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Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Honey, Whaddya Do For Money?

Honey, Whaddya Do For Money?

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Racism and xenophobia is an easy sell, but it’s expensive for some and lucrative for others:

Kris Kobach likes to tout his work for Valley Park, Mo. He has boasted on cable TV about crafting and defending the town’s hardline anti-immigration ordinance. He discussed his “victory” there at length on his old radio show. He still lists it on his resume.

But “victory” isn’t the word most Valley Park residents would use to describe the results of Kobach’s work. With his help, the town of 7,000 passed an ordinance in 2006 that punished employers for hiring illegal immigrants and landlords for renting to them. But after two years of litigation and nearly $300,000 in expenses, the ordinance was largely gutted. Now, it is illegal only to “knowingly” hire illegal immigrants there — something that was already illegal under federal law. The town’s attorney can’t recall a single case brought under the ordinance.

***

Kobach used his work in Valley Park to attract other clients, with sometimes disastrous effects on the municipalities. The towns — some with budgets in the single-digit-millions — ran up hefty legal costs after hiring him to defend similar ordinances. Farmers Branch, Texas, wound up owing $7 million in legal bills. Hazleton, Penn., took on debt to pay $1.4 million and eventually had to file for a state bailout. In Fremont, Neb., the city raised property taxes to pay for Kobach’s services. None of the towns are currently enforcing the laws he helped craft.

“This sounds a little bit to me like Harold Hill in ‘The Music Man,’ “ said Larry Dessem, a law professor at the University of Missouri who focuses on legal ethics. “Got a problem here in River City and we can solve it if you buy the band instruments from me. He is selling something that goes well beyond legal services.”

The Republican party has several generations of scumbags who have risen to riches peddling racism and stupidity.

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  1. 1.

    LAO

    I want to feel sorry for Valley Park, Mo — but you know, the town hired a known shit bag to craft a shitty and unnecessary “fuck you” ordinance. So, no.

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    Oh…based on the title of this post, I thought it was gonna be about Tad Devine (Manafort’s business partner/Wilmer’s campaign manager) making $10M last year off of all those combined $27 donations. Fancy that…

    I see Karen Tumulty is asking that burning question in today’s Post: How Far Left Will Democrats Go? (no need to link…we all could write her BS in our sleep)

    I also see Mike Pence is busy condemning Russian election interference. That should be intriguing down the road…hey 2018 Mike Pence, meet 2016 Comrade Mike Pence, the guy who was selected by Kremlin employee Paul Manafort.

    Ah well…

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    For the first time, the most conservative of those MSNBC Legal Analysts, Chuck Rosenberg said that Muller has an Obstruction of Justice case. I like Chuck, because he’s a walking, breathing stereotype of what we imagine an FBI/US States Attorney to be. He just reeks ‘ by the book’. He amuses me to no end.

    ICYMI,

    I saw it first, in a tweet on Monday, and I saw it on a couple of the MSNBC shows last night. They were talking about a WRITTEN TIMELINE IN THE WHITE HOUSE PAPERS that points out that Dolt45 absolutely knew that Flynn was under investigation when he asked Comey to stop the investigation.

    I had to chuckle when the person on Lawrence’s show said that, if there were ever two people not going to jail for Dolt45, it’s Reince Prebus and McGann. I don’t know McGann, but I said long ago that Reince went into that White House with a personal criminal defense attorney on speed dial.

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    @Jeffro:

    Oh…based on the title of this post, I thought it was gonna be about Tad Devine (Manafort’s business partner/Wilmer’s campaign manager) making $10M last year off of all those combined $27 donations. Fancy that…

    Yep…

    Keep on bringing it up…

    Keep on bringing it up…

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    Also, Twitler is on a roll this morning…he is going berserk over the “RWH”, etc etc. It’s very creepy how he keeps calling Strozk and Page “lovers”, even calling Page “lovely” this morning. Psycho!

  7. 7.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    So Kobach is a real life Lyle Lanley (see the Simpsons monorail episode, and I think that the Lanley character himself was based off of Music Man)

  8. 8.

    Mike in NC

    It was always a given that a bottom-feeder like Kobach would catch the attention of the Trump maladministration.

    Enjoy your next governor, Kansas.

  9. 9.

    A Ghost To Most

    This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018

    Tick tock, motherfucker.

  10. 10.

    MJS

    Didn’t know that about Hazelton, PA. Former Hazelton mayor Lou Barletta rode that issue to the U.S. House, and is now running for Senate against Bob Casey. I hope the fact that Barletta bankrupted Hazelton is emphasized in the campaign.

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    @MJS:

    Maybe the shitgibbon could end it by sitting down with Mueller and answering his questions.

    I know, right? It’s what an innocent man would surely do.

  16. 16.

    gratuitous

    Obviously, the solution to Kobach’s serial grifting is for municipalities to hire hot librarians. It’s worth a try!

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    It’s an interesting thing, the GrOPers have done: turned immigration into a partisan issue. I’m sure there are more than a few Dems who -used- to support some sort of “commonsense restrictions on immigration, up to and including some amount of deportation for non-criminal immigration rule-breaking”, who have moved considerably left on this issue, to a great extent b/c of Big Chicken’s manifest terroorism on the subject.

