It's been almost a year of this crap.
January 5, 2018 8:40 AM Subscribe

There's a lot going on, but most people are talking about the Wolff book.

Ryan Zinke gives marine life the finger and even at least one Republican (Rick Scott) wasn't cool with it.

South Korea and North Korea agreed to talks, and the US and South Korea postponed joint military exercises that raise tensions with North Korea.

No surprise here: Trump gets his news from Fox & Friends.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

posted by Emmy Rae (2156 comments total) 116 users marked this as a favorite

So, his lawyers have threatened a lawsuit to stop the book. Does this have any merit? Is it actually a thing? I can't tell, because the no-longer-reliable mainstream media is all OMG THIS COULD BE THE END OF FREE SPEECH!! Sigh.

Oh, and: It has been _0_ days since the last Trump disaster.
posted by Melismata at 8:44 AM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

So, his lawyers have threatened a lawsuit to stop the book. Does this have any merit? Is it actually a thing?

No. This is not a thing. If it was a thing, Trump would have to submit to discovery and being deposed by lawyers and that's not happening. It's an empty threat.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:47 AM on January 5, 2018 [132 favorites]

So, his lawyers have threatened a lawsuit to stop the book. Does this have any merit? Is it actually a thing?

Trump's M.O for pretty much his entire career has been to threaten lawsuits at the drop of a hat for any reason whatsoever. It's largely the bluster of a bully.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:47 AM on January 5, 2018 [86 favorites]

So, his lawyers have threatened a lawsuit to stop the book.

If only there was a way to quickly disseminate information far and wide. Some sort of distributed network or something.
posted by diogenes at 8:47 AM on January 5, 2018 [49 favorites]

And all that aside, he's got D list lawyers because all of the good law firms noped out.
posted by Fleebnork at 8:51 AM on January 5, 2018 [48 favorites]

Watching the Amazon reviews come in is fun.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 8:51 AM on January 5, 2018 [41 favorites]

Trump gets his news from Fox & Friends.

These tweets remind me of school assignments where we were told to rewrite a paragraph in our own words.
posted by AFABulous at 8:51 AM on January 5, 2018 [29 favorites]

>This feels... and I don't want to be presumptuous, because we continue to be in uncharted territory here -- this feels like the beginning of the end of the administration.

I'll say it for as long as it's relevant but if I see so much as even a single insinuation toward "surely, this" I will ground this thread for a week and that means no screen time and no desserts and I'm dead serious.
posted by Tevin at 8:52 AM on January 5, 2018 [158 favorites]

Hope the Monday 5pm Fake News Announcement still happens!
posted by armacy at 8:53 AM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Tevin, you're too late.
posted by AFABulous at 8:53 AM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hello! New US politics catch-all thread means new reminder that we're continuing to try to throttle back the chattiness and reset expectations about how these go, with a focus on keeping things more link/information dense and not breakneck paced. That's been going pretty well so far thanks to both collective effort from the community and a lot of active mod intervention; here's me reminding you to please keep it up, or if this is news to you go ahead and give that MetaTalk post I've linked here a read. Thank you!
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:54 AM on January 5, 2018 [53 favorites]

This feels... and I don't want to be presumptuous, because we continue to be in uncharted territory here -- this feels like the beginning of the end of the administration.
It's like the end of a seizure, where muscles have been randomly contracting and then suddenly the body comes back together and there's a coordinated sense of "we won't let this go on any further".
I hope.

You and me both, but I've thought this was the end of this administration for months now, and the Republicans that support him seem to always surprise me with the amount of shit they have to eat, on a daily basis, just to remain in control, with control being a very undefined thing at this time.

I hope, and I pray, that, eventually that 100th monkey will tip the scales, on both side of the aisle, and in the nation, back toward kindness, common decency, bipartisanship and doing the work for the people, as opposed to the corporations.
It's difficult.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 8:54 AM on January 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

This feels... and I don't want to be presumptuous, because we continue to be in uncharted territory here -- this feels like the beginning of the end of the administration.

That's a lot of words to basically say "Surely this...", which... I'm not holding my breath. Trump's unhinged tweets are nothing new. Reports of those around Trump talking about how unhinged/childish he is are nothing new. This isn't anything we haven't seen before, even in scope or degree. The book will be talked about a lot over the weekend, one or two anecdotes will be denied or disproven and the Trumperati will claim that as evidence the whole thing is FAKE NEWS!! And the circus will continue.

on preview, sorry Tevin!
posted by Roommate at 8:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

>>So, his lawyers have threatened a lawsuit to stop the book. Does this have any merit? Is it actually a thing?

No. This is not a thing.

Plus, also it's out. Via the MeFi amazon link here

(can a mod confirm that's the right link? I used the fund mefi link to amazon then did a search)
posted by petebest at 8:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

And yet, the aforementioned-not-reliable media is suggesting that people will cave, because they always do (he sues people, including media companies, who have to settle since they can't afford a drawn-out lawsuit). Here's hoping cooler heads prevail, which happens some of the time.
posted by Melismata at 8:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

From Amazon reader W. Christian:

Every once in a great while a book comes along which puts to word such profound and great truths that the whole world cannot help but stop and take notice. The Bible, the Tao Te Ching, Plato’s Republic, Newton’s Principia, Darwin’s Origin of Species and now Wolff’s Fire and Fury, an instant classic concerning the origin of a curious species of orange humanoid currently infesting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
posted by angrycat at 8:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [23 favorites]

If you haven't read the excerpt in NYMag, I highly recommend it. Great stuff.

Plus, after the threat, Henry Holt and Co released the book 4 days early. Hilarious. One DC bookstore sold out in 20 minutes. DJT's law suit threat was the best free publicity for the book Wolff could have asked for.
posted by Lutoslawski at 8:57 AM on January 5, 2018 [62 favorites]

There's a lot going on, but most people are talking about the Wolff book.

This is why, people, this is why. Keep hoi polloi talking about something else, something exciting and damning and flatulent and amidst all the hot takes and covering fire you can get on with the other, much more serious stuff.
posted by chavenet at 8:58 AM on January 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

There is a sense I'm getting that, now that the tax bill is passed, the Republican establishment is a little more willing to throw Trump under the bus. Whether this means he's eventually frog-marched out following an impeachment, or just left to moulder until the Midterms is up in the air.

Until then, the only thing that'll really break this administration is, I hope, a massive heart attack and/or stroke that incapacitates Trump and forces him to abdicate.

Either way, if we end up with Pence in charge, I can't see any substantial changes in Republican policymaking. We just need to make it one more year and hopefully flip Congress, if not the House, too, to keep him in some form of check until 2020.
posted by SansPoint at 9:00 AM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

The Wolff book seems like it would cover much of the same ground all these megathreads have already covered, being both redundant, and a shorter read.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:01 AM on January 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

Also, a link to the current outrage/venting thread in Metatalk .
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:02 AM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

The Wolff book seems like it would cover much of the same ground all these megathreads have already covered.

I dunno man, I had no idea DJT was paranoid of being poisoned and that's why he always eats McD's and that he won't let anyone else touch his sheets and he's like the first president to demand a lock on his bedroom door.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:04 AM on January 5, 2018 [34 favorites]

One piece that should definitely carry over from the previous thread (linked last night by zachlipton) is Michael Schmidt's blockbuster NYTimes story:

Obstruction Inquiry Shows Trump’s Struggle to Keep Grip on Russia Investigation

Whose key details, e.g.,

Trump sent WH Counsel Don McGahn II to pressure Sessions not to recuse himself.
After Sessions did announce his recusal, Trump blew up at staff, saying "he needed his attorney general to protect him" as RFK and Eric Holder had done for Kennedy and Obama, and demanded "Where's my Roy Cohn?"
Sessions sought dirt on Comey from members of Congress days before his firing and "wanted one negative article a day in the news media about Mr. Comey".
The initial draft of Comey's firing letter, written by Stephen Miller, started with a sentence saying that the "Russia investigation had been 'fabricated and politically motivated.'"
Rosenstein took a copy of said letter with him when he went off to draft the firing memo.

have since been confirmed by other outlets (e.g., WaPost).
posted by pjenks at 9:05 AM on January 5, 2018 [69 favorites]

Keep hoi polloi talking about something else, something exciting and damning and flatulent and amidst all the hot takes and covering fire you can get on with the other, much more serious stuff

Nothing personal but I'm tired of these "only dupes worry get distracted by this stuff from the actually important stuff" takes. One, I am capable of paying attention to multiple things simultaneously. Two, it is actually important that the president is nuts and treated like a child by his staff. Three, when it comes to Trump's downfall, I don't give a fuck whether it's this stuff that makes it happen or stuff you think is actually important, and this stuff may actually stick.
posted by Lyme Drop at 9:06 AM on January 5, 2018 [269 favorites]

this feels like the beginning of the end of the administration.

I doubt it, but "exeunt, pursued by a Wolff" would be a great epitaph.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:08 AM on January 5, 2018 [196 favorites]

@pixelatedboat: Wow, this extract from Wolff’s book is a shocking insight into Trump’s mind
posted by Going To Maine at 9:09 AM on January 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

Nothing personal but I'm tired of these "only dupes worry get distracted by this stuff from the actually important stuff" takes.

Also, the linked article is not about the hoi polloi but our allies and world leaders who are concerned about 45's fitness for office and reliability.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:10 AM on January 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

There is a sense I'm getting that, now that the tax bill is passed, the Republican establishment is a little more willing to throw Trump under the bus.

Wow, I really don't think that's the case - his allies are instead doubling down. This morning, Newsweek and Times reporters are making the rounds to talk about how GOP members are helping to reframe the Mueller investigation by trying to implicate the FBI and DOJ for what they are suggesting is politically-motivated targeting of the Trump administration. This set of moves is quite Hitlerian, and seems to be gaining, not losing, traction among the GOP and right-wing apologists. I am very nervous about it.
posted by Miko at 9:10 AM on January 5, 2018 [116 favorites]

this is the end

Give it 8-9 more months, if Pense the massive grrrarr will be tempered and the mid-term sweep will be minimized.
posted by sammyo at 9:13 AM on January 5, 2018

Having spent the past three months monitoring Trump’s Twitter feed professionally
You might think this is a nightmare job, but at least Gertz is getting paid for it. Pity the rest of us who've spent months monitoring the Tweeter in Chief as rank amateurs.
posted by drlith at 9:18 AM on January 5, 2018 [16 favorites]

Shortly after the election, his friend Ailes told him, with some urgency, "You've got to get right on Russia”. Even exiled from Fox News, he still maintained a fabled intelligence network. “You need to take this seriously, Donald."

“Jared has this," said a happy Trump. “It’s all worked out.” (Fire and Fury, page 23)

EVERYBODY KNEW.
posted by petebest at 9:18 AM on January 5, 2018 [91 favorites]

Yesterday afternoon, the Wolff book was all over the foxnews.com main page. This morning, you have to scroll way down to see one little link. I'd love to know what went into those editorial decisions.
posted by gurple at 9:19 AM on January 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Stolen from... somewhere, and now I can't track down the original source because the internet:

In case you were wondering how shitty a businessman Trump is, he tried to bluster his way into getting Bannon's publisher to pull the book, and instead succeeded in getting them to move the release up by five days.
posted by Mayor West at 9:23 AM on January 5, 2018 [49 favorites]

Either way, if we end up with Pence in charge, I can't see any substantial changes in Republican policymaking.

Maybe. It'll be far more organized, at the very least, with much better co-ordination between POTUS and Congress, which could mean more damage done more quickly. Pence is also a Dominionist (if not by name but by action), though, so there's that legislative/executive-order slippery-slope wildcard in-play with a Pence administration.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:25 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

What I've seen of the book, no-one expected him to win, that was a surprise. Melania cried, but 'not with tears of joy'. Almost everyone thinks he's an idiot. He doesn't read things and doesn't listen. He goes to bed at 6:30pm. He eats McDonalds because he fears poison. He apparently doesn't know how terrible a McDonalds diet is.

He's doing a great publicity job for this book though. They should print big THE BOOK TRUMP DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ!!!! stickers and put them on the dust covers.
posted by adept256 at 9:26 AM on January 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

This set of moves is quite Hitlerian, and seems to be gaining, not losing, traction among the GOP and right-wing apologists. I am very nervous about it.
posted by Miko at 12:10 PM on January 5 [14 favorites +] [!]

Absurd. As Corey Robin noted, in Hitler's first year he imprisoned tens of thousands of leftists and passed the enabling act. And is the GOP Hitler in this analogy? Because Trump is incompetent and not really leading anything. I'm so confused.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:28 AM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Just when you think they're on the ropes they start a war.

Still standing by my prediction of mid-April 2018.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:38 AM on January 5, 2018

Trump has tried to imprison people who protested at his inauguration (or laughed at Jeff Sessions). GOP state legislatures have tried to make it legal for motorists to run down protesters and for municipalities to charge protesters fines to cover the costs of policing. It's not the enabling acts, but the Senate did refuse to grant hearings to a Supreme Court nominee, in order to keep the power of the Supreme Court in their own party. And faced with a real and immediate threat to the freedom and fairness of our elections, Congress has conspicuously done nothing.

The GOP is not as competent or as popular as the Nazis, but it's not a ridiculous comparison. There are elements within the GOP which are trying to do the same kinds of anti-democratic things the Nazis actually did. So far they mostly have not succeeded, fortunately. Americans have resisted.
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:39 AM on January 5, 2018 [140 favorites]

Couple comments removed. The gorilla thing, as noted in the name field of the twitter account linked in Going To Maine's comment, is a joke. Horrifyingly plausible, but a joke.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:41 AM on January 5, 2018 [18 favorites]

The GOP is not as competent or as popular as the Nazis

Least comforting line of the day
posted by chavenet at 9:42 AM on January 5, 2018 [78 favorites]

Oh, and in terms of the legislative branch abdicating power to the executive, let us not forget the apparently unlimited Authorization for the Use of Military Force that last three presidents have had. Congress not only doesn't declare wars anymore, it no longer wants to be involved in authorizing military action. That is a serious problem.
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:47 AM on January 5, 2018 [28 favorites]

Wolff should have put THE BOOK TRUMP REFUSES TO READ! on the cover of Fire & Fury.

That way Trump would assume that it's just like every other book.
posted by delfin at 9:48 AM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

(British GQ also has an excerpt from the Wolff book.)
posted by box at 9:52 AM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

in Hitler's first year

Sigh. It's a dictatorial tactic. Take a walk through the Holocaust Museum and experience the slow drip of increasingly paranoid and restrictive tactics - many of which included undermining support for formerly reliable state agencies and positions.
posted by Miko at 9:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

There's a 3 episode BBC series called The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler on Netflix if you want an easily-digestible overview of why he rose to power and what he did before we got to the part we all know (the camps). He was obviously much, much smarter than Trump, but many of the tactics are the same - othering everyone except "true Germans," promising to make Germany great again, railing against the press and elites. I can't "highly recommend" it because the production values are poor but it was a good insight into why ordinary Germans bought into the rhetoric so quickly, and why people flocked to Trump and still blindly defend him.
posted by AFABulous at 10:02 AM on January 5, 2018 [38 favorites]

I don't know about this book. I skipped to the Bannon and Scaramucci chapter, which I think has been excerpted already, and the way it's written makes it seem like a based-on-a-true-story fictionalization. Funny that Bannon lives in a one bedroom apartment above a mega-mcdonalds. I thought he was rich.

Spicer went back to his office, printed out his letter of resignation, and then took it back to the nonplussed president, who said again that he really wanted Spicer to be a part of things. But Spicer, surely the most mocked man in America, understood that he had been handed a gift. His White House days were over.

What the hell was keeping you there Sean? Jumping before you get pushed isn't a gift. You should have resigned on day one after the blatant and easily disproven lie about the inauguration crowd. Perhaps you wouldn't have been 'the most mocked man in America' if you showed a shred of integrity when you were asked to lie repeatedly.

You clumsily denied the holocaust, at the podium in the White House, in your role as spokesman for the President, at a press conference. You stayed around after that. But the Mooch comes along and it's resignation time, what a gift! Who wrote your letter?
posted by adept256 at 10:03 AM on January 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

I am waiting for Dump's medical exam by a legitimate doctor. This book makes me even more eager for it. However, I'm also wondering what "crisis" will be drummed up to give him an excuse to skip it.
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:05 AM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

So, his lawyers have threatened a lawsuit to stop the book. Does this have any merit?

As comedy, yes.

April 2018

I’m starting to think the only reason 45 hasn’t already started a war to distract from his constant humiliating failure is that, deep down, he knows he will fail at that too, and the stakes will be even bigger. Wars are hard, and they require work and concentration. It’s possible his NPD-enabled cognitive decline sees the complexity and difficulty of prosecuting a war — so many meetings where he won’t know what’s going on and will have to bluster his way through it, so many stressful decisions to make for which he is completely incompetent — as an existential threat of narcissistic injury.

Or maybe I’m just grasping at straws. But in my more optimistic moments, I see him lurching from one big bombastic announcements of a nothing project or initiative to another, forever looking for the thing that will make this fun again. He won’t find it.
posted by schadenfrau at 10:05 AM on January 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

I wonder if his handlers have pointed out that, in case he pushes the Nuclear Button, they will be required to haul him off to a safe bomb shelter... with no TV and no internet.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:07 AM on January 5, 2018 [71 favorites]

Kyle Swenson, WaPo: Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire backer of Bannon and Trump, chooses sides

Robert and Rebekah Mercer’s rise as Republican power brokers was unique.

Robert Mercer is a former IBM computer scientist who made billions later in life by applying complex programming techniques to financial trading as the co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, Bloomberg reported. Quiet and socially awkward — he once told a friend he preferred the company of cats to people, according to the Wall Street Journal — Mercer has an extreme views on small government and wealth.

“Bob believes that human beings have no inherent value other than how much money they make,” a colleague told the New Yorker. “If someone is on welfare they have negative value. If he earns a thousand times more than a schoolteacher, then he’s a thousand times more valuable.”

Emphasis mine. Rebekah is the second of his three daughters.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:09 AM on January 5, 2018 [60 favorites]

CNN: Vice President Mike Pence's chief lawyer and domestic policy director are leaving his office at the beginning of the New Year, according to four sources familiar with the staff turnover.

I'm hesitant to hope that even the Dominionist rats are fleeing the sinking hulk, but this point every resignation of an official's lawyer should perk one's ears.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:10 AM on January 5, 2018 [32 favorites]

Funny that Bannon lives in a one bedroom apartment above a mega-mcdonalds. I thought he was rich.

Bannon has multiple "homes" according to sources.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:13 AM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I am waiting for Dump's medical exam by a legitimate doctor.

In my daydreams about it, I'm imagining the doctor brings in an "assistant" who is secretly a trained psychiatrist, and under the guise of making small talk during the exam, asks questions cleverly designed as a cognitive impairment exam.

Because he's clearly convinced enough of his own physical perfection that he'll have no resistance to a regular physical, but for sure he'll never agree to a mental exam due to the mere suggestion that anything could possibly be wrong. There's gotta be a way to sneak one in, though, right?
posted by dnash at 10:13 AM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

I’m starting to think the only reason 45 hasn’t already started a war to distract from his constant humiliating failure is that, deep down, he knows he will fail at that too, and the stakes will be even bigger. Wars are hard, and they require work and concentration.

I just wanted to say that this thought is preposterously chilling and I cant entertain it any longer because it posits a scenario where we are currently being saved from annihilation by trumps shred of self awareness (which I can't believe exists).
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:18 AM on January 5, 2018 [10 favorites]

A slight derail from the ongoing Wolff story, but I'm curious to hear some thoughts on ramifications of the withdrawal of aid for Pakistan. As was mentioned in the previous thread Pakistan has now allowing bilateral trading in the Yuan. Here's an article detailing the issue. Countries switching to the Euro for trade has been a supposed issue in the past, for example Iraq moving to the Euro prior to the Gulf War. How does this fit? Will China or Russia just step in to fill these gaps we're creating?
posted by misterpatrick at 10:18 AM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Bannon has multiple "homes" according to sources.

please. if his phylactery isn't stored there, it's a house, not a home
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:19 AM on January 5, 2018 [77 favorites]

> Lyme Drop:
"Nothing personal but I'm tired of these "only dupes worry get distracted by this stuff from the actually important stuff" takes."

It's what Trump does best, lean into the shitstorm, double down and play it for maximum distraction (the ridiculous threat of a lawsuit being exhibit A). You might be tired of it, because it's definitely tiresome and tiring, but that's how he rolls. And in our post-nuance world, as a communications strategy, it works. Unfortunately.
posted by chavenet at 10:21 AM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

> There's a lot going on, but most people are talking about the Wolff book.

On Wednesday I put a hold on it at the library the minute I read about it in the news, and I was 11th in line. As of this moment there are 1178 holds, which is Harry Potter/Da Vinci Code/50 Shades territory.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:21 AM on January 5, 2018 [51 favorites]

Going To Maine: "@pixelatedboat: Wow, this extract from Wolff’s book is a shocking insight into Trump’s mind"

I love how perfectly that's written. It starts out just plausible enough for you to almost believe it and ends with him talking to Gorillas on the television. I'm waiting for some right-wing commentator to angrily debunk it.
posted by octothorpe at 10:21 AM on January 5, 2018 [21 favorites]

Pembquist: I don't see any evidence of Europe holding Trump in high regards before this book was published. I mean, it's amazing that people's faith in Trump can continue to fall from their already historic low.
posted by el io at 10:21 AM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

I’m starting to think the only reason 45 hasn’t already started a war to distract from his constant humiliating failure is that, deep down, he knows he will fail at that too

While he has the ability to make the order(s) there is staff that needs to execute the order(s).

Remember the video of something leaving the water that looked like a missile off of CA? Or the announcement of 5 nuclear weapons on a plane? And how the discussion here on The Blue pointed out all the steps needed and how anyone along the way could have made things no-go OR so the end-result would be a failure?

Somehow DJT may actually understand that an order doesn't mean execution at his present mental state. But counting on a reason if he's in the poor mental state is a less safe bet than counting on the staff that has to take the actions opting to fail in some way from executing.

(if anyone knows the publishers/people perhaps a way to get the book/book info to people in the military for $0 is in order.)
posted by rough ashlar at 10:24 AM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

They went from not trusting the US already to openly questioning whether the President is insane or not.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:27 AM on January 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

And all that aside, he's got D list lawyers because all of the good law firms noped out.

Trump's lawyers are literally Matt Groening characters.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:27 AM on January 5, 2018 [62 favorites]

I can't stop thinking about the McDonald's thing.
First of all, how does it work in practice? Does he call a delivery service and they just bring it to the front door of the WH? Does he send a secret service agent? One of his sons?

Secondly, how does eating McDonald's reduce the chances of being poisoned? I thought there's a kitchen in the WH with a great chef available 24/7, who has surely been vetted thoroughly and all sorts of protocols in place to avoid poisoning. He could just order great burgers from there.
With McD's on the other hand, there's so much less control over the food and more possibility to poison it on the way from the restaurant.
posted by sour cream at 10:28 AM on January 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

The Card Cheat: At the L.A. Public Library, there is already a waiting list of 584 people for 20 copies of the e-book.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:28 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Bannon is enormously wealthy from Seinfeld sitcom revenue alone. Look it up.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:29 AM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Why is a gossip columnist who relishes being hated, and is known to not stick strictly to the facts suddenly the reason Europe doesn't trust the US? What about the abundant reporting on Trumps business history and his administrations incompetence. What about the self evident nuttiness of his public behavior?

It’s not that they’re suddenly convinced, it’s just suddenly opportune to say out loud in public.

“Bob believes that human beings have no inherent value other than how much money they make,” a colleague told the New Yorker.

Which brings to mind that Dorothy Parker quote, “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:30 AM on January 5, 2018 [116 favorites]

@ZoeTillman: Just in: Sens. Grassley and Graham are referring Christopher Steele to DOJ "for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, for statements the Committee has reason to believe Mr. Steele made regarding his distribution of information contained in the dossier."

Ahhhhhh fuck.
posted by zachlipton at 10:32 AM on January 5, 2018 [27 favorites]

Somehow DJT may actually understand that an order doesn't mean execution at his present mental state.

Very early on he showed us that he doesn't know the difference between signing an executive order and signing a law. He seemed pretty surprised when the judges knocked them back.

Obama signed an executive order to close Gitmo. See how well that worked.
posted by adept256 at 10:33 AM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Trump's lawyers are literally Matt Groening characters.

Work on contigency? No! Money down.
posted by drezdn at 10:33 AM on January 5, 2018 [50 favorites]

I thought there's a kitchen in the WH with a great chef available 24/7, who has surely been vetted thoroughly and all sorts of protocols in place to avoid poisoning. He could just order great burgers from there.

According to Politico he told them to replicate McDonald's burgers and they couldn't get the final product shitty enough for his liking.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:35 AM on January 5, 2018 [34 favorites]

I'm no longer impressed/moved by impeachment porn, of which Wolff's book is a distinct subgenre. "Look everyone, this administration's going down in flames!!" No doubt the right relished similar fever dreams about Obama.
Check Fox News to verify whether the administration is really in trouble: as long as their top headline continues to be about Clinton/Comey corruption (seriously, that's today's and yesterday's and the day before that), this administration is going nowhere.
posted by simra at 10:37 AM on January 5, 2018 [30 favorites]

Just in: Sens. Grassley and Graham are referring Christopher Steele to DOJ "for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001

"knowingly and willfully . . . make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation" -- really, this admin probably has violated 1001 more than 1001 times.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:39 AM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

Boy that was a weirdly timed discussion:

Trump's no Hitler look at the people he put in prison his first year of power

Senate GOP: Yeah let's put the people who are important to the Russian investigation in prison
posted by angrycat at 10:40 AM on January 5, 2018 [48 favorites]

Sens. Grassley and Graham are referring Christopher Steele to DOJ

Graham and Grassley are active traitors, misusing their political power to suppress investigations into the subversion and destruction of our democracy. Do not remember them for their faint Trump complaints last year. Remember them for this. Graham's memory and legacy in particular must never be rehabilitated.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:40 AM on January 5, 2018 [98 favorites]

And here's the Times story on that, Republican Senators Recommend Charges Against Author of Trump Dossier

More than a year after Republican leaders promised to investigate Russian interference in the presidential election, two influential Republicans on Friday made the first known congressional criminal referral in connection with the meddling — against one of the people who sought to expose it.

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier, and they urged the department to investigate. The committee is running one of three congressional investigations into Russian election meddling, and its inquiry has come to focus, in part, on Mr. Steele’s explosive dossier that purported to detail Russia’s interference and the Trump campaign’s complicity.

The decision by Mr. Grassley and Mr. Graham to single out the former intelligence officer behind the dossier — and not anyone who may have taken part in the Russian interference — was certain to infuriate Democrats and raise the stakes in the growing partisan battle over the investigations into Mr. Trump, his campaign team and Russia.

This country was attacked by Russia, and there is seemingly nothing that the Republicans in Congress won't do to cover it up. Do Grassley and Graham even fully know what they're covering up? I am also terrified this will shortly lead to the investigation of journalists and their sources.

Also, Trump is headed to Camp David this weekend for "small-group discussion of 2018 legislative priorities and the successful passage of tax cuts and reform" (they're going to discuss what they already did, odd?). Take a look at the list of invitees. Notable absences include: Jeff Sessions, Jared and Ivanka.
posted by zachlipton at 10:41 AM on January 5, 2018 [59 favorites]

18 U.S.C. § 1001, for your reading pleasure. In short, it's about making false statements.

More trying to make Steele out to be a liar, which might stick, and take the rest of the truths out with him. Which was a Russian plan, salting truths with fake pieces, so it's possible to be used against Trump, but with a safety release to also save Trump.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:41 AM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've given up assuming anything will lead to his early termination from office. All of this is just seems like a lurid circus act, though the book is probably true. How will it matter at all?
posted by Liquidwolf at 10:42 AM on January 5, 2018 [10 favorites]

Nixon: *tapes incriminating conversations in the Oval Office*

Trump White House: "Good thing we're not as stupid as Nixon!"

Trump White House: *let's outside reporter record literally everything happening in the West Wing*

Trump White House: "We are much, much stupider than Nixon"
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:44 AM on January 5, 2018 [31 favorites]

No doubt the right relished similar fever dreams about Obama.

This is like the weird mirror-universe version of both-siderism. The analogy has a goatee, that’s how you can spot it.

I mean, the key difference is that Trump actually is a deranged, delusional, dumbass dictator with delusions of competence while Obama wasn’t, in point of fact, the Literal Hitler he was claimed to be.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:44 AM on January 5, 2018 [40 favorites]

Whatever happened over the holiday break, it looks like GOP leadership is now all-in on defending Trump/Russia and doing so via undermining the Steele Dossier (Grassley and Graham referring Steele zachlipton notes above; Ryan previously supporting Nunes' demand for documents from the DOJ and FBI relating to the FBI's handling of the Dossier).

Possibly next? They open an actual Congressional investigation into the HR Clinton campaign's involvement with Steele, Fusion, and the Dossier.
posted by notyou at 10:44 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Re: Bannon & the Seinfeld fortune, I don't know about that. I've been going through my 30-inch pile of unread New Yorkers (thank God I finally got past October/November 2016) and in the May 1 issue there's this great Connie Bruck article on Bannon .

How Hollywood Remembers Steve Bannon
He says that, before he became a senior adviser to the President, he was a successful player in the film industry. But what did he actually do?

It's a super interesting article but in there they talk about the Seinfeld thing, and they cast a lot of doubt on what the actual story is.

Last November, when Bannon was named Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist, many articles highlighted an extraordinary fact about his Hollywood career: that he had negotiated a profit participation in “Seinfeld” in 1993, two years before the show went into syndication. Forbes reported that, if Bannon had a one-per-cent share in the profits, “he would have made about $32.6 million since 1998,” and went on to say that “Bannon’s steady ‘Seinfeld’ income” was supporting his career as a conservative propagandist.

[...]

After Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner, in late 1995, Turner’s Castle Rock came under the Warner Bros. umbrella. Warner Bros. started sending out all “Seinfeld” profit-participation statements, including Westinghouse’s, which goes to CBS. The Castle Rock and the Westinghouse records from the early months of syndication are not readily available. It is possible that Bannon’s deal was capped and paid out at that time. But, since then, neither CBS nor Castle Rock nor Warner Bros. has records of payments to Bannon, if those records are as they were described to me.

The article also describes a lot of unsuccessful ventures - definitely worth reading. If anyone's under the impression that Bannon is some kind of insane evil genius, you may reconsider after it.
posted by cybertaur1 at 10:46 AM on January 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

The article also describes a lot of unsuccessful ventures - definitely worth reading. If anyone's under the impression that Bannon is some kind of insane evil genius, you may reconsider after it.

Bannon's genius is to keep venturing.
posted by notyou at 10:48 AM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Plus, after the threat, Henry Holt and Co released the book 4 days early. Hilarious. One DC bookstore sold out in 20 minutes. DJT's law suit threat was the best free publicity for the book Wolff could have asked for.

It is possible that by 2020, the Streisand Effect will be renamed.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:49 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

They will keep covering for trump regardless.

They'll keep covering for Trump as long as they think it's in their best interests. They'll drop him the moment they think that is to their advantage. There is no love for Trump in DC, there is only self-serving tactical stances that may change at any moment.

That being said, they've 'invested' so much in him, they've hitched their horses to him, so to attack him is to make their previous defense of him look awful.

Ironically Trump values loyalty above all, and he has virtually none by anyone.
posted by el io at 10:50 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Also from that same article, describing his divorce:

In April, 1997, he submitted an “income and expense declaration,” indicating that his annual salary was roughly five hundred thousand dollars, and that his total assets were around $1.1 million. Any profit participations from “Seinfeld” should have shown up at that time. Either they were not substantial or Bannon failed to disclose them in a sworn statement.

posted by cybertaur1 at 10:50 AM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

This very fancy and stern denial of the pee tape. Because it hasn't materialized, that's what they're hanging this on.

If they are hanging these charges on the failure of the pee tape to be made public, isn't that basically ensuring that it will be released at some point soon? I mean, these idiots
posted by Existential Dread at 10:52 AM on January 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Fire and Fury is the #1 book on Amazon--if you buy the print book today, you can expect to receive it in two to four weeks. It's on back-order at Target.

It's sold out at nine out of ten DC-area Barnes and Nobleses. It's sold out at all but two of the stores within fifty miles of NYC. If you're shopping in downtown LA, you'll need to go as far as Burbank or Fullerton. In Arkansas, where I live? I'd need to go to Texas.

The current #1 on the NYT nonfiction list is Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Mark it now--#1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list is Fire and Fury's destiny.
posted by box at 10:53 AM on January 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

I didn't want to wait for the physical book, so I ordered the Kindle version sent directly to my iPad. I cannot WAIT to read it tonight.
posted by cooker girl at 10:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Of course we won't see Trump leaving office early, but the Wolff book does seem to have opened the doors for the media to actually discuss Trump's mental health and the chaos of his White House. That won't get him out of office either, but it may well help us in 2018 and 2020.

The same primate mental fallacy that made a lot of people think there was something "shady" about Clinton will have its effect on Trump and the Republicans. Where there's smoke, says our monkey brain, there's fire! And given that Wolff seems to be about to get very rich and famous off his book, you can bet others will be looking to cash in too. I have no doubt there will be future Trump tell all books. About his Presidency, sure, but also about his past as a "businessman".

Barring illness or accident, Trump won't leave office until Jan 21, 2021. But all this will make it vastly easier to get him out in 2020, and for us to retake at least one house of Congress and put the brakes on the Republican plan to ruin everything.

So yay Wolff, even if he is a lying scumbag, he opened the gates.
posted by sotonohito at 10:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [24 favorites]

Whatever happened over the holiday break, it looks like GOP leadership is now all-in on defending Trump/Russia and doing so via undermining the Steele Dossier

Wild speculation -- Mueller is finding a not insignificant amount of the money spent supporting right-wing candidates is also linked to Russian money laundering.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:55 AM on January 5, 2018 [86 favorites]

Bannon's genius is to keep venturing.

Bannon's genius is to keep Rusty Venture-ing.

(Case in point: Bannon's involvement with Biosphere 2 is basically a real life Venture Bros. episode.)
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:56 AM on January 5, 2018 [31 favorites]

Mark it now--#1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list is Fire and Fury's destiny.

As a side effect, the scarcity is probably going to drive sales of kindles.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:56 AM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

They went from not trusting the US already to openly questioning whether the President is insane or not.

"Don't you think ~~She~~ He looks tired?"
posted by Chrischris at 10:57 AM on January 5, 2018 [30 favorites]

Are you feeling that (righteous) fury over the GOP (looking at you, Grassley and co.) capitulating to and covering for these traitorous losers? Good. You should be. Now let’s channel that into an electoral tsunami this year.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 10:57 AM on January 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

This very fancy and stern denial of the pee tape. Because it hasn't materialized, that's what they're hanging this on.

Yeah, no one thought there really was a Rob Ford crack tape, either.

Until there was.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:58 AM on January 5, 2018 [69 favorites]

I'm just curious how long his ol' body is gonna hold up getting as angry as he does ever day at every thing. I'm predicting dead by heart attack or stroke before resignation or ousting.
posted by smallerdemon at 10:59 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Team-R seems intent on completing a reverse-martingale strategy with respect to obstruction of justice. (Of course with privatized gains and socialized losses.)
posted by H. Roark at 10:59 AM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

Mark Warner wants Steve Bannon to testify about claims made in "Fire and Fury" (Alex Ward, Vox)

Sen. Mark Warner (VA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wants former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon to speak with federal investigators about Bannon’s recent claim that the president and some of his close advisers may have laundered money.

The Best People, well oiled machine, omertà, etc.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:59 AM on January 5, 2018 [48 favorites]

I think the renewed defense of Trump is an attempt to keep the upcoming primaries orderly.

Why then wouldn't they be agitating to take him down and replace him with the much more stable and aligned Pence?
posted by Miko at 11:02 AM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

I’m starting to think the only reason 45 hasn’t already started a war to distract from his constant humiliating failure is that, deep down, he knows he will fail at that too, and the stakes will be even bigger.

I 100% believe Trump genuinely does not want to be personally involved with anything military or national security-related (including espionage stuff) because he's afraid he'll fuck it up. He won't admit that, not even to himself, but I'm sure it's there. It has been there since the first stories about him getting intel briefings during the campaign.

Much of this is probably from his inability to keep up, which has already been discussed a lot. But it's also evident in his fetish for generals while simultaneously handing off more and more operational decision-making to the Pentagon. I think he looked at his first couple of intel briefings and got scared by both the complexity and the consequences.

It's not entirely a reassuring thing, as I think his tantrums can overcome his fear just like they overcome whatever sensibility he may have once had (years ago). But I really do think that whole arena scares him. (And I also think it's perhaps the grossest aspect of the sexism that propelled him into the White House, because you know who clearly wasn't scared and who was clearly prepared for all that stuff...?)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:03 AM on January 5, 2018 [32 favorites]

Could be them trying to do something substantial before their Camp David powow on 2018 later today. Gotta come to the meeting with something to show they're trying.
posted by msbutah at 11:03 AM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

indicating that his annual salary was roughly five hundred thousand dollars, and that his total assets were around $1.1 million. Any profit participations from “Seinfeld” should have shown up at that time. Either they were not substantial or Bannon failed to disclose them in a sworn statement.

Additionally, he either lied or he's a complete idiot. There's no way you can have assets of barely a million dollars on a salary of $500,000 a year unless you're incompetent or an addict of unsustainably epic proportions. I would assume he lied. Not that he might not also be incompetent but it's hard to see how you could be that incompetent and remain alive.
posted by Justinian at 11:04 AM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Why then wouldn't they be agitating to take him down and replace him with the much more stable and aligned Pence?

Any Republican who suggested it would be primaried out of his seat. The crazies run the party, and they looove 'em some Old Man Trump.
posted by Chrischris at 11:05 AM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

The reactions to this Wolff book are fascinating. The veracity of the stories doesn’t really matter when Trump only sees it as a challenge to his inflated ego and reacts so poorly.

It’s like Wolff’s taken Trump’s tactics and weaponized them against him. Sure, the details may be off here and there, but he’s getting Trump himself to do all the heavy lifting.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 11:06 AM on January 5, 2018 [42 favorites]

Because Republicans still can't handle that Nixon thing. They're too proud to let a president be ousted, even if that is a sound tactical choice.

i mean, i kind of don't blame them. having the only two presidents removed from office for criminality (within living memory, even) be Republican is … not good for the brand
posted by murphy slaw at 11:08 AM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

I may never read the book, because the subject matter is too unpleasant and we've already been staring at this gruesume trainwreck of a presidency for a year. But I bought it anyway.
posted by Foosnark at 11:08 AM on January 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

I'm just curious how long his ol' body is gonna hold up getting as angry as he does ever day at every thing. I'm predicting dead by heart attack or stroke before resignation or ousting.

His just as evil (though perhaps less insane) dad lived about 20 years past T's current age. Do not hold your breath: telomeres are one more institution that will not save us.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:09 AM on January 5, 2018 [41 favorites]

wolff sounds like a bit of a dick and i'm not crazy about giving him any money but on the other hand having the book be a Failing New York Times Bestseller for several months running would drive Trump fucking nuts
posted by murphy slaw at 11:10 AM on January 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

> Any Republican who suggested it would be primaried out of his seat. The crazies run the party, and they looove 'em some Old Man Trump.

I'm taking a small amount of dark pleasure in the knowledge that a lot of shitty old Establishment Republicans lived long enough to see their party dragged down by the dogs they've spent their careers whistling at.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:11 AM on January 5, 2018 [60 favorites]

Nice graf from that WaPo article:

A veteran prosecutor, Peter Zeidenberg, said he had never heard of anything like the Grassley-Graham complaint and labeled it “nonsense” designed to detract from ongoing inquiries into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“The FBI doesn’t need any prompting from politicians to prosecute people who have lied to them,” said Zeidenberg, a federal prosecutor for 17 years. While members of Congress make criminal referrals from time to time, they are usually related to independent congressional investigations not to material already known to the FBI. “They should stay in their lane,” Zeidenberg said of the Grassley-Graham effort.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:12 AM on January 5, 2018 [85 favorites]

I don't normally do DRM'd ebooks, but I'll be picking this up this evening (and stripping the DRM, converting to epub, and throwing it on my ereader); I probably want hard copy eventually, but I'm happy to wait a few weeks or even a few months for cheap used copies, so I can go through with a highlighter and mark that up.

I wonder if T'ump's advisers have explained why he can't file a libel lawsuit, or that he can but it would mean dragging the last 9 months of history of White House gossip into the public record, and almost certainly involve putting him on the stand.

Defendants don't have to take the stand. Plaintiffs pretty much do. If he wants a legal ruling based on "I never told that guy he could be here," he'll have to say so under oath.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:13 AM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm #120 in line for the book on our library systems waiting list. There are over 600 people on the list as of this morning, and I am sure the list will grow. I also don't know if I will read much of it...just living through it is rough enough. I hope that it spurs people to action, though.
posted by Elly Vortex at 11:13 AM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

(Bloomberg) -- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has told associates he would be willing to lead the Justice Department, should the position become available, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The former Oklahoma attorney general has discussed the issue in recent days, amid perennial speculation about the longevity of the Justice Department’s current chief, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said the person who asked not to be named describing internal conversations.

“I am here because I really feel called to it,” Pruitt said at the time. “You do what’s before you, you do the best work you can, you bless the president -- I really serve to bless him and his process and help him form decisions and lead with direction here -- and then you see what opportunities present themselves in the future on how to better the agenda overall.”

-ugh-
posted by H. Roark at 11:15 AM on January 5, 2018 [35 favorites]

So in the past couple days, we've had:

DOJ re-investigating the Clinton emails
DOJ re-investigating the Clinton Foundation
Congress asking DOJ to investigate Christopher Steele

What they're doing here...it's not subtle.

On a related note, Jack Goldsmith (who should be in prison somewhere for authorizing illegal wiretapping during the Bush Administration, but I digress) writes in Lawfare on the question I keep asking, Why Hasn’t Rod Rosenstein Recused Himself from the Mueller Investigation?. Rosenstein was at the center of the efforts to fire Comey, and whether that consitutued obstruction of justice is a focus of Mueller's investigation. Thanks to Schmidt's reporting, we now know Rosenstein took the original draft of Trump's firing memo and knew he was coming up with a pretext to fire Comey. He is, at best, a material witness, and a co-conspirator at worse.

(As an aside lalex (hi!), Twitter apparently decided that the proper response to Mandel dropping out is, indeed just like yours, "whoa.")
posted by zachlipton at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2018 [23 favorites]

Alex Pareene [via Twitter]: Michael Wolff is a craven, amoral snake, and his continued professional success is an indictment of our industry and age. He is perfectly suited for this era and his book is probably 100 percent accurate.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2018 [82 favorites]

*coughs* The book is also, unsurprisingly, making the rounds of the torrents, to add to its substantial sale numbers.

From the Austin library system, I believe we had one hardcover copy list as on backorder this morning and it has 33 holds so far. No ebooks yet.
posted by sciatrix at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

> Whooa @Jessie Balmert, Josh Mandel is OUT in OH-Sen vs Sherrod Brown: "BREAKING: @JoshMandelOhio drops out of U.S. Senate race.

This is so great. He's a terrible rat who nakedly cares only about his own self interest. Hopefully he stays out of Ohio politics forever and ever amen.
posted by Tevin at 11:16 AM on January 5, 2018 [10 favorites]

His just as evil (though perhaps less insane) dad lived about 20 years past T's current age.

His just-as-evil dad wasn't spending time in his 70s being constantly hounded by people he hated, and by supporters who were constantly telling him "no, you can't do that." He wasn't working himself into a sullen rage on a near-daily basis.

I have no particular hope that the president will expire from health problems, but "go into screaming raging arms-waving literally frothing-mouthed fit on live camera, followed by collapse" is not unlikely.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:19 AM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

I've given up assuming anything will lead to his early termination from office. All of this is just seems like a lurid circus act, though the book is probably true. How will it matter at all?

It won't. Remember "I could kill someone in the middle of Times Square and get away with it?" It's still in full effect. As long as there's a Republican in Congress, nothing will be done about Trump, no matter how blatantly treasonous his actions may prove to be.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:22 AM on January 5, 2018 [10 favorites]

Additionally, he either lied or he's a complete idiot. There's no way you can have assets of barely a million dollars on a salary of $500,000 a year unless you're incompetent or an addict of unsustainably epic proportions. I would assume he lied. Not that he might not also be incompetent but it's hard to see how you could be that incompetent and remain alive.

Um, have you met 40 years of professional sports? Lottery winners? I am pretty sure that the ability to get a big payday, even on an annual basis, and piss all of it away isn't limited to those two groups.
posted by phearlez at 11:23 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

I'm just curious how long his ol' body is gonna hold up getting as angry as he does ever day at every thing. I'm predicting dead by heart attack or stroke before resignation or ousting.

My operating theory, based on the number of rage-filled, unhealthy-as-fuck old assholes I have known, is that spitefulness has some kind of preservative properties, because they seem to go on forever when by all rights they should have popped off years ago.

But hey, you never know. He could certainly believably claim to need to resign due to health issues, as a face-saving measure, but I'm not sure he's capable of that.
posted by emjaybee at 11:23 AM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

*coughs* The book is also, unsurprisingly, making the rounds of the torrents, to add to its substantial sale numbers.

For what it's worth: I'm an author myself, and I can't put out a book without it turning up on torrent sites within six hours of release. Sometimes less. As an indie author, this hurts me a lot more than it hurts Wolff and his publisher, but equating torrents to sales is still incredibly shitty.

Please don't do this.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:25 AM on January 5, 2018 [83 favorites]

Re: Josh Mandel; his statement says his wife has suddenly and unexpectedly developed health issues, leading to him dropping out. So it's not like (as far as we know) he's quitting because of a scandal about to break or his poll numbers are in the tank. Still, it does ease the pressure on Sherrod Brown, as the only other Republican is a first -time candidate nobody's ever heard of, and the deadline to declare is Feb 7 with Election day May 8. Very little time for anyone to get a campaign up and running.
posted by soundguy99 at 11:27 AM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

My operating theory, based on the number of rage-filled, unhealthy-as-fuck old assholes I have known, is that spitefulness has some kind of preservative properties, because they seem to go on forever when by all rights they should have popped off years ago.

So you're saying this past year might actually have benefits for my long-term health?
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:27 AM on January 5, 2018 [32 favorites]

This is so great. He's a terrible rat who nakedly cares only about his own self interest. Hopefully he stays out of Ohio politics forever and ever amen.

I'm from Ohio and I actively dislike Mandel, but it sounds like his wife has a serious health issue going on and they've got three fairly young kids. I'm not really comfortable with using the word "great" about things like that. I'll say, instead, that I hope the experience gives him some empathy for the number of Ohioans who're struggling right now.
posted by Sequence at 11:28 AM on January 5, 2018 [40 favorites]

I dislike Mandel as much or more than the next person and I'm happy he's out of the race. I'm less happy that his wife seems to be dealing with some shit and I hope he's a better partner to her than he is a human being to the rest of us.
posted by cooker girl at 11:34 AM on January 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

If Grassley and Huckleberry are acting in good faith, they should consider that "he didn't say what we WANT the truth to be" is not the same thing as "he lied."

Also, if Grassley and Huckleberry are acting in good faith, I am an obese nun named Frieda.
posted by delfin at 11:36 AM on January 5, 2018 [10 favorites]

I didn't know Mandel's wife was dealing with an illness. I hope she gets better and, like sequence said, I hope the experience is one that makes Mandel into a more empathetic person.
posted by Tevin at 11:37 AM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

About the Republicans in Congress : way back in some other mega-thread someone pointed out that the Republicans were also hacked by the Russians, and we have never heard anything about it. The Russians (and/or the trumpists may have all sorts of dirt on them which could well explain the reversal some of them have done over the past year).
posted by mumimor at 11:39 AM on January 5, 2018 [41 favorites]

Not sure I actually want to read the Wolff, but my Overdrive hold has me at #15 on two copies. The upsides of keeping old library accounts active in more rural areas once you live in a more active library region are many.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 11:41 AM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

The Russians (and/or the trumpists may have all sorts of dirt on them which could well explain the reversal some of them have done over the past year).

Kompromatic For The People
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:49 AM on January 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

The Russians (and/or the trumpists may have all sorts of dirt on them which could well explain the reversal some of them have done over the past year).

That would explain the way so many Republicans have started acting as if they're being blackmailed by the mob.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:57 AM on January 5, 2018 [35 favorites]

Trump's M.O for pretty much his entire career has been to threaten lawsuits at the drop of a hat for any reason whatsoever. It's largely the bluster of a bully.

This comes up a lot with how he deals with subcontractors: claim some breach, underpay them, then either threaten to sue them or challenge them to sue him. Either way, they back down, as they realize he has the money and resources that would exhaust theirs before they could win.

The catch is, Trump is now playing that game with organizations who have the resources to see a fight through. Or knows they can get the resources. And they realize that the fight would force Trump to display this nastiness in the open--a strategic blunder for a politician.

This is another case of something I've been thinking about a lot lately: the Presidency may be the first time Trump has been held accountable to someone in his life. He could bully small businesses, fire contrary employees, or threaten a large default against banks. He never had an external entity that could hold him in check. In the case of government, however, the rules are different, the folks he's playing with are just as big, and the stakes are real.

Sure, the biggest hypothetical check on him, Congress, is currently controlled by a bunch of cowards who readily put party before country. However, he eventaully may cross a line even they cannot tolerate. If not, that situation may not be forever. And that's not even including 2020.

Mark it now--#1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list is Fire and Fury's destiny.

As a side effect, the scarcity is probably going to drive sales of kindles.

You know, my thought this morning was to buy a dead-tree edition as soon as I could, as threre a precidents for eBooks being "recalled," and that might have been an outcome from a lawsuit. The cease and disist is likely a hollow bluff (as others have said, discovery is a bitch), but that line of thought really makes me nervous about eBooks.
posted by MrGuilt at 12:01 PM on January 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

Hey, remember the US Citizen in Syria who has been held for months without a lawyer as DOJ argued this was all well and fine? The ACLU managed to speak to him via video conference on his 114th day of detention, after a legal battle to force the government to allow it. He's confirmed he wants a lawyer.
posted by zachlipton at 12:04 PM on January 5, 2018 [51 favorites]

Those unfamiliar with Ohio politics might be interested to read this profile of Josh Mandel. He had a good reputation even among many Cleveland Democrats, at one point. It has been very bizarre to see his true colors come out over the past few years. Josh is Jewish, and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and yet has gone all-in on Trumpism. He even called the Anti-Defamation League a "partisan witch hunt group" and said he sides with the alt-right. Then later convened a faith leadership group consisting solely of white conservative Christians...

I'm glad to hear he's stepping down from the race, though regret it's due to such sad circumstances for his family. I wish his wife Ilana the best.
posted by Emily's Fist at 12:14 PM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

my thought this morning was to buy a dead-tree edition as soon as I could, as threre a precidents for eBooks being "recalled,"

Calibre has a plugin that will strip the DRM and let you save an untouchable copy on your hard drive. There are other methods as well. A lot of us who've played the ebook game for a while always liberate our books as soon as possible after purchase.

The last time Amazon mass-removed ebooks, they settled a lawsuit over it, so they're not likely to just blithely remove purchases based on the outcome of a lawsuit, any more than they'll be sending thugs to people's doors to take away hardcopy books. (A court could order it, but that would literally be unprecedented.)

I suspect DT is only vaguely aware that ebooks exist and has no idea how their publication and distribution works, which would further hamper his attempts to get anything done about them.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 12:14 PM on January 5, 2018 [21 favorites]

The last time Amazon mass-removed ebooks, they settled a lawsuit over it,

I always got a big kick out of the fact that the book in question was "1984."
posted by Melismata at 12:24 PM on January 5, 2018 [39 favorites]

From Lawfairblog: An extensive Year in Review: L'Affaire Russe
posted by growabrain at 12:27 PM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

Another 2018 departure in the US intelligence community of an Obama appointee under the Trump administration:

Ellen Nakashima @nakashimae: Adm. Mike Rogers, NSA director and head of Cyber Command, has now told the workforce he is retiring this spring, and he expects POTUS to nominate and Senate to confirm a successor this month.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:34 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

And the sexist attacks on Gillibrand begin.

@thedailybeast
Is Kirsten Gillibrand too transparently opportunistic to be a viable candidate?

The Trouble With Kirsten Gillibrand
posted by chris24 at 12:36 PM on January 5, 2018 [27 favorites]

Okay, lets do a thought exercise and pretend there is a pee tape that the Russians have.

I imagine they would want to hold on to it until they can use it to impose maximum chaos (they don't really need it as blackmail material - they have his collaboration with them during the campaign for that). So that tape will be like throwing a bomb on the administration. But hold-on, Trump has been in chaos since the moment he got in office (and literally started lying about the size of the crowds that greeted him). So they should probably wait for the chaos to subside before releasing it.

They'll never release it.

If you're looking for maximum chaos from the pee tape you'd hope for the Mueller investigation to end with some indictments for maybe some campaign staff but not Trump, and right in the middle of his victory tour patting himself on the back while the more craven media bends over backwards to say he's been vindicated, that's when you drop the pee tape.
posted by jason_steakums at 12:39 PM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Begin? Or simply continue?
posted by agregoli at 12:39 PM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Remember CHIP? CBO did a new score for what it would take to renew the Children's Health Insurance Program for five years, and it's now just $800M. If we squint at the federal budget, that's roughly $0, or if you prefer comparisons, 0.053% of the $1.5T cost of the tax bill.

Weirdly, one of the reasons it's so cheap is because of all the sabotage of the ACA. Obamacare premiums will be higher, which costs the government more money, which makes covering kids through CHIP more cost-effective in comparison. Also, without the individual mandate, more parents will just get coverage for their kids through CHIP and go uninsured themselves.

So that's all kind of a mixed bag, but what with it costing essentially nothing now, there is no excuse whatsoever for Congress not renewing CHIP today. Maybe give your reps a call?
posted by zachlipton at 12:39 PM on January 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

Adm. Mike Rogers, NSA director and head of Cyber Command, has now told the workforce he is retiring this spring, and he expects POTUS to nominate and Senate to confirm a successor this month.

Eugene Kaspersky?
posted by notyou at 12:42 PM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a much better Gilibrand article by Claire Malone at 538.
posted by emjaybee at 12:43 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

My library system is a teeny tiny two-branch deal where they typically only buy maybe 2 copies of any given book, and I've never seen anything I wanted to check out that had more than 5 holds on it (and frankly, that many holds is a rare thing). But they've got six copies of Fire and Fury, all checked out with 36 holds remaining, and two copies of the audiobook, also checked out. I can't imagine wanting to listen to such a thing, but... you do you, area residents.

I'd put it on my holds list but I'm already trying to force my way through Unbelievable by Katy Tur.
posted by palomar at 12:45 PM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Nothing encourages people to read a book so much as being told they shouldn't be allowed to read it.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:50 PM on January 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

Eugene Kaspersky?

Russian enough, but not crazy enough. They'll go with John McAfee.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:51 PM on January 5, 2018 [24 favorites]

The Gillibrand coverage has made me want to punch random people for the rest of my life, just on the off chance that one of them wrote one of these stories. Wait, you're telling me a politician is politicking? That she may have had one view on an issue many years ago and now has a different view? That she recognized that having a sexual harasser in the Democratic caucus was both a political liability and a danger to those around him at a time when the party needs the votes of women more than ever? These are somehow considered bad things now?
posted by tonycpsu at 12:51 PM on January 5, 2018 [92 favorites]

Additionally, he either lied or he's a complete idiot. There's no way you can have assets of barely a million dollars on a salary of $500,000 a year unless you're incompetent or an addict of unsustainably epic proportions. I would assume he lied. Not that he might not also be incompetent but it's hard to see how you could be that incompetent and remain alive.

Um, have you met 40 years of professional sports? Lottery winners? I am pretty sure that the ability to get a big payday, even on an annual basis, and piss all of it away isn't limited to those two groups.

I'd suspect the 1.2 million is NET assets, he's likely highly leveraged if he has guaranteed Seinfeld residuals as income. It'd be foolish not to be deeply mortgaged if you have a relatively assured income.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:55 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Re: Gillibrand. It's the "she don't know she's beautiful" school of politics (or whatever the One Direction version was of that same sentiment). She has to be perfect at politics! But she can't know she is perfect or ever be seen trying! It has to be NATURAL!

A smart woman who is ahead of the political winds and listens to her constituents to the point of actually changing positions sounds like an endorsement, but if a woman does it I guess that approach gets cooties.
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:55 PM on January 5, 2018 [72 favorites]

Axios, Scoop: U.S. freezes funds to U.N. relief agency, diplomats say

The Trump administration has frozen $125 million in funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, according to three Western diplomats who were informed of the move. They said the funding, one third of the annual U.S. donations to the agency, was supposed to be transferred by Jan. 1 but was withheld.

Why it matters: A funding freeze could be seen as a slap against the organization — which the U.S. and Israel consider to be biased against Israel and too politicized — and an attempt to pressure the Palestinians to return to peace talks with Israel. But a State Department official said that the fact the money wasn't transferred on Jan. 1 doesn't mean it was frozen. "There are still deliberations taking place, and we have until mid January to decide what we are going to do,” the official said.

posted by zachlipton at 12:55 PM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

Donald Trump in gossipy new book: “Why can’t Medicare simply cover everybody?”
posted by kirkaracha at 12:56 PM on January 5, 2018 [36 favorites]

> The Gillibrand coverage ...

... is what I expect to show up more and more, to give cover to all those people who said they'd vote for a woman in general, but not *that* woman in particular. In 2016, that woman was Clinton, but I'm sure there will always be good reasons why any particular woman is not someone these people could vote for in good conscience.

The coverage is just providing the fig leaf to enable sexism. Big surprise.
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:57 PM on January 5, 2018 [31 favorites]

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the War on Whistleblowers, someone burned down the house of one of Roy Moore's accusers.
posted by delfin at 1:03 PM on January 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

There is almost no chance that they will sue over the book. It would open trump up to discovery, which is the very last thing he wants.

On top of that, courts would have to rule on 1st amendment issues regarding the president attempting to silence a critic, another thing there's no way trump or his laywers want to deal with.

IANAL, but if the Supreme Court wouldn't endorse prior restraint over the Pentagon Papers, which were at least classified, it seems a slam dunk loss for Trump on First Amendment grounds.

Not to mention how many smear books have been published about other politicians; John Kerry springs to mind, to say nothing of Hillary Clinton.

People far and wide should mock Trump for his whining, to say nothing of deride him for the narcissism it reveals. I believe Harry Truman had a relevant quote; something to do with the temperature in the food preparation area.
posted by Gelatin at 1:03 PM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

Is Kirsten Gillibrand too transparently opportunistic to be a viable candidate?

You'd think that they'd try to be a little more original than that article. It reads like a greatest hits compilation of the most cliched attacks on women candidates over the last thirty years.
posted by octothorpe at 1:04 PM on January 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

hoo boy it is so not the time for this fucked-up purity test that women candidates for president seem to be required to pass
posted by angrycat at 1:08 PM on January 5, 2018 [47 favorites]

Twitter gives up, publishes World Leaders on Twitter even though it should just be called "Trump on Twitter," basically says Trump can tweet whatever he wants:

Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.

We review Tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce our rules accordingly. No one person's account drives Twitter’s growth, or influences these decisions. We work hard to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind.

We are working to make Twitter the best place to see and freely discuss everything that matters. We believe that’s the best way to help our society make progress.

posted by zachlipton at 1:09 PM on January 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Ah god I wish I could get the idiot to attack MY latest book.
posted by gottabefunky at 1:10 PM on January 5, 2018 [35 favorites]

I have no idea whether Gillibrand will be the nominee (though it's clear she is running, at least preliminarily). But whether it is Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, Warren or any other potential female nominee one thing we have to do if it should come to pass is stop playing nice and accomodating the narrative of either the right wing or purity testers.

How often did people feel like they had to preface every single statement about Clinton in 2016 with "I'm no fan of Clinton, but... (goes on to list ways she's better than Trump" or "Sure, Clinton is corrupt and I don't like her, but... (see above)."

No. Stop. Don't let them do it to the next woman who wins the nomination. If someone starts a sentence like that, cut them off. Don't let them play that game.
posted by Justinian at 1:14 PM on January 5, 2018 [75 favorites]

> ErisLordFreedom:
"I wonder if his handlers have pointed out that, in case he pushes the Nuclear Button, they will be required to haul him off to a safe bomb shelter... with no TV and no internet."

That would ALMOST make the nuclear war worth it. Almost...

Got a copy on my tablet. Will crack it open tonight. Metaphorically speaking...
posted by Samizdata at 1:14 PM on January 5, 2018

The worst thing is, I've seen Democrats - women as well as men - clutching their pearls and going on about how we "can't afford" to run a woman in 2020 and we need a MAY-UN at the top of the ticket to PLAY IT SAFE and how about that John Hickenlooper or Chris Murphy? Vom.

But it's a long way to 2020, peeps, and we've got 2018 - THIS YEAR - to think about. Women are running for local and state offices by the hundreds. Among them, Stacey Abrams, who aims to be the nation's first African American woman governor, in Georgia. Here is Abrams' webpage. Even though I'm nowhere near Georgia, I'm throwing some $$ her way just because.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:14 PM on January 5, 2018 [52 favorites]

Donald Trump in gossipy new book: “Why can’t Medicare simply cover everybody?”

Welcome to the resistance...
posted by drezdn at 1:15 PM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

please. if his phylactery isn't stored there, it's a house, not a home

For 32 weeks of tweets he raved, but on the 33rd he burst
Back to his lair at Breitbart news
From where he'd try to do his worst.

The Twittersphere spared no salt
When Wolff told us all the rest
And now even the Mercers too
Have abandoned his shitfest.
And Mueller, he's looking on, with more to be unsealed.
Our nation wonders with bated breath: what more will be revealed?
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:17 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

But it's a long way to 2020, peeps, and we've got 2018 - THIS YEAR - to think about.

And Trump's approval rating is drifting upwards again. Yeah, it's still pretty bad. But his approval is at its highest point in the last 3-4 months and his disapproval is the lowest its been in 3-4 months, and the trendlines are going his way. I have no idea what could possibly have happened in the last month to change how people feel unless they just tuned out for the Holidays and have residual good cheer, but with the economy chugging along (Thanks Obama!) and people apparently unable to remember Trump's suckitude if literally anything else intervenes we can't take 2018 for granted. Any loss of focus and we're looking at a couple more years of total Republican hegemony.
posted by Justinian at 1:19 PM on January 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

IANAL, but if the Supreme Court wouldn't endorse prior restraint over the Pentagon Papers, which were at least classified, it seems a slam dunk loss for Trump on First Amendment grounds.

The only possible challenge for the book is libel and defamation, and that claim is hampered by DT's inability to differentiate between "a lie" and "a statement I dislike," along with no awareness of the legality of satire. (This is common in wealthy business owners; see Murray v Oliver, in which Murray believes claiming that he "looks like a geriatric Dr. Evil" is grounds for a defamation lawsuit.)

To ban/block sales of the book, a plaintiff - presumably Trump - would need to prove that it has statements that
1) Are provably false,
2) Will cause damage to his rep or income if people believe them, and
3) Are reasonably likely to be believed.

#1 is the hard part in most of these cases. Opinions are not provably false. Calling him an ignorant buffoon is not defamation. And even for the factually-provable issues (like illiteracy), the bar for defamation of a public persona is much higher than for a more private person. You are allowed to believe wacky conspiracy theories about celebrities; see: all the lawsuits Obama filed against people who claimed he wasn't a US citizen.

Oh wait; he didn't. Because he knew that random wild speculation about politicians is legal.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:21 PM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

As a New Jersey resident, I'm excited about our new governor. The New York Times today has an interview with that other guy:

Sitting in an upholstered chair in a room at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion, Mr. Christie defended Mr. Trump as well as his own role in the transition, which he said went off the wheels after his departure and was the reason for “75 percent” of the president’s woes last year. To this day, Mr. Christie said he is unsure of what the president knew about his dismissal. (A new book about Mr. Trump by the author Michael Wolff suggests that it was at the request of Ivanka Trump).

As for his own thwarted presidential ambitions, he had a simple response to a question of whether he believes that without the Bridgegate scandal and Mr. Trump’s entry into the race, he could have been the Republican nominee in 2016 and living in the White House today.

“I do,” he said, then paused. “I don’t think there’s any other way to answer it.”

posted by monospace at 1:23 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

The worst thing is, I've seen Democrats - women as well as men - clutching their pearls and going on about how we "can't afford" to run a woman in 2020 and we need a MAY-UN at the top of the ticket to PLAY IT SAFE...

I actually kind of do think running a woman for president immediately after finally getting in a person of color may have been a tactical error for the Democrats. It gave the wave of "I'm not a racist but..." a chance to roll straight into "I'm not a misogynist but..." without a speedbump. By the next election, though, 45 himself may have provided that speedbump. I can hope, anyway.
posted by Karmakaze at 1:23 PM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

Secondly, how does eating McDonald's reduce the chances of being poisoned? I thought there's a kitchen in the WH with a great chef available 24/7, who has surely been vetted thoroughly and all sorts of protocols in place to avoid poisoning. He could just order great burgers from there.

Given his fear of poisoning, it's a good thing that Trump hasn't made any shady deals with people known to put polonium-210 in your soup.
posted by benzenedream at 1:25 PM on January 5, 2018 [31 favorites]

Trump's M.O for pretty much his entire career has been to threaten lawsuits at the drop of a hat for any reason whatsoever. It's largely the bluster of a bully.
I am always reminded about how he spoke at a black church in Flint, Michigan, but after being introduced he launched into his diatribe about Clinton and the pastor stepped up and told him basically “Yeah, we’re not doing that..” and how quickly he folded like the coward he is.
posted by blueberry at 1:29 PM on January 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

The worst thing is, I've seen Democrats - women as well as men - clutching their pearls and going on about how we "can't afford" to run a woman in 2020

Unfortunately I think that may be correct. I don't think the Democrats will be win enough swing voters (who voted for Trump but might not again) with a female candidate. It sucks, but all things considered it feels like the time still isn't right yet.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:29 PM on January 5, 2018

Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate.

Twitter: We literally would not ban Hitler.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:30 PM on January 5, 2018 [116 favorites]

The upward-trending approval ratings are almost certainly tied to the Dow hitting 25K. My Trumpist family is ECSTATIC about it

50% of Americans own no stock. 80% of stock value is owned by the 1%, 90% by the top 20%.

And again, Obama outperformed Trump in year 1 stock market gains.
posted by chris24 at 1:32 PM on January 5, 2018 [24 favorites]

Why would Twitter ban anyone? It's all just more business for them.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:33 PM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pre-litigating the 2020 primaries is even more pointless than re-litigating the 2016 primaries.
posted by diogenes at 1:33 PM on January 5, 2018 [45 favorites]

I don't think the Democrats will be win enough swing voters (who voted for Trump but might not again) with a female candidate.

Fuck this. A woman got 3 million more votes despite Russia, Comey, Clinton derangement, misogyny and voter suppression. She received millions more votes than any white man ever has.
posted by chris24 at 1:35 PM on January 5, 2018 [209 favorites]

Pre-litigating the 2020 primaries is even more pointless than re-litigating the 2016 primaries.

I think it is worth highlighting and discrediting the repetitive narratives that are being repurposed from Hillary Clinton attacks to go after any woman who is capable of wielding power.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:36 PM on January 5, 2018 [37 favorites]

Seriously. I will NEVER tolerate this bullshit of "it's not time for a woman" in ANY arena, EVER AGAIN.
posted by agregoli at 1:38 PM on January 5, 2018 [180 favorites]

As a side effect, the scarcity is probably going to drive sales of kindles.

And the added kick of even more money to Bezos and Amazon!
posted by dilettante at 1:40 PM on January 5, 2018

It sucks, but all things considered it feels like the time still isn't right yet.

obviously, self-fullfillingly true, if enough people agree with you: if it is a time when people can openly suggest working against a woman's nomination because she's a woman, it is not a time when a woman is likely to get elected. that is how you make it be the wrong time. don't know why you'd want to, but that's how it's done.

it only works if enough people go along with you on it, though. I have some hope that not enough will. anyway, anyone who argues against a woman politician's visibility or ambition because of her gender for reasons of "the times" is a participant in sexism, not simply a sorrowful observer.
posted by queenofbithynia at 1:40 PM on January 5, 2018 [54 favorites]

Trump's very awfulness means that if he falls, the whole party will fall with him. Republicans could conceivably distance themselves from a president who turned out to be a bad manager, or even one who turned out to have been engaged in small-time correction. But when the corruption is big-time, and it's combined with obstruction of justice in collaboration with Putin, nobody will notice which Republicans were a bit less involved, a bit less obsequious, then others. If Trump sinks, he will create a vortex that sucks down everyone involved.

And so now we have the Republican Party as wholy fully complicit in trumps crimes – because that's what they are, whether or not he and those around him ever brought to justice.

What this means among other things, is there expecting the GOP to exercise any oversight or constrain Trump in anyway it's just foolish at this point.

- Paul Krugman
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 1:42 PM on January 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

Hillary Clinton, PV-WOAT*

*popular vote-winner of all time
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:43 PM on January 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

There's no such thing as a swing voter anymore. The problem for Democrats is not kissing the non-existent butts of mythical "swing voters," it's 1) apathy and 2) disenfranchisement. Take a lesson from Alabama: I know Doug Jones was up against a garbage fire of a child molesting Republican, but, he could not have won without getting out the Democratic vote. Remember Perman Hardy? People like her propelled Doug Jones to victory.

2018 is important in that regard because Democrats are notorious for taking long, cozy naps in between Presidential elections. We can't afford to let the midterms go to rot. I don't live in a lovely blue state because the Democrat Fairy sprinkled her magic pixie dust all over us and turned the state blue. If Democratic voters turned out in their millions for every single damn election, and fielded viable candidates for every single office, we too could have nice things.

Eyes on the 2018 prize!
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:44 PM on January 5, 2018 [96 favorites]

Fuck this. A woman got 3 million more votes despite Russia, Comey, Clinton derangement, misogyny and voter suppression. She received millions more votes than any white man ever has.

Seriously. I will NEVER tolerate this bullshit of "it's not time for a woman" in ANY arena, EVER AGAIN.

anyone who argues against a woman politician's visibility or ambition because of her gender for reasons of "the times" is a participant in sexism, not simply a sorrowful observer.

I hope you're all right about that.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:44 PM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Why would Twitter ban anyone? It's all just more business for them.

Everyone wants to be the Facebook, not the Myspace. Twitter needs to be careful to not become the first-to-market also-ran that was eclipsed by a superior product.

We complain about how awful Facebook is now, but at the time, Facebook was clean and streamlined compared to the mess that Myspace was. Twitter has been hemorrhaging users as they move away from its firehose of shit business model. An competitor may be able to gobble them up.
posted by explosion at 1:52 PM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

50% of Americans own no stock. 80% of stock value is owned by the 1%, 90% by the top 20%.

The catch is that Trump supports either:

Believe they are a One-Percenter--they just haven't made it yet, probably due to their own fault. But boy do they want the "Trump Market" when they do.
Buy into the rhetoric of supply side economics, and the stock market is a good barometer for how business is doing. Wealth will trickle down at any moment.

posted by MrGuilt at 1:52 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

I hope you make sure to refer to him as "failing @realDonaldTrump".
posted by Grangousier at 1:53 PM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

they just haven't made it yet, probably due to their own fault

No no no; they haven't made it yet because of all the liberal SJW bias in the business world - if it weren't for affirmative action holding them back, they'd be on top of the world! If all those pesky regulations supporting special interest groups weren't in the way, their business plan would be THE BEST! If the gov't weren't stealing all the corporate money in the form of taxes, their benefits would be awesome!
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:56 PM on January 5, 2018 [13 favorites]

Liquidwolf Unfortunately I think that may be correct. I don't think the Democrats will be win enough swing voters (who voted for Trump but might not again) with a female candidate.

We will never win if our strategy is chasing after Trump voters, or Republicans.

Democrats do not win elections by convincing Republicans to vote for them. Democrats win elections by getting their own base out to vote, and by convincing non-voters to vote. While it is true that on an individual level it is possible for Republicans to flip, in the larger sense such people are far too rare to bother spending resources on.

I'll campaign and vote for whoever the Democrats nominate [1]. But I hope for a woman to be that nominee. If that woman is Gillibrand then I'll be fully and unreservedly behind her. Right now I'm hoping for Kamala Harris, but either way I'm good.

I'd **LOVE** Barbara Lee to be the nominee, but unfortunately she's too old. And really so is Elizabeth Warren. I think we'v had enough septuagenarians in the White House.

[1] Well, almost. If the Democrats nominate someone with Trump style treason and grifting then I wouldn't.
posted by sotonohito at 1:56 PM on January 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

Another R talking point blown up by facts they'll never see or believe.

FBI documents: Andrew McCabe had no conflict in Hillary Clinton email probe

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom President Trump has blamed for influencing the decision not to criminally charge Hillary Clinton for her use of private email server, did not oversee that inquiry while his wife was running for state office in Virginia as a Democrat, according to bureau records released Friday.

The internal documents, published on the FBI's website, support what the bureau has asserted previously: that McCabe had no conflicts when he assumed oversight of the Clinton investigation. His role began in February 2016, following his appointment as deputy director and three months after his wife, Jill McCabe, lost her bid for a state Senate seat.

posted by chris24 at 1:58 PM on January 5, 2018 [29 favorites]

Because Republicans still can't handle that Nixon thing. They're too proud to let a president be ousted, even if that is a sound tactical choice.

Nixon being forced to resign has informed Republican strategy ever since. They thought they were going to even the score with Clinton. But, when that came to naught, it only steeled their resolve. They will never, ever, ever allow another Republican President to fall ala Nixon.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:06 PM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

Beyond the obvious bullshit PR basis for their stunt...

@brianbeutler
To my knowledge, Steele has not testified to Congress and has only spoken to the FBI about the Russia investigation. What possible fucking basis could Grassley and Graham have for their bullshit referral that wouldn’t constitute a major scandal in its own right?

---

@renato_mariotti
1/ As I told @NatashaBertrand of @businessinsider, the criminal referral by Senators Grassley and Graham appears to either be a PR stunt or an attempt to use their position to influence DOJ charging decisions. BI: Senate Judiciary Republicans refer dossier author Chris Steele to DOJ for criminal investigation
2/ It raises a lot of questions. Why not make this referral in private? What information do they have that is not already in the possession of the FBI? Why not wait until their investigation is complete?
3/ It appears to be an effort to undermine the Russia investigation or feed into a talking point used to criticize the investigation.
4/ The way the referral was made is consistent with that intent. Criminal referrals are meant to provide information to the FBI that it doesn’t otherwise have, not to produce press coverage. /end
posted by chris24 at 2:07 PM on January 5, 2018 [54 favorites]

Yea verily, let's remember that a bunch of women - including women with other marginalized identities - got elected in the midterms.

I think that 2020 could very well be a fantastic time to run a charismatic woman candidate - the right woman will read as the polar opposite to Trump, partly because of stereotypes about women. Where Trump is greedy, a charismatic woman will be/seem altruistic. Where Trump is a corrupt, fascist Father, a charismatic woman will read as principled but caring parent/mother. Trump is disgustingly sexual; the tendency to see public/powerful women as sexless will work in favor of a woman candidate.

Culturally, I think a lot of people are fleeing from the old model of White Cis Straight Masculinity, including a lot of white cis straight men. I think that's one reason that the type of people who really identify with White Cis Straight Masculinity are so angry - they can see that even people who should share their values are jettisoning them. Now, I'm not saying "everyone is becoming better and better people" - you can move away from White Cis Straight Masculinity and still be a terrible person - but there are ways of being that no longer appeal to a lot of people. (Consider the marijuana thing - that would have been a cultural winner in the eighties, and now it's not. Whether people are good, bad or indifferent, no one wants to be a buttoned-up drug warrior anymore except Jeff Sessions.)

The best thing anyone can do now is to pay attention to how we judge candidates on gendered lines. If women run in the primary, it won't matter (in gender terms) if they win or lose as long as the whole primary hasn't been a long slog of misogyny. Women candidates need to win or lose on their platforms, and I think that the best thing we can do to insure that is to intervene in conversations that use classic misogynist criticisms or hold women candidates to standards that men aren't held to. We need to do this not only to insure women candidates a fair shake but also to keep the electorate together instead of having it become dangerously factionalized.
posted by Frowner at 2:07 PM on January 5, 2018 [73 favorites]

Liquidwolf, your reply doesn't make sense. The first statement IS correct. The second is about my own tolerance, so yes, I am right about it. And the last, if correct, means YOU are participating in sexism, which, I do believe anyone who says the kind of thing you did, is. So...wha?

Yeah I wasn't clear there. What I meant was I hope everyone's right that a woman will be the candidate. I knew I'd get shredded for my original comment, but the reactions made me reconsider my original point.
posted by Liquidwolf at 2:08 PM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

One of the main themes so far in the ice crea- er, in the Wolff book is the plain explanation of Trump's certainty in losing. The Trump campaign was more surprised about winning than most groups - they had no plans for winning; none, zero, nada, doughnut, not a sausage.

Almost every one of every major-party candidates ever, had at least worked or networked with politicians, but not Trump. (Rude and Reek excepted). So on day one after the election, they're scrambling to find anyone to do anything; part of the reason for the motley assortment of racist elves and vermin we see today.

Their "(insert governmental person/agency/position/etc.) is biased/fake/terrible" is explicitly drawn from sheer willful ignorance. It's seriously grotesque.
posted by petebest at 2:09 PM on January 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

Vanity Fair, Gabe Sherman, “Steve Can Be Kind of Delusional:” Did Steve Bannon Talk Himself Out of His Own Movement?. In which Bannon originally drafted a statement praising Don Jr. and bashing Wolff, planning to hand it to one of his favorite reporters, Jonathan Swan, but Trump his "he not only lost his job, he lost his mind" statement first, so Bannon said fuck it and dug in.
posted by zachlipton at 2:10 PM on January 5, 2018 [14 favorites]

I think we'v had enough septuagenarians in the White House.

I would agree with you but this has been true for a long time and somehow it's only on the brink of becoming officially true in the way of becoming common knowledge now, when it might be a reason to discount a bunch of qualified women. Old women paying the penalty for old men's record of inability to perform adequately in office would be aggravating enough by itself, but added to the fact that women generally live longer and have better health, it's extra aggravating. Added to the fact that a lot of women started the visible part of their political careers later than men did because the generation that's now in its seventies is the generation that, like Clinton, either worked hard for decades for slower and less advancement and recognition, started serious engagement after raising children, subordinated their ambitions to their husbands' ambitions until their husbands were finally done, or all three, it's most aggravating.

I would probably enjoy voting for Gillibrand more than Warren, Clinton is lost to us, and Pelosi is honest to god too old for real. so it's not like this new rule, if followed, will deprive me of my favorite fantasy candidate. but I wish for once we could collectively decide to change our standards in a way that primarily affects those people who made it necessary.
posted by queenofbithynia at 2:13 PM on January 5, 2018 [53 favorites]

Could someone please answer this question: in the period between Trump firing Sessions and successfully having a replacement confirmed by the Senate, would Rosenstein continue to have authority over Mueller, or would Trump be able to temporarily appoint a lackey as Acting Attorney General, as he did with Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney?
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:17 PM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Where's Donald?"
posted by growabrain at 2:19 PM on January 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think we'v had enough septuagenarians in the White House.

This a thousand times. I actually shouted out loud last week when my BFF Howard Dean said the Boomers need to step out of politics. Seriously. The mid-range Gen Xers like myself are right at the edge of the age qualification for President, and it is time. Gillibrand, Harris, whoever, I don't care as long as they have to pay full price for dinner at IHOP. The last president we had who started in his mid-40s was lovely. I want that back.
posted by teleri025 at 2:22 PM on January 5, 2018 [57 favorites]

I think part of it is that you vote for the candidates/primary-winners/etc you have in each round of elections, not the ones you want. In a vacuum, sure, maybe HRC's connections to X, Y, or Z aren't ideal, but if you're in 2016 voting in the general election, it's gonna be her or DJT. Mark your ballot accordingly.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:24 PM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

One problem with Kirsten Gillibrand for President is that she's from a state that Democrats are going to win anyway. If she were from Ohio or Pennsylvania or Florida or something then she'd be a much more exciting possibility (same for Kamala Harris).

We need someone from a swing state to step up and start making some noise.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 2:29 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Wolff was just on NPR. He was unequivocal in standing behind everything he says in the book, including stuff that directly contradicts spin from the White House. He pretty much doubled-down on the veracity of his book without so much as a hem or haw.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:31 PM on January 5, 2018 [29 favorites]

Frowner But inexorably this plays into the "I would vote for a woman but not this woman [or that woman, or the other woman...only the perfect woman]" thing, and I feel like I need to come up with some better framing.

You're 100% right. I'm sure my own lingering dislike of Gillibrand is rooted more in subconscious misogyny than in reality. I have excuses, I really hate that she was both a Blue Dog and had an A+ rating from the NRA, but would a man who had such a past and then claimed to have seen the light leave me with such lingering dislike? I'd like to say yes, but I'm self aware enough to know that the answer is probably no.

Any woman who gets the nom will be attacked with "I like women in general, but **SHE** is too [insert problem here]".

queenofbithynia RE: age. You make a very good point here. And I certainly agree that it is a standard that would be deeply unfair in how it affected women who struggled up through the patriarchy. My problem is that I do think there are perfectly legitimate reasons to favor younger candidates, beginning with lower chances of senility in office and nodding off to sleep while meeting with the Pope.

At least with elderly women as candidates we won't have to rehash the Vietnam War and whether the candidate dodged the draft or not yet again. I'd entertained the hope we were past that when Obama got the nom in 2008, but Trump proved I was wrong.

So I don't know. You make a very good point, but I still think we need a mandatory retirement age for politics.

I'll vote for and campaign for whoever wins, that goes without saying. But I do think our descent into geritocracy is harmful.
posted by sotonohito at 2:31 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

Frowner: "One thing that a lot of us will have to figure out is how to talk about supporting candidates that we don't really like without playing along with vote-killing or misogynist narratives."

What do you think of, "Of course they're not perfect. No one is. But here's what I like about them:" ?
posted by kristi at 2:33 PM on January 5, 2018 [36 favorites]

Also, on the "I don't really like Hillary Clinton, but...." theme: One thing that a lot of us will have to figure out is how to talk about supporting candidates that we don't really like without playing along with vote-killing or misogynist narratives.

well, look, I didn't and don't like or trust Bernie Sanders, on a very personal and visceral level. although I can point to a number of votes and actions attitudes and statements I disagree with for concrete reasons, and have done so. but although every other reluctant Democrat can do the same re: calling attention to his less leftist positions, and although every other suspicious mistruster of politicians in general could have made the same prefatory disclaimer I did when saying sure, they'll vote for him in the general if they have to, but they just don't like him

somehow, not very many of them did.

so I mean, I don't say this to you personally as some kind of directive, because you seem entirely non-sexist and self-aware and not like you need to be told to be consistent. but the answer to the general question for the general mass of Democrats is: if you wouldn't say whatever negative thing about whatever establishment male candidate you favor, because he is our terrific national uncle Biden or sexy dad Obama or confused nice neighbor Kaine, don't fuckin say it about Gillibrand or whoever. this is such a tepid cliche but there isn't a better answer, this is it. people can't really get rid of their double standards without a good-faith active effort, and all the rest of us can do is keep bothering them to make that effort. it's not mostly about how to talk, it's actual inner feelings and thoughts about women. fix the gendered resentment and the gendered rhetoric will take care of itself. I keep a hostile eye out for sexist ways of talking because it's all I can address until mind control technology improves, but it's the wrong way around.

the other thing is, maybe a little less attention to the harsh judgments on women, since examining them for any speck of truth often strengthens them, and a lot more attention to the sentimental helpless affection we feel for so, so, so many men in public life. we should collectively cut that out. I don't exempt myself, I still want to give Cory Booker a big hug for rescuing that puppy dog that time, but I don't allow that stupid goodwill to accompany me into a serious assessment of his positions. at least, I try.
posted by queenofbithynia at 2:35 PM on January 5, 2018 [69 favorites]

One problem with Kirsten Gillibrand for President is that she's from a state that Democrats are going to win anyway.

Going to need citations showing that this would actually have a meaningful impact, rather than just conventional wisdom, because everything I’ve heard is that the impact is negligible.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 2:35 PM on January 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

I still think we need a mandatory retirement age for politics.

I don't (although I might like a health exam with verification of general soundness released to the public), but I'd like campaign runs to feature a lot more focus on a candidate's history, so that a younger person would be arguing, "I don't have much history with that, but here's my plans," and an older one would be stuck facing questions about, "so, in 1982 you said/your business did X. Is that still what you believe? If not, what changed your mind, and is there any public record that backs up that change?"
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 2:36 PM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the War on Whistleblowers, someone burned down the house of one of Roy Moore's accusers.

For what it's worth: "Etowah County Sheriff: "The ongoing investigation does not lead us to believe that the fire is in any way related to Roy Moore or the allegations made against him.""

I mean, that's quite the coincidence, but I just hope someone trustworthy is doing the investigation.
posted by zachlipton at 2:37 PM on January 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

Obama, a black man with a Muslim name, was from Illinois, a state Ds were going to win. I think we can have a woman from NY or CA.
posted by chris24 at 2:44 PM on January 5, 2018 [118 favorites]

As intriguing as it is to think that Trump didn't (a) believe or (b) want to win, (a) presupposes that throughout the campaign he was actually capable of rational probabilistic inferences, and (b) requires believing that he was cool with being dubbed the loser. But there is achingly little evidence to support either.

I think it's simpler and more complex. I think that NOBODY expected him to win, but that didn't stop Trump from projecting himself as a winner (it's been his hollow persona his whole life).

While he'd never admit (to himself or others) that he wasn't going to win, it seemed pretty clear he was gearing up for the post election fight with Hillary in the White House.
posted by CheapB at 2:46 PM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

six copies of Fire and Fury, all checked out with 36 holds remaining

Here's the numbers at the Toronto Public Library right now.
posted by Beardman at 2:50 PM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

zachlipton:
"Meanwhile, elsewhere in the War on Whistleblowers, someone burned down the house of one of Roy Moore's accusers."

They have a suspect & it sounds like he's just a local idiot who likes to drink too much & do dumb shit. From Roy Moore accuser's Gadsden home burns; arson investigation underway:

According to Johnson and neighbor Kevin Tallant, other neighbors witnessed a young man who had a history of public intoxication walking around the house before and during the blaze.

"He's been trouble in the neighborhood for a while," said Tallant, who lives across the street from Johnson and her family. He got a call from another neighbor that morning who said smoke was coming from the home and that somebody might be inside.
[...]
She said a woman neighbor told her that the young man in question approached her as she was getting in her car that morning and asked if she thought Johnson's house was going to burn. The neighbor didn't know what he was talking about, she said, because flames weren't visible at the time.

posted by scalefree at 2:58 PM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

In which Bannon originally drafted a statement praising Don Jr. and bashing Wolff, planning to hand it to one of his favorite reporters, Jonathan Swan, but Trump his "he not only lost his job, he lost his mind" statement first, so Bannon said fuck it and dug in.

It hurts my head to think about how clearly I saw exactly this play out in my head when Trump responded so quickly with "Fuck Steve." He didn't even stop to check and see if it was all bullshit. Trump believed from the start that Bannon would say that, which says a lot.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 3:02 PM on January 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

she's from a state that Democrats are going to win anyway

I will be a very happy person when Democrats stop thinking in these terms and start concentrating on finding the best candidate.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:04 PM on January 5, 2018 [61 favorites]

A strongly-worded ad (YT) for Kentucky's Amy McGrath who is not from a state the Democrats are going to win anyway.
posted by bz at 3:12 PM on January 5, 2018 [41 favorites]

So, Amy McGrath just made it on to my donations list.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:22 PM on January 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

Enter: Steve Bour- er, Bannon:

In the early 2000s, [Bannon meets Bossie/Breitbart/Mercer]

Bannon focused his entrepreneurial talents on becoming courtier, Svengali, and political investment adviser to father and daughter. Theirs was a consciously quixotic mission. They would devote vast sums—albeit still just a small part of Bob Mercer’s many billions—to trying to build a radical free-market, small-government, home-schooling, antiliberal, gold-standard, pro-death-penalty, anti-Muslim, pro-Christian, monetarist, anti-civil-rights political movement in the United States.

Bob Mercer is an ultimate quant, an engineer who designs investment algorithms and became a co-CEO of one of the most successful hedge funds, Renaissance Technologies. With his daughter, Rebekah, Mercer set up what is in effect a private Tea Party movement, self-funding whatever Tea Party or alt-right project took their fancy. . . And yet his political beliefs, to the extent they could be discerned, were generally Bush-like, and his political discussions, to the extent that you could get him to be responsive, were about issues involving ground game and data gathering. It was Rebekah Mercer—who had bonded with Bannon, and whose politics were grim, unyielding, and doctrinaire—who defined the family. “She’s . . . like whoa, ideologically there is no conversation with her,” said one senior Trump White House staffer.

I think it's right after this that Steve builds his first ligtsaber. But damn, those Palpatines eh?
posted by petebest at 3:34 PM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

A strongly-worded ad yt (YT) for Kentucky's Amy McGrath who is not from a state the Democrats are going to win anyway

That was a great ad, but McGrath may have been screwed over by Jim Gray's entry into that race. Previously, she was running against a black man who is a state senator and a very effective speaker but who is not widely known and who might be at a disadvantage in the rural parts of the district, both due to race and educational background (Dartmouth and then Harvard Law). Gray, however, is very well known and fairly popular as mayor of Lexington He is a gay white man, the former owner of a large construction company in the state, and has just arranged for a fiber network to come in to the city to complete with our hated cable company and improve our astoundingly crappy internet options.

I'd like to see McGrath take on Paul or McConnell, though. Gray and Thomas either one would have problems in a state wide race but McGrath might do quite well against either of those.
posted by dilettante at 3:36 PM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

Folks, let's not rehash arguments about theory here. Thanks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 3:43 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

> box:
"British GQ"

It's your soaraway collectible Corbyn issue, to boot.
posted by chavenet at 3:57 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Twitter gives up, publishes World Leaders on Twitter even though it should just be called "Trump on Twitter," basically says Trump can tweet whatever he wants:

I.e., the time-honoured conservative principle of Rank Hath Privilege.
posted by acb at 3:58 PM on January 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

no time for that nonsense

2018/2020 Democratic slogan: IDENTIFIED
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:59 PM on January 5, 2018 [47 favorites]

Beardman: As intriguing as it is to think that Trump didn't (a) believe or (b) want to win, (a) presupposes that throughout the campaign he was actually capable of rational probabilistic inferences, and (b) requires believing that he was cool with being dubbed the loser. But there is achingly little evidence to support either.

Well, it's clear that he was overjoyed at the inauguration. No, wait ...

Personally I feel that he was fine with being dubbed a loser as long as he could laugh all the way to the bank. Because if he could make money from running, and we know that this was his plan because he said as much, he would not feel like he lost. He would feel like he gamed the system, and won.
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:00 PM on January 5, 2018 [10 favorites]

Twitter: We literally would not ban Hitler.

Perhaps from now on, the bird silhouette should no longer be depicted in light blue but, instead, in black, in a white circle, on a red field?
posted by acb at 4:02 PM on January 5, 2018 [19 favorites]

Personally I feel that he was fine with being dubbed a loser as long as he could laugh all the way to the bank. Because if he could make money from running, and we know that this was his plan because he said as much, he would not feel like he lost. He would feel like he gamed the system, and won.

Back when it all went down there was a persistent but largely unproved rumor that Trump was "really" gunning to create a TV network with himself at its center. Is there anything in the Wolff material to support that?
posted by scalefree at 4:07 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

If 45 doesn't leave office until he's voted out in 2020, will Twitter ban his account on Jan 21, 2021?

Then NYT should push a lawsuit against Twitter for aiding and abetting defamation and libel. Or someone else should scrounge up proof of harassment and incitement. The reason social media sites have a TOS is in part to reduce their liability; if they knowingly allow people to break the rules against illegal speech, they're directly accountable.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 4:10 PM on January 5, 2018 [17 favorites]

If it's a matter of "public interest," Twitter should ban RealDonaldTrump for TOS violations, and leave the POTUS45 account live.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 4:16 PM on January 5, 2018 [74 favorites]

Also, if it's a matter of public interest, twitter should not allow trump to block people. They want a conversation to happen? let's have a conversation.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 4:21 PM on January 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

The book is really good, and insightful. It's a long telling (i.e. a book) of everything we know - or suspected - but in the process of weaving a good 18+ months into a book it's blowing up all the media coverage of Trump to date. It's got the benefit of hindsight and the luxury of page space to tell the story of this gruesome business and cable news - ain't doin it. That alone is kind of shocking. How far off all the breathless breaking news segments are - they're right, or at least correct, just doing it wrong. The book is not playing.
posted by petebest at 4:31 PM on January 5, 2018 [37 favorites]

Book: Have read the Comey chapter and have looped back around to the beginning. I agree with petebest; it's really good. Importantly, it is truthy without being overly factual, which many would find off-putting. It provides reasonable speculations as to motives, and fills in quite a bit of important context on a personal level. Just enough to make it work, not so much as to be obnoxious. This book seems to be generally intended for the set of people who watch the news and read some news or magazines, but don't spend all of their time glued to Twitter or specialist blogs or this thread.

I think it is engagingly written in such a way that it does not make the reader feel stupid for not knowing what was, and is, going on inside the Trump circle and just how much there is to know. But I could be wrong, and I maight change my mind by the time I finish.
posted by monopas at 5:09 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

petebest, you're my favorite beatle.

Twitter needs to come up with something other than the checkmark, then, to signify those accounts which are above reproach. Maybe some strongly-iconic symbol, a "plus-sign" but with "tails" on each arm?
posted by maxwelton at 5:11 PM on January 5, 2018 [21 favorites]

If she were from Ohio or Pennsylvania or Florida or something then she'd be a much more exciting possibility (same for Kamala Harris).

This feels like something of a catch-22. Look at how many women are in the House and Senate at the national level from New York. (Throw in governors, why not.) Now look at California. Now look at Ohio.

Ohio's only female governor was a Republican who held the position for a total of two weeks in the 90s because the elected governor won a Senate seat and honestly I'd forgotten she existed before I went to confirm that there hadn't been one I'd forgotten or before I was born or something; Ohio's never had a nonwhite governor. Ohio has never had a woman in the US senate, or a nonwhite person. Ohio has a total of three US reps who are women. If you want to say that you'd like to see Marcia Fudge run for president, I like her okay. I don't think she's super compelling but I'd be glad to hear if you do. But if you're just talking about A Generic Woman, the reason that you see more strong candidates from blue states is that those states have drastically higher numbers of women in elected office.

If you want a candidate who is a member of an underrepresented group, putting the qualification that it's only exciting if they're from the states that are still incredibly hostile to the participation of those groups in politics is an incredible hurdle. Not an impossible one, potentially, but I think people forget that a woman succeeding at this level in American politics, to be in the US senate? Still novel no matter what state you're in. If we're only interested in women getting to be US president if they've already made huge inroads on state politics in states that are generally still rough for women in politics, then we're not going to get a woman president for awhile, and a woman as president is one of the things that could theoretically make a huge difference to actually letting women succeed in politics at the state level in less reliably progressive places.
posted by Sequence at 5:18 PM on January 5, 2018 [93 favorites]

In the course of discussing different factions in the Democratic Party and the need for a re-dedication to ideals, Mark Shields on PBS Newshour tonight mentioned this quote which I'd never heard before:

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. —Abraham Lincoln, First Annual Message, December 3, 1861

Another interesting bit of commentary by a Republican president from back before they cast themselves out from heaven and, among other things, made acknowledgement of the fundamentally socialist nature of the Union a political thoughtcrime, are these 1909 newspaper columns by Teddy Roosevelt: “Where We Can Work With Socialists” and “Where We Cannot Work With Socialists”. The two most interesting things I saw in these, among many notable elements, are Teddy's Freudian absolute terror of "free love" and an assertion that the construction of the Erie Canal was waaaay more socialist than many of the things being derided as socialism in his time.
posted by XMLicious at 5:29 PM on January 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

VA HOD update: A judge has declined to issue a preliminary injunction in HD-28, where voters were provided ballots with another district's candidates, meaning the GOP candidate would be seated, at least initially. The lawsuit can still continue, and that declination could also be appealed to a higher court. It does look likely that that GOP will at least have an initial 51-49 advantage, and thus be able to control organizational items (Speaker election, committee assignments).
posted by Chrysostom at 5:30 PM on January 5, 2018 [4 favorites]

Perhaps from now on, the bird silhouette should no longer be depicted in light blue but, instead, in black, in a white circle, on a red field?

It may be too subtle.
posted by Justinian at 5:36 PM on January 5, 2018 [21 favorites]

So apparently somebody pointed out to the Washington Post's Mark Berman that Wolff's book places him in the Four Seasons having breakfast when that's something he never actually did:

Spotted in the new Michael Wolff book about Trump: A Four Seasons breakfast featuring "Washington Post national reporter Mark Berman"

(I have never had breakfast at the Four Seasons, never actually been there) (but now I wonder if I can use this to go eat there and expense it?)

[...]

Update to this thread: Turns out the person actually having breakfast at the Four Seasons that day was the lobbyist Mike Berman, who confirms to me he was there the same day as Ivanka

He points to a WaPo piece about said lobbyist, which includes a picture of him actually eating at the Four Seasons (albeit on a different occasion).

He closes with: And it turns out I can also say with 100% certainty again I wasn't at the Four Seasons that morning because it turns out this breakfast was the same morning my kid was being born, per this story.

It's an obnoxious factual error. Not fatal to the book mind you, but still. COME ON.

I say that as someone who broke down and preordered the book. My husband said "Pffft. You're going to read that book, aren't you?" and I hung my head and said "In fact I've already preordered it," in the same way I would say something like "Why yes, I bought that whole sheet cake that's in the fridge for myself. Now please turn out the lights and leave me alone with the cake."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:49 PM on January 5, 2018 [40 favorites]

Flynn. Lynchpin Flynn. Bestie Flynn. from the Wolff book (emphasis mine)

On Monday morning, Kellyanne Conway appeared on MSNBC and offered a firm defense of the National Security Advisor. “Yes,” she said, “General Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president.” And while this seemed to many an indication that Conway was out of the loop, it was more accurately an indication that she had been talking directly to the president.

A White House meeting that morning failed to convince Trump to fire Flynn. He was concerned about what it would look like to lose his National Security Advisor after just twenty-four days. And he was adamant about not wanting to blame Flynn for talking to the Russians, even about sanctions. In Trump’s view, condemning his adviser would connect him to a plot where there was no plot. His fury wasn’t directed toward Flynn but to the “incidental” wiretap that had surveilled him. Making clear his confidence in his adviser, Trump insisted that Flynn come to Monday’s lunch with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

Lunch was followed by another meeting about the furor. There were yet more details of the phone call and a growing itemization of the money Flynn had been paid by various Russian entities; there was also increasing focus on the theory that the leaks from the intel community—that is, the whole Russia mess—was directed at Flynn. Finally, there was a new rationale that Flynn should be fired not because of his Russian contacts, but because he had lied about them to the vice president. This was a convenient invention of a chain of command: in fact, Flynn did not report to Vice President Pence, and he was arguably a good deal more powerful than Pence.

The new rationale appealed to Trump, and he at last agreed that Flynn had to go.

(Trump reeeeeealllly likes Flynn.) The story is fascinating for one by the "full confidence of the President" line, which we understand to be a death knell, and in this particular case it probably was true - showing how little Trump has to do with things. He's kind of a Magic 8 ball president, but only with 2 or 3 answers: "Blargh" "Nah" "Me"

The other thing is the Pence part of it - Pence is shown as being wholly incidental to the whole story - which we already knew, particularly the weirdness of Flynn being fired for lying to Pence, as if Pence was some pious fainting dandy who's insult was more than the whole administration could bear. So weird. No, they just needed to make up something so Donny Two Scoops didn't have to fire his buddy, y'know for the whole collusion thing.

He really liked Flynn.
posted by petebest at 5:53 PM on January 5, 2018 [18 favorites]

It sucks, but all things considered it feels like the time still isn't right yet.

I remember reading the National Post at my parent's home in the late 80's or early 90's and there was an editorial that said "Now is not the time for Human Rights in Canada" and detailed all the economic struggles and hardships we faced at the time and how adding human rights would only make all those worse.

It turned out the economic performance of Canada at that time was stronger than the 2000s.

The lesson to take from this is that now is the only opportunity we ever have. If you wait for the future you won't change it.
posted by srboisvert at 5:56 PM on January 5, 2018 [74 favorites]

Am I gonna have to be the first person to point out that the gorilla channel joke mirrors the actually-actual-fact thing about Trump watching Bloodsport, having one of his large adult sons fast-forward through all the non-fighting scenes

Because that actually was a real thing
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:56 PM on January 5, 2018 [42 favorites]

Wolff's book places him in the Four Seasons having breakfast when that's something he never actually did:

I actually just finished that part, and he doesn't say he was there. It seemed implicit to me that it was reconstructed from eyewitness accounts, but not his. He doesn't say "I saw" or "then I said to Ivanka" or anything like that.

Media goin' berzerkaroo man tell you whut dang ol'
posted by petebest at 5:56 PM on January 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

I've been loosely following the initiative to get more women on boards (in both the EU and the US) with both interest and despair for over a decade now. It's brought me to this conclusion: the only way we are going to get any kind of meaningful gender parity in business is basically by blunt force.

Here are just a few quotes from the article about getting more women on boards in European countries that don't have quotas for it:

Men also mentioned quite frequently that they wanted “qualified” and “strong” directors first and foremost.

“I think it is dumb and destructive — demeaning to people who are only on the board because they are in a specific category.” Female directors also expressed doubts. “No one wants to be a second-class citizen.”

Many companies have a historic DNA — all male — and they are not open to thinking about including women. ”Executive recruiters also talked about the difficulty of bringing on more women. One U.S. executive recruiter said that men are reluctant to advocate for more women on boards because of concerns that “I don’t know if I want to be the one that rocks the boat.”

And from a CEO in Norway, where there are quotas:

“In my opinion, what happened in Norway when affirmative action was introduced was that the entire recruitment process of boards was sharpened. The requirements were clarified, the election committee’s responsibility was acknowledged. And the focus on the composition of the boards in general was improved. With that law, the importance of the board was upgraded, and the composition of the board. That is positive. And it might also be because you don’t have to go far back before you see that the recruitment to boards and board members was heavily influenced by a sort of networking mentality, and the close network that you belonged to yourself.”

So where we don't have outright, conscious resistance to having women on boards, we have unconscious bias. If I had a nickel for every time I read an article that quotes a man saying how much he would like to see more women in exec positions/on boards, but bemoans that there aren't any "qualified" women out there or that he couldn't find women who were a "good fit" or "strong" or somesuch, I'd be a rich woman by now.

Because words and phrases like "qualified," "good fit" and "charisma" are easily recognizable to most women who have worked for any length or time in any male-dominated profession and have aspired to climb the ladder. What those words and phrases mean, even if the person speaking them doesn't realize it, is "she doesn't look like me, think like me, talk like me. A woman isn't a man. I can only relate to men, and I am unwilling or unable to expand my mind/horizons to understand or recognize the talent/potential of people who are not like me."

I think we're looking at something similar in politics. If we wait until the Democratic party is "ready" to run a woman candidate for president or is in a good position to do so, we will never run another woman again. Because all we fucking do is find reasons why we don't like her and she's not good enough. And I'm just talking about the Democrats! Elizabeth Warren - too shrill. Amy Klobuchar - too moderate. Kamala Harris - too uppity (double the bias!) Hillary Clinton - too everything. Kirsten Gillibrand - Al Franken.

Just like I believe that the only way to get gender parity in the upper echelons of business (absent affirmative action/quotas), is literally by people just deliberately deciding to hire women, even if their gut ~~bias~~ feeling says otherwise; I also believe that we won't get gender parity in government without fucking just picking the woman, absent any glaring ineptitude or disqualifications (e.g. Sarah Palin).

What this means is I would vote for a Claire McCaskill or a Heidi Heitkamp over a Bernie Sanders or, god help me, a Jason Kander. Representation really matters. You know what kind of an effect seeing women in leadership positions has on girls? They become more ambitous. Which translates to more women running in the future, which by sheer numbers gives us.....more women in politics! We don't get more women unless we have more women and we've shown that we are unwilling or unable to choose more women (in meaningful numbers) on our own. Unless we make a deliberate, conscious, concerted effort. There was a comment in one of the other megathreads on a great system to use when voting, which I used in the most recent elections in November, and will likely continue to use for the forseeable future:

(1) Vote for all the Democrats
(2) If there's more than one Democrat to pick from, vote for women and people of color to the extent you can infer those from names.
(3) If it's a nonpartisan election, vote for women and people of color again.
(4) If it's a ballot proposition, vote no unless I can think of a decent reason to vote yes.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:00 PM on January 5, 2018 [91 favorites]

Trump was preparing to be a loser by laying the groundwork that the election was rigged and that he might not even accept its result. Then when he lost, as expected, he could claim it was rigged but accept the result anyway (eventually at least) - so: win, win, he’d be Martyred President of the 27% and not have to do any work or be accountable.
posted by Rumple at 6:08 PM on January 5, 2018 [20 favorites]

If it's a ballot proposition, vote no unless I can think of a decent reason to vote yes.

Please don't do this (and yes, I am cherrypicking from an otherwise excellent comment, for which I apologize). I know it's a bunch of work, but please do some research instead of just adopting a default curmudgeony stance. You don't have to be an expert—it can be as simple as looking at a couple endorsements or asking your friendly internet wonks on MetaFilter—, but take a moment to look at the arguments.

I've had multiple smart, engaged people express some form to me of "well this is what we pay the legislature to do, so I won't vote for any of them." Depending on the locality, that thinking makes schools and libraries and parks that much harder to fund, not to mention making it harder to pass important measures like major criminal justice reform. They sometimes have deceptive names or are put there by people who are out to trick you. Ballot propositions (and candidates) matter a lot; please don't just use heuristics to decide on them.
posted by zachlipton at 6:17 PM on January 5, 2018 [79 favorites]

NT Alexandra Petri, WaPo: I read ‘Fire and Fury’ so you didn’t have to, President Trump

Just to give you a sense of the general flavor of the thing, so you do not have to read it (you, like Trump, may be “post-literate,” a terrifying new Orwellian term the book coined that makes it sound as if we are moving right on the evolutionary scale instead of left):

In the corner of Trump’s office sat Steve Bannon, like Drosselmeier, flapping his wings and cackling. He did not look so hot, because he was going through everything Trump had said and looking for clues in it, but now he had a flawless 18-point plan which he had written on a white board for all to see. Jared had tried this, too, but he had gotten bored halfway through because he was a mental lightweight and wanted to go try on another suit. Trump was sitting on the floor trying to glue two televisions to one another so that the personalities on them would appear to kiss. This, he felt, would solve the Middle East. Then he ate six hamburgers, which he had sent Reince Priebus, wearing a full face of unflattering powder, to retrieve for him, in case they contained poison. Paul Ryan was a nobody and Bannon disliked him. Who were Steve Miller and Hope Hicks, and what were they doing there? Nobody knew!

It goes on in this vein for some time.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:29 PM on January 5, 2018 [23 favorites]

@brianbeutler
To my knowledge, Steele has not testified to Congress and has only spoken to the FBI about the Russia investigation. What possible fucking basis could Grassley and Graham have for their bullshit referral that wouldn’t constitute a major scandal in its own right?

Later this afternoon, Brian Beutler went on a quick Twitter-tear about this week's events and the Dems' lack of opposition:

I get that it’s a lot to process, but I find the Democrats’ lackadaisical response to everything that’s happened this week pretty stunning.

If a senile Dem president were ginning up investigations of Mitt Romney, leading an obstruction conspiracy that inculpated the White House counsel, the Speaker, the House Intel chair, and others, Republicans would stage walkouts, hold emergency press conferences, etc.

As near as I can tell, the only thing Dems have done this week is try to negotiate a government funding deal with the White House and let Adam Schiff furrow his brow a bit to @ThePlumLineGS.

[Bannon calls Trump-campaign Russia ties treasonous, Republicans admit Trump is unfit to serve]

PELOSI AND SCHUMER:

“We had a positive and productive meeting and all parties have agreed to continue discussing a path forward to quickly resolve all of the issues ahead of us.”

And let's not even bring up the Dem leadership's silence on Trump's personal appointment of Rudy Giuliani's law partner Geoffrey Berman as an interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York, despite the conflict of interest this presents with the ongoing Zarrab trial (and which would cover any cases involving the Kushner Companies and Trump Org). Incidentally, Gillibrand at least said she'd oppose this nomination, while Schumer did not respond for comments.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:31 PM on January 5, 2018 [41 favorites]

Top negative Amazon Review of Fire and Fury via "Glamazon Adventurer" on Twitter.
posted by exlotuseater at 6:42 PM on January 5, 2018 [22 favorites]

It was during Trump’s early intelligence briefings, held soon after he captured the nomination, that alarm signals first went off among his new campaign staff: he seemed to lack the ability to take in third-party information. Or maybe he lacked the interest; whichever, he seemed almost phobic about having formal demands on his attention. He stonewalled every written page and balked at every explanation.

“He’s a guy who really hated school,” said Bannon. “And he’s not going to start liking it now.”
However alarming, Trump’s way of operating also presented an opportunity to the people in closest proximity to him: by understanding him, by observing the kind of habits and reflexive responses that his business opponents had long learned to use to their advantage, they might be able to game him, to move him. Still, while he might be moved today, nobody underestimated the complexities of continuing to move him in the same direction tomorrow.

We do a lot of that here - trying to parse the tweets and spittle. But it's really as simple as understanding NPD or

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder in which there is a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of understanding of others' feelings.[2][3] People affected by it often spend a lot of time thinking about achieving power or success, or about their appearance.[3] They often take advantage of the people around them.[3] The behavior typically begins by early adulthood, and occurs across a variety of situations.[3]

And what's made clear in the book is Trump is . . . "funny" about psychological things. In the standard, "don't talk about it, don't want to know, I'm fine, no no no". The passage above from the book is one of several where Trump basically shuts down when given *any* information. He's either talking or you've got 5 seconds to slap him into your reality before he toddles off again. All day. Every day.

He has no James Baker, no fixer, no sidekick - it's all about him now and $organizing_principle help the person who upstages him. So all those vacant governmental positions are likely to atrophy and just die with nothing ever happening, because nobody can jam two names between his ears before he gets distracted by a moth and tweets out another nation-rattling exclamation. Like, literally nobody. We're presided over by a self-absorbed, racist, tiny-handed rock.
posted by petebest at 6:43 PM on January 5, 2018 [23 favorites]

→ I'm waiting for some right-wing commentator to angrily debunk it.

What, like Gavin McInnes?
posted by scruss at 6:44 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

I Don’t Know How to Feel About This Shocking Trump Tell-All

Everyone is talking about the explosive forthcoming book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Literally everyone. I walked into my coffee shop this morning and the barista screamed, "Honey, all we're serving is TEA today, honey! Scalding hot!... Also we have, like coffee, too. I'm just excited. Sorry."
...
The excerpts are a masterpiece of spurious gossip, mixing commonly held beliefs with dialogue that crackles with shade. It can't possibly all be true. But also probably is. We are living in middle of what future historian will refer to as the Hot Mess Ages, also known as Dumpster Fire Times. The book is sure to be an instant hit. Next week's New York Times bestseller listing is just going to be four fire emojis and this GIF.

posted by kirkaracha at 7:24 PM on January 5, 2018 [18 favorites]

Hey, totally unrelated to the gossip book:

Any MeFites in Idaho, d'you know anything about Paulette Jordan? What's the good money on her gubernatorial run? Is she a candidate worth heavily supporting? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Because this is a profile that has me really interested in her as a potential upset local candidate, and it sounds like she's a person to watch in her upcoming election. I'm really enjoying the slates of women, particularly women of color, building up to run for office at all levels this coming fall, and I like to have an eye on who is seriously running and who can use a boost of support well ahead of the game. I can't donate much right now, but knowing who looks particularly savvy is useful to help get the word out about some of the more local elections that aren't receiving as much attention as our federal dumpster fire.

(I've already sorted out my likely votes for my state House rep, who is up for election in a seat that's contested after the incumbent, ah, got involved in a major scandal and nearly was impeached; the woman challenging her I like best is another black woman, so that makes me happy. I want to see more women in office, and Cole has easily the most experience of the slate of candidates challenging for the post. I like my incumbent state Senate and federal House reps just fine and will request to keep them, and I'm cautiously very about Beto O'Rourke, but I'm also watching a bunch of offices that aren't in my district and trying to keep an enthusiastic eye out in particular for interesting women of color with good local support. We have a lot of women running in office this fall in Texas, so there's plenty to choose from! I'm newly interested in and excited about the candidacies of Gina Ortiz Jones, for one thing. And there's never been a Texas Latina in Congress, which is absurd. We've got a lot of good shots to make that happen this fall here, though--Jana Lynn Sanchez in DFW, Sylvia Garcia in Houston, Veronica Escobar in El Paso--I'm actually really excited and hope to see someone break that particular barrier soon. There's no shortage of good local talent here, and we should have representatives who share the backgrounds of their constituents.

And god, if Lupe Valdez can win her gubernatorial bid, I'll be fucking beside myself: it's a long shot, but it'd be fucking amazing to get Abbott out of office, and I think she's got better positions than her main rival for candidacy. Plus there's this interview highlighting several other good women to watch in Texas this fall. Dani Pellett sounds kickass in particular--someone who's a progressive trans woman, an ex-conservative who knows how conservatives think, and who has solid recommendations for organizing for people new to the whole thing? I like it.)

What local candidates are the rest of you interested in and watching?
posted by sciatrix at 8:11 PM on January 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Speaking of local candidates and female candidates, in the district over from mine, TX-31, Dr. Christine Mann is running for Congress and today one of her large campaign signs had a noose hanging from it. [Link to photo on her FB campaign page.] So...that's fun.
posted by threeturtles at 8:23 PM on January 5, 2018 [15 favorites]

*delighted* And I put all that in before I read triggerfinger's excellent comment on going out and pushing for support of women in office. I am lucky: here in Texas there are currently many women of color in particular running. But there are women running everywhere, and I deliberately support women before men because she's precisely right: representation matters.

Seriously. Y'all, that internalized misogyny will fuck us every time. The only way you fight it is by proactively going out and looking for women to be excited about. Find people you hadn't thought to hear about and talk about them. Think of things you like about these women. Think about how you're framing them, and what makes each candidate exciting. You're probably "expecting" a candidate to be, well, male, and the media will not help you if you just sit and wait to be impressed. Go find someone who is cool and doing cool things you can get behind, and if you can support diversity of experience, perspectives, and underrepresentation at the same time, by all means count that as a plus on its own. Lupe Valdez is not a perfect candidate, but she's a damn sight better than milquetoast Andrew White and her minority status means that she is going to bring a wildly different perspective than he does to her constituency and her campaign. These things are important.

As for ballot propositions, for god's sake, don't be a curmudgeon on principle if it's going to yield ground to Republicans you might otherwise win. Check in with your local League of Women Voters if you aren't sure about ballot props--that's how I've always formed my opinions about mine, and they helpfully lay out all the pro and con arguments right next to each other for you so you can see what the ups and downsides of each are. It's really not hard to form an informed opinion with those fine ladies putting together all that work.
posted by sciatrix at 8:24 PM on January 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

holy shit, threeturtles. Well.

That's a hell of a thing to take and weaponize, at least, if you're choosing to take the optimistic view? Imagine chanting at a rally: "Do we obey threats from lynchers?"
posted by sciatrix at 8:26 PM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

What local candidates are the rest of you interested in and watching?

I met a guy who is on the city council a couple of towns over from me, he's running for county supervisor and I think I will get involved in the local campaign. It's pretty low stakes in the middle of an ocean of blue, but the idea of going door to door is still way past my comfort zone. But I want to contribute more time and less snark. I've also started going to city council meetings, a community clean up group and plan to sign up as an election volunteer this year. Welcome to 40!
posted by ActingTheGoat at 8:28 PM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

teleri025: "I actually shouted out loud last week when my BFF Howard Dean said the Boomers need to step out of politics. Seriously. The mid-range Gen Xers like myself are right at the edge of the age qualification for President, and it is time."

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:35 PM on January 5, 2018 [21 favorites]

Danica Roem will be 35 in 2019, in time to run for president. Not that I'm suggesting she run, but - look, we've established that "political experience" is absolutely irrelevant to the office. Let's start looking at people who are going to be innovative and energetic enough to push back against the fetid heap of sludge that's going to be left at the end of this administration.

I want candidates who will look at the raw legal structure of the government and say, "here's my plan that works within that," and are willing to absolutely ignore a couple-hundred years of precedent, social norms, and delicate maneuvering for later political power. I want a candidate who says, "I'm a one-term candidate - I want to get stuff done and not give a thought to re-election. I'm here to fix our government, 'establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty,' not make friends with lobbyists."
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 8:45 PM on January 5, 2018 [9 favorites]

All other books are canceled in America, we only read one book now.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:49 PM on January 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

ErisLordFreedom: "Danica Roem will be 35 in 2019, in time to run for president. Not that I'm suggesting she run, but - look, we've established that "political experience" is absolutely irrelevant to the office. "

Feels like we're currently establishing just the opposite.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:49 PM on January 5, 2018 [32 favorites]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, 8/19/2017: "White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve's last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best"

Donald Trump, tonight: "Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!"

A mutual decision indeed. This also marks the return of the "like a dog" construction, which has long been one of Trump's favorites but has been largely missing in action lately. Trump does not appear to know what a dog is or what they do. Please see the 2016 classic on this topic, Donald Trump Clearly Doesn’t Understand How Dogs Work.
posted by zachlipton at 8:52 PM on January 5, 2018 [46 favorites]

we've established that "political experience" is absolutely irrelevant to the office.

Feels like we're currently establishing just the opposite.

We've established that experience is irrelevant to getting elected to office.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:52 PM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Sciatrix - Possible candidate of interest to you in Pat Spearman, who is running for the Dem nom in NV-04. She's got an interesting bio (she's a black, gay Army vet and a minister), and I believe is well regarded by Nevada progressives.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:02 PM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Experience is irrelevant to getting elected. Skill and ability aren't irrelevant to being able to do the job well, but I'm long past the point of believing those are best shown by years or decades of experience in elected positions, which mostly show the ability to get elected.

In this year and the next couple, I'll be looking as much at a candidate's trusted advisors as at the candidate's track record - I'm happy to support someone with little direct experience but a good talent for choosing knowledgeable, sensible aides who can accurately condense an array of complex details into a set of options for decision-making. In short, I'll be looking for someone who can delegate responsibly, not for Monarch of America.

I don't expect that person to be younger than 50, but I'm not discounting the idea that they might be under 40.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:09 PM on January 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** 2018 Senate:

-- Good bit of discussion about this earlier, but GOP candidate Josh Mandel has dropped out of the OH Senate race unexpectedly, due to some serious health problems his wife is having. Politically, this is could be be good or bad (obviously, personally we wish the best for his wife's recovery). On the one hand, Mandel is extremely conservative, and the filing deadline is only a month away (Feb 7). On the other hand, Mandel was seen as a lousy candidate, and two of the gubernatorial candidates are considering switching races and jumping in. Sherrod Brown is still the favorite to hold the seat, but this might make it a little tighter.

-- DSCC chair Van Hollen seems to be getting markedly more optimistic about flipping GOP-held Senate seats.

** 2018 House:

-- Ron DeSantis [R-FL-06] is retiring to run for FL governor. District is distinctly red (Trump 57-40, Romney 52-47), but in the current environment it might be possible.

-- WP: Trump moves this week on pot and offshore drilling may prove to be most unpopular in the very areas most vulnerable to Dems picking up seats.

-- GOP seats with no Dem challenger now down to 16.

** OH-12 special -- Dates have been set for the special election to fill Pat Tiberi's seat - May 8 primary (which is the regular primary), and Aug 7 general.

** PA-18 special -- Race round-up from local TV station WPXI. Not much news here yet, although interesting tidbit that Dems and GOP were tied in the judicial races in the district in November.

** Odds & ends:

-- Cities and counties are trying to help voters register, in the face of state suppression efforts.

-- Oklahoma group trying to get an initiative on the ballot to move redistricting to an independent commission. OK Mefites, check them out!

===

Fun fact: We're pretty sure Chris Van Hollen stays at the house across the street from us when we go to the beach every year.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:23 PM on January 5, 2018 [33 favorites]

I hate to break it to you, but if you’re at the edge of 35, you’re a millennial.

Early Gen-Xrs are over 50 now, just.

Trudeau, at 46, is mid-cycleish. Macron, at 40, is towards the tail. Arden, in NZ, at 37, born in 1980, is just about the last birth year of the cohort.
posted by bonehead at 9:31 PM on January 5, 2018 [16 favorites]

As far as I'm concerned Drumpf should stay on Twitter. Any arena in which he can potentially self-immolate faster is fine with me.
posted by bendy at 9:46 PM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

Natasha Bertrand for Business Insider: Trump Campaign Digital Director: 'Not One Person Made A Decision' Without Kushner and Eric Trump's 'Approval'

The digital director of the Trump campaign said Friday that the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and son Eric Trump "were joint deputy campaign managers" whose "approval" was required for every decision before the 2016 election.

