A Fine Crop of Golf

/138 Comments/in , , /by

[NB: Check the byline, thanks! /~Rayne]

I’m fried. I’m mentally and emotionally burnt right out, which is probably the aim of Agent Orange Chaos — to grind us all down until we roll over and allow this country to be a haven of corruption.

Imagine everything you need becoming even more transactional than it is now — systematically corrupt. Need a new cable TV line installed? Pay a bribe for access. Need to move to a different apartment? Pay a bribe to access a better list of buildings. Need a specialty item for your health, something that can’t be obtained through Amazon? Pay a bribe.

Sure, we’re used to paying fees for access in many different ways. But Americans are not used to the kind of petty and persistent corruption which is endemic in other parts of the world. Instead we pay taxes to support a legal system which is supposed to ensure fair dealing. Imagine paying these taxes and not having any expectation of justice AND paying bribes or extortion all along the way.

We’re so unused to and under-educated about the idea of corruption touching everything we do that I think we suffer from cognitive dissonance. It’s right there in front of us and yet we fail to recognize for what it is and for the slide in our ethical standards it represents.

One example niggling at me is Trump and his goddamned golf. You’ve probably read some of my posts about golf before in which I spell out the possibilities for corruption if one owned a golf course and how normative the golf life is to a class of people.

Our country is drowning right now, staring at multiple crop failures across a huge expanse of farm land, and our fearless leader is surely off golfing on our dime instead of looking into how to help farmers weather both the affects of the deepening climate emergency and the fallout from fearless leader’s hacktastic tariffs.

Corruption. Skimming money off us while farms and farm land drowns.

And too many farmers who will receive federal aid are not universally single family owned farms but mega corporate oligarchs — like the crooked Brazilian meat packing billionaires who will receive $62 million in aid for distribution to the farms supplying them meat.

But you know in your gut this won’t happen. And it’s corruption.

Journalists have covered the Brazilians raking in cash from our tax dollars, fortunately. They saw the problem and reported on it. But the public hasn’t mustered adequate outrage because this hasn’t yet hurt them in the wallet.

Wait until winter when holiday baking begins.

I don’t need to wait that long to feel it. I’m plenty pissed off because it’s another Saturday, another day at the golf course, and we’ve completely lost count of that orange mooch’s sponging. Which of his courses is he at, with our Secret Service personnel renting more golf carts to follow him around while he plays another round cheating both at the game and at life?

Ah, and there it is, he’s leeching us dry yet again with each crappy swing of his club:

As of the end of the day he’s been in office 876 days — which means he has spent 29.7% of his total time at one of his properties, 22.2% of his time in office play golf at one of his clubs.

Corruption. Just makes me want to puke.

We’re just supposed roll over and let them grab our taxpaying pussy while they tee off on our dime. They’ll argue our legitimately-elected representatives don’t have the right to oversight when he’s manipulating our tax system for his own personal gain to our collective detriment.

Like the New York park land he donated after he was refused permits to develop a couple million dollars of property into golf courses — Trump org declared them worth $26 million to write off the capital loss and reduce the taxes paid.

What really pisses me off is the story no reporter has yet covered as far as I can tell: if Trump’s Bedminster NJ golf course is classified as farm land for tax purposes so he can avoid paying tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes, is Trump org going to claim federal relief for this farm, too?

It’s right there under our noses. So corrupt and he and his oligarchic sponsors want this to become the norm.

Fuck that. If this guy was your direct employee you’d have fired his ass  already.

This is an open thread.

138 replies
    • Americana says:

      I’d like to know how much Trump has cost this country on a per capita basis from Day One. Trump’s per diem is what he expects to game for himself and the Trump Organization as POTUS during each day of his presidency.

    • fpo says:

      “Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course — the distance between your ears.” Bobby Jones

      I don’t believe Trump actually enjoys playing the game of golf, which is a delicious irony, if true.

      Think about it. He lies about his scores, lies about winning tournaments – tournaments at clubs that he owns, of course. How you gonna concentrate on your game with all those lies spinning around up there…thousands of them.

      Part of the appeal of golf is an appreciation for the rich history of the game which, if you don’t read, is gonna be tough. He’s gotta fake that, too.

      I doubt he carries a rules book, of which golf has many. Because that’s how the game is played…by the rules. And that’s got everything to do with why people love the game – it’s not “golf” without the rules of golf. “Play it as it lies,” and all that. Win fair and square. Sound like Trump to you?

      It’s a notoriously difficult game, and even relentless practice doesn’t ‘make perfect’ where golf’s concerned. It might even set you back. It’s how 3 irons end up in the lake. With the patience of a 5-year old, he should have picked another game.

