This next report sounds like a sick joke. It is sick, but it's no joke. It's real. ~~~
~~~⭐Tara Copp & Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: “The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika — an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting in World War II — as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month. Instead, the Coast Guard will classify the Nazi-era insignia as 'potentially divisive' under its new guidelines. The policy, set to take effect Dec. 15, similarly downgrades the classification of nooses and the Confederate flag, though display of the latter remains banned, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post....
“The Coast Guard is a military service branch under the Department of Homeland Security and the purview of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. But the service ... has been swept up like the others in the administration’s rash of leadership firings and broader targeting of military culture. Former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military, was fired on Trump’s first day in office for what administration officials said then was her focus on diversity initiatives and her handling of sexual assault investigations. Within days, [acting commandant Adm. Kevin] Lunday ordered the suspension of the Coast Guard’s hazing and harassment policy that, among its other guidance, said explicitly that the swastika was among a 'list of symbols whose display, presentation, creation, or depiction would constitute a potential hate incident.' Nooses and the Confederate flag also matched that description under the previous policy.” The link is a gift link.
Here are a couple of essays very much worth reading to get a good sense of "where we're at":
(a)⭐Pema Levy & Ari Berman of Mother Jones: “Today, as the Roberts court rewrites the Constitution in the image of Trumpian autocracy, it’s become clear that [John] Roberts’ promise to be a neutral umpire was a lie. We are watching a rigged game, and Roberts set it up. The Roberts court has spent Trump’s second term not applying the law so much as clearing it out of his way. In a matter of months, the court’s 6–3 GOP-aligned majority has permitted a long list of lawless actions, including firing independent agency commissioners, using racial profiling in immigration sweeps, disappearing immigrants to authoritarian and war-torn nations, and defying Congress’ power of the purse.... Roberts has been embedding white-dominant authoritarianism into the country’s source code for two decades. It’s impossible to imagine today’s crisis without the Roberts court having first undermined the foundations of our democracy.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
(b) Sophie Gilbert of the Atlantic: “Some men, possibly many men, have always believed that women are simply not their equal. Some women have believed or internalized this idea, too: that women can and should be fetishized, sexualized, domesticized, but not respected. In the recent past, as women gained rights and men seemed to gain enlightenment, the public tended to frown on these belief.... The impulse to dehumanize women used to be something that people had to hide.... The fact that many men believe they no longer even have to pretend to respect women in order to participate in public life makes it unlikely that anything will change anytime soon.” MB: Gilbert's essay needs some fleshing out, IMO. But she got at the heart of the matter, and using the super-arrogant Larry Summers -- the uber-misogynist who has again found his way onto the front pages for just that -- is perfect. She should keep going. Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link.
Marie: While Trump was rambling on & on Wednesday at a U.S.-Saudi investment forum, he told one of his most fantastic "sir" stories yet. This from a raw C-SPAN transcript, which I've edited only for some obvious spelling & punctuation corrections:
I'll never forget we met with pollsters the day before we got the news about Covid. We met with two pollsters because we were thinking of the next election. They said, Sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead and they aligned and went for the president, vice president as a combination, you'd be beating them by 25 points. ~~~
~~~ Yes, yes, Donald Trump is way more popular than George Washington & Abraham Lincoln combined. I'm just not sure how that jibes with the fact that nobody wants him at their party. I mean, imagine you hold an event and invite everybody from Rachel Maddow to Dan Quayle, but you don't think to invite the current President* of the United States. Huh. ~~~
Peter Baker of the New York Times: “An unlikely mix of Republicans and Democrats came together on Thursday to pay tribute to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who helped shape the nation’s aggressive response to terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, and transformed his office into a powerful platform to drive policy. Led by former President George W. Bush, the mourners who gathered in the grand and cavernous Washington National Cathedral included an array of veterans of their administration as well as a number of Democrats who once despised Mr. Cheney but came to admire him late in life for his outspoken opposition to ... [Donald] Trump. In a sign of how much politics has changed in recent years, Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the stewards of the current Republican administration, were not invited, but Rachel Maddow, the liberal television host who used to skewer Mr. Cheney for his support of the Iraq war, was on hand as a guest of the family. Others in attendance included former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, and former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle. A number of lawmakers from different parts of the political spectrum showed up as well, including former Speakers John A. Boehner, a reliable Republican ally of the Bush-Cheney White House, and Nancy Pelosi, one of its staunchest Democratic opponents.” ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: Donald “Trump did not attend a memorial service for former Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday. In fact, he wasn’t even invited.... A person close to the Cheney family had initially said that Vice President JD Vance was invited, but aides to the vice president said on Thursday morning that he was not and he did not attend. Mr. Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff after Mr. Cheney’s death, as required by law, but issued no statement and has refrained from commenting publicly.” MB: I guess we have to give Trump some credit: he's held his tongue for more than two weeks. That must be a record. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know, who wouldn't want to spend some time with a guy who writes stuff like this? ~~~
Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump accused a group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday of 'seditious behavior' and called for their arrest for appearing in a video in which they reminded members of the U.S. military and intelligence community that they are obligated to refuse illegal orders. 'It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand.'... On his social media platform Thursday, Trump echoed other Republicans who have called for the Democrats to be removed from office, dishonorably discharged from the military and charged with treason — a crime punishable by death.... Trump ... wrote in another post on Thursday: 'SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!' He also reposted a post from a Truth Social user proclaiming: 'HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!'... [Members of the armed services] are obligated to not follow 'manifestly unlawful orders,' but such situations are rare and legally fraught. Members of the military take an oath to the Constitution, not the president.” ~~~
~~~ Here's another way to put it: ~~~
~~~ Matthew Kupfer of Democracy Docket: “In a feverish flurry of social media posts and reposts Thursday morning..., Donald Trump expressed support for imprisoning and executing a group of Democratic lawmakers for what he termed 'seditious behavior.' The behavior in question? Urging U.S. military service members to defend the U.S. Constitution and disobey orders that violate the law.... House Democratic leaders denounced Trump’s posts in a statement, saying they contacted the Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police to 'ensure the safety of these Members and their families.' 'Political violence has no place in America,' they added. 'We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against Members of Congress and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same.'”
Natalie Allison & Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to continue welcoming foreign workers to the United States for tech manufacturing jobs and potentially stirred up more upset within his base by maintaining that American workers aren’t up to the task. 'You can’t come in and open up a massive computer chip factory for billions and billions of dollars, like is being done in Arizona, and think you’re going to hire people off an unemployment line to run it,' Trump said at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum, an event coinciding with the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 'They’re going to have to bring thousands of people with them, and I’m going to welcome those people.'”
