It looks like John Brennan may still have his security clearance. Or not.
Lawyers on my Twitter feed and in court have been debating the status of Donald Trump’s tweets. Are they presidential statements? Must they be archived? (Probably yes) Can he block people? (Probably no) What do they mean for the government employees who might have to carry out a presidential order? (Who knows?)
But in the 13 days since Sanders read Trump’s 571-word statement to the press, Brennan hasn’t heard anything from the White House, the CIA or any other representative of the administration. And he’s received no formal notification that his clearance has been pulled.
This happened with Trump’s tweets about transgender people in the military. I think some things may have happened – I haven’t followed this because there are simply too many uproars on which to keep current. My general understanding is that there have been some unfortunate tweaks, like lessening their medical benefits, but transgender people are still welcome in the military. Please correct me if I’ve got that wrong, preferably with links.
It’s happening with North Korea. Fortunately, the military skipped over the “Little Rocket Man” and nuclear threat tweets. But national security Twitter has been pointing out that whatever Trump did in Singapore means nothing, and Kim Jong Un knows that and is continuing his nuclear weapons development. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been humoring Trump (or participating in the folie à deux) and gaslighting the rest of us that Kim is about to hand over 60% of his nuclear weapons.
It’s good that the rest of the government has better sense than our President*. It’s not good that the President* is almost totally unmoored from the rest of the government. And it’s making me crazy.
Open thread, hopefully for better thoughts.
Cheryl Rofer
And this just showed up on my Twitter feed.
Lee
It also my understanding is that transgendered are still welcome in the military.
I know there was some sturm & drang about it all (and maybe even a memo) but I never saw anything from the military about it.
I do remember the …Coast Guard(?) commander was actually very welcoming of transgendered.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Pyrrhic victory.
Mnemosyne
Trump still blocks cats on Twitter, though. ?
https://mobile.twitter.com/bitchesthecat/status/676771835078295558?lang=en
low-tech cyclist
What agency is actually in charge of assigning and revoking security clearances? Presumably its head would be waiting on a written instruction from Trump to revoke Brennan’s clearance, and the head wouldn’t consider him/herself authorized to revoke that clearance on the basis of a White House press statement, a Presidential tweet, or whatever.
But the normal chain of command is so broken down in this Administration, and of course Cheetolini has no interest in finding out what he’s got to give to whom to actually order them to do something, and doesn’t want a capable Chief of Staff who’d know all this. At least it minimizes the damage Trump can do. If he knew what he was doing, his bloviations might become policy.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s the thing, Trump and his base don’t give a shit about reality, reality is someone else’s problem. As long as they can maintain the shared illusion that Trump is saving them from Trans-gendered – Isis – Hispanic – Anafita – Illegals from such horrors socializing their medicare and making them ride public transit or have to channel surf past a Spanish language TV station they are going to be ecstatic.
dmsilev
The only saving grace of this administration is the way in which they temper their evil with their incompetence.
NotMax
Cheryl, any rumblings in your circles about Russia cutting off supply of RD-180 engines to the U.S. military?
HeleninEire
@Mnemosyne: OMG that is hysterical.
LAO
@dmsilev: Well put.
EBT
@Lee: Minor point, but it’s transgender. Transgendered isn’t a word.
OldDave
@NotMax: (Note: I’m not Cheryl.) Since the 2014 rumblings faded I’ve not heard anything other than the occasional story on Vulcan, the proposed Atlas-V / Delta-4 replacement. The Atlas-V has an amazingly successful launch record, by the way.
stan
Exactly this. There’s all kinds of damage he’d be doing if it weren’t for the creative inertia of our nation’s bureacrats. Completely serious here.
– signed,
A Bureaucrat
catclub
Trump’s approach plays exactly to the hack gap that Kevin Drum identified. Announcing the change is all that his followers need to claim he is doing something.
gene108
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Has anyone else noticed no Republicans are screaming about “radical Islamic terrorism” anymore? The three magic words seem to have totally disappeared.
I guess saying them really did end terrorism.
HeleninEire
An update from last night on my work friend’s condition. For those of you who didn’t see, a colleague collapsed at work yesterday from a brain hemorrhage. She is 38 with 2 small children. Her husband died last year.
The doctors are sure now there is no hope. She is on life support. Her mother will arrive here from Romania tomorrow. And then it will be over. The only one thing that is positive is that she is an organ donor. She is young so the rest of her body is in excellent shape and in her death she will help many.
Frankensteinbeck
I predicted when he ordered Brennan’s clearance revoked that Trump thought it would force Brennan to stop criticizing him on TV. As soon as it became clear the clearance thing didn’t change that in any way, Trump would lose interest in revoking clearances entirely. Someone else seems to have had a plan about inhibiting potential testimony, but Trump doesn’t give a shit about that. If people are still able to make fun of him on TV, there’s no point.
Cheryl Rofer
@NotMax: I have not seen that.
The Moar You Know
@low-tech cyclist: Whoever issued it. There are quite a few. Brennan’s is probably through DoD and there is a process for that, a pretty simple one actually.
J R in WV
@HeleninEire:
Well, at this stage, being glad for those who will be saved from her loss is the best to hope for. And that her kids will be cared for by their aunt, locally. It would be sad if they had to move across Europe after such an upheaval in their lives. Sorry for your personal loss and shock.
Some years back we had a contractor in the computer room upgrading some server software. After the morning work, he and the other network guys were leaving the computer center for lunch when he keeled over. The guys started CPR, called 911, and hooked him up to an automated de-fib device. The paramedics from the FD were there in about 3 minutes, kept up the CPR to the hospital, which was only 6 or 8 minutes away.
He came back to the office to finish the server upgrades about 3 weeks later, with new stents and a pacemaker. So sometimes well trained people can and do save folks who would otherwise die on the spot. Nothing to be done for your co-worker, though.
Take care!
EricNNY
@HeleninEire: That’s just awful. Those poor children. So sorry HeleninEire.
eclare
@HeleninEire: That is just so sad. I can’t imagine.
