Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Second rate reporter says what?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Bark louder, little dog.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Infrastructure week. at last.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / The US Senate Select Committee On Intelligence Hearing On Worldwide Threats Live Stream

The US Senate Select Committee On Intelligence Hearing On Worldwide Threats Live Stream

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The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is holding its hearing on worldwide threats this morning.

The witnesses are:

  • Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats
  • Director of Central Intelligence Mike Pompeo
  • Director of the FBI Christopher Wray
  • Director of the National Security Agency ADM Mike Rogers
  • Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency LTG Robert Ashley
  • Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Robert Cardillo

Here’s the live stream from Senator Warner’s Youtube page:

And here’s the livestream from The Washington Post in case something goes wrong with the other one.

Despite the topic, given who the witnesses are, I expect there will be questions pertaining to the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Which will likely elicit a lot of non responsive responses.

Open thread!

 

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    Someone overcaffeinated DNI Coates this morning. Which is good, because he usually looks and acts like his batteries are almost completely run down.

  5. 5.

    Leto

    @Adam L Silverman: Maybe he understands the gravity of the situation with regards to three of the top Russian intelligence chiefs being allowed into the US without anyone in Congress knowing about it? Or he had a Monster and is operating at 150%.

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Leto: Every time I’ve seen him speak since he was nominated to be DCI, it was like watching a Droopy Dog cartoon on slow playback. This is the most animated he’s been in over a year.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    Thanks for this, Adam! My previous comment is in moderation, maybe this will be too. I think I typed water girl correctly on my phone but maybe I goofed it up.oops typo in my email.

  8. 8.

    JMG

    Adam, what is the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency? I’m sure it serves a real purpose, but it sounds so Maxwell Smart to me.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JMG: Here you go:
    https://www.nga.mil/About/Pages/Default.aspx

    ABOUT NGA

    The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) delivers world-class geospatial intelligence that provides a decisive advantage to policymakers, warfighters, intelligence professionals and first responders.

    Anyone who sails a U.S. ship, flies a U.S. aircraft, makes national policy decisions, fights wars, locates targets, responds to natural disasters, or even navigates with a cellphone relies on NGA.

    NGA enables all of these critical actions and shapes decisions that impact our world through the indispensable discipline of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT).

    NGA is a unique combination of intelligence agency and combat support agency. It is the world leader in timely, relevant, accurate and actionable GEOINT. NGA enables the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Defense (DOD) to fulfill the president’s national security priorities to protect the nation. NGA also anticipates its partners’ future needs and advances the GEOINT discipline to meet them.

    NGA is the lead federal agency for GEOINT and manages a global consortium of more than 400 commercial and government relationships. The director of NGA serves as the functional manager for GEOINT, the head of the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) and the coordinator of the global Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence (ASG). In its multiple roles, NGA receives guidance and oversight from DOD, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and Congress.

    NGA is headquartered in Springfield, Va. and has two major locations in St. Louis and Arnold, Mo. Hundreds of NGA employees serve on support teams at U.S. military, diplomatic and allied locations around the world.

    NGA at a Glance

    NGA delivers the strategic intelligence that allows the president and national policymakers to make crucial decisions on counterterrorism, weapons of mass destruction, global political crises and more.
    NGA enables the warfighter to plan missions, gain battlefield superiority, precisely target the adversary and protect our military forces.
    NGA provides timely warnings to the warfighter and national decisionmakers by monitoring, analyzing and reporting imminent threats. Often, NGA has the only “eyes” focused on global hot spots and can give unique insight into these critical areas.
    NGA protects the homeland by supporting counterterrorism, counternarcotics, and border and transportation security. NGA supports security planning for special events, such as presidential inaugurations, state visits by foreign leaders, international conferences and major public events (Olympics, Super Bowls, satellite launchings, etc.).
    NGA ensures safety of navigation in the air and on the seas by maintaining the most current information and highest quality services for U.S. military forces and global transport networks.
    NGA defends the nation against cyber threats by supporting other intelligence agencies with in-depth analysis of cyber networks.
    NGA creates and maintains the geospatial foundation data, knowledge and analysis that enable all other missions.
    NGA assists humanitarian and disaster relief efforts by working directly with the lead federal agencies responding to fires, floods, earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes or other natural or manmade disasters.

