A scary vision

Toward the end of Jeffery Deaver's The Skin Collector, Rhyme reflects that, though Muslim terrorism in the US gets all the press and generates the outrage, the Christian, racist, white male supremacist and bitterly Nativist radical right has always been a much greater policing problem, causing more violence and bloodshed.

You can't read the last hundred pages or so without finding the rise of Trump and Trumpism all the more horrifying.

See this on Kansas, Fox News, and terrorism.

If the point was at least in part to discourage immigration or to encourage immigrants to leave, this plot to commit hate crimes was indeed a terrorist plot.

Heresy at the Vatican?

Vatican scrambles after pope appears to deny existence of hell

Maybe.

But maybe not.

The Vatican has scrambled to clarify comments made by Pope Francis to a well-known Italian journalist that appeared to deny the existence of hell.

The Holy See issued a terse statement saying a lengthy article published in La Repubblica on Wednesday by Eugenio Scalfari, 93, the newspaper’s founder, was “the fruit of his reconstruction” and not “a faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words”.

While the Vatican conceded that Scalfari, an atheist who struck up a friendship with Francis in 2013, had held a private meeting with the pontiff before the Easter weekend, it said an interview had not been granted.

During the meeting Scalfari asked the pope where “bad souls” go, to which he was quoted as responding: 

“They are not punished.

"Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear.

"A hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”

The Vatican said the “literal words pronounced by the pope are not quoted” and that “no quotation of the article should be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father”.

Scalfari is said to pride himself on not taking notes or recording high-profile interviews.

But this is not the first time he has been accused of misrepresenting the pope: in 2014 he was rebuked by the Vatican for an article saying Francis had abolished sin.

Nostromo and the silver of the mine

Senora Teresa as much as tells him to steal it.

Doctor Monygham does the same.

He does not seem to have thought of that, already, himself.

About the middle of the book.

The measure of the man

All the president's thugs

Time to end the madness, eh?

Repeal the Second Amendment

John Paul Stevens in the NY Times.

Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. 

These demonstrations demand our respect. 

They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.

That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. 

But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. 

They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.

. . . .

In 2008, the Supreme Court overturned Chief Justice Burger’s and others’ long-settled understanding of the Second Amendment’s limited reach by ruling, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that there was an individual right to bear arms.

I was among the four dissenters.

That decision — which I remain convinced was wrong and certainly was debatable — has provided the N.R.A. with a propaganda weapon of immense power. 

Overturning that decision via a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.’s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.

Faith

I have no faith whatever in the world according to physics.

Nor in the world of experience; if I did I would be a naive realist, a dupe of the natural standpoint.

Her lawyer just now on MSNBC about Stormy Daniels and Trump

"She can describe his genitalia," he said.

Please, God, no.

A constitutional right to a stupid, dangerous hobby is a lunatic idea

Defending the Second Amendment is like defending a constitutional right to recreational use of opioids.

Except the danger and harm fall on others, in the case of guns.

Morons will believe or defend anything.

Demonstrators Who Brought Guns and an Opposing Message: ‘Shoot Back’

They showed up in far smaller numbers than the gun control folks.

More baseless race-baiting bitching in the Guardian

Why Mark Anthony Conditt – a white Christian – isn't called a terrorist

Daniel José Camacho says it's white privilege and white racism.

Racial and religious privilege intersect in how the Austin serial bomber is being perceived

If a Muslim man planted bombs in predominately white neighborhoods before blowing himself up, you could bet that the White House and various media outlets would label him a terrorist and draw some connection between his religion and his violent acts. 

But the case of the Austin bomber reveals an enduring double standard: white Christian terrorists continue to get a free pass.

. . . .

Racial and religious privilege intersect in how Conditt is being perceived. 

Because he is white, his acts are reduced to a personal problem even though white American men have consistently posed a bigger domestic terrorist threat than Muslim foreigners who get treated as systemic threat. 

Since Conditt is a Christian, his faith is considered coincidental in spite of the fact that conservative survivalist circles explicitly pursue a racialized, apocalyptic social project.

But not every crime of violence, nor even every hate crime, is an act of terrorism.

And while it's pretty clear Conditt's bombings were hate crimes as he targeted only blacks, they do not appear to have been intended to alter anyone's behavior, political or otherwise, through terror.

Camacho knows that perfectly well, but objects to this reality because, well, it's just so racist.

Many refuse to label Conditt a terrorist over technicalities involving whether his acts were clearly “politically motivated.” 

But that’s the luxury of being white. 

To be white is to be considered culturally and politically neutral even when you’re part of a long legacy of white extremists.

Another reality he seems to know is that the people who attack abortion clinics, people seeking abortions, or people supporting the legality of abortions are recognized to do so precisely to change behavior through terror.

And they are almost exclusively white Christians.

They not only are terrorists but are regularly called that in the media, white Christians though they be.

And the same is true of the Klan.

Not good enough for Camacho.

There is no pleasing him.

Parkland students at the Guardian

Parkland students take over The Guardian

Their Manifesto

The changes we propose:

• Ban semi-automatic weapons that fire high-velocity rounds
• Ban accessories that simulate automatic weapons [and high capacity magazines]
• Establish a database of gun sales and universal background checks
• Change privacy laws to allow mental healthcare providers to communicate with law enforcement
• Close gun show and secondhand sales loopholes
• Allow the CDC to make recommendations for gun reform
• Raise the firearm purchase age to 21
• Dedicate more funds to mental health research and professionals
• Increase funding for school security

Every one a good idea.

You can lead a horse to water . . .

American Adults Just Keep Getting Fatter

American adults continue to put on the pounds. 

New data shows that nearly 40 percent of them were obese in 2015 and 2016, a sharp increase from a decade earlier, federal health officials reported Friday.

The prevalence of severe obesity in American adults is also rising, heightening their risks of developing heart disease, diabetes and various cancers. 

According to the latest data, published Friday in JAMA, 7.7 percent of American adults were severely obese in the same period.

The data — gathered in a large-scale federal survey that is considered the gold standard for health data — measured trends in obesity from 2015 and 2016 back to 2007 and 2008, when 5.7 percent of American adults were severely obese and 33.7 percent were obese. 

The survey counted people with a body mass index of 30 or more as obese, and those with a B.M.I. of 40 or more as severely obese.

Public health experts said that they were alarmed by the continuing rise in obesity among adults and by the fact that efforts to educate people about the health risks of a poor diet do not seem to be working.