      Best of all, it’s a game. To be enjoyed with friends – your best friends, if you’re lucky. Where does that leave someone like Trump?

      I suspect that for Trump it’s always the IDEA of something that is appealing, in the hope that he’ll be liked/respected/dignified by the mere association with whatever IT might be…golf, casinos, gold-plated toilets.

      The odds are extremely good that Bobby Jones, if asked, would decline an offer to play a round of golf with Donald Trump. To which Trump would no doubt reply, “Who the hell cares, I don’t play with amateurs.”

      ‘The greatest amateur golfer ever, Bobby Jones dominated his sport in the 1920s. In the eight seasons from 1923 to 1930, Jones won thirteen major championships, including five U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens, and one British Amateur. On September 27, 1930, he became the only man to win all four major titles in one season, completing the “Grand Slam” of golf. Then, while still in his athletic prime at the age of twenty-eight, he retired from competition to devote more time to his family and his law practice.’

      [ https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/sports-outdoor-recreation/bobby-jones-1902-1971 ]

      Thanks for the thread, Rayne.

  2. P J Evans says:

    That NY “park” is undeveloped even as a park – there’s no way to use it, as I understand it. And I heard he wants to put a mausoleum at Bedminster, to get it a tax break as a “cemetery” (for himself, probably, and maybe his kids). He’s so corrupt – and it was obvious he wasn’t honest, even when he was just another candidate in the primaries – that I don’t really understand why anyone would believe anything he says about anything.
    (As for corruption – it’s strongly suspected that the LA city building commission approves developments faster if they get donations from the developers.)

  3. Democritus says:

    Hang in there Rayne! I understand in some smaller way about getting ground down. I’ve let myself get run off a commenting platform I generally liked and was somewhat effective with because I just could not deal with the nonstop trolling. I also have health things going on, and it was just too much.

    Since I don’t want to help any discover what tactics work best, though I imagine they are using actual scientific based psyops at this point, I won’t go into all the details of why it worked but I’m still kinda pissed it did.

    So make sure you also are getting out and doing whatnot, or use that frustration and anger to motivate you so their trolling just results in a perpetual resistance machine ™😉. I used to reference the Hamilton 68 tool, but it’s been taken down and it just says coming back in 2019 😕. https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/hamilton-68/

    I think that is honestly part of their strategy, just drive off the people who will object to them and where down everyone on every news comment board. I’m probably explaining something to someone who is an expert though, so I’ll stop in case I’m being an ass since I am most assuredly NOT an expert. Just someone who cares, reads a lot of news, and thinks a lot.

  4. hester says:

    Yeah, taxing paying pussy is right and got fewer allowable deductions this year b/c of the horrid tax plan. Phuck them all.

  6. John K says:

    re: “we pay taxes to support a legal system which is supposed to ensure fair dealing.”
    The current Republican party considers that an unnecessary waste of taxpayer money.

  7. OldTulsaDude says:

    Andrew Sullivan wrote in New York about the lies of Individual-1 and how those lies wear us down as a country. It is impossible to argue rationally with the irrational.

  9. posaune says:

    I heard locally (on the Hill) that Trump Hotel is applying to renew the liquor license with the DC ABC. A citizens’ group, reading the fine print, is challenging the license application, based on the applicant’s “good character” requirement. I would love to see this bunch drag it out for a good six months.

  10. BobCon says:

    Speaking of journalistic failures, the recent NY Times feature on the spawning of a radical showcases one of my ongoing complaints about the Times.

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radical.html

    In many ways it’s a great piece, digging deeply into a horrible feature of Youtube. It makes explicit the way it is exploited by far right wingers like Molyneux and Peterson, and it skips the thumb sucking rationalizations about snooty liberals driving people to the right.

    So what bugs me so much about the piece? Nowhere does it mention the role of the Times itself in legitimizing the far right — Bari Weiss notably wrote a long, fawning piece drooling over the people singled out in this article. Surely the reporter, Kevin Roose, knows that traffic coming from nytimes.com drives the online legitimacy of these haters in the Google algorithms, and also drives other legitimate outlets to treat them as credible, further driving up their exposure. But either he left out this information out of institutional necessity, or it was cut by an editor following the sacred Times dictum to avoid self criticism at all costs, especially of management favorites like Weiss.

    What is more, Weiss never mentioned this piece, either in print or in her twitter feed. I can guarantee that we will continue to see the Times political and opinion writers stovepiping this work, writing about how it is the Democrats fault that Trump voters stick with the man. They will continue to ignore the role of the establishment GOP, far right, big tech, and yes, the NY Times in legitimizing toxic bigotry.