  19. 19.

    LAO

    @JPL: Ah, somebody ought to tell Rudy that, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

  20. 20.

    Kraux Pas

    @JPL:

    Rudy Giuliani has told Trump that if he obstructs justice in public view it’s not a crime

    Trump was on board with this plan way before Giuliani was brought on board. It makes a certain kind of perverse sense; no one would be stupid enough to *repeatedly* engage in criminal behavior on national television, ipso fatso nothing to see here.

  21. 21.

    Gex

    Been thinking this for a long time. The GOP is a mix of true believers and scammers. And they love to rip off old people playing on their racism, homophobia, offers of religious blessings if they buy limited edition trinkets, stockpiling gold, reverse mortgages, etc.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @JPL:

    Rudy Giuliani has told Trump that if he obstructs justice in public view it’s not a crime

    More likely the other way around: “I could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, and no one would charge me.”

  27. 27.

    Gin & Tonic

    @LAO: I’m perfectly happy to have him flapping his stupid mouth all day long on every TV network. Gives Mueller more to work with every day.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    If these towns weren’t run by angry racists, they would not have had to pay these legal bills. If they left immigration enforcement to the Feds, they would not have gotten into this mess.

  30. 30.

    Gravenstone

    @JPL: Is that an actual statement, or is that LO’s view of how Trump will interpret Rudy’s incremental Gish Gallop the other day?

  31. 31.

    oldster

    And the sad fact of the matter is that Hazleton, PA, which I used to have relatives in, is making a comeback from near-death, largely because of immigrants.

    It has always been an immigrant town. It became a coal-town in the late 1800s, full of Irish and Italians and Poles and Bohemians and the rest of the filthy scum from Europe whom no self-respecting WASP would have touched at the time.

    Then coal died after WWII, and it started a slow slide into profound decay. Drugs hit it hard–meth is still hitting it hard.

    But there are sparks of life, and the economy is in better shape than it was in the 70s and 80s.

    Because of immigrants, largely Hispanic ones, who have come there and worked and paid rent and bought groceries and done all of the things that keep a city in business.

    I hope Kobach goes down over this.

  32. 32.

    Barbara

    So this is a contender for the Darwin Awards, local government category? All I can say is that it would have been even better if their outlays had been so high they would have had to disband the local government. Some towns in Missouri that had a “Ferguson” problem ended up paying so much in legal awards they disbanded their police departments.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jeffro:

    I see Karen Tumulty is asking that burning question in today’s Post: How Far Left Will Democrats Go? (no need to link…we all could write her BS in our sleep)

    As far Left as Adolf Hitler in St Peterborough during the October Revolution. Farm Collectivization will soon follow with the excess farmer left to starve (I see you, put down that copy of Grapes of Wrath now!)

  35. 35.

    Sherparick

    @BGinCHI: No, I am afraid Donald Trump has first claim to being the heir to “Lonesome Rhodes.” Kobach is at best Sidney Falco from “Sweet Smell of Success.”

  36. 36.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gex:

    The GOP is a mix of true believers and scammers.

    People are remarkably good at finding ways to profit off of what they believe in. Especially assholes who have asshole beliefs, because they’re perfectly happy to steal from the cause while promoting the cause. A close corollary is that politicians love to find someone to bribe them to vote the way they wanted to vote anyway.

  37. 37.

    PaulWartenberg

    what the hell is stopping those cities from going after Kobach for his fraud? his actions cost them millions of dollars and he just walks away scot free?

  39. 39.

    xlurker

    And as the Music Man said, there’s trouble right here in River City! And speaking of the snake oil sales force, this research from Citizen Journalists Consortium shows many hidden connections between the NYT, Maggie Haberman and the PR spin industry. I was shocked to see all the connections between families like the Haberman’s and the Kushners, Trumps, and even Netanyahu. Good examples of the NYT ‘s history of Gaslighting and Whataboutism. All open source research from NYT archives.
    http://www.citjourno.org/maggie1

  41. 41.

    Karen S.

    @LAO: I know, right? It’s hard to feel the least bit sorry for these small municipalities that hire the likes of Kris Kobach to protect them from the dusky hordes.

  43. 43.

    SFAW

    @PaulWartenberg:

    what the hell is stopping those cities from going after Kobach for his fraud? his actions cost them millions of dollars and he just walks away scot free?

    Her e-mails. Obviously.

    ETA: As opposed to “But Her Emails!!!” i.e., the next commenter

  44. 44.

    But Her Emails!!!

    @PaulWartenberg:

    what the hell is stopping those cities from going after Kobach for his fraud? his actions cost them millions of dollars and he just walks away scot free?

    What fraud? He helped draft anti-immigrant legislation that they wanted and then helped defend them in court.

  45. 45.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro: They’re closing in on Trump’s inner circle. He’s going to get even more nuts with his tweets before this is over.

  46. 46.

