. The Guardian, March 2005:

[Mukhtaran] Bibi was catapulted to world attention after a panchayat , or tribal council, at the remote Punjabi village of Meerwala in June 2002.

Her 12-year-old brother was accused of having an affair with a woman from the higher-caste Mastoi tribe. In punishment, the elders ordered that Mukhtaran be raped. As several hundred people watched, four men dragged her screaming through a cotton field. Pushing her into a mud-walled house, they assaulted her for more than an hour.

A male person is accused of a sexual crime so a female person related to him is gang-raped. (The evidence indicated that the accusation against the brother was bogus.)

Back to the current case:

The case was brought to the attention of the police in Punjab Province after the mother of the 16-year-old reported that Mr. Ashfaq had carried out the rape on July 18 in Muzaffarabad, a village near the city of Multan.

Some members of the council were present at the time of the rape, according to a complaint filed with the police by the girl’s mother.

The so-called honor rape, or vengeance rape, occurred after the council ruled that the rape of a minor family member was a fair punishment for the accused rape of the 12-year-old.

Oh yes, what could be fairer?

Vendetta rapes to settle issues of family honor remain common in the southern part of Punjab Province despite efforts by the government and rights groups to end the practice.

Such village councils are considered illegal, but in many poor and far-flung regions residents are reluctant to go to the police.

This recent case is reminiscent of the 2002 gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, who became an international cause célèbre. Ms. Mai was ordered raped as a punishment for her younger brother’s affair with a woman from a rival tribe, the Mastoi. Investigations later revealed that three Mastoi tribesmen had molested the boy, and the accusation against him had been false.

Sometimes human beings are enough to make you sick.

The rape case has caused an uproar in Pakistan and rights advocates decried the state of women’s rights in the country.

“It seems that nothing has changed since 2002,” Ms. Mai said in a telephone interview, referring to the year when her own case made international headlines. Ms. Mai now runs a nongovernmental organization for women’s rights in her village in the Muzaffargarh District. “Until poor people get justice, such incidents will keep happening. When the perpetrators of such crimes do not fear the law or punishment, when they enjoy political patronage, such practices will not stop.”

“It seems that my efforts of 15 years have gone to waste,” she said.

It’s a wonder any women survive childhood.



Trump heading for Mount Rushmore

Jul 26th, 2017 6:02 pm | By

More from the latest fascist uprising speech:

So we’re going to start enriching our country. We’re going to start bringing back our jobs, and we will be fools no longer, folks. We’ll be fools no longer. Every single President on Mt. Rushmore — now here’s what I do. I’d ask whether or not you think I will some day be on Mt. Rushmore, but, but here’s the problem. If I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say, “he believes he should be on Mt. Rushmore.” So I won’t say it, okay? I won’t say it. But every president — they’ll say it anyway tomorrow. “Trump thinks he should be on Mt. Rushmore.” Isn’t that terrible? What a group. What a dishonest group of people, I’ll tell you. [Cheers from crowd] And you know the funny thing is that you would think they’d want to see our country be great again. You would really think so. But they don’t. Some day they’ll explain it to me why. Every president on Mt. Rushmore believed in protecting American industry. We have to protect our industry. And now we are going to start, we are reclaiming our heritage as a manufacturing nation again. Bob Kraft, the owner of the New England patriots, I don’t know if you like New England but they have a hell of a team. [Boos from crowd] That’s okay. But he came to the Oval Office and he brought a sheet with him that just came out. Manufacturing enthusiasm in the United States is at an all-time high. Isn’t that great? To me that’s so great. because we’re going to bring back our jobs,bring back our wealth, and we are going to bring back our dreams, and we are going to bring back, once again our sovereignty as a nation. As a nation.

As a nay-shun.

