"Collusion is not a legal term."
August 5, 2018 8:06 AM Subscribe

Your lede: President Trump today confessed that his son, son-in-law, and campaign chair met in June 2016 with Russian agents in hope of obtaining Russian intelligence to sway the 2016 election. Trump - who denies advance knowledge of the meeting - defends it as "totally legal."

In the week that was: At Paul Manafort's trial, his accountant says she regrets doctoring loan applications, which creates a 'frenzy' in Trump, who is 'publicly roaring.'

QAnon is on the rise (post).

After Trump insults the Koch brothers, the RNC warns donors to stay away from them.

ICE has a new deportation partner--the government of Nicaragua. An ICE worker is charged with molesting children, 500 fathers stage a hunger strike, and a child dies in ICE custody. The administration says that the ACLU should find deported parents. Ivanka blames parents for family separation.

While Benjamin Netanyahu weakens support for Israel in the U.S., the Trump administration plans to end refugee status for millions of Palestinians.

Puerto Rico's Medicaid program faces deeper cuts, Senate Republicans block extra funds for election security, and Michigan's Supreme Court allows an anti-gerrymandering law on November's ballot. The gender gap among midterm voters looks to be huge.

The NRA claims it's in financial trouble (post), which may be related to Russian spy Maria Butina, who socialized with a Trump associate in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign (Lawfare updated their 'Seven Theories' about L'affaire Russe).

In other news, Michael Jordan and Melania Trump sided with Lebron James (he opened a school this week) over Trump, Betsy DeVos sought to remove regulations on higher education, Latino construction workers staged a wildcat solidarity strike (post), and Russia appointed Steven Seagal as a representative on U.S.-Russian humanitarian efforts.

posted by box (1573 comments total) 135 users marked this as a favorite

Narrator: it wasn't totally legal.

Thanks for pulling this together, box.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:10 AM on August 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

(Quoting Doktor Zed: As always, please consider MeFi chat for hot-takes and live-blogging breaking news, the current MetaTalk venting thread for catharsis and sympathizing, and funding the site if you're able. Also, for the sake of the ever-helpful mods, please keep in mind the MetaTalk on expectations about U.S. political discussion on MetaFilter.)
posted by box at 8:13 AM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Is this like the recreation of a lost Shakespeare history played out IRL for some massively ultra-secret international RPG game consortium? Kick your son under the bus? If we all survive in a hundred years it'll make for an amazing opera.
posted by sammyo at 8:15 AM on August 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

Semi-serious question: does anyone remember who drove the narrative when "collusion" became the operative word? I can't tell if setting the goalposts at "collusion" was a fake-out by Republicans/the administration in the hopes that they could eventually say, "hahaha, collusion isn't illegal," or if it was--for lack of a better term--forces of accountability (Mueller, other investigators) who let that go because they didn't want to debate about it.

Part of me feels like people were throwing around "collusion" because they knew Trump & Co. would blow that off and be less likely to interfere than they would otherwise if they heard more damning and legally meaningful words like conspiracy.

At this point I'm wondering who thought they were being clever by framing this as collusion. If it was the investigators, then yeah, that does sound pretty clever in hindsight, but if it was the Trumpsters then it's kind of hilarious.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 8:20 AM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

I think "collusion" was picked-up because it's a simple, understandable concept for average people. True, it's not a, per-se, "legal" term. But, the activities being investigated (which do carry legal terminology) pretty much meet the dictionary definition of "collusion." It's shorthand to avoid bogging down in legalese.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:42 AM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

This collusion nonsense is like stabbing someone to death and saying that you can't be jailed because "stabby stabby bleedy bleedy" isn't a crime.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:46 AM on August 5, 2018 [146 favorites]

Does walking caricature Steven Seagal have to register as an agent working for the Russian government?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:49 AM on August 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks to all the Beto Ambassadors in these threads who have kept us apprised of the Senate race in Texas. I can't stand Ted Cruz and you've all made me genuinely excited enough about Beto that I've just donated to his campaign from all the way up here in MN. Go, go Beto!
posted by triggerfinger at 8:53 AM on August 5, 2018 [77 favorites]

92 days until the 2018 elections
820 days until the 2020 elections
posted by dilettante at 8:54 AM on August 5, 2018 [28 favorites]

Kick your son under the bus?

To be fair, Trump warned Jr. not to trust him back when he was a four year old.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 9:01 AM on August 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

I want to volunteer for a get out the vote campaign this year - I could do phone calls or in person canvassing, although a job means my hours would be limited. I could also make a small donation, though I don't have a lot of money and I'm not sure where it would be most effective (a particular candidate's campaign?).

Are any of you associated with an organization that could use volunteers, and that I could be useful to?
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:02 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

I don’t remember when the “collusion” narrative started, but Trump himself was pushing the “no collusion” storyline just a few weeks ago in Helsinki.
posted by mantecol at 9:04 AM on August 5, 2018

The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold has dug up some new dirt in the Trump Org's finances: At President Trump’s Hotel In New York, Revenue Went Up This Spring — Thanks To A Visit From Big-Spending Saudis

The general manager of the Trump International Hotel in Manhattan had a rare bit of good news to report to investors this spring: After two years of decline, revenue from room rentals went up 13 percent in the first three months of 2018.

What caused the uptick at President Trump’s flagship hotel in New York? One major factor: “a last-minute visit to New York by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” wrote general manager Prince A. Sanders in a May 15 letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post.

Neither Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman nor members of the royal family stayed at Trump’s hotel, Sanders said: He said the Trump hotel didn’t have suites big enough to accommodate them. But “due to our close industry relationships,” he wrote, “we were able to accommodate many of the accompanying travelers.”

The previously unreported letter — describing a five-day stay in March that was enough to boost the hotel’s revenue for the entire quarter — shows how little is known about the business that the president’s company does with foreign officials.

Coincidentally, this news from the NY AG broke following Fahrenthold's disclosure: "On Friday, after this story was published online, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced that she was already conducting a separate investigation asking if Trump had violated the emoluments clause at his businesses in New York."
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:05 AM on August 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

@jfruh
MUELLER: so, this tweet, which outlines conspiracy to solicit assistance from a foreign power in violation of election law -- it's accurate?
DON JR.: [staring at word "wonderful"]: yes [sobs uncontrollably with joy]
posted by Artw at 9:11 AM on August 5, 2018 [57 favorites]

Mentioned previously: and it’s been updated

Anne Helen Petersen follows Beto O’Rourke, Ted Cruz’s oppontant as we makes rallies and appearances across western Rexas. It’s all very old school organizing, and Beto boosters seem very engaged.
posted by The Whelk at 9:11 AM on August 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

Are any of you associated with an organization that could use volunteers, and that I could be useful to?

Postcards To Voters!
posted by triggerfinger at 9:12 AM on August 5, 2018 [33 favorites]

Another postcarding option that landed in my mailbox yesterday. And MoveOn.org is one of several organizations that run text-banking (it's not from your phone, it's entirely anonymous).
posted by stevil at 9:16 AM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

i like how the pope took one look at all the guillotine jokes on twitter and was like "ok i don't think they're kidding anymore, better speak up about the death penalty"
posted by poffin boffin at 9:17 AM on August 5, 2018 [41 favorites]

It is physically difficult as well as psychologically difficult for me to be in large crowds, so I have not attended demonstrations. I do have some extra funds so I've been giving donations to a number of causes. But that still didn't feel like enough. I wanted to do something physical, something that was at least a little inconvenient for me. I have been handwriting letters to Dump, HHS secretary, various congress people and the head of whatever agency has pulled the most egregiously awful stunt/horrifically bad act in a given week. It takes some time, and I want to be careful to state my case clearly and succinctly so the poor clerks who actually open and read them can do so relatively quickly--I limit my comment to one thing. I get satisfaction knowing they have to be opened, logged, and filed so there is a tangible record.

Also, I worked for companies that printed notecards back in the 80s and 90s and have a fairly large collection of samples of cards with unicorns, puppies, kittens, Pierrot's with a rose, etc. and I am using those up in this effort. That just makes me happy.
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:18 AM on August 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

I’ve been looking at some polling crosstabs and I’ve got to say to my fellow white men over 55: You’re a great disappointment to me. On the other hand it seems fitting and consistent with the American story that women, minorities and young people now step up to save the republic.

In 2018 this is a tweet by Bill Kristol.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:19 AM on August 5, 2018 [134 favorites]

I'm not sure why the confusion over the term "collusion" should bother anybody. It's not like the people doing the prosecuting are confused, and being clear on the legal meaning of the term won't move the needle on either side of the argument.

TRUMPIE: Hey, libtard! Y'all kept going on about Trump being busted for collusion, but he went to prison for conspiracy, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. HAR HAR HAR!

ME: My God, you're right. How could I have been so stupid? I'll think twice before playing lawyer like that again.
posted by Rykey at 9:19 AM on August 5, 2018 [37 favorites]

"Collusion" has spiked a few times, but Trump hasn't seemed to understand that there's a difference between what the news reports and what is a legal term. The Google Trends is interesting, but I'm not sure what each of the spikes correspond to.

One of the earliest spikes was from late April 2016 during the primary. Trump accused Kasich and Cruz of collusion for trying to team up to deny Trump primary wins. So maybe "collusion" is just a word Trump liked and the press grabbed onto it.
posted by peeedro at 9:20 AM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

... surely this? do we even say that anymore?
posted by gusandrews at 9:29 AM on August 5, 2018 [24 favorites]

I feel like the Hope Hicks - Air Force 1 meeting fits in with Sarah Kendzior's long-held analysis that leaders in authoritarian states openly and brazenly flaunt the law or norms, as a powerful means of expressing their power and reinforcing a public assertion-through-action that normal rules don't apply to them. It's a form of advertising, in effect, designed to create a feeling of shock and awe through its very flagrancy.

If you haven't revisited the (as far as I can tell) January 2017 "Year One Under Authoritarianism" guide from Polish Journalist Martin Mycielski, it's worth doing so, because virtually every prediction from 18 months ago has come true. The Trump regime is following a playbook with a proven record of success.
posted by Rumple at 9:31 AM on August 5, 2018 [116 favorites]

The other media, I think, are focusing on issues which are pretty marginal. There are much more serious issues that are being put to the side.

One example...

There should be a lot more attention paid to what was mentioned yesterday in the previous thread: the Koch brothers' efforts to call a constitutional convention. This would be truly calamitous and must be stopped.
posted by duoshao at 9:32 AM on August 5, 2018 [25 favorites]

ProPublica's Trump, Inc. podcast devotes itself to "exploring the mysteries of the president’s businesses: who profits and at what cost?" It's well worth a listen.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:32 AM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Where the Heck Did the Term “Collusion” Come From?

On July 22, 2016, Wikileaks released more than 19,000 emails from top members of the Democratic National Committee. Two days after the release, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook told CNN that, according to “experts,” Russian state actors had stolen the emails from the DNC and were releasing them through Wikileaks “for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump.”

Mook did not use the word “collusion,” but the press, in reporting his comments, did. Within the hour, in an article timestamped at 9:55 a.m., the Washington Examiner reported that Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr, had responded to Mook’s allegations and “vigorously denied any kind of collusion between Trump Sr. and the Russian president.”... Ninety minutes later, at 11:27 a.m., ABC News repeated what it termed Mook’s “allegation of collusion between the campaign and Russia.” And three hours later, at approximately 12:35 p.m., Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “If there was some kind of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence or Russian hackers, that clearly has to be dealt with.”

posted by BungaDunga at 9:35 AM on August 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

I was listening to something that pointed out that the brazen, saying the quiet parts out loud nature of these chuckleheads is definitely helping them in the court of public opinion. If that tweet was leaked from a secret memo instead of blasted to the public, it would feel much more like a confession rather than yet another stupid slip-up. It’s a confession. The President just confessed. Again.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:36 AM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

... surely this? do we even say that anymore?

Hang on, let me dig it out...

@bronzehammer
Well, I'd like to see ol Donny Trump wriggle his way out of THIS jam!
*Trump wriggles his way out of the jam easily*
Ah! Well. Nevertheless, (10/1/16)

Latest few developments are an impressive test of the theory that that Donald Trump will face no consequences for anything ever, but I suspect we’re going to see it hold true.

Elections are in 92 days, vote.
posted by Artw at 9:39 AM on August 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

I can't tell if setting the goalposts at "collusion" was a fake-out by Republicans.

It was a term that was broad enough that it could be used to investigate many different crimes and any newly discovered crimes related to working with Russia. I think it may have also been used, because ultimately no crime needs to have been technically committed for Trump to be impeached. Another headfake being deployed by him and Rudy is all the legalese. Trump won't be impeached by a court of law.
posted by xammerboy at 9:42 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

The flagrant Hope Hicks hookup makes me wonder what other meetings Trump is having on the road, in all these far flung places.
posted by Scram at 9:43 AM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

The N.R.A.’s Pete Brownell, left, with Ms. Butina and Donald Trump Jr. at a 2016 dinner hosted by the gun-rights group.

Brazen? They are embracing.
posted by adept256 at 9:44 AM on August 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

... surely this? do we even say that anymore?

surelythis.com used to be a redirect to the WaPo story about the Access Hollywood tape. Later it was a redirect to the NYTimes story about Don Jr's "I love it" email. Now they've just given up.
posted by peeedro at 9:46 AM on August 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

I remember last year, every time an important issue came up that the media should have been making people aware of (about changing laws, social situations, etc) a distraction also came up. Trump would do something unusual and that would dominate the news cycle. This collusion talk is probably the GOP’s best friend at the moment. A lot of talk in circles by not-lawyers, a lot of energy spent, amounting to not much of anything.

Now is the time to pick some prizes and keep eyes on those until the mid-terms are over. No more tabloid fodder distractions.
posted by mantecol at 9:46 AM on August 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Just to pick on Puerto Rico, the trade war has China proposing tariffs against coffee, among other things. (Do any of the states export coffee?)
Alto Grande here boasts that it is the coffee the pope drinks, although I think that goes back to Pope Innocent XXX.
A new study says Hurricane Maria caused 1139 excess deaths from landfall to December. This doesn't contradict the other study that topped out near 5,000. The prior study considered a longer amount of time (through January?) and they had a range of error that went as low as 1,000.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:49 AM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Do any of the states export coffee?

Hawaii.
posted by peeedro at 9:52 AM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

52 U.S. Code § 30121 - Contributions and donations by foreign nationals

It shall be unlawful for a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make;
- (A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
- (B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party

It shall be unlawful for a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.

---

David Frum
They knew they would be meeting with representatives of the Russian state.

They knew they were being offered Russian state intelligence.

They intended to use Russian intelligence offered by Russian agents against an American opponents.

They did not alert the FBI.
posted by chris24 at 9:56 AM on August 5, 2018 [157 favorites]

With the widespread speculation about Trump's relationship with Hope Hicks, then Melania's outburst can be read as a token of resistance.
posted by Rumple at 9:57 AM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

It shall be unlawful for a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.

For instance the large number of foreign government officials who reported repeatedly receiving campaign solicitation emails from the Trump campaign. Did anything ever come of that?
posted by scalefree at 10:00 AM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Does anyone have a line on what Fox News' take on this mornings confessional tweet is? I have no tv or stomach to view directly, but I can imagine their spin on it is going to be the the ones the rebublicans are going to go with on Monday, and they've got all day to try different takes out.
posted by Catblack at 10:12 AM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

He's [David Frum] right too that the United States' invasion of Iraq was a huge deal and done for the wrong reasons and under false pretenses, destabilized a significant portion of the world, and that no one were ever made accountable for what had been done.

"No one accountable" includes David Frum who was the speech writer for GW Bush that came up with the "Axis of Evil" speech that kicked it all off.

Never forget that the johnny-come-lately NeverTrumpers are not your friends. They are the same shitty people with the same shitty ideas as ever -- tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts to the poor, and oppression of women and minorities. It's just that they think Trump is damaging their brand and hurting their cause.
posted by JackFlash at 10:14 AM on August 5, 2018 [96 favorites]

I can't stomach fox news but here's the clip from Trump's lawyer talking to George Stephanolpolous.
Short version:
Lawyer- nobody has identified any laws that were broken
George- yes they have.
posted by bluesky43 at 10:15 AM on August 5, 2018 [31 favorites]

Does anyone have a line on what Fox News' take on this mornings confessional tweet is?

"Don't confuse me with the facts! I've got a closed mind." -- Rep. Earl Landgrebe (R-IN), defending Nixon during the Watergate hearings
posted by chris24 at 10:18 AM on August 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

Fox showed Trump at a podium, showed a graphic with the whole tweet, and then put up the Jay Sekulow and George S. clips linked above. Sekulow says roughly -- what crime is it? (George answers conspiracy to defraud the US. I think.) And then (!!!) Sekulow says that as far as he knows Trump Jr. is not a target of the investigation. And they move on to the Manafort trial.
posted by puddledork at 10:22 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

A helpful timeline from Vox on the Trump tower meeting.
posted by bluesky43 at 10:31 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

and here's WaPo on the legality and time line of the Trump tower meeting statements.
posted by bluesky43 at 10:38 AM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Do any of the states export coffee?

Hawaii.

California has hopes.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:40 AM on August 5, 2018

Honestly, this is the most confused I have been in this entire Trump era. Melania is opposing Trump? Trump is tweeting his son had a meeting with Russians about getting dirt on Hillary? It's not that I don't see what's going on, it's that I really don't see the endgame at this point.

My sense is that it's confusing if you consider things through the lens of rationality, or normalcy, decency, basic compassion, or really even a sense of consequence or conscience--i.e., the ways that most of us human beings think. Trump's mind and consciousness are fundamentally disordered, and so he actually, literally does not perceive, conceive, or consider anyone or anything in the ways that most of the rest of us do.

There is also clearly a large helping of dumbness (likely caused by horrible, solipsistic self-absorption, venality and greed, rather than just brain-no-work-good) in Trump and those around him, and that should be weighed appropriately when the next stupid, awful thing happens, because if it looks stupid it probably is just stupid, and a thoughtful person can make themselves crazy looking for alternate explanations, because often there are none; stupid just stupids, selfish just...selfishes(?). (The people around Trump evoke, to me, those weird late-90s gimmick money give-aways, that used a clear, closed chamber that would blow around a whole bunch of cash while a random audience member/contestant would stand inside and try to literally grab as much cash out of the air as they could in 30 seconds, frantically and randomly snatching at the air around themselves in negligibly-successful attempts to get rich quick. That's the Trumpites in an image, except maybe for a more accurate metaphor they're standing on the backs of various poor, disenfranchised people to better reach the cash.)

I find that framing things like this helps me to remember that none of this is normal, and these people are not geniuses or masterminds; they're just profoundly selfish and amoral, and are willing to do things that most of us really probably wouldn't do, to enrich themselves in various ways, and to satisfy various disordered emotional needs. Trump is unfortunately a perfect storm, a savant of brazen disregard for norms, laws, ethics and morality, the ultimate Prophet of the Self; all of his actions serve that master, those ends, nothing else for him is real or true, and boy howdy have people (especially Russian-type people) been taking massive advantage of this.

In short, I only get confused when I try to understand the world in terms of (what I thought of as) normalcy, or typical human consciousness. When I remember that we're being forced to live in the world (the reality, the consciousness) of a malignant narcissist and his many sycophants, stuff actually makes more sense. Though no less horrifying, unfortunately. I hope that the rest of us, our national institutions and very character are robust enough for this particular, historically significant stress test. We are living in most interesting times, indeed.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:43 AM on August 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

If basically all the lawyers who work for Trump and have gone on TV to defend him don't end up disbarred for being appallingly bad lawyers to the point of malpractice, I will be very disappointed.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:43 AM on August 5, 2018 [58 favorites]

More analysis from WaPo.

Is this tweet, in and of itself, damning? Probably not. But obstruction-of-justice cases are about proving that someone had “corrupt intent” when they took the actions they did. And for the second time in less than a week, Trump tweeted something that suggested his intent wasn't terribly wholesome. He also suggested that he isn't as convinced as he'd like us to believe that there's nothing to see here.
posted by bluesky43 at 10:45 AM on August 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Also I don't often look at Trumps twitter feed, but it is totally off the rails today. It's more than frightening.
posted by bluesky43 at 10:52 AM on August 5, 2018

@paulconstant
They're actually selling and buying shirts at Trump rallies that say "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."

They're totally fine with just ignoring laws. Also these people hate America.
posted by Artw at 10:54 AM on August 5, 2018 [114 favorites]

MoveOn.org is one of several organizations that run text-banking

Donating feels sort of hollow so I've been looking for something to do that doesn't involve knocking on doors canvassing or protesting in the heat. This is perfect, thanks for the link!
posted by zrail at 11:01 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

If basically all the lawyers who work for Trump and have gone on TV to defend him don't end up disbarred for being appallingly bad lawyers to the point of malpractice, I will be very disappointed.

I would kind of prefer they all stay actively in the Republican defense lawyer stable for a long long time. If the other side wants to load their guns with duds, blanks, damp squibs and backfires I am all for it.
posted by srboisvert at 11:02 AM on August 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

@paulconstant: They're actually selling and buying shirts at Trump rallies that say "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."

When you replace European in this tweet with what she really means – White – it all makes sense.

@AnnCoulter
In 20 years, Russia will be the only country that is recognizably European.
posted by chris24 at 11:04 AM on August 5, 2018 [57 favorites]

You can also phone bank with SwingLeft.
posted by stevil at 11:10 AM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

I would kind of prefer they all stay actively in the Republican defense lawyer stable for a long long time. If the other side wants to load their guns with duds, blanks, damp squibs and backfires I am all for it.

Y’know, you say that, but so far it’s working. That I can see, anyway, not a soul has yet to pay any kind of material cost for all the mis-, mal- and abfeasance we’ve seen lo these past two years.

That Ann Coulter tweet is appalling.
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:13 AM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

That Ann Coulter tweet is appalling.
And nonsensical. Russia has always been, well, recognizably russian.
posted by Harry Caul at 11:24 AM on August 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

Has Ann Coulter ever been to Russian? Seems she has a skewed view of the vastness of the former Soviet Union and the various ethnicities contained therein.
posted by misterpatrick at 11:29 AM on August 5, 2018 [39 favorites]

And of the complex relationship of Russia's elites with Europe, at times copying them, at time straining for a distinct identity.

But really she means "I found some racists I like".
posted by Artw at 11:32 AM on August 5, 2018 [51 favorites]

That’s not even a dog whistle. That’s basically a bullhorn.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:00 PM on August 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

Kick your son under the bus?

"Don Jr? He's just a low level coffee son. He was with the family a very short time and in a very limited role."
posted by DreamerFi at 12:00 PM on August 5, 2018 [122 favorites]

The "russia stuff" is not a distraction. It's an operation that exploited divisions in our political system over race, class, money, and ideology. And it turns out that one party in America is more aligned with the global billionaire class. Not that the Democratic Party is totally innocent (see Podesta and Craig), but the russia stuff, the GOP platform, the looting of the government by Trump and his allies are all part of one thing. It's true that the other parts aren't receiving enough coverage, but what really needs to happen is for news orgs to connect the dots.
posted by runcibleshaw at 12:12 PM on August 5, 2018 [39 favorites]

Y’know, you say that, but so far it’s working. That I can see, anyway, not a soul has yet to pay any kind of material cost for all the mis-, mal- and abfeasance we’ve seen lo these past two years.

Didn't one of the people who plead out of a bunch of Mueller charges get disbarred? And didn't Anthony Scaramucci get owned by a bunch of divestment taxes he couldn't write off because he had to sell a bunch of stuff when he took the comms job but wasn't there long enough to have the taxes forgiven? Am I remembering this right?

Anyway these people are kind of the notable exceptions, I agree with your wider point.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 12:13 PM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

If we all survive in a hundred years it'll make for an amazing opera.

I have spent arguably too much idle time constructing the plot to this opera, which at the current rate of events will be turning into "Stupid Ring Cycle" any day now.
posted by Vervain at 12:21 PM on August 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

If you're looking to donate but don't know where to give to maximize your ROI, take a look at the Great Slate.

Tech Solidarity is endorsing five candidates for Congress. Each of them is a first-time progressive candidate with a day job, an excellent campaign team, and a clear path to victory in a poor, rural district that is being ignored by the national Democratic Party.

In the second quarter of 2018, the Great Slate raised $467,488 for our candidates. To date, we've raised over $2M! Let's keep the momentum going!

posted by scalefree at 12:27 PM on August 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

"Don Jr? He's just a low level coffee son. He was with the family a very short time and in a very limited role."

Previously: "What if he's a loser?"
posted by box at 12:32 PM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

If you're looking to donate but don't know where to give to maximize your ROI, take a look at the Great Slate.

All those except IA-4 are pretty good seats but will only run up the score in the House if the blue wave materializes. IMHO the Senate is where you want to plow money to in terms of ROI. If the Democrats have the majority in the Senate all appointments for judicial roles will stop dead in the water until 2020 which will limit further damage Trump can do to the judiciary.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 12:35 PM on August 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Remember, there was no collusion. Also, the collusion was broken when Trump got it. Also, when Trump returned the collusion, it was still in perfect condition.

The last refuge of any scoundrel is the technicality. The finer lines Team Trump have to walk in their denials, the closer the net may be getting.
posted by delfin at 12:37 PM on August 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

When you replace European in this tweet with what she really means – White – it all makes sense.

This is so weird, because for "Western chauvinists" for generations, Russian has been too un-European
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:37 PM on August 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

Seems to me like QAnon was an inevitability. I mean, you can't remain in a state of extreme cognitive dissonance for so long and still see the real world as it is.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:43 PM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

The Day Trump Told Us There Was Attempted Collusion with Russia
Adam Davidson | The New Yorker

... On August 5, 2018, precisely forty-four years after the collapse of the Nixon Presidency, another President, Donald Trump, made his own public admission. In one of a series of early-morning tweets, Trump addressed a meeting that his son Donald, Jr., held with a Russian lawyer affiliated with the Russian government. “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere,” he wrote. “I did not know about it!”

The tweet contains several crucial pieces of information. First, it is a clear admission that Donald Trump, Jr.,’s original statement about the case was inaccurate enough to be considered a lie. He had said the meeting was with an unknown person who “might have information helpful to the campaign,” and that this person “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” This false statement was, according to his legal team, dictated by the President himself. There was good reason to mislead the American people about that meeting. Based on reporting—at the time and now—of the President’s admission, it was a conscious effort by the President’s son and two of his closest advisers to work with affiliates of the Russian government to obtain information that might sway the U.S. election in Trump’s favor. In short, it was, at minimum, a case of attempted collusion. The tweet indicates that Trump’s defense will continue to be that this attempt at collusion failed—“it went nowhere”—and that, even if it had succeeded, it would have been “totally legal and done all the time.” It is unclear why, if the meeting was entirely proper, it was important for the President to declare “I did not know about it!” or to tell the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to “stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.”

The President’s Sunday-morning tweet should be seen as a turning point. It doesn’t teach us anything new—most students of the case already understand what Donald Trump, Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner knew about that Trump Tower meeting. But it ends any possibility of an alternative explanation. We can all move forward understanding that there is a clear fact pattern about which there is no dispute:

• The President’s son and top advisers knowingly met with individuals connected to the Russian government, hoping to obtain dirt on their political opponent.

• Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and members of the Clinton campaign were later used in an overt effort to sway the election.

• When the Trump Tower meeting was uncovered, the President instructed his son and staff to lie about the meeting, and told them precisely which lies to use.

• The President is attempting to end the investigation into this meeting and other instances of attempted collusion between his campaign staff and representatives of the Russian government.

It was possible, just days ago, to believe—with an abundance of generosity toward the President and his team—that the meeting was about adoption, went nowhere, and was overblown by the Administration’s enemies. No longer. The open questions are now far more narrow: Was this a case of successful or only attempted collusion? Is attempted collusion a crime? What legal and moral responsibilities did the President and his team have when they realized that the proposed collusion was underway when the D.N.C. e-mails were leaked and published? And, crucially, what did the President know before the election, after it, and when he instructed his son to lie?

Earlier on Sunday, Trump wrote another tweet, one that repeated a common refrain: journalists are the enemy of the people. “I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People,” it read. In a way, he did provide a great service. He allowed us to move away from a no-longer-relevant debate about whether or not he and his campaign had done anything wrong. Our nation can now focus on another question: What do we do when a President has openly admitted to attempted collusion, lying, and a coverup?

posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:45 PM on August 5, 2018 [104 favorites]

@saletan [with Sekulow transcript inside]: Latest Trump defense: Telling Comey to stop investigating Flynn is like telling J. Edgar Hoover to stop investigating MLK.

You see, because it would have been good if Kennedy told Hoover to knock it off, so obviously it's the same thing if Trump tells Comey to stop investigating his advisor.
posted by zachlipton at 12:59 PM on August 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

The New Yorker article begins with a overview of the Nixon Watergate scandal and builds from there. I feel like I'm 17 years old again except there is no Sam Ervin or Howard Baker in the Senate. And the corruption is so deep and so broad and lead by a lying misogynistic racist.
posted by bluesky43 at 12:59 PM on August 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

The NYT helpfully observes in their tweet of Michael Shear’s story on today’s admissions:

“It's illegal for a campaign to get such help from a foreign power.“
posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:04 PM on August 5, 2018 [25 favorites]

In 2018 this is a tweet by Bill Kristol.

Bill Kristol's self-serving hypocrisy and tolerance for cognitive dissonance are bottomless. I hope no one with any decency or sense forgets that his 30+ years of braying moral squalor are directly responsible for where we find ourselves right now.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:41 PM on August 5, 2018 [51 favorites]

Bill Kristol's self-serving hypocrisy and tolerance for cognitive dissonance are bottomless. I hope no one with any decency or sense forgets that his 30+ years of braying moral squalor are directly responsible for where we find ourselves right now.

Every week or so a Bill Kristol tweet will show up on my timeline, and I'm fairly consistent in pissing into the wind by replying with something to the effect of, "You helped this happen." I hope someone shaves his head on November 4, 2020.
posted by rhizome at 1:57 PM on August 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

Rust Moranis: "In 2018 this is a tweet by Bill Kristol."

I'll do you one better:

Mr. @realDonaldTrump In my opinion everyone especially a President should love all,and not differentiate between them. I love @KingJames #MichaelJordan @RaufMahmoud and all athletes, and wish them all the best.

- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (@Ahmadinejad1956)

posted by Rhaomi at 1:58 PM on August 5, 2018 [42 favorites]

Bill Kristol's self-serving hypocrisy and tolerance for cognitive dissonance are bottomless. I hope no one with any decency or sense forgets that his 30+ years of braying moral squalor are directly responsible for where we find ourselves right now.

This is true but it is still important to notice when the shit-and-piss-covered flea-ridden plague-carry rats decide that it is finally time to get off a ship.
posted by srboisvert at 2:04 PM on August 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

I'll save my praise for when they actually leave the ship. People like Kristol will have to actively and publicly dismantle the foundations of this crap before they're able to redeem themselves, at a minimum. Goes for Rubin, too.
posted by rhizome at 2:04 PM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

And again we have the most careful splitting if hairs and benefit of doubt giving: "attempted collusion". The media is so careful not to get out in front of this: what's next:" Trump was told about the meeting, but did he listen? Can we ever really know if Trump understood this might be accidental collusion-like behavior? "

Wake me when headline is " Treasonous Illegitimate President Jailed"
posted by Anchorite_of_Palgrave at 2:14 PM on August 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

For a lot of Americans, Trumps tweet is going to be a big deal. The mainstream media no longer has to parse its statements:

Trump's campaign team took Russia up on an offer to fix the American election. Says who? Says Trump.
posted by xammerboy at 2:29 PM on August 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

The mainstream media no longer has to parse its statements

And yet they will. It's all "by itself this one tweet isn't necessarily illegal" and so on. It's like somebody robbed a bank and the media is constantly "so this one frame we're examining from the security video isn't in and of itself illegal. Yes, he has a mask on but he could have just come from skiing. And the handwritten note he's handing the teller could be a birthday card. We would need more context to make a judgment".

Well goddamn it you've got other context. How about making a judgment? Watch the entire fuckin video.
posted by Justinian at 2:33 PM on August 5, 2018 [54 favorites]

I wish I shared your confidence, xammerboy. The American right no longer recognizes any distinction between truth and falsehood – there is only Us and The Enemy. I expect that most of them will go to their graves bitterly decrying the evidence of their own eyes. Trumpism is a cult of personality and grievance, not a political ideology as we usually understand the term.

That said, it does feel like we're nearing a turning point of some kind. A turn toward what, I don't know.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 2:40 PM on August 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

For a lot of Americans, Trumps tweet is going to be a big deal.

"I'd rather be a Russian than a democrat."
posted by Pendragon at 2:42 PM on August 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

The defense attorney on MSNBC threw out a great bon mot about investigations that I'd not heard before (in this context). The host asked if it was a bad sign for Don Jr that he hasn't been questioned yet given everything we know. She said there was an old saying in her line of work: "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

Yesssssss.
posted by Justinian at 2:45 PM on August 5, 2018 [158 favorites]

For a lot of Americans, Trumps tweet is going to be a big deal..."I'd rather be a Russian than a democrat."

Yeah, that's right — Pendragon has it. My reading of When Prophecy Fails tells me that any response to this revelation of yon core Deplorables will be in the nature of doubling and tripling down on their boy, whatever mental furniture they may need to reärrange to make it so.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:04 PM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

No Russian "forced" any Good White Male Heterosexual God-Fearing Christian Patriot to acknowledge that people with darker skin, different sexual preferences, different religious beliefs, different places of residence, different places of origin, different perspectives on the identities of the rightful owners of America, or different opinions on just about anything are also Americans in good standing.

Natural allies.
posted by delfin at 3:12 PM on August 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

The definition of truth on the Right has become operational: if it helps us stay in power, it's true.
posted by jamjam at 3:18 PM on August 5, 2018 [25 favorites]

Juggalo-Socialist solidarity today in Berkeley.

Peace, Land, and Faygo.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:27 PM on August 5, 2018 [55 favorites]

I'll do you one better:

At this point I half-expect to see the re-animated corpse of William F. Buckley spit some Public Enemy verse

🤞Fingers crossed🤞
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 3:33 PM on August 5, 2018 [30 favorites]

Tweeted like a guy whose understanding of forestry begins and ends on the golf course lawn.
posted by Scram at 3:33 PM on August 5, 2018 [80 favorites]

Peace, Land, and Faygo.

Yes. Along with having to think of David Frum and Bill Fucking Kristol as in some way potential allies, I also now find myself #downwiththeclown. 2018, my dudes.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:34 PM on August 5, 2018 [40 favorites]

The GOP wants more logging in California to combat forest fires and to drain more lakes and streams in California for irrigation to combat drought conditions, but President Toddler got them backwards.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:45 PM on August 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

The environment just needs to be balanced. If you kill half of everything living, the other half will be so much safer.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:32 PM on August 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

In parallel with the events in Portland of the past few days, a socialist bookshop here in London was attacked yesterday by a gang of masked rightwing terrorists.

This is in the heart of central London, mind you. They’re becoming emboldened everywhere, and I don’t much care for where any of this is heading.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:38 PM on August 5, 2018 [66 favorites]

Democrats surging on eve of pivotal special election (Alex Isenstadt | Politico)

Republicans have deployed the full machinery of the party to avoid defeat in the final special election before the midterms. ... But in the final days ahead of Tuesday's election, signs were everywhere that Democrats are surging — from recent polling to the private and public statements of many Republicans, including the GOP candidate himself. The district has been reliably red for more than three decades, but the sheer size of the Republican cavalry made clear how worried the party is about losing it.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:42 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Hi everyone! I'm the idiot who said back in the day that donnie shitstain would drop out if he lost a few primaries, or never get elected. So I decided to stop making predictions, but....

it does feel like we're nearing a turning point of some kind.

I think we might just be there now, just a liiiitle mooore, come on, our national nightmare can end, come on Bob, do it right, nail this asshole.
posted by vrakatar at 4:49 PM on August 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

Along with having to think of David Frum and Bill Fucking Kristol as in some way potential allies, I also now find myself #downwiththeclown.

I also am operating on an open tag-in basis for anyone who wants the to stop the Nazis. Once that's handled, I'll have the bandwidth to worry about intentions and everyone's level of genuine concern. Every new person on a page that says "Nazi punks fuck off" today, I get back another little sliver of faith that we may yet get a chance to work out our other differences one day. It's fifth reel of the Rocketeer time until further notice.

I'm not saying anyone take their eye off the ball, or let George Will and Bill Kristol off the hook for advocating the very conditions which have led to this crisis. In fact, they're the very sort of fellows I'll be looking to for some genuine concession at last on a number of their economic arguments, when the time comes. They have thousands of readers, and influence over people that whether I like it or not, a guy like me can never reach. If the better portion of America's golf dads need to hear it from David Brooks to grasp that the Nazi problem is real, then fine. For now, that's fine. A burning building is a poor setting for nitpicking. I hate that it's taking this level of crisis to get folks to understand that we could lose democracy but goddamn, if they get there now, at least they got there.

Because for one thing, what if some of these feckless NeverTrumpers really mean it? Or what if they don't mean it now, but the difficult days ahead will lead to a genuine change in their hearts? Even adjusting for opportunism, cowardice, expedience and embarrassment, I can't rule out real learning occurring somewhere in the whole mess. People can change, damn it all. Cynicism is the most tempting feeling, it always seems to make the most sense, but we know that authoritarians count on that shit to do two thirds of their job for them. Our last real president instructed us to hope, so I do and I will. The task of repelling and smothering fascism is vast, perhaps endless, so there's no sense turning away anyone who comes looking to perform their portion of the work. Bill Kristol and Bill Maher are both more than welcome to grab a shovel if they really want to. Maybe on the other end of all this, they'll both be easier to live with.

For another thing: I've been unsure how to confess this a long time but you know what? A lot of ICP's catalog fucking slaps. May the Juggalo alliance grow ever stronger.
posted by EatTheWeek at 4:54 PM on August 5, 2018 [73 favorites]

Boingboing: Border family separation isn't "zero tolerance" - CBP looked for parents to charge so they could kidnap kids
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:56 PM on August 5, 2018 [57 favorites]

I think we might just be there now, just a liiiitle mooore, come on, our national nightmare can end, come on Bob, do it right, nail this asshole.

I won't catastrophize – but even if Mueller presents clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Trump, we're a very long way from being out of the water. The turning point I mentioned isn't "Trump gets impeached and everyone lives happily ever after". The political situation in the US is utterly fucked, and it'll take a lot more than Mueller to fix that.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:08 PM on August 5, 2018 [40 favorites]

I won't catastrophize – but even if Mueller presents clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Trump, we're a very long way from being out of the water. The turning point I mentioned isn't "Trump gets impeached and everyone lives happily ever after". The political situation in the US is utterly fucked, and it'll take a lot more than Mueller to fix that.

It'll take US Courts and Juries. I'm on the "Since there's no 'normal' anymore, why shouldn't Bob Mueller indict a sitting President for felonies?"

Whether it's possible is an unanswered question. I can't think of a better time to resolve it.
posted by mikelieman at 5:35 PM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Frankly, I'm way more comfortable building a coalition with Juggalos than with David Frum or Bill Fucking Kristol.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:38 PM on August 5, 2018 [83 favorites]

The Intercept article cites a TRAC analysis, and the report goes into detail on where the numbers come from. TRAC maintains some of the most comprehensive data on immigration enforcement cases.
posted by zachlipton at 5:38 PM on August 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

The claim about the Trump administration preferentially targeting families over other irregular migrants is sourced from this TRACimmigration report. It argues that since fewer than a third of irregular migrants were prosecuted, the prosecution of families represents a deliberate choice rather than the consequence of a "zero tolerance" policy. I think that has to be broadly correct, although I suppose it's arguable that, e.g., unaccompanied adults tended to enter in ways that were less likely to lead to prosecution.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:42 PM on August 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Does anyone have a second source on this? It looks like Boingboing is sourcing the Intercept on this and I struggle with them as a primary source.

Original sourcing is to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University ,"Zero Tolerance" at the Border: Rhetoric vs. Reality. Looks pretty cut & dry.
posted by scalefree at 5:45 PM on August 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

I don’t think we can look toward some utopian ideal, at least not in the next hundred years or more. But what I think we can realistically hope for is a continuing series of victories on the socio-economic front.

I’m encouraged, for example, by the way we’ve gone in just 30 years from no gays in the military, then to DADT, to now having LGBTQ folks serving openly and gay marriage legalized.

Or how the past hundred or so years have seen such seismic advances as Women’s Suffrage, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, Roe v Wade, the Voting Rights Act, the ACA. While each was imperfect and has seen significant efforts to roll them back, they still stand as markers for our society.

We are seeing the pendulum in its backswing in favor of the conservatives right now, in favor of the plutocrats, the bigots. But each decade introduces some new advance for progressive values that, despite the periodic retreats, leaves us in control of just a little more territory.

In the midst of the struggle, as we agonize and suffer through the losses and remind ourselves to keep vigilant, this reassures me, this vision of a herky-jerky, but nevertheless inevitably forward, progress.
posted by darkstar at 5:45 PM on August 5, 2018 [44 favorites]

if this is true, the administration specifically sought out opportunities to kidnap kids... holy fuck, dude

Trump Chief of Staff General Kelly, in an interview with NPR, said in the effort to enforce U.S. border laws, "a big name of the game is deterrence." And separating families "could be a tough deterrent."

They aren't hiding anything. Right from the top of the administration, they openly stated that separation of families was intended as a deterrent. In other words, it was terrorism.
posted by JackFlash at 5:54 PM on August 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

Frankly, I'm way more comfortable building a coalition with Juggalos than with David Frum or Bill Fucking Kristol.

"Fuckin' MAGAs, how do they work?"
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:01 PM on August 5, 2018 [96 favorites]

Original sourcing is to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University ,"Zero Tolerance" at the Border: Rhetoric vs. Reality. Looks pretty cut & dry.

Unfortunately, the data presentation there is terrible. THey need to tabulate apprehensiions with and without kids, versus prosecutions wiith and without kids. FOr the latter, they combine the number.
posted by ocschwar at 6:13 PM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

It turns out that border guards charged "less than a third" of the adults who crossed the border since the policy began -- but that they preferentially brought charges against parents so they could take their kids away.

The first part of this statement appears to be supported by the TRAC report, but the second does not. The TRAC report does show that less than a third of adults detained at the border were referred for prosecution. Based on the second half of the sentence, I expected to find that adults who crossed with children were referred for prosecution at a higher rate than adults who crossed without children. But I don't think it says that. What I think it says is that, because they only prosecuted a third, they exercised prosecutorial discretion. This means (a) they didn't *have* to prosecute parents just as a result of the zero tolerance policy, as they have suggested, and (b) that it wasn't a truly "zero" tolerance policy.

These are both useful facts, but they don't support the claim that they preferentially brought charges against parents.

On preview, ocschwar is right, the tables don't present comparable data. It's possible if they did, the claim would be supported, but we can't tell, as-is. It may be that the researchers didn't include the data in the format we want because they weren't trying to make the point that the Intercept and boing boing were trying to make.
posted by mabelstreet at 6:19 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona
Here's the clip of that @cspanwj caller saying he's "going to shoot" Brian Stelter and Don Lemon if he sees them.

The host's immediate reaction to an overt death threat? Reminding the caller "you have to turn down that television and listen and talk through the phone."
10:06 AM - 5 Aug 2018

The 4th estate doing its job here. JFC. This is how numb we are. Death threat on cable tv? Doesn't even raise an awkward silence.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 6:33 PM on August 5, 2018 [36 favorites]

Hey Michigan! Your primary is on the 7th, and this round up of Abdul El-Sayed’s polices and speeches and background and platform makes the case that Means He’s The Real Deal.
posted by The Whelk at 6:38 PM on August 5, 2018 [16 favorites]

The 4th estate doing its job here. JFC. This is how numb we are. Death threat on cable tv? Doesn't even raise an awkward silence.

I took that as the steely stoicism of a seasoned and thus resigned CSPAN call-in host.

Hey Michigan! Your primary is on the 7th, and this round up of Abdul El-Sayed’s polices and speeches and background and platform makes the case that Means He’s The Real Deal.

Yes! And whoever wins the Dem primary (barring a victory by another opportunistic rich guy with a weird hairdo, as the local memes have it), everyone here needs to vote the Democratic nominee into the statehouse this November.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:43 PM on August 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Axios, Swan, The TiVo presidency: Trump relives Trump

Like an NFL coach reviewing game film, Trump likes to watch replays of his debate and rally performances. But instead of looking for weaknesses in technique or for places to improve, Trump luxuriates in the moments he believes are evidence of his brilliance.

Behind the scenes: Trump commentates as he watches, according to sources who've sat with him and viewed replays on his TiVo, which is pre-loaded with his favorites on the large TV in the private dining room adjoining the Oval Office. When watching replays, Trump will interject commentary, reveling in his most controversial lines. "Wait for it. ... See what I did there?" he'll say.

"People think it's easy," Trump said in one riff about rally footage, per a source with direct knowledge. "I've been doing this a long time now and people are used to it, every rally, it's like, people have said P.T. Barnum. People have said that before. And they think that's easy, because hey, P.T. Barnum, he does the circus. ... They don't realize, it's a lot of work. It's not easy."

In the early weeks of the administration, Trump loved to relive his debate performances against Hillary Clinton. His favorite, according to sources with direct knowledge, was the St. Louis debate after the Access Hollywood tape leaked, when the Trump team invited Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct accusers as their guests in the live audience.

Trump used to enjoy rewatching the moment in that debate when Clinton observed, "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country."
"Because," Trump replied, "you'd be in jail."

A source who's discussed the moment with Trump told me, "He thinks it's the greatest thing that ever happened in the history of presidential debates."

posted by zachlipton at 6:58 PM on August 5, 2018 [34 favorites]

Thank you triggerfinger for donating to Beto in Texas. You were a part of something huge today. Cruz put out these stupid negative ads Friday saying Beto wants to legalize heroin. The campaign and the grassroots groups were immediately posting/emailing/texting: let's raise some money and sign up some volunteers and we all did. $1 million in just this weekend (facebook link) . Send a clear message: they go negative we grow stronger.

In Houston alone there were 9 organizing rallies to set up canvasses and phonebanks. I went to two, they were both SRO. In Houston there were 19 phonebanks and 35 canvasses in the last two days. I'm not the only one planning my days off around what I'm doing for Beto.

At one of the rallies I went to (these were events Beto isn't at, just people organizing locally) I meet this woman who travelled to Alabama to campaign for Doug Jones. She just moved here and is hosting a canvass next week. She was completely inspiring.

The campaign released their first ad, from facebook live streams called Showing Up (facebook link). That was the rally cry this weekend: show up. We have all got to SHOW UP.

The town hall today in Kerrville was very fun to watch. Robert Earl Keen was there. Anne Helen Petersen took a picture and posted it on her Twitter which has great photos of the day.

The day before that Beto saved some dogs outside of Alpine, TX.

THAT SAID. I still run into people that have never heard of him. Don't know there's an election coming up. Don't want to think about it. We are the 49th state in voter turnout for a reason. We have so much work to do.

When I was leaving one of the rallies some dude loading a truck started cat-calling me. Seriously? I am an overweight 51 year old lady. But instead of ignoring him I asked him if he knew who Beto O'Rourke was. He said he had seen his name around. I asked him if he was registered to vote, he said he thought he was but never bothered. I gave him a Beto push card and some bumper stickers I had in my bag. We talked about how to check your voter registration and how disenfranchised people are from voting. How wrong that was. He pulled up Beto's website and we looked at the Issues section on his phone. I told him I go to a lot of the Events listed in the Events section and they are fun you meet a lot of nice people that want to change things. We ended it super friendly right there which was really cool. I wished him a good day and he said the same to me.

I want change so much. I know it's there. I know I have to work for it.
posted by dog food sugar at 7:09 PM on August 5, 2018 [260 favorites]

In Houston alone there were 9 organizing rallies to set up canvasses and phonebanks. I went to two, they were both SRO

Hahaha Ted Cruz is so. fucked.

When I was leaving one of the rallies some dude loading a truck started cat-calling me. Seriously? I am an overweight 51 year old lady. But instead of ignoring him I asked him if he knew who Beto O'Rourke was

And you are a goddamn inspiration
posted by schadenfrau at 7:16 PM on August 5, 2018 [137 favorites]

I’m donating to Abdul’s campaign in MI from here in NY cause catching up on him and he’s inspiring and it looks like a reformandum on if money can trump candidates. (Or if utterly destroying local media does infact, work to destroy politics)

Plus, it looks like the Ocasio-Cortez offices are being used to phonebank for Abdul so that as good thing,
posted by The Whelk at 7:31 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Man, I wish Bill Nelson could generate a quarter of the effort being put into Beto's campaign! I just know we're gonna flip some red seats in the Senate and still fall short because Nelson will inevitably completely screw the pooch in a winnable purple state. Because fuck us that's why.
posted by Justinian at 7:35 PM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

And whoever wins the Dem primary(barring a victory by another opportunistic rich guy with a weird hairdo,

Speaking of that, I had a hinky feeling about a MI state Senate candidate, Renee Watson, being an (R) in Dem clothes, and sure enough her primary opponent claims the same on her website. I'm suspicious this is another Republican dirty trick.

OTOH it doesn't matter because all the districts I reside within (state seats, US House) are such gerrymandered contortions, that the actual shit-for-brains tea/trumpublicans will probably win. (Although I hold faint hope for my US House seat.)

I've been interested in gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer's career for five years, since she spoke on the legislative floor about being a rape survivor, when the rightwinger men were pushing another restrictive abortion law into effect.

Google reminds me she also defended two other female MI legislators who were reprimanded, one for using the word vagina.

During this campaign, she's adopted the "simple, catchy phrase" approach in ads and social ("fix the damn roads"), which seems to resonate with our pothole-plagued general population.
posted by NorthernLite at 8:08 PM on August 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

schadenfrau: "Hahaha Ted Cruz is so. fucked."

I mean, I hope so! Beto seems great, and he seems like he's running the right campaign. On the other hand, he's still down in the polls to an incumbent Senator, and a Dem hasn't won statewide office in Texas since *1994*. That's a tough row to hoe.

Justinian: " I just know we're gonna flip some red seats in the Senate and still fall short because Nelson will inevitably completely screw the pooch in a winnable purple state."

This, on the other hand, I am (somewhat) more relaxed about. Again, not that Scott can't win! But I notice that a lot of local FL politics folks are a lot more skeptical about that than national ones are.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:12 PM on August 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

I'd rather be a Russian than a democrat.

Their dads were saying "Better dead than red."

And fifteen years ago they were saying, "America, love it or leave it."

Well, GTFO, you whiny sycophantic twits. I'm positive Russia offers limitless asylum for useless aggrieved middle managers who totally honestly deserve some sex.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:14 PM on August 5, 2018 [91 favorites]

Apple has confirmed that they've pulled Alex Jones and Infowars podcasts from iTunes under their hate speech policy. One Inforwars podcast still remains, but they removed all episodes of the other ones, not just selected ones.
posted by zachlipton at 8:22 PM on August 5, 2018 [93 favorites]

Abdul El-Sayed’s polices and speeches and background and platform makes the case that Means He’s The Real Deal.

He sounds like a great guy and the sort of person Michigan needs. I just wish that DSA-aligned candidates wouldn't act as if I/P werea research-free zone. A similar error embarrassed AOC [previously] and El-Sayed has done pretty much the same thing. E.g., here he is on Facebook on May 17th:

Yesterday, our country’s Ambassador to the United Nations walked out of the chamber when the representative of the Palestinian people, 58 of whom were killed, was preparing to speak. Those Palestinian men, women, and children were civilians who died peacefully protesting our government’s divisive actions in the Middle East […]

Literally a day earlier the Chicago Tribune carried an AP report quoting a Hamas claim that fifty of those killed were its members. The IDF, quoted in the same report, says that fourteen of them were carrying out active attacks. A subsequent report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center identifies most of the casualties by name and photo and institutional affiliation. It also provides the basis for that belief: i.e., what did the death notice say, did the deceased receive a military funeral from a paramilitary group, were they described as (e.g.) a Hamas operative in social media. This report, like its predecessors, is pretty detailed and I'm not aware of any attempt to rebut it.

I'm not suggesting that El-Sayed get up and dance the Hora with AIPAC but for goodness sakes: he's not running for Federal office; he's not expected to know minutiae of foreign events; why can't he apply the same prudent non-commitalism that he presumably applies to other things out of the area of his expertise? It's an utterly unforced error, and his casual attitude towards picking a side (which he shouldn't, anyway) is frankly prejudiced.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:43 PM on August 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** OH-12 special:

-- Lots of last minute pieces before Tuesday's vote:
-- Enten: What will the result here imply for the midterms?

-- Politico: Signs may be indicating to a Dem surge

-- The Hill: Gov Kasich says state of race bodes ill for the party as a whole

-- GOP nominee Balderson refuses to say if he'll back Jim Jordan for speaker.

-- HuffPost summary - GOP nervous, Dems not sure if they can pull it off

-- WP summary - GOP doesn't seem too thrilled about Trump's visit

-- Cohn: Dems lead in early vote, but the turnout in a special is really uncertain, so hard to make anything of it.

** 2018 Senate: TX: Enten: Beto's chances are real, but narrow; maybe 25%.

** 2018 House:

-- NYMag expanding on that Amy Walter piece the other day that we may see a lot more districts break late.

-- Cook Political on the categories of districts Dems need to flip.

** Odds & ends:

-- Dem gubernatorial candidates embracing single-payer.

-- What last week's Democratic rout means for Memphis and Shelby County.

===
Tuesday: OH-12 special; primaries in KS, MI, MO, and WA; MO's anti-right-to-work initiative.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:48 PM on August 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

Honestly, I think reminding ourselves that Beto's campaign is a hard row to hoe but also one that can be done is the best mindset we collectively have going into 2018. There's a lot to be optimistic about here in Texas and a lot about Beto's policies and mindsets that could be so, so valuable in the Senate as a representative for Texas--remember all my stumping about the toughness of Southern/Texan/deep-red-state Dems and the progressive values and tough fighting they tend to bring to a table? That almost never reaches the level of the Senate, and I am so, so excited to see what someone from that kind of political background would bring to the Senate Democratic caucus.

We have to believe this can be done in order to do it. We have to believe we can throw our shoulders against the weal and make this happen to do it. If we don't have faith in ourselves--if we remind ourselves repeatedly just how rough it is for Democrats to win in Texas--we erode the enthusiasm and commitment we need to make this election happen. We will need powerful margins of victory to account for the new GOP strategy of restricting the right and access to votes--purged voter rolls, for one--and we have to remember that this is not ever going to be an easy sail to victory. But there are so, so many reasons to take heart and throw our skin into the game: reasons to be optimistic, to be excited, to be vulnerable in our hope.

I see Beto shirts all around me, but I'm in Austin. But one of the things that does have me so, so excited about him as a candidate is that he is a smart dude who knows how to counter Cruz' smear tactics--and I haven't once seen him fall prey to the kind of short-sighted political maneuvers that sometimes sink Dems who are either too easygoing on Republicans or else not smart enough to know how to reach out to people who aren't just like themselves and resonate.

This election will not be easy, but I think it is winnable. And that in and of itself has Ted Cruz terrified. It has Republicans on the ropes. It brings the fight to a GOP stronghold in a way that the federal party straight up does not do, by and large. And it's being driven by Texans who are enthusiastic about this candidate because he gives every impression of caring about his potential constituents and doing his damndest to connect with as many of them as he can. That's authenticity we don't really get to see very often.
posted by sciatrix at 8:49 PM on August 5, 2018 [84 favorites]

bluesky43: Honestly, this is the most confused I have been in this entire Trump era. Melania is opposing Trump? Trump is tweeting his son had a meeting with Russians about getting dirt on Hillary? It's not that I don't see what's going on, it's that I really don't see the endgame at this point. It seems like we have moved beyond chaos to something else.

I was recently thinking about a paper I read a few years ago: Propaganda as Signaling, by Haifeng Huang.

He found that exposure to contemporary Chinese propaganda doesn't persuade Chinese college students that the government's position is correct; it isn't necessarily intended to do that. Instead, propaganda demonstrates that the government is in control - and that helps to suppress dissent.

In other words, it's a demonstration of power, rather than an attempt to convince. "We can trumpet this obvious lie, and nobody will disagree with us. Do you dare to?"

So on some level, Trump and his circle may come out with these never-ending streams of nonsense via twitter and SHS and anonymous leaks because Trump is senile, or because he feels the net closing in and is increasingly nervous. Or, it may be a postmodern attempt at undermining the foundations of a consensus view of reality, Vladislav Surkov-style.

I think there's some truth to both outlooks, but I think it's also worth considering that his ability to constantly declare that up is down and black is white and Hillary colluded, not him, and that collusion is not a crime is... actually a demonstration of strength.

Everything Trump says and everything Trump does is totally unacceptable and is achieved through raw exercise of power over the GOP, and hence the US government and ultimately the US population. So far he's steamrollered his way through all opposition without facing any consequences. It's clear to me that he will try to steamroller over the results of the Mueller investigation, and over the discontent of the majority in the midterms.

I agree with escape from the potato planet - there's an inflexion point coming in the next few months, for better or worse. Thankfully there are grounds for optimism, but it's really important for everybody that it's a turn in the right direction.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 8:53 PM on August 5, 2018 [85 favorites]

That's a great comment, sciatrix, and I couldn't agree more. In my mind, I always think, "realistic, not fatalistic."
posted by Chrysostom at 8:55 PM on August 5, 2018 [16 favorites]

Absolutely. It's so hard to know when hope is worth it because it hurts so much if you let yourself be vulnerable and lose. I actually think that's one of the things that so often undermines progressive turnout: we're driven by hope and enthusiasm, not fear, and that means we're vulnerable to cutting our losses and disengaging after we've been burned once or twice by failure when we really, really wanted--needed!--to win.

I am hoping--ha!--that we, the Left, are learning how to drop our irony and our detachment and throw ourselves into caring about candidates whether or not the odds look good at the beginning. I mean, there's a happy medium: you can't keep getting hurt and hurt and hurt, because that's not sustainable. But at the same time, I think a lot of good races never get off the ground because you don't get a critical mass of enthusiastic people going "yeah we can do this" early enough to make something really go.

Mind you, now is not the time to try to spark enthusiasm for new runs. The ones that win will be the ones who have been agitating and building momentum since the dying months of 2016. But it's certainly the time to guard ourselves against allowing creeping doubt to undermine our actions and our choices. And I think that while you do want to be realistic--you want to keep yourself in a mindset of focusing on our victories more than on our defeats--you also want to be wary of letting realism slide into pessimism and depressed apathy, too. I'm careful about that because, well, this is Texas: those sentiments are real, and they are common, and they actively make victories harder to achieve by immobilizing our base.
posted by sciatrix at 9:06 PM on August 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

I think it's also worth considering that his ability to constantly declare that up is down and black is white and Hillary colluded, not him, and that collusion is not a crime is... actually a demonstration of strength.

That's how I read it too. People don't want to call their boss a liar, so psychopathic bosses reinforce their status by openly lying to people. And Trump's followers eat it up! They know he's lying, and they love the way it forces people to accept his reality.

What scares me is that he's laying the groundwork to lie about being indicted or impeached, or that he plans to disrupt those processes and then lie about what happened. E.g., what if Trump was indicted and just denied that it had happened? Fake news, made up by a bitter man who incidentally had just been fired? And he pardoned himself to protect the US Presidency just in case, so move on, nothing to see here.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:55 PM on August 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

RE: Melania disagreeing with Donald, what strikes me is that play-acting that type of dynamic allows Trump to have his cake and eat it, too. In other words, it allows him to throw the rawest of red meat to his base, and then when Melania, Ivanka, etc mildly disagree with 0.001% of it it allows them to take on this "I'm moderating the beast" persona.

This Slate article says much the same thing:

These statements can be read two ways. The first aligns with the liberal fantasy of Melania as a captive #resistance fighter . . .

The second interpretation and, to my mind, the correct one, is that these statements from the women closest to Donald Trump are deliberate decoys meant to soften the president’s image, conferring him humanity by association. Melania has occasionally used her platform in this way, but it has been Ivanka’s entire raison d’être in the Trump cinematic universe. Throughout Donald’s campaign and presidency, she has lent legitimacy to his most punishing policies through her tacit approval, tempering his misogyny with her hollow empowerment rhetoric and convincing journalists that she’s secretly working behind the scenes on behalf of common decency. By making public statements that gently criticize her father, and by leaking through anonymous sources that she disagrees with him, all while continuing to stand by him in every way that matters, Ivanka has helped clear the way for her father’s agenda by showing his conservative skeptics how to question but support their president, how to appear humane while never really turning on the man doing those inhumane things.

posted by flug at 10:35 PM on August 5, 2018 [54 favorites]

If basically all the lawyers who work for Trump and have gone on TV to defend him don't end up disbarred for being appallingly bad lawyers to the point of malpractice, I will be very disappointed.

Not sure any of them (other than Giuliani, who is literally senile) are incompetent. I know every state has different standards and enforcement, but my understanding is that a client has a right to the type of representation he or she wants, even if it objectively hurts his legal position.

IIRC there was a recent Supreme Court case where lawyers got in trouble for interfering with the wishes of clients on death row, because they chose a path that preserved pride while almost guaranteeing they would be executed.

So if Trump, with every advantage in the world, wants a lawyer who says incriminating things in public because it fits his personal form of delusion and denial, I'm pretty sure he has a right to that.
posted by msalt at 10:38 PM on August 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Melania disagreeing with Donald, what strikes me is that play-acting that type of dynamic allows Trump to have his cake and eat it, too.

Hmm... Melania is very reticent in public, and there's considerable evidence that she doesn't like her husband. I'm not sure if the comparison to Ivanka holds up.
posted by nnethercote at 11:09 PM on August 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

In parallel with the events in Portland of the past few days, a socialist bookshop here in London was attacked yesterday by a gang of masked rightwing terrorists.

The parallels are not coincidental. The Patriot Prayer/ Proud Boy groups are highly organized and well-funded. They have rented buses that brought in fighters in tactical gear from all over the country, and those same buses no doubt drove them all down to Berkeley for the next round. Joey Gibson, the Patriot Prayer leader, actually led a cheer for Tommy Robinson at the rally, and I guarantee you that fewer than 1% of Americans have any idea who he is.

The good news is, even with heavy efforts to bring in fighters (about 300, I'd say), they were handily outnumbered by Antifa, and aside from a seemingly unprovoked police charge against the leftist side, there was no major violence between right and left. (Unless you count police as right, which is probably fair.)

Better yet, the relatively new mayor appointed as the new police chief an African American woman reformer police officer from Oakland (named Outlaw, no less) and she already sided with the police review commission against the police union in an earlier dispute. Sunday she called for an official review of the police's use of force in what is universally seen as a one-sided way against anti-fascists.
posted by msalt at 11:28 PM on August 5, 2018 [66 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!

@bri_sacks: .@CAL_FIRE says it has "no idea" what Trump's talking about in regards to "bad environmental laws" making California's fires worse.
"We have plenty of water for the firefight. The Mendocino complex is next to Clear Lake and the Carr fire has the Whiskeytown Lake and Lake Shasta"
“This doesn’t merit a response,” Evan Westrup, a spokesman for @JerryBrownGov, said when asked about the president’s hot take on California’s wildfires

Even if we try to take the most charitable interpretation of what he's complaining about, which is his demand that more water be pumped out of the Delta for agriculture, the water would go to farms, not to randomly spread it around forests hundreds of miles upstream in case there's a fire.

Does he literally think wildland fires are fought out of hydrants, and California fire crews are standing there baffled: "well we can't use any water, we've got to save the smelt?"
posted by zachlipton at 12:03 AM on August 6, 2018 [55 favorites]

Does he literally think

Not as such.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:10 AM on August 6, 2018 [73 favorites]

Sean Spicer did an AMA in Reddit's The_Donald cesspit, someone asked him if Q is legit and he flat out said 'no' and now the Q subreddit's are having a meltdown.
posted by PenDevil at 12:22 AM on August 6, 2018 [74 favorites]

duoshao: There should be a lot more attention paid to what was mentioned yesterday in the previous thread: the Koch brothers' efforts to call a constitutional convention. This would be truly calamitous and must be stopped.

Below is more info on this issue that, unlike my comment in the last thread, is free of the taint of Maher-misogyny (sorry for not putting a trigger warning on that). There are 2 approaches gaining steam:
1. a "Balanced Budget Amendment" (BBA) meaning the Convention would theoretically be limited this one issue, which would get rid of Medicare, Social Security, etc;
2. a Convention of States, which would theoretically look at three issues, [Convention of States link] “limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints, and place term limits on federal officials.” I keep writing "theoretically" because from what I've read, once they're at a Convention, there's nothing to stop them from re-writing the rules.

Peter Montgomery, Political Research Associates, Will Corporations, The Christian Right, And The Tea Party Get To Rewrite The Constitution? (Oct 16, 2017)

The Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force [would have even more states' support than the 28 out of 34 it needs -- the original article says "27," but one more has joined since it was published], but in the last two years, opponents of a convention have convinced legislators in four states—Delaware, New Mexico, Maryland, and Nevada—to rescind their earlier support. . . .

The successful campaign to withdraw Nevada’s calls for a convention was a bipartisan effort. An activist with Eagle Forum, the group founded by the late Phyllis Schlafly, helped win Republican support. Schlafly, one of the most ardent conservative opponents of a constitutional convention, described it as “playing Russian Roulette with the Constitution” . . . The John Birch Society has also long opposed convention proposals.

. . . Right-wing efforts to convene an Article V Convention depend on conservative domination of state legislatures. That makes the future of the Constitution itself one of the most important, if underappreciated, stakes in state-level organizing.

Balanced Budget Amendment advocates will make a major push in 2018 to reach the 34-state threshold. The Convention of States has more ground to cover, but it also has an aggressive battle plan grounded in grassroots pressure. Meckler claims that the Convention of States Project has “over 2.1 million supporters nationwide and an organized volunteer leadership team in all 50 states, in addition to our national staff and board of renowned legal advisors.” He outlined his strategy in 2013:

In roughly 4,000 state legislative districts around the country, you need roughly 100 people in each district to be willing to call their legislative representative and ask for a convention… That’s not a high bar. And I started talking to representatives all over the country and they said, “We don’t get 100 calls on anything. If you can generate a hundred calls then we’re going to be motivated to at least take a serious look.”

The article mentions that left-wing supporters of a Constitutional Convention ("Con Con") have been pushing it as a way to overturn Citizens United. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that going to go nowhere when so many states are controlled by Rs?

08/06/18, Robert Reich's Op-Ed in Eurasia Review, "The Biggest Threat to Our Democracy That You Haven't Heard Of," at 2:20 lists states that are likely to vote for an Article V Convention: 1. Washington 2. Idaho 3. Montana 4. Wyoming 5. Arizona 6. Minnesota 7. Wisconsin 8. Kentucky 9. South Carolina 10. Virginia

So if you live in one of those states, you could add this to your list of issues to bring up with your legislators.

Check out this 09/30/17 article from The Economist for excellent graphics that might motivate people to do something.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 12:32 AM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

We should never stop taking these sorts of threats seriously but just calling the convention isn't enough. They would need enough support to ratify any amendments and that's a more difficult task which would require a coalition of states all across the political spectrum. That is unlikely for anything crazy. Hell, it's unlikely for anything sane.
posted by Justinian at 12:37 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

(Yes, I know Robert Reich said something about a Constitutional Convention throwing out the requirement for 38 states to ratify any proposed amendment but I have no idea what he's on about 'cause that's clearly dumbass talk. Might as well say that 5 states will get together and proclaim they can amend the constitution by themselves, it's just as supportable.)
posted by Justinian at 12:42 AM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

So you think the below concerns are overblown, then? I don't know enough to disagree with you, but you're talking "unlikely" and I'm looking at all the "unlikely" things that have happened since 11/2016...

The Economist:

There is also the possibility that Congress could choose ratification by means of state conventions. This is a constitutionally approved alternative to ratification by state legislatures, which has so far been used only once—for the amendment that repealed the prohibition of alcohol. In that case many states determined the make-up of their convention by a popular vote which in effect became a referendum on the amendment. As a balanced-budget amendment might, in some states, be more popular with the public than with legislators, it might be more easily ratified by this unusual route. Polls have consistently suggested that 65-70% of the public support such an amendment in principle.

There is also a long game to be played. The states do not have to ratify the amendment all at once, or in a rush. The 27th amendment, which prevents members of Congress from raising their salaries, was proposed in 1789; it did not get its 38th ratification until 1992. Unless the proposers put a time limit on their amendment’s ratification—as has been the case for most 20th-century amendments—it can sit around accumulating ratifications in perpetuity [and] the federal government would have no way to block the process. . . .

And then there is, as there always seems to be, a nuclear option. Delegates could simply declare a new, lower threshold for ratification. Uniquely in matters concerning Article V conventions, there is actually some precedent for this. The Articles of Confederation, signed in 1777 and ratified by all 13 original states in 1781, required the unanimous consent of all states for any changes. The constitutional convention of 1787 ignored this, deciding that ratification by nine of them would be sufficient for their document to replace the articles. Unless Article V is amended first, a convention would have no constitutional power to change the ratification rules itself. But delegates still might try.

Political Research Associates:

Common Cause, which has led opposition to convention proposals . . . believes “there is too much legal ambiguity that leads to too great a risk that it could be hijacked by wealthy special interests pushing a radical agenda.”

One scholarly paper laid out the threats a convention could pose . . . Its authors, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Michael Leachman and Georgetown University law professor David Super, warned that delegates to such a convention, presumably under pressure from powerful interest groups, could write their own rules, set their own agenda, and declare a new ratification process for proposed amendments.

The possibility that delegates to a convention called for one purpose—say, to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment—could decide to act on other amendments once they convene is generally referred to as a “runaway” convention. Concern about this possibility has animated opposition from across the political spectrum.

The question of whether a convention could be restricted to dealing with amendments only on certain topics is hotly contested. Some, like Article V proponent Robert Natelson, argue that the threat of a runaway convention is a myth, and portray it as a conspiracy theory promoted by supporters of the status quo.54 But others note that the Constitution itself was written at a convention originally called “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.” Instead, delegates wrote an entirely new Constitution—and lowered the Articles of Confederation’s requirement that all states consent to amendments to a three-quarters threshold. Says David Super, “It turned out OK—the Articles were replaced with the vastly superior Constitution. But the point is this: No one—not Congress, not the Supreme Court and certainly not the president—has any authority to rein in a runaway constitutional convention.

posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 1:06 AM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

I think the concerns that they could propose any amendments they wished even if it was ostensibly for a single issue convention are overblown given the amendment, no matter how proposed, must still be ratified by 3/4 of the states.

That brings us to the second concern, whether a convention could simply declare the part of the constitution which deals with ratifying amendments null and void. There's no mechanism for them to do it. It's about as concerning as Trump declaring himself President-for-Life. Yes, that's concerning. But somebody declaring the Constitution defunct and a new one to exist in its place could happen even in the absence of a convention. Basically you're asking how concerned I am that there will be a civil war. Which is to say: kinda, but that concern exists independently of whether they call an official convention or not.
posted by Justinian at 1:46 AM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

I will say that I do have some concern for the medium to long term that a Convention allows amendments without going through Congress at all since we're already heading for a crisis where small unpopulated states wield disproportionate power and if it ever came to pass that a small minority of the population was able to amend the Constitution because the big majority of the population was concentrated in only a few states the country would fracture. But that's off in the distance somewhere and there's, like, five existential crises to worry about before then.
posted by Justinian at 1:56 AM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

But somebody declaring the Constitution defunct and a new one to exist in its place could happen even in the absence of a convention.

In any sane third world country they would call that a Coup d'état. But I guess that's too French for them.
posted by DreamerFi at 1:59 AM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

In any sane third world country they would call that a Coup d'état. But I guess that's too French for them.

Freedom Treason.
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:10 AM on August 6, 2018 [47 favorites]

On December 5, 1947, [Albert] Einstein and [Oskar] Morgenstern accompanied [Kurt] Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. Fortunately, the judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.

Well, perhaps that's it, folks.
posted by runcifex at 2:21 AM on August 6, 2018 [48 favorites]

A Convention is impossible. Never happen. The country would just as soon elect, say, a Donald Trump as to shoot itself in the foot like that.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [17 favorites]

Will Corporations, The Christian Right, And The Tea Party Get To Rewrite The Constitution?

Given who's taken control of the federal government and a ton of state legislatures and governorships, this is exactly who would rewrite the Constitution if it were possible. I'm in the "know nothing about this kind of thing" camp, but this is why, as imperfect as our current Constitution is, the idea of getting a new one scares the shit out of me.
posted by Rykey at 4:42 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Republicans Seem Very Worried About Tuesday’s Ohio Special Election

(Margaret Hartmann | NYMag)

An August special election for a congressional seat Republicans have held for decades isn’t the kind of thing that would usually draw any interest from GOP leaders at the national level. But with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Vice-President Mike Pence, and even President Trump showing up in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District in recent days, it’s obvious that Republicans are very concerned about losing Tuesday’s special election, the last before voters head to the polls in November.

The congressional seat has been vacant since January, when nine-term congressman Patrick Tiberi resigned. President Trump won the district in the Columbus suburbs by 11 points in 2016, but Tuesday’s election is a toss-up. A month ago, a Monmouth University poll had Troy Balderson, a 56-year-old Republican state senator, leading his opponent by ten points. But a Monmouth poll released Wednesday showed Danny O’Connor, the 31-year-old Democratic candidate, trailing Balderson by only one point. As the Washington Post notes, when you dig a bit deeper into the polls, there’s even more bad news for Republicans:

O’Connor supporters are 16 percentage points more likely to say they have a lot of interest in this election than Balderson’s.

It hints at a troubling trend for Republicans that has been lapping at their feet in other primaries and special elections this year: In the Trump era, Democrats seem more motivated than Republicans to vote.

We fucking better be.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:57 AM on August 6, 2018 [45 favorites]

Apropos of our earlier discussion:

Why Michigan could see the biggest blue wave of all in the 2018 elections (Dylan Scott | Vox)

In the 2018 midterm elections in Michigan, Democrats are in good shape to keep a Senate seat and retake the governor’s mansion — and the Wolverine State also gives them a couple of chances to pick up House wins.

Two Michigan House elections are outright toss-ups, and a couple of others could be in play if Democrats build a big enough blue wave. The party must also replace one of its members, John Conyers, who was forced to step down over sexual misconduct allegations.

Michigan was the site of one of Donald Trump’s most shocking wins in 2016. But now, not only is he unpopular — 44 percent approval, 52 percent disapproval, per Morning Consult — but Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is term-limited out, has been tainted by the Flint water crisis, and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, who is running for his seat, might be too. The environment is favorable enough here for the Democrats that election forecasters think they could take the state House, despite a sizable deficit in seats.

Here are the Michigan primary elections on August 7 you need to know about.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:13 AM on August 6, 2018 [13 favorites]

Radio New Zealand Sunday Morning—“Beck Dorey-Stein: life as a White House stenographer” (.mp3, .ogg)—A fascinating interview by RNZ's Wallace Chapman, thanks to both the interviewer and interviewee. She mostly talks about living in Washington DC and traveling around the world on Air Force One and the rest of her time with the Obama administration, but also gets into some details and criticisms of Trump near the end of the ½ hour. She has written a book From the Corner of the Oval Office - One Woman's True Story of her Accidental Career in the Obama White House which recently made the NYT Best Seller List.

It's probably been mentioned repeatedly in previous threads but she observed, among other things, that Obama and earlier Presidents would have a stenographer present during every "one-on-one" interview with a journalist and the Press Office would release the transcript. This was partly so that what was said during the interview couldn't be misrepresented; but she speculates that Trump may have stopped doing this so that he has the opportunity to misrepresent what was said.
posted by XMLicious at 5:34 AM on August 6, 2018 [33 favorites]

So on some level, Trump and his circle may come out with these never-ending streams of nonsense via twitter and SHS and anonymous leaks because Trump is senile, or because he feels the net closing in and is increasingly nervous. Or, it may be a postmodern attempt at undermining the foundations of a consensus view of reality, Vladislav Surkov-style.

This makes sense, and my mind wanders in the direction of whether Trump or any of his idiot advisers know enough about anything to make this deliberate. But that doesn't matter. The goal seems to be to try to bend reality to enhance their power and this makes a lot of sense to me, and it's something that an intuitive authoritarian politician may arrive at on their own.

I agree with escape from the potato planet - there's an inflexion point coming in the next few months, for better or worse. Thankfully there are grounds for optimism, but it's really important for everybody that it's a turn in the right direction.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 8:53 PM on August 5

Something feels different in the discourse, and maybe its driven by the Mueller investigation closing in, Manafort's trial and the backlash to the Putin meeting. I dunno but as I wrote, it feels like beyond chaos. The midterm elections are critical and I am so grateful for all of you who are working to put in politicians who will resist.
posted by bluesky43 at 5:47 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

NYTimes: For mainstream Republicans, a profound political dilemma of the Trump era is whether to support the growing number of candidates who make racially divisive remarks and back causes that are championed by white nationalists
posted by octothorpe at 5:54 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

I know it’s the NYT, but calling racist remarks “racially divisive remarks” is like calling diseases “medically divisive conditions.”
posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:59 AM on August 6, 2018 [111 favorites]

A little bit of good news: Judge's ruling invalidates FEC regulation allowing anonymous donations to 'dark money' groups
posted by gwint at 6:28 AM on August 6, 2018 [54 favorites]

Look at a map for 13 reasonable states. 13 states is over 1/4 and can stop any constitutional amendment. Yes, the Constitution was ratified with 9 states, but it did so with the cooperation of the Confederation Congress, which willingly agreed to implement the new Constitution once it got 9 states.

All federal employees are sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:36 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yes, I know Robert Reich said something about a Constitutional Convention throwing out the requirement for 38 states to ratify any proposed amendment but I have no idea what he's on about 'cause that's clearly dumbass talk

People worry about that because that is what really happened in 1787. People looked at the fundamental law creating and defining the United States and said "Ah, fuck it, what if we just ignored that?" And we just ignored it and, entirely contrary to established law, started following this new Constitution thing anyway.

That said, I doubt that this is something to seriously worry about. The people at the Convention could get away with this because they were in large part the people who had led the US through and to independence, who were widely and profoundly respected, and who represented a real and no-kidding brain trust of the brightest political minds in the country. They also could get away with it because the Articles of Confederation were (AFAICT lacking polling data from 1787) profoundly unpopular and causing severe and utterly intractable problems that sprang directly from their underlying nature. None of this is true now, especially not after 200+ years of hagiography around the Constitution.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:41 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Look at a map for 13 reasonable states. 13 states is over 1/4 and can stop any constitutional amendment.

13, eh? Writers must really be phoning it in.

——

The spot where Emmett Till’s body was found is marked by this sign. People keep shooting it up. (WaPo)

Divisive sign.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [26 favorites]

Talking about mass genocide of groups of people is now “racially divisive”.
posted by gucci mane at 6:45 AM on August 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

I know it’s the NYT, but calling racist remarks “racially divisive remarks” is like calling diseases “medically divisive conditions.”

Funny how all the overt racism by Trump & Co. gets reduced by the media to racially charged or whatever bullshit they minimize it with, but Sarah Jeong and her joke/satirical tweets are immediately called racist. Hmm, where's the "racially insensitive" now? (not that they're really racially insensitive either, but...)
posted by chris24 at 6:51 AM on August 6, 2018 [28 favorites]

An update on the London bookshop attack: the cretins themselves posted video of them invading the shop (non-cretinous mirror).

Not that this in any way lessens the seriousness of their assault on Bookmarks, but the video makes it abundantly clear, and then some, that the lackwits involved are hardly the hardened brownshirt cadres of their fantasies and our fears. The fact remains that an act of terrorism has taken place, but hardly one capable of instilling shock and awe in its victims; the workers on staff seem to have fended their attackers off with little more than an eyeroll and the kind of long-suffering patience one is no doubt forced to cultivate in the course of long thankless shifts at the till of a socialist bookshop.

I don't know just how to feel about this.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:08 AM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

The worst part of that NYTimes article about Corey Stewart is this line: Prince William County began questioning arrestees about their immigration status, then turning them over to federal agents.

As if this was something that just happened like a rainy day. It was the result of a law that Stewart campaigned for and passed under the slogan of "what part of illegal don't you understand?" County police were directed by the Board of Supervisors to check the immigration status of anyone they detained, this was later watered-down to only apply to those who are arrested. The board also directed county government to cut off services to any undocumented resident, everything from elderly services to issuing business licenses. It wasn't something that just happened, it was a result of a law passed by Prince Willam Board of Supervisors championed by it's Chairman, Corey Stewart. The law was a failure in achieving its stated goals of reducing crime and government spending, but it did succeed it hassling a lot of people with the wrong skin color.
posted by peeedro at 7:08 AM on August 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

> NYTimes: For mainstream Republicans, a profound political dilemma

@rudepundit: Is it a "dilemma"? Because if you're a Republican and you don't automatically think, "Fuck those Nazis," you've legitimized the Nazis.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:19 AM on August 6, 2018 [76 favorites]

I am not really getting as to how Trump confessed on Twitter this weekend and there's not a flurry of activity. Arrest Don Jr, at least? DO SOMETHING
posted by angrycat at 7:26 AM on August 6, 2018 [40 favorites]

@rudepundit: Is it a "dilemma"? Because if you're a Republican and you don't automatically think, "Fuck those Nazis," you've legitimized the Nazis.

With very rare exceptions, "moderate" Republicans (and centrists of all flavors and parties) will always choose fascism over social democracy if given the choice.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:30 AM on August 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

U.S. restores some Iran sanctions lifted under Obama nuclear deal (WaPo)

The United States on Monday reimposed the first round of Iranian trade sanctions that had been suspended under the 2015 nuclear agreement, distancing itself from every other country that signed the agreement and putting the accord’s future in jeopardy.

Administration officials said the sanctions that have been waived for the past two and a half years will be snapped back officially on Tuesday morning at one minute past midnight.

From that moment on, Iran will be prohibited from using U.S. dollars, the primary currency used for international financial transactions and oil purchases. Trade in metals, and sales of Iranian-made cars will be banned. Permits allowing the import of Iranian carpets and food, like pistachios, will be revoked. So will licenses that have allowed Tehran to buy U.S. and European aircraft and parts — a restriction that comes just days after Iran completed the acquisition of five new commercial planes from Europe.

... There was no immediate reaction from Iran, but some Iranian officials have said the U.S. breach of its commitments under the deal frees them to resume their nuclear program.

Things are much easier to break than to build.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:36 AM on August 6, 2018 [17 favorites]

The people at the Convention could get away with this because they were in large part the people who had led the US through and to independence, who were widely and profoundly respected, and who represented a real and no-kidding brain trust of the brightest political minds in the country.

Counterpoint: they were mostly just rich. For every Hamilton or Jefferson there were a NUMBER of Hancocks. (IIRC.)

They also could get away with it because the Articles of Confederation were (AFAICT lacking polling data from 1787) profoundly unpopular and causing severe and utterly intractable problems that sprang directly from their underlying nature. None of this is true now,

Lol this is exactly true now though

And becoming truer
posted by schadenfrau at 7:37 AM on August 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

> I am not really getting as to how Trump confessed on Twitter this weekend and there's not a flurry of activity.

I think - or at least the sense I got - was that Trump's confession was yet another "modified limited hangout" effort, where they have been notified that something is coming, and this is the attempt to get out in front of the story a bit, and shade it to their advantage.

But this is frankly a confession of a criminal act, "totally legal" notwithstanding, so what's being shaded to advantage here? The two obvious things: "It went nowhere" and "I did not know about it".

So if I was in the prediction business (and we all quit the prediction business in November 2016) I'd predict that some big indictments are about to drop. Mueller has been working from the outside in - here are the Russian efforts to manipulate social media, here are the Russian hacking efforts - and the next logical step would be to indict the US co-conspirators.

"I did not know about it" - at this point, Junior and Jared are watching the wheels of the bus go round and round. I will offer a cake to the cake gods if we can get Ivanka swept up too, but that is probably far too much to hope for.
posted by RedOrGreen at 7:37 AM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

I am not really getting as to how Trump confessed on Twitter this weekend and there's not a flurry of activity. Arrest Don Jr, at least? DO SOMETHING

You come at the king, you best not miss.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:40 AM on August 6, 2018 [52 favorites]

I feel like a sucker for even asking this, but is there any kernel of truth to Trump's weird claims that Hillary (and now, Adam Schiff?) was actually the one who colluded with Russia? Did this bizarre conspiracy theory arise from any actual real event or is it just Trump's Mirror?
posted by marshmallow peep at 7:41 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

a "dilemma"? Because if you're a Republican and you don't automatically think, "Fuck those Nazis," you've legitimized the Nazis.

Amen. And also, if “mainstream” Republican means “letting Nazis win” then the word has no fucking meaning and should be removed from the lexicon.
posted by corb at 7:42 AM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

The "it went nowhere" defense is not a defense. The crime of conspiracy is complete with an agreement to commit a crime [pdf], and any sometimes requires any overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. The crime is the agreement.

"We agreed to rob a bank but then Bob couldn't get us the guns" is a conspiracy to rob a bank, just like "we agreed with the Russians to hack the DNC, but then they did it and didn't give us the emails" is a conspiracy to steal the election.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [52 favorites]

Or: “incompetence is no defense to conspiracy.”
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:47 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Just a random thought that's been in my head... Arizona's legislature has been republican controlled for... well, damn near forever it seems like. Tax cuts piled on tax cuts. Slicing and dicing the safety net. Racist laws (SB1070, anyone?) Pre-emption bills preventing cities from enacting liberal leaning policies. Giving guns more rights than people. Anti-abortion laws. Gutting environmental laws. Privatizing education. On and on and on. This feels like the first time in forever that we can ever think of the possibility of both houses and the governor's office going Democratic. I don't think it's likely; we're not gerrymandered since we've got an independent redistricting commission, we just have a metric farkton of old people. But if it does... well, then, Trump has provided the model. Tear it all down. No incrementalism. Kill off as many of the voter suppression laws as possible for a starting point. They'd have two years to tear down 20 years of GOP rule, but I think they can get most of it done if they have the guts.
posted by azpenguin at 7:48 AM on August 6, 2018 [28 favorites]

is there any kernel of truth to Trump's weird claims that Hillary (and now, Adam Schiff?) was actually the one who colluded with Russia?

Schiff was prank-called by comedians claiming to be Ukrainian politicians with dirt on Trump (apologies for the Daily Mail link; that's the least offensive site I could find a story on with a quick googling). Schiff has maintained that he knew it was bogus, played along, and immediately called the FBI.
posted by Etrigan at 7:49 AM on August 6, 2018 [14 favorites]

Should media quit covering Trump rallies? Absolutely not - Amanda Marcotte, Salon

Take, for instance, the video that Jim Acosta of CNN posted of the crowd at a rally in Tampa, surrounding the media section and screaming invective at the journalists there. That video is horrifying and, more importantly, provides a valuable snapshot of how out of control the Trump base has become. As Trump's scandals pile up, they are reacting by turning into monsters whose politics are solely those of destruction. These people are showing the world who they truly are and it's not a good look, to say the least.

Clearly, many progressives don't see it that way, because Acosta's video seems to have precipitated the recent flood of calls to quit covering Trump rallies. The fear appears be that because Trump supporters and Trump himself have gloried in the video of the harassment, retweeting it and praising it online, then its value is greater as pro-Trump propaganda than as journalism exposing the true nature of Trump rallies.

That concern is overrated. No doubt it's disconcerting to many liberals to realize that imagery that repulses them might read as exciting to someone else, but that doesn't justify the panic attack and desire to shut it all down. Just because jackasses see other jackasses and feel proud to be a jackass doesn't mean that everyone else who sees this will agree.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:49 AM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

> The "it went nowhere" defense is not a defense.
> Incompetence is no defense to conspiracy.

Agreed on both counts, but I'd be willing to bet that it did go somewhere. That there was an explicit statement at that meeting from the Russian side about what material was going to be released and when ("If it is what you say I love it especially later in the summer"), and a quid pro quo was put on the table.

They sold out our country for electoral and financial gain.
posted by RedOrGreen at 7:50 AM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

I feel like a sucker for even asking this, but is there any kernel of truth to Trump's weird claims that Hillary (and now, Adam Schiff?) was actually the one who colluded with Russia? Did this bizarre conspiracy theory arise from any actual real event or is it just Trump's Mirror?

When the DNC engaged the services of Christopher Steele it basically involved him reaching out to a lot of unsavory people in Russia to get details of Donny's treason.

But there's a gulf of difference between paying for the citizen of a NATO ally to assist and accepting the help of a foreign adversary in a quid pro quo.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:52 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

BuzzFeed News: It's Looking Extremely Likely That QAnon Is A Leftist Prank On Trump Supporters

If it is a prank I hope they decide to shut it down before some crank shoots up another pizza restaurant.
posted by PenDevil at 7:52 AM on August 6, 2018 [48 favorites]

but I'd be willing to bet that it did go somewhere.

Exactly. They have lied every time about every single thing about this; that it happened at all, who was there, what it was about, who knew, etc, etc. Why would we possibly believe them that nothing came from it.
posted by chris24 at 7:53 AM on August 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

That concern is overrated. No doubt it's disconcerting to many liberals to realize that imagery that repulses them might read as exciting to someone else, but that doesn't justify the panic attack and desire to shut it all down. Just because jackasses see other jackasses and feel proud to be a jackass doesn't mean that everyone else who sees this will agree.

The problem, Salon contributor, is not 'liberals are afraid to know things'. The problem is that we no longer trust the media to present this in context. This footage is not going to be run as 'we infiltrated a Trump rally and look how insane this is' because the media in America have been cowed over decades of conservative attacks to treat any conservative activity, no matter how divorced from reality it is, as being reasonable. So instead, stop covering it.
posted by Merus at 7:55 AM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

But there's a gulf of difference between paying for the citizen of a NATO ally

Not just a citizen, a former British MI-6 agent who was well respected by our intelligence agencies and who had worked with them before. A man who did extra investigation without pay because he was so concerned about the threat to America. A man who went beyond reporting back to his employer and went directly to the FBI to let them know what he knew because he was so concerned with what he found.

A foreign agent breaking the law doesn't go and report his work to the FBI.
posted by chris24 at 7:56 AM on August 6, 2018 [75 favorites]

When the DNC engaged the services of Christopher Steele it basically involved him reaching out to a lot of unsavory people in Russia to get details of Donny's treason.

Also- Fusion GPS has done work for some pretty unsavory people, including Prevezon, an oligarch-owned company. So, Clinton's law firm engaged Fusion GPS who engaged Steele, and Fusion GPS has also done work for Russian oligarchs, ergo Steele was actually feeding anti-Trump information from Putin back to Clinton.

Or something. It's also just Trump doing his usual "I know you are, but what am I?" to everything.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:57 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Interesting interview with Rick Wilson, a never-Trumper, author of a new book "Everything Trump Touches Dies," and Republican strategist under GHWB and Rudy Giuliani among others. He's generally a person I disagree with on absolutely everything, however, he was very clear in an interview this morning that he had spent his entire early career trying to convince people that the Republican party wasn't racist and he was wrong. It was/is racist and that faction needs to be purged. He also said "chicken shit" on morning TV which was apparently on a 7 second delay and has made national headlines instead of the part where he said that the party is racist. So, there's that.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:59 AM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

Aside from Steele/Fusion/Russian stuff, there's a distinct but closely related "Democrats colluded" argument out there regarding Ukrainian officials. It's summarized in this Slate article Did the Clinton Campaign Really Collude With Ukraine? (In short, not close the to same thing as the Trump campaign's actions, though perhaps not a hundred and ten percent above-board, in the sense of not immediately referring everything to the FBI? Meh.)
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:04 AM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

BuzzFeed News: It's Looking Extremely Likely That QAnon Is A Leftist Prank On Trump Supporters

If you'd like to decide for yourself, you can download a copy of "Q" (various languages and formats, including English) from the Wu Ming Foundation's website.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 8:05 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

BuzzFeed News: It's Looking Extremely Likely That QAnon Is A Leftist Prank On Trump Supporters

...What? What "leftist prankster" would spend over a year writing thousands of cryptic/insane messages to cultivate an environment conducive to a right-wing coup d'état? What leftist would devote a big chunk of their life to developing a conspiracy theory with the goal of killing leftists?

Pretty classy of BuzzFeed to go out of their way to try and pin what's being done by either foreign/domestic intelligence agencies or an extremely devoted basement-dwelling Pepe on the libs.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:06 AM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

some Iranian officials have said the U.S. breach of its commitments under the deal frees them to resume their nuclear program.

read the JCPOA back when it was fresh & it was being widely criticized & misrepresented by american pundits, bureaucrats and legislators who had not read it. it has been some time, and that read was fairly shallow. on cursory rereview, i do not see any indication that the agreement(s) contains any provisions permitting Iran to resume "nuclear program" activities in the event of a breach by other parties: the agreement establishes extensive resolution mechanisms for disputes arising under the agreement.

the american party, however, having since disavowed the agreement, is not availing itself of the dispute resolution mechanisms prescribed therein.

main text of the JCPOA, at para. 26 notes

Iran has stated that it will treat such a re-introduction or re-imposition of the sanctions specified in Annex II, or such an imposition of new nuclear-related sanctions, as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.

iran's resumption of the activities specified in annex i would be problematic for those parties to the agreement that would still prefer to preserve its goals and effect.

this is likely the intention of the sanctions renewal. (my attention/comprehension being imperfect, would welcome clarification, correction or alternative view from anyone with better insight).
posted by 20 year lurk at 8:10 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Or something. It's also just Trump doing his usual "I know you are, but what am I?" to everything.

Maybe, but I think it taps into something more effective. There's certainly the irony that the Trump machine embraces global trade when it suits them but mostly makes their successes by banging the protectionism drum. But if it's inevitable - and it seems more and more so by the day - that it's going to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Trump campaign conspired with foreign governments, well, then it's in their interest to blur the line between what it means to hire foreigners to work on a campaign and to accept the assistance of foreign governments.

And really, if it goes no further than that then it's not an unreasonable "what's the diff?" question. It's not till you agree to look at the world the way it really works and the way people really make deals with each other that you have to simply acknowledge that of course it's different when you pay people up front for their work. But the political machinery has been demanding for decades now that we all pretend that people and organizations give other people money with no expectation of getting things in return. It's not a big divergence for the Trump folks to ask their followers to add in foreign governments to that ridiculous fiction.
posted by phearlez at 8:11 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Rick Wilson I think is kind of in the same place a lot of us (NeverTrump folk) have been in, where we judged the Republican party anecdotally by the sorts of people we hung out with and did work with and respected, those who volunteered their services and thought really hard about stuff, rather than statistically by how many of which types of people were in the party - forgetting that the people we would hang out with and do work with is a very limited part of the party.
posted by corb at 8:14 AM on August 6, 2018 [29 favorites]

And we have our first OH-12 poll where O'Connor is ahead, albeit 1 point (moe 5%). (He's been barely ahead in some Dem Surge models, but not in base models.) RCP average is Balderson +3.7%.

Tomorrow will be interesting.

