Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that he wanted to see the ouster of a U.S. attorney whose investigations of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey have not resulted in charges. Mr. Trump’s comment came after a high-stakes internal debate raged on Friday over the fate of Erik S. Siebert, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — with Mr. Trump’s own appointees at the Justice Department and key Republicans on Capitol Hill arguing to retain the veteran prosecutor. Mr. Siebert had recently told senior Justice Department officials that investigators found insufficient evidence to bring charges against Ms. James and had also raised concerns about a potential case against Mr. Comey, according to officials familiar with the situation. Mr. Trump ... has repeatedly pledged retribution against law enforcement officials who pursued him. The president, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, initially said he was not following the matter closely. But he instantly belied that comment, saying he wanted Mr. Siebert removed because two Democratic senators from Virginia had approved of his nomination to the Senate.”
Judge Laughs Trump Complaint Out of Court. Jacob Knutson of Democracy Docket: “A federal judge in Florida Friday rejected ... Donald Trump’s latest $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, ruling that the complaint’s contents were 'improper and impermissible.' U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, ruled that Trump’s lawsuit violated a federal procedural rule requiring a short and plain statement of why he deserves relief. Trump’s 85-page suit, however, was 'tedious and burdensome,' 'often repetitive' and overly laudatory toward the president, Merryday wrote.... 'As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,' the judge continued.”
Marie: This looks right to me. Thanks to RAS for the link:
AND Barry Blitt's New Yorker cover captures the moment. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~
Isn't That Special? Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: “The Securities and Exchange Commission this week dropped civil enforcement cases that could have led to penalties totaling hundreds of millions of dollars against three men who were previously granted clemency by ... [Donald] Trump. The cases had been brought before Mr. Trump took office this year. Each involved people who later allied themselves with him as they pursued pardons for white-collar frauds that, according to juries in criminal cases, cheated victims out of huge sums. Devon Archer, who was convicted in connection with a scheme targeting pension funds and a Native American tribal entity, was ordered to pay nearly $60 million in forfeiture and restitution. Trevor Milton was found guilty of lying about the supposed technical achievements of his electric truck maker Nikola. Prosecutors recommended that he pay more than $660 million back to shareholders. Carlos Watson, who was convicted of defrauding investors in his digital media company Ozy Media, was assessed penalties of nearly $97 million.
“All were spared prison time and criminal restitution payments when Mr. Trump granted pardons to Mr. Archer and Mr. Milton and commutations to Mr. Watson and Ozy. And now, the S.E.C. action means that they will not have to pay any civil penalties, nor will they face restrictions that the commission had sought on their ability to work in securities-related positions.”Read on.
Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “The chaos from the first day of a meeting of the federal vaccine committee appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bled into the second day, as the panel reversed one decision and indefinitely postponed a vote on a hepatitis B vaccine they had already deferred once. On Friday morning, the committee voted not to allow a federal vaccine program to cover the cost of a combination vaccine that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, or chickenpox. This reversed a vote on Thursday to allow coverage, apparently because some members had misunderstood the way it was worded. And the panelists said they felt unready to decide whether to limit the use of a vaccine for hepatitis B that is typically given to all newborns.... Thursday’s session ended with the panel members at odds. A hot microphone caught one panelist calling another committee member 'an idiot,' although it was unclear who was speaking.”
William Cohan in a New York Times op-ed: “Larry Ellison is already a major stakeholder in CBS and Paramount. Now CNN, HBO and a major share of TikTok are in his sights. If all goes as anticipated, this tech billionaire, already one of the richest men in the world and a founder of Oracle, is poised, at 81, to become one of the most powerful media and entertainment moguls America has ever seen.... Mr. Ellison is up to something very different: transforming himself into a media magnate. Along with his son, David, he could soon end up controlling a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services, as well as two of the country’s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison’s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally — in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now.” Cohan says Larry's net worth is more than $350 billion. MB: That is at least $349 billion more than anyone should have. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Russell Goldman of the New York Times: “Russian fighter jets flew without permission into the airspace above Estonia, a NATO member nation, for 12 minutes, Estonia’s foreign minister said on Friday, in what he described as 'clear proof of Russia’s growing aggression.' Russia regularly infiltrates the airspaces of NATO countries to test their readiness and resolve. Russian jets had previously entered Estonian airspace four times this year, the minister, Margus Tsakhna, said, according to local news media. But he described Friday’s incursion, by three MIG-31 fighters over the Gulf of Finland, as an 'unprecedented and brazen intrusion.' 'Such actions,' he added, 'cannot be tolerated and must be met with swift political and economic pressure.'”