Nobody is coming anymore because they know they can’t get through our southern border. So they don’t even come. [Cheers from crowd] Never again will America surrender the security of our people, the safety of our communities or the sovereignty of our nation. We are cracking down hard on the foreign criminal gangs that have brought illegal drugs, violence, horrible bloodshed to peaceful neighborhoods all across our country. We are throwing MS-13 the hell out of here so fast. You know, we’re actually — hard to believe that we’re talking about our great country. We are actually liberating towns and cities. We are liberating — people are screaming from their windows, thank you, thank you to the border patrol and to General Kelly’s great people that come in and grab the thugs and throw them the hell out. We are liberating our towns and we are liberating our cities. Can you believe we have to do that? [Chants of “build that wall wall” from crowd] Earlier in year and immigration and customs enforcement conducted the largest single raid of transnational gangs in the history of our country. We are dismantling and destroying the bloodthirsty criminal gangs, and well, I will just tell you in, we’re not doing it in a politicly correct fashion. We’re doing it rough. Our guys are rougher than their guys. I asked one of our great generals, “how tough are our people? How tough are they?” He said, “sir, you don’t want to know about it.” Then I saw one guy come out, a customs officer who is a monster. I said, “so general, you think i could take that guy in a fight?” He said, “Mr. President, sir i don’t even want to think about it.” I said “you’re right, actually.” We have tough people. Our people are tougher than their people. Our people are tougher and stronger and meaner and smarter than the gangs.

Yep, that’s fascism. Flabby puffy lazy Donald Trump has a lust for violence as long as he gets to stay out of it.

One by one we are finding the illegal gang members, drug dealers, thieves, robbers, criminals and killers. And we are sending them the hell back home where they came from. And once they are gone, we will never let them back in. Believe me. The predators and criminal aliens who poison our communities with drugs and prey on innocent young people, these beautiful, beautiful,innocent young people will, will find no safe haven anywhere in our country. And you’ve seen the stories about some of these animals. They don’t want to use guns, because it’s too fast and it’s not painful enough. So they’ll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15, and others and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excruciating pain before they die. And these are the animals that we’ve been protecting for so long. Well, they’re not being protected any longer,folks. And that is why my administration is launching a nationwide crackdown on sanctuary cities. American cities should be sanctuaries for law-abiding Americans, for people that look up to the law, for people that respect the law, not for criminals and gang members that we want the hell out of our country.

What’s he telling the people in that audience? That immigrants are in gangs that slice up beautiful young girls with knives. He’s encouraging them to think that he’s describing all immigrants.

We are going to get criminals off our streets. And we are going to make America safe again. We also strongly believe that our borders must always be closed to terrorism and extremism. We don’t want radical Islamic terrorists in our country. We’ve seen the total devastation in Europe.

The what? The total devastation? So it’s like April 1945 – much of Europe is a smoking ruin?

Of course it isn’t. The attacks are horrible, but they’re nothing like total devastation. He’s fear-mongering, as fascists do.

My administration is working every single day to heed and honor the will of the voters. That includes working on one of the biggest tax cuts in American history. And actually if I get what I want it will be the single biggest tax cut in American history. We have the highest taxes anywhere in the world, and this will really bring them down to one of the lowest.

Huge lie. He tells it every chance he gets, but it’s a lie.

We want this country that we love so much, America, to be strong, proud and free. Which means America must also be united. Because when America is united, America is totally unstoppable. Although I’ll be totally honest with you even if it’s not united we’re unstoppable so don’t worry. We’re gonna to be unstoppable either way but it would be nice, wouldn’t it? Our small differences are nothing compared to our common history, common values and common future. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny. Now it is up to us to preserve the birth right of freedom and justice, the birth right of prosperity that our ancestors won for us with their sweat, with their sweat, with their blood, with their work, with their muscle, with their brain. They won it for us and we’re gonna make it bigger and better and stronger than it ever was before.

So that we’ll all live in a huge condo overlooking Central Park; it’ll be awesome! Fuck common values, man, just give us the money.



Weak voice, weak voice, don’t worry

Jul 26th, 2017 5:06 pm | By

Some horrors from Trump’s speech in Youngstown, Ohio yesterday.

Then yesterday I was in West Virginia with almost 50,000 of our most impressive young Americans. They are young men who learned to cherish words like duty, honor, god, and country, the Boy Scouts. Then only a few hours ago the senate approved a vote to begin debating the repealing and replacing the Obamacare disaster. [ cheers and applause ] Finally. You think that’s easy? That’s not easy. We’re now one step closer to liberating our citizens from this Obamacare nightmare, and delivering great health care for the American people.

I’m here this evening to cut through the fake news filter and to speak straight to the American people. Fake news. fake, fake, fake news. [Chants of “drain the swamp” from arena]. Boy oh boy, people. Is there anyplace that’s more fun, more exciting and safer than a Trump rally?

This has been a difficult week for the media because I forced them to travel with us all around the country and spend time with tens of thousands of proud Americans who believe in defending our values, our culture, our borders, our civilization, and our great American way of life.