"Nobody else. Not one person made a decision without their approval," the digital director, Brad Parscale, tweeted. "Others just took credit for this family's amazing ability. I'm done with all these lies. They will be embarrassed!"

Kushner was Parscale's "patron," according to a person familiar with the campaign's inner workings, which could explain their closeness.

Kushner got Parscale hired, the person said, "despite the fact that a number of people in the campaign wondered whether he had any idea what he was doing."

"He's Jared's boy," the person added. "I had [campaign] deputies telling me they couldn't question anything the guy did or said, and they were unhappy about that."

Sounds like Parscale is rattled after Sen. Feinstein summoned him to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Incidentally, Feinstein also wants to know if his campaign colleague and Trump social media director Dan Scavino had "corresponded with Russian nationals regarding Trump campaign social media efforts."
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:48 PM on January 5, 2018 [8 favorites]

When 45 tweets the word "dog," he is using it in place of the word "bitch." Go through the otherwise nonsensical examples in the article zachlipton linked to and the intended usage will become clear.

On another note, I was able to vote an all-female ticket in November. I was considering choosing a white guy who was running for the board of supervisors in my district, but after the Access Hollywood tape and all that, I just couldn't. I went for the incumbent woman of color instead (whom I have always liked as my supe just fine), marking pretty much my whole ballot for women from president on down.

Then last month the mayor suddenly died and now my supervisor, London Breed, is the new Mayor of San Francisco, and will be running to fill the mayoral vacancy permanently. I don't know what the takeaway is there, really, except that things happen, so vote!
posted by obloquy at 9:52 PM on January 5, 2018 [35 favorites]

Trump does not appear to know what a dog is or what they do.

We learned in the Access Hollywood tape that when Trump says "dog" he means "bitch".
posted by dirigibleman at 9:58 PM on January 5, 2018 [11 favorites]

Ha, dirigbleman, yeah, I realized in retrospect that my two different comments were actually related after all.
posted by obloquy at 10:05 PM on January 5, 2018

Drew Magary for GQ: Michael Wolff Did What Every Other White House Reporter Is Too Cowardly to Do

Trump ascended into power in part because he relied on other people being too nice. It’s fun to rampage through the china shop when the china shop owner is standing over there being like, “SIR, that is not how we do things here!” If Trump refuses to abide by the standard (and now useless) “norms” of the presidency—shit, if he doesn't even KNOW them—why should ANYONE in the press adhere to needless norms of their own?
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:51 PM on January 5, 2018 [94 favorites]

For those whose access to the book is or forever will be nonexistent, there's a Twitter read-along thread to bookmark.
posted by dhartung at 10:55 PM on January 5, 2018 [6 favorites]

I would like to know how many people in the white house watched House of Cards and thought that Michael Wolff was just a guy like Thomas Yates from the TV show and that letting a novelist follow the president around was a totally normal thing and not something that some writers completely made up.
posted by Quonab at 11:22 PM on January 5, 2018 [23 favorites]

(The inevitable climax of the book news cycle is that the President will tweet that the book is inaccurate because he never asked for the gorilla channel to be installed.)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:48 PM on January 5, 2018 [26 favorites]

I'm sure by the end of next week there actually will be a Gorilla Channel. Which will be declare fake news in a tweet.
posted by Grangousier at 1:21 AM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Who can wait a week? VICE News presents: The Gorilla Channel.

It's very [fake], but I'm sure you sussed that.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:46 AM on January 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Leaving these last two, mainly because we'll just have to keep re-deleting, but now please drop the Gorilla Channel. It didn't happen, it wasn't in the book, it was a twitter joke, we all laughed, people keep reporting it as actual news. okay! Now plz stop.
posted by taz (staff) at 2:10 AM on January 6, 2018 [25 favorites]

FT Politico article on Fox & Friend:
Trump also uses his DVR vigorously, often starting at the beginning of a program even if it started hours before he sits down to watch it, then fast-forwarding through commercials and segments that don’t interest him.

Does this mean John Oliver's money has been mostly to waste? Brief googling gives me nothing useful.
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 2:27 AM on January 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

All other books are canceled in America, we only read one book now.

Well, that's one more than Trump.

I went to see a theatre production of George Bernard Shaw's 1919 play Heartbreak House last night, where the idea of letting a businessman/politician run the world is described as "like giving a torpedo to a badly brought-up child to play at earthquakes with". I can't think why, but that line seemed to jump out at me for some reason.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:39 AM on January 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

A strongly-worded ad (YT) for Kentucky's Amy McGrath who is not from a state the Democrats are going to win anyway.

This reminds me: among the truly stupid things the Republicans have done in this past two years, letting Democrats filch 'patriotism' as a value was a tremendous own goal. I mean, there are bigger ones, but after they rid themselves of Trump they're going to be dealing with Democrats making attack ads about Republicans not standing up for America and American values for years, if not decades.
posted by Merus at 3:55 AM on January 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

The President is up and threatening individual journalists:

Trump: ABC News reporter ‘should have been fired!’

President Trump on Saturday took aim at a reporter who made a mistake in his reporting on over a month ago, sending a fresh tweet decrying the reporter’s ability to do his job.

“Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!” Trump tweeted.

Between this and his calls for prior restraint censorship of the Wolff book, it’s been a banner week for free speech and this White House.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:33 AM on January 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

He's tweeting strongly and bigly this morning. Apparently we have got this guy all wrong:

From the President*'s twitter:
1. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....
2. Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....
3. ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!
posted by stonepharisee at 4:42 AM on January 6, 2018 [44 favorites]

^ Those are verbatim, folks. I just checked. Aghast (but not, like, really surprised). Yikes.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:47 AM on January 6, 2018 [57 favorites]

These Camp David meetings are going to consist almost entirely of Trump going around the table one by one and asking Ryan, McConnell, etc., "I'm smart. You think I'm, like, really smart, right?"
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:48 AM on January 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

....and a very stable genius at that!

*registers new sock puppet*
posted by petebest at 4:52 AM on January 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

That's definitely not him tweeting this morning. Way too coherent. Independent clauses set off by commas, "at that"... no way he's that sophisticated.
posted by neroli at 4:53 AM on January 6, 2018 [24 favorites]

A strongly-worded ad yt (YT) for Kentucky's Amy McGrath who is not from a state the Democrats are going to win anyway.

That was a great ad, but McGrath may have been screwed over by Jim Gray's entry into that race.

I'd like to see McGrath take on Paul or McConnell, though. Gray and Thomas either one would have problems in a state wide race but McGrath might do quite well against either of those.

McGrath's follow up on those two youtube videos has been really poor, that's one reason Jim Gray got in the race. She has no real support from the state Democratic party (not necessarily bad, given how fucking terrible the KY Dems are at...life?), but more importantly didn't secure much donor support outside the initial video's drop, and her perception as an outsider isn't going over well in the district. The Barr people weren't scared of her, they didn't want Gray in the race. Gray is a popular mayor, and won the district even while he got blown out statewide.

Who knows what 2020 will look like and McConnell is hated even in the state...but he can raise almost infinite money to outspend anyone, and KY Democrats have run the same absolute shit campaign in the last three (at least) Senate races. Jack Conway, Alison Lundergan Grimes, and Jim Gray, all ran with essentially the same staff of paid to lose KY Democratic consultants, with essentially the same message of being a Republican who doesn't like Obama but somehow not as Republican as Paul and McConnell. Grimes famously refused to even admit she voted for Obama, when she was a Democratic convention delegate. Whoever runs that same campaign again will lose, like they've lost the last 30 years. The only way to unseat McConnell is to do something different and run an outsider effort. Maybe that could be McGrath, but she's got a lot of work to do.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:09 AM on January 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump
....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!

It's a small point, but 2016 was not his first try. Either he didn't write this, or he's trying to photoshop out his own history like a Stalinist ouroboros, or he does not remember his own presidential campaign. Any of these is equally plausible.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:19 AM on January 6, 2018 [87 favorites]

Stable? There's that word again. For those into portents, Theresa May was banging on about 'strong and stable' government just before she lost her majority in an election. It remains a figure of ready ridicule to this day
posted by Devonian at 5:20 AM on January 6, 2018

You guys I'm super stable right now. Like, so stable. I'm not drinking wine out of a ziplock bag at all. I'm also, like, really smart and my eye is for sure not twitching. Like,at all.

Is this real life?
posted by Bacon Bit at 5:23 AM on January 6, 2018 [44 favorites]

Up here in Canada, Stephen Harper was also big on the whole “strong, stable” thing.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:29 AM on January 6, 2018

> my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.

He clearly didn't write this part, since he wouldn't know to put commas there. But if I was writing it for comedic effect, I'd add the 'like' aside-- if you told me it was a line from the movie Clueless I would've believed you. So is he dictating this to an underling? Someone who has enough sense to add the commas but not enough clout to tell him how silly it makes him sound? I guess I'm trying to make sense of someone being tasked with transcribing this but not quitting immediately.
posted by bluecore at 5:36 AM on January 6, 2018 [31 favorites]

This reminds me: among the truly stupid things the Republicans have done in this past two years, letting Democrats filch 'patriotism' as a value was a tremendous own goal.

To be fair to them, Democrats had been leaving it on the table and carefully pretending it wasn't there for decades. Or do you not remember the push a year ago even on Metafilter for actual pride in the nation to be acceptable on the left?

Because I very, very distinctly remember snarling and snapping at the usual leftist cynical denouncement of the USA and its actions, as if not caring will protect you from the consequences of failure to be involved. I remember the Whelk picking up that standard, too, and I remember an actual shift just in the last year pushing national pride into a comfortable leftist sentiment.

Frankly, I'd less call that a Republican own goal than a reliance on the leftist own goal that Democrats had reliably made since my parents were toddlers.
posted by sciatrix at 5:38 AM on January 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

Trump essentially replied to the (apt) characterization that he’s like a child with: “NO I AM VEWY BIG BOY!”

Hamill wrote this in response to the Wolff/Bannon crying/begging like a dog tweet, but it works for pretty much any Trump tweet.

@HamillHimself
Retweeted Donald J. Trump
Congratulations, sir! This dignified, statesman-like tweet is the perfect way to counter the book's narrative that you're an impulsive, childish dimwit.
posted by chris24 at 5:45 AM on January 6, 2018 [145 favorites]

All these implications of potential discovery at the top of this thread, why don't more reporters and informant types leverage that?
Call his bluff.
Push for discovery.
Over and over again.

I'm all for calling a blustery lawyers bluff.

But discovery is not magic. 1st you ask and when they FAIL to produce you then have to go in front of a Judge. A Judge who gets campaign contributions from various sources - including the attorneys who appear before them.

And the Judge can say "NO" to discovery. Or can say "I will not approve or hear any motions to compel discovery in this case." and then never actually issue a written order to that end. So you can make the motion and nothing happens.

Then you have to properly preserve the objections every time so the appeals court will be able to make the ruling on no proper order existing.

The shitshow that is court is why the costs are a concern and why most people just settle VS the multi-year fight.
posted by rough ashlar at 5:45 AM on January 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

> Stable? There's that word again.

Up here in Canada, Stephen Harper was also big on the whole “strong, stable” thing.

You know who else emphasized "strong and stable" leadership?

Seriously, Godwinning aside, this trope in the authoritarian leadership style tries to appeal to people's anxiety in times of uncertainty and change. Add a cult of personality/celebrity-worship on top of that, and Trump was guaranteed to use it in regard to himself.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:53 AM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.

That "like" is haunting me. Is the person who typed that tweet messing with Trump? Messing with us? How and why is it there?
posted by diogenes at 5:58 AM on January 6, 2018 [90 favorites]

The always thoughtful David Remnick at the New Yorker weighs in on the stability/fitness question, with a particular emphasis on Trump’s use and abuse of Twitter:

The Increasing Unfitness of Donald Trump

Chaotic, corrupt, incurious, infantile, grandiose, and obsessed with gaudy real estate, Donald Trump is of a Neronic temperament. He has always craved attention. Now the whole world is his audience. In earlier times, Trump cultivated, among others, the proprietors and editors of the New York tabloids, Fox News, TMZ, and the National Enquirer. Now Twitter is his principal outlet, with no mediation necessary.

Last week, when Trump returned to Washington from Mar-a-Lago, he set a White House record with a sixteen-tweet day. He behaved less like a President than like a teen-ager locked in his room with an ounce of Purple Skunk, three Happy Meals, and a cell phone. In one tweet, directed at the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, he arguably narrowed the odds of nuclear confrontation—and did so with a reference to an anatomical feature that is a subject of keen and ongoing concern to the President.

Future scholars will sift through Trump’s digital proclamations the way we now read the chroniclers of Nero’s Rome—to understand how an unhinged emperor can make a mockery of republican institutions, undo the collective nervous system of a country, and degrade the whole of public life.

And so the West Wing in the era of Trump has come to resemble the dankest realms of Twitter itself: a set of small rooms and cramped hallways in which everyone is racked with paranoia and everyone despises everyone else.

Nero had hoped to last long enough on the throne to re-brand the month of April “Neroneus” and the city of Rome “Neropolis.” He did not succeed. When he was thirty, having spent thirteen years in power, he was condemned by the Roman Senate as hostis publicus, a public enemy. He was doomed. One of his last utterances seemed to mark the despair of the politician-performance artist: Qualis artifex pereo! “What an artist dies in me!”

Scandal envelops the President. Obstruction of justice, money-laundering, untoward contacts with foreign governments—it is unclear where the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation will land and what might eventually rouse the attention of the U.S. Senate. Clearly, Trump senses the danger. A former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been indicted. A former national-security adviser, Michael Flynn, has admitted to lying to the F.B.I. and has become a coöperating witness. The President sees one West Wing satrap and Cabinet official after another finding a distance from him. “Where is my Roy Cohn?” he asked his aides angrily, according to the Times, when his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, defied his wishes and recused himself from the Russia investigation.

In the meantime, there is little doubt about who Donald Trump is, the harm he has done already, and the greater harm he threatens. He is unfit to hold any public office, much less the highest in the land. This is not merely an orthodoxy of the opposition; his panicked courtiers have been leaking word of it from his first weeks in office. The President of the United States has become a leading security threat to the United States.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:03 AM on January 6, 2018 [82 favorites]

After this mornings tweet I've been shouting at my wife about rebublican gerrymandering and the insane double standard Democrats have to meet to be elected. Happy Saturday everyone. I think I'll go over to the Meta fucking fuck thread and scream there for awhile.
posted by photoslob at 6:04 AM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

The like is there because he's trying to connect with the youths of 1983 when he was last coherent. Unfortunately, I am not kidding. He pings back to the early 80s ALL THE TIME.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 6:04 AM on January 6, 2018 [23 favorites]

That "like" is haunting me. Is the person who typed that tweet messing with Trump? Messing with us? How and why is it there?

My first thought is that Millennial Santa Monican Stephen Miller wrote that tweet and dropped the "like" in as a shibboleth message to twitter kremlinologists that he's wielding power. It really doesn't seem like something T would write, particularly not the correct punctuation.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:05 AM on January 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Was there anyone on Fox this morning that way? 'The President is you know, like, awesome and smart.'

I don't think he wrote those either but him hearing someone speak like that is also a plausible. He also could be repeating what some, probably youngish, staffer was saying to soothe him. 'Yes Mr President. We know it's all lies. You are like, so smart. A genius. Yes yes, stable. A stable genius'
posted by Jalliah at 6:17 AM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

What a perfect day for a constitution to have a 25th amendment
posted by Going To Maine at 6:20 AM on January 6, 2018 [34 favorites]

Trump often uses the “like” when he says he’s smart. Examples here. The idea that it was dictated does make a little sense but it’s so hard to imagine a stenographer actually keeping that tic in. I think he typed it himself.

He peppers qualifiers into his lies so frequently that I wonder if the “like” when he says this is a form of that.
posted by rustcellar at 6:35 AM on January 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

Trump varies between dictating his tweets and writing them himself, so that "like" could be simply a verbal tick.

What's important is how Trump's using Twitter to manipulate public discourse and communicate with his base (and, of course, fuck with the rest of us).

Cognitive linguist George Lakoff (previously, previously, ) created a "Taxonomy of Trump Tweets", outlining them in this tweetstorm:

Trump uses social media as a weapon to control the news cycle. It works like a charm. His tweets are tactical rather than substantive. They mostly fall into one of these four categories.

[1) Preemptive Framing (Be the first to frame an idea); 2) Diversion (Divert attention from real issues); 3) Deflection (Attack the messenger, change direction); and 4) Trial Balloon (Test public reaction).]

The tweets either get his framing established first, knowing that whoever frames first tends to win. Or when things look bad for him, he diverts attention or attacks the messenger. And when he wants to test public opinion, he puts out an outrageous trial balloon.

Each tweet gets his message retweeted so he dominates social media. Reporters, social media influencers, and many others fall for it hook, line, and sinker. Every time. They retweet, share, and repeat his messages ad infinitum. This helps Trump tremendously.

They may think they’re negating or undermining him, but that’s not how human brains work. As a cognitive scientist, I can tell you: repeating his messages only helps him.

First, it focuses all attention on Trump’s antics. This makes his nonsense seem like the most important thing in the world. It’s called the “focusing illusion” – and it’s a large part of why he got elected in the first place. It makes him larger than life.

Second, constant repetition of his Trump’s messages embeds them deeply in the brains of millions of people. Whether it’s locking up his opponents or threatening nuclear war, he has the power to control tens of millions of brains via tweets. He focuses them on his chosen topics.

Third, the constant attacks and outrage increase his credibility with his base. He can portray himself as a victim of the “establishment” – under constant attacks (which he provokes with tweets). He acts, his opponents only react. He is in heroic control.

Fortunately, Lakoff does have practical advice for the media and Twitter on how to counteract Trump's tactics: "1) Talk about the Truth (Frame the real issues, like Russia, foreign policy, business connections); 2) Note Attempt to Divert Attention (Say that he's diverting attention. When claims are false, say why.; 3) Go Back to Real Issues (Don't spend too much time on diversions. Get right back to the issues at hand.)"
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:41 AM on January 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

Guess what they were talking about on Fox right before El Presidente tweeted.
posted by PenDevil at 6:41 AM on January 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

And from the Trump/Fox and Friends scholar himself:

@MattGertz: Here's this mornings thread matching Trump's tweets to Fox and Friends programming

posted by pjenks at 6:45 AM on January 6, 2018 [14 favorites]

That "like" is haunting me. Is the person who typed that tweet messing with Trump? Messing with us? How and why is it there?

It stopped me dead in my tracks as well. I thought about him going through the trouble of typing those commas. It makes sense that someone else does the typing. Is it possible he just says them into his phone and they are transcribed for automatically? But if that were true how would the transcriber know to keep it under the character limit. Aren't the commas basically wasted characters?

I think I need to go for a walk...
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:48 AM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

You can't claim mental stability as something you're particularly know for. It's the assumed default. It's like claiming you've always been known for your lack of senility. Mental stability only becomes noteworthy when you don't possess it.
posted by diogenes at 6:52 AM on January 6, 2018 [71 favorites]

As rustcellar posted, he often uses "like" when talking about how smart he is. It's a verbal tic he uses to emphasize just how intelligent he is – 'I'm not just smart, I'm, like, smart' – that he includes when writing/dictating. But of course instead of emphasizing how smart he is, it just comes off as Valley Girl/Clueless/Fredo speak that refutes the point he's trying to make.
posted by chris24 at 6:54 AM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm fairly convinced that the actual person typing into the Twitter is frequently Hope Hicks. She's a permanent fixture at this side, indeed Comms is her job title. She not doubt knows where and how to hang a comma.
posted by bonehead at 6:55 AM on January 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Interviewer: Tell me your greatest strengths.
You: Well, I'm mentally stable, lucid, and intelligible.
posted by diogenes at 7:00 AM on January 6, 2018 [66 favorites]

Doesn't the "like" distinguish between actual intelligence and deviousness? Since he is already using up all his quotation marks for running-text-emphasis, he has no other tools left to make this distinction.

The whole "genius" bit sounds more and more like Wile E. Coyote, which generation-wise would make some profound sense. This is not even meant as tongue-in-cheek: can't it be that his entire world view ultimately is modeled on the heroes from Loony Tunes? It would explain everything.
posted by Namlit at 7:19 AM on January 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

I'm flying back to the states tomorrow night. I've just caught up on Donnie's morning dump. Is it too much to ask for my flight from HKG to SFO to just fall out of the sky? I volunteer as tribute to be a blotch on Donnie's perfect aviation record.
posted by Talez at 7:36 AM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

Hope graduated from SMU, here in Dallas. If you were to go to the neighborhood where smu students live, and listen to the patterns, "like" is used regularly as a pause word. It's not used in quite the same way as valley speech from the 80s, but has a lot of similar usage. I would bet that Hope, by virtue of constant contact has tripped the 80s trigger in 45s brain, and thus the linguistic tic.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:51 AM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

More of the best people, Former NPS Official Found To Have Overlooked Environmental Regs Said To Be Next Acting Director

A former top National Park Service official implicated more than a decade ago for improperly paving the way for the owner of the Washington Redskins to cut down trees on a 2-acre scenic easement along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park is expected to become the agency's next acting director, possibly as soon as next week, National Parks Traveler has learned.
...
Mr. Smith, at the time special assistant to then-NPS Director Fran Mainella, was found by the Interior Department's Inspector General to have "inappropriately used his position to apply pressure and circumvent NPS procedures" to permit Redskins owner Dan Snyder to have trees up to 6 inches wide at breast height on the easement cut down to improve the Potomac River view from his mansion.
...
Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, was disappointed that Secretary Zinke would bring Smith back into the Park Service.

"It is disturbing but perhaps indicative that the Trump people would resurrect a political hatchet man to take the helm at the National Park Service. In the Snyder-gate affair, Smith demonstrated a complete lack of respect for protecting park resources or for following established safeguards," Mr. Ruch said in an email Thursday. "It is also noteworthy that the IG investigators found Smith to be untruthful and that his mendacity prolonged the investigation at taxpayer expense – showing a troubling comfort level with alternative facts.

"Besides being a political-fixer, Smith also presided over a campaign of retaliation against the whistleblower, Chief Ranger Rob Danno, who reported the illegal tree-cutting to the IG. A recent survey of Interior employees found not only high rates of harassment but also reported retaliation," the PEER official added. "If promises by Secretary Zinke to change the culture of the Park Service are to be believed, then bringing in someone like Dan Smith is not only at cross-purposes but reinforces the very worst aspects of the deep dysfunctionality plaguing NPS."

posted by peeedro at 7:55 AM on January 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

The Republicans are now the party of identity politics by Lucia Graves/The Guardian

When I was in Maine visiting my husband’s family this summer, a prominent former lefty leader bemoaned his party’s “emphasis on identity politics”, adding what Democrats really need is a more “masculine” candidate and a focus on the white working class.
This is the most pernicious form of identity politics of all: identity politics for me but not for thee. Trump and others on the right and sometimes the left have sought to dress it up as a form of populism, but it’s just old-fashioned nativism with a new 21st-century twist.

There were glints of it with the rise of the Tea Party but never have white identity politics – the costumed politics of bigotry – reached such great heights, all while still passing for invisible. If there’s a three-legged stool to the GOP now its legs are all of a piece: whiteness, wealth and masculinity.

posted by mumimor at 8:04 AM on January 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

This has been said, but I'm kinda worried about the trend of medicalizing politics. It diverts attention from and warps narratives of politics. It doesn't help with the stigma of mental health.

If Donald Trump has a psychiatric / neurological / psychological condition, he deserves benefiting from health care and professional help, like everyone else. But politics is far bigger than Trump the person. It's about why and how a nation ended up with Trump as the president, and the future implications of the Trumpogenic societal state and process for countless people. We cannot medicate this reality of pre-existing political hell beyond illness as metaphor.
posted by runcifex at 8:05 AM on January 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

"That "like" is haunting me. Is the person who typed that tweet messing with Trump? Messing with us? How and why is it there? "

Out of curiousty I read the info wars comment section on this and everyone agrees he's trolling libruls. You can't win with trumpers because they will celebrate his "successes " and say his failures are "tactical trolling".
posted by Tarumba at 8:08 AM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

As someone with years on the internet, I can tell you that when someone is ranting about how not-mad they are, they are definitely not upset. They are laughing. You are the one who is mad.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:16 AM on January 6, 2018 [25 favorites]

But politics is far bigger than Trump the person. It's about why and how a nation ended up with Trump as the president, and the future implications of the Trumpogenic societal state and process for countless people. We cannot medicate this reality of pre-existing political hell beyond illness as metaphor.

Hmmm yeah but the dynamics of abuse are not metaphorical. That’s what keeps blowing my mind. The ways authoritarians and narcissists abuse people on the personal scale are the ways Trump and the GOP abuse the country on the political scale. It’s not even a metaphor.

The personal really is political. I keep doing a Keanu “whoa” every time I see it anew.

And I don’t think you can separate Trump the man, with all his obvious mental, cognitive, emotional, and psychological issues with political support for that man. Because those traits are part of why people support him. There are always people who support abusers.

You’re right that we need to reckon with that. But you can’t separate it from the man himself. He’s not the cause, but he’s the shitty little diagnostic test strip telling us exactly how we’re sick.

The personal is political. It’s freaking me out.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:18 AM on January 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

To be fair to them, Democrats had been leaving it on the table and carefully pretending it wasn't there for decades. Or do you not remember the push a year ago even on Metafilter for actual pride in the nation to be acceptable on the left?

No? This was clearly before I joined, slightly less than a year ago, and before that it didn't really come up on Twitter. Part of the problem is that the American left pay enough attention to the rest of the world to notice that when Americans start getting patriotic, the rest of the world starts getting really uncomfortable. But the rah-rah flags-and-pledges approach isn't particularly impressive when it also means you're saluting Donald Trump, so maybe we'll see a different way to express patriotism in the near future. We can but hope.
posted by Merus at 8:20 AM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

@huntthesnark on Twitter:

I am the very model of a Very Stable Genius.
I have a mighty button and no problems with my penius.
I have no time for television, golf, or social media
Since my brain is way way better than the best encyclopedia.
posted by emjaybee at 8:22 AM on January 6, 2018 [181 favorites]

Maybe we could, like, agree that the President's use of the word "like" is indeed an affectation of curious employment and questionable origin, and leave it there, in the interest of conserving thread space? It's gonna be a big next couple of weeks, we don't want our browsers pissed off at us prematurely.
posted by Rykey at 8:26 AM on January 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

She has to be perfect at politics! But she can't know she is perfect or ever be seen trying! It has to be NATURAL!

It’s not just women. The problem is, you elect a representative, and then they are there for four years. You don’t know how other people will change their minds in four years: you think you know how you will. So it makes more sense for you to vote for someone where your issues are important to them not because they are popular but because they are deeply held moral values.

Politicians who change their minds because a thing is popular is how we get GOP politicians covering for Trump even though they know he’s incompetent, because he’s popular with the base who will be voting in primaries. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want people who have strong personal ethics instead of people who act as weathervanes.
posted by corb at 8:28 AM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

McGrath's follow up on those two youtube videos has been really poor, that's one reason Jim Gray got in the race. She has no real support from the state Democratic party (not necessarily bad, given how fucking terrible the KY Dems are at...life?), but more importantly didn't secure much donor support outside the initial video's drop, and her perception as an outsider isn't going over well in the district. The Barr people weren't scared of her, they didn't want Gray in the race. Gray is a popular mayor, and won the district even while he got blown out statewide.

Who knows what 2020 will look like and McConnell is hated even in the state...but he can raise almost infinite money to outspend anyone, and KY Democrats have run the same absolute shit campaign in the last three (at least) Senate races. Jack Conway, Alison Lundergan Grimes, and Jim Gray, all ran with essentially the same staff of paid to lose KY Democratic consultants, with essentially the same message of being a Republican who doesn't like Obama but somehow not as Republican as Paul and McConnell. Grimes famously refused to even admit she voted for Obama, when she was a Democratic convention delegate. Whoever runs that same campaign again will lose, like they've lost the last 30 years. The only way to unseat McConnell is to do something different and run an outsider effort. Maybe that could be McGrath, but she's got a lot of work to do.

Is there anything that local organizers can do to push her? I'm curious: I know that watching some of the candidates I linked to here in Texas, many of the women I've watched consider runs required a lot of encouragement and support when they even considered picking up a challenge. Many of us don't have the ~~blind arrogance~~ confidence that men can capitalize on, and that's in part because women often experience social consequences and pushback for putting themselves forward.

Is her local Indivisible checking in with her? Can folks from out of state help her move forward and check in with her? Does her campaign have support?

IDK. I'm sympathetic to criticism that she's just not doing things well enough, but I'm also really, really cognizant of how much supportive work is needed for any candidate to mount challenges in these districts, especially when conventional wisdom is that running is a waste of time. How do you build enthusiasm against that? How do you maintain it, and how do you convince people you're worth investing in? That video shows a lot of ability to capture some initial enthusiasm: is it inexperience or lack of confidence or what that's keeping her from pushing forward?

These are questions I am always asking myself as I look at local progressive challengers for office, especially here in Texas. If Democrats are going to do well in the House and Senate in 2018, it's crucial that we get these kinds of "no follow-up?" and "good start but what now?" issues ironed out immediately. And that's especially, especially true when I look at women who are amassing campaigns. That's a huge reason I keep collecting these names of women who look like they're mounting good starts and passing them around with some praise for the things I like: it's just straight up harder to push back through that inertia, as we talked about upthread.

So I guess... what's going on with local Kentucky progressives? Is there organizing happening at all, and if so, what is it coalescing around? Looking at the momentum in Texas and the people I know in Kentucky, I find it hard to believe there aren't lots of people who are angry and depressed and disgusted, especially if you can point to and revive the old union promises in the state. The trick is to convince everyone that it can be done: that, after all, is how we manage to do the impossible. And we do it on the local level first, because that's how we build a foundation.
posted by sciatrix at 8:29 AM on January 6, 2018 [13 favorites]

> It’s not just women.

Name some male Democrats who have been punished by the Democratic base for moving to the left on an issue. Assuming you can name one, tell me what their constituency was like when they held the more conservative position, and what that constituency is like now.

Comparing what lickspittles like Ryan and Graham are doing to cover for Trump with a Senator expanding the scope of her views because the scope of her constituency was expanded by moving from a conservative (for NY) House district to representing the entirety of NY is asinine.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:05 AM on January 6, 2018 [34 favorites]

1. Macron and I are the same age? Jesus.

2. I can tell that we're in the darkest timeline because I now like Gilbert and Sullivan. (Okay fine, just the parodies. But still.)
posted by elsietheeel at 9:08 AM on January 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

No? This was clearly before I joined, slightly less than a year ago, and before that it didn't really come up on Twitter.

Yeah, sorry; I'm probably talking about something closest to.... let's see, the memories that I have of talking about it are slightly more than a year ago, probably closer to eighteen months. There was this moment right after the election when it felt like the left was torn between despair and rage, around when #Calexit was trending, when it felt like the left was poised to choose flight rather than fight--or else start litigating 2020 all over again in the wake of 2016, with not a thought spared for 2018. And I distinctly remember very deliberately pushing back against that here and elsewhere, and I remember other people doing likewise, by claiming my history and my Americanness and where I'm from and leaning heavily on American values.

We'd been getting bits and pieces of this back, of course. I'd argue that the Marvel Cinematic Universe portrayal of Captain America, and the general work that Chris Evans does portraying the same sentiments off the field, has been a huge driver of that kind of reminder to progressives that there are good things about America, too. (One of my strongest memories of the Woman's March is actually nonasuch, marching with me in DC, holding a Cap shield against her back.) And I've noticed it from the Whelk in part because hof his tendency to mention his own organizing and pride in the same breath as he does his fondness for Cap fandom, and I know an awful lot of other progressives who've done similarly--Cap shield stickers often denote security at local organization events in my area, for example. Many people have adopted Captain America as a sort of totem of the best of American ideals. Hamilton is another example of this kind of progressive patriotism rising again, for that matter.

I've also been here for a few years now pushing back sharply on a general tendency to write off particular states--the South, Texarkana, and the Midwest in particular--as monolithic redstate partisans who ought to be abandoned, and I strongly perceived Calexit in particular as part of that. And you know, that writing off huge swathes of America, and being generally embarrassed about taking pride in anything American because the rest of the world gets antsy when that happens.... well, it has ripple effects, you know? We on the left are quickest to distance ourselves from our country, to pretend to be Canadian abroad, to slump in our seats and mumble "but I'm not from there" when people outside the US panic because the conservative screamers are in power. We don't, historically, get up and snarl "That's not my America!" because the American progressive front has been deeply ashamed of itself, and its nation, since approximately Vietnam.

That's fine. We certainly have a lot to be ashamed of. But shame doesn't push us forward. Shame makes us hide. It launches us into despair. Anger, now--angry pride, disapproval, fighting for ideals you believe in--that pushes for action. And that shift to "Oh, fuck you, Americans everywhere have something to be proud of and it's not this" in messaging and national mood was I think something that had longer roots than just the last year... but I think the last year or two has been a precipice for the left, and I don't think it was inevitable to see this shift happen.

I think there's something to be said for nationalistic pride when it's self-critical pride, and I think that's a thing that tends to get missed in conversation, especially when we're talking to people from other nations. "My country, right or wrong" is not what I'm talking about, but it's absolutely how the left has characterized patriotism since before I can remember... and I think it's more of a thing that upsets Europeans in particular because of the history of European nationalism, which has tended to result in border wars over long-standing ethnic arguments along geographical lines.

That's not the case in the US, though; frankly, our long-standing ethnic shame is a colonialist narrative rather than a nationalist one, and we simply have different traditional pitfalls to nationalism than Europe does because of both our own size and those of our relative neighbors. Historically, the default mode of American nationalistic sentiment rising isn't expansionism; it's isolationism. And while that changed after WWII and again after Vietnam, it's swinging back again: most progressives I know are much more concerned about domestic issues than international ones, and our own personal narratives about making America great again tend to involve looking homeward, intervening less in the business of others, and actually creating a safety net for our own citizens. Isolationism is in some ways on an upswing after nearly seventy years of interventionism.

Anyway, though, I started very consciously and deliberately pushing that kind of patriotic my-country-isn't-this, my-country-is-better-than-this narrative here after the election about a year ago, and I know I'm not the only person.

Here's some of the exchanges I'm thinking about:

You can see me declaring pride in democracy here, using patriotism rhetoric to shut down conservative talking points. And you can also see me sharply insisting that it's a good idea because it works, much better than the idea of anemotional, apolitical attempts to have a logical discussion about best interests.

This is a comment I made last February making a point of Texan pride in its progressive champions to drive home a larger point about national integrity. You can also see me making a point that the South gives rise to civil rights champions, and that we in the Left should be proud of them and remember where they came from as part of our national heritage. If you don't know who Barbara Jordan was, incidentally--you ought to. She's a big reason I am throwing my weight behind so many women of color in Texas, because I want to see another woman like her come out of this state.

This comment here is me pushing against a person complaining of rhetorical excess by doubling down on my commitment to patriotic rhetoric.

This is another December 2016 comment explicitly invoking pride in national offices and institutions as a way of criticizing Trump and Republicans generally.

Here's a comment in January with me aggressively invoking national honor to criticize conservatives and Republicans--and you can actually see me making the conscious choice to explain a little bit about why I was using that rhetoric. On my part, the decision to frame my posts this way was very, very conscious.

And another December comment explaining my decision to go Full Patriot on the GOP. This was actually when I was hoping that there might actually be something to the NeverTrump faction, and my rhetoric was shaping in a way as to force the cognitive dissonance inherent in supporters of the GOP to sit uncomfortably in the mindset of American conservatives.

Here's another December comment where you can see me literally arguing to cloak myself in a rhetorical American flag. I would never have written something like that two years ago, in part because of, as you say, paying attention to European sensibilities about patriotism and national pride. But this kind of deep national pride is actually something I was raised with, and as a DC native it's something I feel very deeply and strongly. As a progressive, I'd previously kept it tucked neatly away from polite company; after the election you can see me using it very bluntly and openly as a weapon.
posted by sciatrix at 9:13 AM on January 6, 2018 [76 favorites]

Sens. Grassley and Graham are referring Christopher Steele to DOJ "for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001

Steele is a British citizen. I hope he is smart enough to never set foot in the U.S. again.
posted by JackFlash at 9:13 AM on January 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

For another round of schadenfreude courtesy of Michael Woolf, here's today's interview with him by the Hollywood Reporter. One fascinating exchange in it is how Wolff maintained his fly-on-the-wall status with his White House sources:

HR: You say you still have sources inside the White House. Have you heard anything?

MW: I hear that the president is very angry, or, let me be precise: I hear that he is truly bouncing off the walls.

HR: I assume he feels very betrayed by you?

MW: I don't know if I would use that word. I don't think he thought about this in any way. I literally think you go in there and say, "I'm writing a book," and they go, "Oh. A book." It's like a cloak of invisibility. And then also they would do this thing that would be like, "Oh, this is off the record." And I would say, "I would like to use it for the book." And they would say, "Well, when does that come out?" And I would say, "Next year." "Oh, oh, yeah, OK, fine."

[...]The distinct feeling that you have when you say that you're writing a book is that these guys don't care about you. You're a kind of non-entity. "A book." Trump is not getting excited about somebody writing a book.

HR: Because he places no importance on books.

MW: Yeah. They almost can't imagine what it is. I remember when the Murdoch book came out and Murdoch's guy [former News Corp. marketing and corporate affairs exec] Gary Ginsberg, called me, furious, and said, "What is this? The book is all about him!" I said, "It's a biography." And Ginsberg says, "But it's so personal." That's when I realized, these guys don't just not read books — they don't know what books are.

It would certainly be ironic if the first nail in the coffin of this post-literate presidency were hammered home by a book.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:19 AM on January 6, 2018 [216 favorites]

Thank you, sciatrix. You really put into words a lot of what I’ve been feeling about my own patriotism over the last year.
posted by rustcellar at 9:27 AM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

The tabloid caught up with Trump’s daughter in Los Angeles on Friday and asked about her father’s love of McDonald’s. “That’s what he does, he loves McDonald's,” she said.“Does he eat it every night in bed?” TMZ asked. “He wishes, right,” Tiffany Trump responded.

The estranged daughter of the president is describing him like he's a 5 year old. Also, more Wolff confirmation. Also, he's not the only one who wishes that he could eat McDonald's all day every day. Indulge yourself, Donald. You deserve it.

Context from Kate Sheridan at Newsweek: Trump could destroy the entire human species, says Yale psychiatrist who warned congress members

“As more time passes, we come closer to the greatest risk of danger, one that could even mean the extinction of the human species,” she said. “This is not hyperbole. This is the reality.”
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:28 AM on January 6, 2018 [12 favorites]

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want people who have strong personal ethics instead of people who act as weathervanes.

I dunno, if you're elected to represent a body of people, and then they change their opinion on something, aren't you sort of obliged to do the same? Back before the current braindead tabloid void when things like that mattered, I mean. I can see an argument the other way, but I don't know that I agree.

But sure, part of the massive distrust of American institutions is that the politicians themselves constantly make cracks about politicians being corrupt and capricious. Chuck Grassley tweeted the other day: It's so cold in the upper half of the USA Today that politicians will put their hands in their own pockets.

More to the point of the slightly narrower topic at hand, I started composing something on "like," but I wonder if hermeneutics of the president's tweets to the point of sifting through his usage of a valley-girl-ism might be better spent parsing some legislation or baking a cake or just day-drinking, so I'm gonna go try to do those things.

And specifically on the Wolff book, I'd already decided I didn't need to read it before Kramerbooks sold through their copies in 20 mins. yesterday, but the part that keeps hitting me is that even if everything in the book is a fabrication, no one disputes that this fucking clown was just hanging around the White House for months, as far as we know without anything approaching a real clearance.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:28 AM on January 6, 2018 [17 favorites]

This morning from the LA Times:

Mueller calls back at least one participant in key meeting with Russians at Trump Tower

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has recalled for questioning at least one participant in a controversial meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016, and is looking into President Trump's misleading claim that the discussion focused on adoption, rather than an offer to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Some defense lawyers involved in the case view Mueller's latest push as a sign that investigators are focusing on possible obstruction of justice by Trump and several of his closest advisors for their statements about the politically sensitive meeting, rather than for collusion with the Russians.

Investigators also are exploring the involvement of the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who did not attend the half-hour sit-down on June 9, 2016, but briefly spoke with two of the participants, a Russian lawyer and a Russian-born Washington lobbyist. Details of the encounter were not previously known.

It occurred at the Trump Tower elevator as the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, were leaving the building and consisted of pleasantries, a person familiar with the episode said. But Mueller's investigators want to know every contact the two visitors had with Trump's family members and inner circle.

Mueller long has sought to nail down details of the unusual gathering at the height of the presidential race between three of Trump's top campaign aides — his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort — and Veselnitskaya, Akhmetshin, plus a Russian language translator, a U.S.-based employee of a Russian real estate group, and a British music promoter with Russian business ties who helped bring the group together.

After the New York Times first reported the meeting last July, 13 months after it had occurred, the White House issued a misleading statement while Trump flew back to Washington from the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. It said that Trump Jr. had said he and the Russian lawyer had "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children," and was unrelated to the campaign.

Mueller's team is trying to determine if Trump and others involved in drafting the language aboard Air Force One knew it was inaccurate and whether it was aimed at deceiving federal investigators looking into whether the Trump campaign actively assisted a Russian intelligence operation aimed at interfering in the U.S. campaign.

posted by chris24 at 9:33 AM on January 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

> Trump could destroy the entire human species, says Yale psychiatrist who warned congress members

Yeah, but...a small number of people would probably survive even the largest-scale nuclear holocaust, and imagine how low their tax bills will be!

> It would certainly be ironic if the first nail in the coffin of this post-literate presidency were hammered home by a book.

That's kind of what I was getting at with this comment. It's such a perfect little illustrative scene, with Trump *instantly* filing Wolff away in his "losers nobody cares about" mental file the second he says the word "book."
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:38 AM on January 6, 2018 [14 favorites]

So is he dictating this to an underling? Someone who has enough sense to add the commas but not enough clout to tell him how silly it makes him sound? I guess I'm trying to make sense of someone being tasked with transcribing this but not quitting immediately.

The book gives *lots* of examples where the team has to bridge the Trump-text divide. As an example, Bannon culls through hours and hours of stump speeches to try and fashion a platform Trump won't dismiss immediately (if he can't be tricked into thinking he wrote it). This is after they've moved into the West Wing, i.e. there's no way to avoid it.

Twitter may be his favorite because it's a text medium he can finally get behind. Guttural, monosyllabic, instant.

Agree the commas are likely transcribed by a person, it's essentially the opposite of what Bannon was doing. He cannot communicate normally. EVERYTHING to date has been a tightrope of his inner sanctum protecting that secret. The book may have just cut that rope.
posted by petebest at 9:48 AM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

I guess I'm trying to make sense of someone being tasked with transcribing this but not quitting immediately.

If I'm right and this is Hicks, she's making almost 180k/yr (PDF) as his PA and "Director of Strategic Communications". She has a degree in English as well, so presumably she does know how to word goodly enough. She's making considerably more than even "Senior Policy Analysts".
posted by bonehead at 9:53 AM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

And Sessions was certainly not going to risk his job over the silly Russia business, with its growing collection of slapstick Trump figures. God knows what those characters were up to—nothing good, everybody assumed. Best to have nothing to do with it.

Without consulting the president or, ostensibly, anyone in the White House, Sessions decided to move as far as possible out of harm’s way. On March 2, the day after the Post story, he recused himself from anything having to do with the Russia investigation.

The news of the attorney general’s recusal exploded like an IED in the White House. Sessions was Trump’s protection against an overly aggressive Russian investigation. The president just could not grasp the logic here. He railed to friends: Why would Sessions not want to protect him? What would Sessions gain? Did he think this stuff was real? Sessions needed to do his job!

In fact, Trump already had good reason to worry about the DOJ. The president had a private source, one of his frequent callers, who, he believed, was keeping him abreast of what was going on in the Justice Department—and, the president noted, doing a much better job of it than Sessions himself.

Over and over so far in the book (*musical sting/ringtone*), Trump is completely outside his own government. Never using any of the intelligence, resources, or anything. It's like he drove his metaphorical RV across the rose garden and just started living out of it.

And there's a very common refrain - Trump doesn't read squat. So any press that isn't picture-based is summarized for him, usually by Hope Hicks, and that kind of goes through a few filters first anyway. The short version is: cable news is Trumps Brain which we all knew but here it is. The whole thing is laid out like a smørgäsbord of known crispy facts, choice quotes, fresh reminders of events, and warm adjectives with just a dash of narration. mmmm!
posted by petebest at 9:55 AM on January 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

I hope he is smart enough to never set foot in the U.S. again.

That mainly seems to be what that crap Grassely and Graham pulled was meant to accomplish. Now Steele won't ever testify to a grand jury, Congress, etc. Good job, obstruction crew!

Is there any law on the books that says someone must be on U.S. soil to testify to a grand jury or Congress? I could imagine a statute that says one must appear before the grand jury or Congress, but a Skype call should take care of that. As Steele is not a U.S. citizen, Grassley and Graham couldn't force him to testify anyway, right?

They could extradite him, sure. But, I bet he could be in a non-extradition country whenever he saw fit.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:01 AM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Now Steele won't ever testify to a grand jury, Congress, etc. Good job, obstruction crew!

You can do a deposition, with video if you like, anywhere. Being out of the U.S. doesn't mean Steele has no voice.
posted by JackFlash at 10:03 AM on January 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

Here's what I think about that correctly punctuated "like." I think the book came out and a whole flood of staffers who'd been hanging around waiting for the last straw for a million years said "THERE it is!" and ran. The lonely tweetscribe hugged them all on the way out and sighed with envy. This morning that person heard the president start his oldguy wakeup snotgargling routine and raced to raid the departed colleagues' abandoned stashes and is now hopped all the way up past the eyebrows on expired egg nog and speed. I'm imagining a scene like the end of Sedaris's Santaland Diaries, a lawless free-for-all, except instead of noisy and crowded with assholes, it's bleak and eerily silent, but for the occasional screaming from Trump and the constant, low, drugaddled giggles from whoever is stuck in there with him. All bets are off and the tweeter is going to tweet whatever amuses the most because what even matters anymore.

But you're right, more likely it's a dutiful Hope Hicks or that little pissant Stephen Miller thinking there's anybody left to troll.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:23 AM on January 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

Angela Helm: The U.S. Tried To Get Cute on Iran But Were Promptly Rebuffed by the Russians Who Asked About Black Lives Matter

The old adage when you point the finger, you have three fingers pointing back at you, rang true in the United Nations on Friday, as the U.S. Ambassador and former Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, unexplainably called an emergency session to lecture the Iranians about their crackdown on protests in that country.

“Let there be no doubt whatsoever,” said Hailey, “the United States stands unapologetically with those in Iran who seek freedom for themselves.”
[...]
France’s ambassador, François Delattre, was having no parts of this special session, and warned that the U.S. might want to be careful moving forward.

“We must be wary of any attempt to exploit this crisis for personal ends, which would have a diametrically opposed outcome to that which is wished,” he said.

The Russian ambassador, Vasily A. Nebenzya, said “hold my beer.”

The Times reports that not only did Nebenzya ask why the Security Council had no special session when Black Lives Matter protesters descended on Ferguson, Mo. (and were also met with a violent state response), but that he was hip to the skip, too.

“The real reason for convening today’s meeting is not an attempt to protect human rights or promote the interests of the Iranian people, but rather as a veiled attempt to use the current moment to continue to undermine” the Iranian deal, Nebenzya said, a reference to what the Times hails as a “signature diplomatic achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama.”

posted by zombieflanders at 10:30 AM on January 6, 2018 [100 favorites]

South Korea and North Korea agreed to talks

So naturally, Trump the Great Dealmaker suddenly says he's open to discussions, reports the Associated Press, since the two Korean governments have apparently realized they can make better progress without him involved.

Trump tells reporters at Camp David that he "always believes in talking."

North and South Korea have agreed to discuss cooperation on the upcoming Olympics in South Korea, as well as other issues, in rare talks set to begin Tuesday.

Trump calls that "a big start." He says if "something can come out of those talks that would be a great thing for all of humanity."

He says North Korea's Kim Jong Un — who's threatened the U.S. with a nuclear attack — "knows I'm not messing around, not even a little bit, not even 1 percent."

One of the many ironies of Fire and Fury's publication is that Kim Jong-un now seems like the more stable negotiating partner on the global stage

c.f. As ‘Fire and Fury’ Is published, Europe Openly Debates: ‘Is Trump Still Sane?’ (Washington Post)

Some of the United States’ closest international allies, including Britain, Germany and France, are now openly debating whether the most powerful man in the world and de facto leader of NATO — an alliance on which their entire military strategies are based — can still be trusted.

“In many European capitals, the prevailing sentiment is helplessness and frustration that Trump won’t engage in a rational dialogue,” argued Stephan Bierling, a professor for transatlantic relations in Germany, who said that he had long admired the United States but that his beliefs were now “shaken to the core.”

“Once a relationship is in disorder there is no easy way back. Trump has succeeded at destroying Europeans’ trust in himself and the United States more broadly,” according to Bierling. The mental health concerns now raised in Wolff’s book and widely debated across Europe, he said, were exacerbating European politicians’ existing skepticism of Trump.

The longer term damage to the US's reputation may not come from learning the true extent of Trump's instability but from the discovery of his administration's willingness to enable, normalize, and conceal it.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:40 AM on January 6, 2018 [29 favorites]

That mainly seems to be what that crap Grassely and Graham pulled was meant to accomplish.

How recently was Steele in British intelligence because these veiled threats to an ex-agent must be really warming hearts over there at MI6.
posted by PenDevil at 10:43 AM on January 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

I've always been known for, like, wearing pants.

Those rumors are entirely baseless.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:48 AM on January 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

My local B&N seems to have copies of The Book in stock. I'm so conflicted. I need no convincing that Trump is a dangerous malignant narcissist in protracted cognitive decline. I'm not sure I really want to know exactly how many times the people in his orbit indicated they are well aware of that and then enabled him anyway, laughing the whole time.

On the other hand, I want to annoy Trump in any way I can and this seems like pretty low hanging fruit.

I already contribute monthly to Pro Publica. Does that absolve me of lining the pockets of Michael Wolff?
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:49 AM on January 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Later this afternoon, Brian Beutler went on a quick Twitter-tear about this week's events and the Dems' lack of opposition:

Democrats seem to have no idea they're in politics. They're like Mr. Magoo, who think he's on the uptown bus but is somehow riding an elephant.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 10:54 AM on January 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

Bad news, everyone, 2018's writers are just as hacky in their on-the-nose symbolism as 2017's were...

David Nakamura‏ @DavidNakamura: “It appear[s], per pooler @Jordanfabian, Trump and GOP leaders watched 'The Greatest Showman' at Camp David last night. Per, IMDB, the movie 'celebrates the birth of show business, and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation'”

As someone said of one of Barnum's notorious hoaxes, "There's a sucker born every minute."
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:11 AM on January 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

soren_lorensen: yes, it does. Go. Read. It's all good.

Trump is portrayed sympathetically, as is Ivanka, if not Kushner. Unlucky victors in a grand scheme that was as much standard Trump pathology as criminality. What do you do when your racist, demented, if doting dad gets elected and is utterly drowning?

(Ivanka, if you're reading, the answer is tell the truth and get help. Get him out.)

The longer term damage to the US's reputation may not come from learning the true extent of Trump's instability but from the discovery of his administration's willingness to enable, normalize, and conceal it.

Agreed, but I see it as the media and the establishment - including Chuck 'n Nancy - as complicit to an extent and therefore damaged by this. He (Trump) is so abnormal and unfit, it's just flooring to read it at this level of detail and length. To live it? On the ground? That's fucked up, dude.

It's worse than we thought but not in the way we thought (necessarily).
posted by petebest at 11:22 AM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

A Twitter thread on the odd phrasing of this morning's tweets by former New Yorker theater critic Mimi Kramer.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:52 AM on January 6, 2018 [17 favorites]

Resistbot did an interesting analysis of the counties where they get the most users, relative to population. Interestingly, almost all of the top ten counties contain public universities, and most of them are in red states.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:05 PM on January 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

I admit to getting The Book. And I'm about 2/3 of the way through. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet in this thread (unless I've overlooked it in the deluge) is the role of the Mercers in resurrecting the Trump campaign. Kellyanne Conway is a protege of the Mercers - in particular Rebekah. Steve Bannon was hired by the Mercers to work on the Trump campaign.

Robert Mercer is described as an extreme introvert and a rather garden-variety conservative, but Rebekah - hoo boy, people do not like her and describe her as "extreme" even among asshole rich people. She comes off as a real Serena Joy whackadoo hate-filled extremist.

Rebekah Mercer hitched her car to a clown show this time around, but if she had chosen better, or if she picks better next time, watch out. She worries me more than anyone, even the santorum-smeared circus peanut, because of her deep pockets and because most people probably have never heard of her or at least don't give her much thought.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 12:08 PM on January 6, 2018 [59 favorites]

Is President Trump Mentally Ill? It Doesn’t Matter (Josh Marshall / TPM)

We are now back on to the feverish debate about whether or not Donald Trump is mentally ill or suffering from the onset of dementia. The most important thing to know about this debate is that it simply doesn’t matter. Diagnoses are something for trained professionals and even they are challenged to make them without a proper in-person examination. But again, it doesn’t matter.

For public purposes, clinical diagnoses are only relevant as predictors of behavior. If the President has a cognitive deficiency or mental illness that might cause him to act in unpredictable or dangerous ways or simply be unable to do the job, we need to know. But My God, we do know! We see him acting in these ways every day – and not just in multiple news reports from an abundance of different news organizations. We see it with our own eyes: in his public actions, his public statements, his tweets. All the diagnosis of a mental illness could tell us is that Trump might be prone to act in ways that we literally see him acting in every day: impulsive, erratic, driven by petty aggressions and paranoia, showing poor impulsive control, an inability to moderate self-destructive behavior. He is frequently either frighteningly out of touch with reality or sufficiently pathological in his lying that it is impossible to tell. Both are very bad.

One of the diagnoses you often hear tossed around, rightly or wrongly, is Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), a Class B personality disorder. I think most psychologists and psychiatrists would tell you, privately if not publicly, that a number of Trump’s behaviors could (I stress, “could”) be explained by NPD. But that doesn’t tell us that much. Lots of symptoms and behaviors can be explained by many different diseases and disorders. Or no disorder or problem at all. That’s why you need a proper examination. (This applies of course to both somatic and mental illnesses.) Some shrinks may say they’ve seen enough to know; others would say, no, never without a full examination. Again, for our purposes, it doesn’t matter. If the entire psychiatric profession got together and examined Trump and pronounced him entirely free of any mental illness, his behavior wouldn’t be any less whacked or dangerous in a President. ...

That brings us back to the point. It’s really only the behavior that matters to us as citizens. A diagnosis would only be helpful to learn about behavior we don’t know about or predict future endangering behavior. Since we know about the behavior we’re talking about, none of that matters or applies. In common sense, every day rather than clinical language Trump is clearly unstable, erratic, impulsive. In a word, he’s nuts and not well. As citizens, we are entirely able and entitled to make these determinations. They are ordinary English language descriptors that the psychiatric profession doesn’t control and shouldn’t want to control. The entire debate over whether Trump is “mentally ill” is simply a diversion, premised on the idea that we need either permission or dictation to say he is not able to safely or competently fulfill the job of President. We don’t. The observed behavior is really all that is necessary and all that matters. It’s very clear.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:30 PM on January 6, 2018 [71 favorites]

Dan Rather
@DanRather

Dear Mr. President,
A good rule of thumb is that when you've got it, you don't have to say it. People know. That holds true for wealth, compassion, faith, and yes, being a "very stable genius."
Sincerely, Dan

11:54 AM · Jan 6, 2018

posted by blueberry at 12:37 PM on January 6, 2018 [75 favorites]

I am no constitutional scholar or lawyer or a person who has taken any law classes besides zoning law. But here is part of the 25th amendment (emphasis mine):

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Unless he's like, literally comatose, I don't see how this is going to happen with our current Congress. Republicans, obviously Do. Not. Care. how irrational and dangerous he is. Privately, maybe, but there's no way a majority of them will vote for his removal. Trump has been acting like this for years! They know who he is; a psychiatrist's note won't change that. It's not as though they believe in science and mental healthcare to begin with. And I don't think that Democrats will take 2/3rds of the House and Senate this year.
posted by AFABulous at 12:51 PM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

As others have pointed out, Trump is so "mentally stable" that he can't even remember that he first ran for president 18 years ago.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:52 PM on January 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

Also, he's not "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" - he's just doing it in a way that most of us find appalling.
posted by AFABulous at 12:52 PM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

Mother Jones: The GOP’s New Year’s Resolution: Make Russia Go Away.

“They’re trying to shut us down,” Schiff tells Mother Jones. “I think external pressure from the president and others is having an effect. The buck stops with the Speaker.”

posted by StrawberryPie at 12:55 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

From The Astoria Bookshop's facebook post (via a friend):

We believe the current occupant of the White House has fostered a toxic national environment. We are hopeful for a future where honest, thoughtful political discourse is once again possible.
In an effort to offset this toxicity, we are donating our profits from sales of Fire & Fury to the Voting Rights Institute and The New York Immigration Coalition, split evenly between the two organizations.
Ensuring that every citizen has the ability to vote, and that immigrants have access to healthcare, housing, education, and legal representation are two missions that we believe will make America a better place for everyone who lives here.

(The Astoria Bookshop is in Astoria, Queens, NY)
posted by maggiemaggie at 12:55 PM on January 6, 2018 [79 favorites]

Donald Drumpf's Dank Meme Stash is full of gold
posted by growabrain at 12:55 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

How recently was Steele in British intelligence because these veiled threats to an ex-agent must be really warming hearts over there at MI6.

He was in Six from 1987 to 2009. He was a NOC in Moscow in the early 90s, ran the Russian Desk for several years & was the case officer for Alexander Litvinenko, the FSB defector who was poisoned with Polonium in 2006. Not to be too obvious about it but he's probably one of the greatest living experts on Russian intelligence & he's racked up many friends across the global intelligence community including Russia.
posted by scalefree at 12:59 PM on January 6, 2018 [45 favorites]

Corey Lewandowski's book publicity photos are hilarious, and Sean Spicer seems to agree.
posted by zachlipton at 1:18 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

>On the other hand, I want to annoy Trump in any way I can and this seems like pretty low hanging fruit.

I wanted to annoy Trump, so I got a subscription to the failing Vanity Fair. The only problem is I now have a subscription to Vanity Fair.

Sigh. I also wanted to annoy Trump by reading Al Franken's book, and now I have a book I don't know what to do with.
posted by acrasis at 1:26 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I want to annoy Trump by having the Democrats take back the House and Senate in November. That would annoy him much more than the crappy book, and I wouldn't have to read a crappy book.

I dunno. I understand the impulse, but that book doesn't seem like a good use of my time or money.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:30 PM on January 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

reading Al Franken's book, and now I have a book I don't know what to do with.

I have a signed and inscribed copy, and it's got a little picture of him on the spine. I keep giving it this "what the hell are you doing here?" side-eye whenever I see it on the shelf, yet nothing happens.
posted by zachlipton at 1:33 PM on January 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

> I keep giving it this "what the hell are you doing here?" side-eye whenever I see it on the shelf, yet nothing happens.

Looks like you need to pick up this book and put it on the same shelf.
posted by tonycpsu at 1:40 PM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

A Twitter thread on the odd phrasing of this morning's tweets by former New Yorker theater critic Mimi Kramer.

Oh my! It includes shade like this:

Who is writing this stuff, David Mamet? Who's directing it, Julie Taymor?

posted by mikelieman at 1:51 PM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Sloppy Steve? Worst President of all time, perfectly adequate namer of Garbage Pail Kids.

At least this one is sustainable given the number of sloppy Steves there are in his administration.

[I remember all the Steves jokes because I too am a Stephen and it brings me shame to even share a given name with these people].
posted by srboisvert at 2:02 PM on January 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Natasha Bertrand has an interview with Papadopoulos' fiancée. Most interestingly, she worked for Joseph Mifsud for a couple months in late 2016:

"I knew something was wrong from the first day I arrived there," Mangiante said. "It all felt very artificial. I had worked in real diplomatic environments and this didn't feel that way at all. I never even had clarity about who [Mifsud] actually was."

Mangiante left the organization in November 2016. By that point, she had already begun chatting with Papadopoulos, who had messaged her on LinkedIn two months earlier after seeing that they shared a mutual professional connection — Mifsud.

"How do you know him?" Mangiante said Papadopoulos asked her at the time, referring to Mifsud. "What does he do?"

"Not even George really knew anything about him," Mangiante said.

The Sydney Morning Harold also weighed in with 'Romantic encounter' set off Australia's role in triggering Donald Trump investigation:

It was a chance romantic encounter by George Papadopoulos that set in train the events that led to the Australian government tipping off Washington about what it knew of Russian hacking efforts to swing the US presidential election.

Fairfax Media can reveal a woman in London with whom Papadopoulos became involved happened to know Alexander Downer and told the Australian High Commissioner about Papadopoulos, a newly signed staffer for Donald Trump. Downer, being a canny diplomat, followed it up and arranged a meeting with the young American, who was mostly living in London at the time.

What followed was the now infamous May 2016 conversation over many glasses of wine at the swanky Kensington Wine Rooms, during which the 28-year-old Papadopoulos spilled to Downer that he knew of a Russian dirt file on the rival Clinton campaign consisting of thousands of hacked emails.

The original Times report about the Downer meeting said the meeting started because an "an Israeli Embassy official" introduced Papadopoulos to an Australian diplomat. I guess what I'm saying is that Papadopoulos's romantic entanglements seem to tie into many parts of this story.
posted by zachlipton at 2:13 PM on January 6, 2018 [20 favorites]

The original Times report about the Downer meeting said the meeting started because an "an Israeli Embassy official" introduced Papadopoulos to an Australian diplomat.

The Mossad are well known for using honey traps...
posted by PenDevil at 2:24 PM on January 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

Also, he's not "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" - he's just doing it in a way that most of us find appalling.

The Book has absolved me of that particular notion. He's doing it appallingly, without question. If we are attacked, or face a banking crisis or - anything. We are in deep shit.

But the discussion of Trump or Trumpism has been, as it would normally be, strategic, political, with an eye to history and its influence, or lack thereof. The book says that all of that is in the very far reaches of influences on Donny Two Scoops. His racist, alt-right proclivities are not necessarily in question, or in play, on any subject at any time. It says, if Ivanka and Hope wanted him to save the whales, he'd probably go for it.

Having achieved the highest political office, he just wants his TV stardom to go with it. He just wants favorable press. And to talk about himself all day. Critical decisions are not. To him. Consider this part about hiring McMaster:

McMaster had been the default choice, a fact that Trump kept returning to: Why had he hired him? He blamed his son-in-law.
After the president fired Flynn in February, he had spent two days at Mar-a-Lago interviewing replacements, badly taxing his patience.
John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Bannon’s consistent choice, made his aggressive light-up-the-world, go-to-war pitch.
Then Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, presented himself with what Trump viewed positively as old-fashioned military decorum. Yes, sir. No, sir. That’s correct, sir. Well, I think we know China has some problems, sir. And in short order it seemed that Trump was selling Caslen on the job.
“That’s the guy I want,” said Trump. “He’s got the look.”

But Caslen demurred. He had never really had a staff job. Kushner thought he might not be ready.
“Yeah, but I liked that guy,” pressed Trump.
Then McMaster, wearing a uniform with his silver star, came in and immediately launched into a wide-ranging lecture on global strategy. Trump was soon, and obviously, distracted, and as the lecture continued he began sulking.
“That guy bores the shit out of me,” announced Trump after McMaster left the room. But Kushner pushed him to take another meeting with McMaster, who the next day showed up without his uniform and in a baggy suit.
“He looks like a beer salesman,” Trump said, announcing that he would hire McMaster but didn’t want to have another meeting with him.
Shortly after his appointment, McMaster appeared on Morning Joe. Trump saw the show and noted admiringly, “The guy sure gets good press.”
The president decided he had made a good hire.

posted by petebest at 2:42 PM on January 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

I'm going to go back and read the rest of this thread in a minute, but y'all were talking about women running in Texas. I'm going to go work for Lillian Salerno, who is the only woman running in the 32nd district. (Dani has dropped out since the link sciatrix dropped was published.) She's a fantastic candidate, and is going to need serious help to get to the run offs. If you know anyone in the 32nd, which is north Dallas, or live there, please memail me. I'm coming in blind from Virginia, and I'd really like to get a feel for the lay of the land before my boots hit the ground.
posted by dogheart at 2:45 PM on January 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

As others have pointed out, Trump is so "mentally stable" that he can't even remember that he first ran for president 18 years ago.

In the linked Wikipedia page, there is a quote from his February 14, 2000 press release announcing he was dropping out:

So the Reform Party now includes a Klansman—Mr. Duke, a Neo-Nazi—Mr. Buchanan, and a Communist—Ms. Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep.

-- Donald Trump

Yes, obviously it would be appalling to have a president with links to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and communists. Unthinkable.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:55 PM on January 6, 2018 [43 favorites]

As it turns out, when B&N's website says a book is "in stock" at a particular location, all it means is that it was at one point in stock, but whether it's in stock right now is anyone's guess. (The answer is no, it is not, and the people working there looked at me like I was crazy for even suggesting a website might contain accurate information.) So instead I bought my son a hot cocoa, a homeless guy some dinner, and gave him some cash so he could get a room for the night because it's literally fatally cold here right now. I suspect this would annoy Trump just as much, so mission accomplished.

(Spoiler alert: I am probably going to cave and get the ebook in a moment of weakness anyway.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:56 PM on January 6, 2018 [43 favorites]

I'm waiting for the inevitable Pop-Up Book edition of "Fire and Fury".
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:37 PM on January 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

As evidence of the "Trumps gonna do such-and-so" that isn't the case, here's the explanation of our (?) new Middle East Policy and/or position:

Casting aside, in very quick order, previously held assumptions—in fact, not really aware of those assumptions—the new Trump thinking about the Middle East became the following: There are basically four players (or at least we can forget everybody else)—Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. The first three can be united against the fourth. And Egypt and Saudi Arabia, given what they want with respect to Iran—and anything else that does not interfere with the United States’ interests—will pressure the Palestinians to make a deal. Voilà.

This represented a queasy-making mishmash of thought. Bannon’s isolationism (a pox on all your houses—and keep us out of it); Flynn’s anti-Iranism (of all the world’s perfidy and toxicity, there is none like that of the mullahs); and Kushner’s Kissingerism (not so much Kissingerism as, having no point of view himself, a dutiful attempt to follow the ninety-four-year-old’s advice).

But the fundamental point was that the last three administrations had gotten the Middle East wrong. It was impossible to overstate how much contempt the Trump people felt for the business-as-usual thinking that had gotten it so wrong. Hence, the new operating principle was simple: do the opposite of what they (Obama, but the Bush neocons, too) would do. Their behavior, their conceits, their ideas—in some sense even their backgrounds, education, and class—were all suspect. And, what’s more, you don’t really have to know all that much yourself; you just do it differently than it was done before.

We'd probably have just as good a chance with a random number generator. In fact, that's kind of what we have.
posted by petebest at 3:45 PM on January 6, 2018 [14 favorites]

We'd probably have just as good a chance with a random number generator. In fact, that's kind of what we have.

random blunder generator
posted by uosuaq at 4:03 PM on January 6, 2018 [63 favorites]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Shows Trump She Isn't Going Anywhere by Hiring Law Clerks for 2019 Term.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dashed any hope President Donald Trump might have had that she would resign before the end of his term, announcing on Thursday that she had hired a full slate of clerks through 2020.

Notorious RBG FTW!
posted by scalefree at 4:52 PM on January 6, 2018 [151 favorites]

This is a particularly evocative scene from the Days of The Mooch era (June). The scene is Bannon's nest in Virginia, and everyone's eating takeout Chinese. In this, it seems like Wolff must have been there, or at least had a recording of it - there are more ellipses here than in any other part of the book - although he doesn't say either way.

Just then Bannon took a call, the caller telling him that it looked as if Scaramucci might indeed be getting the job of communications director. “Don’t fuck with me, dude,” he laughed. “Don’t fuck with me like that!”
He got off the phone expressing further wonder at the fantasy world of the geniuses [Ivanka and Jared]—and added, for good measure, an extra dollop of dripping contempt for them. “I literally do not talk to them. You know why? I’m doing my shit, and they got nothing to do with it, and I don’t care what they’re doing . . . " . . .

“The FBI put Jared’s father in jail,” said Preate. “Don’t they understand you don’t mess—”
“Charlie Kushner,” said Bannon, smacking his head again in additional disbelief. “He’s going crazy because they’re going to get down deep in his shit about how he’s financed everything. . . . all the shit coming out of Israel . . . and all these guys coming out of Eastern Europe . . . all these Russian guys . . . and guys in Kazakhstan. . . . And he’s frozen on 666 [Fifth Avenue]. . . . [If] it goes under next year, the whole thing’s cross-collateralized . . . he’s wiped, he’s gone, he’s done, it’s over. . . . Toast.”

Huh.
posted by petebest at 5:43 PM on January 6, 2018 [16 favorites]

ICE to move forward with deportation of paraplegic boy's caregiver

Federal immigration officials late Friday afternoon told The [Cincinnati] Enquirer that they will proceed with the deportation of a Springdale man who is the sole provider and trained medical caregiver of a 6-year-old paraplegic boy.

ICE is a criminal organization.
posted by Rust Moranis at 5:51 PM on January 6, 2018 [79 favorites]

Speaking of 666 5th Avenue wasn’t the balloon payment due this month?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:19 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

The scene is Bannon's nest in Virginia, and everyone's eating takeout Chinese. In this, it seems like Wolff must have been there, or at least had a recording of it - there are more ellipses here than in any other part of the book

My brain immediately filled the ellipses in with the sound of Sloppy Steve chewing and swallowing Chinese food in between his words.

And it's not a pleasant image. Jesus Christ this guy Wolff really figured out how to thread the needle between nonfiction and Lovecraftian horror, didn't he?
posted by scaryblackdeath at 6:27 PM on January 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

The GOP Tax Bill Was a Deliberate Attack on Blue States—And California Plans to Fight Back.

My state is the best. tl;dr - gonna use some of the Republicans bullshit tax scamming against them.
posted by Justinian at 6:46 PM on January 6, 2018 [39 favorites]

A modest proposal in response to Republican perfidy; when Democrats come back into power they should reform the tax system by establishing a baseline minimum acceptable state tax level. Residents of any state which do not meet that baseline would pay additional federal taxes. This would prevent states from jumping into the hellpit that is the Kansas experiment as there would be no incentives for a state to cut its taxes back so far.

Actually, that's not a modest proposal. I like it. If we're gonna have a class war let's start fighting back.
posted by Justinian at 7:38 PM on January 6, 2018 [59 favorites]

I guess - even with this section summarized in one of the book's excerpt articles, I wasn't clear how Trump had fired Comey all by himself without telling anyone. That alone is boggling. But the way it went down is insight into what we're looking at:

[Tuesday May 9th] . . In fact, the president, in order to avoid embracing conventional process—or, for that matter, any real sense of cause and effect—merely eliminated everybody else from his process. For most of the day, almost no one would know that he had decided to take matters into his own hands. In presidential annals, the firing of FBI director James Comey may be the most consequential move ever made by a modern president acting entirely on his own. . .

At some point that afternoon Trump told his daughter and son-in-law about his plan. They immediately became coconspirators and firmly shut out any competing advice. . .

Just before five, in fact, the president, having not too long before notified McGahn of his intention, pulled the trigger. Trump’s personal security guard, Keith Schiller, delivered the termination letter to Comey’s office at the FBI just after five o’clock. The letter’s second sentence included the words “You are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.”

. . . But the president seemed also to want it known that he, aroused and dangerous, personally took down Comey. Forget Rosenstein and Sessions, it was personal. It was a powerful president and a vengeful one, in every way galled and affronted by those in pursuit of him, and determined to protect his family, who were in turn determined to have him protect them.

The next day, as though to further emphasize and delight in both the insult and his personal impunity, the president met with Russian bigwigs in the Oval Office, including Russia’s Ambassador Kislyak, the very focus of much of the Trump-Russia investigation. To the Russians he said: “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” Then, to boot, he revealed information supplied to the United States by Israel from its agent in place in Syria about ISIS using laptops to smuggle bombs onto airlines—revealing enough information to compromise the Israeli agent.

That was nine months ago.
posted by petebest at 7:40 PM on January 6, 2018 [47 favorites]

@NickMerrill, also on Twitter:
The GOP’s top point on why @MichaelWolffNYC is a liar is a quote taken out of context that is actually about the lying within the White House.

In short, the GOP is lying about Wollf lying by misquoting the White House’s constant lying. Got it.

(Attached is a pic of the GOP's talking point of Wolff admitting he has made stuff up and a comparison to the line in the book--where, in proper context, Wolff is talking about the White House's sketchy relationship with the truth.)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 7:55 PM on January 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

I'm reading the book and there is no denying how much the team thought he would lose and just how bored, yet frantic everyone is. If you've ever been waiting for mass layoffs at work, that seems to be the feeling in the White House. I'm thinking of the end game:

He likes watching TV, tweeting, and firing people, so why not give him what he wants? I wish someone would offer him The Apprentice back and quadruple the salary. Put it on FOX News since he loves it so much. It seems like the most sensible thing.

If he goes through an actual medical exam with ethical doctors that confirm some kind of dementia, sleep deprivation, or other issues, I'm confident he will feel humiliated enough to quit and take a bigly TV job. He is just too rich and old to really consider the opinions of experts on any issue.

Getting back on TV will allow him to ignore others, repeat himself, feel important, and stay famous.

*He doesn't like reading or writing. This is completely normal behavior from mediocre managers, based on my own experience ghostwriting and transcribing things for them in different industries.
posted by Freecola at 8:12 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you're looking to geek out on a Saturday night, here's a thread from Miles Coleman (Decision Desk maps guy) about Orange County.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:30 PM on January 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

My state is the best. tl;dr - gonna use some of the Republicans bullshit tax scamming against them.

Oh wow. Turning taxes into optional (federal-tax-deductible) charitable contributions is....unconventional, but absolutely hilarious in the best way.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:42 PM on January 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

If you're looking to geek out on a Saturday night, here's a thread from Miles Coleman (Decision Desk maps guy) about Orange County.

CA District 31 could be taken, if the the Democrats could get their shit together. (Outlying areas north of L.A. -- huge non-voting Spanish speaking population. And if it went, 8 would follow -- the desert towns along US-395, up to Mammoth Lakes.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:47 PM on January 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

So, I've now read Fire and Fury, and I found it . . . problematic.

Yes, it's a takedown of Trump and his highly dysfunctional administration. It lays out the incompetence of Trump to govern. He's an arrogant, petulant toddler with an insatiable appetite for adulation, zero tolerance for critique, and a whopping case of Dunning Kruger when it comes to his lack of knowledge of national or world affairs. But we all knew that. I learned a few things--Trump basically equates receiving a briefing with being lectured at, which he equates with being condescended to, which he cannot tolerate. But at this point I don't know how much more insight into Trump's character there is to be delivered. And I don't think it's really healthy for us to become obsessed with his every quirk. I feel like I can see myself and whole swaths of the nation acting like abuse victims who obsess over our abuser's motivations and moods, seeking to gain some control over the situation--but that's not a path to agency. It's doing what the abuser wants: making him the constant focus of our energies.

The thing that makes the book a page-turner is that it describes in juicy detail the battle for influence between the factions in Trump's inner circle. There's "the kids" (Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner), the Bannonites, and the establishment Republicans, engaging in ongoing, convoluted battles for power--kind of like Game of Thrones but with unflattering leaks to the media as the weapons. (Fire and Fury even sounds like a totally plausible title for a season of Game of Thrones.) Yes, it's admittedly compelling to follow the twists and turns, read the various insults and disses, and the fact that this is real life more than compensates for the lack of dragons and greatswords. Instead of a fantasy world, we get a Washington gossip column. What makes it compelling is that this alternately farcical and ugly battle has been producing national policy for a year, in a manner at best erratic and at worst dangerously incoherent. This too is something readers of the MeFi political threads already know. But Wolff is good at handing out juicy little tidbits of information that kept me turning the pages. You can't help but gape at the level of incompetence of so many of the players.

The thing is, this gossip-column approach is really problematic. Gossip columns are meant to entertain, to build celebrity culture, and to foster adulation and schadenfreude equally. And approaching the Trump presidency as newsertainment is disturbing to me; it seems almost a form of collaboration. Because the book paints Trump et al. in an unflattering light, it's being framed as "liberal." But I don't think it is. To the extent Wolff is presenting a critique of Trump and his West Wing, the fault Wolff is pointing out is incompetence. These people don't know how the game is played. They have personality flaws: Ivanka and Jared are naive, Bannon has hubris, Priebus is weak. All of them are self-serving and manipulative, yet ineffective, in their approach to Trump, the most incompetent character of all.

Ultimately, this is book in the horse-race vein of political coverage, just looking at battles inside the Trump administration instead of at a campaign between candidates. And I'm completely sick of horse-race media coverage. For me and I believe the majority of Americans who don't like Trump, what matters are issues, and the incompetence of his administration has been a saving disgrace. It's his administration's stance against immigration from places other than Western Europe, the nods to white supremacists, the climate-change denial, the framing of homophobia as religious liberty and transphobia as necessary to national security, etc. etc., that keep me up nights. Yes, the fact that Trump could lead us into nuclear war due to his fragile ego, fragile masculinity, and lack of impulse control is terrifying. But policies are central to why politics matters, and Wolff doesn't address policies through a moral lens. Politics come across as a game. Wolff actually demonstrates no more interest in policy analysis than the Donald Trump he describes.

This is not a progressive book. In fact, the person who most comes across as a hero in it is Steve Bannon, the smartest and most self-aware character in the book's palace intrigues. And the mainstream media are periodically portrayed as objectively anti-Trump, motivated by elitist disdain, and hysterical in the tone of their reporting on him. These are not positions I'm comfortable with at all.

So. Yes, I'll own that I'm happy to have bought and read a copy of Fire and Fury because that makes me part of a thing that is driving Trump nuts. But that's a petty thing. What really matters to me are the real issues. And one of those issues is that in pursuit of eyeballs, our media have become addicted to horserace political reporting, bothsiderism, and the pursuit of celebrities to fawn at or to mock--all things contributed substantially to the election of Trump. And Fire and Fury is, I feel, fully in that vein. That's my take, anyway.
posted by DrMew at 9:00 PM on January 6, 2018 [108 favorites]

So, I've now read Fire and Fury, and I found it . . . problematic.

I must respectfully disagree. Usually we get this sort of inside look at the functioning of a presidency well after the fact. To see just how things are working in an ongoing administration is not only fascinating, but provides insight into where the levers are and where the weak points lie. I don't find it trivial at all.
posted by Mental Wimp at 9:40 PM on January 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

And one of those issues is that in pursuit of eyeballs, our media have become addicted to horserace political reporting, bothsiderism, and the pursuit of celebrities to fawn at or to mock--all things contributed substantially to the election of Trump.

And that’s why I think President Trump stands a good chance of being re-elected in 2020.

Otherwise, DrMew’s by far the best review I’ve read of this book.
posted by Kwadeng at 10:20 PM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm with DrMew. People will notice that the water is boiling when their personal circumstances deteriorate sufficiently. For example, when the government announces that it is effectively insolvent right as the harvest fails and the price of bread equals a week's wages, leading to demonstrations in the capital by ordinary citizens, to which the Household Guard responds with live fire.

You can probably come up with more contemporary scenarios, but my point remains: your average punter is unlikely to be driven to action by some book that breathlessly points out (accurately) that the West Wing is staffed by dipshits who hate each other.
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 10:32 PM on January 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

I kind of wish we could take a poll here somehow to advise those of us who have not bought the book (yet?) but read everything else they could on it as to whether or not to buy it.

I'm undecided because on the one hand I suspect there's at least somewhat good odds of the facts of this being at least partially taken down and then I'll be annoyed I bought it, kinda like how I feel after having bought and liked Giant of the Senate. On the other hand, it's juicy drama AND would tick off Trump AND if this lawsuit or whatever goes down I may lose the option to decide about buying it later.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:01 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

" if this lawsuit or whatever goes down I may lose the option to decide about buying it later."

Have literally zero fear of that. Trump, as THE most public figure in American life, has almost zero ability to claim libel. The publisher knows that, which is why they give zero fucks about his threats. It's just publicity for them. I can't imagine a court even agreeing to hear the case, let alone deciding in Trump's favor.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:04 PM on January 6, 2018 [24 favorites]

Traditional horserace journalists are horrified, too. Maggie has been all kinds of vicious on TV and Twitter because she spent a year fluffing Trumpers for access and she’s irrelevant now.

Traditional horserace journalists are horrified because the book plays fast and loose with the facts while essentially telling the same story that they've been telling the whole time.

If Alabama can elect a democratic senator, it means people have been listening and the book isn't necessary. Like, people have talked about how the President's agenda is to make the truth meaningless. In a broader cultural context Wolff is contributing to that program. It might be a thrilling account, but I'm pretty glad that more diligent ones are being written.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:23 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I seem to have a passel of historical references to drop in here.

But sure, part of the massive distrust of American institutions is that the politicians themselves constantly make cracks about politicians being corrupt and capricious. Chuck Grassley tweeted the other day: It's so cold in the upper half of the USA Today that politicians will put their hands in their own pockets.

This may in a sense be true, but you should be aware that Grassley was just repeating what is arguably Washington's oldest political joke (to remain in constant use). First known use dates to the 1840s.

The like is there because he's trying to connect with the youths of 1983 when he was last coherent.

Nah, "like" as filler, interjection, or vague simile or even punctuation has a longer history than Valley Speak. There's even a citation in the New Yorker in 1928 (a cartoon) -- so it may even have originated as a New York regionalism. It's thus one of the least worrying things he's ever tweeted.

not only did Nebenzya ask why the Security Council had no special session when Black Lives Matter protesters descended on Ferguson, Mo.

Although this was followed by a pivot to the Iran deal, it should be noted that the USSR's go-to whataboutism play was literally "...and you are lynching Negroes", to the extent it has its own Wikipedia entry. To be sure, the dynamics of this response by Nebenzya aren't quite as strictly grounded in deflecting criticism of Russia, partly since the current administration hardly ever ventures onto the human rights pulpit, but here it sort of was, just not to a Russian target per se. I suspect at least some older diplomats understood this context, and I'm certain it whizzed right over the heads of the likes of Haley.

Which brings me to
because the American progressive front has been deeply ashamed of itself, and its nation, since approximately Vietnam.

Substitute slavery for Vietnam, certainly. Let me just point out here that this isn't a new phenomenon, but a longstanding game of, somewhat literally, capture the flag. There has always been a tendency to try to make Americanism a simple search-and-replace jingoism (indeed, it's been said that America is the only country where nationalism is not seen as a disease). But there's just as long a history of reclaiming the flag for protest and liberalism, e.g. suffragists to Selma (heck, even disability rights activism). I think there is a rich lode of left patriotism to be mined if one wishes. It is true that often the flag is used prophylactically, to defend against being cast out of the realm of legitimacy politics, but also often it is about defending the tradition of redress of grievances within which these movements have been operating. Additionally, it seems frequently necessary to remind elements of the reactionary, ressentiment-ridden right and left, even that petitioners are citizens, are human, and are deserving of rights under the law, a presumption often denied them. Frustratingly, it is still necessary, even through apparent happenstance. But let us remember that Barack Obama -- President so long ago it seems an age -- once spoke of "a more Perfect Union"^, but in the context of continuous perfection as an act of conservation and care, making our "union grow stronger". I admit to flagging confidence in this process, but I also see no better alternative than to put our hopes in it, because without it I see only disunion, a weaker United States, and a country that may only see that improvement take place in certain regions while vast others will turn backward or worse. So that's my left patriotism.
posted by dhartung at 11:35 PM on January 6, 2018 [27 favorites]

Before I forget and dash off some casual snark as my next post, I'd just like to dedicate my 1000th comment on Metafilter to these threads, which have brought me far more information and sanity than they have cost me. I'm sorry that my brain, like Metafilter itself, has endured a semi-permanent transition towards this great preoccupation, but if it had to happen, I'm so glad it happened here. Grim as 2016-2018 has been, a far darker timeline would be one with only Twitter, Facebook, and the newspapers to rely on. So thanks to everyone here for one more sanity preserved, and for literally thousands of days a little bit brightened.
(And apologies to the hard-working mods for straying OT : )
posted by chortly at 11:37 PM on January 6, 2018 [96 favorites]

I kind of wish we could take a poll here somehow to advise those of us who have not bought the book (yet?) but read everything else they could on it as to whether or not to buy it.

Frankly, the book doesn’t add much to the debate and will probably just reinforce the opinion of both sides of the political divide.

If you’ve read everything there is to read, it’s more than enough. The rest is just tidbits and pieces with not much added value. It’s not even well written (and I say this as a non native speaker); more of a glorified magazine article than a book of substance. This thread and the excerpts already published pretty much capture the entire book.
posted by Kwadeng at 11:41 PM on January 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

If Alabama can elect a Democratic Senator, then people are listening.

Alabama elected a Democratic Senator because enough white people were so disgusted with the possibility of choosing either a pedophile or a Democrat that they just stayed home. Almost every Hillary voter came out for Jones.

The only thing you can take from that is that some white people eventually hit a limit of disgust with a candidate not that red states are turning progressive.
posted by Talez at 11:57 PM on January 6, 2018 [15 favorites]

The thing is, this gossip-column approach is really problematic. Gossip columns are meant to entertain, to build celebrity culture, and to foster adulation and schadenfreude equally. And approaching the Trump presidency as newsertainment is disturbing to me; it seems almost a form of collaboration.

Sorry, but this feels like it's demanding too much. I haven't read the book and doubt that I will beyond the various excerpts that are finding me. That said, I can already feel its value as an Emperor's New Clothes moment that will make the history books. Will it single-handedly take down the naked fool in question? Of course not. But then no single individual or incident brought down McCarthyism. More of an overall sea change with certain situations more notable (historically) than others.
posted by philip-random at 12:05 AM on January 7, 2018 [35 favorites]

The only thing you can take from that is that some white people eventually hit a limit of disgust with a candidate not that red states are turning progressive.

Alabama is a complicated comparison, I agree. But expecting red states to "turn progressive" in response to a bad Republican in power (or a tell-all book) is like expecting a single MRA video to successfully red-pill someone. If people (in the right states) had hit their limit of disgust when HRC ran in 2016, she'd be president. They hit it when they were asked to vote for Moore, and they've been hitting it through 2017, and hopefully the trend will continue.

That said, I can already feel its value as an Emperor's New Clothes moment that will make the history books.

The idiocy that let it get made and the response by the executive will remain mind-blowing for their amateurishness, insanity, and predictability.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:21 AM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

At least people are reading. Maggie plays loose with facts for a tabloid audience, too.

Maybe I missed it (apologies, tired), but the linked article didn't seem to mention her screwing up the facts. There's a note about her interviewing Roger Stone and Trump calling to correct the record, but that isn't the same thing as what people have said about Wolff. Haberman is without a doubt more conservative in her reporting, and there is a good reason why that is disliked. But I think it's worth rejecting any false dichotomy between accuracy and reporting salacious details. Haberman gets things correct but should be bolder. Wolff should get things correct so that reporters (including Haberman) don't drill him for screw-ups. (Incidentally, I think Jonathan Swan going after him about the McConnell haircut story was pretty substantial.)
posted by Going To Maine at 12:39 AM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Her Riefenstahl urges have been stymied. Be on the lookout for her return.

Also, while I appreciate the sentiment and outrage that must be felt to have typed this, we live in an age of Fox News and InfoWars. Any attempt to compare the NYT to state propaganda without normalizing against that is getting off the rails and deserves a few seconds of reconsideration.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:00 AM on January 7, 2018 [24 favorites]

They'll keep covering for Trump as long as they think it's in their best interests. They'll drop him the moment they think that is to their advantage. There is no love for Trump in DC, there is only self-serving tactical stances that may change at any moment.

It doesn't matter if they love him or not. What matters is the fact that there is never going to be any advantage to dropping Trump, so they never will.

Rational people look at the poll numbers and Trump's failure to even get Luther Strange nominated as the GOP candidate in the Alabama primary and then his failure to get Roy Moore elected despite campaigning for him and accurately assess that Trump's ability to positively affect Republican candidates is somewhere in between very limited and completely nonexistent, and conclude from this that the GOP will accordingly eventually dump Trump because his negatives outweigh his positives. The problem with this reasoning is that while Trump's ability to positively affect politics is extremely low, his ability to negatively affect politics is higher than just about anybody else in America in a long, long time; if you make it onto his enemies list, he will tell his base that you are the devil incarnate and they will listen, and at this point his base is the majority of the GOP base.

Trump almost certainly cannot politically help the GOP, but he can definitely harm them, and harm them to an extent that would potentially kill the party as an effective political organization as the money men permanently move to whatever thing the lunatics call themselves next. They will never risk his wrath and they will never drop him unless they think the base will be agreeable to it, and when is that going to happen?
posted by mightygodking at 1:05 AM on January 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

When they fear the anti-Trump mob with pitchforks more than the pro-Trump mob with pitchforks.
posted by benzenedream at 1:34 AM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Rational people look at the poll numbers and Trump's failure to even get Luther Strange nominated as the GOP candidate in the Alabama primary and then his failure to get Roy Moore elected despite campaigning for him and accurately assess that Trump's ability to positively affect Republican candidates is somewhere in between very limited and completely nonexistent, and conclude from this that the GOP will accordingly eventually dump Trump because his negatives outweigh his positives.

But it was a peculiar situation where Trump was trying to ally himself with Congressional Republicans instead of being his usual intransigent shithead. It was obvious that Moore was loudly talking the talk and walking the walk on Trumpism. Hell, he had previously martyred himself twice in service to it even if it wasn't called Trumpism back then. If Trump was going to be Trump at that point (and if he had a clue about Alabama politics) in time he would have loudly gotten behind Moore.

Every politician knows that Trumpism brings out the nutjobs in the primaries and without them they're dead in the water. So they'll go along with it to make sure they don't get Cantored or Stranged and then they'll worry about pivoting and winning the general depending on where they are. The key to R victory this cycle seems to be not turning off as many Republicans from each extreme as possible. For once a traditionally D problem is now an R problem for which I am very gleeful about. As Congress has shown, it's a very small needle to thread.
posted by Talez at 1:40 AM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

The thing is, this gossip-column approach is really problematic. Gossip columns are meant to entertain, to build celebrity culture, and to foster adulation and schadenfreude equally. And approaching the Trump presidency as newsertainment is disturbing to me; it seems almost a form of collaboration.

I wouldn't go so far as to say collaboration, but I do share your disquiet. Thing is, though, gossip and serious policy analysis aren't mutually exclusive. You'll seldom get them both from the same source, but they are both out there and both can help in the fight to bring Trump down. It's not an either/or.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:21 AM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Thing is, though, gossip and serious policy analysis aren't mutually exclusive. You'll seldom get them both from the same source

Consider Procopius and his, uh, Wars of Justinian to pick a completely random example. Now contrast with his Secret History. So it's not like both dry history and scandalous gossip don't coexist.

And it's the latter that brings the eyeballs and moves opinion, in mine.
posted by Justinian at 2:47 AM on January 7, 2018 [24 favorites]

It's pretty obvious from the (global) media reaction that the book is having a "The Emperor has no Clothes" - effect. Just look at how Trump's own reaction is undermining the Republicans' attempts to discredit the book, there is no going back from this.
Every time someone here, or in an editorial, tells us all to look behind the distractions and worry about the policy, my first thought is that there is no policy. What we see is all there is. There is no big secret plan behind the blundering idiot, none of the cynical dark princes of the Bush era. It's just a fools parade that can barely get anything done. The Republican party has lost all other ideas that corruption, greed, hate, racism, misogyny and ignorance.
What is important is to keep the Resistance growing and going, and if this book or some of all the coverage can awaken some independent voters, it's good for everyone.
posted by mumimor at 3:15 AM on January 7, 2018 [56 favorites]

Any attempt to compare the NYT to state propaganda without normalizing against that is getting off the rails and deserves a few seconds of reconsideration.

Maybe the Times could take a few seconds of reconsideration before tweeting things that make them look like a propaganda outlet.

@NYTNational
Snappy, alliterative, essentially true — President Trump had coined another one. For the first time, the target of his executive nicknaming was one of his own: “Sloppy Steve” Bannon, his ousted strategist.

@nytimes:
President Trump has brought a reality-show accessibility to a once-aloof presidency, invigorating voters who felt alienated by the establishment http://nyti.ms/2DDJii3 (For Trump, a Year of Reinventing the Presidency)
posted by chris24 at 5:39 AM on January 7, 2018 [44 favorites]

People are acting as though if "Fire and Fury" were a meticulously researched and sourced scholarly tome, that the Republicans in Washington would throw up their hands and say, "You got us now, we surrender!" This is a party and administration which is at active war with the truth. In a sense it might be worse if the book were more incontrovertible, because it would elicit a more deranged counter-reaction. It would require the creation of a more pervasive counter-truth to provide an alternative to reality, perhaps even culminating in the prosecution of Wolff's sources with forced shaming and recantation. But in the guise of nigh-gossip, it bears a stronger chance of evading the anti-truth barrage of the ruling party. And it yields a much stronger chance of being actually read instead of ubiquitously purchased yet sitting unopened on shelves everywhere as if it were "Capital in the 21st Century."
posted by xigxag at 5:52 AM on January 7, 2018 [34 favorites]

I still haven’t seen anyone cite actual factual issues

Nor have I, although if his snark about the date of Mitch McConnell's haircut is where they're at . .

If you haven't read it, and have been in the MegaThread trenches lo these last many years, you're not likely to find a good summation. Half of it's strength and appeal is that it's a book-length narrative with no commercial breaks that consolidates the most wtf in those first few months after The Unthinkable.

It's a hard fact that TV news, twitter, and newspapers aren't structurally capable of discussing what the hell happens in Trump's mind. They don't have the time. This does.

It's an accessible read but it's not tabloidy. There are a lot of events that have been given color that could be argued all day: "Bannon nodded to the tv as if to say Watch for yourself." which - I don't find the slightest bit problematic compared to the utter unwillingness, inability, or ineffectiveness of those other forms of media to discuss this. There are some new revelations, but as the book intones over and over, We Knew He Was Unfit. We Still Know. So why the hell does anyone think Trump has a platform (other than twitter)?

The book is an alarm. It's as loud and clarion as is possible to be in a media-conglomerate landscape that says, "Hey. Hillary was right about this guy. You were right about this guy. Not only is he a crook and desperately trying to be a Russian stooge, but he doesn't know anything!" And the billionaires know it. The foreign governments know it. Congress knows it. His own family knows it. So why do we keep pretending?

Because - as much as he didn't expect to win, or didn't even want to win, he "won". And that spun his head, now he thinks that's right. He won for being so good and bigly. Yeeeaaaahhh. And nobody can tell him anything.

Governmentally, as a nation, we've locked our keys in the car and it's running. We have to get somewhere. Now.
posted by petebest at 5:53 AM on January 7, 2018 [103 favorites]

Trump, and a big part of the GOP, believe that if it’s in the news it’s real. It’s how they’ve created this whole alternate facts reality. The mainstream media outlets don’t know how to deal with this mindset, because when trump lies and other Republicans corroborate the lie it doesn’t matter how much fact checking they do, the lie has been spread into existence.

Fire and Fury is amazing because Wolff adheres to Trumps philosophy of reality. But he’s weaponized it against him. I don’t care how honest or accurate it is. I’m tired of evil lies dominating the narrative. Let some half truths and innuendo that help save the world populare the discussion for a while.
posted by Glibpaxman at 6:08 AM on January 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

David Frum: Donald Trump Goes Full Fredo

Who and what Donald Trump is has been known to everyone and anyone who cared to know for years and decades. Before he was president, he was the country’s leading racist conspiracy theorist. Before he was the country’s leading racist conspiracy theorist, he was a celebrity gameshow host. Before he was a celebrity gameshow host, he was the multi-bankrupt least trusted name in real estate. Before he was the multi-bankrupt least trusted name in real estate, he was the protege of Roy Cohn’s repeatedly accused of ties to organized crime. From the start, Donald Trump was a man of many secrets, but no mysteries. Inscribed indelibly on the public record were the reasons for responsible people to do everything in their power to bar him from the presidency.

Instead, since he announced his candidacy in mid-2015, Donald Trump has been enabled and protected.

The enabling and protecting not only continues. It accelerates.

Obviously, David Frum has been part of the problem, but it is still a good comment, and again: when someone sees the wreckage they have created and changes their ways, they should be welcomed, not shamed. We need a broad coalition against the racists and robbers. (And this is a global issue, not just an American one).
posted by mumimor at 6:08 AM on January 7, 2018 [65 favorites]

Re the Mark vs Mike typo, I'm willing to add that to the dozen or so typos I've found already, rather than assuming he meant the wrong person. The ebook is filled with typos.

As to the content, it rings true to me, and I've been in The Threads since well before the election. Is it dressed up and told in an entertaining way such that the 70 year old establishment republicans in my family will read it, and be shocked and disturbed? Yes, yes it is. I have seen Teahadists in Texas eating chicken fried steak while reading the book, I have seen clerks in the main street shops of my little blurb reading it behind the counter. This book is everywhere, and it's not just the resistance.

This book is moving the dial in arenas we can't otherwise touch.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:11 AM on January 7, 2018 [106 favorites]

Another reason not to fear a woman candidate in 2020; the Dem wave is being powered by women.

@SeanMcElwee
Wow. The 2017 elections dramatically increased diversity in VA House of Delegates, but almost exclusively among Democrats. Great piece by @williamjordann.

@PoliticsWolf
Whoa: Over half of Virginia state House Democrats are women. Just 10% of Republicans are. Only 31% of House Dems are white men, but 86% of Republicans are
- After 2016, 32% of U.S. House Dems were women, but just 9% of Republicans were. 43% of Dems were people of color while just 5% of GOP was. Those party disparities could grow even wider after 2018's impending Dem wave is poised to be powered by women @SeanMcElwee @williamjordann

William Jordan: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WILL PROBABLY GET A WHOLE LOT MORE REPRESENTATIVE AFTER 2018 (A VIRGINIA STORY)
posted by chris24 at 6:45 AM on January 7, 2018 [45 favorites]

Black Hole Sun God - Patrick Blanchfield

Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is a kind of “Purloined Letter” for the dark 21st century. A chronicle of the first eight months of the Donald Trump Administration, the book promises revelations that the author has suggested will bring down the presidency. Fire and Fury does contain plenty of palace intrigue and compromising stories, but its promised revelations are not really revelations at all. The fundamental scandal, the book’s centerpiece truth—that the President is breathtakingly unfit, and his administration is a slow-motion train wreck—has been obvious all along. The Trump catastrophe has not been hidden in plain sight. It has filled our entire national field of vision such that, for those who follow the news even irregularly, there is little else to see.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:47 AM on January 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
13 minutes ago

I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!

What's the under on someone in the White House talking about Saint Ronnie before this tweet.
posted by Talez at 6:54 AM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Interesting that Miller wouldn't say a definite no with Jake Tapper this morning. And by interesting I mean suspicious as hell.

@joshrogin (WaPo)
Stephen Miller can't say if Trump met with the Russians at Trump Tower. @CNNSotu

---

And the appearance went about as well as you'd think.

@davidaxelrod
Miller had an audience of one who undoubtedly was pleased by his bizarre performance on @CNNSotu. But does a WH aide going on TV, acting obnoxious and unstable, help a @POTUS who is under siege for being obnoxious and unstable?😳

@edatpost (WaPo)
"There's one viewer that you care about right now," @JakeTapper tells Stephen Miller on @CNNSOTU as he cuts off the White House official and goes to commercial.

@colvinj (AP)
Tapper returns from break post-Stephen Miller with the words “Welcome back to planet earth."

@djrothkopf
Stephen Miller is making a very strong case that he is a very very stupid man.
-If the best advocate for intelligence and stability WH could offer for the president is Stephen Miller things are worse than we thought.

@Mr_Berman (Buzzfeed)
Stephen Miller, mad on CNN, says Steve Bannon’s role “has been greatly exaggerated,” and CNN isn’t doing enough covering Trump’s genius or “slaughter” in sanctuary cities.

@OhNoSheTwitnt
On behalf of the Jews I give you all permission to call Stephen Miller a white supremacist.
posted by chris24 at 6:57 AM on January 7, 2018 [56 favorites]

Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!

Trump’s ill-advised claim that the media are covering his mental fitness like Reagan’s (WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:59 AM on January 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

What's the under on someone in the White House talking about Saint Ronnie before this tweet.

And this is the second time in as many days that Trump's Twitter has mentioned Reagan. This is what George Lakoff meant about Trump using the medium for preemptive framing and trial balloons.

My betting is that the White House is trying to come up with a media strategy in case of a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease when Trump undergoes his medical checkup next week...
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:01 AM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Trump's nominee for the head of Indian Health Services is qualified for the position because he was a patient as a child, HHS says.

Weaver claims he had a financial role at the hospital and that he held "supervisory and management positions." Augusto Noronha, the chief financial officer at the hospital from 1999 to 2005, said: "I don't recall [Weaver's] name whatsoever." The director of patient financial services, Bob Henderson, said he did know the name Rob Weaver, and that the man had worked to register E.R. patients.

The hospital was unable to officially verify what Weaver's position was because of a 2011 tornado that damaged records. A Health and Human Services spokeswoman said Weaver's own employment records were destroyed in the same tornado.

When asked by the Journal if such a position was a leadership role, Henderson said: "Well, I guess it would depend upon how you look at leadership."

I can't. I just can't. How is this even possible?
posted by scalefree at 7:07 AM on January 7, 2018 [17 favorites]

Seriously, just watch this 15 second clip of Tapper ending the interview with Miller as Miller tries to yell over him to get a sense of the whole shitshow.

@matthewchampion
"I think I've wasted enough of my viewers' time" is an iconic way to end an interview

VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 7:10 AM on January 7, 2018 [46 favorites]

The sudden identification with Reagan is really interesting. It does give them a way out via the 25th while still wearing some tattered 'doing the right thing' robes that they might be hoping that blasted base will cling on to.
posted by Devonian at 7:11 AM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!

We are not doing ourselves any favors by taking things out of context and pretending they mean what we want; this obviously refers to the "fake book" in the preceding sentence.
posted by thelonius at 7:13 AM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

We are not doing ourselves any favors by taking things out of context and pretending they mean what we want; this obviously refers to the "fake book" in the preceding sentence.

Respectfully, I don't think it does. It refers to people saying Reagan was stupid and mentally unfit. As his earlier tweet makes clear.

@realDonaldTrump
Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....
posted by chris24 at 7:15 AM on January 7, 2018 [12 favorites]

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
3m3 minutes ago

Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!

[ Link mine, msl ]
posted by mikelieman at 7:19 AM on January 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!

What's the under on someone in the White House talking about Saint Ronnie before this tweet.

The "Trump LiveTweets Fox" guy Matt Gertz noted yesterday that Trump got the "the media are doing the same thing to Trump that they did to Reagan" riff directly from Fox, where he gets lots of his tweeting content.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:28 AM on January 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

Oh what fun if you enjoy watching slow motion car crashes.
I found the following two extracts from articles instructive.
Firstly from the Vanity Fair article
“The larger story,” one of Haberman’s colleagues told me, “is the increasingly tabloid-y evolution of the mainstream political press.
This is referring to the US paper of record.
The second is from the Guardian
Wolff’s portrayal of a man prone to wild mood swings, liable to call someone a friend one moment, an enemy the next, is also redolent of actor Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film The Last King of Scotland.
“You’re a child,” his despairing doctor tells him. “You have the mind and ego of an angry, spoiled, uneducated child. And that’s what makes you so fucking scary.”
posted by adamvasco at 7:29 AM on January 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

Trevor Noah made the Idi Amin comparison on The Daily Show in October 2015.
posted by mikelieman at 7:36 AM on January 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

A hall of famer for lack of self-awareness. "I am always amazed at the lengths people will go to to lie for money and for power.”

@saletan
On ABC, Haley says she hasn't read Wolff's book, but dismisses it: "I am always amazed at the lengths people will go to to lie for money and for power. ... No one questions the stability of the president.”
posted by chris24 at 7:38 AM on January 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

The beauty of Trump repeatedly talking about his mental state is that the media has been reluctant to do so. Now that he's constantly yammering about it, they now have an excuse to cover it and in fact kinda have to.

That's just it - whether the book is true, somewhat true, or a tissue of lies, the fact that Trump reacted so strongly, and can't stop flapping his gums about it, means that it's not going to go away quietly (Streisand effect!). Trump and his merry crew can't grasp "Least said, soonest mended."

I hope that this helps Democrats realize that their Republican opposition is not some chess-playing, unstoppable juggernaut, but a clown car of stupid propped up by, IMO, the truly scary Rebekah Mercer. Souls to the polls, beat feet to the booths, get out the vote, etc.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 7:39 AM on January 7, 2018 [42 favorites]

Said it before - we’re gonna need a 9/11 style commission once Trump is bounced, whether by impeachment, 25th Amendment, or 2020 election, to find out exactly how the hell we got to this point. And if it’s not until Dems take office and congress in 2020, then it’ll also have to go into how no one with the power to do so did anything for so long. I mean we know why, but it needs to be laid bare for history in the congressional record. Hopefully we are less than a year from a Democratic Congress being seated to start to curb the abuses and start some investigations with real teeth. (You know those endless Benghazi investigations, GOP? Wait until the shoe is on the other foot, and this time with facts to back the investigations up.)
posted by azpenguin at 7:45 AM on January 7, 2018 [24 favorites]

(You know those endless Benghazi investigations, GOP? Wait until the shoe is on the other foot, and this time with facts to back the investigations up.)

I support a democratic legislative agenda that effectively moves the Overton Window back towards "Promote the General Welfare". Go for broke guys, it's time to fix the broken "Run Government like a business" model that got us here, by giving back to government all the tasks that aren't profit centers by their very nature.
posted by mikelieman at 7:51 AM on January 7, 2018 [31 favorites]

Said it before - we’re gonna need a 9/11 style commission once Trump is bounced, whether by impeachment, 25th Amendment, or 2020 election, to find out exactly how the hell we got to this point.

We know exactly how we got here. And Republicans would undermine any Truth and Reconciliation commission like they're doing with the Mueller investigation. They're not good faith actors, and any process that treats them as such cannot be considered credible from the outset, it's doomed to be poisoned by their very participation. There's no more reasoning or bargaining or negotiating with the people that did this to us, there's only defeating them, and keep defeating them forever.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:51 AM on January 7, 2018 [40 favorites]

Oh, and while you're at it, I understand the need for Artificial Legal Entities, and it's not just limiting personal liability. But it's time to put in legislation that defines these ALEs as distinctly inferior to Real People who should have the political power ( the vote ).
posted by mikelieman at 7:53 AM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Reagan killing the Fairness Doctrine, which gave rise to right-wing talk radio, and left us with no base law to expand to cable "news" channels and Internet news sites.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:00 AM on January 7, 2018 [24 favorites]

Electoral College

Former Republican congressman.

@DavidJollyFL
Remarkable historical stat: Bush 41 was elected 30 years ago this year.

In the 7 presidential elections since, the GOP has won the popular vote **once** (Bush 43 in '04 w 50.7%).

A lot to reflect on. Time to make some changes.
posted by chris24 at 8:13 AM on January 7, 2018 [73 favorites]

Washington Examiner: CIA Director Mike Pompeo: Trump does read

1) How would the GOP have reacted 2 years ago to a CIA director announcing "Obama can read?"

2) Pompeo uses a lot of words that definitely don't mean "to read": “This president reads material that we provide to him, he listens closely to his daily briefing,” he said. “This president is an avid consumer of the work product that our team at the CIA produces and we do our best to convey that to him nearly every day.”
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:13 AM on January 7, 2018 [40 favorites]

Interestingly, despite the article title "Exclusive: Bannon apologizes" and the total obsequiousness, neither "sorry" nor "apologize" appears in the statement. And the one time "regret" appears, it's not for what he said, it's for taking too long to issue this statement. And as lalex says, it basically confirms that Wolff's account is true, Bannon's just trying to put a paint job on it and kiss Trump's ass.
posted by chris24 at 8:40 AM on January 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

In Bannon’s case, it’s possible that two gin-scented tears really did run down his face while he made his ritual abasement.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:53 AM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

A good refresher on Reagan's mental state during the presidency. Even in 1980 he was candid with reporters discussing the possibility that he might (someday) have hereditary dementia (like his mother).
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:56 AM on January 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

Jennifer Rubin calls for the 25th amendment.

WaPo: The ‘stable genius’ isn’t even functioning as president

To defend his continued occupancy of the office or to insist he’s “better than Hillary” is to reject the notion of democracy. We cannot accept, let alone applaud, courtiers scurrying around to create the appearance of a functioning government. He, not they, is the chief executive and commander in chief. We have a vice president elected specifically to take over if the president is incapable of serving; the 25th Amendment does not say “but in a pinch, let the secretaries of defense and treasury run the show.” What we have is a type of coup in which the great leader is disabled. He is propped up, sent out to read lines written by others and kept safely away from disastrous situations. This is not how our system works, however.

We’re playing with fire, counting on the ability of others to restrain him from, say, launching a nuclear war and, nearly as bad, jettisoning our representative democracy. Vice President Pence, the Cabinet and Congress have a moral and constitutional obligation to bring this to a stop.

posted by chris24 at 8:58 AM on January 7, 2018 [76 favorites]

@NYTNational: Snappy, alliterative, essentially true — President Trump had coined another one. For the first time, the target of his executive nicknaming was one of his own: “Sloppy Steve” Bannon, his ousted strategist

While we're on the subject: could someone explain to me the heaps of praise that 45 garners for his oh-so-cover nicknames, like Sloppy Steve and Lyin' Ted? It's long been a mystery to me why so many otherwise sensible people seem to view 45's nicknames as a manifestation of a subtle political genius or something. It’s not just the NYT; I’ve defintitely seen other outlets react with genuine amusement to this stuff. To my ear, these are precisely the same types of names that my friends and I used to make up for people we didn’t like in, say, third grade, no more and no less. For example, our horribly mean third grade teacher was “Mental McCain.” (This was around 1975, so.) But now out of the mouth of a 70-year-old, it’s some sort of sterling wit or wily political strategy? I don’t understand it at all.
posted by holborne at 9:33 AM on January 7, 2018 [49 favorites]

the book promises revelations that the author has suggested will bring down the presidency. Fire and Fury does contain plenty of palace intrigue and compromising stories, but its promised revelations are not really revelations at all. The fundamental scandal, the book’s centerpiece truth—that the President is breathtakingly unfit, and his administration is a slow-motion train wreck—has been obvious all along

so can we just call them confirmations then? And then focus on what to f***ing do now that nobody has the luxury anymore of pretending that it's not official, that the President of the United States of America is as big and crazy and dangerous and naked as any emperor the world has known since at least Nero.
posted by philip-random at 9:35 AM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

While we're on the subject: could someone explain to me the heaps of praise that 45 garners for his oh-so-cover nicknames, like Sloppy Steve and Lyin' Ted?

Maybe it's nostalgia for Bush
posted by thelonius at 9:39 AM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

[H]ere's a thread of the backstory of the attack on FBI Deputy Director (and for a while, Acting Director) Andy McCabe, based on emails to and from him obtained via #FOIA
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:41 AM on January 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!

So he's hoping to rely on his wife to prompt him? That'll be .... interesting.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:48 AM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

“No one questions the stability of the president.”

Well, yeah. None of us here are questioning his stability. We're absolutely certain we know how stable he is.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:48 AM on January 7, 2018 [24 favorites]

On ABC, Haley says she hasn't read Wolff's book, but dismisses it: "I am always amazed at the lengths people will go to to lie for money and for power. ... No one questions the stability of the president.”

Does she mean this in a kind of "no one puts Baby in a corner" kind of way?? Everyone questions the stability of the President, except those who are certain, I suppose. (on preview: jinx ErisLordFreedom)

This is part of the EMP blast that the book should be - Nikki Haley (and all defending this indefensible travesty) is a lying sack of shit for perpetrating this madness. It's our national duty and responsibility to have a competent leader whether they're Fuckface Republican or Santa Claus. Comments like this are such an insult.

And "Haven't read the book", fuck you Haley it talks about you for 10 pages, you know you read it!
posted by petebest at 9:53 AM on January 7, 2018 [31 favorites]

Bannon's use of the phrase to "stand in the breech [sic]" in his apology is super interesting to me. It's from Ezekiel 22:30, "And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none."

The five verses preceding it are also deeply poignant, and although Bannon might believe they're best applied to his enemies, there truly could not be a more apt description of this current administration, and everyone presently and formerly involved with it:

"25 There is a conspiracy of her princes[b] within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. 26 Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. 28 Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice."
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 9:55 AM on January 7, 2018 [69 favorites]

Ronald Reagan, for all his (many) faults, commanded loyalty. His chief of staff was James Baker, considered a model for effective Chiefs of Staff. He also had Nancy, who, again despite her many faults (eff that Just Say No thing) was intelligent, capable, and a partner in their marriage. You marry and pick good people and they will prop you up even when the brain chips are down.

Melania is not a partner in the Trump marriage and I doubt she even wants to take on a Nancy Reagan role - as it is she's pretty obviously doing the bare minimum as First Lady and hates every minute. John Kelly is...more capable than Reince Priebus I guess? One of the smarter clowns in the car is still a clown. That leaves Jar Jar Vanks (thanks, Sys Rq!) who, given a choice between propping up Daddy and saving their own skins, will choose...? (Betcha it's option B.)

I worry most about: 1) what Trump might do in the throws of dementia or an overgrown toddler tantrum, and 2) Rebekah Mercer being smarter about her next scary fascist pick for higher office.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:06 AM on January 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

The One Thing Jake Tapper Got Absolutely Wrong in that Stephen Miller Interview

This seems like a way to commit political suicide. But the Americans who are going to pump their fists watching Miller "own the lib media" might constitute a third of the country. And when you add the people who believe that, yes, it would be better if Trump's aides (and Trump himself) had better manners but who nevertheless think that Tapper is the villain in this clip -- why does he have to express so much contempt for the president of the United States, who deserves some respect? -- you start approaching 50% of the country, and a clear majority of white voters. Throw in vote suppression, gerrymandering, and lots of plutocrat cash and you have a formula for repeated electoral victories, which is why the GOP mainstream is exceedingly tolerant of this approach.

Virginia and Alabama suggest that this strategy has its limits. Nevertheless, even in Virginia the Democrats won the overall House of Delegates vote 55%-45, but couldn't do better than 49 of 100 seats, and would have won no more than 50 if the Democrat's name had been picked out of that bowl.

Miller did this for the same reason a baseball manager runs onto the field to get in an umpire's face in response to a disputable call. The purpose is not to impress the team owner -- it's to fire up the crowd and the ballclub. Trust me, this will work.

posted by tonycpsu at 10:12 AM on January 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

That Jake Tapper interview is the first time I've seen Miller 'talking' at any length... The guy is seriously... I can't even find the right adjective, but repulsive, bombastic and pathetic sort of suggest themselves
posted by Myeral at 10:14 AM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Dear Jake Tapper (and the rest of the media): please stop giving air time to odious toads like Stephen Miller.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 10:22 AM on January 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

Trust me, this will work.

I have no doubt it fires up the nutjobs. I do doubt that nominally sane people watch this and add to that racist fascist third of people and approach 50%. Like most of what Trump & Co. does, it appeals to his shrinking base and turns off a majority of people.
posted by chris24 at 10:24 AM on January 7, 2018 [17 favorites]

Watching that clip, all I could think was Trump isn’t the only one who repeats himself again and again. Maybe it’s catching?
posted by valkane at 10:26 AM on January 7, 2018

Miller did this for the same reason a baseball manager runs onto the field to get in an umpire's face in response to a disputable call. The purpose is not to impress the team owner -- it's to fire up the crowd and the ballclub. Trust me, this will work.

It's a compelling argument/prediction, but I'm not sure I'm sold. This was totally part of the calculus all through the election. The dynamics were different then. Journalists across the board were struggling to find ways to draw an equivalency between two candidates so as to avoid the appearance of unfairness. In doing so, they catastrophically lowered the bar on one candidate and raised it on another.

At this point, a year into the regime, when the effort to show deference to the office is both farcical and terrifying (as it was in the election), we'd all be better off if more of the media dropped the pretense. They've been doing work to make him seem credible so they don't seem biased. The farther this goes, the more ridiculous that looks.

I can't remember who said it, so I can't cite, but the problem with speaking the truth about the Republican party is it always sounds like an attack--because the truth is all so damning. It's time to stop worrying about being damning and worry more about the truth.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:27 AM on January 7, 2018 [52 favorites]

I have no doubt it fires up the nutjobs. I do doubt that nominally sane people watch this and add to that racist fascist third of people and approach 50%. Like most of what Trump does, it appeals to his shrinking base and turns off a majority of people.

It certainly seems to have turned off a lot of people in Virginia, and even Alabama. Sure, the nutjobs will be fired up, but it doesn't take much to fire them up - Kenyan Muslim In The White House, FEMA Camps, They're Tekking Our Gunses, etc. They don't need Donald Trump, or indeed any one particular person.

In any case, that "No More Mr. Nice Blog" linked to was also shaking in his boots about "If we nominate a woman candidate in 2020 we will LOOOOOOOOOOSE! We need a MAYUN for President!" so I take his fearful pearl-clutching with a grain of salt.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:27 AM on January 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

I can't remember who said it, so I can't cite, but the problem with speaking the truth about the Republican party is it always sounds like an attack--because the truth is all so damning. It's time to stop worrying about being damning and worry more about the truth.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:27 AM on January 7

Yes, pointing and laughing is the appropriate response to this shitshow that they've created for themselves.

Derision is perfectly appropriate.
posted by yesster at 10:34 AM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

Miller shouldn't be able to go on TV without the text of his editorial about "political correctness" at Santa Monica High being thrown in his face.

just in case your son or daughter decides at their tender age that they are gay, we have a club on campus that will gladly help foster their homosexuality. Do they notify parents if their teenagers have chosen an alternate lifestyle? Of course not.
...
I suppose then, that our country would have been better off if our soldiers never killed anyone, and we watched as our nation was obliterated by the evil in the world, as we sung songs of peace and love...Or, better yet, we could have lived with the Indians, learning how to finger paint and make tepees, excusing their scalping of frontiersmen as part of their culture. Forget about being the nation that stopped Hitler, brought communism to its knees, and feeds more hungry people around the world than any other country -- forget all of that, and let us just agree that we're a horrible nation. Or, we can raise our flags, lift our guns, and proclaim that we are Americans, that we enjoy personal freedoms Islamic nations could only dream about, we are the land of the free, the home of the brave.

Sadly, my school has forgotten all of this. That is why we do nothing for American holidays but everything for Mexican holidays. That is why history teachers denounce the US as wickedly imperialistic, some supplementing standard history texts with something comfortably more liberal. That is why teachers insult and demean the President. That is why we invited a Muslim leader to the school to explain the splendor of Islam, but no such proclamation was ever made about America.
...
Osama Bin Laden would feel very welcome at Santa Monica High School.

What do you think they're saying about this president, you slimy shitheel?
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:43 AM on January 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

Walter Shaub: It's embarrassing to see the American government dispatch representatives like this to extol the grandeur of the leader. His outfit, haircut, mannerisms, and words seem like those of the evil regional commissar from a B-movie about a fictional East bloc country named Bruteslava.

the problem with speaking the truth about the Republican party is it always sounds like an attack

“If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.” —Adlai E. Stevenson
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:43 AM on January 7, 2018 [56 favorites]

the problem with speaking the truth about the Republican party is it always sounds like an attack

"I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it's Hell."
posted by octobersurprise at 10:43 AM on January 7, 2018 [27 favorites]

Miller shouldn't be able to go on TV without the text of his editorial about "political correctness" at Santa Monica High being thrown in his face.

Or that he jumped into the final lap of a girls' high school track race to show he was more athletic than women. Cuz nothing screams 'better than' than skipping most of the race.

He jumped, uninvited, into the final stretch of a girls’ track meet, apparently intent on proving his athletic supremacy over the opposite sex. (The White House, reaching for exculpatory context, noted that this was a girls’ team from another school, not his own.)

posted by chris24 at 11:04 AM on January 7, 2018 [19 favorites]

> I have no doubt it fires up the nutjobs. I do doubt that nominally sane people watch this and add to that racist fascist third of people and approach 50%. Like most of what Trump & Co. does, it appeals to his shrinking base and turns off a majority of people.

Turns them off enough to vote "disapprove" in a Gallup poll? Sure. Turns them off enough to not vote R in 2018, or for Trump in 2020 if he's still around? That's debatable.

Let's say that 45% meets the bar for "approaching 50%" with some margin for error. That's only 12% of the population that has to fit into the category of passively supporting the fascists to add to the third that's actively supporting them. We saw how this political calculus played out with the tax bill -- once you're within striking distance of a "win" for your side, the leaners will do pretty much anything to close the deal.

Now, POTUS45 is certainly a lot more toxic than he was a year ago, so maybe it's going to be harder to pull the leaners in the next time around, but a rock-solid base of 33-ish percent makes every battle a nail-biter, especially when Republicans have shown themselves to be better at winning the messaging war. I'm encouraged by recent improvements to Democratic messaging, in that they're focusing on firing up the base rather than trying to hold on to independents, but that cuts both ways. We *will* lose some votes from independents as our candidates run on a more outwardly progressive. This is a risk worth taking, but it's a risk.