@EmersonPolling
#OH12 TOO CLOSE TO CALL

🔵 @dannyoconnor1 47%
🔴 @Troy_Balderson 46%
🤔 Undecided 7%
*poll conducted prior to @RealDonaldTrump campaign stop

ANALYSIS: http://bit.ly/2M0SMfg
posted by chris24 at 8:17 AM on August 6, 2018 [25 favorites]

where we judged the Republican party anecdotally

Instead of by the concrete results of the policies advocated for and implemented? That's an .... interesting ... analytic method.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:24 AM on August 6, 2018 [30 favorites]

My concern about the Emerson poll is that it apparently excluded the Green candidate, who was pulling 2% in the Monmouth last week.

Still, it looks to be very close, which itself is a very bad sign for the GOP.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:27 AM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yes, humans find real world human interactions more viscerally real than statistics or abstractions. Any strategy or mental model that does not account for the human part of humanity is not going to be successful or useful.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:29 AM on August 6, 2018 [24 favorites]

My money says QANON isn't really on the left or right, but just stirring shit for its own sake. That could be an IRA-style operation to sow discord (they've poxed every house they can), but I think it's even likelier a non-Russian troll who hit jackpot. There's not much apparent competence -- constant slip-ups, like printing its own passkey or whatever that's called, trying to pass off obviously faked photos as real, etc. Q might be a literal 15-year-old, a la Deez Nutz.

Meanwhile, just because the Q stuff is obviously raising the danger level doesn't mean that's an intent of its originator. Even now, some lefty folks think that covering Trump rallies could help the good guys by way of, well, heightening the contradictions. The Qanon stuff heightens a lot of contradictions, especially by focusing on behavior that is one of Trump's own horrible qualities (the sexualization of children) and by making Mueller a good guy, which in particular would never occur to any genuine rally-the-troops Trumper I can imagine.

The overall gist of "everything is under control" could be intended (unsuccessfully) to tamp down on the True Believers putting up resistance. On the flipside, I think that's an intention of the actually-right-wing Louise Mensch, whose narrative is basically identical to Q (Secret indictments everywhere! Crimes the media won't tell you about!) with Donald as villain instead of hero.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:42 AM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

#OH12 TOO CLOSE TO CALL

So I just spent a few minutes making calls for the campaign, mostly leaving messages on people's voicemail reminding them that the election was tomorrow and the hours for voting. As an introvert, this was hard as hell for me to do (I was afraid people could hear the sound of my heart nearly thumping out of my chest), but also, so so easy given how important this election is. Judging from the Google Doc we use as a script, there were 82 other people making calls along with me. And guess what, you can do it too!
posted by coffee and minarets at 8:42 AM on August 6, 2018 [47 favorites]

There's an active QAnon thread over here.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Yes, but very little has actually changed within the GOP vis-a-vis what they actually want. Pretty much everything they're asking for has been on their wish list for years or even decades before Trump ever came along. The murderous economic policies, racist voter suppression, super-restrictive immigration policies, sublimation of 1A rights (of leftists and marginalized groups) in favor of the 2A? All of that was proudly embraced by even those who consider themselves centrists.

The only real difference between the pre-Trump GOP and the current incarnation is what parts are being said out loud. Nevertrumpers and "moderates" can try and sidestep their complicity in where we are now and what horrible stuff they still want, but I'm sure as hell not gonna let them off the hook.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:46 AM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

...What? What "leftist prankster" would spend over a year writing thousands of cryptic/insane messages to cultivate an environment conducive to a right-wing coup d'état?

The sort of self-described leftist who would hang out on 4chan – i.e., a stupid young leftist who lives and breathes meme culture and has no sense of perspective or real-world consequences. I can easily see a 20-year-old channer who fancies themselves an anarchist or leftist doing this for teh lulz.

Conspiracy-theorizing about the conspiracy theory seems like perhaps not a great use of time, but I wouldn't be surprised.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:49 AM on August 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

Conspiracy-theorizing about the conspiracy theory seems like perhaps not a great use of time, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Well then, it’s either someone who’s read Foucault’s Pendulum or someone who hasn’t :)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:53 AM on August 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

The race to be Trump’s antagonist in NYS
posted by The Whelk at 8:55 AM on August 6, 2018

The only differences between the Trump administration and alt-NeverTrump Cruz administration are threatening to pull out of NATO, and the trade war stuff, and the tone around "both sides-ing" things like Charlottesville. Cruz or any other Republican administration wouldve nominated Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Cruz or any other Republican administration would be sabotaging Obamacare after trying to repeal it. Cruz or any other Republican administration would've passed the exact same tax scam package giveaway to the rich. Cruz or any other Republican administration would be gutting the EPA and using the Congressional Review Act to rollback every regulation passed by Obama agencies in the last 8 years. Cruz or any other Republican administration would've pulled out of the Iran and Paris deals. Cruz or any other Republican administration would've unleashed the same ICE crackdowns and redefinition of religious liberty to mean Christians can opt out of laws at will.

So no. There's not some small part of the Republican party that was ever any different than now. You're looking at your party, the exact same as it's ever been. This is what Republican control looks like under any Republican. We have tons of proof of this on the state level. Kansas. Oklahoma. North Carolina. Wisconsin after Walker. Florida under Scott. This is your party, NeverTrump is not now and never was a thing.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:56 AM on August 6, 2018 [70 favorites]

NeverTrump is not now and never was a thing.

Meet the old GOP boss, same as the old GOP boss. Except, it seems, everyone will get fooled again.
posted by mephron at 9:01 AM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

The race to be Trump’s antagonist in NYS

I like Zephyr Teachout. She has a habit of losing elections by wide margins, but the NYS AG seems like a perfect fit for her.
posted by gwint at 9:03 AM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

The only differences between the Trump administration and alt-NeverTrump Cruz administration are threatening to pull out of NATO, and the trade war stuff, and the tone around "both sides-ing" things like Charlottesville.

Yes Rs would be terrible no matter what, but destroying the post-WWII western liberal order, moving to overt fascism, attacking the free press, etc. is a bit more of a difference between traditional Rs and Trump than what you list.
posted by chris24 at 9:04 AM on August 6, 2018 [31 favorites]

> The only differences between the Trump administration and alt-NeverTrump Cruz administration are [...]

Yes, basically differences of tone rather than content, and a bit more success in keeping the quiet parts quiet instead of shouting those from the rooftops.

But - and I say this after fully granting the legitimacy of the argument - I do think there was some value in keeping the quiet parts quiet and at least retaining the consensus that those parts were unacceptable to say out loud in polite society. Yes, the actions would have been much the same, and resulted in broadly similar (and horrifying) outcomes for immigrants, minorities, women, etc. But if we had the social consensus that at least saying it out loud was unacceptable, that would have been of some value.

Again, this is lamenting the absence of a sliver of a silver lining to the massive fucking swampy cloud over our heads.

Damnit, Chris24.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:05 AM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

What's cracking me up on the Euro-leftist cabal > Q > Qanon new theory is that it also is echoed and precedented by Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, also featuring deep-statish (Scotland Yard and anarchist collectivist co-members in this one) messaging and pursuits of each other while guessing the bigger picture.
I hope our current reality doesn't end as apocalyptic and mythic as Chesterton's though.
posted by Harry Caul at 9:07 AM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

*shakes head* I think it's also hard for a lot of NeverTrumpers to realize just how many of the folks they worked alongside and knew and respected on a human level had picked up on that rot, even if they wouldn't admit it openly.

There's a lot of stated allegiance to ideals within the Republican party that seem to have neatly melted into the aether the moment the thought of giving up power raised its head. There's a lot of patriotic guff that seems to have vanished the moment Russian collusion appeared. And of course if you aren't yourself racist, it's easy to assume that... put it this way, it's easy to assume your neighbors and friends and colleagues are better than they really are.

I continue to weigh the reality of #NeverTrump by the actions of the people who pick up that identity, and by and large I have found them wanting--and the more power any given person has within the party, the more skeptical I feel about the courage of their convictions. But if there are more #NeverTrump people yelling "no," by all means, I support them--I support anyone taking concrete action to prevent the normalization of fascists walking in our national halls of power. I'm just... waiting to see more people demonstrate their stated morality with boots on the ground and votes in the seat, I suppose.
posted by sciatrix at 9:10 AM on August 6, 2018 [22 favorites]

Which is to say: I echo the consensus that taking the lofty, proud surface-level ideals of the GOP and making GOP representatives publicly lie on their bellies to better vomit those ideals into the latrine among the other refuse in the ditch is a pretty horrifying thing. And it's a horrifying thing because even those GOP supporters who generally have good hearts and think the best of people--and they do exist--seem to be tottering behind their bellwethers in terrifying droves to throw the best things about the nation into the ditch behind. Normalizing this is horrifying, and not enough of the men of power within the party seem willing to truly put their money where their mealy mouths are wringing.
posted by sciatrix at 9:14 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

TPM Livewire: ‘Go Back To Your Country!’ Sikh Man Attacked While Posting Signs For GOPer

[Surjit Malhi, a Republican and longtime active member of the Turlock, California community, who is] of the Sikh faith was brutally attacked and told to “go back” to his home country while he was out putting up campaign signs for Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) last week.

When leaders are happy to scream out the quiet parts, the leopards will eventually come for your face - yes, even if you're out putting up campaign signs for the leopards.
posted by RedOrGreen at 9:22 AM on August 6, 2018 [82 favorites]

Meanwhile, in Alexandria, the Manafort trial prepares to start up again in half an hour.

Buzzfeed's Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) reports: "What can we expect this week in Paul Manafort's trial? Mueller's office says they're on track to finish their case in chief this week. We've heard from 14 witnesses so far. Assuming the govt still plans to have former Manafort associate Rick Gates testify, that'll be big."

And: "Here's the govt's witness list: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4637747/7-27-18-US-Manafort-EDVA-Witness-List.pdf … It has 35 names, but there's no guarantee we'll hear from all of them. New filing today from the govt says they intend to have at least one FBI forensic accountant read Manafort emails in court https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4637749/8-6-18-US-Trial-Brief-Witnesses.pdf"

Here's a recap from Courthouse News: Prosecutors Expected to Close With Manafort’s Right-Hand Man
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:28 AM on August 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

Yes Rs would be terrible no matter what, but destroying the post-WWII western liberal order, moving to overt fascism, attacking the free press, etc. is a bit more of a difference between traditional Rs and Trump than what you list.

Attacking the free press has been a staple of Republicanism for several decades, and is in large part how we landed in the current mess to begin with.

"Covert fascism" changing to "overt fascism" I'll give you, depending on your demographic group.
posted by delfin at 9:35 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Attacking the free press has been a staple of Republicanism for several decades

This is literally why we have FOX News to begin with, remember 40 years of "the liberal media"? Republicans built an entire alternative media complex specifically to push the idea of a person like Trump until he became reality. Republicans built FOX and the Rush radio empire. Not Trump. Republicans. Trump just walked in and took over what already existed.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:40 AM on August 6, 2018 [76 favorites]

But if there are more #NeverTrump people yelling "no," by all means, I support them--I support anyone taking concrete action to prevent the normalization of fascists walking in our national halls of power. I'm just... waiting to see more people demonstrate their stated morality with boots on the ground and votes in the seat, I suppose.

It's not just yelling 'no', but tangible action. I think there's a totally justifiable tendency to be really angry about what has happened and blame anyone that has worn the badge that the monsters in the halls of power now wear - and because some NeverTrumpers have fallen pretty publicly short of their responsibilities, to be cynical and claim no one believes it and it was all a mask. I share some of that horror. Watching NeverTrumpers fall by the wayside and kiss the ring has been a more advanced version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and watching it is literally tearing my body apart with revulsion.

But some people do believe it, sincerely, and have spent the years since November, 2016 trying to actually do good in the world - sacrificing connections, friends, and careers they have spent their entire life building in their righteous urge to put their bodies on the machines and stop this any way that they can. And it's easy to sneer (not that you personally are, but it's out there) and say 'well, you should known this would happen, you should have done it earlier', but almost none of us thought Trump would win, and some of us started that process even when we were pretty sure he wouldn't, just in case.

In better times, we called Evan McMullin Mefi's Adopted Own. I haven't seen that around lately, because the times are so horrific it's hard to have even a moment of levity. But he has been genuinely working hard in order to stop this. He formed an organization to stop this. He used Republican analysis to find out where the vulnerable moderate Republicans were, and then used Republican NeverTrump money from Republican NeverTrumper donors to target vulnerable voters in Alabama and tell them to vote against Roy Moore for betraying Republican values[WaPo]. It was the third-largest monetary intervention in the state, and Doug Jones beat Roy Moore by less than the number of write-in candidates. These things absolutely have real, concrete impacts.

If people want to say most NeverTrump elected officials have been spineless, I can't really argue with you there. But there's an enormous core of other high and mid level folks of the Republican party that have been trying to burn down people they used to be loyal to to save the country- who agree with people like Max Boot, for example, in saying things like:

Personally, I’ve thrown up my hands in despair at the debased state of the GOP. I don’t want to be identified with the party of the child-snatchers. But I respect principled conservatives who are willing to stay and fight to reclaim a once-great party that freed the slaves and helped to win the Cold War. What I can’t respect are head-in-the-sand conservatives who continue to support the GOP by pretending that nothing has changed.

They act, these political ostriches, as if this were still the party of Ronald Reagan and John McCain rather than of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller — and therefore they cling to the illusion that supporting Republican candidates will advance their avowed views. Wrong. The current GOP still has a few resemblances to the party of old — it still cuts taxes and supports conservative judges. But a vote for the GOP in November is also a vote for egregious obstruction of justice, rampant conflicts of interest, the demonization of minorities, the debasement of political discourse, the alienation of America’s allies, the end of free trade and the appeasement of dictators.

That is why I join Will and other principled conservatives, both current and former Republicans, in rooting for a Democratic takeover of both houses in November. Like postwar Germany and Japan, the Republican Party must first be destroyed before it can be rebuilt.

posted by corb at 9:41 AM on August 6, 2018 [52 favorites]

Donald Trump has signed an executive order reimposing sanctions on Iran which will come into effect at midnight EST, and relates to the purchase or acquisition of US currency in Iran, the trade in gold and other precious metals, materials such as graphite, aluminium, steel and coal, and software used in industrial processes. They also target the country’ automotive sector.
The remaining sanctions to be reimposed on November 5 relate to Iran’s port operators and energy, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors. Crucially, they will also target its oil industry and foreign financial institutions with the Central Bank of Iran.
posted by adamvasco at 9:42 AM on August 6, 2018

Evidence that Donald Trump knows how to impose sanctions... check.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 9:55 AM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

The NeverTrumpers are still AlwaysLimbaughs and AlwaysHannitys, so I have no use for them. But if they want to destroy the Republican Party to save it, we should let them.
posted by M-x shell at 9:56 AM on August 6, 2018 [18 favorites]

From the quoted part of corb's comment a few upthread:

That is why I join Will and other principled conservatives, both current and former Republicans, in rooting for a Democratic takeover of both houses in November.

Italics mine. I want principled conservatives working for a Democratic takeover. If not, I doubt they are principled.
posted by kingless at 10:01 AM on August 6, 2018 [53 favorites]

Silicon Valley strikes back against Infowars: Apple, Facebook and YouTube have all deleted Alex Jones channels/content from their sites in the last few days.
posted by octothorpe at 10:02 AM on August 6, 2018 [23 favorites]

Agreed on both counts, but I'd be willing to bet that (the Russian meeting) did go somewhere.

According to Trump, the meeting was about ending a program preventing the adoption of Russian children to the United States. This Russian program was itself a response to the Magnistky Act, which sanctions Russian human rights abusers and freezes their foreign assets. This act hurt Russian oligarchs, and Putin especially, hard financially. You can't really talk about lifting the Russian adoption program without talking about lifting the Magnistky Act, which is also talking about getting Putin his money back.

So, even according to Trump's own official story, the meeting was pretty much about getting Putin his money back. On the day of the Russian meeting, Trump's team was holding an all day meeting about getting dirt on Hillary. They had to break to attend the Russian meeting. Again, this is their own official story. Trump's team took a break in the middle of an all day meeting with him about getting dirt on Hillary, to meet with Russians to get dirt on Hillary, and no one told Trump about it or where they were going.

The story is a little disjointed, but you don't have to squint much for their official story to basically be, we met with the Russians, where they explained they would give us dirt on Hillary in return for lifting sanctions to get the Russian oligarchs access to the frozen money they hold for Putin. It's all right there in their official story. In fact, I originally thought Trump Jr.'s story was the prelude to a defense (probably coming) that the Russians did offer him quid quo pro but he was too stupid to know it.
posted by xammerboy at 10:03 AM on August 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

Now if they would just delete fox news.
posted by valkane at 10:04 AM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Attacking the free press has been a staple of Republicanism for several decades, and is in large part how we landed in the current mess to begin with. "Covert fascism" changing to "overt fascism" I'll give you, depending on your demographic group.

There's a difference between a de facto propaganda network and repeatedly and continuously attacking the press as the enemy of the people and encouraging violence against it.

And I'll add destroying the rule of law as another thing Alt-Prez Cruz wouldn't be doing like Trump is. Electing a fascist authoritarian criminal did that.

Italics mine. I want principled conservatives working for a Democratic takeover. If not, I doubt they are principled.

George Will is a writer. He wrote a column to his millions of readers saying Ds are the better choice. That is working for it.

Look, I get that these people helped cause this. I get the anger. But they're not supporting Rs anymore and this is an all hand's on deck situation. We need these people right now to peel away whatever edges of R support they can. R aren't going to listen to us. Some might listen to Will, Wilson, McMullin, whoever. And we need every vote. We can fight with them after Trump is defeated.
posted by chris24 at 10:07 AM on August 6, 2018 [47 favorites]

Silicon Valley strikes back against Infowars: Apple, Facebook and YouTube have all deleted Alex Jones channels/content from their sites in the last few days.

As someone pointed out, there's a real race to be second here after Apple took the lead. They want to be courageous, but not too courageous.
posted by Artw at 10:12 AM on August 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

the core republican platform (antichoice, anti-immigration, lgbt hate disguised as "religious values", hugely racist) is still revolting and unacceptable to women and minorities. i don't care that nevertrumpers are like "well this horrible shit is different from the horrible shit we wanted so we're gonna sigh loudly about it". i'm not interested in their opinions unless their opinions include the complete dissolution of the republican party, a rollback of every single action/law/executive order taken by the current administration, huge fucking astronomical reparations to every single immigrant affected by the current administration, and aggressive denazification of the right wing.

unfortunately i would probably settle for just seeing mcconnell in a wicker man so maybe don't let me set national policy
posted by poffin boffin at 10:12 AM on August 6, 2018 [66 favorites]

George Will is a writer. He wrote a column to his millions of readers saying Ds are the better choice. That is working for it.

Yes, and so is Max Boot. I get that and I'm glad that they're working for it. But as writers, they know that choice of words matters, so I wish Boot had chosen working instead. Rooting isn't enough.
posted by kingless at 10:15 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

In better times, we called Evan McMullin Mefi's Adopted Own. I haven't seen that around lately, because the times are so horrific it's hard to have even a moment of levity. But he has been genuinely working hard in order to stop this.

McMullin is actually a perfect example of how nothing about the GOP has changed. I said it all before:

McMullin is an anti-woman scumbag that wants to defund Planned Parenthood and overturn Roe v Wade, a former Goldman-Sachs exec who gets upset when anyone wants to tax the rich more, and a former CIA agent. His policy regarding public lands is far more in line with violent wackjobs like the Bundys than anyone else. He supports privatization of wide swaths of public services, including the VA and most or all of the public school system. He wants to gut the social safety net and then make it harder for anyone to have access to it. He wants to appoint more "originalists" (read: bigots and corporate pawns) to the SCOTUS, specifically more like Scalia and Thomas (his words). He supports racist, anti-democratic (and anti-Democrat) voter suppression policies. Despite his claims that he believes in anthropogenic climate change, he refuses to support any legislation or regulation that would fix the problem. He does support fracking, increased offshore drilling, and defunding alternative power subsidies.

Evan McMullin isn't your friend, folks. He isn't even actually a Third Way-style "moderate." He's just the right-wing fringe dressed up to look appealing to NeverTrumpers that are desperate for any way to remain conservatives without ever accepting responsibility for their conservatism getting us here in the first place.

posted by zombieflanders at 10:17 AM on August 6, 2018 [76 favorites]

Yes, and so is Max Boot. I get that and I'm glad that they're working for it. But as writers, they know that choice of words matters, so I wish Boot had chosen working instead. Rooting isn't enough.

"Rooting for" and "working for" are words you choose when you want to avoid at all costs the words "voting for."
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:18 AM on August 6, 2018 [43 favorites]

Yes, that would be the best word.
posted by kingless at 10:24 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

yeah, the fact that Will, McMullin et al., are trying to 'save' the Republican party at all indicates that they just want to go back to the time when they had plausible deniability about all the horrible consequences of their principles. They actually like all the horrible stuff, they just don't want to be seen liking it. Instead of stepping back and reflecting on how the current republican party is the logical endpoint of the principles it has championed, and maybe getting themselves some new principles in the process, they would really like you to forget that this unfortunate incident ever happened so they can get back to fucking that goat in peace.
posted by logicpunk at 10:26 AM on August 6, 2018 [24 favorites]

Look, I get that these people helped cause this. I get the anger. But they're not supporting Rs anymore and this is an all hand's on deck situation.

"Not supporting Rs anymore" by name maybe, but by all indications the policies are still safe.
posted by rhizome at 10:26 AM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Rooting for" and "working for" are words you choose when you want to avoid at all costs the words "voting for."

George Will: Vote against the GOP this November

And this is the article Boot links to in his column when he says:

"But a vote for the GOP in November is also a vote for egregious obstruction of justice, rampant conflicts of interest, the demonization of minorities, the debasement of political discourse, the alienation of America’s allies, the end of free trade and the appeasement of dictators.

That is why I join Will and other principled conservatives, both current and former Republicans, in rooting for a Democratic takeover of both houses in November. Like postwar Germany and Japan, the Republican Party must be destroyed before it can be rebuilt."

They are saying vote against the GOP. They're saying destroy the fucking thing.
posted by chris24 at 10:27 AM on August 6, 2018 [59 favorites]

Folks, the NeverTrump thing is, at this point, a solid derail. Let's move on.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 10:33 AM on August 6, 2018 [25 favorites]

Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul has gone all-in on his upgrade from isolationist to Russia-phile.

CNN: Rand Paul, in Moscow, Invites Russian Lawmakers to Washington

Sen. Rand Paul on Monday invited Russian lawmakers to Washington after meeting Russian members of parliament in Moscow.

"I am pleased to announced that we will be continuing this contact," Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said in Moscow. "We agreed and we invited members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia to come to the US to meet with us in the US, in Washington."

Paul is in Moscow meeting with Russian lawmakers in a trip he sees as a continuation of US President Donald Trump's diplomatic outreach to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and comes several weeks after Trump invited Putin to DC as well. Paul has been one of Trump's most outspoken supporters following the criticism Trump faced -- including from some within his own party -- for the US President's handling of his meeting with Putin in July.[...]

Paul is also expected to meet with Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov and State Duma Foreign Affairs committee head Leonid Slutsky during his visit, and plans to continue speaking on Tuesday. The US delegation also plans to visit Saint Petersburg.

When asked by CNN whether the issue of Russian interference came up, Paul said he had "general discussions about a lot of issues."[...]

Russian state media also reported that Slutsky asked Paul about Maria Butina, the Russian national charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of Russia within the US.

"We are interested in non-proliferation (of small and medium-range missiles). We are interested (in the topic of) sanctions, we are interested in Maria Butina and her early release. We will continue our conversation with our American counterparts tomorrow on these and other most likely regional issues of the international agenda," Slutsky said, according to Russian state media.

It's worth asking why Paul would like to repatriate Butina as badly as the Russians, especially in light of J. D. Gordon's remark, "I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn't come across."

As for how the Kremlin feels about Paul, Russia media analyst Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) breaks this down their new relationship:

#Russia's state TV:
The host responds to panelist's observation that Rand Paul is not well-liked in the US:
"At least he's one of the few loyalists."

#Russia's state TV is pretty specific as to why they consider Rand Paul "a loyalist":
🔻Voted against Russia sanctions
🔻Voted against Montenegro joining NATO
🔻Supported Trump's performance at the #HelsinkiSummit

posted by Doktor Zed at 10:34 AM on August 6, 2018 [34 favorites]

Ron Paul is also a Putin apologist.
posted by peeedro at 10:37 AM on August 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

News You May Have Missed for August 5, 2018. This is the FB group I founded, and run with a small group of volunteers. (MeMail me if you'd like to be involved.) A lot of our stories Mefites are aware of already but we have a science section that isn't covered in these threads (always at the end) and we have some stories you... may have missed.

Of note to Mefites (links at the post linked above, this is excerpted from the full thing to include only the stories I haven't seen mentioned in these mega-threads):

Rock the Vote has a website where you can check your voter registration status.

(3) White House Records

White House stenographers follow the president, record everything he says, and transcribe it for posterity and the press. NPR reports that the Trump White House routinely allows private presidential meetings without stenographers in attendance.

Russian transcripts and US transcripts of US-Russian conversations don’t always match, as was the case with accused spy Maria Butina, who was mentioned by Russia’s foreign ministry as a topic of discussion in a telephone call about which the White House version makes no mention [Guardian]. Not that the Russian foreign ministry isn’t above lying, but this has also happened with calls from Canada. “After Trump spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in April 2017, the two sides offered vastly different accounts of what was discussed,” reports CNN, in a story stating that the White House has now simply stopped providing readouts of calls with foreign leaders.

(4) Russian Hacking Round-up

(e) We keep being reassured that Russian hackers were unable to directly tamper with actual votes, and NYMHM is agnostic on this issue until further evidence comes to light, but notes that directly changing votes is not the only way to steal an election: for example, with voter registration data, likely voters’ social media can be targeted with messages to encourage them not to vote, or to vote third party, as has already been widely reported.

With access to the electrical grid, power outages in strategically-chosen minority-majority neighborhoods would suppress Democratic turnout. We absolutely don’t know that this happened, and you might expect a few power outages on any given day nationwide in any case, but our NYMHM volunteer in Nashville remembers a short power outage, and The Tennessean backs up her memory: a power outage at Casa Azafran Community Center (on Nolensville Road, in a neighborhood with a high Latino population) “caused a brief lull at the polls on the last day of early voting.” A brief internet search yields a story from WCPO Cincinnati about two polling places, Warren County Board of Elections office and Faith Building Church, hit by a power outage on Election Day, and another story by Myrtle Beach Online about an outage which hit the Homewood polling site in Conway, Florida. All power outages which affected any polling place should be investigated.

(5) Ethnonationalism On The Rise

Having ethnonationalism in common is apparently now enough to constitute a communal bond: hate group League of the South has launched a Russian-language page to promote “Southern nationalism.” Following Advance Local’s link to the League of the South’s page reveals they are also now planning a Chinese-language page. Their menu does not display any languages besides English and Russian.

(If you do decide to go to their page, be sure to do so in an incognito window, or internet algorithms may decide you like that sort of thing and start targeting you with related advertising.)

(11) No Assistance for Needy Families Yet

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program will expire Sept. 30. Republicans hope to “restructure” the program and are still working on details, so it hasn’t been renewed yet. [rollcall.com]

14. Climate Change Round-up

The climate change lawsuit filed by 21 young people against the federal government, Juliana v. United States, has been allowed by the Supreme Court to proceed. According to Forbes, the plaintiffs—who were between 7-18 when the suit was launched, allege that the U.S. government “caused climate change, violated the youngest generation's constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and failed to protect essential public trust resources.” For more on the plaintiffs, see the link to the 2017 National Geographic story in the comments.

An interesting piece in NY Magazine (August 6) reflects on the fires around the world and asks how climate change became “old news.” Pointing out that heat records were broken all over the world in July, the writer notes that “The major networks aired 127 segments on the unprecedented July heat wave, Media Matters usefully tabulated, and only one so much as mentioned climate change.”

It’s behind a paywall, but the New Republic also has a piece on the media’s failures on climate change.

In addition, Conn Hallinan points out in Counterpunch that climate change—likely to be intensified by the US withdrawal from the Paris Accords—extends the reach of disease-carrying ticks and fleas, while the Trump administration’s complete cut for funds to respond to Ebola means that the disease will spread. Other cuts to international health organization and proposed reductions in regulations covering factory farming will almost certainly lead to the spread of disease.

Meanwhile, if you missed the piece last December from the Center for Public Integrity on collusion between the fossil fuel industry and the White House, it’s not too to read it. Link in the comments.

(15) Fuel Efficiency Standards Kill People, According to the EPA

In a related story, the EPA has begun to unravel Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, which would have required a company’s line of new vehicles to achieve, on average, 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. As Vox points out, “weaker regulations will simultaneously help the dirtiest, hurt the cleanest, and derail years of tenuous progress in reducing environmental harm from a massive and growing source of pollution.” A showdown with California, which along with other states wants to maintain high fuel efficiency requirements, is expected.

Though the new guidelines were on track, according to the old version of the EPA, the present incarnation says they are technologically infeasible. This new EPA argues that because improved efficiency standards are costly and will raise the price of cars, people will not upgrade from less safe cars, and therefore will be more likely to die on the highway. Lowering fuel efficiency will save 1000 lives a year, according to the EPA. It does not calculate the number of lives lost to climate change. (Vox)

The #CleanCarStandards 60 day comment period is likely to start sometime next month, with hearings expected in LA, D.C., and Detroit. @EENewsUpdates

16. Bioengineered Lungs in our Future?

Despite the many exhortations at DMV offices, not enough people sign up to be organ donors and hence 1,400 Americans are waiting for a life-saving lung transplant. Now, bioengineered lungs may become a reality in five-ten years, thanks to researchers at the University of Texas. The researchers essentially cleared all but the basic structure from pig lungs and then regrew them, using cells from the recipient pigs’ lungs. All were successfully transplanted. The most significant advantage of bioengineered lungs is that they match the recipients’ own body and therefore do not trigger rejection. [Science Alert, Science Mag]
posted by joannemerriam at 10:41 AM on August 6, 2018 [26 favorites]

We Can Criticize U.S. Imperialism and Oppose Putin, Too

Putin, a self-enriching reactionary, is building an international alliance of autocrats, as evidenced by his partnerships with far-right nationalist parties in Hungary, France and Italy—partnerships built around the promotion of ethno-nationalism, xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia and the rejection of democracy. In this endeavor, he has also forged ties between Russia and the American religious Right, which shares his White Christian nationalist and anti-gay ideology. It is an open question whether Russian interference altered the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. But if the Russians get more adept at hacking state voting systems, it could be a real problem in the future. Unfortunately, discounting that interference reflects a tendency on parts of the Left to not take electoral politics seriously.

Such dismissal also risks alienating the very people whose interests the Left purports to champion—Black and Brown people, and immigrants. The cruel and gratuitous separation of refugee families seeking asylum, the rollback of Obamacare, withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, a colossal tax bill that shifted wealth upward, and the failure to raise the minimum wage (which Democrats would have raised)—all these things are happening because Trump got elected, and they are hurting the least among us the most.

A truly internationalist Left must persist in resisting reactionary global actors everywhere. As Bree Newsome, the young woman who took down the Confederate flag in Columbia, S.C., warned, the situation with Russia is not a side issue or a distraction: “The Trump-Putin alliance is part of the global white supremacist fascist movement. Let’s not forget that.”

posted by tonycpsu at 10:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

WTF is with GOP Senators (and the occasional Rep), cozying up to Russia? There's not a whole lot of upside for the nation as a whole in pitching aside the system that worked well for it since 1944 and linking arms with a middling economic power that doesn't share many of our stated* national values (transparency, accountability, respect for human rights, support for democratic governance, et cetera).

Baffling.

--------
*Right, we too often fall short.
posted by notyou at 10:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

WTF is with GOP Senators (and the occasional Rep), cozying up to Russia?

It's because Russia is seen by racists as the last bastion of a White Europe.
posted by PenDevil at 10:50 AM on August 6, 2018 [18 favorites]

Wait until they realize what continent it’s mostly on.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:55 AM on August 6, 2018 [42 favorites]

Also because Russia helped them win the White House and now they have to be nice to them or they might not be friendly to the Republican Party anymore. The conflict-of-interest in which is why we have an emoluments clause.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:56 AM on August 6, 2018 [36 favorites]

Also because the GOP is so over having to figure out how to solve actual American problems and address actual American's concerns for the last 40 years. Things like healthcare, voting rights, social services, wage growth, etc. Just letting Russia take over is much easier.
posted by Harry Caul at 11:00 AM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

RNC was also hacked and nothing released. Maybe there's nothing dirty in whatever Russia got, but I know that every time a Trump & Co. email has been leaked or released through other means it's been criminal as hell.
posted by chris24 at 11:03 AM on August 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

Saudi state-run media threatening Canada for asking about detained women't rights activists. More than a bit over the top.
Story from AlJazeerayoutube
posted by Harry Caul at 11:08 AM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Well, maybe that’ll convince Trudeau to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:18 AM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

More on Kremlin attitudes toward Sen. Paul from Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews)

Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the Council of the Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs, who is under U.S. sanctions, said that Rand Paul "has access to the top U.S. leadership, is close to Donald Trump, and we expect that we will be able to convey our signals through him."

#Russia's state TV:
@Dr_Ariel_Cohen: “We don’t know whether he [Rand Paul] delivered any secret messages from Trump to the Russian side. That is unknown to us.”
The host asks Konstantin Kosachev: “Did he or didn’t he?”
Kosachev, grinning: “It’s known to us, but I won’t tell.”

Kremlin trolling nothwithstanding, the odds have increased that Paul is serving as a back-channel between Trump and Putin.

@paulconstant
They're actually selling and buying shirts at Trump rallies that say "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."

Russian state media got hold of one, per Davis: #Russia's state TV host says: ‘Look, these T-shirts are now being sold in the United States and are in high demand in the Republican camp. It says, "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat." Note how the trends change with the times."’
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:22 AM on August 6, 2018 [26 favorites]

gwint: A little bit of good news: Judge's ruling invalidates FEC regulation allowing anonymous donations to 'dark money' groups

Unfortunately, this is not the final say, and there are some notable loop-holes:

A U.S. District Court judge on Friday [August 3, 2018] issued a ruling invalidating a Federal Election Commission regulation that has allowed donors to so-called dark-money groups to remain anonymous, the latest development in a years-long legal battle that could have major implications for campaign finance.

Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled the FEC's current regulation of such groups, including 501(c) 4 non-profits, fails to uphold the standard Congress intended when it required the disclosure of politically related spending.

"The challenged regulation facilitates such financial 'routing,' blatantly undercuts the congressional goal of fully disclosing the sources of money flowing into federal political campaigns, and thereby suppresses the benefits intended to accrue from disclosure ... ," wrote Howell, an Obama appointee to the D.C district court. The decision is likely to be appealed.

The decision paves the way for new requirements that could force nonprofits to disclose donors who give least $200 toward influencing federal elections. (Social-welfare nonprofits such as Crossroads GPS are allowed to spend money on elections so long as it's not their "major purpose.")

But there is some optimism to balance those concerning notes:

The FEC now has 45 days to issue interim regulations that uphold the broader disclosure standards and 30 days to reconsider its original decision to dismiss a complaint about the Crossroads GPS' spending in the Ohio race.

The FEC could appeal the decision, but an appeal would require a unanimous vote from all of the remaining commissioners, since two seats remain vacant. Crossroads could also file an appeal.

30 days out is Sunday, September 2, 2018, and 45 days puts us at Monday, September 17, 2018, assuming those are two separate processes.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:23 AM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm a legal filing wonk, so this stuff interests me. I don't remember seeing it here, so FYI: A few days ago, NY filed a Motion To Dismiss in the NRA's lawsuit.

Basically, "Your honor, the plaintiff is full of shit"

And JFC, Barbara Underwood is loaded for bear.
posted by mikelieman at 11:39 AM on August 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

Marine kicked out of Marine Corps for role in Charlottesville white supremacist march

Vasillios Pistolis served 28 days of confinement at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina after being convicted at a court martial for disobeying orders and making false statements, in connection with his role in the deadly Charlottesville rally, in August 2017.

[...]

“Today cracked three skulls open with virtually no damage to myself,” he wrote on Aug. 12 — the day of the violent rally and counterprotest, in which Heather Heyer was killed.

Photographs taken at the rally depict Pistolis clubbing a counter-protester with a wooden flagpole.

posted by jgirl at 11:44 AM on August 6, 2018 [62 favorites]

Marine kicked out of Marine Corps for role in Charlottesville white supremacist march

And nothing of value was lost.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:49 AM on August 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

Trump Endorses Kris Kobach, Giving Kansas Democrats a Huge Gift

(Benjamin Hart | NYMag)

On Monday morning, President Trump un-shockingly overrode the advice of his advisers and enthusiastically endorsed voter-fraud obsessive and Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach. ... Trump’s intervention is also a godsend for likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee Laura Kelly. She would be delighted to run against Kobach instead of Colyer in the fall, seeing that he comes equipped with a few overhead bins’ worth of baggage.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:49 AM on August 6, 2018 [22 favorites]

Trump admin asks Supreme Court to re-kill already-dead net neutrality rules -- FCC and DOJ want to erase pro-net neutrality precedent as repeal faces lawsuit. (Jon Brodkin for Ars Technica, Aug. 6, 2018)

The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to vacate the 2016 court ruling that upheld the Obama-era net neutrality rules in a strategy that could help uphold the Federal Communications Commission's recent repeal of those rules.

The rules themselves are no longer on the books, having been repealed by the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai, Trump's pick to lead the commission. But broadband industry lobby groups appealed to the US Supreme Court in September 2017 anyway, asking the nation's highest court to rule that the Obama-era FCC exceeded its authority when it reclassified Internet providers in order to impose stricter regulations.

Lawyers for the FCC and Department of Justice filed a brief with the Supreme Court Friday, supporting the broadband industry's case. The DOJ and FCC noted that the case "appears to be moot" because of Pai's repeal of the net neutrality rules and that the future of net neutrality will be decided in a new case in which dozens of litigants sued Pai's FCC to reverse the repeal.

But instead of letting the 2016 US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling stand, the DOJ and FCC argued that it shouldn't act as a precedent during the current litigation over Pai's repeal.

Related reading: Trump’s Supreme Court pick: ISPs have 1st Amendment right to block websites -- Net neutrality violates ISPs' right to edit the Internet, judge wrote. (Jon Brodkin for Ars Technica, July 10, 2018)

President Trump's Supreme Court nominee argued last year that net neutrality rules violate the First Amendment rights of Internet service providers by preventing them from "exercising editorial control" over Internet content.

Trump's pick is Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The DC Circuit twice upheld the net neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, despite Kavanaugh's dissent. (In another tech-related case, Kavanaugh ruled that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone metadata is legal.)

While current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai eliminated the net neutrality rules, Kavanaugh could help restrict the FCC's authority to regulate Internet providers as a member of the Supreme Court. Broadband industry lobby groups have continued to seek Supreme Court review of the legality of Wheeler's net neutrality rules even after Pai's repeal.

Editorial control? Prohibit or control the transportation of hazardous materials, like on rails, roads and in airplanes I'd get, but this is grotesque.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:51 AM on August 6, 2018 [26 favorites]

RNC was also hacked and nothing released. Maybe there's nothing dirty in whatever Russia got,

The theory that QAnon is JFK Jr. is more plausible than there being nothing dirty in the RNC emails.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:52 AM on August 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

Trump admin asks Supreme Court to re-kill already-dead net neutrality rules

I can't even tell how many negatives that is.
posted by Melismata at 11:53 AM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

sever the zombie-head of freedom
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:04 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump
Governor Jerry Brown must allow the Free Flow of the vast amounts of water coming from the North and foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Can be used for fires, farming and everything else. Think of California with plenty of Water - Nice! Fast Federal govt. approvals.

As a native of California with a background in climate science it especially rustles my jimmies to see him hold forth on western hydrology. There's no goddamned water to spare in CA. We're not going to put a sprinkler every 50 feet for 160,000 square miles.

But what haunts me the most is the assertion that all the water flows from the north, which is inexplicable. Unless you believe that north = up.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:06 PM on August 6, 2018 [92 favorites]

On Monday morning, President Trump un-shockingly overrode the advice of his advisers and enthusiastically endorsed voter-fraud obsessive and Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach. ... Trump’s intervention is also a godsend for likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee Laura Kelly. She would be delighted to run against Kobach instead of Colyer in the fall, seeing that he comes equipped with a few overhead bins’ worth of baggage.

We all thought Trump would be the easiest candidate to run against. Unless Kobach has been caught with a dead girl or a live boy it's still an upward climb with the risk of the world's second most vicious douchebag given the keys to the state in order to turn it into his own personal fiefdom.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 12:06 PM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

But what haunts me the most is the assertion that all the water flows from the north, which is inexplicable. Unless you believe that north = up.

Or that north = white.
posted by Etrigan at 12:10 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Editorial control? Prohibit or control the transportation of hazardous materials, like on rails, roads and in airplanes I'd get, but this is grotesque.

Today is the day that Facebook, YouTube, and iTunes all kicked Alex Jones off their platform. All over the internet right wing nut jobs are crying "Free speech" while people like me argue "The first amendment does not require social media companies to host this garbage anymore than it requires traditional media companies to publish every letter to the editor they receive."

Alex Jones is leading a harassment campaign against the families of murdered kindergartners, and it is my opinion that anyone who amplifies his message is complicit, so I am thrilled to see Google, Facebook, and Apple finally taking some responsibility for what they publish.

I think "de-platforming" is consistent with the first amendment, and have tried to help Sleeping Giants in their campaign to get advertising networks to stop funding Breitbart, etc.

My argument generally takes this same form -- if you are delivering content to a large audience, you are a PUBLISHER and you have not only a right but also a DUTY to exercise editorial control over that content.

I am a little puzzled as to how to reconcile that with my preference for net neutrality, though. If ISPs are not publishers but merely common carriers, then why can't Facebook make the same claim? If publishers are allowed to decide not to carry content that does not meet their quality and ethical standards, why should they not be allowed to decide not to carry content that's not sufficiently profitable for them?

I could use some help resolving this tension. I hate contradicting myself.
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:12 PM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

Today is the day that Facebook, YouTube, and iTunes all kicked Alex Jones off their platform. All over the internet right wing nut jobs are crying "Free speech"

An interesting juxtaposition with this:

President Trump's Supreme Court nominee argued last year that net neutrality rules violate the First Amendment rights of Internet service providers by preventing them from "exercising editorial control" over Internet content.

Almost like the right wing's support of free speech isn't sincerely held at all.
posted by dng at 12:17 PM on August 6, 2018 [24 favorites]

I am a little puzzled as to how to reconcile that with my preference for net neutrality, though. If ISPs are not publishers but merely common carriers, then why can't Facebook make the same claim? If publishers are allowed to decide not to carry content that does not meet their quality and ethical standards, why should they not be allowed to decide not to carry content that's not sufficiently profitable for them?

Content providers are numerous and it's easy to switch between them. Choosing the content that's provided is their job, and if you don't like the job they're doing you can get it from someone else. In contrast, ISPs are few and switching is hard. Because it's such a poor environment for competition, you don't want to let the market handle the question of "which ISP actually lets your packets through".
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:19 PM on August 6, 2018 [25 favorites]

If publishers are allowed to decide not to carry content that does not meet their quality and ethical standards, why should they not be allowed to decide not to carry content that's not sufficiently profitable for them?

Because you have to separate "publishers" from "carriers." Your internet should work like your phone. If you dial a number, it should go through to that number, no matter what carrier or who it is. If you go to a website, your ISP should deliver the content that website is sending. (Aside from clear dangers such as malware that can damage your computer and the network.) Publishers, on the other hand, are free to publish what they want subject to applicable laws (libel, etc.) You're paying your carrier to deliver that published content. The carrier should not have a say in what content you get and don't get.
posted by azpenguin at 12:24 PM on August 6, 2018 [50 favorites]

" We're not going to put a sprinkler every 50 feet for 160,000 square miles."

Oh please. He didn't even want to put a sprinkler every 50 feet in a building he built.

Obviously he wants to coat all of California in asbestos.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:28 PM on August 6, 2018 [87 favorites]

azpenguin: If you go to a website, your ISP should deliver the content that website is sending. (Aside from clear dangers such as malware that can damage your computer and the network.)

Even that, as far as I know, isn't something ISPs currently tend to bother with? I guess they block denial-of-service attacks on themselves, but they don't get into the business of keeping customers safe from malware or phishing, yeah?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 12:28 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Think of California with plenty of Water - Nice!

As usual, his stunning arrogance there’s an easy answer to fix the world that other people Just Aren’t Thinking Of is mind blowing.
posted by corb at 12:34 PM on August 6, 2018 [35 favorites]

But what haunts me the most is the assertion that all the water flows from the north, which is inexplicable. Unless you believe that north = up.

Or that north = white.

Sure, maybe the racism is part of it. But as an expat Son of the State of Jefferson, what I see here is Trump tapping into one of the deeper wells of resentment rural NorCal folks feel* toward folks from the richer, southern** parts of the state, which is that they may have all the money and culture and class, but where would they be without our water.

-----------------------
*It always felt performative to me, but if you pretend enough, maybe you start to believe it.
**Yeah, San Franciscans, up there you are part of Down South, too.
posted by notyou at 12:35 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

>> If publishers are allowed to decide not to carry content that does not meet their quality and ethical standards, why should they not be allowed to decide not to carry content that's not sufficiently profitable for them?

> Because you have to separate "publishers" from "carriers."

To put it in the form of a futile analogy: the Democratic party (a publisher) is not obliged to equally advertise Republican positions in the flyers they mail you, but you should be pretty upset if your letter carrier decided not to deliver flyers from the Republican party to your mailbox "for your own good". Or if the Postal service decided that they would charge political parties extra for the privilege of on-time delivery into your mailbox instead of a deliberate 3-day hold - that would be unacceptable.

The question is, is Comcast more like the postal service (or your power company), or more like the New Yorker (or Breitbart). Phrased like that, the answer seems obvious.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:35 PM on August 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

Come on, let's stop acting like the fires thing is some kind of logical argument. He is just trying to pretend that the current California news item--fires--somehow supports the environmental policy of conservative Californians--allowing free exploitation of all natural resources, including allowing more logging, and diverting all natural surface water to commercial and agricultural use. Everyone knows that these policies will not help reduce fires. There is no argument, it's just "name a news item, and then claim you should get to do what you want".
posted by agentofselection at 12:38 PM on August 6, 2018 [46 favorites]

The question is, is Comcast more like the postal service (or your power company), or more like the New Yorker (or Breitbart). Phrased like that, the answer seems obvious.

Which one are Facebook and iTunes more like?
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:41 PM on August 6, 2018

Think of California with plenty of Water - Nice!

As usual, his stunning arrogance there’s an easy answer to fix the world that other people Just Aren’t Thinking Of is mind blowing.

Like how all of Kanye's tweets should be read as starting with "Liz Lemon..." and all fortune cookies should be read as ending with "...in bed", all of Trump's tweets should be read as starting with "Long-time listener, first-time caller...".
posted by Etrigan at 12:43 PM on August 6, 2018 [56 favorites]

‘Facts develop’: The Trump team’s new ‘alternative facts’-esque ways to explain its falsehoods

(Aaron Blake | WaPo)

As president, Donald Trump has uttered more than 4,000 falsehoods or misleading statements. And the spokespeople and advisers tasked with squaring Trump's version of reality with actual reality must often contort themselves accordingly. Early in the administration, this meant Kellyanne Conway talking about how the administration had “alternative facts.” Later, it was Sean Spicer explaining that he didn't “knowingly” lie to the American people.

On Sunday, they tried a couple of new tacks: asserting that “facts develop” and saying that the president “misspoke” — while saying something he has said dozens of times.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:44 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

We all thought Trump would be the easiest candidate to run against. Unless Kobach has been caught with a dead girl or a live boy it's still an upward climb with the risk of the world's second most vicious douchebag given the keys to the state in order to turn it into his own personal fiefdom.

Agreed. While I think Laura Kelly is a very electable Democrat, there's just something about Kobach that really pushes the hate-dopamine button for Kansas conservatives. I'm assuming that he'll take the primary tomorrow, but I'd almost rather have the nearly invisible, no record to speak of, definitely won't drive turn out Colyer instead of Kobach.

My personal hope is that Kobach will continue to not be able to get out of his own way and end up turning off enough voters to drive down R turnout. The dream scenario is that he's so toxic that the KS-02 and KS-03 both flip, as well as the Governorship.
posted by god hates math at 12:46 PM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Politico tweet: BREAKING: Rick Gates, the longtime deputy of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is set to take the stand Monday afternoon in Manafort's trial on charges of bank and tax fraud related to overseas earnings

CNN Live blog on Manafort trial
posted by AFABulous at 12:47 PM on August 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

There is no argument, it's just "name a news item, and then claim you should get to do what you want".

He'll do anything for attention. He doesn't just name drop celebrities, he name drops issues. (and probably jumps on any trending hashtag. sad)

When he starts yapping about MLK Jr, he's really trying to make a (distracting) stink.
posted by puddledork at 12:54 PM on August 6, 2018

They're actually selling and buying shirts at Trump rallies that say "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."

How long before there are shirts that say "I'd rather be an American than a Republican"?

'Cos I will totally buy one. One for all my friends, too.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 12:55 PM on August 6, 2018 [99 favorites]

Rick Gates is, for reasons that seem both slightly elusive and not particularly important at this stage, not testifying next. Rumors of his appearance/non-appearance seem to be invoked more as arguments than actual indications of his presence.
posted by zachlipton at 1:02 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

" We're not going to put a sprinkler every 50 feet for 160,000 square miles."

Oh please. He didn't even want to put a sprinkler every 50 feet in a building he built.

Obviously he wants to coat all of California in asbestos.

Trump Tower is more likely to have a person die in a fire than the state of California on a per capita basis if you extrapolate from recent data.
posted by srboisvert at 1:06 PM on August 6, 2018 [37 favorites]

Saudi state-run media threatening Canada for asking about detained women't rights activists. More than a bit over the top.

Gosh, I didn't have "Saudis joking about their involvement with 9/11 while threatening Canada" on my bingo card.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:10 PM on August 6, 2018 [29 favorites]

RNC was also hacked and nothing released. Maybe there's nothing dirty in whatever Russia got,

The stuff on the Dems was nothing dirty and that's why it was released. They knew the media would still spin it into something and the value in hoarding it was zero.

The stuff they have on the Republicans is probably way more valuable and usable for blackmail and thus will not be given away for free.
posted by srboisvert at 1:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [37 favorites]

CNN is saying Gates is in the courtroom and on his way to the stand.
posted by Brainy at 1:31 PM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

@ReutersPolitics: JUST IN: Rick Gates testifies that he committed crimes with Paul Manafort

@qjurecic: This tweet has a beautiful simplicity to it

@aedwardslevy: i guess rick rolled
posted by zachlipton at 1:38 PM on August 6, 2018 [133 favorites]

A philosophical debate on the nature of ISPs and social media needs to be in a thread that isn't this one. Thanks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 1:39 PM on August 6, 2018 [18 favorites]

@NBCNews BREAKING: Rick Gates in trial:

Prosecutor: "Were you involved in any criminal activity with Mr. Manafort?"

Gates: "Yes."

Prosecutor: "Did you commit any crimes with Mr. Manafort?"

Gates: "Yes."
posted by scalefree at 1:44 PM on August 6, 2018 [86 favorites]

If you are at all interested in issues around congress, harassment, and data analysis then this WaPo article about what congressional offices have the highest turnover rates (you have to go past the conventional-wisdom-debunking in the first half of the article) is really interesting.
posted by phearlez at 1:50 PM on August 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

The GAO produced a report on the border wall: CBP Is Evaluating Designs and Locations for Border Barriers but Is Proceeding Without Key Information

From the conclusion:

DHS plans to spend billions of dollars developing and deploying new barriers along the southwest border. However, by proceeding without key information on cost, acquisition baselines, and the contributions of previous barrier and technology deployments, DHS faces an increased risk that the Border Wall System Program will cost more than projected, take longer than planned, or not fully perform as expected. Without assessing costs when prioritizing locations for future barriers, CBP does not have complete information to determine whether it is using its limited resources in the most cost-effective manner and does not have important cost information that would help it develop future budget requests.

In other words, the government should find out how much stuff costs first or the project will be expensive, slow, and/or not work.

----

Speaking of things that are expensive, slow, and/or do not work:

@jjouvenal: Rick Gates admits on stand he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort.

@gelles: Rick Gates testifies that he and Paul Manafort had 15 foreign accounts they did not report to the federal government, and knew it was illegal. He said he did not submit the required forms "at Mr. Manafort's direction."

@jimsciutto: I have seen some cold stares in my life but watching Paul Manafort stare down his former deputy, arms crossed, as Rick Gates recounted the long list of his alleged crimes was remarkable. #ManafortTrial
posted by zachlipton at 1:59 PM on August 6, 2018 [79 favorites]

Almost like the right wing's support of free speech isn't sincerely held at all.

We've already established in this very thread that right-wing rioters are willing to enter a bookstore associated with opinions they don't like, harass and intimidate the staff and customers, and destroy books whose titles confuse and frighten them. I think we all know precisely what value they place on freedom of expression.
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:01 PM on August 6, 2018 [18 favorites]

I have seen some cold stares in my life but watching Paul Manafort stare down his former deputy, arms crossed, as Rick Gates recounted the long list of his alleged crimes was remarkable.

Ja? How does it stack up against, say, Mike Pence's Steely Intimidator?
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:02 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Always with the bluster and the drama with these guys. Til the money's gone.
posted by Harry Caul at 2:07 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

So if one were trying to explain the significance of this testimony to a person who had not been following these threads, how might one do that?
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:21 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Manafort and Gates avoiding paying taxes on millions of dollars of income and Manafort is boned.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

As a long-time Californian, the whole water thing read to me like a dogwhistle to the State of Jefferson conspiracy theory, which shares more than a little DNA with the various GUBMINT OVERREACH conspiracy theories so beloved of this administration.

It is an article of ironclad faith among the AM Radio crowd and the right wing that Southern California (everything south of, say, Mendocino, which includes the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, etc) is "stealing" the ~~precious bodily fluids~~ water of good, pure (white) Northern California and using it for things like being liberal communist hippies and sheltering vast hordes of lawless brown people who use up social services and also take very long showers.

I'm not saying that Trump or his administration believe in the State of Jefferson nonsense (although nothing would surprise me at this point), but I think there's a non-zero chance that people in Trump's circle, and probably Trump himself, have heard from FOX News or Alex Jones or the talking badger in the White House hedges about this water thing and know it in their bones to be true, and, welp. Combine a room-temperature IQ with the self-control of a deranged magpie, and you get another Trump tweet special, where everyone who isn't a complete lunatic is baffled.
posted by scrump at 2:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [31 favorites]

So if one were trying to explain the significance of this testimony to a person who had not been following these threads, how might one do that?

It's damning. It's probably going to get Manafort convicted. And then Manafort will have to decide at his sentencing hearing whether he wants to try to come to some agreement with the government to get a reduced sentence.

If he does want to come to such an agreement, the government is going to ask him some hard questions about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. And they are going to demand that he substantiate his answers.

This Gates testimony puts an enormous amount of pressure on Manafort to turn state's evidence on Donald Trump.
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [60 favorites]

(CNN) Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2013 asserted that it's a "traditional exercise" of presidential power to ignore laws the White House views as unconstitutional, as he defended the controversial practice of signing statements prevalent in George W. Bush's White House.

The comments could put a renewed focus on Kavanaugh's time serving as White House staff secretary, who had a role in coordinating Bush's statements accompanying legislation he signed into law. Critics contend that the Bush White House abused the use of signing statements to ignore laws passed by Congress, though Bush and his allies said such statements were no different than the practices of other administrations.
posted by Bella Donna at 2:29 PM on August 6, 2018 [32 favorites]

Here's a WaPo live-update about the Gates testimony, if anyone wants a link that's not a tweet.
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:40 PM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

This Gates testimony puts an enormous amount of pressure on Manafort to turn state's evidence on Donald Trump.

But almost certainly not enough. I maintain that Paul Manafort will always be more frightened of Russian retaliation against himself and his family than he is of spending his life in prison.
posted by schadenfrau at 2:49 PM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

You know, I used to think the same thing. I’m not so sure now. TPM Prime has a piece up on Manafort that makes him out to be a pretty unstable guy overall. I don’t think there’s any predicting his reaction. It could be pretty bonkers.
posted by lazaruslong at 2:52 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Rick Gates admits he stole money from Manafort so the defense is going to make him out to be the crook. But the rebuttal is to say that if your job is hiding money from the government for your boss, it pretty easy to skim a little for yourself.

"He is a crook because he stole some of the money we were hiding from the government. Don't trust him." isn't exactly the best defense against claims of hiding money from the government.
posted by srboisvert at 2:53 PM on August 6, 2018 [30 favorites]

Here's an NYT link.

Rick Gates Testifies He Committed Crimes With Paul Manafort
By Sharon LaFraniere and Emily Cochrane

Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort were so close that some witnesses referred to them in one breath, almost as if they were one person. Now Mr. Gates’s testimony could help decide whether Mr. Manafort, 69, spends what could be the rest of his life in prison. The most serious of the 18 charges he faces carries a maximum of 30 years in prison.

posted by OnceUponATime at 2:57 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

@KarlBode: So an FCC IG report will soon be released confirming the FCC made up a DDOS attack during the #netneutrality repeal. Ajit Pai's trying to get out ahead of that report by throwing the former CIO under the bus and playing dumb.
posted by zachlipton at 2:58 PM on August 6, 2018 [47 favorites]

RNC was also hacked and nothing released. Maybe there's nothing dirty in whatever Russia got […]

There very likely is, but the important thing would be that they don't know there isn't. Regardless, I think we can be sure that there are lots and lots of emails about Trump and how awful he is and can anything be done to stop him – you know, all the stuff Republicans were saying before the election. They're scared.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:02 PM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

It turns out that generous souls can donate air mileage in support of reuniting some of the immigrant families ripped apart by ICE via the Michigan Support Circle.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:05 PM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

From the Wapo liveblog of the trial:

The heated confrontation came as prosecutors attempted to enter into evidence Rick Gates’s passport to show details of his travels to Ukraine and Cyprus. Ellis interrupted them.

“Let’s get to the heart of the matter,” he scowled.

“Judge, we’ve been at the heart …” prosecutor Greg Andres interrupted.

“Just listen to me!” Ellis bellowed from the bench.

By the judge’s way of thinking, Manafort’s defense was not contesting the places where Gates had traveled, and thus there was no reason to show jurors pictures of Gates’s passport. By Andres’s telling, Gates’s travels were relevant to the case, and defense attorneys had not conceded to any sort of instruction that would tell jurors where Gates had gone.

Ellis told Andres he was looking for ways to “expedite.”. . “We need to focus sharply,” Ellis told the prosecutor. Andres tried to explain his line of inquiry.

“Next question,” the judge snapped.

“The government … ” Andres started to say.

“Next question,” Ellis snapped again, his voice rising.

Umm, is that...normal? For the judge to dictate which questions the prosecution asks its witness?
posted by threeturtles at 3:07 PM on August 6, 2018 [31 favorites]

Ken Dilanian: Judge Ellis has consistently interjected himself into this trial in a heavy handed and officious way. The latest: “Let's get to the heart of the matter."

"Your honor, we've been at the heart of the matter," the prosecutor responded. Ellis then barked at him not to interrupt.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:10 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

The fuck is up with Ellis? Seriously...
posted by lazaruslong at 3:13 PM on August 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

The fuck is up with Ellis? Seriously...

From a random wiki article I just read, apparently he thinks the prosecution is pressuring Manafort to turn, not to actually prosecute Manafort?

Dunno if that's true, but it's one opinion.
posted by Lord_Pall at 3:15 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I keep telling myself that Judge Ellis is acting like this to insulate himself from accusations of having had sympathy for the prosecution once Manafort is convicted or to avoid the appearance of bias more broadly, but I dunno.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:15 PM on August 6, 2018 [22 favorites]

Yeah I think you both have the thread of it, but goddamn. Judges generally show their lack of bias through cool impartial distance and a strict adherence to protocol, right? This dudes like all het up about shit that only seems to play to the defense’s advantage. My partisan radar is starting to act up.
posted by lazaruslong at 3:19 PM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

He may (may) want to avoid the appearance of bias, but what he's accomplishing is making it look like he's pulling to get Manafort acquitted. If Manafort gets off on this (TTTCS), I don't see any way Ellis' behavior wouldn't come under some extreme scrutiny. Way less relevant stuff gets admitted in trials than the source of the money that Manafort didn't report. It goes directly to showing that he was indeed, paid that money.
posted by mrgoat at 3:22 PM on August 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

The fuck is up with Ellis? Seriously...

Federal judges rail on people to keep things moving and keep things fair. He's not playing sides and barking at an attorney for either side usually means nothing in terms of favoritism.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 3:23 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

This seems like a providential place to remind us all — newcomers to this sorry tale as well as megathread veterans who may have missed or overlooked this piece when it first appeared, or forgotten about it since — just who Paul Manafort is.

I can't say I much care for Franklin Foer, but it's a decent account of how this onetime friend of Ferdinand Marcos, Lee Atwater and Jonas Savimbi earned his stripes. And yeah, it's very much not-pretty, precisely in the late-Scorsese mode.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [13 favorites]

For those who can tune in, Rosie O'Donnell is on MSNBC, ripping Trump AND MSNBC, and the msm in general for their roles in getting him elected, and the platforms they continually give him. Good, smart fiery outrage. She came prepared for this time on camera.
posted by Harry Caul at 3:36 PM on August 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

Jared Kushner personally ordered a software developer at his newspaper to remove stories that were critical of his friends and real estate peers. ... Kushner in 2012 went around the editorial leaders at the New York Observer — the newspaper he owned and operated — to mandate the removal of a handful of articles from the website, according to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News. ...

Elizabeth Spiers, the former editor of the Observer who has been publicly critical of Kushner as he rose to political prominence, said she was not aware at the time that her boss was going around editorial leadership to order the removal of stories.

"If I had known about it, Jared and I would have had a big problem," she said. "Jared's such a coward. Went directly to Austin because he knew I wouldn't do it." Spiers said that Smith didn’t have any choice in the matter but to delete the stories since he was not an editorial employee.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2018 [37 favorites]

n other words, the government should find out how much stuff costs first or the project will be expensive, slow, and/or not work.

I believe I've asked this before, and didn't receive any substantive affirmative response, but is there any careful analysis of building such a wall that conclusively proves it will make any difference whatsoever. The assumption of the GOP and the media universally is that the wall will work if it's just done correctly. But humans are ingenious and there is a non-zero probability that even the "best" wall will have a negligible impact on people entering without documentation or overstaying their welcome. You can't do a cost benefit analysis if there is no estimate of benefit.
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:46 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

The assumption of the GOP and the media universally is that the wall will work if it's just done correctly.

Is there any reason to believe this, actually? I don't think I've ever heard anyone in the media say or imply that the wall would work, and for the Republicans (and I'm talking about both voters and leadership here) it's mostly about erecting a monument to dominance (and partially about getting to use a large construction project as a cover for all kinds of financial crimes, which is a time-honored tradition among conservatives). I don't think they do think the wall will work, and I know they don't care whether the wall will work.
posted by IAmUnaware at 3:58 PM on August 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump
California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!

He's still asking why we haven't ever thought of just putting out the fires with all the water, with the addendum of "also you should cut down your last 40 trees." I am absolutely dead-certain that lumber-ogre Zinke whispered that one in his ear.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:00 PM on August 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

The assumption of the GOP and the media universally is that the wall will work if it's just done correctly

They don't care. I got into a huge "discussion" with a bunch of Kelly Ward supporters on her page about the wall. I didn't try to change their minds about immigration or not being horrible people; the only point I was trying to make was that the wall wouldn't do what they wanted it to do. I had facts and figures and a bunch of rational why it wouldn't work. Zero people on that page engaged with the substance of any of my points. It was all just PROTECT OUR KIDS!!!1! WE NEED A WALL!!!111! It was incredibly frustrating.
posted by Weeping_angel at 4:02 PM on August 6, 2018 [13 favorites]

You can't do a cost benefit analysis if there is no estimate of benefit.

Here's the cost benefit analysis: If we spend [insert ungodly sum here], we'll keep the votes of the people who think the wall says "Fuck you" loudly enough to Mexico. It has zero to do with how reasonable people would assess the cost or benefit of the wall as an actual security measure or economic safeguard.
posted by Rykey at 4:05 PM on August 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

'Build A Wall' has been a classic supernazi slogan at least as far back as 1996, featured in Pat Buchanan's campaign, among many other Trump-like populist whistles. It's easy to say, easy to remember. Often it's best to surmise what the dumbest explanation for their fervor is. And that often is the reason. (Racism, American style.)
posted by Harry Caul at 4:08 PM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Kushner in 2012 went around the editorial leaders at the New York Observer — the newspaper he owned and operated — to mandate the removal of a handful of articles from the website, according to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News. ...

This is a model for what the Trumps and apparently a good part of the GOP base think a press should be.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:08 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Rick Gates admits he stole money from Manafort so the defense is going to make him out to be the crook.

NBC's Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) reports further: "Gates also had to admit just now his lie to the FBI. Will the jury believe an admitted liar? A jury believed murderer Sammy “the bull” Gravano when it convicted John Gotti. Gates is a calm, articulate presence on the stand. Cross examination will be fascinating."

Former Assistant United States Attorney Ken White (@popehat) explains the prosecution's tactic behind Gates's admissions:

"Fronting" is the term for prosecutors asking Gates very early on the stuff that damages him -- like him stealing from Manafort and lying to the FBI -- to take the sting out of later cross-examination. [...]

"Fronting," done right, rips the band-aid off. You get the witness to confirm the bad acts/info plainly, directly, and bluntly. Then move on. The other side will come back and dwell on it on cross, but that will seem a re-hash to the jury.

Protip: Always prep the witness well enough so that you don't learn NEW bad facts from them while fronting, resulting in your mouth hanging open for several seconds.

Or, I mean, so I've heard.

posted by Doktor Zed at 4:09 PM on August 6, 2018 [33 favorites]

So as not to abuse Edit: The people Weeping_angel cites above would be the people to which my comment refers.
posted by Rykey at 4:09 PM on August 6, 2018

Wall technology has never advanced past the point where one can only defend a wall by being willing to shoot at those who would breach it. "Serious" cost-benefit analysis is a fool's errand.
posted by klarck at 4:10 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Sacha Baron Cohen Gets Joe Arpaio to Accept ‘Amazing Blow Job’ From Trump
Joe Arpaio on Sacha Baron Cohen: I ‘Never Agreed’ to Blow Job From Trump

...the 86-year-old Arpaio says that he “never agreed” to oral sex from the president who recently pardoned him. This is despite the fact that when Baron Cohen—in character as a Finnish internet celebrity named OMGWhizzBoyOMG—asked him directly, “If Donald Trump calls you up after this and says, ‘Sheriff Joe, I want to offer you an amazing blow job,’ would you say yes?” Arpaio answered, “I may have to say yes.”
...
As for Baron Cohen’s questions about “hand jobs,” the former sheriff seemed similarly perplexed, adding, “We were talking about illegals and working with your hands!”

LBJ:

This is not the first time this issue has come up in politics. US President Lyndon B Johnson famously told an aide to spread a story about a Congressional rival having a proclivity for pigs. When the aide protested that it wasn’t true, LBJ replied: “Of course it ain’t true, but I want to make the son-of-a-bitch deny it ….”

posted by kirkaracha at 4:12 PM on August 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

He's still asking why we haven't ever thought of just putting out the fires with all the water, with the addendum of "also you should cut down your last 40 trees." I am absolutely dead-certain that lumber-ogre Zinke whispered that one in his ear.

Here's an image of the Mendocino Complex fires, rapidly surrounding the largest lake entirely within the state. The water is right next to the fire; there's a dam and everything. It's not all in the Pacific. It's almost as if fighting gigantic fires is hard or something.

And if you look at the area that's burning, it's all hilly forest that nobody is going to irrigate. Wanting more water to be used in that region for agriculture is irrelevant.

Imagine if we had a President who talked to, idk a firefighter or someone before proclaiming the best way to fight fires.
posted by zachlipton at 4:14 PM on August 6, 2018 [29 favorites]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone in the media say or imply that the wall would work...

I agree. But not saying anything like, "The administration has offered no evidence of the effectiveness of the wall...," or "Experts we contacted did not offer any estimates of the how much the wall will reduce immigration of undocumented people..." leaves the average viewer or reader with the impression that the wall will be effective. I, personally, doubt it.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:16 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I appreciate some of Sacha Baron Cohen's other work in that show, but fighting xenophobic fascism with a very recycled line of homophobia is Not Actually Helping Thanks
posted by InTheYear2017 at 4:18 PM on August 6, 2018 [29 favorites]

Your regular reminder that Sascha Baron-Cohen’s job is to grab attention and make money, not rescue the Republic from its own worst instincts.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [23 favorites]

To be honest, I don't remember asking him to rescue the Republic, though it'd be awesome if he did.
posted by delfin at 4:26 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I apologize; I jumped to the LBJ connection without thinking it through. Flagged as offensive etc.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:29 PM on August 6, 2018

@RudyGiuliani: There is a moron on Fox claiming I chain smoke cigarettes worrying about the President’s tweets. Don’t smoke cigarettes. Hate ‘me. Smoke only premium cigars and I hope this idiot is not a lawyer because if he is he should sue his Law School.

When your lawyer is having a normal one. Also, what does "hate `me" even mean? Did he mean "hate 'em?"
posted by zachlipton at 4:29 PM on August 6, 2018 [17 favorites]

A list of things Donald Trump Jr. has probably Googled in the past two days (Alexandra Petri, WaPo)

mugs that say “wonderful son”

is it illegal if you do it to earn your father’s love

is it possible to do something wrong if you don’t know any laws and furthermore are rich

where in your online dating profile should you put the phrase “wonderful son” should it be before hunting or after hunting

part in the bible when God calls Jesus “my wonderful son”

clubs for wonderful sons to meet and network
is there anything better than “wonderful son” that your dad can say about you or is that the peak

was Darth Vader a good dad

should you share a tweet on your Instagram that says something wonderful about you but also implies you might have committed a crime

but what if it literally says you are wonderful

if someone says “my wonderful son” WITH a comma does that mean that they love you most

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:30 PM on August 6, 2018 [46 favorites]

At the risk of reading too much into this and sounding a note of hope (which feels irresponsible, even now): Gates' testimony here feels significant at least in that one of these guys who was expected to flip has, in fact, flipped.

It kinda removes the speculation from the "have these guys flipped?" and pushes it from hope to reality. One has flipped, which means others may, and so far the flip doesn't seem to have been a fake-out or a ruse.

I don't know how far it'll go, and I'm sure there will still be ugly disappointments and outright horrors ahead. We all know this will continue to get more ridiculous. But for once, a reasonable and realistic expectation was met, and that's good to see.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:36 PM on August 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone in the media say or imply that the wall would work.

i don't think any of them know there's already a wall there that doesn't work, right now, today.
posted by poffin boffin at 4:36 PM on August 6, 2018 [17 favorites]

I am absolutely dead-certain that lumber-ogre Zinke whispered that one in his ear.

Or Devin Nunes
posted by banshee at 4:36 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

A few deleted; if things are slow, just let it be, and we'll keep the signal higher than the "ugh these fuckers" reaction-chat.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 4:42 PM on August 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Courthouse News provides a recap of Rick Gates's explosive testimony today: Star Witness for Mueller Takes the Stand at Manafort Trial

Tomorrow should be no less eventful as Manafort's lawyers get their turn with Gates: "Manafort’s attorneys Kevin Downing and Thomas Zehnle are expected to take a more offensive approach with Gates on cross-examination, following an opening statement where Zehnle asserted that Gates orchestrated “a grand conspiracy.”

"“Rick Gates got himself in trouble … because he embezzled millions of dollars from his longtime employer,” Zehnle said. “[Manafort] trusted him to do what is right. But he placed his trust in the wrong person: Rick Gates.”"
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:44 PM on August 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

....As if the Tweet Heard Round The World wasn’t enough, reporting last week from the New York Times, Daily Beast and others showed that Trump wants to take on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of pipe-hitting prosecutors.

By himself. In a room. Alone.

Yes, please.

Think about the glorious hubris it takes to trust that the famed Trump bullshit volcano will conquer that interview. It’s delusional to believe that the same techniques Trump deployed in an endless chain of bankruptcies, failed projects, skipped debts, screwed vendors, shady third-world real estate branding schemes, multi-level marketing flops and endless self-fellating ego aggrandizement will work in the face of serious men and women who have rolled up terrorists, mobsters and spies....
posted by growabrain at 5:05 PM on August 6, 2018 [57 favorites]

>>Attacking the free press has been a staple of Republicanism for several decades
>This is literally why we have FOX News to begin with, remember 40 years of "the liberal media"?

This goes back to Richard Nixon, naturally, and his attack dog Spiro Agnew (whose words were written by William Safire and Pat Buchanan). The press were the "nattering nabobs of negativity" and Nixon represented the "Silent Majority."

It's all about removing all roadblocks to the exercise of raw power, and the paucity of Never Trumpers shows how few Republicans are against that project. A lot are stunned that said power wasn't granted to the perfect smooth, Machiavellian team player, some Mitch McConnell type, which was and remains incredibly naïve and stupid. Of course a blundering, dangerous master of domination politics would take control. It's the inevitable result.
posted by msalt at 5:23 PM on August 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

Trump wants to take on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of pipe-hitting prosecutors.

By himself. In a room. Alone.

Yes, please.

The part of me that wants to cry with joy at this prospect is making furious bets with the part of me that suspects Trump would only use such an opportunity to claim that Mueller's team is lying about what was said at the meeting.

Oh great, now the part of me that remembers that tape recorders exist, and the part of me that realizes Trump would still claim that Mueller's tapes are fake just sat down at the table...
posted by Rykey at 5:58 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

He probably hasn't realized that alone means without recording devices. You know, like with Putin. Or Sulzburger. So you know, who would anyone believe?

Narrator: hundreds of tapes.
posted by Dashy at 6:16 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Wow, Propping Up Bob Menendez Might Not Have Been the Democrats' Smartest Move - Paul Blest, Splinter News.

Although not much polling on the race has been released, a Gravis poll taken in July showed Menendez and Hugin in a virtual tie. What’s almost as troubling for Democrats as the prospect of losing what should be a safe seat is the prospect of what they could end up having to spend to keep it in Democratic hands.
...

As [the NYTimes reported Sunday], Menendez “might get help” from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of the Senate Democratic caucus. The paper also reported the New Jersey State Democratic committee is already raising money for him—which is probably not something they want to be doing, considering at least four House seats are on the party’s radar for 2018.

It was plainly obvious to anyone who didn’t have their hands in the New Jersey Democratic machine what the right move was after the Menendez trial concluded: to cut him loose. And if the incumbent somehow manages to lose this seat, or if money spent on him prevents the Democrats from winning a flippable seat in Nevada or Arizona or Texas or Tennessee—all races that are essential for the party to win to keep its slim hopes of taking back the Senate alive—the Democrats will have no one to blame but themselves.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:27 PM on August 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

(i missed the word 'doesn't' realize, above. Too many negatives, you know how that goes)
posted by Dashy at 6:35 PM on August 6, 2018

I maintain that Paul Manafort will always be more frightened of Russian retaliation against himself and his family than he is of spending his life in prison.

I've long thought Manafort is unflippable. First, even if you give him a deal and shave a couple hundred years off his sentence, he will still have a couple hundred years to go. Second, the threat of Russia killing him and his entire family is real. Third, Trump's squawks that he hardly knows Manafort and that he has been treated so unfairly all indicate Trump is seriously thinking about pardoning him. Fourth, his family and the nation already know he's the scum of the earth. His reputation isn't something that can be restored. I could go on... The good news is that I think Manafort is almost uniquely unflippable. I think the rest will fold.
posted by xammerboy at 6:37 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

It has always seemed weird to me that Senate Democrats stood behind Menendez while cutting Franken out (which I'm not saying was the wrong move). It's true that Menendez was acquitted so he wasn't going to resign but there was no reason to get involved in his primary to tip the scales to him.
posted by Justinian at 6:42 PM on August 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

There is a moron on Fox claiming I chain smoke cigarettes worrying about the President’s tweets. Don’t smoke cigarettes. Hate ‘me. Smoke only premium cigars

I'm not sure what Dr. Freud would enjoy more, the "hate me" Freudian slip or the desperate attempt to point out how large his smokeables are...
posted by mmoncur at 6:47 PM on August 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

More on today's courtroom squabbles: Manafort prosecution’s frustration with judge leads to fiery clashes (Politico)

At that point, Ellis noted that [prosecutor] Andres was looking at the lectern. “You’re looking down as if to say, ‘This is B.S.,’” the judge complained.

Andres seemed angered by the accusation and said the judge was leaping to conclusions. “We don’t do that to you,” the prosecutor said.

When the judge mentioned an earlier complaint he made about lawyers rolling their eyes, Andres interrupted again and the atmosphere grew tense. “I find it hard to believe I was both looking down and rolling my eyes,” he said.

Andres pressed on with his argument that the payments to Manafort were not political contributions, this time adding the charge that every time the government tried to elicit testimony about why the payments were made, “Your Honor stops us.”

“The record will reflect I rarely stopped you,” Ellis insisted.

“I will stand by the record,” Andres snapped.

“And you will lose,” the judge shot back.

The exchange then descended into an open squabble, as Andres asked for an example of testimony they’d brought out that was wasn’t relevant.

“I don’t have to give you an example. I want you to shorten it,” the judge declared.

The conflict seemed to de-escalate after that point.

“We’re all tired,” Andres said, while asking for “a slight bit of leniency” when questioning Gates, since the defense used its opening argument to attack his credibility.

“I didn’t want to be disrespectful,” the prosecutor said just before court recessed for the day.

“Don’t worry about it,” the judge replied. “I’m not concerned about it at all.”

Ellis said he recalled from his time as a lawyer the emotions involved in a high-stakes trial.

“I realize the stress … I remember the pressure. … I’m trying to minimize the stress time, is all I’m trying to do,” he said, prompting laughter from many and somewhat breaking the tense atmosphere that overtook the courtroom during his protracted sparring with Andres.

posted by triggerfinger at 6:54 PM on August 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

A broad and lengthy piece by Franklin Foer at The Atlantic, How Trump Radicalized ICE: A long-running inferiority complex, vast statutory power, a chilling new directive from the top—inside America’s unfolding immigration tragedy.
posted by peeedro at 6:58 PM on August 6, 2018 [14 favorites]

I will not liveblog it, but Don Lemon is on CNN right now directly responding to the president’s racist personal attacks agains him and other African-Americans. It’s pretty searing.

He’s laying out Trump’s racist record in detail.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:09 PM on August 6, 2018 [68 favorites]

Huh.

Judge Thomas Selby Ellis III Born on May 15, 1940, in Bogotá, Colombia, Ellis graduated from Princeton University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1961. Ellis served in the United States Navy as a Naval aviator from 1961 to 1967.[2] Ellis earned a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1969. Harvard awarded Ellis a Knox Fellowship for study in England. He then received a Diploma in Law in 1970 from Magdalen College, Oxford. Ellis then entered private practice with the law firm of Hunton & Williams (now Hunton Andrews Kurth), founded in Richmond, Virginia, where he remained until 1987. His practice included a wide range of commercial litigation matters. He often worked with fellow Hunton & Williams attorney John Charles Thomas, who became Virginia's first African-American Supreme Court Justice. Ellis also was a lecturer at the College of William and Mary, from 1981 to 1983.

United States v. Rosen was also a pioneering use of the silent witness rule in a courtroom. The rule allows for sensitive (classified, or otherwise) evidence to be hidden from the public, but available to the jury & counsel, by the use of "substitution" of code-words using a "key card," to which witnesses and the jury would refer during the trial, but which the public would not have access to. Most previous attempts by the government to use the rule had been banned by various judges or the case had been settled before trial. Ellis was the first to allow it, although he limited it to 4 minutes of use at trial, and devised a "fairness test" as to whether the rule should be allowed, and to how much it would make the trial "closed." Critics worried about the Fifth Amendment due process and Sixth amendment Confrontation Clause implications of the use of this rule. In particular, Ellis describes it as a "partial closing" of the trial, while the Sixth Amendment guarantees a public trial.

Decoder rings are Go!
posted by petebest at 7:21 PM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

Wow, Propping Up Bob Menendez Might Not Have Been the Democrats' Smartest Move

If we win Tennessee and Texas but lose fucking New Jersey because the Schumer machine backed our version of Jeffery Epstien over literally any other candidate, and lose Florida because Bill Nelson is a goddamn moron who wouldn't beat a cardboard cutout of Bill Nelson...well I don't know what I'll do but it won't be contribute to the DSCC or Schumer reelection.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:25 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Friendly reminder to donate to individual campaigns and go knock doors. (I would actually say that probably you should knock doors for the statewide campaign if you're past the primary as the best possible use of your time.)
posted by dogheart at 7:32 PM on August 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

If Menendez does win, he should be stripped of all privileges that come with seniority.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:36 PM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Isn't the reason that Manafort is unflippable because that Trump has quite effectively telegraphed that if he's found guilty, he'll be pardoned?
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:47 PM on August 6, 2018

T.D. Strange: "and lose Florida because Bill Nelson is a goddamn moron who wouldn't beat a cardboard cutout of Bill Nelson"

Bill Nelson definitely doesn't know how to win elections. Except for 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2006, and 2012.

It is true he lost one in 1990.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:09 PM on August 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

I was comforted when you said that Florida pols are more sanguine about his chances than the polls might indicate. Say the same thing about New Jersey pls.
posted by Justinian at 8:10 PM on August 6, 2018

Haven't been watching it much yet, tbh. Menendez is damaged goods, absolutely. I still am very skeptical of a GOP win in New Jersey in the current environment, particularly when the GOP candidate is a Big Pharma guy. I am open to persuasion on the matter, but right now, I don't see the evidence for it.

Personal bet: Menendez win in the mid single digits.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:18 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Isn't the reason that Manafort is unflippable

No, it's more like that if he flipped, his family will be murdered and there'll be concerted efforts to abduct, torture, and kill him while he's in prison.
posted by porpoise at 8:18 PM on August 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Only one other president has ever acted this desperate (William D. Ruckelshaus | WaPo OpEd)

President Trump is acting with a desperation I’ve seen only once before in Washington: 45 years ago when President Richard M. Nixon ordered the firing of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. Nixon was fixated on ending the Watergate investigation, just as Trump wants to shut down the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

... In October 1973, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. As deputy attorney general and next in line, I was ordered by the president to fire Cox; I also refused and resigned. Cox was finally fired by Solicitor General Robert H. Bork. The result is what came to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre.

Neither Richardson nor I saw any justifiable reason for Cox’s dismissal. When it became clear that Cox would not give up his pursuit of the Oval Office tapes, Nixon took the only action he could to protect himself: He tried to get rid of the man charged with investigating him.

... Trump might attempt to shut down the Mueller investigation, but if he fires the special counsel, he could face the same result Nixon faced. He would look like a president with something to hide. He would unleash forces bigger than one man, because Americans believe no one is above the law, not even the president.

... It’s hard to believe that, 45 years later, we may be in store for another damaging attack on the foundations of our democracy. Yet the cynical conduct of this president, his lawyers and a handful of congressional Republicans is frightening to me and should be to every citizen of this country. We are not playing just another Washington political game; there is much more at stake.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:22 PM on August 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

Obviously he wants to coat all of California in asbestos.

I thought this was just a joke until I went over to r/news on reddit today:

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing

On June 1, the EPA authorized a “SNUR” (Significant New Use Rule) which allows new products containing asbestos to be created on a case-by-case basis...

...The report states that the agency will no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.

...The U.S. is one of the only developed nations in the world that has placed significant restrictions on the substance without banning it completely. New data revealed that asbestos-related deaths now total nearly 40,000 annually...

... the chlor-alkali industry is the only industry in the country that still uses asbestos, reportedly importing about 480 tons of the carcinogen each year from Russia and Brazil.

posted by p3t3 at 8:23 PM on August 6, 2018 [50 favorites]

Re Nelson, @Taniel:

I may be beating a dead horse insofar as my TL is concerned, but it's not alright to write a full profile of FLSen without noting that 10% of Floridians are disenfranchised & that Scott significantly restricted rules & restricted electorate he now runs in.

There's going to be three months of this isn't there? Just think of how we'd be covering an election occurring under these conditions if it were happening outside of US.

posted by zachlipton at 8:29 PM on August 6, 2018 [13 favorites]

I Support My Large, Sweaty Adult Son, But I Will Throw Him Under The Bus In A Heartbeat (Bob Vulfov, McSweeney's)

Folks, what more is there to say? I love my big, enormous boy who wears suits because I drilled into his head from birth that there’s nothing classier than a suit. I wholeheartedly support my 40-year-old, sopping wet boy and I believe he is innocent of all wrongdoing. There’s nothing wrong with what he did! However, if it becomes clear that there is something wrong with what he did, please know that my brick-headed, CrossFitting child acted on his own and I knew nothing of it.

My elephant-murdering baby boy is a paragon of morality. He and his weird body that he can’t control while standing or sitting have always acted in accordance with the law. I can think of no person more law-abiding than my always-drenched adult son. Various housekeepers raised him to be a good boy. I wasn’t there to do it because I was too busy flirting with women by bragging about how many chairs I own. If my gigantic ham of a son somehow grew up to be ensnared in a Special Counsel investigation, that is completely on him and I cannot be held responsible. He’s wonderful, but I barely know this massive, oafish boy.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:29 PM on August 6, 2018 [37 favorites]

He would look like a president with something to hide. He would unleash forces bigger than one man, because Americans believe no one is above the law, not even the president.

Maybe that was true in ‘73. Today, though? I’m not so sure. The march of the GOP off into the far distance to the right, and their purposeful, meticulous polarization of the nation, puts the idea that Americans will overwhelmingly turn their backs on Trump, should he pull another Saturday Night Massacre, into serious question. I honestly believe that a very-much-not-insubstantial horde of Americans would openly celebrate Trump doing something so brazen.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:37 PM on August 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

fluttering hellfire, I am high-fiving you from the internet! I hope they had snacks and a cold bottle of water for you, at the very least.
posted by dogheart at 8:40 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I honestly believe that a very-much-not-insubstantial horde of Americans would openly celebrate Trump doing something so brazen.

Yeah. I think the majority of Americans would support the rule of law. But enough would cheer on Trump if he goes full l'etat c'est moi that the GOP would likely simply say "fuck you, that's my name. What are you going to do about it?"

So the question is, I think, not whether most Americans support the rule of law but rather what most Americans are willing to do and see done in their name if the rule of law begins to fail. One hopes we don't get to that. But the odds of it happening have been creeping upwards for years.
posted by Justinian at 8:47 PM on August 6, 2018 [23 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** OH-12 special:

-- Emerson poll has Dem O'Connor up 47-46 on GOPer Balderson [MOE: +/- 5.0%]. Of note, Green candidate apparently not included; poll was prior to Trump rally.

-- GOP using special to road-test a midterm strategy of polarization

-- Balderson seemed to have put his foot in it a bit today, saying that "We don't want Franklin County representing us" and that in the primary, "we beat Delaware County and we beat Franklin County." Those two counties represent 59% of the voters in the district.

-- Overthink the returns as they come in by checking against this model, or this model, or this model.

** 2018 Senate: NJ: Dems starting to get a bit worried about Menendez, at least as a resource sink.

** 2018 House:

-- CA-10: Garin Hart Yang poll has GOP incumbent Denham tied 48-48 with Dem challenger Harder [no MOE listed]. Poll looks to have been commissioned by the DCCC. Cook has district as Tossup.

-- KS-04: Change Research poll has GOP incumbent Estes up 42-38 on Dem challenger Thompson [MOE: +/- 2.25%]. Poll looks to have been commissioned by the Thompson campaign. Cook has district as Safe R.

** Odds & ends:

-- KS gov: GOP was hoping to keep Trump out of the race; endorsement of Kobach may help him in the primary, hurt him in the general.

-- RI gov: RWU poll has incumbent Dem Raimondo up 39-37 over likely GOP nominee Fung [MOE: +/- 4.8%].

-- Vox: Michigan could be a serious blue wave.

-- NAACP suing to block North Carolina from putting constitutional amendments on the ballot. The legislature's actions were possibly illegal, and the state GOP has gone to some pretty absurd lengths to subvert democracy. Gov Cooper also intends to sue over two of the measures.

-- Primary previews from 538 and DKE primary previews plus Taniel's races to watch.

posted by Chrysostom at 8:59 PM on August 6, 2018 [36 favorites]

Late to this, but re: reporting from BoingBoing / The Intercept / TRAC Immigration:

On preview, ocschwar is right, the tables don't present comparable data. It's possible if they did, the claim would be supported, but we can't tell, as-is. It may be that the researchers didn't include the data in the format we want because they weren't trying to make the point that the Intercept and boing boing were trying to make.

Neither the BoingBoing article nor the Intercept article were very responsibly written, in that they each suggest, but fail to demonstrate, that the TRAC data indicates that CBP disproportionately referred adults with children for criminal prosecution.

If you dig deep enough into the information presented on the TRAC site, and make a few modest assumptions, you can in fact make some headway toward a determination. But it doesn't seem to support the story those two sources want to tell.

Assumption 0: The reality is not better than the data reported by the government and acquired by TRAC.

The TRAC article cites a WaPo article (footnote [3]), stating,

Nearly 2,000 immigrant children were separated from parents during six weeks in April and May, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

This Vox article, citing the AP's acquisition of DHS data, pinpoints the number at 1,995 children from April 19 to May 31.

Assumption 1: The child separation rate over the entire 8.7 weeks from April through May was consistent with the referenced 6 weeks (43 days).

This would yield 2,830 detained children over those two months, or about 1,415 per month.

On the TRAC data page (footnote [2]), choose the headers:

Month and Year
Child/Family Group
Special Initiatives

Under Month and Year, choose 2018-04. You will find that the CBP reported detaining 38,875 individuals crossing the border that month, broken down as follows:

Child (Unaccompanied) 4,318
Family Unit (child) 5,144
Family Unit (adult) 4,537
Other 24,876

Assumption 2: All the children are in the first two categories.

Then:

The family units are comprised of about 53% children (i.e. about 100 adults per 113 accompanied children).
Proportion of adults traveling with children vs adults traveling without children ≈ 1:5.5

Now, note that the number of criminal referrals is 4,578 (felony) + 2,432 (misdemeanor) = 7,001.

Assumption 3: All 7,001 are adults, since the originally linked TRAC article states that children "presumably weren't subject to the zero-tolerance prosecution policy".

Then the rate of criminal referrals is 7,001 / (24,876 + 4,537) ≈ 23.8%, or 1:4.2. (You don't really need this, but it's maybe worth knowing.)

Assumption 4: For all felony and misdemeanor criminal referrals of adults travelling with children, the adults and the children are detained, separately.

Since one in 5.5 adults is traveling with one or more children, at a rate of 1:1.13 adults per children, then all else being equal, we should expect that about 1,273 of the 7,001 adults would be separated from 1,438 children in the month of April.

This is right about on target with the 1,415 we estimated up front.

Now, if it turns out that only felony criminal referrals results in family separations, the 1,415 estimate would be 50% above an expected 941 separations in April, in which case we really might be looking at a deliberate policy of targeting families.posted by perspicio at 9:05 PM on August 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing

per petebest a month ago: Russian mining firm puts Trump's face on its asbestos products

Uralasbest, one of the world’s largest producers and sellers of asbestos, has taken to adorning pallets of its product with a seal of Trump’s face, along with the words “Approved by Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States”.

(Image of stamp with Russian text “Одобрено Дональдом Трампом — 45-м Президентом США ★”)
posted by XMLicious at 9:32 PM on August 6, 2018 [31 favorites]

ABC Radio National Background Briefing—“When the dust settles: Home renovators, the next wave of asbestos-related deaths” (.mp3)—about the deaths and illness of home renovators due to working in homes containing asbestos in Australia, where it kills more people each year than die from car accidents, as well as an interview with a woman who contracted mesothelioma because when she was a child her immigrant family went to proudly watch their home being build and she would sweep up the dust left over from construction work.
posted by XMLicious at 9:45 PM on August 6, 2018 [31 favorites]

This is going to backfire. West Virginia are moving to mobile phone voting for this midterm elections - software is a ‘Blockchain voting system’ by “Votez”, a 2018 startup with $2m of funding [real}

Twitter thread outlining the gaping security holes already apparent.

Clarification: currently for overseas voters and troops only.
posted by Rumple at 9:56 PM on August 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

Worth noting that this is a pilot strictly for overseas voters. Not that that obviates the many concerns, but it limits the scope.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:00 PM on August 6, 2018

Weird how 120% of the population of West Virginia are currently residing in Russia ([fake], just to be on the safe side)
posted by Merus at 10:05 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Exactly. They're not Russian hackers, they're "overseas voters."
posted by mabelstreet at 10:26 PM on August 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

I see no reason why Manafort should fear any reprisal by Putin. In the very worst case scenario, he may be able to identify a handful of Putin-controlled bank accounts that the Feds aren't already aware of. Hardly worth a dramatic escalation of international tensions.

Putin quietly kills people who he sees as threats to his power. He publicly kills people whom he can brand traitors to his base, to serve as an example of his power and a warning to those who won't play his games.

Manafort played along with Putin and furthered his agenda. Putin has been quite open and proud of what he accomplished in Ukraine, Brexit, and the US Elections. Anything Manafort testifies to will only add to the chaos and distraction of the US news cycle, and weaken the current US Government - giving Putin a lot more room to operate, internationally.

I'm sure Putin would have preferred if Trump had simply lifted the sanctions and given his bank accounts back, but a sidelined US and UK are just as valuable, if not more. ...Especially considering the very real threat of sustained damage to the US and UK economies under Brexit and Trumponomics. Sanctions don't mean much if you don't need access to dollars, or the US or UK market.
posted by Anoplura at 10:31 PM on August 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I hope a true account comes along some day (ha!), but Manafort strikes me as being like the Paul Giamatti character in The Negotiator. He's a guy who knows a guy. A big-ticket weasel, closer to the gambling/entertainment mob world than the political one.
posted by rhizome at 11:08 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Paul Manafort's image in Eastern Europe is more a very effective bagman.
posted by jaduncan at 11:42 PM on August 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Facing the Challenge of Fascism in Trump's America - Henry Giroux in a conversation with Ian Masters from a couple of days ago
posted by growabrain at 12:30 AM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

BuzzFeed, Vera Bergengruen, Accused Russian Agent's Journey To Washington Began In South Dakota: "Maria Butina learned about Americans on a very local level — and found that gun rights would be a winning issue to get close to conservatives." A look at Butina's (and Erickson's) activity in South Dakota. A highlight:

“Maria Butina was incredible,” the organizer of a week-long summer camp for teenage Republicans tweeted in July 2015, with a photo that shows Butina speaking, with Erickson standing behind her holding a map. “The kids *loved* her stories of working for freedom in Russia.”