    More at the link.

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    Pompeo is such an obvious political hack. He’s not the first hack to head the CIA, of course, but it seems like in the past, there was at least a pro forma effort to portray the person nominated for that job as committed to carrying out his duties in a nonpartisan manner and for the person who was confirmed to pretend to be above partisanship. Not Pompeo. The GOP did make an effort to sell Wray as above partisanship when he was nominated to lead the FBI, but Pompeo is just a nakedly partisan hack, and that seems okay with the Beltway types. Weird.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    OT

    The Washington Post today announced Megan McArdle will be a columnist for the Opinions section starting March 1. In this role, McArdle will write columns with a focus on the intersection of economics, business and public policy.

    She belongs on the food page, imo.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    @Sab:
    I suspect that knowing what you’re doing is a sacking offence in Trumpland, just like having professional principles.

  21. 21.

    The Moar You Know

    The Washington Post today announced Megan McArdle will be a columnist for the Opinions section starting March 1.

    @JPL: How does she keep getting work? Inconceivable.

  22. 22.

    germy

    Julian Assange will continue to face detention if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London after a British judge upheld a warrant for his arrest.

    Handing down her judgment before a packed courtroom at Westminster magistrates court, senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot said she was not persuaded by the argument from Assange’s legal team that it was not in the public interest to pursue him for skipping bail.

    She said: “I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Mr Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years.

    “Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices. He should have the courage to do the same. It is certainly not against the public interest to proceed.”

    A female judge. He must be extra pissed off about that.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    Must be weird, with everyone there knowing full well that the greatest threats to our country are its president*, vice president, the president*s son-in-law, a balding young psycho, and oh yeah the president* again.

  25. 25.

    japa21

    He should have the courage to do the same.

    Like all his GOP friends, he lacks any courage. Doesn’t know the meaning of the word.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    Trump pitched real estate project to Georgian prime minister during White House meeting
    13 FEB 2018

    President Donald Trump reportedly used a White House meeting with the prime minister of Georgia last year to talk about a long-stalled real estate project in the former Soviet satellite state.

    Two former Trump business partners tell Forbes that Trump brought up plans to build a Trump Tower in Georgia during his meeting with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili last May.

  27. 27.

    StringOnAStick

    OT to any fellow Coloradoans: there are petition people all over the place right now asking if you are an R voter. Anyone know what they are gathering signatures for?

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    Watch this space: The revenge of people of color and #MeToo

    While Kellyanne Conway, our latter day Goebbels, was on the TV box this weekend flapping her gums about how much Trump loves women (I bet he does), a poll from The Washington Post and ABC painted a different picture. According to political maven Ron Brownstein (whom L.A. gave to the country):

    In the Rustbelt states that decided 2016, Trump has slipped into a much more precarious position with these women: Gallup put his 2017 approval with them at 45 percent in Pennsylvania, 42 percent in Michigan, and 39 percent or less in Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Compared to his 2016 vote, his 2017 approval among blue-collar white women in the Rustbelt represented some of his largest declines anywhere — 18 percentage points in Ohio and 19 in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

    ………………………..

    If the GOP loses even a few percentage points of support among white women, it is done as a political force. As the GOP has become more misogynistic, women who vote for it but are otherwise not in thrall to a male-dominated system are beginning to realize that they derive no benefit from their fealty to the party. The long-awaited joining of the various sisterhoods may be happening. The supreme irony will be that this all began with the accusations against Harvey Weinstein, mega-donor to the Democratic Party. Democrats immediately and vociferously condemned him. The response from Republicans to their own malefactors has been noticeably different, and women are noticing.

    That’s one leg of the revenge against Trump. The other is, obviously, people of color, specifically African Americans, specifically African American women. Doug Jones would not be in the Senate without them. They have established themselves, in spite of what your average Bernie Bro would posit, as the very backbone of the Democratic Party. If it seems as if they are voting as if their lives depend on it, it’s because they are. This new dynamic bodes well for states like Texas, where millions of African Americans and Latinos who are eligible to vote aren’t registered to do so. The task of the Democratic Party is to get those people registered and committed to vote.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @Amir Khalid: @germy:

    Oliver Wills is using Chris Cillizza’s endorsement of McCardle’s hire as proof that she’s monumentally unfit and you know what? He’s right!