. . . .

In recent NAFTA negotiations, the Trump administration has proposed rules favored by major food companies that would limit the ability of the United States, Mexico and Canada to require prominent labels on packaged foods warning about the health risks of foods high in sugar and fat.

While the latest survey data doesn’t explain why Americans continue to get heavier, nutritionists and other experts cite lifestyle, genetics, and, most importantly, a poor diet as factors. 

Fast food sales in the United States rose 22.7 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to Euromonitor, while packaged food sales rose 8.8 percent.

On 4/25/2015 I weighed in, stark naked first thing in the morning, at 297 pounds with a BMI of 40.3, putting me at the 98th percentile among men of the same age and height.

That was a lifetime max I reached after retiring on 3/1 of the same year.

Today I weigh 196 with a BMI of 26.6, putting me at the 49th percentile.

My doctor tells me firmly to not lose more.

Calorie control relying on nutrition information, a pyrex graduated cup measure, and a food scale from Bed, Bath, and Beyond was how I did it, and still do it.

Oh, and a little Cassio calculator my wife bought me to check my arithmetic.

And a cheat sheet on which I have scribbled the calories per ounce or gram of many of our favorite foods.

And one day a week, every week, on which we don't count the calories and eat meals we know are above our regular daily limits.

Things like surf and turf, ribs, Thanksgiving dinner, or pot roast.

President Asshole

The threat of a veto was just to attract attention to him blathering, bragging, whining, declaiming, attacking Democrats and Obama for dreadfully weakening the military and for many other things, insisting the senate abolish the filibuster, demanding a line item veto, and so on and so on, and berating the congress - a Republican controlled congress - for not giving him exactly, everything, and only what he wants.

The Republican senate could kill the filibuster but doesn't want to.

A line item veto would require a constitutional amendment and make the presidency much stronger in the legislative process.

The constitution assigns the president the power to veto only whole bills.

There's a reason they called him a moron

Wall St. Turns Lower Amid Fears of U.S.-China Trade War

The bad news is that he didn't drop protectionism after the special election in the PA 18th.

Markets in the United States fell on Thursday, as President Trump announced $60 billion worth of annual tariffs on Chinese imports. 

That appeared to be the opening salvo of a trade war, as Beijing announced its own retaliatory tariffs on more than 100 items, including American pork and wine.

President Goofy.

He did say he loves a good shutdown.

He definitely loves drama.

The un-Obama.

Trump Says He May Veto Spending Bill, Risking Government Shutdown

President Trump threatened on Friday to veto a $1.3 trillion spending package just hours before the government was set to shut down for lack of funds, lashing out over Congress’s failure to fund his long-promised border wall.

“I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded,” Mr. Trump posted on Twitter in a message that imperiled a sweeping bipartisan agreement brokered by congressional leaders over his reservations.

Congress has gone home so there will be no Continuing Resolution to kick the can down the road.

If he vetoes this bill he already told the GOP and Dem congressional leadership he would sign the government will shut down at midnight tonight.

The Duce wants to be a war president

He picked the right guy.

McMaster is out and Bolton is in.

Yes, John Bolton Really Is That Dangerous

The good thing about John Bolton, President Trump’s new national security adviser, is that he says what he thinks.

The bad thing is what he thinks.

There are few people more likely than Mr. Bolton is to lead the country into war. 

. . . .

Coupled with his nomination of the hard-line C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, as secretary of state, Mr. Trump is indulging his worst nationalistic instincts. 

Mr. Bolton, in particular, believes the United States can do what it wants without regard to international law, treaties or the political commitments of previous administrations.

He has argued for attacking North Korea to neutralize the threat of its nuclear weapons, which could set off a horrific war costing thousands of lives. 

At the same time, he has disparaged diplomatic efforts, including the talks planned in late May between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. 

He not only wants to abrogate the six-party deal that, since 2015, has significantly limited Iran’s nuclear program, he called for bombing Iran instead. 

He has also maligned the United Nations and other multilateral conventions, as Mr. Trump has done, favoring unilateral solutions.

. . . .

While Mr. Trump’s criticism of the Iraq war during the campaign raised the possibility that he might take a less aggressive stance on foreign policy, no one was a more vociferous proponent of that disastrous invasion than Mr. Bolton, a position he has not renounced. 

At the time, Mr. Bolton said Iraqis would welcome American troops and the United States’ military role would be over quickly as Iraqis exercised their new freedom from Saddam Hussein and established a democracy. It was the sort of simplistic and wrongheaded position he takes on most policies.

. . . .

Bringing on the fiery Mr. Bolton now, at a delicate moment with North Korea, is a terrible decision. While Mr. Trump has often threatened North Korea with military action, he accepted Mr. Kim’s invitation to a summit, brokered by South Korea’s president, who is eager for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis.

Mr. Bolton, by contrast, told Fox News earlier this month that talks would be worthless and has called South Korean leaders “putty in North Korea’s hands.” 

On February 28, he insisted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that “it is perfectly legitimate for the United States to respond to the current ‘necessity’ posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons by striking first.”

Last summer he wrote in the Journal, “The U.S. should obviously seek South Korea’s agreement (and Japan’s) before using force, but no foreign government, even a close ally, can veto an action to protect Americans from Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons.”

On Iran, Mr. Bolton and the president are in sync, with both arguing that the United States should withdraw from the nuclear agreement by a May deadline. 

In March 2015, he argued in a New York Times op-ed that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq or its 2007 destruction of a Syrian reactor “can accomplish what is required.”

‘The Whole World Should Be Concerned’

“Bolton is relentless, intelligent and effective,” said François Heisbourg of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who as a French military analyst dealt with Mr. Bolton during the administration of George W. Bush. 

“But he’s not a neoconservative and has no interest in democracy promotion. He is a man of the Trumpian world — no allies, no multilateralism.”

Stephen Bush of the center-left British magazine New Statesman said that Mr. Bolton was “the man who makes neoconservatives say, ‘Steady on, old chap.” ’

Nigel Sheinwald, a former British ambassador to Washington and to the European Union, also dealt with Mr. Bolton on Iran and arms control.

“He tried to push Bush policy in a much more extreme direction,” Mr. Sheinwald said. 

“Given that the U.S. and the U.K. had so much at stake together, he was oddly deaf to the idea that America had allies and was very critical of the U.K. in almost everything we did,” especially over Iran.