Joan Walsh of the Nation was on the teevee Wednesday evening and asked a rhetorical question: Bible Mike Johnson refused to swear in Adelita Grijalva to prevent her from being the 218th signature on a discharge petition to bring to the floor a a bill requiring the DOJ to release the Epstein files. Once the petition came to the floor, all but one House Republican voted for it. So where the hell were these gung-ho save-the-children "pro-transparency" Republicans all the time Johnson was holding up Grijalva's swearing-in? Any one -- or all -- of them could have signed the petition before Grijalva did.
Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: “The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee issued a report on Thursday calling for an investigation into whether JPMorgan Chase deliberately underreported more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. The report from the senator, Ron Wyden of Oregon, said the compliance failures by the nation’s largest bank during its nearly 15-year relationship with Mr. Epstein were 'alarming' and impeded law enforcement’s ability to examine the 'financial infrastructure that enabled Epstein’s cross-border sex trafficking organization.'” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ The Wyden report is here.
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Republican senators are warning Attorney General Pam Bondi not to slow-walk the public release of records and documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following votes by the House and Senate demanding the documents. The calls come amid speculation that the Justice Department may cite ongoing investigations or other reasons to hold back material. Bondi said Wednesday that 'new information' obtained by investigators had spurred the Justice Department to reverse its earlier decision to close investigations related to Epstein.”
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The U.S. economy added substantially more jobs than expected in September, according to a long-awaited report Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 119,000 in the month, up from the 4,000 jobs lost in August following a downward revision. The Dow Jones consensus estimate for September was 50,000. The July total also was revised down to 72,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the prior release. In addition to the headline jobs number, the BLS said the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4%, the highest it’s been since October 2021. A broader measure that includes those not looking for jobs or working part-time for economic reasons edged lower to 8%."
Madison McVan of the Minnesota Reformer (Nov. 18): “Dozens of federal agents surrounded the St. Paul headquarters of paper distributor Bro-Tex on Tuesday morning and were quickly met by a couple hundred protesters. The agents wore uniforms marked with the insignias of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.... One witness told the Reformer that she saw at least two people zip tied and loaded into a van by agents.... At around 9 a.m., agents marked off a large perimeter around Bro-Tex with crime scene tape. Protesters chanted messages expressing opposition to ICE, and heckled agents, most of whom were masked. As the officers attempted to leave the scene, protesters linked arms to block their vehicles. Agents shot chemical irritants into the crowd, and in some cases, pepper sprayed protesters in the face. Some officers exited their vehicles to shove protesters out of the way, and drivers forced their way through the crowd, pushing some people to the ground with their vehicles.” Here's video of the confrontation. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “Relenting to pressure from his base..., [Donald] Trump on Wednesday announced on social media that he signed legislation calling on the Justice Department to release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days. Mr. Trump’s signature does not guarantee the release of all the files. The bill contains significant exceptions, including a provision protecting continuing investigations, which could mean many documents would stay confidential.... In [a lengthy social media] post, the president sought to portray the bill’s passage as the result of a directive to his party. 'As everyone knows, I asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to pass this Bill in the House and Senate, respectively,' Mr. Trump said. 'Because of this request, the votes were almost unanimous.' But, in fact, his call for Republicans to approve the measure came only after it became clear Mr. Trump had lost a political battle on the issue.” The AP's report is here.
Marie: On the Senate vote, I put the cart before the horse. I thought Thune had allowed Chuck Schumer's unanimous consent request on the Epstein bill to comply with Trump's pretense that he was behind passage. By letting the bill pass the Senate by unanimous consent, everybody could pretend that it was being passed intact at Trump's request (just as Trump is trying to do now). But Lawrence O'Donnell shows how I got that backwards: ~~~
~~~ Heather Cox Richardson relays how “deeply disappointed” Bible Mike is in the heathens in the Senate: “House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) evidently went along with this strategy because he expected Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) to stall the measure with amendments. If it finally passed nonetheless, the House would have to take it up again and could delay it further. After the House passed the bill, Johnson told reporters he would 'insist upon' amendments.... [Then the Senate passed the bill, unchanged, by unanimous consent.] Mike Johnson did not take the news of the Senate passage particularly well, telling MS NOW congressional reporter Mychael Schnell: 'I am deeply disappointed in this outcome…. It needed amendments. I just spoke to the president about that. We’ll see what happens.' Johnson said both he and the president 'have concerns' about the bill.” ~~~
~~~ Evan Hurst of Wonkette elaborates on Bible Mike's extreme pique and has a theory of why Mike is so upset about the Senate vote.
All the Pedophile's Friends. Stephen Fowler of NPR: "New releases from Jeffrey Epstein's estate shine additional light on the array of powerful figures who kept ties to the disgraced financier after his criminal charges came to light. Spread throughout the roughly 23,000 documents released by the House Oversight Committee last week, emails and texts show Epstein courted prominent politicos from both sides of the aisle, impressed academics and used his connections to push back on negative stories about his alleged crimes. Epstein's career as a wealthy financier who gave money to universities and other causes put him in many elite circles. Those circles did not entirely close to him after he pled guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18 in 2008." Fowler names some of those friends, like Noam Chomsky & Ehud Barak.
Mark Arsenault & Mike Isaac of the New York Times: “Lawrence H. Summers, a Harvard University economist and the university’s former president, will step back from his teaching duties while the university investigates his ties to the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for Mr. Summers said Wednesday. The spokesman ... said in a statement that Mr. Summers would also leave his role as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. A Harvard spokesman confirmed that Mr. Summers had told the university of his decision.... His spokesman said that his co-teachers will finish instructing his classes this semester, and he was not scheduled to teach next semester. But Mr. Summers will keep his tenured status at Harvard while he pauses teaching during the investigation, and he is only on leave at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center.” The Harvard Crimson story, which broke the news, is here. ~~~
~~~ Mike Isaac of the New York Times: “Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary, will step down from the board of the artificial intelligence start-up OpenAI, he and the company said on Wednesday, after Congress released emails last week that showed Mr. Summers had regularly corresponded with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.... Mr. Summers was mentioned in emails with Mr. Epstein in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The two bantered over various topics, including commenting on the intelligence of women in general and frequently discussing Mr. Trump. In other exchanges, Mr. Summers appeared to ask Mr. Epstein’s advice on how to pursue a romantic relationship with Keyu Jin, who Mr. Summers described as a mentee. Dr. Jin, a former professor at the London School of Economics, is the daughter of Jin Liqun, a former high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party and banking executive. In the emails, Mr. Summers wrote to Mr. Epstein that he was effusive in his praise of Dr. Jin’s father and his work.” Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Erik Ortiz of NBC News: “A whistleblower who came forward to House Democrats alleging convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell received preferential treatment at a federal prison camp in Texas says she was not motivated by politics. Instead, 'this was about common human decency and doing what’s right for all inmates,' Noella Turnage, a nurse who worked at Federal Prison Camp Bryan since 2019 until she was fired last week, told NBC News on Monday.... She said the federal Bureau of Prisons fired her on Nov. 10. The decision came a day after the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote a letter to ... Donald Trump saying they had received information from a 'whistleblower' indicating Maxwell was working on filing a 'commutation application' and receiving special treatment not typically afforded to inmates at Bryan.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: When Katie Tur of MSNOW was interviewing Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) Wednesday afternoon, she told Coons about the whistleblower being fired. He said he had been unaware of the situation but would see if he could get Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) -- who has been a defender of whistleblowers -- to intervene on Turnage's behalf.