~~~~~~~~~~
This Is the Week That Was. Marie: What we have seen is a confluence of an emboldened dictator, his henchman, the capitulators, and other enablers, including officials and a huge segment of the public. The result is that we no longer live in a democracy. ~~~
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. -- President Harry Truman ~~~
~~~ Trumplethinskin Decrees. Irie Sentner & Ben Johansen of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that networks should lose their broadcast licenses if their on-air talent is critical of him. 'They’re giving me all this bad press, and they’re getting a license,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr should go after other talk show hosts after Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from the air. 'I would think maybe their license should be taken away.' He added: 'When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — that license, they’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.'... Earlier Thursday, when asked if the FCC — an independent agency over which Trump has unprecedented sway — would target NBC late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, Carr said on CNBC: 'We’ll see how this plays out.... We’re in the midst of a massive shift in dynamics in the media ecosystem for lots of reasons, including the permission structure that President Trump’s election has provided,' Carr added. 'And I would simply say, we’re not done yet with seeing the consequences of that shift.'” (Also linked yesterday.) A CNBC story is here. A related CNBC story is here. ~~~
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Thursday that regulators should consider revoking the licenses of broadcasters that air negative coverage or commentary of him, indicating that his assault on critics’ language is motivated at least in part by personal animus. The comments were a remarkable escalation in a coordinated attack by Mr. Trump and his top aides, who are using the threat of the power of the American government to silence criticism or dissent following the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. In the last week, White House has moved to target the tax status of liberal groups, monitor online speech, deny visas and threaten to designate certain groups as domestic terrorists.... Mr. Trump..., during his [inaugural speech promised] to 'stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.'...”
James Poniewozik of the New York Times: “On a podcast Wednesday, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, complained about remarks that Jimmy Kimmel had made about Tyler Robinson, the man accused of shooting the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, and about ... [Donald] Trump’s MAGA political movement. Mr. Carr described a couple of paths toward the consequences he wanted to see happen. 'We can do this the easy way,' he said, 'or the hard way.' Later that day, ABC did it for him the easy way. ABC did not explain its decision to pull Mr. Kimmel’s late-night show 'indefinitely.' But the sequence of events was easy to follow, and the dynamics are chillingly familiar.... Mr. Trump and his administration have been yanking an array of levers to bring news and entertainment outlets to heel. They have brought lawsuits, dangled investigations and threatened financial interests.... And it has often worked.” ~~~
~~~ John Koblin, et al., of the New York Times piece together how the decision came down to suspend Jimmy Kimmel's show.
Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: “In putting the onus on ABC’s stations, [FCC Chair Brendan] Carr appeared to be borrowing a page from the playbook of the Nixon administration. It had pioneered the practice of floating potential action against station licenses to pressure the major networks to toe the administration’s line.... Mr. Nixon saw the managers of [independent] stations [and station groups], particularly in Republican-led areas, as potential allies against their affiliated networks in New York.... In 2002, ABC ended Bill Maher’s show, 'Politically Incorrect,' after criticism from the White House of comments he had made related to the Sept. 11 attacks. The difference this time was that Mr. Carr’s comments explicitly referred to the fact that stations are licensed by the government.”
Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “Barack Obama on Thursday condemned the Trump administration for its actions in the lead-up to Disney’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night comedy show.... 'After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,' Obama wrote in a post on X on Thursday morning,... 'This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it,' Obama wrote, linking to a New York Times report that detailed the Washington Post’s firing of Karen Attiah, a columnist who said she was let go for her social media activity following [Charlie] Kirk’s killing.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Lili Loofbourow of the Washington Post: “Broadcast television, as it has existed for decades, is coming to an end.... Billionaires are accelerating their efforts to consolidate control over media platforms and the president is eager to help them do so, provided they shut down his critics. If they don’t, he threatens to use the levers of government — particularly those designed to remain independent — to financially punish them. None of this is secret; the brazenness is, at least partly, the point.... In the least surprising news in the world, Nexstar [the largest owner of TV stations in the U.S., and which pulled Jimmy Kimmel's show off the air for specious reasons --] is seeking approval from ... Donald Trump’s FCC to acquire Tegna, another media company....
If this all sounds oddly similar to the circumstances surrounding Colbert’s cancellation — which also took place around a gigantic prospective merger awaiting FCC approval — it should. The next question might be: Why Kimmel?... Well, here’s what Donald Trump wrote July 18, in a Truth Social post celebrating Colbert’s cancellation. 'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!'... The systematic effort to censor American media isn’t exactly subtle.”