MattF
@dmsilev: Incompetence, yes… but… You also get the bullshit, the bluster, the lying, and the name-calling. It’s all part of the TrumpWorld package– there’s no single trait that fully describes it.
HeleninEire
@J R in WV: So strange. She was in the gym getting coffee at the shop in the lobby. There happened to be paramedics there giving a CPR course. They we’re with her in a minute and she was at the hospital in 7 minutes. But even then, she could not be saved.
SiubhanDuinne
@HeleninEire:
Thank you for the update on this tragic story. I think you said that there’s a sister living in Ireland. Will your friend’s children stay with her or go live with their grandmother in Roumania? (I realize you probably don’t know, but I’ve been heartsick for those two kids and just hope for whatever solution is least disruptive in an inherently disruptive situation.)
May your friend have a peaceful transition. And bless her for being an organ donor.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Frankensteinbeck: Updated zen koan for Trump:
If a tree falls in a forest, and it’s not broadcast on TV, did it really fall down?
HeleninEire
@EricNNY: @eclare: Thank you both.
low-tech cyclist
@HeleninEire: That’s so sad. Those poor kids, losing both their parents at such a young age. I hope she had friends who’d take them in until the grandmother gets here.
Tracy Ratcliff
@NotMax: Also not Cheryl, and all I know is from following arstechnica.com ‘s space coverage.
The replacement for the Atlas V, the Vulcan, is /supposed/ to be in test flights in 2020, but no one is seriously expecting United Launch Alliance to make that deadline. ULA thus ordered another dozen RD-180s to extend the Atlas V. The Russians are making unofficial threats about not selling the engines, but it’s a bit of a hollow threat. It’s murky how many scheduled Atlas/Vulcan launches couldn’t be rescheduled to a SpaceX Falcon or Arianaspace, or pushed off till the Vulcan actually flies. Blue Origins’s New Glenn is also supposed to start testing in 2020, which is probably more likely than Vulcan making schedule, although BO is very secretive about what it’s doing. It’s not like the Russians can sell those engines anywhere else, and the Russian foreign-currency commercial market has largely been killed by SpaceX. They probably are just trying to get a price boost.
HeleninEire
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know what will happen. I learned today that her sister and she had a falling out over the Father’s funeral, so they were not really close. But she, her name is Sorina, what a great name, has been here for 10 years. The children were born here so they are Irish citizens. So even if they need to go back to Romania they can always return.
I hope the sister sees the error of her ways and will welcome them. We shall see.
jl
Only had time to glance at comments, so apologies if someone beat me to it. But looks like Trump’s classy top new NAFTA deal with Mexico is same kind of mess as everything else. Link to Krugman tweet, but go there to his tweeter and read the thread, and link to explanation by Chad Brown.
By far the best explanation of whatever it is Trump sort-of negotiated with Mexico. Read @ChadBown for the real analysis; I just have a few further thoughts 1/
https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1034428536113848320
I read someplace that Obama administration did a real honest renegotiation of NAFTA, as part of TPP, that would fix complaints of US and Mexican workers and upgrade environmental protections. So, actually, there is a ‘new NAFTA’ on the shelf that could be used as a starting point. But Trump produces a nonsensical Rube Goldberg contraption. Plus possible fraud, such as headline agreement that reduces arbitration rules for corporate lawsuits for sovereign regulations and laws that interfere with what corporations think their profits should be, but then exempting most of the companies that would actually use it.
Mike in NC
I read somewhere how Jared approached his imbecile father-in-law to warn him that revoking Brennan’s clearance would backfire, so naturally Fat Bastard gleefully signed a piece of paper to that affect.
debit
@HeleninEire: It’s a terrible tragedy and I am so sorry for her kids. How awful to lose both parents and both so young.
On a personal note I’ll say that my niece and nephew are both alive today thanks to organ donation. They were both born with a failing liver and were it not for someone else’s tragedy, they would have died as infants. Small comfort to the family, but she is saving lives. Thanks for the update.
jl
@jl: To clarify: “headline agreement that reduces arbitration rules for corporate lawsuits” is supposed to mean that the new NAFTA would reduce ability of corporations to sue.
trollhattan
“Fuck you, John McCain!”
–signed, your Republican senate colleagues and people who are happy you’re dead, dead, dead.
Gin & Tonic
@Mike in NC: And I read somewhere how NYC fined Jared’s company $210,000 for filing false documents related to construction on rent-regulated buildings it owns. Yes, Jared was CEO at the time of the violations.
Between that and the SF-86’s, it seems Prince Jared’s not very good at this filling-out-forms stuff.
tobie
@HeleninEire: Tragedy seems to hit some families in spades. I’m so sorry for your friend, her family and for all of you who’ve been witness to this horrible turn of events.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Looks like they’ll go to the mattresses to protect the legacy of the racist Dixiecrat Richard Russell. Probably the only Democrat they’ll ever support on anything.
Adam L Silverman
@low-tech cyclist: Each Department does their own. Those that don’t, because they don’t have enough to justify a staff of adjudicators, usually default to either the CIA or the DOD. In the case of DCI Brennan, he should be notified by the Special Security Officer at the CIA as the CIA is the sponsor for his clearance.
Adam L Silverman
HeleninEire
@low-tech cyclist: I have to say, our employer, Dublin City University, is being the best. We have been told to take as much time as we need off and they are offering free counseling. In addition they are paying for Sorina’s Mom to fly over and offering to pay for Sorina’s body to be flown back to Romania if her mother wishes her to be buried there.
Good on ya, DCU!
tobie
@jl: Thanks for these links and suggestions. I was wondering if Trump’s negotiations with Mexico were like his negotiations with North Korea–all hype, no substance, and in the long run likely detrimental to the US. That the media keeps on falling for this shit time and again is so annoying. I heard Haley Jackson on MSNBC today saying that Americans were much more interested in the gains that the deal with Mexico promised than in Trump’s McCain snubs or Manafort’s conviction. Sigh…we have a press that reports on optics and nothing else.