It’s funny he says that, really, because in reality he is no fan of our values, our culture, or our way of life. Our values include various norms about how people in government should behave, and he spits on those every minute of every day. Our values are not just right-wing values. Our culture includes science, scholarship, arts – music, dance, design – originality, creativity, discipline, collaboration – none of which he shows the smallest sign of sharing. The only version of “our great American way of life” he believes in is the one he shares with mobsters and Ponzi schemers – do whatever it takes to get as rich as you possibly can, and call everyone else “losers.” All he really means by that string of phrases is “white people.”

And finally, we believe that family and faith, not government and bureaucracy, are the foundation of our society. You’ve heard me say it before on the campaign trail and I’ll say it again tonight. In America we don’t worship government. We worship God.

Says a man who worships nothing but money and himself.

[Crowd boos at something]. They’re pointing to a protester. Honestly, if you don’t point, nobody’s even going to know he’s here. Weak voice, weak voice, don’t worry. [Chants of “USA” from crowd.] Boy,he’s a young one. He’s going back home to mommy. Oh is he in trouble. He’s in trouble. He’s in trouble. And I’ll bet his mommy voted for us, right?

Political correctness for me is easy. Sometimes they say he doesn’t act Presidential. And I say, hey look, great schools, smart guy, it’s so easy to act presidential but that’s not gonna to get it done. In fact, I said it’s much easier, by the way, to act presidential than what we’re doing here tonight, believe me. And I said — and I said with the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any President that’s ever held this office. That I can tell you. It’s real easy. [Cheers]

Hm.

Image result for trump youngstown

Image result for obama speech

We will never be silenced by the media. I want to protect America, and i want to protect the citizens of america. Your hopes are my hopes. Your dreams are my dreams. I’ve had a great successful career. I’ve built a great, great business. This is the only thing that matters. This is the only thing that matters. There is nothing else.

Values.



As Einstein said

Jul 26th, 2017 4:39 pm | By

Princess Ivanka in 2013:

“If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” – Albert Einstein #quote #sunday

Bahahahahahahahachokehahahahahaha



It’s entirely our choice

Jul 26th, 2017 4:03 pm | By

Image may contain: 1 person



To step outside

Jul 26th, 2017 3:49 pm | By

Those Republican women voting no are trying the patience of their more responsible and reasonable male colleagues.

Throughout the ongoing attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare), female Republican senators have been at the front of a push for a reasonable plan that does not hurt millions of Americans. In June, Senators Murkowski and Collins stood up for women’s health — and specifically Planned Parenthood. And on Tuesday, July 25, Senators Murkowski, Collins, and Capito all said they would vote against repealing Obamacare without a replacement. Without their votes, that plan failed.

Also on Tuesday, Collins and Murkowski were the only two Republicans to vote against opening a discussion on repealing Obamacare. Vice President Mike Pence had to come in to be the tie-breaker to get Republicans the vote.

Now, these three female politicians are facing backlash from their party — and it’s taking on a violent tone.

On Monday, July 24, Blake Farenthold, a Republican congressman from Texas, said,

There are some female senators from the Northeast — if it was a guy from South Texas, I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style.

In other words challenge them to a duel in order to shoot them dead.

If you did that in an ordinary workplace you might be fired.

[O]n Wednesday afternoon, Representative Buddy Carter of Georgia spoke on MSNBC, where he was asked what he thinks about the president going after Murkowski. Carter answered,

I think it’s perfectly fair. Let me tell you, somebody needs to go over there to that senator and snatch a knot in their ass.

Reporters had to look that up in the urban dictionary. It means hit.

It’s not a coincidence that men are making physical threats against their female colleagues. These are women who have entered a male-dominated space and claimed power through their votes. As some men see it, who’s giving them the right to that power? Someone’s gotta tell them who’s in charge around here.

Democracy at its finest.



Let’s ask her

Jul 26th, 2017 3:26 pm | By

It’s been way too long since I shared a Jesus and Mo.

police

Patreon



Don’s snuff porn

Jul 26th, 2017 12:31 pm | By

The American Prospect tells us about Trump’s latest crowd-incitement, yesterday in Youngstown, Ohio.

On Tuesday evening, at a campaign-style rally in Youngstown, Ohio, President Donald Trump treated his audience to a bit of snuff porn involving high-school age girls and some bad hombres.