Now that organizer, Dusty Johnson, is the Republican candidate for South Dakota’s lone US House seat and has found himself having to explain to critics how an alleged Russian agent ended up speaking to kids at his event.

“Expecting that people at a summer camp would sniff out a Russian spy as part of a 25-minute speech about freedom is probably expecting more than any rational person could,” he told the Argus Leader newspaper.

posted by zachlipton at 1:39 AM on August 7, 2018 [23 favorites]

[video] @yashar What a find by @JakeSherman - Trump talking about McCain's service in Vietnam during an interview with Dan Rather in 1999!

"He was captured...does being captured make you a war hero? I'm not sure, I don't know."
posted by scalefree at 2:06 AM on August 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

Trump talking about McCain's service in Vietnam during an interview with Dan Rather in 1999!

Imagine that I’m doing the clapping-hands emoji here:
He. Does. Not. Understand. Sacrifice. So. He. Hates. It.
posted by Etrigan at 3:17 AM on August 7, 2018 [40 favorites]

"The Iran sanctions have officially been cast." Is that an deliberate "Alea iacta est" reference in this morning's tweet? Hopefully not since Caesar's crossing the Rubicon meant the point of no return.
posted by autopilot at 3:30 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!

Nothing says WORLD PEACE like threatening everyone.
posted by Justinian at 3:37 AM on August 7, 2018 [65 favorites]

Why does Yahser Ali consider that video a "find"? It was even a famous remark of his, "I prefer soldiers who weren't captured" regarding McCain. Was there some popular defense of "He doesn't really believe it, he's just attacking military service to score political points" even though that would be even worse and make little sense?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 4:04 AM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Bill Nelson definitely doesn't know how to win elections. Except for 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2006, and 2012.

Nelson is done. I live in Florida and you wouldn’t know he was running. Florida is a lost cause of transplants who don’t want to pay taxes and the racist, revisionist whites of northern FL that might as well be Mississippi. I’m predicting that FL goes red in the mid terms. I hope it doesn’t and I will gladly eat a cake and all that but I’m done with this place. Time to go to bluer pastures.

(Btw, it’s no surprise to me the QAnon story took flight during Trump’s Tampa event. FL is full of Alex Jones acolytes)
posted by photoslob at 4:14 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Republican National Committee links to porn Twitter instead of Maryland account [real]
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:47 AM on August 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

From the WaPo's Dana Milbank, This veteran supported Trump. Until Trump deported his wife.

Sgt. Temo Juarez was a Trump guy. An Iraq combat veteran who served as a Marine infantryman and then an Army National Guardsman, his friends called him a “super conservative.” With his wife, he brought up their two daughters in Central Florida. He supported Trump in 2016, eager for a change.

But now, “I am eating my words,” he told the military newspaper Stars and Stripes in an interview published last week.

On Friday, Juarez and his family became the latest victims of Trump’s zero-tolerance policy on immigration.

On that day, his wife, Alejandra, left the country under a deportation order. She had come to the United States from Mexico illegally as a teenager two decades ago and had until now being living undisturbed with Temo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and daughters, both natural-born Americans. This week, Temo will fly to Mexico with his daughters, 9-year-old Estela and 16-year-old Pamela — and leave his younger daughter there, even though English is her first language. He can’t do his construction job and take care of her in Florida by himself.

Temo Juarez believed Trump would deport only illegal immigrants who were criminals, and his wife had no record.

Instead, as the family fought Alejandra’s deportation, young Estela, with unicorns on her T-shirt, wept as she spoke to TV cameras: “I really do want to stay with my mom and dad. I want us to be together and stay in my house. I don’t want to go to Mexico. I want to stay here.”

For Sgt. Juarez, this was the Trump administration’s unique way of saying, “Thank you for your service.”

posted by peeedro at 4:59 AM on August 7, 2018 [86 favorites]

Why does Yahser Ali consider that video a "find"?

It's a previous iteration of the statement that underscores his blindness to the concepts of service & sacrifice.
posted by scalefree at 4:59 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Because Manafort may have enough dirt to topple Putin's most valuable US asset?

At this point does Putin care if Trump is toppled? The chaos that ensues the topplin' might be part of the fun.
posted by ian1977 at 5:22 AM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

At this point does Putin care if Trump is toppled? The chaos that ensues the topplin' might be part of the fun.

The administration's intransigence and slow walking on implementing the sanctions imposed by the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act keeps a lot of Russian money accessible to the US and vice versa. They lose Trump they lose that bulwark.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 5:32 AM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

> Temo Juarez believed Trump would deport only illegal immigrants who were criminals, and his wife had no record.

"Then they came for my wife, which was a drag because I'd been cool with the whole thing until then."
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:57 AM on August 7, 2018 [92 favorites]

Legal immigrants, Miller is coming for us.

Details of the rulemaking proposal are still being finalized, but based on a recent draft seen last week and described to NBC News, immigrants living legally in the U.S. who have ever used or whose household members have ever used Obamacare, children's health insurance, food stamps and other benefits could be hindered from obtaining legal status in the U.S.

But when he went for his citizenship interview in August 2017, the USCIS officers told him they were going to revisit the decision to waive the fake passport incident, meaning he could potentially lose his green card as well.

Rose Hernandez is the supervising attorney at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition's naturalization clinic. She said the clinic's model has completely changed in light of the crackdown. She now sends six information requests to government agencies to check on green-card holders' backgrounds before she advises them to file for citizenship. If the government finds something she doesn't, the fear is the applicants could lose their green cards and be sent home.

posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 6:00 AM on August 7, 2018 [36 favorites]

Why does Yahser Ali consider that video a "find"?

Guessing becaused it presaged his 2015 grotesque callowness by 16 years? Most of the pre-Obama Trump comments are just ordinarily distasteful and arrogant. 2015 began the quiet-parts-loud offensive that laid waste all norms and roiled the calm waters of corporate news.

In some of those interviews he's even lucid - completing thoughts, for example. But reading from The Oligarch's script that early is somewhat unusual, perhaps? I dunno.
posted by petebest at 6:06 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

So the guy might not be given legal status because he used social security to help cover the shortfall from his 80 hour working week for care costs for his disabled daughter? Am I reading that right? This is what Stephen Miller and his 'pals' want??
posted by Myeral at 6:12 AM on August 7, 2018 [25 favorites]

Putin absolutely wants Trump to remain and win reelection because it is incomprehensible that anyone (a) crazier than Trump and (b) more subservient to Putin would replace him.

(I know, I know, in this age never rule out ANYTHING. But while I have next to no faith left in America as a whole, President Gohmert would be a bridge I still think it's impossible to cross.)
posted by delfin at 6:13 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Stephen Miller and his ‘pals’ want to get rid of any nonwhite people they can reach, to further their goal of making America whiter. It’s literally ethnic cleansing in slow motion.
posted by obliviax at 6:23 AM on August 7, 2018 [63 favorites]

The Cybersecurity 202: Warrantless device searches at the border are rising. Privacy advocates are suing. (WaPo)

Customs and Border Protection searches of cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices have spiked dramatically over the past two years, and they’re expected to rise in the August vacation season.

Privacy advocates worry that these searches, if conducted without a warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing, could expose people’s financial information, location data and other intimate details to border agents who do not have a good reason or legal justification to see the data. And they've filed a bevy of lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of those searches.

...Device searches at the border climbed steadily for several years but jumped by 11,000 — nearly 60 percent — in the last months of the Obama administration and in President Trump’s first year in office. Border agents searched 30,200 devices in the 2017 fiscal year, up from 19,051 the year before, according to the most recent CBP statistics.

posted by peeedro at 6:23 AM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

I'm thinking of traveling to Europe for vacation this year and honestly at this point I'd just as soon leave my phone at home and get a burner while I'm there. People traveling for work don't have that option of course. Such unconstitutional bullshit.
posted by emjaybee at 6:29 AM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Bannon reminds me a little bit of these American actors who, their career is over in the States and they come to Europe and do commercials.

“We have seen right-wing groups come and go,” Udo Bullman, a European Parliament member from Germany since 1999 and the president of the body’s second-largest group, the Socialists and Democrats, told HuffPost in an email. “They never lasted long... their only unifying feature is hatred. And that never takes you far.”
posted by infini at 6:36 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

The West Hollywood City Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday night urging that President Donald Trump’s star be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
posted by yoga at 6:42 AM on August 7, 2018 [91 favorites]

New Details About Wilbur Ross’ Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting

A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been quietly making its way through the New York State court system over the last three years, pitting a private equity manager named David Storper against his former boss: Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. The pair worked side by side for more than a decade, eventually at the firm, WL Ross & Co.—where, Storper later alleged, Ross stole his interests in a private equity fund, transferred them to himself, then tried to cover it up with bogus paperwork. Two weeks ago, just before the start of a trial with $4 million on the line, Ross and Storper agreed to a confidential settlement, whose existence has never been reported and whose terms remain secret.

It is difficult to imagine the possibility that a man like Ross, who Forbes estimates is worth some $700 million, might steal a few million from one of his business partners. Unless you have heard enough stories about Ross. Two former WL Ross colleagues remember the commerce secretary taking handfuls of Sweet’N Low packets from a nearby restaurant, so he didn’t have to go out and buy some for himself. One says workers at his house in the Hamptons used to call the office, claiming Ross had not paid them for their work. Another two people said Ross once pledged $1 million to a charity, then never paid. A commerce official called the tales “petty nonsense,” and added that Ross does not put sweetener in his coffee.

There are bigger allegations. Over several months, in speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern: Many of those who worked directly with him claim that Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there, huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary. At least if you consider them individually. But all told, these allegations—which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine—come to more than $120 million. If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.

posted by scalefree at 7:00 AM on August 7, 2018 [46 favorites]

Legal immigrants, Miller is coming for us.

Per the poem, thisvis why when the Nazis come for the “illegal” immigrants I say A LOT.

It’s also why certain dumb relatives of my wife get a response they are not expecting when they say something stupid about me “doing it right”.

And I’m not even the right skin color or socio-economic group to be at risk. Yet.

The Nazis are coming for everyone, eventually.
posted by Artw at 7:04 AM on August 7, 2018 [64 favorites]

The West Hollywood City Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday night urging that President Donald Trump’s star be removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"The star isn’t in West Hollywood, which has no power over it, but the resolution urges the city of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to take action."
posted by kirkaracha at 7:05 AM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

teenage Republicans

What a sad pair of words.
posted by maxwelton at 7:08 AM on August 7, 2018 [69 favorites]

Certainly holds a meaning at this point in time that it didn't before.
posted by Artw at 7:10 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

It is difficult to imagine the possibility that a man like Ross, who Forbes estimates is worth some $700 million, might steal a few million from one of his business partners.

If 2018 kills anything, please let it be the myth that the rich will ever be content with their current fortune, and that graft is anything other than standard operations procedures for these people.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:15 AM on August 7, 2018 [83 favorites]

94th primary voter at my precinct in Michigan this morning. Hold on to your butts, as they say.

I’ll share (relevant or interesting) local and on-the-ground updates as primary day unfolds.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:27 AM on August 7, 2018 [28 favorites]

Only one other president has ever acted this desperate (William D. Ruckelshaus | WaPo OpEd)

President Trump is acting with a desperation I’ve seen only once before in Washington: 45 years ago when President Richard M. Nixon ordered the firing of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. Nixon was fixated on ending the Watergate investigation, just as Trump wants to shut down the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Ruckelshaus is one of my heros, really.

This also confirms my sense that there is a shift in what's going on with the Trump WH.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:29 AM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

My partner has been eligible to apply for citizenship for a good few months now. We... haven't applied. And with this news going on, I don't think we're going to any time soon.

I'm traveling to France for a conference in a week and a half, and the week I'll be spending there is one of the two weeks that's the first time my partner has had time off in nearly a year. We were going to meet up with friends and organize a vacation when I was done with my conference. It was going to be amazing.

We called it off about eight months ago, when my partner first became scared to cross the border and assume they'd be allowed back.

I'm so tired and so incredibly angry.
posted by sciatrix at 7:29 AM on August 7, 2018 [87 favorites]

Headlines have shifted.

U.S. Accuses Iran of Terror Plots in Effort to Sway Europe
European officials, some skeptical that Iran is behind the plots, say the nuclear deal benefits the region
posted by infini at 7:30 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

From HuffPo

Karl Rove Likens Trump To Stalin, Tells Him To ‘Tone Down’ Anti-Press Rants

Trump’s attacks on the media are “over the top” and “not helpful to our country,” says the longtime Republican strategist.

“I grew up during the time of the Cold War,” said Rove, per Mediaite. “That is a phrase that was used by Stalin against the enemies of the Communist regime. I think the president would be well advised to tone down the rhetoric.”

posted by jgirl at 7:30 AM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

When Karl Rove asks you to tone it down....
posted by Floydd at 7:34 AM on August 7, 2018 [76 favorites]

2004, Suskind quoting Rove: "The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore." He continued "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Rove being uncomfortable is fine with me.
posted by Harry Caul at 7:39 AM on August 7, 2018 [53 favorites]

Rove is just another one of these Republican bigwigs who almost certainly supports most if not all of Trump's policies, but is annoyed by how Trump has taken the lid off the pot so that everyone can see what's boiling in there.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:43 AM on August 7, 2018 [88 favorites]

I quite like that Suskind quote, and was surprised to hear it show up on the most recent album by The National, but the attribution is suspect.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:46 AM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

@NewYorkStateAG (Barbara Underwood): I am leading 19 AGs and filing a brief in federal court to defend unaccompanied minors’ access to abortion services. All women have a constitutionally-protected right to these services—including these young women. #JusticeForJane

Press release.

Amicus brief [pdf].
posted by melissasaurus at 7:50 AM on August 7, 2018 [73 favorites]

Underwood is sure kicking ass.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:14 AM on August 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

Don't get too exercised. As said above, this is about appearance and whether it harms the ability to get the results he wants, not whether the statements are themselves offensive - which he doesn't say. Rather than calling those statements offensive it's "tone down the rhetoric," making this out to just be a poor choice of words. He even manages to find a way to do a little bothsideserism with “calling names is not helpful to our country from any side.”
posted by phearlez at 8:14 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

photoslob: "Nelson is done. I live in Florida and you wouldn’t know he was running."

Totally possible! On the other hand, I remember reading very similar comments here about Ralph Northam. That was right before he romped to victory in Virginia.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:20 AM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

A bit of morning snark from Representative Judy Chu from CA 27th Congressional District (Pasadena):

This meeting was primarily about adoptions. SLTwitter

For those of you who don't want to click - Rep. Chu is at a puppy adoption event in Pasadena.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:22 AM on August 7, 2018 [60 favorites]

Late preview articles: 538 on OH-12 special, Vox on primaries.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:27 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

PSA: The public comment period on the 2020 Census closes at 11:59 pm today. Please use this link respond to the Trump administration's inclusion of a "citizenship question" on the final census form.

As an example, here's a boilerplate I've adapted from the SPLC:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to strongly oppose inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 Census and to urges the U.S. Department of Commerce to remove it from the data collection forms.

The Department's intention to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census serves no useful purpose. In fact, it will degrade the quality of the census data by depressing response rates – while increasing the cost to taxpayers.

Worse, it will trigger further mistrust in immigrant communities already living in fear because of Donald Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric and the Trump administration's over-aggressive enforcement actions.

Such ideology-driven measures have proven to introduce under-counting. For example, on the first Monday that Alabama's 2011 law requiring a citizenship question for public school enrolment took effect, over 2,200 students were absent from schools across the state.

This is simply a bad idea – one motivated by an extremist anti-immigrant agenda rather than utility. The Department has not even estimated the cost or time that seeking responses to the citizenship question will entail.

The Census must provide accurate information if it is to be used fairly, not only in its practical purpose of informing the annual distribution of approximately $700 billion in federal funds, but also in its Constitutional mandate to apportion U.S. representatives among the states.

We need every person counted for the sake of our nation.

Thank you,

The Department of Commerce stops accepting public comments at midnight tonight.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:39 AM on August 7, 2018 [34 favorites]

A few deleted; we don't honestly need to debate Karl Rove; again if things are slow it's fine for them to be slow and we don't have to have ten reactions to every little social media burp from some asshole.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:43 AM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

Nelson is done. I live in Florida and you wouldn’t know he was running. Florida is a lost cause of transplants who don’t want to pay taxes and the racist, revisionist whites of northern FL that might as well be Mississippi. I’m predicting that FL goes red in the mid terms. I hope it doesn’t and I will gladly eat a cake and all that but I’m done with this place. Time to go to bluer pastures.

My perspective as someone who lives in Miami (which admittedly is a whole different world than most of the state) --

I'm not seeing a lot about the senate race in general. What I am seeing is a lot of frustration with Scott specifically about the water crisis and a lot of frustration around the water crisis in general. Most of the discussions I'm seeing around the mid-terms are questions about who to vote for in the governor primary and a decent amount of discussion among FL-27 Democrats on who can beat Donna Shalala in that primary.

I do wonder if after the primary, I'll see more about Nelson. But the only things I'm seeing about Scott are about how shaped the conditions that have led to the red tide. I'm not saying that it isn't an uphill battle -- we've managed to elect Scott twice for reasons vastly passing my understanding -- but I'm not sure if I'd count out Nelson yet. I feel like we'll get a better handle on what the ground is like after the primary.
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 8:44 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Totally-normal-not-an-asshole-judge: Tensions at the Paul Manafort fraud trial grew so heated Monday that the judge suggested that one of Robert Mueller’s prosecutors was crying during a discussion out of the jury’s earshot, according to a transcript of the proceedings.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:52 AM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

What has two thumbs and voted in the Missouri primary this morning? This chick.

Me too. I was there about 15 minutes after the polls opened and apparently was the second one to vote. I expect turnout should be pretty good given the number of yard signs, though, and unless rural areas are somehow highly susceptible to the Koch Brothers propaganda, Prop A is going to crash and burn and sink into the swamp.
posted by Foosnark at 8:55 AM on August 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

I'm Still With Mel!
posted by riverlife at 8:57 AM on August 7, 2018

Minnesota Attorney General — Now Democratic Frontrunner for Governor — Relied on Government Employees for Campaign Work, They Say - Rachel M. Cohen, The Intercept

Lori Swanson, Minnesota’s three-term attorney general and current candidate for governor, has presided over an office culture in which professional success is linked to the willingness of employees to participate in Swanson’s campaign work, eight former and current employees of the attorney general’s office told The Intercept.

Swanson, a moderate Democrat who was first elected in 2007, has kept a remarkably low profile throughout her 11 years in office, largely avoiding crowds and close media coverage. Just last month, Minnesota Public Radio described her as “an atypically private politician who runs a tightly-controlled office and makes few public appearances.” Unlike nearly all other politicians across the country, she maintains no personal or professional presence on Twitter or Facebook.

None of this is by accident, according to sources familiar with Swanson. Lawyers and other employees who have worked for her describe a highly politicized office in which burnishing Swanson’s image is a primary focus.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:08 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Are the transcripts of the Manafort trial available somewhere for download?
posted by ltl at 9:13 AM on August 7, 2018

Something like 43rd ballot in my teeny tiny precinct in Michigan today. Exciting!
posted by zrail at 9:18 AM on August 7, 2018 [12 favorites]

unless rural areas are somehow highly susceptible to the Koch Brothers propaganda

We just drove through rural south-eastern Missouri this weekend and saw a ton of "No on Prop A" signs. I was surprised when I looked it up, because I'd assumed from the "Protect your pay" tagline that it was about taxes.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:23 AM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

CNN is running a live feed of Manafort trial updates. Here are its recent headlines:
—Gates says he and Manafort were interviewed by FBI about Ukraine in July 2014
—Mystery of 'fake' invoices solved [Gates created them from information provided by Manafort]
—Email showed Manafort directing Gates to move money from foreign account
—Gates gets into the gritty details on "shelf companies" and Cypriot accounts

The Washington Post has similar live coverage.
—12:14 a.m.: Manafort’s response to large tax bill? ‘WTF,’ Gates testifies.
—11:50 a.m.: Gates: Manafort actively hid accounts
—11:25 a.m.: Gates explains mystery invoices
—11:18 a.m.: Gates explains FBI interviews in 2014
—10:57 a.m.: Gates: Manafort grew worried when his name appeared on account
—10:35 a.m.: Gates gives primer on shell companies
—10:17 a.m.: Rick Gates explains how Ukrainian billionaires paid Manafort
—9:37 a.m.: Behind judge’s clash with prosecutors, sharp opinions about special counsels
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:23 AM on August 7, 2018 [21 favorites]

New Poll: 43% of Republicans Want to Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Media
The “enemy of the people” talk is working. A plurality of self-identified Republicans say they want Trump to have the power to take “bad” media outlets out.

Freedom of the press may be guaranteed in the Constitution. But a plurality of Republicans want to give President Trump the authority to close down certain news outlets, according to a new public opinion survey conducted by Ipsos and provided exclusively to The Daily Beast.

The findings present a sobering picture for the fourth estate, with respondents showing diminished trust in the media and increased support for punitive measures against its members. They also illustrate the extent to which Trump’s anti-press drumbeat has shaped public opinion about the role the media plays in covering his administration.

All told, 43 percent of self-identified Republicans said that they believed “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Only 36 percent disagreed with that statement. When asked if Trump should close down specific outlets, including CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, nearly a quarter of Republicans (23 percent) agreed and 49 percent disagreed.

Republicans were far more likely to take a negative view of the media. Forty-eight percent of them said they believed “the news media is the enemy of the American people” (just 28 percent disagreed) while nearly four out of every five (79 percent) said that they believed “the mainstream media treats President Trump unfairly.”

posted by scalefree at 9:26 AM on August 7, 2018 [39 favorites]

JustKeepSwimming: "a decent amount of discussion among FL-27 Democrats on who can beat Donna Shalala in that primary."

Here's a poll of that race. Primary polling tends to be not great, especially House races, but she certainly appears to be considered the strong front-runner at this point.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:28 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Floydd: When Karl Rove asks you to tone it down....

Remember that he's not saying "stop attacking the press, just do it more subtly."

Meanwhile, A Study Found Bankruptcy Soared Among Americans 65 And Older (NPR, August 6, 2018) -- The number of Americans age 65 and older who file for bankruptcy has tripled since 1991.

Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society

The social safety net for older Americans has been shrinking for the past couple decades. The risks associated with aging, reduced income, and increased healthcare costs, have been off-loaded onto older individuals. At the same time, older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy, and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher. Using data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, we find more than a two-fold increase in the rate at which older Americans (age 65 and over) file for bankruptcy and an almost five-fold increase in the percentage of older persons in the U.S. bankruptcy system. The magnitude of growth in older Americans in bankruptcy is so large that the broader trend of an aging U.S. population can explain only a small portion of the effect. In our data, older Americans report they are struggling with increased financial risks, namely inadequate income and unmanageable costs of healthcare, as they try to deal with reductions to their social safety net. As a result of these increased financial burdens, the median senior bankruptcy filer enters bankruptcy with negative wealth of $17,390 as compared to more than $250,000 for their non-bankrupt peers. For an increasing number of older Americans, their golden years are fraught with economic risks, the result of which is often bankruptcy.

You can view the whole PDF from SSRN.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:29 AM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Interesting review of the (Repentant Swamp Monster) Rick Wilson book in The Week: Trump haters will love Rick Wilson's scathing new book, Everything Trump Touches Dies. It's quite the rehab job for someone who isn't above invoking a little racism and jingoistic Islamophobia in his Masters' Satanic Service.

Wilson steeps the book in a trenchant analysis of how Trumpism functions as a Cheeto-smeared mirror inverse of traditional conservative values, specifically fiscal responsibility and limited government.

Yup. I remember all those Conservative champions who resisted W's expansion of the government (DHS, Patriot Act, ICE, militarized police forces) and deficit spending/no-bid contracts while waging an expensive war. That was totally a thing that happened.

Wilson also takes the media to task for conducting "softly-lit interviews with 'Ma and Pa Soybean' farmer" and expresses skepticism at what this "coal-country Kristof"-style of reporting accomplishes: "It's a disgusting sort of contemptuous paternalism, and it's a shtick, it's not analysis," he tells me. "It's not a real penetration into what is actually going on in the lives and minds of these people. When you scratch that surface more than a couple of millimeters, you find that is there is a lot of racial animosity."

Cool. So contempt for racists is another thing I can add to the IOKIYAR pile?
This quip seems calculated to appeal to the type of liberal the lives in Rush Limbaugh fever dreams who is just looking for a reason to roast poor innocent dirt farmers. Media liberals love to explore the Trumpist psyche because it creates the narrative that Third Way Rainbow Capitalist Meritocracy that could maaaaaaaybe use a few tweaks around the edges is the humane alternative to corn-pone fascism. Whatever keeps them from having to engage in an actual examination of how America's unholy marriage of corporate, fundamentalist religious, and carceral power hems us in and robs us of real liberty.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 9:29 AM on August 7, 2018 [12 favorites]

Whatever keeps them from having to engage in an actual examination of how America's unholy marriage of corporate, fundamentalist religious, and carceral power hems us in and robs us of real liberty.

So... stop talking so much about the opinions of feelings of the white working class (in swing states) and take a hard look at the machine that molds these opinions and feelings and why it exists?
posted by puddledork at 9:35 AM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

From the Washington Post's live coverage of the Manafort trial:

12:25 a.m. Gates makes one of his first references to the Trump campaign[...]Gates was describing how in 2015 and 2016, Manafort’s once lucrative work in Ukraine had dried up, and his company was in dire financial straits. He said the company, DMP International, did not acquire any new clients in 2015, and to his knowledge, was not earning income in 2016.

In March of that year, Gates said, he went to work for “one of the presidential campaigns.” Manafort, Gates said, hired him. We know that campaign was Trump’s, though Gates did not say the president’s name, and there was no further discussion of that work.

Gates then went into detail about the company's dire finances in 2015 and 2016, with vendors going unpaid and Manafort applying for loans (using falsified business documents). All this makes Manafort's offer to work for free for the Trump campaign that much more suspicious.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:46 AM on August 7, 2018 [38 favorites]

All this makes Manafort's offer to work for free for the Trump campaign that much more suspicious.

Given his history of being funded by various Russian agencies and previous failure to register as a foreign agent, we should probably just explicitly state that he worked for the Trump campaign without being paid by it.
posted by jaduncan at 9:50 AM on August 7, 2018 [47 favorites]

Has anybody yet pointed out that the Trump campaign should have realized that if you're not paying for the service, you're the product being sold?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:53 AM on August 7, 2018 [77 favorites]

The NYTimes has a puff-piece exit interview with Paul Ryan, This Is the Way Paul Ryan’s Speakership Ends, in which he's not asked to account for himself, is allowed to dodge every serious question, and doesn't engage with any discussion of Trump other than to call him a troll. But there was this gem:

Trump used to call Ryan “Boy Scout.” “I thought it was a compliment,” said Ryan, a former altar boy and habitual people-pleaser. But after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a few bills Trump announced to Ryan that he would stop using the nickname. “So I guess he meant it as an insult all along,” the speaker said. “I didn’t realize.” Ryan shrugged.

The BSA is a garbage organization, but most Boy Scouts are awesome, so fuck Donald Trump. Also Paul Ryan claims, like Ivanka, to have been a secretly moderating force:

Ryan made a determination after Trump’s election that to defy the president too forcefully would invite a counterreaction. He tends to speak of the commander in chief as if he were sharing a coping strategy on dealing with a Ritalin-deprived child. “It boomerangs,” Ryan says of being too critical of Trump. “He goes in the other direction, so that’s not effective.” He added, “The pissing match doesn’t work.”

Ryan prefers to tell Trump how he feels in private. He joins a large group of Trump’s putative allies, many of whom have worked in the administration, who insist that they have shaped Trump’s thinking and behavior in private: the “Trust me, I’ve stopped this from being much worse” approach. “I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy,” Ryan tells me. “I advanced this goal, I advanced this goal, I advanced this goal.”

posted by peeedro at 10:20 AM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Not a quote: "Also, I then repeatedly normalised him in public and/or campaigned for him to have access to all executive powers."

Thanks for that!
posted by jaduncan at 10:23 AM on August 7, 2018 [23 favorites]

Given his history of being funded by various Russian agencies and previous failure to register as a foreign agent, we should probably just explicitly state that he worked for the Trump campaign without being paid by it.

Which is no doubt what Mueller's team is setting up for Manafort's D.C. trial. They're playing a long, slow game.

Meanwhile, Mickey "Sez Who?" Cohen's legal problems continue to swell, the Wall Street Journal reports: Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Under Investigation for Tax Fraud—As legal pressures mount, Cohen’s bank loans are also under scrutiny by prosecutors

In previously unreported developments, federal prosecutors in New York are examining whether Mr. Cohen committed tax fraud, people familiar with the investigation said.

Federal authorities are assessing whether Mr. Cohen’s income from his taxi-medallion business was underreported in federal tax returns, one of the people said. That income included hundreds of thousands of dollars received in cash and other payments over the last five years, the person said.

Prosecutors also are looking into whether any bank employees improperly allowed Mr. Cohen to obtain loans for which he didn’t provide adequate documentation, people familiar with the matter said. In particular, federal investigators are looking closely at Mr. Cohen’s relationship with Sterling National Bank—which provided financing for Mr. Cohen’s taxi-medallion business—including whether Mr. Cohen inflated the value of any of his assets as collateral for loans, according to people familiar with the matter.

Convictions for federal tax- and bank-fraud may carry potentially significant prison sentences, which could put additional pressure on Mr. Cohen to cooperate with prosecutors if he is charged with those crimes, according to former federal prosecutors.

As part of the inquiry into Mr. Cohen’s relationships with banks, federal authorities have been investigating whether Mr. Cohen made misrepresentations or false statements on loan applications, people familiar with the matter said.

On top of all that, federal prosecutors have subpoenaed Jeffrey Getzel, the accountant Cohen used to have in common with "Taxi King" Evgeny "Gene" Freidman.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:28 AM on August 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

type of liberal the lives in Rush Limbaugh fever dreams who is just looking for a reason to roast poor innocent dirt farmers.

Just who are those "poor innocent dirt farmers".

The median household income of farm owners is $82,000. The median household income for everyone else is $59,000. Only 1.6% of farm owners are African American.
posted by JackFlash at 10:30 AM on August 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

Kitty Stardust: So contempt for racists is another thing I can add to the IOKIYAR pile?

Only Nixon can go to Trumpland.

peeedro:

Trump used to call Ryan “Boy Scout.” “I thought it was a compliment,” said Ryan, a former altar boy and habitual people-pleaser. But after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a few bills Trump announced to Ryan that he would stop using the nickname. “So I guess he meant it as an insult all along,” the speaker said. “I didn’t realize.” Ryan shrugged.
The BSA is a garbage organization, but most Boy Scouts are awesome, so fuck Donald Trump.

I'm pretty confident Trump's use of the nickname is entirely divorced from the actual Boy Scouts (to which his own foundation once donated an amount suspiciously identical to the application fee right when one of his failsons was the age to join). What Donald meant is "goody-two-shoes". Of course Paul Ryan is plenty evil, but he doesn't wear it proudly, he dismisses Trumpisms rather than embrace them, etc.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 10:37 AM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Accused Russian Agent's Journey To Washington Began In South Dakota

As a guy who grew up in Sioux Falls, I particularly appreciated this passage:

The first thing she noticed when she got off the plane in Sioux Falls was that it smelled like home — “the frosty air and even the smell of the local flora reminded me of my native Siberia,” she wrote in an article for a Russian magazine in 2016.

posted by Mental Wimp at 10:38 AM on August 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

Alleged Mosque Bombers Got Orders From Militia ‘Higher-Ups,’ Members Say Three members of a fringe militia are charged with bombing a Minnesota mosque. They say they were part of a larger network.
posted by Artw at 10:42 AM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Charlottesville DSA's Call for Action Against White Supremacy on August 11-12
posted by XMLicious at 10:50 AM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Federal authorities are assessing whether Mr. Cohen’s income from his taxi-medallion business was underreported in federal tax returns, one of the people said.

I'm surprised Mueller didn't start with tax fraud against every person in this probe, as it's his easiest way to make Trump's pardon power worthless. As soon as you convict someone of federal tax fraud, you've set up a nearly automatic conviction under (unpardonable) state laws for state tax fraud.
posted by msalt at 11:06 AM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society

Wait a minute, I thought that the Boomers had stolen everything. Which is it?
posted by Melismata at 11:08 AM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

They prey on each other as well.
posted by Artw at 11:09 AM on August 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

Wait a minute, I thought that the Boomers had stolen everything. Which is it?

Some boomers have stolen everything while others have lost everything. Same as it ever was, except more so.
posted by zrail at 11:09 AM on August 7, 2018 [26 favorites]

Anyone miss the nuclear arms race? Well we've got a new one. China's 'waverider' hypersonic technology.
posted by Harry Caul at 11:13 AM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

(to which his own foundation once donated an amount suspiciously identical to the application fee right when one of his failsons was the age to join)

Holy crap, Cheapskate Cheeto! I'd forgotten this wasn't Fake News™

WaPo (The Trump Foundation's) smallest-ever gift, for $7, was paid to the Boy Scouts in 1989, at a time when it cost $7 to register a new Scout. Trump’s oldest son was 11 at the time. Trump did not respond to a question about whether the money was paid to register him.

Rolling Stone Most of the reporting on the Trump Foundation took place during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, when it was discovered that the money it brought in had been used for everything from purchasing a six-foot-tall portrait of Trump for $20,000 to paying the $7 it cost Donald Jr. to register for the Boy Scouts.

posted by achrise at 11:13 AM on August 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

Kevin Drum took a look at the elderly bankruptcy story making the thread today and found it wanting:

Something happened very broadly during the mid-80s and mid-90s, and whatever it was affected everyone, not just the elderly. Since 2001, however, bankruptcies haven’t changed much among any age group, including the elderly.

This is the story. Credit card debt, the dotcom bubble, the housing bubble, the 2005 bankruptcy law, the rising cost of long-term nursing care—these are all stories. If you want to dig deeper and tell them, fine. But can we drop this endless scaremongering about a massive increase in elderly bankruptcies obtained solely by cherry picking the starting year and providing no surrounding context?

posted by notyou at 11:16 AM on August 7, 2018 [30 favorites]

In which the E.U. threatens to sanction businesses that stop doing business with Iran over U.S. sanctions. (NBC)

"The European measures are aimed at allowing firms to recover damages from bodies that enforce American sanctions, and ban companies from complying with the sanctions without E.U. permission."
posted by mrgoat at 11:21 AM on August 7, 2018 [23 favorites]

Comment on several of the ghastly links above: in the beginning during the -30's, the Nazis weren't planning the Holocaust. They had a number of different deportation plans going while they ramped up the not-formally-government hoodlums and the concentration camps. At this point, we are in 1936, rather than in 1938. But 1938 couldn't happen without the normalizing during the previous years.
posted by mumimor at 11:26 AM on August 7, 2018 [40 favorites]

Charlottesville DSA's Call for Action Against White Supremacy on August 11-12

Charlottesville denied “Unite the Right” organizer Jason Kessler's permit application for a repeat so this year's sequel is in Washington DC's Lafayette Park, right across the street from the White House.

According to the rally's website:

Don’t forget to bring these items:
Water
Bodycam
American or Confederate Flag 4′ x 4′ or smaller, preferable detachable from the pole (for potential transit on trains)

The Confederate Flag is helpfully and unironically linked to patriotic-flags.com.

You might think a bunch of white power jagoffs would use an ordered list instead of a bunch of paragraphs with manually-added numbers for their instructions, but no.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:28 AM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

~~Nelson Muntz~~ Richard North Patterson, The Boston Globe: The humiliating demise of Paul Ryan

Thus ended Paul Ryan’s fatal deception. He becomes in history what he always was in fact — the avatar of a fiscally-ruinous wealth transfer to America’s 1 percent. His legacy? Trillion-dollar deficits with no end in sight, the largest explosion of peacetime debt in memory. Plutocracy beckons; a government stripped of solvency cannot serve the rest.

Somewhere Ayn Rand smiles.

posted by tonycpsu at 11:29 AM on August 7, 2018 [49 favorites]

White nationalists are coming to D.C. Here’s the best way to protest.

The best way to resist white supremacists is to massively outnumber them in a disciplined show of nonviolent force. Physical clashes and shouting matches, even if provoked by the white supremacists, provides them with a bullhorn and a victim card to play. Instead, a mass gathering at a separate location, a clear message of unity against hate and strict nonviolent discipline are the way to go.
...
One year later, on Aug. 12, demonstrators should come together to manifest a massive rejection of the white nationalist agenda. The counterprotesters should avoid a direct physical confrontation with the neo-Nazis, however, and instead rally in a different location. Ideally, the anti-Nazi groups would gather in large groups all around the city. They could, for example, congregate on the rooftops of D.C. apartments, hotels and business establishments, and wear the same color and shout the same message at the same time. Such dispersed, low-risk tactics were used in civil resistance movements in places like Chile, Serbia and Turkey.

This would send a powerful message of solidarity without the same level of risk of violent escalation. No matter what, counterprotesters should commit to nonviolent discipline. Failure to do so typically benefits the other side.

posted by kirkaracha at 11:32 AM on August 7, 2018 [32 favorites]

Also from that excellent Boston Globe article:

Next came Trump. This moment, too, was rich in irony. For the stark truth is that Trump is a political mutation spawned by Paul Ryan’s big ideas.

Those ideas — promoting free trade, slashing entitlements, and shredding the social safety net – offered nothing to a base beset by economic insecurity and racial anxiety. To win their votes, Ryan and his party offered diversionary scapegoats — feckless bureaucrats, lazy welfare recipients, secular elites, job-stealing immigrants, and venal minorities practicing “identity politics.”

Then Trump ripped the party’s mask off. He exploited white identity politics. He insisted that free trade and nonwhite immigration betrayed American workers. He pledged to preserve entitlements. He promised to “drain the swamp” — and wall off Mexicans.

The base loved him for it.

Abruptly, the party became Trump’s hostage; Ryan, his court eunuch. Ryan stood mute as Trump vilified Muslims, shafted Dreamers, and separated refugees from their kids. He supported Devin Nunes in reducing the House Intelligence Committee to rabid pit bulls bent on killing the Russia investigation to protect Trump from impeachment. Cruelest of all, Trump signed a version of Ryan’s donor-driven fiscal fakery into tax law. Reality, indeed, bites.

posted by Melismata at 11:33 AM on August 7, 2018 [19 favorites]

provides them with a bullhorn and a victim card to play

They'll work with the material provided. If the entire counter protest is silent and sitting down peacefully they'll say someone coughing is an attempt to use biological weapons on them.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 11:34 AM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

kirkaracha: American or Confederate Flag 4′ x 4′ or smaller, preferable detachable from the pole (for potential transit on trains)

Because you don't want to tangle your flag on transit ... or you don't want to bloody your flag while using the pole as a weapon, like former Marine Pistolis --

jgirl: Photographs taken at the rally depict Pistolis clubbing a counter-protester with a wooden flagpole.

zachlipton: @KarlBode: So an FCC IG report will soon be released confirming the FCC made up a DDOS attack during the #netneutrality repeal. Ajit Pai's trying to get out ahead of that report by throwing the former CIO under the bus and playing dumb.

Pai blamed the spreading of false information on employees hired by the Obama administration and said that he isn't to blame because he "inherited... a culture" from "the prior Administration" that led to the spreading of false information. Pai wrote:
I am deeply disappointed that the FCC's former Chief Information Officer [David Bray], who was hired by the prior Administration and is no longer with the Commission, provided inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people. This is completely unacceptable. I'm also disappointed that some working under the former CIO apparently either disagreed with the information that he was presenting or had questions about it, yet didn't feel comfortable communicating their concerns to me or my office."
Pai's admission came in a statement (PDF) yesterday. "It has become clear that in addition to a flawed comment system, we inherited from the prior Administration a culture in which many members of the Commission's career IT staff were hesitant to express disagreement with the Commission's former CIO in front of FCC management," he also said.

Trump must have ordered those mirrors in bulk and handed them out to all his lackeys and like-minded liars. Behold, Ajit Pai's Big Lie, a long article from Mike Masnick for Tech Dirt, on Nov. 27th 2017:

You might think that the "Big Lie" is the idea that the 2015 rules killed investment. And that is a lie. Actual evidence from financial reports has proven that completely false repeatedly. But, that's a smaller lie here. Ajit Pai's Big Lie is the idea that gutting all net neutrality protections is somehow returning FCC policy to the way things were two years ago, and that "for decades" the FCC kept out of this debate. All of that is wrong. And, unlike the other lie concerning investment -- where Pai and others can fiddle with numbers to make his claims look right -- Ajit Pai knows that the Big Lie is false.

He's just another Republican, trying to rewrite history so he's the hero.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:39 AM on August 7, 2018 [34 favorites]

> [Ajit Pai is] just another Republican, trying to rewrite history so he's the hero.

I wonder when the leopards will come for him.

Once the ISPs no longer have to abide by net neutrality rules, all it takes is for one or two of the rabid conservative pot-stirrer blogs (or NRA-TV, say) to be cut off by an ISP on the grounds of [whatever], and conservatives will suddenly re-discover why the ISPs should just be dumb pipes without favoring content flowing through them. (Oh, so ISPs should be neutral as to content on the network? Hmmm, what should we call this concept...)

And then, who will they turn their outrage on? Maybe the FCC, full of Obama-era moles? Will Ajit Pai survive that, with his obviously-brown name?

(Sorry, just not feeling very charitable today.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 11:51 AM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

More booming sounds, from Rick Gates:

Prosecutor Greg Andres showed Gates a series of emails from Manafort, which showed that Gates’ former boss requested that Gates use his position in the Trump campaign to offer a series of favors to Stephen Calk, the founder and CEO of Federal Savings Bank, one of the banks that extended Manafort a loan in 2016.

First, Calk’s name was added to a list of national economic advisers to the campaign. Then, in November 2016, Manafort wrote Gates, “We need to discuss Steve Calk for Sec of the Army. I hear the list is being considered this weekend,” indicating that wanted Gates’ help getting Calk considered by the presidential transition for the cabinet level job.

Hmm. Now, what else, and to whom else, did Manafort sell from the campaign? Perhaps, a position on Ukraine?

Prosecution done, defense questioning up next.
posted by Dashy at 11:54 AM on August 7, 2018 [47 favorites]

Hawaii's primary is on Saturday (but early voting is underway now!); Honolulu Civil Beat has great 2018 election coverage here. A few articles:

Sherry Campagna’s Quest To Unseat Hawaii’s Most Popular Politician [Gabbard]

Chad Blair: You’d Be Surprised Which Candidates Favor Legalizing Pot (for Hawaii politics news, follow @chadblaircb on twitter)

The Hawaii Republican Party’s Slow Path To Extinction

Hawaii Elections Officials Already Have 112,000 Ballots In Hand

Civil Beat Poll: Case Has Big Lead In 6-Way Race For Congress (This is for HI-1; featuring DSA-endorsed Kaniela Ing)

A Livelier Ige Comes Out Swinging In One-On-One Interview (Governor)
posted by melissasaurus at 11:56 AM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

No matter what, counterprotesters should commit to nonviolent discipline.

"No matter what" indicates the writer can't imagine that violent self-defense might be necessary against Nazis that committed acts of mass terroristic violence (including murder) against counter-protestors the last time they convened.

Civility's the game you win when the other player murders you and I worry that whatever it takes to wake up those who still don't understand this might also entail the death of many of the people who currently do understand it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:58 AM on August 7, 2018 [47 favorites]

“I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy,”

... and then Ronald Reagan appears.
posted by multics at 12:00 PM on August 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

"No matter what" indicates the writer can't imagine that violent self-defense might be necessary against Nazis that committed acts of mass terroristic violence (including murder) against counter-protestors the last time they convened.

Obviously they imagined it; that's why they said to counter-protest in a separate location.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:05 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Obviously they imagined it; that's why they said to counter-protest in a separate location.

Heather Heyer was killed four blocks away from the rally the last time. An antifascist no-go perimeter zone is not a solution here. Otherwise we might as well just give them DC. More than we already have, I mean.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:09 PM on August 7, 2018 [45 favorites]

Here's what I don't get. There was violence at last year's rally, and someone got killed. WHY are they even allowed a permit this year? Why are they allowed poles for their flags?
posted by Soliloquy at 12:10 PM on August 7, 2018 [75 favorites]

As an advocate of non-violence, I agree that when they are attacking you, it's too late for non-violence; which doesn't mean abandoning non-violence, it means pre-empting violence. Don't give them a target, don't fight on their playing field. Sue them, boycott them, shame them. Don't stand in front of them.... because even if you're ok with violence, there are much more effective ways to violently fight fascists then finding a whole bunch of them in a crowd and standing in front of them yelling and waving. Like, that's what they want.

If you really think violence is necessary or acceptable, at least violence smarter.
posted by Anchorite_of_Palgrave at 12:14 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Soliloquy: Here's what I don't get. There was violence at last year's rally, and someone got killed. WHY are they even allowed a permit this year? Why are they allowed poles for their flags?

I can't glean this from research, but it looks possible that it's not officially, explicitly the same group(s)? Hence, barring them on the basis of last year's murder would amount to a generic No Nazis rule, which I'm okay with but localities often aren't.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 12:14 PM on August 7, 2018

I can't glean this from research, but it looks possible that it's not officially, explicitly the same group(s)? Hence, barring them on the basis of last year's murder would amount to a generic No Nazis rule, which I'm okay with but localities often aren't.

It's called Unite The Right 2. It has the same name and is explicitly a sequel. There's no forgivable reason for permitting it in DC.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:18 PM on August 7, 2018 [46 favorites]

Meanwhile overseas: AP Investigation: US allies, al-Qaida battle rebels in Yemen.
posted by adamvasco at 12:18 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Three members of a fringe militia are charged with bombing a Minnesota mosque. They say they were part of a larger network.

So, organized terrorism.
posted by Gelatin at 12:19 PM on August 7, 2018 [41 favorites]

Reminder that Heather was coming back from protecting a Black neighborhood that the Nazis were planning on terrorizing.
And let's not pretend that we can count on police to do their jobs.
And as for not confronting Nazis at their location, is Lafayette Park not currently occupied by anti-ICE/baby-jailers? Not sure how that's going to work.
posted by Sweetdefenestration at 12:21 PM on August 7, 2018 [31 favorites]

Make DC Police Antifa Again.
posted by peeedro at 12:28 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

And let's not pretend that we can count on police to do their jobs.
Yes, but I'd expect a 31% white police force to behave differently than a 77% white police force.
posted by MtDewd at 12:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

CarolineO pointed out this NBC article from Feb 2018:

Manafort received three separate loans in December 2016 and January 2017 from Federal Savings Bank for homes in New York City, Virginia and the Hamptons.

The banker, Stephen Calk, president of the Federal Savings Bank, was announced as a member of candidate Trump's Council of Economic Advisers in August 2016.

So if Manafort got Gates to do that bit of quid pro quo for him, what did he do himself?
posted by Dashy at 12:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

Heather Heyer was killed four blocks away from the rally the last time. An antifascist no-go perimeter zone is not a solution here. Otherwise we might as well just give them DC. More than we already have, I mean.

Personally I think they should have stuck with the plan of giving them their own dedicated trains and then just given them some time in the Rosslyn tunnel.
posted by phearlez at 12:30 PM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Government Study Says Trump's Wall is Total Bullshit

I know, I know, it’s a shocking twist—the border wall that President Trump campaigned on, promised Mexico would pay for, and has made no actual progress on since entering office is actually total bullshit that has no basis in reality, according to a new study from the Government Accountability Office.

Apparently, Customs and Border Protection did not research a few minor details when proposing costs for the wall, like what the terrain is like, what parts of the border need to be blocked to stop migrants from crossing, and who actually owns the land the wall would be built on. No big deal, right?

Ceterum autem censeo Trumpem esse delendam
posted by kirkaracha at 12:36 PM on August 7, 2018 [26 favorites]

Ted Cruz asks Trump to campaign for him in Texas

Maybe there's only a 33% chance of Cruz losing the election, but at least there's a 100% chance of him continuing to debase himself.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:42 PM on August 7, 2018 [66 favorites]

So, uh, it turns out there’s already a thread for the Michigan primary. My bad. If, like me, you didn’t know about it: here ya go.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:45 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Mother Jones, Ex-Trump Campaign Aides Are Lobbying for Bosnia’s Pro-Russian Separatist Party

Representatives of a Russian-backed Serbian separatist party in Bosnia, whose leader has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department, have been courting Trump administration officials and allies and recently signed up two former Trump campaign officials to help them connect with Republican lawmakers.

Former Trump campaign aides Jason Osborne and Mike Rubino have registered with the Justice Department to lobby for the political party of Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, the Serbian enclave in Bosnia. Dodik has talked of his republic seceding from Bosnia and merging with Serbia, escalating tensions in a country governed by the 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended a bloody three-year war among former Yugoslavian states. The United States sanctioned Dodik last year for undermining the accords through his calls for secession and other actions.

Dodik has won backing from Russia, which has embraced his opposition to Bosnia joining NATO and generally supports nationalist parties and movements, especially those in Eastern Europe. Russia allegedly supported an attempted coup in nearby Montenegro to stop the state from joining NATO. A Bosnian publication reported earlier this year that Russian intelligence helped train a paramilitary unit that acts as a security force for Dodik.

Naturally, a meeting with Rohrabacher was high on the agenda, as was one with Bannon, and a party at the Trump Hotel with lots of administration officials. The lobbying firm lists the same address as Corey Lewandowski's house, but Lewandowski continues to insist he's not a lobbyist and has nothing to do with any of this. A claim rather undercut by his April trip to Belgrade with Osborne and Rubino. More claims of dubious merit can be found inside.
posted by zachlipton at 12:47 PM on August 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

would you like to discuss the employment rate and wage growth?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:48 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

And let's not pretend that we can count on police to do their jobs.
Yes, but I'd expect a 31% white police force to behave differently than a 77% white police force.

DC cops are just garbage in all different ways but don't think they'll be on your side. You can look back to the nonsense arrests of journos and prosecutions from the inauguration or you can look at the fact that the new chief was the second in command back when they treated the World Bank protesters in an unconstitutional way such that it cost the city a shitton of money.

And as for not confronting Nazis at their location, is Lafayette Park not currently occupied by anti-ICE/baby-jailers? Not sure how that's going to work.

Lafayette Park ain't terribly small.
posted by phearlez at 12:48 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

From the GAO report on the Trump Wall [emphasis mine]:

However, the strategy did not include analysis of the costs associated with deploying barriers in each location or segment, which can vary depending on topography, land ownership, and other factors. Without assessing costs, consistent with leading practices for capital decision making, CBP does not have complete information for prioritizing locations to use its resources in the most cost-effective manner.

How can it be cost-effective if it's not effective at all? And why is CBP not called out for lack of efficacy data and analysis?
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:49 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

The fact that a bunch of white supremacists created a rally in which there was an ISIS-style vehicle-ramming attack, and then celebrated the attack and the death of the victim, and are permitted to have another rally, is such a failure of counter-terrorism. I don’t even have more wording than that, it’s just horrendous and despicable. That’s not even counting the gang beating of DeAndre Harris in a parking garage. Even the fucking Attorney General called this domestic terrorism. It’s just honestly mind blowing.
posted by gucci mane at 12:52 PM on August 7, 2018 [85 favorites]

Pai blamed the spreading of false information on employees hired by the Obama administration and said that he isn't to blame because he "inherited... a culture" from "the prior Administration" that led to the spreading of false information.

This got turned up a notch.

@dellcam: Several top FCC officials were informed this year that the investigation into fake cyberattack claims at FCC had shifted “to an investigation of false statements made in responses to congressional inquiries.” Case was referred to DOJ in December.

If we're going to investigate people for lying to Congress now, I have a list.
posted by zachlipton at 12:56 PM on August 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

@jjouvenal: BREAKING: Rick Gates admits he may improperly submitted personal expenses to Trump's inaugural committee.

Woah, a whole new scandal comes out of nowhere. As the Post puts it:

“Did you submit personal expenses to the inaugural committee for reimbursement?” Downing asked in the middle of a heated exchange on the topic.

“It’s possible,” Gates conceded.

posted by zachlipton at 1:04 PM on August 7, 2018 [40 favorites]

Speaking of the FCC, the cyber intelligence firm GroupSense has a forensic analysis of one of the email addresses used by Russia's online influence operation to post on multiple social media platforms, fraudulently obtain a PayPal account to pay for 2016 election ads on Facebook, and post fraudulent comments to the FCC Net Neutrality filing site, SHARK20385: A look into automated weaponization of stolen credentials and the impact to Internet forum and social media discourse [pdf]:

GroupSense investigated an email address listed in the Mueller indictment, Case 1:18-cr-00032-DLF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY LLC; filed 02/16/18. The email address “allforusa@yahoo.com” was identified as being “engaged in operations to interfere with elections and political processes.” The email address was found in the GroupSense BreachRecon database along with its password. That password appeared to be computer generated and inspired further investigation, netting 9.5 million addresses with similar seemingly computer generated passwords. The “allforusa@yahoo. com” email address was associated with an active Reddit account used to aggressively push AllforUSA stories. GroupSense research also shows the possible use of compromised addresses to operate Facebook and Twitter accounts that distributed a wide variety of inflammatory memes. Further, some of the addresses are associated with comments posted on the FCC Net Neutrality debate site.

Coverage from WaPo, The strange birth, death and rebirth of a Russian troll account called ‘AllForUSA’:

The report highlights how data breaches fuel nefarious online activity, giving criminal hackers and disinformation teams an endless supply of cheap accounts to use individually or for networks of “bots,” automated accounts controlled by a single operative. All this typically takes place without the original owners knowing what happened to their creations.

The GroupSense discovery also underscores how disinformation operations such as the Russian one named in the indictment, the Internet Research Agency, work across multiple platforms to bolster the credibility and prominence of their posts. Acquiring and repurposing real accounts — created by people who had forgotten or simply abandoned them — probably helped Russians evade detection by offering the illusion of authenticity, experts say.

posted by peeedro at 1:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

Nate Cohn is hammering that we should not look at the OH-12 early vote numbers tonight and make any inferences about the final result even though they might be very favorable for O'Connor.

But I'm going to look at them. He can't tell me what to do.
posted by Justinian at 1:10 PM on August 7, 2018 [27 favorites]

Well, if you wanna peep numbers...

Dave Wasserman (Cook)
Here's my latest estimate of what Danny O'Connor (D) needs in each #OH12 county to win today's special election (2-party vote share):

Delaware: 47%
Franklin: 64%
Licking: 42%
Marion: 32%
Morrow: 31%
Muskingum: 42%
Richland: 43%

Keep in mind, O'Connor (D) only needs to carry 1/7 counties in #OH12 to win the district. Also keep in mind: there are no meaningful inferences to be drawn from early vote totals tonight.
posted by chris24 at 1:15 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Nate Cohn is hammering that we should not look at the OH-12 early vote numbers tonight and make any inferences about the final result even though they might be very favorable for O'Connor.

But I'm going to look at them. He can't tell me what to do.

Maybe the mods can set it up such that any premature celebration in-thread tonight automatically redirects to the first of the two 2016 election night threads :/

——

North Korea has not taken steps to denuclearize, U.S. national security adviser says

“The remarks were a dismal acknowledgment that little progress has been made nearly two months after the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.”

Felicia Sonmez | WaPo
[CW: John Bolton]
posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:19 PM on August 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

I've been breathlessly following the live coverage of the Manafort trial, and can I just say how utterly delicious it is that so much of the evidence that is bringing that asshole down is incriminating emails?

I can't wait to see the entire Trump circus hoist by its own motherfucking petard.
posted by Sublimity at 1:23 PM on August 7, 2018 [83 favorites]

Oh look here’s John Bolton taking a break from pressuring Iran toward doing something retaliatory by ratcheting up the shit on North Korea, too.
posted by notyou at 1:27 PM on August 7, 2018

Reminder of why even a close Dem loss in OH-12 bodes ill for the GOP:

Fact: there are 68 R-held House districts *less* Republican than #OH12, per @CookPolitical PVI (there are also 119 less R than the old #PA18, where Conor Lamb (D) won in March).

Consensus seems to be that R+4.5 is probably the balance here; higher than that, good news for GOP. Lower than that, good news for Dems.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:27 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Saudi state-run media threatening Canada for asking about detained women't rights activists.

This escalating situation is causing a diplomatic and economic rift that would be unthinkable in any era other than the Age of Trump.

CNBC reported on Sunday: Saudi Arabia Slashes Economic Ties With Canada Over Civil Rights Activists:

Saudi Arabia will suspend new trade and investment with Canada after the North American country's foreign ministry urged Riyadh to release arrested civil rights activists, it said in a statement released to the official Saudi Press Agency on Sunday.

It also gave the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own ambassador to Canada, the statement by the Saudi foreign ministry said, adding it retained "its rights to take further action."

The Saudi ministry had been briefed that the Canadian foreign ministry and the Canadian embassy urged the Saudi authorities to "immediately release" civil rights activists, the statement said.

The Saudi government has now canceled the scholarships of 16,000 of its students studying in Canada, also ordering them to leave the country and find academic programs elsewhere (Newsweek).

Reuters's David Ljunggren (@reutersLjungg): State Department spokeswoman on the Canada-Saudi dispute: "Both sides need to diplomatically solve this together. We can't do it for them, they need to resolve it together"
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

zachlipton: @jjouvenal: Woah, a whole new scandal comes out of nowhere. As the Post puts it:
“Did you submit personal expenses to the inaugural committee for reimbursement?” Downing asked in the middle of a heated exchange on the topic.

“It’s possible,” Gates conceded.

Does this finally answer the Mystery of the Really Expensive Inauguration? If so, that's definitely nice to know... but I confess a little disappointment, as now the Trump people can just blame Gates for misleading/grifting them, rather than be implicated in something particularly nefarious.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 1:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

The Hawaii Republican Party’s Slow Path To Extinction

I am shocked, shocked! that a state where whites are the minority would reject the Party of White Supremacy. #KeepTheLeopardsOut That's basically what happened in California - and remember, California was purple rather than blue up until Pete Wilson did a proto-Trump and basically condemned his party to death in the state.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:31 PM on August 7, 2018 [19 favorites]

I think the Gates admission re the inaugural committee grift probably indicates that almost everyone involved in the inauguration was grifting the inaugural committee.
posted by notyou at 1:32 PM on August 7, 2018 [41 favorites]

I've been hearing for years that email is dead because of texting but it seems more like getting caught doing shit has bigger impacts. NASA culture shifted strongly after the Columbia accident report left egg on the fact of a lot of people who 'wrote down' shit they really wished they hadn't. Treasonous shitbags have less capacity to learn but even they may eventually get with the program.

Does this finally answer the Mystery of the Really Expensive Inauguration? If so, that's definitely nice to know... but I confess a little disappointment, as now the Trump people can just blame Gates for misleading/grifting them, rather than be implicated in something particularly nefarious.

Only till the communication chain makes it clear they were in on the grift, or the number and scope of obviously baloney claims makes it clear to those not drinking the koolaid (because let's not kid ourselves, obviously they will continue to assert up is down for the sake of their base far past the point where any non-MAGAheads will believe it) that they were doing payoffs/payouts willy-nilly.
posted by phearlez at 1:34 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Saudi government has now canceled the scholarships of 16,000 of its students studying in Canada, also ordering them to leave the country and find academic programs elsewhere (Newsweek).

I'm pretty proud of my country right now. Stand tall and firm Canada you are on the side of decency.

But I will add that Saudi Arabia has already been looking to cut off a lot of student funding for about a year now. The new guy in charge already instituted all kinds of changes affecting graduate studies which previously had ridiculously generous open ended funding. They just started requiring progress reports and implemented funding time limits.
posted by srboisvert at 1:51 PM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

I am shocked, shocked! that a state where whites are the minority would reject the Party of White Supremacy. #KeepTheLeopardsOut That's basically what happened in California - and remember, California was purple rather than blue up until Pete Wilson did a proto-Trump and basically condemned his party to death in the state.

What disgusts me is all the handwringing over the "one party rule". The GOP died in Hawaii from being out of step with the populace. Perhaps the answer is for a new party aligned with the public to make an appearance?
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:51 PM on August 7, 2018 [20 favorites]

[Minnesota Attorney General] Swanson denies steering AG staff into political duties - Briana Bierschbach, Minnesota Public Radio.

The Swanson campaign swung back hard at the report [in The Intercept] Tuesday, denying the allegations and calling it a “political attempt to settle scores.”
...
Swanson’s running mate, retiring congressman Rick Nolan, was also recently under fire after MinnPost reported a former staffer, Jim Swiderski, was allowed to leave in 2015 instead of face disciplinary actions after women in the office reported he sexually harassed them.

In 2016, Swiderski was briefly hired back as a contractor on Nolan’s re-election bid. The ticket is still facing backlash over the allegations, which spurred the creation of the hashtag #WhereIsLori after an initial slow response from the campaign.

And it’s not the first time the culture inside Swanson’s office has been questioned. Concerns surfaced as early as Swanson’s first term as attorney general. In her first year alone, more than 50 of 150 attorneys had either been fired or quit, and an attempt to unionize staff in the office, who are at-will employees, was pushed back by her administration.

Concerns in the office were briefly under the scrutiny of the Office of the Legislative Auditor in 2008, which found some attorneys feared retaliation and felt pressure in “obtaining favorable media attention rather than the methodical legal work required to successfully litigate cases,” according to the report.

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:58 PM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

What disgusts me is all the handwringing over the "one party rule". The GOP died in Hawaii from being out of step with the populace.

I think TFA does a good job of justifying some concern though a crap job putting it in order of seriousness. You're not wrong about that as a generic complaint; if they want to elect Republicans, run better Republicans and maybe have a national brand that isn't so horribly toxic. The article starts out doing a shitty job of justifying the concern, making it sound like generic oh woe what will ever happen if Dems don't have someone to fight them and make them work for it single party crap. If that's all it is, so what? You'll get what you get in majority dem cities and regions like you do in Washington D.C. where it's going to be a dem winner but the real decision gets made in the primary.

But you do eventually get to this:

“On the floor a lot of items just sail through without much debate or discussion,” she said. “Having open debates is what democracy is about; we shouldn’t be shying away from them.”

When the majority caucus meets, it’s literally every member of the Senate who leaves the floor to gather in the private room. On the House side, it’s just the five Republicans who are left sitting there while the debate happens behind closed doors.

I could give a shit whether the varying factions are all within a single party or not, but if you have organizational rules that don't acknowledge this layout and let the horse trading all happen in private without minutes or reporting? That's just asking for decision opacity at best and corruption at worst. But that's not a D/R problem, that's a chamber rules issue and it's fixable without artificially propping up a party that can't manage itself.
posted by phearlez at 2:06 PM on August 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

Heh. Has anyone worrying over that actually met the Democrats?
posted by Artw at 2:08 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Worry about what, corruption? Lack of transparency? Pay to play and favoritism abetted by secret deals? If you're under the impression you can't have that happen under Dem control I can refer you to Chicago or a good Marion Barry autobiography.
posted by phearlez at 2:11 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Grifting? Corruption? In this administration?
Forbes: If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.

I'm shocked. Shocked.
posted by rp at 2:16 PM on August 7, 2018 [42 favorites]

Per my note, above, re: Don Lemon’s response last night to Trump’s personal, racist attacks:

Don Lemon to Trump: LeBron James is not dumb, and you’re a straight-up racist.

Avi Selk | WaPo
posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:25 PM on August 7, 2018 [58 favorites]

When the majority caucus meets, it’s literally every member of the [Hawaiian] Senate who leaves the floor to gather in the private room.

Isn't that effectively what happens federally, because of things like the Hastert Rule and so forth? There's not much that the Democratic minority can do if the Republican caucus has already decided which way they're going to vote and Democratic motions are never brought to the floor.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

North Korea has not taken steps to denuclearize, U.S. national security adviser says

Reminder: North Korea never agreed to denuclearize.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:33 PM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

Reminder: North Korea never agreed to denuclearize.

The art of the deal, ladies and gentlemen.

——

‘Betrayed’ Paul Manafort stares down ex-partner Rick Gates (Politico)

womp womp
posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:36 PM on August 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

New Poll: 43% of Republicans Want to Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Media

This is disturbing. I would also like to see a poll showing how many Democrats want to see the government shut down Fox News though.
posted by Justinian at 2:40 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

phearlez: "You're not wrong about that as a generic complaint; if they want to elect Republicans, run better Republicans and maybe have a national brand that isn't so horribly toxic."

It would seem like there is an opening for a non-GOP based alternative to the Democrats in Hawaii. Other countries have local-only parties, no reason we couldn't here.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:45 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Charlottesville Isn't Playing the Media's "Both Sides" Game Any Longer:

"[A] lot of journalists, locked into a mode of neutral reporting unsuited to stories about racism, also want “the other side.” That’s why, if you’re reporting in Charlottesville, there’s a question you’ll have to answer if you want to interview certain activists, people of color, clergy members, educators and others affected by last year’s Unite the Right rally:

Will you also be interviewing a white supremacist for your article?

If the answer is anything but no, you’re probably not getting your interview. "
posted by lord_wolf at 2:47 PM on August 7, 2018 [90 favorites]

This is disturbing. I would also like to see a poll showing how many Democrats want to see the government shut down Fox News though.

Even with a true Fake News propaganda outlet like Fox, Ds overwhelmingly reject this.

"According to the survey, 12 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Independents agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior”"
posted by chris24 at 2:48 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Even with a true Fake News propaganda outlet like Fox, Ds overwhelmingly reject this.

"According to the survey, 12 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Independents agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior”"

I'm not in that 12% but I don't...vehemently disagree.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:49 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you're under the impression you can't have that happen under Dem control I can refer you to Chicago or a good Marion Barry autobiography.
posted by phearlez

Please don't use my city as a punchline.
posted by agregoli at 2:50 PM on August 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

Even with a true Fake News propaganda outlet like Fox, Ds overwhelmingly reject this.

I don't think the question in the survey works for this purpose, though. A Democrat asked that question in that survey would rightly be thinking they are answering the question "Should TRUMP have the authority to close CNN, MSNBC, etc."

I realize that's not what the question literally says but we know as a factual matter that people are often answering a slightly different question than the literal reading. Unless someone polls a different survey specifically about a Democratic President and Fox News this is all academic since we can't know the answer.
posted by Justinian at 2:55 PM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

"According to the survey, 12 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Independents agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior”"

I'm not in that 12% but I don't...vehemently disagree.

Well...what bad behavior, exactly? Criminal behavior?
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:58 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

"According to the survey, 12 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Independents agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior”"

This is really vague as stated. I think most people would agree there should be some standards of conduct for press organizations and that those that run afoul of the law should be prosecuted (potentially shutting them down as a byproduct.) That prosecution would fall to the executive branch and be done under the President's authority, but there's a world of difference between "people publishing libel and inciting violence should be prosecuted by the appropriate federal authorities" and "Donald should get to wave his hand and get Jim Acosta locked up in a gulag."
posted by contraption at 2:58 PM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

Accounting Today, Manafort’s former tax accountant fired by firm after testimony

Paul Manafort’s former accountant was fired from a Virginia firm after she told the court she was aware that Manafort’s tax returns contained false information.

Cindy Laporta testified Friday in the government’s case against the former Trump campaign chairman, saying she went along with the scam because she was worried Manafort and his right-hand-man Rick Gates would sue. Laporta was given immunity from prosecution for her testimony.

Virginia-based Kositzka, Wicks & Co. said in a statement Tuesday it was “shocked by Ms. Laporta’s testimony, which clearly represents that she failed to meet the firm’s high standards for professional and ethical conduct in her work for Mr. Manafort.” In a follow-up email, the company said: “She is no longer working here.”

posted by zachlipton at 2:59 PM on August 7, 2018 [31 favorites]

For folks catching up on tonight’s primaries:

Every August 7 primary election you should know about, briefly explained (Vox)

“Democrats’ efforts to spur a ‘blue wave’ will be put to the test, again.”
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

journalistic bad behavior

I've been wondering lately if Breitbart or Infowars or even Fox meet the standard for sedition? I once heard Michael Savage come within a breath of calling for a military coup.
posted by M-x shell at 3:11 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Justice Department has, in what is surely a great use of government resources, filed an appeal to argue that Trump can block people on Twitter:

Nor is the @realDonaldTrump account a “forum” for public expression. Donald Trump uses it not to provide a platform for public discussion, but to disseminate his own views to the world.
...
Donald Trump’s tweets are the whole raison d’etre of his personal Twitter account. The heart of the @realDonaldTrump account are the tweets posted by Donald Trump (or, on occasion, by Daniel Scavino on his behalf) expressing Donald Trump’s own views. The “intended purpose” of the account (Forbes, 523 U.S. at 672-73) was not to provide an opportunity for other Twitter users to communicate to or about Donald Trump, but rather to provide him with an opportunity to communicate to them.

posted by zachlipton at 3:15 PM on August 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

I've been wondering lately if Breitbart or Infowars or even Fox meet the standard for sedition?

This is a really awful road to go down. I have enormous problems with what these people are doing, and if they've broken the law (*gesticulates in the direction of harassing Sandy Hook families*), that should be addressed, but we shouldn't go for pretty-much-literally "enemy of the people" stuff just because they do.
posted by zachlipton at 3:17 PM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

The “intended purpose” of the account (Forbes, 523 U.S. at 672-73) was not to provide an opportunity for other Twitter users to communicate to or about Donald Trump, but rather to provide him with an opportunity to communicate to them.

Sounds like a job for ANYTHING BUT TWITTER.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:22 PM on August 7, 2018 [25 favorites]

Remember Trump's obsession with the FBI headquarters? GSA chief may have misled Congress about White House involvement in FBI headquarters, according to draft of inspector general report (WaPo):

The administrator of the General Services Administration, which manages the FBI headquarters project, may have misled Congress about White House involvement in the project, according to a portion of a soon-to-be published report from the agency’s inspector general that was obtained by The Washington Post.

Last year the GSA and the FBI scrapped a long-delayed plan to build an FBI headquarters campus in the Washington suburbs in favor of a proposal to build a smaller headquarters in downtown D.C. and relocate some staff to Alabama, Idaho and West Virginia.

President Trump has said he supported the new plan. Although GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, speaking to the House Appropriations Committee in April, mentioned discussions of funding with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, she downplayed the role of the White House in the decision-making process.

The conclusions section of the inspector general’s report, which is expected to be released publicly in the coming weeks, states Murphy’s testimony “was incomplete and may have left the misleading impression that she had no discussions with the President or senior White House officials about the project.”

Trump's interest, from the Always Be Grifting angle, is that the original plan was to trade land in Va or Md with a private developer for the land that currently houses the FBI headquarters. This location on Pennsylvania Ave would be redeveloped privately and could possible host a hotel or mixed use retail space that would compete with Trump's nearby hotel, so of course he moved to block private redevelopment of the FBI headquarters.
posted by peeedro at 3:24 PM on August 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

Sounds like a job for ANYTHING BUT TWITTER.

I think the president opining on the ratings/looks/effectiveness of TV personalities and the low IQ/criminality/dangers of ethnic minorities would look odder in any other medium.
posted by jaduncan at 3:27 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Virginia-based Kositzka, Wicks & Co. said in a statement Tuesday it was “shocked by Ms. Laporta’s testimony, which clearly represents that she failed to meet the firm’s high standards for professional and ethical conduct in her work for Mr. Manafort.” In a follow-up email, the company said: “She is no longer working here.”

It took them this long to figure out that one of their top accountants was a crook? Manafort was indicted for money laundering almost a year ago. You would think the firm would go over every return filed by Laporta for Manafort with a fine-toothed comb. So much for internal auditing controls. Who would hire this company in the future?
posted by JackFlash at 3:38 PM on August 7, 2018 [32 favorites]

Nor is the @realDonaldTrump account a “forum” for public expression. Donald Trump uses it not to provide a platform for public discussion, but to disseminate his own views to the world.

Maybe @realDonaldTrump should start a blog on a paid server rather than free-riding on Twitter's infrastructure for public discussion.?
posted by mikelieman at 3:43 PM on August 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

Virginia-based Kositzka, Wicks & Co. said in a statement Tuesday it was “shocked by Ms. Laporta’s testimony”

Laporta wouldn't have been the only person working on Manafort's accounts, and she almost certainly raised her concerns with other members of the firm. They're trying to cover themselves.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:46 PM on August 7, 2018 [37 favorites]

Jim Sciutto: Under cross-examination now, Rick Gates says he has met with team of Special Counsel RobertMueller *20 TIMES* since he struck his plea deal in February.

20 times is no biggie right?
posted by Justinian at 3:51 PM on August 7, 2018 [19 favorites]

Gates totally got out of major criminal liability solely for rolling on Manafort when the case was pretty strong purely with the paper trail.
posted by chris24 at 3:54 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Laporta wouldn't have been the only person working on Manafort's accounts, and she almost certainly raised her concerns with other members of the firm.

If true, then they would be accomplices in a crime and since she has immunity, Laporta could be flipped on them. On the other hand, I think it is just a case of piss poor internal auditing.
posted by JackFlash at 3:58 PM on August 7, 2018

Major OH-12 news:

.@Clevelanddotcom can confirm: @DannyOConnor1's #OH12 watch party has an open bar, while @Troy_Balderson's party has a cash bar #partylikeajournalist

posted by Chrysostom at 4:00 PM on August 7, 2018 [55 favorites]

If true, then they would be accomplices in a crime and since she has immunity, Laporta could be flipped on them. On the other hand, I think it is just a case of piss poor internal auditing.

Or as likely a case of no internal auditing. Which makes it easier to work with dipshit clients who ask for all this criming. I suppose if you're in that business you can sleep if you have the attitude, "Sure, do your criming, and when you get busted, I'm telling the truth."

I had a client ( Programming sub-contracting ) who would instead of stiffing me, would give me say, a check for a few hundred, and a few hundred in cash.

I took it, but photocopied the check and cash so that WHEN he got busted, I would have a complete file to turn over to the investigators of the shit he pulled.
posted by mikelieman at 4:03 PM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

Piss poor internal auditing... or flat out complicity in this kind of white collar crime.

Laporta knew exactly what was up. No fucking doubt that all of her colleagues and the principals at the firm knew exactly what was up. For that matter, her professional peers with similarly high value clients know what's up.

She knew when it was in everybody's benefit to pretend not to notice that their own golden geese were pulling shady shit. When is it in a bookkeeper or accountant's best interest to be a whistleblower on obvious money laundering and fraud?
posted by Sublimity at 4:03 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

When is it in a bookkeeper or accountant's best interest to be a whistleblower on obvious money laundering and fraud?

When you want to stay out of jail and preserve the reputation of your business?
posted by JackFlash at 4:12 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

At a minimum minimum, all of their principals should lose their licenses.
posted by M-x shell at 4:13 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm growing concerned about the Manafort trial. The judge basically testified for the defense at one point today and a judge making his opinion clear can absolutely have a big effect on a jury. Reports are that Mueller's guys are very unhappy with Ellis' behavior in the trial.
posted by Justinian at 4:15 PM on August 7, 2018 [54 favorites]

When is it in a bookkeeper or accountant's best interest to be a whistleblower on obvious money laundering and fraud?

When you want to stay out of jail and preserve the reputation of your business?

They run the odds. There are a lot of rich people who didn’t come by it honestly or who don’t mind a “little” dishonesty to keep more of it, and a small fraction of them will ever be caught.
posted by Etrigan at 4:31 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Let's see. It only took a several years, and also a special federal prosecutor investigating the president for treason, to surface Laporta's own wrongdoing.

Betting most other practitioners in the field aren't particularly concerned about getting caught when everyone's happy, right?
posted by Sublimity at 4:34 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

This is going to backfire. West Virginia are moving to mobile phone voting for this midterm elections - software is a ‘Blockchain voting system’ by “Votez”, a 2018 startup with $2m of funding [real}

This has gotten worse: Voatz source code public on GitHub (like of the username/passwords included variety, including for their access to a financial services API and database credentials, not stuff that's intended to be open source), companies listed as providing security audits say they didn't do so, the company identifies a free SSL certificate checker site as proof of their security (it demonstrates they configured a feature on their web server not horribly, not that the voting system has undergone a security audit), botched an election they ran at a Republican County Convention in April that had to use backup paper ballots, and plenty of other awfulness.

Even just for overseas voting, this does not seem like a company that should be running elections right now.
posted by zachlipton at 4:36 PM on August 7, 2018 [43 favorites]

Polls have closed in Ohio! Get your 538 liveblogging on here.
posted by Tsuga at 4:38 PM on August 7, 2018

I TOLD YOU I WOULD LOOK AT THE EARLY VOTE.

Danny O’Connor 10,878 80.5%
Troy Balderson 2,579 19.1%
posted by Justinian at 4:40 PM on August 7, 2018 [19 favorites]

That's reportedly just the Franklin County early vote which is O'Connor's base.
posted by Justinian at 4:41 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Missouri polls close at 7CST.

CDT.
posted by Chrysostom at 4:43 PM on August 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

Even just for overseas voting, this does not seem like a company that should be running elections right now.

Also, the blockchain is antidemocratic, grounded in the worst sort of ancap values, thermodynamically irresponsible, and has a mode of functioning that cannot be explained to the average voter (not as in “expeditiously,” as in “at all”). The litany of blockchain exploits predicated on its unnecessary complexity is long and grows longer by the week. For all these reasons, I don’t want systems of democratic governance anywhere near any blockchain until all these issues are successfully addressed and resolved.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:43 PM on August 7, 2018 [29 favorites]

Judge Ellis certainly seems to be sticking his oar in. From the Washington Post's Day 6 coverage of the Manafort trial:

5:27 p.m.: Judge questions how closely Manafort watches money

Just before the jury left for the day, Rick Gates echoed other prosecution witnesses in saying Paul Manafort kept a close eye on his financial affairs.

“Mr. Manafort in my opinion kept fairly frequent updates,” Gates said, after a discussion of movement between their consulting firm’s offshore accounts. “Mr. Manafort was very good at knowing where the money was and where it was going.”

Judge Ellis, as he has repeatedly, interjected.

“He didn’t know about the money you were stealing,” Ellis said, “so he didn’t do it that closely.”

The comment by the judge goes to a question at the heart of the trial — how much fraud could possibly have gone on under Manafort’s nose without his knowledge.

But Courthouse News's Brandi Buchman (@BBuchman_CNS) says this isn't unusual for him:

There are reporters who know Ellis better than I but I've covered Ellis long enough to say this confidently: none of this behavior is out of the norm for him. He has a biting wit, he is SHARP and he puts pressure on prosecutors regularly. He interjects. He is an active judge.

I don't enjoy telling readers what to think. That's a personal choice of my own. But I will say this - people who find the judge's method bizarre - do your homework. Dig around. You will see his character/style in this trial is no different than those past.

I get the frustration - esp. if you're at home rooting for the Special Counsel. It seems wildly out of the ordinary, and to some, they believe unfair. But again, I can only say - the interjection, the jokes etc.. all totally normal for Ellis.[...]

You don't have to like what he says and I'm not asking you to. But if you're at home panicking, I beseech you to consider the man's history as a judge, take a few deep breaths, and think critically.

Tomorrow, the trial starts first thing, with the defense continuing their cross-examination of Gates at 9:30 am.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:43 PM on August 7, 2018 [34 favorites]

538 live blog of today's primaries and the Ohio special.
posted by nangar at 4:45 PM on August 7, 2018

Popehat also seems bemused at people being shocked at Ellis' behavior. Apparently federal judges are just big assholes? I guess I don't think it be like it is, but it do.
posted by Justinian at 4:46 PM on August 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

Also, the blockchain is antidemocratic, grounded in the worst sort of ancap values, thermodynamically irresponsible, and has a mode of functioning that cannot be explained to the average voter (not as in “expeditiously,” as in “at all”).

Average voter? Hell, you'd have to look really long and hard to find a judge who was qualified to evaluate conflicting claims about it if it came to a dispute and you might not find one.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:51 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

well I haven't been before all that many judges but based on my experience I'm comfortable stating that all judges everywhere have inherently testy, snappish temperaments on the bench, even/especially to the parties they end up ruling in favor of, and are totally the kind of people who corner their distant cousins at family gatherings to lecture them about The Blockchain #judgefacts
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:55 PM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

This story is bonkers, even by 2018 standards. ProPublica, Isaac Arnsdorf, The Shadow Rulers of the VA, in which a committee of Mar-a-Lago members, who are not government employees or advisors in any official capacity, are giving orders to the VA:

Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.”

O’Rourke treated the email as an order, but Moskowitz is not his boss. In fact, he is not even a government official. Moskowitz is a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service “concierge” medical care.

More to the point, he is one-third of an informal council that is exerting sweeping influence on the VA from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The troika is led by Ike Perlmutter, the reclusive chairman of Marvel Entertainment, who is a longtime acquaintance of President Trump’s. The third member is a lawyer named Marc Sherman. None of them has ever served in the U.S. military or government.

Yet from a thousand miles away, they have leaned on VA officials and steered policies affecting millions of Americans. They have remained hidden except to a few VA insiders, who have come to call them “the Mar-a-Lago Crowd.”
...
But hundreds of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former administration officials tell a different story — of a previously unknown triumvirate that hovered over public servants without any transparency, accountability or oversight. The Mar-a-Lago Crowd spoke with VA officials daily, the documents show, reviewing all manner of policy and personnel decisions. They prodded the VA to start new programs, and officials travelled to Mar-a-Lago at taxpayer expense to hear their views. “Everyone has to go down and kiss the ring,” a former administration official said.
...
In one instance, Perlmutter alerted Shulkin to what he called “another real-life example of the issues our great veterans are suffering with when trying to work with the VA.” The example came from Karen Donnelly, a real estate agent in Palm Beach who manages the tennis courts in the luxury community where Perlmutter lives. Donnelly’s son was having trouble accessing his military medical records. After a month of dead ends, Donnelly said she saw Perlmutter on the tennis court and, knowing his connection to Trump, asked him for help. Perlmutter told her to email him the story because he’s “trying to straighten things out” at the VA, she recalled. (Donnelly separately touched off a nasty legal dispute between Perlmutter and a neighbor, Canadian businessman Harold Peerenboom, who objected to her management of the tennis courts. In a lawsuit, Peerenboom accused Perlmutter of mounting a vicious hate mail campaign against him, which Perlmutter’s lawyer denied.)
...
Besides advocating for friends’ interests, some of the Mar-a-Lago Crowd’s interventions served their own purposes. Starting in February 2017, Perlmutter convened a series of conference calls with executives at Johnson & Johnson, leading to the development of a public awareness campaign about veteran suicide. They planned to promote the campaign by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange around the time of Veterans Day.

The event also turned into a promotional opportunity for Perlmutter’s company. Executives from Marvel and its parent company, Disney, joined Johnson & Johnson as sponsors of the Veterans Day event at the stock exchange. Shulkin rang the closing bell standing near a preening and flexing Captain America, with Spider-Man waving from the trading pit, and Marvel swag distributed to some of the attendees. “Generally the VA secretary or defense secretary don’t shill for companies,” the leader of a veterans advocacy group said.
...
Perlmutter also facilitated a series of conference calls with senior executives from Apple. VA officials were excited about working with the company, but it wasn’t immediately obvious what they had to collaborate on. As it turned out, Moskowitz wanted Apple and the VA to develop an app for veterans to find nearby medical services. Who did he bring in to advise them on the project? His son, Aaron, who had built a similar app. The proposal made Apple and VA officials uncomfortable, according to two people familiar with the matter, but Moskowitz’s clout kept it alive for months. The VA finally killed the project because Moskowitz was the only one who supported it
...
The memo recommended easing Shulkin out and relying on Perlmutter for help replacing him. “Put [Shulkin] on notice to exit after major legislation and key POTUS VA initiatives in place,” the memo said. “Utilize outside team (Ike).” Although several factors contributed to Shulkin’s downfall, including the ethics scandal and differences with the White House over legislation on buying private health care, three former officials said it was his friction with the Mar-a-Lago Crowd over the Cerner contract that ultimately did him in..

There's even more nonsense inside, including messwith with the Cerner contract for the VA's new electronic medical records system, personal email for government business, more conflicts of interest, their role in forcing Shulkin and other officials out, etc...
posted by zachlipton at 4:57 PM on August 7, 2018 [74 favorites]

I'm very much hoping O'Connor wins tonight (I wrote & mailed 100 postcards to that effect) but the emails are killing me.

Yesterday I received no fewer than 13 emails from info@dannyoconnorforcongress.com, with absurd and ultimately exhausting subject lines, but the icing on the cake is the email I just got. Although all of these emails were from the same email address, the name attached to it was different for each. The most recent email had the wildly misleading name of "me, Danny (2)" which made it appear as though I had sent an email and Danny had replied.

Is this something that every Democratic campaign just has to do?
posted by cybertaur1 at 4:59 PM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

Popehat also seems bemused at people being shocked at Ellis' behavior. Apparently federal judges are just big assholes? I guess I don't think it be like it is, but it do.

Marcy Wheeler as well. Seems most regular court watchers are "eh, that's not that weird" and making fun of the drop-in reporters freaking out.
posted by chris24 at 5:02 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

In Virginia a special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate allegations of election fraud committed by the campaign of Rep. Scott Taylor (R, VA-02). Four Taylor campaign workers are accused of forging signatures of voters, some dead or moved out of state, to help an independent candidate get on the ballot.

This move was calculated to split the Democratic vote in November as the independent candidate is the previous cycle's Democratic challenger, but she is currently facing federal fraud and theft charges.

After Barbara Comstock, Taylor, a freshman congressman and former Navy SEAL, is considered the most vulnerable Republican in the state's congressional delegation. The district is rated toss-up (Sabato) or lean-R (Cook). in 2016 Trump won this district by 4 point and Taylor beat a woefully underfunded opponent by 22 points, in 2017 Northam carried the district by 4 points.

The Democratic challenger is Elaine Luria, a retired Navy officer and small business owner. She has out-raised Taylor $945,000 to $740,000 in the second quarter and currently trails by less than $200,000 in cash on hand.
Sorry Chrysostom if this is your turf 😊
posted by peeedro at 5:06 PM on August 7, 2018 [27 favorites]

I mean, I *was* going to mention it tonight....
posted by Chrysostom at 5:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

The event also turned into a promotional opportunity for Perlmutter’s company. Executives from Marvel and its parent company, Disney, joined Johnson & Johnson as sponsors of the Veterans Day event at the stock exchange. Shulkin rang the closing bell standing near a preening and flexing Captain America, with Spider-Man waving from the trading pit, and Marvel swag distributed to some of the attendees. “Generally the VA secretary or defense secretary don’t shill for companies,” the leader of a veterans advocacy group said.

Reminder to all concerned parties that Nazi-Captain-America was, of course, not the real Captain America, and there's no reason to believe this was the real Spider-Man, either.

Real talk, though: stories like this leave me pondering the (hopeful, never taken for granted) return to rational government under a sane president, and just how much work will have to go into repairing all the agencies and practices this GOP regime has destroyed--and how much the GOP will fight every effort at a return to normalcy, too.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 5:10 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Popehat also seems bemused at people being shocked at Ellis' behavior. Apparently federal judges are just big assholes?

A lot of them are. They are appointed for life. They are answerable to no one (except in the most extreme circumstances). They don't have fellow justices on their case like the Supreme Court. They rule alone. They can issue expensive sanctions at their whim in the tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers who displease them in some procedural manner. They rule their courtroom like a kingdom and they are the king and everyone must show appropriate deference to them. They are untouchable. A federal court is a quite unique environment.
posted by JackFlash at 5:11 PM on August 7, 2018 [17 favorites]

Steve Kornacki, and only Steve Kornacki, is available via Periscope if you'd like to just see him descend into madness without the interruption of anything else that constitutes MSNBC. He says he'll have to leave occasionally to be on TV, if you don't see him at that link.
posted by zachlipton at 5:23 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Justinian:

Jim Sciutto: Under cross-examination now, Rick Gates says he has met with team of Special Counsel RobertMueller *20 TIMES* since he struck his plea deal in February.

20 times is no biggie right?

Yup. In fact, my understanding is it's the same as in town.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 5:26 PM on August 7, 2018 [43 favorites]

Balderson is moving up on O'Connor as election day vote is being counted but virtually all the vote counted so far is from Balderson territory. Need to see some Franklin and Delware.

If Balderson wins it will be because he is getting a hometown boy bump in Muskingham where he is a bunch ahead of his benchmark. But there is WAY more vote in Franklin than Muskingham so O'Connor just needs a strong showing in his base area to counteract that. Plus Delaware county is a wildcard. If it swings a bit towards blue (which it might) that would take care of Balderson's bump from Muskingham by itself.
posted by Justinian at 5:38 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

nice - been a while since I've seen that on the site
posted by awfurby at 5:38 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Note: Basically nobody is voting for the Green party candidate. Talking less than 1%. Good. Bless your hearts, greens.
posted by Justinian at 5:40 PM on August 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

Muskingham

Muskingum.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:41 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Thanks, Chrysostom. I have brought shame upon my family.
posted by Justinian at 5:44 PM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

I know a lot of Ohio people, so this is familiar territory to me.

Anyway, looks like both candidates are over-performing in their strong areas, very sharp urban/rural divide here. Makes it hard to say where we end up.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:45 PM on August 7, 2018

Balderson is moving up on O'Connor percentage-wise (53.4-45.9 now) but blue's lead in total votes is holding at just over 6000. STILL NADA from Delaware.

Always gives you confidence in the integrity of an election when a swing district that could decide the election hasn't reported a single non-early vote when everybody else is 30-100% in.
posted by Justinian at 5:55 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Cybertaur1:

I'm very much hoping O'Connor wins tonight (I wrote & mailed 100 postcards to that effect) but the emails are killing me.

Yesterday I received no fewer than 13 emails from info@dannyoconnorforcongress.com, with absurd and ultimately exhausting subject lines, but the icing on the cake is the email I just got. Although all of these emails were from the same email address, the name attached to it was different for each. The most recent email had the wildly misleading name of "me, Danny (2)" which made it appear as though I had sent an email and Danny had replied.

Is this something that every Democratic campaign just has to do?

No! Please forgive another bit of Beto euphoria, but his e-mail strategy is amazing! Not every e-mail asks for money. E-mails are always clear about who they come from in the campaign. (I haven't checked if it is the same e-mail address, but it is definitely not misleading like the ones you speak of and I have seen other Dems do that for this mid-term.) It is rare to get more than one a day and is not uncommon to only get one - three per week.

It's a breath of fresh air and I have done more for him time and money wise as a candidate than others running right now not only because if he wins he will be directly representing me, but because I believe in his platform and his campaign has been *incredibly* respectful to me and how I see them deal with other people.

My major disagreement with him is he wants to term limit himself. If, as a senator, he is as good as he is on the trail, I really want him to stick around for a whole lot more than two terms.

(Oblig for those who haven't looked yet: Beto)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 5:58 PM on August 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

Man wouldn't it be crazy if there was a tie and then the Republican won anyway on a literal coin toss? But then we find out 100 black people weren't allow to vote in the special election even though they lived in the district? Nah nothing like that could ever happen.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:02 PM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Those were separate districts.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:04 PM on August 7, 2018

Popehat also seems bemused at people being shocked at Ellis' behavior.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) on the Manafort trial:

In many ways, this has played out like a typical white collar criminal trial by federal prosecutors. There is overwhelming evidence of Manafort’s guilt and the most damning evidence are documents and emails that he wrote or saw. Some of them will be impossible to explain away.

That is important to keep in mind as you consider what happened today. There has been a lot of discussion, for example, about the behavior of Judge Ellis during the trial. There is no question that Ellis was wrong to comment on the testimony of Gates in front of the jury.

But in my years trying federal criminal trials, I’ve seen far worse, including judges who fell asleep in the middle of trial. Ultimately nothing Ellis is doing will effect the outcome of the trial. Manafort is almost certainly doomed and Judge Ellis knows it.

That is typical for white collar cases brought by federal prosecutors. Usually the defendant is screwed and the trial judge bends over backwards to throw them a bone because the judge knows the defense will appeal the conviction and is doomed to lose.

posted by Doktor Zed at 6:04 PM on August 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

Looks like some Deleware County is starting to come in.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:06 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don’t think I’m seeing what the rest of you are seeing. From these numbers, it seems like a fairly safe win for O’Connor.

O’Connor is already ahead by 5%, and the remainder of the vote is predominately from Delaware. He’ll probably pick up another 1% margin when the non-Delaware counties finish reporting. It is really conceivable that swingy Delaware will take a hard enough right turn to overcome a 6% lead?
posted by darkstar at 6:12 PM on August 7, 2018

Reuters's David Ljunggren (@reutersLjungg): State Department spokeswoman on the Canada-Saudi dispute: "Both sides need to diplomatically solve this together. We can't do it for them, they need to resolve it together"
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:29 PM on August 7

Excuse me. Who asked the US State Department to "solve" anything for us? We've got our own government, our own diplomats, and our own foreign policy. We certainly don't need Big Brother USA to solve our international situations for us, especially given the current inability of the country to the south to solve any of its own international (or national) situations.
posted by sardonyx at 6:14 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

I don’t think I’m seeing what the rest of you are seeing. From these numbers, it seems like a fairly safe win for O’Connor.

I dunno, but Nate Cohn said a minute ago that he thinks Balderson has a tiny edge right now. I think the very first election day results from Delaware looked quite good for Balderson.
posted by Justinian at 6:14 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

And there it is, O'Connor's lead is down to just over 2k votes now with the Delaware e-day vote and the rest of MuskingUM. Virtually all the vote left to count is in Franklin and Delware. Richland is only 30% in but there's hardly any votes there.
posted by Justinian at 6:16 PM on August 7, 2018

Ah, gotcha — thanks for the clarification.

*commences worrying with the rest of you*
posted by darkstar at 6:18 PM on August 7, 2018

Btw, less than a 0.5% margin in the OH-12 will trigger a mandatory recount.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:27 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Still early, but...

@Taniel
Missouri: 90,000 ballots counted, & the GOP's new 'right-to-work' law is going down 67-33.

And of these 90,000 voters, more voted in the GOP primary than in the Dem primary—so these returns were certainly not a given.
posted by chris24 at 6:31 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

NY Times is currently showing O'Connor only leading by 0.4% (49.9% to 49.5%).
posted by octothorpe at 6:31 PM on August 7, 2018

Everything is in except 60% of Delaware and 10% of Franklin. This is really close. Like... really close. The question is whether the rest of Delaware looks more like the first batch of votes out of there or the second batch. First batch were strong for Balderson. Second batch was much, much closer.
posted by Justinian at 6:38 PM on August 7, 2018

A third dump of vote out of Delaware and O'Connor hanging on!! I'm so excited. About a basically meaningless special which gets redone in 3 months.
posted by Justinian at 6:41 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

@Nate_Cohn: So close, but here's the simplest way to explain it right now. Delaware is 50% in, Rs are +2500 on eday there. D+1400 overall, so if Rs doubles up in Delaware they'd just slightly pull ahead. Obviously, Ds could do better in Del. Or kill it in Franklin. Still soooo close

O'Connor needs to run the table with those last votes in Franklin County. This is getting dangerously close to being an endless process of counting provisional and military ballots.