    She used to blog as “Jane Galt”, didn’t she? See, there’s even more proof of unfitness.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    The pure EVIL with this group NEVER STOPS.

    Which is why those who voted for him, and the purity ponies who voted third party
    MUST.NEVER.EVER.UNDER.ANY.CIRCUMSTANCES.BE.FORGIVEN.

    Trump pitches plan to replace food stamps with food boxes
    By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH
    02/12/2018 09:32 PM EST

    The Trump administration is proposing to save billions in the coming years by giving low-income families a box of government-picked, nonperishable foods every month instead of food stamps.

    White House OMB Director Mick Mulvaney on Monday hailed the idea as one that kept up with the modern era, calling it a “Blue Apron-type program” — a nod to the high-end meal kit delivery company that had one of the worst stock debuts in 2017 and has struggled to hold onto customers. Mulvaney said the administration’s plan would not only save the government money, but also provide people with more nutritious food than they have now.

    The proposal, buried in the White House’s fiscal 2019 budget, would replace about half of the money most families receive via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, with what the Department of Agriculture is calling “America’s Harvest Box.” That package would be made up of “100 percent U.S. grown and produced food” and would include items like shelf-stable milk, peanut butter, canned fruits and meats, and cereal.

    But America’s Harvest Box, which USDA contends would save over $129 billion over 10 years, is not very comparable to startup meal-delivery companies like Blue Apron. For one, the Trump administration’s proposal doesn’t include fresh items, like produce or meat, which are the core of Blue Apron and its competitors. Such products perish quickly and are incredibly expensive to ship.

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    Tee hee hee

    Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of snakes.

    GOP congressman pulls Issa into ugly divorce
    Rep. Mike Turner is seeking to depose his colleague in the messy situation.

    By JOHN BRESNAHAN, JAKE SHERMAN and RACHAEL BADE
    02/12/2018 07:00 PM EST

    Rep. Darrell Issa was a groomsman in Rep. Mike Turner’s wedding to Majida Mourad in December 2015. Now, Turner is locked in a contentious divorce with Mourad — and he wants Issa deposed by his attorneys.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/12/issa-deposition-sought-in-turner-divorce-case-405990

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    Here’s a good take: Reagan’s ‘Party of Ideas’ is Down To Just One: Tax Cuts

    (I’d argue it’s two ideas, but their other idea – unbridled bigotry – is mostly to help keep their base whipped up into a lather so they’ll vote against their own interest and thus continue getting more & more tax cuts)

    In fact, that’s how the author puts it, too:

    …So what do Republicans have left? The tax cut, the sole important legislation from the Republican Congress, shows that catering to its rich contributors is the party’s only policy. The rest of its agenda is simply tactics and trickery.

    As the party has become unmoored from positive belief, it has grown manipulative, demagogic and contemptuous of truth. This was foreshadowed in 2004 when a senior adviser to George W. Bush boasted that “we create our own reality.” It has culminated in the president’s counselor Kellyanne Conway’s appealing to “alternative facts,” meaning lies, on behalf of her boss, who has made an average of 5.6 false or misleading claims a day since his inauguration.

    Today’s Republican Party is incapable of honest and coherent governance, with “right” or “wrong” reduced to a question of whether it helps the party. Its agenda is little more than institutional vandalism and a thumb in the eye.

    A few Republicans protest the president’s disgraceful behavior, but never in a way that matters. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has become famous for sanctimonious speeches denouncing the latest outrage, but he votes with machine-like consistency in favor of the president’s destructive agenda and unqualified nominees.

    Ultimately, the party’s spiritual sickness isn’t about Mr. Trump. Eight years ago, did Republican officeholders shut down the nonsense that Mr. Obama was a secret Muslim? For that matter, a quarter-century ago, did they quash the idiotic charge that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster?

    Donald Trump merely aggravated what has long been building up in the party of Lincoln. In 2011, when House Republicans threatened to drive the government into default to extort political concessions, I left the party. Seven years later, it has become so extreme that I fear it is endangering the stability of the republic.