It's hard not to notice how a chunk o' news is about Trump insulting women and being really nice to male sex offenders, alleged and convicted.
The name of Joyce Vance's Substack site is “Civil Discourse,” so you won't be surprised by what she thinks about Trump's calling a female reporter “Piggy”: “... it’s particularly galling that the president’s response to a legitimate question about the [Epstein] matter is 'Quiet Piggy.' It tells you all you need to know about this president’s attitude toward women. Of course, that hasn’t been in doubt since we saw him on tape saying, 'Grab them by the p*ssy.. He’s called a stream of women who stood up to him, like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Kamala Harris, 'nasty women.' In 2014, Trump called New York Times columnist Gail Collins 'frumpy and very dumb,['] We could be here all night listing the misogyny, but the sad truth is, MAGA doesn’t care. The men like it and the women, inexplicably, are willing to tolerate it.” (Also linked yesterday.)
mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one. -- Andrew Lawrence, on Bluesky
Found! A Page from the Trump "Business Plans" Notebook: The Recidivism Plan. (1) Obtain gifts, donations, bribes, etc. from wealthy criminals. (2) Pardon the criminals or at least commute their sentences. (3a) Their only skill is committing financial crimes, but (3b) they're not that good at it. (4) Wait till they get caught again, which they will. (5) Rinse & repeat. ~~~
~~~ AP: “A New Jersey man whose lengthy prison sentence for fraud convictions was commuted by ... Donald Trump in 2021 is now headed back to federal prison for another fraud conviction. U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp, sitting in Trenton, handed down a 37-year sentence on Friday to Eliyahu 'Eli' Weinstein, 51, of Lakewood, who is also known as Mike Konig. Shipp also ruled that Weinstein must pay $44,294,803 in restitution, which is due immediately, according to court documents. Weinstein was convicted in March on charges he helped defraud dozens of investors out of $35 million. Prosecutors have said Weinstein and others falsely promised investors access to deals involving scarce medical supplies, baby formula and first-aid kits supposedly destined for wartime Ukraine. This marked the third time Weinstein had been convicted in a New Jersey federal court for defrauding investors. The first case involved a real estate Ponzi scheme, and the second stemmed from additional fraud he committed while on pretrial release.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)
New York Times Editors: “... working with imperfect partners does not mean that the United States should cover up and lie about their misdeeds, as ... [Donald] Trump did when receiving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, in the Oval Office on Tuesday. It was a fawning, cringe-worthy performance that belied America’s more powerful status. It was absolution rather than realpolitik.... The president’s performance was alarming for three main reasons. One, it suggested that the truth was irrelevant, and it discarded the hard work of American intelligence in trying to determine that truth. It continued a long pattern of Mr. Trump lying when it suits his interests. Two, he whitewashed a brutal human-rights violation.... Three, the president showed open disdain for the principles of press freedom enshrined in the Constitution.... As president, Mr. Trump repeatedly shows contempt for this principle.”
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “By any and every measure..., Donald Trump is the most corrupt person to ever sit in the Oval Office.... There is a real difference between the unseemly revolving door between business and government — the plum position on a corporate board or an easy lobbying gig — and a new status quo in which business leaders and heads of state give the president actual tribute in order to put themselves in the good graces of the White House.... Trump['s] ... effort to rule the United States as an autocrat is as much about clearing the way for a smash and grab as it is anything else.” The link is a gift link. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ It's an Oligarchy, Not Only an Autocracy. Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: “The job of commerce secretary has always been to promote American industry through deal-making at home and abroad, and the position has traditionally been populated with titans of industry who were expected to bring a business sensibility to meetings filled with career government workers. But never in modern U.S. history has the office intersected so broadly and deeply with the financial interests of the commerce secretary’s own family, according to interviews with ethics lawyers and historians.... The family’s companies operate in a wide range of industries, from cryptocurrencies to data centers, that overlap with [Secretary Howard] Lutnick’s work in government, raising concerns even among high-level staff members in the Commerce Department....”
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: Donald “Trump's sweeping tariffs took a toll on trade in August, as imports dropped 5.1 percent, to $340.4 billion, after taxes on exports from roughly 90 countries went into effect on Aug. 7, newly released data from the Commerce Department showed Wednesday. U.S. exports were essentially flat, rising 0.1 percent to $280.8 billion. Because of the sharp fall in imports, the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services for the month also dropped sharply, shrinking nearly 24 percent, to $59.6 billion, compared with July. The data, which had been delayed by more than a month because of the government shutdown, gives the first look at trade patterns after Mr. Trump introduced what is effectively a new trading system for the United States.... Altogether, [the tariffs that went into effect August 7,) brought the U.S. effective tariff rate to more than 18 percent, the highest level since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Zoe Richards of NBC News: "... Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani are set to meet in person on Friday, days after Mamdani, the New York mayor-elect, reached out to the White House to arrange a sit-down. Trump wrote Wednesday night on Truth Social post that Mamdani had asked for a meeting and that they 'agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office' this Friday."
~~~ Then This. Adam Taylor, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is renewing efforts to end the war in Ukraine, with special envoy Steve Witkoff quietly pushing a revised peace plan that contains some provisions opposed by Kyiv and top U.S. military officials undertaking an unusual diplomatic assignment in the Ukrainian capital.... Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who is leading the delegation, is the most senior Pentagon official known to have visited the war-ravaged country since ... Donald Trump’s return to the White House this year. His arrival in Kyiv on Wednesday follows a secretive meeting in Miami this past weekend between Witkoff and top advisers to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.... A breakthrough appears unlikely, however.... The administration’s latest proposal includes several concessions that Zelensky will find difficult to approve, including a significant loss of territory and strict limits on Ukraine’s military. At the same time, Zelensky has been weakened by a major corruption scandal that has ensnared several of his close associates, which — coupled with the exhausting pace of Russian military strikes — could leave the Ukrainian leader with few good options as U.S. officials exert greater pressure on him....” ~~~
~~~ And This. Barak Ravid of Axios: “The new Trump plan to end the war in Ukraine would grant Russia parts of eastern Ukraine it does not currently control, in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee for Ukraine and Europe against future Russian aggression, a U.S. official with direct knowledge told Axios.” ~~~
~~~ And This. Laura Kelly of the Hill: “The Trump administration is renewing a push to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, with a reported 28-point peace plan that caught Kyiv’s supporters in Congress off guard and left at least one Republican warning against what appears to be a largely pro-Moscow proposal.... Some lawmakers were left to learn the details of the 28-point peace plan largely from reporting in Axios, which broke the story, and the Financial Times, which followed up with details of the plan.”