Toljaso. Paul Waldman: "For the last few years — since Donald Trump made clear he was running for president again, through the end of the 2024 campaign — some of us spilled a great number of words explaining why he posed a unique and unprecedented threat to the nation and to our democracy. For that, we got all kinds of scolding, particularly when we argued that Trump was, in every meaningful way, a fascist.... Yet here we are. There can no longer be any denying that those who were ringing the alarm bells a year ago were, if anything, underestimating the danger Trump posed." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether....When a society feels under threat, comedians are who get sent away first. -- Jon Stewart, 2022 ~~~
~~~ Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: “The suspension of [Jimmy] Kimmel’s late night talk show is the gravest and most clear attack on free speech rights in generations. FCC chairman Brendan Carr publicly called for Kimmel to be removed from the air over a joke he made.... The pressure to fire Kimmel was backed by threats to pull broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates if the comedian wasn’t taken off the air. This is blatantly illegal. The First Amendment explicitly protects against government censorship of speech. The government cannot threaten broadcasters to censor speech or punish speakers for their speech no matter what the person said.... Trump has also been aided by decades of lax antitrust enforcement and decades of media mergers that has seen the entertainment industry consolidate in fewer and fewer conglomerates. .. This is the style of regime media consolidation recently seen under the autocratic Hungarian President Viktor Orban.”
Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: “Just because the authoritarian Trump regime is incompetent does not mean it is any less dangerous. To the contrary, Trump minions’ carelessness, inexperience, and ignorance often make them more destructive in a democracy that should run on facts, stability, and the rule of law.” After citing numerous, convincing examples of stupid authoritarian moves that were worse than clever authoritarian actions, Rubin writes, “All this reminds us that the boast of autocrats — More effective and efficient than democracy, not weighed down by messy laws and ethics! — is the very thing that makes their regimes weak and brittle.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: Don't think Trump & Co. are limiting coercion to U.S. media & other U.S. institutions. ~~~
~~~ Sarah Keszler of News7 (Australia) (Sept. 16): “... Donald Trump has lashed out at an Australian reporter..., telling the journalist he was 'hurting Australia' and that he would tell Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about it in their next visit. ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corp.] journalist John Lyons was on the White House lawn as Trump took questions ahead of his visit to the United Kingdom when Lyons asked..., 'Is it appropriate, President Trump, that a president in office should be engaged in so much business activity?'... Trump said he was 'really not' engaged with the businesses because 'my kids are running the business'. The president went on to ask the Washington-based journalist where he was from. 'In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,' Trump said. 'You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.' When the journalist attempted to ask the president another question, Trump cut him off, telling him 'quiet'.” (Also linked yesterday.)
I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.... I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter! -- Donald Trump on Truth Social ~~~
~~~ Robin Pennacchia of Wonkette gives some attention to this matter: “There are many problems with this. First, there is no such organization as 'Antifa.' Second, no one is funding 'Antifa.' Third, there is no actual mechanism in federal law to designate a group as a domestic terrorist group or to explicitly charge someone with committing or supporting domestic terrorism (as there is for foreign terrorist groups).... The fact is, it’s scary even if he can’t do that, because there are a whole lot of people out there who think he can, and the more they are willing to accept that, the more likely it will be that he will someday have that power.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times agrees.
Heather Cox Richardson: "Since he took office in 2017..., Donald J. Trump has worked hard to convince Americans that they are divided into two partisan camps: Republicans, whom he defines as those people loyal to him, and Democrats, a group made up of everyone else.... Dividing a population into friends and enemies is a tool of authoritarians, clearly articulated by Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt, who is enjoying a burst of popularity right now in the American right wing.... Some voices on the right who, in the past, were protected by the laws and norms of democracy are now calling out its loss." Cox cites Karl Rove, John Yoo & Tucker Carlson.
Noah Robertson & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump declined to approve more than $400 million in military aid to Taiwan this summer, as he tries to negotiate a trade deal and potential summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The decision, which may still be reversed, marks a U-turn in U.S. policy toward the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory.... America’s military has long committed resources to Taiwan’s defense, as China’s People’s Liberation Army rapidly builds up forces and stages more elaborate drills around the island.”