> It certainly seems to have turned off a lot of people in Virginia, and even Alabama.

It's turned off a lot of people, sure, but as noted in my pull-quote, the end result for Democrats, even with all of the anti-Trump win at their backs, was still falling just short in VA. There were headwinds as well -- gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc. But those aren't going away. Meanwhile, AL-Sen was clearly more about Moore's disgusting predatory behavior than a Trump endorsement -- Jones did everything he could to make the race about Alabama instead of nationalizing it and making it about Trump. So I don't think either of those data points is a sign of massive Trump/GOP weakness.

> In any case, that "No More Mr. Nice Blog" linked to was also shaking in his boots about "If we nominate a woman candidate in 2020 we will LOOOOOOOOOOSE! We need a MAYUN for President!" so I take his fearful pearl-clutching with a grain of salt.

This is a pretty uncharitable paraphrase of the post in question. He is expressing concern about sexism undermining a female candidate, which should be a pretty uncontroversial position. Never does he imply that Democrats shouldn't nominate a woman. I'm concerned about sexism undermining a female candidate, and I will be very disappointed if our nominee *isn't* a woman. Noting polling trends that show men who disapprove of female officeholders helps us understand what we'll be up against going forward. That's not the same as saying we should let the misogynists win.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:14 AM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Trump, and a big part of the GOP, believe that if it’s in the news it’s real. It’s how they’ve created this whole alternate facts reality.

I think it’s really important to note that, while Trump and his ilk have capitalized on the triumph of mediated reality over empirical reality, they hardly created it; our devices conditioned us all to live in that place, and created the stage that Trump merely dominates temporarily.

That’s an important distinction because, after Trump, we’re still all completely vulnerable to the next iteration of fake reality, unless we shake off or counter-balance the mesmerization of mediation that fills our heads daily.
posted by LooseFilter at 11:35 AM on January 7, 2018 [16 favorites]

Turns them off enough to vote "disapprove" in a Gallup poll? Sure. Turns them off enough to not vote R in 2018, or for Trump in 2020 if he's still around? That's debatable.

I agree that gerrymandering, vote suppression, and partisanship make 2018 and 2020 not the slam dunk for D control it should be in a sane world, and will be a real tight battle. But I also don't think we and the media should not call out Rs and Trumpettes for the awful things they do because we're afraid of angering them, motivating them, whatever. The media pampering Rs heinous beliefs and acts is a big part of why we're where we are. Placating abusers doesn't work. Never has.
posted by chris24 at 12:11 PM on January 7, 2018 [23 favorites]

I think it’s really important to note that, while Trump and his ilk have capitalized on the triumph of mediated reality over empirical reality, they hardly created it; our devices conditioned us all to live in that place, and created the stage that Trump merely dominates temporarily.

Well, if devices includes radios and cable television, okay. If you're trying to put this on smartphones and the facey pages you need to expand your time horizon backwards about 30 years to include Rush Limbaugh etc. But if you want to say we and talk about vulnerability to propaganda and fake reporting then you need to go back and look at, say, how newspapers took a firm anti-suffrage stance, or entirely made up British atrocities to help sell the revolutionary war.

I don't want to dismiss the unique challenges of modern instant news and social media, etc, but looking at the current condition as if it represents some sort of 180 from the great way these things use to be, when the Fairness doctrine still existed, is as whack as the people looking back to the 50s as some golden American ideal. It never was.
posted by phearlez at 12:12 PM on January 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

But if you want to say we and talk about vulnerability to propaganda and fake reporting then you need to go back and look at, say, how newspapers took a firm anti-suffrage stance, or entirely made up British atrocities to help sell the revolutionary war.

Absolutely correct, mass media and the enthrallment of mediated realities are the problem, and our latest media technologies have merely accelerated and intensified our mesmerization. (I’ve posted a fair bit about this in prior politics threads, so don’t want to be a one-note-repetition on this. But I think we all need to pay much better attention to critical media analyses by, e.g., Boorstin, McLuhan, Baudrillard, Postman, Lanier, etc. Boorstin in particular saw this emerging and his The Image is maybe more timely today than when it was first published in 1961. My comment was definitely not intended to articulate a local problem, temporally speaking. The difference today is in degree, and is substantial.)
posted by LooseFilter at 12:26 PM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

On the latest Twitter debate about whether Gillibrand is a suitable Democrat after "betraying" Franken by calling him to resign.

Ana Mardoll: Will we ever reconcile:

(1) People on the left criticized Hillary in 2017 for not believing women with regards to a man she knew well.

(2) People on the left criticized Gillibrand in 2017 for believing women with regards to a man she knew well.
posted by happyroach at 12:31 PM on January 7, 2018 [76 favorites]

I agree that gerrymandering, vote suppression, and partisanship make 2018 and 2020 not the slam dunk for D control it should be in a sane world, and will be a real tight battle. But I also don't think we and the media should not call out Rs and Trumpettes for the awful things they do because we're afraid of angering them, motivating them, whatever. The media pampering Rs heinous beliefs and acts is a big part of why we're where we are. Placating abusers doesn't work. Never has.
posted by chris24 at 4:11 AM on January 8 [3 favorites +] [!]

I completely agree. The way out is through. We can't let them control the media environment or the message, and we need to be very, very aggressive about fighting lies with truth, no matter how unpalatable to the abusers.

I worry this will turn us into abusers, but unlike them, I have a conscience. Is this a weakness? Maybe. Bring on the ethical dilemmas and let's solve problems like adults, incrementally and with massive amounts of attention to detail, and let's start by shredding every untruth the abusers throw up.
posted by saysthis at 12:31 PM on January 7, 2018 [11 favorites]

(For clarification: the medium is the message. This isn’t a truth of the 20th/21st century, it’s always been true: if you know reality and facts by any kind of mediation—pamphlets, newspapers, smart phone, town crier, TV, your uncle or some guy down at the bar—there are basic vulnerabilties in how you know what you know, that can be fairly easily exploited. As the scale and complexity of mediation, of how we each know the world beyond our doorsteps, grows and grows, so do those vulnerabilities. As the Russians have been gleefully exploiting for some time now.)
posted by LooseFilter at 12:33 PM on January 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

Ana Mardoll: Will we ever reconcile:

(1) People on the left criticized Hillary in 2017 for not believing women with regards to a man she knew well.
(2) People on the left criticized Gillibrand in 2017 for believing women with regards to a man she knew well.

I think we can easily "reconcile" them as being two instances of the Anything a Powerful Woman Does Is Wrong phenomenon.
posted by FelliniBlank at 1:20 PM on January 7, 2018 [49 favorites]

I scanned through some of the talking head shows and was un-surprised to see blatant lying and coverups across the board from current officials (Pompeo, Paul, Haley) but also from some reporters who were overeager to bothsides it by saying "oh he used sources off the record, we all hear that but using that information that is just so bad"; yeahY'know what's worse? A functionally illiterate president. And how is that not tacit admission that you're covering this up?

It was pretty gross although at least they brought it up. Thanks, talking head shows. A credit to your masters, I'm sure.
posted by petebest at 1:43 PM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm almost done with The Book and just came across a quote I haven't seen excerpted yet. The New Yorker's fact-checking department is truly legendary:

Bannon learned about the [Scaramucci] piece when fact-checkers from the magazine called him for comment about Scaramucci's accusation that he sucked his own cock.

posted by paper chromatographologist at 2:11 PM on January 7, 2018 [126 favorites]

I read the book cover-to-cover: loadsa typos, pure gossip, immensely entertaining read. As was noted upthread, there is surprisingly little condemnation for the fascists, compared to how often Bannon is noted as the Svengali intellectual; the smartest guy in the room. I guess being the smartest guy in those rooms at this time doesn't mean much on the global scale, but I would have expected a little more room for making explicit what Bannon's plans are for the USA. The book is more of an Internetty "LOL look at this car-crash" than a campaigning "What are we going to do about this crashing car?" (which is maybe for the good: which of those headlines garners more clicks?).

I'm horrified and fascinated by the response though — at this point, Trump has forced anyone with a position to conclude that he is one of (a) a braggart man-child, or (b) a literal stable genius. I mean, there is a group of the public that will choose option (b) until they die, but every public figure that supports it is going to look pretty ridiculous in the post-Trump era.
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 2:11 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm wondering who the next writer/person is who will angle to confirm these even further, probably in a bid to scoop up those mighty dollars. I hope Wolff's tapes get airtime.
posted by petebest at 2:21 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Sarah Kendzior on how the book shies away from talking about criminal actions.
posted by lazugod at 2:24 PM on January 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

how often Bannon is noted as the Svengali intellectual; the smartest guy in the room. I guess being the smartest guy in those rooms at this time doesn't mean much on the global scale,

Bannon obviously has terrible ethical and political judgement, but it does seem likely that he is unusually intellectually capable. He was near the top of his cohort at Harvard Business School, and swung a job at Goldman Sachs despite prejudice about his age and humble background. At least, that's the account given in Devi'ls Bargain
posted by Coventry at 2:25 PM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

loadsa typos

I'm only on Chapter 6, but I find the typos curious. I mean, yes, they happen with virtually any book, but there seem to be more than usual. Henry Holt is a pretty well-respected publisher, and while it was released a few days early, they had the books already printed. Lack of proofreading because they were rushing to get it in print, or because they were trying to limit how many people saw it? Maybe both?

I've only just started Chapter 6 - is the chapter title "At HQME" a typo or a play on HQ and Home? With the typos it is hard to tell.
posted by Preserver at 2:31 PM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Just a reminder to all y’all Floridians: February 1st is the deadline to sign and submit the super important Restore the Vote petition. (The practical deadline if you are mailing it in is TOMORROW, Jan 8th, to make sure it’s processed by Feb 1st.)

It’s a pretty crucial referendum to restore the civil rights of over a million Floridians, whose disenfranchisement from voting is pretty much the only thing keeping Florida a swing state in GOP hands and corrupt assholes like Rick Scott in power.

For more background, this link via dKos is pretty good (also featuring the segment on the issue by Samantha Bee last year).
posted by darkstar at 2:34 PM on January 7, 2018 [30 favorites]

As was noted upthread, there is surprisingly little condemnation for the fascists, compared to how often Bannon is noted as the Svengali intellectual; the smartest guy in the room. I guess being the smartest guy in those rooms at this time doesn't mean much on the global scale, but I would have expected a little more room for making explicit what Bannon's plans are for the USA.

I just read this about the latest UK political scandal with Toby Young. It ends with some conservatives condemning homophobia and misogyny while leaving the middle of the article bit, the tweeted joke about masturbating while watching African children starve, completely un-repudiated.

A government minister who jokes about masturbating through several boxes of tissues while watching african kids die is apparently fine in conservative circles these days and the lack of apology or comment on this is pretty remarkable when compared to his other comments which are drawing almost all the fire.

White nationalism, you're soaking in it. Must be mild! It's more than mild and the suds last a lifetime.
posted by srboisvert at 2:39 PM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm almost done with The Book and just came across a quote I haven't seen excerpted yet. The New Yorker's fact-checking department is truly legendary:
Bannon learned about the [Scaramucci] piece when fact-checkers from the magazine called him for comment about Scaramucci's accusation that he sucked his own cock.

I'm betting this was done on speakerphone.
posted by srboisvert at 2:42 PM on January 7, 2018 [47 favorites]

A government minister who jokes about...

He's not a government minister. God forbid. He was appointed to an advisory council thing, only the most junior member of fifteen people.

The Toby Young... thing... deserves its own FPP, though it's beyond my skills. He is Tim Nasty-But-Dim. He has the manner of Boris Johnson with the social skills of Gollum.

Ironically, for someone whose entire career was built on connections, sinecure and privilege, his father was Michael Young, author of The Rise of the Meritocracy.
posted by Grangousier at 2:56 PM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

The only other document I can recall being widely referred to as "The Book" is, of course, Emmanuel Goldstein's Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, and that and he were both fictional.

What our Book does have in common with Goldstein's is that it's circulating like samizdat, through channels above and below and alongside the official one. Last night someone in my extended family sent out a mail blast with the Wolff volume enclosed as a PDF. I guess that's better than getting it from O'Brien, right?
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:57 PM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

And he (Rob Ford) haunts us still...

Daniel Dale: I wrote this exact story about Rob Ford: Trump’s schedule has shrunken significantly, @jonathanvswan reports, and it is now filled with “executive time,” code for “sitting by himself watching TV and such.” (For Ford, the term was “constituent meetings.”)

This is in reference to this story...

1 big thing: Scoop: Trump's secret, shrinking schedule:

President Trump is starting his official day much later than he did in the early days of his presidency, often around 11am, and holding far fewer meetings, according to copies of his private schedule shown to Axios. This is largely to meet Trump’s demands for more “Executive Time,” which almost always means TV and Twitter time alone in the residence, officials tell us.

The schedules shown to me are different than the sanitized ones released to the media and public.

The schedule says Trump has "Executive Time" in the Oval Office every day from 8am to 11am, but the reality is he spends that time in his residence, watching TV, making phone calls and tweeting. Trump comes down for his first meeting of the day, which is often an intelligence briefing, at 11am.

That's far later than George W. Bush, who typically arrived in the Oval by 6:45am. Obama worked out first thing in the morning and usually got into the Oval between 9 and 10am, according to a former senior aide.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:03 PM on January 7, 2018 [46 favorites]

Slow clap to Wolff’s publisher for hiring a voice actor who sounds like Ron Howard for the audiobook.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:06 PM on January 7, 2018 [58 favorites]

Trump postpones his fake “Fake News Awards”
The article rightly wonders what these "awards" were about in the first case.
posted by mumimor at 3:07 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

The mid-range Gen Xers like myself are right at the edge of the age qualification for President

I hate to break it to you, but if you’re at the edge of 35, you’re a millennial.

My bad, I somehow got it in my head that you had to be 45 to be president and never bothered to check. So obviously I’m a perfect candidate now cause I’ve been eligible for 8 years without realizing. I’m also, like, a really stable genius.
posted by teleri025 at 3:12 PM on January 7, 2018 [47 favorites]

Sarah Kendzior on how the book shies away from talking about criminal actions.

Kendzior, an independent American journalist who has been one of the most insightful critics of the Trump era, zeroes in on how the portrayal of Trump in Wolff's book as dumb rather than corrupt could help him in the long term, despite the short term humiliation. On her indispensable Twitter account, she also makes some sharp points about how Wolff doesn't really address the media's coverage of Trump outside of the context of how the White House attempted to influence it.

I had a few other thoughts on "Fire and Fury" that I couldn't touch on in this article due to space. They add to my belief that the book is in many respects helpful for Trump. So I'll tweet them out here.

Wolff often writes about his subjects through their own eyes, imagining their thoughts. This narrative device conveys Trump as sincerely believing himself to be innocent -- afraid of being framed, not found out.

This narrative of course flies in the face of all evidence in the public domain (emails, meetings) as well as Trump's own admissions of obstructing justice.

To my surprise, Wolff -- a very sharp media critic -- largely takes Trump's portrayal of the media as an enemy at face value. There is almost nothing on how the sycophantic members of the press or even the sheer volume of coverage helped Trump.

Some of the most obsequious journalists -- who write fawning profiles and who Trump actively seeks out -- are presented as if Trump truly considers them his enemies. It's odd that a savvy media critic like Wolff did not break these relationships down.

Incidentally, Wikileaks is pirating Fire and Fury, as a reminder that even Trump's ostensible allies prefer him embattled.
posted by Doktor Zed at 3:12 PM on January 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

@jayrosen_nyu
From @chucktodd's interview with Wolff and other things he's said, it's clear how this book happened — and the way he punked them. 1/
- Wolff was going to do the contrarian thing: go deep on liberal media bias. Sales would come from that controversy + a cheering right wing. 2/
- He was perfectly positioned for this. Enjoys being hated, gives as good as he gets, loves scandalizing "elites," wrote the predicate pieces. 3/
- Wolff conned Bannon into thinking him a fellow traveler, a mutual hater of the "opposition" media. Trump was dimly aware, not opposed. 4/
- Everything was in place for Wolff's 'surprising genius of Donald Trump' book, trolling the national media to jump start sales. 5/
- Then the shock: Wolff realized that if anything the press was under-playing the chaos and unfitness. So he switched narrative tracks. 6/
- His new spectacle generator: the demolition job he'd do on Trump. The game became to conceal this intention as long as possible. 7/
- His track-switching worked brilliantly. The marks for his con wrote the checks he silently cashed. Just one minor hitch. 8/
- His book puts the lie to what he wrote earlier: that Trump got a raw deal from the liberal media. @chucktodd asked about that. 9/
- Wolff skated. My paraphrase: 'At the time they didn't know what I learned by being that fly on the wall. So yeah... bias!" Ha, ha. END
posted by chris24 at 3:18 PM on January 7, 2018 [59 favorites]

From what I saw on MTP that's a spot on analysis. Wolff simply didn't have an answer for Todd's question about his earlier pieces on liberal media bias. "They were correct but they didn't have the facts to back up being correct until I discovered them" is not a credible answer.

That said, the clear fact that this is not the book that Wolff set out to write actually lends it credibility in my eyes. If there was any way to write that the media was being unfair to Trump then that's what Wolff would have written.

Also, Joy Reid is the only one on MTP speaking the truth. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there is an AEI shill being given a microphone and yet somehow I am.
posted by Justinian at 3:32 PM on January 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

the only surprising thing about trump postponing his “fake news awards” is that he didn’t punt on it for the customary “two weeks”
posted by murphy slaw at 3:53 PM on January 7, 2018 [12 favorites]

“Stable genius” sounds like something that should be on Wile E. Coyote’s business card.
posted by 4ster at 4:40 PM on January 7, 2018 [44 favorites]

"They were correct but they didn't have the facts to back up being correct until I discovered them" is not a credible answer.

Especially because my middle-aged non-journalist reasonably-well-read ass figured out all of this by the spring of 2016. It is not rocket surgery to look at this person and realize they are a dangerous imbecile with delusions of grandeur and a raging personality disorder, nor is it way out there to look at all these other people and understand what they're trying to pull by enabling this person. I called that Trump didn't actually want to be president (he wanted to win, he did not want the prize), and that Melania definitely didn't want to be first lady, and that Javanka don't give a single solitary fuck about anything but Javanka veritable millennia ago. This was not some kind of deep cover stealth operation. I might not have been privy to the actual conversations where people said things like "Trump is a dangerous imbecile but I'm going to enable him to enrich myself, good thing he's not going to win ha ha." I didn't have to be because it's been obvious for two years.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:46 PM on January 7, 2018 [51 favorites]

It is not rocket surgery to look at this person and realize they are a dangerous imbecile with delusions of grandeur and a raging personality disorder, nor is it way out there to look at all these other people and understand what they're trying to pull by enabling this person. I called that Trump didn't actually want to be president (he wanted to win, he did not want the prize), and that Melania definitely didn't want to be first lady, and that Javanka don't give a single solitary fuck about anything but Javanka veritable millennia ago.

It-- it really isn't. People were willfully blind to the absolute, obviously inevitable incompetency of this set of complete clowns.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:54 PM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

When I hear the words "stable genius" I think of Clever Hans, who could reportedly do simple arithmetic.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:58 PM on January 7, 2018 [28 favorites]

I should say that Trump resembles a horse in no other way, being neither handsome, loyal, friendly, or useful.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:59 PM on January 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

Clever Hans works for the Lucksmiths song too...because the administration is running around blind. And also in the end Trump is just the arse.
posted by elsietheeel at 5:07 PM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Stellar example of mental stability.

Stephen Miller had to be escorted off CNN's set after his interview with Jake Tapper went off the rails

White House adviser Stephen Miller was escorted off the set of CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday after a contentious interview with host Jake Tapper.

Two sources close to the situation told Business Insider that after the taping was done, Miller was politely asked to leave several times.

He ignored those requests and ultimately security was called and he was escorted out, the sources said.

posted by chris24 at 5:40 PM on January 7, 2018 [76 favorites]

But it seems like the narrative is sticking: the President is dumb, lazy, and dangerous.

All true, but that's only half the truth. The other half is he's a criminal traitor and foreign intelligence asset. The second part is what could get him out of office. Dumb, lazy, borderline mentally invalid, all those are features, not liabilities, for the Republican Congress, who want a warm body to sign tax cuts and Granny starving. The narrative that he's a fucking moron who is literally incapable of understanding what his staff did with Russian treason may actually be helping him and helping Republicans defend him.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:41 PM on January 7, 2018 [15 favorites]

Hope someone at CNN got a cellphone video.
posted by saturday_morning at 5:41 PM on January 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

Incidentally, Wikileaks is pirating Fire and Fury, as a reminder that even Trump's ostensible allies prefer him embattled.

@samswey: Has anyone checked to see if Michael Wolff’s book that Wikileaks just posted was edited/had portions withheld like they did with the DNC documents?

(Seems like a damn good question to me.)
posted by scaryblackdeath at 5:41 PM on January 7, 2018 [14 favorites]

But it seems like the narrative is sticking: the President is dumb, lazy, and dangerous.

All true, but that's only half the truth. The other half is he's a criminal traitor and foreign intelligence asset.

Oh, of course!
posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:48 PM on January 7, 2018

Incidentally, Wikileaks is pirating Fire and Fury, as a reminder that even Trump's ostensible allies prefer him embattled.

Plus, they probably want to try to undercut Wolff's profit to punish him for telling the truth about Trump.
posted by octothorpe at 5:48 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Michael Wolff, judging from a very cursory look at his history, is an asshole. So is Trump, who comes from a line of assholes. My own sense is that one of the big name 'respectable' journalists, say a Dan Rather or a Bob woodward, would have written a very respectable tome that doesn't quite touch on the insipid craziness of the Trump Whitehouse, and that an asshole, who willing to lie about intent, was what was needed.

In Hunter S Thompson's scathing obituary of Nixon what stood out was the line 'It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place.' He was referring to Objective Journalism, and how false equivalencies allow utter scum a free ride, such as Nixon and Trump, helping them immensely in their quest for political power.

So yeah, assholes.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 5:56 PM on January 7, 2018 [75 favorites]

Sarah Kendzior

It should be noted that being too dumb to understand you're breaking the law isn't usually an effective defense
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:14 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

It should be noted that being too dumb to understand you're breaking the law isn't usually an effective defense

If we're still doing the Rob Ford as precedent for Donald Trump thing: it literally worked (well, sorta) for Rob Ford.
posted by mightygodking at 6:16 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

When I hear the words "stable genius" I think of Clever Hans, who could reportedly do simple arithmetic.

By cheating. So... apropos!
posted by srboisvert at 6:29 PM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

being too dumb to understand you're breaking the law isn't usually an effective defense

it literally worked (well, sorta) for Rob Ford.

He's not exaggerating.
posted by saturday_morning at 6:34 PM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump
“His is turning out to be an enormously consensual presidency. So much so that...there has never been a day that I wished Hillary Clinton were President. Not one. Indeed, as Trump’s accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of Clinton in the W.H., doubling down on Obama’s....."

This is a (mis)quote from a NY Post editorial. The original word was "consequential." I disagree with the new, distinctly Freudian version.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:35 PM on January 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

that means autocorrect errors are a real thing that could like, cause a nuclear war.

Duck Rocket Man.
posted by Talez at 6:43 PM on January 7, 2018 [18 favorites]

My own sense is that one of the big name 'respectable' journalists, say a Dan Rather or a Bob woodward, would have written a very respectable tome that doesn't quite touch on the insipid craziness of the Trump Whitehouse

Also, that's because It Takes A Shitbag. Like, the shitbags in the WH are going to keep it together enough when they speak with a Respectable Journalist. That's what the bags are for! Cinch it up! But, when they meet a fellow shitbag, they can slosh it all out. It's on the WH Shitbags that they did not recognize how many folds the shitbag they spilled shit with had.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:45 PM on January 7, 2018 [13 favorites]

Now he just tweeted out the guy's email address.
posted by waitingtoderail at 6:57 PM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the understanding is that Wolff spoke their language. Assholese. Hell, Bannon seemed to have warmed up and ingratiated himself to him.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 7:02 PM on January 7, 2018

(and it can't, it takes a unanimous decision by all states to alter the structure of the Senate)

That bit of Article V does not similarly protect itself. Amend Article V, via the normal process, to remove that clause, then the Senate can be dissolved by another normal amendment.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:29 PM on January 7, 2018

The red states will ride the Senate until it results in the country fragmenting, and it will.

By 2040 70% of the population will reside in just 17 states represented by only 34 Senators. The other 30% will have an near-supermajority 66 Senators. That's not fixable.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:35 PM on January 7, 2018 [52 favorites]

In fact a quick look at some figures tells me that the three biggest US cities have as many people as the thirteen or fourteen smallest states. There's no easy answer to this problem within a federal system, and it hits Democrats disproportionately.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:15 PM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]

SakuraK: "I miss Hunter S Thompson. Link to his Nixon obit if you haven’t seen it. Choice quote about Nixon’s first TV debate:

When Nixon finally had to face the TV cameras for real in the 1960 presidential campaign debates, he got whipped like a red-headed mule. Even die-hard Republican voters were shocked by his cruel and incompetent persona."

And those voters were so shocked that Nixon would go on to lose the election by less than a quarter of a percent in the popular vote, and quite possibly only lost the election at all thanks to some shenanigans in IL and TX.

Thompson was not one to be overly concerned with facts, in my experience.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:36 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

That bit of Article V does not similarly protect itself. Amend Article V, via the normal process, to remove that clause, then the Senate can be dissolved by another normal amendment.

There's no way this would pass judicial muster. It's government by D&D rules lawyering. Turns out that sometimes the Constitution really is, as they say, a suicide pact.
posted by Justinian at 8:53 PM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Could there be some loophole left over from territorial disputes between states, or some legalistic black magic, that could force the transfer of land from one state to another? If so, perhaps small regions of the highest density from populous states could be converted to exclaves of lower-population states, thus ensuring a more even distribution of the U.S. population among senate districts. I mean, what could possibly go wrong
posted by XMLicious at 9:03 PM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

David Roberts on Tapper/Miller is good:

Imagine being Stephen Miller.

I actually think this Tapper/Miller episode is important -- and not because of Miller's sycophancy & hackery, which are the same as they've always been. What's new here is not that Trump is surrounded by bad-faith cultists. What's new is Tapper's reaction. The idea of Tapper's show is to inform viewers by exposing them to a range of perspectives. The pretense is that Tapper & his guests are engaged in a common pursuit of *an accurate view of the world*. People are saying what they believe, arguing for what they see as true. This is almost always honored in the breach, of course. Political guests are always spinning, trying to argue for their side's angle. This often involves intentional omissions, misleading statements, & sometimes outright lies. But the *pretense* of truth-seeking is important.

What Trumpkins represent is a US conservative movement gone so far down the rabbit hole that it no longer honors the pretense. The idea of truth that transcends & restricts partisan interest has simply faded out - like a wavelength of light they no longer perceive. So Miller goes on the show to slavishly praise Trump & dismiss all criticism of him, just like an old Soviet apparatchik or some North Korean functionary. There is no longer any shred of pretense that Miller respects truth or is offering a reasoned judgment. He is purest hack.

What's new is that, finally, in the end, Tapper *acknowledges this*. He says, explicitly, that Miller is only there as an apparatchik and, as such, *offers no value to Tapper's viewers*. He cuts the interview short! Of course, to media critics, this will seem too little, too late. It's been obvious what the Trumpkins are about since they arrived. And the US conservative movement has been heading in a purely tribal direction for decades. The premise of shared truth is long, long gone. Folks like @jayrosen_nyu, @brianbeutler, me, & many many others have been yelling for years that journalists must grapple with this -- they can't keep pretending that pure hacks are part of a shared pursuit of truth. It only gives cover & legitimacy to hacks.

So to me, it is new & heartening to see @jaketapper - a real media traditionalist - finally decide that there's *no value to his viewers in exposing them to North Korea-style hackery*. It's simply a net negative, a subtraction from the world's store of understanding. Obviously I think this should have come sooner & should extend farther. (Is there any value in putting, say, KellyAnn Conway on TV?) Journalists have to draw some line, to defend the norms & premises that make journalism possible. It's too soon to say whether Tapper's revelation/decision will reverberate or make any difference. But it does seem to me like, at the very least, a crack in a door, a way for media traditionalists to broach this overdue discussion. So, small victories!

I like Jake Tapper well enough, but he's always represented a view-from-nowhere with a nearly endless willingness to assume good faith, even where it is blatantly evident such faith is not deserved. I said "nearly" though. I hope this sticks.
posted by zachlipton at 9:05 PM on January 7, 2018 [66 favorites]

People who are taking Fire & Fury with a grain of salt without reading it may not understand that it's not actually reportage, or history. As far as I can tell, the only facts and events in the book are easily verifiable ones, like "Trump gave a speech on this date" or "the Unite the Right rally happened on that day." So Wolff is taking a framework of things we know happened, and then telling us what people in the White House were saying about those events at the time. As far as I know only one person disputes what's attributed to her.

Wolff is the kind of privileged white guy whose daily life isn't directly affected by who occupies the White House so he's cynical about anyone else's political convictions. The tone he takes is that when liberals decry something it's performative outrage -- insincere, elitist posturing. "Liberals hate this just because the conservatives like it." He paints Bannon as smart guy who is overconfident about the political viability of his working man populism. I think Wolff thinks he's a sophisticated realist, but it's not a particularly clear-eyed view of the world to believe that all politics is all just a game, played for personal glory, with no real differences between parties.

Anyway, I wouldn't say the book is required reading, but it's entertaining and I believe it's basically accurate. It's also an interesting glimpse, not into Trump's mind, which we already know, but into Bannon's.
posted by mrmurbles at 9:10 PM on January 7, 2018 [9 favorites]

There's no way this would pass judicial muster.

Wait. What? Are you suggesting that the courts could reject an amendment? How? On what possible authority? I mean, there's no way that an amendment striking out parts of Article V would ever be proposed to the states, let alone be ratified, but assuming it was, I don't see how the courts could say anything about it.

Could there be some loophole left over from territorial disputes between states, or some legalistic black magic, that could force the transfer of land from one state to another?

As long as we're imagining impossible things that will never happen, there is a simple mechanism, specified in Article IV, Section 3, whereby a large state such as California could be divided into arbitrarily many smaller states upon a simple majority vote in that state's legislature and a simple majority vote in the Congress. Doesn't even require the President to sign off on it. If I were looking for a way to destroy the federal power of the Republicans forever, I would, as soon as I had a majority in both houses of Congress, push to break California into 40 one-million-ish person states divided in such a way as to give comfortable margins for Democratic senators in those newly-minted states. Then we see how the Senate works when it is routinely something like 124 Democrats to 54 Republicans.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 9:18 PM on January 7, 2018 [28 favorites]

UPCOMING SPECIAL ELECTIONS - FEBRUARY - PART 1

A fair number of February specials, so I will split this into two chunks.

Boilerplate: Lots of law comes out of state legislatures, plenty of it bad. These elections don't get much attention, doubly so for special elections. Because of the small scope, a small amount of your money or time could help elect these folks! Please pitch in, if you can!

Also, we've got some tight gaps between primaries and generals for a few elections here. There's an NH primary Jan 9 for a Feb 27 general, which isn't too bad, but there are two MN specials Feb 12 that don't have primaries until Jan 29, which ಠ_ಠ. I'll give full details on them then, but if you want to help the almost-certain-to-get-the-nomination Dems now, we've got Philip Spagnuolo, Melissa Wagner, and Karla Bigham.

====

February 6 - Missouri House 39 - Ethan Perkinson

HD-39 is currently an R seat (the incumbent was elected to a judgeship); no D ran in 2016 or 2014, R won 56-44 in 2012. The rural district east of Kansas City was won by by Trump 71-24 and by Romney 61-37. The Rs control the Missouri House by about 65 seats.

=> Probably not really winnable, but good to see someone running.

====

February 6 - Missouri House 97 - Mike Revis

HD-97 is currently an R seat (the incumbent resigned to run for county office); no D ran in 2016, R won 67-33 in 2014 and 52-48 in 2012. The St.Louis exurban district was won by by Trump 61-33 and by Romney 55-43.

=> District looks like it used to be more purple, but definitely would be quite a reach.

====

February 6 - Missouri House 129 - Ronna King Ford

HD-129 is currently an R seat (the incumbent was elected to state senate in an August special); no D ran in 2016, R won 83-17 in 2014 and 77-23 in 2012. The very rural district was won by by Trump 80-16 and by Romney 70-28.

=> These MO House districts are tough, no two ways about it.

====

February 6 - Missouri House 144 - Jim Scaggs

HD-144 is currently an R seat (the incumbent took a job in the state executive branch); no D ran in 2016 or 2014, R won 66-34 in 2012. The very rural district was won by by Trump 78-19 and by Romney 61-36.

=> Another heavily red district.

====

February 13 - Florida House 72 - Margaret Good

HD-72 is currently an R seat (the incumbent resigned for personal issues); R won 58-42 in 2016, no D ran in 2014, R won 54-46 in 2012. The Sarasota-area district was won by Trump 51-46 and by Romney 51-48. The Rs control the Florida House by about 35 seats.

=> This looks like a serious opportunity for a Dem pickup.

====

Part 2 anon.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:27 PM on January 7, 2018 [31 favorites]

The ‘stable genius’ isn’t even functioning as president...

"20 Reasons Why The World Is Full Of Dumb People Who Think They’re Smart."
posted by LeLiLo at 9:45 PM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

“I went to the best colleges“
posted by growabrain at 9:47 PM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

UPCOMING SPECIAL ELECTIONS - FEBRUARY - PART 2

====

February 13 - Oklahoma Senate 27 - Amber Jensen

SD-27 is currently an R seat (the incumbent resigned after being charged with sexual assault); no D ran in 2012. The rural district northwest of Oklahoma City was won by by Trump 84-11 and by Romney 85-15. The Rs control the Oklahoma Senate by about 30 seats.

=> On paper, you'd say this is unwinnable. But Dems have seriously overperformed in OK specials, as the state government is incredibly unpopular. Still a likely R hold, but in the current environment, it's possible. It probably also doesn't hurt that in the wake of a sexual assault scandal, the Dem candidate is a woman.

====

February 17 - Louisiana House 86 - Michael Showers [no website]

HD-86 is currently an R seat (the incumbent is resigning for personal reasons); no D ran in 2015, D did not make runoff in 2011. The rural district near Hammond was won by by Trump 73-23 and by Romney 73-25. The Rs control the Louisiana House by about 20 seats.

=> Very red district, but there's one Dem running against 3 Republicans. The D has a decent chance of going to the runoff, but still seems unlikely he would win there (or beat 50% in the first round).

====

February 20 - Kentucky House 49 - Linda Belcher

HD-49 is currently an R seat (the incumbent committed suicide - this was the child sex abuse guy); R won 50-50 in 2016, D won 53-47 in 2014, R won 53-47 in 2012. The district was won by by Trump 72-23 and by Romney 65-33. The Rs control the Kentucky House by about 25 seats.

=> Presumably Linda has already heard your Bob's Burgers jokes. Very red district at the presidential level, but Belcher has actually held this seat at least twice in the past. Also, the GOP candidate is the sex abuser's widow; I am guessing that the usual widow effect is going to work in reverse here. This should be an excellent opportunity to pick up a seat.

====

February 20 - Mississippi House 60 - Morris Mock, Jr. [no website]

HD-60 is currently an R seat (the incumbent resigned, purportedly for health reasons, but seemingly to dodge sexual harassment issues); no D ran in 2015 or 2011. No prez numbers, sorry. The Rs control the Mississippi House by about 25 seats.

=> Hard to say exactly how red the district is with no real numbers (although as a rural district east of Jackson, I have some guesses). That said, although MS specials are nominally non-partisan, there seems to be only one Dem and three Republicans running; it's not impossible the Dem could squeak through.

====

posted by Chrysostom at 10:10 PM on January 7, 2018 [33 favorites]

RE statehood: making D.C. a state and admitting Puerto Rico to statehood are probably the two changes that are next on the horizon, and both long overdue. The local citizens want it, the rest of the nation is mostly okay with it, and it’s probably going to happen.

Republicans will scream bloody murder, of course, as both would be expected to be Democratic strongholds. Four new Dem Senators, about a dozen new Dem Representatives, and several new Dem electoral votes in the Presidential election would arise out of statehood for DC and PR when it finally happens.

As for California, their economic power as the sixth largest economy in the world makes it a tough sell to split it up. It would surely complicate water rights agreements, which are already so fraught in the West. But there have been serious efforts to break it up! pushed mainly by Republicans in the rural north that want more political power in their state.

More recently, a referendum petition to break CA into six states a couple of years ago failed, and an effort by the same guy to split it into three states is under way for 2018. Though I must say, he has chosen borders that still fly in the face of cultural realities in CA, so it again seems unlikely to succeed.

CA may eventually split if it’s citizens get really tired of having the same amount of representation in the Senate as, say, Wyoming, while having 100 times the population. But DC and PR becoming states...I think those are much more likely to happen in the next 20 years.
posted by darkstar at 10:17 PM on January 7, 2018 [20 favorites]

VA HOD update - Dems are filing an emergency appeal of Friday's ruling that would at least initially let the GOP candidate be seated from HD-28 (this is the one that has some voters receive ballots with the wrong House candidates).
posted by Chrysostom at 10:30 PM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

...DC and PR becoming states...I think those are much more likely to happen in the next 20 years.

Once they get the lights back on, I think Puerto Ricans would be well within their rights to come together and tell Uncle Sam to piss right off.

All right, that's just a gut feeling. I know most people over there have other concerns, but does anyone have any actual knowledge on how political sentiments in PR have shifted since Maria? Both on relations with the US and otherwise? Thanks.
posted by Freelance Demiurge at 11:00 PM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

To finish my thoughts on statehood for PR and DC, here are the approximate 2016 populations (World Bank stats, via Google) for comparison:

California - 39.3 million (the most populous state by about a 10 million person margin)

Connecticut - 3.6 million (Representation includes 2 Senators, 5 Representatives, and 7 electoral votes)

Puerto Rico - 3.4 million (As a state, it would fall right after Connecticut in population ranking, with similar representative weight. PR would be more populous than 20 other US states. It would also be more populous than both of the other noncontiguous states — Alaska and Hawaii — combined.)

Washington D.C. - 681,000 (would be closest in population to Vermont, though slightly larger.)

Vermont - 625,000 (Representation includes 2 Senators, 1 Representative, and 3 electoral votes)

Wyoming - 586,000

...compare also to...

Guam - 163,000

U.S. Virgin Islands - 103,000
posted by darkstar at 11:14 PM on January 7, 2018 [8 favorites]

I dare say that, had PR been a state with 2 Senators and 5 Representatives caucusing with the Dems and voting, it seems likely there would have been much more legislative pressure to have an effective recovery and aid package, etc. I think PR is getting especially screwed right now probably because they have no real representation in the US Congress, so there is no electoral downside to neglecting them.

Not to mention that two more Dem Senators would eliminate the GOP’s government-drowning stranglehold on power.
posted by darkstar at 11:26 PM on January 7, 2018 [22 favorites]

Educated guesstimates put an extra 200,000 Puerto Ricans in Florida, clustered around Orlando, thanks to post-hurricane displacement. The question is how many of them will get registered and vote. The electoral difference in FL in 2016 was just over 100,000.
posted by holgate at 12:26 AM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

All right, that's just a gut feeling. I know most people over there have other concerns, but does anyone have any actual knowledge on how political sentiments in PR have shifted since Maria? Both on relations with the US and otherwise? Thanks.

I managed to find exactly one data point which is not surprising given the situation. Make of it what you will.

Op-Ed: Hurricane relief or abandonment? Independence or statehood? Puerto Rico waits, like always.

All my adult life I’ve yearned for a free, sovereign, independent Puerto Rico — one with its own president, constitution, currency, ambassadors, embassies, treaties, Olympic teams and seats at the United Nations. An independent island would be in control of its borders. It would be able to accept aid from Cuba, Colombia, Brazil or Norway. The international community has proved its compassion time and again, and I have no doubts that it would open its heart to a small, wounded nation in the Caribbean. I’ve often asked myself: What creative powers, what initiatives, what native genius would be unleashed if the island were truly free?

And yet, after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, for the first time in my life, this die-hard independentista has begun to think the previously unthinkable. If independence is out of reach — the romantic dream of an artist who doesn’t live there? — wouldn’t it be better for the island to end its Twilight Zone status forever and become a state of the United States? Isn’t statehood better than the never-ending limbo of commonwealth-hood? Statehood would give the island two U.S. senators, five members in the House of Representatives, seven electoral college votes. The political voice of Puerto Rico, an island of 3.7 million, would be impossible to ignore. We could help write the laws that dictate our destinies. In a close election, we the people could decide America’s next president.

posted by scalefree at 12:37 AM on January 8, 2018 [32 favorites]

Shakespeare's As You Like It gives Touchstone the perfect answer to anyone boasting how smart they are: "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
posted by Paul Slade at 2:00 AM on January 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

His is turning out to be an enormously consensual presidency.

So is the safeword "covfefe", or...?

Asking for 320 million friends.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:26 AM on January 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

Initial talks underway about Trump interview in Mueller Russia probe

WASHINGTON — Anticipating that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview President Donald Trump, the president’s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format, including written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sit-down, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers for Trump have been discussing with FBI investigators a possible interview by the special counsel with the president as part of the inquiry into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

The discussions were described by one person with direct knowledge as preliminary and ongoing. Trump’s legal team is seeking clarification on whether the president would be interviewed directly by Mueller, as well as the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed, the location of a possible interview, the topics and the duration. But the president’s team is also seeking potential compromises that could avoid an interview altogether, two of those interviewed told NBC News.

posted by Brainy at 4:25 AM on January 8, 2018 [26 favorites]

Trump’s legal team is seeking clarification on whether the president would be interviewed directly by Mueller, as well as the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed, the location of a possible interview, the topics and the duration. But the president’s team is also seeking potential compromises that could avoid an interview altogether, two of those interviewed told NBC News.

Everything they need to know will be in the subpoena. Trump's biggest weakness is that the courts don't give a shit about negotiation for an interview. This isn't a civil action that can be settled. When that sinks in, shit's gonna get even crazier.
posted by mikelieman at 4:49 AM on January 8, 2018 [29 favorites]

Everything they need to know will be in the subpoena. Trump's biggest weakness is that the courts don't give a shit about negotiation for an interview. This isn't a civil action that can be settled. When that sinks in, shit's gonna get even crazier.
Yes, it says in the article:
Justice Department veterans cast doubt on the possibility that Mueller, who served as FBI director for 12 years, would forgo the chance to interview the president directly.

“Prosecutors want to see and hear folks in person,” said Chuck Rosenberg, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and chief of staff to FBI Director Comey. “They want to probe and follow up. Body language and tone are important,” said Rosenberg, now an NBC News analyst. “And they want answers directly from witnesses, not from their lawyers. The odds of prosecutors agreeing to written responses are somewhere between infinitesimally small and zero."
Again, the leaks from that organization are so overwhelming. Why do they do it? It's really weird at this point. I mean, now we know Trump is the main leaker, as a lot of MeFites have suspected all along, but why would his lawyers leak? They are not good lawyers, we know, but how can any lawyer be that bad?

I can see how Trump's lawyers want to keep him away from any form of interview, though. That can only go wrong. He can't even sit still in a chair for half an hour, he can't form a full sentence and according to the Wolff book he thinks his daily briefings are lecturing; an interview under oath will break him apart within the first hour.

I wonder when the Republicans will realize this can't hold. I heard a guy on radio being interviewed about his feelings about the book. First of all he said Wolff is unreliable, which is maybe fair enough. But then he said "so why did they even let him in?" He imagined that all administrations have this type of infighting (and this "they all do it" is an argument I've heard a lot from Trumpists, including Trump himself imagining that former attorneys general protected their president). He told the reporter that he knew Trump was unusual and unsavory when he voted for him, and wasn't surprised at all. But then he said in a very small voice: "if what the book says is true, I will probably change my mind". In other words, there may be little cracks in the wall now.
posted by mumimor at 5:23 AM on January 8, 2018 [26 favorites]

Of course, to media critics, this will seem too little, too late.

Well of course. It would be too little too late in 2003, to stop the *second* Iraq war. The curious thong to me about Tapper dismissing Miller was that it happened at all - most media responses to the book seemed to be extremely conservative, with a special expectation that the viewers/readers hadn't read it.

As far as facts in the book are concerned, I thought there were plenty, even many. It's just that while we might forget the exact week before the Republican primary n states x, y, z, we could go look them up, the exact date wasn't critical to the story.

The media and WH backlash has been to paint it as National Enquirer-style made-up quotes, it didn't read that way to me. If anything the quotes were as low key as anything. How tabloid-y would it be for someone around here to say "he's a moron"?

The "Gotcha" is not in the quotes (except for Bannon), it's in the Holy-Shit way the book recalls how deeply unqualified he is AND that his daughter/SIL are his closest advisors, AND, he doesn't listen to details AND he's functionally illiterate AND EVERYONE KNOWS THIS but keeps it to their non-public circle because this outrageous affront must continue because . . Profit?!

This is incredibly damning of the WH press corps. What The Hell Are You Doing?! This is an 800-pound gorilla tv of a story, and you're suppressing it for the worst effect if not the worst reasons.
posted by petebest at 5:30 AM on January 8, 2018 [60 favorites]

I recall when David Boies (of the duo that argued in front of SCOTUS in favor of gay marriage) was interviewed on a news show after the case had been argued, but before it had been decided. A gay marriage opponent was also on the show and had just finished offering a long list of pseudoargument as to how gay marriage was harmful to society.

When it was Boies’ turn to respond, he smiled and said something along the lines of: “You know, when you’re called to speak at a convention, or invited on tv, you can say anything you want, and you don’t actually have to offer real evidence to back up your claims. But when you’re in a court of law, you actually have to back up what you’re saying with facts. And the fact is, when the Supreme Court explicitly asked the opposition to give demonstrable examples to support their animus against gay marriage, they couldn’t do it. Their lawyers just stood there. So you can say whatever you want about gay marriage harming society, but the facts are not on your side.”

I get the sense it’s going to be like that for President Dumbass when Mueller interviews him. He’s not going to be able to bluster or obfuscate or sidestep a question. He’s going to have to deal in facts, or run afoul of even more Obstruction risk. And as mumimor said, he’s not the kind of guy that can maintain composure, much less a focused level of argument, under direct questioning. He doesn’t have the craftiness of being able to parse legal terms like Bill Clinton, nor even the simple cleverness to keep his misdeeds secret, having already incriminated himself no less than three times by his own big mouth.

I just hope — please, please, please — let the video of his questioning find it’s way into public hands. I think the country has earned that little bit of satisfaction.
posted by darkstar at 5:52 AM on January 8, 2018 [94 favorites]

The "Gotcha" is not in the quotes (except for Bannon), it's in the Holy-Shit way the book recalls how deeply unqualified he is AND that his daughter/SIL are his closest advisors, AND, he doesn't listen to details AND he's functionally illiterate AND EVERYONE KNOWS THIS but keeps it to their non-public circle because this outrageous affront must continue because . . Profit?!

I don't think that this is a big surprise to anyone -- even a good chunk of people who voted for him. The legacy of Reaganism is similar to a few comments up, the violation of the good-faith principle that both sides in a political discussion are at least both acknowledging the concept of truth. Democrats tend to govern and speak in terms of wanting the government to operate in ways that benefit their constituencies. They seem to expect their opponents to want the same things, and to engage in give-and-take over which set of constituencies will benefit most.

Unfortunately, Dwight Eisenhower is long dead and his ideological grandchildren are nutballs. The Republican Mantra as laid out by Reagan is a simple one: Any level of government that prevents conservatives from imposing their will is bad and should be dismantled. It is expressed in simple platitudes: Government is always the problem. "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" is terrible to hear. All taxation is theft. All regulation is bad. Let the free market decide everything. These and similar refrains have been howled out at The Common Folk for so many decades that many of them now _believe them_.

The 'intellectual' Republican types, the George Wills and the Jennifer Rubins and the Bill Kristols and wow does it pain me to use 'Bill Kristol' and 'intellectual' in the same sentence but the Freedom Caucus makes him look like fucking Aristotle and such have the nerve to look surprised. It is as if they've been working all along on the assumption that do-nothingism is just a front; of COURSE we'll tell the blue-collar folk that we want to tear the government down and abolish taxes and ban all abortions and ban collective bargaining and fight evil and praise God, because that's how we get their votes so that we can get into government and use it for our own desired ends. Now their party has control of all branches and they're asking "all right, what should we do with our government now?" and the response is "Tear it all down and burn it up."

"Well, no, we SAID we wanted that but we don't really want that."
"WE really want that."
"That will hurt a lot of people if we do that."
"Good."
"What?"

You can dangle carrots in front of donkeys for years and years. But you'd better at least keep in mind that the donkey is bigger than you, stronger than you, has bigger teeth than you and may be slow to think but if it sets its feeble mind on going in a different direction, you can't just muscle it to where you want it to go.
posted by delfin at 6:30 AM on January 8, 2018 [52 favorites]

I'm partway through "Fire and Fury" and I feel like it's generally truthful, though there may be tons of small factual errors sprinkled throughout. Its real power is not how true it is, but how believable it is. And it is completely believable that Donald Trump is every bit as stupid and unhinged as he's shown to be in this book. Painfully, horribly believable. And fucking obvious. As we who haunt MeFi politics threads have long known.

Donald Trump doesn't know anything. He doesn't know he doesn't know anything. And you can't teach him anything. In addition to the fact that he has a history of just not paying his bills, the fact that you can't tell the guy anything is the reason good lawyers won't take him on as a client. A lawyer that would represent this man has to be a fool or a masochist. Being interviewed by a guy like Mueller would be a nightmare for anyone. But if you have a good lawyer, they can coach you and prepare you for what to expect. There is no way to prepare Donald Trump for such an interview. He won't sit still for the coaching. He won't believe he needs coaching. He'll go in thinking he's be the smartest guy in the room and he will absolutely shit the bed in every possible way, all while still thinking he's got the upper hand. Please let there be video. And let it go public.
posted by wabbittwax at 6:46 AM on January 8, 2018 [66 favorites]

And yet, after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, for the first time in my life, this die-hard independentista has begun to think the previously unthinkable. If independence is out of reach — the romantic dream of an artist who doesn’t live there? — wouldn’t it be better for the island to end its Twilight Zone status forever and become a state of the United States? Isn’t statehood better than the never-ending limbo of commonwealth-hood? Statehood would give the island two U.S. senators, five members in the House of Representatives, seven electoral college votes. The political voice of Puerto Rico, an island of 3.7 million, would be impossible to ignore. We could help write the laws that dictate our destinies. In a close election, we the people could decide America’s next president.

It bears repeating:

A mass migration of Puerto Ricans into Austin, TX would instantly flip 5 different House seats.

And probably enough TX legislative seats to inflict quite the revenge.
posted by ocschwar at 6:49 AM on January 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

BREAKING: 200,000 Salvadorans will be forced to leave the U.S. or face deportation as Trump administration ends immigration protection (WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:54 AM on January 8, 2018 [23 favorites]

A few deleted. Not sure why people are posting about the Golden Globes/Oprah here, but this is a thread for Trump/WH news and updates.
posted by taz (staff) at 7:02 AM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

From the ultra-conservative Washington Times: Republican Leaders Trying to Stop Rick Saccone, Conor Lamb Race from Becoming National Story (previously)

“In this mix, Republican Saccone’s perceived ultraconservatism, coupled with Lambs’ perceived moderation, and Trump’s unquestioned unpopularity, could nationalize the race — nationalizing it may bring a Democratic victory,” Pennsylvania political analysts G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young said in a recent breakdown of the race.

GOP leaders, looking to avoid that, have stepped in.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee aligned with House GOP leaders, announced last week it would open two offices in the district, which includes the suburbs of south Pittsburgh and counties in the southwest corner of the state that share a border with West Virginia. The group pledged 50-full time door-knockers and 250,000 voter contacts.[...]

Whether the national Democratic Party decides to invest will say a lot — particularly when the party committees are saving cash for November’s all-out battle for control of the House.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for House Democrats, did not respond to requests for comment.

In the 2016 election, Trump won the district with 58% of the vote to Clinton's 39%, but with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court scheduled to hear arguments in the gerrymandering case on January 17th, we'll see if the map stays the same.
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:11 AM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

I just hope — please, please, please — let the video of his questioning find it’s way into public hands. I think the country has earned that little bit of satisfaction.

Too bad Trump doesn't see that he could pay-per-view that deposition and make a quick couple of million dollars cash money. I'd pay 49.95 to watch it live.
posted by mikelieman at 7:13 AM on January 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

What happens if Trump just decides to storm out mid-interview, though? He's the President. It's not like they're going to grab and cuff him to make him stay and answer questions.
posted by emjaybee at 7:23 AM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

About PA-18 and the special election there

In the 2016 election, Trump won the district with 58% of the vote to Clinton's 39%

There are 70,000 more registered Dems in that district than Republicans which means that the name of the game is getting the vote out.
posted by mcduff at 7:30 AM on January 8, 2018 [16 favorites]

How Trump can prove he is "very stable" by Dean Obeidallah at CNN
posted by mumimor at 7:41 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don't think that this is a big surprise to anyone

It's probably a better measure of the book to note - I think it's a surprise to find out all my deep digs a Der Klownvig were absolutely true. I guess I assumed he listened to *something* even if it was virulent racists.

The black hole that the book describes is totally outside of partisan politics.

This is what the corporate media can't have - a threat to their horse racing. That's what this book is. And one of the reasons that it was possibly a conscious decision to paint Bannon and Trump - if not sympathetically then at least in a more neutral light.

That the talking heads insist on bothsidesing it is maddening.
posted by petebest at 7:48 AM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

What happens if Trump just decides to storm out mid-interview, though? He's the President. It's not like they're going to grab and cuff him to make him stay and answer questions.

Disobeying court orders leads to contempt of court and sanctions (fines and/or imprisonment).
posted by leotrotsky at 7:48 AM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

That district (PA-18) is heavily gerrymandered. The Southern suburbs of Pittsburgh have almost zero in common--demographically, economically and socially--with the rural SW counties of the state. The district used to look a lot wigglier and weirder (it basically oozed its way around Pittsburgh's suburbs, from West to East), but was more demographically homogenous and was more of a toss-up district. It changed D and R hands 4 times throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but then redistricting in 2002 gerrymandered it into a safe R.

I do wonder how many of those 70,000 extra Democrats are actually people who vote Democratic. That's definitely a Thing in the rust belt.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:52 AM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

I do wonder how many of those 70,000 extra Democrats are actually people who vote Democratic. That's definitely a Thing in the rust belt.

Yeah see also: Maryland. You don't get a shitbag Rep like Andy Harris without a lot of dems-by-reg-only.
posted by phearlez at 8:03 AM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

I live in rural western PA. 69,900 of that 70,000 are straight-ticket Republican voters who just never updated their registrations post-Obama, or people like my aunt, who insist that being a registered Democrat means their word-for-word Fox News Fwd:Fwd:Fwd talking points make them "independent thinkers."
posted by dirigibleman at 8:10 AM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Sidebar: discussion about Golden Globes might fit into the recent Time's Up post

Did Jeff Sessions Just Increase the Odds Congress Will Make Marijuana Legal? -- The attorney general has created intolerable uncertainty for a growing industry that is now demanding legal protections from Congress. And lawmakers are listening. (James Higdon for Politico, Jan. 6, 2018)

Capitol Hill screamed just as loudly. And it wasn’t just the Democratic members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. It was Republican senators, too. Cory Gardner of Colorado took the Senate floor to issue an ultimatum to Sessions: “I will be putting a hold on every single nomination from the Department of Justice until Attorney General Jeff Sessions lives up to the commitment he made to me in my pre-confirmation meeting with him. The conversation we had that was specifically about this issue of states’ rights in Colorado. Until he lives up to that commitment, I’ll be holding up all nominations of the Department of Justice,” Gardner said. “The people of Colorado deserve answers. The people of Colorado deserve to be respected.” Gardner is no fringe Republican; he’s the chair of the NRSC.

Even members who had been silent on the issue in the past vowed to squeeze the Department of Justice’s budget. Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat from New Hampshire, reminding reporters she’s the lead Democrat on the Department of Justice funding subcommittee, tweeted: “I’ll work to ensure that resources are devoted to opioid response NOT foolish policy of interfering with legal marijuana production.” Most of the Congressional leadership was silent on this issue, but not House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who issued a blistering statement against Sessions, saying that she would push for an amendment in the new spending bill to protect states that had legalized not just medical marijuana but recreational use too, a move that could make ongoing budget negotiations much more tense.

So very sad that it took a state's rights issue for some Republicans to get upset enough with DOJ nominations to hold them up, but I'll take what we can get.

Also, I wonder how many items the Dems will use as bargaining chips in budget negotiations. It'll be interesting if state's rights/marijuana prosecution is added to debates about DREAMers and immigration (Ed O'Keefe, Mike DeBonis and Erica Werner for WaPo, Jan. 7, 2018)

A bipartisan meeting on immigration policy at the White House on Tuesday is designed to bring the sides together. If Trump and lawmakers can strike an immigration deal, negotiators on both sides think that other issues, including how to fund a children’s health insurance program and a roughly $80 billion package to pay for disaster relief, could be resolved.

Ahead of the meeting, the Trump administration released to lawmakers a request to pay $18 billion over 10 years for a mix of walls, fencing and other security technology. GOP lawmakers have said they were waiting for the plan to know the parameters of talks with Democrats.

“Instead of the saber-rattling, let’s get in a room and figure out reasonable, sound policy for securing the border, helping [dreamers] . . . and solving this problem for the first time in two decades,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a lead GOP immigration negotiator, told Fox News Channel on Sunday.

But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted against the temporary spending plan in December, characterized the looming shutdown as an opportunity for Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“I believe that if we can increase voter turnout by 5 percent from 2014, Democrats will regain the House and Senate. But you cannot do that unless ordinary people believe you are fighting for them,” Sanders said in an interview. “If it’s more tax breaks for billionaires and huge increases in military spending, you have a lot of working people and young people who will say: ‘It doesn’t make a difference. Why should I be involved?’ ”

Add enough substantive roadblocks and important matters to the budget, and the shrinking GOP majority (WaPo, Jan. 3, 2018) in the Senate might have trouble awful bills and nominations. Speaking of representation, Alabama Sen. Doug Jones teaches Dems inclusion (Bankole Thompson for The Detroit News, Jan. 7, 2018)

Think about this. A Democratic senator from one of the deepest of red states elected with the help of black voters has named an African-American — a veteran of former President Barack Obama’s administration — as his top aide.

That is what Doug Jones, Alabama’s newly elected senator, did when he named Dana Gresham, a former assistant secretary for governmental affairs in the Department of Transportation under Obama, as his chief of staff.

The appointment is significant because Gresham becomes the only African-American chief of staff for a Democrat in the U.S. Senate.

More of the 2015 figures from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:16 AM on January 8, 2018 [20 favorites]

What happens if Trump just decides to storm out mid-interview, though? . . .

Disobeying court orders leads to contempt of court and sanctions (fines and/or imprisonment).

This has been discussed here many times before. If Trump refuses to obey or enforce a court order, we are in a constitutional crisis. The only solution is impeachment and conviction by Congress, because the executive branch is in charge of all the agencies that would be able to enforce a court order.
posted by mubba at 8:19 AM on January 8, 2018 [20 favorites]

I remember during the general an NPR host was interviewing the Democratic Party Chair from one of those rural SWPA counties about the Rust Belt phenomenon of "Reagan Democrats" and the Party Chair said, "There's already a word for Reagan Democrats. It's 'Republican.' These voters are Republicans, and have been voting Republican for many years now."
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:19 AM on January 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

Friendly reminder that you can help out Conor Lamb here.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:20 AM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

You do still see some ticket splitting from these "Reagan Democrats" but that's, at best, for the state legislature. They vote GOP in all federal elections.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:21 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Cory Gardner of Colorado took the Senate floor to issue an ultimatum to Sessions:

Cowardly Cory (R-cowardsville) votes with Trump ~96% of the time.

It's worth noting that these mouth flapping sounds of his have angered the base somewhat here in Western Colorado. Legalized pot is deeply unpopular with conservatives, and Cory is on record taking a very strong stand against it. This strikes them as a reversal.

I registered as a democrat for the first time in my life yesterday - which should be (I am told) early enough to participate in the caucus. I hope this gun-toting, pro-hunting, 4x4 pickup driving, rural living, beer drinker is welcome at the luxury gay space condo.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:25 AM on January 8, 2018 [100 favorites]

If anyone gives you shit for it, Pogo, I'll yell at 'em. Big tent means we stand together to protect each other, and the hell with the rest of it.

LUXURY GAY SPACE CONDOS FOR EVERYONE DAMMIT.
posted by sciatrix at 8:33 AM on January 8, 2018 [51 favorites]

I hope this gun-toting, pro-hunting, 4x4 pickup driving, rural living, beer drinker is welcome at the luxury gay space condo.

If you walked into my town's Democratic Committee, I'm confident that you'd be received with open arms. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for us to find something to argue about, but that's ok! Arguing about the details would be such an improvement over living in two separate worlds.
posted by diogenes at 8:38 AM on January 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

U.S. Supreme Court Leaves Intact Mississippi Law Curbing Gay Rights

The measure says religious people can’t be sued or penalized by the government for declining to provide services for same-sex marriage ceremonies. The law also protects people who believe gender is an immutable characteristic or who object to sex out of wedlock.

Critics say the law lets government clerks refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses and lets adoption and foster-care organizations decline to place children with LGBT families. The measure also wiped out protections that cities including Jackson, the state’s most populous, had previously afforded to gay and transgender residents.

Fuck them. Fuck them all.
posted by hijinx at 8:39 AM on January 8, 2018 [32 favorites]

If Trump refuses to obey or enforce a court order, we are in a constitutional crisis. The only solution is impeachment and conviction by Congress, because the executive branch is in charge of all the agencies that would be able to enforce a court order.

no srsly tho

I hope this gun-toting, pro-hunting, 4x4 pickup driving, rural living, beer drinker is welcome at the luxury gay space condo.

well i mean, somebody has to haul the free weed to the space condos from the farming collectives. welcome, comrade
posted by entropicamericana at 8:41 AM on January 8, 2018 [26 favorites]

U.S. Supreme Court Leaves Intact Mississippi Law Curbing Gay Rights

Although I concur on the fuck them all sentiment, it's worth noting that this is not a ruling from the court that everything is a-okay with this law on its merits. That headline is very misleading. This is just refusing to override the appeals court on the question of whether the petitioners had standing.

from the body of the article:

The justices turned away two appeals by state residents and organizations that contended the measure violates the Constitution. A federal appeals court said the opponents hadn’t suffered any injury that would let them press their claims in court.

So while frustrating, this doesn't leave us without a future opportunity to try to overturn this again.
posted by phearlez at 8:46 AM on January 8, 2018 [42 favorites]

phearlez: Thank you for that. I read it and didn't see what was against the headline, but, I appreciate your more critical reading of it.
posted by hijinx at 8:51 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

And in today's metaphorical news, Trump Tower caught on fire this morning.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:51 AM on January 8, 2018 [23 favorites]

delfin I don't think that this is a big surprise to anyone -- even a good chunk of people who voted for him. The legacy of Reaganism is similar to a few comments up, the violation of the good-faith principle that both sides in a political discussion are at least both acknowledging the concept of truth.

I think it's worse than just bad faith on the part of Republicans and a general belief that the government is always bad.

I think a large number of Republican voters basically want an ignorant bellicose belligerent self aggrandizing anti-intellectual to be President. They see that as strength.

Like Trump, they believe that being told about thinks they don't know is basically an insult. To them "smart" doesn't mean "person who seeks out new information and can think well", it means "person who knows everything". To that mode of thinking teaching is an insult, briefing is an insult, reading is a self inflicted insult. If you're smart you already know everything, therefore someone trying to tell you something you don't know is telling you that you're stupid.

Moreover, they view a self aggrandizing constant stream of braggadocio as a sign of strength and self confidence. They see the sort of taunting, bellicose, assholery from Trump as a sign of strength.

To us Trump bragging about the size of his button is a pathetic indication of not merely insecurity but stupidity. To them it's a relief that we've **FINALLY** got a President who isn't a coward.

Way back 2011, right after Osama bin Ladin was killed, a conservative associate of mine told me that the failure of Obama to hold celebratory parades and ideally put bin Ladin's literal head on a literal pike outside the White House, was a sign of pathetic weakness that would inspire the Arab world to attack America since clearly we were a nation of wimps (he used a different word that's less socially acceptable).

But he really, no exaggeration, did tell me that a President who was a real man would put bin Ladin's head on a pike outside the White House, and that he viewed Obama as a wimpy coward because he didn't.

Needless to day, he's a huge Trump supporter and his Facebook is filled with posts about how wonderful it is to have a man in the Oval Office again after the dire lack of manhood during the Obama years.

To that sort of person Trump's proud ignorance and needy self aggrandizing warmongering is exactly what they're looking for. They love him for that.

There is a fairly good sized portion of the American voting population genuinely want a President who refuses his daily briefings and is functionally illiterate.
posted by sotonohito at 8:54 AM on January 8, 2018 [60 favorites]

You have to be careful about stories and (especially) headlines concerning court decisions. They're frequently misleading.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:57 AM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

You're not wrong to be bothered by it, sciatrix, hijinx, and I don't want to sound like I'm saying oh well it's just a standing issue no reason for concern. Engaging in shenanigans about whether folks have standing is for sure a thing. The suits by private individuals against Trump on the Emoluments clause is being attacked on those grounds. It's not hard to imagine a "well there's plenty of other bakeries they could go to" dismissal on this sort of issue. This isn't really a problem anymore because the world is different now was the justification for fucking up the voting rights act.

So, be upset and make calls and donations. Help the people working to find good test cases for the suits. Just don't let them make you think this is done because of a single refusal to hear this particular appeal.

You have to be careful about stories and (especially) headlines concerning court decisions. They're frequently misleading.

The only thing reporters, on average, are more ignorant about than math is legal process.
posted by phearlez at 8:58 AM on January 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

And in today's metaphorical news, Trump Tower caught on fire this morning.

As a friend remarked: gotta be careful when burning evidence!
posted by TwoStride at 9:05 AM on January 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

The justices turned away two appeals by state residents and organizations that contended the measure violates the Constitution. A federal appeals court said the opponents hadn’t suffered any injury that would let them press their claims in court.

"So if Kim Davis 2.0 says that her religious beliefs override my civil rights when I come there to marry my partner, this law agrees, and someone else in the office will have to handle my request."
"Yes."
"And if the entire office staff is Kim Davis 2.0s, I'll just have to find an office in another county."
"Yes."
"Or, by logical extention, potentially another state."
"Yes."
"And this does not serve as sufficient injury to my civil rights to constitute standing."
"Correct. We have to wait until someone uses this law as a bludgeon to be a bigot towards you before we can acknowledge that the law explicitly allows itself to be used as a bludgeon to be bigoted towards you."

The letter of the law may require this but it still stinks to high heaven.

I think a large number of Republican voters basically want an ignorant bellicose belligerent self aggrandizing anti-intellectual to be President. They see that as strength.

And once again, I find that to be no surprise. Ronald Reagan was an ignorant anti-intellectual authoritarian who posed as America's Grandpa while authorizing tons of extremely unsavory shit. Bush the Elder was terrified of being portrayed as a wimp, and acted accordingly. His son was the rootinest' tootinest' have-a-beer-with-me think-from-his-gut Texas cowboy that Kennebunkport upbringing could create. And now we have what we have.

The degree to which Republicans choose to openly ignore the norms of government is more blatant these days. Their core driving principle -- that government not controlled by them should be ignored -- is at least fifty years old.
posted by delfin at 9:12 AM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

(about PA18)

I do wonder how many of those 70,000 extra Democrats are actually people who vote Democratic. That's definitely a Thing in the rust belt.

It also helps when the Dems run a candidate. Per Ballotpedia, Tim Murphy, the former incumbent, ran unopposed in 2014 and 2016.
posted by jointhedance at 9:16 AM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

And in today's metaphorical news, Trump Tower caught on fire this morning.

As a friend remarked: gotta be careful when burning evidence!

There's always ~~money~~ evidence in the ~~banana stand~~ gaudy Midtown Manhattan eyesore.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:18 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Senate Dems demand release of Fusion GPS interview

Two Democratic senators are calling on the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to release the transcript of its meeting with the CEO of the research firm that produced the controversial dossier about President Trump.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who sit on the committee, asked Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in a letter to release the full transcript of Fusion GPS CEO Glenn Simpson’s August interview.

“The American people deserve the facts. There is simply no reason to keep the Simpson testimony (or other testimony before our committee for that matter) hidden while this distraction goes on,” the senators said in the letter, which is dated Jan. 7.

The lawmakers cite “selective leaks” and attacks leveled against Simpson as they made their case for the transcript’s release.

“Diverting our focus from Russian interference to Glenn Simpson or Christopher Steele is, in our view, a misallocation of scarce resources,” the lawmakers said. “To the extent that you believe continued attention to those individuals is warranted, the American people should be allowed to decide for themselves.”

posted by Barack Spinoza at 9:57 AM on January 8, 2018 [28 favorites]

Educated guesstimates put an extra 200,000 Puerto Ricans in Florida, clustered around Orlando, thanks to post-hurricane displacement. The question is how many of them will get registered and vote. The electoral difference in FL in 2016 was just over 100,000.

As influx of Puerto Ricans continues, Koch-backed group starts seeking them out in Florida

posted by jointhedance at 10:10 AM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Arden Farhi (CBS News) tweets a transcript of the conversation between Jake Tapper and Stephen Miller that followed cutting to commercial. Stephen Miller isn't just whiny when the cameras are on him.
posted by gladly at 10:10 AM on January 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

Oh, for Christsake: Rich Democratic Donor Throws Her Weight Around

I guarantee you, if this were about a man, we'd be hearing cries of "We don't need no stinkin' donors! Power to the PEOPLE!" But when a ~~shrieking harridan~~ woman might be positioning herself for a run: "We <3 our rich donors! LISTEN TO OUR DONORS, PEOPLE!"

Luckily, the comments section so far seems to be "stick it in your ear, donor lady" but my fear is that Democrats will be motivated by, well, fear, and eff things up by being milquetoasts.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:12 AM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

How to attack the media like Stephen Miller, in 3 easy steps (Callum Borchers, WaPo):

* Use really strong adjectives. Repeat them.
* Be offended. Be very offended.
* Don't answer the question. Then act like the interviewer won't let you answer the question.

How Stephen Miller Got What He Wanted From CNN (David Graham, The Atlantic):

Tapper kept trying to ask questions, but Miller would talk over him and refuse to answer, saying that CNN had 24 hours a day to attack Trump and that he, Miller, deserved a chance to reply to this. When Tapper tried to interject, Miller accused the host of being condescending. This was a neatly laid trap, like accusing someone of being defensive—Tapper had no choice but to dispute it, but his incredulity was condescending, and indeed Miller’s comments were deserving of condescension. Also condescending, but also probably true, was Tapper’s accusation that Miller was playing for an audience of one, the president. (A laudatory tweet from the president confirmed Tapper’s suspicions that Trump was watching.)

But the audience wasn’t just Trump—it was his supporters, too. In that demographic, it’s likely Miller scored well by calling out Tapper’s condescension and refusing to back down. Miller’s demand for time to simply ramble makes little sense in the real world—why should CNN give an aide to the president carte blanche to launch ad hominem attacks on Wolff and on the network itself?—but if one believes that CNN makes up facts to take down the president, then why shouldn’t Miller be allowed to say what he wants, too?

Miller accused CNN of offering nothing but anti-Trump attacks, and in the process baited CNN into cutting his mic, which just validated his point. Getting cut off was a better outcome for him than having to actually debate the substance of Wolff’s book or anything else. He got what he wanted.

posted by peeedro at 10:19 AM on January 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

As influx of Puerto Ricans continues, Koch-backed group starts seeking them out in Florida

There's no floor with these fuckers, is there?

That said, so long as Trump has an (R) next to his name and elected Republicans continue to support him, that inroads with the Puertoriqueño community are gonna be a bit of an uphill climb.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:25 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Trump approval declining unusually fast among his own party.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:29 AM on January 8, 2018 [21 favorites]

jointhedance: As influx of Puerto Ricans continues, Koch-backed group starts seeking them out in Florida

As it has elsewhere since at least 2012, the group is offering English-language classes, courses on how to update professional licenses and civics courses designed to highlight the group’s focus on economic empowerment. What the classes will not include are direct appeals to vote for certain candidates or causes because the institute is a nonprofit barred from direct political activity. A sister organization, the Libre Initiative, works on issue advocacy across the country.

“We want people to make an educated decision for themselves. We really feel that in the Hispanic community, people need to know these topics,” Velasquez said. “You have people coming to Florida from all over the world, and they don’t understand how the system works. A lot of things get miscommunicated or misunderstood. So, we want to educate people about the principles that are close to our hearts, and then leave it to them.”

(Emphasis mine)

leotrotsky: There's no floor with these fuckers, is there?

They're just trying to get their message out there through every mean they can finance. They already target colleges and universities, and try to attach strings to donations to such as having control over curriculum, and more recently, obtaining personal information about students (Time Magazine, December 15, 2015). I hate them for their message, but I recognize that their strategy is smart - reshape minds at all levels throughout the country, in support of their economic interests. Well, the economic interests of the non-profits they fund. They're trying to counter liberally-biased reality, until reality itself is reshaped in their image.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:34 AM on January 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

HuffPo: Wisconsin Is Quietly Becoming The Top Senate Race Of 2018 "Sen. Tammy Baldwin is battling more outside spending by conservative groups than all of her Democratic colleagues. Combined."

I guess I know which campaign I'll be working on this year.
posted by AFABulous at 10:34 AM on January 8, 2018 [34 favorites]

Tammy Baldwin? The progressive gay female Jewish senator? oh yeah that's the quadfecta all right.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:38 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm a bit skeptical that Baldwin is the most vulnerable. I'd put her third, behind McCaskill and Donnelly.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:38 AM on January 8, 2018

If the last few years of politics has taught us anything, it's that we don't really know what the hell is going on in the Upper Midwest.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:41 AM on January 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

The Koch cancer is what fucked up NC. Are their tendrils intertwined with ALEC?
posted by yoga at 10:44 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

GORKA, in trying to knock the book down, confirms people told to cooperate --@maggienyt

"it appears to you that i may have erred; your understanding is quite wrong, mister chapo.... as sun=tsu said----"
posted by entropicamericana at 10:49 AM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

If the last few years of politics has taught us anything, it's that we don't really know what the hell is going on in the Upper Midwest.

I see you're in Chicago, so you might agree: as somebody who's lived his entire life in the Midwest (three states, at different times), it's no less baffling from the inside. But post-election, we're fighting back like I've never seen.
posted by Rykey at 10:52 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

The Koch cancer is what fucked up NC. Are their tendrils intertwined with ALEC?

Yes.
posted by benzenedream at 10:53 AM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

For one of the first times in a politics thread, here’s an xkcd which is relevant to our interests. He’s drawn an election map which shows election results with(in) states, and also shows population effects. The big swathes of red are mostly blank.

That's a good map. It clearly demonstrates the saying that 'empty land doesn't vote.' As explained by the mouseover / hover / press-and-hold text, it's got several advantages over a cartogram.
posted by jedicus at 10:55 AM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

For one of the first times in a politics thread, here’s an xkcd which is relevant to our interests. He’s drawn an election map which shows election results with(in) states, and also shows population effects. The big swathes of red are mostly blank.

If this was a game of Risk instead of an election, Blue would own the board. I wonder what it would look like if we made the display threshold equal to say, 200K votes -- would some of those states with solitary red stick-figures suddenly find themselves facing a blue doppelganger?
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:58 AM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Tammy Baldwin? The progressive gay female Jewish senator?

Interestingly, if you drive through western Wisconsin farmland, you see dozens of signs for her. She won by 6 points in 2012. So yeah maybe she isn't much of a worry, but OTOH Wisconsin is trending redder.
posted by AFABulous at 11:15 AM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Walker's popularity has rebounded (significant because he may have coattails) and she's no more popular than Ron Johnson.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:17 AM on January 8, 2018

I very, very, very much do not want to start an Oprah for President discussion here, because that's not an actual thing, and I'd far rather discuss candidates up-and-down the ticket who have both political experience and some of the qualities we admire in Oprah.

That said, check out this one-minute clip from Good Morning Britain, which, for reasons I cannot possibly fathom, had Sean Spicer on to explain how people with no political experience have problems running for office. At which point Piers Morgan, yes, that guy, literally starts screaming over and over again about the present situation as Spicer desperately tries to turn it back around by praising Trump.

It's a lovely winter salve for all of you missing Spicey Time out there.
posted by zachlipton at 11:23 AM on January 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

"piers morgan" and "lovely salve" really does not compute.
is he now Stopped Clock Piers Morgan™?
posted by murphy slaw at 11:29 AM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

GORKA, in trying to knock the book down, confirms people told to cooperate
That is hilarious. Both he and Miller are such pretentious idiots. Fools performing what they imagine is intellect.
posted by mumimor at 11:29 AM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

It's hard to find a recent poll about Paul Ryan's challenger (Randy "Ironstache" Bryce*) that wasn't from a press release from Bryce himself. This Vice article is rather pessimistic.

*The branding is so effective that I couldn't remember his actual name.
posted by AFABulous at 11:33 AM on January 8, 2018

BREAKING: Mueller likely to interview Trump as part of Russia probe; questioning could happen within weeks, according to a person close to the president (WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 11:45 AM on January 8, 2018 [49 favorites]

I hope they let trump live tweet the interview.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:51 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

> BREAKING: Mueller likely to interview Trump as part of Russia probe; questioning could happen within weeks, according to a person close to the president (WaPo)

I try not to contribute to the noise in these threads but I want to put it Out into the Universe that I will pay cash money or do any number of deeds in some kind of Quantum Leap redemption scheme in order to watch President Trump undergo questioning in real time. It's a small ask, universe. Just do me this one solid please.
posted by Tevin at 11:53 AM on January 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

Speaking of bad legal decisions, Milo Yiannopoulos Will Now Represent Himself In His Lawsuit Against Simon & Schuster, His former lawyers have withdrawn as counsel, citing "a breakdown in the relationship."
posted by zachlipton at 11:53 AM on January 8, 2018 [70 favorites]

I will pay cash money [...] in order to watch President Trump undergo questioning in real time.

Donny's questioning, Milo's trial -- I would pay real cash moneys to watch both of these. Even more than I would pay to watch the Gorilla Channel.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:56 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

Steyer isn't just spending on impeachment ads. And won't require candidates to promise impeachment to receive money.

WaPo: Tom Steyer will plow $30 million into midterms, but won’t run for office in 2018
posted by chris24 at 11:57 AM on January 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

It’s my understanding that they wouldn’t be asking for an interview with the big man himself unless they were basically all done and at the point of crossing Ts , yes? If we were to engage in Muellermancy, this would seem to be a clear sign that they are genuinely almost done. Hallelujah and fingers crossed.
posted by Andrhia at 11:57 AM on January 8, 2018 [12 favorites]

That would seem to contradict the recent reports, which indicated the investigation could continue throughout the year.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:59 AM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

AP: ESPN says Trump interview during [his appearance at tonight's national college football] title game unlikely

"We're still taking to the White House. I don't get the sense he's going to do an interview," Stephanie Druley, ESPN senior vice president for events and studio programs, said Sunday. "We will, obviously, show him at the game when we see where he is sitting."

Deadspin: Cowardly President Diaper Donald Reportedly Won't Do ESPN Interview At National Championship Game. Sad!

There’s obviously background here that would make a Trump interview of specific interest. The president has spent much of his last few months warring with (black) football players over protests and with (a black employee of) ESPN for her Twitter comments, with the White House actually calling for Jemele Hill’s firing and Trump blaming ESPN’s declining numbers on its politics.

But we will be deprived of the pathos (and utter failure of ethos) of Trump speaking extemporaneously about football or ESPN, or his reactions to the planned protests that are expected to take place outside and inside the stadium, or to any potential gesture from halftime performer Kendrick Lamar, because the president is scared of facing even the most anodyne interaction with anyone outside his circle.

posted by box at 11:59 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

If we were to engage in Muellermancy, this would seem to be a clear sign that they are genuinely almost done. Hallelujah and fingers crossed.

Possibly. But the source here is “someone close to the President” — so it’s also possible that the White House wants to fuel the perception that Mueller is almost done, accurate or no.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

In case there's any question about which side is leaking this stuff:

“This is moving faster than anyone really realizes,” the person said, who said Trump is comfortable participating in an interview and believes it would put to rest questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia in the 2016 election.

As a sidenote, that's a pretty clunky sentence for WaPo to publish. Edit much?
posted by diogenes at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Oh Milo. Soon, all you will have left is hubris, you Nazi wank.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** PA-18 special -- First poll of this race - Gravis has Saccone 46, Lamb 38. District went 58/38 Trump.

** 2018 Senate:

-- In a surprise move, OH Lt Gov Mary Taylor is staying in the governor's race, rather than jumping in the Senate race in the wake of Josh Mandel dropping out. Mike DeWine is cleaning everyone's clock in the gov race, so not sure what her thinking is.

-- Remington poll in MO has Hawley 49, McCaskill 45. Haven't seen a lot of polling here yet, fwiw.

** Odds & ends:

-- After hints that he might run for CA governor or for Diane Feinstein's seat, billionaire Tom Steyer has passed on both, but will dump $30M into registration and GOTV for Dem House campaigns.

-- NYT on the very crowded race for Colorado governor.

-- Ratings and analysis for all of the state row offices up in 2018, go nuts. It's from RRH Elections, which is basically the wingnut Daily Kos Elections, but I believe they play it pretty straight on analytics.

-- A court has tossed out a prospective anti-sanctuary city ballot initiative in Nevada for being too vague.

-- Oklahoma will have a ballot initiative this year on legalizing medical marijuana. Oddly, it's on the primary ballot, rather than the general, but I'm not sure if something underhanded is happening there.

-- Trump administration still fighting requests to turn over documents from the now terminated Kobach voter fraud commission. This, plus the abrupt nature of the shutdown of the commission, leads some to think there may be something pretty incriminating here.

-- Dems have been overperforming in specials, but how does that compare to past cycles?

===

Special elections in Georgia tomorrow, including a great pickup opportunity in the House.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2018 [32 favorites]

I'm not sure Bryce will even win the Dem nomination. I'm hearing grumbling from local Dems that he's doing stuff like Reddit AMAs, but not coming to local candidate forums and such. Myers might actually be a more effective candidate, if she's more willing to pound the pavement.

If you want to flip the table you have to invest the time & energy into it. Beto O'Rourke is criss-crossing Texas to fulfill his promise of being the first candidate ever to visit every county in the state. That's how you win an election, one town hall at a time. And many many hours driving from one to the next because Texas is a really big state.
posted by scalefree at 12:13 PM on January 8, 2018 [45 favorites]

CNN: Bannon group shopped anti-Trump document in 2015

The anti-Trump opposition research was the work of author Peter Schweizer for the Government Accountability Institute, which he cofounded with Bannon in 2012. It described years of alleged business connections between Trump companies and organized crime figures, allegations that have circulated among Trump detractors for years. [...] The GAI is backed by the Mercer family, one of the largest benefactors for Trump's campaign. Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, is listed as the group's chairwoman on its website. But in 2015, when the document was produced, the Mercers were backing the campaign of one of Trump's rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Bannon had not yet joined the Trump campaign.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:29 PM on January 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

Speaking of Bannon, CBS's Steven Portnoy @stevenportnoy just reported, "WH REJECTS BANNON 'APOLOGY': 'I don't believe there's any way back for Mr. Bannon at this point,' a WH spokesman tells reporters on AF1."

And another dignity wraith prepares to join the dismal crowd...
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:34 PM on January 8, 2018 [22 favorites]

I see we're at the stage of Mean Girls where Regina George gets hit by a bus.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 12:44 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

His interview with Katy Tur was interesting. The key quote was "If it rings true, it is true."

And, of course, journalists are jumping up and down shouting about how that's horribly wrong and against everything they stand for and blah blah blah. And they are, of course, right. Except all Wolff did there was restate the definition of truthiness, and there's nobody who has made that his life's guiding ethos more than Donald Trump. I do not appreciate being surrounded by more things, like this book, that tear down the notion of shared objective reality, but the world of truthiness is the one the White House has been living in all year. Defender of basic norms as I may be, it's hard to summon up the necessary outrage over them reaping what they sow.

Also from the interview:

In response to a question on whether Trump is anti-Semitic, Wolff pointed out that those in the White House don’t feel he is. At the same time, Wolff explained that he thinks the president knows who is and isn’t Jewish.

“But I don’t know,” he told Tur. “I think that he — he thinks about — I think he’s aware of who is Jewish in a way that might give — that might, that feels creepy.”

posted by zachlipton at 12:50 PM on January 8, 2018 [20 favorites]

Did Jeff Sessions Just Increase the Odds Congress Will Make Marijuana Legal? -- The attorney general has created intolerable uncertainty for a growing industry that is now demanding legal protections from Congress. And lawmakers are listening. (James Higdon for Politico, Jan. 6, 2018)

I'm in the cannabis industry, and the general consensus is that the timetable for federal legality just moved up by 2 years.

One of my partners had a meeting with Sessions a few months ago. The revocation of the Cole memo has been expected for some time; Sessions himself told us he "will enforce the law, whatever it is." And a memo ain't law.

The only hiccup this will have on our industry is on the investing side. But then again, California is going to start to have revenue figures that will blow people's minds.

I know certain mefites have repeatedly called for dispensary raids, but those of us that are actually on these frontlines know better. There's just too much money in it now, too much institutional investment, oh and also Republicans also love weed. A literal majority of them are in favor, and those numbers are going to climb as we start to see Cali rev figures.

All Sessions did was the to hasten the speed at which this happens, as Democrats and Republicans alike are now determined to clarify federal law.
posted by weed donkey at 12:50 PM on January 8, 2018 [76 favorites]

There's just too much money in it now, too much institutional investment, oh and also Republicans also love weed. A literal majority of them are in favor, and those numbers are going to climb as we start to see Cali rev figures.

This is all true! California does have diehard Trumpkins/MAGA/Breitbart true believers, concentrated in the poor rural north and northeast of the state, where all the lovely Bay Area and Los Angeles money does not penetrate. Want to know how those guys make money? Lots of them grow weed. Even the guys driving around with Confederate flags on their vehicles, never mind that California was staunchly, proudly Union - they fucking love their weed.

I don't know if that will turn these guys (and they are mostly guys IME) into Democrats, because when the going gets tough the tough start yapping about seceding and forming the Jefferson Republic. And they are far far outnumbered now by Democratic voters. But JSecessions is doing himself no favors by poking the California bear.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:02 PM on January 8, 2018 [13 favorites]

Farm Bureau remarks are imminent.

'Donald Trump is moving at lightning speed, and has accomplished more in his first year than most presidents do in their entire term.' ISIS is crushed! It's okay to say Merry Christmas! Sonny Perdue is delivering some first-class sycophancy.
posted by box at 1:11 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Andrew Lelling, the newly installed US Attorney for Massachusetts, issued a statement today that he might go after "certain categories of participants in the state-level marijuana trade" - or he might not, it all depends on his resources and stuff.

Although voters here have approved both medicinal marijuana (in 2012) and recreational marijuana (2016), dispensaries have been slow to roll out (the entire city of Boston has just one, although the zoning board recently signed off on a second) and there are still no legal pot shops (blame NIMBY for the former and grindingly slow state bureaucracy for the latter), so we're not quite as invested in it all as certain other states.
posted by adamg at 1:13 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Trump is speaking at the Farm Bureau convention (stream). Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, in his introduction, declared "It's also OK to say once again Merry Christmas."

NO IT DAMN WELL ISN'T OK, BECAUSE IT'S JANUARY 8TH.
posted by zachlipton at 1:14 PM on January 8, 2018 [58 favorites]

Y'all let's not liveblog the whole thing. If someone wants to take notes and summarize, fine, but lets leave it at that unless something remarkable by even Trumpian standards happens.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:15 PM on January 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

I have a question: who is running the executive branch at this point? Who's setting policy? Is the marijuana thing a sign that Sessions at least is allowed to set national priorities in a way that would otherwise be done by POTUS? Who's making the military decisions? I get why the 25th and impeachment/removal are hard to pull off. What I don't get is who is setting the priorities of the country. Kelley? Mattis? We know Tillerson's disemboweled state. Is it Nikki Haley? Some random rich dude Trump golfs with?

I mean, if CNN can return from an interview with Stephen Miller and say, "now, back to planet earth" or whatever I mean I guess the entire fucking nation is on the same page that the head of the executive branch is not really there, and who are the Regan/Gonereil figures stepping up to take away the power the mad king has forfeited?
posted by angrycat at 1:18 PM on January 8, 2018 [40 favorites]

The GOP's war on engineering just suffered one setback. FERC's response for the NOPR proposal just came back with a "nope."

If I read this correctly, they are taking no action.
posted by ocschwar at 1:19 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

I've often thought that making cannabis legal for recreational use has a knock-on effect that it gains support from non-users after they start getting surprised by all the people they know that have been using for cannabis for years but now suddenly talk out loud about it.

I'm excited for the day it gets legalized federally and I can have my mind blown by how many and which of my co-workers have been using pot for years.
posted by VTX at 1:21 PM on January 8, 2018 [24 favorites]

Ken Starr subpoenaed President Clinton to appear before a grand jury in July 1998; a couple days later Clinton agreed to testify voluntarily in exchange for Starr dropping the subpoena. Clinton testified under oath before the grand jury for 5 1/2 hours and the session was videotaped.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:24 PM on January 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

NO IT DAMN WELL ISN'T OK, BECAUSE IT'S JANUARY 8TH.

he meant Orthodox Christmas probably. The Russian one, you know.
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:25 PM on January 8, 2018 [66 favorites]

And those voters were so shocked that Nixon would go on to lose the election by less than a quarter of a percent in the popular vote, and quite possibly only lost the election at all thanks to some shenanigans in IL and TX.

The claim that Nixon lost because of shenanigans is a Republican fiction that has been retold so many times it is practically Gone With the Wind level propaganda. Nixon's loss was heavily argued and investigated all over the country and in the end all the Republican whinging about cheating led to mass recounts and the only result that was changed was that Kennedy got Hawaii's electoral votes instead of Nixon.

And thus was born the politics of republican grievance and Alex P. Keaton.
posted by srboisvert at 1:42 PM on January 8, 2018 [33 favorites]

Speech just wrapped up, and I didn't see anything remarkable.

Low energy, started by naming a bunch of people, made a show of throwing away his note cards, then mostly read off a prompter. The usual dubious statistics and stupid ad-libs, told a story about Andrew Jackson, and then wrapped it up.

Biggest applause was probably when he talked about respecting the flag and the anthem. Weirdest off-script note was probably (paraphrased): "Oh, you are so happy you voted for me. You are so lucky I gave you that privilege."
posted by box at 1:49 PM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

FERC's response for the NOPR proposal just came back with a "nope."

Translation: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected Rick Perry's proposed Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule that would have acted as a multi-billion dollar subsidy to coal and nuclear operators. FERC basically said 1) changes in electrical generation mix have not diminished grid reliability, in fact diversification in generation has added resiliency, 2) delaying retirement of coal plants will not improve reliability as transmission and distribution are where most disruptions occur and 3) FERC's legal mandate does not include extending the life of uncompetitive industry:

Finally, I am sympathetic to the plight of coal miners, who have been disproportionately affected as coal’s share of the generation mix has declined. These men and women went to work every day, at considerable risk to their health and safety, to supply coal when it was needed most. Many of those same considerations extend to individuals employed at recently or soon-to-be decommissioned nuclear power plants.

We have a history in this country of helping those who, through no fault of their own, have been adversely affected by technological and market change. But that is the responsibility of Congress and the state legislatures. It is not a role that the Federal Power Act provides to the Commission.

posted by peeedro at 1:51 PM on January 8, 2018 [56 favorites]

In response to a question on whether Trump is anti-Semitic, Wolff pointed out that those in the White House don’t feel he is. At the same time, Wolff explained that he thinks the president knows who is and isn’t Jewish.

“But I don’t know,” he told Tur. “I think that he — he thinks about — I think he’s aware of who is Jewish in a way that might give — that might, that feels creepy.”

Fire & Fury covers this a bit, the gist is: Trump's father was affiliated with the KKK (WaPo confirms he was arrested in a KKK march in 1927) which comes up when DJT is annoyed that he's getting bad press for not denouncing them and says it's just like how his father was "unfairly" tied to the KKK.

Wolff also says that in Trump's early life, the Jewish real estate moguls were classier, more "white shoe" than the non-Jews, So Trump's default attitude would be sort of mixed, the way it is with the NYT -- a mix of inferiority/approval-seeking and animus/contempt.
posted by mrmurbles at 1:57 PM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

HuffPo: Wisconsin Is Quietly Becoming The Top Senate Race Of 2018 "Sen. Tammy Baldwin is battling more outside spending by conservative groups than all of her Democratic colleagues. Combined."

Think they're preemptively trying to take down a future presidential threat?
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:05 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Maggie Haberman was dragging Wolff's book on CNN a few minutes ago. As with other critiques it felt like a bit of reasonable criticism of Wolff's sloppiness combined with a giant dollop of sour grapes. For example, Haberman refutes Wolff's reporting that there has been a degradation in Trump over the last year. No, she says, it's simply that he was always like this but moving him from his familiar routine to the new environment and stressors could appear like a degradation without actually being one.

Thanks, Maggie.

I get the feeling a lot of print journalists are upset with Wolff for doing what they didn't have the guts to do for fear of losing their precious "access".
posted by Justinian at 2:05 PM on January 8, 2018 [82 favorites]

Wolff also says that in Trump's early life, the Jewish real estate moguls were classier, more "white shoe" than the non-Jews, So Trump's default attitude would be sort of mixed, the way it is with the NYT -- a mix of inferiority/approval-seeking and animus/contempt.

NYT, January 2017. Bernard-Henri Lévy - Jews, Be Wary of Trump.

I cannot claim any knowledge of Donald Trump’s “heart” or of the sincerity of his commitment to the Jewish state. But there have been indications going back decades.

One was provided by John O’Donnell, a former chief operating officer of Trump’s Atlantic City casino, who, in his 1991 book “Trumped!” quoted Trump as saying: “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”

More recently, there was a 2013 tweet storm in which, desperate to show that he was “smarter” than the “overrated” Jon Stewart, Trump saw fit to rip off the mask behind which stood Jonathan Leibowitz, the Jewish name Stewart was born with.

And then, in mid-campaign, there was the meeting in which Trump told donors from the Republican Jewish Coalition: “I know why you’re not going to support me! It’s because I don’t want your money.”

These statements suggest, to say the least, a certain contempt.

posted by chris24 at 2:06 PM on January 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

I'm excited for the day it gets legalized federally and I can have my mind blown by how many and which of my co-workers have been using pot for years.

30 years in the IT industry and while "do you party?" has never been in the job interview, it's no secret who "goes out to get lunch" every day.
posted by mikelieman at 2:09 PM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Trump's father was affiliated with the KKK (WaPo confirms he was arrested in a KKK march in 1927) which comes up when DJT is annoyed that he's getting bad press for not denouncing them and says it's just like how his father was "unfairly" tied to the KKK.

I've noticed that when people have antisemitic parents, they need to make a conscious effort to rid themselves of the hate. One might think Trump would be motivated to change because of Ivanka's marriage to Kushner, but the words conscious and effort don't really fit with any description of Trump's personality.
posted by mumimor at 2:12 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Since my several-levels-up boss, Secretary Perdue, was mentioned above, I thought I’d leave this here. In a memo to the Department last week he announced a number of administrative and policy changes, including a new restriction limiting telework to 2 days per pay period (one day per week). The stated justification is that it will improve customer service and accountability. I’ll leave it to each of you to consider that claim and decide if that’s plausible, or if there might be other reasons for changing policies that make the Department an attractive place to work.
posted by wintermind at 2:13 PM on January 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the USA desperately needs some of those liberal billionaires to endow a genuine journalism outfit with enough money it never needs ad revenue or donations. And that outfit needs to remember that its job is to tell us whats going on, not to preserve "access"
posted by sotonohito at 2:14 PM on January 8, 2018 [30 favorites]

Still feels weird to see the formerly milquetoast USA Today leading the resistance, but...

Democrats must play Republican-style hardball in 2018: Oppose, oppose, oppose, just like the GOP. Unless they can notch big, clear wins, Democrats should shelve compromise until 2019 or 2021

There’s no need for Democrats to overthink 2018. It’s very simple: At every decision point, they should ask themselves WWRD — What Would Republicans Do? — and then do it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is sounding like a born-again believer in compromise, but only out of necessity. His challenges include a tiny 51-49 majority and ominous signs for the upcoming midterm elections. No wonder he said in welcoming two new Democratic senators last week, “I look forward to working with them in the months ahead to make bipartisan progress and to find common ground on behalf of the American people.”

Where was that man during the Obama administration?

Republicans voted en masse against a Great Recession recovery plan that had more tax cuts than many Democrats preferred, and a health care law that relied more on the private sector than many Democrats wanted. They blocked an older, relatively moderate Supreme Court nominee for nearly a year and McConnell now gloats about a court he says will be "right of center" for a generation. In 2017, the first year of the Trump administration, they hastily passed a punitive, deficit-busting tax law without a single vote from Democrats.

There’s no reason to reward McConnell for his two-term blockade of President Obama, especially when it could help him limit damage to congressional Republicans running this fall. So how would this legislative hardball look like in practice? Here are a few scenarios:

posted by chris24 at 2:18 PM on January 8, 2018 [86 favorites]

mikelieman: "
30 years in the IT industry and while "do you party?" has never been in the job interview, it's no secret who "goes out to get lunch" every day."

I'll be happy when I don't have to be tested for it to get IT jobs.
posted by octothorpe at 2:25 PM on January 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

endow a genuine journalism outfit with enough money it never needs ad revenue or donations

Endowments are usually invested in stocks and bonds, right? And they get corporate earnings reports? And they have an interest in seeing corporate revenues and stock prices continuously rise?
posted by OnceUponATime at 2:26 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

More shit.
Stunning victory for Bundy family as all charges dropped in 2014 standoff case.
A judge has dismissed conspiracy charges against rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons, marking an extraordinary failure by US prosecutors and a decisive victory for the Nevada family who ignited a land rights movement in the American west.
posted by adamvasco at 2:28 PM on January 8, 2018 [38 favorites]

I'm excited for the day it gets legalized federally and I can have my mind blown by how many and which of my co-workers have been using pot for years.

I've often been amazed by the way so-called liberal Hollywood, which I've been told wants nothing more than to corrupt the innocent youth of America, so frequently portrays pot smokers as lazy, idiotic losers who don't do anything but sit around getting high and eating junk food and playing video games. (There are notable exceptions, of course.)

I can't even count the number of -- ahem -- high performing people in white collar jobs I know who regularly have a little smoke.

I get the feeling a lot of print journalists are upset with Wolff for doing what they didn't have the guts to do for fear of losing their precious "access".

A friend sent me this review of F&F from the New Yorker: “Fire and Fury” Is a Book All Too Worthy of the President

One thing that knocked me over in the review is a part where the author describes the press' reporting on Trump with this phrase: "...the writing of White House newspaper reporters, who exercise preternatural restraint when writing about the Administration...."

I laughed out loud. Y'all, I rarely laugh out loud over stuff I've read. "Preternatural restraint" is a hell of a turn of phrase to describe cowardice and/or an inability or unwillingness to do one's job. I'm using it from now on to describe some of my decisions and feelings.

Friends: Why didn't come skydiving with us?
Me: I exercised preternatural restraint when considering jumping out of a plane.
posted by lord_wolf at 2:28 PM on January 8, 2018 [27 favorites]

"safety meeting"
posted by thelonius at 2:31 PM on January 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

Royce's retirement officially moves CA39 two columns from Learn Republican to Lean Democratic in Cook Political Report's rankings. He's the seventh GOP committee chair to quit, and the 28th GOP rep to announce their retirement.
posted by zachlipton at 2:33 PM on January 8, 2018 [16 favorites]

Here I was thinking these people weren't stupid enough to renominate KT McFarland for Ambassador to Singapore, given the inevitable hearings where she'll be asked about Flynn and Russia and that "thrown the U.S.A. election" to Trump email, but they just did it, because I guess they are exactly that stupid.
posted by zachlipton at 2:37 PM on January 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

Rep. Ed Royce, Republican of CA-39, is OUT in a district Clinton carried by 9 points. @J. Miles Coleman has the maps and this goes straight to the top tier of potential Dem pickups.

CA-39 is also home to ... the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum.
posted by notyou at 2:42 PM on January 8, 2018

(Which is just to note that it won't be long before the whole of Orange County is blue, too.)
posted by notyou at 2:44 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I can only hope that judge Navarro resigns in shame after giving a victory to the vile Bundy clan. That's twice now she's abused her judicial powers to assist those terrorists.

With "friends" like her WTF do we need Trump appointees for?
posted by sotonohito at 2:57 PM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

It's true that we gave the nation Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Some parts of the state, like the Bay Area and Los Angeles, were always pretty blue, but large swaths of the state were red, and there were conservatives even in San Francisco up through the 80's or so. However, the last Republican Presidential candidate to win California was Bush Sr. in 1988.

Anthony York, Pacific Standard: How California Became A Modern Democratic Stronghold - by electing a racist Republican governor in the 1990's, they pushed Latinx voters firmly into the Democratic fold, soon followed by most of the educated middle class-plus white and Asian bloc.

The current crop of Republicans seem to be doing everything they can to poison the well with anyone who isn't white and bigoted, and the more diverse a state gets the worse off Republicans will be. If Virginia is any indication, even well-off suburban whites who voted for Trump in 2016 are regretting their choice and going Dem for local races (Steve Singiser, Daily Kos).
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 2:58 PM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

30 years in the IT industry and while "do you party?" has never been in the job interview, it's no secret who "goes out to get lunch" every day.

Dunno, that sounds way more like cocaine language to me.
posted by mykescipark at 2:59 PM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Was this a case of Navarro being prejudiced, or (as the oregonlive.com link describes) did the prosecution completely shit the bed with regard to evidence handling in what should've been a slam fucking dunk?

I am clasping my head like a stunned monkey. This is precisely the kind of clusterfuck the nation really did not need.
posted by delfin at 3:01 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

NT Alexandra Petri, WaPo: The pros and cons of President Oprah

On the one hand, when Oprah speaks, the crops flourish. Hearts grow three sizes, baby rabbits open their eyes, the crocuses emerge from the frozen earth, distant music can be heard on the soft wind and it is springtime at long last.

On the other hand, Oprah is a celebrity candidate with no executive experience.

On the one hand, Oprah is an inspirational figure who has had to work hard for everything she has achieved, and she knows how to string a sentence together and tell a story that is not about herself, which is what she so ably did at the Golden Globes on Sunday night as she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is why this conversation about Oprah 2020 is even happening.

On the other hand, why is it that anytime someone uses their platform to lift up another person’s story, we assume that it must be because they are running for something?

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:03 PM on January 8, 2018 [30 favorites]

Was this a case of Navarro being prejudiced, or (as the oregonlive.com link describes) did the prosecution completely shit the bed

I was gonna say. Why would we be mad at the judge because the prosecutors can't follow the rules? Enforcing rules is her job. The prosecutors should be fired.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:07 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Re: Oprah, Trump and even kinda Obama in 2008 -- people love celebrity candidates with no political experience for the same reason they have crushes on barristas or people they ride the bus with every day but never speak to.

Actual politicians, who actually try to legislate, will in the course of getting anything done make compromises, mistakes, and ruin whatever you're projecting on to them.
posted by mrmurbles at 3:14 PM on January 8, 2018 [34 favorites]

Re: Oprah, Trump and even kinda Obama in 2008

Dismissing then-U.S. Senator Obama as a “celebrity” was gross and arguably racist when Palin and McCain said it in 2008, and it’s not a particularly good look ten years later, either.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:20 PM on January 8, 2018 [63 favorites]

(Though I agree with you on Trump and Oprah.)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:21 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nevertrumper Lindsey Graham, continuing to serve as a strong voice for the Resistance—

Paul McLeod [via Twitter]:
Lindsey Graham describing Trump's approach to a DACA deal: "He has been very refreshing, like 'I want to get a deal, I have nothing against these kids, I just want to get my wall.'"
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:24 PM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

Ivanka might have met with Veselnitskaya after meeting

I think the possibility that Ivanka was aware of the meeting but Trump himself was not is essentially nil.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:26 PM on January 8, 2018 [19 favorites]

I get the feeling a lot of print journalists are upset with Wolff for doing what they didn't have the guts to do for fear of losing their precious "access".
posted by Justinian at 2:05 PM on January 8 [30 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

I read it as more naked than that: they are currying favor with Trump by taking down a detractor, in order to increase access.
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:26 PM on January 8, 2018 [11 favorites]

Yeah, from my moderate view behind the curtain, and without breaking whatever campaign omertà, Wisconsin is gonna be a big thing this year. As ever, if you live there, go get ready to knock on doors.

Meanwhile, I'm enchanted and terrified by my own choice of candidate, Lillian Salerno, a spitfire in the best tradition of Texas progressive women. I mean. The fact that Texas is in play, and serious play at that, is incredibly heartening. I am so excited, and on a personal level, so scared.
posted by dogheart at 3:29 PM on January 8, 2018 [16 favorites]

And any Dem who votes for any deal that gives Trump his wall needs to get their ass primaried. Ending DACA is a tragedy, but allowing Trump his immigration dreams of the wall and "we need to stop chain migration" will damage far more families and lives. And you know that the GOP cannot be trusted to hold their end of the deal up anyways. A dem president and congress needs to make sweeping changes to undo as much of this damage as possible, reinstate DACA, and get real immigration reform that doesn't put families at risk (and that doesn't favor business over people.)
posted by azpenguin at 3:30 PM on January 8, 2018 [25 favorites]

Trump will declare victory if he gets 30 feet of actual wall he can pose in front of, plus some combination of sensors and border patrol funding that he can call a "virtual wall" or something. He's already admitted as much. And his supporters will then insist that The Wall really did get built.

That's what the Democrats should offer.
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:32 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Dismissing then-U.S. Senator Obama as a “celebrity” was gross and arguably racist when Palin and McCain said it in 2008, and it’s not a particularly good look ten years later, either.

You're right, he wasn't a celebrity then, I should have been clearer. But his legislative record was short relative to the kinds of people who (used to) run for president.
posted by mrmurbles at 3:36 PM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

30 feet of actual wall he can pose in front of, plus some combination of sensors and border patrol funding that he can call a "virtual wall" or something. He's already admitted as much. And his supporters will then insist that The Wall really did get built.

Well shit, why aren't they happy now then? That version of the wall is already there.
posted by Rykey at 3:36 PM on January 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

'Cause the wall part of The Wall has to say "Trump" on it in big gold letters to count?
posted by OnceUponATime at 3:38 PM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

"Senator Graham, do you swear your undying loyalty to President Trump?"
posted by petebest at 3:38 PM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

You're right, he wasn't a celebrity then, I should have been clearer. But his legislative record was short relative to the kinds of people who (used to) run for president.

That’s a fair point, mrmurbles.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:38 PM on January 8, 2018

You're right, he wasn't a celebrity then, I should have been clearer. But his legislative record was short relative to the kinds of people who (used to) run for president.

Even prior to Obama a lack of legislative record was usually seen as a big plus. There's a reason why the path to the Presidency has tended to travel through Governor's mansions rather than Congress. You can't criticize a governor for shitty compromise votes when they haven't had to make any.
posted by Justinian at 3:41 PM on January 8, 2018 [22 favorites]

I’m hoping folks with more North Korea knowledge can make sense of today’s story in the WSJ. I can’t tell if this is actually a White House trial balloon re: military strikes on NK. (Not being alarmist, I’m legitimately curious about the background of this story:)

Amid Signs of a Thaw in North Korea, Tensions Bubble Up (WSJ)

And here’s the Daily Beast on it.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:49 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Senator Graham, do you swear your undying loyalty to President Trump?"

Sen. Graham today on The View: "All I can say is, you can say anything you want about the guy, I said he was a xenophobic, race-baiting religious bigot… I ran out of things to say. He won. Guess what, he's our President."

Eh, close enough.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:09 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

More "debunking" of the Wolff book on Hardball, this time from the Axios guy.

The debunking is that it is absurd and completely false that 100% of the staff and people around Trump consider him unstable and totally unfit. When pressed, Jonathan Swan (the Axios guy), admitted that people around Trump do believe that, but that it is only a reasonably high number and not the absurd assertion of 100%. So let's be clear. Even the debunking position on Wolff's book is that a reasonable amount of people around Trump believe him to be bonkers and unfit. That's the optimistic scenario. To be honest I tend to believe Swan. I'm sure there are some folks around Trump who have totally drunk the Kool-Aid and are true believers who don't think Trump is nutbars. Wolff is obviously using exaggeration and hyperbole to sell books and make the news.

But come on. The rosy view of Trump is that only a "reasonable" number of those around him think he's Mad King Joffrey and not 100% of them.
posted by Justinian at 4:21 PM on January 8, 2018 [42 favorites]

The rosy view of Trump is that only a "reasonable" number of those around him think he's Mad King Joffrey and not 100% of them.

"Well, look, I'm just saying that if you squint at him a certain way in the right kind of light it really does look like he's wearing clothes, right?"
posted by pyramid termite at 4:26 PM on January 8, 2018 [41 favorites]

You're right, he wasn't a celebrity then, I should have been clearer. But his legislative record was short relative to the kinds of people who (used to) run for president.

Not to relitigate the 2008 election, but this isn't accurate. Obama had more experience as a legislator (state and national) than GW Bush, WJ Clinton, and Reagan did put together, since they had zero and went to the White House via governorships -- which one can argue is more relevant since it's an executive position.

Obama had 15 years as a legislator compared with GHW Bush, Carter, and Nixon, who had four years each. The only president since 1970 who had more legislative experience than Obama was Ford, with 24 years in the House.

Obama's overall pre-presidential resume includes 18 years of directly relevant work experience in public service, law and legal scholarship, and legislative office.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:53 PM on January 8, 2018 [71 favorites]

I'm still in the middle of the book, but so far Wolff has not stated that 100% of people around Trump think he's unfit. Most notably, Bannon seems to have a definition of "fit to serve" that includes someone with Trump's many acknowledged deficiencies.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:55 PM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

30 years in the IT industry and while "do you party?" has never been in the job interview, it's no secret who "goes out to get lunch" every day.

I used to have an amazing boss that would send us out on official and practically mandatory safety meetings when things were really hectic and stressful and he could tell we were losing our edge, and he didn't even smoke. (Well, practically mandatory for anyone who did.)

Man, I miss that job. It was so good.

Post legalization I've worked for a music festival that handed out pre-rolls and even extract/oil pens to talent, workers and volunteers. Like, every team lead got a pen and a bunch of handrolls to distribute to talent and staff. They handed out the pen as a time saving measure to cut down on the safety meetings time and duration, and that plan totally worked. It was a lot quicker, cleaner and easier to just take a puff on a pen even back stage and just keep working.

The thought of Sessions actually cracking down on legal recreational stores in WA state isn't really even registering for most people. And if they started actually doing it they'd probably find it difficult to get through the human shield and wall of people protesting and trying to protect their local retail shop.
posted by loquacious at 5:01 PM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

Sebastian Gorka just published his take on the book. Roughly summed up, "It isn't true. Certainly not the fitness to serve parts".

We may be able to judge which of our media interlocutors are Republican stenographers by seeing if they toe the company line here.
posted by pdoege at 5:04 PM on January 8, 2018

Lindsey Graham describing Trump's approach to a DACA deal: "He has been very refreshing, like 'I want to get a deal, I have nothing against these kids, I just want to get my wall.'"

It's refreshing when the hostage-taker doesn't have anything against his hostages, you know?
posted by scaryblackdeath at 5:09 PM on January 8, 2018 [22 favorites]

The thought of Sessions actually cracking down on legal recreational stores in WA state isn't really even registering for most people.

Popehat asserts that Session's rescinding those memos means less than you might think. Basically, state DAs can ignore it and have caseloads large enough that it doesn't matter. I'm a bit skeptical (otherwise why write the memos at all), but Popehat was a prosecutor, so...

speaking of WA, the deputy killed in this story was a good friend of a friend of mine.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:11 PM on January 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

Pogo, I am so sorry.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 5:15 PM on January 8, 2018 [9 favorites]

I am sorry for your loss, Pogo.
posted by mosk at 5:16 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure rescinding the Cole memo is some component in a disenfranchisement scheme, since that seems to be Sessions' life goal, but I'm not sure how he'll try to implement it.
posted by benzenedream at 5:26 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Bannon learned about the [Scaramucci] piece when fact-checkers from the magazine called him for comment about Scaramucci's accusation that he sucked his own cock.

Learning this glorious little tidbit has been the high point of my 2018.
posted by triggerfinger at 5:42 PM on January 8, 2018 [30 favorites]

And if they started actually doing it they'd probably find it difficult to get through the human shield and wall of people protesting and trying to protect their local retail shop.

One of the things I thought was awesome when I visited Denver last year were the billboards for companies that would deliver all manner of snacks, beverages, and cleaning supplies 24/7 specifically marketed towards people who've gotten too high to run out for supplies and have the munchies and/or want to clean their apartment or house while stoned.

And also the Mexican place where they asked me if I had partaken in any recreational cannabis use and invited me to visit the dispensary across the street that the restaurant owners also owned. The food was amazing.

There are a lot of other businesses flourishing that have an interest in keeping the cannabis industry safe that aren't directly connected.
posted by VTX at 5:43 PM on January 8, 2018 [18 favorites]

I'm pretty sure rescinding the Cole memo is some component in a disenfranchisement scheme...

And I suspect it's not a coincidence that Sessions is suddenly motivated to do this two weeks after the first six Inauguration protesters were acquitted.

You want to know what this was really all about?

The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

- John Ehrlichman, 1994

Checks out.
posted by dirge at 5:58 PM on January 8, 2018 [105 favorites]

I'm sure there are some folks around Trump who have totally drunk the Kool-Aid and are true believers who don't think Trump is nutbars.

Don't believe that. There are people who wouldn't think Trump's repetition, his eerie singular focus on what he wants now the petulant way he complains literally all day, and other aberrant behavior to be a problem - but they aren't working in the White House.

Wolff's book is not about politics. It really isn't.
posted by petebest at 6:18 PM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

Ben Carson is still around, isn't he? I'm sure that guy thinks Trump is just right as rain.
posted by mannequito at 6:44 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Hey fellas, this is a video of Wolff on "Morning Joe", and he says something interesting at 11:00 in.

The context is Bannon's apology and how Bannon was talking about Manafort when he said "treasonous". Wolff says no. He meant Don Jr., it was clear. Bannon was maybe the only one who knew they were getting in deep shit, so he yelled at everyone, yelled at Steven Miller for endangering himself, Mike Pence was in meetings he shouldn't have been in.

ORLY
posted by petebest at 6:45 PM on January 8, 2018 [54 favorites]

My friend-in-law Wendy DeBoer is running for the Nebraska Legislature in district 10. She is solid and deserves support.
posted by Coventry at 6:48 PM on January 8, 2018 [17 favorites]

Oh yeah, Ben Carson is in charge of housing policy. God, I totally forgot about that.

Good thing housing policy isn't incredibly relevant in a nation where people can't pay their damn rent or mortgage. (And that's not just the bright blue urban spots, either.)
posted by tivalasvegas at 6:53 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

mrmurbles: "You're right, he wasn't a celebrity then, I should have been clearer. But his legislative record was short relative to the kinds of people who (used to) run for president."

I mean, I guess? Carter had one term as Georgia governor, and four years in the Georgia Senate, which isn't a particularly long resume.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:55 PM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

I mean, I guess? Carter had one term as Georgia governor, and four years in the Georgia Senate, which isn't a particularly long resume.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:55 PM on January 8 [+] [!]

I think it's more to the point that some Presidents have spent their lives preparing for the job and understand how the government works, how laws are made, and how society works in general. They are at least competent at their jobs and less likely to be puppet or figurehead administrations. Nixon was well prepared but was an asshole. Reagan was somewhat prepared but had some odd ideas about how society worked. Bush Jr. and Trump are clueless. Obama and both Clintons spent their whole adult lives preparing for the role and were deeply read and experienced in topics directly relevant to the position. I want people well prepared, not a celebrity who seems like they share my values but will have to learn all the basic shit on the job as well as the minutia.
posted by Mental Wimp at 7:02 PM on January 8, 2018 [31 favorites]

zachlipton: "Royce's retirement officially moves CA39 two columns from Learn Republican to Lean Democratic in Cook Political Report's rankings. He's the seventh GOP committee chair to quit, and the 28th GOP rep to announce their retirement."

Yeah, this is a huge retirement. I felt pretty optimistic about a flip already - district was Romney 51-47, then Clinton 51-43 - but now it's very likely. My only concern would be the CA top two primary - there are already several Dems running, we can't split the left vote so much that the top two vote getters are GOP.

Also, these committee chair retirements are getting out of hand.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:02 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Folks, if you want to talk about whether celebrity candidates are a good thing etc, better to take that over to the Oprah thread, so we don't have similar discussions happening in parallel.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:04 PM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Net neutrality news:

A Senate bill that would reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to repeal net neutrality received its 30th co-sponsor on Monday, ensuring it will receive a vote on the Senate floor.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) announced her support for the bill on Twitter, putting it over the top of a procedural requirement to bypass committee approval.

Not likely to pass, but it will force GOP senators to be on the record about this.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:07 PM on January 8, 2018 [54 favorites]

@IvankaTrump: Just saw @Oprah's empowering & inspiring speech at last night’s #GoldenGlobes. Let’s all come together, women & men, & say #TIMESUP! #United

I...Even for Ivanka Trump, this displays a stunning lack of self-awareness.
posted by zachlipton at 7:14 PM on January 8, 2018 [99 favorites]

I would hope Steve Bannon has a date with the special counsel's office. I would hope they've got copies of all of Wolff's tapes.

I hope there's no 18-minute gap. This time.
posted by petebest at 7:16 PM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

And in other news, Trump left the College Football Championship at halftime so he can fly back to DC, after a considerable amount of effort and expense were expended to secure it so he could attend.
posted by zachlipton at 7:21 PM on January 8, 2018 [10 favorites]

I...Even for Ivanka Trump, this displays a stunning lack of self-awareness.

Considering her family circumstances and history, she has to have developed a world-class ability to compartmentalize and tune out all sorts of cognitive dissonance.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:27 PM on January 8, 2018 [8 favorites]

And in other news, Trump left the College Football Championship at halftime so he can fly back to DC, after a considerable amount of effort and expense were expended to secure it so he could attend.

After demonstrating that he doesn't know the words to the national anthem.

@KaivanShroff
Super obvious Trump doesn’t know the words to our National Anthem. Disgraceful for any president, but particularly bad given his months of race-baiting rants against NFL players kneeling to demand justice.

VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 7:34 PM on January 8, 2018 [48 favorites]

It's possible that he just can't remember the words on this particular day.
posted by Jalliah at 7:37 PM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]

At the ~~Vagina Bowl~~ College Football Championship, Trump is marching with a line of uniformed men to midfield, then decides to break the line turn around to clap. The marching line hesitantly pauses. Near the end there's some confusion over whether they should turn or not.
posted by petebest at 7:41 PM on January 8, 2018

Super obvious Trump doesn’t know the words to our National Anthem

I'm not convinced. I would be totally unsurprised to learn that he didn't know the words, but to me that looks more like he's an old man in a noisy stadium without a monitor trying to figure out where they are in the song. Once he finds his place he mouths his way through to the end.
posted by contraption at 7:44 PM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Lindsey Graham describing Trump's approach to a DACA deal: "He has been very refreshing, like 'I want to get a deal, I have nothing against these kids, I just want to get my wall.'"

It's refreshing when the hostage-taker doesn't have anything against his hostages, you know?

Don't forget he is still 100% all in on jailing and deporting their parents.
posted by srboisvert at 8:00 PM on January 8, 2018 [7 favorites]

Of course Trump is anti-semitic, the idea that it needs to be debated is absurd. He is openly racist and his administration is pursuing policies that hurt non-whites and non-Christians. Debating the levels of his anti-semitism seems insignificant in the face of immigrants being kicked out of the country for being from the wrong place.

Each specific incident may or may not have a racist intent but taken together they form a pattern that gets harder for doubters to credibly deny with each occurrence. Once can be an accident, twice a coincidence; but three times has to be deliberate. We're well past that now.

The origin of that rule is oddly appropriate. Ian Fleming wrote it into his novel Goldfinger, that it was a rule of thumb for British agents living in Moscow.
posted by scalefree at 8:13 PM on January 8, 2018 [15 favorites]

Net neutrality news:
A Senate bill that would reverse the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to repeal net neutrality received its 30th co-sponsor on Monday, ensuring it will receive a vote on the Senate floor.

I didn't realize you could force votes to repeal recent regulations under the CRA like this... I'm really hoping the Dems use the hell out of this technique for every regulatory capture rule Trump's agencies trot out. Worst case the Republicans kill the CRA, which, ohh noo don't throw us into the briar patch (they can use Udall and Booker's existing CRA repeal bill, convenient!).
posted by jason_steakums at 8:42 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

While we're preparing for the 2018 midterms, can we launch a meme into the world that America is a Christian nation governed by the Bible and THEREFORE God demands we have Jubilee years every 50 years, in which all debts are forgiven (regardless of any moral hazard!) and all prisoners freed? And that all true Bible-believing Christians must support the Jubilee? And inject that mind-virus into the Christian right and get them all fired up about it?