~~~ Historian Timothy Snyder has some thoughts. Bottom line: "This war can be brought to an end, but the basic logic remains what it always was: the Ukrainians have to be supported so that Russia no longer aspires to destroy their country. That is the foundation. Negotiations will work when that has been achieved." Obviously, neither Trump nor his ally Putin has any interest in this outcome. (Also linked yesterday.)
⭐Gordon Lubold, et al., of NBC News: "The senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela disagreed with the Trump administration’s position that the operations are lawful — and his views were sidelined, according to six sources.... The lawyer, who serves as the senior judge advocate general, or JAG in military parlance, at U.S. Southern Command in Miami, raised his legal concerns in August before the strikes began in September.... His opinion was ultimately overruled by more senior government officials, including officials at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.... Some of the military lawyers, including civilians and those in uniform, also expressed concerns to senior officials in their commands and at the Defense Department about the legality of the strikes.... The opinion of the top lawyer for the command overseeing a military operation is typically critical to whether or not the operation moves forward. While higher officials can overrule such lawyers, it is rare for operations to move forward without incorporating their advice."
Lisa Rein & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: “The Social Security Administration has abandoned plans to block thousands of older Americans from qualifying for disability benefits after an uproar that reached senior officials in the Trump White House.... The agency is also halting a plan to use modern labor market data to help judge whether disability claimants can work.... The new data would have replaced a long-outdated jobs database that until recently included obsolete occupations such as nut sorters and telephone quotation clerks. The policy affecting older people would have fundamentally altered who qualifies for the two federal disability programs by eliminating or limiting a person’s age as a factor to consider. It fulfilled a long-held goal of Trump officials to tighten the federal safety net and had been on track to be announced in the Federal Register as soon as December.”
Catie Edmondson & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “The House on Wednesday voted to repeal a measure that creates a new legal avenue for senators to sue the government for at least $500,000 each if federal investigators access their phone records without notifying them. The unanimous 426-to-0 vote reflected the deep well of bipartisan fury that built up over the provision, quietly inserted by Senate Republicans into legislation to reopen the government, that blindsided senior lawmakers overseeing spending bills. But the repeal is likely to die in the Senate, where G.O.P. leaders appear intent on preserving the provision, saying that it protects their members against investigatory overreach.” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Hailey Fuchs & Jordain Carney of Politico: “Senate Republicans emerged from their weekly lunch Wednesday largely without consensus on how to amend a politically toxic provision that could award some lawmakers hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for having their electronic records seized without their knowledge.”
Lauren Peller of ABC News: "The House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday to establish an investigative subcommittee to examine allegations that Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills broke campaign finance law and engaged in sexual misconduct and dating violence. The significant step by the panel came ahead of a vote Wednesday night on GOP Rep. Nancy Mace's measure that would have censured Mills and removed him from his House committee assignments. Ultimately, the House voted 310-103 to refer the censure resolution against Mills to the House Ethics Committee -- preventing the lower chamber from having to weigh in on publicly rebuking the congressman.... ''You're a disgrace,' Mace said to Mills." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Even though they took a seven-week holiday that shut down almost all business, members of the House -- who theoretically have returned to work -- don't seem to have enough to do along the lines of helping the people they represent, Instead, as Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post writes, “Lawmakers keep introducing resolutions to punish each other for various things they’ve done in the past.” ~~~
~~~ AND Peter Rothpletz of Zeteo notes that on Trump's worst week maybe ever, Democrats have blown their opportunity to pile on with stupid mistakes of their own. (And that doesn't even count news of the corruption charges against Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) who (allegedly!) pocketed a $5MM banking error in her favor. (Story linked below.)
Greg Jaffe of the New York Times: “Six Democratic lawmakers who served in either the military or the intelligence community are reminding their still-serving counterparts in a short online video that they are obligated to refuse illegal orders. The stark message, posted on Tuesday, was organized by Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former C.I.A. analyst who served multiple tours in Iraq. The lawmakers took turns reading a statement in which they cautioned that the 'threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.' 'Our laws are clear,' said Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a Navy veteran and former astronaut. 'You can refuse illegal orders.' 'You must refuse illegal orders,' added Representative Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, who also served in the Navy.... The video drew a sharp response from Trump administration officials, who charged that it was encouraging the military to rebel against its commander in chief. 'Democrat lawmakers are now openly calling for insurrection,' Stephen Miller..., [Donald] Trump’s deputy chief of staff, wrote on social media.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ You can watch the video here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Clerical Error in Her Favor. Perry Stein & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “Federal officials have indicted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Florida) on allegations that she used her family’s health care company to steal from a covid-19 vaccination contract funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and then used the money to bolster her 2021 congressional campaign, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. Cherfilus-McCormick was charged alongside multiple co-defendants, including her brother and her tax preparer. The investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick and her alleged accomplices dates to the Biden administration. Law enforcement officials say that in July 2021 the health care company received an overpayment of $5 million, which appeared to be the result of a clerical error. Instead of returning that money, Cherfilus-McCormick funneled some of it to friends and family, who then made donations to her campaign, according to the Justice Department.” The NBC News story is here.
Eric Tucker & Michael Kunzelman of the AP: “The Justice Department acknowledged in court Wednesday the grand jury that charged former FBI Director James Comey was not presented with a copy of the final indictment, a concession that may further imperil a prosecution already subject to multiple challenges and demands for its dismissal. The revelation is the latest indication of a troubled presentation of the case to the grand jury by an inexperienced and hastily appointed U.S. attorney named to the job just days earlier by ... Donald Trump. Concerns about the process surfaced earlier in the week when a different judge in the case said there was no record in the transcript he had reviewed of the grand jury reviewing the indictment that was actually presented against Comey. Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney in charge of the case, said under questioning that only the foreperson of the grand jury and a second grand juror were present for the returning of the indictment.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, two out of 23 grand jurors formally agreed to the indictment. That is to say, there was no indictment. As I recall, Halligan brought the indictment so quickly because the five-year statute of limitations on the alleged crime was about to run out the very next week. And now time has run out. I won't be surprised if I'm wrong for some good reason, but it seems to me that the case against Comey is moot. Hannah Arendt was right about authoritarians choosing incompetent aides. Sometimes the authoritarians pay for that planned incompetence. ~~~
~~~ Update. Salvador Rizzo & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “That means “there is no indictment Mr. Comey is facing,” [one of Comey's attorneys, Michael] Dreeben[,] said ... at [a] hearing before U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff, arguing that no properly returned indictment was filed before the five-year statute of limitations on Comey’s alleged crimes had expired.... [Dreeben also] argued that Trump has broken down the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House by directing prosecutors to seek criminal charges against Democratic officeholders and perceived political enemies, regardless of the evidence. 'An attack by the president of the United States on a perceived political enemy because of his speech is an egregious violation of constitutional principles and is unprecedented in this country,' ... Dreeben ... argued.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Unlike Halligan, BTW, Dreeben is not some former beauty queen or insurance company flack. As Heather Cox Richardson noted (linked above), "Michael Dreeben is a national expert on criminal law who, in his time at the solicitor general’s office, represented the United States before the Supreme Court more than a hundred times."