After painting all the people currently under deportation orders as drug-importing gang members, the president described their purported crimes. “So they’ll take a young, beautiful girl, 16, 15—and others—and they slice them and dice them with a knife because they want them to go through excruciating pain before any die,” Trump said. “And these are the animals that we’ve been protecting for so long.”

A more perfect encapsulation of the proclivities of the president’s poisonous psyche could not be imagined by even the likes of Quentin Tarantino. It’s all there, the racism, the dehumanization of immigrants, and a sexualized violence involving bleeding women—or, in this case, girls.

He what?

It’s true.

https://youtu.be/EclstsdYMx0



Mens sana in corpore sano

Jul 26th, 2017 11:58 am | By

Surprise Fact Department: the US Defense Department spends 84 million bucks a year on Viagra & its cousins.

In the DoD system, which dispensed eight types of ED meds in 2014, Viagra, added to the DoD formulary in 2012, tops the list for most popular: Of the 1.18 million prescriptions, 905,083 were for Viagra, at a cost of $41.6 million.

Cialis ranked second, with 185,841 prescriptions totaling $22.82 million.

Revatio — one of the costliest ED medications in the DoD formulary — was the least frequently prescribed: 1,699 prescriptions in 2014 for a total cost of $2.24 million, according to DHA.

Worth every penny.



It’s just a tantrum, official says

Jul 26th, 2017 11:23 am | By

Don is still making an exhibition of himself on Twitter, asking the world why Sessions does what he does when he’s the one who appointed him and we’re not. Dude why are you asking us?

But, you know, it’s all part of his cunning plan to bully Sessions into quitting, or inspiring Rod Rosenstein to jump up in the middle of the night and fire Mueller, or something. It looks like crazy but it’s actually fiendishly clever manipulation.

Or is it. The Post talked to people who say it’s just Trump being Trump.

President Trump renewed his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday, questioning on Twitter why the top U.S. law enforcement official had not replaced the acting FBI director — a move that Trump himself has the authority to do.

In two tweets just before 10 a.m., Trump wrote, “Why didn’t A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!”

Drain the Swamp! he cries, but he’s the one who chose the swamp and appointed the swamp. He chose Sessions, he nominated Sessions, he made Sessions part of his administration. It was you, Charlie.

Trump has for days been attacking his attorney general, and he has similarly been critical of McCabe, who took over as the acting director of the FBI after Trump fired James B. Comey. But his latest attack is curious.

Sessions was not the attorney general during the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. And the president himself could remove McCabe without Sessions. Administration officials actually contemplated doing so after Comey’s firing. Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein met with four other candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, though the administration ultimately stuck with McCabe.

Plus…why is he asking us?

A person familiar with internal White House discussions about Sessions said Trump’s attacks on Sessions are a public airing of what the president has been saying for months privately — that he blames Sessions’s recusal for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible ties to Russia. But the person cautioned that neither the president nor his advisers have articulated a plan for replacing Sessions with someone else, and the angry words are primarily a venting of the president’s anger, rather than a calculated effort to drive the attorney general out of office.

Oh yes? So it’s not a cunning plan – it’s just Trump acting like a giant baby, “venting” his narcissistic rage in public on social media?

It’s hard to tell which is more terrifying: his malignancy or his stupidity.



The degradation of the independent law enforcement function itself

Jul 26th, 2017 7:14 am | By

Benjamin Wittes has thoughts on the effects of the current situation on people at the Department of Justice and on the rest of us.

The trouble is that remaining in office does not merely demean the individual dignity of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general when the President whines about the attorney general’s compliance with Justice Department recusal rules; when he attacks the attorney general for not investigating a political opponent; when he openly suggests that the Justice Department’s leadership should act in his personal interests; or when he suggests that the deputy attorney general is biased against him as a result of previous service as U.S. attorney in a Democratic-majority city. These are also degradations of the institutional offices these men hold. And continuing to hold those offices in silence when the president says these things them permits that degradation to go unchallenged—both before the workforce and before the public.

