Beto O’Rourke, Praising Immigration, Kicks Off Presidential Campaign in El Paso
And the only thing this guy talks about more is immigration.
He is really turning out to be a nothingburger.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Friday, March 29, 2019
Still acting like a guilty crime boss
Trump calls Mueller investigation "ridiculous bullshit"
“All of the Democrats, politicians, the media also – bad people,” Trump told the crowd at Michigan’s Van Andel Arena.
“The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits” helped perpetuate “the single greatest hoax in the history of politics”.
He later claimed that the investigation was really an effort “to overturn the results of the 2016 election”.
“It was nothing more than a sinister effort to undermine our historic election and to sabotage the will of the American people,” Trump said to loud boos.
He repeatedly called for “accountability”, drawing chants of “Lock them up”.
“All of the Democrats, politicians, the media also – bad people,” Trump told the crowd at Michigan’s Van Andel Arena.
“The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits” helped perpetuate “the single greatest hoax in the history of politics”.
He later claimed that the investigation was really an effort “to overturn the results of the 2016 election”.
“It was nothing more than a sinister effort to undermine our historic election and to sabotage the will of the American people,” Trump said to loud boos.
He repeatedly called for “accountability”, drawing chants of “Lock them up”.
So now there is a crisis not entirely of Bozo's making. But of course he is making it worse rather than solving the problem in the only way possible.
US failure to respond to migration surge has created chaos
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, said the number of new arrivals in March is expected to reach 100,000, including 55,000 family members.
. . . .
The exodus has only gained pace in recent months.
Last year, border apprehensions dropped to historic lows, but in February CBP announced more than 76,000 people were apprehended or sought asylum at the US southern border – the highest number in a decade.
. . . .
Authorities in US border towns have struggled to cope with the crush of families and unaccompanied minors.
Because of limits on how long children can be held in detention, most families are now being released to pursue their claims in immigration courts, a process that can take years.
Recall that the Duce angrily rejected his own party's urgent pleas that he hire many more immigration court officials.
He has made it abundantly clear he would rather not let any of these people in.
He has said he would rather hire people with guns to keep them out.
So although he did not make this crisis he really has no wish to solve it, since the only way to do that would be to hire a lot of people to facilitate giving all these folks the asylum they deserve.
And as for the "economic migrants" among them, well, let them in, too.
. . . .
And there is no sign that the mass exodus is likely to end soon.
Most of the current wave of migrants come from three small Central American countries – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – where migration is driven by a a toxic mix of violence, poverty, food insecurity, climate change, political instability and corruption.
Violence perpetrated by drug traffickers, street gangs and state security forces have made this region, known as the Northern Triangle, the most dangerous place in the world outside an official war zone.
Rabbi Salem Pierce, of the rabbinic human rights group, T’ruah, said that migrants on both sides of the border had “over and over and over again” described the dangers that had prompted them to flee Central America.
. . . .
Guatemala is the most unequal country in Central America with 59% of the population living in poverty without access to basic rights such as health, education, housing and justice, said Jorge Santos from Udefegua, an organisation which monitors attacks against activists, journalists and community leaders.
The country’s politicians meanwhile, have been mired in a string of corruption scandals.
. . . .
In November, Guatemalans overtook Mexicans as the largest nationality taken into CBP custody – an incredible figure considering that the population of Mexico is seven times larger than that of its southern neighbour.
In the fiscal year so far (October 2018 to February 2019), 12,576 unaccompanied Guatemalan children were apprehended at the southern border compared with a total of 13,726 from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.
Hondurans have also surpassed the number of Mexicans attempting to cross the border: in the first five months of the fiscal year, almost 52,000 Hondurans travelling in family groups were apprehended at the US border compared with 39,439 in the whole of 2018.
Migration from Honduras has accelerated amid a dire political, economic and security situation triggered by the 2009 coup which ushered in the pro-business and pro-military rightwing National party.
An upsurge in human rights violations including high profile cases like the murder of the indigenous leader Berta Cáceres triggered international condemnation but failed to stop the bloodshed or stem US aid.
Trump threatens to close US-Mexico border over reports immigration is at 'breaking point'
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, said the number of new arrivals in March is expected to reach 100,000, including 55,000 family members.
. . . .
The exodus has only gained pace in recent months.
Last year, border apprehensions dropped to historic lows, but in February CBP announced more than 76,000 people were apprehended or sought asylum at the US southern border – the highest number in a decade.
. . . .
Authorities in US border towns have struggled to cope with the crush of families and unaccompanied minors.
Because of limits on how long children can be held in detention, most families are now being released to pursue their claims in immigration courts, a process that can take years.
Recall that the Duce angrily rejected his own party's urgent pleas that he hire many more immigration court officials.
He has made it abundantly clear he would rather not let any of these people in.
He has said he would rather hire people with guns to keep them out.
So although he did not make this crisis he really has no wish to solve it, since the only way to do that would be to hire a lot of people to facilitate giving all these folks the asylum they deserve.
And as for the "economic migrants" among them, well, let them in, too.
. . . .
And there is no sign that the mass exodus is likely to end soon.
Most of the current wave of migrants come from three small Central American countries – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – where migration is driven by a a toxic mix of violence, poverty, food insecurity, climate change, political instability and corruption.
Violence perpetrated by drug traffickers, street gangs and state security forces have made this region, known as the Northern Triangle, the most dangerous place in the world outside an official war zone.
Rabbi Salem Pierce, of the rabbinic human rights group, T’ruah, said that migrants on both sides of the border had “over and over and over again” described the dangers that had prompted them to flee Central America.
. . . .
Guatemala is the most unequal country in Central America with 59% of the population living in poverty without access to basic rights such as health, education, housing and justice, said Jorge Santos from Udefegua, an organisation which monitors attacks against activists, journalists and community leaders.
The country’s politicians meanwhile, have been mired in a string of corruption scandals.
. . . .
In November, Guatemalans overtook Mexicans as the largest nationality taken into CBP custody – an incredible figure considering that the population of Mexico is seven times larger than that of its southern neighbour.
In the fiscal year so far (October 2018 to February 2019), 12,576 unaccompanied Guatemalan children were apprehended at the southern border compared with a total of 13,726 from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.
Hondurans have also surpassed the number of Mexicans attempting to cross the border: in the first five months of the fiscal year, almost 52,000 Hondurans travelling in family groups were apprehended at the US border compared with 39,439 in the whole of 2018.
Migration from Honduras has accelerated amid a dire political, economic and security situation triggered by the 2009 coup which ushered in the pro-business and pro-military rightwing National party.
An upsurge in human rights violations including high profile cases like the murder of the indigenous leader Berta Cáceres triggered international condemnation but failed to stop the bloodshed or stem US aid.
Trump threatens to close US-Mexico border over reports immigration is at 'breaking point'
Donald Trump threatened on Friday to close the US border with Mexico next week, or at least large sections of the frontier, if Mexico “doesn’t immediately stop all illegal immigration coming into the United States” from the region, Reuters reported moments ago.
On track for a no-deal Brexit by default
U.K. Parliament Rejects Theresa May’s Deal
British lawmakers on Friday rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for withdrawing from the European Union for the third time, leaving her policy in ruins and the casting the nation’s politics into further confusion, with the scheduled departure date looming two weeks away.
The defeat appears to leave the increasingly weakened prime minister with two unpalatable options in the short run: Britain can leave the bloc on April 12 without an agreement in place, a chaotic and potentially economically damaging withdrawal; or Mrs. May can ask European leaders – who have ruled out a short delay if her plan failed – for what could be a long postponement.
The only thing a parliamentary majority has been able to agree on is that it does not want to crash out of the European Union without a deal.
But a long delay would enrage pro-Brexit lawmakers who see a further postponement as a first step toward watering down Brexit, or even killing it entirely.
May has repeatedly said she will not call off Article 50 (Brexit) altogether and will not ask for a long delay.
But those are the only alternatives left to prevent a no-deal Brexit on April 12.
For some time everyone has been blaming May for seeking as soft a Brexit as she could negotiate and not being able to sell it to her ludicrously divided and stubborn MPs.
For my part, I blame the MPs, who have consistently voted against every conceivable alternative to a hard Brexit, and also voted against that.
This Parliament is totally unable to agree on the fucking day of the week.
And that is not her fault.
A significant faction of her own party have wanted a no-deal Brexit, all along.
And even though majorities have repeatedly voted against a no-deal Brexit, all those who favored it had to do to get their way was vote against all other alternatives.
They win by default.
And they will scream their heads off if May pulls the plug on 50 or goes for a long delay.
British lawmakers on Friday rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for withdrawing from the European Union for the third time, leaving her policy in ruins and the casting the nation’s politics into further confusion, with the scheduled departure date looming two weeks away.
The defeat appears to leave the increasingly weakened prime minister with two unpalatable options in the short run: Britain can leave the bloc on April 12 without an agreement in place, a chaotic and potentially economically damaging withdrawal; or Mrs. May can ask European leaders – who have ruled out a short delay if her plan failed – for what could be a long postponement.
The only thing a parliamentary majority has been able to agree on is that it does not want to crash out of the European Union without a deal.
But a long delay would enrage pro-Brexit lawmakers who see a further postponement as a first step toward watering down Brexit, or even killing it entirely.
May has repeatedly said she will not call off Article 50 (Brexit) altogether and will not ask for a long delay.
But those are the only alternatives left to prevent a no-deal Brexit on April 12.
For some time everyone has been blaming May for seeking as soft a Brexit as she could negotiate and not being able to sell it to her ludicrously divided and stubborn MPs.
For my part, I blame the MPs, who have consistently voted against every conceivable alternative to a hard Brexit, and also voted against that.
This Parliament is totally unable to agree on the fucking day of the week.
And that is not her fault.
A significant faction of her own party have wanted a no-deal Brexit, all along.
And even though majorities have repeatedly voted against a no-deal Brexit, all those who favored it had to do to get their way was vote against all other alternatives.
They win by default.
And they will scream their heads off if May pulls the plug on 50 or goes for a long delay.
So Michelle handed Trump and the GOP a gift
Michelle called her buddy in the prosecutor's office and got the charges dropped.
That's exactly what happened.
The GOP and Trump are loving it.
Michelle handed the Democrats a nice stinking pile of shit to protect that sweet boy Jussie from the bad stuff he had earned for himself.
Not that he deserved actual jail time.
But he did deserve to be tried, exposed, and publicly humiliated, and sentenced mostly according as he showed personal remorse and took personal responsibility.
And what he is doing now is lying his ass off.
That's exactly what happened.
The GOP and Trump are loving it.
Michelle handed the Democrats a nice stinking pile of shit to protect that sweet boy Jussie from the bad stuff he had earned for himself.
Not that he deserved actual jail time.
But he did deserve to be tried, exposed, and publicly humiliated, and sentenced mostly according as he showed personal remorse and took personal responsibility.
And what he is doing now is lying his ass off.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
This shows how much Republicans care about what socialism actually is, and what "socialism" actually means
Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks reads from Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' while bashing Democrats, media
About as little as Bernie Sanders and the Democrats on MSNBC who, just for him during the primaries of 2016, helpfully and mendaciously defined the word as "public ownership of any means of production".
Well, any organization devoted to the production of any good or service.
Like schools, fire departments, or the Tennessee Valley Authority.