Adam L Silverman
@gene108: The President used them at one of his rallies earlier in the month.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: Pass the popcorn and root for casualties.
zhena gogolia
@jl:
Today instead of my New York Times, they delivered the Wall Street Journal. (because of course it’s a newspaper published in New York, so same difference) The headline was something like “Trump Reaches Trade Deal with Mexico.” Then there was a big graphic of the soaring stock market, and something about “In ‘the Trump Era,’ Congress is Being Remade in the President’s Image.” It was nauseating. They should just call it the Trump Street Journal.
TenguPhule
@tobie:
Yes. You are not wrong.
They are demanding Canada concede and sign on without being able to read or check anything within two days.
Unless Canada has gone batshit insane recently, that’s not happening.
Adam L Silverman
@HeleninEire: I’ve known two people this has happened to. A work colleagues wife and a close friend from aikido’s husband – who was also a friend. It is absolutely terrible and I’m very sorry to read what your friend is going through. Keeping good thoughts for the kids and the rest of her family.
HeleninEire
@tobie:Thank you. And I agree. Tragedy hits in spades.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
And this differs from his normal speech….how?
Gin & Tonic
@HeleninEire: Buncha commies over there.
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck:
That wouldn’t make any difference. Anything they’d testify about that they already knew, they’d still know regardless of whether their clearance is still active. And, if it is necessary to review classified information prior to testifying to assure accurate testimony, the judge in the case can order that to happen and provide limited access.
This is what happens when no one who actually has any experience with any of this stuff will work for you either because they don’t want to be associated with you or because they can’t pass the loyalty checks your personnel office has instituted as a primary screening criteria.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@trollhattan:
Wow, backstabbing racist scum. The three Senators objecting, all southerners, rather keep a building named after a white supremacist Democrat from the mid-20th century than name it after a Republican that was tortured by enemies in Vietnam.
rikyrah
Aretha Franklin dresses like a queen, even in death https://t.co/TxDqxyUI3f
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) August 28, 2018
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Fox News has had “Russia expert” Robert Driscoll on the air multiple times to provide analysis of the Mueller investigation, and never once did they mention that Driscoll is the attorney representing alleged Russian spy Maria Butina.https://t.co/DLSLGil5Ci
— john craig (@coldandnervous) August 28, 2018
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Rejoice in the infighting of our enemies.
rikyrah
Funny that @MELANIATRUMP attacks the press 2 days after @thedailybeast reports her father has a CRIMINAL PAST.
But is she writing a check that her a** can’t cash here?
Do you REALLY want to take on the press that has been hands-off about YOUR sketchy history, Melanie?#BeBest https://t.co/pICacezEfJ
— ???? Only4RM ???? (@Only4RM) August 28, 2018
meander
I have been wondering about how Tweets and other social media posts by public officials and other famous people are being preserved for posterity. Someday the Tweets of these people will be worth studying and writing about.
Is a team at the National Archives filing the President’s, VP’s, members of Congress’ tweets? Is Twitter sharing their archives with various libraries? Are certain big libraries running their own archiving?
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
So his expertise is true….from a certain point of view.
rikyrah
Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin will lie in repose here at @TheWrightMuseum on Tue. 8/28 & Wed. 8/29 from 9am to 9pm on both days. The viewing will be open to the public. Exhibits and other museum operations will be closed during this time. pic.twitter.com/w3mDm4f0Dd
— The Wright Museum (@TheWrightMuseum) August 26, 2018
Gelfling 545
Apparently Trump’s feelings on cooperating witnesses got a try put in court. It didn’t go so well.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-crack-dealer-trump-defense-20180828-story.html#
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Can’t take the segregationists name of the building.
rikyrah
And, if this business owner was Black?
The owner of a company that makes untraceable 3D-printed guns says he has begun selling the blueprints online, despite a court order barring him from posting the plans online. https://t.co/Te8nZmTFET
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) August 28, 2018
Martin
@NotMax: Not really a problem. Russia has been threatening this for about 5 years now. They’ve looked into manufacturing RD-180s here in the US, but the current plan is to have them switch over to the Blue Origin BE-4, with the AR-1 as a backup. Both engines are pretty far into development and could be used as early as next year.
Situations like this is why NASA wants redundant lifters. They can use Delta if Atlas isn’t available. Falcon Heavy is also a potential option if it proves itself on future launches.
I know it’s fashionable to bash on Musk here, but he’s really kicked the US space industry out of the shithole they were in by not minmaxing the problem to extract the most taxpayer money possible for the least benefit to the govt. Suddenly ULA and others are worried SpaceX (or others inspired by SpaceX) are going to eat their lunch. Dude still has no fucking idea how to make cars, though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: They’re now looking into Cohen fixing rental agreements on behalf of Kushner’s properties. Given that Cohen is going to want to cooperate wherever possible to get some preferential treatment at sentencing, this is not going to end well for the nebbish.
HeleninEire
@Gin & Tonic: Where? At DCU?
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Only in that the court was asked to rule on the tweets.
burnspbesq
This is actually some fairly consequential shit.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/donald-trump-twitter-and-presidential-power-interpret-law-executive-branch
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Republicans hate McCain far more than we liberals ever could.
Gin & Tonic
@HeleninEire: Yeah. If it was in the U.S. of A., they’d ship the body back COD. She’s dead, why should her family get something for free?
You’ve been out of the USA too long.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: It is important to keep in mind that it is not clear what her father actually did or didn’t do. People quickly jumped on the bandwagon that he was UDBA – Tito’s secret police, but that isn’t the case. Clearly he had some agreement with someone up the chain in the government and security and intel services or he wouldn’t have been able to run his import business. So the Daily Beast story is an interesting data point, but nor much else at this point.