    The Midnight Lurker

    These guys would set fire to kittens and throw them at homeless veterans if they thought it would turn a buck.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @Sherparick:

    No, I am afraid Donald Trump has first claim to being the heir to “Lonesome Rhodes.” Kobach is at best Sidney Falco from “Sweet Smell of Success.”

    Goddammit. Now I gotta go take them out of the Library.

    (I sort-of know the the 50,000-foot view of “A Face in the Crowd,” but that’s it. Same with “Sweet Smell …” Now’s as good a time as any to watch them, and improve my edumacation, I guess.)

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @Yarrow:

    He’s going to get even more nuts with his tweets before this is over.

    I almost typed “Unpossible,” but then I remembered that there is no such thing as Peak Wingnut.

  49. 49.

    randy khan

    @MJS:

    Maybe the shitgibbon could end it by sitting down with Mueller and answering his questions.

    Well, that certainly would end it, when Mueller released the transcript.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @Yarrow: His latest one has to do with Hillary and a smocking gun. He must have missed his daily intelligence briefing, or else just decided tweeting was more important.

  51. 51.

    feebog

    @rikyrah:

    For the first time, the most conservative of those MSNBC Legal Analysts, Chuck Rosenberg said that Muller has an Obstruction of Justice case. I like Chuck, because he’s a walking, breathing stereotype of what we imagine an FBI/US States Attorney to be. He just reeks ‘ by the book’. He amuses me to no end.

    IMHO, and I deal with lawyers in administrative hearings frequently, he is one of the best legal analysts on MSNBC. By the book is how you win cases.

  52. 52.

    randy khan

    One thing that is strangely impressive about the right wing crazies is how many of the True Believers have found ways to monetize their beliefs. Lefties aren’t nearly as good at that.

  53. 53.

    Yarrow

    @SFAW: “A Face in the Crowd” is just fantastic. Such a different Andy Griffith from his TV roles. TCM has it on fairly regularly.

  56. 56.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JPL: I wouldn’t be surprised if Rudy really said “if it was done in public view your lawyer can argue you didn’t think you were doing anything illegal” and Trump heard what he wanted to hear.

  59. 59.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    So all these rallies Trump has been putting on lately have apparently been flops since he often can’t fill the venues to their capacities and has several rows of seats empty. Don’t his supporters at these rallies notice this? Shouldn’t that bother them?

  60. 60.

    MattF

    So, Kobach turns out to be a grifter. I’m like, y’know, so horrified and like surprised too. But it is a rather novel grift– I’ll give him credit for that. And several small xenophobic towns go bankrupt because of their collective stupidity and racism. Who am I to disagree?

  62. 62.

    Mike in NC

    In today’s Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin covers Trump’s latest Nuremburg style rally in Tampa last night. Remember that MAGAt named Gene Huber who’s been to 11 of them? Turns out he’s a fucking car salesman. Who could have guessed?

  63. 63.

    PaulWartenberg

    @But Her Emails!!!:

    which they all lost, costing them hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.

    His counsel, whatever it was, was/is/will be a worthless pile of unnecessary racist crap, and he keeps SELLING it to city after city trying to get them to do his dirty work for him.

    He’s going to them under false pretenses, selling them ideas that can never work as laws. At what point for the love of God do the Fraud laws kick in?

  64. 64.

    Gravenstone

    @oldster: One of Hazleton’s native sons, Joe Maddon (manager, Chicago Cubs) has an annual event tied to his foundation, both of which are built around improving race relations in Hazleton. So some reasonably high profile people are using their available celebrity and actively working to undo the damage of previous administration.

  65. 65.

    Mandalay

    Kobach’s education is impressive: BA from Harvard, MA and PhD from Oxford and a JD from Yale Law School.

    Now I fully understand that you can be very intelligent, and also be a racist, and Kobach clearly fits that profile. But the immigration laws he drafts get thrown out in the courts. He’s bankrupts communities. With all his zeal for voter fraud as SoS for Kansas, he only caught nine people, and they were all Republican. And he can’t even get the NRA to endorse him for Governor.

    He may be smart, sincere and driven. But the reality is that he’s just not very competent or effective at anything he takes on.

  66. 66.

    Yarrow

    Trump’s latest tweet asks who was treated worse, Al Capone or Paul Manafort. He’s really on a roll today.

  70. 70.

    MattF

    @Mike in NC: Rubin’s column raises the question of where Trump learned all those ‘get angry with whoever I tell you to’ techniques. Right out of the Two-Minute Hate passages in 1984. One assumes Trump didn’t read the book, so he apparently figured it out himself.

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

    @Yarrow:

    Trump’s latest tweet asks who was treated worse, Al Capone or Paul Manafort. He’s really on a roll today.

    Oh, if Alcatraz were only an operational prison facility today…LOL

    The comparison, I love. They never got Capone for murder, bootlegging, racketeering…

    They got him for taxes…

    LMAO

  75. 75.

    Mike in NC

    @MattF: He famously kept a book of Hitler’s speeches on his nightstand, per ex-wife. Adam has stated he also consciously apes the mannerisms of Hitler and Mussolini.