Then when the GOP frantically comes to negotiate with the Dems because their base is demanding a Jubilee, we can magnanimously give them better bankruptcy provisions (like being able to discharge student loans), strict limitations on contracts of adhesion, and a functioning CFPB; and enormous criminal justice reform; because the Overton window will have moved to to the corner of Crazy Street and Awesome Boulevard.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:43 PM on January 8, 2018 [93 favorites]

And in other news, Trump left the College Football Championship at halftime so he can fly back to DC, after a considerable amount of effort and expense were expended to secure it so he could attend.

Once he'd fed off the worship of the crowd there was nothing else happening that could benefit him so he had no reason to stay. Plus he had to get home to watch himself on TV, that's always exciting.
posted by scalefree at 8:59 PM on January 8, 2018 [12 favorites]

Oh wow, Elizabeth McNamara, my new personal hero and the attorney for Wolff and his publisher, has sent a scorching and delightfully snide response (via Twitter) to Trump's cease-and-desist lawsuit threat: "My clients do not intend to cease publication, no such retraction will occur, and no apology is warranted." Page 3 is deliciously threatening!
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:02 PM on January 8, 2018 [69 favorites]

James O'Keefe spotted across the street from Twitter HQ, in case you're wondering who he plans to attack next.
posted by zachlipton at 9:38 PM on January 8, 2018 [4 favorites]

Why would he attack them, they're doing their best to keep Trump and the rest of the internet nazis online.
posted by PenDevil at 9:41 PM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, but the narrative among conservatives is that Twitter is unfairly attacking and silencing them, despite the fact that all evidence indicates that it is doing exactly the opposite. Constantly presenting themselves as victims is vital to their narrative, as is attacking those who they claim are victimizing them. They do the same thing with a lot of news organizations; despite the fact that most American news agencies will put a lot of effort into promoting the conservative narrative over reality, conservatives still cry about the media being unfair and attack them ruthlessly and relentlessly.
posted by IAmUnaware at 10:07 PM on January 8, 2018 [14 favorites]

James O'Keefe spotted across the street from Twitter HQ,

Pfft. Wolff ate the next several years of his lunches over the past 6 months.
posted by rhizome at 10:34 PM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]

[Baldwin] won by 6 points in 2012

...which was a presidential election year. Notably, all of Walker's wins have been in off-years (midterm elections) because of how Wisconsin schedules its gubernatorials. And if there's any truism I know as a Democrat it's that we don't show up like we need to in midterms. So there's that caution.

Think they're preemptively trying to take down a future presidential threat?

I doubt it. I love having Tammy as my Senator, but to be perfectly honest she's no firebrand. There's a habit some minority (she's gay and Jewish and a woman as noted) candidates have of positioning themselves much more safely in the acceptable policy window and that's mostly her. (Her successor in the House, Mark Pocan, is pointedly more aggressive -- he's the guy who broke a little comity to come into Ryan's district to hold a mock town hall.) So this is probably much more about taking the midterm slump opportunity to flip the seat; as it happens they have a wallet photo running (who is besting his primary rivals in polls and fundraising).

as somebody who's lived his entire life in the Midwest (three states, at different times), it's no less baffling from the inside

I've had to upend my own views giving primacy to "Wisconsin nice" and celebrating apparently inoffensive "don't see race" framing, and recognizing the deep income and racial inequality here. There was an era when prairie populism was a thing, but it's severely faded, and similarly the manufacturing sector here has lost jobs and simultaneously/not-coinkidenkally union membership. Heck, even a majority of union households apparently had at least one member who voted for Walker (especially the 2nd and 3rd time after labor was clearly a target). So this is more about a reactionary resurgence than anything we ought to be truly surprised at. The two Trumpkins I know personally are more "maybe he'll shake things up" and "abortion bad, Trump conservative regardless of evidence" voters than anything, so basically they aren't able to see the divisive side or it's an aspect they celebrate. If there are any big-time NeverTrumpers around here they are mighty quiet (exception, of course, for Charlie Sykes, who's one of those deeply complicit NTers you just have to shrug your way around).
posted by dhartung at 11:12 PM on January 8, 2018 [12 favorites]

Thanks for that link, FelliniBlank. The letter's full of great stuff, but I think my favourite part is its description of Trump's blustering threats as "the antithesis of an actionable libel claim".
posted by Paul Slade at 12:42 AM on January 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

I am the antithesis of an actionable libel claim
I argue actual malice but my logic is a crying shame
To all the laws of New York I am thoroughly insensible
From Manhattan to Washington, my claims are indefensible
posted by one for the books at 1:09 AM on January 9, 2018 [103 favorites]

My favorite part of the lawyer's letter, linked by FelliniBlank, is on the last page where she reminds him that Discovery is a two-way street.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:38 AM on January 9, 2018 [39 favorites]

I...Even for Ivanka Trump, this displays a stunning lack of self-awareness.

I've got something that will blow that away:

Spicer said: “She doesn’t have the political infrastructure and we’ve seen this before in our history where people who have tried to pop in that are not in politics who have had a difficult time adjusting…”.

posted by Talez at 5:22 AM on January 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

"Senator Graham, do you swear your undying loyalty to President Trump?"

Every journalist should lead interviewing Republicans by demanding they swear loyalty to President Trump.

If one journalist does it... one journalist, they'll think he's crazy. [...] And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in asking Republicans to take a loyalty oath to President Trump, and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

with aplogoies...
posted by mikelieman at 5:24 AM on January 9, 2018 [24 favorites]

Every journalist should lead interviewing Republicans by demanding they swear loyalty to President Trump.

Evan McMullin @Evan_McMullin

Among the most bizarre characteristics of Trump’s tenure are the men once considered to be reasonably free-thinking, who now prostrate themselves before the tiniest of charlatans and insist on lavishing him with obviously false praise.

I disagree with Egg on almost every piece of policy but he's at least got principles.
posted by Talez at 5:40 AM on January 9, 2018 [50 favorites]

I disagree with Egg on almost every piece of policy but he's at least got principles.

That's the root-cause of all this bullshit. Without principles, you cannot earn others' respect.

Without respect, you got nothing, including no ability to negotiate moving forward on policy issues. Compromising on those policy disagreements is how legislation is supposed to work!
posted by mikelieman at 5:52 AM on January 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

I know you meant your most recent comment as a lighthearted what-if, Eyebrows, but the thought of giving any more airtime, however jokey, to the idea "that America is a Christian nation governed by the Bible and THEREFORE God demands" makes me feel sick given the climate of anti-Semitism and other religious discrimination going on right now.
posted by ferret branca at 6:25 AM on January 9, 2018 [20 favorites]

The National Park Service Will Be Run By The Guy Who Helped [Washington Redskins owner] Dan Snyder Cut Down Public Trees To Improve His River View
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:25 AM on January 9, 2018 [20 favorites]

In "The best people"-news: Awkward: Brownback Said He Was Leaving as Kansas Governor. He Hasn’t.

“As I pass from the stage here in Kansas, I leave with a warm thought and good feelings of all the good-hearted people in this wonderful state of Kansas,” said a smiling Mr. Brownback, whose seven years at the helm have been punctuated by a firm turn to the right and a revolt from some in his own party.

Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon who is the lieutenant governor, was widely expected to succeed Mr. Brownback and kick off the 2018 legislative session, and Mr. Colyer even announced a new cabinet appointment.

But on Monday afternoon, as lawmakers began meeting in the State Capitol for the start of the new legislative session, Mr. Brownback was still the governor.

And there is no certainty about when he might actually depart this stage, even after the White House on Monday renominated him for the post. The entire matter has left some Kansans befuddled, some Democratic lawmakers smug, and some Brownback supporters a little sheepish.

posted by mumimor at 6:28 AM on January 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

Notably, all of Walker's wins have been in off-years (midterm elections) because of how Wisconsin schedules its gubernatorials. And if there's any truism I know as a Democrat it's that we don't show up like we need to in midterms. So there's that caution.

Y'all gonna let us Virginians show you up?

Hmm, is that all we need as Americans to get people to care? How do we turn this into a ~~pissing contest~~ competition? Let's gamify Dem turnout!
posted by phearlez at 6:55 AM on January 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

I don't think we need hacked e-mail blackmail; I think it's just that they were only free-thinkers as long as things were easy. Now that things are hard and they have to stand up to their friends (Neville Longbottom style), it turns out they were cowards all along.

No points to Slytherin.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:13 AM on January 9, 2018 [40 favorites]

Yeah, but a lot of the ass-kissing and weirdly abject prostration started *before* he had his finger on the button.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:19 AM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

peeedro:
Translation: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected Rick Perry's proposed Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule that would have acted as a multi-billion dollar subsidy to coal and nuclear operators.
...

We have a history in this country of helping those who, through no fault of their own, have been adversely affected by technological and market change. But that is the responsibility of Congress and the state legislatures. It is not a role that the Federal Power Act provides to the Commission.

Also, Top US coal boss Robert Murray: Trump 'can't bring mining jobs back' -- The founder and chief executive of Murray Energy supports Donald Trump’s move to roll back Obama’s clean power plan but cautions the president to go easy on talk of a jobs revival (Dominic Rushe for The Guardian, March 27, 2017)

Coalmining employed 98,505 people in 2015, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, down from 127,745 in 2008, the year Obama was elected president, and about 250,000 in the 1970s. Trump has consistently pledged to restore mining jobs, but many of those jobs were lost to technology rather than regulation and to competition from natural gas and renewables, which makes it unlikely that he can do much to significantly grow the number of jobs in the industry, said Murray.

“I suggested that he temper his expectations. Those are my exact words,” said Murray. “He can’t bring them back.”

The only thing that Trump is bringing back is increased wealth for industrial polluters thanks to rolling back health and safety regulations, just like Trump's claims that ending the estate tax would help farmers. Again, reality doesn't match his rhetoric:

How about small businesses and farms? The [Tax Policy Center] projected that only about 80 small farms and closely held businesses would pay any estate tax in 2017. That would amount to about 1 percent of all payers of the estate tax that year.

Which is pretty much in line with the rest of his rural farmer-friendly talk that is likely to harm farmers, not help them. Then again, lying about what he does or will do is pretty classic Trump, like taking claim for low unemployment rates for African-Americans and Hispanics, when in reality he should be saying he hasn't hindered the trend that started with Obama in 2010. But that'd be honest and recognizing the good work of others, and he's a narcissistic sociopath, so that'll never happen.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:20 AM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

My favorite part of the lawyer's letter, linked by FelliniBlank, is on the last page where she reminds him that Discovery is a two-way street.

Notably, she predicts that whatever her team discovers will be relevant to their defense.

Truth is an absolute defense against libel.
posted by Gelatin at 7:20 AM on January 9, 2018 [18 favorites]

Or an irascible child who's every fleeting whim must be predicted and served lest he fire a general or tweet the launch codes.

President Anthony Fremont
posted by museum of fire ants at 7:21 AM on January 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

I did a site-search for this and didn't find it: 138 things Trump did this year while you weren't looking -- Behind the crazy headlines, more conservative priorities got pushed through than most people realize. An exhaustive list of what really happened to the government in 2017. (Danny Vinik for Politico, Dec. 29, 2017)

A sobering review of 2017 under Trump, and a handy check-list for things to un-do in the coming years.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:26 AM on January 9, 2018 [27 favorites]

For anybody wondering where Sessions' anti-marijuana sentiment comes from and how it has the support of almost half of republican voters, here's why. Harry Anslinger lives on in the hearts of tens of millions of old white assholes with inordinate political power, some of whom are stupid enough to say it on video.

CBS: Kansas Rep. Steve Alford says blacks abuse drugs because of "character makeup"

At the meeting, Alford referenced a time in the 1930s when marijuana was prohibited. The Garden City Telegram first reported on the statement Monday and posted a video of it to YouTube. "What was the reason they did that?" he asked a crowd of about 60 people, none of whom were black. "One of the reasons why - I hate to say it - is the African-Americans, they were basically users and they responded the worst off to those drugs. It's because of their character makeup - their genetics and that."
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:32 AM on January 9, 2018 [42 favorites]

There are endless reviews of F&F across the world, but this one by Ezra Klein has some good points.
posted by mumimor at 7:55 AM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

I disagree with Egg on almost every piece of policy but he's at least got principles.

The principles Trump violates are "Don't be vulgar, and don't say the quiet parts loud." McMullin was on board for this program when he worked for Romney's presidential campaign, which kept its subservience to Republican tycoons and its vicious hatred of the poor behind closed doors, where, for McMullin, such things belong. All his bombastic pronouncements on Twitter are just a smoke screen for his basic assent to the Republican program of today.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:58 AM on January 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

Speaking of infrastructure (someone said it in here, right?) how about an Infrastructure Week, Take 3 (dates TBD)? [NPR, Jan. 8, 2018]

Here's a look back at the first two attempts at a focus on infrastructure:

June 9, 2017: We Remember Infrastructure Week -- In case you were distracted, here’s what you missed, via Twitter. (Laura Bliss for CityLab)

Aug 18, 2017: Donald Trump's Infrastructure Week builds a case for do-over (Mark Sumner for Daily Kos)

The Infrastructure Council was abandoned in the middle of Infrastructure Week before it was even built. It wasn’t just the bridge to nowhere, it was the half-doodled down blueprints for that bridge. To nowhere. It existed for negative time (someone call Einstein).

That abandonment was probably because everyone was focused on Trump's defense of "both sides" were at fault in Charlottesville, which lead to his Manufacturing Council folding as CEO after CEO resigned, and the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned with a not-so-hidden message.

And for a good round-up of what's been said and promised, by whom and when -- Dec. 8, 2017: Where the Fuck Is Trump's Infrastructure Plan? -- He promised one within 100 days of taking office. It's now day 322. (Mark Hay for Vice)

tl;dr - expect another "plan" with no planning (especially as Trump’s proposed budget would have cut, by some estimates, $55 billion more in funding for infrastructure than the $200 billion boost he’s proposed)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:00 AM on January 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

> Trump will declare victory if he gets 30 feet of actual wall he can pose in front of

That will be happening soon, according to the the WaPo: "The president is also expected to travel later this month to look at prototypes of possible border walls, creating a visual that his base will love but will further galvanize Latinos."

To paraphrase the Gipper, "Mr. Peña Nieto, pay for this wall!"
posted by peeedro at 8:00 AM on January 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

The principles Trump violates are "Don't be vulgar, and don't say the quiet parts loud." McMullin was on board for this program when he worked for Romney's presidential campaign, which kept its subservience to Republican tycoons and its vicious hatred of the poor behind closed doors

I think "vulgarity" and "loudness" are signs of a more general disinhibition. Maybe McMullin wants the same terrible things as the current Republicans. But I think his principles really would inhibit him from taking the same terrible measures to get them.

I want money. So do criminals. The difference is that I'm not willing to knock over a liquor store to get it.

I don't think McMullin would do the same kinds of things that Nunes, McConnell, Grassley, etc are doing right now to cover for Trump.
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:02 AM on January 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

One Way to Fight HUD's Heel-Dragging on Fair Housing -- As civil rights groups line up in opposition to a new HUD rule, a legal strategy emerges. (Kriston Capps for CityLab, Jan 8, 2018)

Advocates have argued that Carson has effectively suspended the government’s obligation by delaying the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule set in place in 2015. This isn’t the first time that Carson has tried to postpone an Obama-era housing rule: A similar maneuver was struck down in federal court in December. Housing advocates are now hoping HUD’s move on the AFFH final rule will meet a similar fate.

posted by filthy light thief at 8:05 AM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Clio Chang in Splinter News: The GOP Wants to Curse Us with Senator J.D. Vance

Vance’s 2016 memoir about growing up in Appalachia launched him to fame. It was a New York Times bestseller, was placed on many a college syllabus, and was praised across the board as the key text for understanding the Trump voter. Hollywood is even making Hillbilly Elegy: The Movie, billed as a “contemporary economic drama.”

But as many have pointed out, the book is not much more than a recycling of welfare-bashing tropes. The only difference is that it targets the white working-class of Appalachia instead of people of color. It is bootstrap mythology at its finest. “Public policy can help,” Vance writes, “but there is no government that can fix these problems for us … it starts when we stop blaming Obama or Bush or faceless companies and ask ourselves what we can do to make things better.”

That Vance is the favored candidate of conservatives like McConnell is no surprise. (He also met with Stephen Bannon when the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation was looking for its new president.) But Republicans aren’t the only ones to blame. The fact that Senator J.D. Vance is even a thing being contemplated is a reality created by all those who praised his bad book in the first place.

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:06 AM on January 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

I don't think McMullin would do the same kinds of things that Nunes, McConnell, Grassley, etc are doing right now to cover for Trump.

He would. So will Mitt Romney. So does Jeff Flake. So does Bob Corker. Egg is not in elected office, if he was, he'd be giving the same type of quotes about not seeing Trump's tweets and quietly sabotaging the Russia investigation behind the scenes, just like the alleged NeverTrumpers we have in office now. Or sitting on his hands watching while Richard Burr and Devin Nunes do the dirty work.

Because he's a Republican. That's what elected Republicans do in the Trump era.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:15 AM on January 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

My favorite part of the lawyer's letter, linked by FelliniBlank, is on the last page where she reminds him that Discovery is a two-way street.

Can I quote the Slate article about what they said? Please? Pretty please?

After picking apart Trump’s actions meticulously and bitingly over roughly two pages, the closing paragraph really brings it all home:
While my clients do not adopt or subscribe to your description of their legal obligations, Henry Holt and Mr. Wolff will comply with any and all document preservation obligations that the law imposes upon them. At the same time, we must remind you that President Trump, in his personal and governmental capacity, must comply with the same legal obligations regarding himself, his family members, their businesses, the Trump campaign, and his administration, and must ensure all appropriate measures to preserve such documents are in place. This would include any and all documents pertaining to any of the matters about which the book reports. Should you pursue litigation against Henry Holt or Mr. Wolff, we are quite confident that documents related to the contents of the book in the possession of President Trump, his family members, his businesses, his campaign, and his administration will prove particularly relevant to our defense.
And in a letter to all Macmillan employees, CEO John Sargent explained why the company chose to respond to Trump’s lawyer’s demand that Macmillan cease publication of the book with open defiance by moving up the publication date:
Our response is firm, as it has to be. I am writing you today to explain why this is a matter of great importance. It is about much more than Fire and Fury.

The president is free to call news “fake” and to blast the media. That goes against convention, but it is not unconstitutional. But a demand to cease and desist publication—a clear effort by the President of the United States to intimidate a publisher into halting publication of an important book on the workings of the government—is an attempt to achieve what is called prior restraint. That is something that no American court would order as it is flagrantly unconstitutional.

posted by Melismata at 8:20 AM on January 9, 2018 [77 favorites]

> "One of the reasons why - I hate to say it - is the African-Americans, they were basically users and they responded the worst off to those drugs. It's because of their character makeup - their genetics and that."

Any time a Republican tells you that they "hate" to say something, it's a tell that they couldn't be any goddamn happier to be saying it out loud.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:22 AM on January 9, 2018 [54 favorites]

So apparently Joe Arpaio is running for Jeff Flake's old senate seat and Vann Newkirk (@fivefiths) has the subtweet of the day:

"fighting Trumpism by letting Joe Arpaio take your seat is certainly a bold strategy"
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:35 AM on January 9, 2018 [37 favorites]

6 Times Trump Derailed His Own Infrastructure Plan

Promising a Plan in His First 100 Days, Then Failing to Produce One
Scheduling “Infrastructure Week” Opposite Comey’s Testimony
Defending White Supremacists During Another Infrastructure Pitch
Disbanding His Infrastructure Council Before It Started
Privately Telling Democrats That He Doesn’t Like Public-Private Partnerships
Privately Telling Republicans That He Doesn’t Like Public-Private Partnerships

posted by kirkaracha at 8:38 AM on January 9, 2018 [18 favorites]

I can't imagine that Arpaio could possibly win, right? He's Roy Moore levels of toxic, in a state that is much more politically balanced than Alabama. He'd be a turnout machine for Democrats, in a state that Democrats would have a good chance of winning even if the Republicans didn't run a human shitstorm.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:39 AM on January 9, 2018 [18 favorites]

> Among the most bizarre characteristics of Trump’s tenure are the men once considered to be reasonably free-thinking, who now prostrate themselves before the tiniest of charlatans and insist on lavishing him with obviously false praise.

This makes a lot more sense if you believe that it might have something to do with the Russian hack of the RNC emails. Either that or Trump is the Hypno-Toad.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:57 AM on January 9 [8 favorites +] [!]

As an explanation for why Trump is being enabled by the entire GOP establishment, I've concluded that the whole stinking lot of them are implicated in the collusion. I think the GOP leadership actively participated in the arming of the Russian trollbots by sharing election information and perhaps funds. They know the Russians have the proof and they are scared shitless that the information will be released if they don't hew to the storyline. The fact that the pee tape has not surfaced signals to them that the Russians really do have control of the rest of the information and can orchestrate its release at any time.
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:42 AM on January 9, 2018 [16 favorites]

CNN is reporting that Arpaio announced he is seeking the nomination in an interview with the Washington Examiner. I have to believe he won't make it out of the primary, especially if the republicans have learned anything from Moore.

It'll be interesting to see what this means for the Bannon/Mercer candidate, Kelli Ward.
posted by papercrane at 8:46 AM on January 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

I can't imagine that Arpaio could possibly win, right?

Maybe not likely, but completely possible. Plausible, even. Moore notwithstanding, I will never again consider a (GOP) candidate too vile to win.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:48 AM on January 9, 2018 [31 favorites]

As an explanation for why Trump is being enabled by the entire GOP establishment, I've concluded that the whole stinking lot of them are implicated in the collusion. I think the GOP leadership actively participated in the arming of the Russian trollbots by sharing election information and perhaps funds. They know the Russians have the proof and they are scared shitless that the information will be released if they don't hew to the storyline. The fact that the pee tape has not surfaced signals to them that the Russians really do have control of the rest of the information and can orchestrate its release at any time.

If this is true, which it might well be, Mueller's job is nigh impossible unless there is an unprecedented landslide in November. So I guess you guys need to GOTV.
posted by mumimor at 8:49 AM on January 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

Does the Republican establishment, whatever that means at this point, even have that degree of control over the party any more? The inmates are running their asylum, and people like Trump, Moore and Arpaio are who they want.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:50 AM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Step 1: Arpaio announces senate run
Step 2: Trump endorses Arpaio calling him "Greater than General Patton"
Step 3: Arpaio comes in third in the R primary, narrowly beating the fourth place candidate, some dude's horse
Step 4: Trump says he never endorsed Arpaio, pardoned him because he "felt sorry for the guy"
posted by gwint at 8:51 AM on January 9, 2018 [25 favorites]

It's possible that the GOP's primary-voting base will suddenly get a clue and not vote for Arpaio, but that would be the first evidence that they're turning away from Trumpism, rather than the continuation of any trend. So I'll believe it when I see it.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:56 AM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Is Arpaio running for Senate, or is he running for campaign donations? He's never quit raising money.
posted by azpenguin at 9:04 AM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

I can't imagine that Arpaio could possibly win, right?

Again, it doesn't matter - the Republican nomination for anything goes to the person that appeals to the Republican primary voter, no matter what that person might do in the general.
And we know what kind of candidate those voters choose.
posted by eclectist at 9:05 AM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Im FAR from an expert on AZ politics, but in his last election bid racist ol' joe lost 44/56 where trump won 49/46 (Maricopa county), but he did pull 65% in the primary.

It seems pretty possible his 85 year old ass would mount a decent effort in a primary - id have to think that with national attention/money/engagement coming off the nail biter in Alabama it would all but guarantee he never served in the senate.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 9:06 AM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

In the upcoming Roseanne revival, Roseanne Conner will be a Trump supporter. Bit of a change from the character as originally portrayed.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:13 AM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Roseanne knows her audience.
posted by notyou at 9:16 AM on January 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

The Conner family will be "politically divided", which translates into me definitely not watching because who needs to watch a weekly half hour sitcom of America's Racist Aunt fighting with her kids about politics?
posted by palomar at 9:22 AM on January 9, 2018 [77 favorites]

Roseanne has been insane for years and believes that chemtrails have made her macadamia nuts bigger. She's one of the 25%+ of Trump supporters who glommed on due solely to an affinity for conspiracy theories, as her general opinions aren't really conservative. Her type accounts for a lot of the success of historical conspiracy-based fascist movements.

I'll probably watch her new show for the same unhealthy horror-spectacle reasons that I keep up with Infowars.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:30 AM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

In a speech to correctional officers yesterday, Rod Rosenstein waded into the discussion of why the crime rate has risen over the past several years in Baltimore with an incredibly brazen lie:

In Baltimore, where I worked for over a decade, local, state and federal authorities joined together to dismantle violent gangs and send armed criminals to prison for lengthy terms. As a result, the murder rate dropped to a record low in 2011, and stayed relatively low until 2014. But in 2015, local authorities decided to try a new strategy. They decided to cut back on policing and prosecution.

What actually happened was that the police force conducted a work slowdown during the six weeks after charges against the officers involved in Freddie Gray's arrest. The arrest rate in the city's most violent neighborhoods dropped by about 90%. During those six weeks, sixty people were murdered because it was clear that laws were barely being enforced. To portray an unofficial work slowdown by the cops as a decision by city leaders is to completely rewrite history. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that our city leaders are black Democrats.
posted by vathek at 9:30 AM on January 9, 2018 [107 favorites]

Roseanne set her Twitter followers on me and then blocked me, way back in 2016. Honestly, one of the high points of the year for me.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:45 AM on January 9, 2018 [37 favorites]

@ByronTau: NEWS: Dianne Feinstein unilaterally releases Fusion GPS co-founder's full testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Documents here (PDF).
posted by zombieflanders at 10:17 AM on January 9, 2018 [110 favorites]

Dianne Feinstein unilaterally releases Fusion GPS co-founder's full testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

More of this, please.

The Republicans aren't likely to cease their shenanigans unless said shenanigans comprise a real risk of political harm. Make it obvious that Congressional Republicans are helping to cover up Trump's treason, and it'll be harder for them to do it. (They still will, of course, but they'll rightly fear exposure when they do.)
posted by Gelatin at 10:21 AM on January 9, 2018 [26 favorites]

Elizabeth Warren: States have the right to enforce their own marijuana policies – and I’m working on legislation to make sure it stays that way. Stay tuned.
posted by yoga at 10:27 AM on January 9, 2018 [35 favorites]

Im only 17 pages into the testimony transcript but WHO THE FUCK OWNS LLC's BUT ISNT SURE WHAT THEIR NAMES ARE???
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:27 AM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

WHO THE FUCK OWNS LLC's BUT ISNT SURE WHAT THEIR NAMES ARE???

The President, for one.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:35 AM on January 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

Somebody's gonna say Feinstein did this for her own political advancement, to ward off a primary challenge, blah blah blah... and that may be legit. God knows I've been frustrated with her (to put it mildly).

It's also the right thing to do. And honestly, the best way to ward off challenges is to be brave and do the right thing more often, so if it compels her to do the right thing I'm fine with that. This is how it's supposed to work. I hope to see more.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:43 AM on January 9, 2018 [48 favorites]

DiFi deserves props for doing this, regardless of her motivation. This is what should be expected from, and is needed from, senior senators from deep blue states.

It makes it extra sweet that she did it at the very moment she was sitting across from the president and got him into this exchange just now at the immigration meeting with legislators:

Feinstein: "what about a lean DACA bill now, with a commitment that we go into a comprehensive immigration reform procedure?"

Trump: "I would like it . . . I think a lot of people would like to see that."

[he was walked back seconds later by the republicans around the table and there was some more word salad - its obvious he lacks the capacity for detail required to make any actual sense of any of his comments in these types of scenarios, but still.]
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:48 AM on January 9, 2018 [28 favorites]

Steven Pinker: Alt-right ideologues are highly literate & intelligent people who join the movement because alt-right offers "true statements that have never been voiced in college campuses, NY Times or respectable media."

Yeah, like "actually, it's about ethics in game journalism."
posted by Gelatin at 10:49 AM on January 9, 2018 [33 favorites]

BREAKING: 200,000 Salvadorans will be forced to leave the U.S. or face deportation as Trump administration ends immigration protection (WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 9:54 AM on January 8

I'm frustrated there isn't more about this in the news, although I know well enough the news is a grind on the best of days. This, along with the end of TPS for refugees from Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. Because the timeline is so long I'm sure it doesn't feel "real" yet (and maybe that's calculated") but I'm frustrated and angry that we're not seeing more headlines about this.

This is a big deal.
posted by anastasiav at 10:54 AM on January 9, 2018 [46 favorites]

Steven fucking Pinker thinks the alt-right are just reacting to hearing the truth, or something. Steve, what the fuck?

@S_Saeen: Steven Pinker: Alt-right ideologues are highly literate & intelligent people who join the movement because alt-right offers "true statements that have never been voiced in college campuses, NY Times or respectable media."

Well, you know, when it's the most peaceful time in history, and all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds, you have to hear everyone out. Not Black Lives Matter or whoever, of course, but Resurgent_Saxon_88's ideas need a full and fair evaluation.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:54 AM on January 9, 2018 [19 favorites]

@ryanstruyk: TRUMP, word for word: "I think a clean DACA bill, to me, is a DACA bill, but we take care of the 800,000 people ... but I think, to me, a clean bill is a bill of DACA, we take care of them, and we also take care of security."

What the what now?
posted by zachlipton at 10:55 AM on January 9, 2018 [63 favorites]

Steven Pinker: Alt-right ideologues are highly literate & intelligent people who join the movement because alt-right offers "true statements that have never been voiced in college campuses, NY Times or respectable media."

Those statements only feel true if you are a Nazi, however.
posted by lydhre at 10:55 AM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

What the what now?

He's decided that Building The Wall is an indelible part of DACA, so he can say a demand for DACA+Wall is actually "clean DACA."
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:04 AM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Here's the meat from the Fusion GPS transcript, Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump’s network

Steele first reached out to the FBI with his concerns in early July, according to people familiar with the matter. When they re-interviewed him in early October, agents made it clear, according to Simpson’s testimony released Tuesday, that they believed some of what Steele had told them.

“My understanding was that they believed Chris at this point — that they believed Chris might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the Trump organization,” Simpson said. Using the parlance of spies and law enforcement officials, Simpson said the FBI had a “walk-in’’ whistleblower from someone in Trump’s organization.

Simpson and Fritsch's op-ed hinted at this, but Natasha Bertrand reported it was a reference to Papadopoulos. However, the transcript indicates this was "a human source from inside the Trump organization," not one of Steele's sources, who was a "a voluntary source, someone who was concerned about the same concerns we had," "someone like us who decided to pick up the phone and report something."

This would undercut pretty much all of the GOP's screaming about the FBI's investigation.
posted by zachlipton at 11:04 AM on January 9, 2018 [65 favorites]

Throwing cold water on all of that though. @KenDilanianNBC: A source close to Fusion GPS tells me there was no walk-in source -- that was a mischaracterization by Simpson of the Australian diplomat tip about Papadopoulis.
posted by zachlipton at 11:06 AM on January 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

Trump doesn't know what a 'clean bill' is

It's sort of like clean coal, and email bleaching. Just give it a good scrub.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 11:08 AM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

VA gov elect Northam had a press conference this morning, announcing administration priorities, which sound pretty good:

Democratic Gov.-elect Ralph Northam said Tuesday that expanding Medicaid in Virginia and implementing universal background checks for gun buyers will be two of his top legislative priorities after he takes office this weekend.

Also mentioned: extended in-person absentee voting; carbon cap and trade expansion, ethics reforms, raising the minimum dollar amount that makes a crime a felony, abortion protection.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:08 AM on January 9, 2018 [39 favorites]

@Tom Rogan cites Simpson testimony transcript (emphasis mine):

Mr. Levy: It's a voluntary interview, and in addition to that he wants to be very careful to protect his sources. Somebody's already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:08 AM on January 9, 2018 [26 favorites]

Kansas Rep. Steve Alford says blacks abuse drugs because of "character makeup"

Awkward facts from 2015

Opioids are killing ten times as many whites as blacks.

In Kansas 134 out of 150 opioid deaths were whites.
posted by srboisvert at 11:10 AM on January 9, 2018 [34 favorites]

dhartung: "And if there's any truism I know as a Democrat it's that we don't show up like we need to in midterms. So there's that caution."

Interestingly, article in 538 today about that. Most - though not all - of the GOP advantage in midterms looks to be from being the out party, not from just being the GOP in the midterms.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:11 AM on January 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

The government is now targeting naturalized citizens.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims to have identified nearly 150,000 older fingerprint records “of aliens with final deportation orders or who are criminals or fugitives” that have not been digitized. The FBI repository is missing records because “not all records taken during immigration encounters were forwarded to the FBI,” DHS reported. The DOJ is investigating 315,000 cases in which people were granted citizenship without the proper fingerprint data available, and USCIS intends “to refer approximately an additional 1,600 for prosecution,” the DOJ reported.

The DOJ is asserting, according to its Tuesday statement, that cases in which proper fingerprint data is missing may suggest that those affected by USCIS’ oversight “sought to circumvent criminal record and other background checks in the naturalization process.

posted by orangutan at 11:13 AM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

Before we move on from the Arpaio running for Senate thing, I really feel the need to share this link again. I won't pull quote it since the worst quotes from this are vomit inducing and since it was shared here last August already, when Arpaio was pardoned. But if you didn't read this then, you definitely should read it now.

Nathan J. Robinson in Current Affairs: Wait, Do People Know How Evil this Man Is?
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:17 AM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

Steven Pinker: Alt-right ideologues are highly literate & intelligent people who join the movement because alt-right offers "true statements that have never been voiced in college campuses, NY Times or respectable media."

Anybody have the full source for this? This feels like it might have been edited for outrage inducing purposes. I'd like to be sure before I develop an opinion on this.
posted by srboisvert at 11:17 AM on January 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

BREAKING: 200,000 Salvadorans will be forced to leave the U.S. or face deportation as Trump administration ends immigration protection (WaPo)
posted by Barack Spinoza at 9:54 AM on January 8

I'm frustrated there isn't more about this in the news,...I'm frustrated and angry that we're not seeing more headlines about this.

This is a big deal.
posted by anastasiav at 10:54 AM on January 9 [18 favorites +] [!]

Headline on the top of the front page of today's Star Tribune. I agree this is a big deal, and the serious news media are treating it as such. Unfortunately, the GOP and its merry band of haters don't give a rip.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:23 AM on January 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

It's worth watching this clip of Trump "negotiating" on immigration with Sen. Feinstein (she's having quite the day!). Trump agrees with Feinstein on a clean DACA bill now, then has to be told by Kevin McCarthy that's not what the Republicans believe in. Trump tries to retcon his position, then says they should also have a merit-based immigration system and end the visa lottery too, if they can.

The existence of this clip, that the pool was given this access, is a bit weird to me, almost as if someone at the White House was trying to demonstrate he's capable of doing the job by participating in this meeting.
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 AM on January 9, 2018 [35 favorites]

The thing about Arpaio is that he's not particularly popular at this point - he did 16 points worse than Trump. So you had a lot of voters who were willing to vote for *Trump* but not Arpaio. And Arpaio's home county of Maricopa is over 60% of the population of the state.

The other issue is that you already have a wingnut running for the nomination in Kelli Ward. To me, the most likely scenario is that Ward and Arpaio neutralize each other, and Martha McSally wins with a plurality.

The scenario I see Arpaio winning the GOP nomination in is if the McCain seat becomes available, and McSally is appointed to it. I don't see Arpaio winning the general under any circumstances, especially in the current environment.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:29 AM on January 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

Daily Beast: Secret Pro-Life Meeting With Mike Pence Killed Obamacare Fix—For Now -- Pro-life groups held a behind-closed-doors meeting with VP Mike Pence shortly before the bipartisan compromise deal to patch up Obamacare went down in flames.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:30 AM on January 9, 2018 [12 favorites]

On Pinker: I think this is the full video the excerpt is from (beginning around the 37:30 minute mark).
posted by AwkwardPause at 11:32 AM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

The existence of this clip, that the pool was given this access, is a bit weird to me, almost as if someone at the White House was trying to demonstrate he's capable of doing the job by participating in this meeting.

Exactly like that. Per Jake Tapper's twitter, the RNC is already sending "look at what a strong leader Trump is, obviously Wolff's book is bullshit" emails.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:34 AM on January 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

Podcast Review:

If you haven't been listening to Slate's Slow Burn you are really missing some amazing podcasting. The topic is Watergate but not the stories you are familiar with but the lesser-known side stories. Last week's episode (True Believers) was about the people--both politicians and general population-- who clung to their faith in Nixon long after it was clear that he had done something illegal. This week (Rabbit Holes) is about how fringe conspiracy beliefs went mainstream once the American public woke up to fact that their government had been in a real conspiracy to hide the truth from them.

Choice/Less is about the slow erosion of women's reproductive choices in America. The double episode (Marching Toward Gilead: The Rise of the American Theocracy) that aired in December is both outstanding and especially chilling. It's about the origins and the growing strength of Operation Save America, a group that began as an anti-choice group and which has added anti-homosexual and anti-Islam stances into their agenda. Their legislation has been adopted both at the state and federal level. Roy Moore was their candidate.

If you are a little shaky on all the details of the Russian Investigation (or even --if like me-- you thought you knew it all but it turns out you didn't) then today's episode of the Ezra Klein Show (The most clarifying conversation I’ve had on Trump and Russia) is a great listen. He interviews Susan Hennessey about details, ramifications, best & worst scenarios.

Finally, about those Salvadorans. Today's episode of The Daily goes into details about how the Salvadorans ended up here and why El Salvador is such a dangerous place. Hint: it has a LOT to to do with US policy.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:35 AM on January 9, 2018 [72 favorites]

Headline on the top of the front page of today's Star Tribune. I agree this is a big deal, and the serious news media are treating it as such. Unfortunately, the GOP and its merry band of haters don't give a rip.

Maybe its just what is locally available to me. Here is my local paper today (whales!) and yesterday.

Boston Globe today and yesterday.
posted by anastasiav at 11:36 AM on January 9, 2018

Here's the meat from the Fusion GPS transcript, Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump’s network

Bertrand's finding even more shocking revelations in the full transcript:

Simpson, re: that NYT article published on Oct 31 that said the FBI had found no clear Trump-Russia links: "it was a real Halloween special."

Steele severed his ties to the FBI at that point.
"There was a concern that the FBI was being manipulated...by the Trump people."

Here's the full exchange:

Q. [Heather Sawyer, Chief Oversight Counsel, Senator Feinstein] Now, with regard to -- just to finish up on the interactions with FBI, do you know were there any additional interactions between Mr. Steele and the FBI?

A. [Simpson] There was some sort of interaction, I think it was probably telephonic that occurred after Director Comey sent his letter to Congress reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mails. That episode, you know, obviously created some concern that the FBI was intervening in a political campaign in contravention of long-standing Justice Department regulation.

So it made a lot of people, including us, concerned about what the heck was going on at the FBI. So, you know, we began getting questions from the press about, you know, whether they were also investigating Trump and, you know, we encouraged them to ask the FBI that question. You know, I think -- I'm not sure we've covered this fully, but, you know, we just encouraged them to ask the FBI that question.

On October 31st the New York Times posed a story saying that the FBI is investigating Trump and found no connections to Russia and, you know, it was a real Halloween special.

Sometime thereafter the FBI -- I understand Chris severed his relationship with the FBI out of concern that he didn't know what was happening inside the FBI and there was a concern that the FBI was being manipulated for political ends by the Trump people and that we didn't really understand what was going on. So he stopped dealing with them.

Here's another bombshell:

MR. FOSTER [Jason Foster, Chief Investigative Counsel]: So without getting into naming the sources or anything like that, what steps did you take to try to verify their credibility?
MR. SIMPSON: I'm going to decline to answer that.
MR. FOSTER: Why?
MR. LEVY [Joshua Levy, Simpson's counsel]: It's a voluntary interview, and in addition to that he wants to be very careful to protect his sources. Somebody's already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work.

Emphasis added because despite Steele's denails, my money's on Oleg Erovinkin, former KGB and FSB general and chief of staff at Rosneft, who was discovered dead in the back of his car in Moscow in December 2016 and whose cause of death was never officially confirmed.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:40 AM on January 9, 2018 [70 favorites]

The headlines on the DACA thing are pretty misleading, they basically all frame it as "Trump wants wall for DACA" but he _also_ wants to end the Diversity Visa and to limit family-based immigration, which are much bigger changes than the wall, really (which is a huge symbol, but other than wasting some money wont accomplish much either way).

All to fix a "problem" he created himself by ending DACA. So, not a serious proposal (at least I hope Dems dont take it seriously).
posted by thefoxgod at 11:54 AM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

If you haven't been listening to Slate's Slow Burn you are really missing some amazing podcasting.

Just adding a plug to this. I've been listening as well and thought about suggesting it here. It's a whole side of Watergate I hadn't heard or thought much about. The relevance of it all to today is quite striking.
posted by dnash at 12:00 PM on January 9, 2018 [10 favorites]

On Pinker: I think this is the full video the excerpt is from (beginning around the 37:30 minute mark).

I disagree with a lot of what he says, but he was badly misrepresented by that short clip.
posted by Coventry at 12:22 PM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

and to limit family-based immigration

Ending "chain migration" isn't good faith negotiating, it's a complete white supremacist remake of the immigration system existing since 1965. This is the Sessions/Bannon/Steven Miller end game plan, and Democrats cannot agree to a word of it.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:25 PM on January 9, 2018 [78 favorites]

On Pinker: I think this is the full video yt the excerpt is from (beginning around the 37:30 minute mark).

Thanks. And yes it appears to be selective quoting for maximum outrage. He is sort of explaining how alt-right people think and are created from their own perspectives while awkwardly doing a kind of equivalence argument for alt-right behaviour and lefty campus politics things - both sides are loony sort of thing.

It's isn't woke but he isn't sieg heiling like it appears.
posted by srboisvert at 12:32 PM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

I love dunking on Stephen Pinker as much as anyone but could we move it to another thread (if it even deserves its own thread)?
posted by Tevin at 12:35 PM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Bangor Daily News, Susan Collins, Angus King back bill to reverse FCC vote against net neutrality

Maine Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins said Tuesday they’ll support new legislation to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s vote last month to scuttle Obama-era net neutrality standards.

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, announced this week that he has enough support to force a Senate vote to invalidate the FCC’s controversial Dec. 14 decision to deregulate internet service providers. King and Collins, who opposed abolishing net neutrality, both said Tuesday that they support it.

Wow. This could actually, maybe, happen, and right now is a great time to call your Senators and ask them to support the resolution.
posted by zachlipton at 12:37 PM on January 9, 2018 [85 favorites]

Ending "chain migration" isn't good faith negotiating, it's a complete white supremacist remake of the immigration system existing since 1965. This is the Sessions/Bannon/Steven Miller end game plan, and Democrats cannot agree to a word of it.

It's also actual Nazi propaganda.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:40 PM on January 9, 2018 [65 favorites]

I really don't understand how ending "chain migration" fits in with the stated goal of preventing terrorism anyway. Shouldn't we prefer immigrants with families over those who are isolated from their support networks and thus more easily radicalized? Why is there never any push-back on this?
posted by SpaceBass at 12:46 PM on January 9, 2018 [66 favorites]

This week (Rabbit Holes) is about how fringe conspiracy beliefs went mainstream once the American public woke up to fact that their government had been in a real conspiracy to hide the truth from them.

Which is where I think a lot of Trumps alt-right media preferences come from. The reason they have a "fake news" is because corporate news, as we've seen this week from titans such as Chuck Fucking Todd, don't have much interest in exploring how messed up something is (or, the "real story"). For example, what's the black budget for this year in terms of dollars? What about the $43 Billion for Lockheed this year? That's a lot of billions-with-a-B.

How much is CHIP again?
posted by petebest at 12:47 PM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Court Ends Consent Decree Against RNC “Ballot Security” Activities, Raising New Risks of Voter Suppression
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:54 PM on January 9, 2018 [18 favorites]

@jwpetersNYT: BREAKING: BANNON STEPPING DOWN FROM BREITBART NEWS. Story to follow.
posted by zachlipton at 1:03 PM on January 9, 2018 [27 favorites]

I guess when you're being shoved out the door you take a step or you tip over.
posted by phearlez at 1:05 PM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

What, Bannon gone from Breitbart? How can this be? Wasn't he supposed to be the great manipulator?
posted by Omon Ra at 1:25 PM on January 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

Important point: Everything from Fusion GPS (good summary of big points on Reddit here) that Feinstein released the Republicans (including Chuck Grassley) have known about this whole time, and still they tried to undermine and undercut the investigation. The whole hoopla over referring Steele to DoJ by Grassley and Graham was likely a dodge to avoid releasing these transcripts (Grassley wouldn't release because they were "under investigation" that he himself created).

Treasonous scum, the lot of them.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:28 PM on January 9, 2018 [87 favorites]

Court Ends Consent Decree Against RNC “Ballot Security” Activities, Raising New Risks of Voter Suppression

JFC I can see the CNN interview now. “Jake it’s not an act of voter caging, we’re bringing economic stimulus to the area through the United States Postal Service”

I can’t wait for the white polo shirts showing up in inner city districts challenging everyone that shows up in a claim of ballot integrity while the cops are busy parading about out of uniform with service weapons and armbands scaring everyone with claims that falsifying a ballot is a SERIOUS FEDERAL CRIME.
posted by Talez at 1:28 PM on January 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

Matthew Yglesias, Vox: Donald Trump’s phony war with the press, explained

A genuine — but mutually beneficial — antagonism.

posted by ZeusHumms at 1:28 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

. for Breitbart.
posted by Dashy at 1:28 PM on January 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

What, Bannon gone from Breitbart? How can this be? Wasn't he the great manipulator?

Turns out greedy billionaires don’t like it when you lose slam dunk Senate seats by going all-in on a “but god is ok with it” pedophile. Even they seem to have limits.
posted by Talez at 1:30 PM on January 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

then has to be told by Kevin McCarthy that's not what the Republicans believe in

McCarthy also takes a shot at "Senator Clinton." Hillary Clinton left the Senate in 2009.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:31 PM on January 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

* for Breitbart
in the Vonnegut sense
posted by pxe2000 at 1:32 PM on January 9, 2018 [27 favorites]

Even they seem to have limits.

Seems like their limits were "don't insult a Republican president", they were fine with Moore.

Bold prediction, he's going to join Canada's The Rebel, the've already started a racist UK division, why not a US one?
posted by papercrane at 1:34 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Does this mean Bannon has to stop living in the Breitbart office now?
posted by zachlipton at 1:35 PM on January 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

Turns out greedy billionaires don’t like it when you lose slam dunk Senate seats by going all-in on a “but god is ok with it” pedophile. Even they seem to have limits.

Pretty sure the Mercers et al. were fine with that, comparatively. It was dissing The Great Trump to Wolff that was the last straw.
posted by FelliniBlank at 1:35 PM on January 9, 2018 [11 favorites]

then has to be told by Kevin McCarthy that's not what the Republicans believe in.

Feinstein: "Duck Season!"
Trump: "Rabbit Season!"
Feinstein: "Rabbit Season!"
Trump: "Duck Season!"
posted by leotrotsky at 1:36 PM on January 9, 2018 [68 favorites]

McCarthy also takes a shot at "Senator Clinton." Hillary Clinton left the Senate in 2009.

I believe thats actually correct protocol.
posted by thefoxgod at 1:37 PM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

I swear to god if there’s any hint of the white polo shirt brigade stirring shit in the mid terms I’m going to take my wife and some friends and head to Mesa in 2020. I’m going to have us pick the reddest precincts and we’ll each take one and stand at the desk with a rainbow wig challenging every white person that walks through the door. We will flip Arizona single handedly.
posted by Talez at 1:39 PM on January 9, 2018 [35 favorites]

Mr. Bannon’s departure, which was forced by a onetime financial patron, Rebekah Mercer, comes as Mr. Bannon remained unable to quell the furor over remarks attributed to him in a new book in which he questions President Trump’s mental fitness and disparages his elder son, Donald Trump Jr.

The best and most loyal people!

If it weren't for the fact that the overgrown toddler in the White House has access to nuclear weapons, Rebekah Mercer would scare me even more than him, TBH. She, and her father Robert, are these wanna-be Richelieus, who haven't succeded to their ideal of power behind the fascist throne because their picks have been duds. If Rebekah can choose and fund a more smooth, smiling, covert fascist type, she might be more successful, and that is frightening.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:41 PM on January 9, 2018 [14 favorites]

Because he's a Republican. That's what elected Republicans do in the Trump era.

Regular old conservatives like Egg and Jennifer Rubin Are now the "moderate" voices in our political discourse. After Trump is gone, we'll have to drag the Overton window waaaaay back.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:50 PM on January 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

US to loosen nuclear weapons constraints and develop more 'usable' warheads.
posted by adamvasco at 2:03 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

I really hope Bannon joins The Rebel, it would be delicious to see the Conservatives limp away with two ridings again.
posted by Yowser at 2:03 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Folks, things have been pretty chatty in here today, gonna ask that we recalibrate back toward a less-chatty standard; if you mainly want to say "ugh these fuckers", consider that sentiment already stated; and if things are quiet in here for a while, that's ok.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:11 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

There's no such thing as a "usable" nuclear weapon. Imagine how the US would react if Russia or China fired a "low yield" nuclear weapon at US forces in Afghanistan or the South China Sea. Now why would Russia or China react any differently if we fired first? That's fucking absurd, the entire reason that tactical nukes have never been used is the overwhelming risk of runaway escalating response.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:14 PM on January 9, 2018 [25 favorites]

Wolfsthal said that earlier drafts of the NPR was even more hawkish. The final draft drops proposals to develop a nuclear hyper-glide weapon, and to remove assurances to non nuclear weapons states that the US will not use its nuclear arsenal against them.

Holy shit. That this was even considered should fucking terrify any not-white country.
posted by Talez at 2:18 PM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

From The Atlantic's coverage of the DACA meeting:

Yet over nearly an hour, and with television cameras running, Trump took nearly every conceivable position in the debate: He backed a “clean” bill to extend DACA, protect the so-called “Dreamers,” and bolster border security, absent the more controversial immigration measures conservatives want; then, he said he’d “take the heat” for a more comprehensive immigration overhaul along the lines of what Trump had denounced as a candidate in 2016; later, he demanded that Congress fund the southern border wall as part of the initial DACA deal, reinserting the wrench that has held up the immigration talks for weeks.

Finally, Trump said he’d sign whatever immigration bill Congress could send him. “I’m not saying I want this or I want that. I will sign it,” he told the group.

I don't see how we're back into "Presidential!" territory. He had no idea of the policy landscape and bumbled through the meeting by agreeing and disagreeing with everybody, himself included, and resigned himself to support any bill congress could give to him. That is not negotiation or leadership.

But I guess he did get himself on tv, and the democrats in attendance were ambushed by the media remaining in attendance for the duration of the meeting while the republicans had their talking points ready to score for the cameras. Both sides left just as far apart as they entered with no greater clarity of a path forward, meanwhile the clock is still ticking on DACA protections deadline.
posted by peeedro at 2:22 PM on January 9, 2018 [49 favorites]

A federal court struck down North Carolina's districting plan, again, as a partisan gerrymander (200 page PDF ruling), giving the legislature 20 days to come up with a new map or the court will appoint a special master to do it for them.
posted by zachlipton at 2:59 PM on January 9, 2018 [54 favorites]

Somebody's gonna say Feinstein did this for her own political advancement, to ward off a primary challenge, blah blah blah... and that may be legit.

When a politician's goals align with the voters best interests, we call that politics working the way it should. It is the ideal outcome, not a negative one.
posted by Bovine Love at 3:03 PM on January 9, 2018 [40 favorites]

The "president" of the US learned a new word today: earmarks. Watch him speak to lawmakers about reintroducing earmarks here, and it's like you can almost can see the strings being pulled by the puppeteer in the background who put this particular flea in his ear.

The lawmakers think he's joking, but he's not.

Not particularly surprising, but still disgusting: The lamentations about how Republicans and Democrats cannot get along, and why can't we all be friends like we used to?
posted by sour cream at 3:10 PM on January 9, 2018 [15 favorites]

Re earmarks, from the Conference Rules of the 115th Congress: "It is the policy of the House Republican Conference that no Member shall request a congressional earmark, limited tax benefit, or limited tariff benefit, as such terms have been described in the Rules of the House."

But also, there are also earmark disclosure rules described in this pdf.
posted by peeedro at 3:57 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Bold prediction, he's going to join Canada's The Rebel, the've already started a racist UK division, why not a US one?

The Rebel imploded almost completely last year. If there’s anyone who can fuck up big enough to finish the job, it’s Bannon.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:03 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Daily Beast, Spencer Ackerman, White House Official Floated Withdrawing U.S. Forces to Please Putin

A senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Vladimir Putin during the early days of the Trump administration, according to a former administration official in the room with him.

While the proposal was ultimately not adopted, it is the first known case of senior aides to Donald Trump seeking to reposition U.S. military forces to please Putin—something that smelled, to a colleague, like a return on Russia’s election-time investment in President Trump. The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment.

The official who offered the proposal, a deputy assistant to Trump for strategic planning, mused in February 2017 about withdrawing U.S. troops close to Russian borders as part of a strategy proposal to “refram[e] our interests within the context of a new relationship with Russia,” the former official told The Daily Beast, who heard this directly from the official, Kevin Harrington.

Harrington is the NSC’s senior official for strategic planning. He had neither military experience nor significant government experience before joining the White House. But he had an influential credential: as a managing director for the Thiel Macro hedge fund, he was close to Trump patron and ally Peter Thiel. Trump’s first national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, announced Harrington’s arrival in early February as part of a “talented group” ready to bring “fresh ideas to the table.”

posted by zachlipton at 4:05 PM on January 9, 2018 [54 favorites]

Zinke announced he's removed Florida from consideration for new oil and gas platforms because "local voice matters" and Governor Scott contacted him to let him know "Florida is unique." Meanwhile, similar objections from California and other states are ignored.
posted by bluecore at 4:12 PM on January 9, 2018 [68 favorites]

Of course Florida is unique. It's the only state where Rick Scott is set to run for Senate. Oh, you wanted a reason that has to do with environmental or energy policy?
posted by zachlipton at 4:16 PM on January 9, 2018 [31 favorites]

Of course Florida is unique. It's the only state where Rick Scott is set to run for Senate. Oh, you wanted a reason that has to do with environmental or energy policy?

And against milquetoast Bill Nelson who has always been against drilling but in typical Democrat fashion no one knows about it unless you read his press releases. Scott is going spend his entire fortune (made due to massive medicare fraud) to get elected and Bill will continue being the most boring man in the senate and likely get beat in a squeaker. If the Dems would only learn they have to fight with the same tactics the republicans weaponized over the last 9 years they might have a fighting chance of really sweeping these garbage humans out.
posted by photoslob at 4:24 PM on January 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Some interesting highlights from a comment full of highlights in a reddit thread:

on page 154, on Trump "However, he and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin"

[...]

on page 296, "We learned that Felix Sater had some connections with these people, and it's been more recently in the media that he's helping the government of Kazakhstan to recover this money. There's been media reports that the money went into the Trump Soho or it went into the company that built the Trump Soho. I can't remember the name"

And in another comment below that:

Q. You had also mentioned earlier in the day work -- that there was an investigation about money from Kazakhstan?

A. Yes.

Q. And could you tell me about that and what you investigated and what you learned.

A. There was some parallel litigation in New York involving attempts by the government of Kazakhstan to recover money that had been allegedly stolen from Kazakhstan, billions of dollars in a colossal bank failure. The name of the bank was BTA Bank. It's been well established in various courts that the government's allegations are basically true, which is that large amounts of money were illicitly removed from this bank, laundered across Europe and into the United States apparently. Allegedly. So there was a civil case, at least one civil case in New York involving -- filed by the city of Almaty, A-L-M-A-T-Y, against some alleged Kazakh money launderers. I don't remember exactly how, but we learned that -- it wasn't from Chris. We learned that Felix Sater had some connections with these people, and it's been more recently in the media that he's helping the government of Kazakhstan to recover this money. There's been media reports that the money went into the Trump Soho or it went into the company that built the Trump Soho. I can't remember the name.

Q. So the connection in that instance was to Felix Sater and through Felix Sater to potentially to Donald Trump?

A. Yes. It was a company that Felix Sater and Donald Trump were involved in together.

And another user adds:

That company would be Bayrock Group, headquartered in Trump Tower.

posted by smcameron at 4:30 PM on January 9, 2018 [41 favorites]

A federal court struck down North Carolina's districting plan, again, as a partisan gerrymander (200 page PDF ruling), giving the legislature 20 days to come up with a new map or the court will appoint a special master to do it for them.

How many chances do these sleazy fuckers get? Hand it over NOW.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:31 PM on January 9, 2018 [20 favorites]

I believe thats actually correct protocol.

Protocol is less the point than that she left Congress nine years ago and he was commenting on how then-Senator Clinton voted on legislation that has little to no resemblance to current proposed legislation. Also, Ms. Clinton is currently a private citizen who doesn't hold any formal position so why bring her up?

Well, I know, probably to trigger Dolt 45's "Clinton Bad" programming. But no reason relevant to the conversation.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:31 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

The lawmakers think he's joking, but he's not.

The lawmakers aren't joking about earmarks either. House Rules scheduled a two day hearing to talk about bringing them back, as the head of Club for Growth said restoring earmarks "virtually guarantees that they will lose the House."

Anyhoo, as they argue about immigration, To Pay for Wall, Trump Would Cut Proven Border Security Measures, in which DHS wants to delay and cut spending on things like drug dogs, surveillance cameras, and CBP officers in favor of the wall.
posted by zachlipton at 4:38 PM on January 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

House Rules scheduled a two day hearing to talk about bringing them back, as the head of Club for Growth said restoring earmarks "virtually guarantees that they will lose the House."

Groups like the Club for Growth don't like earmarks because they lose power with them.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:39 PM on January 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Well, here we go: Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney files lawsuits against Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS over the Steele dossier.

Buzzfeed response: “The dossier is, and continues to be, the subject of active investigations by Congress and intelligence agencies. It was presented to two successive presidents, and has been described in detail by news outlets around the world. Its interest to the public is obvious. This is not the first time Trump's personal lawyer has attacked the free press, and we look forward to defending our First Amendment rights in court."
posted by nubs at 5:50 PM on January 9, 2018 [64 favorites]

Buzzfeed, you are no Elizabeth McNamara.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:54 PM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Just to complete the anonymous attribution trifecta, Team Trump leaked yesterday to the NYT that Mueller Interview With Trump Is Said to Be Likely

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told President Trump’s lawyers last month that he will probably seek to interview the president, setting off discussions among Mr. Trump’s lawyers about the perils of such a move, two people familiar with the discussion said on Monday.[...]

One person familiar with the discussions said Mr. Mueller appeared most interested in asking questions about the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, and the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey — not the broader question of possible collusion with Russia. Those topics signal an interest in whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice. The person was not authorized to talk about internal discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Once again, we're seeing anonymous leakers float an interpretation of upcoming events to the mainstream media that's as favorable to Trump as can be under the circumstances - that the investigation's winding up soon, that it's looking at only obstruction of justice and not collusion - even as partisans try to attack Mueller's investigation, directly and obliquely, and to dismiss the Russia scandal.

Incidentally, Benjamin Wittes succinctly breaks down the other possible reasons Mueller's preparing to interview Trump besides Team Trump's:

Here are three: (1) They are getting close to closing out a significant piece of the investigation and the interview will be about that subject;

(2) the investigation is preparing indictments against figures who can reasonably be expected to call POTUS as defense witness and they need to know what he will say.

(3) the investigation is sprawling enough that they cannot save everything for one interview at the end, so this is the first of several.

#2 would be nice since there's at least one more step between Mueller's current indictments and charging Trump, not to mention that Manafort's money-laundering trial is set for May 7th.
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:10 PM on January 9, 2018 [26 favorites]

I actually want earmarks to come back. Once we stopped forcing politicians to negotiate for their pork, shit got super partisan.
posted by frecklefaerie at 6:36 PM on January 9, 2018 [54 favorites]

that's as favorable to Trump as can be under the circumstances - that the investigation's winding up soon, that it's looking at only obstruction of justice and not collusion - even as partisans try to attack Mueller's investigation, directly and obliquely, and to dismiss the Russia scandal.

Um. It's "obstruction of justice" that's the actual crime, "collusion" is just a description of things Trump may have done. In the process of colluding with Russia Trump or his staffers likely committed other crimes, but "collusion" is not an actual prosecutable offense. Obstruction of justice is. It's not an "only", it's the thing that could take Trump down even if he had no personal knowledge of or involvement with Russia fucking with our elections. If he dumped Comey for the specific purpose of stopping any further investigation into Russia, that's obstructing justice and a criminal offence even if he just did it because he thinks Flynn is a swell guy.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:56 PM on January 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

Um. It's "obstruction of justice" that's the actual crime,

Summary:

The Russians violated 52 USC 30121 by asking the Trump Campaign for a meeting with the indirect promise of opposition research on their opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The Trump Campaign became chargeable in the Russians' criminal act ( 18 USC 2) when by aiding the Criminal Russians by meeting with them expecting the opposition research on their opponent.

Then they lied about it. ( 18 USC 1001 ) and so many of them coordinated their lies, might as well toss in Conspiracy against the US ( 18 USC 371 ) .

From my fingers to G-d's ears. #Amen
posted by mikelieman at 8:05 PM on January 9, 2018 [49 favorites]

frecklefaerie: "I actually want earmarks to come back. Once we stopped forcing politicians to negotiate for their pork, shit got super partisan."

I'm not sure it's clear which is the cause, and which is the effect. Partisanship has been rising for some time, as has centralization of power in House leadership (and weakening of the committee system). That said, I think restoring earmarks is worth a shot, at least.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:06 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Among other things: the FBI had a voluntary informant. That wasn't Papo, as he was flipped for lying. Also, Simpson had dinner with Velitsnikaya the night before The Meeting. Also, Manafort's notes from The Meeting refer to GOP donors, because of course.

Also, it's brilliantly clear that the FBI knew full well all along, all summer, that Russia was interfering by way of hacking and any which way they could. BUT HER EMAILS. Seriously, burn it all down.
posted by Dashy at 8:07 PM on January 9, 2018 [19 favorites]

zachlipton: "A federal court struck down North Carolina's districting plan, again, as a partisan gerrymander (200 page PDF ruling), giving the legislature 20 days to come up with a new map or the court will appoint a special master to do it for them."

This is a very encouraging ruling. That said, it may well be put on hold until SCOTUS rules on the two other gerrymandering cases before it.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:08 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

Judge blocks Trump wind-down of DACA
posted by Elly Vortex at 8:09 PM on January 9, 2018 [52 favorites]

One border wall, scratched? One bargaining chip, off the table? One (many) can dream.
posted by Elly Vortex at 8:12 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

And basically, Steele informed the FBI as soon as he knew, because when you see a crime in progress, that's what you do. He eventually basically just gave up on the FBI after the (f.ing) NYT published an article saying the FBI saw no link to Russia, nothing to see here, whistle on by, around Haloween. Which, as we all know well, was followed in quick succession by Comey's Letter.

England's expert spy on Russia gave up on the FBI. Let that sink in.
posted by Dashy at 8:12 PM on January 9, 2018 [81 favorites]

Tomorrow morning's Trump tweet storm is gonna be a category 5 hurricane.
posted by Glibpaxman at 8:13 PM on January 9, 2018 [7 favorites]

ELECTION RESULTS

GOP HOLD in Georgia SD-17:

Brian Strickland (R) 5,001 (61.99%)
Phyllis Hatcher (D): 2,772 (34.36%)
Ed Toney (R) 198 (2.45%)
Nelva Lee (R) 96 (1.19%)

GOP HOLD in Georgia HD-111:

Geoffrey Cauble (R) 1,864 (51.04%)
El-Mahdy Holly (D) 1,122 (30.72%)
Tarji Leonard Dunn (D) 451 (12.35%)
Larry Morey (R) 215 (5.89%)

posted by Chrysostom at 8:14 PM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

If you're waiting for someone to digest the Simpson testimony, wait no longer: Elizabeth McLaughlin has a great thread

“Active RNC donors”

Yup. The entire party is corrupted.

If the midterms don’t fix this, we are fucked.
posted by schadenfrau at 8:37 PM on January 9, 2018 [18 favorites]

When we last had earmarks, campaign finance law was much stricter. I have an uneasy feeling that if we brought them back in the current dark money regime, we would see a lot more abuse--though maybe that could be controlled somewhat if you limited earmarks to < 1% of the federal outlay, enforced stringent disclosure rules, etc.

It's absolutely bizarre that Trump is all in for the restoration, because the executive branch's current monopoly on fine-grained allocation grants considerable leverage. Giving that up would make it even harder for him to corral Congress. The enthusiasm's inexplicable until you remember that he's not bright and hates doing his job. Maybe someone sold this to him as a kind of delegation, like what bosses do.
posted by Iridic at 8:41 PM on January 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

I assume that he parses earmarks as "legal bribing" so of course it sounds good to him.
posted by Golem XIV at 8:54 PM on January 9, 2018 [17 favorites]

I'm still amazed that I wake up every day now, and realize that yes, there really is a vast right-wing conspiracy afoot.

And we're in the middle of it.

"Vast right-wing conspiracy." That totally exists.

AGAIN.
posted by yesster at 9:12 PM on January 9, 2018 [45 favorites]

Earmarks are bad, they short-circuit a democratic process that should not be short-circuited.
posted by rhizome at 9:16 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Based on your answers above, do you believe that the Republican Party should spend more time and resources holding the mainstream media accountable?

Question 15 on the latest Mainstream Media Accountability Survey, courtesy of the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising committee authorized by and composed of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee.
posted by Rykey at 9:29 PM on January 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Speier invites lawmakers to wear black to Trump's State of the Union.

Excellent. Tweak the nose of the man with no self control in front of an audience of millions. I approve.
posted by scalefree at 10:04 PM on January 9, 2018 [50 favorites]

Earmarks are bad, they short-circuit a democratic process that should not be short-circuited.

Care to explain how? From what I've seen, the vast, vast majority of earmarks went to expenditures that were well within the scope of the government's purview, and did in fact benefit the public. Hell, even the "poster child" of earmark abuse - the supposed "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska - falls under that, as the bridge connected a remote community to the airport that was its link to the greater world. (The issue was not that there was no rationale for the bridge, but that it was recieving vastly more funding than it needed due to grift.)

Furthermore, earmarks serve as both a form of accountability for representatives to both their leadership and constituency. Representatives who piss off their leadership will find their earmarks cut off, and representatives who fail at bringing home funding for local projects will soon find themselves out of a job. It's not coincidence that you've seen a decoupling of representatives from accountability to both and becoming more reliant on major donors ever since earmarks were phased out.

In short, I'm going to have to call [citation needed] on that bit of "conventional wisdom", because from where I'm sitting, the removal of earmarks has done a lot to foster the negative trends we're seeing, and it's not surprising that the groups that were calling for earmarks to be killed just so happen to be the ones that benefitted from the power vacuum their removal caused.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:37 PM on January 9, 2018 [28 favorites]

Care to explain how?

Because they are literally bribery, trading votes for money. Yes, it's money for your district but given how much that helps a re-election campaign, it's not significantly different than trading a vote for a big campaign donation.

The public policy damage can be seen in how military bases and contracts are doled out as a form of patronage and vote-trading, instead of being driven by, you know, the defense needs of the country.
posted by msalt at 11:56 PM on January 9, 2018 [9 favorites]

I actually want earmarks to come back. Once we stopped forcing politicians to negotiate for their pork, shit got super partisan.

I think that perfectly describes Trump's argument. (I hesitate to call it a "position", because I'm not sure if he is capable of having a position or merely parrots what's been planted by one of his Trumppeteers).

"You guys, Republicans and Democrats, used to go to dinner together to hash out secret deals." That's almost a verbatim quote from the clip.

The reason why the Trumppeteers want earmarks back could be that it is viewed as another way to syphon off public money. The tax cuts are done, earmarks are the next frontier.
posted by sour cream at 1:34 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Given that other countries manage to operate a non-partisan government without their constituents needing to keep score via how much pork they bring to the electorate, I'm calling shenanigans on the idea that institutionalised bribery is necessary. (I mean, in general.) The negative effects you're describing aren't from a lack of earmarking, but from America's weak system of government. If there's no commonly accepted way to judge the performance of a representative outside of earmarks, that's a problem in and of itself. (For more information on America's weak system of government, see MetaFilter's USPolitics tag.)
posted by Merus at 3:54 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Trump vs. Trump, again: Judge cites presidential tweets as he blocks DACA phaseout (WaPo)

It’s not just the “Fake News Media” that parses President Trump’s tweets in microscopic detail and uses them against him. Federal judges do it too.

The White House yet again learned that the hard way when, on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco blocked the administration’s attempt to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Alsup was tasked with, among other things, determining whether it would serve the public interest to leave DACA in place while litigation over the decision to scrap the program proceeds.

On this point, he had an easy answer: Trump himself had expressed support for DACA on Twitter in September, just days after Department of Homeland Security officials rescinded it. ...

Trump’s Twitter habits have dogged the administration in court since his early days in the White House. In litigation over Trump’s executive actions, no ruling seems to be complete without a section explaining how Trump’s tweets and public statements undercut the administration’s legal arguments. ...

The problem has come up in cases challenging Trump’s travel bans, transgender military ban and sanctuary cities ban. Some judges have gone so far as to include screen shots of @realDonaldTrump’s activity, an unusual sight in a federal court ruling. It goes without saying that the president doesn’t seem bothered by any of it.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 5:04 AM on January 10, 2018 [30 favorites]

A new report by congressional Democrats warns of deepening Russian interference throughout Europe and concludes that even as some Western democracies have responded with aggressive countermeasures, President Donald Trump has offered no strategic plan to bolster their efforts or safeguard the U.S. from again falling victim to the Kremlin’s systematic meddling.
No Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee signed on to the 200-plus page report released by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the committee’s top Democrat. But even without GOP backing, the report’s recounting of Russian operations in 19 European nations foreshadows the still-unpublished Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan inquiry into Russia’s role during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
posted by adamvasco at 5:08 AM on January 10, 2018 [34 favorites]

"You guys, Republicans and Democrats, used to go to dinner together to hash out secret deals." That's almost a verbatim quote from the clip.

And in some ways that would be far preferable to what we have now. Because it implies deals. Progress. Actual negotiation. Compromise. Governance. Not the in-the-light-of-day governance we want and deserve but at least yardage gained.

Naturally, the radio on the way into work was all aflutter with callers bemoaning Trump's betrayal of the base. "We control the House. We control the Senate. We control the White House. Why are we spending one second of time thinking about what the Democrats want?" Well, maybe because, unlike you, many in Congress can count to sixty without taking off their shoes.
posted by delfin at 5:15 AM on January 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Ending earmarks and enacting term-limits are there simply to remove the interest of the people from the lawmakers' agenda, both are long-term goals for the pro-Oligarchic forces trying to end democracy here int he USA. Earmarks require co-operation and coalition building across the aisle, our new current system that replaced it is a "winner takes the spoils" system which is infinitely more corrupt and rewards loyalty to Party (and Party donors) over fidelity to the people and the nation.

Ideally, we wouldn't need them, and maybe one day we won't. But we need them in the here and now, to combat corruption in one of the Universe's crueler ironies.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:27 AM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Well, maybe because, unlike you, many in Congress can count to sixty without taking off their shoes.
What, do they use their teeth?

Also on the self-owning front, in NC:

According to the order, at the time when the congressional districts were redrawn, the Republican in charge of the redistricting effort in the statehouse, Rep. David Lewis, justified the map saying: “I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.”
posted by thelonius at 5:36 AM on January 10, 2018 [90 favorites]

Wolff was on CBC Radio’s current affairs show “The Current” just now, and the degree to which this man is a fawning admirer of and sycophant for Steve Bannon is astonishing. I mean, I know those of you’ve who’ve read the book have pointed out how pro-Bannon it is...but I didn’t think any person would actually say OUT LOUD, on NATIONAL RADIO, with all sincerity that they really came to like and admire and feel bad for possibly thwarting the ambitions of Steve Fucking Bannon. *shudder* It was an interesting (if somewhat disturbing) interview, and should be posted here in a few hours, if anyone wants to have a listen.
posted by Dorinda at 6:04 AM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

My reading of The Book has ground to a sudden halt as I reached the Bannon chapter because I am so, so not in the mood for 30 pages of hot takes about how Steve Bannon is an actualfax genius.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:08 AM on January 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Even without earmarks being officially ok, earmarks find a way - Murkowski getting drilling in ANWR for tax bill support, for instance.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:12 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

I read The Book and thought is was only pro-Bannon to the extent it acknowledged that we was the smarted guy in room full of idiots. I'm surprised that Wolff is saying in interviews that he admires him.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 6:13 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Somebody on twitter said the book claimed that Bannon screamed "I'm going to fuck you!" as Hope Hicks fled in tears. Is that in the book or is it more gorilla channel? Because assuming it's true, I find it astonishing that such a thing would be yelled in any work setting. It's also so evil it's sort of funny, like how SNL portrayed him as the grim reaper.

Anyhow, how can anybody be a fan of Bannon at this point? Seems weird. Does he have this magnetism that's not apparent from photographs of him?
posted by angrycat at 6:17 AM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

If you're waiting for someone to digest the Simpson testimony, wait no longer: Elizabeth McLaughlin has a great thread. Go read. So, so many things.

Mega props to DiFi for this one. posted by dashy

This is really incredible in a terrifying way (for those who like me will neither read the whole report or anything on reddit). As McLaughlin writes: Jesus
posted by mumimor at 6:19 AM on January 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

I just answered a survey for democrats.org. In the optional additional comments section I put this:

Get back to our socialist oriented policy pursuits. STOP trying to work with Republicans, and STOP chasing the non-existing "center". Republicans only know how to destroy, loot, abuse, cheat and deceive. They do not know how to build anything. STAND UP to republicans, and call them out on their lies and misinformation and greed. Be proud of being blue, being smart, being respectful of human dignity, and being creative. Stand our ground, and DO NOT COMPROMISE on core issues listed above FOR ANY REASON. Overturn Citizens United as soon as we are back in power. Plug tax loopholes for corporations, bring back the Fairness Doctrine in media, and above all, STOP THE WAR MACHINE.

posted by yoga at 6:24 AM on January 10, 2018 [42 favorites]

angrycat: Is that in the book or is it more gorilla channel?

Please let "gorilla channel" become the new euphemism for fake news.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:25 AM on January 10, 2018 [65 favorites]

Anyhow, how can anybody be a fan of Bannon at this point?

Game recognize game in Wolff's case, I imagine.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:26 AM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

Somebody on twitter said the book claimed that Bannon screamed "I'm going to fuck you!" as Hope Hicks fled in tears. Is that in the book or is it more gorilla channel?

It is indeed [real] and not [gorilla channel] but it's 'fuck you' in the 'fuck you over' sense. Context:

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” shouted a livid Bannon at Hicks, demanding to know who she worked for, the White House or Jared and Ivanka. “You don’t know how much trouble you are in,” he screamed, telling her that if she didn’t get a lawyer he would call her father and tell him he had better get her one. “You are dumb as a stone!” Moving from the cabinet room across the open area into the president’s earshot, “a loud, scary, clearly threatening” Bannon, in the Jarvanka telling, yelled, “I am going to fuck you and your little group!” with a baffled president plaintively wanting to know, “What’s going on?”

I have been in workplaces where this sentiment existed, but it is true I have never seen it actively verbalised to quite this extent. These people truly out-Veep Veep.
posted by halation at 6:28 AM on January 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

>Please let "gorilla channel" become the new euphemism for fake news.

Only if we can call fake billionaires "gorillianaires".
posted by Catblack at 6:32 AM on January 10, 2018 [44 favorites]

I view Bannon as a homegrown Vogon. I can admire his sheer bloodymindedness and devotion to his destructive impulses without wanting the slightest iota of it to succeed.
posted by delfin at 6:38 AM on January 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

The solution to politicians replacing institutional bribery via earmarks with institutional bribery via billionaires donations is not to bring back earmarks, it's public campaign financing and ending dark money.

That's not the argument for earmarks, though. Earmarks solve the problem of cat herding the caucus. The advantage of earmarks was that party leaders could corral their caucus in line with the promise of goodies, and keep them from going off the reservation. The elimination of earmarks and the uselessness of Republican majority leaders since Boehner isn't a coincidence.

The elimination of earmarks, together with their aggressive gerrymandering in 2010, is what led to the election and rise in power of the looney tunes alternate reality brigade on the Right*. In Red districts your only threat is being primaried, and if you're an incumbent now you can't even counteract claims of being a sell-out RINO by bring bacon home to the district to show your worth.

*and, of course, Right wing media is what made them crazy
posted by leotrotsky at 7:07 AM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

He just ensured DiFi's reelection:

@realDonaldTrump
The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace. Must have tough Primary!

Must have tough primary? This probably made it even more of a fight for a primary challenger.

Also fuck that "possibly illegal" line, that's like saying the sky is "possibly fuschia" - Speech and Debate Clause, she could go read off the black budget and every running CIA op into the congressional record for all to see and the only legal consequences are Senate disciplinary measures up to expulsion. She isn't going to get a talking to from Johnny Law FFS.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:12 AM on January 10, 2018 [38 favorites]

Sneaky Dianne Feinstein
Sloppy Steve Bannon

He's running out of nicknames. We're going to have a Grumpy and a Bashful sighting by the end of the month.
posted by yhbc at 7:15 AM on January 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

Metafilter: we was the smarted guy in room full of idiots.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:28 AM on January 10, 2018 [20 favorites]

The thing with this latest tweet is that it is yet another example of the president self-invoking the Streisand effect. The media was and is going to describe the contents of Simpson's Fusion GPS testimony anyway. As others up thread has linked to, there is plenty of bad-for-the-president details that range from terrible optics to lots of smoke where the Trump organization & campaign are very adjacent to all the people likely making fire. With that said, Trump's tweet this morning calling attention to the testimony transcript is just going to mean that the media is going to dive in deeper.

I hesitate to ascribe any long term strategy to this administration but it does distract people from yesterday's DACA/Immigration public "negotiation" where he took all possible positions and washed his hands of a solution ("I'll sign whatever bill you guys put in front of me"). I took a brief spin through Breitbart comments this morning and there seems like more open dissent and worry than usual. There is lots of concern that the president is going to sell out their position which admittedly appears to be, "If 1 DACA recipient stays a minute longer in the US then a grave injustice has occurred."
posted by mmascolino at 7:36 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

A new report by congressional Democrats warns of deepening Russian interference throughout Europe and concludes that even as some Western democracies have responded with aggressive countermeasures, President Donald Trump has offered no strategic plan to bolster their efforts or safeguard the U.S. from again falling victim to the Kremlin’s systematic meddling.

I heard about it this morning on NPR, when host Steve Inskeep asked Democratic Senator Ben Cardin if the document (which, much like the Wolff book, essentially summarizes what we already know) would have been more "politically powerful" if it had been bipartisan.

Sadly, Cardin replied by pointing out that some Republicans did have informal input, and didn't say that the entire party Republican seems to be party to covering up treason, so the premise of Inskeep's question -- and his network's default outlook -- is outdated, irrelevant, and foolish.
posted by Gelatin at 7:40 AM on January 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

Re the Steven Pinker stuff from yesterday:

In context, he's.... well, he's just aligned the "outrages on the Left" to the outrages of Trump's, listing a whole bunch of "left-wing overreactions." These include assuming that it's more crazy to, say have students react poorly to a Yale administrator asking them to "think critically" about a list of Halloween costume guidelines trying to avoid racist costumes, or thinking critically about the phrase "America is the land of opportunity", or using "cultural appropriation" to refer to white people's engagement in yoga. He certainly tries to walk that back by saying that these "outrages" aren't equivalent to Trump's, but he notably doesn't list a single right-wing "outrage" to contrast these against. He's also really blaming this entire thing on "political correctness," and he is absolutely being as complimentary to the alt-right as the quote suggests.

Yeah, no, that pull quote ain't out of context at all.

This isn't exactly new from Pinker. You guys know that, right? Since he's been branching into evo psych, he's been producing some pretty nasty stuff--you recall he endorsed the Damore Google memo last year, right? I couldn't pause in August for people cheerfully informing me that Stephen Pinker, a real neurobiologist, had said that Damore really had something there.

And he's been getting a lot of praise from Breitbart for quite a while now, so I'm not remotely surprised to hear him pass the praise the other way. I've been getting increasingly tired of having to point out that Pinker's skills and expertise in linguistic cognitive science are not magically relevant to gender studies, evolutionary biology, or the evolution of brains period; the man is actually becoming more depressing than Dawkins to me personally in terms of "previous scientific heroes who have revealed themselves to use the platforms they've accrued as biologists for horrific purposes."

So yes, it's totally fucking so with Pinker, and if that makes you sad, I'm sorry. Now please make my colleague Captain Mansplainer stop telling me to read more of his work when I express distaste for the vaguely sexist and biologically implausible things he likes to spout at me with half-remembered citations.
posted by sciatrix at 7:42 AM on January 10, 2018 [94 favorites]

Sneaky Dianne Feinstein
Sloppy Steve Bannon

He's running out of nicknames. We're going to have a Grumpy and a Bashful sighting by the end of the month.

What about:

👻 ... "BLINKY"
👻 ... "PINKY"
👻 ... "INKY"
👻 ... "CLYDE"
👻 ... "SUE"
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:44 AM on January 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

Sneaky Dianne Feinstein
Sloppy Steve Bannon

He's running out of nicknames. We're going to have a Grumpy and a Bashful sighting by the end of the month.

From the moment he took office I have been referring to him as "Emasculated Donald Trump", since that is the level at which he interacts with the world.
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:46 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

30 pages of hot takes about how Steve Bannon is an actualfax genius.

Not really. I do think Wolff found Bannon to be the only member of the President's inner circle with any direction or plan whatsoever. He does not miss identifying Bannon's politics - I remember a particularly sharp zing towards Bannon-ward Yiannopoulos to the effect of Nazi Germany 1939 something something.

But yeah, in a house fire, if anyone's moving you probably pay attention to that person. That's the deal with Bannon. Also Bannon was arrogant enough to shit on everyone in interviews and clever enough to make sentences good to look at. So he gets airtime, basically. Katie Walsh appears to be second place in this regard, fwiw.

I think Wolff is genuinely surprised at his inadvertent cratering of Bannon's current political career, and to the extent that the book would be much less impactful without him, feels bad about it. But I don't think he's promoting Bannon as such. He's much more favorable to Rience The Human Anagram but since Rience doens't give interviews and is rarely quoted, he doesn't show up.

Again, the book is much less about politics than psychology (or lack thereof).
posted by petebest at 7:46 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

zachlipton: Bangor Daily News, Susan Collins, Angus King back bill to reverse FCC vote against net neutrality
...
Wow. This could actually, maybe, happen, and right now is a great time to call your Senators and ask them to support the resolution.

Net neutrality has traditionally had bipartisan support, except for sufficiently bought-out representatives. And it looks like it's even higher after the FCC decision -- Poll: 83 percent of voters support keeping FCC's net neutrality rules (Harper Neidig for The Hill, Dec. 12, 2017)

More than 80 percent of voters oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plan to repeal its net neutrality rules, according to a new poll from the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation.

The survey presented respondents with detailed arguments from both supporters and opponents of the repeal plan, before asking them where they stood on the rules. It found that 83 percent overall favored keeping the FCC rules, including 75 percent of Republicans, 89 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of independents.

And support has generally been high, though it dropped back in November (from 60% to 54%*), but still had majority support from both registered Democrats and Republicans.

That drop was likely because this generally misunderstood topic was back in the news with plenty of industry support and supporters trying to muddy the waters and make it seem like net neutrality stifles innovation and investments (spoiler: it doesn't, and ISPs have confessed as much).

On this general tangent: After beating cable lobby, Colorado city moves ahead with muni broadband -- Fort Collins plans universal broadband, net neutrality, and gigabit speeds. (Jon Brodkin for Ars Technica, Jan. 3, 2018)

The city council in Fort Collins, Colorado, last night voted to move ahead with a municipal fiber broadband network providing gigabit speeds, two months after the cable industry failed to stop the project.
...
The telecom industry-led campaign against the project spent more than $900,000, most of which was supplied by the Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association. Comcast is a member of that lobby group.

Fort Collins Mayor Wade Troxell criticized incumbent ISPs and the local Chamber of Commerce for spreading "misinformation" to voters, The Coloradoan reported at the time.

The pro-municipal broadband effort led by community members won despite spending just $15,000. More than 57 percent of voters approved the measure.

* The article first states the new poll showed 52% of registered voters support net neutrality regulations, compared with 18 percent who say they don't, but then broke it down and stated that 55 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans said in the latest survey that they support net neutrality. So unless there are a lot of independent/ unaffiliated likely voters who didn't support net neutrality or didn't know how to answer, I bumped the percentage up two points, between Dem and GOP percentages.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:47 AM on January 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

Because they are literally bribery, trading votes for money. Yes, it's money for your district but given how much that helps a re-election campaign, it's not significantly different than trading a vote for a big campaign donation.

No, they aren't. Your argument here is literally "representatives doing the actual job they were elected to do is corruption", which is ludicrous. Yes, bringing in earmarks (which, again, the vast majority are legitimate government expenditures) does improve a candidate's chances at re-election because it's a sign of them serving the constituents that elect them. That's not bribery, and trying to argue that it is devalues the word.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:53 AM on January 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

smcameron: Some interesting highlights from a comment full of highlights in a reddit thread:
...

Q. So the connection in that instance was to Felix Sater and through Felix Sater to potentially to Donald Trump?

A. Yes. It was a company that Felix Sater and Donald Trump were involved in together.

And another user adds:

That company would be Bayrock Group, headquartered in Trump Tower.

Bloomberg with a round-up on Trump, Russia and those shadowy Sater deals at Bayrock, which happened in New York. Hey, remember when we learned that Robert Mueller’s team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman back in August?

The cooperation is the latest indication that the federal probe into President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman is intensifying. It also could potentially provide Mueller with additional leverage to get Manafort to cooperate in the larger investigation into Trump’s campaign, as Trump does not have pardon power over state crimes.

What happens in New York gets tried in New York.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:00 AM on January 10, 2018 [15 favorites]

Darrell Issa retiring is the best thing to happen to California in a long time. I actually have a smile on my face. Let's hope he sees the Cyrillic writing on the wall.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:04 AM on January 10, 2018 [30 favorites]

Doktor Zed: (3) the investigation is sprawling enough that they cannot save everything for one interview at the end, so this is the first of several.

This is very likely, and has already happened for others involved in the investigation: Mueller calls back at least one participant in key meeting with Russians at Trump Tower (David S. Cloud for L.A. Times, Jan. 6, 2017)

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has recalled for questioning at least one participant in a controversial meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016, and is looking into President Trump's misleading claim that the discussion focused on adoption, rather than an offer to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Some defense lawyers involved in the case view Mueller's latest push as a sign that investigators are focusing on possible obstruction of justice by Trump and several of his closest advisors for their statements about the politically sensitive meeting, rather than for collusion with the Russians.

Investigators also are exploring the involvement of the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who did not attend the half-hour sit-down on June 9, 2016, but briefly spoke with two of the participants, a Russian lawyer and a Russian-born Washington lobbyist. Details of the encounter were not previously known.

Emphasis mine, because I did not know this - is this new?
posted by filthy light thief at 8:08 AM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

Darrell Issa retiring is the best thing to happen to California in a long time.

ooooh oooh do rohrbacher next
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:11 AM on January 10, 2018 [51 favorites]

> I took a brief spin through Breitbart comments this morning and there seems like more open dissent and worry than usual.

If I were a Breitbart type and I watched the footage from yesterday's meeting where a clearly confused and disengaged God Emperor Trump literally and on video supported the opposition's position before being told that's not what he wants, and ends by saying "I'll sign whatever you put in front of me," I would imagine that my cognitive dissonance would be getting a real workout today.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:14 AM on January 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

Ann Coulter is very unhappy. On Lou Dobbs she called the DACA "dealmaking" scene the "lowest day in the Trump presidency," and corroborated Wolff (he has her as the lone voice that tried to prevent Trump from hiring his family members).

Coulter: I mean he was clearly trying to overcome the bad press of this Michael Wolff book by showing that he's in command, but in fact what he did was fulfill every description of him in the book: he doesn't listen, he has no command of the facts, he agrees with the last person who speaks to him.
Dobbs: Well we don't need to go through the whole damn book, it's a bunch of trash anyway.
Coulter: No, it isn't.

Now I'll never defend Coulter (she went on to say "Dreamers must go before MS-13. They're a Mexican Antifa and the worst of the illegals") but sad Ann is good news.
posted by Rust Moranis at 8:14 AM on January 10, 2018 [57 favorites]

Add it to the pile: White House illegally alters transcripts of yesterday's immigration meeting to redact Trump's comments on a clean DACA bill.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:19 AM on January 10, 2018 [110 favorites]

VA HOD update - Appeals court has rejected Dems emergency request to prevent GOP winner in HD-28 from being seated (VA legislative session begins today). Broader case can continue - it's still possible a new election is called, but as for now, the GOP controls the HOD.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:20 AM on January 10, 2018

Darrell Issa retiring? Woo hoo! I am going to be looking for Democrats for money and GOTV efforts, and I hope Democrats are out in force with candidates and money. Let's turn California solid blue from the Sierras to the Pacific! We are the world's fifth largest economy all on our lonesome - let's be a blue superpower!

And...I'm even changing my mind about Dianne Feinstein - she did a really bold and #resistance thing releasing the Fusion GPS transcripts. I still wish she was more liberal, but Feinstein is smart and savvy and has been in politics probably as long as I've been alive.

I wonder who is going to be left standing untainted by Russian money on the Republican side when all is said and done? A few obscure Senators and Representatives?

Re earmarks: the liberal Huffington Post makes a case for them. FWIW, I'd take earmarks over donor money, because I'd rather constituents throw their weight around rather than big-money donors. I don't want, for instance, a Kirsten Gillibrand candidacy derailed just because Susie Tompkins Who Has Money throws a tantrum.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 8:21 AM on January 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Holy shit, that's low, and dumb. This is the 21st century, with instant access to video for anyone anywhere in the world to instantly fact-check the transcript.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:21 AM on January 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

with a baffled president plaintively wanting to know, “What’s going on?”

Says it all, doesn't it.
posted by Melismata at 8:23 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

The White House is saying the transcript "error" was an oversight and they are going to fix it, but it only made the story bigger. Also, I'm really and truly happy that DiFei went ahead and released the transcript but she's terribly conservative, very old school in her thinking and 83. I haven't changed my mind about her and I'm ready to assist a primary fight.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:24 AM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

Earmarks: The Bad, The Ugly and The Good (By Mopshell at Daily Kos, Aug 11, 2014)

A few good points, including this one:

Banning earmarks significantly decreases the influence incumbents have on voters come election time. It’s refreshing to see earmarks-empty incumbents struggling with “what I have done for you” to the satisfaction of their constituents. With no earmarks to offer them, they have to fall back on issues and justify their voting records. It goes a long way to leveling the playing field for their challengers, who have no earmarks to boast about.

Emphasis original.

The article also says that earmarks boost local economies, but as a government official, let me say that using and managing earmarks is really annoying. Instead of a broad "road improvement fund," you get a fixed amount of money for a single project. Hopefully that's enough money to get it done, but what if it's not? Other people have to scramble to fill that gap with other funds. Or what if it's more than enough? The surplus generally can't be moved to other projects, as it can with broad funding categories.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:27 AM on January 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

There are 7 GOP Congressmen from California who represent Clinton-won districts:

Royce - GONE
Issa - GONE
Denham
Valadao
Knight
Walters
Rohrabacher
posted by Chrysostom at 8:28 AM on January 10, 2018 [23 favorites]

(Also, I forgot that it was the Tea Party Republicans who ended earmarks, back in 2010)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:30 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

We are now at a record number of GOP House retirements (28). Although Nate Cohn points out that retirements in competitive districts is at more normal levels.

Keep in mind that in an average cycle we would still see 5-10 more retirements announce after mid-January.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:30 AM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

Knight's ass is grass. There are easily 4 groups in his district out to get him and they are already quite loud about it.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:31 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

VA HOD update #2 - Shelly Simonds has conceded HD-94, will not further contest the race.

Related news: WP finds that thousands of Virginians may have gotten ballots for the wrong races in various HDs.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:33 AM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Potential good news dept: Bill moving forward in Indiana legislature to eliminate requirement to have an excuse for absentee voting. Bill has bipartisan support.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:35 AM on January 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

jason_steakums: Must have tough primary? This probably made it even more of a fight for a primary challenger.

I read the DJT tweet as intending more or less this meaning ("Wow, her primary must be tough if she's willing to resort to this!"). But now I realize another interpretation, which you might have had; with Trump's style of articulation, he definitely could have been expressing a hope, the same way he might tweet "Mean Mad Mueller is very unfair. Must have bad things happen to him!" [fake]
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:36 AM on January 10, 2018

I definitely read the tweet as a hope. He's too dumb to realized that a DJT denunciation like that is money in the bank for DiFi. (And he's too dumb to think in 3D chess that she'd do this to shore up her chances of winning the primary).
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:39 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Now we apparently live in a world where Ann Coulter is not automatically the craziest, meanest or most delusional Republican on TV.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:41 AM on January 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

It's important to highlight some of the real people being harmed right now by the policy stories we see here; two examples from the LA Times:

Parents agonize over their kids' health as funding for children's insurance program remains in doubt

But this holiday season, the Belts had a new worry. Their two boys, Bobby and Dylan, may soon be uninsured, leaving 11-year-old Bobby without the costly medicine and blood monitors he needs to control his Type 1 diabetes.

"I try to keep Bobby's mind off of it," said Tracy Belt, who's spent the last month scrambling to stockpile prescriptions and medical supplies and frantically scanning Facebook message boards for tips on getting discounted stocks. "But it keeps us up at night. … If Bobby doesn't have this medication, he will die. It's as simple as that."

Like roughly 9 million children nationwide, Bobby and Dylan are covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a government health plan created in 1997 for kids of working families. What keeps their parents up at night are warnings the program may be suspended because Congress has failed since Sept. 30 to pass a measure to reauthorize it.

Note that this is a lovely example of a newspaper going to West Virginia to bring to life stories that are more than yet another "hardcore Trump supporters still like the guy" yarn.

"People will have to decide whether hiding from immigration agents is better than hiding from MS-13."

Despite losing protections, many Salvadorans may not leave the U.S. on their own accord, preferring to live without papers rather than return to a home they barely know.

"The vast majority aren't going to go back on their own, they're just going to go back to clandestine lives," said Pablo Alvarado, an immigrant from El Salvador who had temporary protected status before he married an American and became a U.S. citizen.

"People will have to decide whether hiding from immigration agents is better than hiding from MS-13," he said.

posted by zachlipton at 8:46 AM on January 10, 2018 [31 favorites]

The Card Cheat: Now we apparently live in a world where Ann Coulter is not automatically the craziest, meanest or most delusional Republican on TV.

She's still in upper percentiles on meanness... and that's precisely what gives her an almost-accurate, non-deluded perception of Trump's administration. The typical Trumpster is basically satisfied to hear dog whistles about Mexicans and grumblings about ungrateful athletes, while at the same time vaguely ashamed of the whole thing (people are complicated). But Coulter's like, fuck that, I want my ethnostate now, why isn't a literal wall happening, I'm going to get to the bottom of this mystery, aha it turns out my white savior is a complete moron and grifter who has betrayed us all.

Or to put it another way, "I didn't think the leopards would spare some faces"
posted by InTheYear2017 at 8:50 AM on January 10, 2018 [50 favorites]

Is it just me or has there not been much news about the Fusion GPS testimony being released? I would have sworn this alone would have made this thread have 500 comments all of a sudden.

Up above, somebody linked to this Twitter thread, and I was curious about this specific part of it:

52/ In those notes is a reference to a Cypriot holding company to engage in inward investment into Russia, the note "active sponsors of the RNC," Dick Cheney's press secretary, and finally, adoptions. (Tr. 261-264)

I’m trying to parse what these notes are describing and I’m having a hard time on my phone finding it on the testimony itself. What’s it mean “active sponsors of the RNC”? Or is there not enough information?
posted by gucci mane at 8:58 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yglesias nails it, and shows how our media is still failing us: Tuesday’s DACA negotiation stunt showed how dangerously we’ve lowered the bar for Trump

Donald Trump’s entire political career has been a bizarre exercise in large-scale lowering of the bar for what’s considered acceptable conduct in a high-ranking public official. But we as a society somehow reached a new low Tuesday afternoon after Trump staged a pointless, unproductive televised discussion of immigration policy with several members of Congress and successfully earned media plaudits for the feat of not suffering from any obvious symptoms of dementia.

I wish I were exaggerating, but this literally happened.

People kept praising him for not literally drooling during the meeting, precisely the reason the White House allowed cameras in, sending out push notifications about how how embraced one position or another, without boldly telling the truth, which is that he endorsed every conflicting position in that room, asked for everything but said he'd sign anything, and the entire purpose for the meeting was to fix the crisis entirely of his own making when he hurt hundreds of thousands of people by declaring an end to DACA.
posted by zachlipton at 9:01 AM on January 10, 2018 [61 favorites]

> aha it turns out my white savior is a complete moron and grifter who has betrayed us all.

Absolutely. I just don't understand anyone who hadn't figured out that Trump is a complete moron and grifter long before the election.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:01 AM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

What’s it mean “active sponsors of the RNC”?

Ryan: This is an off the record . . . No leaks! . . . All right? This is how we know we’re a real family here.
Scalise: That’s how you know that we’re tight.
Ryan: What’s said in the family stays in the family.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:03 AM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

@ASlavitt:

BREAKING: In the next 48 hours, the Trump Administration is planning to issue policy on how states can stop people from receiving Medicaid coverage if they don’t have a job.

And they plan to put this in action in their first state— Kentucky.

posted by zombieflanders at 9:06 AM on January 10, 2018 [29 favorites]

Congress Changed 529 College Savings Plans, And Now States Are Nervous (Cory Turner for NPR, January 8, 2018)

"This change allows private school families to put their money through 529 accounts and avoid state income taxes," says Nat Malkus, who studies education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank. "It is a mess, no matter how you slice it. It's a change from the federal level that puts a number of states in a pretty tough position moving forward."

That's because, Malkus says, if this move entices lots of new families to sign up and many current families to contribute more, then states could end up losing a lot more money to tax breaks.

"I think it would immediately create an unintended hit to the state's budget," agrees Greg Berck of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. "States plan ahead, sometimes multiple years ahead, and New York state will be required to provide a state tax deduction [to parents of students in K-12 private schools] unless the legislature acts to amend our state law."
...
"This will have a huge impact on state-run 529 plans. And for states that offer a tax deduction, a major impact on state tax receipts," says Michael Frerichs, who is Illinois' state treasurer.

Frerichs says 529s were built on the idea of patience — of parents slowly saving for college — and that using them to pay for kindergarten is a significant change.

"If [families are] putting money in one month and taking it out the next, they don't really have that advantage of long-term investing," Frerichs says. "And it's really just using them to get around state taxes."
...
The real benefit, according to the state experts and independent economists NPR interviewed for this story, is for affluent families — many of whom already have kids in private K-12 schools. They can now use their old 529 [PDF], or open a new one, to help pay that tuition, all while getting a nice state tax break.

Another look at the (unintended?) consequences of the GOP Tax Fuckery Bill.

Oh, and more:

Lots of states [PDF], from Colorado to South Carolina, Michigan to Mississippi, could end up feeling the pinch. One of the few states that won't, though, is Texas, where the idea began with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Texas doesn't give families an extra break on their income taxes when they contribute to a 529 because Texas doesn't have an income tax.

posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 AM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

The section on Manafort's notes is tantalizing but the testimony seems to indicate that they're just short phrases - in some cases not even complete words - with no clear context. That section of the interview mostly consists of Simpson reading the words on Manafort's notes and saying that he doesn't know what they mean.

So "Value in Cyprus as inter," I don't know what that means. "Illici," I don't know what that means. "Active sponsors of RNC," I don't know what that means.

The only thing that Simpson says with confidence from the notes is that at least part of the discussion related to Bill Browder and his hedge fund, but there's not much of substance there. It's nice to see that the government has Manafort's contemporaneous notes, though.
posted by vathek at 9:11 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

One of the overlooked reasons for the 1994 sweep of Republicans in Congress came from a law which allowed Congress to convert their leftover campaign funds into retirement funds. This opened up a lot of incumbents retiring.
I suspect one reason so many Republicans are retiring is that with the tax bill, they now have a big boost in money to help with their retirements.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:11 AM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

> And they plan to put this in action in their first state— Kentucky.

Get ready for a bunch of interviews with Trump supporters who admit that this could very well kill them, friends and/or members of their families, but still support him because he's a straight-shooter.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:13 AM on January 10, 2018 [48 favorites]

BREAKING: In the next 48 hours, the Trump Administration is planning to issue policy on how states can stop people from receiving Medicaid coverage if they don’t have a job.

And they plan to put this in action in their first state— Kentucky.

Okay, somebody help me calm down, breathe, and not just start breaking shit here: Please tell me this is somehow not as pointlessly cruel and idiotic and a throwback to "are there no workhouses" as I think it is. Please tell me this is somehow not a death sentence for tens of thousands of people.
posted by lord_wolf at 9:14 AM on January 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

And more pain from the GOP Tax Fuckery Bill: Advocates Fear Tax Bill Will Worsen U.S. Affordable Housing Shortage (Pam Fessler for NPR, Jan. 8, 2018)

Poor families in the United States are having a hard time finding affordable places to live. Tenant advocates worry that the problem could get worse under the new tax law, along with potential cuts in housing aid.
...
Lower tax rates mean credits used to encourage developers to build affordable housing are less attractive. On top of that, subsidies for renters are also at risk. House Speaker Paul Ryan has been eager to impose work requirements and time limits on federal housing aid, which he spoke about recently on Fox News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PAUL RYAN: People want able-bodied people who are on welfare to go to work. They want us to get people out of poverty, into the workforce. That's good for them. That's good for the economy. It's good for the federal budget.

FESSLER: President Trump threw some cold water on that proposal this past weekend, saying that any welfare changes would need Democratic support*, which is highly unlikely. Still, the Trump administration has proposed cutting billions of dollars in housing aid for low-income families, and Congress is under pressure to reduce spending because of growing deficits. Sue Popkin of the Urban Institute says as it is, there isn't enough housing aid to go around.

SUSAN POPKIN: Only 1 in 5 households in the country who are eligible for assistance actually get it.

*Trump said that? Josh Dawsey (Washington Post, via Chicago Tribune) reported that Mitch McConnell said that to Trump.

And if you have time for live coverage: watch Puerto Rico delegation pushes for recognition as a state (via Reuters.tv)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:16 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Is it just me or has there not been much news about the Fusion GPS testimony being released?

I visited my grandfather yesterday and he had the CBS news on yesterday. They didn't mention the release at all. They did have a long piece about Trump's immigration meeting that was overtly fawning to him, claiming that it refuted the Fire and Fury narrative and selectively editing video of him talking down to an isolated sentence or two. They did kind-of-sort-of point out that his positions were contradictory, but played it up as him being willing to reach across the aisle. It was indistinguishable from a Fox News report.

I don't watch national nightly news, but I doubt this was any special report for them, and they've become outright propaganda outfits for Donald Trump.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:18 AM on January 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

Okay, somebody help me calm down, breathe, and not just start breaking shit here: Please tell me this is somehow not as pointlessly cruel and idiotic and a throwback to "are there no workhouses" as I think it is. Please tell me this is somehow not a death sentence for tens of thousands of people

I can’t promise you that, but I will say that you should calm down and breathe. We’ve seen so many times that things Trump wants to do are actually illegal and get stopped along the way. I have a hard time believing that this is going to go through without a huge fight. And we need you to calm down and breathe so you can help fight.
posted by greermahoney at 9:19 AM on January 10, 2018 [21 favorites]

"I'll sign whatever you put in front of me," on the DACA deal seems like it might actually mean, "I'll sign whatever Stephen Miller puts in front of me." From McClatchy, GOP negotiators say Trump aide Stephen Miller is standing in the way of an immigration deal:

Here’s one thing even Republicans negotiating an immigration deal agree on: Trump aide Stephen Miller is hurting their chances of getting anything done.

They blame him for insisting the administration gets approval for an unrealistic number of immigration policies in exchange for protections for young people brought into the country illegally as children. They loathe his intensity when delivering his hardline views. And they accuse him of coordinating with outside advocacy groups that oppose their efforts.

posted by peeedro at 9:20 AM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

I visited my grandfather yesterday and he had the CBS news on yesterday.

Was this local or national news? If local, was it a Sinclair station?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:24 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Was this local or national news? If local, was it a Sinclair station?

National news.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:25 AM on January 10, 2018

I want to share this story from The Hill about the original draft of Comey's statement on Clinton when he closed the investigation, but I want to share it in the context of this legal analysis about "gross negligence."

Here is The Hill story...

Here is the legal analysis...
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:30 AM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

A pluraity of Americans think Mueller will exonerate Trump and his family, in case you were feeling a tiny bit of optimism today.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:33 AM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Sean Illing, Vox: Can the 25th Amendment be invoked to remove Trump from office? I asked one of its authors.

To understand what the 25th Amendment is, how it was intended to be used, and if it can be plausibly invoked to remove Trump from office, I reached out to Jay Berman, a former chief of staff to Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN) and one of the co-authors of the amendment.
...
Sean Illing

I’ll ask you straightforwardly: Do you think the 25th Amendment should be invoked to remove Donald Trump from office?

Jay Berman

No.

Sean Illing

Why not?

Jay Berman

At this moment, I don’t think he meets the test of a president who’s incapable of fulfilling his responsibilities. I think he was elected to do these dumb things. He hasn’t become dumber or meaner since he was elected — this is who he’s always been. This was who he was when he ran, and may well have been the reason people elected him.

The problem is that we have a ridiculous electoral system and a bizarre set of circumstances that conspired to make this situation possible. But I can’t honestly say that the 25th Amendment is the answer right now. The answer right now is impeachment.

posted by ZeusHumms at 9:34 AM on January 10, 2018 [54 favorites]

Trump aide Stephen Miller is hurting their chances of getting anything done.

The C+ Santa Monica Fascist is a fucking aide. If he’s really in the way, tell Gen. Kelly and show him the door.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:38 AM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

A pluraity of Americans think Mueller will exonerate Trump and his family, in case you were feeling a tiny bit of optimism today.

It's easy to see how people coming at the situation from different perspectives would end up with different conclusions re Trump/Russia conspiracy. In contrast, obstruction of justice seems like a slam dunk for Meuller; it's much harder for me to understand how someone could honestly believe that obstruction had not occurred. So when people answered this question, they are probably mostly thinking of the conspiracy question, and I'm guessing that's because that's where most of the national discussion has been.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:40 AM on January 10, 2018

Jordan Fabian, The Hill: Trump says he'll take a 'strong look' at libel laws in response to book

Speaking to reporters during a Cabinet meeting, Trump called the current laws a “sham and a disgrace.”

“The libel laws are very weak in this country,” he told reporters. “If they were strong, it would be very helpful. You wouldn’t have things like that happen where you can say whatever comes to your head.”

It would be terrible if people in positions of power were able to say whatever came to their heads.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:42 AM on January 10, 2018 [38 favorites]

Please tell me this is somehow not as pointlessly cruel and idiotic and a throwback to "are there no workhouses" as I think it is.

Workhouses? Where poor people can just show up, regardless of background, and be subjected to as much hard labor as their physical condition allows in exchange for food, medical care, and a roof over their heads? That's straight-up socialism by Republican standards, this is much worse.
posted by contraption at 9:45 AM on January 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

First poll for GOP nom in AZ Sen:

McSally 31
Arpaio 29
Ward 25
posted by Chrysostom at 9:47 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Great Moments In Trolling:

Rep. Brendan Boyle's office said in a press release that the Pennsylvania Democrat would introduce the "Stable Genius Act" in the House on Tuesday.

The act would require all presidential candidates to file a Federal Election Commission (FEC) report "certifying that he or she has undergone medical examination by the medical office under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy."

posted by Chrysostom at 9:49 AM on January 10, 2018 [43 favorites]

There are 7 GOP Congressmen from California who represent Clinton-won districts:

Royce - GONE
Issa - GONE
Denham
Valadao
Knight
Walters
Rohrabacher

I'm in Denham's district and it's very flippable. Any other MeFites out here in CA-10 who need activism assists, holla.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:50 AM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

I can’t promise you that, but I will say that you should calm down and breathe. We’ve seen so many times that things Trump wants to do are actually illegal and get stopped along the way. I have a hard time believing that this is going to go through without a huge fight. And we need you to calm down and breathe so you can help fight.

Yes, this. From Matthew Yglesias, Vox: The political lesson of 2017: Resistance works.

[T]hough activism has by no means stopped Trump and his Republican Party colleagues from getting things done, it has sharply mitigated the damage relative to what one might have expected on Election Day.

Trump and his Republicans are not juggernauts, and we can make their job a lot harder.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 9:51 AM on January 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

@Rust Moranis, libel laws were a big thing to Trump during the campaign. He spoke about them constantly, but they’ve been sort of on the back burner since he became president, until now. It does make me laugh when suddenly he reverts back to his campaign messages though.
posted by gucci mane at 9:55 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Investigators also are exploring the involvement of the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who did not attend the half-hour sit-down on June 9, 2016, but briefly spoke with two of the participants, a Russian lawyer and a Russian-born Washington lobbyist. Details of the encounter were not previously known.
Emphasis mine, because I did not know this - is this new?

Mueller's interest in Ivanka that day appears to be new, though as soon as this story broke, Natalia Veselnitskaya went to NBC to provide cover:

Natalia Veselnitskaya the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner in Trump Tower in June 2016, told NBC News that when she was departing the building and waiting for an elevator, she exchanged pleasantries with a blond-haired woman whom she believed was Ivanka Trump.

Since Veselnitskaya was not introduced, she said, she cannot be sure. Veselnitskaya has said this previously.

Separately, another source directly familiar with the Trump Tower meeting says the woman was in fact Ivanka Trump.

The unfolding story of the Trump Tower Russian meeting has been a textbook modified limited hangout. In tradecraft a "limited hangout" is a strategy for dealing with a blown operation in which only partial admission of the details is offered in order to conceal the rest. In the Nixon White House, the "modified" version mixes this partial admission with deliberate misinformation as an ongoing tactic.

Please note, for instance, that Veselnitskaya is very much the public face of the meeting, going on TV to offer slightly differing versions of what transpired each time a new discovery arises. Meanwhile, we've heard very little from the spookiest attendee, the FSB-connected Rinat Akhmetshin—although if Veselnitskaya ran into Ivanka, he would have been there too. And then there's the similarly silent attendee Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze, who was once the subject of a congressional inquiry into Russian money laundering in U.S. banks.

We shall see if this modified limited hangout works better for Trump than it did for Nixon's "third-rate burglary".

Incidentally, Twitter's new 280 characters let Trump sound even more desperate than usual this morning: "The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!"
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:56 AM on January 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

So when people answered this question, they are probably mostly thinking of the conspiracy question, and I'm guessing that's because that's where most of the national discussion has been.

People have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to politics. Pluralities in that poll also believe the Democrats will take both the House and Senate. While that's possible now given the Republicans implosion in Alabama, it requires threading a very, very fine needle in the Senate. And I doubt most of the poll respondents understand the intricacies of the 6 year election cycle, etc. They're just answering this stuff with their gut.

I also think the Russia question is poorly worded. It asked how likely it is that Mueller "clears Trump" of any wrongdoing. I have no idea how to answer that question because I think it's unlikely he will, technically speaking, clear Trump but I also think it's unlikely he will recommend charges.
posted by Justinian at 9:56 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Is trump expecting a tweet from Mueller proclaiming how squeaky clean and collusion-free he is?

Yes, he is. For the last year, he has been asking people for that very thing and claiming that he's been told that. Like everything else in the world, he has no idea how federal criminal investigations work.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:10 AM on January 10, 2018 [19 favorites]

Is it just me or has there not been much news about the Fusion GPS testimony being released?

I've seen/heard stories online and on NPR, but to be honest, not a whole lot. This hasn't been the attention-grabbing thing it should've. It proliferated more through people on social media who watch news closely more than anything else. I thought the video of Trump babbling through the DACA negotiation might steal that spotlight, but as noted above even that doesn't seem to have gone that far. I'm starting to wonder if the media might have finally hit some point of scandal fatigue. Like they just don't want to cover it anymore.

As far as the Fusion GPS release goes, given how low the impact has been, I'm starting to think the only real outcome of Feinstein's act of defiance (should we change how we pronounce DiFei?) is going to be the end of the Steele-bashing tactics from Graham, Grassley, and the GOP in general. It should've really pushed the dial, but it's starting to look like all it did was to rob the Republicans of a talking point.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:10 AM on January 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

BREAKING: In the next 48 hours, the Trump Administration is planning to issue policy on how states can stop people from receiving Medicaid coverage if they don’t have a job.

And they plan to put this in action in their first state— Kentucky.

Governor Bevin has been braying about this for months and months.
posted by chaoticgood at 10:13 AM on January 10, 2018

McSally 31
Arpaio 29
Ward 25

Unfortunately Arpaio and Ward are splitting the kook vote.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:29 AM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mueller should respond that it is not his task to clear Trump, but since the president suggested it, he will put together an annotated edition of the Steele dossier.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:30 AM on January 10, 2018

People have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to politics. Pluralities in that poll also believe the Democrats will take both the House and Senate. While that's possible now given the Republicans implosion in Alabama, it requires threading a very, very fine needle in the Senate. And I doubt most of the poll respondents understand the intricacies of the 6 year election cycle, etc. They're just answering this stuff with their gut.

It's not as hard as people make it out to be now. Before Jones and Virginia it was pretty much considered mathematically impossible. You'd have to pick up a ridiculously deep red state, maybe Texas or Mississippi while holding IN, MO, MT, and ND. If the Democrats really do have a D+9-11 advantage in the national electorate right now plus 4-5 points for incumbency you keep everything, flip AZ and NV, then even TX, MS, and even TN are in play.

People are uninformed but the back of the napkin math gives paths. At least with NV and AZ, 2020's math becomes way more favorable.
posted by Talez at 10:38 AM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

And here's Nate Silver writing today about Dem's chances in Senate and House!

tl;dr - People are probably underestimating chances of a House flip (high) and overestimating Senate flip (35-40 percent).
posted by Chrysostom at 10:48 AM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

leotrotsky: "Unfortunately Arpaio and Ward are splitting the kook vote."

As predicted by Genius Political Prognosticator Chrysostom yesterday!

Well, it's just one poll, but I do see this as a very possible outcome. Setting aside policy, Ward is pretty weak - bad fundraising, was strongly tied to Bannon. Arpaio would probably be a better fundraiser, but he's really old (he'd be the oldest ever for initial Senate election), you have to question his stamina for a campaign.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:52 AM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Incidentally, Twitter's new 280 characters let Trump sound even more desperate than usual this morning: "The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!"

Robert Swan Mueller III is a Republican. He was appointed Special Prosecutor by Rod Jay Rosenstein, a Republican. Republicans also have control of the House, the Senate and the Presidency. Every single thing is already controlled by Republicans.

The world is indeed laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing.
posted by srboisvert at 10:56 AM on January 10, 2018 [74 favorites]

that was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever witnessed

I'm pretty sure that one of the requirements for the World's Greatest Meeting Awards is that a decision is made during the meeting.
posted by diogenes at 11:06 AM on January 10, 2018 [28 favorites]

my white savior is a complete moron and grifter who has betrayed us all.

I think it's not possible that Coulter didn't know Trump was a moron and a grifter. I think it's more likely she thought, as most of the pedestrian Fox clods did, that he wasn't as incapacitated. That the mind-blowing scope of President would get him to buck up and get serious about his moronic grifting.

Instead it dragged his textbook-awful management style in front of everyone all day, every day. Oops.
posted by petebest at 11:09 AM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Politico, Coming soon to Davos: A Trump stink bomb

What planners didn’t know was that some West Wing advisers were arguing that Davos would be the perfect venue for Trump to unleash an especially gassy stink bomb aimed at ideas — free trade deals, a more integrated global regulatory system, and all manner of liberal pieties cherished by global elites — he deplores.

One constant of Trump’s rise to power is his desire to command the attention, if not the approval, of the very establishment institutions he claims to be contemptuous of. No surprise that news of Trump’s Davos attendance was first leaked Tuesday morning to The New York Times, which Trump denounces and gives interviews to in seemingly equal measure.

posted by zachlipton at 11:12 AM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Whoooa again @Scott Wong (The Hill): "NEWS: Former Oversight Chairman DARRELL ISSA (R-CA) is retiring, according to local OC news website. I’ve been hearing same rumors all morning from CA delegation"

While this warms my leftish heart, it's a real tragedy as far as the open data world is concerned. As I believe I have mentioned in past threads, Issa has been pivotal on a lot of data transparency issues and very forward-thinking on them.

As put by someone with a lot more left cred than me, Dan Schuman from Demand Progress:

There’s a lot of reasons why people don’t like Darrell Issa, but if it weren’t for him we wouldn’t have the DATA Act, the FOIA reform bill, and (likely) bulk access to legislative data.

posted by phearlez at 11:22 AM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Ann Coulter is going to say whatever it takes to keep Ann Coulter's name in the notifications.

In 2016, when "reasonable" Republicans were still towing the Nevertrump line, she went all-in on the dumb shithead.

But now that the rack-and-file GOP has hopped on board the trump train, of course she's speaking out against him. Because that's the angle that's going to get some traction on FB and Twitter, at least for a hot minute.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:26 AM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

that was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever witnessed

I'm pretty sure that one of the requirements for the World's Greatest Meeting Awards is that a decision is made during the meeting.

But I think we can all agree that the greatest meetings of all are the ones that are done over email.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:27 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Re: worlds greatest meeting comments and obvious lies therein - does this mean we will soon see Alec Baldwin in a meta moment on SNL acting as Trump but referencing Jack Donaghy's favorite "Meetings Magazine"?
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:28 AM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

In light of Trump's tweet "Republicans should finally take control!", Capitol Hill shenanigans bear watching:

CNN's Jeremy Herb:

COMING ATTRACTIONS: House Republicans want to bring former FBI Director Comey back to the Hill again to testify in joint Oversight-Judiciary probe on Clinton email investigation, via @mkraju and me http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/politics/james-comey-house-investigation/index.html

And:

FBI Director Wray and Deputy AG Rosenstein left the Senate Intel spaces a little while ago after meeting with Burr and Warner

Why were Burr and Warner meeting with Wray and Rosenstein?

Burr: "Committee business."
Warner: "Nothing. I don't even know what you're talking about."

posted by Doktor Zed at 11:28 AM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Didn't Darrell Issa commit arson for insurance money prior to becoming a politician?
posted by palomar at 11:33 AM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

fuck Darrell Issa. His perhaps good positions on data transparency are far outweighed by his bullshit positions on climate change, abortion, vaccines, ACA, and everything else

.... AND HER EMAILS. He was relentless on the stupid fucking emails.
posted by Dashy at 11:37 AM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

That is something that no American court would order as it is flagrantly unconstitutional.

We are talking pre-Trump American courts now.
posted by archimago at 11:39 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

We are talking pre-Trump American courts now.

I'm guessing this was just snark but one place the Supreme Court has taken a hardline stand, both conservative and liberal, has been on free speech issues of this sort. They go farther than a lot of people even here are comfortable with.
posted by Justinian at 11:42 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Trump wants to end chain migration, unless it's from Russia of course.

Why oh why do Russian mommies flock to Trump properties to have their chain babies. Hmmmmm.
posted by archimago at 11:54 AM on January 10, 2018 [15 favorites]

The New York Times, which Trump denounces and gives interviews to in seemingly equal measure.

The Times is like a proxy for Donald's father, alternatively enabling and belittling him. Small wonder he craves its approval.
posted by Slothrup at 11:54 AM on January 10, 2018 [27 favorites]

Mueller's team just keeps growing, and every time, you can see a little more detail of how they're going to attack the Trump Problem.

WaPo; Mueller adds veteran cyber prosecutor to special-counsel team

[Ryan K.] Dickey’s addition is particularly notable because he is the first publicly known member of the team specializing solely in cyber issues. The others’ expertise is mainly in a variety of white-collar crimes, including fraud, money laundering and public corruption, though Mueller also has appellate specialists and one of the government’s foremost experts in criminal law.

I have a feeling that little computer in Trump Tower that was talking to that one Russian bank computer for no good reason is going to be extremely useful, historically speaking.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 11:59 AM on January 10, 2018 [85 favorites]

I remember that story about the Trump Tower computer talking to the Russian bank computer, and people here pooh-poohing it as significant. Maybe we get to find out.

I am quite excited to see a cyber crime person on Mueller's team, because while Russians are maybe good at covering tracks, Trump's gang is full of cyberidiots.
posted by emjaybee at 12:06 PM on January 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

Regarding the Bundys and judge Navarro, there's no real question that there was prosecutorial misconduct.

IN THEORY it's good that she threw out the case with prejudice.

But it's like the Blackwater case all over again. Because prosecutorial misconduct happens a lot when it comes to crimes involving poor black folks and the judge doesn't throw out the case. We're looking at a double standard and that's what pisses me off and I think it's why most of the other people are angry at judge Navarro.

We see it over and over. White people, especially right wing richer white people, have a different experience in court than other people do. If it had been a person from Black Lives Matter (who had through some miracle not simply been killed out of hand by the cops) who had maintained an armed stand off and pointed guns at cops while stealing millions from the federal government the issue of prosecutorial misconduct would never have been raised.