Cheryl Rofer
@jl: Yes, it looks like Trump’s deal with Mexico (both Mexico and Canada have said it’s not finished until both of them are agreed) is a nothingburger of the kind I mentioned above. I thought about adding it after I posted, but I figured that our jackals are smart enough to come up with that too.
Jeffro
Hey I see that Joni Ernst (R-stealth hellspawn) is getting a divorce from her husband, Gail.
I’m so cynical at this point that my first thought was, “She just wants someone with a more masculine-sounding first name when she runs for the GOP nom in 2024 (2020?)…GOP primary voters ain’t the brightest bulbs in the marquee, and it’ll cost her votes with them for sure if they think she’s married to another woman”
Then I realized Alex Jones already serves Paranoia City well enough, took a deep breath, and realized that Gail’s just leaving Joni ’cause Joni’s a horrible human being, most likely.
randy khan
@debit:
Speaking as someone whose father was an organ donor, it actually was of more comfort to me than I thought it would be. (Granted, I was an adult by that time, so the impact was a little different than it would have been if I’d been a child.) It made me proud that he’d been thoughtful about how he could help other people even in death.
We got a note from the recipient several months later, too, and that was really touching.
Adam L Silverman
@meander: I have a close friend from grad school who works for the Congressional Research Service. By accident, because he was asked to do some research on this shortly after twitter came out, he is the US government’s foremost expert on the use of twitter by members of Congress, as well as US officials in general.
We’re so proud of him…
HeleninEire
@Gin & Tonic @HeleninEire: LOL sorry. I read that as “buncha comments there.” Yes you are right. Buncha friggin communists and socialists there/here.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: It’s hard to overstate how big an issue rent regulation is in NYC
jl
@zhena gogolia: ‘ Then there was a big graphic of the soaring stock market, and something about “In ‘the Trump Era,’ Congress is Being Remade in the President’s Image.” It was nauseating. ‘
There is no Trump boom, no Trump economy, period, end of story. I’ve looked at the headline and lesser known stock market indices, and the current bull market started in mid 2016. Rates of growth since then haven’t changed, except for a brief and unsustainable run-up while the big corporate tax cut was passed. If you look at the economic indicators, you see no trace of a Trump effect in the economy, except for the brief run-up in stocks related to increased expected future after-tax profits just before and after corporate tax cut was passed.
The stock market probably should be booming. One success of the Obama expansion was to bring back at least average growth in real growth investment spending (which was far below average for Clinton and GW Bush expansions), and corporate tax cut. Both mean higher future after-tax profit streams. But there is some bubbliness in stock prices due to stock buy backs. Steven Perstein, I think in WaPo wrote a column pointing out that most of these stock buy back are being financed with junk debt similar to the housing boom MBS, on unregulated markets. Some lawsuits and court actions were rejected that would have shut this down. Kavanaugh was the federal judge who was most enthusiastic about letting the funny money unregulated derivative games begin all over again.
catclub
@Martin:
NOW, they want redundant lifters. Of course, when they made the shift to drop all US made ones and depend on the Russians,…. not so much.
(I guess they could have wanted them then, but actually doing something to maintain the capability might have been a better path.)
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Wilson is an anarcho-libertarian. Beyond that, why would you buy them. The files are all over the Internet for free download.
Cheryl Rofer
@meander: Trump’s tweets will be preserved by the National Archives.
rikyrah
UH HUH
Between 2014 and 2016, 16 million people were purged from voting rolls nationwide — an increase of 33% from a decade ago. https://t.co/yk8F5Dw5Xk
— Brennan Center (@BrennanCenter) August 28, 2018
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
I’m not doing much rejoicing because the GOP is morphing into something horrifying; a true authoritarian and white supremacist cult of personality. It’s very disturbing. McCain, for all his faults, was still a human being and was their Senate colleague for 30 years.
Inhofe victim-blaming McCain for Trump’s asshole move to move the White House flags to full-staff for being a imo weak critic of Trump was disgusting. It reeked of “that’s what he gets for criticizing Supreme Leader Trump.”
rikyrah
10-year-old tennis phenomenon Summer Chandler meeting her idol,@serenawilliams, is the ultimate proof that representation matters. https://t.co/GyotisGJs0 pic.twitter.com/tdHiCkha09
— ESSENCE (@Essence) August 27, 2018
HeleninEire
@Gin & Tonic: See me at 75. Misread your comment. kisses.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Welcome to the country of men, not law.
catclub
@jl:
yep. The Trump economy (either stock market or employment) simply lines up as a continuation of the Obama economy.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
its not morphing, the masks have just been pulled off and you’ve put on the sunglasses.
Out of bubble gum yet?
HeleninEire
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you, Adam.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
I’m slightly disturbed by the costume changes that will be happening, but if that’s what her family asked for … ?♀️
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Wow, Fox News continues its tradition of being shameless.
Also, I wonder how much of an “expert” this Driscoll guy really is.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
I’m not talking about the Reagan-Nixon Southern Strategy dogwhitle bullshit of the past. I’m talking about the real deal; the GOP fully transforming into an authoritarian party that will completely destroy liberal democracy in this country and will tolerate no dissent.
rikyrah
Live Coverage of the Aretha Franklin Visitation at the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
He did stay at a Holiday express! //
jl
@catclub: Had time to look up the numbers on my computer. One thing I haven’t seen mentioned much is that the US economy has been starved of both public and private investment since the Reagan years, and massive financial deregulation that started in late Carter years, got bigger and bigger through Reagan and Clintion and then went insane.
Compared to post WWII expansions up to the 1980s, real private net investment in the US during Reagan was 70% of average, Clinton 75%, Dub 20%. Obama expansion brought it up to 85% of average. The dismal net investment during Dub years surprised me. But one of the effects of tying up huge amounts of money into hugely overpriced housing was to starve other forms of real investment. I think bigger real economic loss there than if you just look at dollars and cents of the financial panic and recovery.