  76. 76.

    geg6

    @MJS:

    He’s not yet, but I’m sure he will if he needs to. Right now, Casey has a pretty good lead and is running “feel good” ads with a husband (Republican)/wife (Democrat) who are all smiles about Bob Casey and how he is great for everyone on both sides of the aisle. Which is pretty much what you have to do here in PA as a Dem.

  77. 77.

    Mandalay

    @Karen S.:

    It’s hard to feel the least bit sorry for these small municipalities that hire the likes of Kris Kobach to protect them from the dusky hordes.

    I have to respectfully disagree with you on that. First, the consequences Kobach’s action are so dire for those communities that the punishment (bankruptcy) far outweighs the crime. Second, and more importantly, we shouldn’t assume that everyone actively agreed with Kobach. Those who opposed him suffer the financial consequences of Kobach’s recklessness and incompetence just as much as those who supported him.

  78. 78.

    Mike in NC

    @Barbara: What if Al Capone ran against FDR in 1940 and won? That’s basically where we are today, with an unhinged crook sitting in the White House.

  79. 79.

    Chip Daniels

    @PaulWartenberg:
    When the elite feel the pinch, it is easier to extract fees and fines from the proles than attack a well connected well defended fellow elite.

  80. 80.

    smintheus

    @MJS: Astoundingly, Barletta remains extremely popular in that region of PA. But fortunately, he’s flailing badly in his senatorial campaign. Perhaps it will put an end to his miserable career (such luck).

  81. 81.

    sukabi

    @JPL: I had the misfortune to be exposed to an episode of Hannity last night. He was busy disparaging Mueller’s probe, Mueller, the doj, our “2-tiered” justice system and wrapped it all up with his “Hillary is the biggest criminal in the history of criminals” bit and “she wasn’t charged with nothin’ which PROVES that the doj is corrupt.

  83. 83.

    Gelfling 545

    @Mandalay: Sometimes having an impressive education just means your parents’ checks always cleared the bank. Vide: Trump, Donald, The Collected Works.

  85. 85.

    geg6

    @Barbara:

    He’s been doing that for days. I’m not sure why he thinks everyone sympathizes with Capone. He’s the bad guy in every movie made about him.

  86. 86.

    rikyrah

    Rejected by parents, gay valedictorian is going to college, with $50K from donors
    With no financial support from his parents, Seth Owen thought he’d have to give up his college dream. Then his mentor helped “make the impossible possible.”
    by Alexander Kacala / Jul.31.2018 / 3:50 PM EST

    Seth Owen, 18, said attending college has always been his “life goal,” one he has been working on diligently since elementary school.

    “I was the nerd in fifth grade who walked around recess talking about how I wanted to be an astronaut,” Owen told NBC News. “I was always in a textbook, always in the library, always reading something.”

    With a 4.16 GPA and an acceptance letter from Georgetown University, it seemed like the high school valedictorian’s dream would become a reality. But when he received his financial aid package from the prestigious school, a different reality set in: The financial aid package had been determined based on the expected contribution of his family, a family he said drove him out of his home due to his sexuality.

    “I started to cry, because I realized there was no way that I could go to college,” he said. “Georgetown was my only option, because I had already denied my other acceptances.”

    With Georgetown refusing to amend his financial aid package and $20,000 needed for his first year’s tuition, the Florida teen thought his situation was hopeless. But then his former biology teacher stepped in.

    “Seth was just a kid that really stood out to me,” the teacher, Jane Martin, told NBC News. “He was super ambitious and was always trying to go above and beyond to make sure he could be as successful as possible.”

    Martin set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Owen’s tuition, hoping to “make the impossible possible,” and she succeeded. As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraising page raised over $50,000 — more than double its initial $20,000 goal.

    ………………………

    On February 11, two-thirds of the way through his senior year, Owen said he left his parents’ home for his own well-being.

    “I started bringing up my disagreements with the church that they attend. I mean, there was just incident after incident,” Owen said. “They talked very negatively about the LGBTQ+ community. They said that gay people would not serve in the church. Then they were talking about transgender people as though they weren’t human, and that really, really bothered me.”

    Owens said he tried to convince his parents to let him attend a different church, but they refused. They then gave him an ultimatum: attend their church or move out.

    “The worst part was I was packing my bags, and I was walking out the door, and I was hoping that my mom would stand in my way. I was hoping that she would say ‘I love my child more than I love my religion.’”

    Just a few weeks after leaving his parents’ home — when he was sleeping on friends’ couches and thought things couldn’t get any worse — Owen received his financial aid package and tuition total from Georgetown.

  87. 87.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Mandalay: At some point, competence and learning become a matter of character rather than native smarts. I used to see this with grad students. Some of them couldn’t learn because they couldn’t admit they didn’t already know everything that mattered.

  88. 88.

    geg6

    @Mandalay:

    Too bad for them that they chose badly when choosing where to put down roots.

    Sorry, but I have not one ounce of sympathy for these towns. And as for Hazleton, I know it and know it’s been a racist sinkhole for years. No sympathy for them at all. Zero.

    Edited to add: I live in a place not all that different, but on the other side of the state. I don’t feel sorry for anyone here either who are being hurt by their voting choices. Fuck ’em. Vote right and it won’t happen.

  89. 89.