To the workforce, this sort of rope-a-doping by the department’s leadership might provide a short-term protection against political interference in an investigation, and I don’t diminish the importance of that protection. Rosenstein and Sessions (who is recused, in any event) may by tolerating belittling by the President to allow their investigators and prosecutors to do their work unmolested. But the long-term cost is the corrosion of the norm not merely that investigators and prosecutors are ultimately protected from White House interference on investigative matters, but that presidential attempts at such interference are themselves unacceptable. To allow the Justice Department and FBI workforces to witness on an ongoing basis the president hectoring, threatening to fire, and belittling the attorney general and deputy attorney general is to allow them to witness also the degradation of the independent law enforcement function itself. For the departmental leadership to tolerate the repeated statements by the president of his expectation that their function is nothing more elevated than that of agents of his political power and protection is, at some level, to accede to the acceptability of those statements. Even if in practice, in the short term, law enforcement functions independently as a result, accepting this characterization of its function has to socialize over time the way people at the relevant agencies understand the jobs they are doing. It will drive honest people away, prevent good people from coming on board, and over time it will influence the way many people think about their work.

Perhaps even more important than the message that leadership’s rope-a-doping sends to law enforcement officers is the message it sends to the public about law enforcement. For the public to see this kind of presidential behavior towards the attorney general and the deputy attorney general, for the public to see both men tolerate it, and for the public to see there be no consequences for it will, again over time, make it acceptable behavior. That’s the way political norms change—the way old norms get discarded and the way new ones develop. If it’s okay for the president to criticize the attorney general for recusing when it’s not convenient for his interests for the attorney general to do so, then why is not okay for him to demand as a condition of appointment that the attorney general promise not to recuse? And why is it not okay for a prospective attorney general to comply with such a demand? If it’s okay for the President to tweet that his political opponent should be investigated, why is it not okay for the attorney general to investigate those the President says should be criminally investigated? Why is it not okay for the President to order up such an investigation?

That’s all the more true since a lot of people are probably paying more attention to the DoJ right now than they ever have before. We’re drinking in what’s being played out before us day after day; how can we help but absorb the messages being sent?



They have established that these guys are willing

Jul 25th, 2017 4:58 pm | By

Jared Kushner thinks it was all no big deal…but people who know something about Russian intelligence operations all think it was a very typical overture.

Yesterday, Kushner insisted, “I did not read or recall this e-mail exchange before it was shown to me by my lawyers.” Whether or not that’s true, he attended the meeting. According to Kushner’s account of the meeting, it was uneventful. He got there late, some Russians he never heard of were discussing adoption policy, and he quickly messaged his assistant to call him so he had an excuse to bail. Longtime intelligence officials have a more jaundiced view. Michael Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency, told me that he was convinced the meeting was a classic “soft approach” by Russian intelligence. He cited a recent Washington Postarticle, by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, that argued that the meeting “is in line with what intelligence analysts would expect an overture in a Russian influence operation to look like,” and that it may have been the “green light Russia was looking for to launch a more aggressive phase of intervention in the U.S. election.”

Hayden told me, “My god, this is just such traditional tradecraft.” He said that he has talked to people in the intelligence community aboutMowatt-Larssen’s theory and that “every case officer I’ve pushed on this” agreed with it. “This is how they do it.”

Hayden explained that the Russians would have learned several things from the approach. “Would they take the meeting?” he said. “So, then you get the willingness. No. 2, would they report the meeting?” Hayden suggested that Russian intelligence was sophisticated enough to know whether the Trump campaign reported the meeting to the F.B.I., which it didn’t. So, while Kushner claimed that the meeting was irrelevant, from a Russian intelligence perspective it would have been seen as a clear signal. “At the end, they have established that these guys are willing,” Hayden said, pausing. “How do I put this? They did not reject a relationship.”

And what have they been doing ever since? Gee, more of the same. Trump made “you – me – talkytalk?” gestures at Putin over dinner, and then went over and more or less sat in his lap. That’s definite non-rejection of a relationship.

Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told me that one of the key questions that congressional investigators have for Kushner is why he ignored the intelligence community’s warnings about Russia. “Once it became public that they were interfering in our election, which was in June, why did you continue to have contacts with them?” Swalwell, whose committee interviewed Kushner on Tuesday morning, said. “They don’t discuss at all, like, ‘Hey, Russia is interfering in our election. Should we talk to them about that?’ ”

In fact, Kushner never raised Russia’s meddling during his two post-election meetings with Russians, according to his own accounts. Kislyak contacted Kushner on November 16th, and they met on December 1st. Once again, the Russians seemed to have a level of access to the Trump campaign that other countries, including Western allies, could only dream of. In his testimony, Kushner confirmed that at this meeting, which took place in Trump Tower, he and Kislyak and Michael Flynn, the incoming national-security adviser, who also attended, discussed using communications equipment at the Russian Embassy. Kushner said the purpose was to relay information from Russian generals about Syria.