Ann Marimow of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to allow the president to remove Lisa Cook as a Federal Reserve governor, setting up a key test of presidential power with potentially huge economic consequences.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Courtney Kube of NBC News: “Pentagon leaders are considering a new recruiting campaign that would encourage young people to honor the legacy of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk by joining the military, according to two officials familiar with the planning. The idea would be to frame the recruiting campaign as a national call to service, the officials said. Possible slogans that Pentagon leaders have discussed include 'Charlie has awakened a generation of warriors,' according to the officials.” Thanks to RAS for the link and for this comment: “After sidelining all the minorities and women they will need replacements. Might as well be the whiney and aggrieved racist white boys that followed Kirk.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Hannah Natanson & Robert Klemko of the Washington Post: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking new office spaces in hundreds of locations across the United States to support plans to hire thousands of lawyers and immigration enforcement officers.... In recent weeks, high-level staffers with ICE approached the [General Services Administration] and said the government needed to secure roughly 300 office sites nationwide as fast as possible, in a bid to house more than 10,000 new employees.... The GSA has formed special planning teams to facilitate ICE’s expansion....”
We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissent, Noem v. Vasquez ~~~
~~~ Jermont Terry of CBS News Chicago: "Video captured the moment ICE agents tried to take a father and his two sons into custody — leaving one man in the hospital, even though he's not in the country illegally. Family members said that the man was released from the hospital after he said he was tased in the face while being taken into federal custody. The only problem — he was born in Chicago. Although his father is undocumented, they all ended up in ICE custody." Thanks to RAS for the link.
Luis Ferré-Sadurní, et al., of the New York Times: “Federal officers arrested 11 Democratic elected officials inside a federal building in Lower Manhattan on Thursday after the officials demanded access to cells used by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to detain migrants. The officials, including Brad Lander, the city comptroller, and city and state lawmakers, were arrested after they showed up at 26 Federal Plaza and sought to inspect the 10th-floor holding cells, which are operated by ICE and closed to the public. The cells have drawn scrutiny following complaints of unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, leading a federal judge to order ICE to improve the conditions last month.
“At about the same time, another group of Democratic elected officials was arrested after the officials joined about 40 protesters outside 26 Federal Plaza attempting to block the garage doors typically used by ICE as it moves vans carrying detained immigrants. The arrested officials, including Jumaane D. Williams, the public advocate, sat down on the ground, chanting for the release of everyone in ICE custody.” Here's the City's report. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday temporarily prevented the Trump administration from hastily deporting hundreds of Guatemalan children, faulting the government for relying on false pretexts that 'crumbled like a house of cards' when presented in court. In a striking opinion, Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee, wrote that the government had misleadingly presented its actions as a 'reunification' effort, bringing children back to their parents in Guatemala who it said had requested their return. But he noted that a series of revelations since the children had been 'roused from their beds in the middle of the night and driven to an airport' during the Labor Day weekend had cast doubt on the government’s representations, suggesting a rushed attempt to remove as many as 327 minors before their lawyers could mount a response.”
Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “In a meeting that devolved into confusion and near chaos, federal advisers on Thursday voted 8 to 3 against vaccinating children under four years old with a combination shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.... About half of the panel’s members were appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this week. In a sign of how hastily the committee was put together, many of the members needed explanations of the usual protocol for these meetings, the design of scientific studies, and critical flaws in the data they suggested including. Many of the panelists also seemed unsure about the purpose of the Vaccines for Children program, which provides free shots to roughly half of all American children. Approving which vaccines the program should cover is a key function of the committee.
“The decision to rescind the M.M.R.V. recommendation is unlikely to have widespread consequences. The recommendations for other vaccines given separately to protect against those diseases — the more common practice — remain unchanged. In a bizarre twist, the members also voted 8 to 1 to have the Vaccines for Children program continue to cover the M.M.R.V. vaccine for children under 4. It was unclear whether the members all understood what they were voting for. Three members abstained altogether, one of them explicitly citing his confusion as the reason.” Politico's story is here.
Frank Thorp & Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "The Senate confirmed 48 of ... Donald Trump's nominees in a single vote on Thursday after the Republican majority triggered the 'nuclear option' to make a far-reaching rule change. The party-line vote of 51-47 confirms a slew of Trump picks for sub-Cabinet positions and ambassadors. They include former Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., as undersecretary of energy for nuclear security, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece and Callista Gingrich, wife of the former House speaker, as ambassador to both Switzerland and Liechtenstein."
Katie Rogers of the New York Times outlines five takeaways from Kamala Harris's book 107 Days. ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times writes what's billed as a book review. Right at the top, we learn that this is a review of a book labeled "nonfiction," so maybe that's a good sign.