The real net investment figures are from NIPA, and don’t depend on tax cuts, or corporate accounting gimmicks. So, return to something close to normal private investment growth, almost all of which was early in Obama term, probably means investors expect higher profits in the future. And very high corporate profit growth was also a feature of early Obama administration.
jl
@jl: Meant to type “and then went insane.under Dub”
zhena gogolia
Whoa — since they didn’t deliver my NYT I missed this earlier, but Mustache of Understanding hit it out of the park!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/opinion/trump-midterms-shoot-fifth-avenue.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Ruckus
I was going to try to be snarky, but I think I’ve reached my snarky limit till the end of the shitgibbon maladministration. One can only make fun of the personality handicapped for so long, I’m thinking right up to the time it’s obvious that he really is a sick asshole and can’t helped. We are there.
Gin & Tonic
@TenguPhule: I don’t see anything in his public CV or his publications that would indicate he has any relevant expertise having to do with Russia.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@low-tech cyclist: His are probably defense related, so it would be a DoD office or offices. As he no doubt holds “special” (meaning spooky spy stuff) clearances, those are administered by various “special” offices.
I think we’re seeing a reflection of Trump’s War Against the Intelligence Community here. Special security officers are no-nonsense professionals who are not going to have any patience for this kind of political meddling in their area of responsibility.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
To be fair, he seems to be an expert in being compromised by the Russians — he just forgot to say how he obtained such expertise. ?
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: At least they don’t have to tape them back together.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
Does getting paid by Vladimir Putin count as Russian expertise? ?
Fair Economist
@HeleninEire: Heart attacks can generally be mostly fixed with prompt enough attention. Brain bleeds, not so much. The neurons are much more delicate and surgery is much harder.
jl
But, if you don’t actually look at the numbers, a Trump boom is plausible. There was a pause in the recovery at probably just the wrong time for Democrats in 2016. From mid 2015 through mid-2016, the recovery lost some steam, and got close to a ‘growth recession’ (slow down in economic growth bad enough to increase unemployment even while economy is still growing slightly). Probably due to uncertainty in how Fed would manage increasing Federal funds rate up from negative and zero territory, and some adjustments in dollar exchange rates, I think mainly due to changes in how China managed its exchange rate. But, sectors of the economy started taking off again between late 2015 (before Trump was nominated) and late summer 2016 (before Trump was elected).
That timing is one reason I don’t completely dismiss ‘economic anxiety’ from effecting the election results. But the election hung on less than 100,000 votes in three states, so all sorts of things, even if minor in the big picture, could have been changed the result.
Thing is, it is very easy and very quick to check the numbers on FRED St Louis BLS ,and US Treasury websites. But it doesn’t show in most economic reporting (Jill Schlesinger is an bright and shining exception of excellence on this point).
MagdaInBlack
@HeleninEire:
I will jump in here to say this is what happened to my husband at the age of 40: 22 years ago.
My deepest sympathy to any one dealing with this.
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic:
The federal courthouse in Atlanta is named after him too!
Steve in the ATL
@HeleninEire: wow that is awful. Hope the kids end up okay.
I will now stop complaining about being in Cleveland….
eclare
@MagdaInBlack: How tragic, my condolences.
rikyrah
Why Trump’s role in the FBI headquarters project matters
08/28/18 12:50 PM—UPDATED 08/28/18 02:08 PM
By Steve Benen
…………………….
In a press statement, the Virginia congressman said, “When we began this investigation, the prospect that President Trump was personally involved in the government-led redevelopment of a property in close proximity to the Trump Hotel was dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Now, the president’s involvement in this multi-billion-dollar government procurement which will directly impact his bottom line has been confirmed by the White House Press Secretary and government photographs.”
This might seem like a dry topic for a political debate – no one has ever used references to the General Services Administration as click-bait – but there may be a real story here.
For those unfamiliar with D.C., the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently located along Pennsylvania Avenue, about four blocks east of the White House.
It’s also about a block from the Trump International Hotel, which the president still owns and profits from. If the current FBI headquarters were redeveloped in its existing space, it’d benefit Trump’s investment: many of the hotel’s rooms have a view of the bureau’s current home.
All of which makes it interesting that the White House was directly involved in the talks about plans for the building. In fact, the Washington Post reported that the GSA’s inspector general concluded that the agency’s officials “may have misled Congress about the White House’s role in canceling a decade-long search for a new FBI headquarters campus in the Washington suburbs last year.”
…………….
Murphy did not, however, mention the White House meetings as part of her answer.
.
J R in WV
@meander:
Nope. Might as well be dribbled on the walls in his own feces as be the twits of this lunatic fool.
Unless they would be studied by psychologists and psychiatrists to see what indications of mental illness showed up first, second, etc.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
They’ve been this since 2000. I saw the beast then.
HeleninEire
@MagdaInBlack: My sympathy right back at you. Hope you are well. The death of a loved one changes you forever. Sending quiet and happy vibes to you.
StringOnAStick
So my FOXbot father tells me that he wants to see Manafort in jail for the rest of his life, that he’s scum. Hmm, finally something we can agree on, but I know he gets all his news from FOX, so has Rupert tossed Pauly under the bus? My Dad did do some work in Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the early 1990’s and shared that he’s never met a Russian national that he could stand but that the people from those two countries were friendly and helpful when he was there; the Russians in those places he claimed were all about BS and being impediments to any business not Russian owned. No surprise I guess.
Cheryl Rofer
@HeleninEire: A friend’s daughter died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Very sad, nothing to be done.
HeleninEire
@Steve in the ATL: LOL. Thank you for that.
It really made me LOL.
JPL
Manafort’s former banker’s penthouse was broken into, and all they took was a pair of sneakers, IPAD, and briefcase. They did break a bottle of wine. link Maybe I’ve watched so many mysteries that it clouds my judgment, but this seems like a warning to me. It might not be fun to fall from the ninth floor.
Bess
@Martin:
Martin, would you please quit posting statements that are clearly false? Would you like for me to explain why your are wrong?