As for the GOP, part of their warfare against the Dems for 2020 is, thanks to Bernie's personal and apparently entirely sincere and almost lifelong embrace of socialism and Bernie and AOC's embrace of "socialism", to paste that label to the Democratic Party and especially the Bernie/AOC agenda on the one side and onto various political boogey-men on the other.
You know.
Stalin, sure.
But the massively incompetent and idiotic Maduro in Venezuela.
And now that famous national socialist, Adolf Hitler.
About as little as Bernie Sanders and the Democrats on MSNBC who, just for him during the primaries of 2016, helpfully and mendaciously defined the word as "public ownership of any means of production".
Well, any organization devoted to the production of any good or service.
Like schools, fire departments, or the Tennessee Valley Authority.
As for the GOP, part of their warfare against the Dems for 2020 is, thanks to Bernie's personal and apparently entirely sincere and almost lifelong embrace of socialism and Bernie and AOC's embrace of "socialism", to paste that label to the Democratic Party and especially the Bernie/AOC agenda on the one side and onto various political boogey-men on the other.
You know.
Stalin, sure.
But the massively incompetent and idiotic Maduro in Venezuela.
And now that famous national socialist, Adolf Hitler.
Pirates in Cincinnati
How was that 3 run homer in the Reds 7th a home run, at all?
It bounced off the wall back onto the outfield, for God's sake.
It bounced off the wall back onto the outfield, for God's sake.
What the Christian right is after
is illustrated in part by this Guardian report.
US fundamentalists spent £38m on European politics
US Christian fundamentalist groups have spent over $50m (£38m) in Europe over the past decade, and have dramatically ramped up campaigning in recent years, according to a report by the UK political website OpenDemocracy.
. . . .
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which campaigned in favour of a law in Belize making gay sex punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment, has tripled its spending in Europe to £1.5m annually.
It spends £430,000 each year lobbying EU officials, according to separate EU transparency data. It told OpenDemocracy it was “exclusively privately funded by people from all over the world, who care about human rights”.
Another of the organisations is the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, which has spent over £1.3m in Europe since 2008.
The group has previously co-sponsored a conference in Italy with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, a Catholic organisation supported by the far-right campaigner Steve Bannon with plans to transform a former monastery into a “gladiator school for culture warriors”.
Several of the organisations are partners of the World Congress of Families, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for its campaigns against LGBT civil and human rights.
The WCF is organising a conference in Verona, Italy this weekend that is expected to be attended by several far-right European activists and politicians, including the Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right party the League.
Others scheduled to attend include a Nigerian activist who has compared gay people to the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, and a Ugandan politician who campaigned for gay people to be jailed for life or executed.
US fundamentalists spent £38m on European politics
US Christian fundamentalist groups have spent over $50m (£38m) in Europe over the past decade, and have dramatically ramped up campaigning in recent years, according to a report by the UK political website OpenDemocracy.
. . . .
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which campaigned in favour of a law in Belize making gay sex punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment, has tripled its spending in Europe to £1.5m annually.
It spends £430,000 each year lobbying EU officials, according to separate EU transparency data. It told OpenDemocracy it was “exclusively privately funded by people from all over the world, who care about human rights”.
Another of the organisations is the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, which has spent over £1.3m in Europe since 2008.
The group has previously co-sponsored a conference in Italy with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, a Catholic organisation supported by the far-right campaigner Steve Bannon with plans to transform a former monastery into a “gladiator school for culture warriors”.
Several of the organisations are partners of the World Congress of Families, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for its campaigns against LGBT civil and human rights.
The WCF is organising a conference in Verona, Italy this weekend that is expected to be attended by several far-right European activists and politicians, including the Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right party the League.
Others scheduled to attend include a Nigerian activist who has compared gay people to the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, and a Ugandan politician who campaigned for gay people to be jailed for life or executed.
Anti-vaxxers will love to hear it
Invisible ink, at best.
Arizona officers storm house with guns drawn over toddler with a high fever
Sounds like they actually did right, given the circumstances.
They were attempting to carry out a court order issued in the face of grave risk to the child's life.
But then we read this.
The father was handcuffed while police checked the home. The couple's three kids were placed in DCS custody.
“I mean, they treated us like criminals, busting in our door. I mean, I don’t know what kind of trauma that did to my kids. Where are my kids right now is what I want to know,” Beck said.
A lawyer for Beck said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday that the way in which the children were removed "was clearly unnecessary and well beyond 'reasonable force.'"
That was his first lie.
The statement continued that Beck "has a fundamental, Constitutionally protected right to the care, custody, and management of her Children. These rights do not evaporate simply because the Department of Child Safety believes they know better."
And that was his second, barring invisible ink.
And God knows fuck all what might be in that.
Read this rest of the story.
Arizona officers storm house with guns drawn over toddler with a high fever
Sounds like they actually did right, given the circumstances.
They were attempting to carry out a court order issued in the face of grave risk to the child's life.
But then we read this.
The father was handcuffed while police checked the home. The couple's three kids were placed in DCS custody.
“I mean, they treated us like criminals, busting in our door. I mean, I don’t know what kind of trauma that did to my kids. Where are my kids right now is what I want to know,” Beck said.
A lawyer for Beck said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday that the way in which the children were removed "was clearly unnecessary and well beyond 'reasonable force.'"
That was his first lie.
The statement continued that Beck "has a fundamental, Constitutionally protected right to the care, custody, and management of her Children. These rights do not evaporate simply because the Department of Child Safety believes they know better."
And that was his second, barring invisible ink.
And God knows fuck all what might be in that.
Read this rest of the story.
"Cultural Marxism"
The term used to refer to Gramsci's idea that mature and entrenched capitalism cannot be overcome without a preparatory stage in which the pervasive cultural hegemony of bourgeois values is gradually replaced over time with a cultural hegemony of values of and favoring the working classes.
Those using the expression "cultural Marxism" were generally right wingers like Pat Buchanan and others wishing to spread alarm that the transitional process in the West is well underway, pointing to the influence of the left, and particularly of political correctness and those called "social justice warriors" on American campuses.
But a YouTube clip of James O'Brien talking with an anti-alt.right caller led to O'Brien claiming it is somehow tied to some right wing and specifically anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
You know, Marx, Trotsky, and a lot of the others were Jews, as were members of the Frankfurt School.
So I guess that was going to happen.
And it is after all a central theme uniting Nazi anti-Semitism with Nazi anti-Communism.
What the Fascists did to Gramsci.
On 9 November 1926, the Fascist government enacted a new wave of emergency laws, taking as a pretext an alleged attempt on Mussolini's life several days earlier.
The fascist police arrested Gramsci, despite his parliamentary immunity, and brought him to the Roman prison Regina Coeli.
At his trial, Gramsci's prosecutor stated, "For twenty years we must stop this brain from functioning".
He received an immediate sentence of five years in confinement on the island of Ustica and the following year he received a sentence of 20 years' imprisonment in Turi, near Bari.
Over 11 years in prison, his health deteriorated: "His teeth fell out, his digestive system collapsed so that he could not eat solid food... he had convulsions when he vomited blood, and suffered headaches so violent that he beat his head against the walls of his cell."
An international campaign, organised by Piero Sraffa at Cambridge University and Gramsci's sister-in-law Tatiana, was mounted to demand Gramsci's release.
In 1933 he was moved from the prison at Turi to a clinic at Formia, but was still being denied adequate medical attention.
Two years later he was moved to the "Quisisana" clinic in Rome.
He was due for release on 21 April 1937 and planned to retire to Sardinia for convalescence, but a combination of arteriosclerosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, high blood pressure, angina, gout and acute gastric disorders meant that he was too ill to move.
Gramsci died on 27 April 1937, at the age of 46.
Those using the expression "cultural Marxism" were generally right wingers like Pat Buchanan and others wishing to spread alarm that the transitional process in the West is well underway, pointing to the influence of the left, and particularly of political correctness and those called "social justice warriors" on American campuses.
But a YouTube clip of James O'Brien talking with an anti-alt.right caller led to O'Brien claiming it is somehow tied to some right wing and specifically anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
You know, Marx, Trotsky, and a lot of the others were Jews, as were members of the Frankfurt School.
So I guess that was going to happen.
And it is after all a central theme uniting Nazi anti-Semitism with Nazi anti-Communism.
What the Fascists did to Gramsci.
On 9 November 1926, the Fascist government enacted a new wave of emergency laws, taking as a pretext an alleged attempt on Mussolini's life several days earlier.
The fascist police arrested Gramsci, despite his parliamentary immunity, and brought him to the Roman prison Regina Coeli.
At his trial, Gramsci's prosecutor stated, "For twenty years we must stop this brain from functioning".
He received an immediate sentence of five years in confinement on the island of Ustica and the following year he received a sentence of 20 years' imprisonment in Turi, near Bari.
Over 11 years in prison, his health deteriorated: "His teeth fell out, his digestive system collapsed so that he could not eat solid food... he had convulsions when he vomited blood, and suffered headaches so violent that he beat his head against the walls of his cell."
An international campaign, organised by Piero Sraffa at Cambridge University and Gramsci's sister-in-law Tatiana, was mounted to demand Gramsci's release.
In 1933 he was moved from the prison at Turi to a clinic at Formia, but was still being denied adequate medical attention.
Two years later he was moved to the "Quisisana" clinic in Rome.
He was due for release on 21 April 1937 and planned to retire to Sardinia for convalescence, but a combination of arteriosclerosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, high blood pressure, angina, gout and acute gastric disorders meant that he was too ill to move.
Gramsci died on 27 April 1937, at the age of 46.
Looks like he's guilty and Michelle Obama pulled strings
Right leaning sources on YouTube are all over this.
This is going to get ugly.
This is going to get ugly.
Is this not slander? Can she not sue? Should she not sue?
Ross Barkan, a quondam Democrat (and possibly still one) writing at the Guardian, assumes that Barr correctly and fairly reported Mueller and reads lack of evidence as something approaching unquestionable and blatant proof of innocence.
And that last regarding a man we are pretty sure (and not only on the authority of Michael Cohen) runs an corrupt family enterprise and whom we can all see has been sucking up to Putin for a long time for the sake of personal gain, even bending US foreign policy to that end.
And so this erstwhile Democrat endorsed by AOC in a failed 2018 primary race now echoes the fierce and absurd Republican attacks on Democratic media and pundits in the wake of the Barr letter.
And while that is, after all, just the stock in trade of right wing flacks, he then goes a step too far and accuses Rachel Maddow and unnamed other Democratic pundits of personal venality.
This is what it means to be venal.
And this is his charge.
The worst-kept secret in the liberal media ecosystem is that Donald Trump is great for business.
Rebranded for the resistance, liberal newspapers gobbled up thousands of new subscribers while local outlets die across America, unable to feast on the Trump manna.
On television, left-leaning stations, at long last, competed with Fox in the ratings game, fueled by a never-ending Trump obsession.
With Trump has come Russia: two years of conspiracy-mongering about whether the president, a failed real estate mogul and reality TV star consumed with dubious deal-making, conspired with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Robert Mueller’s determination that no evidence exists to prove Trump and Russian colluded to fix the election has exposed, once again, the venality of A-list political punditry.
At the top of the heap is none other than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
And there he is, sliding from an accusation that the Democratic media trumpeted the scandal to run up ratings and make money to an accusation that A-list pundits in general and Rachel Maddow in particular are personally corrupt, mercenary, and open to bribery.