On the bright side:
@Redistrict: Franklin Co. is already at 57% of its raw 2016 turnout & there are still 13 precincts left to count there. By comparison, the most R county (Morrow) is at just 46% of its 2016 turnout & it's entirely reported. #OH12
@danpfeiffer: This is most important takeaway from OH-12 no matter who wins and it’s the one that should scare Republicans
posted by zachlipton at 6:45 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

are these same two guys going to be on the ticket in November?
posted by skewed at 6:47 PM on August 7, 2018

Yeah, I'm surprised at how much closer that second dump of results from Delaware Co was.

It's a very heterogeneous county, there's a lot of variance in R intensity.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:48 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

In Missouri Senate, McCaskill wins Dem nod in a shoo-in, Hawley wins GOP nod slightly closer.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:50 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

It seems likely that the race will come down to a margin within the number of votes cast for the Green Party. If O’Connor loses, I expect to hear a lot about the “spoiler” vote. It’s another good example of why Ranked Chice Voting is gaining traction in the US and throughout the world.
posted by darkstar at 6:51 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

New Delaware County numbers in, and Balderson takes a 1,031 vote lead.

There's speculation there could be upwards of 9,000 provisional ballots out there, based on past years, and those may break Democratic, but we're not getting into a great situation for O'Connor now.
posted by zachlipton at 6:52 PM on August 7, 2018

It seems like Greens get about twice the proportion of votes (1.0 vs 0.5) in those rural, strongly R counties than the D urban one.
posted by Rumple at 7:02 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Numbers get updated dozens of times over the course of the count, and links to live vote counts have already been posted for those who want to follow along in realtime. Liveblogging every time the number of precincts reporting increases by 0.2% probably isn't great for signal-to-noise, or thread size.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:04 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

I keep vacillating between being excited about this race and remembering that it's one district in central Ohio and it's going to re-fought in three months.
posted by octothorpe at 7:05 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Nate Silver:

Franklin County is now almost fully reported, and O’Connor had pulled into a 200-vote overall advantage. But almost all the outstanding vote is in Delaware County, and that has favored Balderson so far. We still aren’t sure of where the outstanding precincts are in Delaware. And provisional ballot could even come into play. Still, you’d rather be Balderson.

Why "could even"? Why wouldn't provisional ballot come into play?
posted by cybertaur1 at 7:06 PM on August 7, 2018

He means, "the margin could be narrow enough for the number of provisionals to possibly change the election result."
posted by Chrysostom at 7:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Eh. I've long since written off Green Party voters. They're no likelier than die-hard Trump voters to up and decide to vote for the Democrat.

Yeah, maybe don't do that. I gave up on the Greens when it came out that Stein was entirely in Putin's pocket, and I doubt I'm the only one.
posted by Foosnark at 7:08 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

I keep vacillating between being excited about this race

This seat has been GOP for 90 of the last 100 years & solidly GOP for the last 30.

Registered Rs outnumber Ds 2 to 1 in the district.

It's a 10 point swing even if Balderson wins by 1%.

There are 70 districts less R than this one.

It's horrible news for Rs even if they win.
posted by chris24 at 7:08 PM on August 7, 2018 [64 favorites]

Frikkin' greens. Barely 0.5% of the vote and still managing to shank the rest of us.

The hometown-boy bump for Balderson in Muskingum county also looms large.
posted by Justinian at 7:09 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

> It's horrible news for Rs even if they win.

Would you say that the Repubs are, for lack of a better term, in disarray?
posted by tonycpsu at 7:10 PM on August 7, 2018 [34 favorites]

Why "could even"? Why wouldn't provisional ballot come into play?

The provisional ballots will come into play, in the sense that they'll be counted, but whether they actually decide the election is much less likely. The provisional ballots aren't necessarily representative of the overall electorate, but they won't be that unrepresentative. If there are 9,000 provisional ballots out there, to use a rough approximation from past years (people are trying to get a real count), and they break D +5, to use a random guess, that's +450 net votes for O'Connor. That's something, but not much.
posted by zachlipton at 7:11 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

skewed: "are these same two guys going to be on the ticket in November?"

Yes. there were separate primary votes for the special election nomination, and the general election nomination. O'Connor and Balderson won both sets of primaries.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:13 PM on August 7, 2018

2018 being 2018, I saw this headline and didn't even blink:

In #KS04: Rep. Ron Estes (R) wins GOP primary, defeating Ron Estes (R).

posted by octothorpe at 7:15 PM on August 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

It's horrible news for Rs even if they win.

The GOP also had to come in and spend over $6 million to basically get to a tie in a seat they should be able to bank on. That's not sustainable over the entire House come November.
posted by chris24 at 7:18 PM on August 7, 2018 [31 favorites]

I wonder if we had more AOC-alike candidates if we could get those green votes?
posted by M-x shell at 7:22 PM on August 7, 2018

> I wonder if we had more AOC-alike candidates if we could get those green votes?

All that matters to me is that if we had more AOC-like candidates, we'd probably get more blue votes. Where they come from is irrelevant.
posted by tonycpsu at 7:23 PM on August 7, 2018 [34 favorites]

I wonder if we had more AOC-alike candidates if we could get those green votes?

And we'd probably lose some of the R crossover votes. The district is 2 to 1 R. Turnout is partly why we're 50-50, but a chunk of it is because a fair number of Rs are voting D.
posted by chris24 at 7:24 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

State Sen Laura Kelly wins Dem nod for KS gov pretty handily. GOP race is still neck and neck with about half of the vote in.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:25 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Precincts around metro Detroit run out of ballots due to higher than predicted turnout

(I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, yay, on the other hand, having less than a ballot for every registered voter plus an extra couple dozen for possible spoiled ballots seems less than responsible to me)

I get where you're coming from, but in most elections that would be, like, a huge waste of paper. Average voter turnout for general elections is like 40%, for primaries it's... lower. This is one of the arguments in favor of electronic voting machines BTW; it's impossible to correctly predict the need for paper ballots (nb: I fully support a hard copy paper trail for any means of voting).

Excuse me. Who asked the US State Department to "solve" anything for us? We've got our own government, our own diplomats, and our own foreign policy. We certainly don't need Big Brother USA to solve our international situations for us, especially given the current inability of the country to the south to solve any of its own international (or national) situations.

Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice if America could unambiguously stand next to and support Canada on issues of democracy and human rights, especially vis-a-vis freakin' Saudi Arabia? Instead of "fuck it, this is between y'all"?
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 7:26 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

It's horrible news for Rs even if they win.

Thank you to those who are putting this in perspective. I’m prone to despair at the moment, and need all the positivity y’all can spare.
posted by greermahoney at 7:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Voters in Missouri have voted No by about a 2:1 margin on Proposition A, rejecting the right-to-work law the legislature passed.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [47 favorites]

It looks like provisionals won't be enough to swing it to O'Connor but might be enough to get it close enough for an automatic recount. So we'd have that to look forward to, which is nice.

It doesn't seem to me that a 1% swing in either direction should matter for the narrative but, hey, I'm sure Trump will tweet the hell out of a 0.5% victory in a district he won by double digits.
posted by Justinian at 7:29 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

> Voters in Missouri have voted No by about a 2:1 margin on Proposition A, rejecting the right-to-work law the legislature passed.

It's 63/37 with 49% of precincts reporting right now. NYT just this moment called it for "no" on the Missouri Right-to-Work. It could turn out even a bit more lopsided by the end because the big urban precincts in Missouri generally reported very late in the evening, and they will go massively against right-to-work.

So, a big win for labor and unions in Missouri--no question.

The interesting question is what will be the next move. In the past, when propositions have passed that the General Assembly didn't like they have just introduced another law in the General Assembly the following year and passed it if they had the votes, completely ignoring the popular mandate. Nothing (except shame?) seems to prevent them from doing that as many times as they can get away with it.

Republicans still hold veto-proof majorities in the Missouri House and Senate, as well as the governorship. So, will they try again? They have the votes in Jefferson City, no question. So what might stop them--maybe only threat of being defeated by popular vote again? That didn't stop them on puppy mills etc, but the popular vote margins in those cases were closer to 50/50--not nearly so lopsided. Also, the other side in those cases didn't have very deep pockets--as the anti-right-to-work issue has with unions.

I'm guessing unions wouldn't mind fighting this issue at the ballot box every year . . .

(On a side note, I can guarantee you that Republican leadership in Jeff City was convinced that this thing had massive public support. Has been a top issue for many years and was easily their #1 issue in the 2017 legislative session when they saw the way clear to passing it in the legislature. So it will be quite interesting to see if and how this little reality check changes their thinking on this & similar issues in the future.)
posted by flug at 7:49 PM on August 7, 2018 [17 favorites]

Nate Cohn
As an aside, Franklin County currently at a wild 35.7% of the electorate, up from 31% of registered voters. A VA/PA18 style Dem turnout surge might have put Franklin around 34%.

G. Elliott Morris (Crosstab)
Here’s a bit of good news for the Democrats as they lose their grip on #OH12: Franklin County is making up 37% of the district’s electorate today, up from 32% in 2016. Could be more evidence to shore up the argument about Democratic enthusiasm heading into the House midterms.

---

Center for American Woman & Politics
It's official. With polls closed in KS, MI, MO, we've broken the record for women major party nominees for U.S. House in any year.

The previous record was 167. With 5 women candidates unopposed and one all-female primary, we've hit 168 tonight with possibly more to come.

Carrie Dann (NBC)
With wins for Kelly and Whitmer, there are now the most female gubernatorial nominees in a single cycle *ever* -- at 11 (8D, 3R) -- and we've still got more primaries to go. (Previous record: 10).
posted by chris24 at 7:50 PM on August 7, 2018 [35 favorites]

“I don’t think he colluded with the Russians ‘cause I don’t think he colludes with his own government, so why do we think he would’ve colluded with the Russians?” -Lindsey Graham, Kushner dining companion and Trump golf chump

Uh, because they paid him millions of dollars and/or have the pee tapez?

During the golf game, Trump asked when Mueller would be done "about twenty times".
Note that the "very stable genius"' habitual repeating of phrases and stories for hours was brought to vivid account in Wolff's "Fire and Fury" book, released almost exactly seven months ago.
posted by petebest at 7:53 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

@anniekarni: At dinner with corporate execs in NJ tonight, Trump, talking about an unnamed country that was clearly China, told group: “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy," per person in the room.

Oh good. Now we have the President caring about spies, but in a totally ignorant and horrible way that will hurt many people.

The government has already imposed new restrictions for Chinese graduate student visas in a number of fields, ostensibly for national security reasons. The new policy of issuing such visas only for one year makes it difficult for students to travel home or to international conferences, as they have to deal with long waits for visas to return to the US again to continue their studies.
posted by zachlipton at 7:53 PM on August 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

I wonder if we had more AOC-alike candidates if we could get those green votes?

Listen to AOC's interview on Pod Save America today, she's focused on non-voters, and talking about issues to persuade non-voters and Republicans alike. We need more AOC-like canidates because she's disciplined and smartly focused on issues, not because she's the most progressive voice out there per se. I think nearly all Greens are as lost as MAGAhat-ers to us, but there's an ocean of people who didn't vote, who intentionally stayed home after voting Obama twice, or haven't been old enough to vote before now that are very gettable with the right message and right personality, that can make people believe in their authenticity, like AOC is. 100 more of her and 50-70 of them could win no matter where you put them, and it's too bad we can't clone her 100 times. Those are the candidates the Democrats should be recruiting and building up, not "ex" Republicans like Patrick Murphy and everyone Chuck Schumer has ever been in a room with.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:55 PM on August 7, 2018 [46 favorites]

flug: "The interesting question is what will be the next move. In the past, when propositions have passed that the General Assembly didn't like they have just introduced another law in the General Assembly and passed it if they had the votes, completely ignoring the popular mandate."

They *did* move it to the primary, in a transparent effort to try and suppress No votes. So, they may be feeling some pressure to respect it, especially with this lopsided outcome (up to 64.6/35.4).
posted by Chrysostom at 7:59 PM on August 7, 2018

Wasserman has called OH-12 for Balderson "barring a tabulation error/provisionals we don't know about"

NBC News is going to be a bit more cautious because they think it's possible that the provisionals would be enough to dip the margin under the 0.5% recount threshold.

Trump has already jumped in to take credit, since obviously going from a double-digit Trump victory to "flirting with a recount" territory is really something to be proud of.
posted by zachlipton at 8:03 PM on August 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

Something could technically still change, but I think we're safe in posting an:

ELECTION RESULT

GOP HOLD in Ohio 12:

Balderson [R] 50.2%
O'Connor [D] 49.3%

Margin changes compared to previous races:

vs 2016 presidential result margin: Dem improvement of about 10 points.
vs 2016 OH-12 result margin: Dem improvement of about 36 points.

GOP lead in the US House is extended to 237-193 (5 vacancies).
posted by Chrysostom at 8:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

Trump has already jumped in to take credit

From an hour ago.

Dave Wasserman (Cook)
If Troy Balderson (R) pulls this out, he'll have Gov. Kasich (R) to thank, not POTUS. Delaware Co. coming through for him, rural Trump base not. #OH12
posted by chris24 at 8:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Kansas GOP gov still neck and neck with 2/3 in. This is definitely a bit of a surprise, there was some thought that Trump's endorsement of Kobach would seal the deal for him.

Meanwhile, at least 7 GOP state House incumbents are trailing in their primaries. Not clear if this is some more of the crazier GOP members getting primaried out by saner ones (which we saw some of last time).
posted by Chrysostom at 8:13 PM on August 7, 2018

Josh Marshall offers reassurance after OH-12:

It’s good to take nothing for granted. I don’t. But shifts since 2017 have been about +15 D. This is about a R+14 district. So it is at the very outer bound of what’s possible. If the +13/16 pattern holds up, and it’s been pretty consistent, Dems win the House.

My point here isn’t to be pollyanaish. I really take nothing for granted. There are many unknowable andcwsy too much is at stake. But it’s critical to understand the demographic terrain of each district.

Most of us have a feel for the political complexion of states. Very few of us have a feel for the same about districts. And I include myself in that group to a large degree. If a Dem comes up just short in Texas or Kentucky or Tennessee most of us get that that’s still a good sign for Dems. On the other hand if you keep losing heartbreakers in Florida and Ohio and Virginia, that just means your not able to deliver wins. This is like coming super close in maybe Alabama or Wyoming. It shouldn’t even be a race.

Alabama might be an overstatement. It’s hard to know the right analogy. But this should be a safe GOP seat.

posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:16 PM on August 7, 2018 [12 favorites]

In MO-01, incumbent Clay wins by about 20 points over Bush, a Ferguson activist endorsed by AOC.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:22 PM on August 7, 2018

@anniekarni: At dinner with corporate execs in NJ tonight, Trump, talking about an unnamed country that was clearly China, told group: “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy," per person in the room.

Wouldn't be surprised if this is an awkward dig at Feinstein over the revelation her longtime driver was a Chinese spy, which news just broke although the spy himself was uncovered 5 years ago. Funny, that.
posted by scalefree at 8:22 PM on August 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

GOP spending in OH-12 was something like $7.5million in order to eke out a sub-1% win in a solid red district for a seat they hold for 3 months before another election. I can't find exact figures for Democratic spending but certainly it was less than half what the GOP spent. Perhaps even a third.

So that's a good sign. If the GOP has to spend 3x as much as the Democrats to hold R+10 districts we're in good shape. You can't really generalize like that but I'm going to anyway because 👍.
posted by Justinian at 8:27 PM on August 7, 2018 [45 favorites]

Trump, talking about an unnamed country that was clearly China, told group: “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy," per person in the room.

But those phones from ZTE are ...(checks to see if he's gotten his trademarks/financing/bribes)... a-okay!
posted by chris24 at 8:27 PM on August 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

Republicans ran their emergency playbook in OH-12: culture wars over tax cuts

If Republican’s tax law was designed to win a specific district in America, it would be somewhere like Ohio’s 12th Congressional District — the state’s wealthiest district, which spans Columbus’s conservative suburbs.

The average household income in Ohio’s 12th District is more than $90,000, more than 40 percent of the residents have a college degree, and a Republican has held the seat since the 1980s. The district’s most recent representative, Pat Tiberi, who left in the middle of his term to take a lucrative business lobbying job, was one of the architects of Republican’s tax bill — a law that gave sweeping tax breaks to corporations and wealthy Americans.

Yet on Tuesday, the special election to fill Tiberi’s seat is proving to be surprisingly competitive. Democrat Danny O’Connor is polling within a couple of points of Republican Troy Balderson in a race that is beginning to look a lot like Republican election losses from earlier this year.

And Republicans, who have been adamant that talking about a booming economy will save them in the 2018 midterms, seem to have abandoned touting their tax cuts altogether. Instead they’re turning to the Trump playbook: Don’t talk about the tax bill, and stoke the culture wars.

Tara Golshan | Vox

——

It’s official: women have been nominated for a record number of House seats

“Democratic women notched a bunch of victories on Tuesday, making this the biggest year for women on the ballot in history.”

Li Zhou | Vox
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:30 PM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

If the GOP has to spend 3x as much as the Democrats to hold R+10 districts we're in good shape.

O'Connor raised and spent more than Balderson, but from outside sources – PACs, RNC, etc – the GOP spent $6.1 million vs. Ds $1.2 million. 5 times as much to win a very safe seat by 1%.
posted by chris24 at 8:31 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Wouldn't be surprised if this is an awkward dig at Feinstein over the revelation her longtime driver was a Chinese spy, which news just broke although the spy himself was uncovered 5 years ago.

No, this is just your garden-variety Yellow Peril racism. I heard this 20 years ago from someone who went on to be basically the fourth-ranking intelligence officer in the Army.
posted by Etrigan at 8:31 PM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

Looking really good for Wesley Bell (55-45 with 89% counted) for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney. Ball's a reformer from the Ferguson City Council, up against the incumbent DA who...*gestures in the general direction on Ferguson*.

You can read a little about the race from Taniel's newsletter, and track the results here.

Squeaking in at the end of the edit window to say Bell has declared victory!
posted by zachlipton at 8:32 PM on August 7, 2018 [19 favorites]

At dinner with corporate execs in NJ tonight, Trump, talking about an unnamed country that was clearly China, told group: “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy," per person in the room.

Who will be the next Vincent Chin?

The situation isn't exactly parallel, I know, but as a person who grew up in Michigan in the 80s, I find it hard to express how horrified I am to hear this kind of casual familiar racism coming from the President of the United States.

I know that "Trump says racist thing" is no surprise and is barely even news any more but oh my god, how did we manage to elect Racism's Greatest Hits to the highest political office in the country?

I'm not sure which I find more fascinating and improbable -- that Trump continues to continually find new ways to be shitty even after pioneering more directions of f*ckery than anyone who went before or that I somehow manage to retain the capability to be surprised and hurt by each new horrific impulse.
posted by Nerd of the North at 8:41 PM on August 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

AP says it won't be calling OH-12 tonight.

We're not going to know totally for sure until at least late next week, mail ballots can come in 10 days later, as long as they were postmarked Monday.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:42 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

zachlipton: "Squeaking in at the end of the edit window to say Bell has declared victory!"

This is great. Further background from Taniel:

St. Louis County's prosecutor Bob McCulloch has lost to Ferguson councilmember Wesley Bell.

McCulloch has been in office since *1991.* This was his 1st challenge since Michael Brown's shooting & Ferguson protests. Bell ran on a platform of significant criminal justice reforms.

Transformative result in St. Louis: Wesley Bell ran on eliminating cash bell, never seeking death penalty, supporting safe injection sites, transferring police misconduct investigations to an independent prosecutor, & more. (He faces no Republican in Nov.)

posted by Chrysostom at 8:45 PM on August 7, 2018 [58 favorites]

Won't have final finals for days due to mail-in, but all the prognosticators are goggling at very strong Dem results in Washington primaries. Overperformances in the 3rd, 5th, 8th.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:48 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

What's happening with prosecutor's races is pretty incredible between Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, and now Wesley Bell in St. Louis, two of the most over policed cities in the country.

A Ferguson City Council member is challenging the prosecutor who oversaw the Michael Brown case

Can a Criminal Justice Advocate Unseat Ferguson’s Lead Prosecutor? Wesley Bell Will Try

Will Justice Ever Come to Ferguson, Missouri? A Q&A with Wesley Bell
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:50 PM on August 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

I lived in the same building as Wesley Bell in Ferguson until recently and I am really happy he won.

I was almost unable to vote this morning because I hadn't gotten a new driver's license since I moved, and the address didn't match my registration. There was a police officer sitting in a folding chair next to the voter check-in table, so I didn't get too loud asking "but will I be able to vote today?" One of the women working reminded me that I needed to get my license updated so that when I get pulled over, everything is in order. I voted, but I know two other people who would normally be reliable voters who couldn't because of name/address issues. Fuck voter ID laws!
posted by a moisturizing whip at 8:59 PM on August 7, 2018 [45 favorites]

> In MO-01, incumbent Clay wins by about 20 points over Bush, a Ferguson activist endorsed by AOC.

Looking at election results today, I noticed several interesting same-party challengers in races where I hadn't really expected them. Among such candidates in Missouri, it looks like Bush did best by far.

All the other Missouri districts with similar same-party challengers were Republican. So I was wondering if the analogous "challenge from the right" type dynamic was in play in these other MO congressional districts with challengers.

It looks like that was the case with John Webb, who grabbed about 27% of the R primary vote against incumbent Republican Vicky Hartzler. And (probably?) the same with Chadwick Bicknell, who grabbed 19% of the R vote against incumbent Blaine Luetkemeyer.

The really interesting situation, though, is with the challengers to Billy Long. Long is the tea-party incumbent in one of Missouri's furthest-right districts, D7 in southwest Missouri (Springfield, Joplin, Branson areas), and he is p-r-e-t-t-y far right.

In this race today, three challengers managed to siphon off a good 35% of the Republican primary vote from Long. Jim Evans was the leader of the three, bringing in 17% of the vote.

The interesting thing is that Jim Evans' campaign is very much a "challenge from the center" - not from the extremes:

A former math teacher and two-time Democratic candidate for Long's seat, Evans is striking out on his own with a non-confrontational, nontraditional approach to campaigning — he calls himself a "freelance candidate." He deliberately avoided attacking or criticizing Long personally, and he quoted Mahatma Gandhi during his brief remarks to reporters. . . .

According to his campaign strategy, Evans "will not be actively fundraising and will not accept any contribution above $100. He is not working for any party, PAC (political action committee), special-interest, lobby, union, or rich dude."

Donors with large pockets can take their checks to charities or give their employees a raise instead, Evans suggested.

As for why he was running as a Republican, Evans was blunt: "It's the only way you can win in southwest Missouri."

"But I'm not Republican," he continued. "I'm not Green. I'm not Democrat. I'm not independent. I'm all of those, or maybe none of those. Depends on how you look at it."

So there is your interesting candidate of the day. And he did--if not exactly well--certainly a lot better than I would have expected, with Republican voters in one of the deepest red districts in the country.
posted by flug at 9:07 PM on August 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

"According to the survey, 12 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of Independents agreed that “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior”"

The question is ambiguous - bad meaning illegal? in Trump's opinion? I'm not sure this poll means that much.

Anyway, I'm all for free speech, but intentionally misleading people about factual information? No, I'm sorry. Fox News' treatment of global warming and other issues, for me, is the national equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater. Bring back the fairness doctrine.
posted by xammerboy at 9:12 PM on August 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

> Kansas GOP gov still neck and neck with 2/3 in.

And still so with 83% of precincts reporting right now, per the NYT. It's now at 40.7% Kobach to 40.6% Colyer. That's a nail-biter.

The only breath of hope I see here is that the largest group of non-reporting precincts by far is in Johnson County KS (Kansas City metro area) and the county seems to be favoring Colyer by a solid 10% margin so far. There are a lot of votes in the county, which is the largest county in the state by a fair margin, and if that pro-Colyer trend holds up there maybe Colyer will pull it out.
posted by flug at 9:15 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Having spent some time there, I've described Ohio as divided into two parts -- Cleveland and Kentucky. Perhaps a bit unfair, as there are bits of central Columbus and Cincinnati as exceptions, but it's mostly Kentucky.

I know, I know, but even Kentucky isn't all Kentucky. Come to Lexington and Louisville sometime, I'll show you.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:23 PM on August 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

Nothing surprising in the Michigan primary results per se, but statewide Democratic turnout (along with Trump's dive in MI approval ratings) makes me feel OK about November:

2018 Primary (governor)
Dem votes 915,486 53.9%
Rep votes 781,620 46%
Total 1,697,106
vs.
2010 Primary (governor) -- the last competitive-in-both-parties governor primary
Dem votes 527,439 33.5%
Rep votes 1,045,335 66.5%
Total 1,572,774

2018 Primary (governor)
Dem votes 915,486 53.9%
Rep votes 781,620 46%
Total 1,697,106
vs.
2016 Primary (president)
Dem votes 1,194,643 47.4%
Rep votes 1,324,621 52.6%
Total 2,519,264
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:36 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

MI-13 is probably the most interesting outstanding race there, which may send the first Muslim woman to Congress.

(more Michigan stuff in this thread)
posted by Chrysostom at 9:42 PM on August 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Btw, outstanding vote in KS is basically in Johnson County (KC burbs), where there is apparently some sort of computer issue. They say it could be a while.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:44 PM on August 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Not-the-election news (don't sue me for trademark infringement Chrysotom):

BuzzFeed, Anxious DACA Recipients Are Watching A Court Hearing In Texas on the upcoming hearing tomorrow that could well result in a judge ordering the entire DACA program to be shut down, even as other courts have issued injunctions requiring the program to remain open. If that happens, a whole lot of legal moves will have to happen extremely quickly to develop some kind of certainty for what's happening and how it impacts hundreds of thousands of people. Oh, and the Supreme Court, which could be called upon to issue urgent stays in the various DACA cases as a result of this, has 8 Justices.

From the Manafort trial, one of the things that's emerged is that Gates testified that Manafort was paid $4 million year to help Yanukovych govern Ukraine under a "policy contract" and worked on a "legal project" for Ukranian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, who was a donor to both the Trump and Clinton foundations (he paid the Trump Foundation for that speech Trump gave, and has also given much more to the Clinton Foundation, though Clinton didn't use the foundation as a replacement for personal funds as Trump did). A takeaway here is that Manafort didn't just consult on the Ukranian election, he play a key role in the governance of another country, during Yanukovych's pivot away from the EU and toward Russia, not long before he started running the Trump campaign.

Beast, CEOs Who Cut White House Ties After Charlottesville Just Dined With Trump

President Trump is having dinner Tuesday night with five CEOs who distanced themselves from the White House after last year's white supremacist Charlottesville rally. CNBC reports that the companies that are attending the dinner–PepsiCo, Boeing, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson and EY–did not respond to questions asking if their executive leadership’s view of Trump changed since the rally last year.

The Times Magazine has a kind of stupid little interview with the CBP Commissioner:

You said there needs to be consequences for crossing the border illegally. But the consequences of the most recent policy separated parents from their children. You still have hundreds of children in custody. I think the executive order was an important recalibration. Well-intended efforts to enforce the law are not going to succeed if they lose the public trust.

It seems as if this one certainly did. Did it feel inhumane? It’s challenging for law-enforcement professionals when they see the individual impact of the actions they are asked to carry out.

Boo-fucking-hoo about the challenges of having to see the consequences of your actions.

HuffPost, Trump’s Tariffs Are Screwing Farmers. Many Still Won’t Blame Him. "We’re just hoping this doesn’t last a long time" says man whose face is being eaten by a leopard after voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

Robby Mook op-ed (if you want to never think or care about anything Robby Mook has to say again, I do not blame you, feel free to give this a skip, but I think it's worth reading), The Great Distractor

In campaigns, we have a saying: If your opponent is hanging himself, give him more rope. In the week after the convention, while Mrs. Clinton was touring Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio, talking about her plan to create jobs through new investments in infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, we tried to get out of the way of the negative coverage of Mr. Trump and his outrageous comments about Mr. Khan. But the result was that people heard his message, not ours. So much so that after the election, some people thought Mrs. Clinton never talked about people’s economic lives. But she did. It just went into the black hole of the Trump Trap.
...
Mr. Trump will say and do things that demand a response from anyone who values decency and morality. The result is that he decides what gets attention — and he’s not held accountable. So what do we do?

First, Democrats have to call these distractions what they are: distractions. A speech denouncing his name-calling will result in headlines about name-calling. That, as we learned, does not help voters understand what progressives believe and who we are fighting for. We need to demand answers for the administration’s assault on health care coverage, its corruption and its bilking of middle-income taxpayers.

Second, the media needs to realize that the game has changed. Just because the president says or tweets something outrageous doesn’t mean it’s news. Just like Facebook and Twitter have a responsibility to root out harassment and impostors from their platforms, the news media has an obligation to report responsibly on the president. Sometimes stupid insults are just that and should be ignored. That will mean lost revenue, but it’s a price worth paying.

Third, we Democrats have to pick fights that highlight Mr. Trump’s malfeasance. When the president seeks to take away health insurance from seniors or people with cancer, we can’t let that go unnoticed. Some Democrats seem more interested in fighting one another on health care than fighting the Republican Party — let’s arm wrestle one another when we actually have a majority to pass a new law. In the meantime, let’s help voters understand why a change is so badly needed.

I know, I know, but even Kentucky isn't all Kentucky. Come to Lexington and Louisville sometime, I'll show you.

Worth remembering that Kentucky was one of the first wave of states to go all-in on Obamacare, and their uninsured rate has gone from about 12% to about 5%.
posted by Merus at 10:52 PM on August 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

First, Democrats have to call these distractions what they are: distractions.

This is complicated. I totally agree that the media promoting the most outrageous clickbaity antics is a problem, especially since Trump's whole existence is nothing but one flaming pile of clickbait. And on the one hand, responses to and coverage of Trump/GOP racist, misogynist, xenophobic bullshit amplify the shitty message, just like responding to his lies (even in context) spreads the lies.

On the other hand, it is not a coincidence that without fucking fail, the things that white guys in general and white Democrats in particular unerringly trivialize as "distractions" are actions and statements that demean and target non-white-guy groups. If powerful (and rank and file) white/cis/male/etc. people let stuff like the LeBron or Maxine Waters or Khan comments or demonization of immigrants or military trans ban tweet pass without significant acknowledgment or critique, it not only withholds attention from Trump but also sends a message about what they consider important. Not only is that shitty non-allyship, but pragmatically, it's telling the Democratic base and the hordes of women who do the lion's share of Democratic election-emotional-labor that their concerns and circumstances don't mean jack shit.

I mean, I'm as consistent and engaged and committed a vote-for-Democrats person as you are going to find in this nation and ever have been and will be, but every time Robby Mook or his ilk refer to race-baiting or other menacing of less privileged people as a "distraction," I become that much more someone who votes Democratic because I have to and that much less someone who does it because I want to.

It's important not to play Whack-a-Mole with every outrageous Trump/GOP statement, but referring to their ongoing, consistent efforts to promote gross bigotry in ways that are directly, increasingly dangerous to real people in their real lives as "shiny objects" unworthy of our notice is not the solution. I'm not sure what the solution is, but these things are all part of a pattern, a program, and we dismiss them at everyone's peril.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:02 PM on August 7, 2018 [54 favorites]

Maybe the better approach is to respond but frame the response positively within the context of Democratic values and practical issue-related plans? So the response to Trump trash-talking LeBron etc. could be focused on admiration for LeBron's and other prominent Black public figures' community service and Democratic efforts to strengthen public education as opposed to DeVos/GOP efforts to dismantle it? Or something?
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:18 PM on August 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

On the other hand, it is not a coincidence that without fucking fail, the things that white guys in general and white Democrats in particular unerringly trivialize as "distractions" are actions and statements that demean and target non-white-guy groups.

This seems like a false dichotomy. The Trump says triggering things on all sorts of issues -- not just race but women, NATO allies (who are white guys generally in leadership), global warming, history, etc.

I think the more important distinction is his typical designed-to-offend language vs. substantive legal changes. Real laws and regulations and appointments are being made (or destroyed) every day. And non-white-guys are bearing the brunt of those substantive actions, too, so arguing that we do in fact need to address each bit of his offensive rhetoric, well I don't see who that is helping.

His base loves to offend liberals. Why should we help him rally them by getting offended, on cue? I prefer a quick segue such as "It's no secret that Trump is bigoted, but the important issue is that people are losing their health insurance." Or whatever.
posted by msalt at 11:35 PM on August 7, 2018 [12 favorites]

It's not right that Trump attacking LeBron James gets more attention than the fact that he's handed over control of the VA to three non-veterans who qualified for the entirely unaccountable positions they hold by paying dues to the President's private business, but it's what's happening.

Despair is a sin. I take comfort in a possible future where this is just one more count in the RICO prosecution of the Trump Campaign. Mueller's already got Manafort, the campaign chair, selling positions in the Trump Administration for fraudulent bank loans, I would think that Mueller's strategy going forward is to deep-dive into the other participants in the illegal meeting in Trump Tower with Russian criminals, Donald Jr. & Kushner.

And those deep dives are going to be as enlightening as the one he did on Manafort.
posted by mikelieman at 11:45 PM on August 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

I mean, I'm as consistent and engaged and committed a vote-for-Democrats person as you are going to find in this nation and ever have been and will be, but every time Robby Mook or his ilk refer to race-baiting or other menacing of less privileged people as a "distraction," I become that much more someone who votes Democratic because I have to and that much less someone who does it because I want to.

I think that to call them "distractions" is a mistake. And to not call out racism each and every time we hear it is unacceptable.

But I think Mook's point is a bit more subtle than trivializing the racist stuff as distractions. In his article, and I pullquoted the more conclusiony part rather than the introductory storytelling part, which doesn't entirely do it justice, he contrasts the attention paid to Cheryl Lankford, a gold star mother who used her survivor's benefits to enroll in a Trump University program and got swindled, with that paid to Khizr Khan. Lankford's a black woman, and it's not fair to pit her and Khan against each other in some kind of oppression comparison, but the idea here is that the targets of Trump's personal attacks jump to the top of the attention pile, sometimes at the expense of large numbers of people, often disproportionately not straight white men, who he's also hurting through his actions.

It's wrong to treat the attack on James as a "distraction." It's also hard to honestly conclude that it and other tweet-driven stories deserve more attention than policies hurting single parents in public housing or demanding work requirements for food stamps or Medicaid or threatening legal immigrants' to choose between food and health care for their children or their ability to receive a green card or citizenship, to name a couple off the top of my head.

It's a hard thing because if I've long-ago concluded that Trump is racist, what do I do with all the racist things he says? I can point to them and say "yes, that's racist," which in 2018 is a necessary affirmation of reality. Mook is right that Trump says things that "demand a response from anyone who values decency and morality." But some days, it feels like the news is centered around that attack/response cycle (not all of which are racist or sexist in nature, though entirely too many are) far more than the often racist policies he's enacting. Democratic candidates really are out across the country running on health care. And to be honest, I don't have the toolset to really address the question of "how much time should the country spend talking about the racist thing the President said vs. this election that pits people who think sick people should die against the people who don't." I'm not trying to be glib; the President being a racist who says and does racist things, inspiring open hate, is a huge national problem, albeit one that we've had for most of the nation's history to different degrees and effects, and it's not a distraction to say so. So are the future of Roe, millions' of people's health care, who gets to be in this country, who gets clean air and water, how we take care of each other, and so many other things Trump wants to destroy. And I know those are the things I'm calling my reps about, phonebanking because of, donating for, etc..., not who Trump attacked on Twitter today.

Like you say, it's complicated, and I think "distraction" is the wrong word for it, but I also think we need to do more to break through and spotlight the people he's hurting on a massive scale, even when those people aren't the target of his daily individualized attacks.
posted by zachlipton at 12:09 AM on August 8, 2018 [29 favorites]

Having spent some time there, I've described Ohio as divided into two parts -- Cleveland and Kentucky. Perhaps a bit unfair, as there are bits of central Columbus and Cincinnati as exceptions, but it's mostly Kentucky.

Can we please not do this? As an Ohioan who is fond of Kentucky, Kentucky as a punch line is shitty, and Ohio has its own complexities that are more than this. If you want concrete proof of how persistent shit-talking about the south and midwest is within political discourse, even on MetaFilter, here’s exhibit A.
posted by mostly vowels at 3:12 AM on August 8, 2018 [42 favorites]

I took JackFlash to be talking about the political demographics of different parts of Ohio, not "shit-talking" or using the state as a "punch line". If folks think there's a better way to make those sorts of comparisons, maybe that's better argued in MetaTalk.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 4:18 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Rick Gates Delivers a Public Lesson on Money Laundering and Political Corruption
(John Cassidy | The New Yorker)

Tuesday was Rick Gates’s second day testifying as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of Paul Manafort, his former boss, and he spent a lot of time explaining how money flowed from Ukraine, where he and Manafort had a run of lucrative years doing consulting work for pro-Russian interests, to shell companies in Cyprus, to other shell companies in the Caribbean, and eventually to the United States. In the afternoon, Gates was subjected to a withering cross-examination by Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, during which he admitted that he’d had an extramarital affair and that he’d repeatedly stolen money from Manafort.

It’s not clear yet how Gates’s testimony will affect the outcome of the trial, in which Manafort is charged with tax evasion, bank fraud, and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. But his time on the witness stand provided an invaluable public lesson in how tax evasion, money laundering, and political corruption work.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:41 AM on August 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Dave Wasserman (Cook)
So far tonight, in Dem House primaries featuring at least one man, one woman & no incumbent on ballot, a woman has won 9/11 times (82%). On GOP side, 1/5 (20%).

Dave Wasserman
Projection: Rashida Tlaib (D) wins #MI13 primary to replace former Rep. John Conyers (D), will become first Muslim woman in Congress (several possible).
posted by chris24 at 4:51 AM on August 8, 2018 [32 favorites]

Voter turnout shatters recent records for Michigan primary elections (Detroit Free Press)

Voter turnout in Tuesday's primary election in Michigan shattered records going back at least as far as 1978, a state election official confirmed early Wednesday.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:03 AM on August 8, 2018 [33 favorites]

It’s very heartening to see Prop A’s right to work bulshit go down in flames in such a conservative and republican supporting state, a law every power broker and vested interest was salivating for. Some of the materials sent to houses.
posted by The Whelk at 5:31 AM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

I think the more important distinction is his typical designed-to-offend language vs. substantive legal changes.

It's also important to be aware of the common situation where his language designed to offend is also a trial balloon for pushing a legal change.

And, it's important to keep in mind that all of us can push back on both the offensive statements and the actual policies, and often pushing back on the former will hurt him. Like, the pushback to the Access Hollywood thing didn't tank him, but it wasn't nothing - imagine the election without the public outcry against that, you'd have had a politically stronger Trump who got even more votes.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:47 AM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

I know it would have been nice to win OH-12 outright, but, the fact that the R's had to spend so much to eke out a squeaker is a good sign. And these same two candidates are running in November, right? It's very possible that people will turn out then who didn't now (because "why bother if it's the same two people only in November"). When we vote, we win. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted in her Netroots speech (IIRC) that it's not about persuading swing voters, but about turning nonvoters into voters.

I am heartened by women winning in so many elections, and by Rashida Tlaib being the first Muslim woman to go to Congress. May we keep up this momentum for a blue tsunami in November.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 5:50 AM on August 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

It’s very heartening to see Prop A’s right to work bulshit go down in flames

Yeeessss.

I'd have liked Cori Bush to displace the Clay dynasty. In my dreams there would have been one serious contender to primary McCaskill instead of 7 people with no hope. And it would have been nice to have someone more appealing than Mantovani to go up against Stenger for STL County Executive (though apparently there'll be a recount).

But Prop A geting shut down like this, and Wesley Bell beating McCulloch, made it a good election as far as I'm concerned.
posted by Foosnark at 6:04 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Also worth mentioning that Rashida Tlaib is a DSA member! 🌹♥🌹
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 6:10 AM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

Rosie M. Banks: "And these same two candidates are running in November, right?"

Yes. And arguably there isn't much incumbent advantage, since Balderson will only be there for like two months. On the other hand, historically re-running the same special election matchup in the general usually goes about the same (which stands to reason).
posted by Chrysostom at 6:15 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

In KS gov, it looks like Kobach wins by 191 votes (out of 311,009 cast). Presumably this goes to recount, plus provisionals and absenttes (they have three days to show up if they were postmarked by Election Day).
posted by Chrysostom at 6:21 AM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Also worth mentioning that Rashida Tlaib is a DSA member!

And definitely worth mentioning that Rashida Tlaib is no political novice or electoral noob, either! She was so popular as a state rep in Southwest Detroit, in fact, she was term-limited from seeking re-election.

She’s made a name for herself here largely by demonstrating that she’s about more than just tough rhetoric or arguably pointless symbolic fights. I’m fact, she has a local reputaton (very well deserved imo) for her ability to connect with constituents on issues that impact us here daily. Very happy for and proud of Rashida Tlaib today ❤️
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:24 AM on August 8, 2018 [26 favorites]

3 members of Trump's Mar-A-Lago Club have been secretly running the Veterans Affairs Dept. for the past two years, despite having no experience or official jobs. (Propublica)
posted by The Whelk at 6:24 AM on August 8, 2018 [51 favorites]

The heart of the @realDonaldTrump account are the tweets posted by Donald Trump (or, on occasion, by Daniel Scavino on his behalf

If memory serves me correctly, this official Justice Department admission should at the very least get Trump's verified Twitter account status revoked. (Narrator: It won't.)
posted by Gelatin at 6:25 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Sharice Davids has won the KS-03 Dem nom. She would be the first Native American woman, and first out gay Kansan member, if she wins the general. This was an EmilysList (Davids) vs Bernie/AOC (Welder) battle.

Cook has district as Lean R, but will be moving it to Tossup (gonna be a number of ratings moves shortly, I expect).
posted by Chrysostom at 6:26 AM on August 8, 2018 [24 favorites]

This tweet is the only story I've seen, but Chris Collins (R-NY), one of Trump's earliest backers in Congress, just got rolled up by the FBI for securities fraud.
posted by Etrigan at 6:33 AM on August 8, 2018 [44 favorites]

New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins to be indicted on insider trading charges - big, and early, Trump supporter.
posted by Artw at 6:34 AM on August 8, 2018 [26 favorites]

“As someone who owes tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, getting paid to make fun of DeVos’s tacky seaside decor is one of few ways to both feed myself and make myself feel better. With that, I’d like to dedicate this essay to all of the public school teachers who taught me how to write.” McMansion Hell On Betsy DeVos’ mansion.
posted by The Whelk at 6:43 AM on August 8, 2018 [75 favorites]

Chris Collins (R-NY), one of Trump's earliest backers in Congress, just got rolled up by the FBI for securities fraud.

Here’s the indictment.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:53 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Democratic women notched a bunch of victories on Tuesday, making this the biggest year for women on the ballot in history.

I know this is practically old news by now in catch-all thread terms but oh, my poor little heart. This sentence made me start to cry. Just a bunch of Rosies the Riveter spread out across the country, rolling up their sleeves to save the Republic.
posted by Emmy Rae at 6:56 AM on August 8, 2018 [53 favorites]

Record number of women nominees for governor, too!
posted by Chrysostom at 6:58 AM on August 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

Some serious house cleaning going on in WVa today. WV House committee approves 14 articles of impeachment against justices
posted by Harry Caul at 7:01 AM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

The three Republicans who are running to not be elected US Senator in Mass. had a debate yesterday. The Boston Herald reports the Trumpiest of the three, state Rep. Geoff Diehl, called Elizabeth Warren a bigger threat to the US than Russia. When challenged by one of the moderators, he doubled down, calling her the vanguard of "the new communist regime here". But then he seemed to realize how that would make him sound, so he said he was just joshing.
posted by adamg at 7:08 AM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

Border arrest data suggest Trump’s push to split migrant families had little deterrent effect (WaPo)

So: cruel and incompetent. It may as well be the GOP motto at this point.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:09 AM on August 8, 2018 [47 favorites]

Here’s the indictment.

The best part of that indictment is the non-Collins defendant calling people and telling them to sell their shares and not ask why. It's almost as if he knew he was committing a crime.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:19 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Democratic women notched a bunch of victories on Tuesday, making this the biggest year for women on the ballot in history.

I'll have seven races on my ballot in November (suburban Detroit) -- Gov, AG, SecState, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, State Senate, State House. All seven Democratic nominees are women. Two GOP nominees are, and there may be two more.

Fuck. Yeah.
posted by Etrigan at 7:24 AM on August 8, 2018 [33 favorites]

Adam Weinstein, acting editor-in-chief of Task & Purpose (a surprisingly moderate military-focused news site), just resigned over publisher interference with their story on Trump's three Mar-A-Lago buddies who are running the VA.
posted by Etrigan at 7:27 AM on August 8, 2018 [76 favorites]

Some serious house cleaning going on in WVa today. WV House committee approves 14 articles of impeachment against justices

This one is RTFA-worthy; you might assume that this is similar to the Pennsylvania GOP's shenanigans, but it actually seems to be in....good...faith? And due to documented financial malfeasance by literally the whole state supreme court? I know, I'm confused too.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:34 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

HELL YES. Washington State primary results paint grim picture for GOP.

I voted and I sure as hell made sure everyone I knew voted. WA state's mail-in ballots make this all super easy.
posted by loquacious at 7:35 AM on August 8, 2018 [43 favorites]

Thought I'd check on Kris Kobach. Up by 189 votes with 100% reporting.

Republican Primary
Candidate Vote Pct.
Kris Kobach 126,257 40.6%
Jeff Colyer* 126,066 40.5
Jim Barnett 27,449 8.8
Others 31,237 10.0

Provisional ballots still out. No automatic recount, but the loser will probably call for one. (paid for by Kansas presuming the vote is still within 0.5%)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:37 AM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

One deleted; things are plenty bad, please don't invent hypothetical atrocities. It's enough to talk about what is actually happening.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:38 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Just to add that it would be sweet justice if provisional votes kicked Kobach out of the race, on account of how he has considered all of those provisionals questionable.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:38 AM on August 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

ICE Crashed a Van Full of Separated Mothers, Then Denied It Ever Happened

The driver failed to come to a stop and T-boned an F-250 that was entering the gas station, police said. The mothers told the Observer the impact slammed them against the seats in front of them, resulting in headaches, dizziness, nausea and injury to one woman’s leg, which began swelling immediately. [...] In the accident report, a San Marcos Police Department officer assessed the damage to the van as a 4 on a 1-to-7 scale, and said the vehicle was towed. An ambulance was dispatched to the scene, but no one was taken to the hospital. (The mothers said they refused to go to the hospital because they feared it would delay or prevent them from being reunified with their children).

For nearly three weeks, ICE denied the crash happened and ignored requests for information. The Observer was first alerted to the crash the day after it occurred by immigrant rights activists in Austin. The next day, Leticia Zamarripa, an ICE spokesperson, denied the incident twice. “Your sources misinformed you,” Zamarripa wrote on July 20. “There was no crash.”
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2018 [54 favorites]

Democratic women notched a bunch of victories on Tuesday, making this the biggest year for women on the ballot in history.

Two thoughts on this:

1. California has a MALE Democratic candidate for Senate on the ballot for the first time since I was about three years old rofl. The novelty! (He's running against Dianne Feinstein - we have a top-two primary system so it's Dem vs Dem action in the general.)

2. I saw this NYT article back when it came out - More Women than Men: State Legislatures Could Shift For the First Time. And it was a little exciting but mostly bittersweet. California is one of the states that has the potential to be 50 percent women after this election. We currently have 25 women in the state legislature, and 25 more are running, so that's if every single one of them wins - I don't know the individual races but that seems very unlikely. (Btw, this is the state legislature where there are more white men named Jim than there are women of color.) And it's hard not to think of all the screaming about feminization and the hand-wringing and the terrorism and the keyboard warriors saying shut up, you women have taken over now, you have so much, you've taken it all from us men, and to realize that all that was happening in the context of 25 percent representation. In CALIFORNIA. That we've never even had proportional representation. (I think 50% representation will actually be a little better for the screaming, in that one in four women just highlights our presence in state legislatures as abnormal, but one in two will normalize it. I hope.)

edit: sorry, 25 is the percentage of women in the state legislature, not the actual number. We have 120 seats so I guess it's 30 elected and 30 running.
posted by sunset in snow country at 7:44 AM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

All Bet(o)s Are Off: Cruz Begs ‘Sniveling Coward’ Trump To Campaign For Him
(Kate Riga | TPM)

In a move that shows clearly the strength of Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked his former enemy President Donald Trump Monday to come down and campaign for him.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:50 AM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

Adam Weinstein, acting editor-in-chief of Task & Purpose (a surprisingly moderate military-focused news site), just resigned over publisher interference with their story on Trump's three Mar-A-Lago buddies who are running the VA.

But the story was published by Propublica? Did they just republish it?
posted by PenDevil at 7:56 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Has this been pointed out? One reason why the Republican primary votes went for Trump is that his final two serious challengers, Cruz and Rubio, have Latino surnames.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:57 AM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Nah, they didn't care for Jeb! either. (IIRC he went to a rally and had to tell the audience, "this is where you clap.")
posted by Melismata at 8:05 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Putin has predictably stepped in on MBS's side with feud with Canada, (Saudi-owned) Al Arabiya reports: Russia: Saudi Arabia Has Right to Reject Canada’s Interference

The first official Russian comment on the Saudi-Canadian dispute came from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which confirmed Moscow’s refusal to politicize human rights issues, noting that Saudi Arabia has the right to determine the course of its own internal reforms.

In a statement posted on the ministry’s website, Maria Zakharova, Director of Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation said: “We strongly and firmly support the promotion of universal human rights, with the necessity of keeping in mind national characteristics and traditions of countries, which have crystallized over a long period of time.”

Human rights activist and political refugee İyad el-Baghdadi (@/iyad_elbaghdadi) offers a lengthy recap of the Saudi propaganda offensive against Canada, which is literally offensive (it criticizes Canada's human rights record for prosecuting Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, for instance).

Trump has, of course, said nothing in defense of a fellow NATO ally, and the only statement from the administration comes from a State Department spox who didn't want to be named when they spoke to AFP:

A State Department spokeswoman told AFP that Washington was aware of the situation, noting: "Canada and Saudi Arabia are both close partners of the United States."

She said that Washington has asked Riyadh for more information about the cases of several detained activists.

"The United States supports respect for internationally recognized freedoms and individual liberties including dissent and due process," said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named.

"We continue to encourage the government of Saudi Arabia to ensure all are afforded due process and to provide information on the charges and case status of legal actions against activists."

(Incidentally, the CBC article on arrested activist Samar Badawi features a photo of her with Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton, just in case there was any question about whose side Trump would take.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:07 AM on August 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

Nah, they didn't care for Jeb! either. (IIRC he went to a rally and had to tell the audience, "this is where you clap.")

Jeb speaks Spanish and his wife is hispanic. Close enough for them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:10 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Don't forget about Kasich. He was plenty white, tax cuttin', and gun lovin' but primary voters picked the guy they identified with the most.
posted by cmfletcher at 8:14 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Can we all start referring to these kleptocrats as "Illegals"?
posted by jetsetsc at 8:16 AM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

and whoever gets elected in the upcoming special

FTA it looked like they would get replaced during the midterm. The motivation for the timing of this may be to drive midterm turnout to nullify the Dem enthusiasm advantage.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:20 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Worth remembering that Kentucky was one of the first wave of states to go all-in on Obamacare, and their uninsured rate has gone from about 12% to about 5%.

Obamacare and Medicaid expansion was implemented by executive order by Democratic Governor Steve Beshear in spite of a Republican legislature. This led to a dramatic increase in healthcare coverage, especially for the desperately poor in Kentucky. Two years later, when Republican Matt Bevin ran to replace Beshear, his number one campaign issue was repeal of Obamacare and elimination of Medicaid expansion. He won handily 53-44.

Some of the poorest rural white counties in Kentucky with 60% of the people on Medicaid voted 80% in favor of the guy who pledged to take away their healthcare. Racism -- its a hell of a drug.

Best wishes to Democrats in Kentucky who have a tough row to hoe.
posted by JackFlash at 8:21 AM on August 8, 2018 [25 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS & RESULTS ROUNDUP

First up, last night's results:

* OH-12 special - GOPer Balderson apparently pulls it out, 50-2-49.3 over Dem O'Connor. There are sufficient provisional ballots and non-returned absentee ballots that the margin may yet be pushed within 0.5%, in which case there will be a mandatory recount. We'll know for sure at the deadline in 10 days.

* MO prop A - Right to work law went down to resounding defeat, 67.5-32.5.

* KS gov - GOP race is probably going to overtime as SOS Kobach leads gov Colyer by 191 votes before provisionals and non-returned absentees (three days to come in, if postmarked by Election Day). Kansas recount rules.

* St. Louis County (MO) defeated the incumbent prosecutor who failed to go after the Ferguson cop who shot Michael Brown and replaced him with a reformist candidate.

* WA House - Dems did very well in the 3rd, 5th, and 8th, setting up to possibly flip these seats (WA has a top two primary). First round results predict the general results well (if anything, Dems do better in the general), so the GOP should be very worried. Dems also overperformed in the legislative races, setting up gains there, as well.

* MI gov - Gretchen Whitmer won every county en route to a 22 point victory. Second place candidate El-Sayed quickly pledged support.

* MI House - Looks like in MI-01, Morgan will get the Dem nom as a write-in (he was kicked off the ballot due to a paperwork issue. In MI-13, DSA-er Rashida Tlaib wins to likely to become the first Muslim woman rep, but looks to have lost the special election, which has slightly different candidates.

** 2018 House:

-- NY-27: GOP incumbent Chris Collins was indicted on insider trading charges (which he was already being investigated for by the House Ethics Committee). I don't believe he can be replaced on the ballot (NY already had their federal primary). District is currently a Cook Safe R, if he's still on the ballot, probably Likely R, maybe Lean R (it's pretty red).

-- VA-02: GOP incumbent Taylor in trouble for shenanigans involving fraudulent signatures to get a Dem-splitting independent on the ballot. Taylor has fired his campaign manager, a special prosecutor has been appointed. District was Lean R before all this.

-- Record number of women have been nominated for House seats. Record number of governor nominees, too.

-- Silver: Polls have been really on target this year; if anything, slightly underestimating Dem performance.

-- Dems have no candidate in 4 House districts; GOP no candidate in 46.

** 2018 Senate:

-- TX: Beto enthusiasm could help Dems recapture lower ballot offices and re-build a bench. Meanwhile, Cruz wants Trump to help campaign.

-- VA: VCU poll has incumbent Dem Kaine up 49-26 on GOPer Stewart [MOE: +/- 3.49%]. This is at the level where you would expect downballot impacts.

** Odds & ends:

-- Election day wrapups from Vox and 538.

-- Missouri GOP suing to try and keep non-partisan redistricting proposal off of the fall ballot.

-- Court strikes down Michigan law against straight ticket voting.

-- Dems forming Lt Gov's Association to push for progressive policies.

-- 17 of 28 states that were in Kobach's Crosscheck voter purge program have left it.

posted by Chrysostom at 8:30 AM on August 8, 2018 [43 favorites]

Cook ratings updates, 4 left, 1 right:

KS-02 (open) | Lean R => Toss Up
KS-03 (Yoder) | Lean R => Toss Up
NY-27 (Collins) | Solid R => Likely R
OH-15 (Stivers) | Likely R => Solid R
WA-03 (Herrera Beutler) | Likely R => Lean R
posted by Chrysostom at 8:34 AM on August 8, 2018 [20 favorites]

First, Democrats have to call these distractions what they are: distractions.

Trump wants to keep the discussion on immigration, fossil fuels, ending Obamacare, crime, etc. and that's because the way he's framed these issues are winners, in his opinion. His advisers seem to think so too.

While it's important to take a stand and call out racism, it's also important not to give oxygen to the fights Trump wants to have, the way he wants to have them. I always thought Obama was pretty good at this. On abortion, he said there were lots of ways to decrease it other than denying the procedure. He supported gay marriage in everything but name, and right or wrong, at least it stopped the issue from overwhelming his candidacy. Obama even straight out said he didn't think affirmative action as implemented was worth its political costs to Democrats.

It's pretty clear that a lot of what's animating Republicans is racism, but I'm not sure engaging by calling them racists is always a winning strategy. If the concern is about border security, creating a legal channel for immigrants to become citizens, manufacturing jobs, healthcare, whatever, we should have a serious policy proposal alternative. When we simply respond to his proposals by saying you're stupid, immoral, deplorable, and racist, that's what Trump wants. What he does not want is our responding that we have better answers.
posted by xammerboy at 8:40 AM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

(IIRC he went to a rally and had to tell the audience, "this is where you clap.")

Bear with me because I am looking back with sympathy on the trials and travails of fuckin' Jeb!, but: that was actually a quiet charming little moment in small-group electioneering that reads completely different out of context. He was answering a question, someone started clapping before he finished, he sorta "okay, lemme finish"'d his answer, and then said, "please clap" to be like, heh, sorry, I interrupted you interrupting me, go ahead now.

I wasn't rooting for Jeb! by any stretch of the imagination, but that had to be bent three times and glued to turn into the apparent "gaffe" that it was, and at that existed in the bygone days when a gaffe was some minor slow-news-day burble rather than, e.g., naked fucking racism.
posted by cortex at 8:43 AM on August 8, 2018 [95 favorites]

Yeah, I don't think that WVa house impeachment is a good thing. As in, court packing wolf in sheep clothing. From TFA:

Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, also suggested the nature of grouping all of the justices into one set of articles of impeachment appeared to be an attempt to allow Republican Gov. Jim Justice an opportunity to appoint four of the five Supreme Court justices for at least two years on the bench.

posted by yoga at 8:44 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Make America Asbestos Again (Alexandra Petri, WaPo)

Asbestos. I ask you.

All of the things we had hoped to leave in the ’80s are here right now with a big TRUMP seal attached. Usually, when people want to bring back the past, it is because they are remembering it wrong. They are thinking of a TV-perfect past when everyone wore dresses with Peter Pan collars and ate abundant casserole, where people learned Latin in school, television personalities were all thesauruses wrapped in seersucker, and you could use the word “pulchritude” in conversation without attracting stares. They have the erroneous idea that the past was politer, or more intellectual, or more civilized. They have been seduced by this image of the past as a classier, gentler time full of finger bowls and picket fences and children in overalls saying “gee whiz!”

But not the Trump team! They do not want the gauzy Norman Rockwell past. They do not want the appearance of intellectualism or the veneer of politeness. Let those go. They want, specifically, the overt racism and the asbestos. Those are what they have singled out as the signature characteristics of the Time when America was Great. Which… points for honesty, I guess?

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:45 AM on August 8, 2018 [42 favorites]

jetsetsc: Can we all start referring to these kleptocrats as "Illegals"?

I think there's real merit to trying that out. The present purpose of illegal-as-a-noun (or as an adjective applied to people) is simple dehumanization. That's not so much an inherent property of the word (some other word could have done the same thing) as it is the choice to apply it to one specific kind of rule-defiance.

The brilliance of the trick is that insofar as residing without the right papers can be illegal (adjective), the usage seems defensible. But of course, neither a bankrobber nor a corporate crook are considered "illegals" at present. Thus, it becomes ever more acceptable for the system to treat migrants with less humanity than even the worst elements of society. A native-born serial killer may be a criminal, so by all means lock him away, but he's not an illegal, so at least he gets a trial first. Broadening the word could lose its power to divide like that.

At the same time, the usage that illegal-as-noun means "foreigner" and never "white guy in suit" is so ingrained that it may be beyond reclamation. Tell all the world that Trump's circle is "a bunch of illegals" and you're crossing the red wire with the blue one. Your audience may just latch onto the one word and be that much more primed for anti-immigrant xenophobia rather than anti-plutocrat zeal.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:46 AM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Propaganda self correction like cortex's comment above is one of the reasons I value and trust this site.
posted by M-x shell at 8:48 AM on August 8, 2018 [53 favorites]

Please clap, then :p
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:50 AM on August 8, 2018 [16 favorites]

Mea culpa on the WVA impeachment article. Especially as the one saying to read it more closely, and then I didn't.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:52 AM on August 8, 2018

Asbestos. I ask you. All of the things we had hoped to leave in the ’80s are here right now with a big TRUMP seal attached.

In the case of asbestos - that "Trump Seal" is actually literal.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:54 AM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

At the same time, the usage that illegal-as-noun means "foreigner" and never "white guy in suit" is so ingrained that it may be beyond reclamation. Tell all the world that Trump's circle is "a bunch of illegals" and you're crossing the red wire with the blue one. Your audience may just latch onto the one word and be that much more primed for anti-immigrant xenophobia rather than anti-plutocrat zeal.

Illegal is a term of art in the intelligence community, namely a spy who works without official diplomatic credentials to protect them if things go south. It's another word for NOC, Non Official Cover.
posted by scalefree at 8:59 AM on August 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Asbestos is being found in the crayons of poor kids so I guess it's on the way back.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:02 AM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Meanwhile, Fox guest Mark Steyn suggests that people with disabilities who are "a cost on the public purse" shouldn't be able to immigrate.

It probably sounded better in the original German. (60.000 RM kostet dieser Erbkranke die Volksgemeinschaft auf Lebenszeit. Volksgenosse, das ist auch Dein Geld.)
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:13 AM on August 8, 2018 [44 favorites]

Daily Beast: Senate Asks Julian Assange to Testify in Russia Investigation

WikiLeaks tweeted Wednesday morning that the Senate panel, in an August 1 letter, sought an interview. The Senate Intelligence Committee declined comment.

We only have Assange's word, so take it with a grain of novichok-I-mean-salt.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:17 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Chris Collins (R-NY), one of Trump's earliest backers in Congress, just got rolled up by the FBI for securities fraud.

You might remember him during the election defending Trump not releasing his tax returns.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:24 AM on August 8, 2018 [26 favorites]

> VA-02: GOP incumbent Taylor in trouble for shenanigans involving fraudulent signatures to get a Dem-splitting independent on the ballot...a special prosecutor has been appointed. District was Lean R before all this.

The district has a Cook PVI of R+3. Trump beat Clinton there by 4%, then Northam (D) carried the district by 4% in the governor's race the following year. The district is very flippable. I think Elaine Luria's chances are good.
posted by nangar at 9:27 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

"Meanwhile, Fox guest Mark Steyn suggests that people with disabilities who are "a cost on the public purse" shouldn't be able to immigrate."

A notable pro-life advocate, of course, who specifically went to the mat for baby Alfie in the UK, and rails particularly against abortion of disabled fetuses as immoral, as they have an absolute right to life. Just not a right to any decent life if it might cost anyone money. They have a right to be born, and be someone else's problem. Not Mark Steyn's. His job was done when he ensured that child was born.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:33 AM on August 8, 2018 [62 favorites]

Meanwhile, Fox guest Mark Steyn suggests that people with disabilities who are "a cost on the public purse" shouldn't be able to immigrate.

Very few people with disabilities will even want to immigrate to the U.S. given the medical care situation. Hell, I was worried about immigrating because I had some knee problems 6 or 7 years ago that I didn't seek NHS treatment for because I knew I was moving to the US and didn't want an existing condition on any kind of medical record.
posted by srboisvert at 9:36 AM on August 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

In ICE custody he lost sight in one eye

A guy had diabetes and they withheld medication. He also lost his car, his apartment and all his possessions because of the time he was in detention.

~~
It feels like so many people hate this system - people will give money to help detainees and there are a lot of stories in the mainstream press where it's obvious that the reporter is disgusted by events - but nothing is moving, nothing is changing. It feels like that Bjork film, Dancer In The Dark, where everyone is as nice as possible as they help this poor woman to her unjust execution.

~~
I am doing this court observation project locally.

It seems like no one gets bond. I've seen one guy get bond. (If you're in detention, they assess whether you're a "flight risk" and set bond based on that, also on whether you are a "danger to the community").

DUIs seem like a big thing - if you've had a DUI at all recently, they won't give you bond. Something like 1/6 of US citizen Minnesotan drivers have had a DUI (which is bad and terrifying - for pete's sake, don't fucking drink if you have to drive, signed, A Bicyclist) but at the same time, those people aren't held in jail without bond, but with undocumented people it pretty much means that you are too much of a danger to be bonded out, so you sit in detention.

And eeeeeeeverybody's considered a "flight risk". Family? Children? Job? Too bad, you're still a flight risk and have to sit in jail. At ruinous expense to the state, too.

This whole system is so fucking stupid - for one thing, if we got rid of ICE and radically relaxed immigration and border procedure, we could spend all that money on schools and libraries and roads and Medicaid and so on. People get attached to the prison system because they think it means jobs, but we could use that money to create jobs that people actually want. Who wants to be a prison guard if you could be a forester or a tutor or a patient advocate instead?
posted by Frowner at 9:38 AM on August 8, 2018 [76 favorites]

MI-13 is probably the most interesting outstanding race there, which may send the first Muslim woman to Congress.
...
posted by Chrysostom at 9:42 PM on August 7 [7 favorites +] [!]

Ilhan Omar, in Minnesota, also, too, although she still has to win the primary next Tuesday.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:39 AM on August 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Who wants to be a prison guard if you could be a forester or a tutor or a patient advocate instead?

Sadists.

——

The House map is very broad for Democrats. And Trump is the reason why.
(Greg Sargent | WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 9:42 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, there are several Muslim women running.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:43 AM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Popehat also seems bemused at people being shocked at Ellis' behavior. Apparently federal judges are just big assholes?

Just a reminder that federal courts are wide open to the public. You can just waltz in and out in the middle of a court session at your leisure any time you like and sit in the visitors gallery at the back. Just go up to the door and if it opens, just walk in and quietly walk to the visitors seats. Generally you will find that there is nobody else there except for occasionally an elderly retired couple who have nothing better to do with their time, because most cases are quite boring. Everyone should do this at least once just to see how it works.
posted by JackFlash at 9:44 AM on August 8, 2018 [22 favorites]

Latest male/female numbers:

Update: so far in 2018 Dem House primaries featuring one man, one woman & no incumbent on ballot, a woman has won 83/121 times (69%). On GOP side, just 12/35 times (34%).

posted by Chrysostom at 9:45 AM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Family? Children? Job? Too bad, you're still a flight risk and have to sit in jail.

This is the part that really chaps my ass. Where are they going to run off to? The country from which they were so desperate to leave, they came here without papers? Bullshit.

Who wants to be a prison guard if you could be a forester or a tutor or a patient advocate instead?

power-tripping racists?
posted by Old Kentucky Shark at 9:45 AM on August 8, 2018 [20 favorites]

Re the "distraction" issue, I think there's a big difference between the question whether trump wants one of his rants to distract, and the question of whether the substance of his rant is "a distraction" We don't want to let trump get away with controlling the news cycle, but we also need to address his horrible racism, transphobia, etc. In the spirit of porque no los dos, here's how I wish the press would handle it:

When Trump comes out of left field with a racist, sexist, etc rant on twitter, I wish the press would (1) call it out for what it is, point out relevant evidence of hypocrisy or contrasting examples of treating a similarly-situated white man differently, etc. Then (2) note that Trump has a history and practice of tweeting outrageous things when there's bad news that he'd like to keep out of the news cycle. Then (3) provide analysis of the top 2 or 3 news items Trump may be trying to avoid.

This approach would have a couple benefits:
- it would treat Trump's racism and sexism and transphobia as real issues that need to be addressed
- every evil rant would cause two or three stories in the news cycle that trump wishes weren't there. If that deters his rants (it won't, but it balances out the rhetorical device I'm using), great. If not, we at least deprive him of (some) control over what gets covered that day.
posted by mabelstreet at 9:50 AM on August 8, 2018 [13 favorites]

Georgia defends voting system despite 243-percent turnout in one precinct.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:52 AM on August 8, 2018 [42 favorites]

In response to a comment request from CNN, Stewart released the following statement: "Unlike Wimpy Tim Kaine, Virginians have a warrior spirit and a rebel heart."

Fun fact: both Kaine and Stewart are from Minnesota.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:53 AM on August 8, 2018 [24 favorites]

Meanwhile, Fox guest Mark Steyn suggests that people with disabilities who are "a cost on the public purse" shouldn't be able to immigrate.

I should know better than to think anyone is beyond the pale for Fox, but I would have thought noted Islamophobe, serial grifter and all-around nonentity Mark Steyn would be a bridge too far even for them. Duly noted, then.

What's particularly chilling about this is that his language so perfectly echoes the Nazi-era legal language about lebensunwertes Leben, "life unworthy of life," leading directly to the mass murder of people so designated. Whether his invocation of these categories is meant as a conscious evocation/dogwhistle or arises organically from the disordered sump of his own mind is left as an exercise for the reader.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:57 AM on August 8, 2018 [28 favorites]

Everyone should do this at least once just to see how it works.

I actually did this yesterday at the local county courthouse for various reasons, and hilariously the first 90 minutes of the day were the ADA, lawyers, and court officials all Officially Handling Scheduling Conflicts.

(The case I was interested in happened a good 2 hours after it was officially scheduled. Turns out everything is scheduled for the beginning of the day, the judge rolls in 30 minutes after that, and then it's first come, first serve. I have a flexible schedule at work and could pop in late, but I was struck by how much this must suck for people who are legally required to be at court and don't have the flexible work situation I enjoy)
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:01 AM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Virginians, we think for ourselves

Never mentioned by white supremacist Lost Cause (but I repeat myself) types: most of northern VA voted against secession and an enormous chunk of the state left the Confederacy and joined the Union midway through the war.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:02 AM on August 8, 2018 [41 favorites]

I should know better than to think anyone is beyond the pale for Fox, but I would have thought noted Islamophobe, serial grifter and all-around nonentity Mark Steyn would be a bridge too far even for them. Duly noted, then.

Mark Steyn is also the creator of Feline Groovy: Songs for Swingin' Cats and let this be the last time he's ever mentioned here.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:06 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Just go up to the door and if it opens, just walk in and quietly walk to the visitors seats.

And Pro-Tip from the lawyer in the hallway who helped me figure out where to go: In our county courthouse, you can tell if the deadbolt is locked on the courtoom doors by eyeing the slight crack between the two doors. No need to actually yank on the door!

Your Federal Courthouse Entryway May Vary.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:08 AM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

On Fox News today: "How in the world could [Trump] ever cooperate & sit down with Mueller for an interview, knowing that if you tell one lie to Bob Mueller, he will move to file charges." (Twitter video)
posted by J.K. Seazer at 10:08 AM on August 8, 2018 [25 favorites]

Collins is pulled off of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:09 AM on August 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Mark Steyn is also the creator of Feline Groovy: Songs for Swingin' Cats and let this be the last time he's ever mentioned here.

Verily, even the worst person has something endearing about them, if still very fucking far from redemptive.

Can anyone say what happens if Colyer doesn't call for a recount, BTW? Does a ~190-vote margin stand?
posted by adamgreenfield at 10:12 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

God, it had been so long since I even thought about Mark Steyn. I guess once he stopped writing for the National Post he fell off my radar and I had mentally filed him under Racist Formerly Somewhat Prominent Nonentities (see also: Derbyshire, John).
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:14 AM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Very few people with disabilities will even want to immigrate to the U.S. given the medical care situation. Hell, I was worried about immigrating because I had some knee problems 6 or 7 years ago that I didn't seek NHS treatment for because I knew I was moving to the US and didn't want an existing condition on any kind of medical record.

The sexton at my church immigrated here from Chile 30 years ago, because his son had multiple disabilities, including seizures and cognitive function. Here, he got to go to school and now goes to an adult day program. I suspect some other countries are not as kind to that population.
posted by Melismata at 10:15 AM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Can anyone say what happens if Colyer doesn't call for a recount, BTW? Does a ~190-vote margin stand?

First we've got three days to resolve any provisional ballots and count late absentees. In other words, we don't know if it's 190 yet.

At that point, either candidate can request a recount. Registered voters can also request one (I believe this would just be a recount in their precinct, though). There is not a mandatory recount.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:16 AM on August 8, 2018

> On Fox News today: "How in the world could [Trump] ever cooperate & sit down with Mueller for an interview, knowing that if you tell one lie to Bob Mueller, he will move to file charges." (Twitter video)

Ah, yes, the ol' "perjury trap" "defense":

A “perjury trap” would be a special legal term just created for people whose acquaintance with the truth can’t even be described as “nodding.” Everyone, from Trump’s pals to his attorneys, is concerned that Mueller might do something extremely tricky. Like ask Trump questions and write down his answers. That’s why they’re now desperately looking for a way that Trump can testify, without actually testifying in the sense of what happens with every other human being.

Mr. Trump’s legal team is weighing options that include providing written answers to Mr. Mueller’s questions and having the president give limited face-to-face testimony, another person familiar with the matter said. “Everything is on the table,” this person said.

Everything. Except telling the truth.

posted by tonycpsu at 10:17 AM on August 8, 2018 [45 favorites]

"[Viriginia is] the state of Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, and J.E.B. Stuart"

Virginia is also the state of General George Thomas, who unlike the traitor Lee was faithful to the United States. "The Rock of Chicamauga," he was one of the most successful American Generals in the war against the slavers.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:23 AM on August 8, 2018 [34 favorites]

Frowner: "Who wants to be a prison guard if you could be a forester or a tutor or a patient advocate instead?"

To be fair most people are aware the face eating leopard party will fund jails and not schools, trees or nurses. If that is the party that is governing your area a decrease in jail jobs will not lead to an increase in desirable jobs (or any jobs at all really)
posted by Mitheral at 10:26 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mr. Trump’s legal team is weighing options that include providing written answers to Mr. Mueller’s questions

The old take-home exam gambit -- although I doubt Trump will find the answers on Wikipedia.
posted by JackFlash at 10:27 AM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

"[Viriginia is] the state of Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, and J.E.B. Stuart"

Virginia is also, also, the home state of Gen. Winfield Scott, commanding general of the US Army (for 20 years) in 1861, and originator of the Anaconda Plan, who understood the necessity of the naval blockade, training soldiers, and the Western Theater to the success of the war effort.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:34 AM on August 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

@nbcnews
NEW: Sen. Paul says he delivered "a letter from President Trump to President Vladimir Putin’s administration" during visit to Russia that emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, legislative dialogue and cultural exchanges.

Now the White House is walking this back in a statement, per the Daily Beast's Sam Stein (@samstein):
"At Senator Paul’s request, President Trump provided a letter of introduction. In the letter, the President mentioned topics of interest that Senator Paul wanted to discuss with President Putin"

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has slipped some docs to Politico: Leaked Document: Putin Lobbied Trump On Arms Control—A list of issues he shared with Trump in Helsinki suggests Russia wants to continue traditional nuclear talks with the U.S. — but doesn't answer all questions about their meeting.

Vladimir Putin presented President Donald Trump with a series of requests during their private meeting in Helsinki last month, including new talks on controlling nuclear arms and prohibiting weapons in space, according to a Russian document obtained by POLITICO.

A page of proposed topics for negotiation, not previously made public, offers new insights into the substance of the July 16 dialogue that even Trump's top advisers have said they were not privy to at the time. Putin shared the contents of the document with Trump during their two-hour conversation, according to a U.S. government adviser who provided an English-language translation.

POLITICO also reviewed a Russian-language version of the document, which bore the header in Cyrillic “Dialogue on the Issue of Arms Control." The person who provided the document to POLITICO obtained it from Russian officials who described it as what Putin had conveyed to Trump in Helsinki.

The White House declined to comment on the document Tuesday, aside from denying that Trump had received any actual paperwork.

At the very least, this is a limited hangout from Putin, portraying the two-hour meeting as concerned with the most reasonable, dovish topics. We'll see, perhaps, if it's modified.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:37 AM on August 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

A trio of articles from NPR yesterday, Aug. 7, 2018:

Judge: App User Accused In Planning Charlottesville Rally Can't Keep Identity Hidden

A federal judge in California has ruled that a confidential messaging app must release the identity of a user who is accused of helping plan violence at a white nationalist rally last year in Charlottesville, Va.

The unnamed woman is one of dozens of people accused of using the gamer chat app Discord to organize violence at that event. Lawyers representing victims of that violence have subpoenaed the app for more information on those conversations. But the woman, known as "Jane Doe" in the court case and "kristall.night" on the app, attempted to quash the subpoena.

Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero of the Northern District of California has allowed the subpoena to move forward, ruling that the user's right to anonymity is outweighed by the importance of investigating a possible violent conspiracy. But the real name of the user should be revealed only to a small circle of people involved in the court case, Spero said.

Doe's lawyer, Marc Randazza, tells NPR that it will be his client's decision whether to appeal but that he is inclined to recommend it.

"I don't like what my client had to say," he says. "I don't like my client's views. All you've gotta do is look at the username. ... But I have a more strong opinion that you have the right to do that. You have the right to be extremely right-wing. That's what America is. You have the right to be a raging full-throated Nazi if you want to be."

"Somebody has to stand up and say they have the right to do this," he says.

Germans don't agree, for some odd reason. And I think there's a very large difference between spouting Nazi propaganda and planning violence.

What Is And Isn't Permissible In The World Of Campaign Opposition Research

With more explanations from the Trump administration about a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer, NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with attorney Bob Bauer about what is and isn't permissible in the world of campaign opposition research.
...
CHANG: OK, but what if the value is debatable? And I'm asking that in the context of this June 2016 meeting. What if any information that was procured about the other side wasn't that useful?

BAUER: It's certainly conceivable that in that meeting what the Russians originally had to offer wasn't interesting, but the Americans made it very clear that if they had something better than that, they'd be open to that, right? So that would constitute a solicitation.

CHANG: Because solicitation is the operative word there. Even if you didn't get something of value, you tried to get something of value. You solicited for something of value. That would run afoul of this law.

BAUER: Yes, and you would have to take a look at also not only what was solicited at that meeting, but then, of course, there's this whole question of a course of conduct over time - various points of contact between the Trump campaign and the Russians that indicated an ongoing openness on the part of the Trump campaign to have whatever support the Russians could provide, so maybe solicitation wouldn't only be an issue for that one meeting, but over the course of these multiple contacts that took place over time, beginning I think even as early as April of 2016.

CHANG: OK. So based on what we know, who might be facing legal jeopardy based on this particular law?

BAUER: Well, taking the Trump campaign as a whole, you have potential liability for the Trump presidential campaign as an entity. Then you have senior campaign officials, and then keep in mind that the president's former lawyer and friend Michael Cohen is apparently prepared to testify that the president knew of and consented to this meeting with the Russians. So the president is personally exposed in the event that that's what the facts show.

Some States Say Federal Grants Aren't Enough To Secure Voting Systems

States across the country are in the process of receiving grants from the federal government to secure their voting systems. But local election officials worry the money won't be enough to make systems safer for the next election.

In which it's stated that Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Round II will provide a mere $380 million in grants to secure systems, compared to $3 billion in 2002, which means states have to identify the biggest holes to fill, but they might not even see that money in time to improve voting security ahead of the 2018 elections.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:45 AM on August 8, 2018 [25 favorites]

But the woman, known as "Jane Doe" in the court case and "kristall.night" on the app, attempted to quash the subpoena.

Pro-tip: if you're going to be suspected of planning fascist-regime-sanctioned terrorism, don't choose a Kristallnacht reference for your username.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:51 AM on August 8, 2018 [64 favorites]

Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Round II will provide a mere $380 million in grants to secure systems, compared to $3 billion in 2002

Paper ballots, counted by hand. Distribute the rest to the public evenly.
posted by petebest at 11:02 AM on August 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

The “perjury trap” thing seems to be a rare instance of a Trump rebranding working against him for once. As I understand it, a perjury trap is supposed to mean a situation where the investigator knows they can't prove that the target of their investigation committed substantive crimes, so in order to come away with some kind of a conviction they get the person under oath, ask about bad/shady conduct they already know about, and record every face-saving lie as evidence for charges of perjury (or just lying to investigators if no under oath).

Trump's team has managed to throw out the entire “can't prove an underlying crime” part of this scenario (since he keeps admitting to crimes) and focused instead on the fact that the President is a compulsive liar, which seems like bad PR compared with what they were originally going for.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:06 AM on August 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

From the Washington Post's live updates: Paul Manafort Trial Day 7: Gates finishes, judge dings prosecutors (again), accountant takes stand

12:31 p.m.: Judge again spars with prosecutors[...]

In arguing that he should be allowed to use the charts, prosecutor Greg Andres said [FBI forensic accountant Morgan Magionos] had done a great deal of work to put them to together.

“Look, it isn’t relevant that she spent her life doing it,” Ellis remarked, drawing laughter from those in the court.

“We need to find a way to focus sharply,” the judge continued.

The exchange grew somewhat more heated.

“We’ve been focused sharply for a long time,” Andres said.[...]

Ellis ultimately agreed to let Andres question Magionos, though he warned that Andres would be on a short leash and that Ellis would consider objections from the defense at his bench as the testimony proceeded.

“Judges should be patient. They made a mistake when they confirmed me,” Ellis quipped.

Magionos's testimony sounds the alarm for money-laundering like a klaxon.

12:53 p.m.: Forensic accountant takes stand to track Manafort’s money

Magionos, a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner, reviewed documents and statements from banks in Cyprus, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Britain to analyze Manafort’s overseas financial activity.

Magionos found 31 foreign bank accounts spanning 2010 to 2014 that listed Manafort, Rick Gates or Konstantin Kilimnik as the beneficial owners.

Magionos said she connected the overseas bank accounts to Manafort in part because pictures of his passport were included in the account opening applications.

Those accounts were closed in 2013, Magionos testified.

Court broke for lunch until 1:35, with Ellis again urging prosecutor Greg Andres to move the questioning along as quickly as possible. Andres estimated that he had another hour but would do his best.

"Forensic accountant" is one of the most bone-chilling terms in law enforcement.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:09 AM on August 8, 2018 [36 favorites]

Paper ballots, counted by hand. Distribute the rest to the public evenly.

By whose hand? Where are they tabulated? Also paper all the way up? How many times is each ballot counted (is there a back-up)?

That doesn't sound like a particularly inexpensive solution.
posted by mosst at 11:10 AM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Speaking of alternatives to Trump back in 2016, let’s not forget Tim Pawlenty who was seen as a contender for about a week. After destroying the Minnesota economy as governor and failing to become president he left the state to become a lobbyist for the banking industry. Now he’s back in Minnesota and running in the primariy next week against Jeff “I hate refugees” Johnson. Apparently he wants to have another go at ruining the economy. They are currently neck-and-neck in the who can love Trump more competition. The best people.
posted by misterpatrick at 11:11 AM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

At the very least, this is a limited hangout from Putin, portraying the two-hour meeting as concerned with the most reasonable, dovish topics. We'll see, perhaps, if it's modified.

Just like a business owner keeping two sets of books, this is the good readout meant to keep the facade going. What actually happened is strictly between Trump and the recording device in Putin's jacket.
posted by PenDevil at 11:17 AM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Regarding Kristal.Night and her lawyer's statement:

"I don't like what my client had to say," he says. "I don't like my client's views. All you've gotta do is look at the username. ... But I have a more strong opinion that you have the right to do that. You have the right to be extremely right-wing. That's what America is. You have the right to be a raging full-throated Nazi if you want to be."

Fully agree, lawyer dude, and she was allowed to express her despicable opinions, but having your identity revealed for the purposes of a lawsuit for inciting violence is not the same as being denied the ability to express your opinion. Your arm, my face, doncha know.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:17 AM on August 8, 2018 [44 favorites]

but the Americans made it very clear that if they had something better than that, they'd be open to that, right?

Not just the Americans in the meeting...

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Pretty obvious ask right there.
posted by chris24 at 11:18 AM on August 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

My Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO-5) is one of the Congressmen who bought stock in the same company as Collins. Members of a Facebook group in Colorado Springs dedicated to Doug not getting re-elected are all talking about it, but none of us are sure if there's really anything there. We're still putting pressure on local news to cover the story and investigate further. It would be kind of amazing if this winds up being bad for Doug and boosts his remarkable Democratic challenger Stephany Rose Spaulding.
posted by danielleh at 11:27 AM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

"Just a reminder that federal courts are wide open to the public. You can just waltz in and out in the middle of a court session at your leisure any time you like and sit in the visitors gallery at the back. "

I observed (part of) a major terrorism trial (it was eventually pled out). There were like 3 rows of press and two courtroom artists (unusual! that's a lot!), but the rest of the visitors' gallery was only about half full, and seriously half of those were students of mine b/c I was giving extra credit for students who went and observed some of the process.

And yeah, federal judges are quite often jerks. They're also, on average, much better judges than state court judges, who are more deferential to attorneys because state court judges often do not know the law and rely on the attorneys' briefs a heck of a lot more than federal judges do. I think most people's experience with judges is with state trial court judges, who are either elected or appointed through a fairly old-boys network, both of which select for a different skill set than federal appointments. (And since you need judges in every county, even the ones with 2400 people in them, sometimes the skill set selected for is "one of six people with a JD in the whole county.") Federal judges are generally a lot more aggressive than state court judges in keeping cases moving, calling lawyers on bullshit, and similar. I once had a state trial court judge continue my case for TWO SOLID YEARS because he'd never done a judicial declaration of death before and basically didn't want to, so every time we had a hearing he'd send me out to collect more witness statements, etc., until at the two-year mark the courtroom assignments were all shuffled (they shuffle every 24 months in that court) and he was moved to traffic court, apparently to his vast relief. (The new family court judge took one look at my petition, asked why it had taken two years, and approved it on the spot.)

Another instructive piece of entertainment is to listen to appellate arguments for the federal appellate circuits. Those guys are assholes, man. Smart assholes! But assholes.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:40 AM on August 8, 2018 [39 favorites]

Politico, Annie Karni, Trump rants behind closed doors with CEOs

At one point during the dinner, Trump noted of an unnamed country that the attendee said was clearly China, “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy.”
...
Over dessert — a “signature Trump cookie,” served with Tahitian vanilla ice cream and chocolate and caramel sauces — Trump entertained questions from the executives, many of whom pressed him on immigration policy.

The business world, which wants the administration to soften its hard immigration policies, was told, at least on Tuesday night, exactly what it wanted to hear.

Twice during the dinner, Trump yelled over to Chris Liddell, a deputy chief of staff in attendance, and told him to prepare an executive order for Monday that would allow top performers in schools, who he called “first in their class,” to stay in the country for at least five years on a visa, the attendee said.

Love to make policy by randomly shouting orders in the middle of dinner with corporate executives without regard to whether they make sense. Presumably Stephen Miller will undo this when he gets wind of it.

Also, @ddale8: Unrelatedly, Trump bragged to his Ohio rally that Gorsuch was “number one in his class, Harvard Law School.” Harvard Law School tells me that is false.
posted by zachlipton at 12:05 PM on August 8, 2018 [35 favorites]

"Forensic accountant" is one of the most bone-chilling terms in law enforcement.

I have a friend who is a forensic accountant. She is also a hockey player. I'm not sure which is more badass and intimidating.
posted by Foosnark at 12:07 PM on August 8, 2018 [23 favorites]

Can anyone say what happens if Colyer doesn't call for a recount, BTW? Does a ~190-vote margin stand?

So the interesting thing is that Kobach is in charge of his own recount and he won't recuse himself. The actual ballot counting happens at the county level, so he says there's no problem, but state law requires a bond to be paid for a recount, and guess who gets to set the price: Kobach.

There were over 6,000 provisional ballots in 2014, so getting the provisionals and mail-in ballots counted first could be revealing as to where we are.
posted by zachlipton at 12:29 PM on August 8, 2018 [22 favorites]

Paper ballots, counted by hand. Distribute the rest to the public evenly.

By whose hand? Where are they tabulated? Also paper all the way up? How many times is each ballot counted (is there a back-up)?

That doesn't sound like a particularly inexpensive solution.

Here's how Canada does it:
1. Each polling station is staffed by two trained workers: a poll clerk who verifies voters' identities and a Deputy Returning Officer (DRO) who is responsible for ballots. They are paid $220 and $250 respectively for the (long) day's work, plus about $100 for training. Polling stations average about 400 potential voters and 250 actual voters.
2. When polls open, the DRO inspects the empty ballot box and seals it (except for the top slot)
3. DROs are provided blank ballots. They inspect them, initial the back of each one, and fold them when they hand them to voters.
4. Voters vote and refold their marked ballots. The DRO verifies that their initials are on the returned ballot and the voter puts it in the ballot box.
5. At the close of polls, the DRO opens and empties the ballot box and counts the ballots by hand. This is witnessed by volunteer scrutineers from the political parties. Some math is done to verify that total votes match total ballots handed out. DROs tally the results on a paper form and party scrutineers sign it. Results can be phoned in to the district riding office.
6. Ballots are all put back in the box and it is totally sealed. The box and the tally form are delivered to the district office for archiving. Everything is kept for at least a year.
posted by rocket88 at 12:36 PM on August 8, 2018 [34 favorites]

> Here's how Canada does it: [...]

The typical objection is that in US elections there are very many things up for a vote - initiatives, sheriff, dog-catcher ... That makes it harder to count by hand, although by no means is it impossible.

The key item for voting reform is to separate the vote preparation (use a touchscreen, bubble sheet, whatever) from the vote counting, with an intermediate stage that can be archived and later counted by hand, if need be.

Add a mandatory hand-recount of 1% of the votes and that would be it for my wish list.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:43 PM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

One issue is that many US elections have really long ballots (looking at you, California). My primary ballot had 32 contests, the longest of which (Governor) had about 30 candidates. The general ballot will be even longer. It's not practical to accurately count that many contests by hand, and it certainly isn't quick. Some kind of machine tabulation of paper ballots is a practical necessity unless we're going to reduce all elections down to just a handful of small races. California also does a 1% hand count for randomly selected precincts during the canvass as an audit measure, which helps ensure the machines are accurate.

Nor is election security as simple as paper ballots. The entire infrastructure around the election is at risk too, particularly voter registration. Just reducing it to paper ballots ignores the rest of the potential threats.
posted by zachlipton at 12:48 PM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

XKCD on Voting Systems
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:53 PM on August 8, 2018 [40 favorites]

This is absolute book promotion stuff from an unreliable narrator. Beast, Omarosa Secretly Recorded Trump—And Played the Audio for People, Sources Say

Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation tell The Daily Beast that Omarosa Manigault-Newman, the infamous former Apprentice star who followed Trump to the White House, secretly recorded conversations with the president—conversations she has since leveraged while shopping her forthcoming “tell-all” book, bluntly titled UNHINGED.

For months, it has been rumored that Manigault had clandestinely recorded on her smartphone “tapes” of unspecified private discussions she had in the West Wing. Audio actually does exist, and even stars Manigault’s former boss.

One person confirmed to The Daily Beast they had heard at least one of her recordings featuring President Trump. Multiple sources familiar with the so-called “Omarosa tapes” described the recorded conversations between Trump and Manigault as anodyne, everyday chatter, but said they did appear to feature Trump’s voice, either over the phone or in-person.
...
The reality TV star-turned White House official-turned reality TV star again promises the book will provide a candid and revealing look at her time inside the Trump administration. Part of the book documents what she describes as Trump’s “mental decline.” The president, she claims, “rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next.”

She also takes the time to attack various people she accused of leaking, with apparently no sense of irony. It turns out that if you hire someone who appears on TV Guide's list of "The 60 Nastiest TV Villains of All Time," she might just secretly record you even if she winds up with nothing of substance.
posted by zachlipton at 12:54 PM on August 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

I should add that the latest Ontario provincial election used automated scanners to tabulate ballots. This sped up the process and could be used for longer multiple-item ballots. The paper ballots are still retained in a box and can be inspected and counted by hand if any of the scrutineers dispute the machine's results.
posted by rocket88 at 12:57 PM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

The president, she claims, “rambled. He spoke gibberish. He contradicted himself from one sentence to the next.”

We don't need secret tapes or a tell-all book to see this. We're all seeing it. We have non-secret video. Some reporters are reporting it. They aren't so much "claims" as "documented occurrences". It's just that no one who can put any checks and balances into motion are willing to do so.
posted by mikepop at 1:04 PM on August 8, 2018 [47 favorites]

That doesn't sound like a particularly inexpensive solution.

Maybe if we could restrict ourselves to a single overseas war, or make two or three billionaires buy their own stadiums for their own sports team, or tax people just a little bit more when they have literally more money than their grandchildren will be able to spend.

Nah, that's crazy talk. Democracy should be cheap as hell. Freedom, after all, is famously free.
posted by Etrigan at 1:10 PM on August 8, 2018 [43 favorites]

> We don't need secret tapes or a tell-all book to see this. We're all seeing it. We have non-secret video. Some reporters are reporting it. They aren't so much "claims" as "documented occurrences". It's just that no one who can put any checks and balances into motion are willing to do so.

Likewise on collusion, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.

Did the Trump campaign solicit something of value from a foreign source? “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

Was there illegal coordination? "If it is what you say I love it especially later in the summer."

Was there obstruction of justice? "Regardless of [the] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. Knowing there was no good time to do it! And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, `You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.'"

Everything is just out there in the open, and it turns out that our system has no way of coping with it if the branch of government charged with oversight rolls over and plays dead.
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:13 PM on August 8, 2018 [70 favorites]

Targeted ‘Attack’ on FCC Was Just John Oliver Fans (NYMag)

For over a year, FCC chairman and “Nemesis of Net Neutrality” Ajit Pai has claimed that hackers brought down the FCC’s public comment website last year with a targeted distributed denial of service attack. It turns out the attack didn’t come from hackers at all — but instead, from a flood of commenters advocating for a free internet.

That’s according to a report released by the FCC’s Office of Inspector General yesterday. “Our investigation did not substantiate the allegations of multiple DDoS attacks alleged,” the report reads. Instead, the report attributes the influx of traffic to the FCC’s site on May 8 to an outpouring of comments after a segment about net neutrality aired on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. In addition to encouraging viewers to send comments to the FCC voicing their displeasure themselves, Oliver tweeted out the link, “gofyourself.com,” which redirected to the FCC comment page, so users could easily reach the site. The site could not handle the traffic.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:17 PM on August 8, 2018 [67 favorites]

Everything is just out there in the open, and it turns out that our system has no way of coping with it if the branch of government charged with oversight rolls over and plays dead.

We're trained to expect corruption and incompetence to happen in secret, so what's happening in public can't be corruption or incompetence.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:23 PM on August 8, 2018 [12 favorites]

The typical objection is that in US elections there are very many things up for a vote - initiatives, sheriff, dog-catcher ... That makes it harder to count by hand, although by no means is it impossible.

It may not make it impossible in a theoretical sense but I think it does so in a practical one. Hand-tallying tens of millions ballots containing hundreds of millions of line items in a single state is combating a potential source of error (cheating) by introducing a guaranteed one (widespread tabulation error). The argument could be made that the tabulation errors should be relatively random and thus not favor or disfavor any particular party or person while cheating and fraud is targetted and therefore potential fraud is more important to target than guaranteed error but on balance I don't think that argument wins.