    Yarrow

    @Barbara: Here’s Trump’s tweet:

    Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement – although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?

    Pretty sure he thinks Manafort is being treated worse. LOL.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow:

    They’re closing in on Trump’s inner circle. He’s going to get even more nuts with his tweets before this is over.

    Oh, absolutely right. And this is a guy who trusts so few people that he’s got Mick Mulvaney doing eight jobs and Jared doing twelve. He’s also scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of who is willing to work for him. He can sit in the WH and tweet all he wants, he can stay “unindictable” as POTUS all he wants if Congress won’t do its job…but it’s gonna be a long couple of years of being the World’s Most Impotent Dickwad.

    Resign, Donnie baby – it’s the only way out!

  93. 93.

    Kelly

    @Mandalay:

    First, the consequences Kobach’s action are so dire for those communities that the punishment (bankruptcy) far outweighs the crime. Second, and more importantly, we shouldn’t assume that everyone actively agreed with Kobach. Those who opposed him suffer the financial consequences of Kobach’s recklessness and incompetence just as much as those who supported him.

    On the first point to spend that much money defending the ordinance would take multiple levels of appeals and a few years. That’s time enough to back off and cut your losses. On the second I have much sympathy. I live in an area that went 70/30 Trump and my vote on local stuff is often overwhelmed.

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    There is no liberal case for Brett Kavanaugh
    By DAVID SINGH GREWAL and AMY KAPCZYNSKI AND ISSA KOHLER-HAUSMANN
    AUG 01, 2018 | 4:15 AM

    In the past few weeks, many conservative voices have spoken in support of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. But so have some liberal lawyers, including some of our colleagues at Yale Law School. Why would left-leaning attorneys lend their authority to a judge who has an unmistakable record of hostility to core liberal causes, from abortion rights to voting rights, from environmental regulations to restraints on presidential power?

    In celebrating Kavanaugh, liberals may be acting out nostalgia for a long-gone bipartisan appointment process. They may be failing to admit the importance of values to judging, or they may be misreading Kavanaugh’s record. Perhaps they think he is the best nominee they can hope for, or that his personal virtue recommends his confirmation. Then again, maybe they are simply seeking influence. None of these are creditable reasons: There is no liberal case for Kavanaugh.

    ………………………..

    Given what we know of Kavanaugh’s constitutional vision, and his judicial record, liberals should not support his appointment. As many commentators have argued, Kavanaugh has extreme views on matters ranging from gun rights to abortion to presidential power to the role of money in politics.

    Those views, as well as his attitude toward precedent, were on full display in Garza vs. Hargen, the case of a 17-year-old girl in federal immigration detention who wanted an abortion to which she was entitled under state law. Existing doctrine says that the government may not impose an “undue burden” on a woman’s access to abortion. Against the views of six members of his court, who prevailed, Kavanaugh argued that the government’s refusal to allow the young woman to leave the custody of immigration detention to obtain a legal abortion imposed no such burden.

  96. 96.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro:

    And this is a guy who trusts so few people that he’s got Mick Mulvaney doing eight jobs and Jared doing twelve.

    Does Jared actually do anything? I always see him hovering in the background in photos looking like he’d collapse in the slightest breeze.

    And just because the president is unindictable, that doesn’t mean his staff has the same protections. Or even his family. Tick tock, motherfuckers.

  97. 97.

    lgerard

    @Mandalay:

    Kobach’s education is impressive: BA from Harvard, MA and PhD from Oxford and a JD from Yale Law School.

    Why is he such an incompetent lawyer?

    Has any of his efforts in immigration or voter repression ever prevailed in any courtroom?

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    So all these rallies Trump has been putting on lately have apparently been flops since he often can’t fill the venues to their capacities and has several rows of seats empty. Don’t his supporters at these rallies notice this? Shouldn’t that bother them?

    “All fire marshals are librul socshulists!”
    “The media just isn’t showing the rest of the crowd…which admittedly isn’t here…BUT IT WOULD BE IF THE MEDIA HAD BEEN SHOWING CROWDS, um, PREVIOUSLY!!1!”
    “He’s nearly filling much huge-r places than Killary did, that’s for sure!”

  99. 99.

    les

    @PaulWartenberg: Kobach doesn’t stop with cities; he’s behind Arizona’s show your papers fracas, and other state level voter suppression shit. It’s amazing he has enough time to fuck with Kansas so much.

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow: Trumpov is asking about “Alfonse” Capone, and you can almost hear the tones of reverence echoing in that tweet. Just like that murdering dictator in the Philippines, the one in Turkey, and his idol in Russia, Trumpov idolizes those who aren’t afraid to get a little blood on their hands in order to enrich themselves.

    GOP, the lights on the panel are blinking red here…whaddya gonna do? Just asking rhetorically of course…

    ETA to add that (of course) someone else got there first (JPL at #73) My bad!

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @MattF: That column is just spot-on (then again, it’s just the latest variation of the things Rubin has been writing for a year now)

    A few observations are in order:

    First, this is the behavior Trump incites and amplifies with his attacks on the free press. When he says the media is the “enemy of the people” or the worst people or the most dishonest people, his followers take it as license to treat members of the media as something less than human. Trump has defined the press as part of “the other,” and his cult responds with the kind of venom used to keep a foreign body at bay.