~~~~~~~~~~
32 comments:
Speech Police
"indicating that his assault on critics’ language is motivated at least in part by personal animus"
WTF, Fat Hitler is screaming that this all about him and his treatment, but the main stream media still cannot stop themselves from trying to give him cover. It is sick and pathological.
Advice and Consent
"The Senate has confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees at once, voting for the first time under new rules to begin clearing a backlog of executive branch positions that had been delayed by Democrats.
Frustrated by the stalling tactics, Senate Republicans moved last week to make it easier to confirm large groups of lower-level, non-judicial nominations. Democrats had forced multiple votes on almost every one of Trump’s picks, infuriating the president and tying up the Senate floor.
The new rules allow Senate Republicans to move multiple nominees with a simple majority vote — a process that would have previously been blocked with just one objection. The rules don’t apply to judicial nominations or high-level Cabinet posts."
Which Charlie are we talking about?
"The Foreign Policy Hits Just Keep On Coming"
McSweeney's
"In Order to Keep Our Editorial Page Completely Balanced, We Are Hiring More Dipshits
by Mike Skerrett
Here at the New York Times, we believe that all sides of the story should be tolerated and explored, from white supremacists being actually kinda cool if you think about it, to people who believe that saying college campuses should be less PC is somehow an interesting use of 1,000 words. That’s why we’re expanding our editorial staff to include more dipshits. Because everyone, no matter how intellectually lazy their conservatism, deserves a column in our newspaper.
By the end of the year, we aim to have 200 percent more dipshits writing columns for us. As long as you are a Ben Shapiro knockoff who can string together the words “the intolerant left” and occasionally criticize Trump, you have a home here on our opinion pages. Because this is what conservatism is now, and we must respect that."
Donald took his favorite floor lamp with him to Windsor Castle:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOvKyMyjrWp/
Who wore it better?
The Americans are in town
Jonathan Chait, for The Atlantic, on The MAGA Campaign to Suppress Dissent—Even on the Right
“"If You’re Not Focused on Fighting Left-Wing Violence, Step Aside,” a Federalist headline demanded. “If I hear an elected Republican say the phrase ‘political violence’ or ‘both sides’ I’m going to scream,” wrote Shashank Tripathi, a co-host of the Ruthless podcast.
Such criticism is in line with the president’s. Donald Trump, who granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people associated with the January 6, 2021, riots, has made it plain that he is not opposed to political violence. The only threat worth combatting, he insists, is left-wing violence. "
Media for and by billionaires.
Oh, and for Trump...
"Larry Ellison is already a major stakeholder in CBS and Paramount. Now CNN, HBO and a major share of TikTok are in his sights. If all goes as anticipated, this tech billionaire, already one of the richest men in the world and a founder of Oracle, is poised, at 81, to become one of the most powerful media and entertainment moguls America has ever seen."
But wait, it gets better...Oh, but not for us...
"The Ellisons [Larry and son David] have also made no secret of their intention to move CBS News to the right. They are negotiating to acquire The Free Press, a heterodox publication co-founded by Bari Weiss that prioritizes criticism of 'woke' culture, and put Ms. Weiss in a senior position at CBS News. The Ellisons also hired as the CBS ombudsman Kenneth Weinstein, the former chief executive of the conservative Hudson Institute. See where this is going, and fast?...
Then, if all goes according to plan, Mr. Trump could soon hand an 80 percent stake in TikTok, the powerful social media platform, to the existing shareholders, among them KKR and General Atlantic, plus a new consortium that includes Mr. Ellison’s Oracle and a16z, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm whose co-founder Marc Andreessen [more on this scumbag in a second] is close with the administration.
There’s more: The Ellisons are also, reportedly, preparing a bid — of perhaps $80 billion, according to some estimates — for Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate that controls such jewels as HBO Max, the Warner Bros. movie studio and CNN.
There will be plenty of jobs lost as a result of the 'synergies' that the Ellisons will promise investors they will find. That will be painful. But of even greater consequence from the combination of these assets under the control of Larry Ellison will be the expectation — and probably the reality — that these important media outlets will, like Fox News, march toward a more Trump-friendly worldview."
Didja get that? Plenty of jobs lost, but oh well, at least this new media empire will be friendly to Fat Hitler and whichever authoritarian hosebag follows.
During the last era of wealthy pirates, at least robber barons like Andrew Carnegie did something useful, like building hundreds of public libraries. This new brand of robber barons will be replacing libraries with wall to wall digital libraries filled with nothing but their own opinions.
Aren't we lucky?
A little primer on the qualifications of the likes of Marc Andreesen
The headline of thie piece says it all: Silicon Valley is filled with idiot frauds who owe their lives to government handouts.