    I take it this is yet another Wittes and Rauch-type conversion…these guys might want to beat the drum a little louder, though. And they need to hurry up and join the center-center party before it’s too late…

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    @germy: “…aaaaannnndddd moving 10 more notches up the tumbrel list, it’s MMMMMMEGAN MCCARRRRRDLE!” Did not know that. Sociopaths in the service of richer sociopaths, that’s all they are.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Trump takes aim at blue states in infrastructure plan
    Some major transit projects are left fighting for scraps.

    By DANA RUBINSTEIN and RYAN HUTCHINS 02/12/2018 06:46 PM EST

    Major transportation projects in blue states may be in jeopardy in President Donald Trump’s 10-year infrastructure plan, which critics say favors little-populated rural areas to the detriment of urban America.

    The White House isn’t being coy about where its priorities lie in the $1.5 trillion proposal, released Monday: Of the $200 billion in actual federal investment called for in the 10-year plan, one-quarter would go to rural areas for purposes as diverse as sewers, highways, airports and broadband. But only 14 percent of people in the U.S. live in non-metropolitan areas.

    That leaves major transit projects — ranging from a long-planned rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey to a nascent passenger rail system in California — fighting for the remaining money, $20 billion of which is dedicated to lightly defined “transformative” proposals that will “lift the American spirit.”

    “That’s a very clear message that urban America is not of very much consequence, and, ironically, it’s urban America that needs most of the infrastructure money,” said Martin Robins, the founding director of Rutgers University’s Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center in New Jersey.

  42. 42.

    Leto

    @JPL: Is he done revising his list of contacts with Russians? No? Is he done lying? No? And here we are… Hopefully people will follow up with that and point that out too. Too many people in the administration with no security clearance handling/being briefed on classified information. Thank FSM that “HER EMAILZ” wasn’t allowed anywhere near the levers of power.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    Hmmph

    Corker weighs his options as GOP frets about losing Tennessee
    The two-term senator is being urged to reconsider his retirement amid concerns Republicans could lose his seat in November.

    By BURGESS EVERETT 02/12/2018 06:30 PM EST

    Retiring Sen. Bob Corker is “listening” to Republicans urging him to run for reelection, according to a person close to him, a development that would quell anxiety among Republicans over losing a must-win seat to Democrats this fall.

    The two-term Tennessee GOP senator decided to call it quits in September amid an on-again, off-again dispute with President Donald Trump that has eroded his standing with the party’s base. But now a faction of Republicans in Tennessee and Washington are worried that the favorite for the Republican Senate nomination, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), could lose the general election — and with it the Senate majority.

    They want Corker to get back in to hold the seat and preserve waning foreign policy experience in the GOP. And there are signs that he is open to it, despite the steep climb a Republican primary might entail.

    “While Corker is listening to the concerns that have been raised, he hasn’t made any commitments,” said the person close to Corker. Corker himself said on Monday he had no comment on the race.

  44. 44.

    Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog

    @JPL: Failing upwards seems almost built in for Republican / Libertarian hacks.

    Wish any kind of “upwards” was easier for the rest of us.

    ETA : Maybe they can pawn her off on CNN before she does too much damage. She and Cillizza would make a fine pair, and CNN seems to be beyond hope anyway.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    FWIW the Susan Rice non-story seems to have completely dropped off of Faux Snooze’s radar (the online version anyway) ALREADY…you have to picture the frantic conversations taking place behind the scenes at HQ.

    “Boss! We’ve been really ramping up telling people about how Obama was stressing that things stay non-political during the transition, but Susan Rice – SUSAN RICE! – said, ‘let’s be sure to keep an eye on what we share with Trump re: Russia – he and his team may be compromised.’ Isn’t that great?! We’re telling every older white person in America, over and over again, that Obama was being professional but Susan Rice had concerns about…”

    “You’ve been telling the olds WHAT?”

  50. 50.

    PJ

    @rikyrah: I would be very surprised if the white women who voted for Trump, knowing full well his behavior and attitude towards women, and the general Republican lack of respect for their person and intelligence, suddenly turned their back on the Republican Party and decided to vote Democratic in 2018.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I really like Angus King. Always have.