    Second, let’s not be surprised when 35 percent or so of voters consistently tell pollsters that the president is the victim of a witch hunt or that they agree with every policy position and action he takes. Trump fans’ politics is not the politics of rationality, considered judgment or empirical observation. Blind hatred and unthinking boorishness are not moderated by new facts or observable phenomena. We should stop marveling as his “success” in holding his base as if this were a reflection of his political skill, let alone the efficacy of his policies. Rather, the unbreakable and unblinking devotion of his unhinged base is confirmation that he now must rely on support from people oblivious to reality.

    Third, we should stop infantilizing Trump supporters, treating them as hapless victims of forces beyond their control. We’ve done them wrong. They come from “real America.” Bunk. Whatever one’s economic hardships, any threatening, unhinged conduct and crude insults shouldn’t be excused. Trump cultists claim to be injured by the disrespect of “elites”; the only ones showing disrespect in Tampa were those in the mob. (And anyway, what ever happened to personal responsibility for one’s life choices?)

    Fourth, don’t expect Trump to adhere to facts or apologize for egregious rhetoric. Words for Trump are the quintessential Pavlovian bell, used to elicit a response from the mob. He says “MS-13!” and they holler. He shouts “Fake news!” and they chant. It’s only his better-behaved apologists in Congress, on Fox News and among the right-wing ecosystem who try to rationalize his conduct and explain his statements as if he is speaking great truths that the evil media simply won’t acknowledge.

    And that brings us to the most distressing part of the Trump cult: The apologists who should know better. The “But Gorsuch!” and “Yeah, but Hillary…” crowd gives Trump and his cohorts political, moral and intellectual legitimacy to spew racist rhetoric and distort reality. The Trump vanguard in more respectable settings and publications twists itself into knots trying to explain how his 4,299 lies aren’t really lies. They insist despite a dearth of evidence that Trump’s performances in Singapore and at the Group of Seven summit were strategically brilliant, rather than reflections of an irrational narcissist who will say anything (whether it’s compliments to Kim Jong Un or fiery nonsense to a Tampa crowd) to garner praise. Without the people who should know better (both inside and outside the administration), Trump could not survive politically.

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I’ve heard that stuff like that is pretty common for kids who come from narcissistic or abusive families. Unless you have successfully gotten a legal emancipation from your parents, federal financial aid ALWAYS takes your parents’ income into account even if your parents refuse to give you a dime for college.

    I’m glad that some of the other adults in his life stepped up to help him.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mandalay:

    Some people are very good at parroting what their professor wants to hear inside a classroom and coming up with theories, but very bad at applying any of that to real world situations. In another life, Kobach might have been an Oxford Don who never had to leave academia and would never have his shortcomings revealed.

  106. 106.

    p.a.

    Who brought these city-bankrupting lawsuits? ACLU? If so it’s a win-win for the Rethug power structure: “this law would’ve worked except for the radiclibs of the ACLU.” Anyone think the hive-mind deplorables will see beyond this? I don’t.

  107. 107.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Actually, Georgetown U comes off nearly as bad as his parents do in this sad case. If I were him, I would reapply to other institutions with strong STEM programs (which isn’t what Georgetown is best know for) and enroll at a local public school in the meantime.

    Or sue Georgetown for making such an egregious decision in a time when such activity as rejecting a child for their sexual orientation is a well understood event. Or transfer out after my first year, depending upon the level of support LGBTQ students actually get at the school.

    Certainly a sad personal situation, so glad he’s getting so much support from everyone but his family and church. Don’t want to leave the bitter and unchristian church out, how despicable are those rat bastards? Teaching hate and calling that christianity! Proof there is no G-d, else he would strike that church with lightning every Sunday.

  108. 108.

    Mandalay

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now

    Suppose that actually happened later today, and further suppose that Congress did nothing about it, and the investigation just died.

    What would happen if someone who had been on Mueller’s team then anonymously dumped everything they had to the media. Would any illegal actions disclosed by the dump still be prosecutable?

  109. 109.

    MattF

    @p.a.: I think even the deplorables will see that they’ve spent a lot of money and got nothing. Less than nothing, actually.

  110. 110.

    MisterForkbeard

    @A Ghost To Most: Honestly, I’m not sure how this can’t be exhibit A in Obstruction of Justice. It’s specifically Trump instructing his DOJ to shut down the investigation into russian interference (and where Trump’s campaign is implicated), using a series of easily disprovable falsehoods and creative misinterpretations (lies).

    Maybe “Trump orders DOJ to close investigation of his possible treasonous and criminal behavior” is a good headline for newspapers, because that’s exactly what just happened.

  111. 111.

    J R in WV

    @Mandalay:

    While Kobach is odious and racist, he was clearly an exceptional student.

    This just goes to show that the ability to learn things and regurgitate them on tests and in papers does NOT imply the ability to actually put those facts to use in your daily life.