Just like with the Blackwater mercenaries getting off for their war crimes. Sure, they got out due to a legal technicality that, in theory, is a very good idea.

The problem is that there's a double standard. One group gets cases thrown out due to prosecutorial misconduct, the other does not. The privileged group can rest assured that the police and prosecutors must cross every t and dot every i, and that the police will be held to the strictest standards or else the case against them will be thrown out. The other group, if they're lucky enough to get a prosecution instead of a funeral, will almost certainly never even come to trial because the prosecutors will approach them with dozens, if not hundreds, of individual charges with prison terms measured in centuries, and demand they plead guilty to a single (supposedly lesser) offense or face the full wrath of every charge the prosecution can come up with. And if, by foolishness, they chose a trial, the prosecutor can get away with absolutely anything.

We saw it with Zimmerman. The prosecutor threw the case, because the victim was black and the prosecutor never wanted to try Zimmerman in the first place.

Taken as a single, individual, action, what judge Navarro did was entirely appropriate and laudable.

Taken as part of the broader pattern of criminal "justice" in the USA it was another example of richer, whiter, more right wing, people getting special treatment by the courts.

Plus, of course, the undeniable fact that now every sovereign citizen and other far right would be terrorist will now feel (quite justifiably) that they can get away with stealing land and threatening to shoot federal officers.
posted by sotonohito at 12:06 PM on January 10, 2018 [82 favorites]

We are talking pre-Trump American courts now.

Failing that, Trump's probable inability to pronounce "Lèse-majesté" will hopefully save us.
posted by Talez at 12:11 PM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

The address of the Russian Embassy in DC is being changed. It will now be on Boris Nemstov Plaza.
posted by Talez at 12:14 PM on January 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

Just to help everyone stand within the confines of the same page, here's the background, a lot of it IT-speak, on how 1. It wasn't a computer in Trump Tower. 2. It wasn't a Trump computer and 3. It wasn't communicating with Russians.
Good to revisit every other month > Snopes
posted by rc3spencer at 12:15 PM on January 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

A bit more on the Wray and Rosenstein meetings. Ok, its just re-affirming that they met. But there is one additional nugget; Wray and Rosenstein also met with Adam Schiff, my Congressguy and ranking Democrat on House Intel, but apparently did not meet with Nunes.

So that's... unusual I guess?
posted by Justinian at 12:16 PM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

"President Trump on Wednesday afternoon will hold a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

The two are expected to give statements, then take questions from reporters at 3:20 p.m."

Come for the diplomatic fluff, stay for the potentially gonzo responses to questions from reporters.
posted by Tevin at 12:19 PM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Trump specifically called on the Washington Examiner for the first question so I wouldn't expect much. It's basically the moonie paper without the moonies (they hired most of the Washington Times "journalists" away.)
posted by Justinian at 12:24 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

1. It wasn't a computer in Trump Tower. 2. It wasn't a Trump computer and 3. It wasn't communicating with Russians.

The Snope article is well done, but it ends on a strange note about how even thought the claims were "unsubstantiated and likely amounted to nothing," the FBI is still investigating it and still finds it "odd."
posted by diogenes at 12:27 PM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Great Moments In Trolling: Rep. Brendan Boyle's office said in a press release that the Pennsylvania Democrat would introduce the "Stable Genius Act" in the House on Tuesday.

The bill's name is an acronym:

Standardizing
Testing and
Accountability
Before
Large
Elections

Giving
Electors
Necessary
Information for
Unobstructed
Selection
posted by zakur at 12:29 PM on January 10, 2018 [55 favorites]

@kylegriffin1: "There is collusion, but it is really with the Democrats and the Russians far more than it is with the Republicans and Russians. The witch hunt continues."

I, um, kind of can appreciate why his answer to whether he'd be interviewed by Mueller is "we'll see what happens" if his defense includes the suggestion that his party colluded, just not as much.
posted by zachlipton at 12:33 PM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Donald Trump's Spiritual Adviser Paula White Suggests People Send Her Their January Salary or Face Consequences From God

Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of “first fruit,” which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary.

"Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,” she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God. [...]

"When you honor this principle, it provides the foundation and structure for God’s blessings and promises in your life. It unlocks deep dimensions of spiritual truths that literally transform your life. When you apply this, everything comes in divine alignment for his plan and promises for you. When you don’t honor it, whether through ignorance or direct disobedience, there are consequences."

posted by Atom Eyes at 12:38 PM on January 10, 2018 [30 favorites]

3. It wasn't communicating with Russians.

Sure. It was communicating with a Dutch subsidiary of the Russian "Alfa Bank". You know, the one that was recently raided in conjunction with a money laundering investigation. So, sure. It's not the Russians, if that helps you sleep better at night.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 12:40 PM on January 10, 2018 [32 favorites]

When you don’t honor it, whether through ignorance or direct disobedience, there are consequences.

Apparently Ms. White missed her calling as a financial dominatrix.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:43 PM on January 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

"Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,” she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God.

I had a great-uncle in the Church who had a much simpler method. All the offertory gifts would go in the basket. He would then launch the contents of the basket skywards, for God to take what He wanted. Whatever came back down, God obviously didn't want, so my uncle got to keep it.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:50 PM on January 10, 2018 [49 favorites]

So, sure. It's not the Russians, if that helps you sleep better at night.
Nothing helps with sleep these days, but a marketing server trying to blast spam, and thus initiating DNS lookups certainly doesn't make me sleep any worse.
posted by rc3spencer at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2018

RE: Snopes: "That the Trump Organization is the registrant, but not the admin, demonstrates that Trump doesn’t have direct control over it "

Yeah. No. I've been registering domains back to the time you needed to fill in forms to "Show Need". I've never heard that the registrant/admin fields have any operational significance.
posted by mikelieman at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

MetaFilter: pooh-poohing it as significant.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:52 PM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm reading the book and so far Bannon comes across as a credulous dupe who's high on his own supply. I don't know where people are reading political mastermind. It may just be because he's one of the more self-aware people in the narrative, but...that's not a high bar.

I mean, Roger Ailes seems smarter than Bannon, for the sake of pete
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:55 PM on January 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

“It seems unlikely you’d even have an interview [with Mueller],” Trump said during a news conference at the White House with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Whichever lawyer got it through Trump's skull that an interview with Mueller would be an unmitigated disaster probably isn't being paid enough.
posted by Talez at 12:56 PM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Zinke announced he's removed Florida from consideration for new oil and gas platforms because "local voice matters" and Governor Scott contacted him to let him know "Florida is unique." Meanwhile, similar objections from California and other states are ignored.

NPR with a round-up of public requests from coastal states to get offshore oil drilling exemptions.

More from NPR this morning: Democrats Detail Russian Election Interference In Europe

Some senators are trying to take in the big picture of the ambitions of Vladimir Putin. Some Senate Democrats have just released a study of the Russian president. You're hearing about it first here. The Democrats find Putin's goals are to preserve his power and increase his net worth. To do that, the Russian president divides opposition at home and also abroad. And the report finds Russia interfering in many democracies, not just the United States.

NPR did scoop others, but the New York Times have an article that includes a link to the report (PDF). The article has an unclear headline "Trump and Democrats Escalate War Over Russia Investigations," and it opens with a link back to their coverage of Senator Dianne Feinstein releasing "a transcript that was highly critical of Mr. Trump" -- again, y so misleeading NYT? At least the paragraph that links to the report is solid:

The report is one of the most expansive to date on foreign interference by Russia and President Vladimir V. Putin. It tracks Russian efforts in 19 countries, chronicling misinformation campaigns, the funding of far-right political causes and the manipulation of energy supplies long before 2016 in an attempt to glean lessons for American officials considering how to counteract similar efforts here.

Emphasis mine, which indicates Democrats care about vote tampering and are doing something about it at a national level.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:12 PM on January 10, 2018 [20 favorites]

I've read the book, too, and I don't think it's that Bannon comes across as smart, as the rest of that merry crew is just that stupid. I mean, Ivanka, supposedly the "smart" one out of the Traitor Tots, is described as "dumb as a brick." (I think the smart one is Tiffany, for staying the hell away from this mess.)

When Ann Coulter is the voice of reason - "you can't just hire your children" - you know that you're not dealing with a brain trust.

I admit, I laughed and laughed when I read about the Mooch. You know the bad advice that unemployed millennials get from their elders - "just walk in and ask for a job! Show Some Gumption!" - well, that apparently got Scaramucci his job! Quick, someone write Alison Green at Ask A Manager and tell her that gumptioneering worked for the Mooch - for ten days, at least.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:13 PM on January 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Can't Mueller subpoena Trump to testify? I'm sure there would be scheduling restrictions and so on, but you can't simply... decide not to talk to a fed. Right?
posted by Justinian at 1:15 PM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

(You can obviously assert your 5th amendment privilege not to say anything once you're being interviewed of course but that's completely different than simply deciding not to, like, show up.)
posted by Justinian at 1:17 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Who's going to enforce the subpoena?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:17 PM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

That seems like a problem for Future Mueller, not current Mueller.
posted by Justinian at 1:19 PM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

I'm sure there would be scheduling restrictions and so on, but you can't simply... decide not to talk to a fed

"If the President does(n't do) it, it's not illegal."
posted by Coventry at 1:19 PM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I think Current Mueller knows better than to make threats (which is what a subpoena effectively is) that Future Mueller can't follow through on.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:22 PM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Can't Mueller subpoena Trump to testify? I'm sure there would be scheduling restrictions and so on, but you can't simply... decide not to talk to a fed. Right?

If memory serves me correctly, the allegations of Bill Clinton's perjury stemmed from a deposition SCOTUS said he had to undergo while a sitting President. That deposition was in regards to a civil suit, but it may serve as some kind of precedent at least. Clinton obviously chose to comply rather than spark a constitutional crisis. Ford knows what Trump would do in response to a subpoena.
posted by Gelatin at 1:22 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Who's going to enforce the subpoena?

U.S. Marshals? A federal judge could also find President in contempt and levy fines, etc. Judges don't like their power challenged. Also, there's strong interest in entire judicial branch to fall in line here, because otherwise they'd stop being co-equal. If you can't enforce court order on sitting President, you've suddenly got a huge problem.

But I don't think it'll come to that. Remember, Trump is ultimately a coward, and inevitably backs down when challenged. I think he'll pitch a fit and then go anyway.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:26 PM on January 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

You can obviously assert your 5th amendment privilege not to say anything once you're being interviewed of course but that's completely different than simply deciding not to, like, show up.

Remember that Trump has an entire lifetime of practice at not facing the consequences for his actions. He has said, in a deposition no less, that he has been deposed over 100 times in his life; not his first time at the rodeo. He will have selective memory, forget his glasses and be unable to read anything handed to him, claim he was uninvolved in decisions he made or actions taken under him, and gladly disown and contradict his earlier public statements when necessary. What Old Depositions Say About Trump Talking To Mueller:

If there is one tendency that emerges from the depositions that might have bearing on Mueller’s probe, it’s that Trump demonstrates little involvement in or awareness of what’s going on at his business. It helps that Trump claims to have done practically no preparation for the Trump University and Trump Hotel depositions. (Former: “How did you prepare for your deposition?” “I didn't prepare.” Latter: “I would say virtually nothing. I spoke with my counsel for a short period of time.”) Over and over, though, he shows himself to be disconnected from the administration of his business empire.
...
But the depositions show that Trump is also experienced in the favorite tactic of people being asked uncomfortable questions under oath: Profess having no recollection. Time and again, Trump told attorneys that he didn’t remember certain incidents or facts. Judgments on just how credible this will depend on who’s making the judgment, though as the opposing counsel in the Trump University case pointed out, Trump has in the past bragged that he has one of the best memories in the world.

The deponent didn’t recall that either. “I don’t remember that. I remember you telling me, but I don’t know that I said it,” Trump said.

posted by peeedro at 1:44 PM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

"1. It wasn't a computer in Trump Tower. 2. It wasn't a Trump computer and 3. It wasn't communicating with Russians."

The Snopes article is too dismissive, and your numbered summary there, rc3spencer, is far too dismissive. Long post ahead because I am fascinated by this little mystery...

Franklin Foer, who broke the story originally, published a follow up responding to some of the criticisms in that Snopes article (or rather, in the Rob Graham analysis they cite.) Adapting them to your numbered format...

To point number 1: the original story never actually claimed the server was located in Trump Tower, and I think physical location of the server is pretty much completely irrelevant, so point number 1 seems neither here nor there.

To point number 2: it's not totally clear to what extent it was a "Trump computer." Foer points out, "the Trump server was shut down on Sept. 23, two days after the New York Times made inquiries to Alfa Bank (and a week before the Times reached out to Trump)." The timing seems be quite a coincidence... unless whoever did control the server was communication with Alfa Bank, who warned them about the sudden press interest. Also, the March follow up article from CNN says: "Cendyn claims the Trump Hotel Collection ditched Cendyn and went with another email marketing company, the German firm Serenata, in March 2016. Cendyn said it "transferred back to" Trump's company the mail1.trump-email.com domain. Serenata this week told CNN it was indeed hired by Trump Hotels, but it "never has operated or made use of" the domain in question: mail1.trump-email.com.

So it is definitely not clear that Cendyn was in control of the server!

To point number 3: I think this point is just wrong. The original article, the follow up, the CNN article from March, and the Snopes piece all agree that the server was communicating "almost exclusively with two servers registered to Alfa Bank in Moscow."

You didn't get into the various other explanations which have been offered to explain the server's activity, but none of them is very satisfactory. Foer points out:

In the statements they released after the publication of my piece, the Trump campaign and Alfa Bank provide different explanations for the DNS look-ups. According to Alfa, they were likely the result of its security systems furiously swatting away spam being sent by the Trump server. According to Trump, another Cendyn client, a bank, was using its servers to operate a “meeting management” application that allowed it to coordinate meetings with Alfa.
...
The marketing email theory has a few holes. A typical marketing campaign would involve the wide distribution of emails, spreading word of discounted prices and hotel openings far and wide. It seems unlikely that a campaign would so exclusively focus its efforts on a bank in Russia and a health care company in Michigan [ed - run by the DeVos family] ... even if, as one critic has claimed, executives from Alfa Bank had a penchant for staying in Trump hotels.

The CNN follow up confirms that as of March: "Companies involved have provided CNN with new explanations that at times conflict with each other and still don't fully explain what happened."

CNN also says:

Even the skeptics have unanswered questions. Robert Graham is a cybersecurity expert who wrote a widely circulated blog post [ed - this is Snopes' primary source] in November that criticized computer scientists for premature conclusions connecting the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank. But he's still wondering why Alfa Bank and Spectrum Health alone dominated links to this Trump server. "It's indicative of communication between Trump, the health organization and the bank outside these servers," he told CNN. "There is some sort of connection I can't explain, and only they are doing it. It could be completely innocent."

Possibly Graham there is referring to this aspect of the original story, which his blog post didn't really address and which as far as I know can't really be explained by any of the various "innocent explanations" people have offered.

Shortly after [the NYT] reached out to Alfa, the Trump domain name in question seemed to suddenly stop working. When the scientists looked up the host, the DNS server returned a fail message, evidence that it no longer functioned. [...] Four days later, on Sept. 27, the Trump Organization created a new host name, trump1.contact-client.com, which enabled communication to the very same server via a different route. When a new host name is created, the first communication with it is never random. To reach the server after the resetting of the host name, the sender of the first inbound mail has to first learn of the name somehow. It’s simply impossible to randomly reach a renamed server. “That party had to have some kind of outbound message through SMS, phone, or some noninternet channel they used to communicate [the new configuration],” Paul Vixie told me."

It's not clear how either the "marketing" or "someone else was using the server" theories could explain that apparent off-line contact between whoever was controlling those two servers.
posted by OnceUponATime at 1:46 PM on January 10, 2018 [63 favorites]

As a former constituent of his, nah, fuck Darrell Issa. His perhaps good positions on data transparency are far outweighed by his bullshit positions on climate change, abortion, vaccines, ACA, and everything else.

I'm not sure why you think I'm saying otherwise with regards to the net positive of him getting gone. But I think most of us here would love to see a return to the days where there was some bipartisan dealmaking and creation of collaborative good works out of Congress. I just thought it was worth mentioning some that actually got done under a departing member who was otherwise pretty awful.

If nothing else, you can enjoy the fact that these achievements have helped make things like govtrack.us more useful to us in fighting their bullshit and enabled outlets like Pro Publica to use FOIA to expose their sleaze.
posted by phearlez at 1:54 PM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's not clear how either the "marketing" or "someone else was using the server" theories could explain that apparent off-line contact between whoever was controlling those two servers.

I can't imagine that the Trump team was using sophisticated computer techniques. These are the same people who had a conspiratorial meeting with Russian counterparts at their own headquarters. We don't even have a suggestion as to what the Super Sekrit information allegedly transferred by this computer might have been. It wasn't the DNC emails (which were Wikileaked) and it wasn't coordination with the Trumpists, who just used unencrypted email, so what was it?
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:04 PM on January 10, 2018

I really hope his DNS thing gets explained one day, because it certainly is one of the oddests thing in all of Omnigate. I think it manages to break Hanlon's, Occam's, and Alder's razors all at once. Not to mention we found out about it because some guy is tail -f' ing the root servers, which was a whole other thing that kind of got brushed over.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:13 PM on January 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

“That party had to have some kind of outbound message through SMS, phone, or some noninternet channel they used to communicate [the new configuration],” Paul Vixie told me.

Well, that's about as expert a witness as you could ever find.
posted by mikelieman at 2:16 PM on January 10, 2018 [12 favorites]

Emptywheel in March of last year, revisiting and updating on the No-T-Tower-non-story that wouldn't die.
posted by rc3spencer at 2:17 PM on January 10, 2018

I can't imagine that the Trump team was using sophisticated computer techniques.

They're all fools for supporting Trump, but they're not all idiots. Peter Thiel, for instance.
posted by Coventry at 2:18 PM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I agree that there's smoke coming from that server that needs more study. But Mueller hiring a cyberslueth almost certainly has much more to do with either Cambridge Analytica, or establishing the provenance of the DNC and Podesta hacks and releases, from Russia with love to Wikileaks. And a side of Junior.
posted by Dashy at 2:21 PM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

They're all fools for supporting Trump, but they're not all idiots. Peter Thiel, for instance.

Ah the ancient game, idiot or asshole?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 2:22 PM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Yes, Trump instructing Sessions to tell the Marshals to decline to enforce a subpoena would probably be illegal, but at that point you could also ask who would enforce an action against that law breaking.

Traditionally this check on the President's power to do this would rest with the Legislative branch...
posted by Talez at 2:23 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oh, FFS:

NYT, Jan 2017: The U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in December, ending the year on a tepid note before a new President takes charge.

NYT, Jan 2018: The U.S. added 148,000 jobs last month, as continued growth capped a year of increasing opportunities for American workers.
posted by bluecore at 2:33 PM on January 10, 2018 [226 favorites]

Traditionally this check on the President's power to do this would rest with the Legislative branch...

Which law enforcement agency takes its marching orders from Congress?
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:36 PM on January 10, 2018

Which law enforcement agency takes its marching orders from Congress?

Once one is impeached, one is no longer in a position to give orders to the enforcers. It would be like a reverse Saturday Night Massacre for presidents. Keep firing them until one doesn't abuse their power.
posted by Talez at 2:39 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

They're all fools for supporting Trump, but they're not all idiots....

citation nee----

...Peter Thiel, for instance.

that example is not as convincing as you think it is
posted by entropicamericana at 2:43 PM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Ah, but we're talking about the subpoena that would presumably happen prior to actual impeachment (which I am decidedly not expecting unless the House flips blue this year). I'd wager you'll see more enabling by the GOP toads who don't want to give up their legislation rubber stamp so they can starve more grannies.

That would be the implication, yes.
posted by Talez at 2:46 PM on January 10, 2018

gumptioneering worked for the Mooch - for ten days, at least.

Interestingly, he was offered other top-level (of some sub-department) gigs but turned them down because they weren't sexy enough for the Mooch. It's an interesting chapter because it highlights the tension the staff feels when someone shamelessly snuggles up to the Klownwig.

"We'll all look ridiculous for this, but I can't take his incessant talking about it, so". That, and it suggested Mooch's denied affair with a Fox News personality while his wife gave birth may have blown up after his splash, prompting overindulgence and phoned-in stories of autofellatio.
posted by petebest at 2:47 PM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Brian Beutler, The Crime Is Worse Than The Coverup

The transcript of that testimony, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) published online Tuesday, doesn’t radically alter what honest people already knew about the state of the Russia scandal, but it is awful for Republicans, because it paints a tidy contrast between those working in good-faith, though at times sloppily, to uncover the truth; and those, from Trump on down, who have been engaged in a coverup.

The transcript reads in chapters, which alternate hour by hour from questioning by Grassley’s counsel to questions by Feinstein’s and back. It is somewhat tedious, but extremely revealing, to reorder the transcript after first reading, and consume the Grassley half and the Feinstein half as separate, continuous wholes.
...
By my count, over the course of about five hours, Chuck Grassley’s lawyers asked Simpson literally zero questions designed to increase their own understanding of Russian efforts to disrupt the election. They likewise asked no questions aimed at establishing Simpsons’ level of confidence in the information in the dossier, or in documentary evidence he compiled of Trump’s involvement in money laundering and his ties to organized crime.

posted by zachlipton at 2:54 PM on January 10, 2018 [97 favorites]

Can we please import some Dutch press to take on this administration? Pete Hoekstra started his new gig as Ambassador, and was utterly raked over the coals by local press.

I mean this got down to the level of "did you read the quote over the fireplace from John Adams?" (cut to actual quote inscribed above fireplace: "...May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof"), "so if you're truly an honest and wise man why won't you take back that remark about burnt politicians?"

Making the guy read his own fireplace is way, way up there in the pantheon of press conference tactics.

I also appreciate the reporter who says "this is the Netherlands" when explaining why he needs to answer questions.
posted by zachlipton at 3:34 PM on January 10, 2018 [108 favorites]

Which law enforcement agency takes its marching orders from Congress?

I recognize that you were asking a rhetorical question, but just as a matter of trivia the answer is the Capitol Police.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:34 PM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

I also appreciate the reporter who says "this is the Netherlands" when explaining why he needs to answer questions.

Meanwhile in the US every major news organization is still airing Huckabee Sanders "briefings" without comment.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:37 PM on January 10, 2018 [50 favorites]

I also appreciate the reporter who says "this is the Netherlands" when explaining why he needs to answer questions.

Meanwhile in the US every major news organization is still airing Huckabee Sanders "briefings" without comment.

Hopefully 2018 is the year we learn that "access" is for chumps and stenographers.

Reporters don't need access, they just need to do their jobs.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:07 PM on January 10, 2018 [28 favorites]

I also appreciate the reporter who says "this is the Netherlands" when explaining why he needs to answer questions.

I don't know why it's so difficult for US reporters to show the same level of solidarity when politicians and lackeys duck their questions. I mean, it's even a better story!! Have some dignity for your profession, for Pete's sake!
posted by leotrotsky at 4:10 PM on January 10, 2018 [18 favorites]

NT Alexandra Petri, WaPo: What gerrymandering? Every North Carolina district just happens to look like a monster.

The North Carolina GOP said in a statement that it cannot possibly have gerrymandered the state’s congressional districts, as “a ‘gerrymander’ is by definition and common understanding, a strange looking ‘monster’ drawing.”

Chris Ingraham correctly pointed out on Twitter that all North Carolina’s 2nd District needs is googly eyes to become a monster menacing Raleigh.

Many amusing pictures.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:13 PM on January 10, 2018 [28 favorites]

> The North Carolina GOP said in a statement that it cannot possibly have gerrymandered the state’s congressional districts, as “a ‘gerrymander’ is by definition and common understanding, a strange looking ‘monster’ drawing.”

Holy fuck.

I mean besides the responses proving them wrong them with an obvious monster image, this has me dumbfounded.

This is their legal defense that they aren't gerrymandering? That it doesn't look like the image used in a political cartoon that first coined the term gerrymander?

They don't even fucking care about being a valid political party.
posted by mrzarquon at 4:20 PM on January 10, 2018 [38 favorites]

Trump uses 'no collusion' 7 times in a single Russia answer

Trump uses the exact phrase "no collusion" seven times in that answer. He goes with the alternative "nobody's found any collusion" once. Let's call it a soft eight.

He also use the phrase "we'll see what happens" three times - in consecutive sentences:

"So it was brought up for that reason. But it has been determined that there is no collusion and by virtually everybody. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. I mean certainly we'll see what happens -- when they have no collusion and nobody's found any collusion at any level it seems unlikely that you'd even have an interview."
posted by zakur at 4:46 PM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

Wow. Politico, GOP may skip budget, kneecapping 2018 ambitions. McConnell doesn't even think he has the votes to pass a budget. No budget means no reconciliation bill in 2018, no shot at passing anything with a simple majority. Oh my is this a mess.

Speaking of the budget, the government shuts down in 9 days. There's talk now of another continuing resolution, and even talk of getting CHIP in there with it, as states are running out of money any day now. Making that easier: CBO now says a 10-year expansion of CHIP would cost...$-6 billion. That's right, giving kids health insurance for a decade will save the government 6 billion dollars. We can thank GOP sabotage of Obamacare for that result.
posted by zachlipton at 4:48 PM on January 10, 2018 [86 favorites]

In one party state governments progressives just need to run in R primaries on pure economic populism. Don’t even bring up social issues. Are you anti-gay? Pro-life? Let nobody know either way. Stay ambiguous.

Republican rank and file have shown they only give a fuck about social conservatism. Keep your mouth shut about social issues, get them on economic populism and couch every progressive action in a thick layer of helping American families. When you vote with Democrats on crucial issues claim to be standing up for families instead of toeing the party line.
posted by Talez at 4:49 PM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

That's right, giving kids health insurance for a decade will save the government 6 billion dollars.

Yes but what would that teach them? That the government will just give them everything? If these kids want health insurance they need to get a job like everyone else.
posted by Talez at 4:51 PM on January 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

They don't even fucking care about being a valid political party.

Well, they got a pussy-grabbing clown elected to the White House, wrote a piece of major tax legislation in crayon on the back of a Denny's placemat, and chose to attack the head of the FBI who's also in their party in order to protect the aforementioned clown. I don't think conflating electoral districts with monster drawings is a stretch in this reality.
posted by Rykey at 4:53 PM on January 10, 2018 [25 favorites]

McConnell doesn't even think he has the votes to pass a budget. No budget means no reconciliation bill in 2018, no shot at passing anything with a simple majority.
Wait, wasn't the tax "reform" passed under the 2018 budget reconciliation? I could have sworn they were using that dodge with 2017 reconciliation for repeal of Obamacare, which had to be done by the end of September, so tax reform went into the next year's hopper.
posted by SpaceBass at 4:53 PM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

a little late, but haven't seen this posted

NT Alexandra Petri: What is a Steve Bannon, anyway?

Probably someone is just fiddling with the timeline, trying to fix it. Maybe what I remember is a past that no longer exists. Maybe this is why people disappear from the White House memory at a rate previously reserved for Soviet official portraits or boardrooms on the Death Star.

If whatever traveler is doing this takes the whole presidency, then, go in peace. I would gladly forget Steve Bannon. I would gladly forget all of this.

posted by numaner at 4:53 PM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Wait, wasn't the tax "reform" passed under the 2018 budget reconciliation? I could have sworn they were using that dodge with 2017 reconciliation for repeal of Obamacare, which had to be done by the end of September, so tax reform went into the next year's hopper.

Yes. As I understand it, the tax bill was passed under the reconciliation authority of the FY2018 budget, which covers the period October 1, 2017- September 30, 2018. They're now supposed to pass a new budget for FY2019 (October 2018-September 2019), which could contain new reconciliation instructions.
posted by zachlipton at 5:00 PM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

How does this "not do a budget" idea work in practice? I see the article talk about "deeming" "top line spending items", do they just pass a budget that says "Military - $x. Social Security - $y. Roads n' Such - $z" and leave the details up to - who? Without Congress doing a budget, doesn't that leave it up to people who don't have the authority to determine spending levels? Or does some set of people in the executive branch magically gain the power of Congress?

Forgive me, I had thought the options were a) Budget, b) Continuing resolutions, or c) Shutdown.

Is there really an option: d) Meh, 'tevs ?
posted by mrgoat at 5:20 PM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

It means continuing resolution which is literally “stay at the same funding levels”.
posted by Talez at 5:26 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

And another...

@RVAwonk
WaPo reporter Joel Achenbach once wrote that Hillary Clinton "needs a radio-controlled shock collar so that aides can zap her when she starts to get screechy."

He was just suspended for 'inappropriate workplace conduct.'

Noticing a pattern yet...?

The Hill: Washington Post suspends reporter for 'inappropriate workplace conduct'
posted by chris24 at 5:26 PM on January 10, 2018 [93 favorites]

Ah, so it would be a de facto budget, just by punting and changing nothing for another year. That's not nearly as weird as the article made it sound. I don't see how they get the votes for that to pass both houses, but that is perhaps getting too off-topic. Thank you, Talez.
posted by mrgoat at 5:39 PM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Maybe this is why people disappear from the White House memory at a rate previously reserved for Soviet official portraits or boardrooms on the Death Star.

Please correct me if I am mistaken, but at this point in the Bartlet administration they had only lost Mandy.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:41 PM on January 10, 2018 [22 favorites]

It means continuing resolution which is literally “stay at the same funding levels”.

And effectively an across the board cut due to inflation. Indefinite CRs hamstrings every agency's ability to plan ahead or react to any changed circumstance. Right now my agency can barely hire (we need to hire like, whoa, you have no idea), can't pay overtime, and we're supposed to be in the middle of a long scheduled move to a new building, which has been pushed back for over a year due to CRs, when the current lease ends in mid-2019. You'd ordinarily want more than 18 months to plan a move for an 800 person office, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:43 PM on January 10, 2018 [15 favorites]

And effectively an across the board cut due to inflation. Indefinite CRs hamstrings every agency's ability to plan ahead or react to any changed circumstance.

At NIH, for instance, this means the % of research grants that get funded drops as more money is held in reserve to see whether the next continuing resolution is passed or not. CRs suck for science.
posted by deludingmyself at 5:52 PM on January 10, 2018 [18 favorites]

Oh, y’all, my little part of our Department has something like 700 vacant positions, and we’re filling about 2 a month. There may be no agency left by 2020 at this rate.
posted by wintermind at 6:26 PM on January 10, 2018 [20 favorites]

Tracking how many key positions Trump has filled so far

Of 626 key positions requiring Senate confirmation …

No nominee: 245
Awaiting nomination: 6
Formally nominated: 134
Confirmed: 241

posted by kirkaracha at 6:51 PM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

If the Democrats manage to obtain the majority in 2018, and/or the presidency in 2020/whenever, we’ll be able to brag about a huge jump in employment just filling all the empty seats.
posted by Autumnheart at 6:56 PM on January 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

Democrats go it alone on Russia probe after partisan breakdowns (WaPo)

Democrats are striking out on their own this week over all but one of the congressional investigations into Russian meddling, independently releasing reports and transcripts, and attacking Republicans they accuse of intentionally undermining active probes in deference to President Trump.

Senior Democratic officials in the Senate, frustrated by what they consider a Republican campaign to discredit the law enforcement and intelligence agencies investigating the president, cleared their members to release the interview transcript of one of the Russia investigation’s most sensitive witnesses and, separately, to publish a report detailing the disinformation and intimidation tactics the Kremlin deploys against democracies globally. ...

But increasingly, Democrats see Republicans as dedicating more energy to attacking federal law enforcement than seriously investigating the allegations that have been unearthed. For them, the criminal referral of Steele — who approached the FBI in 2016 over concerns Trump could be blackmailed or compromised, Simpson told the committee — was “a breaking point,” according to one congressional aide.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:06 PM on January 10, 2018 [50 favorites]

Remember when the Tea Party was all riled up because ~~a black guy got elected president~~ the deficit was too damn high? Crickets now.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:10 PM on January 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

Arpaio: Congress should examine presidential birth certificates

"Former Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio resurfaced false claims on Wednesday that former President Barack Obama's birth certificate is a "forgery" and said Congress should pass a law requiring such documents to be examined."
posted by Slothrup at 7:18 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sarah Kendzior (who surely qualifies for the National Treasure (tm) tag) has a great thread discussing the GOP sycophancy and the resulting autocracy:

Dont forget that Russians didn't just hack the Democrats. They hacked the RNC too. And they hacked the email of Senator Lindsay Graham.

Despite his overwhelming incompetence in every other arena, remember that the one thing Drumpf has decades of success in, is getting and keeping his people in line. Whether by NDA or lawsuit or money or blackmail - that's the one thing he does, by all evidence, know how to do. He has the GOP under his thumb. It's long past time for the Dems to "go it alone."
posted by Dashy at 7:22 PM on January 10, 2018 [14 favorites]

Eric Wemple on WaPo: Why Tucker Carlson is (finally) blasting President Trump
tl;dr, Carlson thinks Trump is soft on immigration.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:25 PM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

He has the GOP under his thumb.

It's really more like our "Monkey With A Gun" analogy. Except the monkey is tied to the GOP with a big rope around its waist. And he repeats the same stories every hour.
posted by petebest at 7:31 PM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

NBC News, Democrats to invite sex misconduct victims to Trump’s State of the Union

Some Democratic House members are planning to invite victims of sexual assault to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address later this month to highlight the issue, according to an aide to a lawmaker who has been a prominent voice on sexual misconduct.

"Some members will be bringing survivors of sexual assault and advocates as their guests," said an aide to Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., who asked not to be identified. Frankel is a leader of the Democratic Women's Working Group in the House.

Party leaders generally don't dictate who rank-and-file members can invite with the one ticket each lawmaker gets to give to a guest seated in a gallery above the House floor where the president delivers the address. And there's still some uncertainty within Democratic ranks over where to draw the line between addressing sexual misconduct and turning the topic into a partisan political war.

posted by zachlipton at 7:32 PM on January 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

And there's still some uncertainty within Democratic ranks over where to draw the line between addressing sexual misconduct and turning the topic into a partisan political war.

What the fucking stupid is that? Because if Democrats come out in favor of not raping women the Republicans are going to want to legalize whacking a woman over the head with a club and dragging her back to your cave?!?
posted by Talez at 7:38 PM on January 10, 2018 [23 favorites]

Somebody needs to tell the Democrats that its already a partisan political war, the only question is whether they're going to fight or roll over.
posted by Justinian at 7:39 PM on January 10, 2018 [77 favorites]

If you read on, because I stopped myself from pullquoting six paragraphs to get the entirety of the point in there, I think it's more of a question of tactics. Does holding fake "hearings" with people who accused Trump of sexual assault advance the cause or squander any hope of accomplishing reform by further politicizing the issue? Or, as the article goes on to say, would it be better to more broadly give voice to those who have been sexually assaulted across the country, "from workers on factory floors to hotel rooms to restaurant kitchens" than to focus solely on the President?
posted by zachlipton at 7:55 PM on January 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Ummm. @kenvogel: MANAFORT & GATES sued today by Russian oligarch OLEG DERIPASKA, who alleges they "vanished more than $18.9M" of Deripaska's $ thru a private equity fund in which a "key figure" was KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK, an operative believed to be linked to Russian intel.
posted by zachlipton at 8:10 PM on January 10, 2018 [45 favorites]

In first day Virginia House of Delegates news, Dems are doing some good stuff:

* Wrangled an agreement with the GOP to record subcommittee votes (a lot of stuff was killed by unrecorded voice vote) and to have subcommittee membership reflect caucus numbers (no loading up subcommittees with was more Republicans than overall membership).

* Introducing a slew of bills to make voting easier (extended hours, same day registration, etc). These may not all pass, but if not, we want the GOP on record about it.

Also, if you are in a state with a blue legislature, and you don't have things like early voting, automatic registration, same day registration (Delaware leaps to mind here), contact your reps! Blue states, especially, should be making voting as easy as possible.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:18 PM on January 10, 2018 [45 favorites]

Washington state Dems also introducing voting rights package. Dems now have unified control in WA, so this stuff should pass.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:21 PM on January 10, 2018 [31 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

(I've been remiss in doing these - sorry, too much going on!)

** 2018 House:

-- Today's retirement announcement by Darrell Issa brings GOP retirements to 30, 13 in competitive districts (less than 10 point presidential margin).

-- DSA member Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has dropped out of the IL-4 race, leaving Cook County Commissioner Chuy Garcia as the prohibitive favorite for the seat.

-- Second round of Red to Blue districts announced by the DCCC. These might be good people to back, if you are looking for a place to put your money.

-- More from DKE on correlation between special election results and subsequent general election results. Surprisingly high.

-- Latest installment of Vice series on crucial districts.

** 2018 Senate -- Rep Jim Renacci is leaving the OH governor's race he was going to lose and is jumping into the Senate race in the wake of Josh Mandel's surprise departure. Renacci purportedly has the White House's imprimatur, while establishment GOP types are trying to lure in Hillbilly Elegist J.D. Vance.

** Odds & ends:

-- Hasn't been a lot of talk about the AZ governor's race, but a new PPP poll has likely Dem nominee Garcia edging GOP gov Ducey 43-42.

-- NY GOP is having real trouble finding candidates for statewide races. This could have a knockon effect in down-ballot races.

-- Oral arguments today at SCOTUS in the Ohio "use it or lose it" registration purge case. Rick Hasen is relatively pessimistic about this one.

-- ICYMI, two 538 articles that got mentioned in passing: 1) GOP midterm advantage may mostly be an out party advantage; 2) Dems look good for House flipping, but Senate is probably 1/3 or so.

-- Jeff Klein, leader of the IDC caucus that allows the GOP to control the NY state Senate, has been accused of sexual assault. At minimum, this would appear to increase his risk of being primaried.

posted by Chrysostom at 8:50 PM on January 10, 2018 [35 favorites]

Pot news - Vermont Senate has passed a recreational marijuana legalization bill, following on the House earlier in the week. Gov Scott says he will sign the bill.

This is the first legalization of recreational use to come from the normal legislative process, rather than a referendum.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:52 PM on January 10, 2018 [58 favorites]

Look who doesn't let partisanship affect their reality.

@aedwardslevy (Slate)
Believe unemployment numbers are higher than reported

2014:
Dems 41%
Ind 64%
Reps 76%

2017: Dems 45%
Ind 30%
Reps 25%

The Economist Poll Details
posted by chris24 at 8:54 PM on January 10, 2018 [29 favorites]

Yeah, a bit late....Sometimes I wonder what we're paying you for, Chrysostom! ;)
posted by uosuaq at 8:56 PM on January 10, 2018 [13 favorites]

Sens Booker and Harris have been named to the Senate Judiciary Committee. They are only the 2nd and 3rd African-Americans ever to serve on it, in 201 years.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:03 PM on January 10, 2018 [71 favorites]

Ummm. @kenvogel: MANAFORT & GATES sued today by Russian oligarch OLEG DERIPASKA, who alleges they "vanished more than $18.9M" of Deripaska's $ thru a private equity fund in which a "key figure" was KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK, an operative believed to be linked to Russian intel.

Lawsuit, or "we totally didn't pay these guys, they stole that money!" strategy to muddy the waters on Russia-Trump links?
posted by jason_steakums at 9:18 PM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

And there's still some uncertainty within Democratic ranks over where to draw the line between addressing sexual misconduct and turning the topic into a partisan political war.

In today's episode of Democrats behaving badly, Colorado Representative Steve Lebsock, who has been accused by 11 women of various forms of sexual misconduct has abandoned the Democrats and is caucusing with the Republicans. The Republicans have been welcoming.

Later Wednesday, Lebsock tweeted that he wouldn’t be caucusing with his own party during this year’s session, and said, referring to the moments when Duran addressed the situation in her speech: “Thank you to several Republican House members coming up to me and giving me hugs.”

posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 9:19 PM on January 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

If Harris is replacing Franken on judiciary, that makes me feel a lot better about his ouster. Several historic wrongs repudiated all at once!
posted by dbx at 9:31 PM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

Franken resignation opened a seat, and Doug Jones victory meant Dems gained another seat.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:44 PM on January 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

Believe unemployment numbers are higher than reported

We know they're higher than reported because as people get discouraged they leave the labor pool and we don't count that. The labor pool is still stubbornly on 63% since the great recession compared to 66% before it. Half of the discouraged workers have aged out in the mean time but that still means like 2% of the old workforce is literally missing.
posted by Talez at 9:44 PM on January 10, 2018 [9 favorites]

A St. Louis tv station is breaking a story that the governor of Missouri blackmailed a woman he was having an affair with.
posted by rewil at 9:48 PM on January 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

She told her husband he took naked pictures of her without her consent and threatened to circulate them if she told anyone about their affair. He’s a family-values conservative. He admits the affair but not the blackmail.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:52 PM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

Sarah Kendzior points out that he’s a good friend of Pence. (Twitter link). No doubt the good governor will just say God’s forgiven him and try to move on.
posted by rewil at 9:56 PM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

NT Alexandra Petri, WaPo: The Somewhat Revised Art of the Deal

President Trump is a master negotiator.

This is an non-negotiable fact and thus, if Trump negotiates somewhat differently than might have been anticipated from his reputation, published works or a study of the meaning of the word “negotiation,” it is our understanding of what “negotiation” means that must be updated.

On Tuesday, Trump offered a master class in negotiating with a bipartisan delegation from Congress on the subject of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy and immigration reform. From watching this man work, it is clear that our concept of what it means to negotiate lags far behind the reality of Trump’s dealmaking. Some suggested updates to Trump’s key principles from “The Art of the Deal” follow.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:57 PM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

We know they're higher than reported because ...

I think we should be very, very careful here. There are two things (potentially) being run together.

The first is whether the numbers usually reported as "unemployment" accurately represent what we want them to represent. That is, we might think of a thing out there in the world -- unemployment -- and try to measure that thing in various ways. Some of those measures might be better than others. And we can have a substantive debate about how to go about measuring that thing. Your point is absolutely relevant to such a substantive debate. Importantly, we can have genuine disagreements about how to best measure unemployment while believing that the government is telling the truth about its measurements.

The second is whether the numbers reported by the government are faithful to what the government actually measures. If unemployment is higher than reported in this sense, it means that the government is falsifying its reports. Here the issue isn't about whether U3 or U6 is the best measure of "unemployment" or whether we should pay attention to workforce participation rates or something else entirely. Rather, it's about whether when the government says, "The U3 unemployment rate is 4.1%" we believe that approximately 4.1% of people who have actively looked for work in the past four weeks couldn't find any, according to the government's research. The question here is fundamentally about trusting the government to report the numbers faithfully.

Anyway, I think we should avoid saying that unemployment is higher than reported when we mean something along the first line because (I think) people tend to hear "unemployment is higher than reported" along the second line: the government is lying about unemployment.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 10:29 PM on January 10, 2018 [34 favorites]

In 355 days, President Trump has made 2,001 false or misleading claims

The Fact Checker’s ongoing database of the false or misleading claims made by President Trump during his first 365 days in office.

posted by kirkaracha at 10:56 PM on January 10, 2018 [11 favorites]

As Republican Congressional retirements has become a news story, something has occurred to me. Instead of cheering on the rats fleeing the ship, I wonder if it is a strategy to retain Republican control of Congress and escape the stink they have earned via having a brand new set of Despicable Republicans who can honestly say that all of the things that are horrible that Republicans have done was not done by them. One might picture a whole cavalcade of "Mavericks" and "Outsiders" and "straight shooters" appearing, saying they're going to drain the swamp to replace those incumbents that nobody likes. Republican voters will then have cover to vote again for leopard's eating faces, because " hey - these are different leopards, they won't eat my face!" sigh.
posted by Anchorite_of_Palgrave at 11:07 PM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

One of the fundamentals of democratic politics is that the incumbent has a massive advantage because they're a known quantity. If anything, the people in power are less vulnerable than a replacement, because replacements don't get the incumbency advantage and independent voters mad at the party will still not vote for them. It's only better to force an incumbent to retire when it's a personal scandal strong enough that it counteracts their incumbency.
posted by Merus at 11:32 PM on January 10, 2018 [10 favorites]

I'm in Denham's district and it's very flippable.

Absolutely! There's a lot of us newly-engaged activists, at both ends of the district, working hard to get this thing flipped.
posted by ogooglebar at 1:27 AM on January 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

"The Lowest White Man" Charles M. Blow in the NYTimes.
There's nothing really new in it, just a lucid description of the racism and sexism Trump embodies. Worth a read.
posted by mumimor at 4:34 AM on January 11, 2018 [35 favorites]

Charles M. Blow is the main reason I haven't cancelled my NYT subscription yet.
posted by chaoticgood at 4:46 AM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Sens Booker and Harris have been named to the Senate Judiciary Committee. They are only the 2nd and 3rd African-Americans ever to serve on it, in 201 years.

Carol Mosley-Braun was the first, in the early 1990s. Fun Fact from Wikipedia,

In 1993, the Illinois Senator made headlines when she convinced the Senate Judiciary Committee not to renew a design patent for the United Daughters of the Confederacy because it contained the Confederate flag. The patent had been routinely renewed for nearly a century, and despite the Judiciary Committee’s disapproval, the Senate was poised to pass a resolution sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina that included a provision to authorize the extension of the federal patent. Moseley Braun threatened to filibuster the legislation “until this room freezes over.” She also made a plea to her colleagues about the symbolism of the Confederate flag, declaring, “It has no place in our modern times, place in this body, place in our society.”[14] Swayed by Moseley Braun’s argument, the Senate rejected the UDC’s application to renew its patent.

posted by petebest at 5:07 AM on January 11, 2018 [77 favorites]

Capitalism 101 What can you offer in order to be allowed to stay alive? This is becoming one dark year (per Rorty).
posted by rc3spencer at 5:11 AM on January 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

In addition to the U3 vs U6 point Jonathan Livengood makes above, the lower labor participation rate, long a talking point for Rs during Obama's terms, is the same now as it was in 2014 - 62.7% - when they were constantly slamming Obama for it. And the 3% drop can be pretty readily explained. Half of it as Talez mentioned is Boomers aging out of the work force. Of the remaining 1.5%, the CBO says 1% is seasonal/structural factors in the business cycle. Which basically means the move from employees to the Uber economy. And the last .5% is often attributed, at least in part, to Obamacare; People being able and willing to leave the work force to go out on their own since they are no longer tied to their employer for insurance.
posted by chris24 at 5:22 AM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]

That piece by Blow has the best worded definition of Trumpism I’ve seen yet and bears repeating

Spot on. And it's hardly a new phenomenon. The so-called "Tea Party" was part of the backlash to Obama's election, and they aren't sounding a peep about deficits now.
posted by Gelatin at 5:32 AM on January 11, 2018 [19 favorites]

@MattGertz continues this morning to tweet Trump's "Executive Time" with Fox and Friends.

If you saw some wavering on FISA in this tweet this morning:

@RealDonaldTrump: “House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?

it probably had nothing to do with that time (45 minutes earlier) where Judge Napolitano turned and looked directly into the camera and said:

Mr. President, this is not the way to go.

Fourth wall broken, they're just talking to him directly now.
posted by pjenks at 5:43 AM on January 11, 2018 [83 favorites]

Top U.S. Government Computers Linked to Revenge-Porn Site
It's The Daily Beast, but the research is in part from Norway and the Norwegian daily VG.
How low can they go?
posted by mumimor at 5:53 AM on January 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

Confused Trump Tricked by Fox News Into Opposing His Own Surveillance Bill
The president’s alarm was unfortunate, since the Trump administration strongly supports reauthorization of this law. It has sent its highest-ranking security officials to lobby Congress for reauthorization, and reiterated its endorsement of the law as recently as last night.
posted by PenDevil at 5:57 AM on January 11, 2018 [60 favorites]

looking forward to fox & friends next segment discussing whether it's duck season or wabbit season
posted by entropicamericana at 6:11 AM on January 11, 2018 [33 favorites]

So in response to my earlier q re who is running the show in terms of setting national priorities, I guess one big player is Fox & Friends. That's some motherfucking dystopian shit right there.
posted by angrycat at 6:21 AM on January 11, 2018 [30 favorites]

Confused Trump Tricked by Fox News Into Opposing His Own Surveillance Bill

Somebody informed Don E. Coyote, super genius, that he was railing against a bill he supports.

@realDonaldTrump
With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!
posted by chris24 at 6:27 AM on January 11, 2018 [26 favorites]

Somebody informed Don E. Coyote, super genius, that he was railing against a bill he supports.

I updated the business card for modern times.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:41 AM on January 11, 2018 [20 favorites]

Those two tweets about FISA definitely both came from the same person.
posted by PenDevil at 6:42 AM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Get smart, he says.

You know what? This might at long last have been the thing that broke me: the utter childlike credulousness with which he swallowed the baited hook; the public, indeed globally so, fumbling for understanding; the "I have personally directed" posturing with chin thrust all Duce-like; the final, desperate confession of incompetence masked as exhortation to his equally credulous followers. It'd be hysterical, if it weren't so heartbreaking, if it weren't all our lives and every last thing we cherish on the line.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:43 AM on January 11, 2018 [58 favorites]

So in response to my earlier q re who is running the show in terms of setting national priorities, I guess one big player is Fox & Friends.

angrycat, read the book. It's worse than that, even.
posted by petebest at 6:53 AM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

National priority is set by whoever most recently managed to convince Trump that whatever it is they want is something that was Trump's idea all along. It doesn't matter whether it's the opposite of something he said 10 minutes ago because he can't remember that long.
posted by Foosnark at 7:06 AM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Capitalism 101 What can you offer in order to be allowed to stay alive?

This is horrifying. Rebecca Vallas a longish tweet-thread about what this does to able-bodied working people who receive Medicaid, "BREAKING: Trump has officially ended Medicaid as we know it, by allowing states to take health insurance away from people who can't find a job." She does end by saying that, "Litigation will follow, as legal experts have noted conditioning Medicaid coverage on work violates the Medicaid statute," so I guess we'll see how Trump's new judges see things.
posted by gladly at 7:24 AM on January 11, 2018 [26 favorites]

zachlipton: "...it is awful for Republicans, because it paints a tidy contrast between those working in good-faith, though at times sloppily, to uncover the truth; and those, from Trump on down, who have been engaged in a coverup."

I quote this somewhat out of context because it turns into a fun game of "what public spectacle of inquiry is being discussed?" Are we talking about Dems trying to look into Trump's ties to Deutsche Bank, while GOP says nyet, straight down party lines? OK, that was from the House Financial Services Committee, which deals with banking and money laundering, "will not be spending time and money" and duplicate efforts of the Senate and House intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Maybe it was questions asked by members of each party in questions posed to Sally Yates, where Democrats asked 3 1/2 times more questions than Republicans on Russia, Flynn and the White House's conduct (142 versus 40)?

I'll stop there, because it's not worth my time and money (har har) to recall all the times that the GOP has put party before country when it comes to Trump. And of course it didn't start on January 20, 2017 -- it goes back to Bill Clinton, and probably well before that.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:27 AM on January 11, 2018 [24 favorites]

Barack Spinoza: Democrats are striking out on their own this week over all but one of the congressional investigations into Russian meddling, independently releasing reports and transcripts, and attacking Republicans they accuse of intentionally undermining active probes in deference to President Trump.

I'm slowly working my way through the tail end of this thread, but I JUST POINTED OUT THAT THE DEMS HAVE BEEN GOING ALONE FOR QUITE A WHILE. Sorry for the caps there, but c'mon! GIVE THEM CREDIT!

(Yes, I realize there's a difference between voting on party lines and releasing transcripts that show that the GOP didn't actually ask any questions about Russia in a hearing about Russian meddling, influence and collusion, but this isn't like the Dems are suddenly woke to the problems with Trump.)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:33 AM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]

Yes, the chaos (KAOS?) Wolff describes in the time he had access to the campaign and eventual White House is stunning.
We have talked about how monumentally stupid the Trump group seems from the outside but to see it laid out narrarively is powerful.
I don’t like the structure of the book but I think it is important.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 7:39 AM on January 11, 2018

I JUST POINTED OUT THAT THE DEMS HAVE BEEN GOING ALONE FOR QUITE A WHILE. Sorry for the caps there, but c'mon! GIVE THEM CREDIT!

They have been going it alone within the confines of a process defined by the Republicans. It's this week's signs that they are starting to break out of those confines that we're cheering.
posted by diogenes at 7:46 AM on January 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

Chrysostom: Pot news - Vermont Senate has passed a recreational marijuana legalization bill, following on the House earlier in the week. Gov Scott says he will sign the bill.

This is the first legalization of recreational use to come from the normal legislative process, rather than a referendum.

Also, this is the first legalization effort after Sessions made a move to come down hard on marijuana, which supports the notions that his move promoted the legalization of pot.

Bonus idiot points for Sessions: U.S. Justice Department blindsided banking agency on pot policy flip (Sarah N. Lynch for Reuters, Jan. 11, 2018)

When the U.S. Justice Department said last week it was reversing policy on the $7 billion marijuana business, it failed to first notify federal officials who advise banks in states where the drug is legal, sources in Congress said.

Well. oiled. etc.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:46 AM on January 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

Capitalism 101 What can you offer in order to be allowed to stay alive?

well, i can offer not to guillotine the rich
posted by entropicamericana at 7:49 AM on January 11, 2018 [30 favorites]

National Treasure Sarah Kendzior, NBC: What's next for Steve Bannon? Nothing good for America.

Bannon has the additional advantage of being seen as in opposition to the widely detested Trump, whether he truly is or not. Thanks to Trump's Twitter meltdowns, his promotion of a tax bill that rigs the economy for the rich for decades, and his incessant war-mongering, Trump’s approval numbers have sunk to a record low.

In “Fire and Fury,” Bannon frequently comes off as enraged, but for good reason: He is being forced to manage an imbecile president. In Wolff’s portrayal, the racist rhetoric is simply something Bannon uses to rile up liberals, prompting them to do things like protest the Muslim ban at the airport — deep down his commitment to populist ideology is sincere. Much as “Fire and Fury” may help Trump by bolstering the GOP’s “He’s too inexperienced to have committed a crime” excuse, the controversial account also makes Bannon seem competent by default.

Throughout his year and a half in the spotlight, Bannon attached himself to the most reprehensible of causes while cavalierly attacking basic constitutional principles such as freedom of religion and a free press. He did this openly, and venomously, yet ended the year with speculation of a 2020 presidential run and a best seller which presents him as the lesser of two evils.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:59 AM on January 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

Massachusetts dispensaries go cash only.

It doesn't really hold a candle to the cruelty of the Medicaid announcement, but maybe it is pointless to compare cruelties from people who have found all these major and minor ways to be cruel, some of them clearly 'for the hell of it'. At this point the sick feeling is pretty much a permanent feature of my consciousness and I'm like 'oh, that's horrible' 'oh wow, that's horrible too.' And then the next thing arrives and you realize the day is young.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 8:00 AM on January 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

In first day Virginia House of Delegates news, Dems are doing some good stuff:

* Wrangled an agreement with the GOP to record subcommittee votes (a lot of stuff was killed by unrecorded voice vote) and to have subcommittee membership reflect caucus numbers (no loading up subcommittees with was more Republicans than overall membership).

This represents a years-long achievement on the part of OpenGov VA which has been stumping for the vote recording for a long time. If you're a VA resident looking for a place to drop a few bucks you can do a lot worse than a $30 annual membership.

Their daily news for today includes a list of a number of introduced bills to improve other transparency issues, including one that I think is meant to go after the ongoing fight about court records. (The over-arching agency insists they're not the 'custodian' of the records so they don't have to comply with requests, making getting certain information notably more difficult; it's hard to think HB 957 isn't aimed straight at them.)
posted by phearlez at 8:02 AM on January 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

I really think that "the straw that's broke the camel's back" is going to be this Federal Fuck You to the small businessmen just trying to provide the legal product that their customers demand. The idea that you can't just Mealeo an ounce delivered to your door is insane. We embrace the NY craft-beverages industry. I *LOVE* 9 Pin Cider, made with NY apples right here in Albany, NY. I'd like to give the same opportunities to craft-growers.

If the localvore movement is good enough for our restaurants, why isn't it good enough for our bongs?
posted by mikelieman at 8:04 AM on January 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

If the localvore movement is good enough for our restaurants, why isn't it good enough for our bongs?

Because right now the industry is in the “gold rush” portion of the business cycle and not the “make all costs externalities” portion.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:07 AM on January 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

Jimmy Kimmel celebrates Trump's 2000th lie with the stirring documentary, Pants of Fire "Happy Lie 2K, everybody!"
posted by kirkaracha at 8:15 AM on January 11, 2018 [19 favorites]

Ruben Bolling at Tom The Dancing Bug gives Trump a "Calvin and Hobbes" twist. (via Daily Kos)
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 8:29 AM on January 11, 2018 [23 favorites]

I really think that "the straw that's broke the camel's back" is going to be

I thought the camel's back was broken with the obviously-partisan Supreme Court handing the 2000 election to Bush II. I'm sure some poor slob, around the year that I was born, thought that the camel's back was broken when the CiC was found to be orchestrating a hiest at a local hotel like a two-bit crook.

I guess I'm saying that this camel has an amazingly durable back because those are some pretty heavy straws. But I do agree that opinions and attitudes change quick when policies hit wallets, and a bunch of Trump's flailing is going to land right on what is, demographically, his base.
posted by eclectist at 8:37 AM on January 11, 2018 [21 favorites]

I guess I'm saying that this camel has an amazingly durable back because those are some pretty heavy straws.

I was at our county SAR meeting, and the deputy who is our liason between the sheriffs office and the volunteer SAR groups was talking before the meeting. He was talking about a LEO interaction he had and how "People need to learn to obey cops and just do what they're told. Society can't function if people don't follow rules".

Literally 3 sentences later, talking about a directive from the state government on some paperwork thing - "Government needs to leave people alone and let them live their lives. People aren't stupid - they know best how to handle things without some yahoo telling them what to do."

So, yeah. Critical thinking isn't a huge component of the conservative thought process.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:50 AM on January 11, 2018 [86 favorites]

Jimmy Kimmel celebrates Trump's 2000th lie with the stirring documentary, Pants of Fire

Incidentally, later this month Netflix will stream “The Confidence Man” about Trump as part of its documentary series on corporate corruption, Dirty Money: "A rollicking profile of the rise and reign of TRUMP Inc. Weaving together a tapestry of tales in real estate booms and busts, [director Fisher] Stevens lays out how Donald Trump’s business career transformed from epic failures into a consummate branding machine that propelled him into office." The series is produced by the same team as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, as well as exposés on Jack Abramoff and Scientology, so hopefully they will come down as hard on Trump.
posted by Doktor Zed at 8:53 AM on January 11, 2018 [35 favorites]

The Economist joins in the one-year festivities with a particularly glorious cover.
posted by Devonian at 9:00 AM on January 11, 2018 [24 favorites]

So, yeah. Critical thinking isn't a huge component of the conservative thought process.

Please understand that this is how propaganda works. It explicitly short-circuits critical thinking for specific topics and keywords. These people aren't dumb, their brains have been co-opted by evil people who know what they're doing and how the psychology works.

(This is said as someone who was in thrall to this sort of thing until the cognitive dissonance became so great that it caused an existential crisis. This is not easy to overcome and I don't know how to deprogram large groups of people, because deprogramming is inherently a process that needs to be tailored to an individual's needs. Just please be careful of saying "they're dumb", because intelligence isn't the issue here.)
posted by ragtag at 9:04 AM on January 11, 2018 [62 favorites]

In Trump’s defense, if people on TV started turning to the camera and addressing me personally it would probably throw me a little too
posted by theodolite at 9:08 AM on January 11, 2018 [40 favorites]

Incidentally, later this month Netflix will stream “The Confidence Man” about Trump as part of its documentary series on corporate corruption, Dirty Money

Elsewhere on the documentary front, NYT Asst. Managing Editor Sam Dolnick‏ @samdolnick announced:

A documentary film crew has been basically living in the @nytimes newsroom since Inauguration Day. They have had full access to the Russia investigation and much more.

It’s made by Oscar nominee @lizgarbus. Airs in May on @Showtime

Somehow I don't think the Grey Lady would be promoting it if it didn't portray them favorably...

In Trump’s defense, if people on TV started turning to the camera and addressing me personally it would probably throw me a little too

Look at how James Woods is behaving these days after Brian O'Blivion addressed his character in Videodrome.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:32 AM on January 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

> But I do agree that opinions and attitudes change quick when policies hit wallets, and a bunch of Trump's flailing is going to land right on what is, demographically, his base.

If there's one thing Republicans (and conservative politicians in general) are great at, it's redirecting blame for negative economic outcomes. "Trump's policies didn't empty your bank account, Hillary's emails did!"
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:39 AM on January 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

This is not easy to overcome and I don't know how to deprogram large groups of people, because deprogramming is inherently a process that needs to be tailored to an individual's needs.

Yeah, there's no simple mass fix for propaganda damage. Each victim has found different ways of coping with the cognitive dissonance, different subcategories or evasions to allow all the lies to be absorbed.

Some parts are, "well, that's probably an exaggeration but the main point is still true." Some are, "she's just so honest and genuine; she can't possibly be lying. If that's not true, she's been deceived by someone else." Some are, "like I know fuck-all about big business? It's probably true; I can't tell for sure." Some are the very insidious, "all those news outlets wouldn't be following him around if he were just babbling nonsense." Some are, "I'm sure that's what was intended; if it didn't happen that way, some bastard must've stopped them." Some are, "I'm pretty sure that's not true - but hey, everyone makes a mistake sometimes."

We all do that with incoming info. Some of it stays in those categories; some gets confirmed or denied later and we move it to "oops, wrong about that" or "oh hey, turned out that was right."

It takes a lot of effort to notice that all of someone's (or some party's) claims fall into the "eh, might be wrong; can't tell for sure" category. But without knowing which claims were shunted into which subcategory, there's no way to help a person sort through the web of lies.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:46 AM on January 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

Pogo, I had a very similar experience not long ago, overhearing two women talking at my local gym. One woman railed on and on and *on* about teachers, they need to be accountable to the communities that pay their paychecks, we need to tell them how to do their jobs, etc. Within a few minutes the same women shifted to bitching about how her real estate development project was being imposed on by all these unreasonable demands from NIMBYs who packed the zoning board meeting and had no idea what the hell anything was about.

Failure of critical thinking may well be a part of this, but frankly I think it's plain old selfishness and self-centeredness.
posted by Sublimity at 9:46 AM on January 11, 2018 [51 favorites]

Thanks to Trump's Twitter meltdowns, his promotion of a tax bill that rigs the economy for the rich for decades, and his incessant war-mongering, Trump’s approval numbers have sunk to a record low.

I really wish this were true. It SHOULD be true. But according to FiveThirtyEight's average, his approval ratings right now are actually higher (their weighted avarage puts him at 39.3%) than they have been since September -- and about where they were last May.

I am still sort of convinced he will be impeached once his approval ratings it 27% or lower. A year ago I thought it might take only 6 months to get there.

Now I wonder if we ever will...
posted by OnceUponATime at 9:49 AM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Failure of critical thinking may well be a part of this, but frankly I think it's plain old selfishness and self-centeredness.

And a good dose of self-labeling as "I am not a 'bad' person [but believe in this bad policy anyway]"
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:50 AM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

I think it was here on the blue I saw some articles linked about focus groups being told about specific bills Republicans had passed (this was a few years ago I believe), and their response was that the truth was so awful that the participants refused to believe it could be true. They thought the researchers were lying.

Anyone remember that?
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:51 AM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]

He didn't hold one single demographic segment, not one: A Year Later, Trump Is Less Popular Across Voting Blocs (NYT).
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:53 AM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

And yet he's only down -3 in the "Voted Trump in 2016" category, so really his approval ratings are basically unchanged.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:04 AM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Sarah Kendzior, Fast Company: The Other Scary Foreign Hacking Threat Trump Is Ignoring

…while the role of hacks in the election is the subject of several ongoing probes, the hacks of other U.S. institutions and infrastructures have been largely ignored by the Trump administration, even as the hacking became more aggressive throughout 2017. In June, shortly after McCain’s testimony, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI released an urgent joint report stating that U.S. nuclear power stations and other energy facilities had been hacked. In July, Bloomberg and the Washington Post confirmed that the hackers worked for the Russian government.

While U.S. government officials stressed that the public was not yet at serious risk, claiming the hackers had not yet gained the ability to control the grid, intelligence officers warned that infrastructure attacks by a hostile state can also operate as a form of political leverage. Most analyses of the 2016 election hacks have framed leverage in personal terms: kompromat stolen from hacked emails used to blackmail individuals into submission or to humiliate officials as part of a propaganda campaign. Less examined is the form of leverage McCain raised at the Sessions hearing: the possibility of vital infrastructure, like the power grid, being crippled, potentially causing massive financial and humanitarian consequences. In this formulation, an entire government could ostensibly be held hostage to another government’s whim out of fear of triggering a cataclysmic attack.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:06 AM on January 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

Please delete if a double. Gillibrand tweeted yesterday:

I am deeply troubled by the reports that President Trump personally interviewed Geoffrey Berman to permanently fill the post of Manhattan U.S. attorney, and find it disqualifying, considering the potential conflicts of interest on matters that could affect the president himself.

posted by yoga at 10:06 AM on January 11, 2018 [39 favorites]

A documentary film crew has been basically living in the @nytimes newsroom since Inauguration Day. They have had full access to the Russia investigation and much more.

It’s made by Oscar nominee @lizgarbus. Airs in May on @Showtime
Somehow I don't think the Grey Lady would be promoting it if it didn't portray them favorably.

Oh good, exactly what we needed in 2018 is a documentary length feature of Maggie Haberman’s twitter feed.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:12 AM on January 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

Failure of critical thinking may well be a part of this, but frankly I think it's plain old selfishness and self-centeredness.

When you lack any critical thinking ability you lack the ability to question whether or not you're being selfish and self-centered. One leads to and reinforces the other.

Like so many things, the real answer is complex, nuanced, and I have no idea what it actually is.
posted by VTX at 10:14 AM on January 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

Eliza Barclay and Julia Belluz, Vox: Trump’s upcoming physical exam at Walter Reed, explained.

The first full presidential physical is Friday. Here’s what it will — and won’t — tell us about Trump’s health.
...
The White House has already made it clear that the biggest question about the 71-year-old’s health — the state of his mind — will not be checked in Friday’s physical. The public is not likely to learn anything new about his physical health either. The presidential physical exam is best understood as political theater — a show of the president’s vigor and fitness — not an opportunity to reveal medical truths.

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:17 AM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

The Hill, Scott Wong and Katie Bo Williams, Exclusive: Issa mulls running in neighboring district, in which Issa is apparently not quite done and is making noise about running in Duncan Hunter's district (CA-50) if Hunter announces his retirement. His retirement statement was oddly specific about specifying it applied to the 49th district repeatedly. Rep. Hunter says he's not going anywhere, then just gets weird.

“If I was to blow up in the air, then he would be running for it," Hunter told The Hill on Thursday. "If I was to blow up, then he would run for the seat."

“If I blow up, yes. Why wouldn’t he run for my seat if I was to blow up in the air?”

posted by zachlipton at 10:18 AM on January 11, 2018

House Votes to Renew Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Limits

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to extend the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program for six years with minimal changes, rejecting a yearslong effort by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to impose significant new privacy limits when it sweeps up Americans’ emails and other personal communications.

The vote, 256 to 164, centered on an expiring law that permits the government, without a warrant, to collect communications of foreigners abroad from United States firms like Google and AT&T — even when those targets are talking to Americans. Congress had enacted the law in 2008 to legalize a form of a once-secret warrantless surveillance program created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The legislation approved on Thursday still has to go through the Senate. But fewer lawmakers there appear to favor major changes to spying laws, so the House vote is likely the effective end of a debate over 21st-century surveillance technology and privacy rights that broke out in 2013 following the leaks by the intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden.

Congress did, in 2015, vote to end and replace another program that Mr. Snowden exposed, under which the N.S.A. had been secretly collecting logs of Americans’ domestic phone calls in bulk. But reform-minded lawmakers who hoped to add significant new privacy constraints to the warrantless surveillance program fell short on Thursday.

The vote was a victory for the Trump administration and the intelligence community, which opposed imposing major new curbs on the program, and for Republican leadership, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who had blocked the House from an opportunity to consider a less-sweeping compromise package developed by the House Judiciary Committee. They gambled that faced with an all-or-essentially-nothing choice, a majority of lawmakers would choose the status quo — and won.

George Zornick, The Nation's DC editor:

55 House Democrats - including Pelosi, Hoyer, Schiff - voted to kill a surveillance reform bill that would have (among other things) added a warrant requirement to 702 searches. Full list of Dem 'no' votes:

posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:19 AM on January 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

Is "blow up in the air" an idiom anyone here has ever encountered before?
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:21 AM on January 11, 2018 [9 favorites]

Florida's effort to restore voting rights to 1.6 million people is just 75,000 verified signatures away from the ballot. If you live in Florida, please sign and return the petition, or send it to your Floridian friends.

There's also a new bit, which is phonebanking to remind people to sign and mail in their petitions, which you can do from anywhere. You can sign up to help with that here.
posted by zachlipton at 10:22 AM on January 11, 2018 [21 favorites]

“On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” Lewandowski and Bossie wrote. Indeed, he washes his meals down with a whopping 12 Diet Cokes a day, according to the New York Times.

Trump also has some extraordinary beliefs about exercise. In his New Yorker story about how Trump could realistically be removed from the presidency, Evan Osnos wrote: “Other than golf, he considers exercise misguided, arguing that a person, like a battery, is born with a finite amount of energy.”

I'm 44 and if I lived like this I'd be lucky to survive a couple of months.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:27 AM on January 11, 2018 [20 favorites]

New Quinnipiac poll: If the election were today, would you want to see the Republican Party or the Democratic Party win control of the United States House of Representatives?

Republican Party 35
Democratic Party 52

+ 17 D
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:30 AM on January 11, 2018 [23 favorites]

Alex Horton, WaPo: Trump lauded delivery of F-52s to Norway. The planes only exist in ‘Call of Duty.’

President Trump’s announcement of U.S-made F-52s fighter aircraft delivered to Norway may have rattled its neighbor Russia, the source of rising tension among NATO allies.

Was it a secret advanced jet capable of beating its Russian counterparts? A ruse to fool intelligence analysts?

Neither, it turns out. The “F-52” is a fictional jet only available to fly if you’re a gamer at the controls of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”

Trump lauded the sale of the fictional planes alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House on Wednesday, remarking on the very real and growing defense relationship with America’s Northern Europe ally.

“In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets,” Trump said. “We have a total of 52 and they’ve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule.”

Trump was reading from a statement, and it appears he combined the figure of 52 planes with the “F” designation assigned to fighter jets in the U.S. inventory, such as the F-35 Lightning II.

posted by cybertaur1 at 10:33 AM on January 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

To be fair, if I didn't know anything about fighter jets, I'd probably make the same mistake. Then again, I am not Commander in Chief of the US Military.
posted by AFABulous at 10:38 AM on January 11, 2018 [29 favorites]

Sen. Ron Wyden is doing that thing he does again where he provides not remotely subtle hints:

@MEPFuller: Ron Wyden says Jared Kushner “played” the Senate Intelligence Committee by getting to privately testify but then publicly make statements that are misleading.

Wyden’s big problem is that Kushner said his family has never “relied” on Russian financing, which is a subjective word that may — *wink wink* — be less true than he’d lead you to believe.

posted by zachlipton at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2018 [32 favorites]

Ooooh, please, please let them be lying to the FBI.
posted by Sphinx at 10:48 AM on January 11, 2018 [17 favorites]

55 House Democrats - including Pelosi, Hoyer, Schiff - voted to kill a surveillance reform bill that would have (among other things) added a warrant requirement to 702 searches. Full list of Dem 'no' votes:

To put this another way, if those people had voted "Yea," against Trump, then not only would Trump have lost, but better still, the surveillance state built under Bush and Obama would have been pretty significantly curtailed. But instead, they voted to keep it. I suppose we shouldn't be worried unless we have something to hide.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:56 AM on January 11, 2018 [23 favorites]

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not return a request to comment on the issue and did not respond to a question asking whether Trump was a Call of Duty fan.

real
posted by kirkaracha (staff) at 11:43 AM on January 11, 2018 [29 favorites]

Bannon Lawyers up.
posted by adamvasco at 11:50 AM on January 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

“In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets,” Trump said. “We have a total of 52 and they’ve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule.”

Trump was reading from a statement, and it appears he combined the figure of 52 planes with the “F” designation assigned to fighter jets in the U.S. inventory, such as the F-35 Lightning II.

Sure, that sounds like a mistake someone with a perfectly functional brain would make
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:52 AM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

... did not respond to a question asking whether Trump was a Call of Duty fan.

That's because the Norwegian PM had got him addicted to Pokemon Go mere hours before...
posted by PenDevil at 11:54 AM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

“If I was to blow up in the air, then he would be running for it," Hunter told The Hill on Thursday. "If I was to blow up, then he would run for the seat."
“If I blow up, yes. Why wouldn’t he run for my seat if I was to blow up in the air?”

"If, for the sake of argument, a man-portable explosive device placed under my seat were to cause me to blow up in the air, I would expect Issa to run for my seat," stated Hunter, his face seized by a tic that looked like nothing so much as vigorous winking.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:07 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]

Interesting that all three of those guys would be willing to sign the conflict waiver necessary to be represented by the same lawyer.

The World Famous, can you expand on what you mean?
posted by scarylarry at 12:21 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

So, yeah. Critical thinking isn't a huge component of the conservative thought process.

Speaking of willingness to looks aside from reasonable things, the most recent Right Richter describes a conspiracy theory so batshit that it boggles the mind.

Barack Obama will be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay any day now.

MS-13 murdered Seth Rich, probably at the DNC's behest.

Special counsel Robert Mueller isn't investigating the Donald Trump campaign — he's actually investigating the Clintons, and Trump's helping.

And Pizzagate is real, but don't worry — Trump finally has its perpetrators on the run.

Welcome to the exciting alternative universe of "The Storm," an increasingly popular mega-theory on the right that has already absorbed gobs of smaller conspiracy theories. In "The Storm," which also goes by the handle "QAnon," Trump fans can inhabit a world where their wildest Trump hopes can come true.

Lest you be inclined to think "who cares what a few dozen loons think," there's this tidbit: YouTube videos deciphering Q's "breadcrumbs" regularly earn more than a hundred thousand views.

Not a huge number compared to 300 million but still a sobering quantity of folks disconnected from reality in an absolutely terrifying way.
posted by phearlez at 12:29 PM on January 11, 2018 [25 favorites]

Also, "The Storm" isn't the conspiracy itself, "The Storm" is when Trump orders mass arrests of the people involved in the meta conspiracy.

So while everything else is loony tunes the mass arrests part gets my heart rate up a bit.
posted by Slackermagee at 12:33 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Interesting that all three of those guys would be willing to sign the conflict waiver necessary to be represented by the same lawyer.

The World Famous, can you expand on what you mean?

If attorneys represent multiple clients in the same matter, they are required by ethical rules to adequately inform the clients of the potential for conflict of interest if their interests were to diverge or become adversarial in the matter. A waiver or acknowledgment is generally obtained from each client indicating that they have been so informed. If an actual conflict of interest arises during the representation, my understanding is that each party would need to obtain separate counsel as an attorney is ethically bound not to use information obtained in confidence from one client in his or her representation of other clients.

In this case, it seems that Priebus, McGahn, and Bannon do not believe their interests currently diverge.
posted by SpaceBass at 12:36 PM on January 11, 2018 [33 favorites]

PSA: This Chrome extension turns pictures of Trump to kittens. (And Bannon, Pence, etc. in the settings.)
posted by AFABulous at 12:44 PM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

JPost: The Trump effect? [Israeli Security Agency] Shin Bet says terror attacks tripled in last month
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:51 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Intercept, Spencer Woodman, Private Prison Continues to Send ICE Detainees to Solitary Confinement for Refusing Voluntary Labor

Officials at a privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in rural Georgia locked an immigrant detainee in solitary confinement last November as punishment for encouraging fellow detainees to stop working in a labor program that ICE says is strictly voluntary.

Shoaib Ahmed, a 24-year-old who immigrated to America to escape political persecution in Bangladesh, told The Intercept that the privately run detention center placed him in isolation for 10 days after an officer overheard him simply saying “no work tomorrow.” Ahmed said he was expressing frustration over the detention center — run by prison contractor CoreCivic — having delayed his weekly paycheck of $20 for work in the facility’s kitchen.

Those in ICE custody often work for as little as $1 per day and cannot legally be compelled to work.

Bannon will be interviewed by the House intelligence committee on Tuesday

Sarah Huckabee Sanders spent her day insisting the President didn't get tricked by Fox News into contradicting himself on FISA 702 re-authorization, insulting reporters who noticed the fairly obvious pattern of what happened:

That wasn't enough for MSNBC's Hallie Jackson, who pressed Sanders to explain how exactly Trump's missives did not contradict each other. "His tweet today was confusing, it was contradictory. It just was," Jackson said, before asking how people can trust administration officials to relay the president's positions if he changes them seemingly on a whim.

"I think the premise of your question is completely ridiculous and shows the lack of knowledge that you have on this process," Sanders retorted, adding that the president's tweet "wasn't confusing to me. I'm sorry if it was for you."

And Mnuchin very helpfully declared that he doesn't think the World Economic Forum at Davos is "a hangout for globalists." Which, er, to the extent that word could possibly have any meaning beyond ((())), let me just emphasize again that the event is called the World Economic Forum. They're also now taking a huge chunk of the cabinet and White House staff wit them.
posted by zachlipton at 1:05 PM on January 11, 2018 [33 favorites]

Barack Obama will be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay any day now.

MS-13 murdered Seth Rich, probably at the DNC's behest.

Special counsel Robert Mueller isn't investigating the Donald Trump campaign — he's actually investigating the Clintons, and Trump's helping.

And Pizzagate is real, but don't worry — Trump finally has its perpetrators on the run.

Welcome to the exciting alternative universe of "The Storm,"

if someone hired me to come up with some sort of batshit narrative that was intended to distract the lunatic right from worrying themselves into actually taking up arms and attacking liberals, I imagine it would look something like this.

In other words, good work, Right Richter. Keep doing what you're doing.
posted by philip-random at 1:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

"I think the premise of your question is completely ridiculous

This is not a comment. These are not words, and I'm sorry if you read them. I didn't.

I think it's Pie Time someone addressed these 1984isms knowwhatmsayin
posted by petebest at 1:13 PM on January 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

In this case, it seems that Priebus, McGahn, and Bannon do not believe their interests currently diverge.

Hmmm... Looking at that list. Priebus, McGahn, Bannon. 3 people on my "Most likely to be helping the investigation" list. I'm thinking they all got out ahead of the issue months ago Priebus is a pro. McGahn is a pro. Bannon is a rat. Their motivations are different, but in the end they're all on Team Mueller they need the minimum of representation.
posted by mikelieman at 1:20 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

I wouldn't describe Priebus as a pro so much as mostly functional.

Source: my friend who also goes to Eau Claire bars.
posted by The Gaffer at 1:25 PM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]

if someone hired me to come up with some sort of batshit narrative that was intended to distract the lunatic right from worrying themselves into actually taking up arms and attacking liberals, I imagine it would look something like this.

But it's so boring. "All the people you don't like, no matter who they are, where they are or what they are doing, are all working together to be 10000% evil in every regard. All the people you like, no matter who they are, where they are or what they are doing, are all working together to be 10000% good in every regard." It's like a 4-year-old's conception of the world where all the teachers live at the school because that's the only place you ever see them.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:26 PM on January 11, 2018 [60 favorites]

Officials at a privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in rural Georgia locked an immigrant detainee in solitary confinement last November as punishment for encouraging fellow detainees to stop working in a labor program that ICE says is strictly voluntary.

I wonder how many see the irony of illegal immigrants doing jobs that Americans could do?
posted by Talez at 1:28 PM on January 11, 2018 [24 favorites]

3 people on my "Most likely to be helping the investigation" list. I'm thinking they all got out ahead of the issue months ago Priebus is a pro. McGahn is a pro. Bannon is a rat.

Yup, and none of them are dimwitted. It isn't hard to imagine that they have a coherent plan for extricating themselves as neatly as possible.
posted by diogenes at 1:28 PM on January 11, 2018

Trump gave the WSJ a 45-minute interview. I'm assuming they'll be too complicit to publish the transcript until someone from the newsroom bravely leaks it to a rival outlet, but there's the initial report, which does its best to make a bunch of nonsense sound coherent. They couldn't really clean this up though:

“I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, ” Mr. Trump said in an interview Thursday with The Wall Street Journal. “I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.”

Asked if he’s spoken with Mr. Kim, Mr. Trump said: ”I don’t want to comment on it. I’m not saying I have or haven’t. I just don’t want to comment.”

He's still threatening to terminal NAFTA, and says Mexico will pay for the wall through NAFTA renegotiation somehow, and this bit is concerning:

Mr. Trump also said that messages traded between a pair of FBI employees who had been involved in the Mueller investigation amounted to treason. Agent Peter Strzok was removed from his post on Mr. Mueller’s team last year after the disclosure that he sent text messages in the summer of 2016 critical of Mr. Trump to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who also worked temporarily for the special counsel. The texts surfaced as part of an internal Justice Department investigation. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

posted by zachlipton at 1:34 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]

As much as I hate to give Bannon, Priebus, or McGahn any credit they're also not really traitorous,

One of those is not like the others. Priebus is sure as hell a conspirator and traitor.
posted by Talez at 1:34 PM on January 11, 2018

One of those is not like the others. Priebus is sure as hell a conspirator and traitor.

FINE. Priebus is a rat, not a pro. Either way, I'm thinking "no criminal charges" in their collective future.

And given where those 3 have been, there's a lot more in Mueller's files than I had thought.
posted by mikelieman at 1:38 PM on January 11, 2018

messages traded between a pair of FBI employees who had been involved in the Mueller investigation amounted to treason.

So maybe we should just stop letting him talk. This is not only dangerous and unhelpful, but is - crazy? Is that the word I'm looking for here? Bonkers? Off his nut?
posted by petebest at 1:39 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

WaPo, Josh Dawsey, Trump attacks protections for immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries in Oval Office meeting

President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they floated restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to African countries and Haiti. He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met yesterday.

The comments left lawmakers taken aback, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and then prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said.

Are you even fucking kidding me? No, of course you're not.
posted by zachlipton at 1:41 PM on January 11, 2018 [108 favorites]

This is not only dangerous and unhelpful, but is - crazy? Is that the word I'm looking for here? Bonkers? Off his nut?

Authoritarian, I would say. Criticism of Dear Leader is not permissible.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:42 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

So maybe we should just stop letting him talk.

I'd settle for Congress just censuring the nutjob.
posted by Talez at 1:42 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Conservative? There's a reason why "moonbat" is part of the American lexicon. Batshit insane people need not only be conservative. Hell, look at the lack of cognitive dissonance of some far end Bernie supporters that went off the deep end after his primary loss.

Yes, but...besides the fact that "moonbat" tends to be slung about by conservatives who hate anything that even slightly smacks of liberalism - for instance, I've seen it lobbed at parents who don't spank their kids - conservatives really do seem to wander down the primrose path of fake news and conspiracy theories more often: A paper (pdf) by Andrew Guess, Brendan Nyhan, and Jason Reifler at the European Research Council found that:

Using unique data combined with individual level web-traffic histories,we estimate that approximately 1 in 4 Americans visited a fake news website October 7- November 14, 2016. Trump supporters visited the most fake news websites, which were overwhelmingly pro-Trump. However, fake news consumption was heavily concentrated among a small group — almost 6 in 10 visits to fake news websites came from the 10% of people with the most conservative online information diets.

Of course, I have seen those very same rabid Bernie supporters who couldn't shut up about various conspiracy theories. I've also seen rabid Franken-stans who analyzed the Leeann Tweeden photo for shadows and Photoshopping and the like, and would not shut up about Roger Stone and ratfucking. Both sides do it, but one side does it a lot less; tribalism (and sexism, and racism) can be a hell of a drug even among liberals, but I think liberals are huffing the drug quite a bit less than conservatives.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

I'm almost certain this is the first time the Washington Post has printed the word "shithole" in a headline.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [54 favorites]

I'm almost certain this is the first time the Washington Post has printed the word "shithole" in a headline.

And on their Breaking News banner.
posted by scarylarry at 1:52 PM on January 11, 2018 [26 favorites]

philip-random: if someone hired me to come up with some sort of batshit narrative that was intended to distract the lunatic right from worrying themselves into actually taking up arms and attacking liberals, I imagine it would look something like this.

It seems "QAnon" is a bit like Louise Mensch standing on her head. As pointed out by Alexandra Erin, the Mensch narrative involves undertones of "everything is being taken care of, the Grand Marshall of the Supreme Court is issuing warrants for beheadings as we speak... and thus, you don't have to lift a finger." It's nice that the other side now has something just as pacifying/bias-confirming (though without the occasional connection to real-world truths, the way Mensch is correct to connect Trump and Russia).
posted by InTheYear2017 at 1:58 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

I can't believe Robert Siegel just retired and I'll never get to hear him say Shithole
posted by theodolite at 2:02 PM on January 11, 2018 [60 favorites]

Putin's trolling will get us all killed: Oh No, Putin Just Said Kim Jong-un "Won This Round" in His Showdown With Trump
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:03 PM on January 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

Those in ICE custody often work for as little as $1 per day and cannot legally be compelled to work.

How is this legal, from a 13th Amendment standpoint? Slavery is illegal except "as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." IIRC, Immigration status is a civil matter. How can anyone be legally paid $1/day for work when they are not being punished for a crime they have been convicted of, but are being detained by ICE? Or is this just more of the same from the already-criminal ICE?
posted by Mister Fabulous at 2:05 PM on January 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

"Like Norway," I wonder what about that country he finds more appealing immigrant-wise? Can't imagine.

Seeing "shithole" in a WaPo headline is kinda amazing. I remember hearing about how a local theater company needed to get a waiver from them because the obscenity in the play's title only was obscured with a single * character replacement and the WaPo style demanded two. If the President does it it's not illegal and if he says it it's not obscene, I guess.
posted by phearlez at 2:05 PM on January 11, 2018 [17 favorites]

If the President does it it's not illegal and if he says it it's not obscene, I guess.

To be fair, WaPo has been better than other major papers about taking Trump to task. I don't think they printed it because they think it's ok because the president said it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:07 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Here's the White House not denying the shithole story.

@emilynussbaum: I’m not normally all “but the children” but it makes me sick with rage that kids—especially black brown & immigrant kids—would hear the President call the countries their families came from “shitholes.”

Radio reporters must be wrecked trying to figure out how to report this right now.

Oh good. The Democratic leadership is publicly fighting. Politico, Pelosi: 'Five white guys' leading DACA talks should open a 'hamburger stand'

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi complained Thursday that immigration negotiations are being led by "five white guys" — and was quickly rebuked by her No. 2, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, himself one of those white guys involved in the talks.

“The five white guys I call them, you know," Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. "Are they going to open a hamburger stand next or what?” Pelosi said, complaining that minority members of Congress were not involved in deciding the fate of Dreamers.
...
Her comments prompted an immediate rebuke from Hoyer, the long-time No. 2 House Democratic leader.

“That comment is offensive. I am committed to ensuring DREAMers are protected and I will welcome everyone to the table who wants to get this done,” Hoyer said to POLITICO in a statement.

Pelosi is, of course, not wrong here, but I'm not understanding how this helps solve the problem.

Meanwhile, there's a separate group of six Senators that have worked out something resembling a deal, Senators reach preliminary Dreamers deal, but Trump hasn't signed off, though no WH or leadership support. The deal would give a 10-12-year path to citizenship for those DACA eligible, $2.7B for border security, including $1.6B for a wall, reallocating visa lottery slots to the people who are losing their Temporary Protected Status (I believe these are the people from the countries now Presidentially declared to be "shitholes"), and no pathway to citizenship for the parents of dreamers, just three-year renewable temporary status.
posted by zachlipton at 2:08 PM on January 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

Does Putin have a terminal diagnosis? What the hell is wrong with him?
posted by Don Pepino at 2:10 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

And on their Breaking News banner.

....push notifications too.

I think they kind of have to include it. Anything else would soften it and disguise it. Nothing is going to match the punch of the president of the United States calling other countries 'shitholes.'
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:10 PM on January 11, 2018 [17 favorites]

The White House has issued a statement regarding the “shithole countries” reporting. It does not deny that he made those comments.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:14 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

To be fair, WaPo has been better than other major papers about taking Trump to task. I don't think they printed it because they think it's ok because the president said it.

Not condemning it at all, just... "amused" isn't really right for how this story makes me feel. But it's interesting that if you were advertising a play about the Trump administration and for some reason you'd titled it "Sh*thole Countries" they would by standard policy[1] not print that ad unless you changed it to "S**thole Countries." If we're interested in the ways Trump gets normalized/changes the world around him, this is one of them.

[1] It's actually been 5+ years since I was told this story so it's possible their practices have changed; don't take this as gospel.
posted by phearlez at 2:15 PM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]

In good news from Congress, Kaine and Warner forced a surprise vote via unanimous consent to formally recognize five Native American Tribes located in Virginia. The bill is just waiting to be signed.

The Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the Monacan and the Nansemond tribes will all now get federal funds for housing, education and medical care.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 2:17 PM on January 11, 2018 [89 favorites]

I think they kind of have to include it. Anything else would soften it and disguise it. Nothing is going to match the punch of the president of the United States calling other countries 'shitholes.'

Chuck Todd (of Chuck Todd fame) keeps saying "S-Hole", and then he always has to clarify that the President didn't actually say S-Hole, but the entire word, and it is ridiculous. It reminds me of the Fudge scene from A Christmas Story.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:19 PM on January 11, 2018 [23 favorites]

It's one of my "fun" American history facts that most people still don't know, to tell people that it was completely legally enshrined to prefer and protect white immigrants to America until 1965. Sooooo of course it's not shocking that we now have him on record wanting to go back to that.
posted by nakedmolerats at 2:25 PM on January 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

isn't chuck todd's issue that NBC news is both cable and broadcast and he is potentially worried about an FCC sanction for repeating a word the president said?
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 2:25 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Good heavens! It's fine to print public-relations pieces for dictatorships, arguments in favor of bombing poor countries into dust, and denial of anthropogenic climate change, but nasty words? There are standards!

We are not yet used to an evil that poops itself.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:28 PM on January 11, 2018 [19 favorites]

isn't chuck todd's issue that NBC news is both cable and broadcast and he is potentially worried about an FCC sanction for repeating a word the president said?

Maybe, but can't they bleep it?
posted by rhizome at 2:30 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway, whose prime minister he met yesterday.

why would someone from a functional first-world democracy want to move to this second-world (and falling) kakocracy
posted by entropicamericana at 2:31 PM on January 11, 2018 [57 favorites]

Does Putin have a terminal diagnosis? What the hell is wrong with him?

Hammering on the wedge between the US and China seems like a good move, from the perspective of the Russian Federation.
posted by Coventry at 2:34 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

2018 Washington Post headlines:

Trump’s ‘shithole’ comment about Haiti lends credence to report he said its residents ‘all have AIDS’
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:36 PM on January 11, 2018 [30 favorites]

CNN: "The White House believes these comments will resonate with Trump's base" [real]
posted by theodolite at 2:42 PM on January 11, 2018 [24 favorites]

Times reporting goes one step further, with Trump specifically attacking Haiti. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Trump Alarms Lawmakers With Disparaging Words for Haiti and Africa

When Mr. Trump heard that Haitians were among those who would benefit, he asked if they could be left out of the plan, according to the people familiar with the conversation, asking, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?”

Yet Mar-a-Lago hires many of its foreign workers from Haiti (link is from last March).
posted by zachlipton at 2:44 PM on January 11, 2018 [16 favorites]

"The White House believes these comments will resonate with Trump's base"

The White House is correct.
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:45 PM on January 11, 2018 [54 favorites]

Didn’t Bush Sr. famously complain about “shitty little countries?”
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:46 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Jesse Watters [real, Fox News right now]: "This is either Fake News, or if not, it's the way the Forgotten Man talks at the bar."
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

would someone from a functional first-world democracy want to move to this second-world (and falling) kakocracy

Because the white nationalists (here and in Europe) love abusing Norse heritage and Viking runes as stand ins for Nazi imagery.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:52 PM on January 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

Jeffrey Toobin is my favorite talking head on CNN. He's been saying for a year that what must be grappeled with is not that Trump is racist scum (I added the word scum but its clearly what he means) but that Trump's supporters are racist scum for whom things like this only make him more popular. The rest of the CNN panels never want to go near that with a 10 foot pole. But he doesn't stop trying.

Because he's right; too many people want to treat Trump as the disease rather than the symptom. The true cancer isn't that Trump is an ignorant racist shithead it's that most Republicans are ignorant racist shitheads. And we need to acknowledge that in order to combat it.
posted by Justinian at 2:56 PM on January 11, 2018 [134 favorites]

President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office... according to two people briefed on the meeting.

Amazing how all those leaks dried up right away after they got rid of Spicer.
And Priebus.
And Bannon.
And...
posted by scaryblackdeath at 3:02 PM on January 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

I wonder how many see the irony of illegal immigrants doing jobs that Americans could do?
posted by Talez at 1:28 PM on January 11 [16 favorites +] [!]

And if the state tells you there is no irony there?...
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:03 PM on January 11, 2018

"Shithole countries". What a fucked up way to try to get back into Ann Coulter's good graces.
posted by palomar at 3:08 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

Well, let's be honest here. Any country known for paralyzing poverty, rampant and growing economic inequality, religious bigotry, crumbling infrastructure, insufficient public education, civil liberty violations, and...

...wait a tick...
posted by delfin at 3:13 PM on January 11, 2018 [53 favorites]

The Mirror (UK tabloid) is reporting that 45 has cancelled his trip to the UK next month because he thinks he might not be welcome.

As a twitterati said - a rare moment of insight.
posted by Devonian at 3:13 PM on January 11, 2018 [47 favorites]

Good heavens! It's fine to print public-relations pieces for dictatorships, arguments in favor of bombing poor countries into dust, and denial of anthropogenic climate change, but nasty words? There are standards!

"We train young men to drop fire on people but their commanders won't allow them to write fuck on their airplanes because it's obscene."
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:15 PM on January 11, 2018 [16 favorites]

This era is doing krazy things to print journalism and language, though. It's not just rendering "grab them by the pussy" stet — like, y'all know the Grey Lady referred openly to the Shitty Media Men list, right?
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:18 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

So this is what it would be like if the "Fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: re: re:!!!!!" emails from everyone's racist uncle gained corporeality and sentience and was elected President.

Now that we know, can The Powers That Be switch us back over to the rational universe, where this never happened? Please?

I mean, yeah, interesting experiment and all, but I'd like a President with just a smidgen more intelligence, empathy, restraint, understanding, wisdom, intellectual curiosity, appreciation for arts and culture, recognition of the international community and sisterhood of all people, vision for a better future for all citizens not just those who voted for them, respect for the law, respect for the dignity of all people, respect for women, respect for minorities of all kinds, and optimism than this. Just a smidgen more.
posted by lord_wolf at 3:21 PM on January 11, 2018 [38 favorites]

The real word that needs to come from the press isn't "shithole"; it's "racist." Some of the CNN commentators have done it, but every publication should. I don't care if you print the dirty word or not, but explicitly calling this out as racist is the minimum acceptable response.

Also, @mattdpearce: In addition to being wrong for a million reasons, we shouldn't call other countries "shitholes" when we have allowed the continued existence of L.A.'s skid row in history's wealthiest country.
posted by zachlipton at 3:24 PM on January 11, 2018 [60 favorites]

@kaitlancollins (CNN): Staffers inside the White House aren't that worried about Trump's "shithole" remark -- with some predicting it will actually resonate with his base, not alienate it, much like his attacks on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem did.

@jbouie (Slate)
Retweeted Kaitlan Collins
just a few months ago i had folks castigating me for describing some trump supporters as racists

@ThePlumLineGS (WaPo)
Retweeted Kaitlan Collins
Boy, those White House staffers really think highly of Trump voters.

---

@joshtpm
the last 10 minutes are cnn are a bunch of pundits and reporters just saying, "Okay, fuck it, the President's just a stone cold racist. Let's stop pretending.
posted by chris24 at 3:25 PM on January 11, 2018 [79 favorites]

45 has cancelled his trip to the UK

Yeah, let's go with that. He cancelled it.
posted by petebest at 3:29 PM on January 11, 2018 [39 favorites]

joshtpm is correct; however, Jeffrey Toobin is no longer on the panel and the new panel is all "Trump's base isn't totally racist and this won't play well with them!". So they're still not all the way there.
posted by Justinian at 3:29 PM on January 11, 2018

from the "no duh dept.":

WaPo: Trump’s history of controversial remarks about nonwhite immigrants

President Trump appears to have a habit of making offensive comments about nonwhite immigrants. And while many of his surrogates argue that the president is not against this particular population, there is a trail of comments that tell a different story.

last week was "oh shit, the president is actually a moron" week, this week appears to be "oh shit, the president is actually as racist as everyone said all along" week.
posted by murphy slaw at 3:30 PM on January 11, 2018 [63 favorites]

> Reached for comment about the article, White House spokesperson Raj Shah did not deny the "shithole" remark, but instead said in a statement that Trump "is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation."

You think there's any particular reason they had Raj Shah - the son of immigrants from Mumbai - and not Sarah Huckabee Sanders get up to talk about Trump's attitude towards "shithole countries"?
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:35 PM on January 11, 2018 [25 favorites]

Carrier Employees, Soon To Be Laid Off, Feel Betrayed By Donald Trump

The Voters Abandoning Donald Trump
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

It’s been that kind of day, so this may get lost in the shuffle, but:

Trump accuses FBI agent of 'treason' (The Hill)

President Trump on Thursday accused an FBI agent who criticized him while serving on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of committing “treason” against the U.S.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump argued that FBI agent Peter Strzok had plotted to undermine his presidency before he even came into office. ...

“A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Clinton] loses, we’ll essentially do the insurance policy,” Trump said in the Wall Street Journal interview. “'We’ll go to phase two and we’ll get this guy out of office.'”

“This is the FBI we’re talking about—that is treason,” Trump continued. “That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act.”

The President is accusing individual citizens of treason.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 3:53 PM on January 11, 2018 [58 favorites]

Treason, iirc, is narrowly defined in the Constitution, as levying war against the United States, or giving aid and comfort to their enemies. Nothing in there about opposing a Presidential candidate, even if (hypothetically) one conspired to bring an unjustified investigation against him. By Trump's standard, Kenneth Starr is guilty of treason.
posted by thelonius at 3:57 PM on January 11, 2018 [20 favorites]

He then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries like Norway

While we’re heaping scorn in the “shithole” part, and the bald-faced racism, let’s not miss the nugget of complete and utter geopolitical dumbassery on display there. Norway? What year does he think it is? 1850? “Countries like Norway” already sent all their immigrants, Donald. They’re fresh out. Now they’re in the same position the US is in, of needing an inflow of immigrants to sustain an aging population. And immigrants tend to trade up, not down.

In conclusion: Christ, what an asshole.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:58 PM on January 11, 2018 [96 favorites]

Timothy Lee, Ars Technica: New bill could finally get rid of paperless voting machines

A bipartisan group of six senators has introduced legislation that would take a huge step toward securing elections in the United States. Called the Secure Elections Act, the bill aims to eliminate insecure paperless voting machines from American elections while promoting routine audits that would dramatically reduce the danger of interference from foreign governments.

The legislation comes on the heels of the contentious 2016 election. Post-election investigation hasn't turned up any evidence that foreign governments actually altered any votes. However, we do know that Russians were probing American voting systems ahead of the 2016 election, laying groundwork for what could have become a direct attack on American democracy.

"With the 2018 elections just around the corner, Russia will be back to interfere again," said co-sponsor Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:59 PM on January 11, 2018 [52 favorites]

If you lived in Norway, would you be tempted to move to the US right now? I think there's some Trump's Mirror going on when he refers to any other country as a shithole.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:01 PM on January 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

The President is accusing individual citizens of treason.

The President is accusing FBI agents of treason, a charge for which he has previously signaled his approval of the execution of the Rosenbergs (an act his own mentor was proudly responsible for). He's implying that insufficiently corrupt FBI agents should be executed.

I wonder how 35,000-odd FBI employees feel about that.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:08 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]

This is exactly why he was elected.

Pretend, for a second--and you have to pretend--that Trump voters weren't motivated by racism and sexism. Pretend that, for a second. Because that pretense exposes everything. That pretense implies people looked at Trump, heard him speak, considered his record in business and in public life, and said, "This guy's gonna look out for me!"

I flatly do not believe any rational person ever thought that. Not in any context other than white supremacy or some other "fear of the other," like the concept of a woman as president.

This was always about racism and sexism. And it still is.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:08 PM on January 11, 2018 [86 favorites]

Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?

I refute it thus:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

posted by kirkaracha at 4:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [52 favorites]

Well what would you call a country where one man could kill 58 people and wound 546 more? Furthermore some of the wounded had to beg for charity to cover hospital bills. Meanwhile the government leaders did absolutely nothing except shrug their shoulders and declare it the price of freedom. Doesn’t sound like a very nice country, does it?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [84 favorites]

What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act.

Wow. How many kinds of per se defamation in that sentence alone?
posted by Sys Rq at 4:13 PM on January 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

Now can we call the president a white supremacist? (James Downie / WaPo Opinion)

In September, ESPN anchor Jemele Hill tweeted that President Trump is a “white supremacist.” An avalanche of criticism followed: The White House demanded her firing; conservatives and even some liberals condemned her as hyperbolic. ESPN issued a statement that her tweets “crossed the line” and Hill was forced to apologize.

On Thursday, Trump proved once and for all that Hill wasn’t crossing a line, but merely stating a fact: The president is, by definition a white supremacist.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 4:21 PM on January 11, 2018 [94 favorites]

D congressman from Wisconsin.

@repmarkpocan
The real question is why we allow presidents from sh*thole companies like the Trump Organization

---

@Scavino45: It’s time to end #ChainMigration! Read more via @WhiteHouse

@CleverTitleTK (Jennifer Mendelsohn)
Retweeted Dan Scavino Jr.
So Dan. Let's say Victor Scavino arrives from Canelli, Italy in 1904, then brother Hector in 1905, brother Gildo in 1912, sister Esther in 1913, & sister Clotilde and their father Giuseppe in 1916, and they live together in NY. Do you think that would count as chain migration?
posted by chris24 at 4:24 PM on January 11, 2018 [147 favorites]

I mean, if you are the descendent of voluntary immigrants to the US, it is very likely that you are here because of chain migration. Chain migration was the dominant way that free people came to the US throughout its history. There are a ton of advantages to moving to a place where you have established networks. I'm trained as an immigration historian, and I find the whole attempt to stigmatize chain migration to be bizarre.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:30 PM on January 11, 2018 [97 favorites]

A thread on Trump's new buzzword, #ChainMigration.
posted by thelonius at 4:33 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

I mean, if you are the descendent of voluntary immigrants to the US, it is very likely that you are here because of chain migration.

I know for a fact that I am: my great-great-great grandfather emigrated here because some Union officer didn't want his commission, and paid passage for some poor Irish dude to take up his commission. Then my great-great-great grandfather used his salary from the Union army to bring his wife and kids over, too.

My grandmother's family all came in through Quebec, and then all came in through some complicated network of kin ties and shit en mass from Canada. I'm pretty sure my mother's side of the family did similar; if they were bothering to do it the legal way, I'm pretty sure there were family members emigrating first and then sponsoring and sending for other relatives as money came in. (If they weren't--well, an awful lot of us white people descend from people who wandered across borders into New York State. I'm just saying.)

How many people does he think are emigrating places, intending to set up a new life in a foreign country permanently, and not encouraging their families to follow them?
posted by sciatrix at 4:35 PM on January 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

Fun Facts from the Trump Lexical Mirror:

SHITHOLE -> HIS HOTEL
posted by sylvanshine at 4:38 PM on January 11, 2018 [76 favorites]

::Goes back to playing "Gimme Shelter" on infinite loop::
posted by kirkaracha at 4:42 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

I assume that everyone else can see this: JSTOR search for chain migration. Includes stuff like "Staying Together: Chain Migration and Patterns of Slovak Settlement in Pittsburgh Prior to World War I" and "Migration Decisions in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Germany" and "Transplanted Villages: The Effects of Chain Migration on Regional Distribution and Settlement Patterns of German-Americans". I get that the way Trump uses this is hate speech, but it really is an established, completely non-stigmatized concept among immigration historians.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:42 PM on January 11, 2018 [11 favorites]

I wasn't expecting WSJ to release a transcript, but they did: Transcript of Donald Trump Interview With The Wall Street Journal, excluding off-the-record poritions.

Some lowlights:

WSJ: You think North Korea is trying to drive a wedge between the two countries, between you and President Moon?

Mr. Trump: I’ll let you know in—within the next 12 months, OK, Mike?

WSJ: Sure.

Mr. Trump: I will let you know. But if I were them I would try. But the difference is I’m president; other people aren’t. And I know more about wedges than any human being that’s ever lived, but I’ll let you know. But I’ll tell you, you know, when you talk about driving a wedge, we also have a thing called trade. And South Korea—brilliantly makes—we have a trade deficit with South Korea of $31 billion a year. That’s a pretty strong bargaining chip to me.

With that being said, President Xi has been extremely generous with what he’s said, I like him a lot. I have a great relationship with him, as you know I have a great relationship with Prime Minister Abe of Japan and I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

I have relationships with people, I think you people are surprised.

WSJ: Just to be clear, you haven’t spoken to the North Korean leader, I mean when you say a relationship with Korea—

Mr. Trump: I don’t want to comment on it—I don’t want to comment, I’m not saying I have or I haven’t. But I just don’t—

I'm going to be up at night thinking about "and I know more about wedges than any human being that’s ever lived, but I’ll let you know."

Everything comes from TV, so chain migration is bad because of "the ads":

The—as you know chain is—chain migration is a horrible situation. You’ve seen the ads, you’ve seen everything, you know all about chain.

Ignoring him forgetting about the first time he ran for President, the gratuitous " I was always the best athlete, people don’t know that" thrown in there for no good reason:

TRUMP: Just – and so – so I was successful, successful, successful. I was always the best athlete, people don’t know that. But I was successful at everything I ever did and then I run for president, first time -- first time, not three times, not six times. I ran for President first time and lo and behold, I win. And then people say oh, is he a smart person? I’m smarter than all of them put together, but they can’t admit it. They had a bad year.

Here's the treason bit. The fact that he doesn't know the difference between tweeting and texting says so, so, so much about how he users Twitter:

TRUMP: No, I just want them to be tough, be strong. I also think that primary collusion, because there was no collusion on our side, the collusion was on the Democrat side with the Russians. And what went on with the FBI, where a man is tweeting to his lover that if she loses, we’ll essentially go back to the -- we’ll go to the insurance policy, which is -- if they lose, we’ll go to phase 2, and we’ll get this guy out of office.

I mean, this is the FBI we’re talking about. I think that is -- that is treason. See, that’s treason right there.

WSJ: Does any of that make you less...

TRUMP: By the way, that’s a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act.

There's an extended section toward the end on firing Comey that's worth reading.

He also explains again how he's learned the wall needs to be see-through so that people can see what is happening on the other side of it. And offers to show the reporters around the building so he can point to people who were more important than Steve Bannon. And cites his electoral college victory margin again.
posted by zachlipton at 4:42 PM on January 11, 2018 [56 favorites]

If you lived in Norway, would you be tempted to move to the US right now?

New parents get a year—one full year—of paid leave there. Just for example.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:44 PM on January 11, 2018 [52 favorites]

and then I run for president, first time -- first time, not three times, not six times. I ran for President first time and lo and behold, I win.

It was his second time (Hi Reform Party 2000!).

Obama - first time. Dubya - first time. Clinton - first time.
posted by chris24 at 4:47 PM on January 11, 2018 [31 favorites]

The fact that he doesn't know the difference between tweeting and texting says so, so, so much about how he users Twitter.

Definitely clears up any question about whether he's familiar with the Direct Message feature.
posted by contraption at 4:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Tomorrow's NY Daily News cover (S**T FOR BRAINS, with a particularly strong illustration)
posted by zachlipton at 4:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [30 favorites]

I'm going to be up at night thinking about "and I know more about wedges than any human being that’s ever lived, but I’ll let you know."

It might be a golf joke?
posted by mr_roboto at 4:51 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Obama - first time. Dubya - first time. Clinton - first time.

Jimmy Carter. JFK. Eisenhower. There are more.
posted by thelonius at 4:54 PM on January 11, 2018 [13 favorites]

> They had a bad year.

Well, that part is true.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:57 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Per the comments above about WaPo printing “shithole” — CNN is leading with it in their chyron. Acosta is speaking it. Just another set of shithole data points.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 2:05 PM on January 11 [14 favorites +] [!]

And to think, they couldn't bring themselves to say "pussy" before the pussy-grabber-in-chief was actually elected. These tepid, timid excuses for news outlets sicken me.
posted by Mental Wimp at 5:04 PM on January 11, 2018 [17 favorites]

I get that the way Trump uses this is hate speech, but it really is an established, completely non-stigmatized concept among immigration historians.

*That* chain immigration is a *completely different* concept, though, is the thing. That’s immigrants from one localized region of another country moving to a similarly localized region in the US. It’s sometimes related to, but not at all the the same as, the bog-standard installment-plan family immigration the Trumpkins are vilifying as “chain immigration.”
posted by Sys Rq at 5:07 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL: Excuse me, I just – we have about two or three minutes left and you’ve got to go to a meeting.

TRUMP: Oh I do?

---

UNKNOWN: Yeah, let’s finish on that and then you really do have to go you’ve got a Roosevelt Room full of people waiting for you. So go ahead.

TRUMP: I do?

UNKNOWN: Yes, you do.

TRUMP: OK, get me a list of those people.

JFC. I bet this scene was repeated when they ushered him into the meeting. "I have a meeting?"
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:07 PM on January 11, 2018 [28 favorites]

ArbitraryandCapricious: I mean, if you are the descendent of voluntary immigrants to the US, it is very likely that you are here because of chain migration. Chain migration was the dominant way that free people came to the US throughout its history. There are a ton of advantages to moving to a place where you have established networks.

My grandma liked to tell me the story of how her father and his siblings immigrated to the US. His oldest sister arrived first, got a domestic service job, sent for her next oldest sister, and they both worked until their brothers arrived. I'm a proud descendant of "chain migration!" I think it's healthier for people to have kin and friends around them, if that's what they want. It's a built-in support system, and, at least in my area, these families are dedicated job creators, starting businesses in droves.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 5:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]

One more interview quote:

TRUMP: Well, I’m not talking amnesty at all. I’m not talking amnesty at all, that’s the other thing. No, I think my base is with me. My base feels that these 800 thousand young people should not be thrown out of the country, OK? My base is with me and now I you know; and I think my base actually gets bigger.

And I’m not doing it because of the base or anything else, I’m doing it from the standpoint of heart, I’m doing it from the standpoint of common sense. I’m doing it from another standpoint too. You have a lot of people of those 800, they work hard, they have jobs. We need workers in this country; we need people to come in and work because I have a lot of companies moving in.

He rants and rants about deporting people so there will be jobs for Americans, then now he says Dreamers need to stay because companies need workers.
posted by zachlipton at 5:18 PM on January 11, 2018 [18 favorites]

Well, except that “pussy” is very often used as a gendered slur.

And "shithole" here is being used as a racist slur. I'm not sure that it attains the moral high ground.
posted by Mental Wimp at 5:23 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

CA Lt. Gov (and no doubt future presidential hopeful) Gavin Newsom to Trump: you're a joke. resign..

It pains me he didn't capitalize but I celebrate our Lt Govs sentiments.
posted by Justinian at 5:24 PM on January 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

I mean, if you are the descendent of voluntary immigrants to the US, it is very likely that you are here because of chain migration.

what if ur ancestors came here 15,000 years ago over the bering land bridge
posted by poffin boffin at 5:24 PM on January 11, 2018 [14 favorites]

My favorite former world leader.

@VicenteFoxQue
.@realDonaldTrump, your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world. With what authority do you proclaim who’s welcome in America and who’s not. America’s greatness is built on diversity, or have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald?
posted by chris24 at 5:25 PM on January 11, 2018 [102 favorites]

what if ur ancestors came here 15,000 years ago over the bering land bridge

Sorry, too early. You gotta come after the white man took the whole place, but before brown people moved here voluntarily. And also after it was OK for the Irish and Germans to move in, but before...

Look, it's a really fine needle to thread. October 19th 1885, I believe was the day it was cool. Shoulda been there. Good day. Real classy.
posted by mrgoat at 5:38 PM on January 11, 2018 [36 favorites]

*That* chain immigration is a *completely different* concept, though, is the thing. That’s immigrants from one localized region of another country moving to a similarly localized region in the US. It’s sometimes related to, but not at all the the same as, the bog-standard installment-plan family immigration the Trumpkins are vilifying as “chain immigration.”

I'm not sure that I entirely understand the difference? I mean, obviously there is a difference in that this stuff is now all mediated by the state in ways that it wasn't always in earlier historical periods, and the US facilities chain migration by giving preferential treatment to family members of naturalized citizens. But chain migration a hundred years ago also often flowed through families, although sometimes it flowed through networks of neighbors and friends. So Mary from County Clare has an aunt in Pittsburgh who just had twins and could use some help around the house, and the aunt offers to pay Mary's passage to Pittsburgh if she'll stay in her house for a year and help with the kids. Mary does that, and at the end of the year she gets a steady job, and she writes to her cousin Jane that the factory where she works is always hiring, and Mary can lend her the money for the passage over. Jane comes to Pittsburgh and gets a job and saves some money, and she pays the fare for her brother Joe, who wants to get married but can't find a job in Ireland that would support a family. Joe comes, saves some money, sends for his fiance, and she doesn't want to make the journey alone, so she convinces her sister to come with her. The sister sends for her cousin. The cousin saves up money to bring his younger siblings over. And pretty soon, the entire village has reconstituted itself in Pittsburgh. That's chain migration.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:39 PM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

Hey everyone! How are the fake news awards going? That was tonight right?

Or did the shithole in chief move them again?
posted by nubs at 5:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Hey everyone! How are the fake news awards going? That was tonight right?

Next Wed., the 17th.
posted by zakur at 5:55 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Damn it, I guess I'm the fake news!
posted by nubs at 6:04 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

I’d like a reporter to ask him something really absurd to test the limits of his delusional self-regard; “Do you think you could beat LeBron James one-on-one at basketball?” I bet he’d be incapable of just saying no and would just deflect to talking about the Electoral College or the fact that Trump Tower is taller than James. Or maybe he’d just say yes.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:07 PM on January 11, 2018 [38 favorites]

@VicenteFoxQue
.@realDonaldTrump, your mouth is the foulest shithole in the world. With what authority do you proclaim who’s welcome in America and who’s not. America’s greatness is built on diversity, or have you forgotten your immigrant background, Donald?

Mexico's former president is a more sincere American patriot than America's current one. Add that to the list of possible metrics for 'how badly Trump is shitting all over everything, all the time,' I guess.
posted by LooseFilter at 6:08 PM on January 11, 2018 [37 favorites]

"Sheriff" "Joe" Arpaio on NPR this morning -- get your tote bags and interviews with racists! -- was allowed to talk about how his Italian immigrant parents in Springfield, MA were the good immigrants, even though Italian-Americans in the early 1900s were specifically blamed for violent crime, then eventually got subsidized home loans and cheap college educations, because (eventually) white.

The White House occupant is a (semi-) animated version of a redlining map.
posted by holgate at 6:10 PM on January 11, 2018 [23 favorites]

Hey, I wonder what Rex Tillerson is up to tomorrow:

Secretary Tillerson delivers remarks on the Value of Respect, at the Department of State (Closed Press Coverage)

Well that will go over well.
posted by zachlipton at 6:14 PM on January 11, 2018 [19 favorites]

I’d like a reporter to ask him something really absurd to test the limits of his delusional self-regard; “Do you think you could beat LeBron James one-on-one at basketball?” I bet he’d be incapable of just saying no and would just deflect to talking about the Electoral College or the fact that Trump Tower is taller than James. Or maybe he’d just say yes.

If a journalist could use a question to insinuate that he wouldn't be smart and capable enough to pull off colluding with Russia he'd spill the entire damn conspiracy.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:20 PM on January 11, 2018 [57 favorites]

Thing is, there were a bunch of stories today that could have been major news and great for the GOP:

Walmart announcing bonuses and pay raises, attributing them to the tax bill (yes, there's a bunch of nonsense here, including announcements of store closures and layoffs—we don't need an argument over how they're Actually Bad—my point is that it's easily spun as a win, politically).

Fiat Chrysler moving Ram Heavy Duty truck production from Mexico to Michigan and announcing worker bonuses, also attributing this to the tax bill.

The IRS releasing new withholding tables that will cause workers to see more money in their paychecks.

Like, by simply not being racist morons, this ought to have been a damn good news day for the Republican Party. But nope; the news cycle is all shithole all the time now. The only thing that could make Congressional Republicans turn on him is if they realize just how counterproductive this stuff is to their agenda.

In other news, please enjoy the NYT's Jeremy Peters deleting his old tweets about how Trump didn't win because of racism.
posted by zachlipton at 6:51 PM on January 11, 2018 [38 favorites]

HuffPo, Ashley "that woman with the balloons on her head is damn good at her job" Feinberg, Exclusive: Here Is A Draft Of Trump’s Nuclear Review. He Wants A Lot More Nukes.: "His first Nuclear Posture Review: more nukes, more posturing."
posted by zachlipton at 6:55 PM on January 11, 2018 [5 favorites]

South Africa probably has some documents in a safe that they can sell to the rest of the African nations. I would heartily advise them to purchase a copy for their own protection lest Trump deem using tactical nukes on “shithole” countries as acceptable collateral damage.
posted by Talez at 6:58 PM on January 11, 2018

Walmart's pay raise news was cancelled out by them closing 63 Sam's Club locations without warning (Autoplay video warning).
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:58 PM on January 11, 2018 [16 favorites]

Let's not make this "chain migration" stuff any more complicated than necessary: the reason why so many conservatives and ~~Trumpistas~~ nationalists don't think of earlier, white chain migration before the mid-twentieth-century as the bad chain migration is just racism.
posted by XMLicious at 7:02 PM on January 11, 2018 [23 favorites]

"Called the Secure Elections Act, the bill aims to eliminate insecure paperless voting machines from American elections while promoting routine audits that would dramatically reduce the danger of interference from foreign governments."

If the last couple of years has taught you anything, isn't it that foreign governments don't need to directly hack your voting systems in order to interfere in your elections? Good, old fashioned, social engineering - the kind of thing that the Soviet Union spent decades working on, and that the post-Soviet remains of the intelligence services had finally started to perfect - bought in bulk through modern media outlets, is enough.

Granted, electronic voting as it currently stands is part 'solution looking for a problem', and part a nest of its own special problems - but it didn't cause your current problem.
posted by Pinback at 7:02 PM on January 11, 2018

Ashley is a National Treasure! (she's all I have)
posted by armacy at 7:02 PM on January 11, 2018

I'm getting the feeling that the Democratic leadership is still fighting the last war. How can they possibly reach a "compromise" with this man which involves giving him a major victory where he can claim to be building The Wall? The Democrats should insist on a clean DACA extension in the budget. If not this issue, what? If not now, when?

They need to get on board or retire.
posted by Justinian at 7:06 PM on January 11, 2018 [21 favorites]

Don Lemon just cut the Republican lackey off 10 seconds into his bullshit defense, had his mic turned off, and went to someone else. Is it possible this was finally a breaking point for mainstream news outlets like CNN and WaPo?
posted by Justinian at 7:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [41 favorites]

Lemon also started his show strongly.

@RunGomez:
Whoa! @donlemon just opened his program like this: "The president of the United States is racist."
posted by chris24 at 7:13 PM on January 11, 2018 [73 favorites]

Like, by simply not being racist morons, this ought to have been a damn good news day for the Republican Party.

You forgot about Trump sabotaging his own party's FISA vote this morning.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:15 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Democrats absolutely should insist on a clean DACA extension as a condition to keep the government open (speaking of which, January 19th is coming damn soon, and I'm getting increasingly skeptical).

That said, it's a shitty situation, in which Trump created a crisis so he can exploit it without regard for the lives he's wrecking along the way. But if there's a deal to be made that gives permanent protection and a pathway to citizenship to 800,000 Dreamers and some kind of protection for their parents in exchange for $2.7B more for border security, do you want to look people in the eye and say no? I'm far convinced that deal can actually be made, but I also don't want to prioritize making sure Trump can't declare some kind of wall-related victory over actual people's lives.

You forgot about sabotaging his own party's FISA vote this morning.

I'm pretty sure that happened at least 50 years ago. Please mentally adjust the above to read "by simply not being racist and morons."
posted by zachlipton at 7:18 PM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

I'm going to go with Betteridge's law of headlines on this one.

I mean... maybe. History is with you. On the other hand, Rick Wilson on CNN just called the Trump lackey an infantile racist (or something, I missed the exact phrasing) and threatened to "gut him like a fish" live on television.
posted by Justinian at 7:28 PM on January 11, 2018 [32 favorites]

@frankthorp (yesterday): Feinstein to @MariannaNBCNews RE: releasing the Glenn Simpson transcript: "The one regret I have is that I should have spoke with Senator Grassley before. And I don't make an excuse but I've had a bad cold and maybe that slowed down my mental facilities a little bit."