There was no skepticism about Russia or its actions in recent years from Kushner. But Kislyak was representing a leader who, as John Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, recently noted, “assaulted one of the foundational pillars of our democracy, our electoral system, that invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, that has suppressed and repressed political opponents in Russia and has caused the deaths of many of them.”

But Kushner understands none of that, because he’s just a real estate profiteer. He doesn’t get it and he doesn’t care that he doesn’t get it, because he’s too ignorant and self-serving to care – like the whole Trump gang.

Kushner claims he was simply a naïve staffer exchanging benign pleasantries. His professed innocence about the nature of these contacts may be the most troubling part of his testimony. The Russians were running a complex—and seemingly successful—campaign to gain access to Trump’s orbit, and the President-elect’s most trusted adviser claims he was clueless about what was actually going on. Kushner’s testimony does not reveal evidence of any crimes, but it does reveal a campaign and Presidential transition that were remarkably easy targets for Russian intelligence efforts.

“The Russians clearly thought they had reasons to believe this would be a friendly audience,” Hayden said. “If you’ve never seen a major-league curveball, you shouldn’t pretend you’re a major-leaguer.”

They’re in over their heads, and they don’t care.



51-50

Jul 25th, 2017 4:20 pm | By

Sure enough, “hero” McCain returned to the Senate and the vote was 50-50 and Pence broke the tie, so they voted to debate how best to take health insurance away from millions. They’re evil demons.

That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to pass a bill, but it does confirm their evil demonhood. They want to take health insurance away from millions, and will if they can agree on the details.

President Trump has been pushing aggressively for Republicans to pass a repeal-and-replace plan, and jabbed lawmakers this week by saying anyone who votes against kicking off debate is saying they are “fine with the Obamacare nightmare.” Speaking during a joint news conference in the Rose Garden Tuesday, Trump said he was “very very sad” for the Republicans who opposed the motion but “very happy with the result” of the vote.

“Now we’re all going to sit together and try to come up with something really spectacular,” the president said, though he acknowledged Republicans face “a narrow path” on health care. “It’s a very, very complex and difficult task, something I know quite a bit about.”

Moron. He knows very little about it. He only thinks he knows quite a bit about it because he knew absolutely nothing before and picked up a little during the process.

On Tuesday a coalition of medical and consumer groups reiterated their intense opposition to all the health-care plans Senate Republicans have been considering, calling on them to drop those bills and begin anew with a bipartisan process that includes standard committee hearings.

In a conference call, David Barbe, the president of the American Medical Association and part of the coalition, challenged the claims Senate GOP leaders have made about their main legislation to dismantle large parts of the Affordable Care Act.

“It does not make care more affordable to low-income Americans,” Barbe said. “It does not reduce out-of-pocket costs. It could trigger substantial increases for patients with preexisting conditions.”

They don’t care. They just want to break it.



You have to know about the word “momentum”

Jul 25th, 2017 9:37 am | By

But my favorite part of Trump’s Address to the Nations Boy Scouts is where he just veers off into telling them a long boring story about this one guy he met 50 years ago, like any other damn windbag you accidentally sit next to at a dinner or on a bus or in the dentist’s waiting room. You know those – the ones who just talk, regardless of who is next to them or what the likelihood is that anyone in hearing will give a damn.

In life, in order to be successful, and you people are well on the road to success, you have to find out what makes you excited. What makes you want to get up each morning and go to work? You have to find it.

If you love what you do and dedicate yourself to your work, then you will gain momentum, and look — you have to, you need to. The word momentum — you will gain that momentum, and each success will create another success. The word momentum.

I’ll tell you a story that’s very interesting for me when I was young. There was a man named William Levitt — Levittowns, you have some here, you have some in different states. Anybody ever hear of Levittown? (Applause.) And he was a very successful man. He was a homebuilder — became an unbelievable success, and got more and more successful. And he built homes, and at night he’d go to these major sites with teams of people and he’d scour the sites for nails and sawdust and small pieces of wood. And they’d clean the site so when the workers came in the next morning, the sites would be spotless and clean, and he did it properly. And he did this for 20 years, and then he was offered a lot of money for his company.