You may say that is not what he meant, but I don't care.
That is what he said.
The rest of the article is a mad, absurd, and sometimes incoherent rant, here and there approaching gibberish.
And that last regarding a man we are pretty sure (and not only on the authority of Michael Cohen) runs an corrupt family enterprise and whom we can all see has been sucking up to Putin for a long time for the sake of personal gain, even bending US foreign policy to that end.
And so this erstwhile Democrat endorsed by AOC in a failed 2018 primary race now echoes the fierce and absurd Republican attacks on Democratic media and pundits in the wake of the Barr letter.
And while that is, after all, just the stock in trade of right wing flacks, he then goes a step too far and accuses Rachel Maddow and unnamed other Democratic pundits of personal venality.
This is what it means to be venal.
And this is his charge.
The worst-kept secret in the liberal media ecosystem is that Donald Trump is great for business.
Rebranded for the resistance, liberal newspapers gobbled up thousands of new subscribers while local outlets die across America, unable to feast on the Trump manna.
On television, left-leaning stations, at long last, competed with Fox in the ratings game, fueled by a never-ending Trump obsession.
With Trump has come Russia: two years of conspiracy-mongering about whether the president, a failed real estate mogul and reality TV star consumed with dubious deal-making, conspired with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Robert Mueller’s determination that no evidence exists to prove Trump and Russian colluded to fix the election has exposed, once again, the venality of A-list political punditry.
At the top of the heap is none other than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
And there he is, sliding from an accusation that the Democratic media trumpeted the scandal to run up ratings and make money to an accusation that A-list pundits in general and Rachel Maddow in particular are personally corrupt, mercenary, and open to bribery.
You may say that is not what he meant, but I don't care.
That is what he said.
The rest of the article is a mad, absurd, and sometimes incoherent rant, here and there approaching gibberish.
Does he want a no-deal Brexit? Or is he just stupid?
Bercow issues fresh warning over third vote on May's Brexit deal
His achingly tight-assed adherence to centuries old precedent is obstructing resolution, and his putting the alternatives up for a vote separately, one at a time, and once each was the stupidest way to force this Parliament to come to agreement on something.
Pretty much guaranteed not to work.
He could have put the eight up for a vote, then dropped the one with least votes and got another vote on the other seven, and so on until only one was left standing, and that would almost certainly not have turned out to be no-deal Brexit.
But of course that dumbass ancient precedent was sooooo much more important than preventing a no-deal Brexit from happening, not by choice, but because this Parliament is full of jackasses who are so relentless in their stupidity that every time they are asked they reject every alternative open to them.
And a no-deal Brexit is what happens by default, whether they want it or not (and of course a majority don't and have voted against that), if they don't agree on something else.
This Parliament rejects reality.
So, goddammit, a little creativity is called for from the speaker.
His achingly tight-assed adherence to centuries old precedent is obstructing resolution, and his putting the alternatives up for a vote separately, one at a time, and once each was the stupidest way to force this Parliament to come to agreement on something.
Pretty much guaranteed not to work.
He could have put the eight up for a vote, then dropped the one with least votes and got another vote on the other seven, and so on until only one was left standing, and that would almost certainly not have turned out to be no-deal Brexit.
But of course that dumbass ancient precedent was sooooo much more important than preventing a no-deal Brexit from happening, not by choice, but because this Parliament is full of jackasses who are so relentless in their stupidity that every time they are asked they reject every alternative open to them.
And a no-deal Brexit is what happens by default, whether they want it or not (and of course a majority don't and have voted against that), if they don't agree on something else.
This Parliament rejects reality.
So, goddammit, a little creativity is called for from the speaker.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Are Evangelical Christians the stupidest of all Americans?
Watching a video on why Evangelicals support Israel.
Because God gave them that land and because as soon as Israel fills historic Israel again as a Jewish state the Apocalypse will begin.
So yay!
Yeah, I think they have to be the stupidest people in America.
Possibly in the world.
Mike Pence, how do you get yourself to believe this nonsense?
Or anyway say you do?
Because God gave them that land and because as soon as Israel fills historic Israel again as a Jewish state the Apocalypse will begin.
So yay!
Yeah, I think they have to be the stupidest people in America.
Possibly in the world.
Mike Pence, how do you get yourself to believe this nonsense?
Or anyway say you do?
Prosecutor says he thinks Jussie is guilty
on all 16 or 17 charges, for each of which he could have been sentenced to four years.
Asked why he dropped the charges, settling for the S10,000 and one day of service, he said that seemed about right and, anyway, he prefers to spend his time prosecuting violence crimes.
So why did the judge seal all the records, preventing anyone from seeing the evidence?
Why did all this happen after Michelle Obama reportedly called the prosecutor to intervene on Smollet's behalf?
I am just thunderstruck with the naked corruption of these events.
Asked why he dropped the charges, settling for the S10,000 and one day of service, he said that seemed about right and, anyway, he prefers to spend his time prosecuting violence crimes.
So why did the judge seal all the records, preventing anyone from seeing the evidence?
Why did all this happen after Michelle Obama reportedly called the prosecutor to intervene on Smollet's behalf?
I am just thunderstruck with the naked corruption of these events.
Ah, the cradle of Nazism
Hitler was born an Austrian.
Hansjoerg Bacher, spokesman for prosecutors in Graz, said Martin Sellner, head of the Identitarian Movement - which says it wants to preserve Europe’s identity - received 1,500 euros ($1,690) in early 2018 from a donor with the same name as the man charged with murder following the Christchurch attack.
“We can now confirm that there was financial support and so a link between the New Zealand attacker and the Identitarian Movement in Austria,” Kurz said.
Sellner published a video on YouTube in which he said he had received a donation from the man and that police had raided his house over the possible links to the Christchurch attacker.
In it, he said: “I’m not a member of a terrorist organization. I have nothing to do with this man, other than that I passively received a donation from him.”
Careful with the poison
Yeah, sure, you can hit the buttons as hard as you want.
You can get really dirty and negative against people you don't want to be the eventual nominee, like the Bernie people did when they ripped Hillary repeatedly.
It's the Democratic circular firing squad.
And it's not really smart.
One of these folks will be the nominee.
We don't need to be poisoning minds against them all in advance, doing the Republicans' work for them.
If a couple of million Democrats hadn't stayed home last time because they'd been made to feel disgust with Hillary not only by the Trump campaign but by the Sanders campaign before that, just maybe we wouldn't be in this fix.
Joe Biden: 'I Wish I Could Have Done Something' About Anita Hill
Our own media are going negative already against anybody with a known name.
Biden is too old and too white and, hey, what about Anita Hill?
Beto has nothing going but white privilege and anyway he's too much an Ocare guy and not enough for real on board with Medicare for All.
Kamala Harris didn't act vigorously against sexual abuse in her own department when she was California AG.
And it will go on and on, as the focus shifts to others among the candidates.
Once again, we are teaching the Republicans how to attack our eventual nominee.
And that's not good.
You can get really dirty and negative against people you don't want to be the eventual nominee, like the Bernie people did when they ripped Hillary repeatedly.
It's the Democratic circular firing squad.
And it's not really smart.
One of these folks will be the nominee.
We don't need to be poisoning minds against them all in advance, doing the Republicans' work for them.
If a couple of million Democrats hadn't stayed home last time because they'd been made to feel disgust with Hillary not only by the Trump campaign but by the Sanders campaign before that, just maybe we wouldn't be in this fix.
Joe Biden: 'I Wish I Could Have Done Something' About Anita Hill
Our own media are going negative already against anybody with a known name.
Biden is too old and too white and, hey, what about Anita Hill?
Beto has nothing going but white privilege and anyway he's too much an Ocare guy and not enough for real on board with Medicare for All.
Kamala Harris didn't act vigorously against sexual abuse in her own department when she was California AG.
And it will go on and on, as the focus shifts to others among the candidates.
Once again, we are teaching the Republicans how to attack our eventual nominee.
And that's not good.
Scarborough flipping to our side?
Get Right In His Face About His [Trump's] Lies,' Scarborough Tells Dems
Quickly point out how the "witch hunt" sent a half dozen or so of his campaign officials and closest advisors to prison and then "move straight in to where it counts the most, in the gut of American politics, and that is health care, the promises he made and the promises he broke.
"Not over Russia.
"Not over Robert Mueller.
"Not over his hand-picked attorney general.
"But over health care.
"He promised universal health care. He took it away.
"He promised no cuts to Medicare. Then he slashed and burned Medicare.
"He promised no cuts to Medicaid, then he slashed and burned Medicaid.
"He promised people they're going to get lower premiums, they're going to have lower deductibles, they were going to have better coverage, that he wasn't going to take away pre-existing conditions?
"Lie, lie, lie, lie!"
Quickly point out how the "witch hunt" sent a half dozen or so of his campaign officials and closest advisors to prison and then "move straight in to where it counts the most, in the gut of American politics, and that is health care, the promises he made and the promises he broke.
"Not over Russia.
"Not over Robert Mueller.
"Not over his hand-picked attorney general.
"But over health care.
"He promised universal health care. He took it away.
"He promised no cuts to Medicare. Then he slashed and burned Medicare.
"He promised no cuts to Medicaid, then he slashed and burned Medicaid.
"He promised people they're going to get lower premiums, they're going to have lower deductibles, they were going to have better coverage, that he wasn't going to take away pre-existing conditions?
"Lie, lie, lie, lie!"
The Duce and the GOP: Protecting real Americans from the Democrats who hate them
That's what the Duce and the Republicans tell his "real American" supporters, less educated and not very smart white folks.
And they will believe it.
Actual facts don't matter, at all.
Democrats Pivot to Protecting Affordable Care Act
A new fight over the Affordable Care Act broke out on Tuesday, as Democrats denounced the Trump administration for asking a federal appeals court to invalidate it.
The surprise decision, which could leave 21 million people without health insurance if the court agrees, gave Democrats a chance to move past impeachment and discuss kitchen-table issues like health care.
Why Trump’s New Push to Kill Obamacare Is So Alarming
In a stunning two-sentence letter to a federal appeals court, the Justice Department announced on Monday that it would now seek the invalidation of the entire Affordable Care Act — every last one of its thousands of provisions.
The irresponsibility of this new legal position is hard to overstate.
And they will believe it.
Actual facts don't matter, at all.
Democrats Pivot to Protecting Affordable Care Act
A new fight over the Affordable Care Act broke out on Tuesday, as Democrats denounced the Trump administration for asking a federal appeals court to invalidate it.
The surprise decision, which could leave 21 million people without health insurance if the court agrees, gave Democrats a chance to move past impeachment and discuss kitchen-table issues like health care.
Why Trump’s New Push to Kill Obamacare Is So Alarming
In a stunning two-sentence letter to a federal appeals court, the Justice Department announced on Monday that it would now seek the invalidation of the entire Affordable Care Act — every last one of its thousands of provisions.
The irresponsibility of this new legal position is hard to overstate.
It’s a shocking dereliction of the Justice Department’s duty, embraced by Republican and Democratic administrations alike, to defend acts of Congress if any plausible argument can be made in their defense.
Nor is the Affordable Care Act some minor statute that can be shoved aside without disruption.
Nor is the Affordable Care Act some minor statute that can be shoved aside without disruption.
It is now part of the basic plumbing of the American health care system.