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
It happened barely a week ago to the son of a dear friend of mine. He was exactly a month away from his 40th birthday. He was texting with his mom, my friend (who had earlier that night lost much of her house to a fire — talk about multiple awfulness hitting at once!) telling her to come on over. By the time she’s arrived 10 minutes later he was dead. Three kids, aged 3, 5, and 8. Just so shocking and tragic.
Luthe
@Martin: Your best friend is here for another Tbogg unit thread!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Bess:
Oh no. Mrs Musk is backkkkkk!
Luthe
@JPL: Do we know what information was contained by the iPad and briefcase?
raven
I’m sure this will be a post.
Bess
@jl: The market has been setting new highs which started about the same time people, including Trump, started talking openly about impeachment.
Just an interesting correlation….
cynthia ackerman
Over the last ten days, I have been struck by the thought:
What if this child-man had to deal with a 9/11?
His petulant, infantile self-absorption, so evident now, is not a good sign.
Last time, though I found both depressingly disingenuous, GWB and, yes, Rudy at least made calculated connections to what Chris Cuomo calls the “we.” Our most visible leaders pulled levers which made sense, agree or disagree with their real motives.
But Trump?
He could only be relied upon — FSM help us — to kick sand and assign blame.
My rational self thinks the threat of a non-state actor like bin Laden is minimized these days.
But the threat from less vulnerable douches, like Putin, is arguably already at least as existential as anything Al Qaeda could inflict at its height.
HeleninEire
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh my. So sorry. It is so bizarre how tragedy hits.
Gin & Tonic
@Bess:
NOOOOOO!!
Steve in the ATL
@Luthe: @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: my kingdom for a pie filter!
Bess
@Gin & Tonic:
You’d prefer to perpetuate a lie? OK, got it.
Do you feel the same when people lie about Hillary, Barack, Elizabeth, …..
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
Jared’s picture is next to the “nebbish” entry in The Illustrated Unabridged Dictionary of Yiddish.
rikyrah
azcentral (@azcentral) Tweeted:
“This is not a hiccup. This is a serious concern where voters across Maricopa County couldn’t get voting.” https://t.co/6eLdvv0hrd https://twitter.com/azcentral/status/1034523540333178880?s=17
JPL
@Luthe: Nope. We don’t even know what type of sneakers. Odd!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Gin & Tonic: @Bess:
Nooooo!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Bess:
Here’s a hint: people find you tiresome and obnoxious
James E Powell
@Mnemosyne:
They’ve made that abundantly clear this week.
JPL
@rikyrah: You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until November.
NotMax
Landlady back home now after cataract surgery.
Doesn’t even get to play pirate with an eye patch. She’s sporting a clear eye shield.
Follow-up visit to shuttle her to tomorrow, then second eye will be done next week.
Clinic has special parking spots for post-surgery pick-up, but NO BENCHES for those waiting for the locked door to open to sit on, so had to swelter in the sun while sitting in the car.
The Moar You Know
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: That has been the goal since the New Deal, Eisenhower notwithstanding. Why do you think this is recent?
piratedan
@zhena gogolia: don’t read the first comment after that article by the stache that was proffered by Lorenzo, just don’t…. I have to go seek medical attention after that response and the Times flagged it as a comment worth noting… it’s beyond the motherfucking pale…. in short, he posits that the Trump administration is no more corrupt than the Obama one. Yeah, he actually claimed that…
Bess
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I’m very aware of that. And I find people who support lies to be pricks.
Now, if you want to take this further I suggest you and others use the late night post that Anne made about Musk. That way we won’t upset tender feelings here.
TenguPhule
Thomas Fucking Friedman wrote an opinion piece that was sane, on point and I agree with.
This timeline has gone horribly wrong.
JPL
@NotMax: That’s good news.
jl
@The Moar You Know: I think one of the reasons Eisenhower ran as a Republican was to build strength in the moderate Republican wing that would stand up to the reactionaries. It didn’t work very well or very long.
TenguPhule
@Bess: Musk sucks at quality control when it comes to industrialized production.
/Fixed
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I think that at the very least, Tesla has done something of the same for the auto industry that SpaceX has done for the space launch industry. Whether it survives or not, it has convinced people that electric cars can be practical and even exciting rather than something annoying places like California are pushing out of do-gooderness. Electric cars are now seen as part of the marketplace and the likely long-term replacement for internal combustion cars, and it’s hard to see that happening without a company like Tesla coming on the scene.
zhena gogolia
@piratedan:
I tend to read only the “readers’ picks,” because they’re sensible. The NYT picks always include RWNJ comments so they can look fair. But I thought the piece was really, really, good. And unfortunately believable.
C. Isaac
Puerto Rico finally released official death tolls from Maria.
It is, as expected, awful. 2975 dead.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
‘Tis the Murkan way.
” [The orthodox] are so wrapt up in prejudice, that they don’t care if men all go to hell, if they won’t be saved exactly according to their notions.”
– Jedediah Burchard, 19th century revivalist preacher
Bess
@TenguPhule:
Take it here –
https://balloon-juice.com/2018/08/28/late-night-luddite-open-thread-but-those-musk-y-pheromones/#comment-6998106
raven
@Bess: Who the fuck are you?
The Moar You Know
@Bess: I agree with you about the cars, actually, my parents have owned one for the last five years and it’s been nothing but rock-reliable and awesome.
That being said, you’re annoying as fuck. Definitely not helping the reputation of Tesla, or the cars. It’s an unfortunate fact that a lot of people don’t like Elon. Some are determined, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that the cars suck. Let it go.
tobie
@Cheryl Rofer: The CBC has an article up on the negotiations between Mexico, Canada and the US, and it seems that Mexico and the US have concluded they can go it alone:
Canada’s under maximal pressure right now since 74% of its trade is with the US. I said last night: someone must have paid off Pena Nieto to do this. What departing leader does exactly what the people in his country voted against except if there is some huge benefit for him?