The collapsing Bolivarian Revolution

A country run by the most incompetent socialist hacks in the entire Western Hemisphere.

‘We’re Losing the Fight’: Tuberculosis Batters a Venezuela in Crisis

Tuberculosis, a disease that until recently seemed to be under control in Venezuela, is making an aggressive comeback, overwhelming a broken health care system ill equipped for its return, doctors and infectious disease specialists say.

The illness — like malaria, diphtheria and measles — has surged in Venezuela during a profound economic crisis that has battered almost every aspect of life and driven an exodus of Venezuelans, including many experienced doctors.

Though normally associated with the very poor, tuberculosis has begun to stalk a broader population of Venezuelans, including the middle class. Declining nutrition from food shortages and rising stress throughout the country may be weakening immune systems, doctors say, leaving people more susceptible to illness.

And with more families sinking into poverty, people have been forced to double up in increasingly crowded homes, accelerating transmission of the disease.

“Tuberculosis is the shadow of misery,” said Dr. José Félix Oletta, a former Venezuelan health minister. “If there’s a disease that is a marker of poverty, it’s tuberculosis.”

The Venezuelan government has not released health statistics since early last year, part of a sustained effort to keep the extent of the country’s decline secret.

. . . .

The Venezuela government’s tuberculosis prevention and control program was once among the most robust in the hemisphere, with the nation boasting one of the lowest rates of infection in Latin America, experts say.

But as the country has fallen apart under President Nicolás Maduro, who took office in 2013, the government has let the tuberculosis threat slip from its control, losing decades’ worth of gains.

Doctors have also observed the return of particularly complicated varieties of the disease, as well as more cases involving strains that are highly resistant to drug therapies.

. . . .

Doctors say tuberculosis infection rates in Venezuela are probably still well beneath the levels afflicting countries, mainly in sub-Saharan African and Asia, that have the worst tuberculosis epidemics.

Still, experts say, with the disintegration of Venezuela’s health system, there is little to prevent tuberculosis from spiraling out of control.

“The problem is the country doesn’t have the power to stop it,” said Dr. Julian Villalba, a Venezuelan tuberculosis expert.

A rigged system

NPR and others reported their observers of the Russian presidentials saw brazen stuffing of the ballot boxes, people returning repeatedly to cast multiple votes, and so on.

And yet, Putin is much more popular among voters in his country than Bozo is among Americans and would have won by a huge margin without chicanery.

Perhaps it was an intentional gesture of contempt - no doubt applauded by many of his supporters whose attitude is even worse than that of the Duce's - for honest politics, for the rule of law, for adherence to republican integrity.

Trump Congratulates Putin

President Trump called on Tuesday to congratulate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on his re-election, but did not raise with him the lopsided nature of his victory, Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election or Moscow’s role in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter living in Britain.

Instead, Mr. Trump kept the focus of the call on what the White House said were “shared interests” — among them, North Korea and Ukraine — overruling his national security advisers, who had urged him to raise Russia’s recent behavior.

“We had a very good call,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he had just welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. 

“We will probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future.”

The president’s upbeat characterization came five days after his administration imposed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the election and for other “malicious cyberattacks,” the most significant action it has taken against Moscow since Mr. Trump took office. 

The United States also joined Britain, France and Germany in denouncing the Russian government for violating international law for the attack on the spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.

. . . .

Republican lawmakers, even those who have resisted criticizing Mr. Trump, faulted him for congratulating Mr. Putin.

“When I look at a Russian election, what I see is a lack of credibility in tallying the results,” said the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. 

“Calling him wouldn’t have been high on my list.”

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was harsher.

“An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections,” he said in a statement. 

“And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime.”

An idealist of capitalism

Charles Gould and his wife are far more eloquent and compelling than any creation of Ayn Rand.

But of course Conrad puts her far in the shade in every way.

Nostromo, The Silver of the Mine, chapter 6, the last few pages.

Trump to call for death penalty for drug dealers, says MSNBC

Imitating Duterte, whose methods he has praised, the Duce probably only regrets he can't run death squads like those in the Philippines.

His White House has already repealed Obama regulations aimed at shrinking the vast over-supply of opioids that feeds the epidemic and that the drug companies prosper by.

Update, 3/21/18, 1058 hrs EDT.

Trump’s Bluster on the Opioid Epidemic

The president went on at length about his preposterous proposal to fight the scourge of drugs by executing drug dealers — an idea that many experts say would not stand up in court and would do little to end this epidemic. 

He also reprised his cockamamie idea to build a wall along the nation’s southern border, arguing that it would “keep the damn drugs out,” and accused so-called sanctuary cities of releasing “illegal immigrants and drug dealers, traffickers and gang members back into our communities.”

It was Mr. Trump playing his greatest “law and order” hits — as usual, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.

Mr. Trump seems so enamored with autocrats and strongmen that he wants the United States to imitate governments like China and the Philippines by executing drug dealers, claiming such countries “don’t have a drug problem” because of their brutality. 

This is patently absurd. 

While it is hard to analyze the experience of many of these countries because they do not collect and publish reliable data about substance use, experts say it is clear that they have not eliminated drug abuse or the crime that often accompanies it. 

More broadly speaking, many scholars have concluded that there is no good evidence that capital punishment deters crime.

It's not about deterrence but prevention.

Dead men don't resume dealing.

Dealers completing prison terms often do.

Which is not to say . . . .

A fine novel, in the end

A very perceptive and intelligent novel.

Though she is still, at least, a moral believer of the sort most assured of annoying Nietzsche.

The Mill on the Floss.

About people in "shithole countries"

Some countries will never prosper, lacking too much in usable resources or opportunities.

So people try to leave them for better places.

And so there are economic migrants.

Just the sort Trump wants to keep out, the sort who comprised most of our immigrants to the US throughout our history.

Including my ancestors on both sides, my father's parents and aunts and uncles and my mother's parents' parents, all down from Canada looking for work and a better life.

As for Syrian refugees, see on Amazon We Walk Together, about Syrians walking from Budapest to Western Europe.

Against custom or the settled way

Hobbes is far from the only one to assimilate moral wrong to violations of custom like picking your nose in public, or setting the table with the silver uncommonly arranged - though he departs from this incipient naturalistic relarivism in providing his contract theory to found justice in a universalist manner, but not small morals.

Maggie's mother's spontaneous assimilation of morals to custom is not thus qualified.

The Mill on the Floss, The Final Rescue, Chapter 3.