And he sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. At the time especially — this was a long time ago — sold his company for a tremendous amount of money. And he went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life. I won’t go any more than that because you’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did.

AUDIENCE: Booo —

TRUMP: Should I tell you? Should I tell you?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

TRUMP: Oh, you’re Boy Scouts, but you know life. You know life. So — look at you. Who would think this is the Boy Scouts, right?

So he had a very, very interesting life, and the company that bought his company was a big conglomerate. And they didn’t know anything about building homes, and they didn’t know anything about picking up the nails and the sawdust and selling it — and the scraps of wood. This was a big conglomerate based in New York City, and after about a ten year period they were losing a lot with it. It didn’t mean anything to them, and they couldn’t sell it.

So they called William Levitt up and they said, would you like to buy back your company, and he said yes, I would. He so badly wanted it, he got bored with this life of yachts and sailing and all of the things he did in the south of France and other places. You won’t get bored, right? You know, truthfully, you’re workers. You’ll get bored too. Believe me. (Applause.) Of course, having a good few years like that isn’t so bad. (Applause.) But what happened is he bought back his company, and he bought back a lot of empty land. And he worked hard in getting it zoning, and he worked hard on starting to develop.

And in the end he failed, and he failed badly. Lost all of his money. He went personally bankrupt, and he was now much older. And I saw him at a cocktail party, and it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party. It was the party of Steve Ross who was one of the great people — he came up and discovered — really founded — Time Warner, and he was a great guy. He had a lot of successful people at the party.

And I was doing well so I got invited to the party. I was very young, and I go in — but I’m in the real estate business — and I see 100 people, some of whom I recognize and they’re big in the entertainment business. And I see, sitting in the corner, was a little old man who was all by himself. Nobody was talking to him. I immediately recognized that that man was the once great William Levitt of Levittown, and I immediately went over — I wanted to talk to him more than the Hollywood show business communications people.

So I went over and talked to him, and I said, Mr. Levitt, I’m Donald Trump. He said I know. I said, Mr. Levitt, how are you doing? He goes, not well, not well at all. And I knew that, but he said not well at all. And he explained what was happening and how bad it has been and how hard it has been. And I said what exactly happened? Why did this happen to you? You’re one of the greats ever in our industry. Why did this happen to you? And he said, Donald, I lost my momentum. I lost my momentum. A word you never hear when you’re talking about success. When some of these guys that never made ten cents, they’re on television giving you things about how you’re going to be successful, and the only thing they ever did was a book and a tape.

But I’ll tell you, it was very sad, and I never forgot that moment. And I thought about it, and it’s exactly true. He lost his momentum. Meaning, he took this period of time off long — years — and then when he got back, he didn’t have that same momentum. In life, I always tell this to people, you have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum, and if you don’t have it that’s okay. Because you’re going to go on and you’re going to learn and you’re going to do things that are great. But you have to know about the word momentum.

As long as you know about the word “momentum” you’ll be fine.



It’s downright icky

Jul 25th, 2017 9:04 am | By

Some parents of Boy Scouts are furious.

One parent wrote: “Done with scouts after you felt the need to have my kid listen to a liar stroke his ego.”

Responding to the criticism of the speech, the Boy Scouts of America insisted it was “wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy”.

It said the invitation to Mr Trump was a “long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies”.

Except that the way it played out, it was.

Many parents, lobbyists and politicians took to social media to cite the 107-year-old organisation’s values, and to suggest Mr Trump had failed them.

Lobbyist for women’s and LGBT rights Amy Siskind tweeted: “If the Boy Scouts organization has any decency, they’ll come out with a statement tonight denouncing Trump, and giving instructions for all troop leaders to speak to these boys about what they just heard and why it was wrong.”

https://twitter.com/Leila_A_Rice/status/889676297852604417

https://twitter.com/seagal_lori/status/889629183571361792

https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/889651708225351680



The Trumpler youth cheered and chanted

Jul 25th, 2017 8:38 am | By

More on Trump’s confusion of the Boy Scouts with the Hitler Youth:

“Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?” President Trump asked the 40,000 people gathered in Glen Jean, West Virginia, on Monday for the Boy Scout Jamboree.