It guarantees protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
It expanded Medicaid to cover 12.6 million more people, and it offers crucial protections to the 156 million Americans who get insurance through employers.
Beyond that, the law forces insurers to cover preventive care and contraception without charge; changed how hospitals and physicians bill for their services; requires fast-food restaurants to post calorie counts; cut hundreds of billions of dollars of Medicare spending; imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes; and much, much more.
Unceremoniously ripping up the law would inflict untold harm on the health care system — and on all Americans who depend on it.
Beyond that, the law forces insurers to cover preventive care and contraception without charge; changed how hospitals and physicians bill for their services; requires fast-food restaurants to post calorie counts; cut hundreds of billions of dollars of Medicare spending; imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes; and much, much more.
Unceremoniously ripping up the law would inflict untold harm on the health care system — and on all Americans who depend on it.
Yet the Trump administration has now committed itself to doing just that.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Preventive detention. With or without trial. Or after trial.
Indefinite preventive detention without trial is unconstitutional but, apart from that minor objection . . . .
Dick Cheney, Donald Trump, it's the spirit of three strikes and you're out, sort of, but maybe more like, oh hell, this is bad, one strike and you're out, and you don't get a trial.
So why is the executive so hot to avoid an actual trial on a charge that might well lead to imprisonment for life with no possibility of parole?
Who so hot not to have to have any sort of actual trial to prove the accused have committed whatever crime it is that makes them so dangerous?
Often because the evidence, though compelling if true, is tainted testimony obtained under torture.
But maybe not always that.
Once Jailed in Guantánamo, 5 Taliban Now Face U.S. at Peace Talks
When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban government, even those who surrendered were treated as terrorists: handcuffed, hooded and shipped to the American detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Now, in a stark demonstration of the twists and contradictions of the long American involvement in Afghanistan, five of those men are sitting across a negotiating table from their former captors, part of the Taliban team discussing the terms of an American troop withdrawal.
“During our time in Guantánamo, the feeling was with us that we had been brought there unjustly and that we would be freed,” said one of the former detainees, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa.
“But it never occurred to me that one day there would be negotiations with them, and I would be sitting there with them on one side and us on the other.”
The five senior Taliban officials were held at Guantánamo for 13 years before catching a lucky break in 2014.
They were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American service member to be held by the insurgents as a prisoner of war.
Not really a great deal.
Testing Novel Power, Trump Administration Detains Palestinian After Sentence Ends
Swept up by authorities after the Sept. 11 attacks, Adham Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who lived in Florida, served 15 years in prison for sending support to Islamist militants abroad.
His sentence completed, he then waited in immigration detention more than a year and a half while the government fruitlessly hunted for a place to deport him.
Finally, a judge ordered him temporarily released in the United States.
But instead, the Trump administration, citing a little-used immigration regulation issued after 9/11, notified Mr. Hassoun last month that he was being declared a security risk and would be kept locked up indefinitely.
. . . .
“The government is saying it can hold someone solely because it claims he is a danger, without a justification like he’s a combatant in an armed conflict or has a mental illness that prevents him from controlling his own actions,” said Jonathan Hafetz of the American Civil Liberties Union, who is consulting in the case.
“This is a monumentally important issue courts have never addressed.”
. . . .
Before Mr. Hassoun’s case, the government had invoked the Bush-era regulation only once, the Department of Homeland Security said.
That was in a 2015 case in which the Obama administration cited the regulation to justify keeping another Palestinian man detained; he had finished a prison sentence for planting a bomb on a Hawaii-bound airliner in 1982, and the government was having trouble finding a place to deport him, too.
But before a judge could rule on whether his continued detention was lawful, Mauritania took him in.
Dick Cheney, Donald Trump, it's the spirit of three strikes and you're out, sort of, but maybe more like, oh hell, this is bad, one strike and you're out, and you don't get a trial.
So why is the executive so hot to avoid an actual trial on a charge that might well lead to imprisonment for life with no possibility of parole?
Who so hot not to have to have any sort of actual trial to prove the accused have committed whatever crime it is that makes them so dangerous?
Often because the evidence, though compelling if true, is tainted testimony obtained under torture.
But maybe not always that.
Once Jailed in Guantánamo, 5 Taliban Now Face U.S. at Peace Talks
When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and toppled the Taliban government, even those who surrendered were treated as terrorists: handcuffed, hooded and shipped to the American detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Now, in a stark demonstration of the twists and contradictions of the long American involvement in Afghanistan, five of those men are sitting across a negotiating table from their former captors, part of the Taliban team discussing the terms of an American troop withdrawal.
“During our time in Guantánamo, the feeling was with us that we had been brought there unjustly and that we would be freed,” said one of the former detainees, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa.
“But it never occurred to me that one day there would be negotiations with them, and I would be sitting there with them on one side and us on the other.”
The five senior Taliban officials were held at Guantánamo for 13 years before catching a lucky break in 2014.
They were exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American service member to be held by the insurgents as a prisoner of war.
Not really a great deal.
Testing Novel Power, Trump Administration Detains Palestinian After Sentence Ends
Swept up by authorities after the Sept. 11 attacks, Adham Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who lived in Florida, served 15 years in prison for sending support to Islamist militants abroad.
His sentence completed, he then waited in immigration detention more than a year and a half while the government fruitlessly hunted for a place to deport him.
Finally, a judge ordered him temporarily released in the United States.
But instead, the Trump administration, citing a little-used immigration regulation issued after 9/11, notified Mr. Hassoun last month that he was being declared a security risk and would be kept locked up indefinitely.
. . . .
“The government is saying it can hold someone solely because it claims he is a danger, without a justification like he’s a combatant in an armed conflict or has a mental illness that prevents him from controlling his own actions,” said Jonathan Hafetz of the American Civil Liberties Union, who is consulting in the case.
“This is a monumentally important issue courts have never addressed.”
. . . .
Before Mr. Hassoun’s case, the government had invoked the Bush-era regulation only once, the Department of Homeland Security said.
That was in a 2015 case in which the Obama administration cited the regulation to justify keeping another Palestinian man detained; he had finished a prison sentence for planting a bomb on a Hawaii-bound airliner in 1982, and the government was having trouble finding a place to deport him, too.
But before a judge could rule on whether his continued detention was lawful, Mauritania took him in.
Is the Duce a pro-Zionist anti-Semite?
This is the anti-Semitic president?
Golan Heights Recognition by U.S. Sets Precedent for Annexation, Netanyahu Says
Everyone knows you can be anti-Zionist or anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic.
Can you be pro-Zionist or pro-(Greater) Israel while being anti-Semitic?
Well, maybe.
He's devoted to the Evangelical agenda of clericalism while personally contemptuous of Evangelicals, their beliefs, and their morality.
President Trump’s recognition of Israeli authorityover the Golan Heights established a precedent allowing the annexation of territory captured in a defensive war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told reporters while traveling home after his trip to Washington was cut short by a new round of fighting with the Gaza Strip.
“There is a very important principle in international life,” Mr. Netanyahu said late Monday before taking off from Andrews Air Force Base.
“When you start wars of aggression, you lose territory, do not come and claim it afterwards. It belongs to us.”
Moments before landing at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu re-emphasized the point, telling reporters, “Everyone says you can’t hold an occupied territory, but this proves you can. If occupied in a defensive war, then it’s ours.”
Golan Heights Recognition by U.S. Sets Precedent for Annexation, Netanyahu Says
Everyone knows you can be anti-Zionist or anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic.
Can you be pro-Zionist or pro-(Greater) Israel while being anti-Semitic?
Well, maybe.
He's devoted to the Evangelical agenda of clericalism while personally contemptuous of Evangelicals, their beliefs, and their morality.
President Trump’s recognition of Israeli authorityover the Golan Heights established a precedent allowing the annexation of territory captured in a defensive war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told reporters while traveling home after his trip to Washington was cut short by a new round of fighting with the Gaza Strip.
“There is a very important principle in international life,” Mr. Netanyahu said late Monday before taking off from Andrews Air Force Base.
“When you start wars of aggression, you lose territory, do not come and claim it afterwards. It belongs to us.”
Moments before landing at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu re-emphasized the point, telling reporters, “Everyone says you can’t hold an occupied territory, but this proves you can. If occupied in a defensive war, then it’s ours.”
I think we all know projection is a standard, time-worn GOP propaganda technique
GOP Rep Mo Brooks Reads 'Mein Kampf' To Attack Democrats
Frances Langum quotes,
"America can either learn from history or be doomed to repeat it.
"When it comes to 'Big Lie' political propaganda in America, as the Mueller report confirms, America’s Socialists and their fake news media allies are experts and have no peers."
Frances Langum quotes,
"America can either learn from history or be doomed to repeat it.
"When it comes to 'Big Lie' political propaganda in America, as the Mueller report confirms, America’s Socialists and their fake news media allies are experts and have no peers."
More likely than not, though not beyond a reasonable doubt?
Repeat After Me: Barr Did Not Say Mueller Found No Russia Collusion
And some go so far as this.
NewsHound Ellen
Last night, Slate published a must-read article by correspondent Will Saletan that also noted Barr had used “weasel words” in his letter.
But Saletan found many more of them - and more disturbing signs that Barr was equivocating in order to protect Trump.
Rather than show Trump “innocent of collusion or obstruction,” Saletan concluded, Barr's letter "shows that collusion and obstruction were defined to exclude what [Trump] did.”
(Emphases are mine.)
I guess we'll know better when and if the congress, and hopefully the public, sees the report.
And some go so far as this.
NewsHound Ellen
Last night, Slate published a must-read article by correspondent Will Saletan that also noted Barr had used “weasel words” in his letter.
But Saletan found many more of them - and more disturbing signs that Barr was equivocating in order to protect Trump.
Rather than show Trump “innocent of collusion or obstruction,” Saletan concluded, Barr's letter "shows that collusion and obstruction were defined to exclude what [Trump] did.”
(Emphases are mine.)
I guess we'll know better when and if the congress, and hopefully the public, sees the report.
This really stinks
Jussie Smollett charges dropped, actor won't be prosecuted on charges he faked attack
So why are they keeping the ten thousand dollars in bail money?
Why did they say that forfeit and some sort of "community service" made this a "just outcome"?
Why did Michelle Obama stick her oar in?
Is this just "friends in high places"?
Because there's no word of the police resuming investigation of the alleged attack in order to find "who really did it".
Smollett was then labeled as a suspect in his own alleged assault and arrested in February.
Prosecutors and police said Smollett allegedly paid the Osundairo brothers $3,500 via a check to attack him and also gave them money to buy the supplies they would need to carry out the hoax crime.
He was released from jail after posting $10,000 of his $100,000 bond.
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office said Tuesday that after reviewing the case, Smollett's volunteer service and his willingness to turn his bond over to the city, "we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."
His family celebrated the decision, saying in a statement that "truth has prevailed and he has been vindicated."
Rahm Emanuel and the police insist at about 3:00 pm this is not on the level, this is a whitewash, this is a coverup, Jussie got off because of privilege and influence, the state's attorney betrayed justice, and Smollet is guilty.
In a trial all the evidence would have come out.
Because of this deal all the evidence has been sealed by the judge and no one will ever see it.
From top to bottom, this is wrong.
Emanuel and the police are really angry.
One standard for the privileged, says Emanuel, and another for the rest of us.