This is quite different from assimilation of moral wrong with getting a calculation, translation, or fact wrong, to which others subscribe.

The worst choice possible

By her refusal of Stephen, Maggie has spared neither Philip nor Lucy.

But she has made herself and Stephen miserable and ruined herself in the eyes of everyone, though had she married Stephen, gone abroad for a honeymoon, and come back with a trousseau, all would have been forgiven and the new couple accepted.

And her obloquy takes her by surprise.

So writes Ms. Eliot.

The Mill on the Floss, The Final Rescue, Chapter 2.

"Human Flow"

Ai Weiwei

Saw it on Amazon.

The world needs to allow all these people to become permanent immigrants to the the better off countries, admitted in shares proportionate to the populations of the welcoming countries.

People should go where they will fit in best, but that's a secondary consideration to host countries taking their fair share..

It's just cruel not to

Trump be damned.

Way too few want to do it right

It's Gotham City, everywhere.

‘Testilying’ — a Stubborn Police Problem

Police lying persists, even amid an explosion of video evidence that has allowed the public to test officers’ credibility.

. . . .

“Behind closed doors, we call it testilying,” a New York City police officer, Pedro Serrano, said in a recent interview, echoing a word that officers coined at least 25 years ago. 

“You take the truth and stretch it out a little bit.”

An investigation by The New York Times has found that on more than 25 occasions since January 2015, judges or prosecutors determined that a key aspect of a New York City police officer’s testimony was probably untrue. 

The Times identified these cases — many of which are sealed — through interviews with lawyers, police officers and current and former judges.

In these cases, officers have lied about the whereabouts of guns, putting them in suspects’ hands or waistbands when they were actually hidden out of sight. 

They have barged into apartments and conducted searches, only to testify otherwise later. 

Under oath, they have given firsthand accounts of crimes or arrests that they did not in fact witness. 

They have falsely claimed to have watched drug deals happen, only to later recant or be shown to have lied.

No detail, seemingly, is too minor to embellish.

. . . .

In many instances, the motive for lying was readily apparent: to skirt constitutional restrictions against unreasonable searches and stops. 

In other cases, the falsehoods appear aimed at convicting people — who may or may not have committed a crime — with trumped-up evidence.

In still others, the motive is not easy to discern. 

In October 2016, for example, a plainclothes Brooklyn officer gave a grand jury a first-person account of a gun arrest. 

Putting herself in the center of the action, the officer, Dornezia Agard, testified that as she approached a man to confront him for littering, he suddenly crouched behind a van, pulled from his waistband a dark object — later identified as a gun — and threw it on the ground.

“P.O. Agard testified that she heard a hard metal object hit the ground,” according to a letter the Brooklyn district attorney’s office wrote summarizing her testimony.

But prosecutors lost faith in her account in July 2017, after learning from other officers that she was not among the first officers on the scene. 

Remember what happened to Serpico for exposing police criminality?

Remember Ben Franklin?

"A republic, if you can keep it."

And Hamilton?

"Your people, sir, is a great beast."

We are fast approaching banana-republic status.

After that, who knows?

Hit my weight loss target

Yay.

He will get away with it

Trump.

No matter what.

Remember Ford's pardon of Nixon "to spare the nation further pain"?

The big shots are willing to heap disgrace on a president and drive him from office, but not to punish him.

No matter what.

The rule of law is for the smaller fry.

About McCabe

OPR and the IG recommended he be fired.

When asked, everybody is very firm that these are trustworthy, objective, and unbiased, so that McCabe must in fact have done something serious.

Only the timing and manner - and the president's evident rancor and clear wish to totally discredit him and Comey as witnesses against him - are objectionable.

For the American right - and not just the fringes - all's fair

How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions

As the upstart voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica prepared to wade into the 2014 American midterm elections, it had a problem.

The firm had secured a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy Republican donor, and wooed his political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the promise of tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. 

But it did not have the data to make its new products work.

So the firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, according to former Cambridge employees, associates and documents, making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network’s history. 

The breach allowed the company to exploit the private social media activity of a huge swath of the American electorate, developing techniques that underpinned its work on President Trump’s campaign in 2016.

. . . .

Christopher Wylie, who helped found Cambridge and worked there until late 2014, said of its leaders: “Rules don’t matter for them. For them, this is a war, and it’s all fair.”

“They want to fight a culture war in America,” he added. “Cambridge Analytica was supposed to be the arsenal of weapons to fight that culture war.”

. . . .

In Britain, Cambridge Analytica is facing intertwined investigations by Parliament and government regulators, who are scrutinizing allegations that it performed illegal work on the “Brexit” campaign. 

After the publication of articles in The Times and The Observer on Saturday, the country’s information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said her office was “investigating the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used.”

In the United States, Mr. Mercer’s daughter, Rebekah, a board member, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Nix received warnings from their lawyer that it was illegal to employ foreigners in political campaigns, according to company documents and former employees.

Congressional investigators have questioned Mr. Nix about the company’s role in the Trump campaign. 

And the Justice Department’s special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has demanded the emails of Cambridge Analytica employees who worked for the Trump team as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the election.

While the substance of Mr. Mueller’s interest is a closely guarded secret, documents viewed by The Times indicate that the firm’s British affiliate claims to have worked in Russia and Ukraine. 

And the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, disclosed in October that Mr. Nix had reached out to him during the campaign in hopes of obtaining private emails belonging to Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The documents also raise new questions about Facebook, which is already grappling with intense criticism over the spread of Russian propaganda and fake news. 

The data Cambridge collected from profiles, a portion of which was viewed by The Times, included details on users’ identities, friend networks and “likes.” 

Only a tiny fraction of the users had agreed to release their information to a third party.

The NHS in the hands of the Tories

U.K., Land of ‘Brexit,’ Quietly Outsources Some Surgeries to France

The story about Brit surgery patient named Orlov who supported Brexit is spun mildly as a sneer both at Brexit and at Brit insularity.

But it highlights how far the Tories have screwed the NHS and how wildly UKIP lied about a huge economic payoff for leaving the EU.

Given that the Brexit vote was largely won on highly emotive issues surrounding British sovereignty and a misleading promise by politicians that leaving the bloc would free up 350 million pounds, or about $490 million, a week to fund the N.H.S, the paradox of Britain seeking aid from France is not lost on the French hospital, nor on Mr. Orlov.

Can Trump squash the FEC?