Here's an example:
"Bill Ackman, who would lose a game of checkers to a can of tomato soup, is the avatar for these secluded dumbfuck rich guys that define the public face of Silicon Valley. Ackman is just a garden variety crank who would be yelling at AI memes on Facebook if he hadn’t made enough money to isolate himself so he could fry his brain on Twitter in front of the entire world. The man has never met a 10,000 word badly written and poorly thought-out conspiracy theory he didn’t instantly believe. Everything that has unfolded as the tech oligarchs have become more reactionary simply proves what unremarkable thinkers these guys really are, and it’s important to point out that they have always been like this, we were just blinded to it by zero interest rate policy (ZIRP)."
And as promised, Trump favorite, Marc Andreesen:
"Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist (VC) in the titular photo, is at the nexus of this new right-wing political power in the Valley, and he is proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the inside of his head is just as smooth as the outside of it."
The article goes on to show a graphic of a comment by this idiot reposted by Trump that demonstrates the economic savvy of an unsharpened pencil with regard to Fatty's temper tantrum tariffs which are currently destroying the economy.
"They got wealthier than most humans ever have and all assumed it was proof of their genius, when a real thinker who doesn’t spend their entire day with their head shoved up their own ass knew that this run was propped up by government handouts to the investing class that we will likely never see again."
This is true also of anal cysts like the South African Chainsaw Man. And because of government largesse, these idiots now believe they are qualified to tell the rest of us how to live. Because, according to them, it's their world. We are just visiting.
And we'd better behave.
A reasonable comment on the Supreme losers by a lawyer. Turns out the law has nothing to do with the law.:
Don't think this one is firewalled.
https://www.arcamax.com/politics/politicalnews/s-3856218
Paul Krugman
"Exploiting Male Rage
Men’s problems are real. MAGA’s solutions are fake"
Epstein, Epstein, Epstein!
In a regular podcast, Trump biographer Michael Wolff along with Joanna Coles ("InsideTrump's Head") notes that Fat Hitler's golden chariot junket to the UK where he hoped to escape his rapist past, was still beset by questions of that history, causing him to rant "Epstein, Epstein, Epstein!"
Which should remind us all to never forget, and never let him TRY to forget that he is a slimy pedophile. It's soft spot that needs to be poked, prodded, and stabbed on a regular basis until he busts a gasket.
With that in mind, I hit upon a list, a Google doc, updated regularly, of garden variety right-wing and MAGA specific rapists, abusers, pedophiles, and sex traffickers, all of whom have trumpeted their glorious MAGA morality prior to being outed as the lowest of the low (even in prison, these guys, often called "short eyes", are considered the worst).
It's an astonishing list (complete with links to corroborate their perfidies) of preachers, politicians, judges, teachers, family members, business tycoons, campaign consultants, legislative aides, anti-abortion activists, mayors, senators, boy scout troop leaders, donors, benefactors, right-wing radio show hosts, constables, cops, bishops, you name it...almost 1,500 Republican hypocritical scumbags who beat, raped, abused, children, wives, girlfriends, family members....
Just scroll through, and remember, there are lots more out there, just like the Rape Boy in the White House, doing the same stuff while lecturing the rest of us about MAGA morals.
A bit more on that list from the site where I found it. You'll notice that this page, from 2022, indicates the list named 800 scumbags at that time. Since then, in just three years, it's almost doubled. The writer says "All pedophiles are Republicans and all Republicans are pedophiles". That's certainly not true, but it's astonishing how many Republicans tend this way.
"This list includes more than a few already familiar names, from serial killers such as Dennis Rader and Ted Bundy (who—did you know?– attended the 1968 GOP national convention) to serial child molester Dennis “Coach” Hastert, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker, sent to prison six years ago. It includes Kenneth Starr, the Clinton-era inquisitor booted out of Baylor University as chancellor for protecting rapists; Roger Ailes, the late Fox News chief and manic sexual harasser; several conservative bishops who notoriously covered up for pedophile priests; and many, many others guilty of harassment and other offenses that fall well short of felonies.
Anyone who peruses the #RepublicanSexualPredators list will, however, also find an extensive and shocking aggregation of convicted pedophiles, child rapists, and child pornographers. Among the notables are a former staff researcher for Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, whose 2017 arrest sparked a brief scandal, and a couple of well-known Republican fundraisers from the nation’s capital. Others were county commissioners, party chairmen, city council members, state legislators, and so on down the list, covering almost every level of officialdom."