It's not like you can't make machine-tabulated ballots have a paper audit trail which can be checked against the machine count. There's really no excuse for not doing that. We don't do it in a lot of places but that's not because those places have an excuse. They simply don't give a shit.
posted by Justinian at 1:29 PM on August 8, 2018 [13 favorites]

Maybe I should say "some" places not "a lot" of places. They do exist but my understanding is that they are relatively rare. Though it does include the entire state of Georgia IIRC.
posted by Justinian at 1:33 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

I keep hearing that Trump is in a perjury trap - he can only lie or incriminate himself .... but he does have a 3rd option, he can plead the 5th (for non 'merkins he has the constitutional right to be silent rather than incriminate himself)

Of course he's likely his own worst enemy ....
posted by mbo at 1:41 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

The key item for voting reform is to separate the vote preparation (use a touchscreen, bubble sheet, whatever)

[Incoherent anguished wailing]

Okay, that done: NO NO NO NO NO TOUCHSCREENS EVER. No medium should ever be used for recording a vote such that it cannot be 100% accurately traced backwards to verify the intent of the voter. When a voter makes a mark on a piece of paper you can always work backwards in the chain till you get to that piece of paper. Putting aside folks who require assistance[1], the voter submits a vote such that they are able to look at it and affirm that what they're handing over is what they want the vote to be.

A touchscreen is a big black box between what the person intends when they mash their finger on a screen and what the computer stores into some memory bank. Did it store the right thing? Did it flip a vote, either through malice or because some dipshit programmer (ahem) fucked up a field or because of cosmic rays or a power surge or or or or or or? NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW. Because even though the touch screens liked to give people this sense of assurance by showing a summary screen, you never know what got written into that bit of memory.

Scanners aren't perfect, and you run into the problem of people not marking things in an accurate way such that disingenuous legal bullshit can result in arguments over voter intent. But in every such case that piece of paper is the way the voter submitted it. There's still a need for good ballot design and you need processes around handling those pieces of paper. But it's reversible which no touch-screen system I have ever seen it.

You could certainly make a touch screen system that barfed out a piece of human-readable but computer-optimized paper[2] and there'd be advantages there, but at the expense of complexity for the voter and the equipment itself.

1: There's a whole mess of documentation and process around getting people assistance when they need it and at least in the municipality where I was a worker there was always the option, if someone had nobody else, to have a poll worker assist.
2: If you've mailed in a tax return in the last decade that was prepared with software you've seen something like this. It uses good machine-readable fonts and streamlines the presentation and removes instructions but if you had to you could look at it and understand what's on it.
posted by phearlez at 1:45 PM on August 8, 2018 [53 favorites]

he can plead the 5th

i doubt donald trump can voluntarily give up an opportunity to talk about donald trump
posted by murphy slaw at 1:45 PM on August 8, 2018 [39 favorites]

In case you've been looking for a reason to not drink Sam Adams, the Boston Globe reports: Boston Beer boss tells Trump tax cut plan will help company ‘kick ass’.
posted by adamg at 1:47 PM on August 8, 2018 [35 favorites]

So Twitter's CEO has taken to Sean Hannity's radio show to explain their site policies.

@oneunderscore__: .@jack just said Twitter considers "behaviors of bad faith actors who intend manipulate, divide conversation" to SEAN HANNITY, whom he is willingly talking to about good and bad faith dialogue.
posted by zachlipton at 1:49 PM on August 8, 2018 [39 favorites]

The only acceptable method of touchscreen voting is if it prints out a filled-in ballot that the voter checks for accuracy before depositing it to be scanned or hand-counted.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:50 PM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

Ack Jim Koch, why?!

Well, okay, reading the rest of TFA, that appears to have come during the Praise Trump portion of the proceedings:

After the president made introductory remarks, he asked attendees to stand and introduce themselves.

Still worthy of the side eye though.
posted by notyou at 1:52 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Using a touchscreen to print out a ballot is pretty clearly what RedOrGreen was talking about, given the "with an intermediate stage that can be archived and later counted by hand" part.
posted by Turd Ferguson at 1:55 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

>> [Incoherent anguished wailing] NO NO NO NO NO TOUCHSCREENS EVER. No medium should ever be used for recording a vote such that it cannot be 100% accurately traced backwards to verify the intent of the voter.

> The only acceptable method of touchscreen voting is if it prints out a filled-in ballot that the voter checks for accuracy before depositing it to be scanned or hand-counted.

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear - that's what I meant when I said that the (machine-prepared, if need be) vote should be archived and capable of being hand counted, independent of the regular (machine-based, if need be) vote counting. The important step is to have that intermediate product that can be checked, verified, and audited after the fact.
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:57 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

I don't trust vendors to engineer good electronic-voting systems, I don't trust election boards to select good systems from those that are available (or to run them competently), I don't trust courts to rule well in cases that involve complex computer technology, and I don't trust the average voter to understand competing claims about fucking blockchains.

Elections do not need to be disrupted. Keep it as simple and understandable as possible.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 1:57 PM on August 8, 2018 [33 favorites]

Touchscreens seem like a solution in search of a problem. I really like the way we do it in L.A. with the scantron bubbles and stuff. It's like taking the SAT except the fate of the country and possibly the world depends on it.
posted by Justinian at 1:57 PM on August 8, 2018 [24 favorites]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
RED WAVE!

11:51 AM - 8 Aug 2018

So it turns out I'm 12 because I read that and laughed my ass off.

Apparently Trump will win in 2020 by carrying the state of delusion.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 2:02 PM on August 8, 2018 [40 favorites]

@oneunderscore__: .@jack just said Twitter considers "behaviors of bad faith actors who intend manipulate, divide conversation" to SEAN HANNITY, whom he is willingly talking to about good and bad faith dialogue.

Good news. Tonight Hannity will be updating us on the latest on the liberal conspiracy to silence him regarding the Russian collusion and Seth Rich.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 2:04 PM on August 8, 2018

Twitter's CEO has taken to Sean Hannity's radio show to explain their site policies.

Cancel your subscription.
posted by banshee at 2:06 PM on August 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

It's like taking the SAT except the fate of the country and possibly the world depends on it.

I've had nightmares that started exactly like this.
posted by Archelaus at 2:08 PM on August 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

> The only acceptable method of touchscreen voting is if it prints out a filled-in ballot that the voter checks for accuracy before depositing it to be scanned or hand-counted.

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear - that's what I meant when I said that the (machine-prepared, if need be) vote should be archived and capable of being hand counted, independent of the regular (machine-based, if need be) vote counting. The important step is to have that intermediate product that can be checked, verified, and audited after the fact.

I'm not a fan even then, really. There's a reason the Office Space scene of them beating the shit out of a printer is so widely beloved; if you've managed to own a printer you don't hate you're a minority. Commercial printers a la cash registers are more reliable but really you don't want to print this onto rolled paper and you certainly don't want it on heat-reactive stuff. So now you need to deal with toner/ink and those hassles and maintenance.

All of this, even if you overcome those issues, to supposedly create something more reliable than what a human fills out. But now instead of proofing their own work you ask them to proof the machine's work. The only real payoff is having it count over and under-votes. And most of those sorts of problems are ballot design. In a sane country you'd have some federal eggheads working on this and producing best practices instructions and creating open source-type stuff for ballot design/print/scan out of 18F or whoever. And while I'm fantasizing I'll throw in my dream that the Post Office becomes our vote collecting national solutions provider along with being a public bank.
posted by phearlez at 2:08 PM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

You could certainly make a touch screen system that barfed out a piece of human-readable but computer-optimized paper[2] and there'd be advantages there, but at the expense of complexity for the voter and the equipment itself.

My precinct does this and I'm not sure how I feel about it. There's a big spool of paper inside a transparent casing that records your votes on paper that you enter on the screen.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:10 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

As Trump tweets about California fires, his administration wants to expand logging (Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times)

The federal government is moving to allow commercial logging of healthy green pine trees for the first time in decades in the Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles, a tactic the U.S. Forest Services says will reduce fire risk. It’s an idea President Trump appeared to endorse in tweets inaccurately linking wildfire to state water management.

posted by mykescipark at 2:11 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Filling out SAT-like ballots results in numerous counting and recounting issues.

Spools of paper in a machine allow someone to access individual votes because they know who voted and in what order.

HCPB (hand counted paper ballots) are notoriously insecure and bring us back to ballot box stuffing and other dirty tricks. See Robert A. Caro Means of Ascent where he documents LBJ's stolen 1948 Texas senatorial seat, using HCPBs.

My understanding is that best practices call for a touchscreen or other technology that prints out a voter-verified paper ballot, machine scanned ballots, and automatic hand counted checks on a statistically significant number of precincts.
posted by M-x shell at 2:17 PM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

If the voting system is changed from plurality to a ranking-based method, a touchscreen drag-and-drop interface (move the candidates around until they're in an order you like) might make a lot more intuitive sense than, say, expressing equivalent data by filling in bubbles.

Doktor Zed: At the very least, this is a limited hangout from Putin, portraying the two-hour meeting as concerned with the most reasonable, dovish topics. We'll see, perhaps, if it's modified

I have absolutely no idea whether Trump being even more opaque about the meeting than Putin, and hence even more suspect, is something Putin finds frustrating (as in "I'm surrounded by idiots!") or delightful.

J.K. Seazer: On Fox News today: "How in the world could [Trump] ever cooperate & sit down with Mueller for an interview, knowing that if you tell one lie to Bob Mueller, he will move to file charges." (Twitter video)

The response from another pundit in that video is dryly amusing: "He could not tell a lie -- that's always an option here"
posted by InTheYear2017 at 2:18 PM on August 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

The Sam Adams CEO: "I mean, Americans — I’m the largest American-owned brewery at 2 percent market share. We were paying 38 percent taxes and competing against people who were paying 20. And now we have a level playing field, and we’re going to kick their ass."

I don't know what he is talking about. Foreign owned beer companies operating in the U.S. like InBev and SABMiller pay the same U.S. corporate income taxes as Sam Adams. Maybe he is over-indulging on his own product.
posted by JackFlash at 2:21 PM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

NEW: Sen. Paul says he delivered "a letter from President Trump to President Vladimir Putin’s administration" during visit to Russia that emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, legislative dialogue and cultural exchanges. {emphasis added, because see below}

Russia media analyst Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) posted more updates about Rand Paul's trip:

#Russia's state media claims it obtained a draft of the latest sanctions bill, requiring the State Department to determine whether Russia merits the designation of a State Sponsor of Terror.

Russia's currency fell to a multi-month low against the U.S. dollar, as bond yields rose and stocks tumbled, after the Kommersant newspaper printed the draft of Senate bill that proposed new U.S. sanctions on state-owned banks.

Russian media published an entire draft of the bill: https://kommersant.ru/docs/2018/_201

Shareblue editor Caroline Orr (@RVAWonk) points out, "... it's still not avail. on any US govt websites. It appears *someone* leaked it. To Russia." (Currently, there isn't even a summary available to the public: S.3336 - A bill to strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to combat international cybercrime, and to impose additional sanctions with respect to the Russian Federation, and for other purposes.)

And as a reminder about how Trump likes to handle communications, in January of last year, the President-elect told reporters (in the middle of denying Russian election interference), "You know, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe."
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:23 PM on August 8, 2018 [24 favorites]

That doesn't sound like a particularly inexpensive solution.

How much did we budget for free and fair elections? We recently spent 3.5 billion on systems and at least one southern state (spoiler: it reportedly votes red) who will go nameless is still running windows xp touchscreens with tallies carried by hand on SD cards. (Additional spoiler: the person in charge of them is a racist piece of shit.)

I would remind the court that our recent misadventures in vote hacking were not related to paper and ink.
posted by petebest at 2:23 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

you know, recent days--the Manafort trial, hearing ACO speak, the election yesterday--I'm starting to hope again, and it's almost painful.
posted by angrycat at 2:27 PM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

Touchscreens seem like a solution in search of a problem.

They're both very far from critical but voting on machines has two nice properties.

(1) Every ballot is available in English. And Spanish, and Chinese, and Dine, and Vietnamese, and whatever other languages local voters might be most comfortable using.

(2) They can alert voters to over- and under-votes before committing them.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 2:34 PM on August 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Pema Levy and AJ Vicens, Mother Jones: Russians Have Penetrated Florida’s Election Systems, Senator Says

On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida offered up perhaps the most startling example yet of these efforts: that Russian operatives had gained access to the state’s election systems.

“They have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about,” Nelson told the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday. He added, “We were requested by the chairman and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee to let supervisors of election in Florida know that the Russians are in their records.” Nelson is campaigning for reelection against Florida’s current governor, Republican Rick Scott.

This is one of many indications that the Russians have not been deterred from interfering in US elections. Last month, Microsoft announced that it had intercepted efforts to penetrate the campaigns of three candidates for office this year. One of the targets was Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who is in a tough reelection battle.

posted by OnceUponATime at 2:43 PM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

That doesn't sound like a particularly inexpensive solution.

I would like to clarify my comment from above. We as a people should pay whatever is needed for a free and fair democracy. That is essential. My price comment was made in response to the previous implication that somehow hand-counted paper ballots were a cheap, straightforward, and complete solution to election security. They are none of those things.
posted by mosst at 2:49 PM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Soooo

If the Dems fail to take back the house because of lots of voter registration shenanigans in key states, and we know Russia hacked them...and then no one does anything about it...

What the duck do we do?
posted by schadenfrau at 2:51 PM on August 8, 2018 [34 favorites]

Russians Have Penetrated Florida’s Election Systems, Senator Says

We should take the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs and use them to pay for election security.
posted by jedicus at 2:53 PM on August 8, 2018 [40 favorites]

Bencjacobs:

Per a Dem source, a counting error in a Franklin County precinct will close the margin in #OH12 by 190 votes down to 1564 from 1754

posted by Chrysostom at 2:54 PM on August 8, 2018 [23 favorites]

We should take the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs and use them to pay for election security.

EXCELLENT IDEA. Or maybe election security should be handled by Anonymous.
posted by yoga at 2:55 PM on August 8, 2018

New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins to be indicted on insider trading charges - big, and early, Trump supporter.

You don't usually get actual video of someone allegedly committing insider trading, but when you commit the crime at the White House Congressional Picnic, there are a lot of cameras around, and sure enough, there's archival footage of Collins pacing around on his cell phone from the time he's accused of tipping off his son about the failed drug trial.
posted by zachlipton at 2:56 PM on August 8, 2018 [23 favorites]

If the Dems fail to take back the house because of lots of voter registration shenanigans in key states, and we know Russia hacked them...and then no one does anything about it...

What did we do when the election was stolen 18 years ago?
posted by dilaudid at 2:58 PM on August 8, 2018 [28 favorites]

That election was stolen by born and bred AMERICANS dammit. Nobody gets to steal our elections but us!
posted by Justinian at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

I get so annoyed with that comparison. The stakes were not remotely the same.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:02 PM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

The question was also about what we should do now, not what happened before. Treating helpless complacency as an inevitability is how you get helpless complacency.
posted by contraption at 3:05 PM on August 8, 2018 [33 favorites]

I would think if the Russians controlled one state's electoral technology, it would have tried to control all of them, and that they would have done this before the election. I'm still of the mind that the US lost a cyberwar in 2016, but the thought that we are now occupied by Russian forces is still kind of distressing. At the very least, the approach to election security should take this into account, that everything election-related in the US has been compromised.
posted by rhizome at 3:06 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

That election was stolen by born and bred AMERICANS dammit. Nobody gets to steal our elections but us!
Spoken like a legendary Texan.
posted by Harry Caul at 3:06 PM on August 8, 2018

If you look at the 4C climate prediction models, the largest tract of then-arable land by almost 3x the size of Canada’s tundra is Russia/Siberia. Putin is playing a long game where he wants the world destabilized, oil burned like mad, and hothouse warm so his country will have almost all of the food, thus, wealth on the planet. It’s so comic book villain I don’t want to believe it but there is nothing he is doing that counters that goal. Billions will starve, billions more be killed in mass migration extinction events, and he’s smiling that little smile.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:06 PM on August 8, 2018 [36 favorites]

The stakes were not remotely the same.

The stakes might not be the same, but there's going to be just as much circumstantial evidence and plausible deniability (see Trump's own presidential election). So, what are you going to do when what evidence there is is halfway into conspiracy theory territory and the media and mainstream politicians refuse to touch it?
posted by dilaudid at 3:10 PM on August 8, 2018

> Billions will starve, billions more be killed in mass migration extinction events, and he’s smiling that little smile.

Well, he's 65, so you can at least take a small measure of comfort in the knowledge that he almost certainly will not be around to see his supervillain plot through to its conclusion.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:13 PM on August 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

I have absolutely no idea whether Trump being even more opaque about the meeting than Putin, and hence even more suspect, is something Putin finds frustrating (as in "I'm surrounded by idiots!") or delightful.

The latter, no doubt. Probably the most frustrating part of the meeting for Putin was keeping Trump's gnat-like attention focused (small wonder it ran over its scheduled time to two hours). As for Trump, Putin has paralyzed him. Whatever krompromat he may have had on Trump prior to 2016, he now has "receipts" for all their collusion during the election campaign, which he can hold over Trump's head or release at any time (in preferred modified limited hangouts, of course). He can public characterize the Helsinki meeting exactly as he pleases, whether publicly himself, via government spox or state media, or through leaks like the one to Politico, all the while secure in the knowledge that Trump will never, ever dare to contradict him.

Marcy Wheeler argues that Trump's uncertainty whether Mueller knows what Putin has on him is what's holding him back from taking action, one way or another:

Trump knows that if Mueller can present those receipts, he’s sunk, unless he so discredits the Mueller investigation before that time as to convince voters not to give Democrats a majority in Congress, and convince Congress not to oust him as the sell-out to the country those receipts show him to be. He also knows that, on the off-chance Mueller hasn’t figured this all out yet, Putin can at any time make those receipts plain. Therein lies Trump’s uncertainty: It’s not that he has any doubt what Putin has on him. It’s that he’s not sure which path before him — placating Putin, even if it provides more evidence he’s paying off his campaign debt, or trying to end the Mueller inquiry before repaying that campaign debt, at the risk of Putin losing patience with him — holds more risk.

Trump knows he’s screwed. He’s just not sure whether Putin or Mueller presents the bigger threat.

Incidentally, CNN's Manu Raju (@mkraju) has posted an image of Paul's introductory letter, in which Trump calls him "a voice for expanding dialogue with the Russian Federation": "Text of letter from Trump asking Putin to meet with Rand Paul and topics they want to discuss, per ⁦@Kevinliptakcnn⁩. No mention of election interference. Trump and Paul discussed this letter and his Russia trip multiple times before he left, I’m told"
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:15 PM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

If you look at the 4C climate prediction models, the largest tract of then-arable land by almost 3x the size of Canada’s tundra is Russia/Siberia.

In a nice linear progression model, maybe. But climate doesn't work like that, and hey, neither does human culture. I don't want to predict what it looks like in the lobe of phase space a 4-degree C global increase kicks us into, but I doubt very much it's Breadbasket Vorkuta.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:16 PM on August 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

So, what are you going to do when what evidence there is is halfway into conspiracy theory territory and the media and mainstream politicians refuse to touch it?

This is a better question. What can we do ahead of time to help ensure that good evidence is collected, and that the people who can do something about it take it seriously? Obviously our first line of defense needs to be an overwhelmingly strong D turnout such that irregularities big enough to swing control of Congress are glaringly obvious, but we probably should be considering any other concrete steps that can be taken to help expose tampering and force politicians to respond to it.
posted by contraption at 3:18 PM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

I've been reading a lot of climate change stuff in the last few weeks and haven't posted it on Metafilter so as to keep my depression to myself, but I think 4C is dreaming. We're all aboard the express train to 7-9C armageddon.
posted by Justinian at 3:19 PM on August 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

I don't want to predict what it looks like in the lobe of phase space a 4-degree C global increase kicks us into, but I doubt very much it's Breadbasket Vorkuta.

Melted tundra doesn't make for nice arable soil: tundra and most boreal/subarctic Siberian (and Canadian) soils are shallow, rocky, acidic, and poorly-structured. We'll be able to grow food in it but not nearly as productively or easily as it is(/once was) in breadbaskets. Even in a Russia-as-King-Turd-of-Shit-Mountain climate change scenario Russia isn't a pleasant and fertile place, and billions of desperate refugees trying to get into a country of a couple hundred million tops doesn't make the "bake your part of the world a little less than the rest" strategy a brilliant one. I don't think Putin's brilliant.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:31 PM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

I get that the large number of elected officials makes hand counting awkward and ballots enormous. Obvious solution: multiple ballots, e g , yellow ones for federal office, geeen for state offices, pink for county offices. Or whatever works. Make them scantron style which makes it much easier to hand verify simple ballots.

Maybe this is what’s done already but it makes sense to me.
posted by Rumple at 3:36 PM on August 8, 2018

We're all aboard the express train to 7-9C armageddon.

This ultimately has to be reckoned among the greatest sorrows of the decision, if it was that, to elect Donald Trump President of the United States of America. The fortunes of any given nation-state matter little enough in the grand sweep of history, even ones with as much promise as America had in its finest moments. But the denial of possibility that there will continue to be a history is the injury that contains all other injuries within it.

I'm not sure we ever truly had a chance to undo the damage we've done, but if there was a window in which we might have done so, it's been slammed on our fingers. How obscenely disproportionate it is to think of our species-hope down through all future time being squandered for the momentary analgesia of one tiny man's utterly banal ego-wound.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:40 PM on August 8, 2018 [81 favorites]

This ultimately has to be reckoned among the greatest sorrows of the decision, if it was that, to elect Donald Trump President of the United States of America.

Yes this is amongst the things my mind flashed forward to and froze with horror about. I mostly just blabk it out to be able to operate in a normal state. I have kids FFS.
posted by Artw at 3:45 PM on August 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

How obscenely disproportionate it is to think of our species-hope down through all future time being squandered for the momentary analgesia of one tiny man's utterly banal ego-wound.

"Children, let me tell you a tale of the before-times and how the great works of Atlantis and Camelot were undone because of Anthony Weiner's penis."
posted by Justinian at 3:46 PM on August 8, 2018 [35 favorites]

Folks, I know it's a fucked thing but maybe let's not dwell indefinitely in climate armageddon speculation in here.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:48 PM on August 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

WaPo, White House drafting sanctions order to punish foreign interference in U.S. elections

The White House is drafting an executive order that would authorize President Trump to sanction foreigners who interfere in U.S. elections, the administration’s latest effort to demonstrate it is serious about combating Russian disinformation and hacking.

The eight-page draft order, a copy of which was reviewed by The Washington Post, appears to be an effort to stave off aggressive legislation, including a bill introduced in Congress this month — and to quell criticism that Trump seems to give more credence to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials of interference than to U.S.intelligence agencies’ conclusion the Kremlin sought to undermine the 2016 election.

Trump has been under increasing pressure from his advisers to condemn Russia’s aggression, said current and former administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. His reluctance to do so is viewed internally as a liability, they said.
...
The draft order “looks much more like a cover-your-behind exercise to show the administration is doing something when it fact it doesn’t oblige them to do much of anything,” said Michael Carpenter, a former Pentagon and White House official who worked on Russia policy for the Obama administration. “The sanctions on foreign individuals for election interference are not going to dissuade anyone. To be a credible deterrent, a foreign country like Russia would need to think that sanctions would automatically go into effect if X, Y and Z happened.”
...
The draft order includes language that analysts interpreted as an effort to assuage Trump’s concerns. It includes references to apparent attempts by the Soviet Union to interfere in past U.S. elections, including to “frustrate President Nixon’s election in 1968 and President Reagan’s reelection in 1984.” Fried called those allegations debatable.

It appears “this was put in to make this executive order palatable to Trump by not singling out Russia in 2016,” said Peter Harrell, a former State Department sanctions official who is now an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

The draft notes that “there has been no evidence of a foreign power altering a single vote in a United States election,” echoing another of Trump’s repeated assertions about the 2016 election.

Ah good, more meaningless busywork.
posted by zachlipton at 3:53 PM on August 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

AP News passes along some leaks from Donald Jr.'s patch of Trumpland: Like Father, Like Son: Trump Jr. Defiant About Russia Probe

Republicans say Trump Jr. shows few signs of being rattled by the attention. He is not talking much privately about the investigation and tends to dismiss the scrutiny as mere media fixation, according to a person familiar with his thinking who demanded anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump Jr.’s allies believe he’s being held to a higher standard than others and that any campaign would have taken the meeting with someone offering dirt on an opponent.

But his legal woes have not been so easily brushed off by his father.

The president has stewed over the media coverage of the federal trial of Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who has been charged with financial fraud as part of the Mueller probe. Though the trial is not connected to Russian election interference, Trump has seethed to confidants that he views the Manafort charges as “a warning shot” from Mueller. He has told those close to him that as he watches the courtroom proceedings, he fears that Donald Trump Jr. could at some point be the one on trial, according to two people familiar with his thinking but not authorized to discuss private conversations.

Meanwhile, Trump's "wonderful" son has been stumping for mid-term GOP Trumpists in West Virginia, Montana, Florida and Kansas, and he plans to do more in Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota in the coming weeks.

I'm so old I can remember the days when Donald Sr. said that he would avoid divestment by turning over the operation of his businesses to his sons which would eliminate political influence.
posted by JackFlash at 4:09 PM on August 8, 2018 [62 favorites]

Twitter’s stance on Infowars’ Alex Jones should be a moment of reckoning for users
(Aja Romano | Vox)

“The site has arrived at a moral crossroads — and it’s choosing the wrong path.”

Twitter is gross and only getting grosser.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:09 PM on August 8, 2018 [48 favorites]

Axios, Commerce orders NOAA to prioritize water for firefighting over endangered species

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to "facilitate access to the water" needed to fight ongoing wildfires, rather than continue to provide some of it for protecting endangered species, such as Chinook salmon.

Compare and contrast, Experts reject Trump claim that California water policies hurt firefighting

"We have plenty of water," said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "The Carr Fire is around three reservoirs. The Mendocino fires are by Clear Lake and other reservoirs. We are not having any issues with a lack of retardant or water." Asked what might have motivated Trump's comments, McLean said, "I have no idea."

The entire government is going along with his delusion that we're willingly letting the state burn down to save salmon, when that's not even how you fight wildfires.
posted by zachlipton at 4:12 PM on August 8, 2018 [34 favorites]

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to "facilitate access to the water" needed to fight ongoing wildfires, rather than continue to provide some of it for protecting endangered species, such as Chinook salmon.

It took Ross a day or so to see the tweet, I guess. #workingtowardstheführer
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:16 PM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

What can we do ahead of time to help ensure that good evidence is collected, and that the people who can do something about it take it seriously?

If I was a local election official, I would require than every precinct print out a paper registration roll now, and another as soon as registration closes (or the morning of the election if you have same day).

Obviously compare the numbers on both sets for discrepancies as soon as you download the latter one. And keep both printouts in the voting station, to double check when people are unexpectedly not on the list.
posted by msalt at 4:17 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

Twitter is gross and only getting grosser.

And it gets worse: that Vox story was probably written before Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO who is famously resistant to being interviewed by journalists about Twitter's policies and their specific impacts, went on Hannity's radio show to talk about how people who act in bad faith are terrible and hurt the platform and how Alex Jones is definitely not one of those people and to reassure Hannity that conservatives on Twitter are not being treated differently based on their tweets' "political ideology or viewpoint or content". I don't know what it would take for a conservative to be punished or banned on Twitter, but I do know they allowed Paul Nehlen to be openly anti-Semitic and to specifically target individual Jewish people for his base to harass for several months, and that Proud Boys are using the service to recruit and coordinate and call for specific acts of violence and that Twitter's response has mostly been to verify their accounts.

I value the experience I get from Twitter a lot because it has allowed me to connect with many people whose lives are not like my own. It has expanded my world view and made me aware of artists from other walks of life and distant places creating things I would never have imagined and certainly would never have known that I would love. That said, Jack Dorsey is at this point not even trying to hide the fact that he views Twitter as a valuable amplification and recruiting tool for anti-Semites and white nationalists and that those people will always receive special treatment as long as he is in charge. Something has to be done.
posted by IAmUnaware at 4:35 PM on August 8, 2018 [30 favorites]

Twitter is gross and only getting grosser.

Other smart people agree with you.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 4:54 PM on August 8, 2018 [37 favorites]

I don't participate much on twitter, but I've followed some people and movements that I might otherwise never see. Black twitter has been eye opening for me, as well as trans and other voices not often heard in my neck of the woods.

But, I think this may be time time to download my archives, and find better ways to hear unheard voices.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 5:08 PM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

A combination of twitter and Metafilter is why I have anything resembling a writing career so I can’t imagine leaving it cause ...where would I ...get ...jobs?

Also I don’t have a Facebook, if I leave twitter I basically have no idea how to casually talk to people I don’t have IRL bonds with cause no one uses gchat anymore and I don’t have thier phone numbers.
posted by The Whelk at 5:16 PM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

rocket88: "DROs are provided blank ballots"

Note that the ballots have candidate names one them, it's not a 100% write in or something.

zachlipton: "
Nor is election security as simple as paper ballots. The entire infrastructure around the election is at risk too, particularly voter registration. Just reducing it to paper ballots ignores the rest of the potential threats."

Yes, but it eliminates one huge, low hanging, attack vector.

Justinian: "It's not like you can't make machine-tabulated ballots have a paper audit trail which can be checked against the machine count. There's really no excuse for not doing that."

This. I can think of at least half a dozen ways that you can have machine tabulation and hard copy verifiable. It won't be cheap to hand count all that stuff if the machines prove to be compromised but hey, what price preventing foreign powers from deciding your politicians. The UN will even send observers if you'd like to make sure things are being done right.

Besides what do the states with 100% mail in ballots do? This is obviously a solved problem even in the USA.

zachlipton: " Asked what might have motivated Trump's comments, McLean said, "I have no idea.""

This is why I'm not a public spokesperson; I wouldn't have been able to make some wise ass remark like "The Cheeto thinks Salmon cause Forest Fires?".
posted by Mitheral at 5:20 PM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

Trump knows he’s screwed. He’s just not sure whether Putin or Mueller presents the bigger threat.

Mueller is the bigger threat, because Mueller is not open to bribes, and Mueller already has the information he needs. Trump is likely under the impression that Mueller hasn't "done anything" (and by that, I mean "done anything that affects Trump's income and holdings") because Mueller hasn't found anything solid yet. Trump wants to believe that sucking up to Putin is his best choice, because that's business sleaze that he understands.

He's oblivious to how legal cases work. Mueller almost certainly knows a ridiculous amount about the election campaign's illegal money shenanigans, the foreign influences, the graft in the Trump Foundation, and the current POTUS's tax fiascos. Trump likely believes that, if that were true, Mueller would've gone on TV and denounced him, made threats, demanded payment, or something like that. He's entirely clueless of the idea that "I know what happened" doesn't mean "that's enough to take to court;" Mueller's putting all the parts together so that someone else can follow the breadcrumbs.

It seems like, by the time he's done, it'll be less "a trail of breadcrumbs" and closer to "a river of croissants."
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:27 PM on August 8, 2018 [53 favorites]

Chris Collins decided to give a press conference about his indictment.

I love it when arrogant assholes who have it coming decide they can talk their way out of things on the national media like the AUSA actually gives a damn.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 5:30 PM on August 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

> It’s very heartening to see Prop A’s right to work bulshit go down in flames in such a conservative and republican supporting state

It's interesting how thoroughgoing the defeat was. It was defeated in 99 of Missouri's 114 counties (interactive map), including in many very, very rural and very, very conservative parts of the state.
posted by flug at 5:31 PM on August 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

And, in the case of the Salmon, it isn’t as if we are keeping them healthy for their own sake — there’s an actual, tough man Trump voting industry that thrives (well, persists) on the salmon that come back out of rivers like the Klamath. There are also treaties with local tribes that require a certain amount of flow to maintain their fishery interests.

This is so stupid and it’s clear Ross did what he did to further fan the flames of this stupid thing because look, it gets a rise out the libtards, and that helps with the President’s deplorable politics of polarization.

Feh.
posted by notyou at 5:32 PM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

The entire government is going along with his delusion that we're willingly letting the state burn down to save salmon, when that's not even how you fight wildfires.

There is the suggestion that the water thing may be a pay-off to Nunes for obstructions rendered:

@screenslaver : "What a coincidence! Wilbur Ross' nonsensical "water for firefighting" directive accomplishes exactly what a November 2016 McClatchy article says would be the easiest way for Trump to give Devin Nunes the policy he wants Trump promised California farmers more water. Can he deliver?" [linked article is from 2016]

I don't participate much on twitter, but I've followed some people and movements that I might otherwise never see. Black twitter has been eye opening for me, as well as trans and other voices not often heard in my neck of the woods.

Science Twitter can also be amazing, particularly for live, on-site type coverage.

I have been looking into trying to find/program a way to smuggle all my existing tweet history over to Mastodon (without massively bombarding anyone who follows me there) and then just use some sort of IFTT type bridging to still keep up with the good communities on Twitter. But not had the time yet to properly investigate due to having to write evil code to feed the capitalist behemoth. There is https://bridge.joinmastodon.org/ which helps you reconnect on Mastodon with anyone you are already connected to on Twitter.
posted by Buntix at 5:34 PM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

This. I can think of at least half a dozen ways that you can have machine tabulation and hard copy verifiable. It won't be cheap to hand count all that stuff if the machines prove to be compromised but hey

Right, and there's no reason to count them all regularly. An audit of random ballots for every election plus a full count of a precinct either randomly or if there is some reason to suspect problems would suffice. Random full audits of precincts is probably best practice but would cost more and with the money it costs to ensure fair democracy we could probably buy, like, one additional air to ground missile and that's not a deal we can pass up.
posted by Justinian at 5:36 PM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

There are also treaties with local tribes that require a certain amount of flow to maintain their fishery interests.

Harming Native Americans is a feature for them, not a bug.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:48 PM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

@aaronblake: BREAKING: @maddow has fundraiser audio of Nunes saying this: "If Sessions won't un-recuse and Mueller won't clear the president, we're the only ones -- which is really the danger. That's why I keep, and thank you for saying it by the way, I mean we have to keep all these seats"

This is all ultimately on Paul Ryan. He could stop this if he wanted to. This is Ryan’s legacy.
posted by zachlipton at 6:21 PM on August 8, 2018 [63 favorites]

I don't understand the implication.
posted by rhizome at 6:24 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Paul Ryan's legacy is to make sure no one gets Social Security or Medicare.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 6:28 PM on August 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

He just admitted to obstructing the Mueller investigation, and he's telling his donors they have to give money to Republicans so he can keep doing it to protect Trump from Mueller.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:28 PM on August 8, 2018 [64 favorites]

I don't understand the implication.

Effectively, if the Republicans keep the House then Articles of Impeachment don't hit the floor no matter what Mueller says. They can draw it out to the bitter 2020 end.

Sure if you find enough turncoats to sign a discharge petition you could get them through to a vote but for any who signed on it would be the end of their political career and they would get tossed out on their ass in the primary.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 6:28 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm more with TDStrange. What DNSS says about impeachment is true but I think the implication of Nunes' comment is that he and his boys need the voters to keep them on House Intelligence so that they can shut down the Mueller investigation by impeaching Rosenstein if nothing else stops him.
posted by Justinian at 6:34 PM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

They can impeach Rosenstein but there's no way he gets removed. They might do it just to give Trump cover but there's no way of removing Rosenstein short of Trump firing him.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 6:36 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

The implication is that the only way to protect Trump is to keep Congress, which is true. If Mueller finds evidence of cartoon-level treason (Wile E. Coyote with a big sack labeled E-mails), Nunes is saying it won't matter so long as the GOP stays in control. Which is also true.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:56 PM on August 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

Yeah, there's impeachment and then there's removal from office as the result of impeachment, which are two very different thresholds requiring approval from different political bodies.

Or to put it another way:

[Clippy]

You appear to be writing a comment about impeachment. Did you remember:
impeachment is a fundamentally political process and there is no set standard for "impeachable offenses"
bringing articles of impeachment is the prerogative of the House of Representatives and is roughly analogous to a prosecutor deciding to bring charges (but again, impeachment is a political process, not a criminal justice process.) The first hurdle, therefore, is that a motion must pass a vote in the house and for a vote to occur it needs to have either the approval of the Speaker of the House or else be compelled by getting enough House members to sign a discharge petition to force a vote.
if the house approves articles of impeachment, then the case is heard in a process similar to a judicial proceeding, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding and the decision rendered by the Senate, who must exceed a 2/3 threshold to successfully vote for removal from office via the impeachment process.
?

[/Clippy]
posted by Nerd of the North at 6:57 PM on August 8, 2018 [23 favorites]

It's basically Nunes on tape saying "Hey, you can't convict if there's no body, and there ain't no body so long as I get a woodchipper for Christmas"
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:03 PM on August 8, 2018 [53 favorites]

"If Sessions won't un-recuse and Mueller won't clear the president,
Nunes says that as if Mueller had a choice irrespective of the evidence. Man oh man, things feel like they're happening faster than usual today.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:11 PM on August 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

I keep hearing that Trump is in a perjury trap - he can only lie or incriminate himself .... but he does have a 3rd option, he can plead the 5th (for non 'merkins he has the constitutional right to be silent rather than incriminate himself)

posted by mbo at 1:41 PM on August 8 [1 favorite +] [!]

J.K. Seazer: On Fox News today: "How in the world could [Trump] ever cooperate & sit down with Mueller for an interview, knowing that if you tell one lie to Bob Mueller, he will move to file charges." (Twitter video)

Here, in big, bright, fiery letters is the reason his lawyers don't want Trump to testify: they're not afraid he'll lie, they're afraid he'll tell the truth. If Mueller asks him about his statements to Don Lemon or to the Russian diplomats, they're afraid he'll say, sure, he was trying to derail the investigation. It's done all the time, he'll declare.
posted by Mental Wimp at 7:14 PM on August 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

I'm just waiting for to Il Douche to declare that instead of this hippy energy-generating nonsense, California's wind turbines should be put to some good use, namely blowing the fire out.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 7:25 PM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Don't spend too much time parsing the words of Devin Nunes. He's not just evil, he's also exceedingly dumb, and a bootlicker to... um... to boot. He thinks that fealty to Trump is where the power and the money are, so he's telling the money men that he is protecting Trump in any way he can, even if it's stupid as hell.
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 PM on August 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

They have rented buses that brought in fighters in tactical gear from all over the country, and those same buses no doubt drove them all down to Berkeley for the next round. Joey Gibson, the Patriot Prayer leader, actually led a cheer for Tommy Robinson at the rally, and I guarantee you that fewer than 1% of Americans have any idea who he is.

Unfortunately, racist who leads hate rallies seems to have finished 4th in a 29-way primary for Senator, with 27,321 misguided votes.
posted by corb at 7:37 PM on August 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yes, but having him on tape admitting he's doing it knowingly is a step further, he's admitting to obstruction, admitting he's not even considering the interests of the United States as the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Before they could still make the argument, however laughable, that he's doing the job, just not how Democrats want him to. Now he's on tape saying he's not, he's only concerned about protecting Trump. This should make him guilty of obstruction, if not a member of the actual conspiracy against the United States. I doubt Mueller would pursue that, but Democrats should. Nunes is an admitted traitor to the United States, serving a traitor President. He's on tape saying so.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:39 PM on August 8, 2018 [69 favorites]

He thinks that fealty to Trump is where the power and the money are, so he's telling the money men that he is protecting Trump in any way he can, even if it's stupid as hell.

He probably shouldn't have said some Trump tweets are cringeworthy then since that'll play real well with yon feudal lord. You pop the corn, I'll pour the Dr. Pepper.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:39 PM on August 8, 2018

27,321 misguided votes.

that's still, like, way too many.
posted by The Whelk at 7:47 PM on August 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

On Aug. 8, Richard Nixon spoke to the nation, announcing his surrender in the battle of Watergate because “I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort.”

[...] Wednesday’s anniversary of the resignation will spark comparisons between today’s feckless congressional Republicans and GOP patriarchs like Barry Goldwater who forthrightly told Nixon that his Senate support had crumbled.

[...] In truth, we currently have no idea whether any 2019 impeachment drive will be based on ironclad evidence or an expansive analysis of Trump’s tweets. The reason why Nixon comparisons are premature is because no one in politics or the media knows what Robert Mueller’s investigation has discovered.

In a world with more leaks than a rotting rowboat, it is hard to get your mind around the reality that the Mueller investigation doesn’t leak. Everything that we know about his investigation comes from Paul Manafort’s trial; more than 30 other indictments and guilty pleas; reports of subpoenas by the grand jury; self-serving comments by mouthpieces like Rudy Giuliani; and Trump’s desperate, caged-man, all-caps tweets.

[...] What is clear is that many conservatives (both Republicans and Southern Democrats) were bitterly split over Nixon until the very end. And it would have been easy for reporters touring rural Mississippi or blue-collar Ohio to interview loyal voters who thought that Watergate was a “witch hunt.”

Make Stupid Watergate Again
posted by petebest at 8:01 PM on August 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

They can impeach Rosenstein but there's no way he gets removed. They might do it just to give Trump cover but there's no way of removing Rosenstein short of Trump firing him.

Fun fact. Reading the filings, Mueller isn't the one who is signing the indictments, but rather other USAttys, so firing someone in management won't stop the cases that are already in the pipeline.

Want to discuss odds on whether Mueller's had other USAttys file sealed indictments on all the other people involved, as a "canary" for the other participants in the Trump Crime Family case.
posted by mikelieman at 8:13 PM on August 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

Wingnuts Really Think They're All Going to be Thrown in Gulags Any Minute Now

Roy Edroso tweets:
Fascinated by all these free-market conservatives telling us why a private company can't choose who to keep or kick off their own website -- on behalf of ALEX JONES.
---
I mean they weren't even this excited about forcing businesses to accommodate wingnuts back when James Damore was their free-speech cover boy. It's like the worse the wingnut, the more passionate their defense of him.
---
I begin to suspect the reason the worst wingnuts excite their defenses the most is because they secretly believe the loathsome things those guys say -- and know they could never say such things themselves. So they *must* have an Alex Jones out there to say it *for* them.

I suspect that many "respectable" conservatives sincerely believe liberals are as evil as Jones says we are, and wish they could say the things Jones says about us without losing what credibility they have in the world outside their bubble. But I don't think that's the real reason they're so excited about the Jones situation.

I think they're worked up because they sincerely believe liberal fascism has come to America -- yes, even though they control all three branches of government and the majority of state governments. They think all of them will be silenced soon, if not jailed. [...]

I can still go to Facebook and see Gateway Pundit and Breitbart and Mike Cernovich and World Net Daily and the Federalist. They're all on YouTube and Twitter. They still have their own sites. In other words, they continue to have platforms. They're not even in a virtual gulag, much less a real one.

Their president is still the president. The Supreme Court of their dreams will outlive me and many of them. Alas for them, they don't own Silicon Valley -- neither does liberalism -- and it's making them crazy. They're supposed to control all the levers of power.

We got angry a decade ago when Rather and the Dixie Chicks and Phil Donahue and Eason Jordan were forced to the sidelines by star-spangled pro-Bush triumphalists. But most of us didn't think what we were living through was worse than 1984. Get a grip, righties.

posted by tonycpsu at 9:08 PM on August 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

Mueller is a pro. Does seem to have his shit together.
posted by Windopaene at 9:08 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

The next part of the Nunes quote that people are leaving out is,

We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away.

I read this to mean that the unprecedented heyday that grifters and fascists and polluters and kleptocrats and racists have been enjoying for the past 1.75 years will come to an end if Trump goes down, particularly considering how much of the GOP is wrapped up in the conspiracy. If Mueller can be stopped, they all have another 2 years, at least.
posted by Dr. Send at 9:25 PM on August 8, 2018 [35 favorites]

The entire Maddow segment with the Nunes recordings (there are four clips) is now online, delivered in her characteristically slow style (about 20 minutes). You can also find just the four clips and transcripts in this article for easier reading.

#1 is the "If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away" clip discussed above, where he's the last line to "clear the President" since Sessions and Mueller won't.

#2 is interesting, because he acknowledges on obstruction that "you've got a mixed bag on the tweets...sometimes you love the president's tweets, sometimes we cringe on the president's tweets." He says this even as he claims that "it's ridiculous to go after the president for obstruction of justice."

#3 is even more fun, because he pretty much lays out what happened and then says it's criminal:

“Now if somebody thinks that my campaign or Cathy’s campaign is colluding with the Chinese, or you name the country, hey, could happen, it would be a very bad thing if Cathy was getting secrets from the Portuguese, let’s say, just because I’m Portuguese, my family was. So Cathy was getting secret information from the Portuguese. You know, may or may not be unusual. But ultimately let’s say the Portuguese came and brought her some stolen emails. And she decided to release those. Okay, now we have a problem, right? Because somebody stole the emails, gave ‘em to Cathy, Cathy released ‘em. Well, if that’s the case, then that’s criminal.”

It's also just really funny how he mentions his Portuguese heritage given that a central theme of his chairmanship has been the years he's spent demanding that the intelligence agencies put facilities in the Azores that they adamantly do not want, because its an inconvenient and expensive location in a non-five eyes country.

Finally, #4 ties it all back to impeaching Rosenstein. In response to an audience question, he claims that the impeachment is "a matter of timing" with the election and Kavanaugh, while reaffirming he and most of his colleagues want to impeach Rosenstein. It's a bit vague, but there's certainly a reading of this that would indicate he wants to take it up again after the midterms, and Maddow talks this up into a plot where the GOP leadership is intentionally downplaying impeachment for now so they can bring it up later after the midterms. Of course, there's no way in hell there's a 2/3rds majority for this in the Senate even if they have the House votes, so I don't know what the point of any of this is, but here we are.
posted by zachlipton at 9:46 PM on August 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

Also, Laura Ingraham said the quiet part really really loudly tonight: "The America we know and love doesn't exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted on the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don't like ... this is related to both illegal and legal immigration."

At what point do we just get to attach ", the white supremacist" to every single mention of her name? That's not a dog whistle; it's just screaming at the dog at the top of your lungs.
posted by zachlipton at 9:50 PM on August 8, 2018 [103 favorites]

Massive demographic changes have been foisted on the American people

Foisting requires a foister and based on past behavior I fully expect her to be tweeting triple parentheses by year's end.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:58 PM on August 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

At what point do we just get to attach ", the white supremacist" to every single mention of her name?

TBH the on stage Sieg Heil out there for the entire world to see MIGHT have been a bit of a clue.
posted by Artw at 9:59 PM on August 8, 2018 [58 favorites]

Impeaching Rosenstein isn't about the vote tally, they can't do it above board. At least not yet. It's about building the permission structure for Trump to fire Rosenstein and then Mueller. Nunes and Paul Ryan/whatever worse Trumpist comes after Paul Ryan want to tell Trump it's OK to go full Fuhrer, they're behind him. The House actually voting to impeach is the go ahead that "it's happening", democracy is over, own the libs now and forever. They know they don't have the power now, but if they stave off the promised blue wave (either legitimately or through aiding and encouraging further Russian attacks on America, both are good), that's when they'll implement the end game and assume full authoritarian control.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:59 PM on August 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

The America we know and love doesn't exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted on the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don't like

As conservatives endlessly love to point out, we live in a republic not a democracy so none of us directly votes on any policy (just about) ever. What we do is vote for representatives who (hopefully) vote the way we want them to. In that context lots of us have (indirectly) voted in favor of expanded legal immigration & kinder treatment for those who didn't go about it legally. There was no foisting, you were just on the losing side of the votes.
posted by scalefree at 10:49 PM on August 8, 2018 [28 favorites]

In that context lots of us have (indirectly) voted in favor of expanded legal immigration & kinder treatment for those who didn't go about it legally.

You're both right, but define us differently. You have a broad us, but something tells me that Laura's audience have always voted for the most racist option available.
posted by jaduncan at 11:04 PM on August 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

You're both right, but define us differently. You have a broad us, but something tells me that Laura's audience have always voted for the most racist option available.

But she tells us who her "us" is & it's the same as mine, "the American people". She's trying to say none of it was ever voted on & it was, her side just lost.
posted by scalefree at 11:25 PM on August 8, 2018

But she tells us who her "us" is & it's the same as mine, "the American people".

No, she's telling you that the people who don't believe as she does are not "real" Americans.

When someone tells you who they are, you should at least consider believing them.
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:34 PM on August 8, 2018 [20 favorites]

She's already explicitly othered all PoC. Rest assured that fascists come for everyone.
posted by jaduncan at 11:37 PM on August 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

That Laura Ingraham vomit is some real "no true ~~Scotsman~~ American" fallacy bullshit.
posted by dazed_one at 12:08 AM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Rather than talking about who voted for what and who won, I think a better tack to take might be to say that their mistake was to fall in love with a fake America that never even existed: one where white settlers showed up in a mysteriously non-immigrant way and “out-competed” indigenous people (don't talk about genocide too much, and anyways either way “oops, shit happens in history, right?” and they're all gone now, nothing we can do) and African slaves—who we'll forget were Muslims and other non-Christian religionists and made up a significant fraction of the country's population on its nominal founding date—were brought here but we'll chalk that up to “shit happens in history” again without really dealing with it, and all of these regions full of Spanish place names became part of the country in some antiseptic, inspecific Manifest Destiny way...

The mistake was falling in love with an America with all of these amputated, elided blind spots, which can barely deal if even with the concept that later historical waves of European immigrants faced lynching and oppression, and doesn't have the strength or courage to confront its real history and revere the participants in slave uprisings alongside independence-seeking settlers with “Freedom!” on their lips or embrace a future which will involve PoC in a way that will probably actually not be so different than PoC have been part of our past.

Their task is to cultivate their hearts to love the real America flaws and all, and face up to things which need to be made right, rather than wallow in defeat or pine for a false Golden Age they see in the mumblings and delusions of Trump.
posted by XMLicious at 12:34 AM on August 9, 2018 [69 favorites]

Chris Collin's son's fiancee and her mother have already settled with the SEC over insider trading charges.

Chris Collins is going to need some really fancy lawyers to slip out of this pickle.
posted by rdr at 4:01 AM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

they are changes that none of us ever voted for

"I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally." - Ronald Reagan

Your fucking "hero" Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants in 1986. And it wasn't just deferring adjudication like DACA but full legalization. It was the largest amnesty/legalization in modern US history. 59% voted for him in 1984, including 93% of Republicans.

George H. W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990 which greatly increased legal immigration including creating the lottery system Trump & Co. constantly rail against. It also created TPS (temporary protected status) to allow for exceptions and entry for asylum seekers which they also now complain about. Bush had been elected in 1988 with 53% of the vote and 92% of Republicans.
posted by chris24 at 4:29 AM on August 9, 2018 [103 favorites]

Plus you've lost 6 of the last 7 popular votes since Bush 1 so sit the fuck down.
posted by chris24 at 4:42 AM on August 9, 2018 [47 favorites]

Massive demographic changes have been foisted on the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for.

Nonsense, right wingers have spent the last several decades voting and agitating to force Those Demographics (among others) to reproduce against their will.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:54 AM on August 9, 2018 [25 favorites]

Tribune withdraws from Sinclair merger, saying it will sue for ‘breach of contract’

Sinclair, which had announced the tie-up last year as a “transformational” event and the biggest acquisition in its history.

But the merger began to stumble last month after Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai raised “serious concerns” about the deal, which originally would have reached roughly 70 percent of U.S. households. The FCC said it would send the deal for review by an administrative law judge, which often signals a transaction may be blocked.

“In light of the FCC’s unanimous decision, referring the issue of Sinclair’s conduct for a hearing before an administrative law judge, our merger cannot be completed within an acceptable time frame, if ever,” said Peter Kern, Tribune’s chief executive officer, in a statement Thursday. “This uncertainty and delay would be detrimental to our company and our shareholders. Accordingly, we have exercised our right to terminate the Merger Agreement, and, by way of our lawsuit, intend to hold Sinclair accountable. ”

[...] The merger has even attracted the attention of President Trump, who last month on Twitter criticized federal regulators for getting in the way of what he said would have become a “great and much needed Conservative voice for and of the People. ”

“Liberal Fake News NBC and Comcast gets approved, much bigger, but not Sinclair,” he added. “Disgraceful!

As an independent agency, the FCC is supposed to refrain from factoring politics into its merger analyses.

While the news that one billions-dollar media group is suing another, even worse, billions-dollar media group is lolzful, that last section there is boggling up my noggin.

I'm so old I remember when the Predisent was supposed to pretend they represented all Americans, at least in public. That norm-asploding ship sailed a long time ago. But the comment about the FCC "being independent" and therefore "supposed to refrain from factoring politics" into their decision is just bizarre to me. Wut? As opposed to what? The DHS? A Trump administration joint not factoring politics in? WaPo, do you read you? Be more sense-making!
posted by petebest at 5:06 AM on August 9, 2018 [21 favorites]

This made me laugh:

"Despite the national headlines stemming from Paul Manafort’s tax fraud trial, New Britain has no plans to change the name of Paul Manafort Drive.[...]

“The street is named after the father,” Mayor Erin Stewart said Wednesday. ”Mr. Manafort served the city for a long time, he was a war veteran. You can’t control what your kids do and what they don’t — that doesn’t take away from the service that the father gave to the city.”"

posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:28 AM on August 9, 2018 [15 favorites]

Looks like at least one of the California fires was an act of arson from a man with a history of mental illness who also may be a fan of what sounds like QAnon (or Q-adjacent) conspiracy theories.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:00 AM on August 9, 2018 [21 favorites]

Apropos of nothing, Laura Rozen points out that Chris Collins' lies to the media were included in the indictment.
posted by pjenks at 6:08 AM on August 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

Washington Post continues its live coverage: Paul Manafort trial Day 8

"9:05 a.m: Bring in the Bankers: Based on the witnesses prosecutors have said they intend to call, Thursday will focus on the bank fraud they say he turned to after his Ukraine political work dried up. [...] Other witnesses yet to be called include several bank representatives, including two who were given immunity from prosecution. Those two potential witnesses come from Federal Savings Bank, whose CEO and chairman overlooked Manafort’s fraud in hopes of getting a job in the Trump administration, according to prosecutors from the Special Counsel’s Office."

Buzzfeed's Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) updates:

Prosecutors just filed a motion for a "curative instruction" — yesterday, in front of the jury, the judge had gotten upset that a govt witness sat in on the trial, which the judge said he usually did not permit. But the govt said the judge prev. okay'd it

There have been a number of tense exchanges between the judge and prosecutors — some in front of the jury, some not — but this is the first time the govt has asked for an instruction like this. They argue the court incorrectly suggested to the jury the govt "acted improperly"

During this exchange yesterday, the prosecutor told the judge he had granted permission earlier and that the transcript would show that. The judge had still gotten upset and told the govt not to do it again. In today's motion, they attached the segment of that transcript

Heading into the courtroom now, we'll see how the judge responds. Stay tuned.

In many respects, I wish the Manafort trial wasn't so gripping. Not least because this is just Mueller's warm-up.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:19 AM on August 9, 2018 [19 favorites]

I've found the reaction to the Judge's actions kind of baffling

It's like "This Judge is an abusive asshole!"

And everyone goes "Yeah, all Judges are like that, you just have to put up with it"

It's like "Yeah, all the bus drivers are ranting meth heads these days, what are you gonna do lol"
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:39 AM on August 9, 2018 [29 favorites]

The judge is on record that he doesn't think this trial should be happening. I don't know why people keep downplaying his stumping for the defense.
posted by dirigibleman at 6:47 AM on August 9, 2018 [31 favorites]

The judge is on record that he doesn't think this trial should be happening. I don't know why people keep downplaying his stumping for the defense.

Usually it indicates that they think that a) the defendant is going down and b) the judgement has to be appeal proof to the extent it can be. In this case I'm not so sure, but we will see.
posted by jaduncan at 6:49 AM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm so old I remember when the Predisent was supposed to pretend they represented all Americans, at least in public.

You must be older than me, because I don't. (I was born to a family of urban atheist academics, and for as long as I've been old enough to pay attention, I got the message LOUD AND CLEAR that Republican politicians don't consider me a Real American.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:51 AM on August 9, 2018 [31 favorites]

To whit: George Bush Sr. being interviewed in 1987:

"Sherman: Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are Atheists?

Bush (Senr): No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

Sherman: Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?

Bush (Senr): Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on Atheists."

I was aware of this quote back int he 80s (somehow, because my parents, while atheists, are not involved in Atheism-Capital-A so it wasn't from them, but I must have read it somewhere).
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:54 AM on August 9, 2018 [57 favorites]

Yeah, I mean, I'm with you there re: not feeling at home as an atheist. To be fair, that's not unique to the President (though ideally the President should be held to a higher standard har har har) as many studies have shown that we atheists are distrusted as much / more than rapists.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:59 AM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

"And everyone goes "Yeah, all Judges are like that, you just have to put up with it"
It's like "Yeah, all the bus drivers are ranting meth heads these days, what are you gonna do lol""

The legal profession is a sick, sick system. Everyone knows it. But no one with the power to do anything about it is willing to try, and you can't unilaterally disarm (since it is an actual competitive battle). I think a lot of what judges do is unethical (in the moral sense, not in the "legal ethics" sense) and tends to undermine faith in justice and the justice system (and of course ditto lawyers). But I also recognize that's how the system works and I can make assessments and predictions about cases based on my understanding of the sick system. I think a lot of what Ellis is doing is, in an abstract, big-picture way, super problematic. But in the practical everyday world, it is just kind-of how judges work and not necessarily a bad sign for Mueller's team.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:03 AM on August 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

As conservatives endlessly love to point out, we live in a republic not a democracy...

I know you're using their framing here as a logic trap, and I applaud that. But I would have added the adverb "dishonestly" to "endlessly," because that framing is a classic false dichotomy. You can have democracies that are and are not republics and you can have republics that are and are not democracies. The real issue with the "foisting" is that we live in a representative democracy, as opposed to a direct democracy (how would that even work with over 300,000,000 citizens?). This pretend ignorance of the right that we are somehow slaves to the government is also what they use to convince people to believe that taxes are theft and that poor people are stealing all their money. It's despicable and I personally refuse to give their disingenuous framing an ounce of oxygen.
posted by Mental Wimp at 7:07 AM on August 9, 2018 [21 favorites]

The judge is on record that he doesn't think this trial should be happening. I don't know why people keep downplaying his stumping for the defense.

Because judges don't like their actual court being used to turn the screws on the defendant especially when everyone knows it. If Manafort says "uncle" at any point in the trial the prosecution will come hat in hand with a motion to dismiss without prejudice and all the effort is for naught.

But in the practical everyday world, it is just kind-of how judges work and not necessarily a bad sign for Mueller's team.

This.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:08 AM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

From the Washington Post's live coverage: Paul Manafort trial Day 8

10:01 a.m.: Judge Ellis begins court with mea culpa for outburst over expert

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III has raked prosecutors from the special counsel’s office over the coals for the past week and a half. But on Thursday, he backed down, telling jurors to ignore one piece of criticism.

“I was critical of counsel for … allowing an expert to remain in the courtroom,” he said before testimony began. “You may put that aside… I may well have been wrong.”[...]

He added that he makes mistakes, “like any human — and this robe doesn’t make me any more than a human.”

posted by Doktor Zed at 7:14 AM on August 9, 2018 [44 favorites]

Racism is a problem of white elites, and Kris Kobach proves it - Dylan Matthews, Vox

White nationalism and elite education make a powerful combination.
...
He’s not alone in [having an enthusiasm for policies that hurt racial minorities], among elected officials. What stands out about Kobach is the pedigree. His resumé is the stuff of ambitious Ivy Leaguers’ dreams. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, as the top student in the government department, and received a master’s and doctorate at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar. He attended Yale Law, was on the law review, and got an appellate clerkship. He worked for years as a law professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City, eventually getting tenure.

We have an unfortunate tendency in America to treat racism and racial resentment as a pathology of the white underclass. Takes about the need for Democrats to abandon woke “identity politics” typically cite a desire to win back the “white working class,” not white members of the Harvard Club.

But while there’s some survey data backing the idea that working-class whites are likelier to harbor racial resentment (see table 3 here), the racism that kept Jews and blacks out of country clubs (and out of Harvard) for generations is still around. And Kobach is a great example of how it can continue to have real political consequences.

posted by ZeusHumms at 7:51 AM on August 9, 2018 [32 favorites]

(I was born to a family of urban atheist academics, and for as long as I've been old enough to pay attention, I got the message LOUD AND CLEAR that Republican politicians don't consider me a Real American.)

Swap out "professionals" for "academics," and add "Jewish," and boy howdy does it get even more LOUD AND CLEAR. In fact, the LOUDNESS AND CLARITY are deafening.

It's bipartisan, too, and extends past the class of politicians: to this very day, when I mention having served in the Army, people occasionally ask me if I mean the Israeli one or the American. WTFF?
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:52 AM on August 9, 2018 [53 favorites]

I grew up with gay parents in New York in the 80s and 90s. For my entire life it has been very clear to me that Republicans did not consider us to be people, let alone Americans, and were quite happy to watch us die and laugh about it.

I’ve got to imagine it’s the same for Black people in this country. There was never a point where Republicans treated them like people, let alone Americans.

None of this is new. And if we want to get rid of it, we’re going to have to reckon with how deep the rot goes.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:07 AM on August 9, 2018 [80 favorites]

I've been an active Metafilter member for 14+ years. Recently I've mainly lurked - obsessively, fearfully, and gratefully reading the politics megathreads every day (and other parts of the site too!). So, it's with no small amount of joy that I de-lurk to share a bit of down ballot election news from very-red Eastern Washington state.

On Tuesday, my wife Zahra made it through the County Commissioner primary in Franklin County, which has not had a Democratic commissioner in over 30 years. It's been a long time since there was even a Democratic candidate. Woohoo!! Like California, Washington is top-two primary state. In the general, she will face former Redskins tight-end and Tea Party favorite Clint Didier.

Zahra is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, a mother of three (ages 3, 4, and 6), a high school teacher with a focus on at-risk youth, and the current chair of the City of Pasco Planning Commission where she has served for the last 7 years. She and our team knocked on nearly 2000 targeted doors in our district during the primary, and now because of at-large voting the whole county will vote in the General. The rest of the county is proportionally bluer than our district.

I like our chances in the General. Her opponent is a polarizing figure in this community and many moderate Republicans/independents do not want him near the levers of power, a bloc which will complement the rest of the GOTV strategy which is focused on youth and POC. Access to mental health services, immigration-related issues, and transparency in govt are Zahra's big focus.

Thank you Metafilter for being you, and if you're anywhere near Eastern Washington we are running a grassroots campaign that just picked up a lot more energy, and we are having fun while we're doing it.
posted by Roach at 8:25 AM on August 9, 2018 [282 favorites]

Bush (Senr): No, I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

As an aside—I've somehow managed to miss the existence of this quote, but proof that it was at least historically under discussion appears to exist in this response to FOIA Request 2006-0596-F (PDF) from the George Bush Presidential Library, now only available online at the Internet Archive (don't forget to donate!) which contains a number of letters from members of the public referencing it dating from the late 1980s as well as on page 34 an internal memo between Associate White House Counsel Nelson Lund and C. Boyden Gray discussing a letter from Jon G. Murray, president of American Atheists:

Because I do not believe that we can defend the remarks allegedly made during the campaign, and because I assume that you would not recommend that the President issue an apology, I think the best course is to ignore this follow-up correspondence: continuing to exchange letters would only make it increasingly obvious that we are refusing to address the issue he is raising.

That FOIA number is included in this inventory (PDF) on the presidential library's own web site, which describes the “alleged” exchange and lists documents related to it while not referencing any actual denial of it, so... seems pretty well corroborated.

A President and entire White House who can collectively manage to simply never publicly comment on something ever again after it's been said seem almost like fictional things from a parallel universe at this point.
posted by XMLicious at 8:26 AM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

If it wasn’t for those teens running in the governor’s race, would we be in this mess? - Dion Lefler, Wichita Eagle. (via Kansas.com)

Who’d have thought that a couple of high school kids running for office on a lark could wind up maybe making the difference in whether the governor keeps his job or not?

But in a Republican primary where Gov. Jeff Colyer trails Secretary of State Kris Kobach by a mere 191 votes, a pair of 17-year-old candidates won a combined 3,758 votes.

“In a normal election, we would not say 3,700 votes was a substantive chunk,” said Russell Fox, professor of political science at Friends University in Wichita. “But under the election results that we actually have, 3,700 votes is more than enough to make a huge difference.”

At the end of the regular vote counting, Kobach has 126,257 votes to Colyer’s 126,066.

Tyler Ruzich, 17, of Prairie Village, won the high school heat race with 2,217 votes in Tuesday’s election. Joseph Tutera Jr., of Overland Park, also 17, received 1,541 votes.

Article author should probably investigate why the teens were interested in running in the first place, and how the politics of the major candidates brought Kansas to where it is today.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:32 AM on August 9, 2018 [20 favorites]

Rudy's Mueller demand: No questions on Flynn, Comey

Giuliani told Axios that there are two topics the president's lawyers want to rule out in order to agree to a Trump sit-down with Mueller:

1. Why Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
2. What Trump said to Comey about the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Wow. Twitter is already making fun of it.

On Tuesday, my wife Zahra made it through the County Commissioner primary in Franklin County, which has not had a Democratic commissioner in over 30 years.

I had to go looking for the donation link. Sent a bit of my slush fund over to her. Good luck.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 8:33 AM on August 9, 2018 [45 favorites]

Republicans did not consider us to be people, let alone Americans, and were quite happy to watch us die and laugh about it.

Yes, this precisely. This whole long sorry stretch since the 2016 election, I have been saying, in so many words, that "they hate us and want us to die." (It's not just me that's said so, either — I know a bunch of other folks here have used very similar formulations.)

And for the most part, whenever any of us have done so there's generally been someone close at hand to tut and say, well, surely that's hyperbole, surely you don't mean that. Here's the thing, though: as you point out, you and I and every last person who has ever in any way found themselves made Other understands in their bones that it is literally true. I don't mean that people are necessarily walking around actively seething with lethal rage and casting about to someone to vent it on (though lord knows there's more than a few of those, too). I mean that somewhere in their hearts, they truly believe that the world would be a better, cleaner, happier place without people like us, and that while maybe they'd never step up to act on that belief, they certainly wouldn't mourn overlong if our evaporation were simply to come to pass somehow, cleanly and magically.

And again, as many, many people commenting here have observed, historically we know that all that's necessary for the very worst crimes against humanity to take place is the broad willingness to avert one's gaze (or even, in one's secret heart, to cheer) when stores are vandalized, eggheads are mocked, and oddballs and loudmouths simply disappeared.

So forgive me if I get a slight but nagging premonitory twitch every time I see further evidence of that sort of attitude settling in among my neighbors, and forgive me again for calling it out by name, however shrill it may seem. Any student of history knows that when you start seeing this sort of dehumanization take root, you're not so far from the lip of the abyss.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:34 AM on August 9, 2018 [72 favorites]

Finally, #4 ties it all back to impeaching Rosenstein. In response to an audience question, he claims that the impeachment is "a matter of timing" with the election and Kavanaugh, while reaffirming he and most of his colleagues want to impeach Rosenstein.

Lately Trump has been very careful not to criticize Rosenstein in public* while his Capitol Hill allies have been attacking him, and recently Team Trump signalled to the WSJ that they're getting along swell these days: ‘It’s Fantastic!’ Trump Warms to Rosenstein—Nearly fired by the president, the No. 2 Justice official—the man in charge of the Mueller probe—builds a rapport

[I]n recent months, their relationship has improved. The two men talk once or twice a week, and Mr. Trump calls Mr. Rosenstein on his cellphone to discuss such issues as immigration, according to one person familiar with the matter. Mr. Rosenstein consistently prepares the president’s team ahead of major news, officials said. And he visits the White House as often as three times a week, meeting with the president or White House chief of staff John Kelly. He also has a regular lunch with White House general counsel Don McGahn.

“It’s fantastic,” Mr. Trump said about his rapport with Mr. Rosenstein when a spokesman told him The Wall Street Journal was seeking a comment. “We have a great relationship. Make sure you tell them that.”

Mr. Rosenstein declined to comment for this article. In a statement, a Justice Department spokeswoman said he has a “productive working relationship” with Mr. Trump.[...]

Senior White House officials privately praise Mr. Rosenstein’s handling of demands by congressional Republicans to share internal documents on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigations of Hillary Clinton’s email server and any Trump campaign contacts with Russia.

The idea that Trump's come around on Rosenstein since wanting to fire him back in April over the Cohen raids is about as reassuring as Trump's legal team's insistence that their client really does want to sit down for an interview with Mueller in spite of all their advice to the contrary. Since none of this article's sources were willing to be named, its value lies only in showing us what kind of spin Team Trump thinks they can get away with and, perhaps, tipping us off to some new action against the DAG.

* n.b. @WSJ: "Trump has mentioned Mueller 29 times in tweets this year. Sessions, 10. Rosenstein, just 4, and none since April"
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:45 AM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

But in the practical everyday world, it is just kind-of how judges work and not necessarily a bad sign for Mueller's team.

Someone posted a comment from a reporter that's covered Ellis. They say his behavior is nothing unusual for him. Also, I get that the case is about not paying taxes. But it angers me anyway. If ever there was a case where the context matters, maybe is more important than the crime itself in terms of meting out justice, this is it. If ever there was case where a witness flipping outweighs the benefit of the crime on the table this is it. This isn't business as usual, don't treat it that way.
posted by xammerboy at 8:52 AM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Comstock (VA-10) is most likely a goner, but looks like Stewart might help take down VA-02, 05, and 07 too.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., led GOP rival Corey Stewart by 23 percentage points in a July poll of likely voters released Wednesday.

Kaine had 49 percent to 26 percent for Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, with 5 percent for Libertarian Matt Waters and 20 percent undecided, according to the survey from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University.

While Virginians do not register by party, the survey found that a third of self-described Republicans or Republican-leaning voters were not yet backing Stewart — with 20 percent undecided, 10 percent supporting Waters and 3 percent backing Kaine.

Dave Weigel (WaPo)
Starting to look like this Senate bid might be a

(•_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

lost cause
posted by chris24 at 8:55 AM on August 9, 2018 [36 favorites]

Giuliani told Axios that there are two topics the president's lawyers want to rule out in order to agree to a Trump sit-down with Mueller:

Not to sound like a broken record, but what am I missing about how somebody can negotiate when it comes to an investigation like this? Is Mueller just allowing Trump's team to blow smoke while planning to do what he wants anyhow, or is there any weight to the idea that Trump can somehow dictate what he will or won't talk about? Doesn't Mueller hold the trump (heh) card of being able to say at some point, "Y'know what? Y'all are just fucking around. Here's a subpeona." Or maybe Trump thinks he holds the trump card of being able to get Mueller fired when he gets tired of him?

And the bigger question all this raises: what does the fact that Rudy specifically cites those two no-go topics say about Trump's guilt—or even that he might actually be obstructing justice by publicly refusing to talk about them?

I'm so pissed at myself for not deciding to become a famous multi-millionaire. I had no idea how stupid and corrupt they're allowed to be—and to not only not suffer, but to be rewarded for it daily.
posted by Rykey at 9:02 AM on August 9, 2018 [21 favorites]

Charlottesville Victim Heather Heyer's Mother Picks Up Her Baton (NPR, Aug. 9, 2018)

One year ago, a car rammed into counter-protesters during a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Dozens of people were injured and paralegal and activist Heather Heyer was killed. Now, her mother is trying to fulfill a promise made at her funeral.

"They tried to kill my child to shut her up," Susan Bro told mourners last August. "Well, guess what? You just magnified her!"

Susan Bro now spends her days in a cozy office at the law firm where her daughter worked as a paralegal. It's the headquarters of the Heather Heyer Foundation. Near her desk is a sign with her daughter's favorite motto – "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."

"I think that's what we have with Heather's legacy is a call to action," says Bro.
...
Portraits of Heather hang on the walls, and there's a collection of posthumous civil rights awards. Bro resists the notion that her daughter is some sort of symbol. She didn't make speeches, or lead rallies, Bro says, but tried to convince those around her to care more about inequality and social justice issues. Bro has taken up her cause.

"Not only will I speak and speak loudly and often," she says, "I'm going to make sure that other people speak."

She compares it to a relay race.

"They knocked the baton out of her hand. Well, I picked it up and I'm not only running with that baton but I'm passing off little batons to as many people as I can," says Bro.

. for Heather Heyer

Fuck yeah for Susan Bro!
posted by filthy light thief at 9:04 AM on August 9, 2018 [131 favorites]

Dave Wasserman (Cook)
Now *final:* Dems overperformed @CookPolitical PVI by an average of 8% in this cycle's 9 House specials where both parties appeared on the final ballot. CHART
2/ To give you an idea: if Dems were to overperform PVI by 8% in all 435 districts this November (won't happen b/c of R incumbency, etc.), they'd pick up 81 House seats - more than triple the 23 they need.
posted by chris24 at 9:07 AM on August 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

Not to sound like a broken record, but what am I missing about how somebody can negotiate when it comes to an investigation like this?

Because that's what's supposed to happen when you have a good lawyer and the interview is voluntary. If you get subpoenaed you can fight it. In the case of Trump it would be a massive shitfight that would take months in federal court maybe even years if SCOTUS takes it up.

It's in the interests of the prosecutors to have a voluntary interview and that may require concessions on their part. If they don't like it they can subpoena or they can just indict without speaking to him. All of this so far is information gathering, not actual criminal procedure.

I'm so pissed at myself for not deciding to become a famous multi-millionaire. I had no idea how stupid and corrupt they're allowed to be—and to not only not suffer, but to be rewarded for it daily.

Anyone can refuse to speak to an investigator. You just shut the hell up, you ask for your lawyer, you take the 5th, and (this is the most important part) you STAY SILENT. You get a competent lawyer and you do exactly what they tell you to do. Investigators have success because people are idiots. People want to explain. People think their motives will sway the investigators to overlook a crime. We're wired to tell our stories. Investigators and prosecutors will take advantage of this to get that new notch on their belt.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:12 AM on August 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

Doktor Zed: #Russia's state TV:
@Dr_Ariel_Cohen: “We don’t know whether he [Rand Paul] delivered any secret messages from Trump to the Russian side. That is unknown to us.”
The host asks Konstantin Kosachev: “Did he or didn’t he?”
Kosachev, grinning: “It’s known to us, but I won’t tell.”

Rand Paul Goes To Russia And Delivers Letter For Trump, Marking Our Era Of Irony (NPR, Aug. 9, 2018)

Many have also seen the visuals of Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul hobnobbing in Moscow this week with members of the Russian Council, sometimes called his "counterparts." These included the chairman of the council's foreign policy panel, Konstantin Kosachev, who happens to be under official U.S. sanction for his government's actions against our government.

But that didn't seem to bother Paul, who invited Kosachev and others to visit the U.S.A.

Indeed, this sanction and other tokens of disapproval imposed on Russian officials in the past year have not seemed to chill the enduring warmth between Putin and Trump. Paul carried a hand-written note from Trump to Putin on his trip.

NPR provided a lot of context, but nothing on the note, or the fact that Rand Paul posted about it, on Twitter, natch.

Rand Paul delivers Putin letter from Trump (Jordain Carney for The Hill, Aug. 8, 2018)

And here's the tweet:

I was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to President Vladimir Putin’s administration. The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 8, 2018

You'd think such an important letter would be posted online, or even a photo taken and attached to that tweet, but it seems that would be too direct and transparent. Even Paul's people were cagey:

Spokespeople for Paul directed questions about the letter, which was given to representatives of Putin, to the White House.

“At Senator Paul’s request, President Trump provided a letter of introduction,” deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in statement. “In the letter, the President mentioned topics of interest that Senator Paul wanted to discuss with President Putin.”

What else does the president mention?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:15 AM on August 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

Giuliani told Axios that there are two topics the president's lawyers want to rule out in order to agree to a Pussy grabber sit-down with Mueller:

For somebody as concerned with optics as Trump is, you'd think he would notice what it looks like when he simultaneously can't come to an agreement to meet on official of his own government for months and has no trouble flying around the globe meeting the Axis of Evil behind closed doors then shaking hands for the cameras.
posted by carsonb at 9:15 AM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was honored to deliver a letter from President Pussy grabber to President Vladimir Putin’s administration. The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges.
— Elf-lord Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 8, 2018

Anyone else hear a faint, high-pitched Russian adoptions whenever anyone says "resuming cultural exchanges?"
posted by carsonb at 9:17 AM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

I can't imagine what a physical letter from Trump to Putin (deliivered by courier!) actually accomplishes that a phone call wouldn't. Is it basically a stunt on the part of the Kremlin to further demonstrate their hold on the GOP?
posted by InTheYear2017 at 9:30 AM on August 9, 2018

Three Mar-a-Lago members tell Veterans Affairs what to do, and it is very bad (Alexandra Petri, WaPo)

This is not the only administration where three old men at a country club have decided that they know just how to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs, but this is almost certainly the first administration where the president has forced the head of VA to listen to them, meet with them in person and take their requests seriously.

If you ever have the dubious fortune to become the VA head under the Trump administration, get ready for your inbox to look roughly like this.

Dear Secretary,

Hi! Thrilled you flew to Florida on the taxpayer dime to meet with us, three random club members from Mar-a-Lago who have some ideas about how VA should be run. Nice to meet you. If there is one thing the Trump administration cannot stand, it is accountability and avoiding the appearance of conflict, so, please, listen to us and run all ideas and initiatives by us. Do not worry: We are not experts on veterans affairs, so we won’t impinge on your turf that way.

We have some ideas!

First: Can you upload VA into the cloud? We hear a lot of things about the cloud, and it seems like the veterans deserve this.

Also, Bruce and his son have a good idea for an app. It’s a pretty lucky thing for VA that his son is willing to help us out. His son knows computers!¹

Congratulations on getting unanimously confirmed!

Please do all of this immediately.

¹ This actually happened.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:34 AM on August 9, 2018 [33 favorites]

Anyone else hear a faint, high-pitched Russian adoptions whenever anyone says "resuming cultural exchanges?"

I'm thinking cultural exchanges more along the lines of the League of the South launching a Russian-language site.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:37 AM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

The Demography of the Alt-Right [Institute for Family Studies]

Courtesy of W Bradford Wilcox, "new research by @georgehawleyUA @FamStudies indicates at least 12% of whites hold attitudes consistent w Alt-Right" [Twitter]
posted by slipthought at 9:42 AM on August 9, 2018 [13 favorites]

Further from the Department of You Couldn't Make It Up: the front page of the NYT currently sports a quiz entitled How Well Do You Know Trump Voters?
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:44 AM on August 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

Oh, wow, this Rep. Chris Collins indictment is great. Collins is totally fucked. His family is totally fucked. His future family is totally fucked. And all of their close friends are fucked. They have them all dead to rights with phone calls, text messages and stock trades aligning down to the minute. They have a half dozen witnesses who have made plea bargains to roll over on the whole crew.

Nothing is ever sure but this indictment is so solid that Chris Collins, his son and his son's future father-in-law all are looking at jail time.

This all occurred about a year ago in the last week of June 2017.

So, Chris Collins is on the board of directors of this Australian pharmaceutical company that was in clinical trials for a multiple sclerosis drug. The trials were double blind so even the company didn't know the results until the very day the results were compiled. The CEO sent an email to all the board members, including Chris Collins telling them about the drug trial failure a couple of days before that information was released to the public.

They have Collins responding to that email back to the CEO with "Wow. Makes no sense. How are these results even possible." So they know that Collins received the email about the drug failure and one minute later he starts calling his son Cameron, who is also a shareholder. And he calls him again and again and again. Once a minute until Cameron finally picks up 6 minutes later. They have photos and video of Collins on the phone at the exact moment at the Congressional picnic at the White House.

The company stock traded on both the Australian exchange and on the U.S. NASDAQ. Chris's shares were held on the Australian exchange and for various reasons he was unable to trade his own shares in response to the bad clinical trial. But he was able to tip off all his family members and friends. It is illegal to trade on insider information before it has been released to the public.

There are a slew of people involved. Chris's son Cameron was a big shareholder who sold over a million shares when he was tipped off. There is Cameron's fiancee. There is Cameron's fiancee's mother and father. There is the father's brother and sister. There are several friends of Cameron and the fiancee's father.

So the fiancee has flipped. The fiancee's mother has flipped. They will both be testifying against the fiancee's father and Chris and Cameron, who inexplicably have stubbornly refused to cooperate.

This stock went from 50 cents a share to 3 cents a share in one day, a 90% loss. It was a fairly lightly traded stock typically trading less than 100,000 shares a day. On the day of the tip off, it suddenly changed to 1,800,000 shares, an 18-fold increase. And it turns out almost all of that volume can be accounted for by Collin's family and friends.

Son Cameron was the big winner. He saved over $800,000 by trading before the bad news was released to the public. He made over 60 individual stock sales over the next two days because dumping it all at once would tip off others in the stock market that something was up.

Around the same time they have text messages indicating that Cameron and his fiancee drove over to his future in-laws house and tipped them off. And minutes later the fiancee's mother called her broker and sold her shares on the Australian exchange, which was still open. The father sold his shares first thing the next morning on the U.S. exchange when it opened.

Cameron also told his future in-laws that he would allow them to sell their smaller stakes first because his planned dumping might depress the stock price. That's adorably sweet.

The father then proceeded to tip off his brother, his sister and another friend who all sold their shares.

They have a witness who will testify that Cameron's cover story for his big sales was that he was going to purchase a new house for his pending wedding to his fiancee, so everyone was okay dumping their smaller amounts. No one would suspect.

Cameron also tipped off one of his buddies who also sold his shares, saving him $680. Apparently this friend also flipped because he decided he wasn't going to go to jail over $680.

All together they have Rep. Chris Collins, Collin's son Cameron, Cameron's fiancee. The fiancee's mother and father. The father's, brother and sister. And a handful of other friends of the family

They have them for securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to the FBI (which is how Martha Stewart ended up in jail).

All have flipped except Chris Collins, Cameron Collins and his fiancee's father. Among the flippees is the fiancee, the fiancee's mother, and the fiancee's father's brother and sister. Boy, that is going to be one interesting Thanksgiving dinner next year.
posted by JackFlash at 9:46 AM on August 9, 2018 [140 favorites]

Oh, wow, this Rep. Chris Collins indictment is great.

Someone on MSNBC yesterday said, "in lawyer jargon, we would call this case a 'slam dunk.'"
posted by Sophie1 at 9:55 AM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

chris24: "Comstock (VA-10) is most likely a goner, but looks like Stewart might help take down VA-02, 05, and 07 too. "

Specifically, the generic House ballot in Virginia is D+19 (51/32). That's...that's very big.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:59 AM on August 9, 2018 [19 favorites]

Question on the Collins indictment - is there a chance legal action may occur against the other Reps who took advantage of tips from Collins?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:01 AM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

This political cartoon from Mr. Fish of Truthdig had me nodding in agreement over a week ago but the Collins indictment just makes it truer.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:06 AM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

Question on the Collins indictment - is there a chance legal action may occur against the other Reps who took advantage of tips from Collins?

Culberson sold his stock 10 days before it tanked. That looks pretty bad.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 10:08 AM on August 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

@ryanbeckwith:

People Trump accused of secretly taping him:
• Barack Obama
• James Comey

People who actually secretly taped Trump:
• Michael Cohen
• Omarosa Manigault

posted by gwint at 10:12 AM on August 9, 2018 [89 favorites]

Trump hinted that he might have taped Comey. I don't recall him saying that Comey taped him.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:15 AM on August 9, 2018

In fact the most well known quote about Trump, Comey, and tapes coming from Trump is this one. He does not specify who is doing the taping. Like a lot of his rhetoric it is vague and lets you read into it what you like.
posted by runcibleshaw at 10:26 AM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

There was a huge immigration raid in MN last night, apparently.

The story is probably right that these were shady and exploitative businesses which stole from their workers, but obviously that doesn't mean that a raid is a good solution.

What would be a great solution would be a big, immediate amnesty. It would cut the legs out from under any number of criminal employers, landlords and pimps, because they would no longer be able to threaten their victims with deportation, and no one would have to go to jail.
posted by Frowner at 10:28 AM on August 9, 2018 [29 favorites]

Sacramento Bee, Court bans popular farm pesticide defended by Trump. What it means for farms, workers, kids

A court ordered the Trump administration Thursday to ban a widely used farm pesticide that environmentalists say can damage the nervous systems of farmworkers, their children and even consumers.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban the chemical known as chlorpyrifos within 60 days. The ruling by the 9th Circuit is a major victory for environmentalists and a defeat for agricultural interests and the Trump administration, which had refused to ban the pesticide.
...
In the late stages of the Obama administration, the EPA was in the process of banning the chemical. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced he was “reversing the previous administration’s steps” and would allow farmers to keep using chlorpyrifos.

posted by zachlipton at 10:29 AM on August 9, 2018 [36 favorites]

Culberson sold his stock 10 days before it tanked. That looks pretty bad.

No, that looks OK for Culberson. Per the indictment, trial administrators informed Innate's CEO of the trial failure on June 22, 2017, who informed the Board of Directors, including Collins, the next day (still June 22 US time). The information became public on June 26.

But Culberson sold his stock on June 12. Unless it can be established that Culberson had advance knowledge of the trial results when he sold it (and when even Innate's CEO did not yet know about it, if the timeline in the indictment is accurate), that's a legitimate sale and Culberson just got lucky.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:30 AM on August 9, 2018 [18 favorites]

That’d maybe be James Comey taping Carter Page and others in Trump’s orbit via the FISA process, same as Obama.
posted by notyou at 10:30 AM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it’s just Representatives trading stock tips on the floor of the House while waiting for whatever bullshit motion they haven’t read to be roll called.
posted by notyou at 10:34 AM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

From Mother Jones by Dan Spinelli: A Long-Shot Democrat Now Has a Chance at Congress After Trump’s Buddy Got Indicted

When Nate McMurray, the long-shot Democratic candidate in New York’s ruby-red 27th District, went out for a jog on an 88-degree Wednesday morning, he had just four campaign volunteers and a hair’s breadth of a chance to unseat Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY).

Then, everything changed.

“My phone started melting,” McMurray told Mother Jones the next day. “I couldn’t get through my audiobook. It was just message after message after message.”

Collins, the first sitting congressman to endorse Donald Trump, had just been indicted on insider trading charges. And McMurray, the 43-year-old town supervisor of Grand Island, a small town less than 10 miles from Niagara Falls, had suddenly found himself in a competitive race for a district Trump won by 24 points in 2016.
posted by Bella Donna at 10:51 AM on August 9, 2018 [60 favorites]

When we were talking about the 50-state strategy a thread or two ago, I believe I said the biggest advantage it offers is that it puts the party in a position to exploit unforced errors wherever they arise.

Case in point.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:53 AM on August 9, 2018 [118 favorites]

@KellyO: The “first in-laws,” Melania Trump’s parents are now naturalized US citizens. They took the oath today in New York. Their lawyer said the Knavs had no special treatment for completing the required steps. WH declined comment.

I, for one, welcome them to citizenship, and am disappointed that the White House didn't take this opportunity to commemorate this occasion. I am far more disappointed that their son-in-law actively wants to deny the same process to so many others, whether it's inciting hate against immigrants, fighting to slash the number of legal immigrants allowed, threatening to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens years later or working to prevent millions of people from becoming citizens if they ever accepted legal help to feed their family or get their children health care or demanding they demonstrate their job skills instead of family ties.
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 AM on August 9, 2018 [36 favorites]

Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish: "When we were talking about the 50-state strategy a thread or two ago, I believe I said the biggest advantage it offers is that it puts the party in a position to exploit unforced errors wherever they arise.

Case in point."

In 2018, a total of 4 U.S. House races do not have a Democratic candidate and 38 U.S. House races do not have a Republican candidate.

Shockingly enough, the democrats seem to actually gotten their act together this year and are running (almost) everywhere. I'm also proud to say that I live in the only district in PA that's has no Republican candidate.
posted by octothorpe at 11:38 AM on August 9, 2018 [32 favorites]

I just hope we apply the rule of "if you ever did anything ever you get deported" equally: Melania Trump Worked Illegally in US (Fox)
posted by benzenedream at 11:40 AM on August 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

Kobach lead falls to under 100 votes after reporting error discovered. They're still counting mail-in ballots, but it sure looks like this is going to be almost a dead heat, leading to Kobach overseeing the recount of his own election.
posted by zachlipton at 11:43 AM on August 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

Ballotpedia is behind; the Dems got a candidate in MI-01.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

VIA ACLU Twitter:

BREAKING: In challenge to Sessions' policy of denying asylum protection to immigrants fleeing domestic violence and gang brutality, the judge blocked the government from deporting our clients as he considers the case. However, disturbing news came to light during the hearing.

While in court, we found out that the government had deported a client and her young child just hours before, putting their lives at risk. This directly contradicts the government's commitment to the court that NO ONE would be removed until tomorrow at the earliest.

The judge ordered the government to turn the plane around and bring the asylum-seeking mother and child back to the US. He said that if the situation wasn't fixed he would consider contempt proceedings — starting with the attorney general.
posted by Sophie1 at 11:46 AM on August 9, 2018 [171 favorites]

I, for one, welcome them to citizenship, and am disappointed that the White House didn't take this opportunity to commemorate this occasion. I am far more disappointed that their son-in-law actively wants to deny the same process to so many others, whether it's inciting hate against immigrants, fighting to slash the number of legal immigrants allowed, threatening to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens years later or working to prevent millions of people from becoming citizens if they ever accepted legal help to feed their family or get their children health care or demanding they demonstrate their job skills instead of family ties.

Even joking about ripping Barron Trump from his mother and locking him in a cage would presumably be out of bounds. But as actual policy for others? “We’re a nation of laws.”

Think about that.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:46 AM on August 9, 2018 [30 favorites]

The story is probably right that these were shady and exploitative businesses which stole from their workers, but obviously that doesn't mean that a raid is a good solution.

A good solution would be to hold all businesses immediately liable not just for back wages up to minimum wage, but also for the entire legal costs of the process, including funding an immigration lawyer for any people involved.
posted by corb at 11:47 AM on August 9, 2018 [27 favorites]

All have flipped except Chris Collins, Cameron Collins and his fiancee's father. Among the flippees is the fiancee, the fiancee's mother, and the fiancee's father's brother and sister. Boy, that is going to be one interesting Thanksgiving dinner next year.

Ten bucks says it's "ex-fiancée" by the end of next week, unless they have a conjugal visit kink. I know this isn't a valid question about anything anymore in 2018, but how the hell could they possibly have thought they would get away with this?

In the age of Stupid Watergate, I guess it was inevitable we'd get a bunch of Stupid Boeskys and Stupid Milkens.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:59 AM on August 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

[I] am disappointed that the White House didn't take this opportunity to commemorate this occasion. I am far more disappointed that their son-in-law actively wants to deny the same process to so many others

This is his latest failed opportunity to be a good president. Other missed chances:

His inaugural address
After Charlottesville
Every fucking day he's in office

I was crushed when he won, but I was willing to give him a chance at first, after his relatively conciliatory victory speech. I disliked him immensely but hoped he could rise to the office.

He really set the tone with his doomsday inaugural address and the blatant lying about the size of the crowd. I never thought I would hear the president of the United States call people enemies and traitors or refer to journalists as enemies of the people, like Stalin or Hitler did. Every day is another disappointment.

Ceterum autem censeo Trumpem esse delendam
posted by kirkaracha at 12:00 PM on August 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

Sigh. Here we go again with Space Farce. I mean Force. Pence details plan for creation of Space Force in what would be the sixth branch of the military (WaPo)

“America will always seek peace, in space as on earth,” Pence said. “But history proves that peace only comes through strength. And in the realm of outer space, the United States Space Force will be that strength.”

posted by greermahoney at 12:04 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ten bucks says it's "ex-fiancée" by the end of next week

And her mother flipping on her father ...

Like I said, it's going to be an interesting Thanksgiving dinner next year.
posted by JackFlash at 12:06 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

ut how the hell could they possibly have thought they would get away with this?

Rich white people always think this, and they are almost always right.
posted by emjaybee at 12:08 PM on August 9, 2018 [74 favorites]

I'm thinking that he thought he was reasonably immune to insider trading charges as a congressman. But reading the indictment, it looks like he is being charged as a board member, not as a congressmen; you want to stay off the board if you want to insider trade as a congressman (or trade on someone else company), apparently. Of course the family had no such protection in any case, so nice of him to drag them down too.
posted by Bovine Love at 12:14 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

how the hell could they possibly have thought they would get away with this?

Rich white people always think this, and they are almost always right.

Yes, this. White-collar crime is not investigated and prosecuted with the same zeal that street crime is - or, hell, even with the same zeal as "breathing air while black or brown." If law enforcement really wanted to crack down on white collar and financial crimes, we'd have a different and IMO better America. We certainly wouldn't have this administration, which is criminals all the way down. Lock 'em up!
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:18 PM on August 9, 2018 [41 favorites]

That ACLU tweet is a beautiful beautiful thing. Flagged as fantastic.
posted by yoga at 12:18 PM on August 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

how the hell could they possibly have thought they would get away with this?

I think of it the same way I think of white people smoking marijuana in places where it is illegal. All of their (white) friends do it and none of them have ever been charged so of course they are also going to get away with it.
posted by mcduff at 12:23 PM on August 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

“America will always seek peace, in space as on earth,” Pence said. “But history proves that peace only comes through strength. And in the realm of outer space, the United States Space Force will be that strength.”

OK, this is one of the movies where I root for the aliens.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:32 PM on August 9, 2018 [58 favorites]

Bovine Love: I'm thinking that he thought he was reasonably immune to insider trading charges as a congressman.

My impression was that it was no longer the case that insider trading was allowed for members of Congress. Wikipedia is confusing me, because its article on insider trading states:

Members of the US Congress are exempt from the laws that ban insider trading.

But the article on the STOCK Act, signed into law in 2012, says

The bill prohibits the use of non-public information for private profit, including insider trading by members of Congress and other government employees.

Is that first bit just way out of date, superceded by the second?

To add more info, NPR has this: How Congress Quietly Overhauled Its Insider-Trading Law. It seems the overhaul regarded the public access to Congresspeople's financial doings (the STOCK act increased the sunshine on that, the overhaul decreased it).
posted by InTheYear2017 at 12:34 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

“But history proves that peace only comes through strength. And in the realm of outer space, the United States Space Force will be that strength.”

To be fair, this sounds better in the original Klingon.
posted by mikepop at 12:39 PM on August 9, 2018 [79 favorites]

My impression was that it was no longer the case that insider trading was allowed for members of Congress. Wikipedia is confusing me, because its article on insider trading states:

Members of the US Congress are exempt from the laws that ban insider trading.

I see Collins has made some updates!
posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:40 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

While Scharre agreed “space is the American Achilles’ heel,” he said creating a new bureaucracy with a single focus would handicap the military: “The United States needs to focus on the mission, not the domain.”

How, after decades of being hacked by the Russians and Chinese and throwing away trillions of dollars, American prestige, innocent lives, and a good bit of our democracy in the pursuit of counterinsurgency operations in occupations of the developing world, not to mention ignoring climate change as a national security threat entirely, does SPACE get to be our Achilles heel?
posted by TheProfessor at 12:48 PM on August 9, 2018 [38 favorites]

Some white-privilege checked: Last week, a couple of black motorcyclists parked at a corner in Dorchester (Boston's largest and, possibly, multi-cultiest, neighborhood) to figure out how to get home because the main road was blocked by a police hit/run investigation. A white guy stormed out of his house and began screaming at them to stay out of "his" neighborhood (video). A nearby cop heard the screaming, separated the parties (after telling the guy he didn't care where the motorcyclists lived, it was none of his business). Then the guy started screaming about blacks (only not with that word) and tried to pull down a traffic-sign pole. The Dorchester Reporter reports he was arrested for disturbing the peace, he might face a civil-rights charge and his employer, which runs the commuter-rail system, has started the process to fire him.
posted by adamg at 12:52 PM on August 9, 2018 [86 favorites]

There is no way the Air Force is giving up their control of space without some 4 star generals tearing garments on the steps of the Pentagon.
posted by PenDevil at 12:55 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Collins had access to nonpublic information because he was on the board of a company. That he happened to also be a member of congress is probably not relevant.
posted by BungaDunga at 12:55 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

The video from that altercation is amazing. I just kept imagining how the cop would have handled things if the races of the other two people were reversed. (SPOILER: The large shouty man would not have walked away, in handcuffs or otherwise)
posted by contraption at 12:57 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

> And now the Communists have established a foothold in outer space.