No accountability for the powerful.
Oh, and the cost to the city of the investigation and proceedings to date is way, way more than ten thousand, said Emanuel.
So why are they keeping the ten thousand dollars in bail money?
Why did they say that forfeit and some sort of "community service" made this a "just outcome"?
Why did Michelle Obama stick her oar in?
Is this just "friends in high places"?
Because there's no word of the police resuming investigation of the alleged attack in order to find "who really did it".
Smollett was then labeled as a suspect in his own alleged assault and arrested in February.
Prosecutors and police said Smollett allegedly paid the Osundairo brothers $3,500 via a check to attack him and also gave them money to buy the supplies they would need to carry out the hoax crime.
He was released from jail after posting $10,000 of his $100,000 bond.
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office said Tuesday that after reviewing the case, Smollett's volunteer service and his willingness to turn his bond over to the city, "we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."
Rahm Emanuel and the police insist at about 3:00 pm this is not on the level, this is a whitewash, this is a coverup, Jussie got off because of privilege and influence, the state's attorney betrayed justice, and Smollet is guilty.
In a trial all the evidence would have come out.
Because of this deal all the evidence has been sealed by the judge and no one will ever see it.
From top to bottom, this is wrong.
Emanuel and the police are really angry.
One standard for the privileged, says Emanuel, and another for the rest of us.
No accountability for the powerful.
Oh, and the cost to the city of the investigation and proceedings to date is way, way more than ten thousand, said Emanuel.
Tired of winning, yet?
Trump Officials Broaden Attack on Health Law, Arguing Courts Should Reject All of It
His moron voters will be thrilled.
Fucked, and thrilled.
'Cause he so has their back.
Remember when Republicans vowed to be the party to protect pre-existing condition coverage?
After the president and Republicans repeatedly promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions, the Trump administration on Monday evening said it supports a federal judge’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional, adding that it will seek to repeal the sweeping health care law in its entirety.
The Justice Department filed a brief letter in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit telling the court that it agrees with Judge Reed O’Connor, who last year handed down an opinion purporting to strike down the entire health law.
The move would eliminate health care coverage for tens of millions of people and put Medicaid expansion programs for low-income Americans in jeopardy.
The news follows months of campaigning by Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterm elections during which candidates vowed to safeguard people’s health care, specifically positioning the GOP as the party that would protect the approximately 52 million Americans living with pre-existing conditions.
“Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican,” President Donald Trump tweeted two weeks before the election.
Weeks before, he had insisted that “all Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions,” while “Democrats will destroy your Medicare.”
His moron voters will be thrilled.
Fucked, and thrilled.
'Cause he so has their back.
Remember when Republicans vowed to be the party to protect pre-existing condition coverage?
After the president and Republicans repeatedly promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions, the Trump administration on Monday evening said it supports a federal judge’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional, adding that it will seek to repeal the sweeping health care law in its entirety.
The Justice Department filed a brief letter in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit telling the court that it agrees with Judge Reed O’Connor, who last year handed down an opinion purporting to strike down the entire health law.
The move would eliminate health care coverage for tens of millions of people and put Medicaid expansion programs for low-income Americans in jeopardy.
The news follows months of campaigning by Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterm elections during which candidates vowed to safeguard people’s health care, specifically positioning the GOP as the party that would protect the approximately 52 million Americans living with pre-existing conditions.
“Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican,” President Donald Trump tweeted two weeks before the election.
Weeks before, he had insisted that “all Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions,” while “Democrats will destroy your Medicare.”
Monday, March 25, 2019
Jesus, and I sent these guys a donation
Well, this totally sucks.
Primaries Are Essential For A Healthy Democratic Party
Last week the DCCC announced a new rule-- something they've been doing, secretly, for years: Anyone who works with a candidate challenging an incumbent Democrat will be blacklisted.
. . . .
If you do TV ads and work for someone like, say, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against corrupt establishment icon Joe Crowley (circa 2018), you can no longer do any work for the DCCC or its candidates.
Sound anti-democratic to you?
It is, especially when you consider that millions of Democrats in scores of deep blue districts in every part of the country have no way to hold their reps accountable except through primaries.
And AOC is hardly the only Democrat who got into Congress by challenging and beating an incumbent.
ozens of current members did exactly that.
Last year Ayanna Pressley beat Mike Capuano in Boston.
Ro Khanna beat Mike Honda in Silicon Valley and Eric Swalwell beat Pelosi-crony Pete Stark in the San Francisco suburbs in 2012.
Beto first won his race in El Paso by winning a primary against a Pelosi-crony who no longer was seen to be serving the best interests of the community.
Primaries Are Essential For A Healthy Democratic Party
Last week the DCCC announced a new rule-- something they've been doing, secretly, for years: Anyone who works with a candidate challenging an incumbent Democrat will be blacklisted.
. . . .
If you do TV ads and work for someone like, say, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against corrupt establishment icon Joe Crowley (circa 2018), you can no longer do any work for the DCCC or its candidates.
Sound anti-democratic to you?
It is, especially when you consider that millions of Democrats in scores of deep blue districts in every part of the country have no way to hold their reps accountable except through primaries.
And AOC is hardly the only Democrat who got into Congress by challenging and beating an incumbent.
ozens of current members did exactly that.
Last year Ayanna Pressley beat Mike Capuano in Boston.
Ro Khanna beat Mike Honda in Silicon Valley and Eric Swalwell beat Pelosi-crony Pete Stark in the San Francisco suburbs in 2012.
Beto first won his race in El Paso by winning a primary against a Pelosi-crony who no longer was seen to be serving the best interests of the community.
What a muddle
But this is hopeful.
PM concedes lack of support for [her] deal
Theresa May has urged MPs not to condemn Britain to a “slow Brexit” this week, as she conceded she did not yet have the support in parliament to bring back her deal for a third meaningful vote.
After gathering Brexit-backing grandees at her country retreat of Chequers on Sunday, and speaking to the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on Monday, May said she had reached the conclusion she could not yet win the vote.
“I have had to conclude that as things stand, there is still not sufficient support in the house, to bring back the deal for a third meaningful vote,” she said, as she reported to MPs on last week’s European council summit.
May also came as close as she has done to ruling out a no-deal Brexit, stressing the damage it would do to the union – a message she also delivered to cabinet, according to government sources.
Theresa May has urged MPs not to condemn Britain to a “slow Brexit” this week, as she conceded she did not yet have the support in parliament to bring back her deal for a third meaningful vote.
After gathering Brexit-backing grandees at her country retreat of Chequers on Sunday, and speaking to the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on Monday, May said she had reached the conclusion she could not yet win the vote.
“I have had to conclude that as things stand, there is still not sufficient support in the house, to bring back the deal for a third meaningful vote,” she said, as she reported to MPs on last week’s European council summit.
May also came as close as she has done to ruling out a no-deal Brexit, stressing the damage it would do to the union – a message she also delivered to cabinet, according to government sources.
“Unless this house agrees to it, no deal will not happen,” May said.
A surprise, and maybe not even true
Well within the margin of error.
With all the people in the second rank so close this ordering is essentially meaningless.
As is the ordering of Biden and Sanders.
Pete Buttigieg: 2020 Democratic candidate surges to third place in new poll
The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, won the backing of 11% of likely Iowa Democratic caucus voters in an Emerson poll released on Sunday.
Joe Biden had 25% support, with Bernie Sanders in second place with 24%. But the performance of Buttigieg, who has impressed in a series of TV appearances, is likely to serve as a warning to his better-known rivals.
. . . .
Harris, a senator from California, had 10% support in the Emerson poll – which had a margin error of +/- 6.2% – while Warren of Massachusetts was in fourth place with 9%.
Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from Texas who has captured the attention of the public and the media with a combination of relentless charm and non-committal policy positions, was backed by 5% of likely voters.
With all the people in the second rank so close this ordering is essentially meaningless.
As is the ordering of Biden and Sanders.
Pete Buttigieg: 2020 Democratic candidate surges to third place in new poll
The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, won the backing of 11% of likely Iowa Democratic caucus voters in an Emerson poll released on Sunday.
Joe Biden had 25% support, with Bernie Sanders in second place with 24%. But the performance of Buttigieg, who has impressed in a series of TV appearances, is likely to serve as a warning to his better-known rivals.
. . . .
Harris, a senator from California, had 10% support in the Emerson poll – which had a margin error of +/- 6.2% – while Warren of Massachusetts was in fourth place with 9%.
Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from Texas who has captured the attention of the public and the media with a combination of relentless charm and non-committal policy positions, was backed by 5% of likely voters.
Still the man who deserves our hatred
Trump Declares Exoneration, and a War on His Enemies
Minutes after the release of Mr. Barr’s letter, the White House issued a statement in which the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “the special counsel did not find any collusion and did not find any obstruction.”
. . . .
The White House followed that up with a statement that highlighted three passages from Mr. Barr’s letter: that the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia; that Mr. Barr found no actions that constituted “obstructive conduct,” and that the Justice Department did not find evidence sufficient to “establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.”
. . . .
The White House quickly went on the offensive, holding a briefing call for a group of surrogates after the letter was released.
In an email sent by the White House, Mr. Trump’s surrogates were given a detailed list of talking points, including the falsehood that the report served as a “complete and total exoneration” for Mr. Trump.
The email, which was obtained by The New York Times, said “the president and the administration fully cooperated with the investigation,” which is also not entirely true.
Mr. Trump declined to ever speak in person with special counsel investigators despite a lengthy negotiation process.
. . . .
Despite Mr. Trump’s threat to go after those involved in the investigation, Mr. Gidley said he had no plans to ask the attorney general to investigate Democrats.
Mr. Gidley sought to cast the results of the investigation as “a great day for the American people.
"Their vote for Donald Trump was vindicated.”
He described an ebullient Mr. Trump, who he said spent the flight chatting with staff members, making phone calls and watching television.
In addition to Mr. Mulvaney and himself, he said Dan Scavino, Mr. Trump’s social media aide, was in the president’s office on the plane.
Other staff members delighted in watching the coverage on MSNBC, a rare change from Fox News on the presidential aircraft.
“He’s feeling very good,” Mr. Gidley said. “He’s in a really good mood. He’s just very happy with how it all turned out.”
As Air Force One arrived outside Washington, the president was in the cockpit for the landing.
He and his campaign were apparently fully exonerated of "collusion", but as regards obstruction of justice the situation is more ambiguous - though it sounds eerily close to what Comey finally had to say about Hillary's use of her private email server, as the Duce's defenders will no doubt point out in coming days.
Writes Barr,
The Special Counsel states that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
No doubt the Democrats can look into that further, and into a good many other things.
They should certainly demand the full report and make public as much as can be.
And not everybody shares Mueller's fastidiousness or Barr's theory about what is obstruction.
But they need to be wary lest the bulk of the public outside the Republican Party begins to agree with the Duce's characterization of what they are doing as a witch hunt - some might rather think a fishing expedition - aimed at finding some, any, means of taking down a legitimately elected president they deeply despise.
We are all convinced that Bozo and his family are in fact a crime family guilty of many things for which some or all of them may belong in prison.
But that doesn't mean we can prove it.
And that is why organized crime exists and prospers.
It sucks, but there we are.
Unless somebody can get him for a tax crime, maybe.
It was good enough for Eliot Ness . . . .