FEC probes whether NRA got illegal Russian donations

The Federal Election Commission has launched a preliminary investigation into whether Russian entities gave illegal contributions to the National Rifle Association that were intended to benefit the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election, according to people who were notified of the probe.

The inquiry stems in part from a complaint from a liberal advocacy group, the American Democracy Legal Fund, which asked the FEC to look into media reports about links between the rifle association and Russian entities, including a banker with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A spokesman for the NRA and its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, which together contributed $30 million to Trump’s presidential campaign, declined to comment on the FEC’s probe.

An FEC spokesman also declined to comment, saying the agency is prohibited by law from confirming or denying any investigations until they’re complete.

Barry McCaffrey hot under the collar

He tweets:

Reluctantly I have concluded that President Trump is a serious threat to US national security. 

He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks. 

It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin.

Trump the bully

The Duce tweets:

Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. 

He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!

Saturday afternoon slaughter?

MSNBC says one set of lawyers is suing Stormy Daniels for $ 20 million for multiple violations of the NDA soon after her lawyer in public said he personally threatened her and would neither confirm nor deny that it was a threat of physical harm.


And another set saying the firing of McCabe proves the Mueller investigation should be shut down.

Meanwhile.

Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe Lawyers Up

Andrew McCabe, formerly the deputy director of the FBI, has lawyered up. Michael Bromwich of the Bromwich Group confirmed to The Daily Beast that he is representing McCabe for the purposes of the matter that led to his firing.

Last night, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he was firing McCabe, citing “lack of candor”—a fireable offense in the FBI. McCabe immediately fired back; in a lengthy statement, he said he believed he was actually fired because of his connection to Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation.

“This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally,” McCabe said in a statement. 

“It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day.”

Bromwich, who is representing McCabe, was formerly the inspector general of the Justice Department.

Andrew McCabe, a Target of Trump’s F.B.I. Scorn, Is Fired Over Candor Questions

Mr. McCabe was among the first at the F.B.I. to scrutinize possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. And he is a potential witness to the question of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice. 

Mr. Trump has taunted Mr. McCabe both publicly and privately, and Republican allies have cast him as the center of a “deep state” effort to undermine the Trump presidency.

As a witness, Mr. McCabe would be in a position to corroborate the testimony of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, who kept contemporaneous notes on his conversations with Mr. Trump. 

Mr. Comey said Mr. Trump prodded him to publicly exonerate the president on the question of Russian collusion and encouraged him to shut down an investigation into his national security adviser.

Someone on MSNBC just said he expects soon a bunch of Russiagate indictments for conspiracy.

Purely vindictive

3 days from retirement and his pension, he was fired and lost it.

McCabe.

The vengefulness of the Duce and his pals, sending a message to anyone in the Justice Department or FBI who pisses him off.

Update.

Maybe he didn't lose the pension?

Or not all of it, anyway.

Just as well, then

That Maggie has steadfastly refused to marry Philip Wakem out of her unwillingness to cross her brother.

Turns out she is far more powerfully draw to cousin Lucy's boyfriend, Stephen Guest.

He beseeches her to marry him, pleading they both must abandon their previous engagements, given their passion for each other.

But, of course, that's not going to happen.

She is utterly certain it would be wrong.

This though neither couple is, as Stephen points out, formally engaged.

Maggie's moral beliefs are even narrower and more self-abnegating - and more oppressive of women - than the conventional.

And she is utterly determined to live up to them.

Contrast, say, Moll Flanders.

Or, for that matter, George Eliot.

The Great Temptation, chapter 11.

The Mill on the Floss,

Nice aphorism after that last semicolon

But if Maggie had been that young lady you would probably have known nothing about her; her life would have had so few vicissitudes that it could hardly have been written; for the happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

The clause between the two is an apt comment on the art of the novel, and applies as well to men.

Though there are things like Mrs. Dalloway.

By now, Maggie has renounced renunciation.

She wants to be happy.

She wants "love, beauty, and delight."

The Mill on the Floss, The Great Temptation, chapter 3.

Chapter 4 of this Book shows up the extraordinary subjection of women in its picture of Maggie's relationship with Tom.

So far are the relations between the sexes determined by nothing but upper body strength and relative size.

Eliot is such a wit I would have loved to have lunch with her.

In chapter 6 of this book she writes,

"Character," says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms - "character is destiny."

But not the whole of our destiny.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was speculative and irresolute, and we have a great tragedy in consequence.

But if his father had lived to a good old age, and his uncle had died an early death, we can conceive Hamlet's having married Ophelia, and got through life with a reputation of sanity, and some moody sarcasms towards the fair daughter of Polonius, to say nothing of the frankest incivility to his father-in-law.

Also in chapter 6, this that shows, I think, the fact of it.

"Do take my arm," he said, in a low tone as if it were a secret.

There is something strangely winning to most women in that offer of the firm arm: the help is not wanted physically at that moment, but the sense of help - the presence of strength that is outside them and yet theirs - meets a continual want of the imagination.

Update.

Somewhere, recently, on the Internet, I read that men are afraid women will laugh at them; women are afraid men will kill them.

A propos.

Still saying that, is she?

Hillary in India blamed her loss in part on women voting as the men in their lives tell them to.

She has done that in the past, too.

Does not exactly shed a good light on women's independence or leadership qualities when dealing with men who may oppose them.

And, in particular, not on hers.

Particularly when you recall her complaints about Trump trying to intimidate her, and how she felt about that in the moment, on stage during at least one of the debates.

George Bush, the much smaller man, merely laughed at Al Gore when he gave it a try.

The wife and I agree that the new season is much better than the first

Jessica Jones, l’héroïne vengeresse que le mouvement #MeToo attendait

Says Rolling Stone,

“Ce n’est pas pour rien que cette deuxième saison a été mise en ligne le 8 mars, la journée internationale de la lutte des femmes”, rappelle le magazine culturel. 

En effet, pour ce deuxième volet des aventures de l’héroïne vengeresse, Netflix a clairement centré sa campagne de marketing sur la colère des femmes. 

Avec une mise en ligne à une date symbolique, ainsi qu’avec une campagne d’affichage mettant en avant le pouvoir féminin (et clamant notamment “Bats-toi comme une femme” – voir photo d’illustration). 

Ainsi, “si la première saison traitait de la capacité à survivre à un grave traumatisme, la deuxième saison est clairement sur ce qui vient après : la colère[.]”