The Communists??

I think they may be channeling LBJ.
posted by klarck at 12:58 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Courtesy of W Bradford Wilcox, "new research by @georgehawleyUA @FamStudies indicates at least 12% of whites hold attitudes consistent w Alt-Right" [Twitter]

That’s...actually better than I would expect. Would love (hate) to see the ceiling on that though.

Divorce does seem to increase the likelihood a respondent will believe whites suffer discrimination and the likelihood that a white person will agree with all three of the basic premises of white identity politics.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve hit my limit, but I just laughed when I saw this. Mean lady makes you feel unmanned, so you take it out on black people? Yeah that’s definitely a type of shitbird, I guess. I know it’s not the only type of shitbird, but this type really gets around, you know?
posted by schadenfrau at 12:59 PM on August 9, 2018 [33 favorites]

Divorce does seem to increase the likelihood a respondent will believe whites suffer discrimination and the likelihood that a white person will agree with all three of the basic premises of white identity politics.

Quantifiable evidence supporting the theory that MRA was the grit at the heart of the Alt-Right pearl.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:01 PM on August 9, 2018 [61 favorites]

Washington Post live coverage: Paul Manafort trial Day 8: Banker says Manafort wouldn’t have gotten $3.4 million loan if bank knew NYC condo was rental
—10:37 a.m.: Documents show Manafort claimed Manhattan property was a ‘second residence’ in obtaining $3.4 million loan
—11:28 a.m.: Banker testifies Manafort also lied about Brooklyn mortgage to get loan
—12:12 p.m.: On fraud charge, Manafort lawyers try to sort out his statements to bank while seeking loan
—12:58 p.m.: Manafort claimed SoHo apartment as “second home,” but listed it on Airbnb for more than a year
—2:03 p.m.: Manafort lawyers note you can still live in a place you rent on Airbnb
—3:03 p.m.: Banker: Manafort should not have gotten the loan he got
—3:58 p.m.: Then Manafort applied for another loan, and was turned down

And Courthouse News's Brandi Buchman (@BBuchman_CNS) just now posted an intriguing little sidebar update:

#ManafortTrial developments. (1/2)
In a motion filed Thursday afternoon, SPC Mueller's team has asked that a portion of a sidebar conference on Aug 7 remain under seal.
According to the motion, this was during Gates cross examination. And if the transcript were published in full, "it would reveal substantive evidence pertaining to an ongoing government investigation," the motion states. (2/2)

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4704995-SPC-Request-to-Seal-Sidebar-Conference-Aug-7.html
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:06 PM on August 9, 2018 [28 favorites]

The Trump 2020 campaign just blasted out an email asking for votes on a Space Force logo (for merch, apparently). Here are the choices. One of them says MARS AWAITS which I thought was more in NASA's purview but maybe the red planet needs to watch the fuck out
posted by theodolite at 1:09 PM on August 9, 2018 [25 favorites]

Courtesy of W Bradford Wilcox, "new research by @georgehawleyUA @FamStudies indicates at least 12% of whites hold attitudes consistent w Alt-Right" [Twitter]

Emphasis on the "at least." My best guess is *checks latest Trump approval rating* 40%.
posted by Mental Wimp at 1:11 PM on August 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

Divorce does seem to increase the likelihood a respondent will believe whites suffer discrimination and the likelihood that a white person will agree with all three of the basic premises of white identity politics.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a circular relationship here: someone who starts out with a cynical, distrustful, grouchy disposition is more likely to get divorced if they get married, because they are difficult to live with. Then the divorced person takes it out on Those People or whoever. I don't think divorce, for the most part, turns nice people nasty. Rather, nasty people drive their partners away, get divorced, and turn even more nasty.

It's a cliche that "incels" drive women away with their terrible dispositions, but I think it applies here.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:14 PM on August 9, 2018 [20 favorites]

Well, they're talking it up again, but I still can't fathom what it is that a Space Force would do. There are very few military objectives which could be achieved by an improved control of space. There are lots of useful things to do with satellites, including military purposes, but we've already done most of those things and our current fairly small military spaceflight operation is up to the task of continuing and maintaining them. Our foes have also done these things and destroying their projects would be operationally utterly trivial (it takes very little to degrade any of the common satellite orbits) but diplomatically thorny (if we sent a shuttle or missile up to knock down, say, a Chinese satellite, that would be a big, messy international incident). Near-Earth space is a huge, resource-poor place which we have no really good reason to want to "control", and, given both how inimical it is to human life and the complication and expense of getting human-habitable modules up there, not something it's really feasible to "control" in the first place. Yes, American space exploration is still very cozy with the Air Force, but that's arguably a historical curiosity born of NASA's origins in Cold War competition and the military getting the shiniest new tech rather than any compelling reason why the military should have a lot of interest in space. Really, there's not that much up there to fight over.
posted by jackbishop at 1:15 PM on August 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

They didn't go with the Milton Glaser logo, then? (original Bloomberg Business article, paywalled)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:16 PM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

Those Space Force logos, man. 1 NASA rip-off, 4 that look like a high-schooler made them (what is even going on with #5??), and one sci-fi novel cover.
posted by greermahoney at 1:17 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Has there been a single real astronaut who's said anything in support of this? I'm not even seeing any no comment stories from Leland Melvin, Mike Massamino, or the Kelly brothers.
posted by cmfletcher at 1:18 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

This space force thing reads like a fallout level satire. Like I'd expect to see a faded poster in Fallout 4 on some pre-war ruin reading "Join the space force!" with some kind of space suit power armor. Like how is this reality?

On the one hand this is going to be an absolute disaster, on the other hand we might gain a lot of experience in space exploration when these guys explode on the launch pad/suffocate on the moon/burn up on re-entry.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:27 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

And, of course, graft potential. Space is a great receptacle for colossally expensive but ultimately useless weapons of war. Think of how many F-35s the void can hold!
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:29 PM on August 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

This Russian Spy Agency Is in the Middle of Everything
Only a few years ago, the GRU looked like it might be dissolved. But Putin found new uses for it: covert war in Ukraine and ‘active measures’ that helped Trump get elected.
posted by adamvasco at 1:29 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

The Trump 2020 campaign just blasted out an email asking for votes on a Space Force logo (for merch, apparently). Here are the choices.

....right, I'm just gonna say it:

* Choice 5 looks like a nose, and
* Choice 6 ("Mars Awaits") looks like it's a porn-video view of a woman's crotch.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:30 PM on August 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

This is all bullshit to distract and appeal to his fascist base and won't happen if we take back one house of Congress. Or likely even overcome a filibuster in the Senate if not.

“The Congress alone has the power to establish a new branch of the military and to establish the positions of senior executive officials to lead such a department,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school who has studied constitutional issues relating to the military.
posted by chris24 at 1:30 PM on August 9, 2018 [15 favorites]

NYT, Trump’s Tariffs on Canadian Newsprint Hasten Local Newspapers’ Demise

A Charles River Associates study undertaken on behalf of a coalition of printers, publishers and paper suppliers projects that American newsprint prices will increase more than 30 percent in the next one to two years, and that newspapers and printers will face an increased cost of roughly half a billion dollars from the remaining five American mills producing newsprint. The study was filed with the United States International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency that governs trade and could ultimately overturn or change the Commerce Department’s decision in a ruling expected next month.

Papers throughout the country are already feeling the effects of the tariffs. At least a dozen newspapers across the country have cut publication days, and one newspaper, The Jackson County Times-Journal in Ohio, shut down, citing declining print readership and the tariffs. Larger publications, like The Tampa Bay Times, which won two Pulitzer Prizes in 2016 for local and investigative reporting, are also on the list of affected papers.

Paul Tash, the chairman and chief executive of The Tampa Bay Times, said the price per ton of paper had increased $200, creating an additional $3.5 million in printing expenses annually. Mr. Tash said that as a direct result of the tariffs, he had to lay off 50 employees, combine sections in the Sunday paper and reduce the frequency of a free tabloid from five days to once a week.

posted by zachlipton at 1:33 PM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

> I still can't fathom what it is that a Space Force would do. There are very few military objectives which could be achieved by an improved control of space.

You and me both, but it looks like the rest of the thread has come up with a bunch of lovely ideas:

> Noise. Distraction. Chaff.
> And, of course, graft potential.

So I think we can call that done.

I was going to comment about Mars Awaits (really? The Space Force is going to go to Mars? Or was it a reference to the god of war?) but after the comment about how the logo resembles a "porn-video view of a woman's crotch" I really just need a vat of brain bleach.
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:37 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

Has there been any overlap between the QAnon people and the Nibiru/Planet X people? Are we going to secretly take the war to the ancient aliens once and for all?
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:40 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

“The Congress alone has the power to establish a new branch of the military and to establish the positions of senior executive officials to lead such a department,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school who has studied constitutional issues relating to the military.

Who needs that when you can just find three Mar-a-Lago members who were really into The Martian and have them shadow run it. . .
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 1:41 PM on August 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

Members of the US Congress are exempt from the laws that ban insider trading.

This is a rather confusing Wikipedia statement. It doesn't mean that members are exempt, because they aren't. They are and always have been subject to SEC insider trading laws.

What wikipedia should say is that information that members receive in the course of their congressional duties, such as pending legislation that might affect an industry, does not constitute "insider information" as defined by the SEC, because they are not "insiders" to the corporation as defined by the SEC. Information members hear in committee is not SEC insider information so doesn't fall under SEC insider trading rules. It's not that they are exempt from insider trading laws. It's that the information isn't considered insider information under the law.

The STOCK Act signed by Obama in 2012 tightens up these rules somewhat, forbidding members and their staff from acting on congressional information, but this isn't an SEC insider violation. It is a violation of congressional ethics rules.

But in any case, this doesn't apply to Chris Collins. He is defined as a corporate insider based on his membership on the board of directors of the company. He received inside information as a member of the board. He illegally disclosed that insider information to his son for his son's benefit. That is a violation of federal SEC insider trading laws. The fact that he is a member of congress in entirely irrelevant.

The wikipedia entry should be cleaned up to clarify their misleading statement.
posted by JackFlash at 1:42 PM on August 9, 2018 [35 favorites]

Aren't we party to a treaty de-militarizing space? I guess spy satellites violate the spirit of that already, but still.
posted by thelonius at 1:42 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Has there been any overlap between the QAnon people and the Nibiru/Planet X people? Are we going to secretly take the war to the ancient aliens once and for all?

Not that much overlap, surprisingly; QAnoners generally have more demon-and-angel-obsession comorbidities.

And the ancient aliens are not our enemies but the post-nuclear liberators of the proletariat, if you ask those of us on the Left who have fully been drawn into the siren's embrace of Posadism.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:47 PM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is totally scalable for the GOP in November. $5 million a race to maybe barely win very safe seats.

Carrie Dann (NBC)
My back of the envelope, not-final sums for spending in AL-SEN, GA-6, MT-AL, SC-5, KS-4, PA-18, AZ-8, OH-12 are:

DCCC + DSCC + DNC + HMP + Highway31 ~ $12.3 million

NRCC + NRSC + RNC + SLF + CLF ~ $41.7
posted by chris24 at 1:48 PM on August 9, 2018 [15 favorites]

JackFlash: He is defined as a corporate insider based on his membership on the board of directors of the company. He illegally disclosed that insider information to his son for his son's benefit. That is a violation of federal SEC insider trading laws. The fact that he is a member of congress in entirely irrelevant.

Thank you! I'm someone else here explained this overlap but now I get it. If he thought he was immune, then he wasn't just behind the times, but more on a level with "You can't try a husband and wife for the same crime" in legal nonsense.

However, I'm sure his decision was intentional risk-taking ("Yes I'm breaking the law but come on I can't just sit on this like a chump"), rather than mere ignorance.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 1:50 PM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Aren't we party to a treaty de-militarizing space?

Aside from graft I assume that is the primary upside.
posted by Artw at 1:50 PM on August 9, 2018

thelonius, the treaty you're thinking of doesn't demilitarize space, it just bans weapons testing, maneuvers, and military bases on celestial bodies, and the placing of weapons of mass destruction in orbit. Conventional weapons are still legal in orbit.
posted by Quindar Beep at 1:51 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

The main benefit of the Space Force is that Trump thinks it will allow him to dismantle NASA, which has tremendously high approval ratings with the electorate, but incorrigibly insists upon looking back at this planet and finding undeniable evidence of Global Warming.
posted by jamjam at 2:04 PM on August 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

Has there been a single real astronaut who's said anything in support of this? I'm not even seeing any no comment stories from Leland Melvin, Mike Massamino, or the Kelly brothers.

Mark Kelly's opinion: "The only person that I've heard say this is a fantastic idea is the Commander in Chief, the President of the United States. Everybody else says it's redundant, it's wasteful. We don't have the need out there right now." (via MSNBC on Twitter)

Article in The Hill, "Ex-astronaut: Trump's plan for a Space Force 'redundant,' 'wasteful'"
posted by slipthought at 2:06 PM on August 9, 2018 [19 favorites]

Josh Marshall, in an article behind the TPM Prime paywall (Much More Here Than Rep. Collins), thinks that

Now that Collins has been indicted, heightened scrutiny looks likely to spread to many parts of [the Innate Immunotherapeutics] story that cannot withstand it. ... Rep. Collins owned a big chunk of this company – 17%. His investment goes back years. He got others in the Buffalo area (his district) to invest, including members of his family. But the notable fact that is that at least five other members of Congress also invested, as did former member of Congress – and one time HHS Secretary – Tom Price. Those members are Reps. Lamborn, Mullin, Culberson, Conaway and Long.

And also:

All but one of these Reps is in a very, very conservative district. Conaway is in a R+32 district. Mullin, R+24. Long, R+23. Lamborn is a bit different. He’s R+14. And Collins is R+11. Culberson is R+7... but Hillary Clinton actually won the district 48%-47% in 2016. Because of this Culberson is seen as one of the most vulnerable House Republicans.

So even though Culberson's sale is most likely innocent (as outlined in this thread, higher up, he sold his investment 10 days before the drug trial failure was obvious to the CEO), Josh thinks this is just going to add to the cloud above his head. And in a close election...

(Meanwhile, apparently the other Republicans made out like bandits by knowing in advance that Price, a major shareholder, was going to become Secretary of Health and Human Services - even though Price would have to divest (at a large profit), the company could reasonably expect favorable treatment from the US government going forward, and its stock price would move when that news became public. So this would be the non-indictable sort of insider trading. Unethical as all hell, of course, but at this point, unethical is ... drowning under the tide of blatantly illegal.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:07 PM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Conventional weapons are still legal in orbit.

For example, the Russian machete gun.
posted by Etrigan at 2:08 PM on August 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Ah, here's a non-paywall TPM story: Chris Collins’ Big Pump and Dump?, where they remind us of Chris Collins bragging: 'Do you know how many millionaires I've made in Buffalo the past few months?'
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:11 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

All together they have Rep. Chris Collins, Collin's son Cameron, Cameron's fiancee. The fiancee's mother and father. The father's, brother and sister. And a handful of other friends of the family

My favorite thing about the Collins indictment is he tipped the info to literally everyone in his life...except his daughter, who owned just as much Innate stock as the son and lost it. Worst dad because he cost her 800k? Or best dad for keeping her out of prison? We may never know.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:14 PM on August 9, 2018 [57 favorites]

The Space Race and projects that did not happen are an area of particular interest to me, and I can say with 100% clarity that the military in space thing was hashed out repeatedly by the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations with the debate basically going:

Air Force: We need money for space

Eisenhower or Kennedy Admin: And what useful purpose will it serve?

Air Force: Many things important to national security

EoKA: Such as?

Air Force: Things. Did we say they were important to national security?

EoKA: *cuts the budget*

Lather, rinse, repeat in every annual military budget for ten years. It's no coincidence that the Outer Space Treaty was proposed by the US in 1968. It took that whole decade up to then for the carpet to get worn down by the repeated cycles of the Air Force schlepping into the White House budget office and then schlepping back out empty handed.

If you want a good detailed book on the topic and, ergo, why Space Force is stupid, try The Other Space Race.
posted by Quindar Beep at 2:18 PM on August 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

Conventional weapons are still legal in orbit.

Somewhere deep in the bowels of NRA HQ, someone gets an idea.

——

More than 40,000 Facebook users expressed interest in political protests with potential Russian ties (WaPo, 8/8)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:19 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Further from the Department of You Couldn't Make It Up: the front page of the NYT currently sports a quiz entitled How Well Do You Know Trump Voters?

While this is framed horribly, it actually references a new Pew study of the 2016 electorate based on actual voter records, not exit polls, that reveals a lot of interesting things about the election.

Pew: For Most Trump Voters, ‘Very Warm’ Feelings for Him Endured - Also: A detailed look at the 2016 electorate, based on voter records

John Harwood (CNBC)
big divergences btwn 2016 exits and new Pew retrospective:
-non-college voters were 63% of total, not 50%
-HRC won (diminished) share of white college grads by 17 pts, instead of losing them by 4
-women were 55% of vote, not 52%
-65+ were 27%, not 15%
-under 30 were 13% not 19%

---

And apologies to black women who went 98% Clinton, 0% Trump. We let you down.
posted by chris24 at 2:19 PM on August 9, 2018 [51 favorites]

13% turnout for under-30s is horrific. This is for a Presidential election not even a mid-term!
posted by Justinian at 2:36 PM on August 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

Woops, that's 13% of electorate not 13% turnout. So this could reflect a surge in turnout among older, non-college (racist) voters rather than a collapse in turnout among young people. Likely it's a bit of both.
posted by Justinian at 2:37 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

@PeterAlexander

JUST IN: Trump campaign, in an email, says it wants to give supporters “a final decision on the design we will use to commemorate President Trump’s new Space Force — and he wants YOU to have a say.”

Er, “commemorate”?

I know that it’s too much to expect “the Trump campaign” to have a basic command of English but...

“Ah, the famous golden arches! A solemn commemoration of restaurants where you can eat cheap hamburgers. #NeverForget”
posted by chappell, ambrose at 2:39 PM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

non-college (racist)

please can we not with this kind of thing
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:42 PM on August 9, 2018 [32 favorites]

A detailed look at the 2016 electorate, based on voter records

An interesting thing is Trump won 13% of Mostly Liberal voters. (Clinton won 7% of Mostly Conservative voters.) Mostly Liberal were 20% of the electorate. Why? I'd guess:

1) Misogyny
2) The press treating Trump as the arguably more liberal candidate in some areas - ("Donald the Dove, Hillary the Hawk" - NYT: Maureen Dowd)
3) Racism
4) Sanders backlash

Whatever the reason, you could argue that losing these voters was a bigger reason for the loss than losing WWC/rural Rust Belt former Obama voters. (Obviously some of them could be one and the same, though I'm not sure 'mostly liberal' would be how most describe themselves.)
posted by chris24 at 2:42 PM on August 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

My favorite thing about the Collins indictment is he tipped the info to literally everyone in his life...except his daughter, who owned just as much Innate stock as the son and lost it. Worst dad because he cost her 800k? Or best dad for keeping her out of prison? We may never know.

My favourite thing about it is that Collins still lost all his money because all his stock was ASX instead of US OTC and it was in a trading freeze. He's going to jail and he didn't make a fucking penny.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 2:43 PM on August 9, 2018 [13 favorites]

Er, “commemorate”?

They'll probably make a (commemorative) hat and/or challenge coin. You don't need to actually create a new branch of the military to sell merch.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:45 PM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

The crazy thing about the Collins case is that he should have been protected. In Australia, the CEO called for a halt in trading of the stock for a few days before the trial results and extending until a few days after the results were scheduled to be released. This is standard procedure in Australia for big insider information events. This keeps all insiders from illegally trading on information for their own protection.

And Chris Collins shares were on the Australian exchange. So his attorney is correct that he didn't trade a single share. It's because he couldn't. The Australian blackout rules should have protected him from his own larcenous heart.

But the company's shares were also traded on the U.S. NASDAQ which didn't have a blackout. And Chris just couldn't resist tipping off his son whose shares traded in the U.S.

And the fiancee's mother? Turns out her shares were held in Australia too, but they have a recording in which she called up her Australian broker to sell her shares and the broker informed her she couldn't because of the blackout. But that doesn't matter to the SEC. She obviously attempted to commit fraud, which is still a crime.

Another interesting angle is how tightly the FBI has linked up all these events using social media timestamps. For example there is the email from Chris Collins acknowledging the receipt of the bad news from the CEO, followed one minute later by his frantic and repeated attempts to call his son.

And immediately after that his son and fiancee race over to her parents house to inform them, helpfully documented and timestamped by the daughter messaging "Hi, Mom, we're here" as they pull into the driveway. And then 5 minutes after that message of arrival, the recorded call to her mother's broker in Australia.

I really don't know what the grounds for defense will be since the evidence is so tight. But "Chris Collins didn't trade a single share" ain't going to cut it. He didn't sell his shares because he couldn't due to the blackout. But that didn't keep him from illegally disclosing insider information to his son and conspiring in securities fraud.
posted by JackFlash at 2:50 PM on August 9, 2018 [50 favorites]

An interesting thing is Trump won 13% of Mostly Liberal voters. (Clinton won 7% of Mostly Conservative voters.) Mostly Liberal were 20% of the electorate.

Some quick and dirty math, but if Clinton only loses the same 7% as Trump from the Mostly category, it's a 1.2% overall gain in vote percentage for her. That's equal to her vote deficit in FL and more than her deficit in MI, PA, and WI.
posted by chris24 at 2:56 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

@chrisgeidner: JUST IN: Ari Melber reports that Mueller intends to subpoena Randy Credico (@Credico2016). Credico told @AriMelber yesterday that he declined a request to voluntarily talk with the special counsel's office. Credico is connected to Assange and Stone.

A nice demonstration that "no thanks" is not an option when Mueller wants to talk to you.
posted by zachlipton at 3:06 PM on August 9, 2018 [55 favorites]

Credico is connected to Assange and Stone.

More specifically, he's claimed (by multiple sources) to have been Assange's conduit to Stone.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:11 PM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

This space force thing reads like a fallout level satire. Like I'd expect to see a faded poster in Fallout 4 on some pre-war ruin reading "Join the space force!" with some kind of space suit power armor. Like how is this reality?

Samantha Bee has you covered. Space Force Anthem (I also went to high school with one of the singers, so I'm just filled with pride and glee).
posted by acidnova at 3:15 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

“space is the American Achilles’ heel"

This is not entirely false. The United States has rather a lot of military satellites, which are important enough that China for example has been developing and testing anti-satellite weapons. However, the idea of a space force as a way of protecting satellites is nonsensical, since war in low earth orbit would be a recipe for Kessler Syndrome.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:18 PM on August 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

Tara Golshan at Vox follows up on that glorious ACLU tweet, above:

A judge halts the deportation of a mother and daughter — and threatens Jeff Sessions with contempt of court
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:20 PM on August 9, 2018 [31 favorites]

Whenever I read about the Space Force, I hear SPACE PANTS from the Peter Dinklage SNL skit. Seems just about that serious.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2018 [24 favorites]

Gotta say, if we’re forced to have this Space Force, I would love nothing more than for the top right logo to be the one that it gets stuck with.
Nothing says childish better than a logo that looks like a child literally drew it.
posted by AirExplosive at 3:25 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Twitter: Rob Sheridan's Space Force logo.
Go see!
posted by porn in the woods at 3:29 PM on August 9, 2018 [22 favorites]

Samantha Bee is blocked outside the US Is it this Space Force Anthem?
posted by mbo at 3:32 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hi mbo, sorry no that's not it. I couldn't find it on youtube or else I would have posted that, instead. The real video features the Young New Yorkers Chorus dressed in shiny jackets and sunglasses.
posted by acidnova at 3:35 PM on August 9, 2018

Hamed Aleaziz, An ICE Raid Draws A Human Response In A Tiny Nebraska Town

In the hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided several workplaces in Nebraska, including a hydroponic tomato plant, farms, and restaurants, more than a dozen children sat together in a public elementary school as teachers and administrators tried to distract them from the chaotic scenes outside and their fears over what had become of their parents.

Teachers and administrators had been in a meeting Wednesday morning when panicked phone calls and text messages streamed in informing them that ICE was in their rural town of O’Neill, made up of around 3,700 people, arresting workers. They decided to open up the only public elementary school, which was closed for summer break, for those children who would need support.

Soon the teachers were caring for children as young as four months and as old as high school age. The teachers assumed that the children had parents who worked in the facilities and had been picked up in the raids.
...
As the hours passed at the school, relatives and friends came to pick up the kids. It was at this point when Brodersen realized that two children, the 4-month-old and her 7-year-old sister, weren’t going to be picked up. Both their parents had been arrested in the raid and they had no family in town and no place to go.

She knew she had to take them home.
...
At around 10:30 p.m., as both children slept, the assistant principal got a phone call from the school interpreter who had been in touch with affected families. The dad had been released.

posted by zachlipton at 3:35 PM on August 9, 2018 [72 favorites]

Hi mbo, sorry no that's not it. I couldn't find it on youtube or else I would have posted that, instead. The real video features the Young New Yorkers Chorus dressed in shiny jackets and sunglasses.

I bet this one is better .... Mother-Fuckin' Space Force!
posted by mbo at 3:40 PM on August 9, 2018

just audibly made the UHHHHH sound and then did a little song the sole lyrics of which were

'existential angst
existential angst'

so that's where i'm at today at the age of 34 in the year of our lord 2018

ps fuck trump
posted by lazaruslong at 3:42 PM on August 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

The initial response to these priceless presidential thought jewels, across a wide spectrum of public opinion, was a horrified and faintly nauseated bafflement, which is in itself nothing new where the Big Boy In Chief is concerned. Trump is many things, but he as a general rule he is not much of a mystery.

Delightful piece from David Roth at Deadspin on Donald's take on the California fires.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:52 PM on August 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

How disappointed I am to learn that a machete gun is not a gun that fires actual machetes. Carry on.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:55 PM on August 9, 2018 [60 favorites]

The MARS AWAITS Space Force thing also appears to feature a spaceship *leaving* Mars, which already has, like, cities and stuff. So maybe it's a tourism poster?
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:58 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

How disappointed I am to learn that a machete gun is not a gun that fires actual machetes.

Be the change, man. Be the change.

——

Green Party candidate says he might be part alien, doesn’t care if he’s a spoiler in Ohio election (Avi Selk | WaPo)

On second thought, don’t be the change.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:00 PM on August 9, 2018 [28 favorites]

>>“space is the American Achilles’ heel"
This is not entirely false. The United States has rather a lot of military satellites, which are important enough that China for example has been developing and testing anti-satellite weapons.

Hell, blow up the GPS satellite and 95% of US troops won't be able to find their base to report.
posted by msalt at 4:22 PM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

In a motion filed Thursday afternoon, SPC Mueller's team has asked that a portion of a sidebar conference on Aug 7 remain under seal.
According to the motion, this was during Gates cross examination. And if the transcript were published in full, "it would reveal substantive evidence pertaining to an ongoing government investigation," the motion states.

Update from @BBuchman_CNS: That order has been granted by Judge Ellis. #ManafortTrial
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4705267-Order-to-Seal-Sidebar-Granted-Ellis-Manafort.html

So we may likely conclude that Gates's plea-bargain testimony is part of the Special Counsel's active investigation.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:28 PM on August 9, 2018 [25 favorites]

Gates's plea-bargain testimony is part of the Special Counsel's active investigation

That is extremely surprising to me. I thought this was all just about tax and bank fraud. Huh. Wonder what else is going on...
posted by pjenks at 4:33 PM on August 9, 2018 [13 favorites]

I thought this was all just about tax and bank fraud. Huh. Wonder what else is going on...

Since Gates stayed with the Trump campaign from Super Tuesday to the election and then worked as the deputy chairman of the Donald Trump Inaugural Committee, there's a wealth of possibilities. The change over Ukraine policy in the RNC platform and the massively oversubscribed inaugural fund are just two topics we believe Mueller's interested in. (And why GOP heavy-hitters Elliott Broidy and Thomas Barrack would pay Gates consulting fees about the new administration is curious.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:51 PM on August 9, 2018 [22 favorites]

I have completely given up on the idea that anyone who votes Green in this the year of our lord 2018 is a reachable potential Democratic voter, and that has been good for my peace of mind.
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:57 PM on August 9, 2018 [70 favorites]

That is extremely surprising to me. I thought this was all just about tax and bank fraud. Huh. Wonder what else is going on...

One of the bank fraud crimes was a quid-pro-quo of a loan from the bank for a job as Trump's Secretary of Defense.

But to keep Ellis happy, that's not going to be the focus here. But this issue is going to be brought up in other people's trials ( Gates was core to the campaign and transition -- ground zero for criming ), as Mueller's team ties the campaign to this money thing being tried now.
posted by mikelieman at 4:58 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

This really does look like bad faith action on the Republican side to stack the bench

The Judges shouldn't have committed crimes. Then there'd be no stacking of courts.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:04 PM on August 9, 2018

I don’t see the downside.

Until the situation on Earth is resolved I don't think it's responsible to introduce humans onto any more planets.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:23 PM on August 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

Good point. It's like sneezing out virus-laden snot droplets to get rid of them.
posted by msalt at 5:30 PM on August 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Regarding a comment long above, mentioning that Trump could take the 5th if questioned under oath: He could. But since the 5th doesn't require attorneys to stop asking questions, he'd have to keep asserting his fifth amendment rights. And once you fail, you've opened the door for compelled testimony.

"Why did you fire Comey?"
"I take the fifth."
"Why did you hire Manafort?"
"I take the fifth."
"What 'many enemies' were you thinking of when you wrote your new year's day tweet?"
"All the people who hate me - you know, Hillary voters."
"So, you believe you have sixty-five million enemies?"
"Sure. They're losers. I don't mind having losers for enemies."
"Since you believe a large portion of America is made of your enemies, you wouldn't mind making a deal with Russia to cause them harm, would you?"
".... I take the fifth."
"You can't; you've already agreed to answer questions about your 'many enemies.'"
[fake, but hypothetically possible]

In many cases, once a witness takes the fifth, they stop asking questions. This is based on the assumption that it's a waste of time to keep asking someone who's just going to say the same thing over and over - which any remotely sensible person would do. However, cases have been won against people who intended to take the fifth and just couldn't keep their mouth shut, and it's not hard at all to convince Trump to speak.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 5:46 PM on August 9, 2018 [50 favorites]

Maybe this is all to just make sure we can't leave Planet Earth to get away from Trump.

"Here's the thing, though: as you point out, you and I and every last person who has ever in any way found themselves made Other understands in their bones that it is literally true. "

I haven't been able to comment all day, but THIS. Somehow we have this human urge to be all, "It's different from me! That means it's a threat! Therefore, I MUST KILL IT IN ORDER TO BE SAFE!" (The call of the Republicans/conservatives, right there.) If anything is slightly different, slightly different shade tone, owns a vagina, doesn't want to boink the opposite gender or just says weird things, KILL IT WITH FIRE DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is what sings in their hearts.

I don't know how to stop those people from coming after us. The way people get over that urge is to mix and mingle with The Other and see that We're Not So Different, but..I dunno if we can do this all over without folks getting killed.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:46 PM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

look I don’t know why you people are so dead set opposed to Donald trump and all his followers launching themselves on a conquest/colonization mission to mars. I don’t see the downside.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:27 PM on August 9

This time, though, maybe we should let the telephone sanitizers stay.
posted by Reverend John at 5:52 PM on August 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

Uber Says Its Drivers Can Kick Out White Supremacists

Drivers with the transportation company Uber will have the chance to refuse passengers who attend the upcoming Unite the Right 2 white supremacist rally in DC on August 12. The refusal is contingent on a driver’s feelings of comfort and safety in accordance with the app’s community guidelines.

According to the terms agreed upon when signing up for the service, both drivers and passengers are “are expected to exercise good judgment and behave decently towards other people in the car when riding with Uber.” That list of bad behavior includes breaking the local law, damaging property, and use of inappropriate and abusive language or gestures. Uber tells Washingtonian that if a driver deems actions by a passenger discriminatory—which could include ideology, signage, and remarks associated with racial supremacy and neo-nazism—a driver is within his or her right to terminate the ride.

posted by T.D. Strange at 5:54 PM on August 9, 2018 [44 favorites]

I....I have to question how many white supremacists would actually have ride-sharing apps, for some reason. I'd imagine either that they'd have regular drivers or they'd be, like, carpooling.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:59 PM on August 9, 2018

. . . . and then get hit with a string of one-star rating that might get them booted from the Uber network?
posted by absalom at 5:59 PM on August 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

duffell: "A Republican super PAC in fucking Florida is suggesting (with all the subtlety typical of Republican super PACs) that Sen. Bill Nelson is too old to be a Senator.

Yeah. That's their campaign strategy. In fucking Florida."

This is good historical irony, because the main reason Nelson lost the 1990 Dem gubernatorial primary was that he tried to make an issue of Lawton Chiles's age and it backfired big time.

Also, he's 75. Now, I would be happier with a much younger average age in the Senate, but in the real world, 75 is not old for a Senator.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:05 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Des Moines Register: Michael Avenatti in Iowa: 'I’m exploring a run for the presidency of the United States'

"I’m exploring a run for the presidency of the United States, and I wanted to come to Iowa and listen to people and learn about some issues that are facing the citizens of Iowa and do my homework," Avenatti told the Des Moines Register in an interview Thursday.

Avenatti, who rose to prominence as an outspoken critic of the president, toured the Iowa State Fair Thursday posing for selfies with fans. He is scheduled to speak at the Democratic Wing Ding fundraiser Friday night in Clear Lake.

That event, a celebrated platform for presidential hopefuls and rising stars alike, hosted Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in 2015. Then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama headlined the event during his first run for president in 2007.

On Friday, he's scheduled to appear alongside two declared presidential candidates — U.S. Rep. John Delaney of Maryland and entrepreneur Andrew Yang — as well as potential candidate U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio.

In other self-promoting blowhard news, the trailer for Michael Moore's Trump documentary, Fahrenheit 11/9, has dropped. The film, press release claims, "will explore the two most important questions of the Trump Era: How the f**k did we get here, and how the f**k do we get out?" Come for Moore hosing down Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's driveway with a tanker truck of "Flint Water"; stay for the finale shot of Trump with Moore's pronouncement, “Ladies and gentleman, the last president of the United States.”
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:17 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

I....I have to question how many white supremacists would actually have ride-sharing apps, for some reason. I'd imagine either that they'd have regular drivers or they'd be, like, carpooling.

Maybe they were looking for something else when they typed "uber" into the app store.
posted by condour75 at 6:19 PM on August 9, 2018 [75 favorites]

I....I have to question how many white supremacists would actually have ride-sharing apps

Huh? Why? They walk among us.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 6:20 PM on August 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

They motorcar among us.
posted by vrakatar at 6:26 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Michigan Repubs in Disarray!
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:29 PM on August 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Uber Says Its Drivers Can Kick Out White Supremacists

Oh thank goodness. On rough estimate, 75% of my uber/lyft drivers have been people of color, or people who appear to be trans. I would for sure, worry for their safety if the company forced them to take people to and from rallies like that. I hope lyft makes a similar statement.
posted by greermahoney at 6:37 PM on August 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

Hey now! Nazis suffer from lack of public transport infrastructure and local taxi medallion corruption same as everyone else.

Wrong audience?

Wrong message?

Both?

(We still need to get our arms around regulating orgs like Uber or Airbnb or Twitter wrt to guaranteeing universal access and blocking toxic practices with an eye toward maximizing public good while preserving the profit motive and I think the public utility model is a good place to take some cues. Hey! Guaranteed profit is nice to have, even if it just barely beats inflation/bonds.)
posted by notyou at 7:00 PM on August 9, 2018

"I’m exploring a run for the presidency of the United States, and I wanted to come to Iowa and listen to people and learn about some issues that are facing the citizens of Iowa and do my homework," Avenatti told the Des Moines Register in an interview Thursday

We have a strict no narcissists policy now, thanks

I am going to choose to believe this is yet another artful troll of Trump, but I note that we haven’t heard from Stormy in a minute
posted by schadenfrau at 7:01 PM on August 9, 2018 [22 favorites]

In other self-promoting blowhard news, the trailer for Michael Moore's Trump documentary, Fahrenheit 11/9, has dropped

I generally like his movies, but I like them more the less he's in them. More Moore = Like Less.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:03 PM on August 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

Re: Avenatti - People get famous, and then they go kind of crazy huh?
posted by awfurby at 7:13 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Wrong audience?

Wrong message?

Both?

Yes. Both. There's a world of difference between adequately funding common carrier public transportation options like buses and trains, and forcing disproportionately minority private independent contractors into hateful and dangerous situations and direct contact with racial tormentors.

If you want Nazis to be able to take the bus, fund the bus. DC has quite better buses than most places the Nazis will be coming from. But the trade off for offloading the responsibilities of the state onto the private gig economy must be that an individual has the option to say, "no, I'm not picking up a Nazi today".
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:37 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Space Force being about graft isn't surprising; NASA always seemed to me to be a solid component of the military-industrial complex. Am wondering when Trump-branded Space Force apparel branded with "Made in ~~China~~ the USA" will start appearing.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:38 PM on August 9, 2018

Is describing a supremacist as 'entitled' redundant?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:39 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

I want to believe that mr trump has been given a tour of a fake area 51 and this is why he is all “space force” now: the war he intends to start to stay in office will be against imaginary space aliens instead of a real nuclear war against humans
posted by bigbigdog at 7:39 PM on August 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** OH-12 special: Balderson margin narrowed to 1564 votes as some uncounted votes were found. Disposition of provisionals and absentees will continue until next Friday. That might push it into the automatic recount zone, although it's still unlikely O'Connor would prevail.

** 2018 House:

-- NYT recap of the elections has GOP strategists freaking out about the environment and also GOP incumbents not taking it all seriously enough. We've heard all that before, but interesting gossip over which districts it looks like the party is already giving up on, including Rod Blum [IA-01] and Jason Lewis [MN-02].

-- VA-07: Women's groups working to defeat Dave Brat.

-- VA-02: Dems calling for splitter independent candidate Brown to be removed from the ballot, in the wake of the forged signature scandal, and are threatening legal action if necessary.

-- NY-27: 538 analysis of the impact of scandals on final result indicates that Collins might suffer a 9-13 point hit over the insider trading charges. A reminder that it is very difficult to get off of the ballot in New York, so this is the horse the GOP will be riding.

-- CA-39: Tulchin Research poll has Dem challenger Cisneros up 53-42 on GOP incumbent Kim [MOE: +/- 4.0%]. The poll was commissioned by Cisneros.

-- WA-09: Dems may lock the GOP out of the top two in this one. It's a safe D seat, but still.

-- SD-AL: Surprisingly, two polls of this race. Public Opinion Strategies has GOPer Johnson up 54-33 on Dem Bjorkman [no MOE listed]. That one was commissioned by the Johnson campaign. PPP has Johnson up 43-33 [MOE: +/- 3.9%]. That one may have been commissioned by Bjorkman, not clear.

-- Analysis of spending totals in Congressional special elections shows GOP groups spent a total of $41.7M vs $12.3M for the Democrats. These were all fairly red districts; this kind of spending is simply not sustainable.

** 2018 Senate:

-- WV: GOP effort to unseat Manchin is languishing.

-- MS: There was some polling for the MS races, but the age and race makeup look way, way off, so I'm going to hold off for something more reasonable. They showed the GOP comfortably ahead, fwiw.

** Odds & ends:

-- KS gov: In the other undecided election, things are really heating up. The nominal lead was cut to 91 votes for Kobach, as a vote total was incorrectly reported. Note that the county is saying it was the secretary of state's office to blame. And that's not the only issue with the SOS office (headed, of course, by Kobzch). He's refused to recuse himself from the vote tabulation process or any recount (which is not required by state law). Colyer has accused him of instructing county officials contrary to state law (an act which he just lost a lawsuit over), and called for him to remove himself from the process. Colyer has also established a "voter integrity hotline" for any voter who feels they may have been treated improperly during the voting process.

LATE UPDATE: Margin now 121 Kobach after another error found, plus Kobach says he'll remove himself from counting. Although it remains to be seen what that means, exactly.

Main-in votes will still be counted if postmarked by Tuesday and received by Friday, plus there are several thousand provisional votes to be reviewed. The deadline for a recount request is August 17 and has five days to be completed.

From a "let's play some game theory" viewpoint, probably the best outcome for Democrats is a lengthy, bitter battle over the recount followed by a razor thin Kobach win. Colyer has meh approvals whereas Kobach's are lousy. The danger is Kobach actually winning as he is extremely dangerous (Dems may make some gains in the legislature, but have no shot of taking control). Complicating matters is a semi-credible independent candidate, who will likely split the anti-Kobach vote (shades of Alaska's governor race).

-- MI gov: Incumbent GOP gov Snyder has declined to endorse GOP nominee Schuette (he had backed another candidate), or even say if he likes him.

-- ID gov: Clarity+Campaign poll has GOPer Little up 36-28 on Dem Jordan [no MOE listed]. This poll appears to be commissioned by the Jordan campaign.

-- MD gov: Garin-Hart-Yang poll has incumbent GOPer Hogan up 49-40 on Dem challenger Jealous [MOE: +/- 4.0%]. The poll was commissioned by the Jealous campaign.

-- VT gov: GOP sending $1M to incumbent GOP gov Scott, formerly seen as safe. There's a lot of discontent in the party over his backing of gun control legislation, remains to be seen if there's anything more to it. Primary is next week, if he lost it (very unlikely), a Dem flip would be likely.

-- Automatic voter registration signed into law in Massachusetts. Will apply to 2020 elections, and include both DMV and healthcare interactions with the state (and scope to expand further).

-- GOP worried about serious losses in state legislatures.

-- There's always a lot of stuff roiling around in North Carolina election law battles, and I don't blame you if you can't keep up with GOP skulduggery. This week: partial victory for the Democrats in the "party labels" case, judge blocks the ability of voters to challenge residency of others, controversy over gov Cooper's suit to block initiatives from the fall ballot.

-- There's a long-running saga about Indiana trying to suppress Dem turnout by not opening enough early voting locations in Marion County (Indianapolis). A consent decree was supposed to resolve that. Now the AG is trying to block it, over the objections of the SOS.

posted by Chrysostom at 7:51 PM on August 9, 2018 [45 favorites]

David Sirota, The Trump Administration Just Found a New Way to Hand Big Banks Even More Money

Do “financial services” include banking? Not according to the Trump administration, whose new rule, issued Wednesday by the Treasury Department, argues there is a difference — and then cites the alleged difference as a means of extending lucrative tax breaks to the banking industry. The new rule represents more than semantic hairsplitting and hands a huge windfall to the banking industry.

At issue is the Trump tax bill’s treatment of so-called pass-through income — or income that is gleaned from partnerships, LLCs and S corporations. The 2017 Republican tax legislation dramatically slashed tax rates on income from such entities, generating a firestorm of criticism that it was a giveaway to real estate moguls like Trump, U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) and other Republican backers of the legislation who have such entities in their personal portfolios. (The criticism became known as the “Corker Kickback” scandal.)

To reduce some of the cost of the overall tax cut bill — and to mute some of the specific criticism of the pass-through sections — GOP lawmakers included provisions prohibiting certain kinds of businesses from qualifying for the pass-through tax cut. One such business was “financial services,” and its removal countered assertions that the bill could enrich big banks.

However, less than a year after passage of the tax legislation, the Treasury Department, headed by former banker Steve Mnuchin, issued the proposed rule whose fine print asserts that “financial services” actually do not include banking. If that interpretation of the tax bill stands, hundreds of banks operating as S corporations — as well as their owners — could claim the tax cut.
...
Banking industry lobbyists pushed for the interpretation — acknowledging that the bill generally blocked pass-through tax cuts for businesses in financial services, but arguing that “financial services are, however, clearly something other than banking.”

“We had extensive discussions with Congressional staff and various members in both the House and Senate,” wrote the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and Subchapter S Bank Association in a letter to the Treasury Department. “In the course of these discussions, we were assured repeatedly that S Banks would qualify for the lower tax rate for pass-through businesses.”

You can see WSJ reporter Richard Rubin explain the 20% pass-through deduction using a literal fucking obstacle course if you want a visual aid.
posted by zachlipton at 7:55 PM on August 9, 2018 [30 favorites]

Chrysostom, whatever's wrong with you to make you follow politics like that - thank you!

* print out latest Chrysostom recap
* tape printout under brim of hat
* seem more smarter at parties
posted by petebest at 8:02 PM on August 9, 2018 [69 favorites]

I ask for nothing more than the unquestioning adoration of millions.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:25 PM on August 9, 2018 [125 favorites]

I note that we haven’t heard from Stormy in a minute

She's been busy: Stormy Daniels' husband files for divorce... seeks sole custody of couple’s daughter [SLGuardian, from July 24]
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:28 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

DSA’s rapid growth, from 5k to nearly 50k, as told by members (good interviews plus my arm is in a photo)
posted by The Whelk at 8:29 PM on August 9, 2018 [29 favorites]

The Trump Administration Just Found a New Way to Hand Big Banks Even More Money

Well, this is more slimy crony capitalism, but the headline is a little misleading. These are S-corp banks which are mostly pretty small local community banks. There are about 2000 of them but average only $100 million in assets. That compares to a JP Morgan with $2.5 trillion in assets, which is 25,000 times as large. These little S-corp banks aren't "Big Banks." They are more like credit union sized.

That doesn't excuse this regulatory second-bite-of-the-apple rewriting of a too hastily hashed out tax cut law.
posted by JackFlash at 8:45 PM on August 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

Barbara Comstock (Desperate-VA-10) has begun the dirty campaigning she's known for with a vile racist screed against her opponent, Jennifer Wexton.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:30 PM on August 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

If you get subpoenaed you can fight it. In the case of Trump it would be a massive shitfight that would take months in federal court maybe even years if SCOTUS takes it up.

Your average person can't fight a subpoena. You show up to court or go to jail. Trump is saying the president, alone, cannot be ordered to appear in court. He can make this argument, because all previous presidents voluntarily complied with their subpoenas. Very few lawyers or judges believe the president cannot be subpoenaed. But yes, it would go to the Supreme Court and would take time.

Anyone can refuse to speak to an investigator. You just shut the hell up, you ask for your lawyer, you take the 5th, and (this is the most important part) you STAY SILENT.

For the most part. You can only take the 5th on questions that may incriminate you, meaning you admit you're guilty of something related to the question. A lawyer would advise his client to plead the 5th in many cases, but I am not sure this would protect Trump from impeachment. It's not a good look.
posted by xammerboy at 9:49 PM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Taking the fifth is NOT admitting that you're guilty of something. It's saying, "this reveals something that could be used against me in a criminal case."

Maybe you were at the murder scene at a suspicious time, and don't want to admit that. Maybe you have no alibi for the bank robbery because you were indulging in bizarre kinky porn (of the legal variety) and don't want to admit that--but not admitting it makes it look like you were at the bank. Maybe didn't buy and sell drugs but there was a bizarre mixup with a pair of backpacks and a missing wallet and there is just no way a prosecutor won't put the facts together to try to convict you, especially since the actual guilty person is long gone.

This is important; taking the fifth in a criminal case is not considered evidence of criminal behavior, and especially not activities related to the case itself. (Taking it in a civil case is different; in that, they're allowed to believe you're withholding evidence that would work against you. It's not specifically evidence of a crime, but it is evidence that you're hiding something. In a criminal case, the judge and jury aren't allowed to consider it as evidence of anything.)

I'm not sure how taking the 5th would work in an impeachment - it's neither a criminal nor civil court. I suppose it'd be allowed, as you're always free to not incriminate yourself - but like civil court, the legislature could take it as a sign that you're hiding something that would damage your case.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:02 PM on August 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

Yep, I'm wrong.
posted by xammerboy at 10:10 PM on August 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

KY-6: Video shows Andy Barr donor confronting Democratic Party staffer outside event

The video, described by the party Thursday in a news release and posted on YouTube, starts focused on the ground while a man’s voice is heard asking if he should shoot the staffer or set his dogs on him. Then it shows Hillenmeyer approach the staffer and tell him to leave. When the staffer stays put, Hillenmeyer grabs the camera.

“If you break that, that’s assault sir,” the staffer said.

“I don’t care,” Hillenmeyer responded. “I will break it. I want you out of here. Go. Go. Get.”

Even the "mainstream" Republican resort first to violence. Remember 2010 when Rand Paul supporters curb stomped a MoveOn.org protester?
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:18 PM on August 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

I'm not asking for anything new or weird, this used to be America, it could be again Henry A. Wallace Common Man Speech
posted by The Whelk at 11:17 PM on August 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

From yesterday, a roundup from the Union of Concerned Scientists:
The president continues to push for a misguided federal bailout of the coal industry—a blatant political payoff to campaign donors using taxpayer money with no long-term solutions for coal workers. The latest shiny object masquerading as reasoning? National security. But as we know, bailing out uneconomic coal plants only exacerbates the real national security issues brought on by climate change, while continuing to saddle our country with the public health impacts of coal-fired electricity—which hurt real people in real communities.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:19 AM on August 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

Army suspends discharges of foreign-born recruits from citizenship program (WaPo):

The Army is suspending discharges of foreign-born recruits who enlisted as part of a special military program that put them on the path to U.S. citizenship, following lawsuits by soldiers who say they have been expelled unfairly and without explanation.

In a July 20 memo, a top Army personnel official ordered the service to “suspend processing of all involuntary separation actions” for individuals in the program and ordered a review of the discharge procedures for affected soldiers by Aug. 15.

posted by peeedro at 3:49 AM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Barbara Comstock (Desperate-VA-10) has begun the dirty campaigning she's known for with a vile racist screed against her opponent, Jennifer Wexton.

It's a bold strategy Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for her.

I mean, we know how well going full Trump worked for Governor Gillespie. And I'm sure VA-10 in particular loved it.

**VA-10 Governor Results**
Ralph Northam (D) 55.6%
Ed Gillespie (R) 43.3%
posted by chris24 at 4:31 AM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

the more I think about it, the more I like the Avenatti idea, it really will take someone with the celebrity status and I hate to say this but good looks of an Avenatti to be the Anti-trump.

Politics will never go back to the pre-Trump trends and certainties, we're in Idiocracy now and he's the best surfer of the new reality.
posted by Wilder at 4:46 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

I kindly but strongly disagree, though I’m not sure debating the relative merits of an Avenatti stunt candidacy is a good idea (at least in here). Feels like “taking the bait” to me.

——

The Most Blissfully Trump-Twitter-Free Place in America

Welcome to the money-laundering trial of Paul Manafort, where facts still matter.
(Susan B. Glasser | The New Yorker)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:55 AM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

NFL Players Renew Anthem Protests As Pre-Season Starts
posted by octothorpe at 5:04 AM on August 10, 2018 [47 favorites]

Glasser:

Commentators from across the political spectrum have started wondering whether Ellis’s heavy hand will undermine prosecutors’ credibility with the jury. “I’m not happy with this judge,” the Fox News senior legal analyst Andrew Napolitano said this week, criticizing Ellis’s “extraordinary bias” against the prosecutors. On Thursday, the Mueller team filed a formal written protest to the judge about what it deemed an inaccurate and unfair reprimand from the day before. “I may well have been wrong,” Ellis eventually conceded in remarks to the jury. “This robe doesn’t make me anything other than human.”

Yet no matter how theatrical or even misguided Ellis is, to spend a day in his courtroom is to be reminded of a different, pre-Trump era in our civic life—in a good way. An era when basic facts were not subject to endless distortion and truth still mattered. When the President himself could not intrude on the proceedings with his endless, self-serving, and utterly misleading Twitter spin.

Electronics are, mercifully, if inconveniently, banned from the Alexandria federal courthouse, meaning that it may be one of the most Trump-free spaces on the planet at the moment. Instead of staring down at their phones and laptops, the journalists and other spectators are forced to actually listen as the case unfolds, without a constant stream of instant commentary to shape their thinking. (“I tell everyone it’s like living in 1994,” one of the reporters on the Manafort beat told me.) The self-contained Ellis courtroom is that rare place today where there is presumed to be a truth that is real and verifiable. A place where the facts are worth so much to the public that the U.S. government had a forensic accountant meticulously match the flow of money from Manafort’s overseas bank accounts to his invoices from luxury-car dealers, couturiers, decorators, and the like. I found the testimony of the accountant, in its own way, just as compelling as Gates’s rendition of his life as the henchman of an international high-roller. Forget “alternative facts.” Here are actual ones. And, yes, they are damning.

But of course we still live in Trump’s world. On Thursday morning, the President interrupted his extended New Jersey golf vacation to tweet. The subject on his mind, as usual, was the Mueller investigation. He complained about the “illegally brought Rigged Witch Hunt run by people who are totally corrupt and/or conflicted.” Reading it, I wished I was still in Judge Ellis’s courtroom, listening to testimony about actual corruption. By those with whom Donald Trump chose to surround himself. Who cares if the judge is a jerk.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:07 AM on August 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

Guys, I'm starting to think Stewart might be a white supremacist.

In June, two members of GOP Senate nominee Corey Stewart’s campaign praised a white nationalist family tied to the candidate.

Joshua Rosene, a field director on Stewart’s campaign for Virginia senator, defended white supremacists George Randall and Donna Randall — a pro-Confederacy couple that has worked for Stewart in differing capacities.

“George and Donna Randall are valuable supporters of our campaign and will remain so,” said Rosene on June 16, in response to someone who shared a photo of George Randall marching with former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke in the deadly Unite the Right rally.

The Stewart campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Aside from their involvement in last year’s Charlottesville, Virginia rally that ended with a white supremacist killing an anti-racist activist, George and Donna Randall are also tied to the neo-Confederate, white supremacist group League of the South, which bills itself as an organization focused on securing “a future for white children”, an phrase borrowed from the “14 Words” neo-Nazi slogan.

But their activism did not stop Rosene from backing them, or Brian Landrum, an adviser who works with Stewart at his current job at the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and volunteers on his campaign against Senator Tim Kaine.

“Donna and George Randall are good people,” Landrum wrote on Facebook. “They are not racists.”

Incidentally, Landrum has his own ties to open white supremacists. Per a Daily Beast report released last month, the Stewart staffer participated in a Facebook group chat created to plan a second Unite the Right rally on August 12, which will serve as an anniversary for last year’s deadly event.

Landrum also recently aided in the doxing of a New York Times reporter, after providing her phone number to an alt-right, conspiratorial website tied to the Stewart campaign, which published the number. He did so after claiming that she broke into his home while trying to interview him, but the Times vehemently denied this accusation. Police are investigating the matter further.

posted by chris24 at 5:11 AM on August 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

If the DNC try to jam through a Tom Daschle or similar Schumer-American, it seems like we could do worse than Avenatti. Headline clickbait aside though, there is no possible way I'm going to think about it for another year at least.

I need an Obama who's going to kick ass and take names this time.
posted by petebest at 5:12 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

an anti-racist activist

They know this is really not necessary. Just put "decent human".
posted by petebest at 5:15 AM on August 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Kanye West goes silent when Jimmy Kimmel asks why he thinks Trump cares about black people. (Erin Jensen | USA Today)

The conversation returned to Trump later in the interview, when Kanye posed the question: "When I see people just even like go at the president, it's like, why not try love?"

Kimmel said he understood where his guest was coming from, but denied that the matter was so simple. "There are literally families being torn apart as a result of what this president is doing, and I think that we cannot forget that whether we like his personality or not, his actions are really what matter," he said. "You’ve so famously and so powerfully said 'George Bush doesn’t care about black people,' it makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?"

Kanye took a moment to contemplate Kimmel's question. Before too long, Kimmel interjected and said: "Why don’t we take a break; we'll come back…"

But when the two came back from the commercial break, they changed the subject.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:29 AM on August 10, 2018 [44 favorites]

"Anthem Protests?" What right-wing chucklefuck wrote that headline? "Police brutality protests," surely.

Ugh, I didn't even notice that. I doubt it was a right-wing chucklefuck, just someone who's internalized the conventional narrative.
posted by octothorpe at 5:30 AM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

The conversation returned to Trump later in the interview, when Kanye posed the question: "When I see people just even like go at the president, it's like, why not try love?"

When I see the president break up families for the optics before the midterms, it's like, why not try basic civil rights?
posted by jaduncan at 5:37 AM on August 10, 2018 [37 favorites]

If it's TYOOL 2018 and you can still be described as "pro-Confederacy," it alarms me that you are allowed to drive or operate heavy machinery without supervision.

That may be my new favorite euphemism for "would prefer if non-whites were property."
posted by delfin at 5:44 AM on August 10, 2018 [23 favorites]

If the DNC try to jam through a Tom Daschle or similar Schumer-American, it seems like we could do worse than Avenatti.

Alternately, you could just vote in your primary and accept the results of this long chain of democratic processes.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:46 AM on August 10, 2018 [20 favorites]

Looks like that's not even the worst thing NPR's done today, and it's barely 9am EST:

@ericajanes: Up this morning and aghast to hear @NPR giving white supremecist jason kessler a platform to spew hate and bullshit, and even worse, to hear him presented as a "both sides" against the #BlackLivesMatters movement. How dare they.

@jaysonkaplan: NPR just pulled the same nonsense, interviewing white nationalist Jason Kessler and following it up with a interview of a BLM member, and having the audacity to ask why BLM won't just converse with these racists.

@jbouie: To repeat a point I make a lot on here, “why can’t you just talk to white supremacists” is a question you ask when you think of racism as an error of processing and not a deeply-held ideology.

posted by zombieflanders at 6:00 AM on August 10, 2018 [90 favorites]

Karen Attiah (WaPo)
Cannot believe this @NPR interview with Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Unite The Right rally— the interviewer is allowing Kessler to spew his propaganda, virtually unchallenged.

@SharinStone
Replying to @KarenAttiah
I disagree. I think she gave him just enough rope to showcase how unevolved and evil he is. I was laughing at how unintelligent he sounded..."I'm not a human biologist, but Charles Murray blah, blah, blah". Please.

Karen Attiah
Retweeted SStone
To many people, his ideas don’t sound that evil. It’s not enough to sit back and laugh at him. It’s the height of privilege to treat white nationalists as curious little clowns instead of treating them like the violent threat to society that they are.
posted by chris24 at 6:12 AM on August 10, 2018 [119 favorites]

And while I'm happy the media has (mostly) moved on from alt-right, 'white nationalists' still pisses me off. They're white supremacists or neo-Nazis. White nationalists still minimizes the reality.
posted by chris24 at 6:24 AM on August 10, 2018 [19 favorites]

Today's Guardian's leading with Omarosa, of all things, and her utterly nonshocking reveal that DJT is a racist and a misogynist who freely uses anti-Black and anti-Filipino slurs and refers to his own children as "retards."

Honestly, I can't imagine why this counts as news at all, let alone front-pageworthy news. But for the specific slurs employed — and who needs to hear (or in my case, learn one of) those? — this pattern of facts is not merely something that decisively belongs to the realm of the known, it's not even disputed. Those of us who despise him are unsurprised by his crudity and ignorance, while his supporters are delighted to learn he thinks and speaks just like them.

I simply don't see, from a purely journalistic perspective, why this is newsworthy. At the very least, I wish I had Omarosa's PR people, 'cause they sure are good at getting promo pieces placed. I guess she learned earned media at the feet of the dark master.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:30 AM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

From Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:
Since taking office in March 2017, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has emerged as one of the most ethically dubious members of President Trump’s Cabinet. While he has yet to beat Scott Pruitt’s record of 16 federal investigations into alleged misconduct, he has quickly collected ethics scandals.

CREW found that Zinke has racked up 14 federal investigations into his behavior since becoming Secretary. While a few of these investigations have cleared Zinke of wrongdoing, many remain ongoing, and — perhaps most concerning — several were closed or were inconclusive due to a lack of cooperation with the probe or the Interior Department’s failure to keep proper records.
posted by Bella Donna at 6:34 AM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

Deray
Jason Kessler being given an interview on NPR as if white supremacy is a legitimate policy position is a reminder that many of the (white) people making decisions in the media don’t feel impacted by any of this — it’s either entertainment or “news” until it hits their doorstep.
- You know who NPR isn’t interviewing? The folks saying that the media should be shot dead and that the media is the enemy of the people. But why not? Is that not a legitimate policy position, too? OF COURSE IT ISN’T. But they are impacted by that one.
- We continue to watch whiteness work.
posted by chris24 at 6:35 AM on August 10, 2018 [133 favorites]

I've a friend who earned a graduate journalism degree from a nationally ranked school, and they described their classmates as mostly rich kids who graduated with liberal arts degrees but without much of an idea as to what to do next. I think about this a lot when looking at what the media today focus and report on.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:44 AM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

#Russia's state TV:
Vitaly Tretyakov, dean of Moscow State University's School of Television, argues that Russia should act decisively in response to the new sanctions. "Let's turn this into a headache for Trump. If you want us to support you in the elections, do what we say.”
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:46 AM on August 10, 2018 [23 favorites]

“It Was All True”: Minnesota Attorney General’s Former Deputy Speaks Out About Participation in Political Work - Rachel M. Cohen, The Intercept

On Monday, The Intercept reported that Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson relied on her official government staff for political work, sourced largely to unnamed employees. In the 48 hours after the story’s publication, more than a dozen individuals, including seven more former employees, contacted The Intercept and shared stories of being asked to volunteer politically that corroborated our report. Multiple sources named key Swanson deputies engaged in political activity in the attorney general’s office, repeating the names of staffers who’d previously been identified to The Intercept. One name that was repeatedly mentioned was D’Andre Norman, someone said to be instrumental in pressuring staffers to do Swanson’s political bidding.

Norman left the office in 2014 and is listed in state records as a mid-level employee, but sources claimed he was a close Swanson ally for years.

The Intercept contacted Norman and asked him about his political involvement with Swanson. He agreed to tell his story. He said that while he felt loyal to many of his co-workers, his time at the attorney general’s office weighed heavily on his conscience. He said he was also fearful that, in any case, his name would soon be exposed by reporters or investigators, at which point Swanson’s allies might attempt to pin all the wrongdoing on him.

“It was all true, unfortunately,” said Norman of The Intercept’s report. “Nothing in there was not right and correct.”

Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Rachel Cohen earlier today to go into detail on the story, including specifics of D’Andre Norman's story. MPR is hosting a debate between Lori Swanson, Tim Walz, and Erin Murphy at 11 AM CDT today, and promises to ask questions based on the Intercept's story.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:54 AM on August 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Jason Kessler being given an interview on NPR

Just to make the point stronger, Kessler is the one who slurred Heather Heyer after she was murdered and said she deserved it (an act he later blamed on ambien!). Apparently that's a perfectly acceptable level of discourse to warrant a national platform. NPR should really be ashamed.
posted by dis_integration at 6:57 AM on August 10, 2018 [51 favorites]

Hi, I’m David Green. Welcome back to Morning Edition. The Chancellor’s crackdown on un-German writing has drawn condemnation - but his supporters are thrilled. We’ll take you to a burning and hear what they have to say. Later, a victim of Jewish bankers, and her heartbreaking story.

The really chilling thing is that, as I started reading, my brain instantly supplied the soothing opening strains of their theme song and it all sounded completely natural.

“The news is next,” indeed.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:59 AM on August 10, 2018 [24 favorites]

Regarding Jason Kessler, did NPR find someone to talk about the other side of the story?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:01 AM on August 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Washington Post live coverage: Paul Manafort trial Day 9

9:05 a.m.: Prosecution expected to rest case against Manafort today

Prosecutors expect to rest their case against Paul Manafort Friday after calling four or five more witnesses to round out their case. That is an increase from their previous estimate, though one of the witnesses has testified in the case before.

Among those expected to take the stand are officials from Federal Savings Bank, one of the institutions Manafort is accused of defrauding to get a loan. That testimony could be particularly interesting because Manafort took steps to try to get Stephen Calk, the founder and CEO of the bank, a job as Army Secretary in the Trump administration, as well as an invite to the presidential inauguration. Calk himself, though, is not expected to be called by prosecutors.

Prosecutors also say they intend to call a man whose online bio says he is senior director of ticket operations for the New York Yankees. Manafort is accused of having Rick Gates claim, falsely, that he had used Manafort’s credit card to purchase Yankees season tickets.

CNN is also providing live coverage:

Prosecutors ask judge to correct the record (again)

Prosecutors have for the second time during Paul Manafort's criminal trial asked Judge T.S. Ellis to correct a statement he made to the jury, according to a filing they made Friday morning.

This time, they're asking Ellis to tell the jury to disregard his comment Thursday during a witness' testimony about alleged bank fraud conspiracy that the attorneys "might want to spend time on a loan that was granted."

Ellis made the comment near the end of the day Thursday, as witness Taryn Rodriguez of Citizens Bank testified about a $5.5 million loan Paul Manafort applied for using false statements to the bank but did not receive.

What prosecutors want: Prosecutors said the comment misrepresents the law regarding bank fraud conspiracy and is likely to confuse and mislead the jury.

They want Ellis to explain in court Friday "that the jury is not to consider the Court’s comment and that loans that Manafort fraudulently applied for but did not receive are relevant to the charges in the indictment.

posted by Doktor Zed at 7:02 AM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

Regarding Jason Kessler, did NPR find someone to talk about the other side of the story?

Who cares? The fact that NPR considers Kessler's side at all worthy of an extended and non-hostile interview is a big part of the problem.

NPR's addiction to the lazy "he-said, she-said" model, in which facts and truth are balanced by outright lies and left for the listeners to sort out, is another. It's substituting objective journalism, in which objective facts like climate change and the Trump campaign's pattern of behavior exist, with a subjective view in which "Democrats say" that Republican tax cuts overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy or "critics say" that Republican policies can lead to environmental harm.
posted by Gelatin at 7:09 AM on August 10, 2018 [35 favorites]

Jesus, the NPR thing gets even worse:

@KarenAttiah:@NPR is actually asking Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Unite the Right rallies right now: What do you think are the differences between races?

He proceeds to literally rank the races

Everybody associated with this should be looking for a job by the end of the day.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:11 AM on August 10, 2018 [113 favorites]

Kris Kobach Says He Will Recuse Himself From Kansas Vote Count - James Doubek, NPR

What the article doesn't say is if Kobach was pressured into recusing himself in the first place. It mostly talks about the details of how this recusal will work.

Compare that with this post: Kobach Bends To Pressure, Will Recuse Himself From Kansas Recount - Kate Riga, Talking Points Memo.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:12 AM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Regarding Jason Kessler, did NPR find someone to talk about the other side of the story?
---
Who cares? The fact that NPR considers Kessler's side at all worthy of an extended and non-hostile interview is a big part of the problem.

Agreed, but to make it even worse, they followed up with a BLM member after. Because they're two sides of the same coin of course. Fuck NPR.
posted by chris24 at 7:25 AM on August 10, 2018 [46 favorites]

Agreed, but to make it even worse, they followed up with a BLM member after. Because they're two sides of the same coin of course. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fuck NPR.

This is genuinely the thing that has made me most want to break things of all the things so far.

I'd make a joke about interviewing the KKK and the 1960s vote registration activists on an equal basis, but of course this is pretty much literally what has just happened. I hope people listen to the archive footage and realise just how much NPR has declined.
posted by jaduncan at 7:28 AM on August 10, 2018 [19 favorites]

T.D. Strange: #Russia's state TV:
Vitaly Tretyakov, dean of Moscow State University's School of Television, argues that Russia should act decisively in response to the new sanctions. "Let's turn this into a headache for Trump. If you want us to support you in the elections, do what we say.”

Ho-lee shit. I get that this is not a government official, but he's not a random dude who's talking about Russian interference, I mean "support," in the elections (plural!).

He also got a flight attendant fired for calling a city by its German name. "Now, the man who reported the mistake, is sticking up for her".

I wonder if he'll stick up for Trump once Trump is fired.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:31 AM on August 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I turned off the radio* the moment I heard who they were interviewing, so I didn't know they compounded things by pairing it with BLM. Dispicable.

You can contact the NPR Ombudsman here.

You can contact Morning Edition here.

*Actually I turned on KMOJ, the People's Station, where Queen Latifah was playing! <3
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:33 AM on August 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

I doubt it was a right-wing chucklefuck, just someone who's internalized the ~~conventional~~conservative narrative.

posted by octothorpe at 5:30 AM on August 10 [3 favorites +] [!]
posted by Mental Wimp at 7:38 AM on August 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

This is what I wrote to NPR - feel free to use:

Thanks to your offensive interview with Jason Kessler, you have finally convinced me to withdraw my membership (I've been a member my whole adult life). I'll put that money toward an organization which values real journalism, rather than giving airtime to Nazis.

- It was despicable to give Kessler a platform from which to promote his violent, eliminationist, racist platform.
- It was despicable to position Black Lives Matter as the "other side" to white supremacists. White supremacists believe they are BETTER than everyone else and they want others to be killed. Black Lives Matter is begging to be allowed to LIVE. They are in no way equals and should never be framed as such.
- This is in line with NPR's recent shift, from fact based journalism to "they-said/they-said" format, in which the listener is left to determine what is true because NPR declines to make that clear.

I'm sad to leave, but if you can't rise to the occasion of the times we live in, you deserve to go off the air.
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:45 AM on August 10, 2018 [153 favorites]

mostly rich kids who graduated with liberal arts degrees but without much of an idea as to what to do next

I've been journalism-adjacent (I'm not a journalist, but I work with them) for about 13 years, and this is a really shitty, reductive way to describe a group of people who, for the most part, work very hard for very little money to make sure that light is shining on the people pulling the levers of power. Journalism has a lot of problems; believe me, I know. Being a landing pad for rich white kids is not one of them.
posted by god hates math at 7:46 AM on August 10, 2018 [41 favorites]

Will Oremus (Slate)
Why is Twitter tolerating Alex Jones and courting the right wing? Even company insiders don't fully agree. But I talked to several sources familiar with the company's thinking, and came up with four theories—some more plausible than others. SLATE: Why Twitter Is Tolerating Alex Jones and Courting the Right Wing
- Four theories as to why Twitter hasn't banned Jones, in reverse-order of plausibility:
4. Residual free-speech idealism
3. Overcompensating for the "shadow-banning" furor
2. Terrified of a GOP attack on Section 230
1. Actually, Twitter *will* ban Jones—but on its own terms
- I think (1) is the most likely, but (2) is the most intriguing. The GOP threat to Section 230 is small but growing, and right now it is focused heavily on Twitter. See, for instance: FOX - GOP leader McCarthy wants Twitter CEO to testify on 'censorship' of conservatives

---

My theory: Jack is a crypto-fascist who has an affinity for their views. The possibility of which is completely unmentioned in the article which completely swallows Jack's and Twitter executives' line that he is "left-leaning." Literally the article opens by granting this point completely and unquestioningly. "Jack Dorsey is, by his own admission, “left-leaning.”"
posted by chris24 at 7:50 AM on August 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

Journalism has a lot of problems; believe me, I know. Being a landing pad for rich white kids is not one of them.

My apologies for maligning the field as a whole.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:50 AM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

When I see the sad decline of NPR*, or the New York Times allowing codswallop by David Brooks and Ross Douthat on the most valuable opinion real estate in the country, I first marvel at how bad they are at their jobs, then realize that normalizing right-wing narratives seems to be their job.

*Some twenty years in the making, as they were useless at presenting a clear narrative that George W. Bush's case for invading Iraq was a load of dingoes' kidneys, giving his administration the benefit of the doubt at every turn.

Memo to aspiring -- and practicing -- journalists: As my high school journalism teacher taught us, when your source lies to you, that's your story.
posted by Gelatin at 7:50 AM on August 10, 2018 [35 favorites]

Journalism has a lot of problems; believe me, I know. Being a landing pad for rich white kids is not one of them.

This might be true for the majority of journalists, but at least in the media world of NYC, my tangential experience is that the people who land in positions of editorial power — who absolutely get to decide what stories to cover and how to cover them, or, alternatively, who become star features writers — are absolutely moneyed white men.

I personally went to school with a few of them (who you would know by name recognition, and who get quoted here a bunch), and through personal relationships know the details of a bunch more.

For the people setting the editorial agenda of this country, “rich white guy who mostly views this as a game” is pretty accurate. I think we can take it as a given that they are not all of journalism, or all of the media. But they’re the powerful part. It matters.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:56 AM on August 10, 2018 [44 favorites]

Also, this is absolutely a function of gatekeeping. These were the dudes who could afford to not make much for a while, because they already had money. And they’re dudes, so they’re taken seriously by their bosses, who are also often dudes supported by family money.

And the knowing each other from school or parties thing is real. It’s all kind of gross, and there’s a bunch of stuff I wish I didn’t know, but that is the world we live in, so.

(It’s not like women’s magazines or fashion is any better, but they’re not determining the Very Serious Discourse.)
posted by schadenfrau at 7:59 AM on August 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

Why is Twitter tolerating Alex Jones and courting the right wing? Even company insiders don't fully agree.

I mean... it's all right there in the Tweet storm. Bog-standard libertarian circlejerking about free speech:

If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction

It's all about free speech, man. If you support free speech, you gotta support the Nazis marching in Skokie. And support your own private multi-billion-dollar communications platform being coopted to amplify the signal of a bunch of actual fucking Nazis. Otherwise you wouldn't be a true ~~Scotsman~~ supporter of a poorly-reasoned-and-repackaged set of Enlightenment principles.
posted by Mayor West at 8:00 AM on August 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

I'd make a joke about interviewing the KKK and the 1960s vote registration activists on an equal basis, but of course this is pretty much literally what has just happened. I hope people listen to the archive footage and realise just how much NPR has declined.

posted by jaduncan at 7:28 AM on August 10 [3 favorites +] [!]

Koch money is a hell of a drug. I even heard one NPR personality pointing to the Koch "contributions" to argue that they aren't as right wing as they are often portrayed. I wanted to smash my radio and yelled, "This is why you don't take tainted money!"
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:02 AM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

President Donald Trump lashed out again at NFL players who protested social injustice and police brutality during the national anthem prior to Thursday's preseason games.

In a post on Twitter, Trump issued the following statement Friday morning: "The NFL players are at it again - taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their 'outrage' at something that most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love......

".....Be happy, be cool! A football game, that fans are paying soooo much money to watch and enjoy, is no place to protest. Most of that money goes to the players anyway. Find another way to protest. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay!"

“Be happy, be cool!”
Flames. Flames on the side of my face.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:03 AM on August 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

This is classic, straight-up, hardcore racist shit. “Happy Negro” tropes served up by the president of the United fucking States.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:16 AM on August 10, 2018 [77 favorites]

WAPO: Witness in Mueller Probe refuses to appear before Grand Jury hearing.

A witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation has refused to appear for scheduled grand jury testimony Friday, prompting a sealed hearing before a federal judge.

Andrew Miller, a former aide to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, had fought and lost a court battle earlier this month to quash a subpoena, after a judge issued a 93-page opinion saying Miller must testify before the grand jury.

Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit that is funding Miller’s legal fight, said Miller had refused to appear before the grand jury in response to a subpoena.

When a subpoenaed witness refuses to testify before a grand jury, that person can be held in contempt. In some cases, such a contempt finding can lead to a witness being sent to jail until the person agrees to testify.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:23 AM on August 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

Happy Friday, everyone!

Hissing Package That Fell From Sky With Trump Note Sparks Alarm

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A suspicious package that fell from the sky over New Jersey caused some alarm because it contained a note that mentioned President Donald Trump.

South Brunswick police say the package, attached to a parachute, was making a hissing sound and included a note that said: “NASA Atmospheric Research Instrument NOT A BOMB!” If this lands near the President, we at NASA wish him a great round of golf.”

Trump has been staying at his golf club in Bedminster, which is 29 miles (47 kilometers) away.

NASA tells WNBC-TV the package, which fell on Tuesday, is part of six balloons that were launched to measure ozone. It says a summer student employee wrote the note in a “misguided attempt to be lighthearted,” and that the student has been removed from the project.

posted by lazaruslong at 8:23 AM on August 10, 2018 [24 favorites]

As mentioned above, here's Jason Kessler's post-Charlottesville tweet in which he celebrates his stochastic murder of Heather Heyer and generally advocates the murder of leftists.

NPR is permanently poisoned, does not deserve to exist, and should be dissolved. As an organ of normalization and soft propaganda, it's as important a part of the regime apparatus as ICE.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:26 AM on August 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

Ah, yes, what to call the Nazis nowadays? I mean, they're not literally Nazis because those were of a particular historical group. But they're nazis all the same.

I mostly think of them as "Christian racists," but I suppose a lot of people won't be comfortable with that. "Dominionist racists" also works. I know there's a few of them who claim to be atheists, but without widespread support from evangelical fascists, those would be isolated wacko-fanatics instead of members of a national terrorist group.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 8:33 AM on August 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Professional sports are basically the one area where a substantial number of African Americans earn millions of dollars, and that makes so many white folks just seethe. Not even a little cranky or merely jealous, but absolutely livid.

You never hear them say that white CEOs could stand a little humility. Not even ones with outspoken liberal-ish views -- they may call Warren Buffett a hypocrite for wanting higher taxes but not just giving that money himself to the government, but they never call him "ungrateful". At some level, he's permitted, in their minds, to say whatever the hell he wants.

I'm sure someone has analyzed how this interacts with the temporarily-embarassed-millionaire phenomenon. But regardless, what you have is a whole slew of deplorable guys who conceptualize their relationship with black athletes on TV the same way Trump conceptualizes his relationships with almost every other human being -- I'm the boss here, you owe everything to me, I get to complain, you don't, that's the deal.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:34 AM on August 10, 2018 [57 favorites]

It's all about free speech, man. If you support free speech, you gotta support the Nazis marching in Skokie. And support your own private multi-billion-dollar communications platform being coopted to amplify the signal of a bunch of actual fucking Nazis.

Also marketing and money. On Ezra Klein's a podcast a media analyst noted that one reason for the extremism we're seeing is online platforms constantly suggest more and more titillating and extreme videos to capture attention. If you watch a diet video, you may be interested in the Paleo diet. If you watch a video about immigration, you may be interested in white supremacy. This struck me as true to my own experience. You can watch a YouTube video on "What is an incel?" and have your feed be swamped with suggestions for trash. The analyst compared it to our being swamped with suggestions to eat junk food.
posted by xammerboy at 8:36 AM on August 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

WAPO: Witness in Mueller Probe refuses to appear before Grand Jury hearing.

He already lost an attempt to quash his subpoena, and now he's likely to go to jail for contempt, and he's not the sole source of information.

He is one of at least a half-dozen of Stone’s associates to be called to testify. Others include his driver, John Kakanis, and a social media consultant, Jason Sullivan. Kristin Davis, who gained notoriety in the 2000s as the “Manhattan Madam” when she ran a high-end prostitution ring, is also expected to testify to the grand jury.

posted by kirkaracha at 8:41 AM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their 'outrage' at something that most of them are unable to define.

“Low IQ Maxine Waters,” “Dumbest Man on TV Don Lemon,” “Shut up and dribble.”

These aren’t dogwhistles.
These are air-raid sirens.

——

BREAKING: Judge holds Roger Stone associate in contempt for refusing to testify before grand jury in Russia investigation (WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:42 AM on August 10, 2018 [70 favorites]

Be happy, be cool, be best!
posted by kirkaracha at 8:42 AM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm sure someone has analyzed how this interacts with the temporarily-embarassed-millionaire phenomenon.

Average white Boomers were the last generation that could have reasonably thought, when they were in their 20s and 30s, "Oh, yeah, I could be / could have been a professional athlete, just like the guys I read about in the newspaper / hear on the radio / see on TV." (I mean "reasonably" as in "logically", not "truthfully".)

But nowadays, average white dudes know that's not true, and the athletes are way better paid (both as compared to the average person and as compared to the owners), and far more of them aren't white guys just like the average white Boomer. Amongst those things, athletes aren't "just like us", they're now "naturally gifted" (like racehorses, not like, y'know, people) and "spoiled".
posted by Etrigan at 8:47 AM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

but they never call him "ungrateful"

Ungrateful Is the New Uppity.
posted by chris24 at 8:51 AM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Arguing what to call Nazis, especially in the context of somebody who held a rally where people openly walked around with swastikas and Nazi emblems, is ridiculous and is part of a broader issue of framing. They’re Nazis, say it loud and as many times as possible so that people get it drilled into their heads, and reitify that Nazi = bad. Too many of these guys are able to slither away from this designation even though there are videos of them doing Nazi salutes, or images of them saying Nazi things, or images of them wearing Nazi stuff. It’s bullshit. These guys get to say “liberal” and people drop their fucking jaws.

Kessler celebrated his Nazi friends killing a peaceful protestor and they celebrated the gang-beating of a black man. NPR should be ashamed, and none of us should be sitting here wondering what to call a monster.

Now tell me where to send my indignant anger to re: NPR how do I get on the air
posted by gucci mane at 9:31 AM on August 10, 2018 [43 favorites]

The media is just covering itself in glory today:

@NBCLeftField: As we reflect on the upcoming first anniversary of the deadly white nationalist rally in #Charlottesville, here's our documentary that follows the parents of Jacob Goodwin, one of the men convicted of injuring a black protester at the Unite the Right rally

@jbouie: ugh, this tweet. the violent white supremacist is fully humanized—he has a name, he has parents who can speak to him as a full person. the person he attacked? “a black protester”

posted by zombieflanders at 9:45 AM on August 10, 2018 [110 favorites]

Unite the Right 2018: white supremacists to march in Washington, DC - Vox Storystream

Links to their stories on the upcoming march, touching on many topics already discussed in the megathread and then some.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:46 AM on August 10, 2018

Yeah, it's time to pull out the Nazi comparison we so often avoid using. It's no longer hyperbole. It's spot on 1936. You stop Nazis in 1936, not 1938.
posted by xammerboy at 9:48 AM on August 10, 2018 [39 favorites]

Now tell me where to send my indignant anger to re: NPR how do I get on the air

If NPR puts you on the air you'll be followed by a softball interview with a very reasonable Nazi about how you should die. We should be figuring out where to send our indignant anger to get NPR off the air.

Vox: Psychologists surveyed hundreds of alt-right supporters. The results are unsettling.

The alt-right scores high on dehumanization measures: Blacks are considered 65% human, Muslims 55% human, and feminists 57% human.
Alt-righters are willing to report their own aggressive behavior: they want to hurt or kill you and they're happy to say it openly.
Alt-righters aren’t particularly socially isolated or worried about the economy: they're not poor little economically anxious sadboys. They're fucking Nazis.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:50 AM on August 10, 2018 [66 favorites]

Terrible work by NPR today, but at least we have this, a tremendous piece by Steve Hendrix and some talented web designers at the Washington Post: The story behind the searing photo of Charlotteville's worst day
posted by martin q blank at 9:53 AM on August 10, 2018 [19 favorites]

An uncorroborated, so far, rumour from @TrueFactsStated (Claude Taylor - "Veteran of 3 presidential campaigns, served on White House staff (Clinton).")

Here’s what I’ve been told. “Trump (and some adult family) negotiated a deal with the Saudis and the Emiratis for 3.6 billion to get rid of Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions. The payment was made in two installments. The first last year and the second earlier in 2018”

This has been told to me by someone who I’ll describe as a dedicated public servant known to me personally. That’s all I have.

I’m confident in the basic facts as I was told them and in the veracity of source. That’s all I can do/say. Mueller knows. IC knows. Individual senators know. What happens next (on this)? No idea.

Presumably a fairly big deal if proven true...
posted by Buntix at 9:56 AM on August 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

From the above links to Vox: Alt-righters aren’t particularly socially isolated

I wondered about this. It doesn't say who is in their social circles. Anyway:

Last year, psychologists Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily recruited members of the alt-right (a.k.a. the “alternative right,” the catchall political identity of white nationalists) to participate in a study to build the first psychological profile of their movement. The results, which were released in August 2017, are just in working paper form and have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.

That said, the study uses well-established psychological measures and is clear about its limitations. All the researchers’ raw data and materials have been posted online for others to review. Meanwhile, Forscher and Kteily are working on an extended, more rigorous version of the survey, which will pull from a nationally representative sample of Trump voters. (Read more about their plans here.)

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:57 AM on August 10, 2018

An uncorroborated, so far, rumour from @TrueFactsStated

Claude Taylor is Louis Menche's co-writer. Anything he writes should be assumed false until proven otherwise, as ordered by the Marshal of the Supreme Court.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:00 AM on August 10, 2018 [33 favorites]

Anything Claude Taylor reports that turns out to be true should be considered a matter of coincidence rather than any sort of credibility on his part.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:03 AM on August 10, 2018 [15 favorites]

Last year, psychologists Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily recruited members of the alt-right...to participate in a study to build the first psychological profile of their movement.

Man, how on good green Earth did they control for the noted propensity of said cohort to say just about any crazy half-kek'd shit that comes to mind simply for the lulz/to trigger libs?
posted by adamgreenfield at 10:04 AM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

From the above links to Vox: Alt-righters aren’t particularly socially isolated

I wondered about this. It doesn't say who is in their social circles.

My interpretation is that while social isolation may have originally helped drive them to the alt-right, they now have their community. Kekistani citizenship gives you your own social circle, albeit horrific, self-destructive, and largely virtual.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:06 AM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

As various news organizations trip over themselves to see who can be friendliest to Nazis this morning, maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise to open up Politico and find an ad for literal Nazi paraphernalia under their masthead.
posted by vathek at 10:09 AM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Claude Taylor is Louis Menche's co-writer.

Ah, thanks, thought it sounded a bit like an out-there conspiracy theory, just that isn't a reliable indicator these days. Shame as it seems something that would have been something fairly easily (and most importantly: quickly) evidenced.
posted by Buntix at 10:14 AM on August 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

The New York Times recounts how Trump nat sec advisers are trying to do pre-damage control in international relations, as John Bolton and his team anonymously leak their account: U.S. Officials Scrambled Behind the Scenes to Shield NATO Deal From Trump

Senior American national security officials, seeking to prevent President Trump from upending a formal policy agreement at last month’s NATO meeting, pushed the military alliance’s ambassadors to complete it before the forum even began.

The work to preserve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreement, which is usually subject to intense 11th-hour negotiations, came just weeks after Mr. Trump refused to sign off on a communiqué from the June meeting of the Group of 7 in Canada.

The rushed machinations to get the policy done, as demanded by John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, have not been previously reported. Described by European diplomats and American officials, the efforts are a sign of the lengths to which the president’s top advisers will go to protect a key and longstanding international alliance from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable antipathy.[...]

In June, weeks before the meeting, Mr. Bolton sent his demand to Brussels through Kay Bailey Hutchison, the American ambassador to NATO. He wanted the NATO communiqué to be completed early, before the president left for Europe, according to five senior American and European officials familiar with the discussions who described them on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering the White House.

NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, reinforced Mr. Bolton’s directive during a gathering of the ambassadors on July 4. The usual infighting over the summit agreement, he said, had to be dropped.

He asked the delegations to finish their work by July 6 at 10 p.m. Brussels time.

Fearful of a repeat of the G-7 disaster — in which Mr. Trump refused to sign off on the joint communiqué, escalated a trade war and publicly derided Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada — the emissaries from the NATO countries all agreed.

And on the Tuesday after the NATO summit, Trump would boast on Twitter, "I had a great meeting with NATO. They have paid $33 Billion more and will pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars more in the future, only because of me."
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:18 AM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

When asked by a reporter why he breathed life into the right-wing conspiracy theory alleging Obama was not a U.S.-born citizen, Nunberg cited Trump’s poll numbers from a 2012 presidential exploration he worked on.

“Donald Trump shot to number one in the polls,” answered the political operative.

So Republicans now just openly admit that everything they say is cynical and calculated to manipulate us to maximum electoral benefit, and that's...OK? How the game is played now? We've normalized intentional, transparent dishonesty and manipulation to the degree that there isn't even a marginal presumption that some core, kernel or piece of what someone is saying is true, that words and all the things one says are just tools to create the outcomes that you want to see.

This is where devaluation and destruction of language leads, paired with decades-long conditioning to fetishize the self, to a world where everything is relative and nothing is true, and words are just creative, expressive tools to manipulate one another, rather than discrete symbols with specific meaning. I blame Edward Bernays, mostly.*

*(Watch this if you haven't yet, it explains an essential foundation upon which our present world is built.)
posted by LooseFilter at 10:22 AM on August 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

Looks like the nation's leading voter fraud crusader has not only not actually recused himself, but may, in fact, be committing voter fraud:

Colyer spokesman Kendall Marr told The Star that the governor had not been notified by Kobach or his office that he intended to recuse himself. He said Coyler’s team found out about it through news reports.

“We don’t have an official recusal,” Marr said. “We want to see what that looks like tomorrow. We want to make sure it’s not a symbolic recusal. The secretary of state has a substantive role in this process and the recusal needs to be substantive.”

Marr added that “on top of the recusal, we’re also asking that the secretary of state stop giving incorrect information to the counties, particularly related to the mail-in ballots.”
[...]
Thomas County Clerk Shelly Harms confirmed that Colyer received 522 votes on election day rather than the total of 422 that had been reported by the secretary of state’s office.

She shared a scan of the form she submitted to Kobach’s office, which clearly showed 522 votes for the governor, and said the secretary of state’s office was responsible for the discrepancy, not the county.

posted by zombieflanders at 10:24 AM on August 10, 2018 [44 favorites]

"True facts stated" is like putting the word delicious on a menu. If you have to advertise that it's delicious, then...
posted by emelenjr at 10:26 AM on August 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Regarding getting anti-NPR/anti-Kessler-interview takes on the air, try your local public broadcaster. When I lived in San Francisco, for instance, I participated in KQED's Perspectives program. It's not NPR, but they run NPR shows, and your message will reach people who listen to those shows.
posted by Lyme Drop at 10:29 AM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Man, how on good green Earth did they control for the noted propensity of said cohort to say just about any crazy half-kek'd shit that comes to mind simply for the lulz/to trigger libs?

As a former cognitive psychology grad student married to a social cog psych prof I can assure you that most researchers have seen some crazy shit well before the alt-right came along. Bad faith research participants are a well known problem and a lot of measures have lie scales built in for this very reason. (I haven't looked at the study yet so I don't know what measures they use or if they have said lie and cheat scales or not). But is not a new issue. The scale of it might be different these days though. Also you don't have to control for the crazy when the crazy is your explicit area of study.

On a related note there are 'informal reports from the field' that participants spontaneously disclosing suicidal ideation completely unrelated to research questions is way up this year.

Look after your feels people.
posted by srboisvert at 10:29 AM on August 10, 2018 [19 favorites]

Enrolling Americans In Medicaid Is Now Cheaper Than Subsidizing Their Obamacare Coverage - Jordan Weissmann, Slate. Or, as the URL states, "Medicaid expansion is now more cost effective than Obamacare exchanges".

That’s according to the most recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which were highlighted Wednesday in an article by Susannah Luthi of Modern Healthcare. This year, Capitol Hill’s official scorekeeper predicts that Washington will spend an average of $6,300 on each individual who purchases subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. Meanwhile, it’s set to spend just over $4,900 for each Medicaid recipient who enrolled thanks to the law’s expansion of the program.1

That wedge will only widen in the coming years, according to the CBO. By 2028, the federal government will be spending 57 percent more, on average, to cover people who purchase subsidized coverage on the exchanges than it will paying for people’s Medicaid benefits. Even if you include state spending, signing up folks for Medicaid will still be cheaper for taxpayers than helping to foot the bill for private insurance.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:32 AM on August 10, 2018 [28 favorites]

Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a $15,000-a-month contract from President Trump’s campaign to stay silent after being fired from her job as a White House aide by Chief of Staff John F. Kelly last December, according to a forthcoming book by Manigault Newman and people familiar with the proposal.

But she refused, according to the incendiary new book, “Unhinged: An Insider Account of Trump’s White House,” which also depicts Trump as unqualified, narcissistic and racist. Excerpts of the book were obtained by The Washington Post.

After she was fired, Manigault Newman wrote, she received a call from Trump campaign adviser Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, offering her a job and the monthly contract in exchange for her silence.

(Josh Dawsey | WaPo)

posted by Barack Spinoza at 10:35 AM on August 10, 2018 [31 favorites]

Trump’s approval hits 50 percent — in a doctored poll graphic shared by his son

Donald Trump Jr. shared a doctored image that makes his father's Gallup presidential approval rating look 10 points higher than it actually is — surprising even people who have otherwise become numb to factual distortions from Trump's inner circle.

Don Jr. tweeted it with the novel hashtag #amreicafirst
posted by kirkaracha at 10:36 AM on August 10, 2018 [36 favorites]

Trump’s approval hits 50 percent — in a doctored poll graphic shared by his son

And even he didn't dare make it more than 50 percent. That fact, as well as the lie, proves they know he's unpopular.

They know Trump is unpopular, and by now they know he isn't getting much more so.
posted by Gelatin at 10:45 AM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

Was it a sheet of blotter acid? Because that would explain some things.
posted by emelenjr at 10:47 AM on August 10, 2018 [40 favorites]

In early 2017, Manigault Newman says she walked Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, into the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump — and saw the president chewing up a piece of paper while Cohen was leaving the office.

(Crosses "pica" off the dwindling list of neuropathologies he hasn't yet demonstrated)
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:48 AM on August 10, 2018 [49 favorites]

Susan McDougal, you may recall, spent 18 months in jail for refusing to answer questions in front of the Whitewater grand jury.

I guess we will find out soon if Andrew Miller is made of the same tough stuff.
posted by notyou at 10:51 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

In early 2017, Manigault Newman says she walked Michael Cohen, then Trump’s personal lawyer, into the Oval Office for a meeting with Trump — and saw the president chewing up a piece of paper while Cohen was leaving the office.

Probably worth mentioning this is a clear violation of the Presidential Records Act. One of the President's former advisers just publicly accused him of a crime; you'd think this would be a somewhat bigger story?
posted by 0xFCAF at 10:51 AM on August 10, 2018 [29 favorites]

Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a $15,000-a-month contract from President Trump’s campaign to stay silent

The Atlantic's Natasha (@NatashaBertrand) observes: "Huh. 15k per month is what Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller has been getting from the RNC."
Business Insider: The RNC is reportedly paying Trump's former bodyguard $15,000 a month from a 'slush fund'
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:54 AM on August 10, 2018 [61 favorites]

Say what you will about this administration but you have to give them credit for offering equal pay in their secret hush money agreements
posted by theodolite at 10:56 AM on August 10, 2018 [83 favorites]

All 5 living former NC Governors are campaining against constitutional amendments the NCGA is trying to ram down our throats.

3 Democratic and 2 Republican former governors are meeting Monday.

One amendment would shift much of the power to fill judicial vacancies from the governor, who has wide latitude now to pick judges. Instead, if voters approve the proposed amendment, the legislature would pick two finalists for each open seat on the bench, and the governor would have to pick one of those two.