Jim Hightower, on The Lowdown, is outraged that nonprofit hospital chains are buying naming rights for stadiums Gaming the System
"as one CEO put it, many chains are now going the extra yard to serve local folks “in new and exciting ways.”....the exciting new thing being pushed by non-profit hospitals is to spend big chunks of their tax-free revenue on their area’s professional and college sports teams. For what? Get this: To buy the naming rights to the teams’ stadiums and ballparks!"
New Yorker One button away
He really wouldn't.
Fat Hitler to reporters on Air Force One:
"Fly safely. You know why? Because I'm on the flight. Otherwise, I wouldn't care."
Tom Nichols, in The Atlantic on Our Rogue Nation on the High Seas
"American law does not permit the president to designate people as terrorists and then declare open season on them in defiance of international agreements and without any involvement from Congress. Perhaps Trump’s people are watching too many Tom Clancy movies, but he cannot legally send the Navy out onto the world’s oceans as though they are seagoing sheriffs with satchels full of death warrants."
I have been out to get my Covid booster & flu shot. It took all morning, to make a long story short.
I am always a bit disappointed when I come home from being away from the news for several hours, and I find that nothing bad has happened to Donald Trump.
Marie,
Re: disappointment at how the Erinyes have chosen to allow a certain fat man yet another day free of comeuppance.
The Erinyes, who rampage around through quite a handful of ancient Greek literary works as chthonic furies kicking ass and taking names, wreaking holy hell vengeance on evildoers and unfortunates who get on their wrong side, must be sleeping. I think it was Clytemnestra who had to get them out of bed to help her bugger the bejesus out of her son Orestes (after he bumped her, of course. Christ those Ancient Greeks were a bloody lot, and talk about dysfunctional families!).
Perhaps they're asleep on the job again. They were pretty active in the Iliad, and Dante and Virgil run into them in the Inferno, torturing some deserving asshole. Well, have we got one for you this time, ladies! Step right up! He's in the White House now, he's big, fat, orange, and stupid, you can't miss him.
Ah, me. Well we can only hope when comeuppance time does get here, the Erinyes will have something special in mind for Fatty. Maybe he wanders around in hell where no one knows who he is, no one gives a shit what he has to say, he's poor, he's pissed on regularly, AND he's transformed into a Venezuelan fisherman. A gay Venezuelan fisherman.
And speaking of Fatty firing on Venezuelan fishing boats and calling them transports of narcoterrorists, again...how does he know.
And let's say, for the nonce, that those little boats were carrying drugs. How big a dent did he and the US Navy, cruising around the Caribbean and costing taxpayers millions of dollars every day, put into the "narcoterrorist" operation?
First, if some cartel had been transporting their goods via small boats, they weren't carrying much cargo for such a long voyage (distance from Caracas to the Florida Keys is almost 2,000 miles!) and at this point they ain't doin' it anymore, if they ever were.
These guys have been in business for a generation or more and they're way smarter than Fat Hitler and his drunken SecDef. What kind of bang are we getting for our millions of bucks? Zippo. All he cares about is five minutes on Faux with grainy video of a rowboat being blown up. It's all the usual performative bullshit. Losers and loafers. That's who's running things.
Before Times
Amy Fried
"This was just last year!
9-0 Supreme Court ruling: A “government official cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf.” Moreover, "a government official cannot do indirectly what she is barred from doing directly.""
Say what?
"A church in Texas played an AI audio clip of Charlie Kirk saying words he never said to a congregation who gave it a standing ovation.
On Sunday (14 September), pastor Jack Graham was delivering a service at Prestonwood Baptist Church when he paused to play an AI-generated clip using the voice of the 31-year-old, who was killed on 10 September.
The audio using Kirk’s likeness reassured the churchgoers that he was 'fine', and said: 'Do not let this violence divide us further. The enemy wants chaos, fear, and retaliation. Don't give it to them.'
He told the crowd that 'America and free speech are worth it', encouraging them to get back in the fight'. The minute-long clip received a standing ovation from the church."
So...here we have good ol' Charlie, or rather good ol' Charlie's digital doppelgänger, saying stuff he never ssaid. But what is "he" saying? First, that it's liberals who are the bad guys. We're the ones stoking hatred and fear and division. Good ol' Charlie never did that! No sir! Also....keep up the fight.
So on one hand he's saying "no violence" then he, or rather his digital AI image, says, "Go get 'em".
Wild applause! Cheers!
What's next?
This got a chuckle.
From today's No More Mister Nice Blog, about the uptick in authoritarian censorship.