Minutes after the release of Mr. Barr’s letter, the White House issued a statement in which the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “the special counsel did not find any collusion and did not find any obstruction.”
. . . .
The White House followed that up with a statement that highlighted three passages from Mr. Barr’s letter: that the special counsel found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia; that Mr. Barr found no actions that constituted “obstructive conduct,” and that the Justice Department did not find evidence sufficient to “establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.”
. . . .
The White House quickly went on the offensive, holding a briefing call for a group of surrogates after the letter was released.
In an email sent by the White House, Mr. Trump’s surrogates were given a detailed list of talking points, including the falsehood that the report served as a “complete and total exoneration” for Mr. Trump.
The email, which was obtained by The New York Times, said “the president and the administration fully cooperated with the investigation,” which is also not entirely true.
Mr. Trump declined to ever speak in person with special counsel investigators despite a lengthy negotiation process.
. . . .
Despite Mr. Trump’s threat to go after those involved in the investigation, Mr. Gidley said he had no plans to ask the attorney general to investigate Democrats.
Mr. Gidley sought to cast the results of the investigation as “a great day for the American people.
"Their vote for Donald Trump was vindicated.”
He described an ebullient Mr. Trump, who he said spent the flight chatting with staff members, making phone calls and watching television.
In addition to Mr. Mulvaney and himself, he said Dan Scavino, Mr. Trump’s social media aide, was in the president’s office on the plane.
Other staff members delighted in watching the coverage on MSNBC, a rare change from Fox News on the presidential aircraft.
“He’s feeling very good,” Mr. Gidley said. “He’s in a really good mood. He’s just very happy with how it all turned out.”
As Air Force One arrived outside Washington, the president was in the cockpit for the landing.
He and his campaign were apparently fully exonerated of "collusion", but as regards obstruction of justice the situation is more ambiguous - though it sounds eerily close to what Comey finally had to say about Hillary's use of her private email server, as the Duce's defenders will no doubt point out in coming days.
Writes Barr,
The Special Counsel states that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
No doubt the Democrats can look into that further, and into a good many other things.
They should certainly demand the full report and make public as much as can be.
And not everybody shares Mueller's fastidiousness or Barr's theory about what is obstruction.
But they need to be wary lest the bulk of the public outside the Republican Party begins to agree with the Duce's characterization of what they are doing as a witch hunt - some might rather think a fishing expedition - aimed at finding some, any, means of taking down a legitimately elected president they deeply despise.
We are all convinced that Bozo and his family are in fact a crime family guilty of many things for which some or all of them may belong in prison.
But that doesn't mean we can prove it.
And that is why organized crime exists and prospers.
It sucks, but there we are.
Unless somebody can get him for a tax crime, maybe.
It was good enough for Eliot Ness . . . .
If monopolies are bad why isn't Medicare for All bad?
I think I would still be happier with an expanded exchange with expanded subsidies and a very much shrunk Medicaid system, so that all told everybody, or damned near everbody, got pretty fully covered.
It's that market power of the only game in town, or by far the biggest game in town, that bothers me.
I absolutely do not want the federal government to control the direction of health care or pharmacy research and development.
And I would still be happier with a voucher system for tuition at whatever secondary school the student wants, with yearly amounts big enough to make public institutions effectively tuition free.
More like universalizing the GI Bill's education benefit than a federal takeover of the public secondary schools of the entire country.
So, no, not quite the AOC/Bernie agenda.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
The AG says Mueller cleared Bozo and the other clowns of collusion
As to obstruction, well . . .
No doubt the Dems will and should insist on seeing the whole report, but I seriously doubt Barr is lying.
Mueller did not find Trump campaign conspired with Russia, attorney general says
Special counsel Robert Mueller found that neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, according to letter delivered to Congress on Sunday by the US attorney general.
The letter from William Barr also revealed Mueller was unable to draw a conclusion “one way or the other” on whether Trump or anyone in the White House obstructed justice during the investigation.
Mueller has filed no further indictments following an almost two year-long investigation that has seen some of Trump’s closest advisers criminally prosecuted and convicted.
As Mueller was unable to draw a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice throughout the investigation, it was left to Barrand deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, both appointed by Trump, to decide not to pursue charges.
Barr described the evidence for obstruction as “not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense”. Furthermore, Barr insisted in his letter the decision not to prosecute was not made based on any limitations related to the indictment of a sitting president.
The letter from Barr, at just four pages long, offered a small snapshot of Mueller’s extensive investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, which the letter reveals involved more than 2,800 subpoenas, almost 500 search warrants and interviews with around 500 witnesses.
But this is definitely not the end of it, as the Democrats in the house continue their investigations.
And they are not happy with the decision not to look further at obstruction, much less to indict anyone or openly accuse the president.
No doubt the Dems will and should insist on seeing the whole report, but I seriously doubt Barr is lying.
Mueller did not find Trump campaign conspired with Russia, attorney general says
Special counsel Robert Mueller found that neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, according to letter delivered to Congress on Sunday by the US attorney general.
The letter from William Barr also revealed Mueller was unable to draw a conclusion “one way or the other” on whether Trump or anyone in the White House obstructed justice during the investigation.
Mueller has filed no further indictments following an almost two year-long investigation that has seen some of Trump’s closest advisers criminally prosecuted and convicted.
As Mueller was unable to draw a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice throughout the investigation, it was left to Barrand deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, both appointed by Trump, to decide not to pursue charges.
Barr described the evidence for obstruction as “not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense”. Furthermore, Barr insisted in his letter the decision not to prosecute was not made based on any limitations related to the indictment of a sitting president.
The letter from Barr, at just four pages long, offered a small snapshot of Mueller’s extensive investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, which the letter reveals involved more than 2,800 subpoenas, almost 500 search warrants and interviews with around 500 witnesses.
But this is definitely not the end of it, as the Democrats in the house continue their investigations.
And they are not happy with the decision not to look further at obstruction, much less to indict anyone or openly accuse the president.
So often frank, so often right.
Forthright AOC explained in an interview how Republicans in general and Reagan in particular have used racism.
“One perfect example – a perfect example – of how special interests and the powerful have pitted white working-class Americans against brown and black working Americans in order to just screw over all working-class Americans is Reaganism in the '80s," Ocasio-Cortez said during an interview [at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.]
In a TYT video on YouTube, the folks expand on the point, making reference to his campaign speech at Philadelphia, Mississippi, the county seat of Neshoba County notorious as the site of the murder of three civil right workers, a place at which he could have no other reason to speak than to send a very clear signal that white racists exasperated by the Democrats' support for Afro-Americans' civil and voting rights would be welcome in the GOP.
Per Wikipedia,
During his speech, Reagan said:
Why, Barry Goldwater, of course.
AOC also referred to Reagan's diatribe against "welfare queens".
"So you think about this image, 'welfare queens,'” Ocasio-Cortez continued, “and what [Reagan] was really trying to talk about…
"He's painting this really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, [who] were sucks on our country, right? …
"That's not explicit racism, but it’s still rooted in racist caricature. It gives people a logical — a ‘logical’ — reason to say, 'Oh, yeah, no. Toss out the whole safety net.'"
Per Wikipedia,
The idea of welfare fraud goes back to the early-1960s, when the majority of known offenders were male.
Despite this, many journalistic exposés were published at the time on those who would come to be known as welfare queens.
Readers Digest and Look magazine published sensational stories about mothers gaming the system.
Additionally, Ronald Reagan employed the trope of the "Welfare Queen" in order to rally support for reform of the welfare system.
During his initial bid for the Republican nomination in 1976, and again in 1980, Reagan constantly made reference to the "Welfare Queen" at his campaign rallies.
Some of these stories, and some that followed into the 1990s, focused on female welfare recipients engaged in behavior counter-productive to eventual financial independence such as having children out of wedlock, using AFDC money to buy drugs, or showing little desire to work.
These women were understood to be social parasites, draining society of valuable resources while engaging in self damaging behavior.
Despite these early appearances of the "Welfare Queen" icon, stories about able-bodied men collecting welfare continued to dominate discourse until the 1970s, at which point women became the main focus of welfare fraud stories.
The term was coined in 1974, either by George Bliss of the Chicago Tribune in his articles about Linda Taylor, or by Jet Magazine.
Neither publication credits the other in their "Welfare Queen" stories of that year. Taylor was ultimately charged with committing $8,000 in fraud and having four aliases.
She was convicted of illegally obtaining 23 welfare checks using two aliases and was sentenced to two to six years in prison.
During the same decade, Taylor was additionally investigated for murder, kidnapping, and baby trafficking.
Stories of her activities were used by Ronald Reagan, starting with his 1976 presidential campaign, to illustrate his criticisms of social programs in the United States.
I think nowadays we see a little better what that Bitburg visit was all about, too.
TYT also mentioned Reagan's removal of sanctions on the Apartheid regime of South Africa, a regime ardently defended back in the day by William Buckley and his National Review, and his bitter private opposition to the creation of Martin Luther King day, a measure he signed only because it was passed with veto-proof majorities.
When Reagan was reelected I was plunged into gloom for days.
See this for more.
“One perfect example – a perfect example – of how special interests and the powerful have pitted white working-class Americans against brown and black working Americans in order to just screw over all working-class Americans is Reaganism in the '80s," Ocasio-Cortez said during an interview [at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.]
In a TYT video on YouTube, the folks expand on the point, making reference to his campaign speech at Philadelphia, Mississippi, the county seat of Neshoba County notorious as the site of the murder of three civil right workers, a place at which he could have no other reason to speak than to send a very clear signal that white racists exasperated by the Democrats' support for Afro-Americans' civil and voting rights would be welcome in the GOP.
Per Wikipedia,
During his speech, Reagan said:
I still believe the answer to any problem lies with the people.
I believe in states' rights.
I believe in people doing as much as they can for themselves at the community level and at the private level, and I believe we've distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to that federal establishment.And what earlier Republican, an idol of Reagan's, had taken just this sort of tack?
Why, Barry Goldwater, of course.
AOC also referred to Reagan's diatribe against "welfare queens".
"So you think about this image, 'welfare queens,'” Ocasio-Cortez continued, “and what [Reagan] was really trying to talk about…
"He's painting this really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, [who] were sucks on our country, right? …
"That's not explicit racism, but it’s still rooted in racist caricature. It gives people a logical — a ‘logical’ — reason to say, 'Oh, yeah, no. Toss out the whole safety net.'"
Per Wikipedia,
The idea of welfare fraud goes back to the early-1960s, when the majority of known offenders were male.
Despite this, many journalistic exposés were published at the time on those who would come to be known as welfare queens.
Readers Digest and Look magazine published sensational stories about mothers gaming the system.
Additionally, Ronald Reagan employed the trope of the "Welfare Queen" in order to rally support for reform of the welfare system.
During his initial bid for the Republican nomination in 1976, and again in 1980, Reagan constantly made reference to the "Welfare Queen" at his campaign rallies.
Some of these stories, and some that followed into the 1990s, focused on female welfare recipients engaged in behavior counter-productive to eventual financial independence such as having children out of wedlock, using AFDC money to buy drugs, or showing little desire to work.
These women were understood to be social parasites, draining society of valuable resources while engaging in self damaging behavior.
Despite these early appearances of the "Welfare Queen" icon, stories about able-bodied men collecting welfare continued to dominate discourse until the 1970s, at which point women became the main focus of welfare fraud stories.