And yet, the angriest woman in the show is not Jessica but her mother, and she is not angry at the man who pisses off both Jessica and Trish this season - it's not Kilgore - but desperately angry at anyone who would harm him.

And - spoiler alert - she is an uncontrollable murderess Jessica sends to prison to stop her killing.

A makeover for France's National Front

A change in name only.

Front national : nouveau nom mais “même idéologie xénophobe”

Si la réélection de sa présidente constituait une simple formalité, c’est le changement de nom annoncé du parti qui retient l’attention en dehors de nos frontières. 

“C’est la fin d’une ère, la fin du Front national, juge le journal italien Il Foglio. 

Marine Le Pen, patronne du souverainisme identitaire français, a dit adieu au nom du parti que son père, Jean-Marie, fonda en 1972. 

Et elle a annoncé un nouveau costume, plus modéré et conciliant : Rassemblement national.”

“Marine Le Pen change le nom du parti pour lui donner une image moins agressive”, pointe aussi la Süddeutsche Zeitung, avant de trancher : “Mais l’idéologie xénophobe demeure.”

Good grief.

Bannon was there!

Urging them not to change their politics one tiniest bit.

Not to worry.

They didn't, and won't.

Côté américain, on retient avant tout la présence à Lille de Steve Bannon, l’homme qui a aidé Donald Trump à accéder au pouvoir. 

“La rencontre entre Bannon et le parti de Marine Le Pen survient à un moment particulièrement délicat aussi bien pour Bannon que pour le Front national : tous deux essaient de conserver leur place dans un univers politique impitoyable”, note The Washington Post. 

L’Américain a ainsi encouragé le parti frontiste à préserver ses racines nationalistes : “Laissez-les vous traiter de racistes. Laissez-les vous traiter de xénophobes. Laissez-les vous traiter de nativistes [anti-immigration]”, a-t-il lancé.

En accueillant l’ancien conseiller du président américain, Marine Le Pen “a quand même réussi une performance, assure le journal suisse Le Temps : celle de réapparaître comme une femme politique porteuse d’avenir dont la formation peut – dans le sillon de Trump et des récentes vagues national-populistes en Italie ou en Autriche – rassembler les colères et tourner la page de la défaite depuis mai 2017.”

Le quotidien de Lausanne prévient ainsi que “le Front national est loin d’être à terre” et qu’à un an des élections européennes “la remise en ordre de marche de son parti, entamé par Marine Le Pen dans ce fief électoral frontiste qu’est le nord de la France, doit donc être prise très au sérieux”.

From El Pais

Nuevo nombre, misma identidad. 

Marine Le Pen propuso este domingo rebautizar al viejo partido de la ultraderecha francesa como Reagrupamiento Nacional. 

Los militantes deberán ratificar la propuesta en un voto por correo. 

Le Pen, animada por los avances del nacional-populismo en Europa, planteó el cambio de nombre en un discurso de reafirmación de las esencias del Frente Nacional (FN) como partido nacionalista y antielitista contrario a la inmigración.

A supply side TV pundit with no economics degree to lead the National Economic Council

Trump Expected to Name Larry Kudlow as Top Economic Adviser

President Trump is expected to name Larry Kudlow, a CNBC television commentator who has served as an informal adviser to him, as director of the National Economic Council, according to three people familiar with the decision.

Mr. Kudlow would become Mr. Trump’s top economic adviser, replacing Gary D. Cohn, who said he would resign after losing a battle over the president’s longstanding desire to impose large tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Mr. Kudlow, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said that Mr. Trump offered him the job and that he immediately accepted. 

Mr. Kudlow told The Journal that an announcement could come as early as Thursday.

. . . .

Mr. Kudlow is also a radio host and a former Wall Street economist. 

He is a disciple of Arthur Laffer, the godfather of supply-side tax cuts, whom Mr. Kudlow credits for helping him overcome an alcohol- and substance-abuse problem about 25 years ago.

During the campaign and throughout Mr. Trump’s first year in the White House, Mr. Kudlow urged the president to go big with his tax-cut plan.

After Republicans pushed a $1.5 trillion cut through Congress late last year, Mr. Kudlow praised it effusively, predicting it would usher in long-term annual growth of 3 to 4 percent — a more optimistic assessment than most independent economists have offered — and would help Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.

“Trump and the G.O.P. are on the side of the growth angels with the passage of powerful tax-cut legislation to boost business investment, wages and take-home family pay,” Mr. Kudlow wrote in December. 

“The Democrats, meanwhile, are left with stale class-warfare slogans about tax cuts for the rich.”

Reaction.

A squeaker

Pennsylvania's 18th.

The wife and I voted for Lamb, who claimed victory on a lead of some 600 votes, this morning, though there is no official result.

There remain enough absentee ballots to count to theoretically give the victory to Saccone.

Bozo's tariff announcements and visits probably explain why Lamb's victory, if he has had one, was not by a larger margin.

Update.

Lamb officially the winner

By 627 votes, they say, with all votes counted.

The Trumpist GOP cannot accept defeat at all, let alone with grace.

GOP gearing up to challenge District 18 results, impound all voting machines used in special election

Republican officials are alleging voting irregularities in the District 18 special election, and say they plan to go to court seeking to impound all the voting machines used Tuesday.

. . . .

A Republican source familiar with the campaign said that the GOP planned to petition for the voting machines used in all four counties to be impounded, pending a recount.

It is not yet clear where such a petition would be filed. But Republicans are investigating a number of purported Election Day irregularities including problems with the machines, voters being told to go to the wrong polling places, and Republican attorneys being barred from overseeing the counting of absentee ballots in Allegheny County.

Yeah, sure.

Well, Trump did claim that he could not lose and Hillary could get the nod only if the rigged system stole the election from him.

And in that case his followers should take it to the streets.

He is a pig, a blowhard, an ignoramus, and a thug, and his voters say they love him because he is just like them.

Update.

Right up to the day before the election GOP propaganda, including Trump's own loud voice, tried to paint Lamb as the wildest of wild-eyed liberals and suckups for Nancy Pelosi.

Beginning on election day when it started to dawn on them their guy had lost, they started to paint him as a way conservative guy, nearly a DINO, not at all typical of the Democrats and no harbinger of things to come in November, at all.

Ryan took to a podium in the capitol to try to drive that message home.

Just following orders? Or worse?

Having a Torturer Lead the C.I.A.