TenguPhule
@raven:
Every accusation is a confession.
NotMax
@Bess
Bonjour trisstesla.
;)
TenguPhule
@raven:
Think Bernie Sanders supporter, except for Musk.
TenguPhule
@tobie: My money is on Canada telling Trump to suck their dick.
Kathleen
@HeleninEire: My condolences to you for your friend, and to her family. Such a sad time.
eric
@The Moar You Know: Martin’s point is not that the car is no good; but the industrial production (quality control and volume) is below par for the automotive industry.
A Ghost To Most
@raven: I love the classics!
TenguPhule
Rare justice.
Wapo link.
NotMax
@NotMax
Spelling fail
As homage to/rip-off of Françoise Sagan, ought to be tristesla.
Bess
@raven:
Take it here –
https://balloon-juice.com/2018/08/28/late-night-luddite-open-thread-but-those-musk-y-pheromones/#comment-6998106
TenguPhule
So much for that trade agreement memo in principle!
Gin & Tonic
@Bess: You’re the fucking hall monitor now, too?
A Ghost To Most
@Bess: Be careful who you fuck with, grasshopper.
raven
@Bess: Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash douchebag.
JPL
Did I miss the part where Musk is running for office?
MomSense
You can fuck all the way off Chuck Todd. You are so shocked and outraged that Donald Trump “knows nothing I mean nothing about trade policy”.
Maybe if you hadn’t spent the entire 2016 campaign season shaking your head as you bemoaned how bad both sides were, we wouldn’t be in this fucking crisis.
eclare
@MomSense: I thought he didn’t like people who were over prepared…..
satby
More salt than the Dead Sea around here today.
What we need to cheer us up are some more indictments.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Guessing it went a little something like this.
Scene: dinner table at the Ernst house.
“Hon, castration season isn’t over yet and I’m all out of pigs.”
SFX: door slams loudly.
And, scene.
MomSense
@HeleninEire:
Oh my god, HiE. What a tragedy. Those poor kids.
tobie
@TenguPhule: I just checked the Washington Post, and the paper seems to be saying that it’s the Senate GOP that is demanding that Canada sign on, not any provision in NAFTA, which Trump says he’ll tear up if Canada doesn’t submit to his strong arm tactics:
I’d love to know how trade negotiations were done in the past. They can’t have been as rushed as this.
MomSense
@eclare:
INORITE
And now he is outraged that Trump is a fucking ignoranus about trade.
Raven
@satby: I’m doing my best!
TenguPhule
@tobie:
The problem is that there is no “trade deal”. And the Senate has to sign off on any new trade deal. Our media is failing us.
Fair Economist
@Roger Moore: Musk is, or at least was, very skilled at making things seem cool and good at making wild stuff happen. It was a masterstroke to make the first production electric car in ages a high-end luxury/sport car. The idea of reusuable rockets had been around for ages and he didn’t invent the tech himself but his proselytizing is the reason SpaceX happened. Even rooftop solar got a boost from him.
That said, he’s kind of lost his touch lately and has even seemed rather unhinged with some things like the cave rescue and the Saudi buyout idea. Enough so that I’d give the Ambien abuse rumors some credence.
Bess
@raven: @raven: Give me a try. You know where to take your stuff.
J R in WV
@Bess:
OH no, she’s back, again!!!! What kind of pie are you baking today, bess-pie-lady?
WhatsMyNym
Tesla/Musk – If a car company is so dependent on one person, it will not survive.
Electric cars have been around for over 100 years, batteries have always been the stumbling block. Till now. Tesla has whole lot of competition coming up.
cain
@Fair Economist:
Yeah I have no idea what is happening to him.
debbie
@HeleninEire:
So horrible to read this. She is way too young. I’m so sorry for the pain her family and friends (like you) must endure.
tobie
@TenguPhule: Good points.
Bess
@Fair Economist:
I am trying to be sensitive to the feelings of some that they do not want a discussion of Musk/Tesla in this thread. I have suggested an appropriate dead thread where we can hash out what I think is largely misinformation that many have taken on.
I would ask that you and the others who have something to say or wish to attack me take it here –
https://balloon-juice.com/2018/08/28/late-night-luddite-open-thread-but-those-musk-y-pheromones/#comment-6998319
Raven
@Bess: I wouldn’t take you to a dog fight if you were the defendin champ!
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh, fuck it all already. Who could take any of those tweets as anything approaching policy statements? They were never written as such; they are sentencing statements. They were written in anticipation of criminal charges.
J R in WV
@Bess:
Why would anyone want to attack a sweet lady expert in the making of pie? Glorius Fruit pie, steamy chess pie, tangy mincemeat pie, yummm.
Thanks for all the memories of pie gone by!!! Have you a recipe for Musk-melon pie?? Thot-not.
Bess
@Raven: Raven, I’m really disappointed in you. You generally come across as a rational individual but now you are acting like some sort of right wing idiot.
Why don’t you to to the other post and tell me what your problem is.
JPL
@debbie: Earlier I saw a story about an defense attorney in a drug case in NYC who in his closing statement tried to use the president’s tweet on flipping should be illegal, and the judge shut him down.
Good news though, it wasn’t LAO.
TenguPhule
@Bess:
Except you don’t do physics or basic common sense. You spread misinformation and bad examples instead.
debbie
@catclub:
More erratic, though. Especially after something stupid is announced by the Trump administration.
debbie
@JPL:
Huh, flipping was perfectly legal when Trump was into property rentals. //
Jay
@tobie:
Like a lot of “complex issues” reporting, even the CBC does a horrible job.
NAFTA consists of 1700 pages in 30 chapters of rules, regulations, standards, codes and tariff tables. It’s actually three trade agreements, a US/Canada one, a Canada/Mexico one, and a US/Mexico one.
Of course, Mexico has their own issues and problems, and their own interests. The incoming Mexican Administration also has a different list of issues, problems and interests than the outgoing Administration.