    Nor that intelligence is related to a lack of evil and hate, which would seem to be the case, but plenty of evidence shows that smart people can be evil and full of hate based upon stupid reasons. This guy sucks. Smart doesn’t help him. Didn’t help Paul Manafort either.

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    Hey Kay!!

    This Is So Much Bigger Than Paul Manafort
    With Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman on trial, America is reckoning with its very serious kleptocracy problem.

    FRANKLIN FOER
    JUL 31, 2018

    On the eve of the Paul Manafort trial, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin casually announced that the Trump administration was considering a fresh $100 billion tax cut for the wealthy. The two events—the trial and the tax cut—should be considered plot points in the very same narrative. Manafort had grown very rich by looting public monies, and Mnuchin was proposing an arguably legal version of the same.

    Unlike past Trump tax cuts, this proposed cut would be implemented by executive fiat, without a congressional vote—a highly unusual and highly undemocratic act of plunder that would redirect money from the state to further enrich the American elite, not to mention Mnuchin himself.

    The trial of Paul Manafort is not merely an episode in a larger scandal that will unfold over many chapters. It is a warning not to be ignored. It’s an occasion for the United States to awaken from its collective slumber about the creeping dangers of kleptocracy.

    So much about the American view of itself resists accepting a disturbing reality. Conventional wisdom long held that America’s free market would never tolerate the sort of clientelism, nepotism, and outright theft that prevailed in places like Brazil and Italy. Americans thought that globalization would export the hygienic habits of this nation’s financial system and its values of good government to the rest of the world. But over the past three decades, the opposite transpired: America has become the sanctuary of choice for laundered money, a bastion of shell companies and anonymously purchased real estate. American elites have learned to plant money offshore with acumen that comes close to matching their crooked counterparts abroad.

    Manafort is one of the architects of this new world order.

  113. 113.

    Mike in DC

    @Mandalay:
    Of course. Up through the 5 statute of limitations , anyway. So Trump has potential legal jeopardy through…2023. 2029 if he conspires with Russia in 2024.

  115. 115.

    sukabi

    @Mandalay: exceptional student or exceptionally adept at procuring answers/other people’s work?

    For his purported excellence as a student he’s publicly proven himself to be good at 2 things: 1) grifting and 2) pushing laughably bad voter suppression

  116. 116.

    oldster

    @Mandalay:

    Actually, a combination of sucking up to the right people and spouting the right ideology can get you quite a lot of the way to both a summa and a Marshall, esp. at Harvard. Remember that the hard part is getting *in* to Harvard; after that, the good grades are pretty much guaranteed, and access to the next golden line on your CV is a lot easier.

    And I say this as someone who taught at 3 different Ivies over the course of my career, including 2 of the Big 3 (tho not Harvard).

    Certain kids get anointed as golden boys who can do no wrong. If you say what Harvey Mansfield wants you to say (or Kagan père and Kennedy at Yale, etc.), and if you look the part, then you can be pretty mediocre intellectually and still be fêted, as well as fetid.

    I’m not saying Kobach is a dummy. But he may well be pretty ordinary.

  118. 118.

    Mandalay

    @Mike in DC: OK, thanks. Clearly IANAL, but I was just wondering if the “evidence” would become tainted due to the fact that ti was illegally dumped (vaguely akin to “evidence” obtained from an illegal wiretap).

    And presumably whoever dumped the findings of the investigation to the media would be facing serious jail time, right?

  119. 119.

    TenguPhule

    Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled that prosecutors in the trial of Paul Manafort cannot enter into evidence an invoice for proposed home renovations, and deferred a decision about photos of his luxury suits. Prosecutors have tried to present the case that Manafort lived a life of luxury but paid no taxes on money he earned while working in Ukraine.

    Fucking Ellis is a fucking prick.

  120. 120.

    James E Powell

    @Mandalay:

    To those of us who went to law school, it’s no surprise that an outstanding student is a complete a-hole. Cf. Ann Coulter.

    And the courts invalidating the ordinances and the costs of the litigation were not losses for Kobach. It wasn’t his money being wasted. Those ordinances were a way to get political power. Those were all wins for him. He may never get elected to another office, but he has earned a permanent place in the wingnut welfare world.

  122. 122.

    TenguPhule

    @PaulWartenberg:

    what the hell is stopping those cities from going after Kobach for his fraud? his actions cost them millions of dollars and he just walks away scot free?

    They were stupid enough to hire him, obviously too stupid to try and hold him accountable.

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    44 put out a list of endorsements.

    ……………

    It is a profound honor to receive President @BarackObama’s endorsement. He knows first-hand that progress isn’t always easy, but it is always worth fighting for—no matter who you are or where you call home. Join us: https://t.co/i2tFQgUbjF #TeamAbrams #GAGov #gapol pic.twitter.com/mk53mCHFFd

    — Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 1, 2018

  124. 124.

    Mandalay

    @oldster: Interesting. I had never heard of Harvey Mansfield but I see that five of his former students are Tom Cotton, Andrew Sullivan, Alan Keyes, Bill Kristol and Francis Fukuyama. When it comes to being an asshole all five of them are absolute top tier.

    Which goes a long way to proving your point I suppose.