    It’s funny to watch Dan Coats’ face whenever Pompeo is talking. He delivers some very fine and skeptical side-eye. With good reason, I might add.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    Trump Takes Shackles Off of ICE Which Is Slapping Them on Immigrants Who Thought They Were Safe
    ……………………………

    A week after he won the election, President Trump promised that his administration would round up millions of immigrant gang members and drug dealers. And after he took office, arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers surged 40 percent…

    …as ICE officers get wider latitude to determine whom they detain, the biggest jump in arrests has been of immigrants with no criminal convictions. The agency made 37,734 “noncriminal” arrests in the government’s 2017 fiscal year, more than twice the number in the previous year.

    …………………..

    A Virginia mother was sent back to El Salvador in June after her 11 years in the United States unraveled because of a traffic stop. A Connecticut man with an American-born wife and children and no criminal record was deported to Guatemala last week. And an immigration activist in New York, Ravi Ragbir, was detained in January in a case that brought ICE a scathing rebuke from a federal judge.

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh

    The folks at Axios say that this is Trump’s plan for the midterms:

    Here’s Trump’s real plan for ’18:

    A source close to the White House tells me that with an eye to getting Republicans excited about voting for Republicans in midterms, the president this year will be looking for “unexpected cultural flashpoints” — like the NFL and kneeling — that he can latch onto in person and on Twitter.

    The source said Trump “is going to be looking for opportunities to stir up the base, more than focusing on any particular legislation or issue.”

  54. 54.

    Starfish

    @StringOnAStick: I haven’t seen them, but I am not in a place where I would see them. Tomorrow, there is a hearing on not needing a permit for concealed carry at the Capitol though. It will likely be overrun by the gun nutters.

  56. 56.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @rikyrah: Better to move forward with allowing people to use food stamps at more farmer’s markets. I’d like to see more CSAs eligible, too. Support the local economies.

  57. 57.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    Save taxpayers billions? Ha, ha, not likely. That’s the republican claim but we know what their words are worth. Most likely is that they already have a scheme going with food company lobbyists to give very lucrative government contracts to food corps to create the boxes. It also defies belief that the box idea would cost less money than the current food stamp system. More middle men on the dole.

  60. 60.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    @StringOnAStick: I haven’t seen any; I work in Downtown just off the 16th Street Mall (which I try to avoid at lunchtime when most of the petition carriers are out:)) I’ll watch for them.

  62. 62.

    Leto

    @rikyrah: What, they don’t want Marsha Blackburn in that seat? She’s a pretty strong Trump backer, so I say she should run. No reason for us to pass up any advantages.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    Cotton asked if it was the FBI’s view that the dossier was salacious and unverified, and Wray said he would answer in closed session. I assume that the answer would be a no.

  64. 64.

    Karen Potter

    @rikyrah: I remember in the 60’s that there was a program like that; since mother was on it, the only healthy thing was the dried beans and peas.

  66. 66.

    germy

    This morning I watched a tiny bit of the CBS Morning Show (“our motto: No Charlie Rose”) and they did a segment on the flu. They interviewed a small business owner who said she’d gotten sick, and her employees got sick, which meant she lost money. The business owner said it was bad for her employees because when they took sick days they didn’t get paid. They ended the segment with a story about a young mother who just died from the flu. Her husband said the woman opted to buy an over-the-counter remedy when she got sick because the co-pay for prescription medicine was $200. Gayle King ended the segment by saying “Which is why we should all take the flu seriously when we get sick.”

    Rather than saying, I don’t know, people should get paid sick leave from their jobs and shouldn’t be faced with $200 co-pays for life-saving medicine.

    I really dislike these morning shows and I’m at a point where I’m skipping them altogether.

  67. 67.

    Cacti

    And the White House gets caught in another whopper.

    Christopher Wray testified that the FBI investigation of Rob Porter was completed way back in July.

    Bet he was happy to slip that shiv into their ribs.

  68. 68.

    JPL

    @Cacti: Wray is pretty good. He told Harris that he would not talk to the President about the investigation (Russian) much less provide information to him. I found that interesting after the Susan Rice brouhaha about whether or not they should share the info the incoming administration.

  70. 70.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Jeffro:

    “…aaaaannnndddd moving 10 more notches up the tumbrel list, it’s MMMMMMEGAN MCCARRRRRDLE!”