~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “ The Trump administration’s criminal prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey appeared to be in serious jeopardy Wednesday as the federal judge overseeing the case repeatedly questioned the validity of the grand jury indictment charging Comey with lying to and obstructing Congress.”
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “David Maltinsky, an F.B.I. agent-in-training, [received a letter] signed by the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, he said, [which] announced that he was being 'summarily dismissed' from the academy because of 'political signage' he had once displayed at his work space in Los Angeles. The only thing that could be, he quickly realized, was a rainbow pride flag that had hung near his desk for years and had been given to him as a gift by his former bosses. On Wednesday, Mr. Maltinsky filed a lawsuit against Mr. Patel and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, claiming that his firing was illegal and asking a federal judge to reinstate him at the academy.... Since taking over the bureau in February, Mr. Patel has overseen a relentless purge of agents — from both field offices across the country and at the bureau’s headquarters in Washington — that has sent shock waves through its sprawling work force.”
Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a ruling that limited how federal immigration agents could use force in Illinois. The appellate judges described restrictions imposed by a lower-court judge as 'overbroad' and 'too prescriptive,' giving at least a temporary victory to Trump administration officials. The three-judge appellate panel, made up of Republican appointees, said Judge Sara L. Ellis had erred this month when she granted a wide-ranging preliminary injunction requiring agents to wear body cameras, to give warnings before using riot control weapons, including tear gas, and to use those weapons only in dire circumstances. The case was brought by media organizations, protesters and clergy members who accused federal agents of 'a pattern of extreme brutality' intended to 'silence the press and civilians' during the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area.”
Jacob Rosen of CBS News: "A federal judge is continuing his investigation into whether the Trump administration defied court orders in a high-profile immigration case involving the Alien Enemies Act, he said Wednesday. In an 8-3 ruling last week, a federal appeals court left in place an earlier decision that blocked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's April order, which said that probable cause exists to find the Trump administration in criminal contempt over its 'willful disregard' of his order in March to turn around two planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members bound for a prison in El Salvador. But the panel also found that even though his initial ruling had been struck down, Boasberg, who is the chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., could continue his probe into whether the Trump administration had violated his court order.... 'I will be going forward with it,' Boasberg said. 'I certainly intend to find out what happened that day.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
34 comments:
How in the Christ is Steve (Condo Man) Witkoff leading talks to stop a war? This is more Fat Hitler Reich incompetency. Incompetency is perfectly acceptable as long as the employee is loyal and will never tell FH his ideas are stoopid. Witkoff is a joke. He went to the Kremlin to meet Putin and had no interpreter with him. He used Putin's guy. So while Putin was saying "Are they kidding? Fatso sends this fucking guy to talk to me? He's a putz." and the interpreter tells Witkoff "President Putin likes your tie".
Then he's supposed be the Middle East envoy. FAIL. And now he's brokering a "peace" deal? By trying to ram Fatty's latest bullshit DOA plan down Zelensky's throat. In real estate terms, this is how it's going: "Hey Volo, boy have we got a great deal for you. Six rooms, walk in closet in the bedroom, right next to the Port Authority, but don't worry, the bus and traffic noise goes down by 2 am. Of course, there's no heat in the building and you have to make sure the pilot light on the stove doesn't blow out when you open the window in the kitchen, but if you like hookers, there are plenty within a three block range. Whadaya say? Pretty great, right?"
Right.
The hits just keep on coming.
Didn't peek beneath the headline of Douthat's latest, another long interview with someone I don't know.
Maybe I should care enough to fill yet another hole in my ignorance, but I really don't want to listen to two guys sitting around trying to sound smart about something they know little or nothing about.
Why do I know that's what I'd hear? Because the headline implies that the recent rupture on the Right over anti-semitism is some kind of surprise.
For goodness sake, the Right has been anti-semitic for generations now, hundreds of years anyway, certainly as long as I can remember, back to the day when at that liberal university I attended Gerald L. K. Smith's "The Cross and the Flag" began mysteriously appearing in my PO Box. Tho' he never admitted it, I think it was a gift from my father, a strong Catholic who likely sympathized with the Church's complicity with the German Right's (read: Reich's) Jewish genocide.
Don't know if it came up in the Smarties' discussion but I doubt Douthat and Friend ever admitted the Pretender's war on universities had nothing to do with anti-semitism. How could it? It was mounted by Republicans, the party of American anti-semitism, the party that may like Israel because some of its evangelical base feels a religious connection to the land, but it sure doesn't like Jews. In my experience, it never has. The attack on universities, which allowed a corrupt administration to appear righteous while further marginalizing Muslims, was just cover for a war on people who don't like the Pretender.
An attack on liberals, in other words. On people like me. That's what I got out of Douthat this morning without reading him.
This is incredible. Trump policies in action.
Here you can see Fat Hitler's cowardly masked goons pepper spraying a group of peaceful protesters yesterday in St. Paul, MN.
St. Paul, as far as I know, isn't exactly a hotbed of radicalism. Just watch this astonishing video. This cowardly asshole hits people right in the face, from a foot away, with pepper spray. Just look at the protesters. These people look like soccer moms and dads just holding signs. There is no attempt to "assault" this asshole. He just pulls out his spray and takes out dozens of people, who are crying and gasping for breath and vomiting after this unprovoked attack on AMERICAN CITIZENS by their FASCIST GOVERNMENT.
This is what Trump brings to the US. This is him destroying the fabric of society with his authoritarian goons and thugs. Just imagine if Biden had initiated something like this in some Red State city. Fox would demand immediate arrests of the agent doing this and impeachment proceedings for the president. But this shit happens EVERY DAY.
Ken,
Ha! I see what you're doing there. Very tricky...trying to get me to read Douthat, when you know I get allergic just reading his name. Well, it ain't gonna work. No sirree. At least I don't think it will.
Nah. It'll just be one of those moments when you say to yourself, geez, that's five minutes I'm never getting back.
I used to tell people I read these guys because it's important to know what the other side is thinking and saying and writing. But that only goes so far. At some point, you've just had enough. And I've already gotten in my monthly dose of Douthat and his blow-up girlfriend. That's about all I can take.