@LoopEmma: Just asked Feinstein about her comment yesterday about being "pressured" to release the Simpson transcript. "I made no statement to that effect," she said. Me: but there are recordings of you saying you felt pressured "I don't believe there are. I don't believe I said that."

@realDonaldTrump: Democrat Dianne Feinstein should never have released secret committee testimony to the public without authorization. Very disrespectful to committee members and possibly illegal. She blamed her poor decision on the fact she had a cold - a first!

I haven't been held elected office nearly continuously since 1969 or anything, so I defer to her expertise, but I was previously under the impression that "I've had a bad cold and maybe that slowed down my mental facilities a little bit" is not generally the sort of thing you're supposed to say if you're not actively looking to snatch defeat out of the jaw of victory.
posted by zachlipton at 7:33 PM on January 11, 2018 [36 favorites]

Staffers inside the White House aren't that worried about Trump's "shithole" remark -- with some predicting it will actually resonate with his base

Can we start calling them "deplorable" now? Or does that still make us look like the bad guys?
posted by mmoncur at 7:41 PM on January 11, 2018 [19 favorites]

Can we start calling them "deplorable" now? Or does that still make us look like the bad guys?

"Mudd, the former deputy director of CIA's Counterterrorist Center, compared the president's remarks to past instances of discrimination against immigrants from foreign nations, such as the internment of Japanese immigrants in the U.S. during World War II. Mudd said the remarks reminded him of derogatory terms aimed at his family of Italian and Irish immigrants and [live on CNN] called himself a 'proud shitholer.' "

I'm ambivalent about the anti-Trump movement's inevitable countering of the Deplorables by donning the mantle of the Shitholers.
posted by Rust Moranis at 7:46 PM on January 11, 2018 [20 favorites]

I mean... maybe. History is with you. On the other hand, Rick Wilson on CNN just called the Trump lackey an infantile racist (or something, I missed the exact phrasing) and threatened to "gut him like a fish" live on television.

God I love Rick Wilson and that Don Lemon segment was just incredible. If there's one thing that Rick Wilson is good for it's that he'll call a spade a spade. This is the same guy that called Trump supporters "childless single men who masturbate to anime" and even if I disagree with him on many subjects, he's at least someone who I can respect.
posted by Talez at 7:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [13 favorites]

The only thing that could make Congressional Republicans turn on him is if they realize just how counterproductive this stuff is to their agenda.

The NYT's Alex Burns quoted a "smart and clear-eyed R" on this: they can't legislate their way out of the stuff that will turn out voters against them. Not even with tax cuts.

A kneejerk reaction to "shithole countries" in the context of the push for "skills-based" immigration is to point in the general direction of southeastern Kentucky (or wherever Salena Zito is currently staking out a diner) where you have low-skill, low-wage workers who sorta kinda want the magic job tree planted in their garden, except the tree is made of coal. It's important to fight that urge, because the US is rich enough to take care of all its people, and give them the option to stay or to go elsewhere, provided it doesn't shovel its wealth into the maw of the already-rich.
posted by holgate at 8:06 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

Anderson Cooper makes a remarkable statement about Haiti.
posted by Sublimity at 8:06 PM on January 11, 2018 [69 favorites]

Statue of Liberty:

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Trump:

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Ain't that America. Little handed orange presidents for you and me.
posted by Talez at 8:07 PM on January 11, 2018 [32 favorites]

Trump waives criminal punishments for convicted banks, including Deutsche Bank, to whom he owes $130,000,000-$300,000,000
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [65 favorites]

WaPo, Trump’s ‘ping-pong’ on surveillance law sets off a 101-minute scramble. In which Paul Ryan spends a half hour on the phone with Trump “explaining the differences between domestic and foreign surveillance.”

Anyway, the FISA 702 vote is headed to the Senate soon, so give your Senators a call and demand robust warrant requirements for wiretapping Americans.
posted by zachlipton at 8:11 PM on January 11, 2018 [13 favorites]

Democrats: We must defeat Trump at all costs!

Also Democrats: ...after we give him unlimited expanded power to spy on every American's communications!
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:16 PM on January 11, 2018 [17 favorites]

I wish to clarify my earlier comment. Rick Wilson called Fredericks an impotent racist, not an infantile one. Accuracy is important. I apologize for any confusion.
posted by Justinian at 8:34 PM on January 11, 2018 [15 favorites]

"In the 1940s, we called people traitors because they came from a shithole country called Japan, and we're ashamed.”

👏TWO👏THIRDS👏OF👏INTERNED👏JAPANESE👏AMERICANS👏WERE👏U.S.👏CITIZENS👏BY👏BIRTH👏

Goddamn fucking tired of having to correct this shit from people on my "side". My people have been in this country longer than a lot of the white folks who still think to this day the internment is an intellectual exercise for them to deconstruct - but when we did come here 50 years before that it was part of a "chain migration" and don't you damn forget it.
posted by sunset in snow country at 8:41 PM on January 11, 2018 [132 favorites]

The only thing that could make Congressional Republicans turn on him is if they realize just how counterproductive this stuff is to their agenda.

This is just not going to happen. I wish it would, but the GOP has gone all-in on covering up Trump's Treason.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Times tells us After Donald Trump Said It, How News Outlets Handled It.

Of the three evening network newscasts, NBC was the only one to say "shithole" on air; ABC and CBS said "blank." Which is a pretty big step for broadcast news, really. Lester Holt provided a content warning first, informing viewers they would say the word only once.
posted by zachlipton at 8:53 PM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]

The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent & respectable Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights & previleges, if by decency & propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.

-- George Washington, December 2, 1783
posted by Chrysostom at 9:08 PM on January 11, 2018 [52 favorites]

From the Carrier article linked upthread:

“We took him serious,” Elliott said, tearing up as she sat in a booth at Sully’s, “because he did seem to be an entrepreneur. He knew this offshoring shit was gonna go down, and ‘I’m not gonna stand for it’ is the way he made it sound. Hillary never said a word to us or about us. Obama never flew Air Force One to our facility, like he did to one in Elkhart, Indiana, when he was campaigning. I thought, This man is not gonna be anybody’s puppet.”

I empathize with this woman, because I wouldn't want to fear for my job like she is. I don't sympathize with her, though, because I live an hour from Indy and have to hear this shit all the time, from people who choose to ignore all the evidence to the contrary readily available to them.

NB: If the suits at your factory are holding their meeting on the shop floor, it's not because they can't find a meeting room.
posted by Rykey at 9:09 PM on January 11, 2018 [42 favorites]

Walmart's pay raise news was cancelled out by them closing 63 Sam's Club locations without warning

All of the Sams Clubs in Alaska are closing, including the one in Fairbanks—as of January 26. This will leave a big hole in our limited shopping options.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:10 PM on January 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

Hoo boy is he angry. Midnight tweet.

@realDonaldTrump: Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!

I will give credit though. "Whine about the location of the new embassy" was not on my bingo card.
posted by zachlipton at 9:13 PM on January 11, 2018 [92 favorites]

This is a bot that just tweets words when they appear in the New York Times for the first time ever
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:15 PM on January 11, 2018 [27 favorites]

One habit of many very stable and smart people is that they post bizarre self-aggrandizing lies about embassy real estate in the middle of the night
posted by theodolite at 9:18 PM on January 11, 2018 [75 favorites]

That's Obama's building and is thus tainted. Also it doesn't have his name on it.

I remember reading/hearing about younger Trump recalling a formative memory of a building dedication, and seeing the architect not getting sufficient credit, so Trump decided from that point he was going to take credit for everything he could. Forgot where I saw it.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:21 PM on January 11, 2018

ddale8: OK, here is a summary:
- The president is claiming he's not going to visit a top ally because he's unhappy about a real estate decision by the Obama admin
- The decision was actually made by the Bush admin
- The decision was made for anti-terror reasons
- It is midnight
posted by christopherious at 9:28 PM on January 11, 2018 [141 favorites]

(fwiw, the decision to move the embassy and purchase of the new site was made under the Bush admin)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:28 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

And I'm being informed the initial agreement to purchase the Nine Elms site was signed on October 8, 2008, and security concerns were a big part of the move. But sure, let's blame Obama for things that happened before he took office.

Obama was President when the Grosvenor Square embassy was sold to Qatari Diar, though the building's historic status and the $1.4B that it will cost to turn it into a hotel surely depressed its sale price.
posted by zachlipton at 9:29 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

But sure, let's blame Obama for things that happened before he took office.

Hell, that's before he won the election
posted by thelonius at 9:30 PM on January 11, 2018 [10 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** 2018 House:

-- Mentioned above, new Quinnipiac generic ballot poll has Dems +17 (52-35). If that actually held true, Dems might expect to take 240 or more seats. It's an outlier,at least for now, though - 538 average is currently at D+11.4. That might be around 228 seats.

-- Crowded field of Dems looking to take down asshole Greg Gianforte in MT-AL.

** 2018 Senate -- Despite heavy wooing by Trump, Rep Kevin Cramer has declined to run for the nom against Heidi Heitkamp in ND.

** PA-18 special -- Trump coming next week to stump for GOP candidate. Probably not a sign of overwhelming confidence in a district that went Trump 58-39.

** Odds & ends:

-- In the light of yesterday's revelations that MO governor Eric Greitens blackmailed and threatened a woman he was having an affair with, he's now being investigated by the St. Louis city prosecutor, and is facing calls - even from Republicans - to resign or be impeached. If he leaves office, he'd be succeeded for the remainder of his term (to 2020) by the Lt. Gov, whom I gather is not quite as egregious. We also have a slew of special elections coming up for the MO legislature; none of them looked very promising for Dem pickups, but this could possibly be a factor.

-- Governors' race ratings from Sabato. Dems want to pick up at least four states this year, if not more.

-- Final installment of 538 gerrymander podcast series.

posted by Chrysostom at 9:37 PM on January 11, 2018 [27 favorites]

Nice logical Twitter thread from Jonathan M. Katz on the racist colonialist roots of economic hardship in Haiti, if anybody's looking for a compact but thorough comeback to "but [x place] IS a shithole!" comments:

Lot of folks, from the alt-right to @RichLowry, think they’re making a great argument in the president’s defense tonight by noting that Haiti and El Salvador are, in fact, poor.

But they’re just revealing their own racism. Here’s why:

In order to do a victory lap around the GDP difference between, say, Norway and Haiti, you have to know nothing about the history of the world.

That includes, especially, knowing nothing real about the history of the United States. [and a bunch more]

posted by FelliniBlank at 9:41 PM on January 11, 2018 [42 favorites]

I didn't see it linked above so here's the Don Lemon video where he cuts off the racist. It's kind of beautiful.
posted by numaner at 10:16 PM on January 11, 2018 [20 favorites]

The tax reform that was going to be so simple you could use a post card is getting even more complex, New tax guidelines rely on workers to double-check their paychecks (WaPo):

Millions of Americans will need to use a new Internal Revenue Service online calculator to ensure their new paychecks are accurate, Trump administration officials said Thursday as they issued guidelines for implementing the recently passed tax law.

Also that new embassy's "off location" is pretty posh. The redevelopment zone is being called Dubai-on-Thames, Apple's new UK hq will be nearby, it's full of luxury high-rise condos. Sounds like sour grapes from a shithole condo developer.
posted by peeedro at 10:20 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]

And here's the video where Wilson threatens to gut the Trumpist like a fish.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 10:27 PM on January 11, 2018 [21 favorites]

i do not mind if this gets deleted as noise but my sign at the next march will be I WILL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH with no other context
posted by numaner at 10:30 PM on January 11, 2018 [51 favorites]

The US has been moving consulates and embassies all over the world following 9/11. In Cape Town the consulate used to be in a high rise building smack in the middle of town, which they then moved to a massive custom built secure compound 35 minutes out in the suburbs.
posted by PenDevil at 10:34 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]

If you lived in Norway, would you be tempted to move to the US right now? I think there's some Trump's Mirror going on when he refers to any other country as a shithole.

No, not at all. But some do - mostly if they are highly qualified and have lined up a great job where they're insulated from much of the nonsense going on in the US if you're poorer. And the work can be great, especially if you're something special in tech or medicine. I'd be interested to know if that number has dropped during the last year, though, but my initial searches only turn up older historical data.

BTW, the default assumption of US Immigration is that anyone would jump on the possibility to stay in the US no matter where they're from or how many ties they have in their native country. So even if you're from the Nordic countries you are given the stink-eye when travelling to the US.
posted by Harald74 at 10:55 PM on January 11, 2018 [12 favorites]

I'd give my right arm to move to Norway right now, though.
posted by elsietheeel at 11:10 PM on January 11, 2018 [58 favorites]

Hey, so of course, Trump's schedule tomorrow includes signing a proclamation in honor of ML King Day. Should be even more fun this year than last time, when he trash-talked John Lewis.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:20 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]

You think there's any particular reason they had Raj Shah - the son of immigrants from Mumbai - and not Sarah Huckabee Sanders get up to talk about Drumpf's attitude towards "shithole countries"?

You see? It's OK. Some of my most trusted advisors are from shithole countries, and they say it is not racist.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:26 AM on January 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

some [Norwegians] do [want to emigrate to the U.S.] - mostly if they are highly qualified and have lined up a great job where they're insulated from much of the nonsense going on in the US if you're poorer. And the work can be great, especially if you're something special in tech or medicine.

I'm skeptical, especially since they can easily get H-1B visas designed for precisely those kinds of workers. Maybe they'd like dual citizenship. But I'm going to need to see some evidence that any Norwegian wants to give up their passport to move to the U.S.

Source: my great-grandparents came to the U.S. in 1900 and moved back because it sucked. Granted, they came to Albany, Oregon.
posted by msalt at 12:37 AM on January 12, 2018

This seems to be the enormous gaping maw of ignorance in the Trump 'shithole' countries story. If you live in, say Norway (or, well, any of the rest of the G-20) and you're just joe regular - not a tech super-star or similar coming to work for a couple years - the US is a terrible place to move to. Schools are crap (unless you can afford a private one), University is expensive to very expensive, Health Care costs can literally drive you homeless, and if you do become homeless the deck is stacked well-nigh impossibly high as a 'regular' minimum wage job will not earn you out of poverty... child care can also be very expensive/difficult. It's a bad deal. There's no upside anymore. (A friend was in South America, got mugged, wound up in the hospital, had to have open-heart surgery. His nephew started a 'Go-fund me' to pay for the medical costs because open-heart-$$$urgery! Yikes! Recently friend sent out a thank you to everyone who contributed and explained the charities he was going to give the money to because he needs only a fraction of it. Jokes went around that, wow, always thought country X was poor and, uh, gee, maybe life there is better than... ha ha...? hah? here?)
posted by From Bklyn at 1:48 AM on January 12, 2018 [101 favorites]

Not to mention that your leader would be Donald Trump.
posted by Merus at 3:20 AM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

Source: my great-grandparents came to the U.S. in 1900 and moved back because it sucked. Granted, they came to Albany, Oregon.

A lot of people did, actually. And some tried several times to establish themselves "over there".
posted by Harald74 at 3:22 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

some [Norwegians] do [want to emigrate to the U.S.] - mostly if they are highly qualified and have lined up a great job where they're insulated from much of the nonsense going on in the US if you're poorer. And the work can be great, especially if you're something special in tech or medicine.

I'm skeptical, especially since they can easily get H-1B visas designed for precisely those kinds of workers. Maybe they'd like dual citizenship. But I'm going to need to see some evidence that any Norwegian wants to give up their passport to move to the U.S.

Oh, I wasn't really saying that they wanted to relinquish their Norwegian citizenship, just that they would like to live and work in the US for an extended time. Sorry for the confusion. I think actually applying for US citizenship is a bit more rare.
posted by Harald74 at 3:26 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

@SadiqKhan
Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pursuing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that message.

STATEMENT

It appears that President Trump got the message from the many Londoners who love and admire America and Americans but find his policies and actions the polar opposite of our city's values of inclusion, diversity and tolerance.

His visit next month would without doubt have been met by mass peaceful protests.

This just reinforces what a mistake it was for Theresa May to rush and extend an invitation of a state visit in the first place.

Let's hope that Donald Trump also revisits the pursuit of his divisive agenda.

Sadiq Khan
MAYOR OF LONDON

posted by chris24 at 4:00 AM on January 12, 2018 [55 favorites]

Oh, I wasn't really saying that they wanted to relinquish their Norwegian citizenship, just that they would like to live and work in the US for an extended time. Sorry for the confusion. I think actually applying for US citizenship is a bit more rare.

There are still reason for getting American citizenship. For example my brother (Canadian) got US Citizenship after living in the US for something like 10 years because he was going through a divorce and was worried about his legal rights if he wife took the kids back to Canada. As an American citizen he had more protections.
posted by srboisvert at 4:04 AM on January 12, 2018

The feeling isn't mutual Donny.

Norway Today: Poll: 3 out of 4 Norwegians believe Trump is a threat

71 percent of Norwegians believe that President Donald Trump and the United States are a real threat to world peace, according to recent poll.

He is the first President in history to have such low approval ratings in polls in the past 70 years, Dagbladet writes. In a survey conducted by Ipsos for the newspaper, 45 percent of the 1,002 people, who took the survey, responded that they felt “to a large extent” Trump and the United States are a threat to world peace and 26 percent answered “to a very large extent.”

In the same survey, 60 percent of Norwegians said that Vladimir Putin and Russia also represents a real security threat to world peace.

posted by chris24 at 4:06 AM on January 12, 2018 [19 favorites]

WaPo, ‘Here is what my #shithole looks like:’ African countries and Haiti react to Trump’s remark

“The African Union Commission is frankly alarmed at statements by the president of the United States when referring to migrants of African countries and others in such contemptuous terms,” said Ebba Kalondo, the spokeswoman for commission chair Moussa Faki. “Considering the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the U.S. during the Atlantic slave trade, this flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice.”
...
Altidor said the Haitian Embassy in Washington was inundated with emails from Americans apologizing for Trump’s remarks, which he found heartening.

posted by zachlipton at 4:15 AM on January 12, 2018 [48 favorites]

I'm disappointed Donald Trump is not visiting the UK in February.
The country could have done with being united against something.

"Well Ma'am, it looks like Diana's funeral procession but those aren't flowers being thrown."
posted by fullerine at 4:24 AM on January 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

@KatzOnEarth (Jonathan Katz: fellow, Carey Institute; Director, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute @ Duke University.)
Lot of folks, from the alt-right to @RichLowry, think they’re making a great argument in the president’s defense tonight by noting that Haiti and El Salvador are, in fact, poor. But they’re just revealing their own racism. Here’s why:

In order to do a victory lap around the GDP difference between, say, Norway and Haiti, you have to know nothing about the history of the world. That includes, especially, knowing nothing real about the history of the United States. You have to first of all understand nothing about the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. You have to not understand anything about the systematic theft of African bodies and lives. And you have to not understand how that theft built the wealth we have today in Europe and the US.

You’d have to not know that the French colony that became Haiti provided the wealth that fueled the French Empire — and 2/3 of the sugar and 3/4 of the coffee that Europe consumed. You’d have to not know how rich slave traders got off their system of kidnapping, rape, and murder. You’d have to not realize that Haiti was founded in a revolution against that system, and that European countries and the United States punished them for their temerity by refusing to recognize or trade with them for decades.

You’d have to not know that Haiti got recognition by agreeing to pay 150 million gold francs to French landowners in compensation for their own freedom. You’d have to not know that Haiti paid it, and that it took them almost all of the 19th century to do so. You’d then have to not know that Haiti was forced to borrow some money to pay back that ridiculous debt, some of it from banks in the United States. And you’d have to not know that in 1914 those banks got President Wilson to send the US Marines to empty the Haitian gold reserve.

.@RichLowry would have to not know about the chaos that ensued, and the 19-year US military occupation of Haiti that followed (at a time when the US was invading and occupying much of Central America and the Caribbean). He and others have to not know about the rest of the 20th century either—the systematic theft and oppression, US support for dictators and coups, the US invasions of Haiti in 1994-95 and 2004, the use of the IMF and World Bank to impose new loans and destructive trade policies, including the now-famous rice tariff gutting that Bill Clinton apologized for but had been a policy since Reagan, and on and on. And you’d have to understand nothing about why the US (under George W. Bush) pushed for and paid a quarter of the UN “stabilization mission” that did little but keep Haiti’s presidents from being overthrown and kill 10,000 people by dumping cholera in its rivers. Etc.

In short, you’d have to know nothing about WHY Haiti is poor (or El Salvador in kind), and WHY the United States (and Norway) are wealthy. But far worse than that, you’d have to not even be interested in asking the question. And that’s where they really tell on themselves ... Because what they are showing is that they ASSUME that Haiti is just naturally poor, that it’s an inherent state borne of the corruption of the people there, in all senses of the word. And let’s just say out loud why that is: It’s because Haitians are black.

Racists have needed Haiti to be poor since it was founded. They pushed for its poverty. They have celebrated its poverty. They have tried to profit from its poverty. They wanted it to be a shithole. And they still do. If Haiti is a shithole, then they can say that black freedom and sovereignty are bad. They can hold it up as proof that white countries—and what’s whiter than Norway—are better, because white people are better. They wanted that in 1804, and in 1915, and they want it now.

So if anyone tonight tries to trap you in a contest of “where would you rather live”—or “what about cholera” or “yeah but isn’t poverty bad?”—ask them what they know about how things got that way. And then ask them why they’re ok with it.
posted by chris24 at 4:29 AM on January 12, 2018 [229 favorites]

Trump tweets:

The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!

An inanimate carbon rod would be easier to reason with.
posted by stonepharisee at 4:57 AM on January 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

@krassenstein
It all adds up:

- Sam's Club laid off approx 11,025 employees today. If they are full-time employees making $11/ hour this = $252m

- Walmart to give an average bonus of a $190 to each of their 1.4m US employees. This equates to $266m

Basically the layoffs pay for the Bonuses
posted by chris24 at 5:02 AM on January 12, 2018 [61 favorites]

the GOP has gone all-in on covering up Trump's Treason.

QFMFT. And they're not confused about it either. Lying to themselves probably, but Wolff's book gave plenty of insight into what they think of Panghazi. "This is bad", "We're fucked", "deny, deny, deny" etc.

"I had a cold" or "eeWhaaaaAAA?!?!" may be what they say afterwards but no one is innocently oblivious.
posted by petebest at 5:09 AM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!

Waiting patiently for the internal leak that the reason for this is that Kelly and the secret service are keeping him away from scissors.
posted by srboisvert at 5:11 AM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

The funny thing about the London visit, even if the embassy thing was true, he's saying he'd snub our closest ally over an idiotic way to try to embarrass Obama.
posted by chris24 at 5:20 AM on January 12, 2018 [32 favorites]

The BBC is running the embassy non-visit story alongside the shithole story and the Iran deal renewal story, basically saying it's hard to keep up with the intensity of diplomatic nonsense coming out of the WH. Of note - European officials are getting extremely tired of trying to persuade their US counterparts not to ditch the Iran deal, because it's taking up lots of bandwidth on a matter that everyone (bar 45) thinks is a very good thing and a rare success in a shithole of an international landscape. There are far more important things to worry about.

To paraphrase: "Policy making for friends of the United States is extremely challenging, because nobody can say what the US position is on anything until 45 actually makes an announcement."

When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. But when it gets dementia...
posted by Devonian at 5:22 AM on January 12, 2018 [19 favorites]

because nobody can say what the US position is on anything until 45 actually makes an announcement.

You can't even say then -- you've got to him an hour or two to walk it back after he's hurridly retroactively briefed.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:26 AM on January 12, 2018 [28 favorites]

Is it just me or does Sadiq Khan's statement read as if the invitation were withdrawn, not declined?

I suppose we'll find out in a day or two when the horde of gossips in the west wing talk to their GOOD FRANDS at the NYT or the goofball in chief admits it in one of his markov chain remarks.
posted by winna at 5:38 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

You think Trump would pass up a chance to be loved and adored by UK crowds and media? No chance. Of course it was cancelled. That midnight tweet has all the hallmarks of a frazzled Hope Hicks and Steven Miller finally getting a good cover story together and explaining it to Trump.

Of course! It was Obama's idea! oOooooo /grar
posted by petebest at 5:45 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Rachel Maddow spoke about this on her show last night:

From this Transcript of a Wall Street Journal interview with Trump -- (original WSJ paywalled article here)

Mr. Trump: There’s a lot of—there’s a lot of—there’s a big difference—first of all, there’s a big difference between DACA and Dreamers, OK?
Dreamers are different. And I want American kids to be Dreamers also, by the way. I want American kids to be Dreamers also.
But there’s a big difference between DACA and Dreamers. And a lot of times when I was with certain Democrats they kept using the word dreamer. I said, “Please, use the word DACA.” You know it’s a totally different word.

WSJ: Sure.

Mr. Trump: OK, people think they’re interchangeable, but they’re not.

The WSJ capitalized "Dreamers" there a few times where it sounds like they shouldn't have, because in the world outside Trump's brain we know "Dreamers" is a shorthand term for the people affected by DACA, aka the DREAM act. It appears Trump does not understand that and thinks "Dreamers" just means, y'know, anybody.
posted by dnash at 5:48 AM on January 12, 2018 [34 favorites]

Is it just me or does Sadiq Khan's statement read as if the invitation were withdrawn, not declined?
My suspicion is that Downing Street has been telling the White House that while Trump's invitation remains, there is little/nothing they can (or will) do about the inevitable protests – and the Queen will definitely be washing her hair.
posted by mushhushshu at 5:50 AM on January 12, 2018 [23 favorites]

Someone (Boris Johnson) not quite as vile as 45 just called the London Mayor a 'puffed-up pompous popinjay' and blames him (along with Jeremy Corbyn) for making Trump cancel his UK visit
posted by Myeral at 5:51 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Trump wants American kids to run a treacherous gauntlet of bureaucracy and financial peril under the gun before possibly being deported to a foreign land?

Follow up question: what color would these American kids be?
posted by petebest at 5:54 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

i do not mind if this gets deleted as noise but my sign at the next march will be I WILL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH with no other context
posted by numaner at 1:30 AM

HA! Mine (mounted on a pool noodle because no pokey things allowed) is going to say THIS POOL NOODLE IS SMARTER THAN OUR FAKE PRESIDENT
posted by yoga at 5:56 AM on January 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

@MattGertz: At 7:06 am, Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade said Trump "made a mistake" with the "shithole" comment and should "walk it back." At 7:28 am, Trump Tweeted that that was "not the language used."

VIDEO
posted by christopherious at 5:59 AM on January 12, 2018 [24 favorites]

Also, I TOTALLY - TOTALLY want Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to invite the Obamas and NOT invite Trump to their wedding.
posted by yoga at 5:59 AM on January 12, 2018 [47 favorites]

Someone (Boris Johnson) not quite as vile as 45 just called the London Mayor a 'puffed-up pompous popinjay'

Trump's Mirror appears to be contagious.
posted by mushhushshu at 6:01 AM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

NBC's Last Word producer Kyle Griffin has been dragging Trump's twitter all morning, teeing off with "In light of Trump's "shithole" comments, it should be noted that today is the 8th anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti."

First:

@realDonaldTrump: The so-called bipartisan DACA deal presented yesterday to myself and a group of Republican Senators and Congressmen was a big step backwards. Wall was not properly funded, Chain & Lottery were made worse and USA would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime.....

@kylegriffin1: Trump 3 days ago: “My positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with... If they come to me with things I'm not in love with, I'm going to do it, because I respect them.” http://cnb.cx/2mvQBCz

Then:

@realDonaldTrump: The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!

@kylegriffin1: Reminder that the White House didn’t deny yesterday that Trump said his “shithole” remark.

And finally:

@realDonaldTrump: Sadly, Democrats want to stop paying our troops and government workers in order to give a sweetheart deal, not a fair deal, for DACA. Take care of our Military, and our Country, FIRST!

@kylegriffin1: Congress passed a bill guaranteeing military pay during the 2013 shutdown. http://politi.co/2EyEFGD

All in all, this was a masterful example of how broadcast and cable news ought to be covering Trump's Twitter feed, which, after all, the administrtion considers his tweets to be, unambiguously, "official statements by the President of the United States".
posted by Doktor Zed at 6:13 AM on January 12, 2018 [62 favorites]

Mr. Trump: There’s a lot of—there’s a lot of—there’s a big difference—first of all, there’s a big difference between DACA and Dreamers, OK? ...

WSJ: Sure.

Why isn't the response to Trump's comment "What is the difference?"

I guess I'd have to be a journalist with "access" to understand why "Sure" is the correct response.
posted by diogenes at 6:17 AM on January 12, 2018 [75 favorites]

The journalist at this point is terrified that what afflicts Trump is contagious and just wants to get out of the room.
posted by delfin at 6:18 AM on January 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

For a little relief from this firehose of crap, #cancelledMyTripToLondon is fun on the twitter
posted by stonepharisee at 6:19 AM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Trump's Mirror appears to be contagious.

Our Boris caught the darkness a long time ago
posted by Myeral at 6:20 AM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

In fairness, the statement immediately preceding "Sure" is "You know it’s a totally different word." And that is hard to argue with. "DACA" and "Dreamers" are indeed totally different words. That MEAN THE SAME THING.

Faced with the swirling wall of cognitive dissonance that is a conversation with President That Guy, I can easily imagine responding to a statement like that with "sure," as my brain struggled to figure out what the guy's actual point was. OTOH, (a) I'm not a trained journalist, and (b) this is the WSJ, so AGF probably doesn't apply.
posted by shenderson at 6:26 AM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

Oh snap:

'Sen. Dick Durbin now knocking down Trump's denial: "It's not true. He said those hateful things, and he said them repeatedly.' - Geoff Bennett on Twitter
posted by marshmallow peep at 6:28 AM on January 12, 2018 [77 favorites]

And another palate cleanser. Letterman has a new show on Netflix that just aired. First ep is a hour long interview with Obama.
posted by johnpowell at 6:33 AM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

You’d have to not know that Haiti got recognition by agreeing to pay 150 million gold francs to French landowners in compensation for their own freedom. You’d have to not know that Haiti paid it, and that it took them almost all of the 19th century to do so. You’d then have to not know that Haiti was forced to borrow some money to pay back that ridiculous debt, some of it from banks in the United States. And you’d have to not know that in 1914 those banks got President Wilson to send the US Marines to empty the Haitian gold reserve.

The bond was not fully paid off until 1947.

Haiti is actually not that great a place for growing sugar. It's the leeward side of the island, and intensive cash cropping is how the place got denuded of vegetation. But they had to pay it off to avoid being invaded and bombarded, so pay it off they did.
posted by ocschwar at 6:33 AM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

In fairness, the statement immediately preceding "Sure" is "You know it’s a totally different word." And that is hard to argue with.

It's true that Trump's thoughts are hard to follow, but I'm optimistic that the reporter is capable of holding the initial premise of the statement in their short-term memory for 20 seconds. There's no rule that you have to engage with the last sentence to leave someone's mouth.
posted by diogenes at 6:40 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

The DREAM Act and DACA aren't different terms for the same thing, but there isn't what Trump calls a "big difference" between them. As Wikipedia puts it "Because DACA was designed in large measure to address the immigration status of the same people as the DREAM Act, the two programs are often debated together, with some making little distinction between them and others focusing on the difference between the DREAM Act's legislative approach in contrast to the implementation of DACA through executive action".
posted by schoolgirl report at 6:42 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I guess I'd have to be a journalist with "access" to understand why "Sure" is the correct response.

I read it as:

MBWAH waH MWHBWHAWAHG WHAAWH

Sure.

MHAGH WAH WAH WGBHAWAAH HAGHAW

Uh-huh.
posted by petebest at 6:43 AM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

The fact is that Trumps statement "And I want American kids to be Dreamers also, by the way" is nonsense.

The only way it makes any kind of sense is if:

1) He's using the term "dreamers" in a general sense, i.e. those who dream. But then it is being used completely out-of-context in discussions of DACA. Or,

2) He wants to remove citizenship status from American kids and make them alien minors.
posted by zakur at 6:49 AM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

Would like to see more people go beyond calling Trump a racist now to wondering who elects racists in the first place.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:51 AM on January 12, 2018 [48 favorites]

The fact is that Trumps statement "And I want American kids to be Dreamers also, by the way" is nonsense.

Exactly. And the reporter let him slide. When legislators talk to him about Dreamers, he doesn't understand what they are talking about. It's journalistic malpractice not to illuminate this fact with a direct question.
posted by diogenes at 6:52 AM on January 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

You should watch Durbin's takedown of Trump's lies this morning. He delineates all the racist things Trump & Co. said and did in the meeting. And says that Trump repeatedly said shitholes, not just once.

VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 6:53 AM on January 12, 2018 [66 favorites]

Interviewing is tough and I think looking at small snippets of transcripts and grarrring that there wasn't follow-up on "what the fuck does that mean?" is a little unfair. I want to see pushback on Trump's nonsense from the press, yes, but when you see the transcripts from these things it's clear that Trump's ability to keep up an even remotely coherent thread through a conversation is limited at best. A reporter who gets a sit-down wants to gather a lot of material, not just pound on one little bit and so totally discombobulate their barely coherent subject such that the whole thing is an even bigger mess or gets shut down by his handlers.

You can look at that snippet and ask why didn't the reporter ask a follow-up that would reveal that this is all bullshit? but the answer is in the fact that you know to ask that question: it was already clear that Trump is full of shit from the rambling nonsense he'd already thrown out there. You're asking for some sort of Mortal Combat finishing move that will put a cherry on top and make it irrefutable that he's lying. But there's no such move. The people willing to see it already see it. The people who won't - there's nothing that would. In this setting it's more valuable for the reporters to keep him talking.

The place where reporters need to push hard on clarification and lies is less Trump when he's babbling than it is all his mouthpieces, particularly when they are putting out concrete policy statements. There's no value in letting them ramble out their state of mind and opinions because they're not the decision makers. Getting the person who the buck (theoretically) stops with to speak more about his thinking (hah) has value.
posted by phearlez at 6:55 AM on January 12, 2018 [28 favorites]

Would like to see more people go beyond calling Trump a racist now to wondering who elects racists in the first place.

Deplorable people elect racists. We tried talking about it in 2016 too.

It's now way past the time for "wondering" or trying to understand who votes for the fucker: it's time to get the fucker out of office.
posted by lydhre at 6:56 AM on January 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

zachlipton: Also, @mattdpearce: In addition to being wrong for a million reasons, we shouldn't call other countries "shitholes" when we have allowed the continued existence of L.A.'s skid row in history's wealthiest country.

Skid row is just one urban example of extreme poverty in the United States, where someone can work full time but still need food stamps to buy food, where access to clean water and sanitation isn't certain across the country, and people, including those with real power to make things better, repeat stereotypes that undermine the poor and justify not coming to their aid.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:04 AM on January 12, 2018 [29 favorites]

I’d like a reporter to ask him something really absurd to test the limits of his delusional self-regard

"Is it possible that you could order a Big Mac so large that you could not in fact eat it?"
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:06 AM on January 12, 2018 [23 favorites]

murphy slaw: last week was "oh shit, the president is actually a moron" week, this week appears to be "oh shit, the president is actually as racist as everyone said all along" week.

Apparently we need an old Daily Show style reminders of what people in power said last week, last month, and last year, because the U.S. media as a whole seems to have a terrible memory*. (At least we still have The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and Last Week Tonight with with John Oliver to carry on the tradition of recording and replaying TV to contextualize current events.)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:09 AM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Would like to see more people go beyond calling Trump a racist now to wondering who elects racists in the first place.

We already know who does. Other racists.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:12 AM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

* Well, mostly -- here's a Time Magazine recap of All the Times Donald Trump Insulted Mexico ... as of August 31, 2016.

I had missed or forgotten this one: "When will the U.S. stop sending $'s to our enemies, i.e. Mexico and others." (July 10, 2014 -- pre-Presidential bid, but another reminder of the Great Mind of our Great Leader)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:13 AM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Durbin called out Linsey Graham as speaking out against Trump's words in the meeting. We'll see if he comes running to El Presidente's aid or confirms what Trump said.
posted by PenDevil at 7:15 AM on January 12, 2018 [15 favorites]

At least we still have The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore

The Nightly Show was canceled in 2016.
posted by jedicus at 7:16 AM on January 12, 2018 [16 favorites]

So proud that Trump has deteriorated our special relationship to the point where the president of the United States isn't welcome in the UK. WAY TO BE. Even mad King George received the noted traitor John Adams. And somehow the situation is worse than then!

I am obsessed with Trump's comments from, what, five Scaramuccis ago that he got "letters" of support from news anchors, and it turned out they were tweets, and I am like 85% convinced that when he says they sent "letters" he means individual letters of the alphabet, strung together 140ish at a time into tweet form. Like, does he not know that people send written letters? Does he think that when people say they sent a letter, they just mean literal individual letters of the alphabet?

I'm heartened that individual Americans are e-mailing Haiti's embassy to apologize. I'm glad that many of us are horrified, and I'm glad that politeness and good manners are a form of resistance.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:16 AM on January 12, 2018 [35 favorites]

The Nightly Show was canceled in 2016.

Less than three months before the election too. I am fond of Wilmore's podcast, although it doesn't really replace what had been built over the two years he did Nightly.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:23 AM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Someone upthread linked to this WaPo article about how the GOP tax scam is complicating tax withholding.

I want to highlight this: "But Democrats have ... accus[ed] the White House of changing the tax tables in a way that will lead to Americans dramatically under-withholding their tax payments during the year, only to be hit with big tax bills next year."

So basically, the GOP has set it up so that people will think they are getting a tax break up through the midterms and then, a year from now, they will discover that they owe a ton of money to the IRS. Sneaky fuckers.
posted by mcduff at 7:30 AM on January 12, 2018 [54 favorites]

It's one of my "fun" American history facts that most people still don't know, to tell people that it was completely legally enshrined to prefer and protect white immigrants to America until 1965.

It was legally enshrined after then; you could see it in the stark disparity between our refugee policy for Cuba versus Haiti. The only change was the fig leaf of claiming one group were 'political' refugees rather than 'economic' refugees, regardless of what reason Cuban arrivals actually said they'd come to the US.

Speaking of, apparently it's not 'chain' migration when folks who often vote Republican come over to join family members, so long as you can handwave something about communism.
posted by phearlez at 7:39 AM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

In this setting it's more valuable for the reporters to keep him talking.

Frankly it would be even more valuable than that for the reporters to just sit in their offices playing Overwatch than to keep giving that shitbag the fawning personal attention he craves and to keep giving him outlets for his noxious garbage statements.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:40 AM on January 12, 2018 [16 favorites]

Report: Russian Gov’t Hackers Prepped for U.S. Senate Attack

The Russian government-linked hackers known as APT28—the same group that successfully hacked the Democratic National Committee—appear to have registered a slew of websites in preparation of an attack against the U.S. Senate, according to new research from cybersecurity firm Trend Micro. “Beginning in June 2017, phishing sites were set up mimicking the ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services) of the U.S. Senate,” senior threat researcher Feike Hacquebord wrote in a blog post published Friday.

According to Trend Micro’s research, APT28, which is sometimes dubbed Pawn Storm or Fancy Bear, also targeted a slew of Winter Olympics organizations, including the European Ice Hockey Federation and the International Ski Federation. Back in 2016, the group hacked the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which late last year pushed the International Olympic Committee to ban the entire Russian team from next month’s Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. “With the Olympics and several significant global elections taking place in 2018, we can be sure Pawn Storm’s activities will continue,” Hacquebord adds.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:44 AM on January 12, 2018 [24 favorites]

Frankly it would be even more valuable than that for the reporters to just sit in their offices playing Overwatch than to keep giving that shitbag the fawning personal attention he craves and to keep giving him outlets for his noxious garbage statements.

I'm normally receptive to this line of thinking but I actually disagree here. This White House has shown that they have zero shame about credentialing the most garbage of unhinged and biased outlets, so the reality is that Trump is going to give interviews even if he has to give them to Alex Jones. If he's going to go run off his mouth and say embarrassing things I think it's worth having them reported by credible outlets where there will be critical follow-up and stuff won't be sanitized to protect him.
posted by phearlez at 7:45 AM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

Raphael Satter, Associated Press: "Cybersecurity firm: US Senate in Russian hackers’ crosshairs"

Hacquebord said he based his report on the discovery of a clutch of suspicious-looking websites dressed up to look like the U.S. Senate’s internal email system. He then cross-referenced digital fingerprints associated with those sites to ones used almost exclusively by Fancy Bear, which his Tokyo-based firm dubs “Pawn Storm.”

Trend Micro previously drew international attention when it used an identical technique to uncover a set of decoy websites apparently set up to harvest emails from the French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in April 2017. The sites’ discovery was followed two months later by a still-unexplained publication of private emails from several Macron staffers in the final days of the race.

Since I read that story right after coming across this story about the "Spectre" and "Meltdown" bugs which make pretty much any device running an Intel processor vulnerable, I can't help but wonder what kinds of stuff those "suspicious looking websites" might be able to do through browsers...
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:45 AM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

NT Alexandra Petri, WaPo, is having none of it: Trump and ‘shithole’: I’m shocked, shocked!

This is only a surprise in the sense that going to the bathroom and finding that someone has not flushed the toilet is a surprise. You know it isn’t supposed to happen, but it’s exactly the kind of thing you would expect to find there. It is a surprise in the sense that usually this part is bleeped. It is a surprise in the sense that seeing the thing that is usually blurred or covered with a black bar is a surprise, which is to say, not. He forgot to leave the fig leaf on; that is all. We are shocked, shocked to find anything that might HINT at racism in this establishment, whose slogan is Let’s Bring Back The 1950s And Also We Have Serious Complaints About Colin Kaepernick!

I guess the shock is that usually he uses a smaller whistle. But he doesn’t, not really. So it’s just the word, then.

You are supposed to cloak these kind of sentiments, you see. You are supposed to say hand-ups not hand-outs and just be wistful about the 1950s for no particular reason. You are supposed to say what a nice sort of lady Taylor Swift is, not like these other sorts of ladies. You are supposed to express a vague misty warmth about the past, before all this “political correctness.” You do not remember most of what happened in the past, of course. Abraham Lincoln did something that was important to do, and especially at that time. Andrew Jackson probably could have prevented the Civil War. What was the Civil War about again? Probably nothing. Probably there were good people on both sides.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:46 AM on January 12, 2018 [81 favorites]

So basically, the GOP has set it up so that people will think they are getting a tax break up through the midterms and then, a year from now, they will discover that they owe a ton of money to the IRS.

Sigh. I think I finally got my withholding locked in to where I'll get a pretty small refund for 2017, but my first thought when I saw new tables were out was "I probably shouldn't trust those things, and just err on the side of getting a big refund for 2018." Sad to see my gut feeling was correct.

Even mad King George received the noted traitor John Adams.

Sobering.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:47 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

> I am obsessed with Trump's comments from, what, five Scaramuccis ago that he got "letters" of support from news anchors, and it turned out they were tweets

I assumed it was just that thing where they print out clippings of positive coverage for him like a little fan mail package.
posted by lucidium at 7:47 AM on January 12, 2018 [20 favorites]

I am baffled by the number "Now we really for real know Trump is a racist, which we did not know before!" takes in the media right now.

Who. did. not. know. this. IT'S WHY PEOPLE VOTED FOR HIM.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:50 AM on January 12, 2018 [77 favorites]

Samuel L Jackson QED: Let me say One More Time!!!!!
posted by lydhre at 7:54 AM on January 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

I assumed it was just that thing where they print out clippings of positive coverage for him like a little fan mail package.

I thought that was Omarosa's job. Who does it now?
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 7:54 AM on January 12, 2018

Speaking for "reasonable conservatives" is Bloviating Moron Marc Thiessen, WaPo: In one key meeting, Trump destroyed his critics’ credibility

This week, two incredible events unfolded before our eyes: American television viewers were invited into the White House Cabinet Room, where for nearly an hour they watched as President Trump effectively led a bipartisan meeting in which he and congressional Democrats made real progress on immigration reform.

And it snowed in the Sahara Desert.

The reason for the Saharan snow was a rare blast of arctic air sweeping across Algeria. The reason for the rare public display of presidential leadership was the release of a new book by New York media gossip columnist Michael Wolff that portrays Trump as mentally unfit to be president. Wolff describes Trump as being like a child who “could not really converse . . . not in the sense of sharing information, or of a balanced back-and-forth conversation.” In just 55 minutes, Trump completely discredited Wolff’s thesis.

Now excuse me while I retrieve the eyes I rolled so hard that they went under the couch.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:04 AM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

I am baffled by the number "Now we really for real know Trump is a racist, which we did not know before!" takes in the media right now.

Their coverage relied on willfully misrepresenting Trump's racist appeal and intentionally normalizing and sanitizing it to push his election. They're only admitting the obvious now that Trump made it impossible for even the New York Times to explain away as anything but racism - See the Times reporters attempting to delete all the arguments they made that he wasn't appealing to racists.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:13 AM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair: "“A Safe Space For Trump”: Inside the Feedback Loop Between the President and Fox News"

rding to conversations in recent days with current and former Fox executives, producers, and hosts, Trump looms almost as large in the minds of employees as Ailes did. Fox hosts regularly get calls from Trump about segments he likes—or doesn’t. “When you worked at Fox, you knew that at any moment Roger Ailes was watching. Every day was like a job interview with Ailes. Now it’s the same way for Trump,” says a veteran Fox News contributor. According to sources, Trump doesn’t explicitly dictate talking points the way Ailes did, but over time, the effect can be similar. “What he usually does is he’ll call after a show and say, ‘I really enjoyed that,’” a former Fox anchor told me. “The highest compliment is, ‘I really learned something.’ Then you know he got a new policy idea.” But knowing Trump always could be tuning in means the network is being programmed for an audience of one.

posted by OnceUponATime at 8:14 AM on January 12, 2018 [15 favorites]

Flake joins Durbin.

@jaketapper:
Sen. @JeffFlake to me just now:
"The words used by the president -- as related to me directly following the meeting by those in attendance -- were not 'tough,' they were abhorrent and repulsive. There is no good explanation."
- Flake tells me before the @washingtonpost broke the story, he was told of the comments by @SenatorDurbin and a GOP Senator who attended the Oval Office meeting . 2/
posted by chris24 at 8:19 AM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

Durham DA to drop Felony Charges in Toppling of Confederate Statue
posted by yoga at 8:20 AM on January 12, 2018 [60 favorites]

I am baffled by the number "Now we really for real know Trump is a racist, which we did not know before!" takes in the media right now.

I don't know, less than a week ago I heard the tired old "legitimate anger of the white working class" argument again. I almost called that leftist talking head this morning, till I realized he was probably busy deleting his tweets.

But just look at ourselves. I know that everyone here knew Trump was a racist all along, but MetaFilter as a community went through a host of theories about his voters before reaching to the (relative) consensus we are at now, because it is hard to accept that almost half the people who voted in 2016 voted for a person whose only qualifications were that he is a racist and a misogynist.
posted by mumimor at 8:28 AM on January 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

In just 55 minutes, Trump completely discredited Wolff’s thesis.

Some of the takes on how this was an amazing meeting have served to explain why I have had to sit through multitudes of shitty, bs meetings with people bsing and accomplishing so little. There are many people who just didn't see how they were shitty.

I don't doubt that many of these takes are bs themselves but some seem to genuinely think it was an amazing meeting and that it was an example of leadership. My mind continues to be blown by the standards some people accept as being not just acceptable but awesome.
posted by Jalliah at 8:31 AM on January 12, 2018 [28 favorites]

Then you know he got a new policy idea.

HA! This is the comment of someone willfully ignorant of the Trump we see in the Wolff book. Name one policy he can even speak to for more than 2 seconds at a time - correctly.

As with the transgender ban, it's possible Fox is throwing enough spaghetti at the wall that he'll momentarily cry out to his hostages or on Twitter, but that's as close as it comes to him understanding policy, much less governance. And that was pretty rare.

I don't think he's rocking a low IQ as much as I think he's lived in his bubble so long, and his mind is definitely-no-foolin-seriously-though going, that we have an unfit presiding wig.

"An Unfit Wig" is also the name of my one-user stage show about the Capitalization Crisis in Tweets of the last two years.
posted by petebest at 8:36 AM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

@MaryEmilyOHara: BREAKING: NBC confirms with the State Department that the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, has resigned because he no longer feels he can comfortably serve under @realDonaldTrump. Feeley is the first U.S. diplomat to resign over the president's comments.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:38 AM on January 12, 2018 [113 favorites]

. My mind continues to be blown by the standards some people accept as being not just acceptable but awesome.

This is a classic sign of a personality cult.
posted by benzenedream at 8:41 AM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Listening to Trump on CNN right now talking about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. has made me throw up a little in my mouth.
posted by essexjan at 8:41 AM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

It should be noted that Feeley was hired by Obama, not Trump.
posted by gwint at 8:42 AM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

@axios:
Q: Do you think this president is racist?

Former RNC chair Michael Steele: "Yeah, I do. At this point the evidence is incontrovertible. It's right there."

VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 8:43 AM on January 12, 2018 [77 favorites]

Trump cancels UK trip, blames Obama.

Thanks, Obama.
posted by essexjan at 8:45 AM on January 12, 2018 [78 favorites]

What reporters all need to do is give trump and Sanders the same treatment that the Netherlands press gave the new ambassador there. This incident really has been on my mind more than most of the other nonsense of the past few days

posted by Burhanistan

I'd also like to point out the comment made by one of the Dutch reporters after Hoekstra stonewalled them: "This is the Netherlands — you have to answer questions." To me, there's a critique being implicitly made against American journalists that political leaders too often are allowed to walk away from a pointed question with no followup. The WSJ interview above and literally any Huckabee Sanders press conference are good examples of reporters just casually shrugging off evasive answers.
posted by The Notorious SRD at 8:48 AM on January 12, 2018 [36 favorites]

"Mr President, are you a racist?" Reporter yells at him.
posted by essexjan at 8:50 AM on January 12, 2018 [19 favorites]

informing viewers they would say the word only once.

So, who's in charge of public profanity, anyway? Who does the fining, or not fining? Is the networks? The FCC? The prudish voters? I think it was CBS who fined the NFL for Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, but what laws are in place for things like this? Thanks.
posted by Melismata at 8:51 AM on January 12, 2018

"Mr President, are you a racist?" Reporter yells at him.

"I have black friends," he is expected to reply.

To which, reporters should shout "yeah, but Omarosa was fired and then dragged out of the White House, so it looks like you're a terrible friend to them, and probably still racist."
posted by filthy light thief at 8:53 AM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

Isaac Newton Farris, MLK's nephew, speaking after Trump, said that we should honor MLK's legacy on Monday through services such as delivering trash to old people. I would have thought it would have had something to do with civil rights, but what do I know?
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:53 AM on January 12, 2018

"Mr President, are you a racist?" Reporter yells at him.

"Look at my African-American over here."
posted by kirkaracha at 8:55 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Former RNC chair Michael Steele: "Yeah, I do. At this point the evidence is incontrovertible. It's right there."

I'd never say Steele was a smart person (if he were, he wouldn't be a Republican), but it's nice to see he hasn't gone all in on drinking the Flavor Aid.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:59 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Credit where credit is due, it was the wonderful April D Ryan who asked the president if he is a racist.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 9:02 AM on January 12, 2018 [104 favorites]

This should be far down the list of journalistic priorities, but has any reporter ever dug into trump's school records with regards to athletic achievement? He boasts about having always been "the best athlete" (this despite the fact he was given draft deferment due to bone spurs) so surely there should be tangible evidence (school newspaper articles, yearbook blurbs, etc.) of his heroic feats no the playing field?
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:10 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

It got really dusty in here while I was reading this story. "Shithole countries," indeed.

Mary Bowerman, USA Today: Haiti-born cadet weeps at West Point graduation

Idrache credits his success to his father, who migrated to the United States and saved money until he could send for his family, according to the article.

In the Instagram post, Idrache notes that he is humbled by the support following the photo and looks forward to continuing the tradition of service.

“I could not help but be flooded with emotions knowing that I will be leading these men and women who are willing to give their all to preserve what we value as the American way of life,” he wrote.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:15 AM on January 12, 2018 [41 favorites]

It's giving me a weird tingly feeling in my solar plexus to do so, but credit where credit is due to Steele. My recollection is that this is not the first time he's publicly called Trump a racist.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:17 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

So basically, the GOP has set it up so that people will think they are getting a tax break up through the midterms and then, a year from now, they will discover that they owe a ton of money to the IRS. Sneaky fuckers.

Bush Sr. pulled this same crap in the summer of '92, in order to "put more money in people's pockets," and for the same reason. Sure enough, when I was a teller in April '93, a guy came in and pulled a bunch of money out of his savings account to buy a cashier's check payable to the IRS, telling me, "I had to to this because YOU voted for Clinton."
posted by ogooglebar at 9:18 AM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

…knowing Trump always could be tuning in means the network is being programmed for an audience of one.

I'll say it again: Fox News needs to be shut down in the national interest. How can this be done constitutionally?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:27 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

UN condemns Donald Trump's 'shithole countries' remark as racist
posted by mumimor at 9:27 AM on January 12, 2018 [34 favorites]

I'll say it again: Fox News needs to be shut down in the national interest. How can this be done constitutionally?

It can't.

I guess maybe Jeff Bezos could buy it?
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:29 AM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Or Oprah.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:32 AM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

SHITHOLE countries according to allowing women to DIE IN BIRTH

USA doubled from 12 to 28 recently, but for black women it is 40 p 100k.

recently Serena Williams had to save her own fucking life in the delivery ward!

the hatred for women, particularly brown and black women is embedded in your maternity systems, a time when our vulnerability should mean communities pulling together to protect their future little tax-earners.
posted by Wilder at 9:32 AM on January 12, 2018 [55 favorites]

To which, reporters should shout "yeah, but Omarosa was fired and then dragged out of the White House, so it looks like you're a terrible friend to them, and probably still racist."

No. Omarosa was batshit insane. She needed to be never hired. Nobody should be given reason for second guessing firing her.
posted by Talez at 9:33 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!

Fake News! Trump blamed Obama for the UK embassy move, but Bush made the call
posted by zakur at 9:33 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Bush Sr. pulled this same crap in the summer of '92, in order to "put more money in people's pockets," and for the same reason.

And W did basically the same thing 10 years later, when he took the Clinton surplus and turned it into a 4 trillion $ deficit...but mailed out token $300 checks with his name on them.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:33 AM on January 12, 2018 [49 favorites]

If you lived in Norway, would you be tempted to move to the US right now?

Some numbers on how many Norwegians are willing to make the move:

In fiscal year 2016, 1.18 million people became legal permanent residents of the United States, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security. Of these, 362 were born in Norway. That status, which is also known as the “green card,” brings immigrants one step closer to becoming naturalized American citizens. That same year, 753,060 green-card holders became citizens. The number of Norwegians: 93.

posted by peeedro at 9:43 AM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

Ashley Feinberg [via Twitter]:

me today, a respectable journalist: it brings me no pleasure to say this but i’m afraid the president might be a racist

you two years ago, a crude idiot: we got a real piece of shit racist candidate over here
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:47 AM on January 12, 2018 [54 favorites]

he took the Clinton surplus and turned it into a 4 trillion $ deficit

And that's when the Tea Party got mad!

No, wait, it wasn't that, it was the black guy taking office thing.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:48 AM on January 12, 2018 [55 favorites]

Norwegians are well aware that moving from a Eurovision nation to one that doesn't even broadcast the semifinals is an act of madness
posted by delfin at 9:49 AM on January 12, 2018 [69 favorites]

Senators Cotton and Perdue, Republicans who were in the room, have issued a statement saying they do not recall Trump making the comments described by Durbin. That's a remarkable inability to recall a meeting that happened yesterday. Maybe they got bumped on the head or something.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 10:07 AM on January 12, 2018 [61 favorites]

Republiucan Senators Cotton and Perdue have come out and denying this happened in the most weaselly way possible. They're obviously lying. It's not even a good denial and is positively shameful. (Graham has apparently confirmed it, as has Durbin.)
posted by Justinian at 10:08 AM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

I’d like a reporter to ask him something really absurd to test the limits of his delusional self-regard

"If you could be any kind of animal ... ?"
posted by philip-random at 10:10 AM on January 12, 2018

Dianne Feinstein's statement on the shithole comments. Last paragraph:

“If the president can’t control himself and lead this country with the authority, dignity and leadership it requires, then he shouldn’t be the president. There’s no room for racism in the Oval Office.”

posted by Mister Fabulous at 10:11 AM on January 12, 2018 [83 favorites]

Fox News needs to be shut down in the national interest. How can this be done constitutionally?

I really can't envision any positive outcome from trying to somehow eliminate Fox News by fiat. Not only would the attempt set all sorts of bad precedents which would probably come back to bite us, but equivalent propaganda channels or even worse ones would simply form to replace it. Perhaps even more quickly and catastrophically than otherwise because we have an empty hairpiece for president who is looking for Kool-Aid to drink and then barf into the mouths of his devotee-hatchlings.

If societies in the past have successfully dealt with massive, entrenched, wealthy propaganda verticals in the form of entire religions, I have difficulty believing that destroying a specific company is a necessary much less an effective measure for dealing with the presence of one shady, misanthropic, anti-democratic television network.

It would be like deposing one particular royal family in an earlier era and dusting your hands off because you think you've brought about the end of monarchy. Much deeper change in society and institutions is needed; there's no quick fix.
posted by XMLicious at 10:18 AM on January 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

Yeah if you're a Senator and you're either too forgetful or too cowardly to say that yesterday you heard the President say that an entire continent is a shithole then probably you are not competent to hold your office.

They could've made some kind of excuse like "oh maybe he said it while I had stepped out to pee really quick?" I mean that's at least plausible.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:22 AM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

A general, well publicized and successful boycott of all sponsors and advertisers of FOX, would probably shut them down within in a year.
posted by rc3spencer at 10:24 AM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

From Roxane Gay for the NY Times:

I am tired of comfortable lies I have lost patience with the shock supposedly well-meaning people express every time Mr. Trump says or does something terrible but well in character. I don’t have any hope to offer. I am not going to turn this into a teaching moment to justify the existence of millions of Haitian or African or El Salvadoran people because of the gleeful, unchecked racism of a world leader. I am not going to make people feel better about the gilded idea of America that becomes more and more compromised and impoverished with each passing day of the Trump presidency.

This is a painful, uncomfortable moment. Instead of trying to get past this moment, we should sit with it, wrap ourselves in the sorrow, distress and humiliation of it.

From Karen Attiah for the Washington Post:

The president of the United States essentially called black and brown countries “shitholes.” The Internet is aflame with outrage over his comments. There are already many calls to apologize, and there will be more to come. But let’s be real: U.S. media has long treated black and brown countries like “shitholes.” This TV-loving president is a product of a media culture that has systemically covered places in Africa and places like Haiti only as war-ravaged, disease-ridden and impoverished — when these countries are even deemed worthy of coverage at all.

posted by ChuraChura at 10:26 AM on January 12, 2018 [88 favorites]

Senator Scott (R-SC) says that Senator Graham (R-SC) confirmed that the reported comments are "basically accurate". So, are Cotton and Perdue going to acknowledge that they have dangerous amnesia, or are they going to accuse their fellow Republican senators of lying?
This is where I'm going to repeat the anecdote of my (literally) shitty ex, who once claimed he hadn't farted, when we were the only people in the room, and I obviously knew I hadn't farted. I put on my very very worried face and said to him we should call the doctor right away, since such a lack of awareness had to be a sign of some serious disease. Suddenly he realized that he probably farted.
Scott and Graham should take the talk with these idiots.
posted by mumimor at 10:30 AM on January 12, 2018 [30 favorites]

Cotton's denial isn't a matter of him being stupid, unless we're to get into the basics of racism being stupid in the first place (see also: supporting Trump is stupid). He knows it was said. He knows he's lying.

In a field of Republican senators continually being shitty, Tom Cotton stands out as being a particularly awful human being. If you want examples of his deliberate cruelty and dishonesty, they aren't hard to find. He's not being clueless here; he's willfully lying, because he's an awful person.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:34 AM on January 12, 2018 [33 favorites]

But let’s be real: U.S. media has long treated black and brown countries like “shitholes.”

Which is why president after president has called them that. Oh, wait.
posted by Quindar Beep at 10:34 AM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Trump administration keeps Iran nuclear deal alive for now, but issues new sanctions unrelated to the agreement
posted by XMLicious at 10:36 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

If he's going to go run off his mouth and say embarrassing things I think it's worth having them reported by credible outlets where there will be critical follow-up and stuff won't be sanitized to protect him.

The whole point of these criticisms is that they're not following up and that their failure to do so sanitizes and protects him.

We're talking about two different kinds of follow-up. You're talking about picking one of the dozens of things he babbles incoherently about and trying to nail him down on it, at that moment, such that it somehow becomes even more clear that he's full of shit or ignorant. But it's already obvious, and if these places were to do this imaginary verbal judo it would just mean that we wouldn't get the subsequent bunch of babble on record, either because of the effort to nail his jello to the wall (which will never actually happen because he'll just dodge and I'll get back to you anyway) takes up the time or because the interview then gets shut down by the minders.

I'm talking about the fact that by getting these interviews on record from at least vaguely credible operations we get more follow-up and analysis of this spew. If he wasn't being interviewed by these places where we get an accurate portrayal of his incoherence we'd be getting it done by operations like Infowars which will clean up and de-crazify it (to the extent that an operation like that knows what not-crazy looks like, anyway).
posted by phearlez at 10:39 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Some numbers on how many Norwegians are willing to make the move:

That's a slightly misleading indicator. Quite a few Norwegians work in the US on non-immigrant visas, especially in the offshore oil/gas sector: the Houston area has perhaps as many as 10,000, which is why it has a consulate general. Most of them aren't staying permanently. (The nature of offshore and oil sector work tends to take you to dodgy parts of the world.)
posted by holgate at 10:40 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

From the Roxane Gay comment ChuraChura linked above:
Now, in response to the news about the reports of the vile remark, there are people saying “vote” and highlighting the importance of the 2018 midterm elections, as if American democracy is unfettered from interference and corruption. There is a lot of trite rambling about how the president isn’t really reflecting American values when, in fact, he is reflecting the values of many Americans. And there are entreaties to educate the president about the truth of Haiti as if he simply suffers from ignorance.

But the president is not alone in thinking so poorly of the developing world. He didn’t reveal any new racism. He, once again, revealed racism that has been there all along. It is grotesque and we must endure it for another three or seven years, given that the Republicans have a stranglehold on power right now and are more invested in holding onto that power than working for the greater good of all Americans.
posted by mumimor at 10:41 AM on January 12, 2018 [20 favorites]

Haiti Accuses Trump of Laundering Money for Former Dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier
posted by adamvasco at 10:43 AM on January 12, 2018 [69 favorites]

Which is why president after president has called them that. Oh, wait.

Well, is it worse to call countries shitholes or to traffic arms, meddle in internal politics, fight shadow wars, prop up dictators, assassinate opposition politicians, give aid with ideological strings attached, etc.? Karen Attiah and Roxane Gay are arguing that Trump's blatant racism is just the verbal acknowledgement of the tacit racism of Western engagement with developing countries, and continuing the exploitative and violent relationship the United States has had with many countries in Africa, and Haiti, and lots of places in Asia, and most of Latin America...
posted by ChuraChura at 10:45 AM on January 12, 2018 [20 favorites]

Today's VCOG newsletter includes mention of this bit of expensive and pointless voter suppression being introduced in the Virginia state congress.

SB 523 - Obenshain: Requires electronic pollbooks to contain the photographs of registered voters that are obtained by the general registrars in the production of voter photo identification cards or contained in a voter's Department of Motor Vehicles record. Includes a provision that "no photograph contained in the electronic pollbook shall be disclosed to any party."

The rather incomplete LIMS summary says this

Voter identification; electronic pollbooks to contain photographs of voters. Requires electronic pollbooks to contain the photographs of registered voters that are obtained by the general registrars in the production of voter photo identification cards or contained in a voter's Department of Motor Vehicles record. The bill also provides that if the electronic pollbook contains the voter's photograph, the officer of election is required to access that photograph and the voter is not required to present one of the statutorily required forms of identification. The bill prohibits lists of voters furnished pursuant to current law from containing any voter's photograph. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2019.

But when I open the bill text itself, I notice there's a whole buncha stuff about immigration authorities.

The Department shall apply to participate in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program (SAVE Program) operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the purposes of verifying that voters listed in the Virginia voter registration system are United States citizens. Upon approval of the application, the Department shall enter into any required memorandum of agreement with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The State Board shall promulgate rules and regulations governing the use of the immigration status and citizenship status information received from the SAVE Program.

Fuuuuuuuuuuck these clowns
posted by phearlez at 10:47 AM on January 12, 2018 [15 favorites]

"So, who's in charge of public profanity, anyway?"

The FCC (on broadcast), and it depends on the "overall context" of the programming. When the indecency/profanity is itself newsworthy, broadcasters may report on it. It is typically a good idea to do what Holt did, which is preface that they're about to use language not normally allowed on network TV, because one of the things the FCC weighs is how likely people were to have "unwanted exposure" -- if you're up at 2 a.m. watching a "real cops" show rathed TV-MA and there's a stray "shithole," they don't really care that much. If it's 3 in the afternoon and you break into cartoons with breaking news and the first word out of your mouth is "shithole," you're going to get a real strong side-eye. But when "shithole" is newsworthy itself, it's broached on the evening news (when people can reasonably expect to hear some distressing things), and you give advance notice about strong language, you have a good First Amendment argument for using the word, and you've done due diligence to give parents or sensitive viewers the chance to change the channel, there's nothing for the FCC to really complain about.

Part of the Janet Jackson thing was that it was during prime-time network programming, during an event widely watched by families, with no warning, and where the nudity wasn't germane to performance. On the other hand, Schindler's List was aired on prime-time network in its entirety, including obscenities, naked boobs, sex, full-frontal non-sexual nudity, and extreme violence without a problem from the FCC; it was advertised heavily in advance, the network gave clear content warnings, and the nudity and profanities aren't there for "prurient interest" but telling a historical story in a work with serious artistic merit, and are integral to the story since dehumanizing nudity, etc., was part of the Nazis' tactics in the Holocaust.

The FCC also declined to fine networks that broadcast things like "oh shit" and "fuck! run! fuck!" during live 9/11 coverage, as they were "excited utterances" occurring during a massive breaking news story, and it wasn't reasonable to expect people not to say them or censors to bleep them fast enough (like they can during the Oscars), and nobody was saying them to be offensive (which is usually (though not always) an element), they were just saying them because they were legit freaking out.

Anyway, Holt handled it properly and I can't see the FCC having a problem. Networks that chose not to use the word also made a reasonable choice (the ubiquity of internet coverage made it easy to discuss on broadcast without repeating the word), but might choose to be specific tomorrow if they feel that's necessary for the story. There are different way to handle it and the FCC does give network news some latitude.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:50 AM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

Well, is it worse to call countries shitholes or to traffic arms, meddle in internal politics, fight shadow wars, prop up dictators, assassinate opposition politicians, give aid with ideological strings attached, etc.?

I think the "or" should be an "and" there. This is bringing things to a new low, not even crappy "business as usual". Saying that it's all of a piece is both-sides-do-it in disguise.
posted by Quindar Beep at 10:50 AM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Botswana asks the United States to clarify whether Botswana is a shithole country
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 10:54 AM on January 12, 2018 [90 favorites]

we should honor MLK's legacy on Monday through services such as delivering trash to old people

Wait, what? I'm going to need a [real] or [fake] tag on that one.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:55 AM on January 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

AP, Kentucky is first to get OK for Medicaid work requirement

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the approval on Friday. The change will require adults between the ages of 19 and 64 to complete 80 hours per month of “community engagement” to keep their coverage. That includes getting a job, going to school, taking a job training course and community service.

Advocates for the poor have said work requirements will become one more hoop for low-income people to jump through, and many could be denied needed coverage because of technicalities and challenging new paperwork. Lawsuits are expected as individual states roll out work requirements.

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said he expects the changes to save the state more than $300 million over the next five years. But he also estimated as many as 95,000 people could lose their Medicaid benefits, either because they did not comply with the new rules or they lose their eligibility because they make too much money.

US News & World Report Opinion, Emma Sandoe, Making Medicaid Worse: The administration's work requirements won't fix any problems, but will mean worse health for many.

In reality, IT systems don't always work, mail gets lost and people working two to three jobs to get by and still making little money may not have the time to correct the paperwork. Healthy people who want to get preventative health care will drop out of Medicaid because the additional burden is too high. These people may miss cancer screenings and diagnosis of chronic conditions.

The purpose of any insurance is to protect against financial devastation. Rigorous and recent research shows that Medicaid coverage not only improves a beneficiary's health, it protects low-income people against bankruptcy and financial loss. These important protections have reduced extreme poverty and allowed many people opportunities to get out of poverty.

Bob Doherty, of the American College of Physicians, had a great thread on the ethical issues for physicians here. An excerpt:

Work requirements would also impose yet another administrative task on physicians, to certify or not. while at the same time asking them to "potentially breach the physician’s first and primary duty to the patient, [and] violate the principles of medical ethics and the Physician Charter on Professionalism." So, what could be more "big government" than the state imposing on physicians the task of deciding whether their patient should lose their Medicaid or not, in violation of their first and primary duty to the patient and their obligation to advocate for most vulnerable? One last point: if the physician's action or inaction allowed the state to deny a patient access to Medicaid, they would be putting the patient at risk of premature and avoidable death associated with lack of insurance. How could any physician accept such an edict?

It's also notable that the program allows doctors to exempt people with "acute" medical conditions that prevent them from fulfilling the work requirements, but not chronic ones.
posted by zachlipton at 11:00 AM on January 12, 2018 [32 favorites]

Botswana asks the United States to clarify whether Botswana is a shithole country

Trump's idiocy and racism are going to be a gift to China's growing influence in several African countries, including Botswana. "In 2011, China was Botswana’s third largest import supplier after South Africa and the United Kingdom. It was also the 12th largest destination for Botswana’s exports." (source)
posted by jedicus at 11:08 AM on January 12, 2018 [30 favorites]

BuzzFeed, Charlie Warzel, How The Alt-Right — And Paul Ryan's Challenger — Coordinate To Fight The "Jewish Media": "In a private Twitter DM group, Wisconsin congressional candidate Paul Nehlen said his enemies were "working for Jewish media" and promised to "decimate them all," according to screenshots obtained by BuzzFeed News."

According to two individuals with knowledge of the group, such requests were common from Nehlen, who frequented the group to solicit its help with trolling his critics and political opponents.

“It’s pretty obviously coordinated,” Nehlen continued, referring to remarks from conservative and pro-Trump personalities like Town Hall’s Kurt Schlichter and the Rebel’s John Cardillo who’d denounced his tweets. “Cardillo and others like him are working for Jewish media then there are the fake conservatives who happen to be jewish,” he wrote to the group telling members to add Schlichter to his list. “Im going to decimate them all and y’[all are gonna help me.”

posted by zachlipton at 11:08 AM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Botswana asks the United States to clarify whether Botswana is a shithole country

This is big. Botswana is one of the wealthiest, best-run, most comfortable countries on the continent. They're making an elegant and eloquent stand for the rest of the continent.
posted by ocschwar at 11:22 AM on January 12, 2018 [71 favorites]

I think shithole has released any lingering good feelings or restraint i.e. its given permission to act on what's best for Rest of Planet (tm).
posted by infini at 11:23 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

The anniversary of the devastating earthquake 8 years ago is a day to remember the tragedy, honor the resilient people of Haiti, & affirm America’s commitment to helping our neighbors. Instead, we‘re subjected to Trump’s ignorant, racist views of anyone who doesn’t look like him.

                          -Hillary Clinton

posted by Justinian at 11:24 AM on January 12, 2018 [91 favorites]

Trump's idiocy and racism are going to be a gift to China's growing influence in several African countries, including Botswana.

Evan Osnos has a good overview of this phenomenon in last week's New Yorker.
posted by Dr. Send at 11:24 AM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

we should honor MLK's legacy on Monday through services such as delivering trash to old people

Ill-advised shout-out to the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike? MLK addressed the striking workers the night before he was assassinated.

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

posted by kirkaracha at 11:25 AM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

The shithole incident has made more people come forward with tales of the President's racism.

NBC News, Trump’s history of breaking decorum with remarks on race, ethnicity

A career intelligence analyst who is an expert in hostage policy stood before President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last fall to brief him on the impending release of a family long held in Pakistan under uncertain circumstances.

It was her first time meeting the president, and when she was done briefing, he had a question for her.

"Where are you from?" the president asked, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the exchange.

New York, she replied.

Trump was unsatisfied and asked again, the officials said. Referring to the president's hometown, she offered that she, too, was from Manhattan. But that's not what the president was after.

He wanted to know where "your people" are from, according to the officials, who spoke off the record due to the nature of the internal discussions.

After the analyst revealed that her parents are Korean, Trump turned to an adviser in the room and seemed to suggest her ethnicity should determine her career path, asking why the "pretty Korean lady" isn't negotiating with North Korea on his administration's behalf, the officials said.
...
At a March meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Trump asked the elected officials if they knew just one member of his incoming cabinet — Ben Carson — according to two people in the room.

Carson, the only black member of Trump's Cabinet, had never served in Congress and spent his career as a surgeon. None of the lawmakers knew Carson, and Trump found that surprising, the attendees said.

During that same meeting, a member relayed to Trump that potential welfare cuts would harm her constituents, "not all of whom are black." The president replied, "Really? Then what are they?"

posted by zachlipton at 11:27 AM on January 12, 2018 [91 favorites]

Haiti Accuses Trump of Laundering Money for Former Dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier
posted by adamvasco at 1:43 PM on January 12 [21 favorites +] [!]

If you actually click this link, you'll see that this accusation happened in the 1980s. That, at least, is what's claimed by Thomas Frank, in his Buzzfeed piece -- a very long, deeply reported piece, which the link provided above summarizes in a dumbed-down way. You would not know any of this by looking at the clickbait headline, though, because this is a link to AlterNet.

AlterNet is crap.
posted by neroli at 11:30 AM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

Fake News! Trump blamed Obama for the UK embassy move, but Bush made the call

We have got to stop using the same language as Trump. "Fake News" needs to stop being a punchline and used in "clever" ways. This is not Fake News. This is a lie. An untruth. And it should be called out as such.

(Not coming down on you . Just a thought, in general.)
posted by papercake at 11:30 AM on January 12, 2018 [39 favorites]

German Lopez, Vox: Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2018

Trump has repeatedly claimed he's "the least racist person." The record suggests otherwise.
...
This long history is important. It would be one thing if Trump simply misspoke one or two times. But when you take all of Trump’s actions and comments together, a clear pattern emerges — one that suggests that bigotry is not just political opportunism on Trump’s part but a real element of Trump’s personality, character, and career.
...
So while Trump may deny his racism and bigotry, at some level even his supporters seem to get it. As much as his history of racism shows that he’s racist, perhaps who supported him and why is just as revealing — and it doesn’t paint a favorable picture for Trump.

posted by ZeusHumms at 11:31 AM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

Amazing but true: it has been one (1) week since the release of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
posted by theodolite at 11:34 AM on January 12, 2018 [52 favorites]

I ... am thinking that the distraction technique (whether it is intentional, or just a byproduct of the daily firehose of $hit) is at play here.

I am very, very upset about having a Racist in Chief. And that we knowingly elected one because having a Woman in Chief was so much more abhorrent an idea.

But I am utterly horrified at the Medicaid work requirement that is slipping by under the radar. It can't be understated -- it is unweaving the fabric that underlies our society. It is devastating. It will ruin and kill. It is a massive step backwards. There's no point in any kind of national health care plan or policy when we look at our most vulnerable and say, well, work or die, your choice.

I hope I'm wrong; I hope it is tied up endlessly in relentless lawsuits. But I'm finding it hard to be -newly- shocked about bigotry when death is on the line.
posted by Dashy at 11:40 AM on January 12, 2018 [50 favorites]

Graham has put out a statement implicitly confirming Trump's comments and which says he pushed back against them directly when Trump made them. Cotton and Perdue have some serious explaining to do. I expect silence.
posted by Justinian at 11:42 AM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

Senator Graham says he responded directly to the President's comments, but he won't say what those comments were. A profile in courage.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:45 AM on January 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

His bigotry also means death is on the line, though. Immigrants, refugees, and ALL people of color are in danger when racist rhetoric becomes so normalized that the president can casually inquire about it in a meeting.

It's the firehose effect, unfortunately. EVERYTHING he does and says is dangerous and deranged, from his speeches to his policies.
posted by lydhre at 11:46 AM on January 12, 2018 [25 favorites]

I ... am thinking that the distraction technique (whether it is intentional, or just a byproduct of the daily firehose of $hit) is at play here.

I don't think it's possible for something to be both a byproduct and a technique. (I don't think it's a distraction technique.)
posted by diogenes at 11:47 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

The whole being unquestionably loyal to an administration of shitheads is really starting to break the brains of some Senators.
posted by Talez at 11:47 AM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

John McCain: "Respect for the God-given dignity of every human being, no matter their race, ethnicity or other circumstances of their birth, is the essence of American patriotism. To believe otherwise is to oppose the very idea of America.

People have come to this country from everywhere, and people from everywhere have made America great. Our immigration policy should reflect that truth, and our elected officials, including our President, should respect it."
posted by OnceUponATime at 11:49 AM on January 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

John McCain: "Respect for the God-given dignity of every human being, no matter their race, ethnicity or other circumstances of their birth, is the essence of American patriotism. To believe otherwise is to oppose the very idea of America.

People have come to this country from everywhere, and people from everywhere have made America great. Our immigration policy should reflect that truth, and our elected officials, including our President, should respect it

which is why I will encourage all my fellow Republicans to impeach the motherfucker."

Oh, wait, he once again forgot to season his jeremiads with some actual concrete steps they alone could take to remedy this situation.
posted by lydhre at 11:53 AM on January 12, 2018 [70 favorites]

The question I want to see him asked is whether there's a such thing as a shithole state in the US.
posted by rhizome at 11:53 AM on January 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

Firehose byproducts become a technique when the media use it as one.
posted by Dashy at 11:53 AM on January 12, 2018

So surely McCain will support lumping in white nationalism with ISIS supporters on the FBI's priority list. Much concern!
posted by benzenedream at 11:54 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

What Graham's doing right now is an established pattern of behavior for him: say something confirming an anti-Trump position (or, in this case, event), then vaguely backpedal and complicate and fiddle-fart it so that he keeps getting attention right up until the point where he votes to destroy the country again. Graham's given his Shitholegate testimony, and we should accept his first statement and then stop listening to him. As a self-interested elected Republican, his usefulness is extremely limited.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:58 AM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

A general, well publicized and successful boycott of all sponsors and advertisers of FOX [News network], would probably shut them down within in a year.

Until then, it's only reasonable to ask any public space showing the channel to turn it off. EG Doctor's offices, tire shops, etc. It's divisive and annoying.
posted by msalt at 11:59 AM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

Isaac Newton Farris, MLK's nephew, speaking after Trump, said that we should honor MLK's legacy on Monday through services such as delivering trash to old people. I would have thought it would have had something to do with civil rights, but what do I know?

Isn't it pretty disrespectful to our senior citizens of any race, to deliver garbage TO them? Usually the service is taking it away.
posted by msalt at 12:01 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Having the ne plus ultra Racist Boomer in charge concentrates the mind on the specific characteristics of Boomer Racism, and the extent to which it remains tolerated in popular culture: oh, don't mind grandpa, he's just a toxic racist who doesn't like to be called out on it and doubles down when that happens.

What happens to American racism and xenophobia when the Boomers are gone? Those things are obviously not exclusively Boomer phenomena, but the Boomers -- and their demographic equivalent in countries like the UK -- are the ones who saw white Catholics as "us" while their parents saw them as "them". What changes when Gen Xers take over, or creepy *chan millennials like Miller? (My guess is that Gen X racism is more Bell Curve-y.)
posted by holgate at 12:04 PM on January 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

I've already seen deplorables on Twitter say that Chicago is a shithole, so I'm sure that'll be his go-to.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:04 PM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Excellent CNN chyron
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:06 PM on January 12, 2018 [52 favorites]

If John Oliver is still making and placing informative commercials on Fox News, I suspect they might be more effective if they closely mimic actual Fox News broadcasts.
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:06 PM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

The U.S. ambassador in London contradicted just about everything Trump said about the new embassy. [WaPo]
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:06 PM on January 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

It's maddening that people - including strong Trump opponents - are focusing on him having called countries "shitholes," rather than him having deployed that slur in service of his proposal to entirely ban immigration from the developing world.

It's good to focus on that because it's directly embarrassing and obviously shameful, and so at least more likely to help drive away supporters who would happily aver that Haiti is lovely this time of year but find all manner of notionally not-racist-garbage reasons why people from developing nations should not be admitted to the US.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:07 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Isn't it pretty disrespectful to our senior citizens of any race, to deliver garbage TO them? Usually the service is taking it away.

Ok this was bothering me more than is rational, so I found the Isaac Newton Farris quote:

'It's not a day to hang out in the park or pull out the barbeque grill. It's a day to do something to help someone else, and that can be as simple as delivering someone's trash or picking up the newspaper for that elderly person who can't get to the end of the driveway.'

"Deliver" is not normally the word I associate with helping a neighbor with their trash, but he did not specifically instruct us to bring trash to the elderly.
posted by zachlipton at 12:10 PM on January 12, 2018 [23 favorites]

This is big. Botswana is one of the wealthiest, best-run, most comfortable countries on the continent. They're making an elegant and eloquent stand for the rest of the continent.

Brah, you missed their absolute scorcher of a reply to Nikki Haley's threats over the UN Jerusalem vote. Ian Khama is getting ready to retire as President and he just DGAF any more.
posted by PenDevil at 12:10 PM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Paul Ryan Says Trump's 'Shithole Countries' Comment Was 'Unfortunate.'

Paul Ryan is like the voice-over guy in The Great Dictator.

Adenoid Hynkel: Democratzy shtunk!
Voice over/Translator: Democracy is fragrant!
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:10 PM on January 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

Did you think today couldn't get any stupider? Welcome to 2018.

WSJ, Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment For Adult-Film Star’s Silence

A lawyer for President Donald Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Michael Cohen, who spent nearly a decade as a top attorney at the Trump Organization, arranged payment to the woman, Stephanie Clifford, in October 2016 after her lawyer negotiated the nondisclosure agreement with Mr. Cohen, these people said.

Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, has privately alleged the encounter with Mr. Trump took place after they met at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, these people said. Mr. Trump married Melania Trump in 2005.

Mr. Trump faced other allegations during his campaign of inappropriate behavior with women, and vehemently denied them. In this matter, there is no allegation of a nonconsensual interaction.

posted by zachlipton at 12:14 PM on January 12, 2018 [51 favorites]

But I am utterly horrified at the Medicaid work requirement that is slipping by under the radar. It can't be understated -- it is unweaving the fabric that underlies our society. It is devastating. It will ruin and kill. It is a massive step backwards. There's no point in any kind of national health care plan or policy when we look at our most vulnerable and say, well, work or die, your choice.

It's actually even worse than that. Work requirements are barely a speedbump on the road to making people who earn less than $5000 a year pay premiums, mandatory fees for anyone who's ever smoked/admitted to any even slightly less than perfectly healthy life choice, and fees for using the ER.
posted by Copronymus at 12:14 PM on January 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

I know the conversation has moved on, but I want to correct a misconception from above - not only is an H1-B visa never as straightforward as good job-->sponsorship-->visa, but word on the street is that this year has been unusually bad, even for lottery winners. I understand that it's a relatively small pool of people and it's not very newsworthy compared to everything else but the immigration system is still really crappy even for skilled Norwegians.
posted by mosst at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

The machine continues to be well-oiled. Once more unto the shithole, dear friends.

CBS: White House struggles with muting function on Iran conference call with reporters

It took the White House twenty-two minutes to figure out how to enable the "listening only" feature on a conference call on Thursday where senior administration officials announced that President Trump would continue to waive nuclear program-related sanctions, keeping the deal intact. "This White House can't even run a f*cking conference call," a reporter on an unmuted phone line angrily exclaimed to the entire call. "They don't know how to mute their line."

"It's the illegitimate media that doesn't know how to conduct themselves. They can't mute their f*cking phones," an unidentified official said. "Mute your phones." [20 bucks says this was Stephen Miller] Another White House official repeatedly attempted to quiet the noisy line "so the people in charge" could talk. "I think if everyone had half a brain and common sense and muted their phones, this wouldn't be a problem," she yelled in an apparent fit of frustration.
"Hello? Hello?," one reporter interjected, some 15 minutes after the slated start of the call. "Has the call started?"
"This is Kim Jong Un calling for Donald Trump," another reporter joked as tensions flared.
"All participants are now in listen-only mode," the operator finally announced, much to the relief of everyone on the call.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2018 [87 favorites]

Ian Khama is getting ready to retire as President and he just DGAF any more.

Did he ever even have to? This film on his parent's love story is a box office winner in RestofWorld(tm)
posted by infini at 12:17 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Wow, Ms. Clifford .... under-negotiated. I can imagine a few people paying juuuuuust a bit more to make that information public at that time.
posted by Dashy at 12:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

Jong Un is actually rather sane and sober tbh
posted by infini at 12:21 PM on January 12, 2018

National Treasure Charles P. Pierce in Esquire: Trump's Insane Wall Street Journal Interview Got Lost in Thursday's Shithole
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:25 PM on January 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

IT HAS BEEN _0_ SCARAMUCCIS SINCE THE LAST TRUMP DISASTER
posted by petebest at 12:25 PM on January 12, 2018 [42 favorites]

It's actually even worse than that. Work requirements are barely a speedbump on the road to making people who earn less than $5000 a year pay premiums, mandatory fees for anyone who's ever smoked/admitted to any even slightly less than perfectly healthy life choice, and fees for using the ER.

Story buried down in the tweet thread: Smoking penalties, ER fees, premiums on the poor: How states want to shrink Medicaid
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:26 PM on January 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

This couldn't have been a coincidence. Today's Merriam Webster Word of the Day is reprehensible.
posted by mmascolino at 12:34 PM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

Story buried down in the tweet thread: Smoking penalties, ER fees, premiums on the poor: How states want to shrink Medicaid

Why don't they just skip the middle man and have a fucking gutter sponsored by Koch Industries for the poor to die in. Jesus fucking wept.
posted by Talez at 12:37 PM on January 12, 2018 [35 favorites]

Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, has privately alleged the encounter with Mr. Trump took place after they met at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, these people said. Mr. Trump married Melania Trump in 2005.

Having only just seen the headline, but not yet read the story, I was assuming this was going to be some kind of follow-up to last October's story: Adult film actress accuses Trump of offering $10,000 to come alone to hotel suite. Silly me. I should've guessed that it was going to be a different porn star.
posted by octobersurprise at 12:38 PM on January 12, 2018 [15 favorites]

Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment For Adult-Film Star’s Silence

I'm gradually making my way through Fire & Fury - in the chapter I read last night, there was a quote of Bannon's saying that Cohen had dealt with over a hundred women in the lead up to the election negotiating their silence.
posted by mannequito at 12:39 PM on January 12, 2018 [42 favorites]

Adam Serwer for the Atlantic: Trump Puts the Purpose of His Presidency Into Words

Whether through ardent commitment or conflicted resignation, they are all now a part of Trump’s only sincere ideological project, the preservation of white political and cultural dominance. That was the goal of Walker and the immigrant restrictionists of his day, and it is Trump’s project now.

It is one the president has pursued with abandon....Trump has adopted policies that would be responsible for the displacement of nearly a million people of color in less than 12 months in office.

posted by Existential Dread at 12:40 PM on January 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

Trump's Insane Wall Street Journal Interview Got Lost in Thursday's Shithole

I don’t think, I may be wrong — I don’t think you’ll find one poll that I ever lost in any of the 14, 15 debates. Including the presidential debate, you know with her, the three

I dunno about the Republican debates, but the broad consensus was that Clinton won all of the presidential debates.

Hillary Clinton’s 3 debate performances left the Trump campaign in ruins

The third and final presidential debate has ended, and it can now be said: Hillary Clinton crushed Donald Trump in the most effective series of debate performances in modern political history.

The polling tells the story. As Nate Silver notes, on the eve of the first presidential debate, Clinton led by 1.5 points. Before the second, she was up by 5.6 points. Before the third, she was winning by 7.1 points. And now, writing after the third debate — a debate in which Trump said he would keep the nation "in suspense" about whether there would be a peaceful transition of power, bragged about not apologizing to his wife, and called Clinton "such a nasty woman" — it’s clear that Trump did himself no favors. Early polls also suggest Clinton won.

posted by kirkaracha at 12:44 PM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

Reminder, since I know this will be a thing: We can talk about the Stormy Daniels story without being shitty to sex workers.

We can also talk about Trump being awful without making bullshit comparisons that still insult sex workers along the way. Including porn.

This is totally possible. It's even worthwhile.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 12:55 PM on January 12, 2018 [65 favorites]

A lawyer for President Donald Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter [...] In this matter, there is no allegation of a nonconsensual interaction.

Then really, who gives a shit?
Yes, yes, Republican hypocrisy and all that, but really—who gives a shit?
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:56 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm explicitly not endorsing the "it's a distraction" theory, but I'd note that we've gone in astonishingly little time from the "Trump is senile" news cycle to the "Trump is racist" news cycle to the "Trump paid to cover up an affair" news cycle, largely skipping over things like the "cutting people off Medicaid will kill them" news cycle and the "Trump wants more nukes" news cycle. If you're Trump, each of these stories is actually an improvement for you over the prior one.
posted by zachlipton at 12:57 PM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

Mueller requests trial date for Manafort, Gates (The Hill)

Special counsel Robert Mueller has requested a trial date for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Richard Gates.

In a court filing Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reported by Reuters, Mueller's team of prosecutors requested a trial date of May 14.

Manafort and Gates were indicted in October on charges of money laundering and tax fraud. The charges stem from Mueller's ongoing probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates have denied collusion, and have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:59 PM on January 12, 2018 [17 favorites]

Then really, who gives a shit?

Isn't this exactly the type of scenario that precludes many people from getting security clearances? ie, something that can be used as a wedge for some form of blackmail? Its not the sex, its the paying people off to keep a secret.
posted by H. Roark at 1:00 PM on January 12, 2018 [44 favorites]

The Access Hollywood tape was September 2005. The assault on Natasha Stoynoff was in December 2005. Barron was born in March 2006. The Lake Tahoe tournament was July 2006.

And while I don't go with the "distraction" theory either, winding the clock back to 2006 means remembering a dirty crooked abusive old man, before the avalanche of Russian money and the obvious cognitive decline.
posted by holgate at 1:03 PM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

There's also the truly on-brand bit in there about how Trump didn't pay the hush money quickly enough and she had to threaten to cancel the deal to get him to pay up.
posted by zachlipton at 1:03 PM on January 12, 2018 [59 favorites]

Isn't this exactly the type of scenario that precludes many people from getting security clearances?

So does inviting Russian spies into the White House.

'trump paid for sex' is not what's going to take down this administration, so it's noise.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:04 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Trump won Georgia by 5 points. His approval rating there now is 37 - 59. And this was before Shithole.
posted by chris24 at 1:04 PM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

Stormy Daniels seems to deny the whole thing entirely, though? I'd feel better about this letter if it wasn't via Cohen, so hopefully someone can get in touch with her to confirm it more directly.

(Edited to say that upon rereading, I see that the letter might be part of the NDA she signed, in which case, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess.)
posted by creampuff at 1:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's not the sex, its the paying people off to keep a secret.

If he'll pay 130,000 dollars to keep an affair secret, what'll he give Putin to keep his secrets?
posted by octobersurprise at 1:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [19 favorites]

Stormy Daniels seems to deny the whole thing entirely, though?

OTOH, what are the chances that the WSJ, of all places, would run with such a story without being pretty damn certain of it?
posted by octobersurprise at 1:22 PM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Stormy Daniels seems to deny the whole thing entirely, though?

isn't...isn't that the whole reason they paid her $130k
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:22 PM on January 12, 2018 [96 favorites]

Something about this week broke my psychiatrist. He's been all, 'we've been in darker places' since the election and today he was all 'the only thing to do is go forward and be hopeful because we must' and then he talks about the 25th amendment hopefully and this makes me more anxious, because if he had a realistic appraisal of the 25th amendment option, would he then move onto 'your thoughts about moving to Canada seem well-reasoned and valid'?

And then I was like I want to sign up for a PA mmj where you register with the state and all that jazz and should I be worried about the feds penalizing my SSD benefits because I'm a stoner, tell me doctor, should I be worried about it or is it paranoia?

And he was all, "I can see why you'd have reservations registering" and then went on about how I should have access to it and how I should weigh my options carefully. Something happened this week where my late-eighties-year-old shrink went from 'we got through Watergate' to 'get ready to person the barricades.'
posted by angrycat at 1:23 PM on January 12, 2018 [37 favorites]

The Cut, Exclusive: Watch Chris Matthews Joke About His ‘Bill Cosby Pill’ Before Interviewing Hillary Clinton

On January 5, 2016, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews interviewed Hillary Clinton in an Iowa fire station during the Democratic primary season. Network footage obtained by the Cut shows Matthews, during the interview setup, making a couple of “jokes” about Clinton. He asks, “Can I have some of the queen’s waters? Precious waters?” And then, as he waits for the water, he adds, “Where’s that Bill Cosby pill I brought with me?” Matthews then laughs, delighted with the line, for an extended moment, as the staffers around him react with disbelief, clearly uncomfortable.

The article goes on to chronicle some of the other things Matthews has said about Clinton in the past.

With every one of these, what happened during the 2016 campaign continues to make more and more sense.
posted by zachlipton at 1:24 PM on January 12, 2018 [84 favorites]

How media in Asia translated “shithole countries”
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:27 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Byline: New York Times, July 4th, 2021

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, for example, gave a speech at the Kenosha County Fair yesterday afternoon, in which he emphasized that he had “always been a vocal critic of former President Trump’s rhetoric.” Ryan also claimed he had worked “behind the scenes” with prominent Democrats to try to rein in what Ryan now describes as “the unfortunate excesses” of the Trump presidency.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:28 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

I don't get it. (Bill Cosby Pill)
posted by yoga at 1:29 PM on January 12, 2018

I don't get it. (Bill Cosby Pill)

Cosby drugged women to make them easier to sexually assault.
posted by jedicus at 1:31 PM on January 12, 2018

A general, well publicized and successful boycott of all sponsors and advertisers of FOX, would probably shut them down within in a year.

There's this site (foxnewsboycott.com), which prints a list of companies that advertise on Fox News -- great for folks that would like to not do business with those companies but don't want to actually watch a Fox station to see who their advertisers are. By the way, this site and also encourages people to complain to stores and restaurants who air Fox in their businesses -- an idea also suggested above.

A personal anecdote -- a few months back, I asked a manager at a McDonalds (in Ozark, AL) if he would mind changing the station from Fox in the dining area. He told me that Fox was on because of "corporate policy" and he had no control over it, so sorry, no. I haven't been back, but next time I'll have my tv-b-gone with me.

On the idea of listing sponsors online -- I would like to see a site that posts lists of companies who advertise on ALL of the major networks, not just Fox. This would give us information for making purchasing decisions in a way that would encourage advertisers who support real journalism, not just punish ones that prop up propagandists. There's more than one way to vote, and affecting a company's bottom line is the surest way to get their attention.
posted by TwoToneRow at 1:33 PM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

He told me that Fox was on because of "corporate policy" and he had no control over it

I bet by "corporate," he means the franchise owner, not McDonald's itself. Up here in Boston, there's one guy who owns a bunch of McDonald's franchises and he has them all playing seasonal Sirius channels (it's kind of bizarre to be sitting in a McDonald's in West Roxbury in the summer listening to the Sirius yacht-rock channel).
posted by adamg at 1:37 PM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

Rep. Maxine Waters made a thorough statement on Trump's racism and total unfitness for office. She concludes by calling for his impeachment:

No longer can Members of Congress, particularly Republicans, stand with such a dangerous, disturbed, and deceitful man who is a threat to everything for which America, the greatest democracy on earth, stands. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to impeach him without delay.

It's worth reading. A healthy stoking of the fire in your belly.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:42 PM on January 12, 2018 [65 favorites]

"Deliver" is not normally the word I associate with helping a neighbor with their trash

Maybe he remembers a time and place when you had to take your garbage to the dump instead of the city coming to pick it up for you. I'm speculating, though.
posted by itesser at 1:45 PM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

A healthy stoking of the fire in your belly.

Due to my son's recent Adventure Time obsession, I can't stop thinking of Trump as Magic Man. He'll only stop when we all stop trying to look for deeper lessons or ascribing deeper meaning to his actions and instead just fully appreciate what a jerk he is.
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:47 PM on January 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

More fun history facts: if you have ancestry from the middle column, you were the "shitholes" of 100-ish years ago that the US was trying to limit immigration from. NB that the attempt to reduce migration from Eastern Europe was (mostly) to deliberately keep out Jewish people fleeing from pogroms. This is what the "again" of MAGA means to them. And if you're wondering where Asian people are, they didn't get a quota at all.
posted by nakedmolerats at 1:51 PM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Media Matters: From comparing Trump to Shakespeare (?) to blaming Democrats (?) to arguing no one even goes to the beaches in Haiti (?), Trump's sycophants are trying every excuse in the book to defend his "shithole countries" trash. Here are the lowlights. Video, text post
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:53 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

I can't stop thinking of Trump as Magic Man.

i would much rather be transformed into a foot than have to watch these assholes dismantle the country
posted by murphy slaw at 1:54 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

There's more than one way to vote, and affecting a company's bottom line is the surest way to get their attention.

You'd need a simple app people could use on the fly -- type in "laundry detergent' and get a list of detergents you can buy or a list of detergents you can't. Or type in a brand and get a green or red light.
posted by pracowity at 1:59 PM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Dave Chappelle on Trump voters (video)
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:01 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

@Isikoff: BREAKING: House Ds will push censure resolution next week to condemn POTUS for shithole comments, demanding GOP leaders bring it to floor. "The President's bigoted fear mongering...warrant total condemnation and censure from Congress," say Reps. Richmond (CBC chair) and Nadler
posted by zachlipton at 2:06 PM on January 12, 2018 [84 favorites]

NBC News: Trump’s history of breaking decorum with remarks on race, ethnicity

Wow, that was fast. That story took a single day to put together. It's almost as if reporters didn't have to dig that hard to find copious examples of Trump's overt bigotry.

Or, maybe, just as the publication of Fire and Fury gave the so-called "liberal media" permission to mention the president's obvious unfitness for duty, Trump finally crossed a line that let reporters talk about yet another topic they knew about, but didn't share.

Feh.
posted by Gelatin at 2:14 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

I think it's like how some obits are mostly written in advance.
posted by Caxton1476 at 2:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [32 favorites]

This could be linked to a barcode scanner app easily, as every company has a unique upc prefix.

There's an existing app/platform called Buycott that does this, but nobody seems to have started a Fox News Sponsors campaign. Looks easy enough to do.
posted by contraption at 2:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

That Maxine Waters statement Emmy Rae posted above is a scrumptious thing of beauty.
posted by yoga at 2:20 PM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

@Jason O. Gilbert: The only surprising thing about Trump paying hush money to a porn star is that he didn’t bring it up that time he addressed the Boy Scouts
posted by mosk at 2:24 PM on January 12, 2018 [149 favorites]

House Ds will push censure resolution next week to condemn POTUS for shithole comments

I thought I could settle for that.

How wrong was I.
posted by Talez at 2:30 PM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

The whole "where are you really from?" bit is obviously the classic racist pattern, but I keep coming back to the descriptor "career intelligence analyst who is an expert in hostage policy."

She was in the Oval Office briefing the President of the United States on a matter of national importance because she is an expert in her field. It doesn't get any bigger than that. Trump, who doesn't know expertise from shit, took one look at her and decided she should be doing something entirely different solely because of her ethnicity. It's hard to fathom how deeply hurtful that must have felt to hear from the President, and how hard it would be for anyone to stay calm in that situation.
posted by zachlipton at 2:33 PM on January 12, 2018 [133 favorites]

NT Alexandra Petri, WaPo: The day Donald Trump first became a stable genius

When the American people voted unanimously to declare Donald Trump a genius (this is what it means to be elected president on your first try), at first, he did not feel any different.

The shape of his thoughts in his head felt roughly the same, and when the sentences formed they did not appear to weigh any more than they had weighed before.

He was sitting in Trump Tower idly looking over at the bookcase when he suddenly noticed that some of the words on it were not “TRUMP.” He did not remember having noticed that before. Curious, he stepped closer and began to read. One of the books was in German. He loved reading German, he discovered. He loved reading, full stop.

He read all the books, ravenously, so quickly he could scarcely believe it. By 4 a.m. he had read everything there was to read in Trump Tower (in fairness, there was not much to read in Trump Tower) and had to call out for more books. Encyclopedias. Histories. Memoirs.

He read them all until his eyes watered and his head ached.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:46 PM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

I think it's like how some obits are mostly written in advance.

What about those that are written in real time?
posted by petebest at 2:48 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

Senator Grassley (R-IA) on Trump's comments: "Those aren't words that I would use, and I think you ought to consider all of humanity and treat them accordingly."

Such bravery. I am weeping.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:02 PM on January 12, 2018 [17 favorites]

Today is the day a large number of Americans will discover that Google does not auto-suggest the names of adult film stars when you start typing the first few letters into the search bar.

But Google knows what you're looking for and is disappointed just the same
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:04 PM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Senator Grassley (R-IA) on Trump's comments: "Those aren't words that I would use, and I think you ought to consider all of humanity and treat them accordingly."

Grassley then added: "We shall tsk-tsk on the beaches, we shall tsk-tsk on the landing grounds, we shall tsk-tsk in the fields and in the streets, we shall tsk-tsk in the hills; we shall never stop shaking our heads frowningly."
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:11 PM on January 12, 2018 [67 favorites]

VICE News shithole supercut
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:14 PM on January 12, 2018 [16 favorites]

NBC News: Trump’s history of breaking decorum with remarks on race, ethnicity

Aka BEING. A. RACIST.

If you hear somebody say the n-word do you go up to them and say “umm excuse me sir, you’re breaking decorum with your remarks on race”?!
posted by gucci mane at 3:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [36 favorites]

MSNBC is apparently over-the-air in Alexandria, Minnesota, so now we sit and wait for Ajit Pai to fine them $500k per shithole
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:24 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

NYT: Just Say It: Trump Is a Racist

When it comes to President Trump and race, there is a predictable cycle. He makes a remark that seems racist, and people engage in an extended debate about whether he is personally racist. His critics say he is. His defenders argue for an interpretation in which race plays a secondary role (such as: Haiti really is a worse place to live than Norway).

It’s time to end this cycle.

No one except Trump can know what Trump’s private thoughts or motivations are. But the public record and his behavior are now abundantly clear. Donald Trump treats black people and Latinos differently than he treats white people.

And that makes him a racist.

Is it possible to defend some of his racially charged statements by pointing out that something other than race might explain them? Sure. Is it possible that he doesn’t think of himself as a racist who views white people as superior to nonwhite people? Yes.

But the definition of a racist — the textbook definition, as Paul Ryan might say — is someone who treats some people better than others because of their race. Trump fits that definition many times over...

posted by chris24 at 3:29 PM on January 12, 2018 [38 favorites]

The Cut, Exclusive: Watch Chris Matthews Joke About His ‘Bill Cosby Pill’ Before Interviewing Hillary Clinton

With every one of these, what happened during the 2016 campaign continues to make more and more sense.

I thought about just linking the twitter thread but seeing all these in one place is really something. Clock's ticking, MSNBC.

Matt Gertz:

In light of the footage of MSNBC's Chris Matthews joking about his "Bill Cosby pill" before an interview with Hillary Clinton, I'm going to tweet some of his sexist and misogynistic comments from our archives.

This will take a while. 1/too many Let's start with this gargantuan compilation in 2008, highlighting Matthews' "history of degrading comments about women, in which he focuses on the physical appearances of his female guests and other women discussed on his show." 2/ On the January 19, 2001, edition of Hardball, during President Bush's inauguration ceremonies, Matthews commented that "for a straight arrow crowd of sort of purities, I've never seen so many sexy babes on the stage over at the Lincoln memorial here." On the February 9, 2001, broadcast of Hardball, Matthews discussed the controversy over former President Bill Clinton's pardon of financier Marc Rich and remarked that his wife, Denise Rich, is a "very attractive, wealthy woman." 4/ 2000: Matthews describes then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) as "that very attractive woman we've been watching the last couple days." 5/ In 2006, Matthews asked his guests iff if they found Ann Coulter "physically attractive." After the guests refused to answer, Matthews claimed Coulter "doesn't pass the Chris Matthews test." 6/ In 2004, Matthews called SecState Rice "very attractive woman, very likable woman, almost, if she weren't so smart, Miss Congeniality." 7/1999, Matthews to Gennifer Flowers: " "I gotta pay a little tribute here. You're a very beautiful woman, and I -- and I have to tell you, he knows that, you know that, and everybody watching knows that" 8/ 2004, Matthews to Janet Langhart Cohen, wife of former Defense Secretary William Cohen. During the interview, Matthews said to Cohen: "Well, you're a very attractive woman, obviously. And you're very successful and you're well married and all those good things." 9/ 2007, Matthews to Clinton press secretary Lisa Caputo: "You are looking great, by the way ... And I just came from the Miss America contest [where Matthews was a judge]. And you're -- you are up there." Matthews to one of the stars of a pro-Obama YouTube video: "[B]e careful with the advances you are making with your eyes right now. I'm not a casting agent." 11/ Matthews on CNBC's Margaret Brennan after she gave a financial update: "She's a beautiful woman. She's a very bright reporter. She makes us feel good.... And she's 6 feet tall, besides. You're gorgeous!" 12/ rom 2007, Matthews to Erin Burnett: "You're a knockout"; "It's all right getting bad news from you" In this one, he repeatedly urges her to get closer to the camera. It's incredibly creepy. 13/ Matthews to Laura Ingraham, 2007: "You are - I'm not allowed to say this, but I'll say it - you're beautiful and you're smart." Closed interview saying, "I get in trouble for this, but you're great looking, obviously. You're one of the gods' gifts to men in this country." 14/ Matthews to Elizabeth Edwards, 2008: "You've got a great face, Elizabeth. I love your smile ... I'm sorry. I don't want to patronize you. You're great."

So he can't stop telling professional women, including his colleagues, on air, how beautiful he finds them. On to some of the Hillary Clinton vitriol. 16/ Matthews: Clinton is doing an "anti-male thing" by "playing to the Seven Sisters crowd up at these all-women's colleges, where there may be that sort of mood if you're -- and they all want dates. I assume a lot of them do, on weekends. " 17/ Chris Matthews teased segment by asking whether Clinton is a "She Devil" http://mm4a.org/23WA8IK 18/ Matthews on Clinton's performance: "good enough here for women who wanted to root for her anyway" http://mm4a.org/1XLSR2u 19/ Matthews: "[T]he reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win there on her merit." 20/ Matthews on Clinton in 1999: "My husband cheated on me, make me senator" http://mm4a.org/1ToBjZh 21/ Matthews on "older women" who "get really angry at me": "[T]hey usually have a hard time figuring out what the fact http://mm4a.org/1SNR60p 22/ MSNBC's Matthews, NY Times' Seelye pondered whether Biden will "help" Palin "with her chair" at debate http://mm4a.org/23KJYNL 23/ Matthews on Hillary's laugh: "What do you make of the cackle?" Matthews on Clinton "being surrounded by women": "[D]oes that make a case" for or against her as commander in chief?" Matthews: Clinton has a "scolding manner in terms of her public speaking," added, "She's going to tell us what to do." 26/ Matthews: "[S]ome men" say Sen. Clinton's voice sounds like "fingernails on a blackboard" http://mm4a.org/1TmvwTY 27/ Matthews linked Clinton to fictional Nurse Ratched 28/ Matthews referred to Hillary Clinton as "sort of a Madame Defarge of the left" http://mm4a.org/1TmME9E 29/ Matthews asked about Clinton endorsers' "willingness" "to become castratos in the eunuch chorus" http://mm4a.org/24ipKvb 30/ Matthews likened Sen. Clinton to a "strip-teaser," asked, "Is she a convincing mom?" http://mm4a.org/1SiyonD 31/ MSNBC's Matthews still obsessed with Clinton's "Chinese" clapping http://mm4a.org/1Tmuwz2 32/ Matthews attacks Clinton: Criticism of Bush homeland security cuts after London bombings made her look "more witchy" http://mm4a.org/1S7IDek 33/ December 1999, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson appeared on Hardball to discuss Clinton's Senate campaign. Matthews asked Wolfson eight consecutive questions about whether Clinton was "ambitious." 34/ 2006: Matthews asked if Pelosi is "going to castrate Steny Hoyer" if he becomes majority leader http://mm4a.org/23Ut9Qw 35/ 2006: Matthews on Pelosi: ""How does she do it without screaming? How does she do it without becoming grating?" 36/ Matthews' hypothetical suburbanites: Wife wants woman president; husband cares about finances http://mm4a.org/1VRpeji 37/ Matthews asserted that Clinton got Register endorsement "thanks to her husband's lobbying with its female editors an http://mm4a.org/24dMDjc 38/ MSNBC's Chris Matthews On Sally Yates: She Was "Attractive, Obviously," In Her Testimony To Congress http://mm4a.org/2qjBrnt 39/

That's what I've got. There's probably more, but that's what I could find easily from our archives.

This is who Chris Matthew is. 40/40

posted by T.D. Strange at 3:40 PM on January 12, 2018 [92 favorites]

NYT: Just Say It: Trump Is a Racist

From a columnist, naturally/sadly. Wish the editorial board had the kishkes to write this.
posted by saturday_morning at 3:41 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

In addition to being a columnist, Leonhardt is associate editorial page editor of the Times and was formerly Washington Bureau Chief before becoming Managing Editor of the Upshot. So more internal influence than most columnists, and hopefully it eventually comes through on the editorial page. But yes, this is on the Opinion page.
posted by chris24 at 3:49 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

The White House put out a brief statement from the President's physician after today's exam:

The President's physical exam today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center went exceptionally well. The President is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday

Of course, it's the White House, so they spelled the doctor's name wrong.
posted by zachlipton at 3:56 PM on January 12, 2018 [41 favorites]

so now we sit and wait for Ajit Pai to fine them $500k per shithole

1. FCC fines are historically based on viewer/listener complaints - so with such a small viewer base, one would expect a minimum of complaints (or at least legitimate complaints).
2. Even with Pai at the helm, I can't see them moving from their historic positions on fineability - the broadcast industry has a lot of money, and this has obvious newsworthy value. I really don't expect any fines from this.
3. In any case, the licensee (in this case, Selective TV, INC) would be responsible for any fines owed, not the network.
4. You were probably just making a joke, and I'm being pedantic, but here we are.

Sidenote: after having worked for 12 years in broadcasting, hearing "shithole" during NPR's top of the hour cast was REALLY weird.
posted by god hates math at 3:59 PM on January 12, 2018 [15 favorites]

That's what I've got. There's probably more, but that's what I could find easily from our archives.

There are many many many more. He says something truly gross at least once a week, and that's only the misogyny, not the racism.
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:00 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

But hilariously, Matthews is the only person on MSNBC at this point who hasn't said "shithole."
posted by FelliniBlank at 4:02 PM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Sidenote: after having worked for 12 years in broadcasting, hearing "shithole" during NPR's top of the hour cast was REALLY weird.
posted by god hates math at 11:59 PM on January 12

Hearing it in the Received Pronunciation of a BBC newsreader on Radio 4 today was beyond bizarre. It was like hearing the Queen say "fuck".
posted by essexjan at 4:23 PM on January 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

So they are just going to flat out lie to us. No one of his age/weight with his exercise level, and poor diet is in “excellent health.” I’d like to know why they are saying this without his labs back. Also i’d like to know why he needs two hand to drink from a glass. Also why he slurs his words sometimes.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:27 PM on January 12, 2018 [65 favorites]

UPDATE: Kentucky to now require LITERACY TESTS for "certain populations" to receive medical care.

There’s a “literacy” provision. If you don’t work enough hours and lose coverage, you can get to see a doctor again if you can pass a state literacy course about health or money.
To remain eligible for coverage, non-exempt beneficiaries must complete 80 hours per month of community engagement activities, such as employment, education, job skills training, and community service. Beneficiaries will have their eligibility suspended for failure to demonstrate compliance with the community engagement requirement and will be able to reactivate their eligibility on the first day of the month after they complete 80 hours of community engagement in a 30-day period or a state-approved health literacy or financial literacy course.
From the leading implementation of Medicaid expansion to literal literacy tests in less than 2 years of Republican rule.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:40 PM on January 12, 2018 [102 favorites]

So they are just going to flat out lie to us.

Was... there ever any actual... doubt.. about... this
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:46 PM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

UPDATE: Kentucky to now require LITERACY TESTS for "certain populations" to receive medical care.

Poll: Healthcare top issue for voters heading into midterms

"54 percent of respondents listed healthcare as one of two issues most important to them in deciding on how to vote this fall in congressional midterms. The economy came in second with 29 percent, 28 percent for taxes, and 18 percent for immigration."

GÖPerdämmerung.
posted by Rust Moranis at 4:47 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

Pretty sure that means Kentucky qualifies as a shithole, right?

As a Trump certified shithole? There's probably too many "very fine people" there to qualify.
posted by Talez at 4:55 PM on January 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

How are people supposed to work 80 hours a month, for free, and still find enough paying work to pay rent or groceries. Or look for a job?
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 5:01 PM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

They're not. The whole point is to set up rules that people won't be able to follow.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:03 PM on January 12, 2018 [30 favorites]

There are some fine Kentuckians. Even though they might not still live there. I’m one. Hunter Thompson was one. T.D. Strange is one. Last I heard, Greg Nog lives there. Just ease up on painting all of Kentucky with the Bevin brush, please. We’ve had conversations about this southern slander before. No need to go all out again. Thank you.
posted by valkane at 5:04 PM on January 12, 2018 [41 favorites]

Amazing but true: it has been one (1) week since the release of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

With Fire and Fury apparently burned out and the D.C. news industry returned to its status quo, here's some safely anonymously sourced journalistic gossip about an enraged Donald Trump telephoning his allies on Capitol Hill:

Two sources close to the administration told NBC News that Trump worked the phones Thursday night, calling friends and allies outside the White House to gauge reaction to fallout from the “shithole" comments.

One source characterized Trump as seeking reassurance, and described his mood regarding the fallout and coverage of his comments as “belligerent." Another source told NBC News the president sought insight about how the episode might resonate among his base of supporters.

And Fox News:

“He’s sort of viewed as this crazy person who calls all the time,” [a] Fox executive said.

Come back, Michael Wolff, all is forgiven!
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:13 PM on January 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

All 10 of the Guardian’s top stories are currently about Trump.

1 Trump paid porn star $130,000 to stay silent over alleged affair – report
2 'There's no other word but racist': Trump faces global rebuke for remark
3 Trump asked why 'pretty Korean lady' analyst wasn't negotiating with North Korea
4 Trump's 'shithole' remark makes global headlines – but it doesn't quite translate
5 California in revolt: how the progressive state plans to foil the Trump agenda
6 Trump denies 'shithole countries' remark but senator asserts he said it
7 US ambassador to Panama quits and says he cannot serve under Trump
8 Donald Trump cancels London visit amid protest fears
9 Iran nuclear deal: sanctions waived as Trump begins countdown to keep US in
10 Racism and Donald Trump: a common thread throughout his career and life

posted by chappell, ambrose at 5:15 PM on January 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

How are people supposed to work 80 hours a month, for free, and still find enough paying work to pay rent or groceries. Or look for a job?

Food stamps in Wisconsin are set up like this, if you are a single person with no dependents. It's activity to help you find paying work, like job fairs, attending classes, career counseling, etc. You're not, e.g., picking up trash for the city for free. They will actually pay for things like GED preparation, CDL training and CNA certification.

I'm not agreeing with the requirement, but - at least here - the program is a good deal for someone with no work skills.
posted by AFABulous at 5:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

[correction - it's also required for people who have kids, not just childless adults, but they do help with childcare]
posted by AFABulous at 5:21 PM on January 12, 2018

Daily Beast has further corroboration of the WSJ's story today from another adult film star: Porn Star: Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels Invited Me to Their Hotel Room. Daniels had been set to talk to the Daily Beast, but backed out five days before the 2016 election. I'll warn you that the story's subhead invites the reader to picture something they do not want to picture.

The "so what?" aspect to this is one I'm struggling with too, but the fact that a number of people apparently knew makes it more concerning in my mind. If reporters and editors at the Daily Beast knew, word is getting around. Besides the usual pointing out hypocrisy reasons, I don't really care that a man well-known for having affairs had another affair, but given the dossier, there are real questions here about the guy who is now the deputy national finance chairman of the RNC (Michael Cohen) orchestrating a coverup that provides opportunities for blackmail.

And there's an offhand comment attributed to Bannon in Wolff's book that bears revisiting in light of this story:

Kasowitz has gotten him out of all kinds of jams. Kasowitz on the campaign—what did we have, a hundred women? Kasowitz took care of all of them.

The President paying hush money for really anything is pretty concerning to me.
posted by zachlipton at 5:25 PM on January 12, 2018 [63 favorites]

All 10 of the Guardian’s top stories are currently about Trump.

I'm pretty sure that's only if you're looking at the US version. The UK version includes other stories from around the world that highlight how terrible people other than Trump can be.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:33 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Food stamps in Wisconsin are set up like this, if you are a single person with no dependents. It's activity to help you find paying work, like job fairs, attending classes, career counseling, etc. You're not, e.g., picking up trash for the city for free. They will actually pay for things like GED preparation, CDL training and CNA certification.

I'm not agreeing with the requirement, but - at least here - the program is a good deal for someone with no work skills.

In theory there might be some argument for requiring job training participation to recieve cash benefits. I'd vehemently disagree with it, but there's at least an argument. That's not the case with health care. At all. There's no justification for making people jump through hoops for what should be a basic human right. None.

And even apart from the bad public policy is the praciticality. It'd be one thing to require public participation for benefits if a robust system of job training programs, community service programs, free community education, all of that, actually existed. I can tell you, for a fact, that such a system does not exist and will not ever be funded to exist in Kentucky. Ever. Kentucky is a poor, poor state, that still in the 21st century can't provide its residents with clean water and is about to cut billions from its already underfunded budget, which will curtail what limited community programs do exist. The programs that people would be required to participate in under these rules do not exist now, and if you think that the Republican governor and legislature are going to provide them to keep people eligible for coverage, you're wrong.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:34 PM on January 12, 2018 [61 favorites]

From the Daily Beast article linked above by zachlipton:

“She tells me, ‘All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.’

Nah, that’s cool, I didn’t need that dinner.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:42 PM on January 12, 2018 [26 favorites]

The sad thing is that we could just give away food to everyone because so much produce is wasted before it even arrives in the store (Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian). We could hand every man, woman and child in the US a food stamp card and tell them to have at the funny-looking apples and imperfect carrots.

Of course, the You-Know-Who party would rather people starve because it's character-building if you're white and just what you deserve if you're not. And as for Kentuckians deserving Bevin if they voted for him - it's so easy to say "votes have consequences" but I wonder how many people actually got out and voted? I know there are Democrats in Kentucky, too, and my usual "let's not abandon our fellow Dems in red states" applies.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 5:42 PM on January 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

I was kind of trying to allude to that particular line without forcing everyone to read it, but I suppose there is a certain camaraderie in all of us having our meals ruined together now.
posted by zachlipton at 5:46 PM on January 12, 2018 [37 favorites]

I know it's really peanuts compared to everything else going on, but I found this description of a White House conference call a telling example of this admin's incompetence : White House struggles with muting function for 22 minutes on Iran conference call with reporters

See also: Highly Competent White House Spends 22 Minutes Trying to Mute a Conference Call
posted by zakur at 5:56 PM on January 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

Wow.

@ddiamond: Scoop: Teresa Manning — the anti-abortion activist who was put in charge of Title X — was physically escorted from HHS premises today.

Abortion-rights groups had been furious that Manning — who once said that “contraception doesn’t work” — was helping set national strategy for contraception and abortion.
posted by zachlipton at 6:05 PM on January 12, 2018 [43 favorites]

Education Dept. awards debt-collection contract to company with ties to DeVos (WaPo)

Performant Financial Corp. was one of two firms selected to help the Education Department collect overdue student loans. The deal could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars
posted by Barack Spinoza at 6:17 PM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

wintermind said, about 2 million comments ago:

>Oh, y’all, my little part of our Department has something like 700 vacant positions, and we’re filling about 2 a month. There may be no agency left by 2020 at this rate.

I'm in the same little part, and locally we're down 40% on personnel. I had money to hire a *student helper* last year. It's taken almost a year for her security clearance to be completed. This kind of security clearance (for an undergraduate) takes roughly a half hour to perform; when we complained, we were assured that it was so slow because all the "Trump appointees were getting first priority". We had to feel, based on the paucity of Trump appointees, that this was mysterious. Anyway, the student starts next week.

Sorry I'm so far behind in the thread, but I was at a meeting all week where climate change was unavoidably discussed every 10 minutes or so.
posted by acrasis at 6:18 PM on January 12, 2018 [38 favorites]

@ddiamond: Scoop: Teresa Manning — the anti-abortion activist who was put in charge of Title X — was physically escorted from HHS premises today.

And stay out.
posted by saysthis at 6:24 PM on January 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

This is a book written by a known liar, so take it for what little it's worth, but it's pretty blatantly obviously Low Editorial Standards Friday, so here we are. CNN, James O'Keefe says Trump asked him to go on birther-linked mission

According to O'Keefe, Trump "suspected Obama had presented himself as a foreign student on application materials to ease his way into New York's Columbia University, maybe even Harvard too, and perhaps picked up a few scholarships along the way."