    It’s a pity they can’t all be first.

  71. 71.

    StringOnAStick

    @rikyrah: Unfortunately I can see this “Harvest Box” thing get some traction. How many of us have heard the wingers complain that how can those people be in need to food assistance, look how overweight they are! If they’d just eat right! Oh I know, lets control what they get to eat.

  73. 73.

    StringOnAStick

    @hedgehog the occasional commenter: A bill to allow no-permit concealed carry seems like the likely culprit. I work close to you and there was someone working the train platform at Union Station last night at rush hour. She couldn’t find even one R though! I also saw one in front of the Golden King Soopers, I also never saw her snag an actual R though even though Golden has it’s share of wingers.

  74. 74.

    Leto

    In some positive news: Remington Is Planning to File for Bankruptcy (warning: if you click the link, there’s an autoplay video)

    But on Monday Remington Outdoor Co., which traces its history back to 1816, said it would file for bankruptcy protection, succumbing to a slump in business worsened by, of all things, a president who has steadfastly supported Americans’ right to bear arms.

    The bankruptcy is a blow to the private-equity mogul Stephen Feinberg, who has been a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump. Feinberg’s firm, Cerberus Capital Management, acquired Remington in 2007 and subsequently saddled it with almost $1 billion in debt. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing will let Remington stay in business while it works out a plan to turn around the company and pay its creditors.

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ridnik Chrome: We are grounded in reality here. One hack at a time, because the case of John Byng. On learning of the execution, the French writer, philosopher and playwright Voltaire satirically wrote that the British needed to occasionally execute an admiral from time to time, “in order to encourage the others.”

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: Let me guess. If they actually do get any fresh fruits and vegetables in their “food box”, they will get less healthy fruits and vegetables that can no longer be sold because they are too old. Here you go, poor person. Eat your limp celery and moldy melons, and you better be grateful for what you are given. Awesome.

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Leto: You can bet that Stephen Feinberg personally has profited off this deal. It’s a Donald specialty; the bust out. He sold a lot of his former debt to his publicly held corporation and let it go bankrupt. Donald profits personally, leaves his shareholders with the bill.

  78. 78.

    StringOnAStick

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Yep, it will be foods determined by the farm subsidy structure and Big Ag, and they won’t care if you can’t tolerate milk products or other allergies. How can boxes, distribution centers, packing it all up, shipping it, etc be cheaper than an EBT card? It can’t so you are right; middle men making bank off the poor (yet again). I can’t wait to see how it will be distributed. Probably the recipient will have to find a way to some remote distribution facility with no mass transit access, and once fewer people use it because of this then they can cut it because “see? no demand!”.

    I remember my late Aunt getting ‘government cheese’; in the 1970’s it was far more than it would have been healthy for a single elderly woman to eat so she gave a lot of it to me, a poor college student at the time. She took off the label and repackaged it because of how harshly she was warned about what would happen if she gave away or sold any.

  80. 80.

    Libraryguy

    @WaterGirl: It’s sadder than that. Limp celery and aged melons are _already_ available at most food pantries, as donations from stores. The “Trump Box” will just be canned goods, and there is literally no way I can imagine it would be cheaper to package these foods and get them to towns all over the country more cheaply than simply adding $$ to a SNAP card and having people go to the local store or farmer’s market. It’s insane and cruel.

  82. 82.

    Leto

    @Villago Delenda Est: Definitely, it’s standard Trump/investor strategy. I feel for the workers, but at this point any help we can get in eliminating gun manufacturing is value added. Will the be totally eliminated? The article doesn’t think so, and in reality they probably won’t be. But if we can reduce the amount of output, again, net positive.

  84. 84.

    GregB

    Of course one of Trump’s big backers would hsve a company named after a many headed dig guarding Hell.

    You will all remember that his introductory elevator ride was a downward descent.

  86. 86.

    TenguPhule

    @Libraryguy:

    The “Trump Box” will just be canned goods

    And the worst, lowest cost canned goods at that.

    The movies used to poke fun at about “government stockpiles of beans”.

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    @germy:

    McCardle wrote (after Sandy Hook) that children should be trained to run at active shooters.