    Politics and Opinion at the Times has siloed their fellow investigative reporters work on Trump’s tax fraud, refusing to put it in their own reporting. This piece is already suffering the same fate.

    • Democritus says:

      The extremely foul scent wafting from the NYT has been growing stronger of late. The scent of summer-soft ethically treasonous filth in exchange for greed and status is in the air.

      • Areader2019 says:

        Yes…I was particularly infuriated by Bret “let’s sink their navy” Stephens banging the war drum. Every time. Every time they love the ramp up to a stupid war.

        Then later they write “tut tut…that was a stupid war” articles.

    • P J Evans says:

      IIRC, there were at least two states that had their voting results hosted on RNC computers, before 2016. That alone should have set off legal alarm bells.

    • klynn says:

      From the link:
      “The reality is that the RNC did not establish, and has never financed, maintained or controlled the Data Trust. The Complaint rests upon media accounts that rely on un-sourccd assertions and quotes from un-named sources to make broad-brush accusations. The only factors of the regulation that ADLF cites are 11 C.F.R. 300.2(c)(2)(vi) and (ix). According to the Complainant, the RNC “had an active or significant role in the formation of the” Data Trust.”

  12. punaise says:

    Kudos to the Toronto Raptors, the new NBA champs. They are a fine and talented team.

    Licking our basketball wounds here in “Golden Sate”. What a brutal way to go down, losing two marquee players to major injuries in the finals.

    We had a great run over the past five years.

    • e.a.f. says:

      The Warriors put up a great game. it would have been better if their star player hadn’t been injured. Yes, I’m very happy as a Canadian that the Raptors won, but we do not know how things would have turned out, had the Warriors player not been injured..
      of course its only fair Canada won the NBA. Some American team will win the Stanley Cup. On the fun side of things, American players helped the Canadian team win the NBA and Canadian players will help the Americans win the Stanley Cup.

      • punaise says:

        It’s all good. (Let’s not even get started on the *World* Series.)

        The Warriors played with tremendous spirit and heart to the bitter end despite 4 (yes 4) injuries affecting key players: KD and Klay, of course, with their NEXT-season-ending injures (torn achilles and left ACL, respectively), but also Demarcus Cousins battling back from a quad strain and unheralded big man Kevon Looney wearing a flak jacket and playing through the pain of a “1st costal cartilage non-displaced fracture” (chest).

        Towards the end it felt like the classic Monty Python knight with severed limbs: “I can still fight!”.

        • bmaz says:

          Yeah. With Klay, I think they squeeze out that game six. But without him, was too easy for the Raptors to sit on Curry. Oh well, it is what it is. Game seven in Toronto was gonna be tough anyway, so it is okay. But, damn, losing Thompson for the better part of a year is the worse part.

        • punaise says:

          Spot on. Game 7 would have been a long shot, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Toronto might have “puckered up”, to borrow form a local sports talk host. And Splash Bros, gonna Splash.

          Ironically, one can make the case that the Dubs would have been better off getting swept (although that would have been a really tough pill to swallow):

          Anne Killion, SF Chronicle:

          “Though it’s painful to say it, in the wake of such tough, heartfelt performances in Oracle’s finale, in retrospect it would have been better if the Warriors had never won that just-by-their-fingernails Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Toronto.

          If Shaun Livingston hadn’t saved that pass from being picked off, if Andre Iguodala hadn’t hit that huge 3-point shot.

          If you could turn back the clock to June 2 and change the outcome, maybe the Warriors simply get swept by the Raptors. The end result is the same, but the series doesn’t include a Game 5 or a Game 6.

          And it doesn’t include two devastating, franchise-changing, career-impacting injuries. They just don’t ever happen.”

          https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/SanFranciscoChronicle/Default.aspx

          (pay walled I think)

          Anyway, it was an exhausting season and playoff run. The Warriors were never truly in sync all year, partly due to some injuries but probably more because the league has caught up to them.

          At least my SF Giants are in the hunt. Oh, wait…

        • BobCon says:

          Kerr seemed really unhappy about something around Durant’s return and subsequent Achilles injury. ACL injuries are bad, but the latest surgeries and treatments have a good chance of very strong recoveries. Achilles tears are still a big roll of the dice.

          I’m not a KD fan, but I still hate to see this happen.

        • punaise says:

          Well, yeah. Unhappy just scratches the surface. Devastated.

          KD is a complicated dude. Hell of a talent.

        • Areader2019 says:

          I tore my ACL…years ago. To this day whenever I watch sports, if someone goes down I cringe.