Maybe next month.
Any security guarantee for Ukraine from the Trump administration is worthless. Trump has shown again and again that he feels no obligation to uphold deals the US government makes. Even back in his first administration he torn up the Iran nuclear deal just because he didn't like it. Iran had been upholding their end of the deal when Fat Hitler decided that he would no longer allow our federal government to uphold our side of the deal. If Russia waits a few months so that FH can crow about stopping a real war for once before they start a new one there is less than one percent chance that Fat Hitler would follow through on the pledge of military protection. We have seen how he is incapable of following through on any consequences toward Russia. I doubt that will change, even if Ukraine had a document claiming otherwise.
The outrage by the House Republicans over the phone provision is that they were not included in the grift. Republicans don't like seeing others getting money that they believe should be going in their own pockets. If whoever put the provision in the bill had specified anyone in Congress could get the money then there certainly would not have been an unanimous vote to pull back the measure. It was more of a "if I can't have it, no one can" vote from the House.
So Mamdani is meeting with the Orange Monster in the Opioid Office next week? That should be a gas. Wonder how long it will take for Fatty to call Mamdani a Mooslim commie terrorist?
Akhilleus,
What are the chances Trump yells at reporters for Not asking about how Mamdani is a Mooslim commie terrorist? "You embarrassed my rich friend, but now you are being so nice to this communist that's going to destroy the greatest city in the world, a city that loves me by the way. No one ever talks about that. They love me, everybody says so. They say sir, the city loves you so much..."
"Nazi Pleads Guilty In Plot To Poison NYC Minority Kids
The alleged leader of a violent white supremacist group pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes, federal prosecutors said, after he was accused of urging another individual to poison Jewish children and dress up as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to children of racial minority groups in New York during the holidays."
Remember when FH's administration just couldn't find any right-wing terror?
World Health
"The World Health Organization has reduced its workforce by roughly one-fourth compared to staff levels at the end of last year as the United States and other top backers have cut funding.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Trump administration’s decision to pull the U.S. out of WHO along with funding cuts from other top donors has left the U.N. health agency with a gap of about $500 million for its 2026-27 budget."
There is a lengthy profile on Kash (and Carry) Patel in this week's New Yorker. I don't have a subscription to the New Yorker any longer but Marc Fisher, the author of the piece was on Fresh Air yesterday talking to Terry Gross. You can listen to it here or read the transcript.
A few highlights on this lowlife.
Kash and Carry on the Epstein Files:
"Kash Patel was on the outside and was agitating for the administration, then the Biden administration, to release this purported client list that Jeffrey Epstein is supposed to have kept. Now-FBI Director Patel has a very different set of facts that he would like people to believe, and that is that there is no client list, never was...[and] Donald Trump's presence in the Epstein files is minimal and benign."
Kash and Carry gets taxpayers to help with his dating:
"Well, none of the previous FBI directors had executive protection for their spouses, not for their wives and not for any girlfriends. And so it's very unusual for a director to request that kind of protection for someone who's not the director and who's not even the director's spouse... So whether it's providing protection for his girlfriend or providing the director with jet service on the Bureau's jet to take him to various forms of entertainment - hockey games, casino jaunts to Las Vegas, visits to that girlfriend in Nashville, all of this - it comes at great expense to the taxpayer and is seen by a lot of people in the Bureau as a waste of resources."
Kash gives Bongino a pass on polygraph test:
"The FBI has used polygraph tests for decades as just kind of a routine check on basic security questions that everybody has to pass to have access to the kind of secure information that the FBI traffics in...So why was Bongino given this exemption? That's gone unstated by the FBI. The assumption among many current and former agents is that he flunked a polygraph or had reason to flunk a polygraph and, therefore, was allowed to skip it. This is something that does not sit well with others in the FBI because they want to be able to trust the people around them, particularly the people above them, but their colleagues as well."
Kash goes after Trump's list of enemies:
"Kash Patel came into office with that list and with his own list - what he calls his list of government gangsters...And as Patel has now told several people at the FBI, he sees it as his job to go after the people who the president wants prosecuted. The president has not forgotten. That's the line that Patel has used over and over again to explain why he's going after some of these people. It's ironic, of course, because Patel has staked his entire directorship on the idea that everyone who came before him had weaponized the FBI, weaponized the Justice Department for their own political purposes. And yet now he stands accused of exactly the same infraction - of going after people, using the power of the FBI to go after political opponents."
Kash and Carry and how he lines his pockets:
GROSS: So has he promised to recuse himself from any legal issues pertaining to companies that he has worked with and gotten paid by?
FISHER: To the contrary, in the case of his work for Qatar, Patel, after he took over the FBI, got a waiver from the U.S. government that allows him to continue to handle matters related to the government of Qatar.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention..the FBI used to have a unit dedicated to looking into just this sort of bullshit. Patel closed it down.
Lots more. He's not just a grifter and a liar and a Fat Hitler loyalist, he's undermining the work and the heart and soul of a premiere crimefighting operation in the United States, all to please the Fat Fascist.
Oh yeah, and to take FBI jets to see his girlfriend on weekends. At our expense.
Oops...here's the transcript of Terry Gross's interview with Marc Fisher.
They have to invent their oppressors.
"A woman who worked for Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew has been charged after allegedly staging a bizarre fake crime where she paid someone to assault her and write “TRUMP WHORE” on her own zip-tied body. Natalie Greene, 26, a Rutgers law student, appeared in federal court on Wednesday, charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement in connection with a staged attack."
RAS,
Hey, nice going. You got at least three PTM's (primary Trump memes) in one comment:
The "Sir" tell, the "Everybody is saying" line, and the daily "Press sucks" attack.
You've been paying attention.
No one wants you here.
"Trump And Vance Not Invited To Dick Cheney’s Funeral"
Akhilleus,
Were I only so devious....but no I didn't read or listen to the clown. Just thought he offered an opportunity to mention the extraordinary hypocrisy of the American Right's pretense that they are all about combatting anti-semitism. There's nothing about Fuentes' anti-semitism that doesn't fit neatly into American Republican history. That he's not one of them is absurd. For many years, it is the Right, not the Left, that has made a home for people of Fuentes' ilk.
Granted, Israel's behavior has complicated discussions of anti-semitism immensely, but the administration's wholesale accusations of anti-semitism against universities is a cynical ploy to ride the emotions of the moment to a destination that has nothing to do with challenging unfair treatment of a minority.
Protecting minorities? The Pretender and Stephen Miller? Hah.
No, you don't have to read or listen to Douthat.
Akhilleus,
It is sad how easily it comes now after a decade of listening to the crazed lunatic. The hard part is figuring out how to end it since he usually rambles on and on going from one familiar grievance to another ad nauseum.