    So brave of her to volunteer other people’s children for this gruesome responsibility. Tumbrels are too good for that monster.

  89. 89.

    MomSense

    @Libraryguy:

    I’m so mad about this. I volunteer with the backpack program at my local food bank. The Republicans hate poor people. They aren’t even trying to obscure it with their bullshit values messages anymore.

  90. 90.

    Adria McDowell

    @Adam L Silverman: A.k.a. one of my dream jobs.

    For anyone who is interested, Mike Morell’s podcast Intelligence Matters had a former director of NGA on- it was fascinating to this geography/geospatial nerd.

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    @JPL:
    Don’t wanna hear no more about Affirmative Action with regards to non-Whites, not when you have this obvious piece of mediocrity known as McArdle.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    @Cacti:

    And the White House gets caught in another whopper.

    Christopher Wray testified that the FBI investigation of Rob Porter was completed way back in July.

    Meaning that they knew…
    in
    JULY
    AUGUST
    SEPTEMBER
    OCTOBER
    NOVEMBER
    DECEMBER
    JANUARY
    annnnndddd
    FEBRUARY

    Meaning, of course, that Kelly LIED.

  95. 95.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    @PJ:
    They don’t have to. They just have to stay home on election day and not vote.

  96. 96.

    sherparick

    @TenguPhule: The real story here is the immense boodle the contractor who gets this service make on delivery. Right now, SNAP has one of the lowest rates of fraud in any Federal program (just over 1% of the cost of the program). This scam will mean 20% will be profits and overhead to the contractor, if the contract is well run.

  98. 98.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’ve worked for Cerberus portfolio companies. They get their cash out ASAP, then the later revenue and sale proceeds are pure profit. That said, Cerberus tries to turn its companies around, rather than suck out all the cash and other assets then sell off the pieces, a la Bain and others.

  100. 100.

    Elmo

    Trump Boxes will contain peanut butter. PEANUT BUTTER. Your child has an allergy? Starve.
    Dry beans. You don’t have a working stove, or a big pot? Eat em dry.
    It isn’t even a lack of empathy at this point – it’s a fundamental lack of imagination, that anybody has individual lives that aren’t exactly the way they think poor people live.

  101. 101.

    WaterGirl

    @Elmo: Years ago i went to a community dinner – I can’t recall what non-profit sponsored it. Everyone was seated and then you turned over the card under your placement which told you what you were going to be served for dinner. We did not know that was coming.

    If you got the “poor card” you were served rice and beans and I don’t remember what else. You got what you were served and if you were still hungry, or you didn’t like what was served, too bad for you.

    If you got the privileged card, you got all the tasty food, and you could eat as much as you liked.

    No matter which card you got, it was a shocking experience and very enlightening.

    Job well done, whichever group it was!

  102. 102.

    The Lodger

    @Elmo: About 50 years ago I was a laborer helping renovate apartment kitchens in the projects and everyone had these enormous industrial-sized cans of USDA peanut butter. No one used it and no one threw it away. I’m waiting for conditions like that to come back if “America’s Harvest Box” becomes a thing.

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @Gravenstone: If it makes great grilled cheese, then I’m guessing that Government Cheese wasn’t cheese at all – I bet it was one of those Cheese Food products like Velveeta.

  106. 106.

    J R in WV

    @hedgehog the occasional commenter:

    They did away for the need for a permit to carry concealed here in WV some little time ago. But the permit system remains in place, at least partly because one can’t take advantage of “reciprocity” in other states without a permit to show in those states.

    There are only a handful of states, the west coast, Illinois, Maryland, NY, DL, NJ, CN, MA, probably a couple more where a WV permit won’t allow you to carry legally. I have a permit mostly to make it easy and legal to transport pistols across state lines…..

  107. 107.

    J R in WV

    @MomSense:

    The Republicans hate poor people. They aren’t even trying to obscure it with their bullshit values messages anymore.

    Good comment… But they hate way more than just poor people. They hate nearly everyone.

  108. 108.

    Turner Hedenkoff

    @Libraryguy, tenguphule & momsense: You’re optimistic. It’ll probably include 10-percent-off coupons at Trump hotels, if they can find one that’s still open.

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