People who resigned rather than torture or supervise others doing the torturing are no longer with the CIA, but Trump could have reached out to one of them.

People whose careers meant more to them, people whose ethos required enforcing or carrying out policies they personally disagreed with, people whose only defense, now, is that they were just following orders and, worst of all, people who were personally committed to torturing, are still in the agency and now fill its upper levels.

Of course the Duce chose one of them to head up the agency.

President Trump has displayed enthusiasm for brutality over the past year. 

He has told the police to treat suspects roughly, praised President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines for murdering people suspected of drug ties and called for the execution of drug dealers.

But one of his most unsettling beliefs is still his acceptance of the value of torture. 

“In my opinion, it works,” he told Sean Hannity of Fox News early last year.

Previously, anyone alarmed by Mr. Trump’s cavalier embrace of government-sanctioned cruelty was reassured by his vow to accept the advice of his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, who opposes torture and promised at his Senate confirmation hearing that he would uphold American and international laws against it.

Now we have reason to be uneasy yet again.

. . . .

Few American officials were so directly involved in that frenzy of abuse, which began under President George W. Bush and was ended by President Barack Obama, as Gina Haspel.

On Tuesday, in announcing that he had dismissed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and was replacing him with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Pompeo’s successor would be his deputy, Ms. Haspel.

On the other hand, bear in mind that Pompeo, Trump's first CIA boss, was himself an advocate of the use of torture - waterboarding and other "enhanced" or "harsh interrogation techniques" - back in the day.

A bad idea endorsed by the Times

The Case for Allowing Felons to Vote

They have no stake in effective law enforcement and every interest in undermining it.

Phooey.

But the Times likes it.

Vote. That’s Just What They Don’t Want You to Do.

Today, only one group of Americans may be legally barred from voting — those with felony records, a cruel and pointless restriction that disproportionately silences people of color.

Yes, it disproportionately affects Democrats.

And that's something we'll just have to deal with.

But this exclusion and voter ID requirements are good ideas.

Good ideas include moving election day to Saturday, allowing in-person voting over several days rather than just on one day, allowing more early voting, allowing registration when you get your driver's license or your state photo ID at the DMV, same day registration, and having a lot more polling places.

It should be easy for people with suitable documents to have or obtain valid forms of voter ID, and it should be easy for people with valid ID to vote.

A lot easier than it apparently is in many areas.

About the trade deficit

Eduardo Porter says tariffs and trade wars are not the answer.

A drop in the value of the dollar is the answer.

Both proposals would make American consumers poorer.

Bozo, the pretend strongman, bends the knee to the NRA

Trump gets weak on guns. Sad.

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump seemed to embrace comprehensive gun control in the wake of the Florida high school shooting. 

How do we know this? 

Because he used those actual words, “comprehensive gun control,” in a meeting with Republicans and Democrats. 

He even mocked those who are “afraid” of the National Rifle Association and fiercely spoke of “taking” firearms first and then “going to court.” 

Yet, strangely, GOP leaders in Congress and NRA officials didn’t make much of a fuss. 

Instead, the NRA had a private meeting in the Oval Office and emerged content.

Now, the country finally knows why.

On Sunday, the White House released specifics of what Mr. Trump wants to do about guns, and Sen. Chuck Schumer’s description of the proposal as “tiny baby steps designed not to upset the NRA” is, if anything, a generous assessment. 

At the heart of the plan (aside from endorsing pending legislation that marginally improves the National Instant Criminal Background Check with incentives for reporting such crimes as domestic violence) is a commission. 

That’s right a commission. 

After all that fuss, Mr. Trump is willing to have a bunch of people sit around a table and talk about school safety.

Not even a commission to talk about gun control.

Not even a commission to talk about gun violence.

A commission to talk about school safety.

That is, to talk about turning schools into forts and school personnel into gunslingers.

Noticeably missing from the proposal was the one area where Mr. Trump had earlier seemed to completely part company with the NRA — his plan to raise the age at which young people could purchase assault weapons from 18 to 21. 

Ms. DeVos said it might come up during commission meetings as “everything is on the table.” 

That’s a far cry from President Trump’s February 22 tweet: “I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue — I hope.”

. . . .

Now, it’s clear that even the most foolish part of his proposal — arming teachers — isn’t really all that meaningful. 

Mostly, he’s calling on states to take action with some money tossed their way to help train school personnel.

Is anyone surprised by President Trump’s turnabout? 

Probably not. 

Like DACA, it’s part of his shtick to leap on popular issues, draw praise and then back off and retreat to his base. 

He now leaves the heavy lifting to GOP governors like Florida’s Rick Scott who made good on his promises and signed legislation raising the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21. 

Of course, the NRA immediately filed suit in federal court, calling that an affront to the Second Amendment. 

Gun sales advocates recognize a genuine crack in the armor when they see it. 

The president’s gun control advocacy was fake news all along.

The executive branch cannot change the law

Trump’s attempt to ban bump stocks will likely fail without congressional support

Neither he nor his Justice Department can change the legal definition of a machine gun by simply lying about it with a straight face, though I quite understand that lying is always Trump's first thought, and the first thought of his entire administration.

“Today the Department of Justice submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a notice of a proposed regulation to clarify that the definition of ‘machine gun’ in the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act includes bump stock type devices, and that federal law accordingly prohibits the possession, sale, or manufacture of such devices,” Justice Department officials wrote in a statement on Saturday.

That "clarification" is a lie that will not withstand even the first court challenge.

A machine gun, as defined in the NFA, is "Any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger." 

The NFA term machine gun refers to all firearms capable of full automatic fire and includes true machine guns, assault rifles, battle rifles, submachine guns, and machine pistols. 

The frame or receiver of a machine gun, and any combination of parts intended to make a machine gun, is legally defined as a machine gun.

For example, according to the ATF, "A Glock conversion switch is a part designed and intended for use in converting a semi-automatic Glock pistol into a machine gun; therefore, it is a "machine gun" as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5845(b)."

Parts that can be used to convert a semi-automatic firearm to fully automatic capability are regulated as machineguns and must be registered and tax paid under the NFA. 

The US Military issued kits T17 and T18 to convert the M1 carbine to an M2, capable of fully automatic fire; these kits are legally "machine guns".

Congress could, as this news piece suggests, change the legal meaning of "machine gun" to cover any weapon with a rate of fire at or above some specified threshold.

A threshold not too high to ban bump-stocks.