O'Keefe wrote that during the 2013 meeting Trump suggested O'Keefe infiltrate Columbia and obtain the sealed records: "'Nobody else can get this information,'" O'Keefe quoted Trump as saying. "'Do you think you could get inside Columbia?'"

O'Keefe said he explained to Trump that the request did not fall into his "line of work," and that he considered himself and his colleagues to be journalists, not "private eyes."

But that didn't seem to deter Trump. At the end of the meeting, O'Keefe wrote, "Trump shook my hand, encouraged me to keep up the good work, and half-whispered, 'Do Columbia.'"

He also claims Trump told him "That pimp and hooker thing you did, wow!"
posted by zachlipton at 6:27 PM on January 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

“She tells me, ‘All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.’

FWIW, this is inline with Summer Zervos' statements. IIRC, she said he came out of the bathroom naked.

I look forward to Donald Trump submitting a naked photograph for the courts review. I'm glad I'm not in the litigation's jurisdiction.
posted by mikelieman at 6:30 PM on January 12, 2018

What if everyone under a Trump NDA decided on February 1, 2018 they were wiping their ass with them and going public?

I think America would, upon recovery from the projectile vomiting induced by the sheer volume of heinous behaviour, be a better place.

More seriously, don't The People and Congress need access to the insight into The President's character to provide effective oversight? Shouldn't -- upon party nomination for the presidency -- every NDA involving that person become null and void?
posted by mikelieman at 6:33 PM on January 12, 2018 [21 favorites]

O'Keefe wrote that during the 2013 meeting Trump suggested O'Keefe infiltrate Columbia and obtain the sealed records: "'Nobody else can get this information,'" O'Keefe quoted Trump as saying. "'Do you think you could get inside Columbia? ...Do Columbia.”

Which, if true (yeah, it’s O’Keefe), would have entailed a number of crimes — criminal trespass, burglary, etc. — that President Shithole would have been inciting Twerpy to commit. Which incitement itself is, of course, a crime.

James O’Keefe has just ratted out the Republican President for yet another crime, y’all.
posted by darkstar at 7:14 PM on January 12, 2018 [29 favorites]

Yeah, Obama's singing is okay, I guess, but you haven't really heard the Horst-Wessel-Lied until you've heard the bootleg of Trump live at Mar-a-Lago.
posted by uosuaq at 7:16 PM on January 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

Pelosi insists on 'clean' DREAM Act amid Trump furor (The Hill)

A number of Democratic figures have called for Congress to pass a "clean" DREAM Act this week, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.) as well as Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn).

Pelosi Statement in Support of a Clean DREAM Act
posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:21 PM on January 12, 2018 [13 favorites]

Rebekah Mercer has been discussed upthread -- the Village Voice asks what she, as a climate change denier, is doing on the board of the American Museum of Natural History.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:24 PM on January 12, 2018 [31 favorites]

Trump is definitely stupid enough to have done what O'Keefe is claiming, but anything coming out of O'Keefe's mouth should probably be treated the same way we treat things coming from Putin, which is to say that we should completely ignore it. O'Keefe is literally a professional liar, and trying to engage with whatever stupid misinformation game he's playing is almost certain to be a waste of our time at best.
posted by IAmUnaware at 7:25 PM on January 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

Russian 'Birth Tourists' Become Yet Another Trump Revenue Stream
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:38 PM on January 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

@ddiamond: Scoop: Teresa Manning — the anti-abortion activist who was put in charge of Title X — was physically escorted from HHS premises today.

Ooooh. She's the nutter-butter who unsuccessfully sued the University of Iowa (twice) for political bias because she applied for a job teaching legal writing and analysis, said in an interview that she only wanted to teach writing and wouldn't teach analysis, and then decided that the reason that she didn't get the job was that she was a conservative, rather than that she said in an interview that she would refuse to do half the job. I wonder what kind of bullshit she tried to pull at HHS. I assume it wasn't ideological, since they all share her fucked-up ideology.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:42 PM on January 12, 2018 [16 favorites]

the linked article is not about the hoi polloi but our allies and world leaders who are concerned about 45's fitness for office and reliability.

I know this feels like completely new ground to us, in the moment, but isn't it really just a more modern/extreme/incredible version of what world leaders had to worry about with Reagan, Bush Jr, and a few other... let's go with "unpredictable"... modern Presidents?
posted by rokusan at 7:44 PM on January 12, 2018

I wonder what kind of bullshit she tried to pull at HHS.

She apparently wasn't so good at her job at HHS either. Anti-birth control official who led Title X departs HHS. States were complaining about her because the family planning grant process is running more than two months behind schedule. And the kicker:

A source with knowledge of Manning's dismissal said that staff were told to leave the floor of the HHS building and to take their computers, in order to ensure that no one witnessed her being escorted out.

Of course, her replacement is described as "an advocate for abstinence education," so it's unclear we're actually gaining a whole lot here.
posted by zachlipton at 7:53 PM on January 12, 2018 [12 favorites]

Googly Moogly...

@TeaPainUSA thread

1) BIG NEWS! Remember the whistle blower story that involved Mike Flynn and Alex Copson textin' on Inauguration Day? It involved a bunch of people gettin' rich over a huge deal involving nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia.

2) Today, Mark Lambert, former president of a Maryland-based transportation company was indicted on 11 counts includin' bribery of Vadem Mikerin to secure contracts with TENEX, a subsidiary of ROSATOM.

3) ROSATOM is the Russian nuclear company mentioned as part of a consortium deal that Michael Flynn and Alex Copson texted about that would "make a bunch of people very wealthy."

4) Accordin' to the plan, the US military would supply security for 16 nuclear construction sites in Saudi Arabia using Russian nuclear components, but in order for this deal to go thru, the cripplin' Russian Sanctions must be lifted first.

5) Where this gets really interestin' is that ROSATOM's attorney, Scott Balber, is also the lawyer for Agalarov & Kaveladze who was at Don Jr's Trump tower meeting in June 2016. Balber was also formerly the lawyer for Trump and the Miss Universe organization.

6) Remember those mysterious trips Jared Kushner made to Saudi Arabia that went under-reported? To arrange the US military to provide support would require the cooperation of the Commander-in-Chief, Donald J. Trump.

7) Bob Mueller waived decades of prison sentences for Mike Flynn in exchange for important information. Tea believes we are lookin' at a massive "Quid Pro Quo", one of the drivin' motives for Trump to lift Russian Sanctions.

8) The real beauty of this news is that Maryland has jurisdiction over this case and any subsequent indictments involvin' members of the Trump family are free from any Presidential pardon power. This may be the straw that breaks the Tyrant's back!

9) Lastly, it's no coincidence Trump has tried to fabricate a phony Uranium One story involving Mueller, Hillary and Obama, et al. In true Trumpian fashion, Trump projects his own crimes onto his enemies. Watch this one close, folks. It's gonna be a biggie.

The Maryland thing is a delicious tidbit, as Trump is currently trying to replace the New York US Attorney, but the whole thing is crazy...
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 8:14 PM on January 12, 2018 [82 favorites]

We'll see... but I'm gettin' some serious Seth Abramson vibes offa that tweetstorm. Has nobody at a major news organization managed to put 2+2 together like this person?
posted by Justinian at 8:20 PM on January 12, 2018 [14 favorites]

Keith Boykin:

“Wen did you know Trump was racist?
1. Housing discrimination
2. Central Park 5 lie
3. Birtherism
4. Called Mexicans drug dealers
5. Ban on Muslims
6. Pardoned Joe Arpaio
7. Nazis are “very fine people”
8. Endorsed slave-supporter Roy Moore”
posted by gucci mane at 8:32 PM on January 12, 2018 [61 favorites]

Has nobody at a major news organization managed to put 2+2 together like this person?

Put it together, or gotten it past editor, manager, legal, exec, and board to splash the headline that Klownwig is goin down like a lead balloon?

There's more than timidity, access journalism, and format that's wrong with today's advertisers.

News. I meant, news.
posted by petebest at 9:05 PM on January 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

hey does anyone remember how the Republicans were against ObamaCare because it was literal SLAVERY to make people dependent on the government for their healthcare in case the government ever decided to, you know, take it away if they wanted to oppress you for your political beliefs

I guess they just wanted to put it off until they could institute the oppression part themselves
posted by Soliloquy at 9:08 PM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

If I may borrow a friend's Facebook post:

Media: The president seems to be rrrrr....rrrr.....raaaa.....raaaacccc....
Us: Say it
Media: Rayyy.....rayyyy.....the president really seems to struggle when it comes to expressing positive feelings towards people of color
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 9:40 PM on January 12, 2018 [63 favorites]

This is a book written by a known liar,

so I guess I'll give whatever's in it the same amount of attention I'd give something that's published in the Daily Mail. None at all until I hear it from a more reputable source
posted by philip-random at 9:40 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

From a columnist, naturally/sadly. Wish the editorial board had the kishkes to write this.

They did:

Where to begin? How about with a simple observation: The president of the United States is a racist. And another: The United States has a long and ugly history of excluding immigrants based on race or national origin. Mr. Trump seems determined to undo efforts taken by presidents of both parties in recent decades to overcome that history.

Mr. Trump denied making the remarks on Friday, but Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who attended the meeting, said the president did in fact say these “hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly.”

Of course he did. Remember, Mr. Trump is not just racist, ignorant, incompetent and undignified. He’s also a liar.

Also, I know it's been one of the weirdest days of the past year, but I have to keep reminding myself that Russia is apparently trying to hack Senate email accounts, and nobody seems to care.
posted by zachlipton at 9:54 PM on January 12, 2018 [59 favorites]

NPR: DHS volunteering help to states to help harden elections systems against hacking.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:05 AM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

ELECTIONS NEWS

** 2018 House:

-- Martha McSally finally formally got in to the AZ Senate race, meaning that Dems have an excellent pickup opportunity in AZ-02 (Clinton 50-45, Romney 50-48).

-- Three ratings changes from Cook Political today:
#AZ02 (OPEN R-McSally): Toss Up -> Lean D
#OH12 (OPEN R-Tiberi): Solid R -> Likely R
#WA05 (R-McMorris Rodgers): Solid R -> Likely R
-- Overall from Cook: 40 competitive GOP-held seats (4 Lean Dem, 15 Toss Up, 21 Lean GOP) and just 9 competitive Dem-held seats (4 Toss Up, 5 Lean Dem).

-- There are 19 GOP-held districts that are more than 20% immigrants. I wonder if those people might have opinions on some related current events....

** 2018 Senate:

-- You probably know a lot of this stuff if you are in these threads, but good Vox backgrounder on the AZ Senate race(s).

-- PPP poll has McCaskill up 45-44 in MO. All polling so far has this race extremely tight.

** Odds & ends:

-- Chuck Grassley went to a western Iowa county that Trump won with 65% for a town hall. Attendees, though, relentlessly criticized Trump.

-- Kentucky is moving towards putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to align statewide elected offices (governor, etc.) with presidential election years.

-- SCOTUS has agreed to hear gerrymandering cases concerning Texas Congressional and legislative districts. These ones are a little different than the Wisconsin and Maryland ones, in that they concern racial gerrymandering, rather than partisan gerrymandering per se.

-- AJC poll has Trump approval underwater in Georgia, 37/59.

-- Interesting Twitter thread that posits that Gallup moving from a daily to weekly approval poll probably doesn't really lose any information of value.

-- NBC with four states (AZ, FL, OH, CA) to watch for House/Senate/governor action.

posted by Chrysostom at 12:27 AM on January 13, 2018 [32 favorites]

We'll see... but I'm gettin' some serious Seth Abramson vibes offa that tweetstorm.

Say more about your impression of Seth Abramson, please. I'm following him on Twitter and find him compelling if a bit long-winded and possibly manic. it's sounds like you don't see him as credible.
posted by msalt at 12:39 AM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seth Abramson's credibility, or rather the lack thereof, has been extensively discussed in previous threads.
posted by adamgreenfield at 1:04 AM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

Posted by T.D. Strange in an earlier thread:

GQ - The Least Influential People of 2017

Seth Abramson/Eric Garland/Louise Mensch
These are the serial tweetstormers who show up any time something Russia-related happens to Trump, and then they act as if they have all the top-secret info to BLOW THIS WHOLE THING WIDE OPEN. They are…not reliable.

More at the GQ link.

(this is also my personal reaction. Just reading some of his/their tweets without being familiar with them, one might feel hope. "omg, this sounds MAJOR!! is it really happening!?? at last???? Maybe it's really happening!!" but then it's never happening. So, I suppose it's just, don't get too excited with their "Big News!" stuff, etc.)
posted by taz at 1:35 AM on January 13, 2018 [16 favorites]

I looked up all of those Metafilter comments on Seth Abramson, and frankly, I don't see anything definitive that undermines his credibility. What I do see:

-- Justinian has a hate-on for Abramson, penning 2/3rds of all negative comments on him, without any particular evidence.

-- The Ben Mathis-Lilley article in Slate -- itself not a great source -- leads with an obvious untruth. Using only the same reported mainstream media articles that everyone else in the country reads, Abramson creates an atmosphere in which the collapse of the Trump administration and disgrace/imprisonment of everyone involved with it is perpetually imminent.
Abramson is very clear that none of this happens fast and that the Mueller prosecution will be a long, slow and deliberate process.

-- Justinian laughing at this quote: "Following Abramson is like subscribing to the worst podcast in world history. “Okay, so you already know about Sergei Cutyurkokov from my August 13th tweetstorm, now here is how he ties into the GORGOV MEETING 1/670"
Spot-on parody and I laughed too, but the point is Abramson is deep in the weeds on little known stuff that appears to be accurate if obscure. EG Papadopoulos in Athens same day Putin was, from Greek newspaper sources, or Trump helping Putin's mistress win Miss Universe in 2002. This refutes Slate article on him only using well-known sources.

-- the GQ article is the source of that previous quote/joke. Literally author Drew Magary's only point is that Abramson has long tweetstorms. Which proves nothing.

-- Justinian calls Abramson "Some rando on twitter". Abramson purports to be a University of New Hampshire English/journalism professor and former public defender, familiar with criminal prosecutions -- Wikipedia at least backs this up. "Journalism" might be a stretch. Hard to say how much experience he had with comparable cases -- how many cases have ever been comparable to this one?

A lot of his tweetstorms involve technical aspects of federal prosecutions of e.g. Manafort, and how the process will work out, and what new developments (such as Mike Flynn's lawyers stopping their cooperation with Trump's lawyers) mean for Mueller's prosecution. In the last month or so that I've been following him, he's been quite accurate.
posted by msalt at 2:04 AM on January 13, 2018 [17 favorites]

I don't really have a dog in this fight, but Abramson's credentials are not that different from mine, and the only advice you should take from me these days is the correct use of semicolons in a series of things.
posted by angrycat at 2:29 AM on January 13, 2018 [40 favorites]

But being a Uni Professor makes you smarter than the average bear and I appreciate your insights. Similarly I think msalt's point is a good and very trenchant one: (or I'm going to make this the point) the 'media' lies, both sides. And both sides work hard at shaping public opinion, not necessarily to the greater good (c.f. their consistently misogynistic attitude towards H.Clinton). So, maybe Abrahamsom is a dip-shit or maybe he's just being characterized as such and the truth is a little mushier.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:43 AM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm not smart enough to judge Abramson's overall credibility, and who knows what will wind up being true when all of this is over (please god let it be over one day), but I know that when I reading his tweetstorms, I'm thinking "I want to believe" more often than I'm comfortable with. I'm trying to temper expectations overall right now if you know what I mean. But if it turns out he's had the goods all along, I'll be the first one to cheer.
posted by EatTheWeek at 2:50 AM on January 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

A Seth Abramson thread was retweeted yesterday by Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian. So not everyone thinks he lacks credibility. At the very least it seems a bit harsh to lump him in with Louise Mensch.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 2:52 AM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

I would immediately put more stock in Seth Abramson on the basis, alone, that the same people who criticize him generally tend to offer strident defense for characters like Andrew Sullivan, which ended up flying up a lot of red flags for those people, for me, personally. Others will have their own views, of course.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 3:02 AM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think we can leave the Seth Abramson thing at "opinions vary" at this point rather than continue the derail.
posted by taz (staff) at 3:08 AM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

Mr. President, Your Toga Is Showing
President Trump’s assertion of his “genius,” athwart recent reporting that his inner circle describes him in somewhat different terms — “moron,” “idiot,” “like a child” — along with concerns about his mental health, awakened a dormant memory of a scene in the 1970s TV adaptation of Robert Graves’s classic novel of ancient Rome, “I, Claudius.”

The Emperor Caligula, played to deranged and very scary perfection by John Hurt, tells his uncle Claudius: “I’m simply undergoing a change. It’s the most momentous transformation that any human being has ever achieved.”

Uncle Claudius’s frozen face is right out of Dorothy Parker’s “What fresh hell can this be?” He knows that this “change” portends no joy in Caesarville. But his life at the palace has made him nothing if not an artful survivor. Feigning delighted shock and awe, he tells his nephew: “I was blind not to see it instantly. You’re no longer human! May I be the first to worship you, as a g-g-g-god?”

Caligula replies with a weary air of menacing ennui, “It took you a long time to perceive that I’m no longer human.”

So begins the era of Caligula the God, and what fun it will be.

Mr. Trump’s declaration of his genius was of a piece with the sycophants rodeo in the White House cabinet room last June, when his consuls and lictors took turns lavishing praise on him in terms to make even Caesar blush.

Continue reading the main story
Blowing into the pitch pipe, Reince Priebus, then the chief of staff, set the key: “On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you’ve given us to serve your agenda and the American people.” Vice President Mike Pence led the cheerleading with such interjections as, “You’ve restored American credibility on the world stage” and “You’ve spurred an optimism in this country that’s setting records.” All hail!
posted by mumimor at 3:35 AM on January 13, 2018 [47 favorites]

Jame O’Keefe is at it again and I really wish more reporters followed Timothy B. Lee’s example of covering him in the full light of his past bad faith:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/activist-says-twitter-shadow-bans-conservatives-dont-believe-it/
posted by adamsc at 5:12 AM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Quick thanks note to jedicus on the Bill Cosby explanation. I was confused about why Matthews would want to take a Bill Cosby pill. I'm an idiot & didn't realize the pill wasn't supposed to be for him. Nothing to see here, move along.
posted by yoga at 5:30 AM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Because of the launch of a new documentary The Final Year, The Guardian interviews Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. It's a good read, but there is a section that made clear what worries me the most about the Trump administration, and what sets it apart from the other administrations led by less intelligent Republicans in my lifetime:

The question hanging over the current administration is whether they have rational discussions about any of these issues at all. As I sit down with Rhodes, Washington DC is consumed by the revelations in Michael Wolff’s new book Fire And Fury, depicting chaotic scenes inside the Trump White House, with rival factions consumed with infighting, and even close associates calling the president an “idiot” or childlike.

Nothing suggests the Trump White House has a process to deal with something like Ebola
I ask Rhodes what he made of it, having been in those rooms himself. “There are a very limited number of people in senior roles at the White House, and time is their most precious asset,” he says. “Distractions like this book consume people’s time, focus and emotional energy. Every minute spent responding to, meeting about or thinking about a controversy like this is time not spent on something else.” He adds that the Trump administration has yet to confront a major international crisis not of its own making. “You cannot respond to a crisis without a good process, and I have read and seen nothing that suggests the Trump White House – even under General [John] Kelly [Trump’s second chief of staff] – has a process that is suited to deal with something like, for instance, Ebola.”

But it is possible that, while the Obama administration upholds Athenian ideals of democracy, the outlook of much of the electorate has more in common with Sparta. “It’s difficult to make diplomacy sound as attractive as taking out a dictator with our military,” Rhodes says.

He points out that the wisdom of the Iran deal, in which Tehran accepted strict curbs on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, was unquestioned in other signatory countries: the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China.

“Talking and diplomacy is often seen as a concession in America, in a way that it is not in other places,” Rhodes says. It has also been argued that the Obama administration was much better at winning hearts and minds abroad than it was in the American heartland, where the president’s professorial mien came across, or was easily caricatured, as aloof.

First, I think many know this from personal experience: there are only so many hours in a day, and if you for some reason spend them squabbling about irrelevant matters, something important is not getting done. Second, this weird American addiction to displays of violence, which seems so much more dangerous with an administration who are not doing important things, but who are obsessed with appearance.
posted by mumimor at 5:38 AM on January 13, 2018 [36 favorites]

I'm shocked about the tighty-whities thing. I would've figured him for boxers.

Regarding the 22-minute phone muting issue-
I just left a job at a major tech company, and a month or so ago, there was a business unit-wide conference call with the VP in charge which had to be cancelled because nobody could figure out how to mute the call. I'm pretty sure it was hosted by an external company whose business it is to host calls with thousands of attendees. This is probably the same. IIRC, the deal was you had to set that up before the meeting started. Just sayin' this is probably not something like pushing a big button. There's plenty of incompetence elsewhere in stuff nominally under their control.
posted by MtDewd at 5:42 AM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Nothing suggests the Trump White House has a process to deal with something like Ebola.

This is one of two things that has any real potential for giving Republican Congress the initiative to topple Trump. Either a mass casualty event involving victims within their "circle of caring" or a major imposition on Congressional prerogatives. Lots of dead white people or stepping hard on Congress's toes, those are my two candidates for an actual "surely this" moment.
posted by scalefree at 6:54 AM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

F̶r̶e̶d̶e̶r̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶D̶o̶u̶g̶l̶a̶s̶s̶ Donald Trump is an example of somebody who's done an a̶m̶a̶z̶i̶n̶g̶ awful job and is being recognized more and more.

@RonBrownstein (Atlantic, CNN)
Yes, voters were ambivalent on Election Day, but overlooked is how much assessments of Trump have declined since. In @QuinnipiacPoll % who says he's a strong leader is down from 56% 11/16 to 39% now. % saying he's intelligent down from 74-53. Cares about avg people down 51-38
- Share that says Trump does NOT share their values in @QuinnipiacPoll up to 65% from 58% 11/16. % that says he's honest down from 42 to 34. % that says he's level headed down from 38-28. On every personal quality he's lost ground-bigly.
- A widening verdict: Among 18-34 in @QuinnipiacPoll 75% say Trump does not share their values. Among African-Americans its 90%. Among college educated whites 68%. Even non-col whites, his core group, now tilt narrowly negative: 46% yes, 51% no. This is pre #immigration comments
- What's striking on these measures is that Trump is now nearly as weak with 35-49 as <34. 72% of 35-49 say he doesn't share their values; 77% say not level headed; 63% say doesn't care about avg Americans; 69% say not honest. With <34 turnout still unproven, this matters for 2018
posted by chris24 at 7:16 AM on January 13, 2018 [23 favorites]

This is probably the same. IIRC, the deal was you had to set that up before the meeting started. Just sayin' this is probably not something like pushing a big button.

The Execs at the bank would have an inline operator for earnings and all-hands calls, who could just do it upon verbal request.

Otherwise, it's octothorpe, some combination of numbers.
posted by mikelieman at 7:19 AM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Puerto Rico remains a crisis that reveals the Trump process: find an angle for the graft, and if that fails, shrug and move on.
posted by notyou at 7:20 AM on January 13, 2018 [37 favorites]

Maybe this former senator calling out moral cowardice could put his name on his comment, call his former colleagues or Trump out publicly? Just a thought.

@BillKristol
A former Republican senator authorized me to share this from an email he sent:
"Shocking that no one was indignant enough to walk out of the meeting....The members of the majority party...pretend not to notice the rising stench. The normalization of abnormal accelerates apace."
posted by chris24 at 7:24 AM on January 13, 2018 [39 favorites]

I know the conversation has moved on, but I want to correct a misconception from above - not only is an H1-B visa never as straightforward as good job-->sponsorship-->visa, but word on the street is that this year has been unusually bad, even for lottery winners. I understand that it's a relatively small pool of people and it's not very newsworthy compared to everything else but the immigration system is still really crappy even for skilled Norwegians.

The fascinating part of this editorial is that the author, a Chinese national, uses the pronoun "we" to talk about the United States. He already, before any form of citizenship and without any family ties, identifies as American. That's the power of immigration and foreign student education.

But now he is being thrown out of a group he thought he belonged to and in a fashion that indicates it would not ever be possible to earn his way in. The message is "You were never American and you can never be American". This is how you create enmity. It is also how you undermine a significant portion of the value of elite American education for foreign students. So now you have a highly trained skilled worker who will return to their own country and at the very least be bitterly disappointed by America. What will he say to his friends back home? What view of America will they get from him?
posted by srboisvert at 7:41 AM on January 13, 2018 [17 favorites]

srboisvert, the author of that editorial seems to be female.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 7:54 AM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Lots of dead white people or stepping hard on Congress's toes

Over 60% of Puerto Ricans are white. What are we counting as "lots?"
posted by aspersioncast at 7:58 AM on January 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

Just sayin' this is probably not something like pushing a big button.

(Re: muting conference calls)
1) It is. It's *96 or something similar
2) it's on the card they send weeks before and immediately prior to the call
3) it's also in the email, the FAQ, the support site and is googlable in seconds
4) One could press 0 and ask the operator to do it (operator of the conference bridge, not phone co.)
5) Perhaps we could ask someone who's done this before?
6) Maybe before we jump into cyberspace with 100 cranky reporters would have been a better time to figure out this basic function of a read out call
7) Shouting at everyone in childish ways - amazingly - is unprofessional and usually doesn't work
8) They've been at this a YEAR! You know how many Scaramuccis that is??

This pathetic collection of nazi enabling fartknockers is who we'll run to, in an actual lives-on-the-line emergency, and they ARE. NOT. CAPABLE. Read the Wolff book and let it soak in: it's not going to get better. We have to eject that cloud of cretins now. Today.

As a side note Re: Abramson, I think we all have cognitive dissonance that it could possibly be this bad. The Wolff book should have been called Believe It. It's not shades of gray- We have a huge existential crisis on our hands right now. It's worse than you think.
posted by petebest at 8:07 AM on January 13, 2018 [68 favorites]

All of Africa has called for an apology. All 55 countries.

African Union: Trump 's***hole' remarks dishonor 'American creed'

The African Union is demanding an apology from President Trump after his vulgar remarks that the United States should not accept immigrants from "shithole" countries.

The group, which represents the 55 countries on the African continent, said that Trump's remarks "dishonor the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity," and that the administration has a "huge misunderstanding" of the continent.

Trump's comments were also condemned by a group of African ambassadors to the United Nations, who demanded a retraction and apology.

The group called the remarks "outrageous, racist and xenophobic" while thanking those Americans who had condemned the remarks.

And the President of Ghana called out Trump personally on Twitter.

@NAkufoAddo
The language of @realDonaldTrump that the African continent, Haiti and El Salvador are “shithole countries” is extremely unfortunate. We are certainly not a “shithole country”. We will not accept such insults, even from a leader of a friendly country, no matter how powerful.
posted by chris24 at 8:16 AM on January 13, 2018 [74 favorites]

Ah, the Trump Apology. That rarest of mythical animals. I shall get my deerstalker hat and pipe and await its sighting with bated breath.
posted by petebest at 8:21 AM on January 13, 2018 [12 favorites]

In @QuinnipiacPoll % who says he's a strong leader is down from 56% 11/16 to 39% now.

Things like this are what gives me hope not only for 2018 but 2020. So much of the Trump cult of personality relies on seeing him as The Man In Charge, the Big Swinging Dick who's gonna set 'Murica straight over everyone else's objections. If he's not seen as a strong leader he (and the Repubs who ride his coattails) might be in big trouble.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:32 AM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

The front page of today's Detroit Free Press:

Trump Didn't Save Auto Jobs In '17

And a snippet from the online version.

When Fiat Chrysler announced its decision to move production of the Ram Truck plant from Mexico to Michigan, President Donald Trump tweeted praise for the company's "very wise decision" and a promise of more to follow.

But economic analysts note that the 2,500 jobs Fiat Chrysler plans to create at the Warren Truck Plant lags the auto manufacturing jobs lost in 2017.

And despite the significant development, announced Thursday, which FCA confirmed will lead to hiring in 2020, auto industry analysts say many jobs will go to autoworkers whose jobs will have been eliminated at other plants and also by shifting temporary workers into full-time roles. [...]

“On the net, we’re down this year in automotive jobs that tie closely to production” in the U.S., she said. “Overall, we’ve flattened out if not come down a little bit in the auto industry.”

Motor vehicle and parts manufacturing employment in the U.S. declined from 788,900 in December 2016 to 783,200 in November 2017, Dziczek said.

The president's focus on job creation won support from industrial heartland voters during his campaign. And in March 2017, he praised General Motors when he flew to Detroit to highlight the importance of American manufacturing. That same day, GM announced plans for 900 new or retained jobs in Michigan within 12 months.

This week, GM confirmed a net loss of 3,500 hourly manufacturing jobs in 2017.

posted by chris24 at 8:37 AM on January 13, 2018 [22 favorites]

Per Lakoff, in the "Nurturing Parent / Strict Father" political world,

What a Strict Father Cannot Be

There are certain things that strict fathers cannot be: A Loser, Corrupt, and especially not a Betrayer of Trust.

If the corporate news could quit tripping over their own ginger goatee long enough to say these things . . .
posted by petebest at 8:43 AM on January 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

Ah, the Trump Apology. That rarest of mythical animals.

If he's not going to apologize to "God*" (presumably white), what chance do a bunch of Africans have?

*Scare quotes, in that Trump's "God" probably doesn't look like yours.
posted by Slothrup at 8:47 AM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

chris24: company's "very wise decision"

Ford's decision to close a manufacturing plant in Mexico etc led to a 17.7% fall in sales in Mexico (spanish newspaper article)
posted by dhruva at 8:51 AM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

The fascinating part of this editorial is that the author, a Chinese national, uses the pronoun "we" to talk about the United States. He already, before any form of citizenship and without any family ties, identifies as American.

she doesn't, though. She doesn't discuss whether or not she would have wanted to stay in the U.S. permanently if the system weren't so fucked up and if she weren't being forced out suddenly for no reason. this sentimental group-identification stuff isn't in there at all. and it doesn't need to be, it wouldn't make the irrationality and injustice of her situation any worse.
posted by queenofbithynia at 9:30 AM on January 13, 2018

What part of "had consensual sex with a porn star" would move a single vote? I've seen people online say that could have killed Trump's election chances had it been revealed after the Access Hollywood tape, and I just don't see it. What Trump supporter would have been swayed by that, considering they weren't swayed by sexual assault?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 9:51 AM on January 13, 2018 [8 favorites]

Trump's "God"

The Pain... (2005): Jeezus v. Jesus
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:00 AM on January 13, 2018

Hiring adult film actresses for sex supports his branding as alpha rich business dude probably, yeah, but the coverup maybe means Trump and team don’t actually believe that. It does show that they believe human interactions are at root transactional, which is an ugly way to think about people. That revelation probably doesn’t sway any votes either.

(OTOH: Possibly you get a Roy Moore effect in which the unswayed voters just decide to stay home while the other side turns out.)
posted by notyou at 10:02 AM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

He sure shitholed the headlines away from Wolff's book and back on to his own sublime person. In a binary world (like his) this probably counts as a genius move.
posted by Namlit at 10:07 AM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

The coverup shows it's worth $130,000 to them to get another scandal to go away. It's one less headache. Not much more than that. I'd imagine there might be some added tension in his marriage over this, but from this distance it looks like throwing a bucket of water into a river. His supporters backed him through the Access Hollywood tape and everything else.

And yeah, it's reasonable to look at the timing of this and see it as a deliberate attempt to shift attention to a lesser scandal (by this regime's standards). That might be in play. As a point of perspective, though, it was probably unreasonable to expect Wolff's book to hold the spotlight for more than a week given the speed and turnover of the Trump ShitShow, anyway.

As far as I can tell, anger over his "shithole" garbage seems to be running deeper and turning more significant than the Stormy Daniels thing. That's as it should be, as the one is far more significant than the other. Hopefully it's one small sign of the country getting its priorities straight.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:11 AM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm not entirely sure the attempt to stop publication of The Book wasn't actually a feint intended to distract from the Fusion GPS disclosure, along with the Medicaid reform. Even Trump knows, by now, what he can and can't sue for as a public figure. That's why he makes those vapid noises about "our weak defamation laws."

The Wolff book is more of the same kind of criticism they're used to just airily dismissing (as is this latest sex scandal), and they believe his hard-core base doesn't really care. Just like they believe that base will, if anything, enjoy the "shithole" remark.

Having to talk about the Trump Org stuff floated in the Fusion transcript would be rather worse than rumors of infighting, 'executive time' or Stormy Daniels. And now it's basically buried. My parents and their friends who get their news from NPR and MSNBC on Sirius haven't a clue what's in it.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:20 AM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Who do you imagine is "planning" these "distractions?" Name names. Who in the White House now is capable of such a thing?
posted by SPrintF at 10:25 AM on January 13, 2018 [25 favorites]

Apparently everyone in Hawaii just got an emergency alert on their phones that said "Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii, Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."

It was quickly revealed as a false alarm... no word yet if it was a hack, prank, or what. But damn... that could not have been fun to receive. Someone at the emergency alert system office is about to have a very bad day.
posted by Roommate at 10:27 AM on January 13, 2018 [46 favorites]

Who in the White House now is capable of such a thing?

That is exactly the sort of thing that the people still around Trump are good at: evoking and managing media furor vs. actual policy or matters of substance. I mean, take your pick. You can't imagine Sanders saying she'd rather call Wolff a buffoon than talk about the Trump Org's criminal associations? Or, hell, Trump himself. This is exactly the sort of thing he's always done. Distract from the serious scandal with a lesser one.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:29 AM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Or Hicks. Or Kelly. Or Jarvanka. Or all kinds of people who aren't actually in the White House, because that's how this administration works.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:33 AM on January 13, 2018

Yeah I was just woken up my a call from my mom in Hawaii saying goodbye in case she was about to die. The crazy thing is how hard it was to find any news stories about it. The only place with any info was twitter. They haven't sent out any "false alarm" message to everyone's phones so people are still freaked.
posted by threeturtles at 10:34 AM on January 13, 2018 [25 favorites]

It doesn't really take that much brains to keep throwing out chaff
posted by thelonius at 10:36 AM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

snuffleupagus: "Even Trump knows, by now, what he can and can't sue for as a public figure."

Citation needed.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:38 AM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Citation provided: his complaints about defamation laws and the pointed absence of any follow through.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:40 AM on January 13, 2018

He also thinks there are federal libel laws.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:41 AM on January 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

When you're looking at single days when three major scandals break, I don't think triaging them as 'distractions' makes much sense. 45 called entire peoples residents of 'shitholes', paid off a porn star and proved incapable of visiting his own embassy at his closest ally because he's 45 and he really is that spectacularly bad. It's not as if the other bad stuff is going away. It'll keep for a break in the weather.

The really interesting dynamic right at the moment is the sense that some GOP senators are getting to the end-stop of their ability to overlook all this shit. As James Fallows says in the Atlantic, it would take just two to say 'that's enough' and the whole complexion of events would change. Faced with facts like every - as in all - countries in Africa kicking back in shock, the sight of US influence draining away before their eyes, not to mention the oncoming repercussions of all that nonsense at home, I'd say the pressure on whichever two senators are the least awful is getting rather high.

It'll get higher.
posted by Devonian at 10:41 AM on January 13, 2018 [51 favorites]

Brian Schatz, one of the senators from Hawaii, sent out a tweet asking everyone to retweet the Hawaii EMA's tweet saying that it was a false alarm. Talk about a clusterfuck. And what's really not funny is that there's no way the Trump administration is sufficiently staffing and funding the relevant agencies that would figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 10:43 AM on January 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

He also thinks there are federal libel laws.

I didn't say he understands the structure of the courts, I said he knows what he can and can't sue for. If for no other reason than because he's tried and failed a few times. He probably doesn't know, or care, why -- because that's boring and the laws are very very weak and we're going to change them, believe me.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:43 AM on January 13, 2018

When you're looking at single days when three major scandals break, I don't think triaging them as 'distractions' makes much sense...It's not as if the other bad stuff is going away. It'll keep for a break in the weather.

I really hope so! FWIW, I don't think it was some kind of intentional ploy, but I feel like there's an established pattern at this point of using Trump's predictable peccadilloes and blowups to smokescreen other less sensational stuff or drown out the building drumbeat of more serious but complex scandals.

I suppose that might just be an artifact of the circumstances, given that the other stuff is going to happen or unfold anyway. And people will pay attention to what's sensational and entertaining first on their own accord.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:57 AM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

It was quickly revealed as a false alarm...

FORTY MINUTES IS NOT *QUICK* WHEN NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE INVOLVED.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 11:05 AM on January 13, 2018 [118 favorites]

My theory is that Trump and co. are just that much of a shitshow at all times.

Do not ascribe cunning or intelligence to it. "Predictable peccadilloes" is just a coy way of saying that this man is unfit to serve this country in any capacity and so is his administration.
posted by lydhre at 11:05 AM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

My theory is that Trump and co. are just that much of a shitshow at all times.

My five-year-old is an expert deflector. It doesn't take smarts; just a kind of animal cunning.
posted by Slothrup at 11:07 AM on January 13, 2018 [16 favorites]

snuffleupagus: "I didn't say he understands the structure of the courts, I said he knows what he can and can't sue for. If for no other reason than because he's tried and failed a few times. He probably doesn't know, or care, why -- because that's boring and the laws are very very weak and we're going to change them, believe me."

I hear where you are coming from, and probably the hermeneutics of his thought processes are fairly pointless. But my read on how he works is:

A) Something bad happens to me
B) "I'm going to sue!"
C) Lawyers tell me I can't
D) Forget about and move on to the next thing
posted by Chrysostom at 11:09 AM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Unless there's some more concrete development/info, let's leave it there, in terms of debating "intentional strategy or not" about the profusion of scandals/incompetence/corruption/etc.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:10 AM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Trump's White House: How a bipartisan policy meeting devolved into vulgarity

And the President himself -- who had been taping a message marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day when the news broke -- retreated to his private residence, where he began phoning his allies and friends to ask how the comments were playing out in the press. One White House official referred to the dial-a-friend session as a "victory lap." But the reaction wasn't all positive.

So it was...mostly positive? "Yes, Mr. President. Once again you have crushed it."
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:17 AM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Ex-Obama defense official on Hawaii false alarm: 'Thank God the President was playing golf'

North and South Korea exist now because the alert wasn't broadcast on Fox and Friends.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:35 AM on January 13, 2018 [102 favorites]

Apparently everyone in Hawaii just got an emergency alert on their phones

Yeah that was pretty awful. We're really pissed off as a state.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:40 AM on January 13, 2018 [47 favorites]

Phones and also on television, which is where one would naturally go after a message like that to see if it's for real. There's no reason at all to blame anyone for taking this absolutely seriously. I feel awful for everyone in Hawaii right now.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:42 AM on January 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

Jesus god. I don't suppose Trump would like to spend the rest of his term doing nothing but playing golf and having sex with porn stars instead of governing, would he? At this point, $130,000 per sexual encounter seems like a very good price for not getting blown up.

I mean, they have to find out how this message went out - what if it was a prank and there are more and more until one hits while Trump is at his desk and he launches something? There can't be mistakes like this with this administration, we could all die.
posted by Frowner at 12:04 PM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

The buzz on Twitter seems to be that there was some sort of scheduled internal drill that was just supposed to be for certain government agencies, and they accidentally fucked something up so that the message went out to the general public. Seems like human error, not hacking or a prank.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:10 PM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

If a nuclear detonation occurs nearby, even if you are not in the heart of the blast zone, you can still be hit by flying debris, etc. Also, being indoors can mitigate the heat damage, as well as blindness from the flash. So it’s to your advantage to be indoors hunkered down if you know a detonation is imminent.
posted by darkstar at 12:18 PM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Great. Now I got my ‘bug out’ plan running through my brain again.
Sorry for everyone in Hawaii. I hope you have legal weed there.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 12:22 PM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

If you're not right there at ground zero, it's not an immediate death sentence. These things are potentially survivable, especially if it's just one hit. It all depends on distance and whether you can get to effective cover and stay there long enough.

How to shelter from fallout after a nuclear attack on your city.

Given what we've seen of North Korea's missile development, there's every reason to believe a missile might not hit exactly where they want it to go, or that it might not blow with the yield they hope for. And NK isn't going to put out the heavy saturation of warheads we'd see from someone like Russia (or the US).

Of course, whether or not this sets off a chain of retaliations is another matter.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 12:23 PM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

An internal drill that said "this is not a drill"?

It sounds like the message wasn't supposed to be sent out at all, so when they did accidentally send it, they sent out the one that would have gone out in a real situation.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:26 PM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

"It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift and an employee pushed the wrong button," Governor of Hawaii David Ige tells CNN. [tweet]
posted by AFABulous at 12:31 PM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

By way of offering a small data point reflecting on the new Administration and perceived threats, I was at Walmart today picking up some polyester fill for a stuffed toy repair and decided to swing by the ammunition cabinets. I was shocked to see a plethora of .22LR ammo, from half a dozen manufacturers.

“Holy cow,” I said to the customer service guy I’ve dealt with before at the firearms counter, “you’ve got .22 ammo again!”

“Yeah,” he said. “No more hoarding.”

“When did that happen?” I asked, not having tried to buy ammo there since 2016.

“With the new Administration. Under Obama, people just had to have ten thousand rounds for their [Ruger] 10/22s. With Trump, they stopped hoarding. Makes no sense at all either way.”

The price, too, has dropped significantly, too. A round is now back to the nickel-a-piece where it belongs, but in 2015-2016, it was three times that, IF you could find it at all. I picked up a couple boxes for plinking.

The right-wing prepper sites and podcasts I occasionally listen to still seem paranoid, but their paranoia has shifted from autocratic government oppression more to natural disasters and foreign attacks. Which is amazing to me, because we now have an actual fascist-sympathizing autocrat in the White House.

On the other hand, in the last year, I’m starting to see my more liberal friends looking into setting up a 3-month emergency supply of food and water, learning how to can food and suture wounds, and dusting off.their granddad’s shotgun and going practicing with it.
posted by darkstar at 12:35 PM on January 13, 2018 [49 favorites]

Why is it even possible to accidentally send out a warning that could potentially kick off a civilization-ending chain of events? That's insane.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 12:35 PM on January 13, 2018 [50 favorites]

Like Burhanistan I wonder why there are alerts to begin with. Is staying inside going to help in a nuclear attack? I thought warheads were much more powerful than they used to be and everything would just be obliterated.

It's not as simple as that. (Of course.)

If you're talking about one of the Cold War era megaton warheads set for an overpressure maximizing near surface burst, yeah, it's going to scour the earth into rubble for a 5-10 mile radius, including reinforced concrete. The thermal effects will light just about everything within line of sight on fire for 10-40 miles out.

Despite the mass physical destruction, the majority of the immediate casualties are going to be from acute thermal or radiation exposure, but mostly from thermal, and then the secondary firestorm, then radiation.

Getting inside behind a hard wall, down into an earth protected basement or the like is essentially the only thing you can do, and as long as you're not in the extreme overpressure zone (and even then) your chances of survival are going to be much, much higher if you didn't just get irradiated by a bunch of gamma rays and neutron flux and/or covered in 2nd and 3rd degree burns because you were caught out when the blast happened.

Now, let's dial that back to something closer to what NK actually has, which is essentially going to be a kiloton range device about the size that was dropped on Hiroshima.

A nuclear weapon of that size is actually relatively survivable compared to the hellish monsters the US and USSR kept pointed at each other. In a weapon of this size you definitely want to seek shelter, stay away from windows and glass and try to hide from the thermal radiation effects.

That said I'm sitting here trying to think about what I would do if I got such an alert and I had, say, 15 minutes. I'll assume I'm at or near home, but these things could be done just about anywhere.

I think the first thing I'd do is fill as much water as I could, including the tubs and sinks, and get those taps going while I run around doing other things. I'd grab the fire extinguishers, my first aid kit, and then throw on some fire resistant clothes like denim and wool and avoid synthetics. I'd also grab my spare glasses and put them in my pocket, get a scarf or bacalava to wrap around my head, and then maybe a big handful of dust masks out of the box in the garage. I'd also probably grab the big crowbar in the garage and maybe a hand saw, because I'm probably going to have to dig myself out of the rubble of a stick and frame wood house.

At that point I'm pretty much out of time, and I'd take shelter in the basement here, or the nearest earth protected below ground structure of any kind. There's actually a water barrel and cistern in one corner here, so I'd probably shelter between that and the concrete retaining walls so I'd be surrounded by water, concrete and dirt.

Once I was sheltering in place I'd be on my phone or laptop sending out last minute messages, telling multiple people where my shelter location and plans are, and awaiting further news for as long as I had functional net access.

After that? Hell if I know. At that point, assuming I survived and I'm mobile, I'm probably biking down to the grocery store to loot as much booze, cigarettes, water and food as I can cart away. Mostly booze though.
posted by loquacious at 12:40 PM on January 13, 2018 [27 favorites]

The United Methodist Council of Bishops has issued a condemnation of Trump's comments. The United Methodist Church is the third largest Christian denomination in the US after Catholics and Southern Baptists. (Many Catholic bishops and the Sisters of Mercy, a large organization of nuns have also condemned Trump.)

We are appalled by the offensive, disgusting words attributed to President Donald Trump who is said to have referred to immigrants from African countries and Haiti, and the countries themselves, in an insulting and derogative manner. According to various media accounts, President Trump made the remarks during a White House discussion with lawmakers on immigration.

As reported, President Trump’s words are not only offensive and harmful, they are racist.

We call upon all Christians, especially United Methodists, to condemn this characterization and further call for President Trump to apologize.

As United Methodists, we cherish our brothers and sisters from all parts of the world and we believe that God loves all creation regardless of where they live or where they come from. As leaders of our global United Methodist Church, we are sickened by such uncouth language from the leader of a nation that was founded by immigrants and serves as a beacon to the world’s “huddled masses longing to be free.”

Thousands of our clergy, laity and other highly skilled, productive citizens are from places President Trump has defamed with his comments. The fact that he also insists the United States should consider more immigrants from Europe and Asia demonstrates the racist character of his comments. This is a direct contradiction of God’s love for all people. Further, these comments on the eve of celebrating Martin Luther King Day belies Dr. King's witness and the United States’ ongoing battle against racism.

We just celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, whose parents during his infancy, had to flee to Africa to escape from the wrath of King Herod. Millions of immigrants across the globe are running away from such despicable and life-threatening events. Hence, we have the Christian duty to be supportive of them as they flee political, cultural and social dangers in their native homes.

We will not stand by and allow our brothers and sisters to be maligned in such a crude manner. We call on all United Methodists, all people of faith, and the political leadership of the United States to speak up and speak against such demeaning and racist comments.

Christ reminds us that it is by love that they will know that we are Christians. Let’s demonstrate that love for all of God’s people by saying no to racism; no to discrimination and no to bigotry.

posted by chris24 at 12:42 PM on January 13, 2018 [53 favorites]

"It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift and an employee pushed the wrong button," Governor of Hawaii David Ige tells CNN

What? At the end of every shift, there's a "No ballistic missile is approaching" button that you are to push?
posted by thelonius at 12:42 PM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

What? At the end of every shift, there's a "No ballistic missile is approaching" button that you are to push?

[frantically enters 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 at the console]
posted by snortasprocket at 12:45 PM on January 13, 2018 [75 favorites]

LBC (a London radio station) reports: "A speech by London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been disrupted by protesters shouting pro-Brexit and Pro-Donald Trump slogans".

Other reports say they were largely (if not entirely) male and white, and they said they were there to conduct a citizen's arrest.

They brought along model gallows.
posted by Devonian at 12:47 PM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

I can understand it being a single button, because in an emergency you want these things to be simple and clearly marked. You want to make the firing of nukes more complicated and deliberate given the consequences (I'd hope), but the warning? Why shouldn't it be a single button?

But you'd think a button like that would have a plastic flip-top safety cover or something to prevent exactly this sort of accident. Did we stop using those at some point?
posted by scaryblackdeath at 12:49 PM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Devonian: They are a bunch of idiot Sovereign Citizens (yes, we have them in the UK too) who were blathering on about common law and the Magna Carta. The guys on Quatloos have the details on it.
posted by essexjan at 1:04 PM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

The FCC and the Hawaii House have announced investigations, but there have been startlingly few calm and reassuring words from some kind of leadership. People thought they were going to die; the White House can't be bothered to show the slightest bit of empathy here?

If you'd like unresassuring words, Max Fisher tells the story of Korean Air Lines 007 and the danger of those 38 minutes today, particularly as Trump has raised tensions and left North Korea highly uncertain about what we might do.
posted by zachlipton at 1:10 PM on January 13, 2018 [17 favorites]

...they said they were there to conduct a citizen's arrest.

They brought along model gallows.

For which they were arrested, right?

I mean, interrupting a public official's speech with a direct physical threat of We Are Here To Lynch You at least gets you carted off for questioning, right?
posted by delfin at 1:47 PM on January 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

model gallows

Holy Moses. This kind of bullshit I expect in America, but in England? I'm with Delfin, this had to end in arrests right? free speech laws aren't as expansive in England as they are here, please tell me someone got arrested for that...
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:54 PM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Tories are underfunding city policing, probably deliberately.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 1:57 PM on January 13, 2018

You know, there's a lot to be angry at here, but I just want to stop a moment and reflect that when Trump was notified of the Hawaii bomb mistake he didn't take to Twitter to offer any words of comfort. He's tweeted enough nonsense to swing court cases and to call people names, but he didn't feel like saying, "Hawaii, we are sorry, this will not happen again."

I mean, I would be like the worst president ever and even I would know to instantly do that, I think.
posted by angrycat at 2:06 PM on January 13, 2018 [54 favorites]

Homo neanderthalensis, according to the Sky News report, they simply left. After paying £35 to get in, they said they were "heading to the pub afterwards".
posted by essexjan at 2:10 PM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

"It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift and an employee pushed the wrong button," Governor of Hawaii David Ige tells CNN. [tweet]

See Also: Chernobyl
posted by mikelieman at 2:10 PM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

What's in a name? Someone up the thread was talking about TENEX, a subsidiary of Rosatom. Well did you know there is a TENEX email system, and TENEX voting machines? I had never heard of this subsidiary of Rosatom, so I decided to look for Utah connections, and came up with some under the TENEX name.
posted by Oyéah at 2:14 PM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

So Hawaii has a literal panic button, apparently just, y'know, easily pressed by mistake?
posted by Archelaus at 2:28 PM on January 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Donny has finally tweeted after the Hawaii incident, reassuring everyone who was worried... that Trump's Mirror was inaccurate.

@realDonaldTrump
So much Fake News is being reported. They don’t even try to get it right, or correct it when they are wrong. They promote the Fake Book of a mentally deranged author, who knowingly writes false information. The Mainstream Media is crazed that WE won the election!
posted by chris24 at 2:30 PM on January 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

when Trump was notified of the Hawaii bomb mistake he didn't take to Twitter to offer any words of comfort.

Indeed, his first tweet after the Hawaii alarm was to call Michael Wolff "mentally deranged" rather than address the fact an entire state was just told they were under attack.
posted by zachlipton at 2:31 PM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Hawaii is a blue state, it doesn't exist in Trump's mind unless there's something he can attack.

He doesn't see himself as the President of all 50 states, only the ones that voted for him.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:33 PM on January 13, 2018 [15 favorites]

They promote the Fake Book of a mentally deranged author...

Quick someone ask the Secret Service who in the WH administration gave the go ahead for a 'mentally deranged' person to wander freely in the West Wing and why they haven't been fired yet.
posted by PenDevil at 2:34 PM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

It's like he only thinks about himself.
posted by petebest at 2:34 PM on January 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

Hawaii is a blue state, it doesn't exist in Trump's mind unless there's something he can attack.

As Hawaii is Obama's birthplace, it's probably on the list of shithole countries.
posted by essexjan at 2:38 PM on January 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

I can't see any connection between Techsnabexport (Tenex, Rosatom's nuclear fuel exporting company) and Tenex the electronic pollbook company. Or the gazillion other companies called Tenex. Or Tenex the blood pressure medication. It's a common name (in the sense of "we're 10X better").
posted by zachlipton at 2:40 PM on January 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

I don't see any connection between TENEX, the Russian uranium enrichment and export company, and Tenex, the American election software company.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 2:41 PM on January 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

Jinx, zachlipton owes me radioactive Coke
posted by J.K. Seazer at 2:41 PM on January 13, 2018 [23 favorites]

It never occurs to donald to tweet about us govt. fuck-ups, because he doesn’t consider himself part of the us govt. He’s just trump. He doesn’t represent the us, he represents himself and his “base” the 30% of the us that hates. This is a guy who stands in front of the cia and tells them they are idiots. Then goes home to watch fox news.
posted by valkane at 2:52 PM on January 13, 2018 [26 favorites]

angrycat I feel safe saying that neither you, nor I, nor any reasonably sensible and ethical person, would be the worst President ever. That mantle has been claimed.

But you are right; the folks in Hawaii deserve a real President who can respond appropriately. We just don't have one of those at present.
posted by emjaybee at 2:53 PM on January 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

Friendly nudge to adjust things back toward the high-signal, low-noise end of things -- we all agree dude sucks, but we don't need dozens of comments that just affirm it over and over.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:55 PM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

They promote the Fake Book of a mentally deranged author, who knowingly writes false information.

Like an hour ago we were wondering if he was intentionally/opportunistically controlling the narrative to distract from the book. Guess it's one more for the ever-growing "there is no plan and no control, only howling madness" file.
posted by Rust Moranis at 3:02 PM on January 13, 2018 [19 favorites]

Department of the Interior adopts political screening process for grants.

According to the memo, authored by Scott Cameron, the Interior’s principal deputy assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget, grant awards of $50,000 or more to institutes of higher education or nonprofit organizations “that can legally engage in advocacy,” will need to be submitted to one of his aides for review.

The directive comes with an attachment detailing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s “top ten priorities,” intended to guide decisions on grant awards. The list includes “utilizing our natural resources,” “protecting our people and the border,” and “ensuring sovereignty means something.”

posted by Devonian at 3:29 PM on January 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

“ensuring sovereignty means something.”

Speaking of, what the hell does that mean?

Yes, I know, it's just figleaved white nationalism
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:38 PM on January 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

Yep, on the scale of nuclear bomb disasters, there’s:

1. One bomb under 15kt (e.g., North Korean attack, or a terrorist nuke, as in The Sum of All Fears)

2. A few isolated Cold War bombs in the 1 — 10 Mt range, launched either by accident or part of a “proportional response” (e.g., By Dawn’s Early Light)

3. Multiple, widespread deployments of hundreds of nuclear bombs (e.g., The Day After, or Threads)

Depending on where you are, the first two scenarios could kill you or might not affect you much directly (except for the sociopolitical effects afterward). But the third scenario would catch up to all of us, eventually, unless you’re living in someplace like Antarctica.
posted by darkstar at 3:42 PM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

" the oncoming repercussions of all that nonsense at home, I'd say the pressure on whichever two senators are the least awful is getting rather high. "

I'm starting to see the nonsense coming home to roost. Bruce Rauner is the most imperilled GOP governor in the country because he's wildly incompetent, but on top of his own incompetence, the general GOP awfulness has been hitting him hard. His biggest donor (Uihlein) was also Roy Moore's biggest donor and one of the very few who didn't bail out of the race after the pedophilia accusations; Rauner's getting non-stop questions about whether the Uihleins support pedophilia and if Rauner approves of associating with pedophiles. And then the Missouri governor, who cut an ad for Rauner (thanking Illinois for sucking so hard that Missouri got all our business growth), go caught out, and Rauner had to pull the (very expensive) ad and is now facing endless questions about his association with the Missouri governor.

Not that many Republicans are going to come out of this with clean hands, since all the terrible people are so interconnected. And hopefully it helps at the state level, even if some fed seats are out of reach.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:46 PM on January 13, 2018 [20 favorites]

Without Haiti, the United States Would, in Fact, Be a Shithole

It goes without saying that Donald Trump knows nothing about history. But those who do have heard of the Louisiana Purchase, the incredible deal President Jefferson struck with France to buy the giant piece of land, 828,000 square miles of river and breadbasket, that stretches from what is now the Canadian border down to New Orleans and the delta. Without this territory, the United States would never have become a continental power nor, subsequently, a great global power. Jefferson got it at a bargain-basement price: $250 million, in current dollars, doubling the size of the country for less than 3 cents per acre.

You may ask what this has to do with Haiti (although any president with a competent staff would have this information at his fingertips). Here’s the answer, White House staff: Napoleon wanted to sell this fabulously valuable piece of New World real estate because for more than a decade he had failed to put down the startling slave revolution in the French colony of Haiti, losing two-thirds of French forces there in the process.

The First Consul (that’s Napoleon, Mr. President) could see the writing on the wall. France was pushed to the limit of its military and financial means by the Haitian uprising, and the future emperor (NB: also Napoleon) had lost his taste for further involvement in the Americas. He sold us Louisiana. Then on January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence from France, and by extension, from white men like Donald Trump.

So it is the courage and tenacity of the rebellious slaves of Haiti that created the United States as we know it. Score one for the shithole.

posted by kirkaracha at 4:21 PM on January 13, 2018 [118 favorites]

Good news from Florida! The Second Chances campaign has collected enough signatures to put a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot to reinstate voting rights for convicted felons.

I’ve linked before to Governor Scott’s atrocious record of felon disenfranchisement, and how the judicial system in Florida is used as a way to strip minorities of their votes. If this amendment passes, then the GOP stranglehold on what should be a swing state will be broken. If newly relocated Puerto Ricans also register to vote in Florida, then the state probably becomes reliably Lean Dem in future elections.
posted by darkstar at 4:27 PM on January 13, 2018 [78 favorites]

Metafilter: we all agree dude sucks
posted by uosuaq at 4:44 PM on January 13, 2018 [12 favorites]

So we’ve all wondered how the Trump administration would handle a real emergency. I think we just got a hint. The WH sent out misinformation (this was just an exercise) and the President could not be bothered to pause his golf game in order to reassure US citizens that their Commander-in-Chief was fully briefed on the situation & there would be a thorough investigation into the matter so that it would never happen again. People in stressful situations want to be reassured. They want to know someone is in charge.

So far I’ve heard only that a car drove into a ditch and parents were putting their children into storm drains. I’m waiting to hear if anyone had a heart attack. For 40 minutes the people of Hawaii thought that Trump had provoked NK into attacking us. The very, very least he could do is to tell them that he takes their safety seriously.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:53 PM on January 13, 2018 [75 favorites]

So Sarah Sanders tweeted a big tabloid-esque banner accusing the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal of being Fake News because the quote they used for Trump was "I probably have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un" rather than what she/Trump claims is "I'd probably have a good relationship..."

You really need to see it. It's Overlook Hotel crazy. I'm guessing Trump made her tweet it. Mentally deranged indeed.
posted by chris24 at 4:55 PM on January 13, 2018 [34 favorites]

Good news from Florida! The Second Chances campaign has collected enough signatures to put a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot to reinstate voting rights for convicted felons.

I signed the petition and supported the campaign. With that said, the amendment will need 60% of the vote to pass and I'm not optimistic. I also wouldn't be surprised if the shitty Republican controlled FL legislature doesn't try to pull a fast one and attempt to keep the measure off the ballot. And if the bill does get 60%, the legislature will drag it's feet for years to pass laws to reinstate voting rights. Florida republicans are garbage that make Trump look like a stable genius.
posted by photoslob at 4:58 PM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

It's also more than two days after the WSJ article, which feels like years ago, so it's kind of late to be making that point now. And the graphic is deeply in madman territory given that "I" and "I'd" can sound basically indistinguishable on a recording, and it's not like either of those options actually makes any logical sense.

So we’ve all wondered how the Trump administration would handle a real emergency.

About that... From Politico, White House scrambles after false missile warning in Hawaii

President Donald Trump's Cabinet has yet to test formal plans for how to respond to a domestic missile attack, according to a senior administration official. John Kelly, while serving as Secretary of Homeland Security through last July, planned to conduct the exercise. But he left his post to become White House chief of staff before it was conducted, and acting secretary Elaine Duke never carried it out.

The administration ran the exercise on Dec. 19 at the deputies' level, at the behest of Kelly and newly sworn in Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen. But as of Saturday, when Hawaii residents were taking cover, the federal government had yet to play out the same scenario with Cabinet secretaries at what is known as the principals level.

"The U.S. government hasn't tested these plans in 30 years,” said the senior administration official involved in the White House response. “All the fresh faces sitting around the table in the situation room have little idea what their roles would be in this scenario. The bottom line is that without a principals level exercise we shouldn’t have any confidence that the Cabinet would know what to do in an attack scenario."
...
Even though Hawaii’s governor called it a human error during a shift change, a White House spokeswoman said the incident was part of the state of Hawaii's emergency management exercise. "This was purely a state exercise," she said in a statement.

posted by zachlipton at 5:02 PM on January 13, 2018 [10 favorites]

Who is Sarah's audience with that tweet? How does she think that makes what she does is better? I wish I could understand the thinking behind it.

On a night where I am casually googling bomb shelters near me, I wonder if any of "these people" actually consider that there might be real world consequences in response to their actions? Or is it just a game?
posted by armacy at 5:07 PM on January 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

I completely missed this and it seems like it should be a thing, even as it pales in comparison to missile warnings. Daily Beast, Trump Accuser Jessica Drake Has an NDA Preventing Her from Talking About Donald Trump

The Daily Beast was informed late Friday that porn star Jessica Drake is not allowed to discuss President Donald J. Trump on account of a non-disclosure agreement she signed barring her from any such talk. NDAs are often deployed as part of settlements to silence accusers.

“Jessica’s NDA blankets any and every mention of Trump, so she’s legally unable to comment,” her publicist informed The Daily Beast. “Jessica signed a non-disclosure agreement after her allegations of misconduct, and she can’t do as much as peep his name publicly.”

The White House has not yet responded to requests for comment.

In October 2016, Drake accused Trump of offering her $10,000 for sex in 2006 at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, where Stormy Daniels also says she met Trump.

So in October 2016, Drake is sitting at a press conference with Gloria Allred talking about Trump. Sometime between then and now, she's signed an NDA prohibiting her from mentioning Trump in any way. It stands to reason money changed hands in exchange for that NDA. Trump buying silence from accusers sounds like a really big deal to me.
posted by zachlipton at 5:11 PM on January 13, 2018 [57 favorites]

Haitian NFL Players are Angered, Hurt But Not Surprised By Trump’s Remarks

...when it was reported this week the U.S. President described Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” and privately groused about accepting immigrants from those places, several members of the small but tight-knit community of Haitian NFL players reacted with shock.

Why?

Why insult a swath of Americans immigrants, who, in the experience of these athletes and their families, have done nothing but respectfully and painstakingly carve out their own slice of the American pie without complaint?

posted by kirkaracha at 5:20 PM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

ooh ooh, i know why: you’re a racist shitbag who doesn’t care about offending or harming people who aren’t white
posted by murphy slaw at 5:32 PM on January 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Who is Sarah's audience with that tweet? How does she think that makes what she does is better? I wish I could understand the thinking behind it.

Well you take a typo screwup ("I'd not I") then extrapolate to the big heaping pile of shit that the WSJ dropped on Trump's doorstep (here's the porn star he paid off).

Logicalfallacia: Instant relief from cognitive dissonance!
posted by Talez at 5:36 PM on January 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

As pointed out in GQ, Paying a Pornstar Hush Money Would Have Ended Any Other Presidency [b]ut for Trump, it's just a Friday.
posted by Talez at 5:37 PM on January 13, 2018 [64 favorites]

But the third scenario would catch up to all of us, eventually, unless you’re living in someplace like Antarctica.

If the rest of the world has blown up who's sending you food and diesel?
posted by Talez at 5:39 PM on January 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Who is Sarah's audience with that tweet? How does she think that makes what she does is better? I wish I could understand the thinking behind it.

Her audience is Trump himself, obviously. She's trying to protect her position and assuage him by demonstrating that she's his assiduous defender. I guess we can still hope that Kelly is doing his job, but the rest of the staff are primarily concerned with keeping the POTUS happy while they run their private grifts in the background. The POTUS is a narcissist and the White House has become a hall of mirrors that throws a distorted image back at him from a thousand directions.

This isn't just bad government; it's far worse than that. All Trump cares about is his image, and so all he hears is lies. The heart of the Republic is a shriveled, necrotic echo chamber with Trump's voice yammering and yammering, and the only hope for the survival of even basic government functions is that they will continue to be handled by career bureaucrats with legacy powers rather thsn one of Trump's lickspittle cronies.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:43 PM on January 13, 2018 [58 favorites]

Amazing, since two weeks ago the WSJ Editorial Board was describing Trump as "totally not a fascist, you liberal snowflakes."
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:52 PM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

So, what would happen if any of the women Dump shushed were to break her NDA? Could he sue?
posted by omegar at 6:11 PM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

So I can't tell if this is still ongoing or not, nor who's behind it, but it seems folks are/were reviving the ol' "Project Stuff On Trump Properties" game:

The word “shithole” is being projected onto Trump’s DC hotel. (Scott Dworkin on Twitter; I know nothing of Mr. Dworkin beyond this tweet.)
posted by nickmark at 6:23 PM on January 13, 2018 [64 favorites]

Obviously too much too ask that they put the part of the article they quoted...in quotes.

I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least they had graphic designers.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:11 PM on January 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

Silver lining for this week's news: Rep. Trey Gowdy has resigned from the House Committee on Ethics, citing "workload".
posted by Doktor Zed at 7:19 PM on January 13, 2018 [40 favorites]

Stonewalling the Russia investigation on the House Intel committee must be a full time job.

I'd like to believe Eyebrows McGree is right in this comment but if Trump's shithole comments didn't shake anyone loose (not so much as a lukewarm statement of modest disapproval from most Republicans!) I don't foresee even Corker or Flake are going to do anything but make occasional meaningless mouth noises. The only thing that has a chance is Mueller coming back with a truly damning report.

In other words, help us obi-wan Mueller. You're our only hope.
posted by Justinian at 7:28 PM on January 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Robert O'Harrow, Jr., WaPo: Meet the 24-year-old Trump campaign worker appointed to help lead the government’s drug policy office

In May 2016, Taylor Weyeneth was an undergraduate at St. John’s University in New York, a legal studies student and fraternity member who organized a golf tournament and other events to raise money for veterans and their families.

Less than a year later, at 23, Weyeneth, was a political appointee and rising star at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House office responsible for coordinating the federal government’s multibillion dollar anti-drug initiatives and supporting President Trump’s efforts to curb the opioid epidemic. Weyeneth would soon become deputy chief of staff.

His brief biography offers few clues that he would so quickly assume a leading role in the drug policy office, a job recently occupied by a lawyer and a veteran government official. Weyeneth’s only professional experience after college and before becoming an appointee was working on Trump’s presidential campaign.

Weyeneth’s ascent from a low-level post to deputy chief of staff is the result, in large part, of staff turnover and vacancies. The story of his appointment and remarkable rise provides insight into the Trump administration’s political appointments and the troubled state of the drug policy office.

The. Best. People.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:31 PM on January 13, 2018 [44 favorites]

Trump admin resumes accepting DACA applications (The Hill)

The move comes after U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued a preliminary injunction this week blocking President Trump's decision to end the Obama-era program, which granted temporary reprieve from deportation to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA," USCIS said in an update posted online Saturday.

"Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017," the update said.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:46 PM on January 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

Weyeneth’s ascent from a low-level post to deputy chief of staff is the result, in large part, of staff turnover and vacancies. The story of his appointment and remarkable rise provides insight into the Trump administration’s political appointments and the troubled state of the drug policy office.

It occurs to me that the Trump administration should provide fodder for any number of dissertations on disaster preparedness and functionality in government that studies the effect of death and absenteeism on the bureaucracy
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:07 PM on January 13, 2018 [11 favorites]

Oh boy. I've been off the grid all day, logged in to Facebook to see if anyone had messaged me, and the first thing I see is relatives in Hawaii posting about how they're crying in their homes. I was terrified of what I was going to find as I kept scrolling.

...but also wondering how in the world NK nuked us and I found out on Facebook??

Anyway, they are not very happy about this whole thing, or that no one sent a correction out to all the phones afterwards.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:37 PM on January 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

So Sarah Sanders tweeted a big tabloid-esque banner accusing the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal of being Fake News

This got even stupider. Sanders posted what she called the "official audio" (that's not, you know, a thing; it's just audio someone at the White House recorded) to claim the WSJ misquoted the President as saying "I probably have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. Sanders claims he said "I'd probably have."

Now the WSJ has tweeted out their recording, saying that they're standing by the quote as they originally reported it.

Honestly, it sounds to me like it could be either one from the recordings, nor do I really care, because neither version makes any real sense. If you're prone to saying nonsense, you really don't get to complain when the transcription service can't tell what you're saying. Nor do I understand how we're all supposed to take the leap that the WSJ is wrong about the porn star story because they're as befuddled as the rest of us by the stupid crap that comes out of the President's mouth.
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 PM on January 13, 2018 [38 favorites]

Betteridge wins again: Have They No Sense of Decency?
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:44 AM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

So, what would happen if any of the women Dump shushed were to break her NDA? Could he sue?

Of course he could sue. Anybody can sue anybody for anything, they just might not be very likely to win. In this case, Trump would have the default law on his side, since there is clearly a contract that she signed.

I'd love to see it challenged on the grounds of beiing against public policy, however you say that -- at least in the case of a president. More to the point, it would be self-defeating (Streisand effect) by bringing more attention to the story you're attempting to cover up. There's a good chance that the court case itself would be exempt from the NDA, so the suit could itself create a loophole to the NDA it's trying to enforce.

Also, what damages would Trump claim? Harm to his reputations?!?!?
posted by msalt at 1:39 AM on January 14, 2018 [12 favorites]

Also, what damages would Trump claim? Harm to his reputations?!?!?

Isn't that exactly what he would claim? He's not just a person, he's a brand. Isn't that the point of the NDAs?
Also, Is there a point where the public interest overrides an NDA?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 1:54 AM on January 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

It would be a simple thing for a reporter to ask the WH to release her from any NDA, in order to clear this thing up.
posted by Devonian at 2:15 AM on January 14, 2018 [17 favorites]

...so the suit could itself create a loophole to the NDA it's trying to enforce.

Trump using NDAs for thin-skinned, cowardly bullying and intimidation has been pretty much constant throughout his life:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-sued-everyone-but-his-hairdresser (Ed: the one person he really should have sued).

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/here-is-the-confidentiality-agreement-signed-by-a-former-tru

It would be great if one or two high profile people would start breaking them: opening the floodgates for all the hundreds of others with dirt to share (presumably, but it seems a safe bet). Really need a Trumpleaks crowdfund type thing to cover the legal costs of anyone doing so, at some point there will just be too many people for him to sue - sort of the civil equivalent of "flooding the jails" type civil protest.

Admittedly there's a chance that those with the most damning stuff won't come forward as it would involve illegal actions that they have committed at Trump's behest.

Does Mueller have the power to get witnesses to break their NDAs? Seems like he should when there's actual crimes involved.
posted by Buntix at 2:27 AM on January 14, 2018 [12 favorites]

NDA agreements definitely don't apply when speaking to the federal government.
posted by bootlegpop at 2:31 AM on January 14, 2018 [16 favorites]

"I'd probably have."

I know this is trifling and possibly counts as noise -- apologies, but it's been bothering me. How does the I-vs-I'd distinction even help? It... it doesn't, as far as I can tell. In fact, the quote read with "I'd" is even more perplexing than the original quote's phrasing, since it's Trump talking about an evidently-hypothetical relationship when he already has an *actual* relationship with the man and suggests he's somehow unaware of said extant relationship in the moment of speech.

i know it's all distraction and an effort to pivot away from the shithole incident and all the other countless horrifying incidents and to gratify tiny egos by slamming The Fake Media and i know the content of that pivot hardly matters but i sincerely Do Not Get How It Works in its particulars, tactically or grammatically
posted by halation at 4:59 AM on January 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

halation, I think Joe is correct to say it is solely the product of Huckabee Sanders wishing to impress her boss by picking a fight. The nonsensicalness of the complaint works toward that end, because it shows that she will not be constrained by such things as reality when performing loyalty to him.
posted by saturday_morning at 5:30 AM on January 14, 2018 [25 favorites]

It occurs to me that the Trump administration should provide fodder for any number of dissertations on disaster preparedness and functionality in government that studies the effect of death and absenteeism on the bureaucracy

We've seen this before. The president before last rebuilt Iraq along Republican ideological principles using unqualified recent campus republican graduates. Billions of dollars went missing, almost nothing got done, there was an all out civil war along religious and clan lines and they bailed out and left the mess for someone else to clean up.
posted by srboisvert at 6:51 AM on January 14, 2018 [27 favorites]

they bailed out and left the mess for someone else to clean up.

A mess called Isis. If we're ever gifted a sane discussion about the nature of the terrorist threat, let this be at the top of the list.
posted by Devonian at 6:59 AM on January 14, 2018 [29 favorites]

Josh Siegel, Washington Examiner: EPA inspector general to probe Scott Pruitt's trip to Morocco to promote natural gas

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who requested the probe, says Pruitt’s four-day trip to Morocco last month was inappropriate because the EPA plays no formal role in overseeing natural gas exports, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Energy Department or Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:48 AM on January 14, 2018 [26 favorites]

GOP senator: Trump did not make 'shithole' comment (The Hill)

In which Sen. Perdue continues to sell what’s left of his shriveled husk of a soul:

Republican Sen. David Perdue (Ga.) on Sunday said President Trump did not use the word “shithole” to refer to some African nations, Haiti, and El Salvador during a White House meeting with lawmakers.

During an interview on ABC’s “Meet the Press,” Perdue said the comment attributed to the president in The Washington Post is a “gross misrepresentation.”

“I’m telling you he did not use that word, George. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation. How many times do you want me to say that?” Perdue said after host George Stephanopoulos pressed him for an answer.

Perdue was one of several lawmakers participating in a meeting with Trump last week, when the president reportedly referred to immigrants from African nations, El Salvador and Haiti as coming from "shithole countries."

posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:59 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Keep hitting him with it. From TPM:

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) on Sunday said there is “no question” that President Donald Trump’s remark insulting Haiti and African countries “was racist.”

“There’s no question what he said was un-American and completely unmoored from the facts,” Bennet said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “I was raised not to call people racist on the theory that it was hard for them to be rehabilitated once you said that, but there’s no question what he said was racist.”

posted by chris24 at 8:07 AM on January 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Nice Perdue. Graham has basically confirmed it and Flake and Scott have both said they heard about it immediately after the meeting - before the WaPo report - from GOP senators in the meeting. That's three GOP senators you're saying are lying. Or you're lying.
posted by chris24 at 8:10 AM on January 14, 2018 [15 favorites]

This may be what Perdue is hanging his lie on...

@Isikoff
CLARIFICATION: @RichLowry says on @ThisWeekABC that @realDonaldTrump actually said "shit house" countries, not "shit hole" countries during WH immigration meeting
posted by chris24 at 8:14 AM on January 14, 2018 [16 favorites]

The Senatorial disagreement on display here is indicative of its greatness as a legislative body:

Side 1 - “There’s no question what he said was un-American and completely unmoored from the facts,”

Side 2 - He didn't say 'shithole!'
posted by carsonb at 8:15 AM on January 14, 2018 [13 favorites]

Perdue now has called Senator Durbin a liar, too, so one assumes it’s pistols at dawn time.
posted by notyou at 8:15 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

CLARIFICATION: @RichLowry says on @ThisWeekABC that @realDonaldTrump actually said "shit house" countries, not "shit hole" countries during WH immigration meeting

Well that settles that then!
posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:15 AM on January 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

> That's three GOP senators you're saying are lying. Or you're lying.

Well, look, it depends on what the meaning of "use that word" is?

Or, well, what is even reality? Can you ever really be sure that what you heard is what they said?

Or - fine - he's a lying shithead.

(And shithouse versus shithole? Are you ... shitting me?)
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:15 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

House, hole :: I, I’d. Now last night’s Huckabee Sanders tweet makes sense.
posted by notyou at 8:17 AM on January 14, 2018 [11 favorites]

But a brick shithouse is a fine thing: "More effectively, or handsomely built than is strictly necessary."

So actually he was complimenting these countries. Obv.

When will you people stop twisting his words?
posted by GrammarMoses at 8:19 AM on January 14, 2018 [11 favorites]

And in case you missed it, John Lewis didn't mess around on This Week with George Stephanopoulos..

@kylegriffin1
Rep. John Lewis on Trump “I think he is a racist.”

VIDEO

---

He also said he wouldn't vote for anything that didn't protect DACA.
posted by chris24 at 8:23 AM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

You know, I don't think the "hole" part was what people were upset about.
posted by yhbc at 8:23 AM on January 14, 2018 [49 favorites]

The other half of the lying R senators tried a different tactic than Perdue.

@AliABCNews
On @FaceTheNation, @SenTomCotton says he "didn't hear" Trump using reported slur. He said previously that he did not recall. I am learning so much about the human brain and ears this morning!

---

And Flake again confirmed.

@ThisWeekABC:
Sen. @JeffFlake tells @GStephanopoulos he heard directly from participants in that Oval Office meeting “those words were used” by President Trump, “before those words went public.”

VIDEO

---

@EWErickson:
It’s weird that people in the room don’t remember Trump using that word when Trump himself was calling friends to brag about it afterwards. I spoke to one of those friends. The President thought it would play well with the base.
posted by chris24 at 8:37 AM on January 14, 2018 [59 favorites]

On a slightly different note:

WaPo: New alarm among Republicans that Democrats could win big this year
... which is all good, but includes this snippet that wasn't yet on my radar:

White House officials said they expect a full plunge in upcoming weeks into a special House race in Pennsylvania, with trips from Trump, Vice President Pence and Cabinet members. The race has taken on a larger-than-life role in the White House because officials want to stem the tide of the losses they suffered last year in Virginia and Alabama.

Which race is this? Paging Chrysotom to the courtesy phone... (Unless he's busy being an elected official, in which case maybe someone else can step in?)
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:45 AM on January 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

This one, perhaps? Penn's 18th district, election on March 13th. Rick Saccone (R) vs. Conor Lamb (D)
posted by mrjohnmuller at 8:52 AM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

RedOrGreen: The race is for PA-18 (outside of Pittsburgh). The Dem is Conor Lamb. The Republican is Rick Saccone, who describes himself as "Trump before Trump was Trump."
posted by mcduff at 8:53 AM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

NBC: Flake to denounce Trump media attacks as Stalinist in Senate speech

Sen. Jeff Flake is planning to slam President Donald Trump's attacks on the press on the Senate floor this week in a speech that will compare the president's use of the term "enemy of the people" to describe the media to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

"When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn't suit him ‘fake news,’ it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press," Flake, R-Ariz., will say, according to excerpts of the speech provided to NBC News.

Trump called the media the "enemy of the people" in a February tweet. "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" the president wrote on Twitter.

"Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies," Flake plans to say in the Senate remarks.

"It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase 'enemy of the people,' that even (later Soviet leader) Nikita Khrushchev forbad its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin to for the purpose of 'annihilating such individuals' who disagreed with the supreme leader," Flake will say.

"This alone should be a source of great shame for us in this body, especially those of us in the president's party. For they are shameful and repulsive statements."

The speech from one of Trump's fiercest Republican critics comes as the president has promoted his "Fake News Awards" on Twitter, saying that the awards, expected to be on Wednesday, will go to "the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media."

And yes, it'd be great if he voted against Trump more in addition to speaking out against him. But Trump has governed as basically a racist Bush, so I'm not surprised that a Republican votes for typical Republican policies, awful as they are. I do think standing up for democratic norms and institutions has value regardless. We need more of it. If we don't preserve democracy, we won't have policy to fight over.
posted by chris24 at 8:55 AM on January 14, 2018 [41 favorites]

WaPo: New alarm among Republicans that Democrats could win big this year

I didn't know this. Very interesting. Not that being a former soldier makes anyone better than anyone else, but it shows a shifting tide in perception and helps refute the "true America/patriot" BS from Rs.

But other indicators are clearly flashing GOP warning signs. Democrats have benefited from significant recruitment advantages — there are at least a half dozen former Army Rangers and Navy SEALs running as Democrats this year, for example — as Republicans struggle to convince incumbents to run for reelection.

posted by chris24 at 9:01 AM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Elle: Women (lawmakers) to wear black to the State of the Union address (Oddly, the article doesn't say the date, but it's January 30.)
posted by AFABulous at 9:06 AM on January 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

Maxine Waters and John Lewis are going to skip the SOTU altogether. (The Blaze)
posted by AFABulous at 9:07 AM on January 14, 2018 [30 favorites]

Could people just stand up and turn their backs to him during the speech?
posted by njohnson23 at 9:14 AM on January 14, 2018 [17 favorites]

As Labor Pool Shrinks, Prison Time Is Less of a Hiring Hurdle

If unemployment stays low, I suppose that'll favor Republicans in November. :/
posted by Coventry at 9:15 AM on January 14, 2018

Could people just stand up and turn their backs to him during the speech?

Bait Trump into requesting that a sitting Congress member gets ejected during the speech? It’d be an interesting constitutional crisis that week.
posted by Talez at 9:22 AM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Regarding last year's SOTU, all I could quickly find was that Dems were planning not to shake his hand. I don't know what they actually did. 66 women wore suffragette white. (Note: this is bringing me to tears.)
posted by AFABulous at 9:28 AM on January 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

The state of the union one year on, a summary: Damage Bigly. (James Mann, The New York Review of Books.) "The effects are poisonous. If the United States were to face some sudden crisis—an attack overseas or at home, an economic collapse—Trump, like any president, would need to summon forth a sense of national unity in response. He would instead confront the sullen, divided nation he has so steadily provoked. Even if there is no such national emergency, the divisions he has created could last, harming the nation for years after he leaves office."
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:37 AM on January 14, 2018 [18 favorites]

Burhanistan: "What I would love to see live during the SOTU is a split-screen showing how all the GOP dickbags forget themselves and rush to get some sweet sweet Obama love as he entered the chamber, compared to what will no doubt be an awkward trump entrance. Dude had star power even over the haters."

Oh, that's painful to watch now. He had such effortless charisma. I was doing OK until he hugged Ginsburg and then lost it.
posted by octothorpe at 9:44 AM on January 14, 2018 [15 favorites]

So, what would happen if any of the women Dump shushed were to break her NDA? Could he sue?

Threats to sue over an NDA likely worked when Trump was a private individual and could litigate a person into poverty, but a lawsuit now would do more harm to Trump than to the informant. The informants could likely get whatever support they need to cover litigation and litigation would expose Trump in ways that would negate the purpose of the NDA in the first place.

I don't think it is an NDA and lawsuit that would discourage informants. Instead, given Trump supporters, rather it is quite literally a threat to life. Would you be willing to take that risk?
posted by JackFlash at 9:54 AM on January 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

A shithole - word William C.
A shithole is an astronomically wealthy nation that refuses to guarantee access to clean drinking water and heating for schools in the winter
A shithole is a nation that has enough wealth to end poverty but allows that money to be hoarded by a small few.
A shithole is a nation where school massacres aren't surprising and neither are mass shootings because of politics and profit.
A shithole is an astronomically wealthy nation where college education isn't free or guaranteed, but debt for pursuing higher education is.
A shithole is an astronomically wealthy nation where the military budget is enough to fix crumbling infrastructure, but it's used to murder people abroad instead.
A shithole is a nation that pollutes the earth so bad that it's causing the climate to change which is putting everyone at risk, but it refuses to change because of politics and profit.
A shithole is a nation that pretends capitalism is fair and equitable.

Plus plus plus
Not a lot to disagree with there.
posted by adamvasco at 10:29 AM on January 14, 2018 [94 favorites]

Hey the WSJ story reminds me, how are those Fake News Awards going?
posted by saturday_morning at 10:52 AM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Jared Sexton Yates as an insightful Twitter thread about "shitholegate" or whatever we're calling this:

Part of the reason Trump has been untouchable is because he’s been able to define the language and thus owns the situation, normalizing his behavior. 1/
The shithole situation is a perfect example. Trump uses an offensive term that’s unacceotable, suddenly everyone is using it, even to criticize him. The word’s automatically normalized. 2/
When the word becomes widespread, suddenly Trump’s original comment isn’t as bad anymore because the word has now entered the lexicon. It’s on TV, in conversations, on social media. 3/
We unwittingly buy into that paradigm, and when we do we enter the realm of ideas on HIS turf. He owns the game after that. 4/
Look back at how often he’s controlled language. The derisive nicknames. “Unprecedented.” “The best words/the best people.” 5/
When we traffic his language were only normalizing his behavior. We’re swallowing it, regurgitating it. It’s dragging us deeper and deeper into the mud and soon we’ll forget what it’s like outside of the filth. 6/
We lie to ourselves and pretend the president doesn’t have much sway over the country, but they chart the mood and subconscious of the nation. 7/
This isn’t a strategy by Trump, but a matter of instinct and obsession/symbiosis with cable news. It’s ever changing talking points that infect daily discourse. 8/
When we parrot him, even to mock him, we’re giving power to his vocabulary that not only hurts our culture but moves this battle onto his terms. It’s quiet, but it’s of the upmost importance. 9/
Try your hardest not to give it power. Don’t mock him with his crass, pathetic words. That’s lowering the bar. Attack Trump with the language of a society you’d like to have. Don’t accept this crude, twisted farce he’s creating. 10/10

Trump's latest scandal has overwhelmed the context what the Oval Office meeting was originally supposed to accomplish, per the Washington Post's reporting: "[Senators Lindsey] Graham and [Richard] Durbin thought they would be meeting with Trump alone and were surprised to find immigration hard-liners such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) at the meeting. The meeting was impromptu and came after phone calls Thursday morning, Capitol Hill aides said." (While Goodlatte plans to retire from Congress this year, the Tea Party–supported Cotton has been sucking up to Trump in order to advance his own political fortunes, particularly on his immigration policies.)

The real news isn't that Trump's a foul-mouthed old racist unfit for office - which everyone knows by now but which the media still finds convenient to discuss and debate - but that he and his enablers actively sabotaged a bipartisan meeting with legislators who were trying to work out compromise immigration reform. It's a perfect example of the nihilism at the core of the Trumpist movement.
posted by Doktor Zed at 10:54 AM on January 14, 2018 [64 favorites]

While I agree with much of what Yates says here, I don't think Shithole is the best example. The problem with shithole wasn't the cursing, it was the racism. And it's what separates Graham saying hellholes about Mexico from Trump saying shitholes; Trump is saying we can't let these people in because they're the reason the countries are shitholes, rather than the victims of their countries being troubled, as many including Graham have. Trump thinks we'll be importing shithole, not saving people from it.
posted by chris24 at 11:07 AM on January 14, 2018 [27 favorites]

I want to say a good protest would be to go on a road trip and stop at lots of down-market towns and talk to people about how their town is like the places Trump called shitholes. "He was talking about you, too. What's to stop him from pulling a Puerto Rico on New Jersey when the next Sandy comes through?"
posted by rhizome at 11:14 AM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yeah, we're not clutching our pearls because Trump's - gasp - vulgar, we're astonished that he can express such racist views proudly and with comparatively insignificant institutional reproach.

It doesn't matter what the actual term he used is, it really doesn't. What matters is that he wants white, rich people to be the only ones allowed to come to America because the rest of the population of the world is, to him, worse than worthless.

This should be a way bigger deal than it currently is and not in any way because he might have normalized a word my kid can't say at preschool.
posted by lydhre at 11:15 AM on January 14, 2018 [51 favorites]

In case your Trumpette friends and relatives are plugging the latest R talking point like my mother is.

@KevinMKruse
In an effort to "prove" President Trump isn't a racist, his defenders keep pointing to the fact that, in 1986, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor along with Rosa Parks. Well, about that...

First of all, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor was something that was hastily created that same year, in reaction to complaints about a previous award ceremony -- the Liberty Awards, which you can read about here: The Great Liberty Awards Uproar. As part of the celebrations for the centennial of the Statue of Liberty, twelve naturalized American citizens were singled out for recognition.

"The criteria for the medal were simple enough: Recipients had to be living naturalized Americans who had made significant contributions to their adopted country.

The winners were announced March 1: Composer Irving Berlin, astronaut Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, psychologist Kenneth Clark, college president Hanna Holborn Gray, entertainer Bob Hope, statesman Henry Kissinger, architect I.M. Pei, violinist Itzhak Perlman, journalist James B. Reston, physician Albert B. Sabin, corporate executive An Wang and writer Elie Wiesel."

Immediately, though, people complained that the list of honorees didn't accurately reflect the true diversity of America's population. So, as a result, a new committee headed by NYC real estate developer William Fugazy, took it upon itself to create a bigger list of awards. And the list was huge. Though Trump's defenders keep singling out Trump and Rosa Parks as co-winners of the award, there were in fact EIGHTY different recipients that year, from a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds. And more important, the award had *nothing* to do with celebrating individuals who had done anything positive in the realm of civil rights or race relations. It merely sought to honor Americans from different backgrounds who had succeeded in their chosen field.

Rosa Parks was honored for her achievements as an African-American civil rights activist. But Donald Trump was honored for being a real estate developer of German descent. Period. SCREENSHOT. To suggest -- as @TheBrodyFile did on "Meet the Press" this morning -- that Trump can't be a racist because, 32 years ago, he won this award and Rosa Parks won it too is absolutely laughable. It's a shame @chucktodd didn't follow up on this but let that bizarre assertion stand.

I've checked the @MeetThePress transcript. It's even worse than I'd thought. As you can see, @TheBrodyFile calls it an award "for diversity and tolerance." Again, that's flatly untrue. The award honored individuals for their achievements in their own chosen field.

DAVID BRODY:
I'm just telling you, in the heartland of this country, they look at these media headlines, and they see all of this, the clip, the montage that you just played, but what was not in the montage is in 1986, Donald Trump won the Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award for diversity and tolerance. And oh, by the way, who was with him on that stage? Rosa Parks. So if were going to go ahead and have a montage, we probably should include some of that. I'm not saying that defends what he did, but what I'm saying is is that that's why there's a lot of distrust in the media today.

And yes, as you can see in the transcript, Brody threw out this clumsy, easily-disproven lie in an effort to claim that Trump's supporters had good reason to distrust the rest of the media for not telling the truth. The "truth" about an award for diversity that doesn't exist.
posted by chris24 at 11:24 AM on January 14, 2018 [69 favorites]

Agreed that it's the attitude that's the problem, not the particular phrasing.

At the same time.... I wonder how many more immigrant kids and kids of color came home in tears on Friday now that schoolyard bullies have the backing of the President of the United States to call them shitty names.
posted by Westringia F. at 11:26 AM on January 14, 2018 [10 favorites]

> chris24:
"It's a shame @chucktodd didn't follow up on this but let that bizarre assertion stand."

Chuck Todd is not good at that kind of thing.
posted by rhizome at 11:32 AM on January 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

Cornel West: America is spiritually bankrupt. We must fight back together.
The rule of Big Money and its attendant culture of cupidity and mendacity has so poisoned our hearts, minds and souls that a dominant self-righteous neoliberal soulcraft of smartness, dollars and bombs thrives with little opposition.....
Trump is neither alien nor extraneous to American culture and history. In fact, he is as American as apple pie....
posted by adamvasco at 11:32 AM on January 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

In an effort to "prove" President Trump isn't a racist, his defenders keep pointing to the fact that, in 1986, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor along with Rosa Parks. Well, about that...

True fact: Strom Thurmond is also a recipient.
posted by peeedro at 11:51 AM on January 14, 2018 [41 favorites]

While I agree with much of what Yates says here, I don't think Shithole is the best example. The problem with shithole wasn't the cursing, it was the racism.

Precisely. Unfortunately, much of the mainstream media has been expending effort facilely discussing Trump's foul language - even in the context of his racism - when it should have moved on to address how that racism affects public policy. Instead, that kind of discussion over simply Trump's choice of words is providing cover for the Capitol Hill racists and xenophobes to attack the debate over immigration refrom itself.

Today Rand Paul said on Meet the Press, “I don’t think the comments were constructive at all, but I also think that, to be fair, we shouldn’t draw conclusions that he didn’t intend. Let’s take the whole scenario and put different words in there. You can’t have an immigration compromise if everybody is out there calling the president a racist.”—as though Trump wasn't the one who blew up the compromise in the first place. (Other guests on the programme, from across the political spectrum, had trouble calling Trump racist since it would suck them into this non-debate.)

And on Face the Nation Tom Cotton outright called Dick Durbin a habitual liar over his using the word with respect to Trump, which makes the other Republican senators who "can't recall" Trump using the word seem that much more believable.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:15 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wouldn't it be interesting if someone who was in the room and says she "doesn't recall" whether Trump called countries shitholes could testify before Congress? To make it even more interesting, one of the members of the committee could have also been in the room and heard the President say just that. That could quickly get awkward, right?

Because that's happening Tuesday, when DHS Secretary Nielsen appears before Senate Judiciary, featuring Sen. Durbin.
posted by zachlipton at 12:24 PM on January 14, 2018 [42 favorites]

True fact: Strom Thurmond is also a recipient.

Also, both Clintons. Also, Don Jr. and Ivana Trump. Also, Harvey Weinstein. Also...thousands of other people.
posted by Tsuga at 12:25 PM on January 14, 2018 [11 favorites]

You can’t have an immigration compromise if everybody is out there calling the president a racist.

no, rand paul, you can't have an immigration compromise if the president's a racist

got that?
posted by pyramid termite at 12:59 PM on January 14, 2018 [37 favorites]

US set to cut UN money for Palestinian refugees (AP)

The Trump administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, cutting the year’s first contribution by more than half or perhaps entirely, and making additional donations contingent on major changes to the organization, according to U.S. officials.

President Donald Trump hasn’t made a final decision, but appears more likely to send only $60 million of the planned $125 million first installment to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, said the officials, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:02 PM on January 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

A searing indictment from Phiiip Kennicott in WaPo: What did the men with Donald Trump do when he spoke of ‘shithole countries’?

[…] Remarks like these from the president are still shocking but hardly surprising, given the frequency with which they occur. What I want to know is how the men in the room with him reacted. This is the dinner table test: When you are sitting and socializing with a bigot, what do you do when he reveals his bigotry? I’ve seen it happen, once, when I was a young man, and I learned an invaluable lesson. An older guest at a formal dinner said something blatantly anti-Semitic. I was shocked and laughed nervously. Another friend stared at his plate silently. Another excused himself and fled to the bathroom. And then there was the professor, an accomplished and erudite man, who paused for a moment, then slammed his fist on the table and said, “I will never listen to that kind of language, so either you will leave, or I will leave.” The offender looked around the table, found no allies and left the gathering. I don’t know if he felt any shame upon expulsion.

Did Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) threaten to leave the Oval Office? Did Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) speak sharply to the president, saying no one should speak like that, not in the White House, not in the United States, not in decent society? (He did, at least the next morning when speaking to the media.) Did anyone suggest that perhaps the president should wash his mouth out with soap and take a time out to think about what he just did?

I suspect none of that happened and that no matter how awkward everyone felt, the usual deference to the president remained intact.

posted by Joe in Australia at 1:26 PM on January 14, 2018 [74 favorites]

The false alarm in Hawaii revealed an abdication of leadership by Trump (Philip Bump / WaPo)

Consider his responses. First that statement, which has one obvious aim: To assure the American people that it wasn’t his fault that the false alert went out — it was Hawaii’s. Then, that tweet, which shows what was preoccupying the president at the moment. Not that one of the 50 states had been briefly wracked with terror after a mistake was made by the people whose job it is to keep them safe. Instead, an insistence to the American people that the media is “fake news,” which was probably a response to the reports that trickled out bolstering a story from the Wall Street Journal that Trump had allegedly paid hush money to a porn star with whom he’d had an affair.

Trump could have tweeted as soon as possible that the alert was a false alarm, sharing that information with millions of Americans immediately. He could have additionally shared information about what went wrong, and assured people that he would work to make sure that no such error happened again in the future. He could, at the very least, have sought to offer some emotional support to the people of Hawaii. He did none of these. He has, as of writing, done none of these.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:52 PM on January 14, 2018 [47 favorites]

Did anyone suggest that perhaps the president should wash his mouth out with soap and take a time out to think about what he just did?

Indeed, if my life has improved in any way since the election, it was in hearing someone say (paraphrasing) "You know to not be a Donald Trump. Are you trying to not be a Billy Bush?" That is, sure, you know to not say terrible things, but will you laugh off those comments from others or actually call out that behavior? It's a tough challenge but one I've tried to keep in mind.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 2:02 PM on January 14, 2018 [26 favorites]

Trump could have tweeted as soon as possible that the alert was a false alarm, sharing that information with millions of Americans immediately. He could have additionally shared information about what went wrong, and assured people that he would work to make sure that no such error happened again in the future. He could, at the very least, have sought to offer some emotional support to the people of Hawaii. He did none of these. He has, as of writing, done none of these.

I have heard that the thing that would send Trump's approval soaring the most is some kind of attack on American soil - Bush Jr's approval skyrocketed from 50% to 90% in the aftermath of 9/11. But in the aftermath of the Hawaiian false alarm (poor Hawaiians! jeez! that must have been awful for everyone), not to mention the neglect of Puerto Rico post-Maria, I just don't know. Bush, much as I loathe the man and think him incompetent, at least tried to step up and be presidential and offer consolation to New Yorkers. But with Trump - could he even be pried off the golf course? I somehow doubt it unless the suffering city was very white and very Republican.

I think it's safe to say that most of us in blue states would not find much help from our "President" if something terrible - earthquake, epidemic, terrorist attack - were to happen.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 2:27 PM on January 14, 2018 [28 favorites]

He could, at the very least, have sought to offer some emotional support

No, he couldn't. He's not capable of it like we think of it. How is this still a fiction embraced by anyone?

Remember the last time he was forced by circumstance to offer emotional support? Didn't go well, did it? No. It didn't, because he's a demented narcissist. That's not a thing he can do.
posted by petebest at 2:35 PM on January 14, 2018 [30 favorites]

Chuck Todd is not good at that kind of thing.

Journalism. Chuck Todd is not good at journalism.
posted by T.D. Strange at 2:45 PM on January 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

Chuck Todd is a living embodiment of the Peter Principle. He was pretty good as a purely polling/numbers guy. So he got promoted. Now he's pretty bad as an interviewer.
posted by Justinian at 2:47 PM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Neo-Nazis say Donald Trump's 'sh**hole countries' comments show he thinks like them.
And neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin used his Daily Stormer website to claim the controversy was “encouraging and refreshing” because “it indicates Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regards to race and immigration.
posted by adamvasco at 3:01 PM on January 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

"Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regards to race and immigration."

I gotta admit, of all the ways to phrase "I am a shitty person", that is not one I ever expected to see.
posted by mrgoat at 3:11 PM on January 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

I think it's safe to say that most of us in blue states would not find much help from our "President" if something terrible - earthquake, epidemic, terrorist attack - were to happen.

Republicans have campaigned on the notion that government help is the scariest thing they can imagine since at least Reagan.

A useless leader creating a useless government that helps no one is their explicit goal. Trump IS the apotheosis of the modern Republican ideal. #NoAnomoly
posted by srboisvert at 3:15 PM on January 14, 2018 [45 favorites]

Republicans have campaigned on the notion that government help is the scariest thing they can imagine since at least Reagan.

A useless leader creating a useless government that helps no one is their explicit goal. Trump IS the apotheosis of the modern Republican ideal.

Yes, of course - but that won't boost Trump's popularity outside of his base. Bush got a huge bump in popularity - outside of his base - because of 9/11, and that contributed to the Democrats' losing the Presidential election in 2004. But if a terrorist attack, or God forbid a North Korean missile, hits Honolulu or San Francisco or Seattle, and Trump's reaction is "ha ha fuck you arugula eaters I'mma golf now" - that is not going to boost his popularity. He won't get the kind of rally-round-the-flag effect that Bush, for instance, got. The people who hate blue cities already love Trump, and the people in blue cities aren't going to step up and admire him if he golfs while San Francisco burns. Already, his treatment of Puerto Rico has done him no favors and won him no converts.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 3:47 PM on January 14, 2018 [13 favorites]

Somebody should ask meeting attendee Mario Diaz-Balart whether or not he thinks Trump would consider Cuba a shithole country
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:03 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Chuck Todd is such a political sycophant that he used to report on the White House Soup of the Day. He is the last person who should be hosting Meet the Press. People forget that Tim Russert was a lawyer by training and spared hours preparing to, in essence, cross examine his guests on their prior inconsistent statements.

To the point that people complained he was a one trick pony. Well, that trick is better than "roll over."
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:11 PM on January 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

You remember Tim "off the record" Russert a lot differently than I do. But saying Chuck Todd is no Tim Russert might be the meanest thing you can say about a so-called journalist.
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:22 PM on January 14, 2018 [11 favorites]

~~spared~~ spent
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:23 PM on January 14, 2018

You remember Tim "off the record" Russert a lot differently than I do.

Here's Trump on Russert's MTP when he floated an independent run in '99....

This bit on Pat Buchanan is pretty crazy to listen to now.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:29 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

@MaryEmilyOHara: BREAKING: NBC confirms with the State Department that the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, John Feeley, has resigned because he no longer feels he can comfortably serve under @realDonaldTrump. Feeley is the first U.S. diplomat to resign over the president’s comments.

This is only partially correct. Per Mother Jones:

The US Ambassador to Panama [John D. Feeley] has resigned because he no longer comfortable taking directions from President Donald Trump.
…
Initial reports of the ambassador’s resignation connected it to Thursday’s revelation, first reported by the Washington Post, that the president had dismissed countries as “shithole[s]” in a meeting with lawmakers. However, Feeley had submitted his resignation letter prior to Trump’s remarks.

(It’s worth noting that O’Hara attempted to retract her tweet, conservative media made hay over her comment, and she has locked down her account.)
posted by Going To Maine at 5:34 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

BBC: Donald Trump denies being a racist after 'shithole' row

He has now told reporters: "I am not a racist. I'm the least racist person you will ever interview".

It is the first time the president has responded directly to the racism accusations.

He made the denial to White House press pool reporters at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sunday night.

posted by ZeusHumms at 6:04 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

The Hawaii missle scare may have been a case of the worst UI design in history: Hawaii missile alert: How one employee ‘pushed the wrong button’ and caused a wave of panic

From a drop-down menu on a computer program, he saw two options: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.” He was supposed to choose the former; as much of the world now knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a real-life missile alert.
posted by T.D. Strange at 6:05 PM on January 14, 2018 [37 favorites]

He has now told reporters: "I am not a racist. I'm the least racist person you will ever interview".

Odd phrasing - he’s blatantly lied to reporters that he’s “the least racist person” before this.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:21 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

RedOrGreen: "Which race is this? Paging Chrysotom to the courtesy phone... (Unless he's busy being an elected official, in which case maybe someone else can step in?)"

It's PA-18, but I see the crack weekend staff of the ELECTIONS NEWS team has already stepped in.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:31 PM on January 14, 2018 [22 favorites]

Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom:

Because I actually take being a teacher seriously, I'm gonna walk everyone - one last time - through this Hawaii alert thing, and why it's not a Trump or POTUS issue. Listen carefully, do not @ me with dumb interjections, and try to breathe through your nostrils. /1

If a US military system had detected a missile launch - and had been in error - and needlessly informed Hawaii officials, and panicked everyone, yes, that's a POTUS issue. Because that alert would go to him and he'd see it. That's not what happened. /2

Instead, a guy in Hawaii who mans the computer that would tell Hawaiians about an attack (or a tsunami, or a whatever) was testing the system and ignored the "do you really wanna send this one?" warning, and clicked "send." No one in DC sees that. It's a local thing. /3

Apparently, PACOM - located in Hawaii - saw it, and said "Uh, guys, that's not actually happening." So did NORAD. They said so publicly. So did Hawaii EMA. /4

None of this would go to the level of the President, because there was no "this" to send to him. This is something that would make his briefing, maybe, later in the day: "Hey, someone in Honolulu scared the shit out of everyone for a half hour." No action needed or possible. /5

This would be like me tweeting out IMMINENT CHINESE SUBMARINE THREAT TO NEWPORT RI and then expecting that within minutes, the President has been alerted to the presence of the Yangtze off the coast of Middletown. /6

To summarize:
-Had the alert been generated by the military, and sent to the Hawaii EMA, then yes, that's a DC level issue.
-A local official hitting the "oops" button on a test message is not a DC level issue. That's a Hawaii state govt issue.
The End. /7x

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:50 PM on January 14, 2018 [10 favorites]

Even a stopped clock....

Wow, this statement from Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) re "shithole": "If it’s true, he owes the people of Haiti and all mankind an apology. That is not the kind of statement the leader of the free world ought to make, and he ought to be ashamed of himself."

posted by Chrysostom at 7:13 PM on January 14, 2018 [21 favorites]

This is ... less than reassuring:

Trump: 'I love' that Hawaii officials took responsibility for false missile alert (The Hill)

President Trump made his first public comments since the false alarm of a ballistic missile heading toward Hawaii, saying he thought it was “terrific” that the state took responsibility for the error.

“That was a state thing but we are going to now get involved with them. I love that they took responsibility. They took total responsibility,” Trump told reporters Sunday.

“But we are going to get involved. Their attitude and their — I think it is terrific. They took responsibility. They made a mistake,” he continued. When asked what he will do to prevent a similar false alert from taking place, Trump didn’t answer directly but said, “we hope it won’t happen again.”

“Part of it is people are on edge, but maybe eventually we will solve the problem so they won’t have to be so on edge,” Trump said. He added that he will “see what happens with North Korea.”

“We have great talks going on. The Olympics, you know about. A lot of things can happen,” Trump said.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 7:13 PM on January 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Man how mentally deficient do you need to be when the best lie you can think of is the exact opposite of the truth?

Are you a racist? No, Im... the least racist person to ever live!!
Are you a sexual predator? No, Im the lest sexually predatory person ever!!
Are you a serial liar? No I'm the least serially liar person in the universe! the whole universe! Believe me.
posted by some loser at 7:16 PM on January 14, 2018 [23 favorites]

Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom:

People are so dang unaware of how anything actually works.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:29 PM on January 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

(And so dang presupposed, when facts are unavailable, to assume the worst. That, I guess, is the real issue.)
posted by Going To Maine at 7:30 PM on January 14, 2018

ELECTIONS NEWS

** 2018 Senate:

-- The Hill: GOP primary in AZ is going to be really nasty.

-- Romney hasn't announced for the GOP nom in UT, but apparently he's told the governor he's in.

** 2018 House:

-- Today seems to be day when conventional wisdom switches over to be that the Dems will do well in the midterms. Axios, ABC, WP. Of course, as Sabato points out, 10 months is a long time, overconfidence, etc.

-- Possible Paul Ryan opponent Randy "IronStache" Bryce raised an eye-popping $1.2M in 4Q17.

-- Elesewhere in fundrasising - Dem opponents raised a TOTAL of $210K in CA-04 in the last four elections combined. This year, two Dem challengers have raised more than that EACH.

** Odds & ends:

-- Dems excited, GOP nervous about governor races.

-- Handy Google doc that averages race ratings from the big three forecasters (Gonzalez, Sabato, Charlie Cook) for Senate, House, and governors.

-- MO gov is in especially deep trouble in wake of blackmail accusations because he spent his first year burning bridges with the legislature.

-- Alabama GOP livid with Sen Shelby for criticizing Roy Moore. I'm not sure what they're going to do about it, though - he was just re-elected in 2016, and this is probably his last term.

posted by Chrysostom at 7:32 PM on January 14, 2018 [30 favorites]

This would be like me tweeting out IMMINENT CHINESE SUBMARINE THREAT TO NEWPORT RI and then expecting that within minutes, the President has been alerted to the presence of the Yangtze off the coast of Middletown.

If an errant Tweet ended up on a state's worth of cell phones, I might expect at least an aside from SHS later that day assuring everyone it was a mistake?
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 7:33 PM on January 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

Where we are as a country.

@jdawsey1White House official told me tonight there is debate internally on whether Trump said "shithole" or "shithouse." Perdue and Cotton seem to have heard latter, this person said, and are using to deny.

How does it possibly matter? It’s not like one is any better, nor does it change the whole Norwegian bit.
posted by zachlipton at 7:35 PM on January 14, 2018 [39 favorites]

The future of American Socialism? Beating Social democracies at their own game
posted by The Whelk at 7:37 PM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I feel like Nichols’ screed is intentionally missing the point.

People weren’t pissed at Trump because they thought the Feds had made the mistaken alert. They were pissed at Trump because one of the United States has just been through a credible nuclear alert, but Donnie Shithole’s first impulse was to tweet about his bad media coverage.

And then when he actually had something to say about it, instead of offering anything like real empathy, or acknowledging that his rhetoric had caused a lot of the “on edge” anxiety that people had been experiencing, he repeatedly emphasized it wasn’t his fault like a guilty verbal tic.
posted by darkstar at 7:38 PM on January 14, 2018 [74 favorites]

Yeah, I feel like Nichols’ screed is intentionally missing the point.

The buck stops where exactly?
posted by Literaryhero at 7:41 PM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

"shithole" or "shithouse."
How does it possibly matter? It’s not like one is any better

Actually, "shithole" is a mile better because it's not a total malaprop. "Why are we letting in people from shithouse countries" is nonidiomatic wackitude; if he said it, it's because he meant "shithole" but he couldn't call it up in time so he dredged up a similar but wrong word because he has a raging case of the amyloid plaque.
posted by Don Pepino at 7:56 PM on January 14, 2018 [25 favorites]

CLARIFICATION: @RichLowry says on @ThisWeekABC that @realDonaldTrump actually said "shit house" countries, not "shit hole" countries during WH immigration meeting

I was curious and googled for "shithouse country". It does seem to be a thing, though I'm not really sure what it means. Doesn't seem to be a compliment:

Tom Stoppard's 1978 play Night and Day: "GUTHRIE: Are you the president of this shit-house country?" [Asked of an Idi-Amin-like dictator, during a coup in a fictional African nation.]
Comedian Richard Herring's 2010 memoir [This about being stopped from entering the US because of a prior drug conviction]: "So we weren't allowed in his stupid, stuck-up, shithouse country."

And plenty of comments/forum-posts that need not be linked... seems to be used mostly by Australians and British, sometimes for racist comments, sometimes for self-deprecating humor about one's own country.

I'd never heard of "shithouse country," but I wouldn't be surprised that it's part of the Trump family lexicon.

I'm not saying this is exculpatory, or changes anything. But I'd be interested to hear from others who might be more familiar with the terminology.
posted by pjenks at 7:59 PM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

fluttering hellfire, what's the take on Lt Gov Parson? I'd got the vibe he was a bit less awful than Greitens, but defer to your local knowledge.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:17 PM on January 14, 2018

How does it possibly matter? It’s not like one is any better, nor does it change the whole Norwegian bit.

It's allowed the Senators who heard him say it play cutesy word games & make it sound like they didn't hear him say it when what they really mean is they heard him say the other, equally offensive & essentially synonymous word instead of the one he's been quoted saying.
posted by scalefree at 8:26 PM on January 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

This twitter conversation further suggests we need some Australian expertise on "shithouse."
posted by pjenks at 8:32 PM on January 14, 2018

Yes, in Australia we use “shithouse”, without “brick” in front, to indicate that something is not good. We don’t usually quibble over hole vs house as long as the meaning is clear. I think Trump was quite clearly being racist no matter which version he used, so Senators Perdue and Cotton can rack off.
posted by harriet vane at 8:59 PM on January 14, 2018 [13 favorites]

shithouse = not good. As in, "Trump is as crazy as a shithouse rat."
posted by SPrintF at 9:05 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

It’s true, shithouse is a very actively used term in Australia, tho more common as an adjective or adverb than a noun. Eg. “Mate, your country’s shithouse”.
posted by Jimbob at 9:05 PM on January 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm eagerly awaiting the full-court-press that he actually said "nab 'em by the pussy," and the ensuing media deep dives into just how much that matters.

It's actually a form of chewbacca defense (or perhaps we should call it the bean-plate defense): the dumb are preoccupied, the smart are enraged, and everyone is distracted.

And yes -- if anything counts as a distraction in this nightmare universe, surely it's these arguments over I/I'd and hole/house. Every second the pundits on TV spend debating these audio/linguistic nuances is a second they aren't spending debating whether Trump is truly a racist.
posted by chortly at 9:11 PM on January 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

People weren’t pissed at Trump because they thought the Feds had made the mistaken alert. They were pissed at Trump because one of the United States has just been through a credible nuclear alert, but Donnie Shithole’s first impulse was to tweet about his bad media coverage.

ALSO because it wouldn't have been nearly as credible if Trump hadn't spent the last year antagonizing North Korea and practically daring them to bomb us. Two years ago, if this had happened (it wouldn't have, because they only started testing this system due to the situation created by Trump), people would have had a lot more reasonable skepticism about the likelihood of a nuclear attack.

But Trump has created the chaotic and fearful current environment with his ignorance and egotism, that led to children being shoved into storm drains by their panicked parents who thought the world was ending.
posted by threeturtles at 9:15 PM on January 14, 2018 [85 favorites]

Mr Putin had only just come to power when he uttered his first corker, saying he would deal with Chechens by "wiping them out in the shit house"
posted by bootlegpop at 9:37 PM on January 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Trump doesn't have any Australian ties though, does he?

Agree that the shithole/shithouse quibbling is a distraction. Pulling attention onto the shithole part of his comments enables the "well maybe he put it too strongly, but surely we can agree these are troubled countries" argument; and it pulls attention away from the more-like-Norway part, which was much more insidious white supremacy.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:23 PM on January 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

And mention Australia reminds me: it's kinda noticeable that while Trump's been lashing out at most of subjects of the Wolff book, he hasn't said a peep about Rupert Murdoch being quoted as calling him a "fucking moron"; nor about any of the comments attributed to Roger Ailes. He knows who's buttering his ~~bread~~ base.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:28 PM on January 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

It's actually a form of chewbacca defense (or perhaps we should call it the bean-plate defense): the dumb are preoccupied, the smart are enraged, and everyone is distracted.

And the middle brow are preoccupied with rage, are these distinctions without a difference?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:10 PM on January 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Glenn Greenwald in The Intercept: The Same Democrats Who Denounce Donald Trump as a Lawless, Treasonous Authoritarian Just Voted to Give Him Vast Warrantless Spying Powers

If this is true then I just don't understand it. Unless the bills were going to pass anyway? But even so, these are bad, arguably-unconstitutional powers, and no executive should have them, especially the present one.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:12 PM on January 14, 2018 [7 favorites]

Three seats up for grabs in Wisconsin's special election this Tuesday 1/16 for state legislative offices:

SD-10 was vacated by Harsdorf when she took a job in the executive branch
AD-58 was vacated when Gannon died last fall.
AD-66 to replace Cory Mason

If you are a Wisconsinite unsure of your legislative districts, head on over to this state-run site and type your address in the box on the top-right. Those lucky enough to be in Senate district 10 or Assembly district 58 or 66 can head on over to their polling place (find it here) on Tuesday!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:25 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Chelsea Manning's first senate campaign ad released
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 11:28 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

So, Chelsea Manning is running against a Democrat right? Because scuttlebutt is that the democrat she's running against is one of the ones most hammering Trump and the GOP about ties to Russia, and a former friend (stooge?) of Assange running against a Democrat who is trying to be tough on Russian ties is... not a good look.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:37 PM on January 14, 2018 [54 favorites]

Yeah, I’m not sure exactly what her angle is, there. With Cardin, we have a decent Dem already in the role, who has seniority and a pretty good voting record of fighting for the right things. So what’s her beef with him? Her ad doesn’t really say, and strikes me as more of a #Resist manifesto than a real Senate run.
posted by darkstar at 11:51 PM on January 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

She can pull him to the left.
posted by rhizome at 12:07 AM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

She can pull him to the left.

Or more likely split the dem vote so badly that a Republican gets what should have been a locked seat. Again, can't get over the "no ties with MA" thing coupled with "Challenging a Dem that challenges Russia" thing. Why in g-d's name is she doing this? Is she still taking orders from Assange? Because he's the only person this move seems to benefit! Like, If she was challenging a GOP seat I'd be the first to support her! But this?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 12:13 AM on January 15, 2018 [26 favorites]

Not to abuse edit but: If this was Manchin, then I'd see the point. But Cardin's not nearly as right-wing as he is. This seems pointless and dangerous.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 12:15 AM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

She can pull him to the left.

Maybe so, but there’s not a lot of margin there, Cardin already has pretty high marks on most report cards from the key progressive organizations (as of the dates provided by the linked site):

100%. NARAL
87% ACLU
88% HRC
97% NAACP
86% UFCW
91% NEA
100% CAF
100% LCV
80% HSLF
89% APHA
100% SANE
87% AFL-CIO
90% ARA
100% CTJ

vs

23% Christian Coalition
44% Cato
F from the NRA
0% FAIR
0% USBC

Maybe there are a few votes she can nudge him on, though?
posted by darkstar at 12:22 AM on January 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

Yeah, I feel like Nichols’ screed is intentionally missing the point.

The buck stops where exactly?

In this case, the buck stops in Hawaii, with the official who took full responsibility for the employee who screwed up using a terribly designed interface. Like the system is designed to at times keep the president out of it.

People weren’t pissed at Trump because they thought the Feds had made the mistaken alert. They were pissed at Trump because one of the United States has just been through a credible nuclear alert, but Donnie Shithole’s first impulse was to tweet about his bad media coverage.

The country is big enough for at least a million people to be angry at the President for each of these reasons; I wouldn’t be surprised if some people are made at the president for both. Here, for instance, we have popular liberal religious scholar Reza Aslan tweeting angrily about both of things: he’s mad that the President was unsympathetic, and he’s mad that the President knew what happened within minutes. His sentiments were then retweeted by Joan Walsh, pundit formerly of MSNBC and soon to be of CNN, pushing it even further into the outrage bloodstream of The Resistance.

It’s obviously bad that the President wasn’t particularly sympathetic to the terrified Hawaiian populace. But I’m much more concerned about why it took so long to cancel the alarm in the first place, and more generally what it means to love in a world where ICBMs are terrifying. After all, that ballistic missile warning went off on Earth-2 as well, and I’m sure those folks were just as terrified as we were.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:35 AM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

It may be Hawaii's fault, but that still doesn't make it ok for the President to absent himself entirely after an entire state was terrified. This wasn't just a brief mistake; people were huddled with their families in basements and bathtubs trying to explain what was happening to their kids. Trump was so concerned with trying to make sure nobody blamed him for anything that he didn't make the slightest effort to do his job.

Because, until Trump, providing words of comfort was considered part of the job. President Obama's memorable speech after the Tucson shooting, him singing Amazing Grace at his eulogy for Rev. Pinckney, he wasn't doing that because people blamed him personally for those deaths; he was doing it because it was the right thing to do, because a leader is supposed to be capable of reassuring people.

I know Trump is not capable of that, so I guess I'm glad he didn't try, but it's depressing how quickly we've come to the point where people forgot we used to expect more from the office, where "well it's not really his fault" is passed along as a valid reason.
posted by zachlipton at 2:14 AM on January 15, 2018 [70 favorites]

all he has to do is point at somebody who can convincingly fake empathy or maybe actually has empathy and tell those people to write his tweets and his remarks. I'm sure somebody suggested that he say something. He chose not to. That says a fuck-ton about his psychology and how dangerous he is
posted by angrycat at 2:35 AM on January 15, 2018 [25 favorites]

I’m much more concerned about why it took so long to cancel the alarm in the first place

If you read the article linked above, it's because there was no authority for them to send a "false alarm" message and they had to wait for the FEDS to approve one. Maybe 38 minutes is a reasonable amount of time for that to take. Maybe some people dropped the ball on the federal level. Maybe that has something to do with who is in charge of the executive. I don't know, and definitely the state is responsible for their terrible system design.

But to repeat myself, Trump is responsible for creating the need for that system in the first place. This is something only a few months old because of the escalation of tensions with North Korea, something very firmly in his purview.
posted by threeturtles at 2:40 AM on January 15, 2018 [27 favorites]

In other words, is it Trump's fault someone pushed the wrong button (selected the wrong item in a drop-down menu)? No, of course not.

But there's a very good argument that the reason there even was a button to be pushed in the first place has a LOT to do with him.
posted by threeturtles at 2:42 AM on January 15, 2018 [10 favorites]

Presumably, if Manning runs in the Dem primary, she’s going to be taking a contrary position to Cardin. If it’s from the left, that may make him tack to the left as a result. Or, depending on how she approaches it, she could make him so toxic with the far left so they don’t vote for him in the general. It remains to be seen which of these is the case. But “#wegotthis” isn’t sufficient to assuage my concerns in that regard.

Even if Manning wins the General and takes a more liberal position than Cardin on virtually every issue, she could be a worse senator. There is no evidence that she would be able to generate the kind of consensus among the mainstream left that Cardin has shown a talent for doing. He’s been one of the most prolific senators, capable of writing legislation, gaining co-sponsorship, and moving his legislation out of committee at a far greater rate than average.

There are a lot of problems with the Senate, but Cardin isn’t one of them. If Manning wants to make a move, there are many other Dems that would be a better target, imho.

/derail
posted by darkstar at 2:42 AM on January 15, 2018 [46 favorites]

Is it confirmed Trump was even told of the alarm? Maybe Kelly kept it from him to stop Trump ordering a nuke strike on NK because he thought it smelled fishy?
posted by PenDevil at 2:42 AM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is it confirmed Trump was even told of the alarm? Maybe Kelly kept it from him to stop Trump ordering a nuke strike on NK because he thought it smelled fishy?