The answer is President Trump. The event, which occurs every four years, was attended by about 24,000 boys, ages 12 to 18, but Trump treated it like a raucous campaign rally. During a rambling, 35-minute speech, he playfully threatened a member of his cabinet about getting the votes to repeal Obamacare, recounted his election win in great detail, and attacked President Obama.

post on the Jamboree’s blog had warned troops to be “courteous” and refrain from chanting phrases like “lock her up” as they are “considered divisive by many members of our audience, and may cause unnecessary friction between individuals and units.” That did not prevent the audience from applauding Trump’s partisan attacks and even booing when he mentioned Hillary Clinton.

“Divisive” is a weasel-word. Those chants are worse than just “divisive.” In any case the warning failed; the Boy Scouts cheered and booed on cue.

It seems the president had prepared a speech about letting “your scouting oath guide your path,” but his trademark asides and non sequiturs dominated the address. Here are Trump’s weird comments to his largely underage audience.

1. Trump starts off by marveling at the size of the crowd and attacking the press.
“Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it’s about 200 people. [Laughter.] It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. [Applause.] You set a record. That’s a great honor, believe me. Tonight we put aside all of the policy fights in Washington, D.C. — you’ve been hearing about that with the fake news and all of that. [Applause.] We’re going to put that aside. And instead we’re going to talk about success, about how all of you amazing young Scouts can achieve your dreams … I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts, right?”

2. Trump calls our nation’s capital a “cesspool.” 
“You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp. And it’s not a good place. In fact, today, I said we ought to change it from the word swamp to the word cesspool, or perhaps, to the word sewer. But it’s not good. Not good.” [Applause.]

3. Trump boasts that ten members of his cabinet were Boy Scouts, then threatens to fire one of them.
“Secretary Tom Price is also here. Today Dr. Price still lives the Scout Oath, helping to keep millions of Americans strong and healthy as our Secretary of Health and Human Services. And he’s doing a great job. And hopefully, he’s going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare that’s really hurting us, folks.”

[Applause. Crowd chants “USA! USA! USA!”]

Yep; it did. That’s the part that’s making me hate this country today: that that rich narcissistic pig stood up in front of 40 thousand Boy Scouts and called expanded health insurance “this harrible thing” – and they applauded and chanted. I hate this nightmare.

4. Trump says we need more “loyalty,” doesn’t explain what he’s referring to. 
“As the Scout Law says: ‘A Scout is trustworthy, loyal’ — we could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that.”

5. Trump marvels at the size of the crowd and attacks the “fake media” for refusing to show it (though CNN aired the speech).
“I’m waving to people back there so small I can’t even see them. Man, this is a lot of people. Turn those cameras back there, please. That is so incredible. By the way, what do you think the chances are that this incredible, massive crowd, record-setting is going to be shown on television tonight? One percent or zero? [Applause.] The fake media will say: President Trump — and you know what this is — President Trump spoke before a small crowd of Boy Scouts today. That’s some — that is some crowd. [Applause.] Fake media. Fake news. Thank you.”

6. Trump attacks his predecessor for failing to address the Boy Scouts (Obama sent a video message in 2010).
[Audience chants, “We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!”]

“By the way, just a question, did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?”

[Audience shouts, “No!”]

“And we’ll be back. We’ll be back. The answer is no, but we’ll be back.”

There’s a lot more, including a long wandering story about rich men in New York and the wild parties on their yachts and what they get up to out there and not saying it to the Boy Scouts wink wink nudge grab them by the pussy wink nudge.

Nightmare, I tell you.

From Gnu Atheism with apologies to Tom Lehrer

Image may contain: one or more people, people standing and text

Be prepared!
If you are a Scout today.
Be prepared!
For what Trump might come and say.
Seems they couldn’t get a speaker from the Klan
So they got someone about to hit the fan.

Be prepared!
He does not need any notes
For a long
Diatribe about his votes.
Let him count the countless thousands who the press won’t say were there.
They’re the very few survivors of that dread Obamacare.
If you do not vote against it then be scared.
Be prepared!

Be prepared!
God and Christmas have come back.
Be prepared!
Even if belief you lack.
If you claim he’s not for freedom, that’s just spin,
“But if you do what we say” then ” you will win”.

Be prepared!
Be alert and be awake,
For the news
Has to praise him or it’s fake.
Even Fox, apart from Hannity, has had it up to here.
If you haven’t lost your sanity you know the end is near;
In his lying tweets he soon will be ensnared.
Be prepared!



That’s how you do it

Jul 25th, 2017 7:22 am | By

Pete Souza posted this on Instagram today:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BW8u34hl0Rv/?taken-by=petesouza