CDC Website Now Pushes Vaccine-Autism Lies
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repudiated its past insistence that vaccines do not cause autism after decades of fighting misinformation linking the two, blindsiding career staff and delighting anti-vaccine activists.
The agency’s website on vaccines and autism, updated Wednesday, now makes several false claims about a connection, echoing longtime rhetoric from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a lengthy history of disparaging vaccines and linking them to autism."
Roberts Court
"Pema Levy and Ari Berman go double barrel on the true enemy of democracy in this country–John Roberts.
The Roberts court has spent Trump’s second term not applying the law so much as clearing it out of his way. In a matter of months, the court’s 6–3 GOP-aligned majority has permitted a long list of lawless actions, including firing independent agency commissioners, using racial profiling in immigration sweeps, disappearing immigrants to authoritarian and war-torn nations, and defying Congress’ power of the purse. But the court’s acquiescence to an antidemocratic America didn’t start in 2025. Roberts has been embedding white-dominant authoritarianism into the country’s source code for two decades. It’s impossible to imagine today’s crisis without the Roberts court having first undermined the foundations of our democracy."
Sophie Gilbert, in The Atlantic describes what consequence-free misogyny looks like.
"Somehow, it all feels connected: the denigration of professionals doing their job, the fetishization of young women, the older men’s blindness to their own abuse of power. I’ve felt, consuming the news with no little amount of nausea these past few weeks, like we’re revisiting the same characters over and over, with no consequences and no forward momentum.
....here came Summers again, in the Epstein email cache released last week by the House Oversight Committee, quizzing one of the 21st century’s most notorious sex criminals for advice on how to get “horizontal” with an economist who was looking for a mentor, and joking about how women are so dumb that we didn’t even understand his brilliant joke about how dumb we are.
....
A common thread weaves through all of these stories, these outbursts, these leaked emails and petulant tantrums and collusions and cursed blogs. Some men, possibly many men, have always believed that women are simply not their equal."
Since the country was foolish enough to put the Pretender in the White House he's confused himself with the country. That's why "treason" is one of his favorite words. I'd rank "hoax" number one, but "treason" is a close second.
A hoax is anything that he'd rather weren't true. And treason is any action that defies his latest whim.
A mad king, indeed.
The cat's (not the cat's fault) is out of Pretender's orifice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/20/coast-guard-swastika-noose/?utm_
From the people who brought the war against anti-semitism to the universities....
Listened to very little of the Cheney send-off today except to note that previous vice-presidents, including Pence, attended; probably mother told him she was going, so he was going too... and that the present administration is notably absent, noninvited. His "wonderfulness" stems entirely from the person he was when he wasn't roiling government. I hope there were some people there who had reason to hate him, like war vets and survivors...I imagine Kamala and the Bidens fit into that category.
The fake antisemitism of today's repugs is also notable. I remember when there have been a couple of reports, either quashed or squelched or hidden forever saying that YES, according to data compiled by the people at Southern Poverty Law Center, all the "terror" or crimes involving politicians were overwhelmingly from the right, not the left. There is only one reason, I agree, that when you hear/read anything resembling tolerance or equal justice for Jews from the right, it involves Israel. Attaching it to any university who cancelled firebrand bigots' speeches and events is ludicrous. It's some sort of misty excuse to grift and maim universities, and it's working quite well, as the blackmail continues. And all this is because a demented ignoramus came along to be used by really truly evil (what? Dick Cheney's evilness is almost quaint compared to today's personnel in the administration--) people to carry out what the GOP has wanted for so many decades. The fact that ordinary employers, non-government types, fired so many people who even mentioned Charlie Kirk, even to just list his infamy, gives rise to the seepage down from the heads of government that evil is contagious. That article on Roberts was so chilling-- I was thinking he was garden-variety Heritage rat, but it sounds like he has been riding that hobbyhorse a looooong time and is finally enjoying the dividends of hate.
And yes, from time in memory, men have put down women, and now, we have erudite or "erudite" men who have benefitted greatly from education and money sound like frat boys or barflies with regard to the inescapeable fact that women are apparently only good for one thing, and it must take place early, so as not to waste the beauty and winsomeness of youthful women, even as the men ragging on women as a hobby are hardly youthful themselves. Disgusting, all of it. We absolutely know that the so-called presidunce is guilty of all of it, but is the luckiest frat boy in the world, in that he is protected by everyone around him, and the public. I hope I live to see some sort of punishment, but I am not optimistic.
Kash Patel's Taint
In the ongoing embarrassing effort of beauty queen insurance lawyer Lindsay Halligan's sad attempt to cosplay federal prosecutor, she was aided in this clown car crack-up by some of Kash and Carry's very own personally chosen clowns. What we have here is not just a failure to communicate, "Cool Hand Luke" style, but a complete failure to acknowledge that this isn't (yet) the fascist state Patel and Trump wish it to be, wherein they can simply ignore law, precedence, and did I mention LAW? Patel sicced some of his stoopidest "agents" on the trail of Jim Comey in order to A) satisfy the Godfather's thirst for vengeance, and B) to somehow prove that HE, the great Patel, is a much bettah FBI guy than Comey.
Here's Marcy Wheeler's intro to this rickety circus with Kash as the MAGAfied, braindead ringmaster, introducing one febrile flunky after another who populate his "Director's Task Force" (harrumph!):
"I want to lay out two aspects of the Comey prosecution that likely doom it, and may doom the larger fever dream of a grand conspiracy case.
Both arise out of the way that Lindsey Halligan was prepped not by prosecutors, but by FBI agents working on the 'Director’s Task Force' we know to be led by Jack Eckenrode, the guy who chased Russian disinformation for years based off Kash Patel’s misleading packaging of classified documents back in 2020.
This post will argue that likely all of them, possibly up to and including Kash himself, have tainted themselves by snooping in Jim Comey’s privileged communications. A follow-up will lay out the increasing evidence that Jim Comey’s grand jury presentment is a crime scene."
A good read. It lays out just how crooked and sneaky these assholes are and, by extension, the entirety of the Fat Hitler regime.
Money is Speech
"These posters started popping up ahead of next week’s We Ain’t Buying It boycott.
From Nov 27 - Dec 1, folks are stepping back from corporate chains like Target, Home Depot, and Amazon."
The media is going to get so mad for half an hour.
"Senior White House officials have discussed internally their preference for Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Bros Discovery in recent weeks, and one official has discussed potential programming changes at CNN with Larry Ellison, the largest shareholder of Paramount.
Ellison often speaks to connections at the White House but, in at least one of the calls, engaged in a dialogue about possibly axing some of the CNN hosts whom Donald Trump is said to loathe, including Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar, the people said."