Or it could leave "machine gun" alone and just ban devices that raise a firearm's rate of fire to or above such a threshold.

Or both.

A truly stupid waste of money

College for All

Tuition free higher education was the original point of state college and university systems and remains a sensible idea.

But college for all?

College for grocery clerks, bag boys, plumbers, welders, auto mechanics, postmen, waiters, and - ?

Well, you get the idea.

A complete waste of their time and everybody's money.

How about we work on insuring everyone who graduates high school can actually read?

How about free tuition for effective training for a trade?

Too many people graduate high school as unskilled labor suitable for pushing burgers at McDonald's and very little else.

Increasing the number who graduate college as unskilled labor would not improve anything for anybody but people working in fake colleges providing fake higher education.

Donnie in Cannonsburg

"In eight years we can do a lot of good," says Donnie to a completely sympathetic audience.

Live on MSNBC.

Lots of signs in recent days that the Duce fully intends to go for a second term.

(There is talk that Jeff Flake might try to primary him, but that would be a quick and stunning failure.)

Donnie running hard on protectionism.

Saccone denouncing the coal unions for supporting Obama and Hillary, both of whom "tried to kill the coal industry", in response to a question how they feel about him being a right to work supporter.

What Trump really thinks of infrastructure

Trump Threatens To Shut Down Government Rather Than Fund Gateway Tunnel

President Donald Trump has threatened to shut down the government rather than fund the Gateway Tunnel project, according to a published report.

Trump said he would veto legislation funding the government through Sept. 30 if it included money for a new tunnel linking New Jersey and Manhattan, according to Politico, which cited multiple sources.

. . . .

Trump's threat accelerated his efforts to kill the project, which he initially appeared to endorse at a White House meeting with New Jersey and New York officials last September.

The president earlier pressured House Republicans to drop a $900 million allocation for Gateway, which involves building a new tunnel under the Hudson River for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains and replacing the Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River.

Mount Gay Eclipse 80 proof

Picked some up on sale, along with a bottle of Plantation 5 years aged.

A comparison test.

I'll let you know..

Update.

The Plantation is darker, more aromatic, a bit sweeter, a stronger flavor, more body and fuller mouth feel.

And it's usually cheaper.

Both are beautifully clear over ice in the glass.

But it is he who would destroy their father

Tom, having found out Maggie's liaisons with Phillip in the Red Deeps, demands she stop instantly or he will tell their father, whom the news will destroy.

She accepts his angry claim that the destruction would be her fault.

She accepts this without the least glimmer that the responsibility would actually be his.

Wheat and Tares, chapter 5.

The Mill on the Floss.

Trump to meet Kim by May

Trump agrees to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on denuclearization

Told Kim wanted a summit with him to talk about nukes and other things, the Duce has freaked everyone out by, at the White House, barging in on a meeting with some SK official and telling him to call the SK president to arrange it.

President Donald Trump has agreed to a high-stakes meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by this May on his nuclear weapons program, South Korea's national security adviser announced at the White House Thursday evening.

He had briefed the president on a message from Kim earlier in the day. 

The White House said afterward that Trump "will accept the invitation," and the president tweeted, "Great progress being made ..."

South Korea's envoy Chung Eui-Yong said that in his recent talks with Kim the North Korean leader had expressed an eagerness to meet with Trump as soon as possible.

Chung said that Kim told him he was committed to denuclearization, would refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests, and had agreed that U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises the North objects to must continue.

Hat tip to Steve M. for the link to this bit of classic Trump.

Trump on North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un: 'You Gotta Give Him Credit'

January 10, 2016.

Trump rejoices in political murder ordered by a dictator unfettered by significant limitations on his personal power.

Far from being horrified at thug rule, he openly admires it and invites, and expects, his audience to join in his admiration.

The months of the Duce showering Kim with bellicose and abusive rhetoric have been Trump having a good time playing Big Thug to Kim's Little Thug.

His acceptance of a summit with Kim is more about this than anything a political pro would regard as a sensible reason to meet or a sensible agenda for the meeting.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump appeared to praise North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying at a rally Saturday that "it's incredible" how he was able to dispatch his political opponents.

Trump called Jong-Un a "maniac" during remarks about North Korea's nuclear program during a rally at Ottumwa, Iowa, but conceded, "You gotta give him credit."

"How many young guys -- he was like 26 or 25 when his father died -- take over these tough generals, and all of a sudden ... he goes in, he takes over, and he’s the boss," Trump said. 

"It's incredible. He wiped out the uncle, he wiped out this one, that one. I mean this guy doesn't play games. And we can't play games with him."

Steve M quotes a writer in The Atlantic who reminds us of Trump's decades old commitment to American withdrawal from its post-WW2 alliances.

Kim will undoubtedly flatter Trump face-to-face, and he'll probably try to sell Trump on the notion that a U.S. military withdrawal from the Korean Peninsula would be a money-saving deal for the U.S. [Thomas] Wright wonders whether Trump would go for that:

... Trump has always had concerns about alliances in general and the U.S.-South Korea one in particular. 

Since the mid 1980s, he has argued that America’s alliances are a bad deal. 

Initially his wrath was focused on Japan and the Arab states but in 2013, he said, “How long will we go on defending South Korea from North Korea without payment? … When will they start to pay us?”

In an interview with NBC in 2015, he said, “We have 28,000 soldiers on the line in South Korea between the madman and them. We get practically nothing compared to the cost of this.”

Perhaps Trump may think that an end to the ICBM program and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea is a win-win.

I'd like to think someone will accompany Trump who understands the ramifications of withdrawal for international security and regional alliances -- but there have been rumors that his secretary of state and his national security adviser might be leaving soon, so he might just show up accompanied by a few lackeys and Ivanka. 

Who the hell knows?

Bear in mind, too, that Trump has been pushing out advisors who have been urging him to not do many of the Buchananist things he campaigned on, such as putting in place protective tariffs for old, shrinking industries.

And some of his conventionally globalist national security people are on the skids.

Update.

I am guessing Trump cannot repudiate our alliance with South Korea if it is treaty-based, but arguably could withdraw all our forces from there, however much globalists would protest doing so amounts to refusing to honor and enforce an existing treaty he is constitutionally required to honor and enforce.

Such a colossal violation of his oath of office should count as an impeachable offense, though it would never come to that with a Republican Congress. 

But if it rests only on an executive agreement, it is his to abandon, at will.