  125. 125.

    gvg

    @Mnemosyne: Legal emancipation is not even an option in most states as specific laws allowing it and setting up a process have to happen. Now abuse can get DHS of a state to intervene and the state agencies are of variable quality and all over worked and underfunded. But Federal financial aid law does allow professional judgement petitions to override dependency. Schools don’t have to offer this and they vary a lot in how strict they are in approvals. Work load and how they think they do in Federal audits impacts how they rule on this. I am a Financial Aid councilor at the University of Florida. I have sat on these committees and guided students through the process and also discouraged many more. Its pretty common for a student to think their parents don’t give them any money, ignoring things like cars, health insurance and other bills paid. Money alone isn’t the issue. The problem is really IMO the children who are the most abused have already endured years of belittling from the people who should have protected them. They don’t always tell us enough to know whats going on. They get prediscouraged or they are too embarrassed to tell us enough to get us to react. However some do speak up and follow the process to get granted independence. We require documents from some impartial sources. In my experience it’s often family that has a close up view of what is happening but we need outside sources to back it up. So we may have grandparents explaining details but neighbors and teachers or even pastors backing up with what they know. Outsiders won’t know as much but can back up stories.
    This kid may think other people don’t know, but it will turn out some do. I have also seem letters from caseworkers, landlords, teachers, nextdoor neighbors, parents of friends. A lot of people will be bothered by things that aren’t actually illegal and will help but only if they are asked. They don’t know these processes either.
    This student may not have explained clearly why he needed more money. if he just said his parents wouldn’t help…almost all students say stuff like that. He had to be much more detailed an raw really. He may think he was clear but he doesn’t realize how ordinary a request for more money can sound. And Georgetown might be a school that chooses to be stingy on this subject. Another great school might be a better match, I don’t know their rep in F.A. but he should ask again or one of his adult helpers should. Everyone has to redo their aid application each year so he could learn to fix it by next year.

  126. 126.

    chopper

    @lgerard:

    i mean, the judge in kobach’s recent case told him to go back to school, essentially, because he did such a shit job in the courtroom.

  127. 127.

    oldster

    @Mandalay:

    Yup, and notice that Tom Cotton also followed that same pathway to Harvard Law and the Claremont Institute, thus embellishing his academic credentials. When in fact his main intellectual accomplishment was this sort of thing (from his Wiki page):
    “…he was a member of the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson, often dissenting from the liberal majority. In articles, Cotton addressed what he saw as “sacred cows” such as affirmative action.”

    My! What a brilliant, path-breaking intellectual, to dissent from the liberal majority and attack affirmative action! Also innovative to come up with a clever new phrase like “sacred cows”!

    Kristol, meanwhile, was a pure nepotism case from the very beginning, about whom the following anecdote never gets tired:
    http://www.bradford-delong.com/2009/09/republicans-to-the-manor-born.html

    Alan Keyes…what can anyone say about that pure whack-job?

    Fukuyama, of all them, is probably the closest to a genuine intellectual. Wrong about a lot of stuff, but not a clown.

  128. 128.

    TooTall

    Ya got trouble,
    Right here in Slime city!
    With a capital “T”
    And that stands for Trump.

  129. 129.

    J R in WV

    IANALawyer at all, but it seems to me that showing proof of a lavish lifestyle, private jets, a million dollars in rugs, nearly a million dollars in “bespoke” suits, the homes, the landscaping, etc would be part of proving the income side of the tax evasion.

    Where did all that money come from that wasn’t declared? He spent literally millions of dollars just living. Wife and I spend a few thousand dollars a month, which is mostly covered by Social and pension income, which is all on 1099s automatically reported to the govt.

    Manafort spent hundreds of thousands a month for years, and how much of that was delcared? He gave millions to his kids to buy their affection, “Can’t buy me Love!” but affection appears to be doable. But they’re a long way from home and don’t come to visit.

    Have they seen him since he was indicted?

    Nope!

    Gonna be lonely in jail Paul.

  130. 130.

    Barbara

    @J R in WV: Yes and no. If Mueller has proof of the income it doesn’t really matter how it was spent or even if it was spent. This is the way Ellis rolls.

  131. 131.

    Lee

    I small suburb here in the DFW area did something as stupid about a decade ago.

    The nutters wanted to pass a law that required landlords to determine the status of their renters or maybe only rent to those here legally.

    They finally got enough on the city council to pass the law. The city attorney even told them it was going to be very expensive to defend & they would ultimately lose. IIRC, a city attorney either quit or was fired in the process.

    Well the law passes, the ACLU jumps in. The legal costs go about 3-4x what the city council budgeted and they lose. The silver lining of the story is I’m pretty sure those responsible for the debacle lost their re-elections or did not run again.

  132. 132.

    laura

    @James E Powell: To those of us who went to law school, it’s no surprise that an outstanding student is a complete a-hole. Cf. Ann Coulter.
    Ain’t that the freaking truth!
    My classmate at McGeorge Andy Pugno is the conservative pest who brought Prop.8 to Cali. So very happy that it didn’t stand -and right now, the freedom to marry is legal in every state.

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