The term was coined in 1974, either by George Bliss of the Chicago Tribune in his articles about Linda Taylor, or by Jet Magazine.
Neither publication credits the other in their "Welfare Queen" stories of that year. Taylor was ultimately charged with committing $8,000 in fraud and having four aliases.
She was convicted of illegally obtaining 23 welfare checks using two aliases and was sentenced to two to six years in prison.
During the same decade, Taylor was additionally investigated for murder, kidnapping, and baby trafficking.
Stories of her activities were used by Ronald Reagan, starting with his 1976 presidential campaign, to illustrate his criticisms of social programs in the United States.
I think nowadays we see a little better what that Bitburg visit was all about, too.
TYT also mentioned Reagan's removal of sanctions on the Apartheid regime of South Africa, a regime ardently defended back in the day by William Buckley and his National Review, and his bitter private opposition to the creation of Martin Luther King day, a measure he signed only because it was passed with veto-proof majorities.
When Reagan was reelected I was plunged into gloom for days.
See this for more.
The return of the FIS?
The Front Islamique du Salut
Think of them as ISIS without the guns.
‘It’s Time to Break the Chains.’ Algerians Seek a Revolution.
The protesters’ demands are unambiguous: After two decades of undivided reign, Mr. Bouteflika, his clan, and his system must go.
. . . .
“We feel like we’ve been violated for 20 years,” said Haid Mohamed Islam, a 27-year-old doctor standing outside the modernistic national library on a recent wind-swept day.
“It’s time to break the chains.”
While it remains far from clear what happens next, a sense that change is inevitable is sweeping the country.
. . . .
State news media, at first barred from covering the protests, have begun reporting on them. “The Street Is Not Backing Down,” was the banner headline in the daily Liberté on Wednesday.
The ruling National Liberation Front and the army have joined the chorus of praise for the demonstrators, with the chief of staff hailing their “unequaled sense of civic responsibility.”
. . . .
For decades, Algeria was seen by allies on both sides of the Atlantic as a bulwark against the regional Islamist threat.
After the army brutally crushed an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, the military chose Mr. Bouteflika, a wily ex-foreign minister whose political roots go back to the earliest years of Algerian independence, to lead the country.
Algerians welcomed the end of the nearly decade-long conflict and accepted Mr. Bouteflika with it, an arrangement made even easier as oil money began flowing freely in the early 2000s, and with it generous social benefits.
In 2011, Algeria proudly rode out the Arab Spring, its leaders mocking the reckless, pro-democracy demonstrators in neighboring countries even as they shut the country off from the outside world.
. . . .
Mr. Bouteflika also cloistered himself.
According to journalists and political scientists here, he has never given an interview in the Algerian news media in his two decades in office.
Since his stroke, even his body has disappeared: He has been replaced in public appearances by his framed portrait, known here as “the frame.”
There were few complaints.
Large public works programs and free loans to young people, financed by the country’s oil and gas wealth, kept citizens content and quiescent.
A top member of the governing coalition, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely, said the Bouteflika system was built on patronage and corruption.
With oil fetching high prices, “money flowed like water,” he said.
“There was corruption in bidding. Easy bank loans. People got rich on public money.”
But in 2014, the prices of oil and gas, which account for 97 percent of the country’s exports, started falling.
Unemployment among the young bit deeply as the government cut social benefits.
Last month, when Mr. Bouteflika announced he would run for a fifth term, the bottom fell out.
Algerians had had enough of his system, and his physical incapacity became a metaphor for the withering country.
. . . .
But it is the central demand of the protesters, that the whole Bouteflika system must go, that would be hardest to satisfy, government insiders and analysts here say.
“The clan that governs this country isn’t going to just let go just like that,” said Zoubir Arous, a leading sociologist, as he watched a stream of chanting youth, many draped in the Algerian flag, march on a downtown street.
“It’s a question of life or death for them.”
Think of them as ISIS without the guns.
‘It’s Time to Break the Chains.’ Algerians Seek a Revolution.
The protesters’ demands are unambiguous: After two decades of undivided reign, Mr. Bouteflika, his clan, and his system must go.
. . . .
“We feel like we’ve been violated for 20 years,” said Haid Mohamed Islam, a 27-year-old doctor standing outside the modernistic national library on a recent wind-swept day.
“It’s time to break the chains.”
While it remains far from clear what happens next, a sense that change is inevitable is sweeping the country.
. . . .
State news media, at first barred from covering the protests, have begun reporting on them. “The Street Is Not Backing Down,” was the banner headline in the daily Liberté on Wednesday.
The ruling National Liberation Front and the army have joined the chorus of praise for the demonstrators, with the chief of staff hailing their “unequaled sense of civic responsibility.”
. . . .
For decades, Algeria was seen by allies on both sides of the Atlantic as a bulwark against the regional Islamist threat.
After the army brutally crushed an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, the military chose Mr. Bouteflika, a wily ex-foreign minister whose political roots go back to the earliest years of Algerian independence, to lead the country.
Algerians welcomed the end of the nearly decade-long conflict and accepted Mr. Bouteflika with it, an arrangement made even easier as oil money began flowing freely in the early 2000s, and with it generous social benefits.
In 2011, Algeria proudly rode out the Arab Spring, its leaders mocking the reckless, pro-democracy demonstrators in neighboring countries even as they shut the country off from the outside world.
. . . .
Mr. Bouteflika also cloistered himself.
According to journalists and political scientists here, he has never given an interview in the Algerian news media in his two decades in office.
Since his stroke, even his body has disappeared: He has been replaced in public appearances by his framed portrait, known here as “the frame.”
There were few complaints.
Large public works programs and free loans to young people, financed by the country’s oil and gas wealth, kept citizens content and quiescent.
A top member of the governing coalition, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely, said the Bouteflika system was built on patronage and corruption.
With oil fetching high prices, “money flowed like water,” he said.
“There was corruption in bidding. Easy bank loans. People got rich on public money.”
But in 2014, the prices of oil and gas, which account for 97 percent of the country’s exports, started falling.
Unemployment among the young bit deeply as the government cut social benefits.
Last month, when Mr. Bouteflika announced he would run for a fifth term, the bottom fell out.
Algerians had had enough of his system, and his physical incapacity became a metaphor for the withering country.
. . . .
But it is the central demand of the protesters, that the whole Bouteflika system must go, that would be hardest to satisfy, government insiders and analysts here say.
“The clan that governs this country isn’t going to just let go just like that,” said Zoubir Arous, a leading sociologist, as he watched a stream of chanting youth, many draped in the Algerian flag, march on a downtown street.
“It’s a question of life or death for them.”
Saturday, March 23, 2019
She's dead on
16-Year-Old Belfast Teen Cuts All The Brexit Bullshit In Devastating Fashion
Follow the link and watch the video.
Follow the link and watch the video.
Mueller has always held to the rule of not indicting a sitting president
So perhaps that's why he hasn't and why his report, says the NYT, doesn't recommend any more indictments.
The report could still contain information that would otherwise sustain an indictment and more.
The report could still contain information that would otherwise sustain an indictment and more.
Friday, March 22, 2019
Stacy Abrams is a fat Sarah Palin
Can she see Cuba from her front yard?
The Disrespect Of Floating Stacey Abrams As Joe Biden’s Running Mate
Maxwell Strachan is totally wrong.
Choosing her would disgrace Biden as choosing Palin ultimately disgraced McCain.
The Disrespect Of Floating Stacey Abrams As Joe Biden’s Running Mate
Maxwell Strachan is totally wrong.
Choosing her would disgrace Biden as choosing Palin ultimately disgraced McCain.
They keep getting away with it
Even on MSNBC and CNN, interviewers allow guests to label the Democrats and their agenda "extreme left" and insist "the center", something way different from the extreme left, will want no part of such a candidate.
And all of this is lies.
The very agenda items that lead Republicans to lie that the Democrats are dominated by the extreme left are items favored by significant and sometimes very large majorities of ordinary folks.
That puts those agenda items and the Democrats who favor them in the center.
The pols and pundits who claim to be centrists oppose those agenda items and are way to the right of where most of America actually is, as the lying Republicans who endorse their claims well know, along with the lying conservative Democrats who echo the same lies.
And everybody who works for any cable news company knows all that.
And all of this is lies.
The very agenda items that lead Republicans to lie that the Democrats are dominated by the extreme left are items favored by significant and sometimes very large majorities of ordinary folks.
That puts those agenda items and the Democrats who favor them in the center.
The pols and pundits who claim to be centrists oppose those agenda items and are way to the right of where most of America actually is, as the lying Republicans who endorse their claims well know, along with the lying conservative Democrats who echo the same lies.
And everybody who works for any cable news company knows all that.
At last
Mueller Delivers Report on Russia Investigation to Attorney General
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has delivered a report on his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election to Attorney General William P. Barr, according to the Justice Department, bringing to a close an investigation that has consumed the nation and cast a shadow over President Trump for nearly two years.
Mr. Barr told congressional leaders in a letter late Friday that he may brief them within days on the special counsel’s findings.
“I may be in a position to advise you of the special counsel’s principal conclusions as soon as this weekend,” he wrote in a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
It is up to Mr. Barr how much of the report to share with Congress and, by extension, the American public.
The House voted unanimously in March on a nonbinding resolution to make public the report’s findings, an indication of the deep support within both parties to air whatever evidence prosecutors uncovered.
Mr. Barr wrote that he “remained committed to as much transparency as possible and I will keep you informed as to the status of my review.”
This happened? This was Theresa May?
European media praise EU's plan to counter UK's Brexit 'chaos'
In the Netherlands, De Volkskrant said May had “zero convincing answers to the question of why she needed the three-month delay she was asking for” and “could provide no clarity whatsoever on why MPs who had already rejected her deal twice, should now decide to accept it”.
Asked what she would do if it was voted down a third time, the prime minister could merely say that “the EU always finds a last-minute solution”, the paper said.
“So, tormented by this vacuousness – on top of the frustration of nearly two years of Brexit negotiations – the 27 other leaders decided to put Britain on the spot.”
In Spain, El Pais said the plan “basically boiled down to a short extension with May, or a long extension without her”.
The sensation of “being in negotiations with a prime minister who is unable to find a viable solution has hardened the position of most member states”, the paper said.
“The imaginative double offer achieves the goal of corralling May, and forcing a decision out of London in a much shorter time than expected, without explicitly interfering in British domestic politics.
"The weight of the dramatic decision to choose between a long extension or a brutal and chaotic Brexit falls squarely on London.”
In the Netherlands, De Volkskrant said May had “zero convincing answers to the question of why she needed the three-month delay she was asking for” and “could provide no clarity whatsoever on why MPs who had already rejected her deal twice, should now decide to accept it”.
Asked what she would do if it was voted down a third time, the prime minister could merely say that “the EU always finds a last-minute solution”, the paper said.
“So, tormented by this vacuousness – on top of the frustration of nearly two years of Brexit negotiations – the 27 other leaders decided to put Britain on the spot.”
In Spain, El Pais said the plan “basically boiled down to a short extension with May, or a long extension without her”.
The sensation of “being in negotiations with a prime minister who is unable to find a viable solution has hardened the position of most member states”, the paper said.
“The imaginative double offer achieves the goal of corralling May, and forcing a decision out of London in a much shorter time than expected, without explicitly interfering in British domestic politics.