I really can’t decide if that makes me more or less terrified.

thisisfine.jpeg
posted by lydhre at 4:12 AM on January 15, 2018 [10 favorites]

Is it confirmed Trump was even told of the alarm?

A week or two ago we were upset that Trump turns his phone off on the golf course. Today that may have averted a disaster. At some point this situation is going to get serious.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 4:26 AM on January 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

Junior just tweeted a picture of him with a woman and writes "This picture bring [sic] back fond memories of when I had the honor of campaigning with Alveda King, niece of the great and amazing Trump supporter'

a) subject verb agreement come on
b) you reference your campaign on MLK day?
c) 'great and amazing Trump supporter'
i) what
ii) MLK day is not about saying how great other people think you are, you goddamned clueless hunk of carbon and trace elements
posted by angrycat at 4:29 AM on January 15, 2018 [30 favorites]

Could he have meant '... niece of the great [MLK], and an amazing Trump supporter...'?
Who the fuck knows.
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:36 AM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m not sure exactly what her angle is, there

At best, self-aggrandizement damn the consequences; at worst, she’s a stooge. Christ, some people never learn.
posted by octobersurprise at 4:58 AM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Apropos of nothing at all, does anyone else ever look at the flow of profanity, conflict, abhorrent behavior, corruption and lies coming from this administration, and think to themselves that a child lives in that house?

Let me direct you to Dan Drezner, from WaPo and professor at the Fletcher School of International Affairs at Tufts, and his great "I'll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler" thread on Twitter.

Started in April 25th, 2017, it's 200+ tweets of quotes with links of Donny being treated like the baby he is.
posted by chris24 at 5:46 AM on January 15, 2018 [18 favorites]

I think MrVisable is talking about Barron.
posted by Mchelly at 5:54 AM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

I'm sorry, in retrospect it's early and I'm bleary.

I meant... there's an actual twelve year old boy living in that house every day of his life.
posted by MrVisible at 5:55 AM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

Then again, based on his absence from the news, even for forced family moments, is possibly a sign that Melania agrees.
posted by Mchelly at 5:55 AM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Ha! Yeah, I totally misread that. Well, still an accurate and good thread.
posted by chris24 at 5:56 AM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Noisy Pink Bubbles: "Chelsea Manning's first senate campaign ad released"

That ad is pretty carefully engineered to not actually say anything specific about what her policies are or what she wants to change. It seems very Trumpian in its statements of grievances without any mention of solutions other than taking over power.
posted by octothorpe at 6:20 AM on January 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

Trump doesn't have any Australian ties though, does he?

Does spending a lot of time on the phone with Rupert Murdoch count?
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 6:27 AM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day with 5 days left before the the government runs out of money, the President has gone golfing but not before he washed his hands of any DACA deal:

Statement by me last night in Florida: “Honestly, I don’t think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they don’t want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they don’t want to. They don’t want security at the border, they don’t want.....

...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do.” My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

It's very clear that the Dreamers are mere pawns to him and not real people with real lives that will be ruined if they lose their legal status.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:53 AM on January 15, 2018 [26 favorites]

Maryland seems like a tough market for Chelsea Manning. Who's her constituency there? Is there anything to suggest that Maryland voters go for outsider, anti-establishment-for-its-own-sake candidates?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:57 AM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is there anything to suggest that Maryland voters go for outsider, anti-establishment-for-its-own-sake candidates?

My hot take is that there is not much of a chance for Manning in a state-wide seat in a state with an appreciable population of defense and related employees who, whether you agree or disagree with them, already have very strong opinions about her.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 7:10 AM on January 15, 2018 [15 favorites]

Three seats up for grabs in Wisconsin's special election this Tuesday 1/16 for state legislative offices:
...
AD-66 to replace Cory Mason

In a quick glance at this, it looks to me like the D is running unopposed. Is that true?
I'm going to remind my daughter about the election, but if it's unopposed, it doesn't sound that urgent.
posted by MtDewd at 7:11 AM on January 15, 2018

Speaking only for myself, I plan to go full-bore identity politics on this one and vote for Manning in the primary because she's trans. Then after she loses, I'll vote for boring old white cis male Cardin in the general because he's a Democrat.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:16 AM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

I'm supportive of Chelsea Manning and would vote for her in the primary. But I don't understand why you wouldn't run for city council or state rep/sen or some other office to build experience and a loyal constituency first.
posted by localhuman at 7:35 AM on January 15, 2018 [15 favorites]

Meanwhile, BLM is gearing up to start the process of opening lands in Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument up for oil, gas and coal. These lands will not be protected next month under Trump’s proclamation unless the courts step in (numerous suits have been filed to stop this but nothing has happened with those yet.) They’re trying to move as quickly as they can with this (just like they did with the tax cuts and the attempted ACA repeal) which is just more evidence that this is going to be a smash and grab presidency. They’re working to do as much damage as they can in as short a time as they can and every seat the Dems flip give them even more urgency to keep destroying things.
posted by azpenguin at 7:40 AM on January 15, 2018 [16 favorites]

My hot take is that there is not much of a chance for Manning in a state-wide seat in a state with an appreciable population of defense and related employees who, whether you agree or disagree with them, already have very strong opinions about her.

I don't even think it's just defense and related. The D.C. suburbs are a hotbed of establishment Democrats. They're different types of establishment Democrats: people who work for the government and value experience and competence; rich people with a stake in the system; immigrants from countries with a history of political instability who have a visceral sense of what "burn it all down" looks like in practice. There may be more anti-establishment sentiment in Baltimore and environs, although I wouldn't count on it, but it seems like it would be hard to win a Democratic primary in Maryland if you couldn't make inroads in Montgomery and P.G. Counties.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:43 AM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

Manning is hero but strategy has never been her strong suit, which hurts her twice or three times in a competition based on reputation for discernment and leadership.
posted by Coventry at 7:53 AM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

Sorry if this has been covered, but, um...

Who’s funding Manning’s stunt campaign?
posted by schadenfrau at 7:53 AM on January 15, 2018 [10 favorites]

Hey folks, catching up after a weekend away...

1) A source with knowledge of Manning's dismissal said that staff were told to leave the floor of the HHS building and to take their computers, in order to ensure that no one witnessed her being escorted out.

Can someone enlighten me, is this a thing that happens to normal people? As with so much in the media, I can't tell what is clickbait and what is an actual problem. Her ideology matched theirs...what possibly could she have done to piss them off that much??

2) Was anyone else a little disappointed in the writing of the SNL Bill Murray sketch? Don't get me wrong, I was all SQUEE BILL MURRAY AS BANNON=PERFECTION, but the jokes were quite mediocre. There was a long pause where he said "elect ... Trump," and I got the feeling that he was desperately trying to think of a better joke, but couldn't. Maybe that says something about both Trump and Murray. And SNL, for that matter...
posted by Melismata at 8:03 AM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

We're going to get confused about the two Mannings in this thread. Melismata is talking about Teresa Manning, the anti-contraception activist who just got fired as head of HHS's family planning division, not Chelsea Manning.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:11 AM on January 15, 2018 [17 favorites]

Might be good to specify C. Manning or T. Manning for the time being?
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:12 AM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

Here's Chelsea Manning's campaign filing. Quick searches aren't finding much in the way of current donors or campaign staff.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:27 AM on January 15, 2018

(I would also recommend we do that for B. Sanders and S. Sanders. It is not often that Bernie comes up in conversation here anymore, but every now and again I have a head-scratching moment when someone is simply referred to as Sanders.)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 8:41 AM on January 15, 2018 [16 favorites]

If we are making recommendations for clarity, can we also differentiate the abbreviations for black lives matter and bureau of land management? Maybe USBLM? Not that it isn’t ultimately clear from context, but I’ve had to pause several times.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 8:49 AM on January 15, 2018 [41 favorites]

There's not a ton of room to the left to pull Ben Cardin, of all people, to. Progressive Punch has him as the 17th most progressive Senator. C. Manning certainly chose an...interesting target, that raises the question why she's running there, which she needs to credibly answer. Transparency Hero or not, her actions are irrevocably linked to Assange and his Russian front group, and that link is much more relevant in 2018 than it was prior to Russia's attack on our Democracy.

Beyond that, primary challenges are fine, even desirable -look how the right has enforced rigid discipline by running credible challengers. We should take the same lesson, with more critical scrutiny of the challenger's message. Cardin should be able to easily fend off a stunt primary if C. Manning turns out to have no credible ideas for what she would do, which she hasn't offered yet. Maybe she will turn out to have a powerful progressive reform platform, that would be great. I'd love to see her put it forward before committing to voting against one of our best sitting Democrats.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:54 AM on January 15, 2018 [35 favorites]

Jeff Flake isn’t just comparing Trump to Stalin. He’s comparing Republicans to Stalin’s enablers. (Amber Phillips / WaPo)

A sitting U.S. senator plans to give a speech this week comparing the president of his own party to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. That in itself is remarkable.

“It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) plans to say in a speech about President Trump classifying the news media as “the enemy of the people.”

But Flake's warnings about Trump are even more significant than comparing the president to a Soviet dictator. When Flake criticizes the president, he is criticizing his entire party for standing by such a leader.

“This alone should be a source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the president’s party. For they are shameful, repulsive statements,” Flake plans to say in the speech. The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe obtained the remarks, which Flake plans to give as the president hands out “fake news” awards this week. ...

Flake, by contrast, is using increasingly clear language to say Republicans are nearly as guilty as he thinks the president is for a demise of democracy and political norms.

“I dare say that anyone who has the privilege and awesome responsibility to serve in this chamber knows that these reflexive slurs of 'fake news' are dubious, at best,” Flake will say in his speech this week.

It doesn't seem as though congressional Republicans are heeding Flake's warnings that Trumpism is bad for Republicanism. Or at least, that embracing it is worse for Republicans than ditching Trump altogether. ...

To Flake, Republicans are damned if they stick with Trump. GOP leaders feel as though they would be worse off if they ditched Trump. Categorize this as one more example of the no-win situation Trump is putting the Republican Party in.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 8:59 AM on January 15, 2018 [27 favorites]

AD-66 to replace Cory Mason

In a quick glance at this, it looks to me like the D is running unopposed. Is that true?
I'm going to remind my daughter about the election, but if it's unopposed, it doesn't sound that urgent.

There's a rumor of a Republican write-in for Wisconsin Assembly District 66 even though Democrat Greta Neubauer is running unopposed. Postcards to Voters wrote for Greta because of the rumor. If there's low Dem voter turnout a write-in Republican could win. Get your Racine people to the voting booth tomorrow Tuesday January 16 2018.

http://votegreta.com

posted by jointhedance at 9:01 AM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

C. Manning certainly chose an...interesting target, that raises the question why she's running there, which she needs to credibly answer. Transparency Hero or not, her actions are irrevocably linked to Assange and his Russian front group, and that link is much more relevant in 2018 than it was prior to Russia's attack on our Democracy.

Especially given that she's going after a Democrat with a specific policy focus on Russia and Ukraine.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:06 AM on January 15, 2018 [33 favorites]

There's a special election tomorrow in Iowa's House District 6. It's a very conservative district, deep in Steve King territory, and the election is notable mainly because Republicans have spent a lot of money (over $100,000) to defend a seat that should be a total cakewalk for them. I don't think anyone is really daring to hope that the Democrat could win, but the Republicans are clearly scared. More here.

(I think there are a couple of people here from Sioux City. Don't forget to vote!)
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:08 AM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

and a lot of the criticism of c. manning's run seems to be much more of the kneejerk reaction rather than the nuanced one put forthy by t.d. strange.

I’ve made three comments on C. Manning’s ad/run: here, here, and here.

I’d sure like to know what, if anything, you might have found in any of them that wasn’t nuanced, or that was kneejerk. Because I thought I’d taken pains to make fairly cogent, considered statements, but if you spotted something in them that was untoward, please tell me what it might have been.
posted by darkstar at 9:12 AM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

Meanwhile, BLM is gearing up to start the process of opening lands in Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument up for oil, gas and coal ... just more evidence that this is going to be a smash and grab presidency.

Here's the BLM press release on relevant goings-on for GSENM, and another for Bears Ears. No public meetings are scheduled yet. The planning page for GSENM doesn't have anything more recent than Trump's proclamation. The link to the planning page for Bears Ears is just plain broken.

I'm worried about what will happen to these lands, but I think the smashing and the grabbing are working on two very different timescales.
posted by compartment at 9:13 AM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

(I think there are a couple of people here from Sioux City. Don't forget to vote!)

I can see the district boundary from my house, but I'm on the wrong side of it! But helping out in other ways.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:20 AM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

Yay! I can't tell me how happy it makes me that Sioux City is in any way in play, partly just because it challenges all my probably-stupid stereotypes about Western Iowa.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:21 AM on January 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

Speaking of confusion: every time I see "BLM" I read it first as Black Lives Matter. Then I was confused that they were getting involved with natural monuments.
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 9:24 AM on January 15, 2018 [13 favorites]

Yay! I can't tell me how happy it makes me that Sioux City is in any way in play, partly just because it challenges all my probably-stupid stereotypes about Western Iowa.

I grew up an hour away in Sioux Falls and I'm surprised and happy too.
posted by chris24 at 9:27 AM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Via dKos:

On Friday, Trump said:
I will now sign the proclamation making January 15, 2018 the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday and encourage all Americans to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King’s extraordinary life -- and it was extraordinary indeed -- and his great legacy.
And now, on January 15, via the press pool:
President's motorcade arrived at Trump International Golf Course at 9:07 a.m.

Jackass.

Compared with examples of Obama’s service on MLK day.
posted by darkstar at 9:31 AM on January 15, 2018 [80 favorites]

Post Gazette (Harry Litman, former U.S. attorney for Western Penn. & DOJ deputy assistant AG): How Mueller will use ‘Fire and Fury’

But while national attention is focused on the charges and countercharges in the mudslinging divorce proceedings between Mr. Bannon and Mr. Trump, the greater legal jeopardy to the Trump family comes from small, and so far largely overlooked, factual details that Special Counsel Robert Mueller can exploit to devastating effect in building a case of conspiracy and obstruction. These points by and large involve multiple witnesses who can be set off against each other, dramatically increasing the pressure on each.

Mr. Mueller’s investigation completely changes the calculus for Mr. Trump and his family, who as a practical matter will no longer be able to maintain in public what they are not willing to swear to under penalty of perjury, and likewise won’t be able to dodge or obfuscate the questions.

Thus, consider this assertion from page 213 of the book: “With the president’s assent, [Jared] Kushner, in this version, gave [Stephen] Miller notes on why the FBI director [James Comey] should be fired and asked him to draft a letter that could set out the basis for immediate dismissal.” In the absence of a special counsel investigation, this factual claim would pale in relation to the revelation of how Mr. Trump achieves his signature hairdo. But in the hands of a skilled prosecutor, it is dynamite.

That is because the day will come for Mr. Kushner and Mr. Miller, two key White House advisers, to answer questions posed by federal agents. Now Mr. Kushner either did or did not give Mr. Miller notes (which of course for all he knows Mr. Miller kept). If he lies about it, he’s exposed to a felony for false statements. But if he tells the truth, he incriminates himself as a possible co-conspirator in the obstruction case

And Mr. Kushner probably has no other viable option. It would be very hard to try to stonewall Mr. Mueller, given the White House’s public stance of full cooperation. It doesn’t matter anyway — Mr. Mueller can subpoena Mr. Kushner, and the Watergate precedent of U.S. vs. Nixon makes clear that the subpoena would be upheld. And taking the Fifth Amendment would be a political disaster, though we may approaching the point where that is his least unpalatable course of action.

Likewise, the suggestion on page 255 that Donald Trump Jr. brought the Russian participants to the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting to meet the president (portrayed in the book as a poignant effort by a feckless son — whom Mr. Bannon referred to as “Fredo” from “The Godfather” — to gain his father’s approval). If it happened that way (and late reports are that Mr. Mueller has called back one of the participants in the meeting for a second round of questioning), and Mr. Trump Jr. lies about it to Mr. Mueller’s agents, he will have committed the same felony that snagged former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. If, on the other hand, he tells the truth, he incriminates himself and his father on conspiracy charges. As Mr. Bannon colorfully put it, “they’re going to crack Don. Jr. like an egg.”

Finally, there is the president himself. On page 258, Mr. Wolff describes the meeting in Air Force One in which, he asserts, Mr. Trump took the lead in crafting a false account of the June 9, 2016, meeting, which we know was convened in the hopes of gathering dirt on Hillary Clinton. “The president insisted that the meeting in Trump Tower was purely and simply about Russian adoption policy.” Mr. Wolff identifies four attendees in addition to the president, including then-White House communications director Hope Hicks. Mr. Wolff reports on page 307 that Ms. Hicks helped draft the phony press release that the president demanded. (Another nugget for Mr. Mueller to mine here: Mr. Bannon later screams at Ms. Hicks that “[y]ou don’t know how much trouble you are in,” telling her she’d better get a lawyer.)

What is Mr. Trump to say when questioned under oath? If he denies the account, Ms. Hicks surely will not; and he will add a perjury charge to Mr. Mueller’s ledger. If he tells the truth, he will, besides confessing to flagrant lies to the American public, provide critical additional evidence of his own guilt of obstruction of justice.

posted by chris24 at 9:35 AM on January 15, 2018 [45 favorites]

women should be judged on platforms

Of the absence thereof in Chelsea Manning’s case. No, even if I credit her with the best of intentions, she’s still a candidate with no platform, no political experience, and frankly, a bare minimum of education. She’s basically a lefty version of Christine O’Donnell.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:37 AM on January 15, 2018 [32 favorites]

Yay! I can't tell me how happy it makes me that Sioux City is in any way in play, partly just because it challenges all my probably-stupid stereotypes about Western Iowa.

Sioux City itself is bluer than the rest of the area, we've got state reps Kacena and Hall (and I really really want both to go on to higher office, Hall in particular has a combo of door knocking constituency building and a kind of charisma that plays well in purple areas that could see him go far), but HD6 is only a bit of Sioux City and quite a bit of rural area... here's hoping, though! DeJong has a good rep and decent name recognition, and I've seen a lot of yard signs for her in Sioux City itself, but I don't know how much the rural vote in the district weighs against the part of Sioux City's Morningside neighborhood and the smaller city of Sergeant Bluff that falls in it.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:38 AM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sarah Jasmine Montgomery, Complex: A Writer is Offering Money to Any Journalist Who Asks Trump About Wakanda

Wakanda is a fictional African country that appears in Marvel Comics comic books.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:39 AM on January 15, 2018 [62 favorites]

and a lot of the criticism of c. manning's run seems to be much more of the kneejerk reaction rather than the nuanced one put forthy by t.d. strange

Nah, it’s Assange and Russia, for me. Because that is, fucking incredibly, actually a thing that happened, and is happening. And C. Manning hasn’t put forth much of an actual platform or, you know, reason for running against a progressive-ish Dem with a focus on Russia and Ukraine, besides “lol fuck shit up.”

So yeah. There is some serious side eye.
posted by schadenfrau at 9:50 AM on January 15, 2018 [53 favorites]

I’d sure like to know what, if anything, you might have found in any of them that wasn’t nuanced, or that was kneejerk. Because I thought I’d taken pains to make fairly cogent, considered statements, but if you spotted something in them that was untoward, please tell me what it might have been.

Me too. What was wrong with my three comments on C. Manning. Do tell.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:02 AM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

Maybe the Chelsea Manning Senate run should be discussed in own thread?

At least, discussions ABOUT discussions about C. Manning's Senate run should be discussed either in MetaTalk or PM, surely.
posted by Tevin at 10:06 AM on January 15, 2018 [12 favorites]

Jeff Flake isn’t just comparing Trump to Stalin. He’s comparing Republicans to Stalin’s enablers.

Curiously, Jeff Flake voted in unison with those Republican enablers for every one of those Stalinistic policies. When he had a chance to make a difference, he chose to go along with all the others.

But now that he is being run out of office in disgrace, he apparently has some new scam in mind. He's a poser.
posted by JackFlash at 10:08 AM on January 15, 2018 [54 favorites]

ZeusHumms : A Writer is Offering Money to Any Journalist Who Asks Trump About Wakanda

This idea is kind of brilliant... but at the same time, I don't think it's unreasonable for anyone to be vaguely trusting that a reporter is asking a question predicated on truth. In other words, if Obama had been asked about "Molvania" and said something implying that it might exist (since the reporter seemed to think it does), I wouldn't consider that "stupid" of him. Few people have memorized all the countries on Earth, and within reason we have to assume others aren't lying to us on a day-to-day basis.

But more importantly, Trump is *way* easier to bait than that. As has been raised here and elsewhere, just ask him about his athletic prowess -- would he be able to outscore [famous golf player] or outshoot [famous basketball player] in a one-on-one? Could he schedule a time for that event?

Or there's the stuff Daniel Dale suggests: "What is a Protestant? What is Medicaid? What are the tax rates? Who borders Israel?" Basic factual questions.

Or there's the one I (with reservations) have considered... ask Trump whether he agrees with Alex Jones that the Newtown shooting was a hoax, whose victims were all actors, paid by Obama to advance his gun control agenda. (Including the Obama and "agenda" keywords would be crucial for getting Trump to hedge, or perhaps go completely truther. Even Sarah Sanders would have to hedge if she were asked about it, because she wouldn't know Trump's stance.)

Now, the effect on our epistemic ecosystem could be too toxic to be worth it -- it's possible the result would be Republicans en masse adopting Sandy Hook denialism as a general policy stance. But the less morbid part of me likes to hope it would heighten the contradictions enough to get Donald shoved out of office.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 10:15 AM on January 15, 2018 [17 favorites]

The best asset Chelsea Manning has is her potential.

We know her intent, which I trust is good. We know little about her politics and nothing about her policy aims.

But the best thing she has at this point is her potential -- everything that's in front of her, since it's all open and yet to come. I think the best thing she -could- do would be to make a strategic choice about where to run, which district and state will be most receptive and has the best flip potential. I want to see her work the system to her best advantage (and ours), because once she's a part of the system, it's work or be worked. She is an blank page politically, she could credibly move to a number of districts to make a claim. She should make that choice wisely and with good reason.

That's not Cardin's seat, unfortunately.
posted by Dashy at 10:17 AM on January 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

Oh, Post Gazette, this is not the way to kick off MLK Day. Calling someone a racist based on objective facts is not the same as calling someone a communist and blacklisting them. We have a subscription to the actual physical paper and I'm going to encourage my husband to cancel.

I've been sitting with the President's comments about "s**thole countries" for a few days and it's taken some time to figure out what I'm really mad about here. It's less the colorful language or the (crude and disrespectful) way that he categorized dozens of majority non-white nations. For me, it's the way he talks about the people in those nations, like every man, woman and child is defective in some way and will only contribute defectiveness to the US if they immigrate here.

His logic appears to be this:
1. A country would not have major problems if its citizens were good, as good citizens are able to solve all major systemic problems, no matter how entrenched
2. This country has major problems
3. Therefore all of its people are worthless

That is the part that kills me, it's his "s**thole country = s**thole people" logic. And that's leaving aside the centuries of colonialism and economic exploitation from outside that left these nations with deep infrastructure and human capital deficits. Someone's worth should not be based on where they came from. It's deeply racist to believe otherwise. He's denying saying the word s**thole, but he said nothing about his comments that we should keep people from the developing world from coming to the US. And that's because he think's that's ok or that his base will love it. That's the source of my outrage.
posted by Alison at 10:20 AM on January 15, 2018 [33 favorites]

A member of the press asking Trump about a fictional country and then collecting a cash prize for tricking him would play perfectly into the whole "FAKE NEWS" Trump outrage narrative, and in this case it would actually be justified. As InTheYear2017 points out, if you want Trump to make a spectacle of his own ignorance, just ask him basic, factual questions with straightforward answers that any President of the United States should reasonably be expected to know.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:22 AM on January 15, 2018 [37 favorites]

The best asset Chelsea Manning has is her potential.

We know her intent, which I trust is good

We don’t, and you shouldn’t. And what doesn’t have “potential”? Potential for what?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:25 AM on January 15, 2018 [26 favorites]

> Oh, Post Gazette, this is not the way to kick off MLK Day. Calling someone a racist based on objective facts is not the same as calling someone a communist and blacklisting them.

"We have to stop calling each other names in this country and battle each other with ideas and issues, not slanders."

When Republicans say stuff like this they mean "YOU have to stop calling US names so you can battle us with ideas while we slander you."
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:27 AM on January 15, 2018 [37 favorites]

Y'all, there's just about zero to work with on the whole Chelsea Manning senate run thing at this point and we've definitely already staked out the various hot takes available, let's let it be at this point.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:28 AM on January 15, 2018 [27 favorites]

> Oh, Post Gazette, this is not the way to kick of MLK Day. Calling someone a racist based on objective facts is not the same as calling someone a communist and blacklisting them.

For those keeping score, the P-G is the Pittsburgh paper that's *not* owned by the heirs of Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy kingpin Richard Mellon Scaife.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:29 AM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

A Writer is Offering Money to Any Journalist Who Asks Trump About Wakanda

Spy Magazine used to do this about Freedonia (the country from the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup)
posted by Mchelly at 10:40 AM on January 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

That whole Wakanda thing needs to go away. We don’t need more trolls, we need more good journalists.
posted by valkane at 10:43 AM on January 15, 2018 [40 favorites]

For those keeping score, the P-G is the Pittsburgh paper that's *not* owned by the heirs of Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy kingpin Richard Mellon Scaife.

No, it's owned by Block Communications, the chairman of which is Trump donor Allan Block.. In 2016's greatest profile in courage, they famously endorsed no one.
posted by soren_lorensen at 10:49 AM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

> There's a special election tomorrow in Iowa's House District 6...I don't think anyone is really daring to hope that the Democrat could win, but the Republicans are clearly scared. More here.

I really enjoyed that Bleeding Heartland article. The tangy, sweet smoke of Republican panic is a wonderful thing to smell. My mouth is watering already.

Thanks to all the Iowans who knocked on doors, phonebanked, did data-entry or volunteered in any way for this campaign, and will volunteer tomorrow, and to everyone who donated. Thanks in advance to everyone who'll vote tomorrow.

As a Virginia Democrat, I know what this tastes like, and I want you Iowans to experience it too.
posted by nangar at 10:49 AM on January 15, 2018 [19 favorites]

The accuser doesn’t need to prove it. It simply hangs over the accused like a great human stain.

Well the accuser usually accuses it in response to racist acts. I can call cortex a racist but many people would probably laugh at me and then tell me I'm full of shit. If cortex was for instance deleting posts by black and latinx members while letting similar posts by white members stand then yeah, someone could accuse him of being racist, and yeah, the self-evident nature of the transgressions is definitely suspicious.

But this comes down to the essence of it. Doing racist things and saying racist things makes you a racist. But it's not binary, there's a spectrum. I'm a racist. I'm a sexist. I'm a homophobe. I don't use racial slurs or homophobic slurs but I have habits that I still haven't quite gotten rid of like gendered slurs, and I have viewpoints that are still affected by privilege. I don't think it's ever possible to not be perfectly free of privilege in your viewpoints, only to get better at it.

When someone is being called out as a racist it's because they're doing something so egregious that it's impossible to ignore and we want them to be shamed and to stop.
posted by Talez at 10:53 AM on January 15, 2018 [21 favorites]

...no political experience...

As meta-commentary: one thing current U.S. politics is proving in spades is that as it happens, political economy is a discipline and a profession and it's probably a good thing if the people doing it knew what they are doing.

In the U.K. if you want to ride a bike with an engine of any size you have to do your CBT. The compulsory basic training to make sure you don't actually start a war with North Korea, or end up under a bus (as the case may be).

I don't think it's too much to ask that everyone running for a minor civil office spends a few evenings a week getting the bare minimum C&G level diploma to prove they are at least moderately competent enough to hold the role before becoming a candidate.

And that for higher offices they have that, and have spent at least a year where their primary occupation (and income) was in civil/community service and management (and they didn't fuck it up, or even once bring the world close to nuclear armageddon, and ideally actually made their own particular bailiwick of the world a little bit better [circumstances permitting]).

Representative democracy only really works if the representatives represent and the civil servants serve. Otherwise it's just another example of third wave aristocracy.
posted by Buntix at 10:58 AM on January 15, 2018 [27 favorites]

Thanks to all the Iowans who knocked on doors, phonebanked, did data-entry or volunteered in any way for this campaign, and will volunteer tomorrow, and to everyone who donated. Thanks in advance to everyone who'll vote tomorrow.

Second! Thank you! ArbitraryandCapricious and chris24, I'm cheering for you from over here--there's nothing like being pleasantly surprised by an area you have strong ties to, and there's something important about looking out to little regions in the US that usually don't get a lot of progressive attention standing up and running candidates that care about their citizens. All of their citizens.

Your votes matter, guys, no matter where you are. They matter on every level: state, national, and local. And I am so thrilled with all the momentum I'm seeing nationwide in the special elections, the little elections, the races that no one much used to pay attention to on the left. This is wonderful, even if Rita DeJeong (the Dem candidate in this race) doesn't win: that's $100,000+ that we've bled from the GOP's coffers. They are not infinite, either.

Note that the national party isn't giving her much in the way of funding--that's a national pattern for those of us working hard in red districts. We're not going to see the national party necessarily give a shit about us, and who cares? We can do this anyway, all on our own, if we band together within our states and support each other. That's what is going to win us this in 2018. That's why I keep popping in here to get excited about local candidates in Texas, and that's why I get super excited every time someone brings me local news from an election in their state--Chrysotom is doing amazing work.

We recently got a survey from the Texas Democratic Party, and one of my very favorite things on it was questions about what candidates I was excited about on every level--and I was able to tell them names, too. That's exactly right, local Dems: get the word out about your local candidates and build excitement for them well ahead of the race. Beto O'Rourke is making a point of visiting every damn Texas county to build name recognition, to get people excited, to remind people who don't usually get politicians giving a shit about them that they can deserve better. We have to focus on the local politics, because the local races are what has the GOP running scared.

We're cheering for you over here, Rita! And we're cheering for Iowa!
posted by sciatrix at 11:07 AM on January 15, 2018 [32 favorites]

have a head-scratching moment when someone is simply referred to as Sanders

I would like to reoffer my proposed standard nomenclature for the press secretary: SHuckS.

Make it a keyboard shortcut.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:08 AM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

If anyone deserves CBT, it’s Donald J. Trump.
posted by valkane at 11:10 AM on January 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

I can't be the only one who defaults to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, then Cock and Ball Torture, and only finally Certified Basic Training, can I?
posted by sciatrix at 11:12 AM on January 15, 2018 [87 favorites]

*deletes marginally funny comment about cock and ball torture* indeed not, sciatrix.
posted by Melismata at 11:14 AM on January 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

Actually, I meant all three.
posted by valkane at 11:15 AM on January 15, 2018 [23 favorites]

The race is for PA-18 (outside of Pittsburgh). The Dem is Conor Lamb. The Republican is Rick Saccone, who describes himself as "Trump before Trump was Trump."

Pittsburgh area mefites, how can a blue state mefite dive into this campaign? I am on the email list and have received only emails asking for money.
posted by jointhedance at 11:25 AM on January 15, 2018

tonycpsu: "> For those keeping score, the P-G is the Pittsburgh paper that's *not* owned by the heirs of Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy kingpin Richard Mellon Scaife."

Dear old Richy Scaife isn't owning much these days given that he's been dead for four years but yeah, the PG is really as terrible as the Trib now. I cancelled my subscription after they endorsed Toomey and sorta-kinda endorsed Trump in 2016. I have friends who write for them and they do a lot of good reporting but their editorial page is total shit.

Oh and there's this from last week where someone at the paper itself tweeted this:

Our publisher is requesting us to remove @realDonaldTrump's "vulgar language" from the lede in our @AP story about his vulgar language.

No idea if the reporter who tweeted that was still employed at the end of the day although they haven't deleted it.
posted by octothorpe at 11:25 AM on January 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

Actually, I meant all three.

I was responsible for our banking units' Computer Based Training releases.... These are the four things CBT can mean....
posted by mikelieman at 11:37 AM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Is there a postcard campaign for PA-18? I would take out my markers and doodle for great justice and, hopefully, stoking the fires of the GOP Midterm Panic.
posted by lydhre at 12:01 PM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

MetaFilter: Take out your markers and doodle for great justice.
posted by petebest at 12:07 PM on January 15, 2018 [17 favorites]

I've been trying to pull way back on my participation in these threads, but I'm on the ground here in Hawaii and want to provide some context and a few thoughts related to the missile warning. I know that some people find discussion of possible nuclear attacks morbid and frightening so I apologize in advance. I'll not be writing anything graphic or gory.

First, some context. Since at least October, we've been prepping for a missile attack. Schools and Universities have been posting plans regarding what to do if an attack happens during a day. Some have been asking parents to make "courage kits." (click on the mini-letter to see it at full size) We've reactivated our cold war era missile warning system. In my neighborhood, at least one church was hosting a missile preparedness meeting back at the end of the year and had sandwich boards up about it all around the area (I can't find a picture of the sign online - sorry). So, nuclear attacks are already on our minds.

Next, the event itself. I was lucky - I was in a work meeting and everyone's phone (except mine, presumably because my phone hates me and wants me to die) started buzzing. Everyone in the room but the boss silenced their phone. Our boss stopped the meeting and said "Friends, there's some some silliness going on with North Korea and we need to go into the basement." We all calmly followed him down but got the message. I called my wife - who was asleep - to tell her to get over to my workplace (since our building has no basement and there's even windows in our bathroom).

The message read "this is not a drill." I mean, that's pretty serious, right? You'd take that seriously too, right? Honestly, I was skeptical because a first strike from NK is basically them committing suicide so I doubted it was serious - but I also avoid reality sometimes, so who can say, right?

While I'm on the phone to my wife, one of our co-workers whose husband is in a branch of the military started announcing "its a false alarm." So for my wife, the time between "missile on its way we're all going to die" and "don't panic" was about 90 awful seconds. For us in the meeting, it was about five minutes. For most of the rest of the island, people were hiding in bathrooms, basements and anywhere they could find for nearly 40 minutes.

My friends have reported treating it like it was a game with their young children so they didn't freak out. Other called their family to say goodbye - even at my workplace in that five minute window of doom. There were tears, wails, and panic everywhere. Yes, some people started tweeting out that it was a false alarm, but in the event of a "this is not a drill" warning, are you going to trust a tweet or are you going to wait for an official word? Trusting a tweet could get you killed no matter who its from.

After the event was over, people were pissed off. My Facebook wall was 100% angry - furious - messages from people. When the Star-Advertiser ran this attempt-at-amusing headline, many people were even more pissed because they felt it made light of their genuine horror.

Regarding Trump, I can't speak for the whole state, but based on the preponderance of messages from my cohort, we don't want words of comfort from him. We don't blame him for the drop-down menu mistake that led to this nightmare. But we do 100% blame him for creating the climate where we have to be on edge about this EVERY SINGLE DAY since he started rattling sabers with North Korea. Would this have happened if anybody else was President? I mean, literally almost anybody else. Our country would be a raging oppressive shithole fire nightmare out of the Republic of Gilead with President Pence, but people of my state probably wouldn't wake up every morning wondering if we are going to be blown up and irradiated. Small comfort, but you know we're sort of on the road to being a raging oppressive etc etc under Trump.

So anyhow, every day he is in office and his Republican enablers (both elected, media and supporters) continue to shout MAGA and piss all over the constitution, we get to live with this fear hanging over our heads.

The joke that's been going around is that there will be a population bump in Hawaii next September - assuming we last that long.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:10 PM on January 15, 2018 [215 favorites]

"We were kidding when we said it wasn't a drill." Maybe whether it's a drill or not should not be automated, that it should be uttered by a human voice.
posted by rhizome at 12:51 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Want to get Trump on your side? All you need is a bottomless capacity for obsequiousness and a bowl of red and pink Starbursts.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:00 PM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Today I'm taking advantage of the day off to do chores, pay bills, check my W2 and first pay stub of 2018 and what's this? I'm paying 40$ more in taxes than I was a month ago. Thanks Republicans! I'm sure that Betsy Devos will spend that $480 more effectively than I would have this year, and I know she really needed it.
posted by T.D. Strange at 1:15 PM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

From the Starburst piece:

McCarthy’s obsequiousness has endeared him to the president, as has his willingness to squat to speak to the president on his level.

Not a parent but I often hear that if you want to speak to a kid on their level you squat or kneel so you literally are at the same level as they are. Yet another disturbing glimpse into the mind of Trump. How did an adult man hang onto this reaction the rest of us lost as we grew up?
posted by scalefree at 1:17 PM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

Good time for a reminder that McCarthy told his colleagues in 2016 that he thinks Putin pays Trump. Matt Sparks, his spokesman, denied this ever happened, then changed his tune to "this was a failed attempt at humor" after the Post announced they had it on tape.

He went from declaring Trump to be a foreign agent to making his staff sort Starbursts by color in a year.
posted by zachlipton at 1:22 PM on January 15, 2018 [48 favorites]

I'm assuming the squat thing is snark referencing precisely that, scalefree. Why would McCarthy actually have to squat to speak to a guy who is at least 6 feet tall like Trump?
posted by Justinian at 1:22 PM on January 15, 2018

Because Trump sits a lot?
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:24 PM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

The squatting thing reminds me of this detail from Michael Schmidt's story about landing a surprise exclusive Trump interview:

So I got into a catcher’s squat next to his chair, conveying to him that I was listening intently but also forcing him to look down at me while he talked, which kept him from being distracted by the others at the table.
posted by contraption at 1:28 PM on January 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

So I got into a catcher’s squat next to his chair, conveying to him that I was listening intently but also forcing him to look down at me while he talked, which kept him from being distracted by the others at the table.

Neuro-Linguistic Squatting
posted by thelonius at 1:32 PM on January 15, 2018 [32 favorites]

I think the squatting is just a figure of speech concerning the dumbing down of a presentation into pictures, there's no actual squatting in the original reporting. If you need proof that Trump and McCarthy are monsters, well, "McCarthy offered another reason for his connection with Trump: They both like to talk a lot while watching movies."
posted by peeedro at 1:32 PM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

Some have been asking parents to make "courage kits." (click on the mini-letter to see it at full size)

Jesus. That link talks about making a "comfort letter", with a link to this example. So now I'm misting up at my desk, and I don't even like children. Why are there terrible people like Trump and Kim in this world?
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 1:35 PM on January 15, 2018 [10 favorites]

Well, Kim grew up with a wealthy and powerful but emotionally distant father who was more concerned with running his empire than teaching his son to be a good person and expressed affection via material goods rather than emotional closeness, and was taught from infancy that he belonged to an elevated caste superior to others by blood alone. Trump, by contrast... oh, dear.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:41 PM on January 15, 2018 [59 favorites]

WSJ, U.S. Warned Jared Kushner About Wendi Deng Murdoch

U.S. counterintelligence officials in early 2017 warned Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, that Wendi Deng Murdoch, a prominent Chinese-American businesswoman, could be using her close friendship with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to further the interests of the Chinese government, according to people familiar with the matter.

U.S. officials have also had concerns about a counterintelligence assessment that Ms. Murdoch was lobbying for a high-profile construction project funded by the Chinese government in Washington, D.C., one of these people said.

The project, a planned $100 million Chinese garden at the National Arboretum, was deemed a national-security risk because it included a 70-foot-tall white tower that could potentially be used for surveillance, according to people familiar with the intelligence community’s deliberations over the garden. The garden was planned on one of the higher patches of land near downtown Washington, less than 5 miles from both the Capitol and the White House.

This is such a weird story. You've got a Murdoch-run paper reporting on Murdoch's ex, concerns about spying in the National Arboretum, Jared being Jared, a bonus shot at Steve Wynn, etc...
posted by zachlipton at 2:05 PM on January 15, 2018 [40 favorites]

a 70-foot-tall white tower that could potentially be used for surveillance

Because you could stand on top of it and see everyone. Gotta think these things through.
posted by petebest at 2:17 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

“The missing - aftermath of Trump's immigration crackdown” (8½ min. video, BBC News)

In Pacific County, Washington, which went to Trump in the 2016 election—the first time for a Republican candidate since 1952—arrests and detentions in 2017 quadrupled over 2016 numbers. A local police chief says that because ICE isn't properly informing him of who is being seized, they're often unable to determine whether a missing persons report really involves someone gone missing or if the person has been detained.
posted by XMLicious at 2:23 PM on January 15, 2018 [29 favorites]

A local police chief says that because ICE isn't properly informing him of who is being seized, they're often unable to determine whether a missing persons report really involves someone gone missing or if the person has been detained.

"According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which came into force on 1 July 2002, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population, a 'forced disappearance' qualifies as a crime against humanity and, thus, is not subject to a statute of limitations."
posted by Rust Moranis at 2:32 PM on January 15, 2018 [97 favorites]

a 70-foot-tall white tower that could potentially be used for surveillance

A perfect place to mount that giant, flaming, reptilian eye they’ve been working on.
posted by darkstar at 2:48 PM on January 15, 2018 [25 favorites]

OTOH, that Starburst story is nuts. OTO, I immediately imagined a young LBJ doing something similar. One of the Caro bios describes the young LBJ’s practice of taking several showers a day because the Senate showers were ideal places to schmooze.
posted by octobersurprise at 3:18 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

a 70-foot-tall white tower that could potentially be used for surveillance

This apparently refers to the White Pagoda, like most of the garden a replica patterned broadly on the Slender West Lake Park in Yangzhou. You can get a sense of its presence in this awkwardly-translated YouTube video. For what it's worth, the National Capital Planning Commission dismissed concerns, respondng

The visual analysis conducted as part of NEPA and Section 106 process determined that the White Pagoda would not be in direct sight line of the Capitol and monumental core due to intervening topography and vegetation. The White Pagoda does not present security concerns, as there would be no public access to the pagoda.

There were two identically worded comments of concern, so some sort of astroturfing seems to have taken place. There is a bit of history here, as it was a long-time elevated concern of Cold War hawks that the Russian Embassy in Washington was being used for electronic surveillance, with a proliferation of undisguised antennae on its roof. [Cf. 1976 Popular Mechanics article with alas, illustrations but not photos.] Which, let's face it, they probably were -- the San Francisco consulate was similarly at a prominent elevation and accoutrement. Given that China won't have sovereignty over the Garden the way an embassy or consulate do, it's hard to imagine that if these concerns were valid and concrete the NCPC and Arboretum would be allowing such a structure to be built -- on what is, after all, US government property. That said, it's the job of CI officials to be suspicious.
And I see that this is just hitting the corners of Twitter you would expect, left and right.
posted by dhartung at 3:18 PM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

MLKJDay under GOP leadership has been one long slog through rank hypocrisies. From uber-racist Steve King's MLKJ quote to the President urging everyone to volunteer in honor of King while he himself went golfing. However there is one man who truly stands out: the scourge of the poor, the Ayn Rand devotee, the man who dreamt of taking away MediCaid from those in need when he was partying in college, Paul Ryan who had the unmitigated gall to have himself photographed pondering the bust of MLKJ accompanied by these words:

Today we remember a great man and his work. We read his sermons. We recall his sacrifices. We give back. In doing these things, we raise our gaze and renew the spirit in which we serve one another. Such is the calling of #MLKDay

Do you think he realizes that "We give back." is actually the opposite of "We take away"...food stamps, welfare, TANF, MediCaid, & MediCare?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 3:54 PM on January 15, 2018 [38 favorites]

"society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro."

I wonder how many Republicans would stand by that written word of Dr King's.
posted by Talez at 4:05 PM on January 15, 2018 [22 favorites]

Yet another disturbing glimpse into the mind of Trump. How did an adult man hang onto this reaction the rest of us lost as we grew up?

I have this image of Trump playing with his matchbox cars on the carpet in the oval office and various officials coming in to squat down to talk to him
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:33 PM on January 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

I wonder how many Republicans would stand by that written word of Dr King's.

Remember less than a year ago when Mitch McConnell cut off Elizabeth Warren's microphone on the floor of the Senate for reading Corretta Scott King's 1986 letter about Jeff Sessions?
posted by T.D. Strange at 5:06 PM on January 15, 2018 [112 favorites]

They both like to talk a lot while watching movies.
True sign of a narcissist?
posted by soelo at 5:14 PM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

A perfect place to mount that giant, flaming, reptilian eye they’ve been working on.

To be fair, they could be planning on using it to store a palantir.
posted by drezdn at 6:22 PM on January 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

The WaPo has circled back to report more deeply on the meeting where shithole became a thing. There's not too much we don't already know; Trump was happy with Durban and Graham's bipartisan deal and he called them into the White House to talk it through. Stephen Miller worked behind the scenes the fill the meeting with hardliners who convinced Trump to torpedo the agreement. Maybe he's not a genius if his staff is afraid he'll be tricked into signing a bill at a meeting with two senators:

But some White House officials, including conservative adviser Stephen Miller, feared that Graham and Durbin would try to trick Trump into signing a bill that was damaging to him and would hurt him with his political base. As word trickled out Thursday morning on Capitol Hill that Durbin and Graham were heading over to the White House, legislative affairs director Marc Short began to make calls to lawmakers and shared many of Miller’s concerns.

Not very stable, either:

Trump’s ping-ponging from dealmaking to feuding, from elation to fury, has come to define the contentious immigration talks between the White House and Congress, perplexing members of both parties as they navigate the president’s vulgarities, his combativeness and his willingness to suddenly change his position.

The best part is that his staff shrugged off the beginnings of shitholegate because Trump was happy with himself and they just wanted to go out for drinks:

By Thursday evening, many White House aides were concerned that the story was exploding beyond the usual level for a Trump controversy, but they carried on with their plans for the night: a send-off for Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ally of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Nearly every top official ducked into the exclusive Italian restaurant Cafe Milano in Georgetown to toast Powell. There was little effort to significantly push back on the story that night because aides knew that Trump had said it and that the president wasn’t even too upset, according to people involved in the talks.

posted by peeedro at 6:46 PM on January 15, 2018 [23 favorites]

"According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which came into force on 1 July 2002, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population, a 'forced disappearance' qualifies as a crime against humanity and, thus, is not subject to a statute of limitations."

The United States has withdrawn from the treaty.

"In a communication received on 6 May 2002, the Government of the United States of America informed the Secretary-General of the following:

"This is to inform you, in connection with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted on July 17, 1998, that the United States does not intend to become a party to the treaty. Accordingly, the United States has no legal obligations arising from its signature on December 31, 2000. The United States requests that its intention not to become a party, as expressed in this letter, be reflected in the depositary’s status lists relating to this treaty.”"
posted by srboisvert at 7:00 PM on January 15, 2018 [15 favorites]

Well, that’s bleak. Dan Rather just told Rachel Maddow that he doesn’t think MLK Day will survive much longer as a national holiday, in no small part thanks to trump.

He thinks that there will be a bill passed through Congress un-naming it? Dan Rather has done some great work but that's crazypants. How exactly do they get 60 votes in the Senate even if we grant that every Republican house member votes for it, which would never happen?
posted by Justinian at 7:02 PM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

The US has never been a member of the ICC.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:04 PM on January 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

He thinks that there will be a bill passed through Congress un-naming it? Dan Rather has done some great work but that's crazypants. How exactly do they get 60 votes in the Senate even if we grant that every Republican house member votes for it, which would never happen?

There are no such things as national public holidays in the United States. Congress doesn't have the authority. Only states do. There are only federal holidays that apply to the federal government.
posted by srboisvert at 7:06 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

The federal holidays (like MLK day) which apply to the federal government are exactly what people mean when they talk about national holidays? Unless I'm missing something. MLK day was made such a day by vote of Congress in 1983.
posted by Justinian at 7:17 PM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

By the way in case people are unaware, both Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Shelby (R-AL) voted against making MLK day a national holiday. Though McCain has said he regrets that vote. (I guess he has become very concerned.) And both were in the House rather than the Senate at the time IIRC.
posted by Justinian at 7:20 PM on January 15, 2018 [13 favorites]

Six Sitting Members of Congress Who Voted Against Martin Luther King Day

Then there are those that celebrate MLK-Robert E. Lee Day.

The federal holidays (like MLK day) which apply to the federal government are exactly what people mean when they talk about national holidays? Unless I'm missing something. MLK day was made such a day by vote of Congress in 1983.

There is a difference. It's a holiday for the federal government. But the states, not being the federal government, are not bound to observe it. There were several holdouts, and all 50 states have only declared it a holiday since 2000. And they would be free to un-declare it. I don't think Rather is all that crazypants on this one.
posted by Miko at 7:29 PM on January 15, 2018 [10 favorites]

By Thursday evening, many White House aides were concerned that the story was exploding beyond the usual level for a Trump controversy, but they carried on with their plans for the night: a send-off for Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ally of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Nearly every top official ducked into the exclusive Italian restaurant Cafe Milano in Georgetown to toast Powell.

So I know it's unfair to compare this White House to a fictional White House, but remember all those episodes of the West Wing where somebody made some horrible screw-up or a scandal hit and the whole staff was like, "Ciabatta!" and fucked off to the bar as soon as they could?

Good times.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 7:40 PM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Also in the Post's report:

Attendees who were alarmed by the racial undertones of Trump’s remarks were further disturbed when the topic of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) came up, these people said.

At one point, Durbin told the president that members of that caucus — an influential House group — would be more likely to agree to a deal if certain countries were included in the proposed protections, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Trump was curt and dismissive, saying he was not making immigration policy to cater to the CBC and did not particularly care about that bloc’s demands, according to people briefed on the meeting. “You’ve got to be joking,” one adviser said, describing Trump’s reaction.

posted by zachlipton at 7:42 PM on January 15, 2018 [12 favorites]

Guardian: Pastor denounces Donald Trump, with Mike Pence in the congregation

Maurice Watson, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist church in Largo, said remarks in which Trump reportedly used the word “shithole” to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations were “dehumanizing” and “ugly”.

WUSA-TV reported that Pence became red-faced at times during the sermon. In an email to the Associated Press on Monday, Pence’s office denied that. […]

In his sermon on Sunday, Watson said “whoever made such a statement” was wrong and should be held accountable, and said he had felt “led by God” to speak up. Many of his congregants come from African nations, he said.

Worshippers stood and applauded.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:45 PM on January 15, 2018 [98 favorites]

This Washington Post account of what happened Thursday is both astonishing and horrifying.

Recall that Tuesday Trump was widely praised for being "presidential" at a staged bipartisan meeting in which he stated that he would sign whatever bill congress brought to him to end the DACA and government funding standoff.

On Thursday morning at 10:15 AM, Democrat Durbin called Trump and told him that he, Graham and a bipartisan group of senators had negotiated a compromise that gave Trump most of what he wanted regarding increased border security, some funding for the wall and fixed DACA. When Durbin outlined the deal, Trump was delighted and asked Durbin and Graham to come to the White House to discuss it at noon.

But Stephen Miller and General Kelly got wind of the deal and decided they didn't like it. They told immigration hard liners Cotton and Perdue to rush to the White House before Durbin and Graham and together they whipped Trump into a raging frenzy about the deal. By the time Durbin and Graham arrived barely 90 minutes after the first phone call, Trump, who has the attention span of a goldfish, had gone from praising the deal to "shithole" rage. Durbin and Graham never knew what hit them the moment they walked in the door.

We officially have a regency presidency in which an incapacitated idiot Trump is controlled by Miller and Kelly, the regents behind the throne.
posted by JackFlash at 8:16 PM on January 15, 2018 [132 favorites]

jointhedance: "There's a rumor of a Republican write-in for Wisconsin Assembly District 66 even though Democrat Greta Neubauer is running unopposed. "

FWIW, no Republican ran for this seat in 2016, 2014, or 2012. The district went Clinton 68-27, Obama 75-24.

We should always be vigilant against complacency, and you should *always* vote, but I think a GOP write-in would be very long odds here.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:55 PM on January 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

soren_lorensen: "No, it's owned by Block Communications, the chairman of which is Trump donor Allan Block.. In 2016's greatest profile in courage, they famously endorsed no one."

That's when I cancelled my subscription.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:00 PM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

We've finally found someone more skilled than Democrats at seizing defeat from the jaws of victory.
posted by tivalasvegas at 10:05 PM on January 15, 2018 [23 favorites]

Hawaii officials released an image of the UI where the wrong option was selected. This software, it is extremely bad.
posted by zachlipton at 12:32 AM on January 16, 2018 [42 favorites]

This software, it is extremely bad.

So there was no confirmation dialog box? "It looks like you are trying to warn the entire State about a NOT A DRILL missile threat. Are you sure you want to do that?" I guess it wasn't in the spec!
posted by thelonius at 1:17 AM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

This software, it is extremely bad.

As someone who works in QA and has to deal with interface design for certain products - this is not only catastrophically (ha!) bad, I could think of at least a dozen ways this could be improved using only the obviously available format options.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 1:21 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

This software, it is extremely bad.

Could I say rather, the management of this software development was extremely bad. Developers don't work in a vacuum. They code within the constructs of the culture and ethos of the organisation that employs them. If management promotes and fosters an environment where cost, speed and "efficiency", are valued above all else, then you get code like this. Put the user at the centre of software development, then you get a different outcome. My guess is that budget and deadlines drove the development of this application, rather than the needs of those that would actually use this application. This UI is a failure of management, not those that built it.
posted by vac2003 at 1:36 AM on January 16, 2018 [24 favorites]

Umm...yeah, sure...but also a middle schooler learning HTML might think to have two columns for tests/demos and real alerts.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:07 AM on January 16, 2018 [26 favorites]

I... like(?) how it's just a list of random stuff like "the road to Hana is landslided out", "there's high surf on the north coast", "statewide text blast that everyone has 30 minutes or less to live before dying in a nuclear fireball", and "amber alert in Kauai county" and they are all the same font and size. Just typical things you might need on any given day.
posted by Justinian at 2:17 AM on January 16, 2018 [74 favorites]

Just took a look at the image and JESUS GOD.

Yeah, no. I'm sure management has its share of blame to take, but this is very much a failure of the developer. "Don't put the 'This is only a test' option two places away from the 'THIS IS THE SERIOUS BAD STUFF FOR REALSIES DON'T CLICK' one" is pretty much User Interface 101.

Like Snuffleupagus says, do a table at least. It takes like thirty seconds, tops.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 3:16 AM on January 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

Ha ha ha, no. I guarantee no dev or anyone else with a clue saw that UI until the executive committee had held a dozen meetings about it and it was set in stone. The reason you got a list instead of a table is because management sketched up that UI in Microsoft Word instead of Excel. Then they handed the "spec" to the dev and said "make it exactly like this."
posted by ryanrs at 3:52 AM on January 16, 2018 [43 favorites]

Maybe we're lucky this was just a warning system. We don't know that the menu for testing/launching missiles is any better designed.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:16 AM on January 16, 2018 [12 favorites]

Juan Cole : Turkey threatens war against US/Kurdish Force in Syria.
The US announcement that it would form a 30,000 strong policing force in northeast Syria from the YPG leftist Kurdish militia has provoked unprecedently strong words from Turkey, and signs of an unusual convergence of Syrian and Turkish foreign policy objectives. In the cross-hairs are 2,000 US special operations troops embedded with the YPG. The US strategic goal is to block Iranian transfers of men and materiel to Syria and Lebanon via Iraq. In other words, this is another of Donald Trump’s walls. It is meant to please US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, who lost the Syrian war to Iran and Russia but who want to salvage some strategic goals.
posted by adamvasco at 4:18 AM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

> Oh, Post Gazette, this is not the way to kick of MLK Day. Calling someone a racist based on objective facts is not the same as calling someone a communist and blacklisting them.

Two of the oldest of old money institutions here, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments just issued a joint letter condemning the editorial:

Repeated verbatim from an opinion piece printed Saturday in its sister publication the Toledo Blade, the editorial is a silly mix of deflection and distortion that provides cover for racist rhetoric while masquerading as a defense of decency. It is unworthy of a proud paper and an embarrassment to Pittsburgh.

You would think an editorial loftily decrying “name calling” in public life would criticize the President for his reported recent description of Haiti and some African nations as “s-hole countries.” Sadly, however, the piece aims its venom at those who rightly described the President’s words as racist.

It is a sorry pastiche of whitewashing drivel. It builds a straw-man argument that the term “racist” is too often used to silence opponents, completely ignoring this President’s well-established pattern of repeatedly invoking race to divide the country and to attack his enemies. A President who defends Nazis and white supremacists has described himself, as did his initial failure to deny the language from his immigration meeting and the reported glee his advisors took in “tough language” they thought would play to the base. If you don’t want to be called a racist, don’t be racist.

The Heinz Endowments is a big deal here; the CEO, Grant Oliphant, is generally ranked as one of the most powerful people in the city. This list ranks him higher than either the Mayor or the County Executive. I have to wonder what the mood is like in the PG newsroom today.
posted by octothorpe at 4:21 AM on January 16, 2018 [53 favorites]

Let's called it settled that the software used in the Hawaii missile scare is indeed very bad, and throttle back the casual chat generally please. Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 4:24 AM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

The US strategic goal is to block Iranian transfers of men and materiel to Syria and Lebanon via Iraq. In other words, this is another of Donald Trump’s walls.

Preventing Iran from turning the entire Middle East into a battlefield seems like a damn good use of US resources to me.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:26 AM on January 16, 2018

The mission would be to prevent Iran specifically from turning the Middle East into a battlefield then? It seems to me that the United States has been the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East for the last decade or so.
posted by rdr at 5:09 AM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

New report from Richard Painter, Norman Eisen, and the bipartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:

The Most Unethical Presidency: Year One
posted by box at 5:26 AM on January 16, 2018 [26 favorites]

I have to wonder what the mood is like in the PG newsroom today.

Last week, the official P-G twitter account extremely passive-aggressively tweeted out that the publisher (Block) was not letting the news desk run the Reuters story with "Shithole" in the headline. I think it's safe to say that the mood in the news room is somewhere around "fuck this shit."
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:04 AM on January 16, 2018 [15 favorites]

Bannon's being interviewed, saith Twitter...

@JoyceWhiteVance
The fact that Bannon is being interviewed in a SCIF, a secure room, means he is testifying about classified information/material.

@mkraju
Nunes seen walking away from the House SCIF, where Bannon is currently meeting with the panel. Nunes has not attended witness interviews in Russia probe despite wielding significant influence over inquiry
posted by Devonian at 7:15 AM on January 16, 2018 [23 favorites]

Some background about what's going on in Syria:

Last September, Russia, Turkey and Iran met in Astana, Kazakhstan, and agreed, at least in outline, to a plan to partition Syria after ISIS was defeated. This was followed up by a meeting in Sochi in November. At a joint press conference after the second meeting, Erdoğan said the powers had agreed exclude terrorist groups from the process and address "negativities" in Afrin. The US was not involved in these negotiations.

(Afrin is a YPG-controlled enclave in Northwest Syria. Turkey is not happy with the existence of a de facto Kurdish state on its southern boarder and considers the US-allied YPG a terrorist organization.)

In the last few days, the three powers have expressed displeasure with US plans for long-term involvement with the Kurdish YPG in Syria. [Warning: link has auto-playing video.]

Yesterday it was reported that Turkey had sent troops into Afrin to attack the YGP.

I doubt if the US has any troops in Afrin. (I think they're in the main YPG-controlled area in the the Northeast where the YPG is still fighting ISIS.) Up till now, the other foreign powers involved in Syria had mostly avoided direct confrontation with the US and the US-allied YPG. But now, it seems like shit is hitting the fan.

(Up-to-date map. Yellow: YPG / US. Red: Syrian govt. / Russia. Dark grey: ISIS. Cyan: Turkey. Green: Other. You can click around on it for explanations.)
posted by nangar at 7:23 AM on January 16, 2018 [31 favorites]

Apparently the Durbin agreement even gave away the store on "chain migration". Democrats were prepared to agree to a white supremacist overhaul of the immigration system for everyone else to protect DACA recipients, and Trump rejected even that total capitulation.

It wasn't a chain migration overhaul because it only restricted DREAMers from sponsoring parents.

But the important part of the deal was that it raised the age for applying for DREAM sponsorship to 15. People like Jorce Garcia might have not have had to be deported.

Losing the DV would suck but it's also only 50,000 people per year. It's barely diversity lip service to the million or so people that come to the US every year and it's not even a rounding error on 325 million.
posted by Talez at 7:23 AM on January 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

Having just finished Fire & Fury, one of the things that struck me was how absolutely certain everyone in the administration was that Trump getting elected was just the beginning of great things that would last for the rest of their lives, despite the fact that most of them weren't even expecting him to win and they were all fighting with and contemptuous of each other from day one, if not well before the election. Well, whatever else has happened, things have not exactly gone according to whatever the hell the plan was, for any of them. I wonder if Bannon still feels that way.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:30 AM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

I haven't read the book, but I assume they, like Trump, thought the presidency was a prize to be won. Like the campaign was a reality show, and you can become a celebrity even if you don't win. (Everyone remembers Omarosa, and nobody remembers the dude who won The Apprentice that year, for instance.)

But if you do win, all the better! You get even more publicity.

In the real world, actions have consequences. But these guys don't understand the real world. They live in "The Real World."
posted by OnceUponATime at 7:38 AM on January 16, 2018 [13 favorites]

Golf, three TVs and Big Macs in bed: my week in the life of Donald Trump.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:42 AM on January 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

Elections matter:

* In wake of massive losses in the House of Delegates, Virginia Republicans not introducing any of their normal culture war bills - no abortion restrictions, etc.

* In New Jersey, new governor Phil Murphy is pushing a strong progressive agenda:

If Murphy has his way, New Jersey will become a proving ground for every liberal policy idea coming into fashion, from legalized marijuana to a $15 minimum wage, from a “millionaire’s tax” to a virtual bill of rights for undocumented immigrants. Undergirding all of it: automatic voter registration, early voting and the right to register with a political party as late as Election Day.

posted by Chrysostom at 7:54 AM on January 16, 2018 [102 favorites]

In wake of massive losses in the House of Delegates, Virginia Republicans not introducing any of their normal culture war bills - no abortion restrictions, etc.

Maybe they're not introducing culture war bills, but they're still defending horrible shit:

A Democratic bill to require universal background checks for gun purchases — a key component of Northam’s gun agenda — was defeated in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee. Another Northam-backed bill to allow localities to ban firearms at permitted events, which arose from the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last year, also failed to get through the committee.

The Senate committee did approve Senate Bill 1 from Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, which would ban “bump stocks,” which are devices that increase the rate of fire for a weapon and were used by the gunman in the Oct. 1 concert shooting in Las Vegas. The committee reported the bill 11-4 and it will now go to the Senate Finance Committee.
[...]
Opponents said the bill’s language was vague. Sen. Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, asked Philip Van Cleave, who heads the Virginia Citizens Defense League gun rights group, what was the good of such devices.

“They’re fun to shoot,” Van Cleave replied.

posted by zombieflanders at 8:20 AM on January 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

Testifying before Senate Judiciary Committee today, Nielsen basically confirms that he said shithouse. At least that's the story they seem to be going with.

@sahilkapur
SENATOR LEAHY: Did Trump say shitholes or "a substantially similar word" to describe certain countries?

DHS SECRETARY NIELSEN (under oath): "I did not hear that word used, no sir."

LEAHY: Did Trump say "anything similar" to shithole to describe some countries?

NIELSEN: "The conversation was very impassioned. I don't dispute that the president was using tough language. Others in the room were also using tough language."

---

She also said - under oath - that she didn't know for sure if Norway was majority white while defending saying that Trump's mention of it was about merit rather than race.

The. Best. People.
posted by chris24 at 8:20 AM on January 16, 2018 [48 favorites]

I have not heard "tough language" used before to describe profanity. Harsh language, bad language, even strong language, yes, but tough?

It seems clear they're trying to reinforce the support among the base Trump predicted his tirade would generate, and as usual, use the so-called "liberal media" as a willing dupe to catapult their propaganda.
posted by Gelatin at 8:29 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

As a little aside here - everyone remembers that the Federal government is shutting down on Friday, right?

How about a bit of "both-sides"-ism? Where shall we look? Oh, here's the New York Times: As Shutdown Talk Rises, Trump’s Immigration Words Pose Risks for Both Parties

President Trump’s incendiary words about immigration have dampened the prospects that a broad spending and immigration deal can be reached by the end of the week, raising the possibility of a government shutdown with unknown political consequences for lawmakers in both parties.

Democrats facing re-election in states that Mr. Trump carried in 2016 fear that a government funding crisis, precipitated by an immigration showdown, could imperil their campaigns. And they are growing increasingly uneasy that liberal colleagues [want to protect CHIP and DACA]. [...]

But Republicans face their own uncertainties. With their party controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, they could receive most of the blame for a shutdown ...

Do you know why a party that controls the House, Senate, and Presidency - the whole enchilada - might not get the blame for a government shutdown? Might it have something to do with the ... news media? (gasp)

And can I just add that a government shutdown is objectively horrifying? We've become numbed to it because it's happened before, and we've been toying with the catastrophe that would be debt default, so a mere government shutdown doesn't seem like that big a deal.

But real people are going to get hurt when it happens.
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:33 AM on January 16, 2018 [34 favorites]

As a little aside here - everyone remembers that the Federal government is shutting down on Friday, right?

It's hard to worry about Friday when I have three existential freakouts every day before breakfast. This one needs to wait its turn.
posted by diogenes at 8:39 AM on January 16, 2018 [27 favorites]

Okay, fine, have your BREAKING NEWS then.

NYT breaking news: Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, was subpoenaed last week by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into possible links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.

... The subpoena could be a negotiating tactic. ... But it was not clear why Mr. Mueller treated Mr. Bannon differently than the dozen administration officials who were interviewed in the final months of last year and were never served with a subpoena.
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:49 AM on January 16, 2018 [18 favorites]

Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen wrote an opinion piece (WaPo) announcing that they will introduce legislation aimed at preventing foreign involvement in our elections.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:00 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

I would give cash money to sit in on this

I’m looking forward to the movie of this where Mueller is played by Sam the Eagle out of The Muppets, and Bannon is portrayed by the Jabba the Hutt model out of Return of the Jedi.
posted by Grangousier at 9:03 AM on January 16, 2018 [23 favorites]

It's strange. Bannon's already out of the White House, out at Breitbart, out with the Mercers. Trump and Bannon have already thrown each other under the bus.

Why would Mueller feel the need to compel him? Does Bannon really need to be forced, or is it more that he wants cover to go, "I had no choice!"
posted by leotrotsky at 9:03 AM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

@edatpost: Nielsen: "I was struck more by the fact that the conversation --
although passionate and appropriately so -- had gotten to a place where many people were using inappropriate language in front of the president. That’s what struck me."

The official line now appears to be to blame BOTH SIDES for this.
posted by zachlipton at 9:03 AM on January 16, 2018 [30 favorites]

Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen wrote an opinion piece (WaPo) announcing that they will introduce legislation aimed at preventing foreign involvement in our elections.

Stunning that it took a Republican so long to climb onto an easy win.

Doubly stunning that it's the guy who's spent the past year hiding mute and terrified in the corner pretending he can't see or hear anything.

To quote Pod Save America, "Hi, I'm Marco Rubio, a caricature of a useless politician, and this is my giant library full of brave and true things I will not say."
posted by leotrotsky at 9:07 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

had gotten to a place where many people were using inappropriate language in front of the president

As though Trump were some wilting flower or holy personage! Or perhaps a toddler.
posted by jedicus at 9:08 AM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

The official line now appears to be to blame BOTH SIDES for this.

And it's a pretty lame attempt considering Durbin was the only D in the meeting and Nielsen said this:

@SarahMMimms
Nielsen: I was "struck by the profanity" used by all in the room.
Durbin: "Did you hear me use profanity?"
"No sir."

---

So the Republicans were cursing.
posted by chris24 at 9:10 AM on January 16, 2018 [87 favorites]

Democrats Add Momentum to G.O.P. Push to Loosen Banking Rules:

Buoyed by their success in rewriting the tax code, the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have now set their sights on helping the financial industry, which has been engaged in a quiet but concerted push to relax many post-crisis rules and regulatory obligations, particularly for thousands of small- and medium-sized banks... Eleven Senate Democrats are co-sponsoring the bill, making its passage in the Senate likely.

The Democrats in question:
Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Gary Peters (D-MI)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Christopher Coons (D-DE)
Thomas Carper (D-DE)
posted by crazy with stars at 9:12 AM on January 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

had gotten to a place where many people were using inappropriate language in front of the president

I assume this means someone read the emoluments clause out loud, or perhaps the 19th amendment.
posted by phearlez at 9:13 AM on January 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

had gotten to a place where many people were using inappropriate language in front of the president.

That's just locker room talk, Madam Secretary.

Followup question should be, "What language did they use that you felt was inappropriate? Please be specific."

She'll say, "I can't recall."

Followup to that, "So there was language that you're certain was inappropriate, but you can't recall any specific words from a meeting that took place literally days ago? Are you having any other memory issues? For example, do you remember what you had for lunch that day? Or is your lack of recall limited to this specific meeting and the words exchanged in it?"
posted by leotrotsky at 9:14 AM on January 16, 2018 [20 favorites]

Democrats Add Momentum to G.O.P. Push to Loosen Banking Rules:

primary the fuck out of em
posted by entropicamericana at 9:14 AM on January 16, 2018 [26 favorites]

And Durbin gives more details on the Norwegian comment. It was prefaced with "I want more Europeans."

@kylegriffin1
This exchange between Durbin and Nielsen is a must-watch.

Durbin specifically asks Nielsen if she heard Trump say, “I want more Europeans. Why can’t we have more immigrants from Norway?” (via CBS)

VIDEO
posted by chris24 at 9:14 AM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

It's gotten even stupider.

@scottwongDC: Why are some Trump allies arguing that POTUS said "shithouse" rather than "shithole"? Some Rs say "shithouse countries" refers to poor countries w/no plumbing -- places where u have to walk out to the shithouse -- and therefore the phrase is NOT racist.

Setting aside that a primary purpose of a shithouse is to contain a shithole, how is this possibly an improvement? Even if you, for the sake of argument, accept that Trump was truly concerned with international sanitation standards rather than racism, it's still using a bunch of racist generalizations about countries or an entire continent to set immigration policy rather than anything to do with the actual individual people involved.
posted by zachlipton at 9:17 AM on January 16, 2018 [20 favorites]

Just in case anyone thought shutting down the sham voter fraud commission actually changed things:

@srl: DHS Secretary Nielsen says she believes department can look into voter fraud because agency recently designated elections as "critical infrastructure." But experts dispute that's true[.]
posted by zombieflanders at 9:18 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

Democrats Add Momentum to G.O.P. Push to Loosen Banking Rules:

...

The Democrats in question:
..
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
...

What the what? Tim, why would you? David Dayen, writing for The Intercept, provides some context (from November 14, 2017)

Four Banking Committee Democrats — Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mark Warner, D-Va. — negotiated the bill with committee chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, after ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, broke off talks on a compromise bill with Crapo just last month. Warner’s Virginia colleague Tim Kaine, last year’s vice presidential nominee, signed on as an original co-sponsor of the bill, along with Joe Manchin D-W.Va., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Gary Peters D-Mich., and Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats. The Democratic support would give the legislation enough support to break a filibuster, if all Republicans signed on.

While five of these senators face re-election next year and come from states won decisively by President Donald Trump, Democrats scored a major victory over Trumpism in Virginia just last week, winning the governor’s race and potentially wrestling control of the heavily gerrymandered House of Delegates. Having Virginia’s senators engineer a bank deregulation bill days later sits uncomfortably with that triumph of the resistance.

Emphasis mine, because WTF.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:22 AM on January 16, 2018 [25 favorites]

It's strange. Bannon's already out of the White House, out at Breitbart, out with the Mercers. Trump and Bannon have already thrown each other under the bus.

Maybe because I'm prone to conspiratorial thinking, but I don't see Bannon as having been thrown under the bus or really being kicked to the curb in any consequential manner. Bannon is out like Lewandowski is out, still buddies with Trump but his visibility became too much for Trump who doesn't like to take second billing in the headlines.

Think of it this way, it's safe to assume that within the Trump (plus JarJar Vanks), Mercer, and Breitbart worlds, there is enough dirt on Bannon to sink him forever many times over (or land him in prison). If he was really out, rumors would be fed to the DC media to taint him for good. That hasn't happened, he's still free to run a new grift with a lower profile. He's still inside the tent pissing out. Sure, he's been taken down a few pegs, but that's just the kayfabe that let the media report on Fire and Fury as a celebrity feud instead of an indictment on Trump's fitness for office.
posted by peeedro at 9:26 AM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah that is not a list of states with safe Dem seats. It’s...the opposite. Like you’ll notice NY senators are not on that list, and as far as banks go, NY is, you know, a big player. I’m genuinely wondering what’s going on there, but have definitely reached the limit of my expertise, like even by the end of this sentence.
posted by schadenfrau at 9:27 AM on January 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

I don't think calling this banking bill a giveaway is accurate, but I wager I'm in the significant minority here. I think it's more accurate to say this is closer to how the Senate is supposed to operate, with disparate groups doing some give and take. Whether there's too much give towards the interests of the big banks in exchange for the credit protections, whistleblower protections, public housing bits, lead remediation, etc, is certainly something to debate. But let's stop short of calling the D cosponsors full on Quislings.
posted by phearlez at 9:28 AM on January 16, 2018 [13 favorites]

Give them a few hours and they'll be on to "Shithouse is a compliment! You know, like when you say something is built like a brick shithouse? It means well-constructed! Like all those African and Caribbean countries our wonderful President loves and values so, so much!"
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:29 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

I love the description of 45's "executive time" from 8 AM to 11 AM in the link Capt. Renault posted. Hey, a new way to describe "reading MetaFilter at work!"
posted by Miko at 9:37 AM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

Under the radar, activists are turning ruby red Alaska purple.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:41 AM on January 16, 2018 [23 favorites]

I think it's easy to say "primary 'em!" but you have to remember that - Tim Kaine aside - most of the Democrats co-sponsoring the banking bill are from red or reddish-purple states. We in California and Massachusetts gladly vote for our Kamala Harrises and Elizabeth Warrens. I can't find it now, but I read an article stating that Democratic politicians elected by a wider margin are more progressive.

Moving the Overton window left is important - California did not start out blue; remember we gave the nation Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan! We elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as Republican Governor ten years ago, ffs! Dianne Feinstein, not Kamala Harris or Ted Lieu, is what our elected representatives used to be like politically.

States like Montana may never become as liberal as California, but they can move to the left, and I think that is what will have to happen before they elect more liberal Senators. And for that, the 50-state strategy which I hope Tom Perez is reviving will help.

As for Steve-O, I bet the Fire and Fury book is one big reason why Mueller wants to talk to him. He won't get away with "I was just a coffee boy" type claims after that. Play shitty games, win shitty prizes, Steve.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 9:43 AM on January 16, 2018 [18 favorites]

I can't find it now, but I read an article stating that Democratic politicians elected by a wider margin are more progressive.

Linky
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:48 AM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian: Is this the beginning of the end of Trump's real estate empire?

The Trump name is being scrubbed off skylines from New York to Toronto to Rio as the brand backfires

posted by ZeusHumms at 10:05 AM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

zombieflanders: "Just in case anyone thought shutting down the sham voter fraud commission actually changed things:"

I'm concerned, too, but the take I'm getting from voting rights people online is cautious optimism. The DHS critical infrastructure team is apparently bipartisan and well-regarded. Nielsen went on to say DHS only work related to voter fraud is stuff they're already doing - they can, at a state's request check to see if there are signs non-citizens are voting.

Bears watching, but not super worried yet.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:05 AM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Washington Post: Study: 42 percent of Republicans believe accurate — but negative — stories qualify as ‘fake news’

42% of Republicans are cynics who knowingly lie (including to themselves and each other) in order to maintain their hold on power. Add the 50% or so who appear to genuinely believe in Pizzagate or that Trump won the popular vote and you get 5-10% of Republicans who are neither insane nor sociopathic, which probably explains his ~10% drop in approval among Republicans in the last year.
posted by Rust Moranis at 10:17 AM on January 16, 2018 [30 favorites]

Whether there's too much give towards the interests of the big banks in exchange for the credit protections, whistleblower protections, public housing bits, lead remediation, etc, is certainly something to debate.

FWIW, I work in banking compliance and regulation and I think this bill *might* be a good idea (these are my personal opinions). It's not really aimed at the really big banks though I'm concerned that the banks it *does* aim at are larger than is necessary. By implementing stringent rules, it requires banks to spend more on their compliance programs. For the large banks, that's not such a big deal and the public shouldn't care so much anyways. If those institutions suddenly fail, it'll cause a ton of damage so that's just the price a big bank should need to pay to operate at that level. But it does create more barriers to entry that can make it hard for smaller banks to grow. Since those institutions failing probably won't really affect the system as a whole, they probably shouldn't be subjected to quite as much scrutiny as the largest banks.

Banks with assets of $50 billion to $100 billion would be immediately freed from those requirements. Financial institutions with $100 billion to $250 billion in assets, such as BB&T and American Express, would no longer be subject to tougher rules after 18 months, although the Federal Reserve would retain the authority to periodically conduct stress tests on those firms.

That'd mean no change for about the ten largest banks (source), the next 15 or so are in that $100b to $250b bucket and then about 10 more in the $50b to $100b range.

Banks smaller than that aren't really an issue since they either sell their loans to a larger bank and therefore underwrite those loans to the same requirements as the larger banks has or they keep all their loans in their own portfolio and they don't need to worry about those requirements at all. There are still a ton of regulatory requirements for any bank no matter how much they have in assets but it mostly about fair lending rather than the systemic importance of the bank.

The issue here is the range of the asset size buckets, not the bill in it's entirety. If that many D's are signed onto the thing, I'd be at least inclined to hear them out on why those numbers make sense.
posted by VTX at 10:28 AM on January 16, 2018 [21 favorites]

Washington Post: Study: 42 percent of Republicans believe accurate — but negative — stories qualify as ‘fake news’

Hardly surprising, as the decades-long conservative marketing effort to establish the myth of the "liberal media" doesn't establish, after all, that anything the media reports is inaccurate; it does, however, give Republicans an excuse to ignore inconvenient facts.

It's a pity the Democrats don't point out, loudly and often, that a good chunk of the conservative worldview involves denying inconvenient facts, and therefore, facts are inconvenient to Republican policy preferences, and what's more, Republican opinion leaders know it.
posted by Gelatin at 10:28 AM on January 16, 2018 [17 favorites]

Recommended read: Louis Menand on the trajectory of GOP strategy over the last few decades. I found myself persuaded, if saddened, by the recognition that this past couple years represents a movement of the margins, and that whatever we do going forward must take into account that just shy of 50% of the voting nation is intellectually and morally going to be essentially a lost cause - and concentrate on tactics that either reduce their percentage of the vote by increasing the turnout of others, and play the very long game of eroding the deeply embedded racist and nationalist strains that are embedded in the nation's existence. The "base" isn't new, and isn't going anywhere.

Also just noted how apt the phrase "the base" is" in this case.
posted by Miko at 10:50 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

Please take time out of your busy executive schedule to watch this 3 second video of Senator Orrin Hatch carefully remove his (nonexistent) glasses and put them on the table.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 10:52 AM on January 16, 2018 [28 favorites]

Manu Raju, CNN: Nunes seen walking away from the House SCIF, where Bannon is currently meeting with the panel. Nunes has not attended witness interviews in Russia probe despite wielding significant influence over inquiry.

From other tweets I gather this mean Nunes was turned away from the SCIF. Lots of intrigue.
posted by scalefree at 10:59 AM on January 16, 2018 [20 favorites]

Forbes: Ivanka Trump's Publisher Likely Lost At Least $220,000 On Her 2017 Book
You may recall that was the one about empowering women where she gives advice about letting nannies do the work...or some shit like that.

Tim Pawlenty just announced on FOX that he will not be running for the Senate in 2018. So it's Bachmann or bust?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 11:04 AM on January 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

Actual footage of US Missle Warning System

/derail
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:05 AM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

Please take time out of your busy executive schedule to watch this 3 second video of Senator Orrin Hatch carefully remove his (nonexistent) glasses and put them on the table.

I will own up to trying to put on my prescription sunglasses over my regular glasses. several times.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:06 AM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

Tim Pawlenty just announced on FOX that he will not be running for the Senate in 2018. So it's Bachmann or bust?

In this current climate he wouldn't win the primary. Even if he were a lock why would he head to a massive shitfight that will drain half his warchest and then fight in an election where his opponent has both incumbency and a massive structural advantages?

Successful people don't let opportunities slip through their fingers. They also don't kamikaze into something because they feel like they have to do anything they can.
posted by Talez at 11:08 AM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Perhaps lost in the shuffle about Nielsen is her profound ignorance not about naughty words, but about her own department's policy. She apparenly was unaware that DACA had already ended for many in the program. The. Best. People.
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:10 AM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

Do you have a link for those?

I'm not entirely sure which way it actually is but here's a fairly authoritative tweet supporting the "not allowed in" perspective:

Katie Bo Williams, NatSec reporter for The Hill: House Intel Committee chair Devin Nunes, who had stepped back from leading the Russia probe during an Ethics Committee investigation that recently cleared him, just walked up from the SCIF—so he's clearly not attending the Bannon interview.
posted by scalefree at 11:13 AM on January 16, 2018

I would give cash money to sit in on this.

Someone on Reddit suggested making these interviews PPV events and using the money raised to rebuild Puerto Rico.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:15 AM on January 16, 2018 [58 favorites]

From other tweets I gather this mean Nunes was turned away from the SCIF. Lots of intrigue.

Yeah, I wouldn't let a co-conspirator into the room either.
posted by diogenes at 11:17 AM on January 16, 2018 [17 favorites]

Rosie M. Banks: "I think it's easy to say "primary 'em!" but you have to remember that - Tim Kaine aside - most of the Democrats co-sponsoring the banking bill are from red or reddish-purple states."

This is true of a bunch of the Democrats, but it scarcely explains why all the senators from Virginia and (most of all) Delaware are cosponsoring the bill.
posted by crazy with stars at 11:30 AM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

but it scarcely explains why all the senators from Virginia and (most of all) Delaware are cosponsoring the bill.

Aren't an absolute ton of financial institutions domiciled in Delaware?
posted by PenDevil at 11:39 AM on January 16, 2018 [15 favorites]

Yeah, Delaware loves, loves, loves their big corporations. Like, there are more PO boxes in the state than actual people. It's no wonder their senators would be on the side of the banks.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:43 AM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

And Virginia has a fair amount of banking in it, including headquartering Capital One (who I believe would benefit from the bill).
posted by Candleman at 11:45 AM on January 16, 2018

Chad Pergram (FOX): Sources say Bannon told by WH not to answer questions before House Intel Cmte about the White House and the transition. Did not assert executive privilege. Committee subpoenas him during the meeting to comply while in the hearing.

If Bannon was subpoenaed in the middle of testifying, he must've been blatantly refusing to answer even the friendly House committee's questions. Probably a safe bet he was subpoenaed by Mueller for similar reasons, either he wasn't cooperating already, or Mueller felt he wouldn't cooperate without threat of prosecution. Either he's covering for Trump or for himself, and that questioning before Mueller will be something to behold.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:46 AM on January 16, 2018 [42 favorites]

This is true of a bunch of the Democrats, but it scarcely explains why all the senators from Virginia and (most of all) Delaware are cosponsoring the bill.

They believe it's good and necessary legislation that will benefit the people of their state?

I mean, when the system is working as it should, if a senator supports something that seems questionable to us we should be able to assume that they know more about than we do so when I see Tim Kaine's name on there it leads me to think I'm missing something rather than that Kaine is supporting evil corporations or something.
posted by VTX at 11:49 AM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Committee subpoenas him during the meeting to comply while in the hearing.

This will be a pivotal scene during the eventual miniseries.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:51 AM on January 16, 2018 [28 favorites]

There's a really good thread on Reddit where people are explaining why it's such a big deal that this was a grand jury subpoena. Apparently Bannon won't have his lawyer in the room with him, will be required to answer every question, and there will be a transcript. He is facing a much different situation than the others interviewed thus far.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:52 AM on January 16, 2018 [71 favorites]

if a senator supports something that seems questionable to us we should be able to assume that they know more about than we do

No
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:52 AM on January 16, 2018 [20 favorites]

I think when you look at the other things in the bill that are things we'd consider good it becomes more clear why Kaine is involved. This is a person interested in foreclosure protections and the like and who has spent a goodly amount of his career focused on banking activities. I think it's understandable why a Senator with those focuses would be a part of a bill focused on that area. Like VTX, when I see Kaine sign on to something - particularly something that impacts mortgages - I'm inclined to think trust he at least thinks it's a net good. He's certainly sued more corrupt lenders than I have.
posted by phearlez at 11:54 AM on January 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

PenDevil: "Aren't an absolute ton of financial institutions domiciled in Delaware?"

I mean, this is obviously why the senators from Delaware and Virginia are cosponsoring the bill -- because it will help particular financial institutions housed in their states. That doesn't mean it's necessarily in the majority's interests, though.

VTX: "if a senator supports something that seems questionable to us we should be able to assume that they know more about than we do so when I see Tim Kaine's name on there it leads me to think I'm missing something rather than that Kaine is supporting evil corporations or something."

I think this is really naive.
posted by crazy with stars at 11:54 AM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Trump makes everyone on social media as dumb as him
posted by The Whelk at 11:55 AM on January 16, 2018

Actual footage of US Missle Warning System

(Non-Twitter link to GIF)
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:05 PM on January 16, 2018 [12 favorites]

Maybe we can compromise on:

* Legislators do not always have our best interests in mind. They may have been co-opted by donors, etc.

* It's probably worthwhile finding out what's really in a piece of legislation before assuming malfeasance, because it is easy to come up with misleading clickbait-y headlines.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:06 PM on January 16, 2018 [19 favorites]

> Trump makes everyone on social media as dumb as him

That's... not really what she's saying? She's making a point about people being angry, not dumb. The latter sometimes follows from the former, but not always. I'd say a lot of justifiable anger has been unleashed for positive effects since Trump's election -- the fact that one mediocre comedienne did a dumb thing doesn't change that.
posted by tonycpsu at 12:07 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Secret Life of Gravy: "Tim Pawlenty just announced on FOX that he will not be running for the Senate in 2018. So it's Bachmann or bust?"

The thinking is that he might be mulling a run for governor, instead.

Only formal entrant into the Senate race so far is state Sen Karin Housley.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:08 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Chrysostom: Under the radar, activists are turning ruby red Alaska purple.

The election went down to the wire, then past it as absentee ballots arrived from Alaskans around the world—“from a military person in Bahrain, from somebody living abroad in Cambodia”—the closest contest of the season in Alaska and possibly the whole country. State Democrats watched with gnawed-down fingernails and high bar tabs. If Kreiss-Tomkins lost, the Alaska House Democrats would have just nine members, below the one-fourth of the assembly that is required to be considered an official caucus—at which point, according to the Legislature’s rules, they could be excluded from committees and even denied funds for hiring staff. “At one point, my race was dead-even tied,” says Kreiss-Tomkins. “The tabulation would change by the day. Up by two, down by seven. Then there was a recount.”

On December 3, 2012, Kreiss-Tomkins was declared the victor by 32 votes. And although he had no way to know it at the time, it was the beginning of something very unexpected.

Oh shit, that's more than shifting Alaskan politics, that's ensuring the party has any voice, power, or staff support.

Alaska remains a gun-loving and tax-averse state, defined by its military bases and love of hunting. It has two Republican senators and a Republican congressman. But the state is changing. In the past four years, Alaska has raised its minimum wage, legalized recreational marijuana and passed the strongest universal voter registration bill in the country. Governor Bill Walker—an ex-Republican who has the support of organized labor and most liberals—and the House majority coalition are publicly advocating the introduction of a statewide income tax, a move long thought impossible in Alaska’s notoriously libertarian political climate.

To be sure, this tectonic political shift would have been impossible without traditional Democratic players, like unions. But what’s been less noticed, even in Alaska, is the role played by millennials who, rather than spending years working their way up on the team, instead reinvented the playbook. Three men in particular—Kreiss-Tomkins, Forrest Dunbar and John-Henry Heckendorn—have pointed the way to reviving progressivism in the state by recruiting new, outsider candidates, teaching them how to win, and connecting them with fellow travelers. In bypassing traditional channels—which in Alaska, as everywhere else, tend to elevate predictable, uninspiring pols who have paid their dues—they’ve propelled a wave of untested candidates with little experience and even less party identity, but who believe in the economic populist agenda shared by a coalition of labor, environmentalists and the state’s large, politically engaged Alaska Native population.

It's a good read on how the Alaskan political assumptions are changing, for the (IMHO) better. Thanks for sharing this!
posted by filthy light thief at 12:13 PM on January 16, 2018 [32 favorites]

Secret Life of Gravy: "Tim Pawlenty just announced on FOX that he will not be running for the Senate in 2018. So it's Bachmann or bust?"

The thinking is that he might be mulling a run for governor, instead.

Fun fact: Tim Pawlenty never won a majority of votes in his two successful bids for governor. That's because he sucks, but there were 3rd party candidates splitting votes on the left. Also he promised to not raise any taxes and then got around that by raising "fees".
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:13 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

The Whelk: Trump makes everyone on social media as dumb as him

That's a Twitter link, the article itself is here: Trump Is Turning Us All into Him
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:18 PM on January 16, 2018

I'm not entirely sure which way it actually is but here's a fairly authoritative tweet supporting the "not allowed in" perspective:

I don't see anything in that tweet that suggests he wasn't allowed in. All it says is that he is not attending the Bannon interview. That's it.
posted by Justinian at 12:19 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Trump administration will ask Supreme Court to allow it to end DACA (WaPo)

The Justice Department on Tuesday said it would take the “rare step” of asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for the Trump administration to dismantle a federal program that provides work permits to undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States since childhood.

The Department of Justice said it filed a notice of appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking to overturn a California judge’s ruling that the government could not dismantle the Obama-era program while a legal challenge to the decision to end the program is pending.

The Trump administration said later this week it will petition the Supreme Court to intervene in the case, hoping to bypass the 9th circuit altogether in its bid to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in March.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said “it defies both law and common sense” that a “single district court in San Francisco” had halted the administration’s plans.

“We are now taking the rare step of requesting direct review on the merits of this injunction by the Supreme Court so that this issue may be resolved quickly and fairly for all the parties involved,” Sessions said.

The fate of DACA recipients, also known as “dreamers,” is at the heart of a legislative dispute on Capitol Hill that could result in a government shutdown later this week.

posted by Barack Spinoza at 12:19 PM on January 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

So the Republicans, at state and federal levels, are openly stating they won't allow the Judicial branch of government to function independently.

Interesting.
posted by yesster at 12:24 PM on January 16, 2018 [34 favorites]

"if a senator supports something that seems questionable to us we should be able to assume that they know more about than we do so when I see Tim Kaine's name on there it leads me to think I'm missing something rather than that Kaine is supporting evil corporations or something."

I think this is really naive.

So you're saying that it's my responsibility as a citizen to be as informed as a senator on every bill my senator votes on? If that's true that we shouldn't be bothering with representative democracy and just vote directly.

No, it's not naive, it's the way the system is supposed to work, if doesn't work that way, it's evidence that the system is broken. I think we can both agree that the system is broken. But the way it's supposed to work is that I hire senators to look out for and vote in my best interests and then trust them to do so. I don't have time or access to all the experts I'd need to do all the research I'd need to do to really understand this bill and as many of it's implications as are possible but after a bit of checking it seems like the changes they want to make might be a good idea. It's not naive to assume that Tim Kaine DOES have access to those experts and at least his staff DOES have time to do that research. It's not naive to assume that Tim Kaine knows more about this than I do and that his support might be based on that knowledge.
posted by VTX at 12:25 PM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

So the Republicans, at state and federal levels, are openly stating they won't allow the Judicial branch of government to function independently.

Interesting.

Yes, that's what they meant when they condemned "judicial activism" every five minutes for the last 25 years.

Believe the autocrat(s).
posted by tivalasvegas at 12:30 PM on January 16, 2018 [18 favorites]

That's a Twitter link, the article itself is here: Trump Is Turning Us All into Him

That piece did not demonstrate its title's thesis.
posted by octobersurprise at 12:32 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

So the Republicans, at state and federal levels, are openly stating they won't allow the Judicial branch of government to function independently.

Interesting.

Yes, that's what they meant when they condemned "judicial activism" every five minutes for the last 25 years.

To say nothing of those who swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

Feh.
posted by Gelatin at 12:32 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Tim Pawlenty just announced on FOX that he will not be running for the Senate in 2018.

Presumably the state-wide chorus of “Nooooo!” that arose when he floated the idea was enough to convince him. But God, what was he going to run on, his record? Which makes a better sound bite, the 5 billion dollar deficit, or the 13 people who died when the 35W bridge collapsed because he wouldn’t pay to replace it? All the road construction we’re doing now is in many ways because he let the infrastructure go to complete shit when he was governor. At one point he tried to start a campaign to get industry professionals to donate their time to work on government projects rather than paying people actual money to do the fucking jobs that needed to be done. Fuck that guy. Stay home, T-Paw.
posted by Autumnheart at 12:34 PM on January 16, 2018 [29 favorites]

I don't see anything in that tweet that suggests he wasn't allowed in. All it says is that he is not attending the Bannon interview. That's it.

He was seen going towards the SCIF then back from it while Bannon was still inside testifying. He could have unrelated business near it, sure.
posted by scalefree at 12:41 PM on January 16, 2018

Fuck that guy. Stay home, T-Paw.

Check. All he ever did was turn Minnesota from the land of plenty to the land of T-Pawlenty, and it wasn't good.
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:42 PM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

Dr. Jackson on Trump's physical. 75", 239lbs (that's 1lb off from the threshold for obesity). 68 bpm, blood pressure 122/74. Vision 20/30 uncorrected, 20/20 corrected. Exercise stress test demonstrated "above average exercise capacity based on age and sex." All other tests and systems normal. Cognitive screening exam normal: 30/30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (performed because Trump asked him to do it).

Medications: Crestor, aspirin, Propecia (male pattern baldness), Soolantra cream (Roseaca), multivitamin. Also confirmed his influenza vaccine was up to date.

Dr. Jackson suggested he lose some weight and exercise (goal of 10-15 lbs over the next year. "We talked about diet and exercise a lot. He's more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part, but we're going to do both"). Also recommends "a diet lower in fat & carbohydrates."

Some lab results will be in the written statement.
posted by zachlipton at 12:46 PM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

There's a really good thread on Reddit where people are explaining why it's such a big deal that this was a grand jury subpoena.

Every time you’re inclined to get bummed out, understand that the team is the proxy for the quality of the case—on both sides here. When the charges start flying, it’s going to be a blizzard of pain for Trump world.

posted by kirkaracha at 12:46 PM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

He's more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part, but he's going to do both

but his finite allotment of energy!
posted by entropicamericana at 12:49 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

When the charges start flying, it’s going to be a blizzard of pain for Trump world.

I hope that it's all leading up to this.
posted by Jacqueline at 12:49 PM on January 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

So, no presbyopia? He perjured himself when he said he couldn't read without glasses?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:49 PM on January 16, 2018 [32 favorites]

Cognitive screening exam normal: 30/30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (performed because Trump asked him to do it).

So he's not impaired, just stupid
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:52 PM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

I absolutelly call bullshit on Trump's blood pressure, if nothing else.
posted by TwoStride at 12:55 PM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

68 bpm, blood pressure 122/74.

See, a 71-year-old man who subsists primarily on fast food and is not on a medicine to control hypertension? This smells a lot like bullshit.

Nearly perfect vision? No age-related presbyopia? Smells like bullshit.

Exercise stress test demonstrated "above average exercise capacity based on age and sex." I could believe this is if he didn't have a well-documented aversion to exercise AND rides a golf cart everywhere. Hell, he couldn't even keep up with the various leaders of Europe on a gentle stroll.

These things could be believable, if you didn't know a damn thing about the man, but all together along with his well-document personal habits, well...bullshit.
posted by Existential Dread at 12:56 PM on January 16, 2018 [62 favorites]

Well, there’s hasn’t exactly been much of a percentage in being The One Who Pissed Trump Off Today.
posted by Autumnheart at 12:57 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

I’m sure it goes back to the view that admitting the President has any physical weakness would be seen as giving aid and comfort to the enemy, or something. (See also: journalists keeping FDR’s disability under wraps, and physicians keeping quiet about Kennedy’s chronic back pain and painkiller use.).

Frankly, I don’t know why anyone would seriously expect the White House doctor to actually admit the President had any ailment. I’m sure that part of their hiring is the expectation that they would keep such things quiet.
posted by darkstar at 12:58 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

I wouldn't put too much stake in the obesity claim, either--every single chart I've seen has a different cutoff.
posted by Melismata at 12:59 PM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Dr. Jackson just said that not only is Trump fit for duty now, he will be fit for the rest of the term and for the duration of another term. When challenged on that he did a wishy-washy walk-back.

This guy's full of shit. I don't trust any data from him without external corroboration.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:00 PM on January 16, 2018 [33 favorites]

That physical is impossible. There's no way a 6'3" man with that waistline only weighs 239lbs, and there's no way an old man who deliberately never exercises has a heartrate lower than 70 or 75bpm. I don't know why we expected a real report from the Trump whitehouse, but there's no way that isn't a lie.
posted by dis_integration at 1:01 PM on January 16, 2018 [53 favorites]

He's thumping the podium and raving about Trump's stamina and "incredible genes."

This is spectacular nonsense.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:03 PM on January 16, 2018 [32 favorites]

I will add that Dr. Jackson (who was Obama's physician as well) reports that Trump does not wear dentures, and says that Trump was probably just thirsty when he was slurring his words, made worse by some Sudafed he was prescribed at the time; they did some additional tests as a result of that.

"Right now, on a day to day basis, he doesn't have a dedicated defined exercise program. That's what I'm working on. The good part is that we can build on that pretty easily." A nutrition specialist is going to meet with the White House chefs. But he says the President has "a lot of stamina," citing his overseas travel. "He had more stamina and more energy than just about anybody there."

Says he's "very confident" he will make it through this term, if not two terms, without "serious medical issues."

At this point, a reporter straight-up asks Dr. Jackson why a man who eats McDonalds all the time and doesn't exercise is so healthy: "It's called genetics. I don't know...He has incredible genes"
posted by zachlipton at 1:04 PM on January 16, 2018 [13 favorites]

By the way, just a reminder that former GOP Representative, Republican rising star, and Downton Abbey-loving golden boy Aaron Schock has his corruption trial beginning this coming Monday, on January 22nd.

Twenty-two counts of theft of government funds, fraud, making false statements and filing false tax returns. Should be exciting!
posted by darkstar at 1:04 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Four-out-of-five doctors recommend Dr. Jackson shut the fuck up.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:06 PM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

You guys are way too cynical. I’m withholding judgment on Trump’s health until the good doctor lets us know exactly how many consecutive holes-in-one Trump shot on the exam.
posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:07 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Here are some photos of men who are 6'3" and about 240lb.
posted by contraption at 1:07 PM on January 16, 2018 [17 favorites]

> Vision 20/30 uncorrected, 20/20 corrected.

Nearly perfect vision? No age-related presbyopia? Smells like bullshit.

In 2015, Trump complained during a court deposition that he couldn't read a portion of the contract between Trump and a restauranteur without his glasses. ("I don't have my glasses on me," he whined. "I am at a disadvantage because I didn't bring my glasses. This is such small writing.")

But of course we all know that Dear Leader Trump's vision is so superior that he can look directly at a partial eclipse of the sun with no ill effects!
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:10 PM on January 16, 2018 [26 favorites]

Jackson has said the word “stuff” about 200 times and keeps getting weird when pressed for details.

“Hi, everybody!”
posted by Barack Spinoza at 1:12 PM on January 16, 2018 [62 favorites]

For anyone who watched the press briefing, did the doctor really say he told trump if he had a healthy diet he could live to be 200? [Twitter link] Like, did he literally say that?
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:16 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

did the doctor really say he told trump if he had a healthy diet he could live to be 200? [Twitter link] Like, did he literally say that?

It was sort of joking, and he later said Trump won't live to 200, but yes, he said he suggested to the President that he could live to 200 if he had a better diet and exercised in his life.

Anyway, I can't wait for Trump to start tweeting out his 30/30 perfect score on a cognitive assessment. I don't know what version of the assessment was used, but Google tells me it looks something like this.
posted by zachlipton at 1:19 PM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

KC Star: At least four Republican lawmakers are calling for Gov. Eric Greitens (R) to resign after allegations that he blackmailed a woman in an effort to keep her quiet about an extramarital affair.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:21 PM on January 16, 2018 [12 favorites]

Yeah, I weighed about 240 not too long ago, and I looked about like Trump, figure-wise. But I'm five-fucking-nine.
posted by Rykey at 1:25 PM on January 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

Quote: "The president can watch as much TV as he wants."

For me, this is the most unnerving moment in the administration for a while. The doctor is clearly a Trump cultist and his fervor, his obvious lying, and his phrasing tailored for an audience of one are so typical of authoritarian regimes. It's a demeanor that reminds me of Flynn: there's loyalty and fanaticism, yes, but he's also clearly telling lies that he'd rather not be, and with just a little fear and flopsweat. Dark stuff.
posted by Rust Moranis at 1:28 PM on January 16, 2018 [50 favorites]

Yeah, I weighed about 240 not too long ago, and I looked about like Trump, figure-wise. But I'm five-fucking-nine.

Yep. I'm 5' 10", weight about 240, and my figure pretty much matches Trump's. There is no way whatsoever that man weighs 239 lbs.

The question is is he lying because he's being forced to, or because he's a cultist?
posted by dirigibleman at 1:32 PM on January 16, 2018 [5 favorites]

Here are some photos of men who are 6'3" and about 240lb.

Remember that those photos in that link are of relatively young, active/healthy men. Fwiw, my late Stepdad was 6’2” and 238 in his 80s and sedentary, and he did look rather like Trump.

When you get older, you lose a LOT of muscle mass, especially if you don’t exercise. So your weight ends up disproportionately in your belly and ass. So while the weight quoted might indeed be fraudulent, I could still believe Trump is right around 240, because he probably has little muscle mass anywhere, and the weight is disproportionately around his gut and butt.
posted by darkstar at 1:32 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

dis_integration: "That physical is impossible. There's no way a 6'3" man with that waistline only weighs 239lbs, and there's no way an old man who deliberately never exercises has a heartrate lower than 70 or 75bpm. I don't know why we expected a real report from the Trump whitehouse, but there's no way that isn't a lie."

I'm actually 6'2" and about 235 right now and there's no way that he only weighs 239. Also I can't imagine how he could have that heart-rate and blood pressure at his height, weight and lack of conditioning. The man is a walking stroke and the idea that he could have BP of 122/74 without serious meds is fantasy.
posted by octothorpe at 1:33 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

68 bpm, blood pressure 122/74.

But I note it mentions Crestor and aspirin - I'm assuming aspirin must be a daily thing to get mentioned in this context. So those blood pressure numbers are with medication.
posted by dnash at 1:33 PM on January 16, 2018

"It's called genetics. I don't know...He has incredible genes"

Are we sure this isn't Stephen Miller wearing the Dr.'s skin
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 1:35 PM on January 16, 2018 [31 favorites]

68 bpm, blood pressure 122/74.

But I note it mentions Crestor and aspirin - I'm assuming aspirin must be a daily thing to get mentioned in this context. So those blood pressure numbers are with medication.

Neither of those meds treats hypertension directly, but may manage associated risk factors (blood clot with aspirin, cholesterol with Crestor). Without an ACE inhibitor or beta blocker, and based on his level of sodium intake among other factors, his blood pressure should be much higher despite the other medications.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:41 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Might I suggest that this physical is something that doesn't merit burdening the mods with many comments about? We can discuss it endlessly but at the end of the day we don't have all the facts, we're never going to get all the facts, and short of him being literally about to die, it was never going to have much effect on the world one way or another.
posted by Candleman at 1:42 PM on January 16, 2018 [43 favorites]

zachlipton: I can't wait for Trump to start tweeting out his 30/30 perfect score on a cognitive assessment. I don't know what version of the assessment was used, but Google tells me it looks something like this.

So those are obviously pretty simple, except one I honestly think would give me trouble: The serial sevens part. I get a bit stuck after thinking "100, 93..." Maybe because of elementary-school math anxiety? Anyway, it would truly surprise me if he passed it. This is not a guy I see as capable of basic mental math, but that might be my "calculator generation" standpoint. Going back to yesterday's discussion, a reporter should just flat-out ask him to do it on live TV, in a real egging-him-on tone so he'll feel weak for backing down.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 1:42 PM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

How much is the doctor allowed to say? Surely even doctor/patient privilege applies to the POTUS as well?
posted by PenDevil at 1:44 PM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

I can't wait for Trump to start tweeting out his 30/30 perfect score on a cognitive assessment.

Too bad there's no Shitty Character Traits Multiphasic Index.
posted by FelliniBlank at 1:48 PM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

"It's called genetics. I don't know...He has incredible genes"

Either they don't want to let on that he has six months to live or he's a Deep One.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:49 PM on January 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

Sanders is unable to say anything about the "Fake News Awards" scheduled for tomorrow. She just calls is a "potential event." So are the awards themselves fake?

How much is the doctor allowed to say? Surely even doctor/patient privilege applies to the POTUS as well?

There were repeated questions on this, and the physician says he was allowed to say anything and everything, including specific questions about whether anything was omitted from the medication list (no). The man spoke for nearly an hour, answering all questions, and as Yair Rosenberg put it: "This doctor's press conference is already more competent than any that has taken place during this presidency." The C-SPAN feed caught a reporter saying something like "felt like Josh Earnest is back."

I guess what I'm saying is, imagine if we could do this for his tax returns as well.
posted by zachlipton at 1:50 PM on January 16, 2018 [11 favorites]

I find the amount of at a distance diagnosis and carny weigh-guessing going on here kind of amazing. I am not normally prone to the "don't you have better things to worry about?" line of thought but even if this is the biggest yarn ever it seems way down the list of things they've lied to us about, importance-wise. Why not just assume that he really did win the genetic lottery on this and is still a tremendous asshole?
posted by phearlez at 1:54 PM on January 16, 2018 [9 favorites]

I suppose the reason for the cognitive test was to tamp down all the chatter around the 25th amendment option.

And also the President’s unquenchable thirst for praise.
posted by notyou at 1:54 PM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

I don't know why we expected a real report from the Trump whitehouse, but there's no way that isn't a lie.
posted by dis_integration at 5:01 AM on January 17 [1 favorite +] [!]

We expected a real report from the Trump White House? When was that? Why would we have ever expected that? A friend of mine is currently in an abusive relationship with someone who chokes her, and she's always surprised when, after a stretch of "good behavior", he does something atrocious. "I guess that's love", she says. I always come back with, "Nope, it's an addiction to the highs and lows, girlfriend, and it's a habit you gotta break."

It's certainly not impossible that he's some sort of sycophant, but it's also possible that being the White House Physician carries with it some giant conflicts of interest and some divergent incentives. And regardless of how much I trust him, I 100% do not trust Trump to bring every possible pressure on him -- or any other doctor -- to give him a substantially clean bill of health.

In any other situation, would I trust Trump's score on a test where Trump gets to pick the person overseeing the test; where Trump's office employees the person scoring the test; and where Trump gets to take the test privately? I would not.
posted by cjelli at 5:47 AM on January 17 [+] [!]

Near death or no, he's an abusive, lying, conniving bully who provides cover for millions of deplorables. That, not to what degree he is a Weekend at Bernie's avatar, should be our concern. Yer damn right he lied.

Sanders is unable to say anything about the "Fake News Awards" scheduled for tomorrow. She just calls is a "potential event." So are the awards themselves fake?

The "Fake News Awards" are the ravings of a lunatic defended by a sycophant. Noise. Chaff. Arya Stark treatment for both lies, and rest only when his complicit children and cabal are in prison, is how I'm handling.
posted by saysthis at 2:01 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

So, story time. Narassist MIL has a non cancerious brain tumor and is diagnosed with alzheimers. She's still super functional but she does wierd things now and again. Anyway, she signed up for a reseach study that was going to do a cognative assessment.
She'd had them before because she's got this history.

She practiced for the assessment because she didn't want to look bad and wanted to impress doctors that she was doing so well.

It disqualified her from the study, but she couldn't quite understand why. And also, why you shouldn't and can't practice these things.

Of course she didn't tell the doctors she practiced either.

I bet he did get a 30 out of 30. But I do wonder if he prepped first, especially because he requested the test.
posted by AlexiaSky at 2:28 PM on January 16, 2018 [18 favorites]

Best hashtag for only the best genes.
posted by jgirl at 2:29 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm Trump's height and I'm about 26 pounds heavier (at least with clothes) than what the doctor reported for his weight. At a doctor's visit this week, my resting heart rate was 63 bpm and my blood pressure was 105/58.

However, 2 years ago, my weight was about the same and my BP was 134/76. Visually, I think I looked about the same. My fiancée says I'm thinner now but I don't think so really.

The difference in the those two years I took up surfing/cycing and now I spend hours a week exercising. My diet is slightly better.

My point is, looking height/weight (therefore BMI) and trying to figure out health is bullshit. I'm not saying the physical is all on the up and up, but I've kept the same BMI yet my health has gone from "you're going to be on BP meds before you hit 40" to "your cardiovascular health is on track to be amazing" in just 22 months.
posted by sideshow at 2:30 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

(We are more than 2000 comments in. Someone should make a post with a laughing title, so the immediately following Thread can contain some indictments).
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:30 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm glad Trump is very healthy and has no mental impairment. One less way for him to dodge his incoming prison sentence.
posted by ryanrs at 2:33 PM on January 16, 2018 [34 favorites]

Trump, in contrast, was today said to have a life expectancy “the same as every other American male.” Dr. Jackson seems to have just said, quite directly, that he expects Trump to die in office if he's re-elected in 2020, since average life expectancy for an American male is 78 years old.

That's the life expectancy of an American male at birth. The life expectancy of an American male at age 71 is about 86 years old.
posted by Justinian at 2:35 PM on January 16, 2018 [13 favorites]

the physician says he was allowed to say anything and everything, including specific questions about whether anything was omitted from the medication list (no).

Did anyone ask him if Trump had any history of STDs? I seriously wonder if Trump might be suffering from syphilitic dementia.
posted by msalt at 2:37 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

While most of the tax-cut news talks about how it will give a bump to the economy and stoke inflation, this snip from a Morgan Stanley research note today I found interesting - he's arguing that the tax cut may prove to be deflationary (and thus widely perceived as a negative drag on the economy):

"Competing Cuts Away – If the risk adjusted returns on capital ultimately normalize in competitive markets, then a boost from lower taxes may be competed away over time. Companies now have room to give on pricing and still make similar post-tax returns, creating room to seek market share. This threat would be especially acute in industries with undifferentiated products and high price elasticity –- Retail, Restaurants, Travel/Leisure, Consumer Staples, Telco, Financials (esp. those geared to commercial lending), and Distributors (across sectors) for example."

posted by H. Roark at 2:38 PM on January 16, 2018

Anne Branigin, The Root: Racists Commemorate MLK Day by Hitting Northern Va. Community With KKK Fliers

[…] this isn’t the first time racist fliers have hit Leesburg—in fact, it’s not even the first incident in the last six months.

Last Halloween, according to multiple outlets, locals received bags filled with candy and messages warning of “white extinction.”

That’s a strange amount of economic anxiety for a county dubbed the richest in America in 2017, huh?

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:39 PM on January 16, 2018 [13 favorites]

And here's the final sentence from Obama's 2016 report, which I haven't heard the same Dr. say about Trump, and don't expect to see in the written report:

"All clinical data indicates that the President is currently very healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his Presidency."

Trump, in contrast, was today said to have a life expectancy “the same as every other American male.” Dr. Jackson seems to have just said, quite directly, that he expects Trump to die in office if he's re-elected in 2020, since average life expectancy for an American male is 78 years old.

According to Twitter, the doctor did in fact say trump was likely to survive not only this term put potentially a second term, as well. (I didn't personally watch the briefing, however.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:42 PM on January 16, 2018

without mention of how many terms that is presumed to be.

Or months.
posted by maxsparber at 2:48 PM on January 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Multiple people on twitter, including Daniel Dale have quoted the doctor as saying Trump will remain fit through a second term.

Seconding Candleman, filling this thread up with comments parsing exactly what the doctor said or didn't say and what that possibly means is a fool's errand and a mod's bad day. Nothing was ever going to come of it.
posted by Roommate at 2:53 PM on January 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

Agreed, let's rein it in folks.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 2:54 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hey, I wonder who came up with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment anyway.

National Post, How an immigrant to Canada helped Donald Trump prove his mental health

Ziad Nasreddine has just learned that the Montreal Cognitive Assessment he developed as a young neurologist two decades ago was used to assess the cognitive functions of one of the world’s most powerful people.

Nasreddine says he designed it as a way to quickly assess, within 10 or 12 minutes, whether someone has suffered light cognitive impairment or the onset of Alzheimer’s disease; he says it’s now been used in 200 countries in 60 languages.

Nasreddine says the exam doesn’t test for everything: it doesn’t examine judgment, or personality, and in certain cases, he says, it can be duped by an extremely educated subject.

But he’s uniquely proud of one thing, and he hopes the president draws lessons from it: This shows how immigrants, and Arabs, can make valuable contributions to American society. Nasreddine came to Canada as a teenager with his family during the civil war in his homeland, Lebanon.

posted by zachlipton at 2:56 PM on January 16, 2018 [25 favorites]

Oliver Darcy reports that Fox News had the Stormy Daniels story before the election, including an on-the record statement confirming a sexual relationship from her manager, and Fox killed the story.

And someone has hacked the Twitter accounts of both Eric Bolling and Greta Van Sustern, filling them with pro-Turkey propaganda. What do they have in common? They're both among the 45 accounts followed by Trump.
posted by zachlipton at 3:16 PM on January 16, 2018 [24 favorites]

Nasreddine says the exam doesn’t test for everything: it doesn’t examine judgment, or personality, and in certain cases, he says, it can be duped by an extremely educated subject.

I work for an Alzheimer Society and just want to say he's being quite honest; the MoCA isn't exactly top secret, nor does it change - we've heard of people who prepare for it in advance and can get good scores despite impairment. Not saying that is what happened here, nor that Trump has any form of dementia, just that the MoCA is part of a good comprehensive assessment, not a sole indicator.
posted by nubs at 3:26 PM on January 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

Why not just assume that he really did win the genetic lottery on this and is still a tremendous asshole?

BECAUSE WE'RE HOPING TO SEE HIM DIE
posted by poffin boffin at 3:38 PM on January 16, 2018 [41 favorites]

...so if you don't know, now you know.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:40 PM on January 16, 2018 [9 favorites]

poffin boffin 2020
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 3:45 PM on January 16, 2018 [6 favorites]

They started the cloture vote in the Senate for FISA 702 (wiretapping) re-authorization an hour ago, and they're seemingly stuck a few votes short. Lee, Paul, Leahy, Cruz, and Wyden were working on Sen. Kennedy, as McCaskill and McCain have also not voted.
posted by zachlipton at 3:47 PM on January 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

Trevor Aarinson, Intercept: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SKEWS TERROR DATA TO JUSTIFY ANTI-MUSLIM TRAVEL BAN

The data in the report, released today, would appear to support Trump’s policies of limiting immigration from Muslim-majority nations out of national security concerns. However, the report appears to rely on a dataset that has been carefully selected to support the Trump administration’s anti-Muslim policies. […]

The report found that of 549 defendants prosecuted for international terrorism from September 11, 2001, to December 31, 2016, 402 were born outside the United States — suggesting the threat of international terrorism is disproportionately greater among those born outside the country. The report said the 549 defendants come from “a list maintained by DOJ’s National Security Division.”

But there’s a curious problem with the number of defendants — 549 — on whom the report’s conclusions are based.

The DOJ list that is referenced in the new report is well-known among national security journalists and researchers because it has been released periodically over the years. In March 2010, then-Attorney General Eric Holder presented it to Congress as part of testimony. The list then included 403 defendants. A second version, updated through December 31, 2014, had 580 defendants. A third list ending in 2015 included 627 international terrorism defendants.

Yet somehow a list of defendants ending December 31, 2016, cited in this new report, has just 549 defendants. The report does not provide the raw data or any further description of the data used; it does not explain how a list that contained 627 names in 2015 and 580 names in 2014 now includes far fewer, 549. Devin O’Malley, a Justice Department spokesperson assigned to answer questions about the report, declined to comment about the mysteriously shrinking defendant list.

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:53 PM on January 16, 2018 [13 favorites]

From the story linked by filthy light thief, about the woman who compiled a database of far-right whackjobs:

ONE MORNING IN December, I visited Squire in her small university office. She had agreed to show me the database. First she logged onto a foreign server, where she has placed Whack-a-Mole to keep it out of the US government’s reach.

Emphasis mine. How far we've fallen…
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:58 PM on January 16, 2018 [12 favorites]

Meet Antifa's Secret Weapon Against Far-Right Extremists (Doug Bock Clark for Wired, Jan. 16, 2018)

Except it's not just Antifa, but also Southern Poverty Law Center and law enforcement agencies who gets information from Megan Squire and her Whack-A-Mole social network scraping and databasing efforts.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:03 PM on January 16 [3 favorites +] [!]

I think the point is that databasing and intelligence is most of what antifa does, and there's not so much organization as a tactic.

like the black bloc--if you wear black, it's a signal for a tactic. if you database nazis...
posted by eustatic at 4:04 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Axios: The Trump administration’s most audacious legislative idea ever will never see the light — but it shows how this White House has been looking for ways to salt the earth for its Democratic successors.
posted by Chrysostom at 4:09 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

@realDonaldTrump: New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....
....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based.

So what's going on with this report?

First, Trump left out a word. The report looks at convictions for "international terrorism-related charges." The word "international" is a big clue there; the people charged with such offenses are, by definition, more likely to be from other countries. That a high percentage of those charged with international terrorism are from international locations is unsurprising. It's like breathlessly reporting that a high percentage of out-of-home burrito-related food poisoning cases are related to Mexican restaurants.

Then, they've counted as "immigrants" people who committed terrorism abroad and were extradited to the US. To drag terrorists to the US from other countries, then declare them to be terrorist immigrants by virtue of their presence in the US,

Then they've messed with the list of terror defendants without explanation, as Johnny Wallflower notes.

Then, they've defined international terrorism to encompass only a particular set of charges regardless of who commits them: "The new DOJ/DHS report does not account for attacks inspired by American ideologies, such as white supremacy, because those crimes are not charged as international terrorism."

Even for this White House, this is dishonest as hell.
posted by zachlipton at 4:10 PM on January 16, 2018 [83 favorites]

@ZekeJMiller: WASHINGTON (AP) - Navy: Commanding officers in 2 deadly ship collisions in Pacific are charged with negligent homicide.

Holy shit.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:12 PM on January 16, 2018 [30 favorites]

In the "nothing matters" file, Trump's approval/disapproval numbers continue to improve and there is as yet no evidence that the shithole comment has hurt him at all and his numbers are the best they've been since mid-September. Any further improvement and they'll have broken out of the 37-40 range they've been at for 10 months.

I don't understand anything about people.
posted by Justinian at 4:13 PM on January 16, 2018 [21 favorites]

After an hour and a half or so, Kennedy and McCaskill did it, voting yes on cloture for FISA 702 renewal. I wouldn't be that surprised if a couple Senators did a talking filibuster for some long number of hours before it passes in the next couple days.
posted by zachlipton at 4:13 PM on January 16, 2018

Claire caved. No one could've seen that coming.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:15 PM on January 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I guess it’s my turn again to make a new Trumpocalypse thread.

Incoming threadfall - warm up your dragons!
posted by darkstar at 4:17 PM on January 16, 2018 [27 favorites]

Democrats continue to treat Trump like a normal president, despite everything they want us to believe they're doing to fight back.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:18 PM on January 16, 2018 [16 favorites]

Where we are as a country: G.O.P. Weighs Children’s Health Insurance as Lure for Averting Shutdown

With little hope of an immigration agreement this week, Republicans in Congress are considering a plan to head off a government shutdown this weekend by pairing another stopgap spending measure with long-term funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, daring Democrats to vote no.

The bill would leave in limbo hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. But Democrats would still be left with a difficult political decision: withhold their votes unless the plight of such immigrants, known as Dreamers, is addressed and risk a government shutdown, or vote to keep the government open and fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for nearly nine million children.

The bill would set up another possible showdown in mid-February, when government funding would again be set to expire. But it would give lawmakers time to continue negotiations on immigration and long-term government funding levels.

Last I heard, they're going to try to get a 1-month CR through the House with Republican votes (it's not entirely clear to me they have those), then dump it on the Senate and dare Democrats to vote no.

In more delicious news, Bannon will be approaching 10 hours of questioning by House Intel.
posted by zachlipton at 4:30 PM on January 16, 2018 [19 favorites]

New thread! ——->

New thread! ——->

New thread! ——->
posted by darkstar at 4:35 PM on January 16, 2018 [7 favorites]

where she has placed Whack-a-Mole to keep it out of the US government’s reach.
Emphasis mine. How far we've fallen…

Not really. It's good practice if you're investigating politically sensitive stuff on your own turf, because of bad actors within security services abusing their power and position, regardless of government. It's what I'd do, no matter how much I trusted the politicians in charge at the time.

Assume this phone is tapped - always good advice if you're in danger of annoying unscrupulous people who may have friends.
posted by Devonian at 4:45 PM on January 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

In the "nothing matters" file, Trump's approval/disapproval numbers continue to improve...I don't understand anything about people.

Again I really recommend this Louis Menand piece. What would we do differently if we recognized this level of support for nationalism and racism not as a Trump phenomenon, but as a baseline condition of the US population?
posted by Miko at 9:17 AM on January 17, 2018 [4 favorites]

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