"And there are a few voices on the right who aren't in lockstep with Trump. Tucker Carlson, of all people, is taking what appears to be a principled stand, for reasons that are unclear."
Now there are two phrases you never see in the same sentence: "Principled stand" and "Tucker Carlson".
Washington Post
"Thirty-one journalists and media workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a newspaper complex in Yemen last week, according to a report released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The attack was the deadliest against journalists since the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines 16 years ago and the second-deadliest the New York-based press freedom group has ever recorded.
Israeli strikes hit a government press complex at 4:45 p.m. local time on Sept. 11, as staff of the Yemeni army’s official news outlet were finalizing a weekly print edition, the publication’s editor in chief, Nasser Al-Khadri, told CPJ."
The Perfect Cabinet
"Last week, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced a new sort-of member of his Cabinet, an AI-generated “minister” that will allegedly fight corruption and promote “innovation” and “transparency” in the government, which is controlled by Rama’s Socialist Party, which recently won a fourth consecutive term.
The program, named Diella for the feminine form of the Albanian word for Skynet “sun,” is supposed to make sure that “public tenders will be 100% free of corruption,” Rama said in a Facebook post, although we do idly wonder whether the bot has been used to check the contract for its own creation."
How long until Fat Hitler replaces all his cabinet with A1's?
The Times does it again.
Does what, you may ask.
Makes room for hypocritical hogwash on its Op-Ed page. Not an unusual thing, I might add.
This time it's a lecture on openness and free speech from a censorious arbiter of what can be thought and said on campuses.
"The definition of the Yiddish concept of chutzpah, or unbelievable audacity, often goes like this: A child murders his parents, and then asks the judge to take pity on him because he’s an orphan. Barnard College president Laura Rosenbury’s op-ed in the New York Times (9/17/25) about free speech on campus might be a fitting contemporary version of this old joke.
In print, her piece was headlined, 'Barnard President: Charlie Kirk Challenged College Students. We Need More Like Him.' (It echoed liberal Times columnist Ezra Klein’s piece, 'Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way'—9/11/25.*) In the wake of the right-wing organizer’s murder on a Utah campus where he was debating with students, Rosenbury said she wants more openness to speech on campuses:
'We must have the courage to explore ideas that diverge greatly from our own. That will mean inviting a diverse range of outside speakers to campus. We do not need to create a specific balance of views; we must simply engage with the widest possible spectrum of views respectfully, without disruption or violence.'
Put plainly, this would be like an op-ed promoting ethical veganism written by Jeffrey Dahmer. In the nationwide repression of anti-genocide protests on campuses, Barnard (the women’s college at Columbia University) has been under the spotlight, and Rosenbury has been a chief villain when it comes not just to the repression of protests, but the policing of thought and censoring ideas. She also completely disregarded Kirk’s signature achievement of building a movement to intimidate faculty to stifle political expression and thought...
Rosenbury’s name, needless to say, rings out in any discussion about the repression of free speech and academic freedom in the United States...
Perhaps Rosenbury thinks this is a good way to whitewash her image. But New York Times editors aren’t forced to publish something so hypocritical."
But they do, and will continue to do so. Unless there's a great Both Sides bit of bebop they like better.
*I gotta say, when I first read the title of that Ezra Klein piece on Kirk doing things the right way, I thought he was gonna be writing about him doing things the Right-Wing way, ie, lying through his teeth.
Silly me. I forgot it was Ezra.
One other thing about that Rosenbury Op-Ed in the Times.
Barnard President Rosenbury came in dead last in 2026 College Free Speech rankings. Not down the list, not sorta not so good. DEAD LAST, but the Times had no problem publishing her self-serving hypocritical hippity hop bullshit. Do they not check this shit out? Or do they just not care?
Whoa....an AI cabinet member? For real? I thought this was something from the Onion.
And I wonder along with RAS, how long before the Orange Monster decides maybe AI cabinet members might be pretty cool. After all, an AI lackey could go on 24/7 with slathering praise on her/his/its boss. If he wanted to fire its ass, he'd just have to hit "Delete".
But what if the AI cabinet member became sentient (hey, it would beat out most of Fatty's current cabinet in that regard...).
Can't you just hear it now? Fatty on the outside looking in saying "Open the pod bay doors, HAL"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/09/19/cdc-covid-vaccine-vote-acip/?
A cynic might suggest RFK, Jr. is getting a kickback from the AMA...
Lucky I'm not a cynic.
There is no bottom to the pit of Pretender corruption:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/sec-trump-clemency.html
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