The other amendment sets up a new bipartisan state board of elections appointed by the General Assembly, and it also asserts that the legislature has the power to appoint members to hundreds of boards and commissions currently handled by the executive branch.

Current Gov. Roy Cooper's administration has sued to keep the two targeted amendments off the ballot this November, uniting the current and former governors on the matter.

The NCGA is pure assholery in action. It's good to see some prominent folks uniting on this with Cooper. Even if McCrory is a complete idiot.
posted by yoga at 10:57 AM on August 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

And I felt bad for the secretaries who had to reassemble Trump's shredded memos.
posted by LarsC at 11:00 AM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Something is up with the Manafort trial today. The judge, who as you know has been pushing for it to always move faster, faster, faster, called multiple lengthy unscheduled recesses this morning and conferred secretly with attorneys. He also made some comments to the jury which may indicate that somebody did something they werent supposed to. Maybe told the rest of the jury about something they saw on the defense table or the like.
posted by Justinian at 11:04 AM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Are women changing 'Unite the Right' or just 'rebranding' the movement?

Jesus Christ, USA Today. This is not the time for a gender representation piece. I'm in awe at the mass media's active failure today. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it doesn't care if I live or die.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:06 AM on August 10, 2018 [27 favorites]

One of the President's former advisers just publicly accused him of a crime; you'd think this would be a somewhat bigger story?

The former advisor in question seems to have a record of having, shall we say, a "poetic regard" for the truth. I think the lack of response is simply a function of her having cried "wolf" a lot.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:06 AM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

Since you guys said his name three times, Sam Nunberg has materialized on MSNBC. He’s discussing the Manhattan Madam’s role in Roger Stone’s, ah, affairs.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:07 AM on August 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

and saw the president chewing up a piece of paper while Cohen was leaving the office.

This is the part that seems out of character. If she had said Trump watched as he ordered Cohen to eat the paper I'd believe it.
posted by cmfletcher at 11:11 AM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter for Dubya. Obviously way too kind to Rs and harsh on Ds, but he's not talking to us.

WaPo: The only way to save the GOP is to defeat it

...In November, many Republican leaners and independents will face a difficult decision. The national Democratic Party under Nancy Pelosi and Charles E. Schumer doesn’t share their views or values. But President Trump is a rolling disaster of mendacity, corruption and prejudice. What should they do?

They should vote Democratic in their House race, no matter who the Democrats put forward. And they should vote Republican in Senate races with mainstream candidates (unlike, say, Corey Stewart in Virginia).

Why vote strategically in this case? Because American politics is in the midst of an emergency.

If Democrats gain control of the House but not the Senate, they will be a check on the president without becoming a threat to his best policies (from a Republican perspective) or able to enact their worst policies. The tax cut will stand. The Senate will still approve conservative judges. But the House will conduct real oversight hearings and expose both Russian influence and administration corruption. Under Republican control, important committees — such as Chairman Devin Nunes’s House Intelligence Committee — have become scraping, sniveling, panting and pathetic tools of the executive branch. Only Democratic control can drain this particular swamp.

Alternatively: If Republicans retain control of the House in November, Trump will (correctly) claim victory and vindication. He will have beaten the political performances of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in their first midterms. He will have proved the electoral value of racial and ethnic stereotyping. He will have demonstrated the effectiveness of circuslike distraction. He will have shown the political power of bold, constant, uncorrected lies. And he will gain many more enablers and imitators.

Perhaps worst of all, a victorious Trump will complete his takeover of the Republican Party (which is already far along). Even murmured dissent will be silenced. The GOP will be fully committed to a 2020 presidential campaign conducted in the spirit of George C. Wallace — a campaign of racial division, of rural/urban division, of religious division, of party division that metastasizes into mutual contempt. [...]

In a democracy, a vote is usually not a matter of good and evil. It is a matter of weighing competing goods and choosing lesser evils. The possible outcomes this November come down to this: Trump contained, or Trump triumphant.

Democrats, I suspect, will make a victory harder than it should be. A significant number seem to view Trump’s vulnerability as an opportunity to ideologically purify their party. They are actively undermining the job of containing the president by alienating centrist voters they need to turn the House.

But this does not change the political and ethical reality. The only way to save the GOP is to defeat it in the House. In this case, a Republican vote for a Democratic representative will be an act of conscience.

posted by chris24 at 11:14 AM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

I mean... it's all right there in the Tweet storm. Bog-standard libertarian circlejerking about free speech:

If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction

It's all about free speech, man. If you support free speech, you gotta support the Nazis marching in Skokie. And support your own private multi-billion-dollar communications platform being coopted to amplify the signal of a bunch of actual fucking Nazis. Otherwise you wouldn't be a true Scotsman supporter of a poorly-reasoned-and-repackaged set of Enlightenment principles.

Just a reminder that the OG ultimate free speechers, the ACLU, have announced they will not defend nazis anymore.
posted by srboisvert at 11:14 AM on August 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

One of the President's former advisers just publicly accused him of a crime; you'd think this would be a somewhat bigger story?

Technically, chewing paper is not a crime; it's only destruction of records if the paper had something on it, and was the only/official copy. He could have been gnawing on a blank page. He could've been overcome with rage and just wanted to bite something, so he tore a page out of a notebook.

I mean, this is something presidents do, right? They consume the media?
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:21 AM on August 10, 2018 [18 favorites]

While Omarosa's memoir needs to clear the high bar of Trump White House dysfunctionality set by Michael Wolff, she has tapes to back up some of her account and is willing to play them to the press. The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey writes:

Manigault Newman does not offer evidence for some of her most explosive charges but also extensively taped her conversations in the White House. The Post has listened to several of the recordings made by Manigault Newman, which match quotations recounted in the book excerpts. The existence of some tapes was first reported Wednesday by the Daily Beast.

Manigault Newman litters the book with specific quotes from White House aides. She describes many scenes inside the White House vividly — explaining who was in the room, and exactly what was said.[...]

The book is a mix of unverified accusations and vivid, quote-filled exchanges from her time with Trump on the campaign trail and in the White House.[...]

Her book is the first insider account from a White House aide that is not largely flattering toward the president. Manigault Newman, who was the highest-ranking black employee in the White House, calls Trump a “racist, misogynist and bigot.” She alleges in the book that there is a tanning bed in the White House residence and says the president fought with the now-departed chief usher over the installation of the bed; other aides say they have not seen a tanning bed in the White House.

Much as the tanning bed rumor rings true, caveat lector, even more than Fire and Fury. That said, she understands Trump as well as anyone in his circle, writing "All we need to remember is that Trump loves the hate. He thrives on criticism and insults. He delights in chaos and confusion."
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:25 AM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

A football game, that fans are paying soooo much money to watch and enjoy, is no place to protest. Most of that money goes to the players anyway. Find another way to protest. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay!"

This is by far the least important part of this (the disgusting racism from the president would be the most important part), but: the current collective bargaining agreement actually guarantees that the players will receive an absolute minority of all revenue, and narrowly a substantial minority (~40%) of local revenue earned through ticket sales from people showing up to watch games. A lot of the CBA is percentage based, so the actual numbers aren't relevant to determining the truth of the President's statement (which is a lie).

This might actually be a pretty damaging gaffe for Trump. He has made a very clearly false claim in area that is pretty well known and understood by a lot of supporters. All that other lying stuff can glide right past low information voters. Get a very well known sports fact wrong and a lot men will immediately think you are a complete idiot bullshitter.
posted by srboisvert at 11:26 AM on August 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

25 min ago
The court is on break, and we're still not sure what those secretive meetings were about

The mystery of the morning has not been solved, and the court is now on break until 1:45 p.m. ET.

Lawyers from both sides huddled with Judge T.S. Ellis twice this morning. After almost an hour of waiting, lawyers from both sides Ellis returned to the courtroom at 11:07 a.m.

Ellis brought the 16 jurors in, stressed to them the importance of not discussing the case and told them to "keep an open mind." He also said the court plans to "continue with evidence" presentations in the afternoon today and that he would "expect to make progress."

Ellis then said the court would take an open lunch and reconvene at 1:45 p.m. ET. He gave no further detail about the morning's delay.

What this means for timing: It now seems quite unlikely that the prosecutors will finish presenting their case Friday, as they had previously said they would.

11 min ago
Judge and prosecutors still not back in the courtroom

posted by Doktor Zed at 11:33 AM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

This might actually be a pretty damaging gaffe for Trump

Not sure if I'm missing the sarcasm here, but there is zero chance that Trump supporters are going to abandon him because his description of the NFL collective bargaining agreement was inaccurate.
posted by parallellines at 11:35 AM on August 10, 2018 [27 favorites]

Yeah, Trump's supporters know that he's a bullshitter who makes false claims constantly. They just don't care, as long as he's bullshitting someone else.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 11:40 AM on August 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

They brought in the jury and resumed the trial without any word about the delay. So who knows what that was about. If there had been jury misconduct one assumes they would have dealt with it BEFORE resuming testimony but all the jurors are present.
posted by Justinian at 11:41 AM on August 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Or, see my previous rant on the subject.

Please stop treating the froth of lies and gibberish from Trumpworld as if anything about it is done in good faith. Every time you do, you fall into their trap.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 11:42 AM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Manafort trial's back on - next witness called. A whole bunch of rumours on Twitter - jury tampering, a mistrial, secret papers being inadvertently seen, a plea bargain, a witness refusing to appear, and more! - but nothing official or even leading the field.

One thing I learned from years of watching IP trials: no matter what common sense or natural justice indicates, anything can happen in court, which is why you don't want to go there.
posted by Devonian at 11:43 AM on August 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Trial resumes, but not without a mis-step according to the Independent's liveblog:

Judge Ellis and the legal teams are back in court.
After conferring with an attorney for the prosecutors - including Greg Andres - and an attorney for the defense briefly, Mr Ellis said:

"Mr. Andres, you may call your next witness."
That's when Andres reminded him the jury still needed to be brought in.

The courtroom erupted in laughter.
posted by nubs at 11:44 AM on August 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

A striking thing about the Gerson piece is that he clearly understands the danger Trump presents, in full. I particularly respect his point about how the danger would increase if Trump were emboldened by success in the midterms, and dissent would be even more anathema. Yet... he still insists that Republicans should get to keep the Senate, where judges and impeachment are determined.

It's a never-trump variant of the media splitting the difference on every issue. Even Rick Wilson and George Will (if I'm remembering correctly) are basically on record that the party is so far gone that all Republicans have to be fought, at every level of government.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 11:45 AM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Get a very well known sports fact wrong and a lot men will immediately think you are a complete idiot bullshitter

The saddest Surely This
posted by schadenfrau at 11:49 AM on August 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

Waiting for the "It's patriotic to eat paper" takes

Tucker Carlson carving into a dictionary on tonight's show
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:50 AM on August 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

Singer-songwriter Amos Lee's released a pretty good song and video for the anniversary of Charlottesville:

Dying White Light
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:54 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

I can't decide if Gerson is really that... naive? craven?... trying to split the baby or just thinks it's the best way to convince Rs to vote D by giving them a way to still kinda vote R. I suspect craven.
posted by chris24 at 11:56 AM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

@kyledcheney:

Stone associate ANDREW MILLER’s attorney confirms he was held in contempt for refusing to appear before the Mueller grand jury. He said any punishment though has been stayed while Miller files an appeal.

Miller’s attorney Kamenar emphasized that Miller had already been interviewed by two FBI agents and largely cooperated with Mueller’s investigation, including on document requests. But he said Miller drew the line at a grand jury appearance. Kamenar emphasized that being held in contempt is a necessary condition for him to appeal, and he said he hoped the fight would reach the Supreme Court where, potentially, a newly confirmed Justice Kavanaugh could have a chance to rule on it.

I really don't get the legal argument here. Interviews and documents are fine, but a grand jury is a bridge too far? Why? What court is going to find that compelling?

He wants to argue yet again that the entire Mueller investigation is illegitimate, which has been a complete loser of an argument so far, and he seems to think Justice Kavanaugh would help him out. Which is terrifying, but we're also talking about a Roger Stone associate, so there's no real way to know if he has an actual reason to think that, or there's just something really wrong with him.
posted by zachlipton at 11:57 AM on August 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer said Friday that he believes Secretary of State Kris Kobach has told counties as part of his job as the state’s top elections official not to accept some legitimate ballots in their hotly contested Republican primary race.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:57 AM on August 10, 2018 [55 favorites]

BREAKING: Voter fraud charlatan commits voter fraud.

It's always projection with these guys.
posted by chris24 at 11:59 AM on August 10, 2018 [64 favorites]

Trump increases pressure on Turkey amid currency crisis, authorizes doubling of metals tariffs (Thomas Franck for CNBC, Aug. 10, 2018)

* President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that he authorized a doubling of "tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey."
* Losses in the the Turkish lira deepened on Trump's tweet, falling as much as 20 percent versus the U.S. dollar in Friday trading.

The tweet in question:

I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018

More from CNBC:

The brewing dispute comes after a Turkish delegation returned from Washington with little to no progress on the detention of U.S. evangelist pastor Andrew Brunson, who is charged with supporting a group blamed for an attempted coup in 2016.

Last month, Trump threatened to slap "large sanctions" on the longtime NATO ally if it refuses to free Brunson. The U.S. then announced on Aug. 1 sanctions on Turkey's Justice and Interior ministers, prohibiting U.S. citizens from doing business with them.

This also comes after Turkey hits United States with retaliatory tariffs (Julia Horowitz for CNN Money, June 21, 2018)

Turkey just became the latest country to hit back at the United States for its tariffs on steel and aluminum.

The country's Ministry of Economy said Thursday that it's imposing tariffs worth $267 million on US goods, targeting items such as coal, paper, walnuts, tobacco, rice, whiskey and cars.

Meanwhile, Turkey replies that Steel tariffs will hurt US firms too (Burhan Ozbilici for Rapid City Journal, Aug. 10, 2018)

Turkey's trade minister says Turkey is "deeply disappointed" by the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to double steel and aluminum tariffs on imports from Turkey.

Ruhsar Pekcan said in a statement the move would not only have an impact on Turkey but affect U.S. companies as well. She called on Trump to return to the negotiating table, saying "this can and should be resolved through dialogue and cooperation."
...
Separately, Pekcan's ministry said the tariffs were a violation of World Trade Organization rules and that it would defend Turkish producers' rights at the trade body and other international platforms.

And this feels like Trump starting a trade war where he's the bigger one, and as such, destined for a "win," compared to his battle with China.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:59 AM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Yet... he still insists that Republicans should get to keep the Senate, where judges and impeachment are determined.

It's a never-trump variant of the media splitting the difference on every issue.

It's not even that much. The GOP is almost certain to lose the House anyway (TTTCS), so telling Republicans to vote for a Democratic representative but a Republican senator doesn't require any sacrifice at all. He's having his cake and eating it too.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:03 PM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

...when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration—then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America... Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively. ⁃Richard Nixon, 1968

posted by XMLicious at 12:03 PM on August 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

Since we’re talking Turkey:

Trump Blowing Up US-Turkey Relations for Evangelical Supporters (Josh Marshall | TPM)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:04 PM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

The GOP is almost certain to lose the House anyway (TTTCS)

This is not accurate. Most models show that Democrats need to win about 7% more votes than the Republicans for house races in November in order to take back the House.

Current lead on the generic ballot is about 6%.
posted by OnceUponATime at 12:13 PM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

John Cook, The Story Behind The Story That Created A Political Nightmare For Facebook. Cook was executive editor of Gawker Media when Gizmodo reported reported its infamous Facebook is Suppressing Conservatives story in 2016. He has some regrets, but not nearly enough, for a story that was framed awfully and kicked off years of bad faith attacks. He defends the story, and I do think there was something newsworthy in there, but acknowledges the issue with the headline and the reasons that it was chosen:

I suspect these notes slipped Feldman’s mind because his recollection of the story is dominated by the headline: “Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News.” It was a headline written for Matt Drudge. It was engineered for direct injection into the veins of the right-wing grievance-mongers, and I knew full well when I wrote it — Nuñez, Drummond, Dickinson, and I all puzzled over it, but I take responsibility — that millions would see it and come to believe its most aggressive interpretation without comprehending the actual reporting. Tapping into the right-wing audience can be a huge traffic boon. Just a few weeks before the story was published, Gawker Media was hit with a $140 million verdict in Hulk Hogan’s Thiel-backed lawsuit; weeks after it was published, it declared bankruptcy. The newsroom needed a win. I didn’t want to stake the story on a more sober headline — something like “Former Facebook Workers Say They Used Editorial Judgment” — if it meant forgoing the traffic and impact that a Drudge hit can bring.
...
The news curation story struck such a nerve both for the company and for its users because it put the lie to that posture of non-intervention. If people realized that Facebook did intervene in what stories it felt were worthy of a spot in the Trending Module, by using editors, then perhaps they might begin to interrogate the quieter interventions, too, the ones happening by way of the News Feed’s algorithm, which was privileging divisive, hateful and propagandistic content. The trending module was public, and as such, it needed to be handcrafted in order to reflect the values that the company wanted to project. The News Feed was a private flow, where Facebook’s actual values could be found in the sewage. Hiring editors to moderate that sewage in the trending module was the closest Facebook came in this whole mess to a noble act.

That’s the irony: This small, self-interested gesture at information hygiene alone rendered Facebook vulnerable to the right-wing outrage cycle. Not because Facebook sought to stifle conservative speech — it is by far the most extensive publisher and amplifier of Trumpist propaganda on the planet — but because the Fox News- and Breitbart-driven grievance brigades have been so successful that the mere imposition of value-based editorial standards is in itself an act of, ahem, suppression. Indeed, so successful that that vulnerability — the way that conservatives would inevitably seize on it, had already seized on it, within the organization — was part of what made the whole thing newsworthy to begin with. And so successful that a left-of-center tech site, in packaging its report, couldn’t resist trying to have it both ways by characterizing it as suppression in the headline and as editing in the story.
...
Naturally, we prioritized democratic principles over the inarguable benefit to humanity were Facebook to have actually intervened against Trump. What would happen, we asked, if Facebook allows the political values of its employees and management to influence what news it shows us?

Asking that stupid question is my biggest regret from Gizmodo’s Facebook coverage. We never asked what would happen if it allows greed to determine what news it shows us. Now we know.

posted by zachlipton at 12:14 PM on August 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

This is not accurate. Most models show that Democrats need to win about 7% more votes than the Republicans for house races in November in order to take back the House.

The common wisdom a few months ago probably understated blue's chances of taking the House but the correction has seemingly overshot the mark into overstating it. We've got a good chance but I don't think we're at "almost certain" levels. The generic ballot has been fluctuating between 6-8% for a while now and that could be nailbiter territory.
posted by Justinian at 12:21 PM on August 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

I really don't get the legal argument here. Interviews and documents are fine, but a grand jury is a bridge too far? Why?

You don't get to take a lawyer with you to a grand jury. A lawyer's job is to stop you from saying something stupid that might incriminate you and allow you to correct a potentially perjurous statement. Before a grand jury you are on your own.
posted by JackFlash at 12:23 PM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Asking that stupid question is my biggest regret from Gizmodo’s Facebook coverage. We never asked what would happen if it allows greed to determine what news it shows us. Now we know.

"And we will 100% do it again the next chance any of us get anywhere, because those sweet Drudge traffic bumps make it all worthwhile. Hell, I'll probably even write another one of these sober 'I guess I did a bad thing, huh' pieces a year or so later."
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:25 PM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Giuliani and Sekulow are guest hosting Hannity's radio show this afternoon. Yes, you read that right. And it's going as well as you'd expect.

Amanda Carpenter (CNN)
WHEW. RE: Flynn--Giuliani: "If the president says 'go easy on him'...he didn't say stop it, don't do it...it didn't take place." Sekulow: "If it did, it wouldn't have mattered."
posted by chris24 at 12:49 PM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Grassley just announced Kavanaugh's hearing will start Sept. 4. Full speed ahead for confirmation before October, fuck your "eight years of potentially incriminating documents."
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:03 PM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Please enjoy WikiLeaks being served with the DNC's lawsuit by tweet (it's real, and not even the first time it's been done).
posted by zachlipton at 1:08 PM on August 10, 2018 [43 favorites]

@chrisgeidner: National Archives counsel has said they will not be done even reviewing the records Grassley requested regarding Kavanaugh until late October.

They're not even going to look at all the documents Grassley requested, let alone the even more potentially incriminating ones he's trying to hide.
posted by zachlipton at 1:11 PM on August 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

From the Manafort trial, an episode of ~~Life-~~ Banking Styles of the Rich and Famous:

First, Dennis Raico (former senior vice president at Federal Savings Bank ) said, as they were close to closing, Manafort emailed and said that he actually owed $3.5 million on his Bridgehampton home when he said it was $2.5 million. The bank had just learned that information on its own.

“I must have had a blackout,” Manafort said.

“I can pay this debt if required in about 6 months, although I would prefer not to do so,” Manafort wrote in the Oct. 6, 2016, message to bank chairman Steve Calk. “I look to your cleverness in how to manage the underwriting.”

Calk told Manafort he would “look into this right away” and forwarded the message to Raico.

Then about a week later, on Oct. 14, Raico said he got a call informing him that from the closing table, Manafort had decided he wanted to renegotiate the terms of the loan. Instead of a construction loan for a project in California using the Bridgehampton home as collateral, he wanted a cash-out refinance loan on the Hamptons house.

A few days later, Manafort sent Raico a sheet entitled “Terms of Loan,” outlining the $9.5 million line of credit.

Raico said he had “never it seen it done before” that a potential client would set terms that way. He forwarded the terms to Vice President Jim Brennan, with the message, “Take a deep breath.”

“I hadn’t seen a loan restructured at the closing table before, and I hadn’t seen Steve Calk approve restructuring of a loan,” Raico testified.

posted by Dashy at 1:12 PM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

They're not even going to look at all the documents Grassley requested, let alone the even more potentially incriminating ones he's trying to hide.

Which is an interesting admission by Grassley that Kavanaugh's paper trail is probably disqualifying.
posted by Gelatin at 1:13 PM on August 10, 2018 [15 favorites]

The question is whether Democrats will be willing to impeach when it comes out. Impeaching a sitting Supreme Court justice would be unprecedented, but so's everything the Republicans are doing.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:29 PM on August 10, 2018 [34 favorites]

Whether they are willing seems almost besides the point since they wouldn't have the votes to actually remove him under even the most optimistic of scenarios post 2020.
posted by Justinian at 1:33 PM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

From CNN's live coverage of the Manafort trial:

30 min ago: Loan officer testifies that bank chair's pressure to get role in Trump admin "made me very uncomfortable"

The relationship between Manafort and the Federal Savings Bank bankers began in spring of 2016, a loan officer testified.

That's when Federal Savings Bank founder and chairman Stephen Calk and Paul Manafort sat next to each other at a dinner with loan officer Dennis Raico, Calk's then-son-in-law Jeff Yohai, and several other bankers and a mortgage broker at Capital Grille in New York City's Financial District.[...]

Around early August 2016, Calk had asked Manafort if he could "help serve the Trump administration," Raico said, and Manafort asked Raico to send him Calk's resume. The jury saw that email Friday displayed in the courtroom.

Three days after the presidential election, Calk called Raico because he hadn't spoken with Manafort for a few days and he wanted to know if he was being considered for Secretary of the Treasury of Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The call and Calk's wish for him to pass on messages to Manafort "made me very uncomfortable," Raico testified Friday.

posted by Doktor Zed at 1:35 PM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Good grief, I just got into it, with a coworker who said she'd defend to the death NPR's responsibility to broadcast Kessler because, as a tax-supported entity, they are compelled by the Constitution to give him equal access to their forum. To deny him the chance to share his point of view would be, in her words, "an abridgment of his rights under the first and fourteenth amendments," and would make us "just as bad as them."
posted by Caxton1476 at 1:35 PM on August 10, 2018 [34 favorites]

BuzzFeed, Massive Attack On Swedish News Sites Was The Work Of Russia, US Told Its Ambassadors

At the same time that Russian military intelligence operatives allegedly penetrated Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, suspected Russian hackers were also targeting at least nine Swedish news sites in an apparent attempt to dissuade Sweden from cooperating with NATO, a partially released State Department cable reveals.

The cable, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by BuzzFeed News and Ryan Shapiro, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the cofounder of the transparency project Property of the People, was intended for internal use only. Sent Oct. 19, 2016, primarily to US ambassadors in Europe, it detailed US intelligence suspicions about Russian meddling in US the presidential election.

It also warned that Russia was engaged in a widespread campaign to destabilize NATO alliances that included not only a disinformation campaign but the crippling cyberattacks against Swedish news organizations, which knocked several of the country’s largest news organizations offline.

The DDoS attacks happen to have begun the same day the spear-fishing email was sent to Podesta.
posted by zachlipton at 1:39 PM on August 10, 2018 [18 favorites]

"just as bad as them."

It's these people, more than the out-and-out Nazis, that disturb and disappoint me the most. The others are obvious monsters: sociopaths, narcissists, the amoral and the power-hungry. But I grew up thinking that my coworkers and neighbors had no such excuse. They're not the ones that actively do the black-and-white photos in the history books but they're the ones that allow them to happen, and there are so many of them.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:41 PM on August 10, 2018 [45 favorites]

Good grief, I just got into it, with a coworker who said she'd defend to the death NPR's responsibility to broadcast Kessler because, as a tax-supported entity, they are compelled by the Constitution to give him equal access to their forum. To deny him the chance to share his point of view would be, in her words, "an abridgment of his rights under the first and fourteenth amendments," and would make us "just as bad as them."

Ask her if just anyone can go on NPR for any old reason. What about anarcho-communists? We are an underrepresented demographic on NPR and we've got lots to tell the world. Aren't our rights also being abridged?
posted by Frowner at 1:43 PM on August 10, 2018 [61 favorites]

That is ab fab bonkers that POTUS' legal counsel is just holding court with the mass of heathens that support him on syndicated broadcast. This is a new style of populism that needs a catchy name.

Vox Slopuli
posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:46 PM on August 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

I just sent this to NPR's Morning Edition. Feel free to copy and share. I dunno how this works -- I should send it verbatim to the Ombudsman too, or modify it for that purpose?

NPR's performance in 2017-18 made me stop listening regularly. This morning's Jason Kessler interview persuades me that I was wise to stop listening and subscribing. I'm sure that interviewer Noel King meant well. I hope that she, and NPR, think about the damage they do when they give their supposedly neutral platform to people like Kessler. People whose views are impermeable to humility (in Oliver Cromwell's immortal words, "I beseech you in the bowels of christ think it possible you may be mistaken") are exploiting your good intentions. Helped by your interviewers' totally inadequate pushback, Kessler et al are peddling pseudo-science and fact-free notions of white victimhood untethered from reality, either historical or now. The Reddit group AskHistorians figured this out long ago: https://slate.com/technology/2018/07/the-askhistorians-subreddit-banned-holocaust-deniers-and-facebook-should-too.html

King's interview is a textbook example of failing to grasp how giving somebody a supposedly neutral platform for bigoted views, just spreads propaganda to low-information people who don't know enough about history, or "science," to recognize that he's using "free speech" as a bigotry wedge. "Gosh he didn't use the N-word and he said science says that whites aren't the most intelligent race, so wow he's so reasonable and really makes me think!" is the goal. NPR, more and more since 11/2016, has bending over backwards to appease and give disproportionate platform real estate to people whose "team" already controls the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government, and the majority of state governments. They use your platform to propagandize the idea that **they** are the victims.

Is NPR leadership content to proclaim that interviewers' introductory warning, "Some of what you're about to hear is racist and offensive," and on-air interviewers' expression of incredulous disbelief, constitute effective pushback? If so, I hope leadership considers the possibility that, at best, they have a suboptimal grasp of the Overton Window, power dynamics generally and abusive dynamics specifically, and how not to be played.
*Abusive dynamics primer here: http://racebaitr.com/2017/09/18/racist-violence-and-abuse/#
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 1:47 PM on August 10, 2018 [45 favorites]

To deny him the chance to share his point of view would be, in her words, "an abridgment of his rights under the first and fourteenth amendments," and would make us "just as bad as them."

I literally saw someone online the other day compare the media to the post office, and say that refusing to run conservative opinion pieces was like the post office refusing to carry mail for conservatives.

So not only do conservatives see social media as "common carriers" deserving of "neutrality," ( like the post office and the telephone lines) they even see radio and TV stations that way. The concept of any editorial control or curation by humans is apparently very unpopular right now.

On the liberal side, we say the same thing about ISPs, and we often argue that the Fairness Doctrine needs to be re-instated for broadcast TV. (But how much does broadcast TV matter anymore)?

I don't think anybody has a particularly coherent position on this issue right now, on the right or the left. I include myself. I don't know what to think exactly.

But it is an urgent issue. Because it turns out that the media (and social media) really do influence people. I listened to a great podcast the other day on the subject of "norms engineering," and the point was that not only does what Cambridge Analytica and the Internet Research Agency does actually work, it can also be used for good causes.

"What it boiled down to was that despite the fact that people loved this program, it didn't change their beliefs," she says. "But it did change their perceptions of norms, and at the same time it changed their behaviors. Which is why I thought this is something significant."

posted by OnceUponATime at 1:48 PM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

CNN: Texas investigates reported death of young immigrant

Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, told CNN on Thursday the agency had received the child's name and opened an abuse/neglect investigation.

The age and gender of the child were not immediately known. Details on when the child was released from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, when or how the child died or how long he or she was at the facility were not available.

Reports of the death surfaced earlier this month, but no details were released. Texas officials said they could not start their inquiry earlier because they could not get the name "or any other necessary information."
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:51 PM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Omarosa Tells NPR She Heard Trump 'N-Word Tape,' Contradicting Her Own Tell-All Book (NPR, All Things Considered | Tamara Keith).

"Her search for the N-word tape is a core piece of the narrative Manigault Newman weaves in Unhinged, a memoir that covers her time on the reality TV program The Apprentice that starred the future president, then the 2016 Trump campaign and the White House. This discrepancy in her account of hearing the tape may cast doubt on other claims in the book, many of which are explosive."
posted by AwkwardPause at 1:53 PM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Sorry, I just want to quote a bit more from the transcript of that Invisibilia podcast, because you guys should all go read it and I want to show you why... and I think it's too substantive to add via edit window.

Paluck told me that for a long time people assumed the path to political or cultural change depended on crafting the right argument.

"It was all rhetoric and no poetics," she says.

But starting in the 1990s, according to Paluck, poetics started gaining ground because psychologists realized that people consumed stories in this qualitatively different way.
...
It didn't change their beliefs; it changed their behaviors by changing what they considered to be the social norm.

That's a sobering idea.

"It's a very uncomfortable thought," Paluck says. "We like to think that all of our behaviors flow from our convictions, and what we do is a reflection of who we are and what we think. But we're constantly tuning ourselves to fit in with the social world around us."

So what this work suggests is that if you change someone's perception of what constitutes the social norm — as you convince people that the world is safe enough to sing in public even though in actual fact singing in public is incredibly dangerous — then you just might be able to move the needle on the ground.

posted by OnceUponATime at 1:54 PM on August 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

That episode of invisibilia has been mentioned in these threads before and I can confirm it’s good and worth listening to.
posted by robotdevil at 1:59 PM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

Good grief, I just got into it, with a coworker who said she'd defend to the death NPR's responsibility to broadcast Kessler because, as a tax-supported entity, they are compelled by the Constitution to give him equal access to their forum. To deny him the chance to share his point of view would be, in her words, "an abridgment of his rights under the first and fourteenth amendments," and would make us "just as bad as them."

Back in the days of the Fairness Doctrine, and Equal Time Rules this was presented as "Point/Counterpoint"

Which had its own issues. Without moderation, bad-faith makes it all pointless.
posted by mikelieman at 2:02 PM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

Please enjoy WikiLeaks being served with the DNC's lawsuit by tweet (it's real, and not even the first time it's been done).

OHHHH, it's not just WikiLeaks! This case is DNC vs. All the baddies (DNC Complaint 66 pages)
posted by mikelieman at 2:07 PM on August 10, 2018 [15 favorites]

Man, that defendant list and list of charges is just lovely. Also I love sentence 1 of section 1 of the introduction: “No one is above the law.”
posted by lazaruslong at 2:10 PM on August 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

“The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it." — A. Einstein.
posted by Rumple at 2:17 PM on August 10, 2018 [23 favorites]

John Does 1 - 10? Who are they?
posted by yoga at 2:17 PM on August 10, 2018

> So not only do conservatives see social media as "common carriers" deserving of "neutrality," [...] they even see radio and TV stations that way. [...] On the liberal side, we say the same thing about ISPs, and we often argue that the Fairness Doctrine needs to be re-instated for broadcast TV. I don't think anybody has a particularly coherent position on this issue right now, on the right or the left. I include myself. I don't know what to think exactly.

I don't know if I buy that. I think it's a fairly clear and defensible position to argue that carriers of information should be neutral - ISPs, post office, cellular networks, owners of the cables that carry cable TV - while the presenters of information - NBC, NPR - are free to have an editorial voice but also have a responsibility to truth and accuracy.

So: Comcast carries Facebook and Infowars to you - as long as they are just dumb pipes, no problem. Facebook is a platform and is obviously exerting editorial control (try posting pornography and see how quickly they remove it) so they have a responsibility to the truth, and to police their platform for hate speech.

By the way, that's the logic that Apple have used in removing the Infowars podcasts from their podcast directory, while still leaving the Infowars app available on the store. You could argue that they should take a stronger stance, and that they have a bigger responsibility to their values, not just the laws, but it's a consistent position, if not a particularly brave one.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:18 PM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

"To deny him the chance to share his point of view would be, in her words, "an abridgment of his rights under the first and fourteenth amendments," and would make us "just as bad as them.""

That's why NPR lets people on to shriek "MOTHERFUCKER MOTHERFUCKER MOTHERFUCKER" on the regular.

Oh, they don't?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:20 PM on August 10, 2018 [64 favorites]

Today's Guardian's leading with Omarosa, of all things, and her utterly nonshocking reveal that DJT is a racist and a misogynist who freely uses anti-Black and anti-Filipino slurs and refers to his own children as "retards." Honestly, I can't imagine why this counts as news at all,

A big part of Trump's method is denial -- literal denial by the accused, and mental denial by supporters. And on racism, a handful of POC defending him is a crucial part of that.

Not only is Omarosa the first Trump insider I know of to accuse him of racism, the fact that she is one of his token POC amplifies the power of her words in the same way that her minority status made her a shield in the first place.
posted by msalt at 2:28 PM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

John Does 1 - 10? Who are they?

I know shit about law, and you be insane to listen to anything I say, but given the list of baddies there, conspicuous by absence is one Donald J. Trump and it's just possible that the DNC's lawyers are being coy with an "un-indicted co-conspirator" type thing...
posted by mikelieman at 2:30 PM on August 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

BuzzFeed, because Jason Leopold is on a roll, GOP Operative Made ‘Suspicious’ Cash Withdrawals During Pursuit Of Clinton Emails: Peter W. Smith withdrew $4,900 in cash the day after he finalized a plan to work with “dark web” hackers.

In one of the most intriguing episodes of the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican activist Peter W. Smith launched an independent effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails to help defeat her and elect Donald Trump. His quest, which reportedly brought him into contact with at least two sets of hackers that he himself believed were Russian, remains a key focus of investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

Now, BuzzFeed News has reviewed documents showing that FBI agents and congressional investigators have zeroed in on transactions Smith made right as his effort to procure Clinton’s emails heated up. Just a day after he finished a report suggesting he was working with Trump campaign officials, for example, he transferred $9,500 from an account he had set up to fund the email project to his personal account, later taking out more than $4,900 in cash. According to a person with direct knowledge of Smith’s project, the Republican operative stated that he was prepared to pay hackers “many thousands of dollars” for Clinton’s emails — and ultimately did so.
...
The money trail, made public here for the first time, sheds new light on Smith’s effort, in which he told people he was in touch with both Russians on the dark web and Trump campaign officials — particularly Michael Flynn, who was then a top advisor to the Trump campaign and later served as national security adviser before having to resign after misleading White House officials about his meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Intelligence agencies have given the FBI information that Russian hackers talked about passing Clinton’s emails to Flynn through a cutout, according to two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the matter. It is not known if that cutout was in any way connected to Smith.
...
After scouring nine accounts that Smith controlled, Northern Trust turned over documents showing 88 suspicious cash withdrawals totalling about $140,000 between January 2016 and April 2017, including a $3,000 withdrawal six days after the election. Northern Trust found these transactions suspicious because officials could not determine the purpose of the withdrawals and because some of them took place over the time Smith was engaged in his project to obtain Clinton’s emails. Many of the cash transactions, the bank noted, were less than $10,000, small enough not to trigger an automatic alert to the government. After receiving the subpoena, the bank sent a report to Treasury’s financial crimes unit, which shared its findings with the FBI, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and Senate Intelligence Committee investigators.
...
Smith also told the newspaper that he never intended to pay for emails obtained by hackers — a contention the person with direct knowledge of Smith’s plan disputed, saying Smith did pay for what he was told were Clinton’s emails. This source also said that Smith purposely omitted any mention of paying hackers from his written plan for the operation.

posted by zachlipton at 2:31 PM on August 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

GOP Operative Made ‘Suspicious’ Cash Withdrawals During Pursuit Of Clinton Emails: Peter W. Smith withdrew $4,900 in cash the day after he finalized a plan to work with “dark web” hackers.

That would be the "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER"-suicide-note Peter W. Smith.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:34 PM on August 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

That's why NPR lets people on to shriek "MOTHERFUCKER MOTHERFUCKER MOTHERFUCKER" on the regular.

I see you’ve procured the transcript of my daily in-car rebuttal to npr’s coverage

——

Republicans Are Caught in a Trump Bind as the Midterms Approach
(John Cassidy | The New Yorker)

But, behind the scenes, the mood among G.O.P. leaders is surely a lot darker. Tuesday’s results confirmed that the Party is facing the prospect of losing control of the House of Representatives on November 6th, while the outcome of the battle for the Senate is highly uncertain. The results also highlighted fissures in the Trump-G.O.P. voting coalition, particularly the aversion to Donald Trump among some affluent, educated Republicans. These fissures are getting wider with every Trump tweet, rant, and insult.

Just as worrying for Republican strategists: it’s hard to see any way to change course. Confining Trump to a Trappist monastery for three months might help a bit. But it might not: much of the damage has already been done.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:36 PM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Man, that defendant list and list of charges is just lovely. Also I love sentence 1 of section 1 of the introduction: “No one is above the law.”

I'm still stuck on the TOC, which looks like it's cribbed from everything we've all wished Mueller would do in criminal court. Letting the DNC have a shot under "Preponderance of Evidence" is fucking inspired. Then, after depositions, Mueller's got his criminal prosecution beta-tested.

I'm raising my glass to you, Bob Mueller! Well done, Sir! Well done!
posted by mikelieman at 2:36 PM on August 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

I, uh, don't really believe this I guess, particularly since she's calling up NPR to contradict the text in her own book and no fact checking seems to have happened, but this is spinning rapidly out of control. Politico, Hell hath no fury like Omarosa scorned

She is aware, people who have spoken to her said, that there will be efforts to dismiss her as a fabulist.

But Manigault Newman is using the threat of taped conversations with the president and with his family members to gird against attacks on her credibility. She is also teasing her book as an appetizer, telling friends and acquaintances she has held onto explosive material that she intends to release later – such as the names of illegitimate children she claims Trump has fathered.

posted by zachlipton at 2:40 PM on August 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

This seems an odd sales technique.

"Don't bother buying the book, all the good stuff is coming later."
posted by Artw at 2:43 PM on August 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

Remember how Kavanaugh spent $200 000 on baseball tickets despite being strapped for cash. Guess who else did the same thing? Our current money launderer Paul Manafort.
posted by PenDevil at 2:43 PM on August 10, 2018 [43 favorites]

Just as worrying for Republican strategists: it’s hard to see any way to change course. Confining Trump to a Trappist monastery for three months might help a bit. But it might not: much of the damage has already been done.

Yes. That's why they still have control of all levers of a majority of statehouses. As long as it takes D+7 to take the house, far rights can shit out all the white supremacy they want, pick up the primary, and elections are apparently still competitive. All it takes is one election of D apathy and we get a third of congress being more racist than Steve fucking King.

All the Republicans have to do is wait it out and let the public adjust to the new levels of white supremacy and fascism from one side of the isle. The electorate will eventually get used to it and general election numbers will recover. They've been patient before (1974-1980, 1992-1996, 2006-2010). I'm sure the people who fight the culture wars will be patient again.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 2:56 PM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Democratic National Committee Proposes Reversing Its Ban On Fossil Fuel Donations; The move comes just two months after the party adopted a resolution to prohibit oil, gas and coal company contributions. Because it is not enough that Democrat Lori Swanson has apparently been doing shitty things or that apparently corrupt but not convicted Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has a campaign chair who is also a lobbyist for Qatar. OMG, we cannot afford shitty Democratic politicians. We need these folks out of the party. How do we get them out?
posted by Bella Donna at 2:57 PM on August 10, 2018 [18 favorites]

@sarahkendzior:
Dennis Shields, the man to whom Michael Cohen texted "You better get out ASAP" when Trump Tower caught on fire in April, is now dead.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:58 PM on August 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

"A car" rammed into counter-protestors?

Speed was involved in a jumping‑related incident while a fox was brown.
posted by mabelstreet at 3:03 PM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

Prosecution is expected to rest Monday in the Manafort trial. Closing arguments are expected Tuesday. The implication is that the defense's witnesses will take less than a day. Or that there are in fact no defense witnesses and the defense intends to rest immediately.

Bold strategy Cotton.
posted by Justinian at 3:05 PM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

John Does 1 - 10? Who are they?

Per p. 9 of the doc, they are "other Russian intelligence officers or agencies who participated in the conspiracy to hack into Plaintiff's (DNC) computers and disseminate stolen documents and information."

It's marked as having been filed 4/20. Contains RICO charges, with relief including "damages and losses suffered by Plaintiff," "compensatory and treble damages," statutory and punitive damages, and interestingly, "awarding Plaintiff the financial gain earned by Defendants as a consequence of the violations described herein." (pp.52-53)

brb, off popping popcorn
posted by sapere aude at 3:06 PM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Remember how Kavanaugh spent $200 000 on baseball tickets despite being strapped for cash. Guess who else did the same thing? Our current money launderer Paul Manafort.

Man, I wish I could feel hope that Kavanaugh could get derailed by something like this. Those fuckers are going to do everything to push him through no matter how hard we protest and it makes me sick.
posted by emjaybee at 3:07 PM on August 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

That would be the "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER"-suicide-note Peter W. Smith.

If Trump himself were to forge a suicide note and drop it on a body, wouldn't that be exactly how it read?
posted by pjenks at 3:13 PM on August 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

Here's what I wrote today to my local NPR affiliate:

More and more I find NPR mired in "both-sides-ism". This morning they gave a neo-Nazi extensive air time to give his views, which was bad enough, but then they interviewed Black Lives Matters people "for balance", as if these are competing viewpoints. They are not. One thinks his race is better than the others, and has applauded the killing of Heather Heyer. The other is just asking to be allowed to live. You might as well interview a mugger and a victim to get their opposing viewpoints.

I support Wxxx and Wxxx [other local member supported stations] and I would like to support Wxxx, especially for the work of people like Cxxxx Pxxxxx, hands down the best local politics reporter in the city. But I cannot support NPR. Its once sharp blade has become blunted and it is no longer a useful tool.

Does Wxxx have any plans to consider another morning and afternoon news source? If you dropped NPR I would love to become a member again, as I was for many years during the Wxxx days.

posted by M-x shell at 3:15 PM on August 10, 2018 [44 favorites]

That would be the "NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER"-suicide-note Peter W. Smith.

From the link:

Smith's cause of death is listed as "asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium," according to the Tribune.

Possibly investigators were tipped off by a giant empty helium tank. How'd he get it into the room unobserved?
posted by notyou at 3:20 PM on August 10, 2018

Possibly investigators were tipped off by a giant empty helium tank. How'd he get it into the room unobserved?

I won't get into grisly details but there are helium suicide methods that don't require a giant tank. It's also a relatively easy method to fake after the fact if the person's true cause of death isn't obvious.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:24 PM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

> I just got into it, with a coworker who said she'd defend to the death NPR's responsibility to broadcast Kessler because, as a tax-supported entity, they are compelled by the Constitution to give him equal access to their forum.

In both Germany and France, advocating Nazism is illegal. In France, condoning terrorism, what Kessler did in his public statement about the vehicular attack in Charlottesville, carries a sentence of up to a year in prison. In France, Kessler would probably still be in jail, not organizing an anniversary of the Unite the Right rally and doing a tour of interviews in media outlets promoting it.

Both France and Germany are multi-party democracies. They both have a free press that promotes, supports and advocates multiple and divergent points of view. I used to take an absolutist view of free speech like a lot Americans do, but I've come around to their point of view.

No, giving free reign to fascists and people advocating genocide and murder of their political opponents is not how we protect democracy.
posted by nangar at 3:24 PM on August 10, 2018 [84 favorites]

A little hilarity; Ted Cruz spokesperson tries to insult challenger Beto O'Rourke, instead makes him sound delicious.

Unlike the spicy ketchup, when Texans unwrap the O’Rourke packaging, they are definitely not going to like what they see underneath. He’s like a Triple Meat Whataburger liberal who is out of touch with Texas values.”

Whataburger is a revered Texas burger chain; insulting it is like insulting pecan pie.
posted by emjaybee at 3:26 PM on August 10, 2018 [52 favorites]

Ironically reinstating the fairness doctrine would be the biggest blow liberals could strike at the conservative media complex that only exists now because Reagan specifically repealed the the fairness doctrine to create it.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:12 PM on August 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

@itsmikebivins:
The official Proud Boys Twitter account, the one with the blue checkmark, has been suspended

Proud Boys patriarch Gavin Mcinnes has also been given the boot by Twitter.
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:17 PM on August 10, 2018 [51 favorites]

(There’s a lot of fun social events, queer mixers and choruses and Sunday potlucks in the Park happening all over the NYC DSA in the last two weeks of August welcoming to newcomers i curated a brief list)
posted by The Whelk at 4:48 PM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

The Lawfare gang on the BuzzFeed Peter Smith story: Peter Smith’s Search for Hillary Clinton’s Emails: The Subplot Thickens. It's really more a set of (good) questions than answers, since there's a lot we don't know, but there's speculation on where all this is headed:

Many analysts believe that Mueller’s next step, having alleged both the social media conspiracy and the GRU conspiracy, will be to bring these conspiracies home and charge American figures thought to have participated in the wrongdoing he has outlined. The Buzzfeed story raises the question of how central the Peter Smith story will be to this next act—assuming it comes to pass. It is possible this is all just a sideshow, a weird tangent that took place alongside the main storylines of L’Affaire Russe. But it is also possible that it was more than that.

After all, wouldn’t it be odd if a group of Russians had conspired to steal Hillary Clinton’s emails and dump them into the American presidential campaign, while a group of Americans had conspired to get Hillary Clinton emails from Russian hackers to help Donald Trump get elected, and the two groups had never met?

To borrow from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Conspiracies “that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing / Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness.”

posted by zachlipton at 4:49 PM on August 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

He’s like a Triple Meat Whataburger liberal

Great, now I’m craving Beto O’Rourke. Thanks, Ted.
posted by darkstar at 5:34 PM on August 10, 2018 [27 favorites]

My most notable Whataburger memory involves 24 hours of food poisoning and i still know better than to use it as an insult in Texas.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:43 PM on August 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

"Unlike the spicy ketchup, when Texans unwrap the O’Rourke packaging, they are definitely not going to like what they see underneath. He’s like a Triple Meat Whataburger liberal who is out of touch with Texas values."

This is running scared and throwing things to the wall hoping something sticks. A Cruz Super-PAC just bought $750k in ads to attack Beto, as well.

Running. Fucking. Scared.

If they wanted the insult to work, they should have said, "He's like ordering a Triple Meat Whataburger and ending up with a 'burger' off the dollar menu from McDonalds." As it comes across, associating Beto with Whataburger is a positive in many Texan's eyes.

Oh, and the $750k buy I found out about because of an e-mail from Beto's campaign. Their initial ask is for $3 and later in the e-mail they ask for $25. Those are easier numbers to contribute when you are only seeing them every other week or even longer.

Anyone have a follow-up on whether Cruz has accepted either of the debates that would be en espanol? I'm going to make my small donation to Beto and then consider a template e-mail to his campaign for every time he attacks Beto to see when they are going to debate.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 5:55 PM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Anyone have a follow-up on whether Cruz has accepted either of the debates that would be en espanol?

He can't accept those debates, he isn't fluent enough. Offering Cruz a debate in Spanish is basically trolling the guy.
posted by Justinian at 6:03 PM on August 10, 2018 [28 favorites]

If they wanted the insult to work, they should have said, "He's like ordering a Triple Meat Whataburger and ending up with a 'burger' off the dollar menu from McDonalds." As it comes across, associating Beto with Whataburger is a positive in many Texan's eyes.

Aren't we also talking about the people who claimed that taco trucks on every corner was a bad thing?....maybe they've just never had good food.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:03 PM on August 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

If they wanted the insult to work, they should have said, "He's like ordering a Triple Meat Whataburger and ending up with a 'burger' off the dollar menu from McDonalds."

Even better: "...and ending up with a TOFU SALAD!" for the perfect combination of derision, disgust, and Owning The Libs that any smug smirking Young Republican campaign chud could toss out with barely ten seconds' effort.
posted by hangashore at 6:16 PM on August 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

OHHHH, it's not just WikiLeaks! This case is DNC vs. All the baddies (DNC Complaint 66 pages)

posted by mikelieman at 2:07 PM on August 10 [4 favorites +] [!]

That list of defendants draws a neat circle and the center of that circle is conspicuous for his absence.
posted by Mental Wimp at 6:25 PM on August 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

So the Republican operative who is alleged to have paid for Clinton’s emails died suspiciously, leaving behind a note that said “NO FOUL PLAY WHATSOEVER - ALL SELF INFLICTED”

At one point a former porn store announced that the current President once paid her to spank him with a rolled up magazine bearing his own face on the cover

And he ate paper

I know we have OnceUponATimes’ excellent record of all the conspiracy fuckery...but do we have a list anywhere of all the most unbelievable moments in this fucking circus?
posted by schadenfrau at 6:33 PM on August 10, 2018 [29 favorites]

Democratic National Committee Proposes Reversing Its Ban On Fossil Fuel Donations;

It passed 30-2. The DNC is absolutely determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:13 PM on August 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

do we have a list anywhere of all the most unbelievable moments in this fucking circus?

That would be these megathreads.
posted by Rykey at 7:17 PM on August 10, 2018 [27 favorites]

Michael Avenatti is giving what sure sounds like a 2020 campaign speech in Iowa and I want to kill everything with fire.

The 2020 Democratic primaries are going to be a goddamn shitshow with 79 person debates, and then somehow we're going to have to keep the Avenatti's and Zuckerburg's of the world from all running vanity third party campaigns alongside Russia's favorite Jill Stein party. The only timeline worse than this one is the one where Trump wins reelection with 34% of the popular vote and Dems splitting the rest with nihilists, blowhards, naive techbros, Russian plants, and Jill Stein. Whoops those last two are the same.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:22 PM on August 10, 2018 [37 favorites]

Eve Peyser, Michael Avenatti Wants to Be President and I Want to Die
posted by zachlipton at 7:23 PM on August 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

and then somehow we're going to have to keep the Avenatti's and Zuckerburg's of the world from all running vanity third party campaigns alongside Russia's favorite Jill Stein party.

Wait until Sheldon Adelson, Robert Mercer, and their libertarian billionaire cohorts figure out they can weaponize this by plowing money into an insurgent progressive party. If vote splitting the left happens during this election I won't expect Democrats to win the presidency for a generation.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:26 PM on August 10, 2018

Democratic National Committee Proposes Reversing Its Ban On Fossil Fuel Donations

The DNC is absolutely determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Maybe it's the fossil fuels that reversed their positions and not the Democrats. If so, there are a lot of things that are worse than capturing one of your opponent's biggest assets. That's a bare-knuckled winning play. We're determined to win right?
posted by M-x shell at 7:50 PM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

It's not like there are a bunch of heavy hitters at the Wing Ding tonight: it's Avenatti, some congress-dude named John Delaney from Maryland who has been sending me annoying bulk emails about how moderate he is, Rep. Tim Ryan from Ohio, and a "tech entrepreneur" named Andrew Yang whose main thing seems to be Universal Basic Income. I think the only one of those who is considered in any way a serious contender is Tim Ryan, and honestly, it seems reeeeeeaaaaalllly early to be gearing up for 2020. We've got a chance in Iowa to pick up two, maybe three congressional seats in a few months. Maybe wait until December to start thinking about the presidential election?

There's supposedly an unusually large crowd at the Wing Ding, which is a big fundraiser for Iowa Democrats, and there's some speculation that people came to gawk at Avenatti. But honestly, I think it's probably just that Democrats are more engaged this year, and they would have come even if it had just been the ordinary, boring lineup of Iowa candidates and long-shot presidential hopefuls.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:53 PM on August 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

The DSA isn’t just going after politicians, they’re taking on slumlords and speculators too.
posted by The Whelk at 7:59 PM on August 10, 2018 [34 favorites]

Huh. So Peter Smith died May 14, 2017.

Hannity started going real heavy on Seth Rich conspiracy theories (via Wheeler, via Butowsky) on May 16, 2017.

Huh.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:02 PM on August 10, 2018 [29 favorites]

I suspect that Jon Doe #2 is really David Dennison
posted by mbo at 8:31 PM on August 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Maybe it's the fossil fuels that reversed their positions and not the Democrats. If so, there are a lot of things that are worse than capturing one of your opponent's biggest assets. That's a bare-knuckled winning play. We're determined to win right?

They donate to both sides no matter what. All this does is piss off the left and gets them to stay home or vote green.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 8:44 PM on August 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Please tell me no one on the left is stupid enough to stay home on Trump's reelection because some Democratic campaign committee accepted fossil fuel money.

Evangelicals are voting for frigging TRUMP because they understand the value of holding that office. Whose making out better these days, purist lefties or evangelicals?
posted by msalt at 8:52 PM on August 10, 2018 [28 favorites]

Republicans look for reasons to vote for their candidates. Democrats look for reasons not to vote for their candidates.
posted by Justinian at 8:53 PM on August 10, 2018 [66 favorites]

I just got into it, with a coworker who said she'd defend to the death NPR's responsibility to broadcast Kessler because, as a tax-supported entity, they are compelled by the Constitution to give him equal access to their forum.

In my email to NPR's Ombudsman, I said:

What's next? Are you going to interview a serial killer and ask him what his favorite kind of victim is? If you do, I'll volunteer to go on the air afterward as an "anti-murder advocate" to balance the scales.

posted by mmoncur at 9:12 PM on August 10, 2018 [67 favorites]

Dennis Shields, the man to whom Michael Cohen texted "You better get out ASAP" when Trump Tower caught on fire in April, is now dead.

ok I'm fried from work and someone please unwrap and explain what this means for me please?
posted by vrakatar at 9:45 PM on August 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Just more sideshow: back a few eons in Trumptime there was a fire on one of the upper floors of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, one of the apartments affected was resided in by a client/pal of Cohen’s who also had been trying to unload the place because he couldn’t stand Trump’s politics, but could not unload it at an attractive price because buyers can’t stand Trump politics either, and, well that guy has passed.

Holy cow I need to spend less time obsessing on this stuff.
posted by notyou at 10:02 PM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Okay, but why did Cohen text him that? Did he just see the news about the fire or did he think Dennis was about to be murdered? And what was the cause of Dennis death? Was it murder? I need another drink, someone in this shitshow is gonna get murdered if they haven't by now, I'm freaking out I should take it to metachat fuck fuck fuck. Murdered people can not testify!
posted by vrakatar at 10:19 PM on August 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh I see. No I think the Cohen txt was just hey I know this guy better check in.

Meanwhile this guy is actually some kind of reality TV guest star?

His death is being reported as a drug overdose, so whatever that means.

Still I’d say just a weird Trumpland coincidence because if anyone is gonna get drug overdosed it’s Cohen, not his friend on the 43rd floor or whatever.
posted by notyou at 10:28 PM on August 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Honestly, it sounds like he died of a drug overdose, and it’s just a coincidence that he knew Michael Cohen and wanted to sell his apartment in Trump Tower.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:29 PM on August 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, people die from overdoses pretty often. And it sorta sounds like it was expected, which is the only thing that’s weird to me.
posted by gucci mane at 10:47 PM on August 10, 2018

His significant other is on Real Housewives, which made it hard to google any news that wasn't focused on her. Apparently Shields founded Esquire Bank, which went public last year.

A bit of unrelated political trivia: the bank also has former Democratic House Whip and Gore Campaign member Tony Coelho on their Board.

But his death does seem like just an overdose so far, and no apparent ties to any of the Russia/Trump stuff.
posted by p3t3 at 10:53 PM on August 10, 2018

Nate Silver
The single most favorable indicator for Democrats, in terms of their chances of taking over the House, is fundraising. Specifically, individual contributions to individual candidates, which tends to be the most important/predictive measure of electoral success.
• Democratic nominees are outraising Republican nominees ~2:1 in open-seat races. They're actually slightly outraising the GOP in competitive races with GOP **incumbents**, which is pretty unusual.
• It's fairly broad-based, too. Of the 73 districts with a 538 PVI of between D+10 and R+10—those are the seats that change hands most often over the long run—the Democratic nominee has raised more in 59 districts, the Republican in just 14.
posted by chris24 at 4:41 AM on August 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

Huh. So Peter Smith died May 14, 2017.

Hannity started going real heavy on Seth Rich conspiracy theories (via Wheeler, via Butowsky) on May 16, 2017.

Huh.

@RVAWonk: “Peter Smith's "recruitment document" re. Clinton's emails was dated Sept 7, 2016.

“The next day, Jeff Sessions met w/ Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak in DC. Also on that day, Trump told Russian TV* he thought Dems were making up the story about Russian hacking.”

In that September 8th interview, when Larry King asked Trump on his Russia Today programme about Putin's assertion that the DNC hack was a "public service", Trump responded, "I don't have any opinion on it. I don't know anything about it. I don't know who hacked. I'm not sure. You tell me. Who hacked? Who did the hacking?"

A whole lotta stuff happened all at once back in September 2016.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:16 AM on August 11, 2018 [17 favorites]

But, behind the scenes, the mood among G.O.P. leaders is surely a lot darker. Tuesday’s results confirmed that the Party is facing the prospect of losing control of the House of Representatives on November 6th, while the outcome of the battle for the Senate is highly uncertain.

And let's not forget -- or let the media forget -- that the reason for this blue wave is because Trump is massively unpopular. And not only that, he's an illegitimate president who is trying to rule like a king. Loyal Americans will have none of it, and we must not forgive the Republicans who line up to support him rather than oppose.
posted by Gelatin at 6:40 AM on August 11, 2018 [50 favorites]

According to his Twitter feed, Chris Collins has ended his reelection campaign.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:09 AM on August 11, 2018 [19 favorites]

On the anniversary of Charlottesville:

Trump’s inner circle gets whiter (Politico)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:11 AM on August 11, 2018

According to his Twitter feed, Chris Collins has ended his reelection campaign.

I love how in his Twitter banner he's surrounded by the people who are going to testify and subsequently convict him.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:19 AM on August 11, 2018 [37 favorites]

Speaking of Charlottesville:

This legal tactic can keep neo-Nazi protests out of your city (Mary McCord and Michael Signer, WaPo)

Most states have constitutional language, criminal statutes or both barring unauthorized paramilitary activity. Every state except New York and Georgia has a constitutional provision, akin to Virginia’s, requiring that “in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.” In other words, private armies are proscribed in 48 states. You can’t legally organize with others into battalions to fight those with whom you disagree. As University of Virginia law professor A.E. Dick Howard, who formerly directed the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision, has written, this provision “ensures the right of all citizens . . . to live free from the fear of an alien soldiery commanded by men who are not responsible to law and the political process” — an accurate description of the militant groups that invaded Charlottesville. (Washington, D.C., the site of alt-right protests planned for this weekend, has no such provisions.)

In addition to constitutional provisions, 28 states have criminal statutes that prohibit individuals from forming rogue military units and parading or drilling publicly with firearms, while 25 states have criminal statutes that bar two or more people from engaging in “paramilitary” activity, including using firearms or other “techniques” capable of causing injury or death in a civil disorder. A dozen states have statutes that prohibit falsely assuming the functions of law enforcement or wearing without authorization military uniforms or close imitations. On the books for years, these laws are rarely invoked. But with the invasion of public spaces and intimidation of citizens that we’ve seen in Charlottesville and around the country, it’s time states employ them to prohibit the coordinated use of weapons at demonstrations and rallies, whether through permitting conditions and other restrictions or criminal enforcement when warranted.

The authors won a lawsuit preventing named alt-right and antifa groups from assembling in the city.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:29 AM on August 11, 2018 [55 favorites]

Democrats might be able to steal Collins seat by default:

#BREAKING GOP Congressman Chris Collins of #NY27, arrested this week on charges of insider trading, suspends campaign for re-election. If I’m reading NY election law correctly, no other candidate can run (except write ins) so Democrats get a free pick-up here in this R+24 seat.

Shane Goldmacher (NYT):

The process to remove himself from the ballot in New York IS NOT SIMPLE.

Very short and simplified version: Republicans will have to put Collins on the ballot for another race in some other part of the state to get him off the ballot in #NY27.
...
In short, to get off ballot Collins is widely seen to have three options:

—> Die, move to another state or run for another office.

BUT just saying you are moving to another state isn't so easy.

See: Delay, Tom in 2006

posted by T.D. Strange at 7:41 AM on August 11, 2018 [28 favorites]

Lest you think rightwing "Christians" will ever turn away from their anti-Christ.

@JerryFalwellJr
Are there any grownups w/ integrity left in the DOJ? When I was a kid, I watched Repubs join Dems to force Nixon out. Now Dems won’t join Repubs to lock up Comey, Lynch, Ohr, Rosenstein, Strzok, @HillaryClinton, @BarackObama & maybe even @jeffsessions despite damning evidence!
posted by chris24 at 7:51 AM on August 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

& maybe even @jeffsessions

Stopped clock, etc.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:54 AM on August 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

Michael Avenatti and Zuckerberg aren't going to happen. They're not going to make it onto a ticket. They won't be invited to debates. If I were a consultant, I would tell Avenatti that if he's looking for more tv time, this may even backfire that way. No one should worry about this.
posted by xammerboy at 8:07 AM on August 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm inclined to think you're right, but on the other hand I said almost exactly the same thing about the current President.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:13 AM on August 11, 2018 [13 favorites]

No one should worry about this.

A phrase that should never be uttered in this year-of-our-demented-death-lord 2018.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:16 AM on August 11, 2018 [82 favorites]

Was that "No one should worry" as in, "it's too much of a long shot" or in the vein of "Please don't give people any more white hairs"?
posted by Slackermagee at 8:21 AM on August 11, 2018

Remember the outrage over superdelegates? There's a reason they exist.
posted by peeedro at 8:28 AM on August 11, 2018 [13 favorites]

Getting his "racism and violence on ALL sides" in ahead of whatever's about to happen in DC.

@realDonaldTrump
The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:32 AM on August 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

It’s hard enough following what is going on on a regular basis, so perhaps we could hold off on the 2020 race to follow right now and the 2018 election?
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:34 AM on August 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Guys, I’m pretty sure you can’t run a campaign based on your own fame and celebrity if nobody knows who you are.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:34 AM on August 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

This Is Not a Time for Civility.
White-nationalist rallies are calls for genocide, and must be treated as such.
posted by adamvasco at 8:35 AM on August 11, 2018 [54 favorites]

Was that "No one should worry" as in, "it's too much of a long shot" or in the vein of "Please don't give people any more white hairs"?

To help cope with living in Trump's America, the skill I'm working to improve is 'worry about it when it's time to worry about it.' (I've found that it's easier to convince my brain to procrastinate worrying, than it is to convince it to stop worrying.)

Potential presidential candidates for 2020 are not something I am able to think or worry about right now, my worry docket is plenty full. So I'm gonna just shrug at Michael Avenatti's presidential ambitions with a passing 'well, that would be horrible' and get back to the fresh hell of today and tomorrow. The world is providing enough short-term horror over which I have no control--and only minuscule influence--for me to spare any energy for long-term hypotheticals.
posted by LooseFilter at 8:36 AM on August 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

Last year, a federal judge ruled a group representing LGBTI citizens of Uganda couldn't sue homophobe Scott Lively in federal court because while Lively had helped write that country's anti-gay law, he had mostly done so overseas.

Lively (making his second run for governor in MA this year) actually appealed the ruling, because he objected to how the judge emphasized in the decision how his ruling was on a specific technical point in the US Alien Tort Statue and was in no way meant to be read as a victory for what he called Lively's "crackpot bigotry" (which includes blaming the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust on gays).

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled against Lively yesterday, saying appeals are generally for parties who lose cases and it was not going to expunge the judge's comments, which, it noted, did not affect his ruling.
posted by adamg at 8:39 AM on August 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

According to his Twitter feed, Chris Collins has ended his reelection campaign.

Credit where due: He had the honor to acknowledge he was unfit for office and bailed out.
posted by mikelieman at 8:41 AM on August 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Collins says he's suspending his campaign and hinting at not returning to Congress ("I will fill out the remaining few months of my term..."). It may be a poor choice of words, but so far, he hasn't said anything about taking his name off the ballot or finding a replacement. This sounds more like he's going to come back in a week or two and say "My constituents have flooded my office with calls and emails demanding that I return to fight the liberal Nancy Pelosi-loving liberal who wants to liberal up Congress."
posted by Etrigan at 8:50 AM on August 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

The current state of FOX/GOP.

Mark Levin: “First of all, Robert Mueller is a greater threat to this republic and the Constitution than anything Vladimir Putin did during the campaign. And I am no fan of Vladimir Putin." VIDEO

Jeanine Pirro: "Is Mueller a greater threat than Putin to this country?" VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 9:04 AM on August 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

Apropos of the Chris Collins/Wilbur Ross news this week, Leverage creator and "crazification factor" coiner, Jon Rogers (@JonRog1) makes some general observations:

1/ The one thing gratifying about the publicity around Rep. Collins insider trading & the massive fraud/corruption of Trump and his Cabinet members, is that the insane levels of unprosecuted white collar crime we found while writing LEVERAGE are entering public consciousness
2/ It was overwhelming, it was crushing, it was one of the reasons I was kind of okay with the show ending. I grew up knowing the system is rigged. I had no idea how systematically rigged it was.
3/ If a "black market economy" is an economy that exists around skirting the law, then the entire economy is a black market economy. That research was an unending parade of sociopaths made successful in a system optimized for them.
4/ The only thing more enraging for me, personally, are the useful idiot center-right pundits who lecture us on how this is the best system from some MORAL standpoint. I assume it's a grift, because if they believe it, they're naive idiots.
5/ Even the creation of the phrase "white collar", rather than the more useful comparison of "systematized rather than spontaneous theft" is a pillar of this worldview.

Also:

Honestly, at this point I think we should require of every corporation to establish the position of Sin Eater: a founding member who *must* go to jail if the corporation is found guilty of wrong-doing. No fines. No excuses. Jail time relative to damages done.
Rotate it biannually. I don't give a shit. But if there were two ironclad rules I learned researching that show:
1) A fine is a price
2) No bad behavior ever stops until a rich white guy goes to jail. And even then ...

And incidentally, as he's fond of saying, "Amateurs study heists. Professionals study money laundering."
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:14 AM on August 11, 2018 [104 favorites]

Jon Rogers did a blog while producing Leverage. From that, it felt like that they were underplaying some aspects of reality.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:17 AM on August 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Felix Harcourt (History prof, author of "Ku Klux Kulture: America and the Klan in the 1920s.")
In the wake of the widely criticized interview with Jason Kessler, it's probably worth talking about this again...

@loisbeckett: Media history every journalist should know, from @FelixHistory: In the 1920s, newspaper investigations helped the KKK gain hundreds of thousands of members. The stories were intended to expose the Klan. Instead, they massively increased its membership. GUARDIAN: The media and the Ku Klux Klan: a debate that began in the 1920s

• In Congressional hearings, Imperial Wizard William Joseph Simmons declared "Our plan or custom - it is not a plan - has been that wherever a Klan has been organized, the first announcement is that they will have a parade."
• It very much was a plan. The Grand Dragon of Alabama reiterated this in a speech at a national meeting, declaring that “Klansmen throughout your realm should be encouraged in holding public events as often as possible.”
• Why? Because the Klan knew that – especially in the early days of the revival of the 1920s – parading would gain valuable publicity for the organization that it would not otherwise have received.
• While it was not the intent of many of the journalists who covered these events, this coverage was a vital factor in the Klan’s rapid growth to an estimated four million members, with chapters in virtually every state.
• As Klan officials gleefully crowed, “From the press the Klan has received gratis what a million dollars worth of its own advertisements wouldn’t have done."
• "Never in the history have shrewd news writers everywhere so materially misjudged the effect of publicity, overshot their mark, and where they sought to destroy, merely built up, and where they tried to annihilate, create a firmer foundation.”
• Even if the parade went wrong and descended into violence (as they often did), the Klan was often able to rely on local press to condemn the “mob violence” of the anti-Klan protestors, further normalizing the bigoted organization.

And it continues from there. And ends with:

Felix Harcourt
The press repeatedly fell for this nonsense in the 1920s, and in doing so cemented the Ku Klux Klan as a fixture in modern American history. Let's not do it again.
posted by chris24 at 9:17 AM on August 11, 2018 [87 favorites]

One more tweet from Jon Rogers, re: Leverage:

6/ tl:dr It's good a show ends when the phrase "cleansing white fire" is the first thought of your day, every day, when you wake up.

I believe he is referring to the source material for the show.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:20 AM on August 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

So what would happen if Collins wins in November even though his campaign is suspended?
posted by octothorpe at 9:20 AM on August 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

The current state of FOX/GOP.

The current state of FOX/GOP.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:22 AM on August 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

I find myself wondering a lot these days about whether Mueller has personal security, and if so how much? I mean, now Fox is telling its millions of angry viewers that he’s an enemy of the state.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:25 AM on August 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

Democrats all but acknowledge Kavanaugh is headed toward confirmation to Supreme Court

Moderate Republican senators such as Susan Collins of Maine, the most closely watched GOP swing vote, are sending strong signals that they will back Kavanaugh. Several Democrats facing difficult reelections this year have indicated they are open to voting for the judge. And leaders of the resistance are already delivering post-mortem assessments and blaming fellow Democrats for a looming failure.

Barring a major revelation, the Senate is poised to install the 53-year-old Kavanaugh on the high court and take the next step toward fulfilling President Trump’s pledge to remake the Supreme Court — and the wider federal judiciary, potentially for decades.

posted by kirkaracha at 9:31 AM on August 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Jeff Sessions dines at Mexican restaurant before immigration speech

Jeff's trolling and owning the libs while the children he kidnapped suffer and die.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:32 AM on August 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

Yeah they did an episode of Leversge on wage theft and they got angry letters about how it wasn’t a thing and made up and ....

Wage theft accounts for the bulk of theft in the US , far out pacing robbery and burglary.

If you add asset forfeiture to that then the two people most likely to steal from you are the cops and your boss.
posted by The Whelk at 9:33 AM on August 11, 2018 [93 favorites]

Wage theft accounts for the bulk of theft in the US , far out pacing robbery and burglary.

Do you know the source for the stats, The Whelk?
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:48 AM on August 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Tweet from Lois Beckett

Media history every journalist should know, from @FelixHistory: In the 1920s, newspaper investigations helped the KKK gain hundreds of thousands of members. The stories were intended to expose the Klan. Instead, they massively increased its membership.

The media and the Ku Klux Klan: a debate that began in the 1920s - Lois Beckett and Jesse Brenneman, The Guardian

"Dr Felix Harcourt, author of Ku Klux Kulture, breaks down the ‘mutually beneficial’ relationship between the Klan and the media"
...
We’re looking at the debate that is happening in the media right now over how to deal with white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements. You looked at the same debate that was happening almost 100 years ago. Can you set the scene for us?

In 1921, the New York World ran a three-week front page exposé of the Klan: daily denunciations of its ideology, of its activities, of its hooded secrecy, and its propensity to violence. They managed to get virtually every major New York representative on record in opposition to the Klan. They ultimately spark a congressional hearing into the Klan’s growing power. By some estimates it boosts the World’s circulation by over 100,000 readers. It is syndicated to 17 other newspapers and sparks similar exposés around the country. But some have estimated that while the World picks up 100,000 readers, the Klan’s gain is in the hundreds of thousands of new members – reportedly even cutting out membership applications from the New York World stories to join this organization they were just now hearing about.

Felix Harcourt expands on this in a recent Twitter thread ( Unrolled version )

Why? Because the Klan knew that – especially in the early days of the revival of the 1920s – parading would gain valuable publicity for the organization that it would not otherwise have received.While it was not the intent of many of the journalists who covered these events, this coverage was a vital factor in the Klan’s rapid growth to an estimated four million members, with chapters in virtually every state.

As Klan officials gleefully crowed, “From the press the Klan has received gratis what a million dollars worth of its own advertisements wouldn’t have done." "Never in the history have shrewd news writers everywhere so materially misjudged the effect of publicity, overshot their mark, and where they sought to destroy, merely built up, and where they tried to annihilate, create a firmer foundation.”

Even if the parade went wrong and descended into violence (as they often did), the Klan was often able to rely on local press to condemn the “mob violence” of the anti-Klan protestors, further normalizing the bigoted organization. Klan officials astutely exploited access journalism and the desire for scoops to garner even greater coverage in print and on radio.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:02 AM on August 11, 2018 [21 favorites]

I don't know if Sessions actually ate at La Mex, but he definitely ended up at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston--who posted (and then deleted) about it on social media. The owner of El Tiempo later posted a message about how they don't support family separation (can't link to the FB post).
posted by thack3r at 10:03 AM on August 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Collins says he's suspending his campaign

Suspension has no specific legal definition but it means that he is allowed to continue collecting donations and spending money from his campaign fund as if he were still campaigning, in this case likely legal fees. Most candidates will "suspend" their campaigns when they drop out for whatever reason because they still have pending bills to pay.
posted by JackFlash at 10:07 AM on August 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

So what would happen if Collins wins in November even though his campaign is suspended?

Depending on what Republican leadership decides oh I can’t even bother finishing that lie. He stays in Congress, is what would happen. “Suspended” doesn’t mean anything, electorally speaking.
posted by Etrigan at 10:39 AM on August 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

So what would happen if Collins wins in November even though his campaign is suspended?

Guessing based on likely pace of the judicial process:

He'd have an opportunity to take the oath and start the term, and then when he's convicted and sentenced he'd go to prison. At that point the House would probably expel him, if only to open up his seat for a special election. This has happened before, most recently to Jim Traficant from Ohio in... early -00's? Late 90s?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:46 AM on August 11, 2018

Something tells me this is just the official permissible way to move campaign money into his legal defense.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:49 AM on August 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Something tells me this is just the official permissible way to move campaign money into his legal defense.

Nope. Using campaign funds to pay for personal legal expenses is a giant campaign finance violation.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 10:56 AM on August 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

And that would stop him because...?
posted by SPrintF at 10:58 AM on August 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

Using campaign funds to pay for personal legal expenses is a giant campaign finance violation.

But the law on "personal expenses" is quite murky and ruled by the FEC on a case by case basis. Collins has also been under investigation for the past year by the congressional ethics committee for his relationship to the same pharmaceutical company and has already reported more than $160,000 in legal fees related to that which is clearly legal. Drawing the line between lawyers working on his congressional ethics case and his federal case could be blurred.

Here's some irony. Merrick Garland as a federal appellate judge ruled against former Senator Larry Craig who tried to use campaign funds to reverse his guilty plea in his bathroom sex solicitation case back in 2007. No wonder Republicans didn't like him.
posted by JackFlash at 11:15 AM on August 11, 2018

I mean, it would seem to be a simple campaign slogan: "Vote for someone not under an ethics investigation." Would that politicians avoided even the appearance of.
posted by rhizome at 11:57 AM on August 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Trump’s résumé is rife with mob connections

[Trump] has spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus. As many journalists have documented — the late Wayne Barrett and decorated investigator David Cay Johnston most deeply — Trump’s trail was blazed through one business after another notorious for corruption by organized crime.

posted by kirkaracha at 11:59 AM on August 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

Trump’s résumé is rife with mob connections
It's nice to see the WaPo has finally noticed. Of course, other parts of the Mainstream Press should catch up with those facts just in time to include them on the guest list for Trump's funeral.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:03 PM on August 11, 2018 [29 favorites]

I mean, it would seem to be a simple campaign slogan: "Vote for someone not under an ethics investigation." Would that politicians avoided even the appearance of.

Because people who would rather be Russian than a Democrat would draw the line at "so corrupt they're in jail"?
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 12:24 PM on August 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

He's utterly unhinged today. We've got another "both sides"-style tweet, some comments on the physical appearance of women interspersed with his rants, Omarosa is a "lowlife," and "Bikers for Trump" dropped by:

@jeffmason1: Summary of ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ NJ event: Bikers meet in clubhouse because of rain. Press pool brought in. Trump asks crowd if they like the media. Shouts erupt, including suggestion that press be sent out in the storm. President calls former staffer a low life. Event ends.
posted by zachlipton at 12:45 PM on August 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

Is 'Bikers for Trump' just a sad sack facsimile of Putin's favourite biker gang the Night Wolves?
posted by PenDevil at 12:53 PM on August 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Today I learned that the Night Wolves are beefing with the American-founded 1%er gang the Bandidos. You might recall the Bandidos from the Twin Peaks shootout a while back (incidentally they have a convention in the dusty burg down the road from me every couple years and my interactions with them have always been cordial).

While I bet the Bandidos are almost entirely Trumpists and are heavily represented in Bikers for Trump, this seems like a creative weak point to drive a wedge into if we had intelligence operations as competent as Russia's.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:23 PM on August 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

About those bikers:

Chris Cox, the founder of the Bikers for Trump group that has organized demonstrations for Mr. Trump across the country since he was a candidate, was using the Sturgis gathering this year to drum up more support for Mr. Trump and to mobilize opposition to Harley. He wants shareholders and riders to come together and petition the company to promise it will give generous severance packages to workers who might get fired as it moves manufacturing to other countries.

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Cox is furious with Harley’s chief executive, Mr. Levatich, whom Mr. Cox says has “ties” to Europe and wants to make the company less American.
...
But even Mr. Cox, a South Carolina chain saw artist who carves trees and other objects, could not escape the realities of global supply chains and the high cost of making some products in the United States. While he used to sell American-made T-shirts, the $20 Trump shirts he was selling outside his R.V. were made in Haiti. The American-made shirts proved to be a hard sell.

“If I get a T-shirt made in the U.S.A., it’s going to cost about $8 more,” Mr. Cox said. “I looked far and wide to try to get a shirt made in America, it’s just they get you, they gouge you.”

posted by zachlipton at 1:26 PM on August 11, 2018 [38 favorites]

Oh, that's just perfect. "To the president’s most ardent admirers, there is nothing better than American made"...until, of course, it cuts into your own profit margins and then all of a sudden you've gotta source materials from Haiti because "they" are "gouging" you.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:37 PM on August 11, 2018 [71 favorites]

Donald Trump seems fine with Nazis gathering on his lawn

A year after Charlottesville, the president still doesn’t call out white supremacy by name
By Laura McGann | Vox
posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:28 PM on August 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Oh, that's just perfect. "To the president’s most ardent admirers, there is nothing better than American made"...until, of course, it cuts into your own profit margins and then all of a sudden you've gotta source materials from Haiti because "they" are "gouging" you.

Or perhaps he knows his customers can't afford $8 more per shirt, and instead of complaining about, I don't know, wage stagnation and wealth inequality, he plays the underdog and rails against "gouging" by companies that are just charging enough to (ostensibly) pay their own employees thereby.
posted by rhizome at 3:19 PM on August 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

Or perhaps he knows his customers can't afford $8 more per shirt, and instead of complaining about, I don't know, wage stagnation and wealth inequality, he plays the underdog and rails against "gouging" by companies that are just charging enough to (ostensibly) pay their own employees thereby.

It doesn't matter either way. If this guy doesn't import crap at cheap prices, the other guys selling merch WILL, and he's just going to lose the $30 sale to someone asking $20.
posted by mikelieman at 3:45 PM on August 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

NYMag's Olivia Nuzzi has been listening to anonymous GOPers and Trump White House staff about how little they miss their boss: Where Trump’s Vacation Is a Vacation From Trump:

• “There is a sense of calmness whenever he’s not physically in D.C.”—one former official in the Trump administration
• “In the White House, he’s always felt kind of trapped. He can’t escape, really — he’s just in his own world watching Fox News, hate tweeting constantly. Whereas, when he’s in Bedminster or at Mar a Lago, he has golf, he has other stuff to do to take his mind off of the constant cable news churn. And that makes everything so much easier on everyone else, because you don’t have like all these ridiculously stupid tweets, stupid requests coming from the president. You’d be dealing with the 6 a.m. tweets no matter where he was at, but you would know that during the middle of the day, he’d be playing golf, and then getting lunch with his society friends or what have you, and he doesn’t really tweet during that.”—a former White House official
• “It’s so fast and furious, nonstop for [the Republican leadership], that yes, when it is cut down because he is gone, there is relief. But it is cut down, not gone away. I prefer it when my day isn’t started with a tweetstorm or wildly changed in direction by a wild hair [hare?] at a press conference.”—a senior Republican congressional operative
• “The White House staff is probably the battered wives club. Everyone is so used to the constant stream of abuse and dumb decisions and dumb projects. [...] Instead of feeling like you had to leave at 8 p.m. and you were just gonna get completely screwed by the news cycle, you were able to leave at 6:30 and actually have a nice dinner without having to constantly check your phone. You’re kind of able to focus on what’s in front of you a bit more instead of worrying about what’s coming around the corner.”—one former White House official

While the schadenfreude is always welcome, it's interesting to note how open the former staff is about their lack of loyalty and respect for the politically besieged Trump, especially since the anonymous leaked evidence elsewhere indicates his current advisers feels no differently in private. (Assuming this articles quotes aren't all furnished by Steve Bannon and Omarosa Manigault-Newman.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:27 PM on August 11, 2018 [29 favorites]

Marcy Wheeler has a detailed timeline and theory on Roger Stone / Andrew Miller:

But Mueller’s relentless focus on Stone — and his inclusion of Wikileaks and Guccifer 2.0 in the subpoena to Andrew Miller (whose research on voter fraud is one of the things Mueller wants to present to the grand jury) — suggests he thinks this is not so much a parallel effort, but a coordinated one.

I believe the correct legal term for Stone's present situation is "mega-fucked". But we're still one of the principal conspirators flipping away from the end game. I've come to believe Mueller has definitive proof of coordination to steal the election through NSA signals intelligence, but cannot make the legal case without traditional evidence. If there was a classifed report that could lead to impeachment, Mueller could be done tomorrow. But because the entire Republican party are traitors and participants in the conspiracy against the United States, the case has to be made from public sources, which means he has to get someone to flip.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:45 PM on August 11, 2018 [28 favorites]

Aurora, Colorado parents fighting to stop legally adopted 4-year-old daughter from being deported.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:01 PM on August 11, 2018 [43 favorites]

JFC that Colorado adoption case is heartbreaking. Could any of those Qanon or Pizzagate assholes who care so much about saving children from pedophiles signal boost this story? This couple actually saved a real child from sex trafficking.
posted by greermahoney at 5:14 PM on August 11, 2018 [34 favorites]

... and that information ought not to be forever part of the child's Googleable identity. How is it necessary for that to be reported when the story is bad enough without her being a child of rape?
posted by Scram at 5:36 PM on August 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

I don't understand what the child's problem is. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 means that she is already a US citizen. The only confusing part is

She was unable to travel to the United States because the U.S. does not grant travel visas to anyone with a current immigration application.

What is that all about?
posted by Miss Cellania at 7:06 PM on August 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don't understand what the child's problem is. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 means that she is already a US citizen.

I am so not any type of lawyer, especially immigration, the article states,

In March 2017, Amy accepted a job in Colorado and moved back with the understanding that her husband and daughter would be a few weeks behind her.

However, Angela’s immigration application kept hitting roadblocks that delayed her case.

She was unable to travel to the United States because the U.S. does not grant travel visas to anyone with a current immigration application.

It appears they got into the wrong line, and didn't know that they needed to do the steps to get the passport stamped "Lawful Permanent Resident".

Then, since there's an application in the system, all the responses are from the "Applicant" flowchart, not the "LPR" flowchart.

Another in the class of issues, "The name I have on my paperwork says Buttle, so can't help you."
posted by mikelieman at 7:26 PM on August 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

zachlipton: “If I get a T-shirt made in the U.S.A., it’s going to cost about $8 more,” Mr. Cox said. “I looked far and wide to try to get a shirt made in America, it’s just they get you, they gouge you.”

Paying works in the U.S. minimum wage* = "gouging you," which is bad for (your) business.
Paying workers lower wages elsewhere = "gouging those workers," which is good for (your) business.

* Maybe U.S. companies pay above minimum wage, but I doubt it's much higher. Also, I realize that there are other expenses than wages that factor into the price of a good or service, but that's a derail too far at this point.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:47 PM on August 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

In my (very light) digging, NPR hasn't said anything about providing a platform for Jason Kessler, whose profile was summarized in his platform announcement piece that "he organized last year's Charlottesville rally and this weekend's "Unite the Right" rally in Washington, D.C." (though there's clearly disdain for the fact that the only "scientist" Kessler cites is debunked, racist Charles Murray (SPLC bio), yet he rants about science, trying to say he's the scientifically minded one while his interviewer doesn't believe in science, saying "science doesn't comport to your Social Justice religion"), they did have an interesting piece with Wes Bellamy, who was Charlottesville's vice mayor on the day of the rally last year, and now sits on the Charlottesville City Council -- Charlottesville Has Become 'Ground Zero For The Awakening' Of Covert Racism. A few of Bellamy's comments on the positive, if painful, changes since a year ago:

(In response to the question of whether Charlottesville had lost its naivete) -- BELLAMY: Well, I think, for some people, that's definitely true, right? So I think, for a lot of people, we were seen as - and those who live in this community, they would say, oh, this is a great place. We're oftentimes rated as one of the happiest places to live in the country. This is the home of Thomas Jefferson. It has to be great. But, in fact, we deny the fact that Thomas Jefferson was a treacherous slave owner. He owned over 600 slaves. But we don't talk about that part. And that's the naivete that I think Ms. Galvin was talking about. We often see ourselves as this utopia of sorts, but now you can no longer deny it. You have to talk about this in schools. You have to talk about this in the barbershop. You can't go anywhere without talking about the topic of race but actually dealing with it. And I think, again, that's a good thing.
... we have those uncomfortable conversations all of the time. People don't even talk about the fact that here in Charlottesville, there was a community called Vinegar Hill, and which was the African-American community literally in the middle of the city. And it was decimated for urban renewal, right? So you think about the economic impact that that had on our community that a lot of people didn't know anything about. That's now being talked about. The issue revolving around the fact that I was only the seventh black person ever elected, and now, for the first time in our city's history, we have two black people on our council - I don't know whether or not to rejoice or be sad... because, honestly, while I'm really proud, and I'm very, very proud of my sister, Nikuyah Walker, who's the first black female mayor our city has ever had, it's kind of sad that it's taking place in 2018.
... I have news for [Unite the Right]. And we've seen this in Charlottesville, and we've seen this in other places across the country. When they decide to push their hate, it only pushes us closer together. And it causes us - it forces us to see how much we truly have in common and how we must collectively stand against these racist bigots who believe that they are better only because of the color of their skin.

Unite the Right may have brought a bunch of tiki-torch bearing, violent racists together in small groups in public places, but it also brought together communities across the country, and those impacts last longer than the racist, violent rallies. Yes, Unite the Right is right there with Trump in emboldening hate crimes, and I would love to go back to a time before hate crimes in the nation’s 10 largest cities increased by 12 percent last year, reaching the highest level in more than a decade (Abigail Hauslohner for Washington Post, May 11, 2018), but I believe (and hope) that there is more good coming out in response.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:16 PM on August 11, 2018 [40 favorites]

“If I get a T-shirt made in the U.S.A., it’s going to cost about $8 more,” Mr. Cox said. “I looked far and wide to try to get a shirt made in America, it’s just they get you, they gouge you.”

This man is so full of shit. I recently had some t-shirts made with Custom Ink, an American-based company, and they were $15/shirt. They were probably more expensive since I only had ten made. So really he is talking about how it would cut his profit margin which goes to fund who knows what, but probably just goes directly into his pockets. FAKE NEWS MOTHERFUCKER.
posted by XhaustedProphet at 8:59 PM on August 11, 2018 [30 favorites]

Ah, but you're not including the excessive profit margin that trumpkins expect as of right
posted by mbo at 9:18 PM on August 11, 2018

American based is not the same as American made. Which is a basic labor point.
posted by dogrose at 9:22 PM on August 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

As an update to earlier examples of how/why the streets can be an effective forum for change, thousands of Romanians are demonstrating against their current governments about-face on corruption.
posted by progosk at 11:23 PM on August 11, 2018 [8 favorites]

From Niina Heikkinen, E&E News reporter, To kill climate rule, EPA wants to redefine danger of soot: After decades of increasingly strong assertions that there is no known safe level of fine particle exposure for the American public, EPA under the Trump administration is now considering taking a new position. The agency is floating the idea of changing its rulemaking process and setting a threshold level of fine particles that it would consider safe.

The change would affect how EPA counts the health benefits of reducing fine particles when crafting rules aimed at reducing other pollutants, like greenhouse gases. If the plan moves forward, it could have implications for how well EPA's regulations protect human health.

The Trump administration introduced the idea in the fall of 2017, when it publicly released a proposal for repealing the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era rule to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. While the rule wasn't focused on fine particles, it would have reduced them anyway by requiring plant operators to install new technology to cut CO2 emissions.

The authors of the rule had counted the health benefits from reducing particles in their justification for why the benefits of regulating greenhouse gases outweighed the costs of implementing it. The health benefits of cutting CO2 become even more evident when paired with the "co-benefits" of cutting fine particles.

This process of weighing the economic pluses and minuses of any particular rule is known, in EPA lingo, as a cost-benefit analysis. It's a key factor in determining whether a rule makes sense both in terms of its environmental and health benefits and in the costs it imposes on industry.

Critics see EPA's latest proposal on particulates as a way to undermine efforts to establish strict controls on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, by making the benefits of regulating them seem significantly lower.

"It would be hard for the Trump administration to say [the Clean Power Plan] is a net bad for the American people; the total benefits were significantly more than the cost," said Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University.

Revesz noted that Trump's EPA was only able to legally justify rolling back the rule by "mangling" the Clean Power Plan's direct greenhouse gas benefits and its additional co-benefits of cutting pollutants like fine particles.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:10 AM on August 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

So was it ever decided if the nazis would get private trains? Will they run without union workers?
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:34 AM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's such a drumbeat of hate against NPR on that Kessler interview that I need to push back a bit.

The rally in Washington (UTR2) is clearly a huge news story. Kessler is the organizer. Are they not supposed to interview him? If so, he puts out press releases and the only option is to quote his propaganda directly, mixed with whatever direct attacks reporters want to make themselves. That's not good journalism, unless you think "On the Media" is a reasonable and not at all snide bit of news. I don't. The "give 'em enough rope" theory is at least as reasonable, I'd say more.

The other big criticism is that they interviewed a Black Lives Matter organizer as the counterpoint. Well, Black Lives Matter is organizing the biggest counter-protest, specifically aimed at answering Kessler's demonstration. Should they not interview BLM? If not them, who?
posted by msalt at 2:48 AM on August 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

Organized outrage doesn't need much logic any more it seems.
posted by infini at 3:06 AM on August 12, 2018

The rally in Washington (UTR2) is clearly a huge news story. Kessler is the organizer. Are they not supposed to interview him?

No, they are absolutely not supposed to give a public platform to a Nazi.

If so, he puts out press releases and the only option is to quote his propaganda directly, mixed with whatever direct attacks reporters want to make themselves.

You understand that what they did IS quoting his propaganda directly, right? How on Earth do you actually think it would be somehow worse to spend time contextualizing, illuminating, and proving illegitimate the propaganda he has made in the past than to let him use your machinery and airtime to produce new propaganda? And pretending that the only argument against yours is that reporters should directly attack him is ridiculous strawmanning.

That's not good journalism....

As opposed to the thing they actually did, which isn't journalism at all.

The other big criticism is that they interviewed a Black Lives Matter organizer as the counterpoint. Well, Black Lives Matter is organizing the biggest counter-protest, specifically aimed at answering Kessler's demonstration. Should they not interview BLM? If not them, who?

This is missing the point by so much that it's starting to look intentional. The issue isn't that they interviewed BLM, the issue is that they interviewed BLM and Kessler for the same piece and treated them as equal sides of an argument. They elevated Kessler's insane, illogical racism to the same level as the request that police not murder innocent black people whenever they want. What NPR did is an entire multi-segment piece on the question "Should black people be allowed to live and have rights in America?" and treated it as a serious thing worthy of consideration and investigation. To spend even five seconds on such a question is dehumanizing to every black person in the country.

The "give 'em enough rope" theory is at least as reasonable, I'd say more.

Sure, which is why we don't have a surging and actively recruiting white nationalist movement and Trump isn't President, right? You might want to spend some time thinking about what has traditionally happened in America when white supremacists get a hold of a bunch of rope.
posted by IAmUnaware at 3:22 AM on August 12, 2018 [159 favorites]

The rally in Washington (UTR2) is clearly a huge news story. Kessler is the organizer. Are they not supposed to interview him?

They have pretty successfully managed not to platform the leaders of the Nation of Islam for several decades now. I don't wonder why.
posted by srboisvert at 4:34 AM on August 12, 2018 [71 favorites]

(1400 comments, and this post is a week old. Someone might want to work up a new politics megathread sometime soon.)
posted by box at 5:03 AM on August 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Pretty disaapointing results from Hawaii last night. The incumbant from Syria, Tulsi Gabbard, won handily; and right-wing Democrat and perennial candidate Ed Case, who got in the race two months ago, won with only a 40% plurality over two mainstream Democrats and a DSA candidate splitting the vote. Case is the Bluest Blue Dog you can imagine. He has been in Congress before from 2002-2007, he was a vocal supporter of the Iraq War that entire time, and frequently voted for Republican tax cut bills.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:27 AM on August 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

They have pretty successfully managed not to platform the leaders of the Nation of Islam for several decades now. I don't wonder why.

We can go further. When was the last time an explicitly racist leader was interviewed and humanised when that leader wasn't white?
posted by jaduncan at 7:06 AM on August 12, 2018 [27 favorites]

(1400 comments, and this post is a week old. Someone might want to work up a new politics megathread sometime soon.)