"The weight of the dramatic decision to choose between a long extension or a brutal and chaotic Brexit falls squarely on London.”
Chaos and recriminations
Second only to Trump, the Brit Parliament is the laughing stock of the world.
Except it really isn't funny at all.
They can't even accept that the only alternatives before them are those put there by the EU:
And even the Guardian's writers don't seem to get it, they just can't read or understand plain English.
So they are spasing around in all directions talking utter rot about what May should do or what the Tories, or the Parliament, or Labor should do, none of it involving actually facing the specific and real alternatives before them.
These fools have had two years since invoking article 50 and almost three since the plebiscite of 23 June 2016 to work all this out, and they have made an utter and abysmal shambles of it.
MPs call for May to 'fall on her sword' as Brexit deal faces third defeat
Meanwhile, the EU increasingly believes a no-deal Brexit on 12 April is the most likely outcome, senior EU officials have said, prompting Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to privately ask Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, if his country could cope.
'Hope dies last': fatalism among EU leaders as no-deal Brexit looks likely
The EU increasingly believes a no-deal Brexit on 12 April is the most likely outcome, senior EU officials have said, prompting Emmanuel Macron to privately ask the Irish prime minister if his country could cope.
. . . .
“The fate of Brexit is in the hands of our British friends,” Tusk said. “We are, as the EU, prepared for the worst, but hope for the best. As you know, hope dies last.”
Senior EU officials said that after listening to Theresa May on Thursday afternoon, the 27 leaders were convinced that “a no-deal situation is an absolute very, very real one”.
“It is unfortunately, likely,” the official added.
Petition to revoke article 50 hits 3.5m signatures
She's not going to do that.
And she's not going to ask for a delay of at least two years.
So she has said, and if we believe her then when the Parliament rejects her deal for the third time she will watch and wait for April 12th, when the UK will crash out of the EU without any deal at all.
Except it really isn't funny at all.
They can't even accept that the only alternatives before them are those put there by the EU:
So after insisting for almost two years that Brexit would go ahead on March 29, Mrs. May gave in and requested an extension until the end of June.
But the European Union refused to give her that much time, declaring instead that the British Parliament must decide what it wants to do by April 12.
If lawmakers somehow approve Mrs. May’s deal by then, the exit date would become May 22, to give them time to pass all the additional legislation it would require.
If not, European leaders said, Britain’s choices would be a cliff-edge Brexit on April 12, no Brexit at all or a much longer delay, possibly two years.And it is astonishing how many Brit politicians now out of office, and how many pundits, seem to agree with that utter fantasy.
And even the Guardian's writers don't seem to get it, they just can't read or understand plain English.
So they are spasing around in all directions talking utter rot about what May should do or what the Tories, or the Parliament, or Labor should do, none of it involving actually facing the specific and real alternatives before them.
These fools have had two years since invoking article 50 and almost three since the plebiscite of 23 June 2016 to work all this out, and they have made an utter and abysmal shambles of it.
MPs call for May to 'fall on her sword' as Brexit deal faces third defeat
Meanwhile, the EU increasingly believes a no-deal Brexit on 12 April is the most likely outcome, senior EU officials have said, prompting Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to privately ask Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, if his country could cope.
'Hope dies last': fatalism among EU leaders as no-deal Brexit looks likely
The EU increasingly believes a no-deal Brexit on 12 April is the most likely outcome, senior EU officials have said, prompting Emmanuel Macron to privately ask the Irish prime minister if his country could cope.
. . . .
“The fate of Brexit is in the hands of our British friends,” Tusk said. “We are, as the EU, prepared for the worst, but hope for the best. As you know, hope dies last.”
Senior EU officials said that after listening to Theresa May on Thursday afternoon, the 27 leaders were convinced that “a no-deal situation is an absolute very, very real one”.
“It is unfortunately, likely,” the official added.
Petition to revoke article 50 hits 3.5m signatures
She's not going to do that.
And she's not going to ask for a delay of at least two years.
So she has said, and if we believe her then when the Parliament rejects her deal for the third time she will watch and wait for April 12th, when the UK will crash out of the EU without any deal at all.
The simmering cauldron of hate
Charlottesville schools close over 'ethnic cleansing' threat
Schools in Charlottesville, Virginia, remain closed as authorities investigate a racist threat that was posted online.
News outlets report that the system’s nine schools were closed Thursday and Friday out of precaution after authorities told school officials of the threat on Wednesday.
Superintendent Rosa Atkins told families that the threat was “racially charged” and the school system does not tolerate hate or racism.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that a person claiming to be a student at Charlottesville high school, one of the region’s largest schools, warned white students to stay at home so they could shoot dead non-white students in an act of “ethnic cleansing”.
Schools in Charlottesville, Virginia, remain closed as authorities investigate a racist threat that was posted online.
News outlets report that the system’s nine schools were closed Thursday and Friday out of precaution after authorities told school officials of the threat on Wednesday.
Superintendent Rosa Atkins told families that the threat was “racially charged” and the school system does not tolerate hate or racism.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that a person claiming to be a student at Charlottesville high school, one of the region’s largest schools, warned white students to stay at home so they could shoot dead non-white students in an act of “ethnic cleansing”.
The Utrecht killer
Suspect in Utrecht Tram Shooting Confessed, Prosecutors Say
The primary suspect in the shooting aboard a Dutch tram that left three people dead and five wounded confessed on Friday to the attack, and said that he acted alone, prosecutors said.
The public prosecutor’s office has said that it intends to bring terrorism charges against the suspect, Gokmen Tanis, in the attack Monday morning in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, but it is also investigating whether he had other motives.
Mr. Tanis confessed in a closed court hearing on Friday, the office said — his first appearance in court since he was arrested hours after the shooting.
The judge ordered him held for 14 days, the maximum allowed in an initial hearing, but pretrial detention can be extended up to 90 days.
“The 37-year-old suspect admitted to a judge the criminal facts he was suspected of. He also testified that he acted alone,” prosecutors said in a statement.
“It is in the best interest of the investigation not to say anything further about his testimony.”
. . . .
Mr. Tanis, a native of Turkey who reportedly has lived most of his life in the Netherlands, was reportedly facing a rape charge at the time of the shooting and has an extensive history of arrests.
Acquaintances, neighbors and co-workers have described him as erratic and sometimes violent, and said that he had recently espoused a radical form of Islam.
. . . .
Despite initial speculation that the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute, the authorities say they have found no evidence that Mr. Tanis knew any of the victims.
The primary suspect in the shooting aboard a Dutch tram that left three people dead and five wounded confessed on Friday to the attack, and said that he acted alone, prosecutors said.
The public prosecutor’s office has said that it intends to bring terrorism charges against the suspect, Gokmen Tanis, in the attack Monday morning in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, but it is also investigating whether he had other motives.
Mr. Tanis confessed in a closed court hearing on Friday, the office said — his first appearance in court since he was arrested hours after the shooting.
The judge ordered him held for 14 days, the maximum allowed in an initial hearing, but pretrial detention can be extended up to 90 days.
“The 37-year-old suspect admitted to a judge the criminal facts he was suspected of. He also testified that he acted alone,” prosecutors said in a statement.
“It is in the best interest of the investigation not to say anything further about his testimony.”
. . . .
Mr. Tanis, a native of Turkey who reportedly has lived most of his life in the Netherlands, was reportedly facing a rape charge at the time of the shooting and has an extensive history of arrests.
Acquaintances, neighbors and co-workers have described him as erratic and sometimes violent, and said that he had recently espoused a radical form of Islam.
. . . .
Despite initial speculation that the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute, the authorities say they have found no evidence that Mr. Tanis knew any of the victims.
Is he courting the Zionist vote? And Zionist money?
Trump may or may not personally be anti-Semitic, but it certainly doesn't show in his policy choices.
Unless you want to claim he's doing this only to please the Evangelicals, and not at all for the Jews.
He has repeatedly claimed the Jews should be voting for him.
[When and why did use of the definite article, pretty much the norm in my youth, in sentences like the last two, become disfavored?]
And he has done much to prove it, assuming actual Zionism remains popular among them.
And of course he just likes Netanyahu.
Mike Pence Says U.S. Embassy Will Open in Jerusalem Next Year
Jan. 22, 2018
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday that a new United States Embassy to Israel would open in Jerusalem before the end of 2019.
Mr. Pence’s statement, made to the Israeli Parliament during a trip to the Holy Land, follows President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month, a move that overturned decades of American policy and international consensus on the status of the holy city.
Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
Dec. 6, 2017
WASHINGTON — Ten days before Donald J. Trump took office, Sheldon G. Adelson went to Trump Tower for a private meeting.
Afterward, Mr. Adelson, the casino billionaire and Republican donor, called an old friend, Morton A. Klein, to report that Mr. Trump told him that moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a major priority.
“He was very excited, as was I,” said Mr. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, a hard-line pro-Israel group.
“This is something that’s in his heart and soul.”
The two men had to wait nearly a year, but on Wednesday, Mr. Trump stood beneath a portrait of George Washington to announce that he was formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and setting in motion a plan to move the embassy to the fiercely contested Holy City.
“While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise,” he said, “they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.”
Unless you want to claim he's doing this only to please the Evangelicals, and not at all for the Jews.
He has repeatedly claimed the Jews should be voting for him.
[When and why did use of the definite article, pretty much the norm in my youth, in sentences like the last two, become disfavored?]
And he has done much to prove it, assuming actual Zionism remains popular among them.
And of course he just likes Netanyahu.
Mike Pence Says U.S. Embassy Will Open in Jerusalem Next Year
Jan. 22, 2018
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday that a new United States Embassy to Israel would open in Jerusalem before the end of 2019.
Mr. Pence’s statement, made to the Israeli Parliament during a trip to the Holy Land, follows President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last month, a move that overturned decades of American policy and international consensus on the status of the holy city.
Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
Dec. 6, 2017
WASHINGTON — Ten days before Donald J. Trump took office, Sheldon G. Adelson went to Trump Tower for a private meeting.
Afterward, Mr. Adelson, the casino billionaire and Republican donor, called an old friend, Morton A. Klein, to report that Mr. Trump told him that moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a major priority.
“He was very excited, as was I,” said Mr. Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, a hard-line pro-Israel group.
“This is something that’s in his heart and soul.”
The two men had to wait nearly a year, but on Wednesday, Mr. Trump stood beneath a portrait of George Washington to announce that he was formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and setting in motion a plan to move the embassy to the fiercely contested Holy City.
“While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise,” he said, “they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.”
In Golan Heights, Trump Bolsters Israel’s Netanyahu but Risks Roiling Middle East
March 21, 2019
President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel’s authority over the long disputed Golan Heights, delivering a valuable election-eve gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but jettisoning decades of American policy in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, in a midday Twitter post, came after persistent pressure from Mr. Netanyahu, a close political ally who is fighting for his survival in the election scheduled for April 9, and has invoked his friendship with the American president as a prime argument for staying in office.
March 21, 2019
President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel’s authority over the long disputed Golan Heights, delivering a valuable election-eve gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but jettisoning decades of American policy in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, in a midday Twitter post, came after persistent pressure from Mr. Netanyahu, a close political ally who is fighting for his survival in the election scheduled for April 9, and has invoked his friendship with the American president as a prime argument for staying in office.
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