It took years to put NAFTA together, and that was built on the back of layers of trade deals going back decades.
It’s going to take about 2 more years of negotiations before there’s a signable deal, mostly because the unsigned and vague Memorandum of Understanding The Insane Clown POSus waved around as the Deal of the Century, is going to be torn up December 1st.
cain
@Martin:
that scene with the rockets landing by themselves was fucking magic.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
This is to be expected. Trump has never backed away from his campaign positions. And, like some addle-brained mental patient, he will revive his BS about Mexico paying for the wall when anything relating to Mexico is dangled in front of him. He has not moved from any of his opinions about Putin, the EU, NATO, etc.
And neither reality nor any input from his staff matters.Even when the moving vans come to take his sorry ass back to Trumplandia after he leaves the White House, he will still be promising the wall.
And why, yes, his supporters love him all the more for this. He paints simple pictures. Simpletons naturally respond.
westyny
@HeleninEire: My sympathy to both your colleague’s family, those poor kids, and Magda’s loss. Life is a helluva crapshoot
Bess
@J R in WV:
You assume I’m a lady. Just like you apparently believe the crap you’ve read about Musk is true.
You be fool, bud.
Roger Moore
@Bess:
I think the discussion of short sellers is a huge distraction, and I wish Elon Musk would recognize it as such. They stand to profit if the stock tanks, but just badmouthing the company’s finances won’t be enough to make it happen. The thing that’s surest to make the stock tank is turning out bad cars or too few cars to meet demand. If Tesla can meet its production goals with well-made cars, the stock price will take care of itself.
debbie
@Kathleen:
Hey, have the DeWine-Husted yard signs made it down to your area yet? Bad enough that they’re blue (like, you, the Democrats), but the type is an almost illegible script. Not a good idea when you’re driving by.
The Pale Scot
@NotMax: It’s a travesty that we’re buying motors from the russkies. They’re great engineers but them making more than 2 or 3 of anything has a history. That said, the RD-160-180 series is good kit
tobie
@Jay: I get the sense that as always with Trump this is another election ploy. Wave around a meaningless Memorandum of Understanding as if it were something substantial and the rubes will lap it up and vote for the Shitgibbon and his enablers in November.
Jay
@tobie:
Yup, and the morons in the Media and GOP Senate lap it up.
There’s no 3 day limit, Canada’s not screwed, NAFTA’s not dead, but you know, they really gotta shout fire really loudly in this Alternate Reality.
Bess
@Roger Moore:
If you are going to insist commenting on this thread then I’m going to reply here.
Let’s review what a number of people on this site, including Anne, believe about Musk.
He’s a narcissist, throws tantrums, is unhinged, is mad with power, is a phoney who has accomplished next to nothing of value, is ‘losing it’. That he butted in on the Thailand cave rescue, showboated, and behaved badly when his/SpaceX’s rescue pod wasn’t used.
Why do so many people believe things for which I can find no backing and for which none of you have been able to substantiate.
We know for a fact that many of the attacks were coming from one individual who is a short seller. He was making false claims in an apparent attempt to prevent his company from losing billions of dollars. He got busted.
We know that a large number of “quality” issues were false reports filed by one individual. (Not that there have not been some quality problems.)
The attacks harm the company. Of course Musk has to take them seriously. Any CEO has to protect their company.
Adam L Silverman
@Bess: Hey Bob, you look like a kindly older gentlemen in your vacation pictures. Perhaps you might take another one, right now, away from here?
Adam L Silverman
@Bess: Or I can just ban you. Choice is yours.
Choose wisely…
Bess
@Adam L Silverman:
You are willing to ban me for sticking up for someone who is fighting climate change?
Adam L Silverman
@Bess: Why don’t you enjoy a nice walk in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. It’s close enough to your IP, provided you’re not using a false one, and it would probably give you some time to calm and space to reflect on what kind of person shows up on a blog, out of the blue, only when a specific person and/or company is mentioned and then loses their shit all over the comments sections?
Adam L Silverman
@Bess: I’m willing to ban you for showing up, out of the blue, and being an asshole any time someone here mentions Musk or Tesla.
NotMax
@Bess
Didactic + hectoring + repetitious as a combination doesn’t pay out on any slot machine.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: A Russian pissed about losing rocketry business to SpaceX might do such a thing. Just a thought.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Seems unpossible that the Gigafactory is in the same area, eh?
You’re doing the Lord’s work–much appreciated!
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore: Tesla doesn’t have enough cash on hand or cash flow to pay their bills.
They’re in big fucking trouble.
J R in WV
@cain:
Regarding Musk:
Yes IT WAS!!! Amazing. Wonderful Magic!!!
How much design work on that did Elon do himself?
J R in WV
@Bess:
No dude, I assumed you selected a nym aligned with your gender, but I NEVER assumed you were a lady, nor a gentleman!
You’re an ignorant dickwad… no matter the gender you assume. I bet you can’t make a pie from scratch, either. I can, I’ve won pie baking contests at summer parties.
Fuck you and your fetish about Mr Musk, whom I do not have an opinion about personally. I’ve never met him, and thus cannot have an opinion about him personally. Nor can you.
Bill Arnold
@Fair Economist:
One aspect that most of us are mostly ignoring is that a lot of this trash talking (and boosterism too) of Musk (notably Tesla) may be originated by market manipulators (would need to do a temporal analysis to be sure either way.). Particularly the shorts. (“short and distort” or “poop and scoop”. I loath that kind of manipulation.)
I just want some electric car manufacturer to succeed. Don’t much care if it’s Tesla (nice cars for sure) though I’ll buy an all-electric soon as it’s cheap enough and with enough range. Probably within a year or two. (Cheapskate I am; drive an old Corolla bought used, but climate change is a terrifyingly big deal for me.) His solar and storage plays are also interesting; at the very least they may inspire more successful competitors in a niche vigorously opened up.
eclare
@Adam L Silverman: You just freaking revealed someone’s location? Not cool. At all.