Monday morning I'm sure His Orangeness will do something stupid to act as a lede. Short of Donny declaring he's going to nuke someone in hours, let the mods have Sunday off.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 7:26 AM on August 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Border patrol chief: Calls to abolish ICE impact the morale of my team

“We have to have ICE. The Border Patrol has to have ICE because it’s not our job to do the detention portion. And we have to have that ability. ICE brings so much to the table," Provost said.

Good. Fuck your morale. How about calls to prosecute ICE? What do those do to your feels?
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:29 AM on August 12, 2018 [74 favorites]

“We have to have ICE. The Border Patrol has to have ICE because it’s not our job to do the detention portion. And we have to have that ability. ICE brings so much to the table,"

Dude, maybe you should talk to ICE then. 19 of the 26 field office heads called for it to be disbanded.
posted by chris24 at 7:36 AM on August 12, 2018 [58 favorites]

When was the last time an explicitly racist leader was interviewed and humanised when that leader wasn't white?

Fox News is praising and humanizing the leader of a racist ethnostate, does that count?
posted by peeedro at 7:48 AM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

No, because Fox News doesn't count when we're discussing ethical journalism.
posted by TwoStride at 7:58 AM on August 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

So someone pouring over the patches on the Bikers for Trump ~~klan~~ meeting found one that said "I ♥ guns and titties". Any other presidency this would be a massive scandal. Trump? Idle Saturday.

It's all normalized now. Vulgar sexism? Doesn't even fucking rate.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 8:14 AM on August 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

Border patrol chief: Calls to abolish ICE impact the morale of my team

Even when the calls to abolish ICE are from ICE? I don't get why this doesn't get more play. The departments within ICE that deal with Homeland Security and Child Sex Trafficking want ICE abolished. What more do you need to know?
posted by xammerboy at 8:17 AM on August 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

Well, the ICE folks that want ICE abolished aren't from the teams that are committing the abuses - they are from another (lesser known) part of ICE - HSI. And I think that what they are saying is they want to be separated from the detention group, because it is making their job impossible. This American Life discussed this.
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 8:24 AM on August 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

If anyone is interested in restoring their faith in NPR, there was a great interview the other day with the author of How Trump Radicalized ICE. I knew a lot of this but the interview really makes it clear:

1. Miller and Sessions are devastatingly effective in capable when it comes to immigration. They know exactly how to draft a small request that will bring services to a standstill.

2. Sessions basically runs Homeland Security.

3. Sessions and Miller think about nothing but immigration. It fills their every waking thought. Their histories show they will take any hit professionally and personally if it furthers their immigration agenda.

4. The policies Sessions and Miller advocate are based outright on deterrence. They've written about it endlessly. Their end goal is make the process sound like and be such a nightmare no one does it.
posted by xammerboy at 8:29 AM on August 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

So someone pouring over the patches on the Bikers for Trump klan meeting found one that said "I ♥ guns and titties". Any other presidency this would be a massive scandal. Trump? Idle Saturday.

May as well be verbatim from the GOP platform.

——

On a somewhat related note:

The issue of whether Trump used the [n] word in question is almost completely inconsequential, yet the fact that it does not matter is itself of great consequence. The elastic tolerance of the otherwise intolerable is the looming context in which Robert Mueller will deliver his expected reports on whether Trump obstructed justice as President or colluded with Russia in 2016. In matters of race, as well as competence, decency, character, and fitness, the public either already knows what it needs to know or intractably believes what it wishes to believe. Omarosa Manigault’s book is unlikely to change the balance of either.

Jelani Cobb | The New Yorker
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:30 AM on August 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

4. The policies Sessions and Miller advocate are based outright on deterrence. They've written about it endlessly. Their end goal is make the process sound like and be such a nightmare no one does it.

And deniable abuse. It's very notable to me that things are being done without effective inspection or policing of staff.
posted by jaduncan at 8:31 AM on August 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

After decades of increasingly strong assertions that there is no known safe level of fine particle exposure for the American public, EPA under the Trump administration is now considering taking a new position. The agency is floating the idea of changing its rulemaking process and setting a threshold level of fine particles that it would consider safe.

Good luck proving that. They'll need to show evidence in the inevitable lawsuit, and the Trump's track record so far is not admirable. In any way, come to that.
posted by Gelatin at 8:38 AM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) highlights of their interview this morning with Omarosa Manigault Newman:
—WATCH: Omarosa Manigault Newman says she was "used by Donald Trump" and regrets that she was "complicit with this White House." #MTP
@OMAROSA: "You don't know that you're in that situation until it just keeps bubbling and bubbling."
—WATCH: Omarosa releases secret tape of John Kelly firing from White House #MTP
—EXCLUSIVE: @OMAROSA releases secret audio recording of meeting when Chief of Staff John Kelly fired her. #MTP
Omarosa: “Is the president aware of what’s going on?”

Observer columnist and former NSA spook John Schindler (@20committee) points out, "OK, this is simple. If this tape is what Omarosa claims it is -- John Kelly talking in the SITROOM, ie a SCIF -- then this is proof she violated Federal law. [...] The information is not classified. However, personal electronic devices cannot (legally) be brought into SCIFs and recording is strictly forbidden. [...] [U]ncleared personnel can enter a SCIF, if escorted (there's a sign-in/out sheet at the entrance) -- for instance for a meeting."

As for new thread, the mods have discussed their preference for new US politics mega-threads to launch first thing Monday as a better time than Sunday afternoon/evening, not least since chatter tends to be high during weekends and higher still when there's a new thread. Per the recent MeTa discussion, I've created a "U.S. Politics FPP Draft" page on the MeFi wiki, which everyone can contribute to and collaborate on. (We might consider creating a separate FPP for this afternoon's white supremacist rally outside the White House and/or taking live-blogs/reactions to MeFi chat.)
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:20 AM on August 12, 2018 [39 favorites]

Voting machines! Come and get yr voting machines right here folks!
posted by Golem XIV at 9:38 AM on August 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Observer columnist and former NSA spook John Schindler (@20committee) points out, "OK, this is simple. If this tape is what Omarosa claims it is -- John Kelly talking in the SITROOM, ie a SCIF -- then this is proof she violated Federal law. [...] The information is not classified. However, personal electronic devices cannot (legally) be brought into SCIFs and recording is strictly forbidden. [...] [U]ncleared personnel can enter a SCIF, if escorted (there's a sign-in/out sheet at the entrance) -- for instance for a meeting."

Why would Kelly use the Situation Room for firing Omarosa? That seems absurd. Did Omarosa say that? I'm not going to see the entire interview. I have a life. Sort of. And why is he threatening her? He should be able to hire and fire anyone he wants, shouldn't he? It's weird.
posted by mumimor at 9:42 AM on August 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

At defcon, Rachel Tobac shows us how to get admin access to voting machines used in 18 states in under 2 minutes
posted by smcameron at 9:43 AM on August 12, 2018 [29 favorites]

The fact that Omarosa was able to make multiple recordings of high-level meetings obviously makes me think that she wasn't the only one. Their security procedures are apparently so lax makes you wonder how many bugs are scattered around the White House right now.
posted by octothorpe at 9:46 AM on August 12, 2018 [51 favorites]

Their security procedures are apparently so lax makes you wonder how many bugs are scattered around the White House right now.

For real though: unless a new White House is built from scratch, any number of state/nonstate entities are going to be hearing every mouse fart in there until the devices break down or decay on their own, which with modern technology probably means the rest of our lives.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:54 AM on August 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

Their security procedures are apparently so lax makes you wonder how many bugs are scattered around the White House right now.

It certainly frames Pruitt’s paranoia and desire for a private phone booth in a new light.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 9:55 AM on August 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

Why would Kelly use the Situation Room for firing Omarosa? That seems absurd. Did Omarosa say that?

Though the usual caveats apply to anything coming from her, yes, that's what Omarosa said (and yes, it seems absurd): "They take me into the Situation Room, the doors are locked, they tell me I can't leave. And they start to threaten me, put fear in me, put me under duress."

This is Trump reality TV back with a vengeance, except it's on an NBC Sunday morning news program instead of in their Thursday night prime-time lineup.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:56 AM on August 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

woah
posted by mumimor at 9:59 AM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Slovenian-born parents of US First Lady Melania Trump became US citizens at a naturalisation ceremony in New York on Thursday, their immigration lawyer Michael Wildes confirmed to AFP

Trump's in-laws' lawyer did not say how long they had taken to complete the citizenship process.
It is also not clear if the US first lady had sponsored their permanent residency.
posted by infini at 10:00 AM on August 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

From the livestream of the counter-protest in DC. C-SPAN plans to stream the alt-right speeches this afternoon. There's a call for Twitter protest [added: to CSPAN]. Anyone else have a link?
posted by puddledork at 10:07 AM on August 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Melania Trump’s immigration lawyer calls president’s attacks on ‘chain migration’ ‘unconscionable’ (WaPo):

“Let me take off one hat as the first lady’s immigration lawyer and her family and put on my own personal hat. It’s unconscionable to scare people into believing that. You cannot bring nephews, you cannot bring nieces or uncles, you can’t bring 32 people here, and some of the quotas are backed up for 10 or 15 years from particular countries,” [Michael] Wildes said, adding that the proper term is family reunification. “Imagine this, people will work harder and love more and do more for America knowing that their loved ones, their immediate relatives, their parents, their children.”

Video on twitter.

Besides being a high profile lawyer, Wildes is the former democratic mayor of Englewood, NJ and is again running for that office.
posted by peeedro at 10:10 AM on August 12, 2018 [27 favorites]

Omarosa Manigault Newman says she was "used by Donald Trump" and regrets that she was "complicit with this White House."

This Omarosa?

Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.

No sale.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:14 AM on August 12, 2018 [84 favorites]

Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.

That would be a touch melodramatic coming from, say, Skeletor. Yet here we are.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 10:24 AM on August 12, 2018 [76 favorites]

Less than one month into the disaster that is this administration Omarosa was physically intimidating reporters and threatening them with secret dossiers of negative information.

No sale.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 10:29 AM on August 12, 2018 [38 favorites]

That would be a touch melodramatic coming from, say, Skeletor. Yet here we are.

It sounded better in the original Kryptonian.
posted by chris24 at 10:30 AM on August 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, there's absolutely no reason to feel sorry for Omarosa, but what Kelly is doing is still strange and stupid. They can all be idiots, you know.
posted by mumimor at 10:41 AM on August 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Why would Kelly use the Situation Room for firing Omarosa? That seems absurd. Did Omarosa say that?

I'm assuming that Omarosa is confused here. I seriously doubt she has ever set foot in the real Situation Room. That is a serious affair with armed guards 24/7. The guards confiscate all electronic devices from anyone entering the room and put them in a locked box. The room has sniffers to detect unexpected electronic emissions.

I'm guessing that she is referring to a regular conference room that the staff calls colloquially "The Situation Room" that is used to handle the daily political crises dished out by their president and his tweets. Probably a bit of black humor.
posted by JackFlash at 10:43 AM on August 12, 2018 [17 favorites]

Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman)
Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?

---

I know, crazy! I mean who in their right mind would hire such a person.

Oh. Oh, that's right.
posted by chris24 at 10:46 AM on August 12, 2018 [42 favorites]

Because WMATA and Fairfax County are a bunch of gutless fucks, they've officially turned an entire Metro station into a Nazis-only zone.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:19 AM on August 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

And, unsurprisingly, WMATA was also lying about not providing private Nazi-only cars.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:21 AM on August 12, 2018 [16 favorites]

University Accuses GOP Florida House Candidate of Faking Her Diploma
posted by Rykey at 11:40 AM on August 12, 2018 [17 favorites]

So the nation's capital, which just so happens to be a city south of the Mason Dixon Line, is running Whites Only trains. Cool
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:57 AM on August 12, 2018 [20 favorites]

So the nation's capital, which just so happens to be a city south of the Mason Dixon Line, is running Whites Only trains. Cool

posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:57 AM on August 12 [4 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

Well, to be fair, it's a white supremacist-only train...
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:16 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Did I mishear CNN or are there only about 25 white supremacists at this "protest"?
posted by Justinian at 12:25 PM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?

It seems to me like a reasonably foreseeable outcome of putting reality television personalities in the White House.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:32 PM on August 12, 2018 [29 favorites]

Did I mishear CNN or are there only about 25 white supremacists at this "protest"?

It's not a lot. From the live streams I'd say over 25 but under 100.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:34 PM on August 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

FYI - I've posted an FPP for Unite the Right 2 since it warrants its own discussion.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:34 PM on August 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

The bizarre spat with Canada shows Mohammed bin Salman’s true colours an opinion by Nesrine Malik at the Guardian

The culprit is Bin Salman, a man who strives for status and is easily slighted. He is far from being the modernising prince that the New York Times, in its own badly timed Vogue moment, described as leading Saudi Arabia’s Arab spring “from the top down”. Every signature campaign Bin Salman has launched has ended up in a quagmire. The war in Yemen continues to claim civilian lives and taint Saudi Arabia’s international reputation. The blockade of Qatar, a petty and intense affair, is now more than a year old, a year in which the Qatari economy has continued to grow. By contrast, in June, it was reported Saudi Arabia had suffered a shock collapse in inward investment. Bin Salman even managed to botch his best hand, the end of the ban on women driving. The good PR evaporated when several women activists were arrested a few days before it took effect.

And, of course, there is Trump. There is always Trump. Saudi Arabia’s increasingly erratic behaviour cannot be divorced from the broader suspension of diplomatic etiquette. Trump praises, encourages and is generally in thrall to dictators who scare their people and don’t have to deal with the limitations of democracy. (And, of course, he has picked his own fight with Canada.) Pugnaciousness and wars of fake news between erstwhile allies are now de rigueur. According to the Saudi press, Canada has no moral high ground from which to judge Saudi Arabia because it oppresses the good people of Quebec, and is holding the public figure Jordan Peterson as a prisoner of conscience. There are fewer and fewer adults in the room.

posted by mumimor at 12:44 PM on August 12, 2018 [19 favorites]

Keith Ellison is being accused of domestic violence.
posted by joethefob at 12:45 PM on August 12, 2018

Dave Weigel has some backstory on those allegations, which have been circulating in MN for over a year, but none of the media organizations who have dug into it had found enough to run a story yet: "It blew up last night after the ex’s son posted the allegation on Facebook." That allegation is that there's a video, though it doesn't appear anyone has seen it. The primary is on Tuesday.
posted by zachlipton at 12:50 PM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

It sounds like everybody who has looked into the story hasn't found anything there. If there's a video, let's see it. We need to know that before the primary. If nobody produces the video and nobody has seen it the reasonable conclusion is that no such video exists? But if there isn't a video why would you claim there is when you know your inability to produce said video will be taken as discrediting your entire account?
posted by Justinian at 12:54 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

So the nation's capital, which just so happens to be a city south of the Mason Dixon Line, is running Whites Only trains. Cool

I don’t think you appreciate just how much of a reversal it is for everyone in the area to be hoping that Metro catches fire.
posted by adamsc at 1:01 PM on August 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

I don't think that we all, in general, ought to demand that someone accusing domestic violence must release video of that moment to the world—that's not something everyone wants out there—, but I do think it's not unreasonable to say that, two days before an election, someone independent needs to have seen the video before it's reported on.
posted by zachlipton at 1:02 PM on August 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

I don't think that we all, in general, ought to demand that someone accusing domestic violence must release video of that moment to the world—that's not something everyone wants out there—

Right, right I don't mean to say we should demand that video be uploaded publicly to youtube. It's private. But if someone claims to have video to back up a claim then somebody not involved in the story needs to have access to the video or it might as well not exist. Again, though, it's definitely not necessary for the entire public to gawk at the video.
posted by Justinian at 1:07 PM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

So the nation's capital, which just so happens to be a city south of the Mason Dixon Line, is running Whites Only trains. Cool

I don't think it's particularly cool to malign the District of Columbia, which was not below the Mason-Dixon line, is a majority-black city, has a majority-black government, and has a track-record on civil-rights that literally leads the nation for something that happened outside of its borders, in Virginia.

Also, a small reminder that DC doesn't have voting representation in congress, and has limited autonomy over its own local affairs for no good reason.
posted by schmod at 1:21 PM on August 12, 2018 [48 favorites]

WaPo, Proposed Consulting Agreement and Companion Agreement that Omarosa Manigault Newman said the Trump campaign offered – and she declined – after she was fired from her White House position

$15,000/month consulting agreement, assuming it's genuine, and quite the NDA. "Confidential information" is defined as anything Trump or Pence says is confidential, with a particular paragraph-long focus on anything to do with anything involving his finances or the finances of any of his companies.

In addition, she would have to agree not to disparage "the Campaign, Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence, any Trump or Pence Comapny, any Trump or Pence Family Member, or any Trump or Pence Family Member Company or any asset the foregoing own, or product or service any of the foregoing offer." Family members are defined to include all the children, children's spouses, even Tiffany. The non-disparagement provision lasts "during the term of your service, and at all times thereafter."

I'm no campaign finance lawyer, but I'd sure like to hear from one about the amount of attention that's being paid to protecting the business from disparagement here.
posted by zachlipton at 1:29 PM on August 12, 2018 [30 favorites]

I don't think it's particularly cool to malign the District of Columbia, which was not below the Mason-Dixon line, is a majority-black city, has a majority-black government, and has a track-record on civil-rights that literally leads the nation for something that happened outside of its borders, in Virginia.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the Mason Dixon Line the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland (a slave state)? My intention is not to Malign the district, but a southern city running a Whites Only train in the 21st Century is not a good look. Statehood for DC, but don't run Whites Only trains. I think it's a fair criticism.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 1:42 PM on August 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

According to the Saudi press, Canada has no moral high ground from which to judge Saudi Arabia because it oppresses the good people of Quebec, and is holding the public figure Jordan Peterson as a prisoner of conscience.

I want to be such a prisoner of conscience! Peterson is full tenured faculty member at U of T's St. George campus (not even the Scarberia campus!) and bought his way out of his teaching obligations via outside funding. I would like to be in such a prison!
posted by srboisvert at 2:48 PM on August 12, 2018 [16 favorites]

But something bad might hypothetically happen to Peterson if he carelessly misuses a pronoun, therefore he is every bit as much a victim as the people the Saudi regime has had beheaded. Perfect MAGA-logic which transcends international borders.

Nobody should take anything the Saudis say about human rights at face value and nobody should report on anything they say on the subject without framing it in a way that makes their history of bad faith perfectly clear.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:58 PM on August 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

The poor people of Quebec - all they get is the French language as one of Canada's official tongues, political representation, both domestically and internationally, religious freedom and their own school system. Such repression!
posted by dazed_one at 3:01 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the Mason Dixon Line the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland (a slave state)? My intention is not to Malign the district, but a southern city running a Whites Only train in the 21st Century is not a good look. Statehood for DC, but don't run Whites Only trains. I think it's a fair criticism.

How about if we find out who issued the order for special train cars first, and why, before we start deciding whether responsibility should lie with a cartographical decision from the 18th century or with political pressure from a federal government that has inordinate influence over D.C.'s local administration, ability to raise revenue, and many other rights which are elsewhere controlled by more local voters?
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:03 PM on August 12, 2018 [20 favorites]

I want to be such a prisoner of conscience! Peterson is full tenured faculty member at U of T's St. George campus (not even the Scarberia campus!) and bought his way out of his teaching obligations via outside funding. I would like to be in such a prison!

Here's his 2016 public sector salary disclosure. He's got it rough:

Peterson, Jordan
$175,668.00
University of Toronto
Professor of Psychology
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:11 PM on August 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

Peterson's speaking fee is 35k, to get up and say "I'm not allowed to say this stuff! Because of the left! Or something!".
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:21 PM on August 12, 2018 [35 favorites]

and is holding the public figure Jordan Peterson as a prisoner of conscience.

Eh... I don't get this at all. Does anyone understand the reasoning here?
posted by duoshao at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2018

We’re mean to him for being a bigot to trans people.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 4:02 PM on August 12, 2018 [17 favorites]

Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?

How can I put this with sufficient emphasis, in these times of plentiful astonishing facts?

There is a Russian asset in the Oval Office.

There is a Russian asset in the Oval Office.

There is a Russian asset in the Oval Office.

Even the WH security teams run out of fucks to give when security theatre turns into the theatre of the absurd.
posted by Devonian at 4:24 PM on August 12, 2018 [74 favorites]

We need a space force. There is literally nothing more pressing. (Alexandra Petri, WaPo)

To those who respond with consternation to the news of the Space Force (unfunded, still in the gestational stage, the only stage of life Mike Pence is excited about), I say: How can you look around this country right now and not think that our first priority should be the creation of a sixth branch of the armed forces to deal with space?

To those who say that in Flint some people still cannot drink tap water, I say I am pretty sure there is water on Mars. In the interim, let them drink La Croix.

To those who would suggest that this money and effort could be spent on infrastructure on earth, on roads or bridges, I respond, Eisenhower already did that, and if I learned anything from the Romans it is that you only need to build a bridge once and then you can just leave it for thousands of years and it’s fine.

To those who say our schools need the money, I say, “That is the kind of thinking that would have prevented the construction of the second Death Star.”

I hear you that we could just spend this on jets, and believe me, I am going to spend this on jets. But jets are not everything. There must also be lasers.

To those who say we could spend this money on, perhaps, expanding access to health care, I respond PEW PEW, making my hand into a tiny space gun, and then laugh hysterically and blow my nose on a pile of dollars.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:11 PM on August 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

WaPo opinion: NPR teaches listeners about the proper care and feeding of white nationalists

The Guardian's Gary Younge's interview with Richard Spencer, which is linked as an example of how interviews with white supremacists (if done at all) should be handled, is also worth a watch.
posted by sunset in snow country at 6:14 PM on August 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

Bobby Goodlatte, son of retiring VA Congressman and human fuckstain Bob Goodlatte:

I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father's congressional seat. I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts — let's do this!

posted by T.D. Strange at 6:47 PM on August 12, 2018 [74 favorites]

The issue isn't that [NPR] interviewed BLM, the issue is that they interviewed BLM and Kessler for the same piece and treated them as equal sides of an argument. They elevated Kessler's insane, illogical racism to the same level as the request that police not murder innocent black people whenever they want.

That is a disingenuous argument. NPR didn't pick BLM for ideological reason -- they picked them because BLM organized the largest counter-demonstration to Kessler's rally. BLM chose to make themselves the response to white nationalists (and did a very good job of it, for that matter, getting significant media time and vastly outnumbering the fash.

>>The "give 'em enough rope" theory is at least as reasonable, I'd say more.
>Sure, which is why we don't have a surging and actively recruiting white nationalist movement and Trump isn't President, right? .

Guess what? Two dozen "surging" neo-Nazis showed up a week after NPRs interview, as did thousands of counter-protestors.

Here's the thing - the whole alt-right movement, like Trumpism, is based on thin but barely-plausible deniability of racism. They know that Americans, even racist Republicans, can't stomach open racism. Last year, for example, they used the fig leaf of "protecting heritage and monuments" to gain acceptability.

Given free reign, Kessler forgot his script and the alt-right ran away from him. It's like in basketball, one move against especially strong power forwards is to suddenly stop pushing back. If you step away and time it right, they sometimes just fall on the floor.
posted by msalt at 7:27 PM on August 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

(Hey all, just a programming note - the family is at the beach this week, so probably minimal to no ELECTIONS NEWS. I am going to try and drop in Tuesday night for primaries in CT/MN/VT/WI, though)
posted by Chrysostom at 7:42 PM on August 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

That is a disingenuous argument. NPR didn't pick BLM for ideological reason -- they picked them because BLM organized the largest counter-demonstration to Kessler's rally. BLM chose to make themselves the response to white nationalists (and did a very good job of it, for that matter, getting significant media time and vastly outnumbering the fash.

You haven't watched much US media in the last 35 years have you? the one and only acceptable viewpoint is "both sides are the same", and where there are not two sides, another side must be created no matter what the issue is. the opposite of the Alt-Right and the KKK is BLM, because both sides. NPR, the NYT, WaPo, AP, none of them can say "white supremacy is evil", they have to say "White Supremacists marched to kill all minorities today, now let's hear from a minority".

Rationalizing this fundamental brokenness away won't stop them from doing the same damn thing again tomorrow.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:58 PM on August 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

. Here's the thing - the whole alt-right movement, like Trumpism, is based on thin but barely-plausible deniability of racism. They know that Americans, even racist Republicans, can't stomach open racism. Last year, for example, they used the fig leaf of "protecting heritage and monuments" to gain acceptability.

You have to completely ignore the evidence provided by the election of Trump and his continuing popularity with a significant slice of Americans to believe this statement.
posted by rdr at 8:19 PM on August 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

They know that Americans, even racist Republicans, can't stomach open racism.

Stomach it? They came out of the woodwork to vote for it. One big difference between Romney's loss and Trump's win was racist white people turned out for the overt racist. They were tired of the dogwhistle and wanted full fucking leaded gas. They might not like to get called out on it, they might not like being called racists, but they sure as shit like open racism.
posted by chris24 at 8:20 PM on August 12, 2018 [60 favorites]

Stomach it? They came out of the woodwork to vote for it.

I go back on forth on this, eventually reminding myself that the first thing Trump said when announcing his presidency was that "when Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best." That message remained the centerpiece of his campaign.
posted by xammerboy at 8:35 PM on August 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

@JerryFalwellJr: Are there any grownups w/ integrity left in the DOJ? When I was a kid, I watched Repubs join Dems to force Nixon out. Now Dems won’t join Repubs to lock up Comey, Lynch, Ohr, Rosenstein, Strzok, @HillaryClinton, @BarackObama & maybe even @jeffsessions despite damning evidence!

@tedlieu:

Dear @JerryFalwellJr: The people who have decided not to prosecute the folks listed in your tweet are:

AG Sessions
Deputy AG Rosenstein
FBI Director Christopher Wray

All of them happen to be Republicans & were nominated by @realDonaldTrump & confirmed by GOP controlled Senate.

@JerryFalwellJr: Yep and I think they deceived @realDonaldTrump into appointing them. They should rot in the same jail

@byrdinator: we appear to have reached the point where Trump allies want Jeff Sessions to go to jail for allegedly tricking the president into appointing him (???)

Everything is so dumb all the time now.
posted by zachlipton at 8:36 PM on August 12, 2018 [96 favorites]

Yep and I think they deceived @realDonaldTrump into appointing them.

Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.

I will never get tired of pulling that one out.
posted by Rykey at 8:48 PM on August 12, 2018 [34 favorites]

Everything is so dumb all the time now.

We're still early in the Information Age, so dumb people still get free megaphones (not sure of the implications there now that I type it out, but bear with me). There are ways to leverage every little bit of fame and visibility available to a person these days. Culture at large has gotten magnitudes more capacity for stuff in the past 20 years, so some people are able to just step right up and you're goddamn right you've been looking for a new podcast. Falwell the Younger is just hooking his name-star to that machine, but he's still a run of the mill dipshit. I think this will get found out eventually, but for now those who can, can make money if they do.
posted by rhizome at 9:06 PM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I must admit, I'm kind of heartened that leftist youtube is finally making a comeback. It's terrifying going up against alt-right and fascists in the information wars and I could never do what people like hbomberguy, shaun, and contrapoints do.
posted by Definitely Not Sean Spicer at 9:32 PM on August 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

You haven't watched much US media in the last 35 years have you?

Can we please try to tone down the sarcasm and snark here? It's really not productive.

Since you ask, I wrote an honors thesis on TV news coverage of the Vietnam War precisely 35 years ago, by coincidence. I'm quite familiar with that dynamic of the media, thanks.

What part of "BLM put themselves forward by organizing the largest counter protest to Kessler's march" are people not understanding? NPR didn't choose them or anoint them or anything.
posted by msalt at 9:42 PM on August 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

Yea, it's still the false equivalence, whether you choose to acknowledge it or continue to blame the victims.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:15 PM on August 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Y'all please cool it a bit all around.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:23 PM on August 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

@GarrettHaake: This is the "Unite the Right" 'rally crowd. All of them.

@Popehat: Never have so may protected so few who have accomplished so little.
posted by christopherious at 10:33 PM on August 12, 2018 [43 favorites]

A couple deleted; there's a Unite the Right thread over here, for more extended chat on this topic.
posted by taz (staff) at 2:27 AM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

My god this is quite the read, and these excerpts don't really do it justice. Politico, David Glosser, Stephen Miller is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle. "If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out."

I shudder at the thought of what would have become of the Glossers had the same policies Stephen so coolly espouses— the travel ban, the radical decrease in refugees, the separation of children from their parents, and even talk of limiting citizenship for legal immigrants— been in effect when Wolf-Leib made his desperate bid for freedom. The Glossers came to the U.S. just a few years before the fear and prejudice of the “America First” nativists of the day closed U.S. borders to Jewish refugees. Had Wolf-Leib waited, his family would likely have been murdered by the Nazis along with all but seven of the 2,000 Jews who remained in Antopol. I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him.
...
President Trump wants to make us believe that these desperate migrants are an existential threat to the United States; the most powerful nation in world history and a nation made strong by immigrants. Trump and my nephew both know their immigrant and refugee roots. Yet, they repeat the insults and false accusations of earlier generations against these refugees to make them seem less than human. Trump publicly parades the grieving families of people hurt or killed by migrants, just as the early Nazis dredged up Jewish criminals to frighten and enrage their political base to justify persecution of all Jews. Almost every American family has an immigration story of its own based on flight from war, poverty, famine, persecution, fear or hopelessness. These immigrants became the workers, entrepreneurs, scientists and soldiers of America.

posted by zachlipton at 3:35 AM on August 13, 2018 [106 favorites]

Kyle Griffin: In the grocery store and saw Karen McDougal on the cover of Men's Journal. Remember that Men's Journal is published by Trump friend David Pecker and that employees say this cover is intended to protect American Media from a federal criminal investigation, per WSJ.
posted by PenDevil at 5:37 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

With Trump carrying on attacking the "Fake News Media" over the weekend, CNN's Brian Stelzer covers a nationally coordinated response from the press: More Than 100 Newspapers Will Publish Editorials Decrying Trump's Anti-Press Rhetoric. The Boston Globe "propose[s] to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask[s] others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date."

Also, as today's news begins to take shape, I've added further links to the proposed draft for the next US politics mega-thread, and more would be welcome from other contributors.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:38 AM on August 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

An 11-year-old changed election results on a replica Florida state website in under 10 minutes

The boy, who was identified by DEFCON officials as Emmett Brewer, accessed a replica of the Florida secretary of state’s website. He was one of about 50 children between the ages of 8 and 16 who were taking part in the so-called “DEFCON Voting Machine Hacking Village,” a portion of which allowed kids the chance to manipulate party names, candidate names and vote count totals.

Nico Sell, the co-founder of the the non-profit r00tz Asylum, which teaches children how to become hackers and helped organize the event, said an 11-year-old girl also managed to make changes to the same Florida replica website in about 15 minutes, tripling the number of votes found there.

Sell said more than 30 children hacked a variety of other similar state replica websites in under a half hour.

posted by lazaruslong at 6:55 AM on August 13, 2018 [45 favorites]

I must be a glutton for punishment, but did anyone else catch NPR's statement by David Folkenflik this morning? Hoh-lee shit.

"Some critics claim the Kessler interview reflected NPR's whiteness. In this case, that's just wrong. Noel King is biracial, Kenya Young is African-American, so is the NPR deputy managing editor who approved the interview."

So, to those upthread who sent in thoughtful, reasoned public comment to NPR, their response is essentially: "Thank you for your comment, we heard you. It was a tough call, but ultimately, fuck you, we do what we want. Also, we know some black people."

msalt, I (sincerely, not facetiously) thank you for your perspective a few comments back. Given your background, it's nice to hear the opinion of someone who has a background in the study and can speak with some level of expertise. I appreciate MetaFilter for the diversity of viewpoints represented here. But how sad that you made a better case for the Kessler interview than the network you were trying to defend was able to manage.

Prior to this, I've waffled on NPR. I know some here have come out swinging against NPR's both-sidesism for a long time now. I used to listen to NPR a lot prior to the election and it's been hard to break away. I gave them the benefit of the doubt a lot- "maybe they're trying (albeit not doing a very good job) to remain objective." After today, I can no longer assume that NPR is acting in anything but bad faith. I won't be listening anymore and neither should you. Cancel your MOTHERFUCKING SUBSCRIPTIONS!
posted by Krazor at 7:14 AM on August 13, 2018 [48 favorites]

I'm expecting a tweet explaining that this is why immigrant children are being detained and separated from their parents, since they are potential MS-13 hackers.
posted by delfin at 7:15 AM on August 13, 2018

Convergence is Worse Than Collusion by John Sipher in The Atlantic.
posted by peeedro at 7:18 AM on August 13, 2018

They literally went with 'I have a black friend.' Wow.
posted by chris24 at 7:31 AM on August 13, 2018 [24 favorites]

Critics argue NPR erred by giving Kessler a platform for his views.

Wowie zowie. So NPR's stance is "Yes, we gave Kessler a platform for his views. No, we did not err. Cry more, libs."

me, 2016: man I hope NPR drops this oblivious both-sides fawning and takes Trump and the GOP to task
me, 2017: NPR is acting like controlled opposition and had better start saying that ICE needs to be abolished
me, 2018: NPR needs to be abolished
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:35 AM on August 13, 2018 [39 favorites]

Yeah, I just heard that NPR piece, their defense of the criticism of their both-sidesism was to present both sides and be like, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it was a tough call.

They aren't trying to be objective, they're trying to appear objective to some hypothetical low information listener. They have the same severe allergy to right-wing criticism as NYT and James Comey. When their top priority is to head off any possible accusation of bias they stumble and muddle the truth. NPR are going to need a lot more courage than that if they're ever going to find their moral grounding again.

(BTW, my red yarn wall tells me that there are some NPR producers reading this.)
posted by Horkus at 7:39 AM on August 13, 2018 [24 favorites]

(BTW, my red yarn wall tells me that there are some NPR producers reading this.)

If there are, I hope they're getting a sense how their choices around this issue are severely if not irremediably tarnishing the brand among just the sort of listeners who constitute their core supporting audience, and are at risk of doing so for a generation.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:47 AM on August 13, 2018 [54 favorites]

their defense of the criticism of their both-sidesism was to present both sides and be like, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it was a tough call.

This, AND for anyone who doesn't have the stomach or inclination to listen to the thing, that framing itself would be bad enough: Standard, non-commital NPR fare. But what really got me was how dismissive and condescending the tone of the statement was. This kind of "we're right, you're wrong. We know what's best for you. You just don't understand how true journalism works." You would really lose something by only reading the transcription. I'm frankly still kind of reeling in shock at how it was said. That bothered me in a way I'm not sure I'm done picking apart yet.
posted by Krazor at 7:47 AM on August 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

To be fair, they were saying they had reporters of color conducting and approving the interview in question, not just working for them in general. (Still doesn't make the interview a good idea, though.)

Turns out the color of your skin has absolutely nothing to do with your capability for making shitty, both-sides-tastic journalistic and editorial choices.
posted by carsonb at 7:50 AM on August 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

Folkenflik presents the "dud" of the white supremacist demonstration right at the top, no doubt in part to justify their weaksauce interview and weaker defense. He also countered criticism that the interview gave a white supremacist a platform by saying no one is off limits, which ... doesn't really address the argument.

He also notes that the interview was cut down from 70 minutes to only 7 of broadcast time, and so listeners didn't hear tougher questions Noelle King put to Kessler, and ... yeah, that's the point. NPR chose to water down the interview, presenting Kessler in a more favorable, less confrontational light, instead of broadcasting those tough questions.

And nowhere, of course, does Folkenflik address the other key part of the criticism, which is pairing Kessler's interview with Black Lives Matter.

"A tough call," he concludes. Yes, and one they got wrong, and assuming this is their best shot, can't really defend.
posted by Gelatin at 7:52 AM on August 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

Today in "paper of record publishes propaganda from authoritarians":

@adamjohnsonNYC: NYT publishes press release from group funded by Saudi royals telling us how great Saudi Arabia is; doesnt disclose group is a thin PR front for the Saudi regime & one of its cofounders was Saudi Arabia's lawyer in their 9/11 suit
posted by zombieflanders at 7:53 AM on August 13, 2018 [34 favorites]

And I'm about to step away and cool off, but no, I am DONE being fair, or charitable, or other such synonyms. That sentiment is fucked on three levels: 1.) It doesn't matter which race the reporters or senior level staff are, it was still a horrible call and one that allowed for the dissemination of ideas that are violent and dangerous to other POC. 2.) It's wielding the identity of NPR's staff as a shield for an awful judgement call on the part of an organization. 3.) I CANNOT believe that they're using what amounts to a "we have black friends" defense.
posted by Krazor at 7:56 AM on August 13, 2018 [44 favorites]

This, AND for anyone who doesn't have the stomach or inclination to listen to the thing, that framing itself would be bad enough: Standard, non-commital NPR fare. But what really got me was how dismissive and condescending the tone of the statement was. This kind of "we're right, you're wrong. We know what's best for you. You just don't understand how true journalism works."

Folkenflik cites much criticism of the story as being unfair, and specifically mentions it revealing the "whiteness" of NPR. While that is unfair criticism -- the poor job NPR's entire staff have done on this entire mess indeed transcends the skin color of the people involved -- it's also a minor part of the overall criticism. Folkenflik's zeriong in on one unfair element of the criticism doesn't obscure the fact that he left many legitimate points unrefuted, including basically conceding they gave Kessler a platform by saying not even Hitler -- yes, literally -- should be denied one.

How many representatives of the actual political left does NPR routinely deny a platform while it brings on yet another Republican to discuss the issues of the day?
posted by Gelatin at 7:57 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

we cut our interview with Himmler down to 7 minutes from 70 minutes, and the story was balanced by a young Jewish girl who argued she shouldn't be murdered. also, many of us are Jewish.
posted by localhuman at 7:57 AM on August 13, 2018 [48 favorites]

NYT publishes press release from group funded by Saudi royals telling us how great Saudi Arabia is; doesnt disclose group is a thin PR front for the Saudi regime & one of its cofounders was Saudi Arabia's lawyer in their 9/11 suit

Remember last week when Saudi Arabia tweeted to Canada that they did 9/11 and will do it again to Toronto? And how we all forgot about that after like a day because we have entered a timeless eternal hellspace?
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:59 AM on August 13, 2018 [43 favorites]

NPR = Nice Polite Racists

(I'm sure this has nothing to do with the money they get from the Kochs, too.)
posted by entropicamericana at 8:01 AM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

So NPR, by standing by the airing of this story, is also standing by the assertion that "almost no figure, no matter how heinous, should be off-limits." It is also asserting that it has sufficient reason (we cover all marches on Washington; material omissions are OK and necessitated by time constraints; stakeholders have a voice in the airing, but journalism is race-blind) to give racists some publicity even when NPR's newscasters get punked by awful people because NPR is committed to playing fair when the interviewee acts in bad faith.

This is...unpersuasive.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:03 AM on August 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

NPR doesn't get Koch money.
posted by Yowser at 8:05 AM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Folkenflik cites much criticism of the story as being unfair, and specifically mentions it revealing the "whiteness" of NPR. While that is unfair criticism -- the poor job NPR's entire staff have done on this entire mess indeed transcends the skin color of the people involved -- it's also a minor part of the overall criticism.

"Whiteness" in this context doesn't mean "everyone who worked on this was white" it means "in service of white supremacy" or "centering white gaze." Not having people of color in the room means that there's a much higher likelihood that the work will center whiteness, for sure. But hiring people of color is not a magic bullet that automatically wipes out systemic white supremacy in the relevant team, organization, industry, or society. And NPR focusing on a hyper-literal definition of "whiteness" in its response is itself a demonstration of its whiteness.
posted by melissasaurus at 8:09 AM on August 13, 2018 [39 favorites]

NPR doesn't get Koch money.

posted by Yowser at 8:05 AM on August 13 [+] [!]

Yeah, my mistake. It's PBS that they manipulate.
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:10 AM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I would be interested* to see a comparison of how much time NPR has given to murderous racists vs how much time they gave to the historic nationwide marches opposing this regime's immigration policies.

Speaking of "equal" coverage: how much time has NPR given to militant anti-racists who say that Nazis should be removed by force from our living space? What's that you say? Less than fucking zero?
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:12 AM on August 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

I compare and contrast this with CBC Radio, which is still junk since the board is full of Conservative donors but my god it's so much better than NPR that it seems like paradise in comparison.
posted by Yowser at 8:12 AM on August 13, 2018

NPR doesn't get Koch money.

o rly? (page 15)
posted by entropicamericana at 8:15 AM on August 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

Strange that NPR has several times discussed NAMBLA in regards to child abuse and free speech and never had a member on to give his side. I thought all sides needed to be heard.
posted by chris24 at 8:17 AM on August 13, 2018 [27 favorites]

The Koch brothers are problematic politically, but they have spent billions on charities and have funded and potentially quashed programming in npr, but they are not a significant source of npr funding, except for Marketplace, which I think is PRI.

US News did a fairly balanced report on the Kochs and their spending.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:17 AM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

so what you're saying then is that npr has no excuse?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:19 AM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Imagine, if you will, that there's a massive communist rally in Virginia, and one of the communists kills one of the anti-communist protestors with a car and injures dozens more, and then a couple days afterward the organizer of the rally tweets:

Herb Grumkins was a fat, disgusting Nazi. Fascists killed tens of millions. Looks like it was payback time.

Then imagine that the same organizer somehow gets permission to hold the rally again, the next year, in DC. How much airtime does NPR give him?
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:28 AM on August 13, 2018 [24 favorites]

Charles Koch has ramped up his charitable giving to legit first amendment/journalism charities that has left some people scratching their heads. Charles Koch, champion of free speech? His grants to news media accelerate. (WaPo) Also it's worth remembering that Charles and David Koch, the Koch Family Foundation, and Koch Industries are all separate entities with their own agendas.
posted by peeedro at 8:33 AM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

So President Stupid is even stupider than we thought.

Trump’s diplomatic learning curve: Time zones, ‘Nambia’ and ‘Nipple’ The president has often perplexed foreign officials and his own aides as he learns how to deal with the world beyond America's borders.

Several times in the first year of his administration, President Donald Trump wanted to call Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the afternoon. But there was a problem. Midafternoon in Washington is the middle of the night in Tokyo — when Abe would be fast asleep.

Trump’s aides had to explain the issue, which one diplomatic source said came up on “a constant basis,” but it wasn’t easy.

“He wasn’t great with recognizing that the leader of a country might be 80 or 85 years old and isn’t going to be awake or in the right place at 10:30 or 11 p.m. their time,” said a former Trump NSC official. “When he wants to call someone, he wants to call someone. He’s more impulsive that way. He doesn’t think about what time it is or who it is,” added a person close to Trump.

In the case of Abe and others, Trump’s NSC staffers would advise him, for instance, that “the time is messed up, it’s 1 o’clock in the morning” and promise to put the call on his calendar for a more diplomatically appropriate time. Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster would assure him: “We can try to set it up.”

Trump’s desire to call world leaders at awkward hours is just one of many previously unreported diplomatic faux pas Trump has made since assuming the office, which go beyond telephone etiquette to include misconceptions, mispronunciations and awkward meetings. Sometimes the foibles have been contained within the White House. In one case, Trump, while studying a briefer’s map of South Asia ahead of a 2017 meeting with India’s prime minister, mispronounced Nepal as “nipple” and laughingly referred to Bhutan as “button,” according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.

posted by scalefree at 8:37 AM on August 13, 2018 [32 favorites]

The president has often perplexed foreign officials and his own aides as he learns how to deal with the world beyond America's borders.

They can't possibly think this is new information.
posted by Melismata at 8:40 AM on August 13, 2018 [12 favorites]

"The president, who can order a nuclear strike whenever he wants, doesn't understand time zones" is new information, if horrifyingly believable at this point.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:43 AM on August 13, 2018 [40 favorites]

Also it's worth remembering that Charles and David Koch, the Koch Family Foundation, and Koch Industries are all separate entities with their own agendas.

It's also worth remembering that all of these entities are wholly owned and operated by Koch, so they are all Koch agendas.
posted by JackFlash at 8:48 AM on August 13, 2018 [12 favorites]

we cover all marches on Washington; material omissions are OK and necessitated by time constraints; stakeholders have a voice in the airing, but journalism is race-blind

It is not hard to prove this as a lie: feel free to complain if and when protests of over 25 people in DC aren't being covered. Given the extreme number of small protests in DC, this will take about a week.
posted by jaduncan at 8:50 AM on August 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

Per someone I used to be very close to who worked for a Koch company in New York, where one or other of the brothers would semi-frequently come to the office and chat with people in that friendly midwestern way...

This person believes the Koch brothers to be absolutely sincere in their political beliefs. Like they think they are the good guys. A somewhat perfect combination of libertarian nonsense and engineer’s disease.

To me it always seemed...unbelievably stupid, that MIT-trained engineers could forget that, while the bulk of their work involved fiddling with constraints on the margins of a complex system, by far the biggest determining factor of any complex system is always the initial conditions. Like, say, inheriting a global company and 300 million dollars. Or having a father who (allegedly) stole the tech for his first patents and built a business by doing business with, I think, first the Nazis and then actual Stalin?

When I mentioned that, the person I was close to, also an MIT-trained engineer, looked like he finally saw the light. That lasted about a day, and then it was back to Kool-Aid town.

Anyway. They are sincere in their terrible beliefs. Not sure if that’s better or worse, but they are still, at their core, bullies who believe their money entitles them to political influence and power. Which is just another way of saying they’re bullies who think money entitles them to rule over the rest of us.

So they are sincere garbage. But still garbage.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:54 AM on August 13, 2018 [31 favorites]

all of these entities are wholly owned and operated by Koch
...which is why I never buy any Georgia Pacific paper products (Brawny, Dixie, Insulair, Mardi Gras, PerfecTouch, Sparkle, Ultra, Vanity Fair, Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, and Soft n' Gentle brands)

But then I discovered Procter & Gamble is one of the top advertisers on FoxNews, so there goes Bounty and Charmin. Ethical shopping is hard.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:58 AM on August 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

Circling back to the voting machine hacking for a moment: If they're so easily hackable by kids, can we not inject some kind of code or something that then makes them un hackable? What's the solution?

I'm very sorry if this descends into paper/no paper ballot jousting, and I'm also really happy that SOMEONE is taking the insecure systems we have seriously finally. I just... if there are so many computer genius people out there why can't we lock this down?

Because they are flashed with insecure firmware, and you are creating a race condition where security depends on being the first to hack them. That is not a system where you can reliably trust in the outcome.

And yeah, absent a paper ballot printout you know nothing except that the correct vote has been displayed on the screen. Nothing. This is the type of thing it would be absolutely worth Russia burning a few 0days on, and you can't patch against exploits you don't know about.
posted by jaduncan at 8:58 AM on August 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

FBI agent Peter Strzok fired over anti-Trump texts
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:06 AM on August 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

can we not inject some kind of code or something that then makes them un hackable? What's the solution?

I'll let Tom Scott explain this because it's quite difficult to understand if you don't already work in software, and almost too easy to understand if you do, so it's honestly hard to explain how bad an idea electronic voting is.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:09 AM on August 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

Circling back to the voting machine hacking for a moment: If they're so easily hackable by kids

The voting machines were not hackable by kids, websites simulating reporting of election results were.

But to answer the larger question, writing bug-free software is hard and unless you control the manufacturing process completely and thoroughly (and expensively), you still can't be sure that the underlying components aren't subverting your secure code.
posted by Candleman at 9:10 AM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Oh, come on, he knows perfectly well what timezones are, he just doesn't think about the other person when he wants to do something. The failure is being a sociopath not lack of understanding of timezones.

You're talking about one of the most intellectually incurious leaders in history, who cannot keep to a schedule for anything despite dozens of handlers. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Trump can't tell time much less know how timezones worked.
posted by TypographicalError at 9:13 AM on August 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

a politically-driven firing at Trump's behest
And most likely done by someone in an effort to head off a Monday Morning version of a "Saturday Night Massacre" ("It's okay boss, we fired the worst offender"). Unless it's the first step in a Monday Morning Massacre... stay tuned.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:14 AM on August 13, 2018

I would really like to be reassured by several real, actual non-scandal-entangled medical doctors that the President isn't suffering from a panoply of memory issues, because this whole story does not exactly paint the picture of someone who is at their sharpest. I could well believe it's simply that Trump is so absolutely self-centered that he simply disregards things he doesn't think are important, but I'd like to really know that, you know?

Hearing you say that, one starts to pick up on a thread we hear time and again from leaks and inside sources. You could reasonably say "so many people hate him and with ample reason, it follows that those people will take every opportunity to say embarrassing things about him." It makes perfectly good sense. But no matter what scandalous or stupid thing they're serving up dirt on Trump about, there's ONE thing (probably more, but this is really the one that jumps out) that always comes up and is always consistent: He needs to be told the same things over and over again and again. He keeps asking the same questions multiple times. So much so that it's remarkable enough to mention even if the subject of the conversation is something else entirely.

I know we're not supposed to speculate on anyone's mental health inasmuch as it's not fair, accurate, or productive to the larger discourse. Even psychologists won't do it both for professional reasons and for the fact that's it's impossible to diagnose someone with anything remotely without actually talking to them with the intent to diagnose them. But with so many people all saying different things that still contain shades of that one same element, what else are we left to conclude? Dude has something wrong with him and I don't know that it's his memory, his comprehension, or some more general cognitive impairment, but something's up and it makes me nervous.
posted by Krazor at 9:15 AM on August 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

Oh, come on, he knows perfectly well what timezones are, he just doesn't think about the other person when he wants to do something. The failure is being a sociopath not lack of understanding of timezones.

The fucker barely has object permanence. At best it's ¿por qué no los dos?
posted by chris24 at 9:15 AM on August 13, 2018 [26 favorites]

In Mueller news, a Trump-appointed federal judge has thrown out oligarch-linked Concord Management and Consulting, LLC's challenge to the Special Counsel's authority (CNN) (decision here). Also, Mueller has filed for a protective order governing discovery over Papadopoulos' testimony.

With this US politics mega-thread over 1,500 comments, we're ready for a new one. (I've updated a draft on the MeFi wiki—it turns out I can't post an FPP for another three hours...).
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:17 AM on August 13, 2018 [23 favorites]

Prior to this, I've waffled on NPR. I know some here have come out swinging against NPR's both-sidesism for a long time now. I used to listen to NPR a lot prior to the election and it's been hard to break away. I gave them the benefit of the doubt a lot- "maybe they're trying (albeit not doing a very good job) to remain objective." After today, I can no longer assume that NPR is acting in anything but bad faith. I won't be listening anymore and neither should you. Cancel your MOTHERFUCKING SUBSCRIPTIONS!

NPR, for all its faults, provides broader coverage of national and world news than other outlets. Does it fuck up? Yes. Was this a serious fuck-up? Hell yes. Do I accept their non-apology? Hell no.

But I'll still turn to them for another look at topics, and often find coverage that appears to be missing from other major outlets, and link their good coverage here. (That said, I haven't listened to Morning Edition or All Things Considered for months, and it's made me a happier person on my commutes.)

Here's a vague piece they ran this weekend, which has some interesting ideas, mostly from the interviewee (which makes sense, because if it were to come from the NPR interviewer, it's hard to say "what if we did this?" and get a ton of support to do that thing, but then not do that thing and get even more angry responses).

How The Media Covers White Supremacists (NPR, Aug. 12, 2018)

Karen Grigsby Bates of NPR's Code Switch team: One person who was not a journalist but who I thought had a really interesting idea said, why don't you all treat this the same way you treat, like, a war or the president? Everybody doesn't go in and cover those things. Lots of times, they'll have pool coverage. Why can't you have pool coverage of these people so that there's one piece of tape, one visual image that you get, and that's enough of these guys? I don't know where it stops.

Lakshmi Singh, segment host: As we're speaking, I'm looking at images on television on CNN, and it's the angle - the camera angle (laughter) shows a lot of other videographers, cameras. And then you have the crowd further up. And, from this angle, it's tough to tell if there are more journalists than protesters in this particular scene or the other way around.

BATES: And sometimes, in many of the things we've covered, there were more of us than there are of the people who were the actual event that we're going out to cover. Nobody wants to not cover it on the off-chance that something big happens while their backs are turned. But you have to weigh that with so - if by covering it, are we making this event bigger than it really is?

Emphasis mine, because I think YES, YES YOU ARE.

But that is a problem for media coverage: the previously mentioned Westboro Baptist Church, who got a TON of coverage, until they didn't, were one, tiny, angry group. These racists and neo-Nazis are numerous. So until there's some united agreement that violent racists get press pool coverage, there'll be more cameras and reporters than protesters, making their actions look REALLY IMPORTANT, or if not important, AN EASY WAY TO GET MEDIA ATTENTION AND SHOUT YOUR MESSAGE FAR AND WIDE, from dozens of angles.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:20 AM on August 13, 2018 [15 favorites]

But he is thinking, somewhat, about the other person -- he's thinking well, they have to pick up, the US president is calling. Yes, sociopath, but narcissist too.
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:22 AM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh, come on, he knows perfectly well what timezones are

Here's the thing I keep coming back to, here and in other places, when we have one of these "Oh, come on..." moments:

Name one dumb and/or weird thing about Donald John Trump Senior that has been reported by any reputable source that's been proven wrong. A single thing. Find me a floor, where we can say, "Well, this is so stupid that it's patently incorrect, and its incorrectness has been demonstrated."

Until I see that thing, then yeah, I have to give credence to virtually the fuck anything that someone is willing to put on paper about how dumb and weird he is -- and whether that's because of intellectual incuriosity or mental affliction, it doesn't matter, because the effect is still that he is working on the assumption that he can call Shinzo Abe at 4 p.m. Eastern time. I'll believe he actually doesn't understand time zones. I'll believe he thinks that pandas are prematurely born zebras. I'll believe that he thinks the banana split was invented by Rufus Q. Bananasplit. Fucking. Anything. I haven't been let down yet.
posted by Etrigan at 9:24 AM on August 13, 2018 [83 favorites]

He just confirmed Omarosa signed an NDA. Which is almost certainly unenforceable as to public employees. If she wants to help the country instead of string out her 15 minutes as long as possible, she should sue for a declaratory judgment that the NDA is bullshit.

And release all the tapes she has now, not drip them out. What she's released so far is worthless, if she actually has something important and not just about how John Kelly is a dick, put it out.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:27 AM on August 13, 2018 [15 favorites]

I would say that the real problem with electronic voting is that the only way to believe it's secure is to trust some set of experts. You, the voter, cannot actually inspect the machines. Even if they are actually perfectly secure, the layman cannot tell.

However, you can actually watch votes be counted by hand when it's done that way- fill the rooms with cameras, invite interested citizens to come and watch it happen. Civil society groups send observers. It's all very civic-minded and transparent. It's not just done securely, it's seen to be done securely.

Let's be more blunt. A lot of the current software systems are closed source, and thus even the expert cannot tell because it is not known what code is actually running. You also cannot realistically know about hardware flaws, which (again) multiple parties would have extreme potential gain from introducing.

If you were going to do this right, you'd have a mathematically proven program that is extremely small and is open source, reproducible builds, code signing, open source hardware that can be inspected, and inspection of the actual produced hardware to check it is the same as the schematics.

The existing voting machines are laughably far away from this. The only sane outcome is that you still print a paper ballot, the voter still sees the paper before approving the vote, and the electronically tabulated votes are treated as a sanity check on the paper ballots. There is a reason that every almost every secure system has a paper record, and it's largely because this isn't a solved problem for anyone.
posted by jaduncan at 9:28 AM on August 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

In Mueller news, a Trump-appointed federal judge has thrown out oligarch-linked Concord Management and Consulting, LLC's challenge to the Special Counsel's authority

"Friedrich cited opinions by three other federal judges -- Amy Berman Jackson, who oversees Paul Manafort's criminal foreign lobbying case; T.S. Ellis, who oversees Manafort's financial fraud case; and DC District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell -- to back up her decision."

It's important to note that where judges have had the full range of facts before them (or at least a fuller set of facts than what has been made public so far), that there has been no disagreement among them in their interpretation.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:31 AM on August 13, 2018 [20 favorites]

The president, who can order a nuclear strike whenever he wants, doesn't understand time zones" is new information, if horrifyingly believable at this point.

It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s dialing.

posted by notyou at 9:35 AM on August 13, 2018 [25 favorites]

Even if the voting machine software were open source, you still have the trusting trust (pdf) problem.
posted by smcameron at 9:35 AM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Top UN human rights official rebukes Trump’s press attacks as “close to incitement of violence”

Outgoing Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein characterized the president’s rhetoric as a threat to journalists worldwide.

Jen Kirby | Vox
posted by Barack Spinoza at 9:41 AM on August 13, 2018 [16 favorites]

The president has often perplexed foreign officials and his own aides as he learns how to deal with the world beyond America's borders.

Objection: "learns" assumes facts not in evidence.
posted by Gelatin at 9:42 AM on August 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

Judge Ellis Knows What He’s Doing in the Manafort Trial

Ellis, more than just about anyone else in America, knows a wealth of extremely sensitive details about the Russia investigation, and his apparent drive to cut no slack for the prosecution also indicates that he wants their side to have a solid trial record in the event of an appeal. “Riding prosecutors and limiting their evidence doesn’t necessarily signal that Ellis thinks they’re in the wrong — it may signal that he thinks they’re likely to convict Manafort, and he wants to make the result as clean and error-free as possible,” added White.

posted by kirkaracha at 9:42 AM on August 13, 2018 [28 favorites]

Even if the voting machine software were open source, you still have the trusting trust (pdf) problem.

Yup. That's the bit that reproducible builds are essential for, but doesn't entirely solve. You'd want both a simple compiler, and for the tabulation code to be the most audited bit of code on the planet (which is why introducing Windows as the base is just insane). Without getting massively into the weeds, doing anything but keeping a definitive paper record is obviously foolish. Even ATMs and payment processing centres get hacked, and banks are about as heavily attacked and as heavily motivated a defender as one gets outside national security.

None of it is secure enough to bet a democracy on.
posted by jaduncan at 9:47 AM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

This person believes the Koch brothers to be absolutely sincere in their political beliefs. Like they think they are the good guys.

Doesn't surprise me in the least, in fact, had anyone asked I would have bet on it. Everyone is the hero of their own story and there is no reason they should be any different. Hitler thought he was a good guy doing the right thing. The Kochs likely think so too, after all, their nanny growing up was a "fervid nazi" according to this NPR story from 2016.

IIRC, there was a thread a while back featuring that same NPR story but I can't seem to find it now.

Trump, insomuch as he is capable of such thoughts, believes he's a hero too as do those around him. We think we're the good guys too and I tell myself that the difference is that our side questions that constantly and seeks out objective evidence and measures.
posted by VTX at 9:50 AM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

I fully agree with most of the objections against electronic voting machines, but I think machines that print a voter-verifiable paper ballot have advantages that aren't covered by the "world's most expensive pencil" objection. Touchscreens with large touch targets might help voters with motor issues who would have trouble filling in the Scantron-style bubbles on many paper ballots. And voting machines could provide sanity checks to prevent voters from submitting invalid ballots, like choosing multiple candidates for the same office. All that is hypothetical while the voting machines in use are blind boxes, but hey.
posted by skymt at 9:50 AM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

A trusting trust problem, and a "is this hardware actually running the software I think it is" problem, and a "is this even the hardware I think it is" problem. Lots of this can plausibly be mitigated with *handwave*cryptography but cryptography is deep magic that approximately nobody understands. So even in the best case, you're back to trusting experts- not just generally smart people who can read code, but like, the couple dozen people who are specifically capable of writing secure cryptography.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:51 AM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

@realdonaldtrump “Just fired Agent Strzok, formerly of the FBI, was in charge of the Crooked Hillary Clinton sham investigation. It was a total fraud on the American public and should be properly redone!” (my emphasis)

Hillary must be slamming her head into a desk about now.
posted by Sophie1 at 9:52 AM on August 13, 2018 [26 favorites]

Everyone is the hero of their own story and there is no reason they should be any different.

I used to think this, but now I think that some guys (like, say, Paul Manafort) know that what they are doing is sleazy. They just think everyone else is equally sleazy and would do the same thing if they were only clever enough. They don't see themselves as heroes. They just see themselves as smart, and everyone else as suckers.
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:52 AM on August 13, 2018 [34 favorites]

The more things there are to vote for/choose from, the more appealing computerization looks.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:00 AM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

However, you can actually watch votes be counted by hand when it's done that way- fill the rooms with cameras, invite interested citizens to come and watch it happen. Civil society groups send observers. It's all very civic-minded and transparent. It's not just done securely, it's seen to be done securely.

Which is part of the reason why, by the way, the so-called "yuppie riot" -- actually an act of thuggish intimidation by Republican party staffers -- that temporarily halted counting of votes in Florida during the 2000 happened. It could have been possible to prove that Al Gore got more votes than George W. Bush and therefore won the Presidency, and that process needed to be stopped by any means necessary -- up to and including a transparently partisan Supreme Court vote.
posted by Gelatin at 10:03 AM on August 13, 2018 [17 favorites]

I would say that the real problem with electronic voting is that the only way to believe it's secure is to trust some set of experts.

This isn't as big a problem as you think. I work in QA and compliance for a large commercial bank. We have a TON of systems that perform a myriad of tasks for us. We know that those systems are working as intended because we check constantly.

We check processes as they're completed and then we check them again once completed. We test stuff for compliance with individual regulations and we test for accuracy. Not only to we test it but document the hell out of our testing because then our testing gets tested for accuracy.

When we find problems we thoroughly document them and then we document the steps taken to solve them and then we test them again to make sure the solutions have worked.

Then regulators from various regulatory bodies (FDIC, CFPB, SEC, etc. etc.) come and do their own testing and sometimes re-perform our testing to make sure they get the same results.

We know we're compliant with the law and our own internal (usually stricter) standards because we tested and we documented it thoroughly enough that we can prove it.

The problem isn't relying on experts, the problem is there doesn't exist a control scheme to prove that the experts have done their jobs and made sure that they can prove it.

Regulators ask us all the time, "How do you know that this is working correctly?" and then they follow up with, "Great, how can you PROVE it?" for every single aspect of every single process at the bank. That same level of documentation should exist and to a large extent should be publically accessible to the general public whether the voting is done electronically or on paper.

Quality Assurance testing programs for voting should be so thorough and robust that they'd be a role model for the banking industry and it really bugs the hell out of that it isn't.
posted by VTX at 10:05 AM on August 13, 2018 [24 favorites]

Josh Marshall (TPM) reminds us of the bigger picture when it comes to Agent Strzok’s firing:

With the news that former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok was fired Friday, reportedly overruling the official recommendation that he be disciplined with a demotion and 60 day suspension, lets review the clarifying big picture. At the time two years ago when the FBI began investigating a far-flung foreign conspiracy to throw the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor, James Comey was Director of the FBI; Andrew McCabe was 2nd in command and Peter Strzok was Chief of the Bureau’s Counterespionage Section. There was ample suspicion then and ample evidence now that candidate Trump’s associates were deeply involved in the conspiracy. Comey, McCabe and Strzok have now each been fired. The President has threatened each with prosecution.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 10:07 AM on August 13, 2018 [79 favorites]

This isn't as big a problem as you think. I work in QA and compliance for a large commercial bank. We have a TON of systems that perform a myriad of tasks for us. We know that those systems are working as intended because we check constantly.

ITIL Incident Reports are a thing of beauty...
posted by mikelieman at 10:08 AM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Fuck all the rationalizations about why we just have to have some kind of electronics involved in vote preparation or counting.

This comes up again and again and again.

Hand-counting works fine for very simple parliamentary-system ballots where there's one and only one election on the ballot. Hand-counting is terrible and amazingly error-prone for the US's big, complex ballots with many elections. I am too lazy to go google this for you, but ISTR studies of more generalized accuracy in hand-coding complex paper ballots/tests/similar have found error rates around 5%, which is obviously completely unacceptable for an election.

Myself, I have occasionally had to grade scantron exams by hand, and I can personally assure you that doing so is far, far, far more error-prone than simply running them through the scanner.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:08 AM on August 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

About the FBI guy being fired. So much for your first amendment.
posted by Yowser at 10:08 AM on August 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

There was ample suspicion then and ample evidence now that candidate Trump’s associates were deeply involved in the conspiracy. Comey, McCabe and Strzok have now each been fired. The President has threatened each with prosecution.

Once again, the Stupidest timeline presents us with a scenario where Trump thinks firing the people who were in charge of investigating him in the past will end the risk of being investigated, or destroy their files, or something. All evidence show's he's insane, so there's no point in trying too hard to rationalize his behaviour.

Everything I've seen shows that Mueller's plan is right on track. He's building a solid foundation of "The Russian Government did this, and this, and that", to tie back to the Trump Campaign, and it looks like the DNC lawsuit is a good preview of how it all hangs together.
posted by mikelieman at 10:11 AM on August 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

The electronic voting thing has been discussed in at least one out of three megathreads. Can we table it unless something important gets disclosed or move it to a separate thread? This one is creeky as it is.
posted by Candleman at 10:12 AM on August 13, 2018 [17 favorites]

FWIW I think that Trump does understand timezones, but totally sees "calling an 85 year-old man at 1am" as some sort of 80s-tastic power move, much like his weird grabby arm wrestingly attempts against all of the (male) visiting heads of state at the photo op meetings.
posted by TwoStride at 10:18 AM on August 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

There was ample suspicion then and ample evidence now that candidate Trump’s associates were deeply involved in the conspiracy. Comey, McCabe and Strzok have now each been fired. The President has threatened each with prosecution.

@realDonaldTrump: "Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI - finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction - I just fight back!"

Also, Trump has released a new statement on the Trump Tower 2016 meeting to the Washington Post for its fluff-profile of his oldest son's campaigning performance in the mid-terms: "Don [Jr.] has received notoriety for a brief meeting, that many politicians would have taken, but most importantly, and to the best of my knowledge, nothing happened after the meeting concluded."

"To the best of my knowledge" is a lawyer-approved kiss of death. Trump's signalling he will sacrifice his first-born in a heartbeat.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:20 AM on August 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

“the time is messed up, it’s 1 o’clock in the morning”

Yeah, it's Time's fault. Time is the messed up thing.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:22 AM on August 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

I look forward to judicious application of the new standard of firing FBI agents who, in private conversations, say bad things about the criminals they're investigating.
posted by 0xFCAF at 10:29 AM on August 13, 2018 [60 favorites]

Bobby Goodlatte's on a roll today.

I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding. That committee hearing was a low point for Congress.

Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot

posted by jgirl at 10:34 AM on August 13, 2018 [78 favorites]

The existing voting machines are laughably far away from this. The only sane outcome is that you still print a paper ballot, the voter still sees the paper before approving the vote, and the electronically tabulated votes are treated as a sanity check on the paper ballots. There is a reason that every almost every secure system has a paper record, and it's largely because this isn't a solved problem for anyone.

Voter-verified machine printed ballots, machine scanned, manual recount of statistically significant number of precincts. I've been involved in this issue for 10 years now and this is the best we've got. Please consider making this your mantra.

This isn't as big a problem as you think. I work in QA and compliance for a large commercial bank. We have a TON of systems that perform a myriad of tasks for us. We know that those systems are working as intended because we check constantly.

Comparisons to banking systems are not apt because in banking your name follows your data everywhere. In secret ballots, your name and ballot choices are separated. This is a fundamental difference between voting and banking and it is what introduces all the potential for malfeasance.
posted by M-x shell at 10:38 AM on August 13, 2018 [16 favorites]

...which is why I never buy any Georgia Pacific paper products (Brawny, Dixie, Insulair, Mardi Gras, PerfecTouch, Sparkle, Ultra, Vanity Fair, Angel Soft, Quilted Northern, and Soft n' Gentle brands)

Don't buy anything in a box then. Georgia Pacific is also one of the largest paperboard suppliers and box printers in the US. It's almost impossible to tell sourcing at a consumer level (barring a corrugator's test cert or a mark on a dust flap)
posted by nathan_teske at 10:41 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

About the FBI guy being fired. So much for your first amendment.

Yes, because every time a law is broken, or a principle is violated, it's immediately, universally nullified.

It's important to remember, amidst the ongoing storm, that we're in the middle of this giant stress test to our institutions, laws, practices, and norms (and more), and we don't yet know the outcomes. If Trump and his Merry Band of Truly Horrible People are able to avoid any accountability for their actions, or corrupt or eliminate elections completely, or etc., then we can talk about how it was nice to have a First Amendment and all.

Until then, the building isn't burned down because the couch is on fire. (And maybe the rug. If the curtains catch, we have a problem.)
posted by LooseFilter at 10:41 AM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

You know who is being mistreated right now? Car dealers who want to over-charge members of the military. Good thing we have Trump in the White House! White House Takes Aim At Financial Protections For Military (NPR, Aug. 13, 2018)

The Trump administration is taking aim at a law designed to protect military service members from getting cheated by shady lending practices.

NPR has obtained documents that show the White House is proposing changes that critics say would leave service members vulnerable to getting ripped off when they buy cars. Separately, the administration is taking broader steps to roll back enforcement of the Military Lending Act.
...
The rules to protect service members effectively block auto dealers from tacking on an extra product — such as overpriced gap insurance — and rolling it into their car loans.

The industry has been lobbying to change that, and the White House appears to be sympathetic. The administration just sent the latest version of a proposal to the Defense Department, and documents show that it would give car dealers what they want. [Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah, who reviewed the documents] says the revised rules could also allow dealers to roll in all kinds of other add-on products.

Grifter recognizes grifter? Grifter hand-out?
posted by filthy light thief at 10:49 AM on August 13, 2018 [21 favorites]

> the building isn't burned down because the couch is on fire. (And maybe the rug. If the curtains catch, we have a problem.)

Well maybe we could do something about the %^$%^&ing arsonist-in-chief, who continues to play with gasoline and matches inside the house while cackling with glee.

> Voter-verified machine printed ballots, machine scanned, manual recount of statistically significant number of precincts. I've been involved in this issue for 10 years now and this is the best we've got. Please consider making this your mantra.

Yep. In this very megathread. (Speaking of which, weren't we due for a new one? Or are we waiting for a significant shoe to drop?)
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:50 AM on August 13, 2018

About the FBI guy being fired. So much for your first amendment.

Oh they fired him but that doesn't mean there isn't a line of 500 lawyers hoping he picks them for the wrongful termination lawsuit.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:53 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

In today's Political Shade Wars, the raging tantrum in chief tried to throw some at John Kasich today over the governor's race in Ohio.

Kasich responded with a simple but epic gif.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:57 AM on August 13, 2018 [39 favorites]

Name one dumb and/or weird thing about Donald John Trump Senior that has been reported by any reputable source that's been proven wrong. A single thing. Find me a floor, where we can say, "Well, this is so stupid that it's patently incorrect, and its incorrectness has been demonstrated."

OK, I'll start. Trump did not over-feed the koi during his visit to Akasaka Palace, like a careless 4-year-old.
posted by Piso Mojado at 11:03 AM on August 13, 2018 [17 favorites]

FWIW I think that Trump does understand timezones, but totally sees "calling an 85 year-old man at 1am" as some sort of 80s-tastic power move, much like his weird grabby arm wrestingly attempts against all of the (male) visiting heads of state at the photo op meetings.
Because macho = stupid, pragmatically.
posted by Harry Caul at 11:17 AM on August 13, 2018

How a black, firefighting union president plans to take on Scott Walker

Mahlon Mitchell tells Vox that “Wisconsin is ready for a black governor.”
posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:19 AM on August 13, 2018 [16 favorites]

cmfletcher: Oh they fired him but that doesn't mean there isn't a line of 500 lawyers hoping he picks them for the wrongful termination lawsuit.

He already has a lawyer, Aitan Goelman, who made the statement "The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters," per Kyle Cheney for Politico, August 13, 2018.

Politico is also keeping things moving on other fronts, offering this story: Is This the Next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? -- Ayanna Pressley says the Democratic Party needs new blood. She’ll have to take down a popular incumbent to make her case. (Joanna Weiss for Politico, August 12, 2018)

That popular incumbent is 10-term Rep. Michael Capuano (Ballotpedia) in Massachusetts’ 7th District. Her question of his suitability is a question of approach, of personal history translated to legislative priorities, of the value in filling Massachusetts’ only majority-minority district—currently served by a 66-year-old white man—with a 44-year-old black woman who has experienced the struggles of the inner city.

"The next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez" is weird because we already have an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and while she won her primary and she's expected to win in November, this feels like an awkward and rather premature bit of short-hand.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:22 AM on August 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

About an hour ago, @realDonaldTrump retweeted his former lawyer:

Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212)

LTo{sic} the many dozens of #journalists who called me, questioning @OMAROSA claim in her new book that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump took a note from me, put it in his mouth and ate it...I saw NO such thing and am shocked anyone would take this seriously.

Also, in response to Trump tweeting about "The very unpopular Governor of Ohio", Kellyanne Conway's husband (@gtconway3d) points out:

Cincinnati Enquirer/Suffolk 6/6-11/18 OH statewide 500 LV
Unfavorable opinion of
> Donald Trump: 58.6%
> John Kasich: 34.8%
http://bit.ly/2Mjo6pE

posted by Doktor Zed at 11:26 AM on August 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

To return briefly to the NPR Kessler covfefe, it looks as if one reason NPR hires minorities and routinely assigns POCs to stories about anything "racial" is so that it can list names of POCs whenever anybody points out that some story of theirs appears to shill for white supremacy. That might actually work if they would simply allow their reporters to do their jobs. But they don't: they took what was presumably at least a competent and responsible 70-minute interview in which Noel King asked the right questions, and maybe even a brave and insightful one with challenges, and they removed all the good stuff to turn it into a weak puff piece. They did it purposefully to avoid sounding "all fighty" so as not to irk their donor base, which is apparently a bunch of people like that woman in the Monty Python skit who shrieked in agony whenever she heard anything "tinny." It did not matter to them that taking all the fight out of the interview undercut Noel King's credibility. This treatment of their employees is disgusting. It's cruel and cynical and enraging, and they need to stop it yesterday. I know that's their M.O.; it's not hard to see, and anyway, the Volkenflick essentially SAID that's what they do.

If that yarn wall comment is right and NPR producers are reading this, STOP IIIIIT! Stop giving these excruciating, painful jobs to black and brown people and then humiliating them after the fact by cutting all their best bits.

Don't stand for it, Noel King!
posted by Don Pepino at 11:28 AM on August 13, 2018 [26 favorites]

NPR has obtained documents that show the White House is proposing changes that critics say would leave service members vulnerable to getting ripped off when they buy cars.

Love people who only get upset about this when it affects the military.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:28 AM on August 13, 2018 [16 favorites]

Oh, come on, he knows perfectly well what timezones are, he just doesn't think about the other person when he wants to do something. The failure is being a sociopath not lack of understanding of timezones

And by constantly saying "huh, people are surprised by this behavior," the media continues to imply that it really is a matter of not understanding time zones (not sociopathy), and "oh if someone could just teach him then he'll suddenly start being the normal president that we want him to be, so he can fit in our narrative." SO wish they'd stop doing that.
posted by Melismata at 11:31 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

skymt > Touchscreens with large touch targets might help voters with motor issues who would have trouble filling in the Scantron-style bubbles on many paper ballots. And voting machines could provide sanity checks to prevent voters from submitting invalid ballots, like choosing multiple candidates for the same office.

The future is now! In my NC county, we use just such a "ballot-marking device" (the AutoMARK) to mark paper ballots for the scantron ("bubble sheet") counter. The voter has a chance to review the marked ballot before submitting it, and (iirc) it does detect over-votes and such.

The notes on AutoMARK security at VerifiedVoting are pretty interesting. I think we already follow all their security guidelines. When I started working at the polls, I found all this rather primitive. I've come to believe that we lucked into a pretty good balance of efficiency and verifiability.
posted by Piso Mojado at 11:32 AM on August 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

it may signal that he thinks they’re likely to convict Manafort, and he wants to make the result as clean and error-free as possible

Ah, so this one arrogant guy in a position of power has decided that he's so certain of the outcome of an upcoming contest that he's willing to bend the rules in a way that displays bias against the party he expects to win, as a hedge against future questions about the win's legitimacy? Cool cool, doesn't sound like that could go wrong in any way that echoes recent events.
posted by contraption at 11:35 AM on August 13, 2018 [55 favorites]

Trump did not over-feed the koi during his visit to Akasaka Palace, like a careless 4-year-old.

I will see your "He is capable of following the lead of the person standing next to him" and raise you "Sure, but that was a man."
posted by Etrigan at 11:39 AM on August 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Meta-twitter moment (plus Manafort trial coverage):

@nycsouthpaw: I took a train down to Alexandria last week to watch a couple days of the Manafort trial. Yahoo News asked me to write about it. And I did. Then they asked me to publish it under my real name. And I agreed to.

@nycsouthpaw --- well respected (and heretofore anonymous) law-tweeter --- is Luppe Luppen, graduate of Stanford University (2005) and Washington & Lee School of Law (2008), "biglaw" lawyer until late-2017, currently working on a mystery project.
posted by pjenks at 11:43 AM on August 13, 2018 [21 favorites]

contraption, my interpretation is that arrogant guy expects an appeal and wants the results from his court to hold up to intense scrutiny ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by polyhedron at 11:43 AM on August 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

How's that compare to the error rate of {UNKNOWN} for electronic systems?

The error rate of optical scanners is well understood and while I remain too lazy to go google this for anyone else it can be summarized as "negligible."
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:45 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

Love people who only get upset about [car ripoffs] when it affects the military.

In fairness, this has long been a particular problem for military installations. There are a lot of very young, naive doofuses in the military with more spending money (and testosterone where applicable) than sense, and the communities are so transient that it's harder for reputational virtuous cycles to work.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:50 AM on August 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

Optical scanners seem fine, assuming the actual ballot is available to the voter for inspection. The problem is that computerized electronic voting without a voter verifiable paper trail is fundamentally untrustable and the only rational reason i've ever been able to come up with for implementing a system that way is to ensure the possibility of fraud.
posted by polyhedron at 11:52 AM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

There are a lot of very young, naive doofuses in the military with more spending money (and testosterone where applicable) than sense

Almost like they are consumers, who need financial protection.

Maybe we could make a separate bureau for doing that, for everyone.
posted by Dashy at 11:52 AM on August 13, 2018 [66 favorites]

contraption, my interpretation is that arrogant guy expects an appeal and wants the results from his court to hold up to intense scrutiny ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's a very plausible explanation of his thinking, but the point is that the judge's thinking doesn't control what the 12 jurors will do, and he could end up overcorrecting to the point of a not-guilty verdict. Sort of like how James Comey consciously refusing to give Hillary Clinton a break so he wouldn't seem to have handed her the election ended up going far beyond that.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:04 PM on August 13, 2018 [12 favorites]

Forbes, Dan Alexander, New Report Uncovers (Even More) Ethical Issues For Wilbur Ross

On May 18, 2017, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross met with Bill Furman, the CEO of railcar manufacturer Greenbrier Companies, according to Ross’ calendar. At the time, Ross had a financial stake in Greenbrier and, therefore, a potential conflict of interest. When asked about the meeting, a spokesperson for Ross brushed aside any concerns. “There was a purely social lunch with Mr. Furman at which Secretary Ross paid the bill,” he said in a statement to Forbes last month. “No items specific to Greenbrier have been before the secretary during his tenure at [the Department of] Commerce.” When pressed, the spokesman added: “Secretary Ross and [his chief of staff] Wendy Teramoto have not taken any action with a direct and predictable effect on their financial holdings.”

But that is not true, according to a 115-page report from the Campaign Legal Center, a government watchdog organization. Instead, the report alleges, Ross took several actions with direct and predictable effects on his holdings, and he may have broken the law by doing so.

A new document unearthed in the report shows that Greenbrier Companies did in fact come before the commerce department during Ross’ tenure as secretary. Twelve days after the May 18, 2017 meeting, Furman wrote a letter to the department, expressing concern over how Ross’ investigation into steel imports might affect Greenbrier’s supply of railcar axles and wheels imported from Japan. One day after Furman sent the letter, Ross sold part of his stake in Greenbrier, which he had not previously disclosed owning. Seven months later, Ross sold another chunk of Greenbrier stock, ultimately suggesting that he took so long to sell the shares because he did not know he owned them. In its report, the Campaign Legal Center called that explanation “implausible.”

Ross's ethics scandals haven't gotten the same attention as, say, Price or Pruitt, but they seem like they're among the most serious behind the President's himself.
posted by zachlipton at 12:04 PM on August 13, 2018 [26 favorites]

NPR has obtained documents that show the White House is proposing changes that critics say would leave service members vulnerable to getting ripped off when they buy cars.

Love people who only get upset about this when it affects the military.

Every military base has a nearby strip mall filled with the kind of people we used to call "camp followers," who are there to take advantage of the sleep deprived, stressed out 19 year olds who are in no way shape or form likely to read any fine print when they are off base.

There are damn good reasons we have laws aimed specifically at that particular grade of scum.
posted by ocschwar at 12:04 PM on August 13, 2018 [24 favorites]

The future is now! In my NC county, we use just such a "ballot-marking device" (the AutoMARK) to mark paper ballots for the scantron ("bubble sheet") counter. The voter has a chance to review the marked ballot before submitting it, and (iirc) it does detect over-votes and such.

NY also. Here in Albany County, we only use them if a voter requests to use one for whatever reason. Otherwise it's here's a ballot ( in a cover for privacy ), use the pen in the privacy booth, and stand behind the line to wait to scan it.

Do you also use ESS machines to scan?
posted by mikelieman at 12:08 PM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

The error rate of optical scanners is well understood and while I remain too lazy to go google this for anyone else it can be summarized as "negligible."

What's more, you cannot prevent competing hardware manufacturers from looking at a sample ballot meant for Model X scanners and immediately building a knockoff, where the knockoff can be as simple as a phone app that uses the camera in this day and age.

You can still hack the scanner to have it spit out a doctored tally sheet, but you cannot prevent the ballots from being scanned by a scanner fresh from the factory, or a scanner built by a competitor, or a scanner built in the friendly neighborhood makerspace.
posted by ocschwar at 12:08 PM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

In "The More Things Change The More They Remain The Same" news, I came across a passage in a book I was reading this weekend, that made me stop, put the book down, look out the window, and wonder what is wrong with our species.

It's from Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago, and it details the background of Chicago Tribune reporter Genevieve Forbes, who covered the story at the heart of the book:

Just two years earlier, the Tribune had run [Forbes'] series in which she went undercover as an “immigrant girl” from Ireland to report the conditions newcomers faced when coming to Ellis Island. She sailed first to County Cork, Ireland, and then returned on an immigrant ship, posing as a young woman hoping for a new life in the States.

In her stories, Forbes revealed how vulnerable immigrants were being harassed and broken by the Ellis Island overseers. Some of the worst examples came from the numerous medical examinations immigrants were subjected to. Upon arrival, males and females were separated and inspected individually by a doctor or nurse. Overseers scared young women into thinking they would be stripped naked and violated. Forbes described how the men in charge enjoyed terrorizing females who had no power to fight back. She also detailed the fear faced by many parents whose children were being examined without them. One Italian man was a widower with a four-year-old daughter. The overseers forced him to surrender his little girl to unrelated female passengers during the exam. Forbes described these parents’ fear that their children would be lost in the crowd and never seen again. Two Czech men cried as they were dragged up a flight of stairs, protesting in broken English, “My fam-lee, my fam-lee!” Forbes’s series was a success, and federal officials investigated abuse and corruption at Ellis Island following a heated public response.

(Le Beau Lucchesi, Emilie. Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago (pp. 23-24). Chicago Review Press. Kindle Edition.)

This was in 1921. I'd written earlier that this is from the "the more things change..." department, but upon review, that last sentence suggests some things have changed a bit: federal officials seem to be going out of their way to do nothing about abuse and corruption following heated public response to the current incarnation of this bullshit.
posted by lord_wolf at 12:10 PM on August 13, 2018 [47 favorites]

Also, abusive officials in the early 20th century were just threatening to rip families apart forever, instead of developing a robust bureaucracy designed to make sure that happens.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:16 PM on August 13, 2018 [20 favorites]

Daily Beast, Gateway Pundit Dumps White House Reporter After He Went on White Nationalist Podcast

But Wintrich doesn’t seem entirely happy about his exit. In a Periscope livestream on Sunday night, Wintrich chatted with fans as he prepared to cook lobsters he had named after Alexander Soros, the son of liberal financier George Soros, and Jared Holt, the Right Wing Watch researcher who had noticed Wintrich’s appearance on Fuentes’s podcast.

Wintrich declared that the lobsters “low-energy soy boys.”

“They save all their pinching, all their snipping for social media,” Wintrich said.

Wintrich opted to cook the lobster named after Holt first.

posted by zachlipton at 12:19 PM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Comparisons to banking systems are not apt because in banking your name follows your data everywhere.

No, you would test things the same way but you'd certainly build the testing programs the same way. You start with objectives (accurate vote counts, securing voting, and the like), identify the risks to those objectives, design controls for those risks, and then design testing to test the controls to ensure they're working. Periodically (annually probably) do a new risk assessment to identify how your risks have changed and adjust everything else accordingly.

The QA testing my department does varies a lot and it's very different from, say, the QA testing a carried out at casinos on their games but the principles are the same.

That's not to say that I support electronic voting. Using paper ballots is a pretty strong control and gives you an more easily audit-able paper trail and makes it really hard to tamper with them. If you have electronic voting you need to be able to document who can access the software, how that access is maintained/granted/withdrawn (and you'll need to test and audit all of that). More complexity introduces more risk which means more controls, which means more testing and auditing.

But even with existing paper ballot systems, I'd like to see a LOT more auditing, testing, and verification.
posted by VTX at 12:20 PM on August 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

Uhhhhh. Politico, Trump offers White House staffers discounted merch from his golf clubs

There’s an under-the-radar perk being offered to staffers in President Donald Trump’s administration — discounts on Trump-branded merchandise sold at his Bedminster golf club.

White House staffers who have a Secret Service hard pin identifying them as administration officials can flash it at the pro shop — where Trump-branded driver headcovers retail for $40 and a Trump golf polo tee sells for $90, according to the online Trump store — and receive the same discount available to club members, who pay a reported $350,000 to join the club.

Those discounts range from 15 percent off of any merchandise sold in the store, to 70 percent off of clearance items, according to two staffers and a receipt reviewed by POLITICO.
...
Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and a former associate counsel in the Obama and Clinton administrations, said the practice of offering any discounts to people identified by their Secret Service pins was “absolutely wrong.”
...
But getting perks in the pro shop goes beyond White House staffers. Trump has pilfered his own store to charm Republican lawmakers and their aides, whom he frequently invites to join him for rounds of golf at his properties in Sterling, Va., and Palm Beach, Fla. GOP aides have been directed to the pro shop to pick up golf apparel — gratis — when the president saw they were not outfitted for golf. It was not clear whether Trump later personally picked up the tab, or the business ate the extra expense.

posted by zachlipton at 12:38 PM on August 13, 2018 [20 favorites]

Computers work because generations of engineers have figured out how to make the machines that carry out computation vanishingly small, and because generations of computer scientists have built massively multi-layered systems that allow programmers to operate at the higher levels without having any idea whatsoever what's going on at the lower layers. This is absolutely necessary for meaningful computer programming to be possible, because unless most of the implementation details of the system you're working with are bracketed off, there's far, far too much detail for a human mind to keep track of.

Computers are neat. Don't get me wrong. They're the neatest things. So cool, so weird, so useful. I've spent more of my life staring at them and working on them than I've spent on nearly anything else. But they're neat and weird and useful because 1: they carry out calculations using devices that are so small that you can fit billions of them on one chip and 2: you don't have to know how they work to program them.

Since democracy started, it's been known that for democracy to work, the processes of democratic selection must be carried out using devices that are big enough for everyone to see (otherwise, the person with the device might be playing a trick) and using processes that are simple enough for people to totally understand (again, because otherwise trickery is possible/inevitable).

As such anyone who is trying to computerize voting either doesn't understand computers, is playing a trick on you, or doesn't care that other people can play tricks on you. This isn't because electronic voting boosters are using the wrong voting machines, or because they're not implementing good security practices, or anything relatively fixable: it's because the requirements for the rituals of democracy (big, public, easily understood by anyone who's interested) and the nature of computing machinery (small, hidden, impossible for one person to totally understand) are fundamentally incompatible.

We've fetishized the shit out of computers in this last 50 years or so. Should there ever exist a society that's free of the computer fetish, anyone from that society will immediately recognize that our society only accepted the idea of computerized elections because we fetishize digital machines.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 12:43 PM on August 13, 2018 [56 favorites]

------------->
New thread is up.
------------->
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:44 PM on August 13, 2018 [20 favorites]

ocschwar: "There are damn good reasons we have laws aimed specifically at that particular grade of scum."

Sure, but why not extend the protection to all customers; it is actually easier to write a law without exceptions.
posted by Mitheral at 1:19 PM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon > [T]he requirements for the rituals of democracy (big, public, easily understood by anyone who's interested) and the nature of computing machinery (small, hidden, impossible for one person to totally understand) are fundamentally incompatible.

I look forward to our new era of megascale, steampunk tabulators in every polling place!

I'm only mostly joking. These would be tremendous fun to develop.
posted by Piso Mojado at 1:27 PM on August 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Sure, but why not extend the protection to all customers; it is actually easier to write a law without exceptions.

write =/= pass
posted by Etrigan at 1:27 PM on August 13, 2018

But even with existing paper ballot systems, I'd like to see a LOT more auditing, testing, and verification.

This runs up against the problem of how balkanized vote processing is. Every state does their own thing, and even within states you usually have counties doing their own thing. I vote in Arlington County, VA, and we have an elections board that is responsible for the around 230,000 residents (of who obviously not all vote or would be allowed to vote) and not a single person outside the county. They have to follow state laws but have latitude within that. For example, in the 2000s the state passed a law restricting counties from acquiring any more touch screen voting machines. I sat in a training session and listened to the chief elector, who is still in that job, state that she intended to keep every single one they currently owned running to the extent possible and thereby put off any replacement as long as possible.

Regardless of your opinion of this action - grodd knows I have one - this illustrates the latitude a region has. She could have opted to read this restriction as a vote of no confidence and make immediate steps towards getting rid of those machines. She could have decided to transition districts one at a time, concentrating touch screens in given areas. Etc. And this represents just one of many districts running elections.

I really should make my babbling about how we should have the Post Office as a nation-wide handler of vote processing into a textexpander snippet given how often I find myself wanting to bust it out.
posted by phearlez at 1:30 PM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

The verification systems in place for voting machines don't even slightly approach the "best practices" of electronic systems we actually give a shit about (e.g., ACARS), and you know it.

I think you are talking about direct-recording voting machines.

I am not. I am talking about optical scanners.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:35 PM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

mikelieman, re the AutoMARK: > Here in Albany County, we only use them if a voter requests to use one for whatever reason. Otherwise it's here's a ballot ( in a cover for privacy ), use the pen in the privacy booth, and stand behind the line to wait to scan it.

Same here, in all respects. In my years of poll working, I've diligently practiced with the AutoMARK, but we've never had a voter ask to use it. Not sure if that's due to voters' pride, or ignorance, or just bad luck on my part.

Do you also use ESS machines to scan?

Yep, the good ol' M100 tabulator.
posted by Piso Mojado at 1:50 PM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

> Ceterum autem censeo crustula comedi esse
Wait, really? Cookie translates to "crustula"???
(For those who, like me, lack a classical education, Google translates the above to "Furthermore, the cookies must be eaten".)
posted by RedOrGreen at 1:54 PM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ceterum autem censeo crustula comedi esse
Wait, really? Cookie translates to "crustula"???
(For those who, like me, lack a classical education, Google translates the above to "Furthermore, the cookies must be eaten".)

"crustula" is a word that includes just about all pastries. it could easily mean: "the pies must be eaten", etc.

It's the same word from which derives our word "crust".

posted by dis_integration at 2:04 PM on August 13, 2018

The inability of Latin to definitively categorize baked goods is why the Roman Empire fell. You offer some -goths a snack, it translates as a lewd proposition, and all Orcus breaks loose.
posted by XMLicious at 2:04 PM on August 13, 2018 [26 favorites]

I am so glad these threads are shorter now because I refuse to close the tab until the milk and cookies are up.
posted by Ruki at 4:12 PM on August 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Awesome display of bothsides virtuosity by Yahoo! News:
Midterm Mania No. 1: Why Democrats and Republicans should worry about the Ohio results

This week’s marquee event was the special election to replace former GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi in Ohio’s 12th U.S. House District, encompassing the Columbus suburbs and surrounding area — and both Democrats and Republicans have reason to be encouraged and discouraged by the results.

Oh noes! What is this result that should leave Democrats discouraged and Republicans encouraged?

Overall, Republicans outspent Democrats five-to-one. Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence came to Ohio and campaigned on Balderson’s behalf. All of which, it’s worth noting, was only possible because there weren’t 434 other congressional elections happening on the same day.
[…]
O’Connor, a baby-faced 31-year-old county official, proved on Tuesday that he could come within a single percentage point of winning a district that leans Republican by 14.

Yes, well, if any Democrats feel discouraged by this then they're welcome to hit me up for a beer next time I pass through Ohio.

[offer void where prohibited by State or Federal law, also contingent on introduction of Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism]
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:31 PM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Ceterum autem censeo crustula comedi esse

My practical, untutored familiarity of Latin translates this literally as: “And so forth, himself censored, Krusty the Clown eats.”
posted by darkstar at 8:58 PM on August 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

lmao:

In his Fox News interview Monday morning, Giuliani outlined the three-pronged defense that the president's legal team would use against obstruction allegations: that the conversation Comey has claimed never actually occurred — even though Giuliani previously conceded that it did — but also that the statement Comey claims Trump made would have been a recommendation, not an order, and that even if it was an order, it would not constitute obstruction because it would have been within Trump's authority as the head of the executive branch.

"It's a brilliant three-pronged strategy: he didn't say it; if he did said it, he didn't mean it; and if he did mean it, it's totally fine."
posted by Rhaomi at 11:41 PM on August 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

The inability of Latin to definitively categorize baked goods is why the Roman Empire fell.

That, and lacking zero in their number system, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs. This caused havoc with their electronic voting systems and resulted in them electing a succession of ever more delusional Caesars...
posted by Buntix at 12:11 AM on August 14, 2018 [13 favorites]

From TheEstablishment.com

Dear Non-Southern White Nationalists: The South Is Not Your Racist Paradise

[M]ost of the Nazis and wannabe Confederates marching in Charlottesville were not, it seemed, from Charlottesville. Aside from a few, like organizer Jason Kessler, the ones who were identified in the press were from places like California, New York, Nevada, Washington state, North Dakota, and of course, Maumee, Ohio. These non-Southerners had driven all the way across the country in their quest to “preserve Southern history,” only to ride roughshod over the actual, real-life Southern people of Charlottesville, who had voted to remove a Confederate statue in their own public park.

I’m darkly amused by the entitlement of the non-Southerner’s racist belief that he has any right to define the South (which is much too big and diverse to be defined anyway)—like somehow he’s entitled to identify with the South and claim it as his own and define what it is, simply because he’s a racist. But I am also troubled by the way these folks, in places like California, associate their own white supremacy with my home, and of course, by default, with me.

posted by jgirl at 12:22 PM on August 14, 2018 [7 favorites]

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