We will hear more crickets from the the keep government out of my free speech crowd. The Biden administration asking companies to protect their users from Deadly misinformation during the pandemic is government overreach, but Republican administrations threatening reporters and news organizations or even hand picking the hosts covering them is no big deal. Also on brand with everything else going on, the two hosts Trump wants to get rid of by name are women.
Oh yeah, and don't forget....Fatty said "I can't tell TuKKKer KKKarlson who to interview"....But he can call his ass kisser, Larry Ellison and tell him to fire CNN hosts he hates.
Fat Hitler rushing asslong into Compleat Authoritarianism. Now looking to put to death anyone who defies his fascist takeover. That is the ne plus ultra of dictator control, killing anyone you don't like. I guess that call with MBS really was instructive.
"The four Democratic representatives and two Democratic senators issued a joint statement calling on members of the military and intelligence community not to take unlawful orders from the president. All six were either former veterans or national security analysts."
Fat Hitler's response?
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Well gee, Fatty, seditions behavior is punishable by death? Okay. You go first.
I guess no one is going to tell Cadet Bonespurs (should that now be Cadet Bonesaw?) that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires officers to obey only lawful commands. But how would he know? He knows nothing about the military OR justice.
No Taco this time
In the wake of Fat Hitler's issuace of a fatwah against Democrats who simply reiterate one of the basic tenets of military law, calling for their imprisonment and execution for daring to suggest that anyone can disobey his illegal and unconstitutional whims and demands, the Blight House has quickly issued a "clarification".
"Oh gee...the Dear Leader wasn't calling for the death penalty for those criminal Democrats, he was asking, very nicely mind you, for the DEAF penalty. He believes they didn't hear him properly. It's all a big misunderstanding."
No. It's not.
He wants to kill people who disagree with him. He's said it before, that people he doesn't like need to be imprisoned and executed. There's no misunderstanding here. He WANTS to kill people, just like his buddies MBS and Putin, and other autocrats who just murder, willy nilly, citizens who piss them off.
No mistake.
Trump is a guy who supports peaceful faith leaders, innocent protesters and even children being tear gassed for speaking out against violence and immorality or just being in the wrong spot. He supports innocent children being dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night naked by armed thugs. Republicans support running over people protesting for their constitutional rights. So it is no surprise that that the Republican leader now calls for the execution of elected representatives calling for people in uniform to just follow our rule of law. I'm not sure if he would insist on execution by firing squad because it sounded funner or if he would call for the prolong cruel deaths by nitrogen asphyxiation that is all the rage in the South right now because they would suffer more. And once again our media will not give the president* demanding executions of his opposition the proper seriousness and prolonged attention that it desperately warrants. Especially with the current DOJ crawling all over themselves to enact some many of Trump's tweeted orders. In a day or two it will be memory holed like so much the dangerous lunatic has done and said. And if we get to the point where miss runner-up is convening a grand jury they will just say "who could have seen that happening?"
Jesus fucking Christ, I am so fed up with the way the goddam Times sanewashes Fatty and Whatabouts to death every horrible thing he says and does.
So here is Times media reporter, Michael Grynbaum, helping the Fat Hitler administration get over and around his telling a Bloomberg reporter "Quiet, piggy!"
One might think this is not something that can be shushed away, but KKKaroline, Fatty's Taco Belle, does it with her usual nasty smugness, and ol' Mikey helps.
"The president is very frank and honest with everyone in this room. You’ve seen it yourself. You’ve all experienced it yourselves. And I think it’s one of the many reasons that the American people re-elected this president, because of his frankness. And he calls out fake news when he sees it. He gets frustrated with reporters when you lie about him, when you spread fake news about him and his administration.”
So this disgusting display of misogyny and puerile pique at someone daring to ask his royal fatness a question is just him being "frank and honest". So, what, that reporter IS a pig? That's the honest part? And insulting reporters in such degrading language is something we should just shut up about?
And stepping in quickly to help out, Grynbaum whatabouts his ass off.
KKKaroline, that pompous, arrogant harpy snaps "The president being frank and open and honest to your faces, rather than hiding behind your backs, is, frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration.”
Oh, wait, "Quiet, piggy" is him being respectful? Well, shit, I had no idea.
And then Grynbaum quickly sez, well, you know, she's right about that...
"(Ms. Leavitt was seeking to draw a contrast between Mr. Trump, who fields questions from reporters on a near-daily basis, and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who met infrequently with the press.)"
In other words, as the Times sees it, Fatty, who loves to spit and spout and lie to the press is better than Biden who didn't talk to the press as frequently.
No pushback on the Piggy comment though. None. He basically is saying "Well, ya know, reporters do lie about the Dear Leader a lot and he does get frustrated, so if he calls some reporter a pig, well....it's her own fault."
In his description of himself, Grynbaum sez that in order to be a good reporter, he is not affiliated with any party. I can see that. He most certainly isn't affiliated with any party connected with serious journalism.
Disgusting.
RAS,
Yeah, I think had the Orange Monster spent another few seconds thinking about it, he would have also insisted on the requisite medieval torture before execution. Might as well let Himmler Miller have a little fun with the rack and the thumb screws and maybe a few tongue extractions before leading the culprits to the gallows.
Oh, wait. I think you're right. That fun new way of super painful execution, forcing a prisoner to die by nitrogen hypoxia would probably be their preferred manner of killing these Democrats. Interestingly, in Alabama, they make sure the nitrogen is pumped into the body for a full five minutes after flatlining, just to, ya know, make sure.
And one other thing. The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns the use of nitrogen gas on animals because it's CRUEL AND UNUSUAL. But MAGAts think its (Bwah-ha-ha!) perfect for use on humans.
Watching tonight's episode of the "American Revolution", I have to shake my head when I think of that fat, ignorant blob, Cadet Bonesaw, the traitor and coward, fancying himself superior to, and more popular than George Washington.
Some years ago I read the James Flexner biography of our first president, "Washington, the Indispensable Man" and I wonder how anyone could square the idea of the Fat Fascist as being indispensable to the nation. But then I realized that he has indeed been indispensable.
Indispensable to traitors, crooks, grifters, white supremacists, misogynists, billionaires looking for more money, billionaires looking for pardons, billionaires from foreign countries looking for favors, to racists, bigots of all stripes, haters, foreign dictators, the forces of anti-democratic supporters of autocracy and control.
I guess he's indispensable after all. To the dregs, the demented, the dunces, the dishonest, and the debauched.
From the Russia-Ukraine peace plan the Pretender is attempting to broker (per Axios):
"Both countries undertake to implement educational programs in schools and society aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance of different cultures and eliminating racism and prejudice:
Ukraine will adopt EU rules on religious tolerance and the protection of linguistic minorities.
Both countries will agree to abolish all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education. (Note: Similar ideas were incorporated into Trump's 2020 Israel-Palestine peace plan).
All Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited."
Sounds kinda like the DEI we don't like any more...
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