          I never had dreams of being a professional, so in hindsight it was not really a big deal to me. But to watch someone injured, where you know it could be a career ending event?

          Really hard to watch.

  13. e.a.f. says:

    having had a few fun governments in British Columbia, Canada, the conclusion I came to: the people voted him into office and now they can learn to live with it or die because of it. In B.C. that is exactly what happened. People died. usually children, but they died. Until it touches them or some one they love, they won’t do anything about it.

    The past few day’s I’ve been watching the protests in Hong Kong. (those of us in B.C. know if things don’t work out, as many as 300K Canadian citizens may return and most of them to B.C. which has a pop. of 5m and a housing shortage). Then I look at the U.S.A. and what is going on and wonder where is the outrage. Where are the protests? I can remember times when we had ban the bomb marches in Europe and North America attended by tens of thousand of people. Either people are dumber today, don’t think it will impact them, or they’re too frozen in time.

    The drought map is interesting in that it shows how very dry the State of Washington is. We in B.C. are in a similar position. The coastal regions of B.C. are known as the left, wet, coast. Wet we aren’t. Forest fire season started months early. Three, four story high cedar trees are dying on Vancouver Island.. Salal is dying, Can’t find slugs in the forest. Cougars and bears moving into areas they haven’t been seen in decades.

    It is simply weird to think of the State of Washington and B.C. as having droughts, but here we are. We have idiot premiers who object to carbon taxes. Fortunately we have Prime Minister who will impose them if the province doesn’t.

    Even though I watch American news, I haven’t seen the coverage I thought I would regarding the massive flooding in the U.S.A. That land can not be used for this season’s growing of crops.

    The “farm aid” is ridiculous. it goes to argi business, not family farms. there can’t even be that many left in the U.S.A. compared to what they had prior to the 1980s. the land is no longer held by Americans in some cases. People might be o.k. with that, but should something go side ways elsewhere there is nothing to prevent these international corporations from removing their “goods” to other countries to sell there. We have only to look at some countries which eliminated their own food security by switching to crops such as flowers, to export to Europe.

    No one seems to be planning for the future in the U.S.A. What happens if crops can not be grown where they are currently. Canada has only 37 million people in this huge country vs. the 340M or 350M in the U.S.A.

    Trump spends more time “playing” at being president, than actually being a president. the number of days he spends on golf courses, its a good thing he gives away his salary, he certainly isn’t earning it. .

    • Mary McCurnin says:

      “Then I look at the U.S.A. and what is going on and wonder where is the outrage. Where are the protests?”

      I think there are more protests going on than are being reported. There was an impeachment protest today at the CA capitol. I think it was nationwide but am not sure. I was supposed to go but couldn’t make it. It was organized by MoveOn.

    • Katherine M Williams says:

      “where is the outrage. Where are the protests?”

      There are plenty of protests, lots of outrage. Especially at the border where Trump&Co are torturing children. It just isn’t being reported on by the MSM. People don’t see it on the TV news or in the papers.

    • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

      Yep, Western Washington is a bit spooky in terms of dryness. It is no accident that our Governor, Jay Inslee, is running for president and using climate change as his organizing theme. That position almost certainly comes straight out of the problems that he’s had to deal with as governor, and they are getting worse at a very rapid rate.

      My household also took note of the Hong Kong demonstrations and drew the very same conclusion that you have: if this thing does not resolve, there will be planeloads of new ‘Canadians’ arriving by the hour in B.C. Which means more offshore property acquisition, and population pressure. Not a good scenario.

      So we have a knowledgeable person running for president with Climate Change as his main mantra, dismissed by the press because of low poll numbers. But we hear more about poll numbers than we hear about climate change.

      I am increasingly convinced that none of the Fox News people have a clue about the chemical structure of carbon, and perhaps 1 in 20 journalists understand it well enough to explain it. Any idiot can explain poll numbers; explaining how the chemical structure of carbon sets the stage for climate disaster is a bit tougher challenge. Alas.

  14. pdaly says:

    Trumps and his golf course have got to go!

    Michigan Congressman Levin adds his name to a growing list of Congressmen asking for a Trump impeachment inquiry.
    https://www.wxyz.com/news/michigan-congressman-calls-for-impeachment-inquiry-on-trump

    If Congress goes through with it (with or without Pelosi’s blessing?), perhaps Congress can hire Shirley Sherrod in some capacity to reassure both Republicans and Pelosi that the committee to investigate Trump is not ‘jumping the gun’ based on ‘things taken out of context.’ ;-)

      • pdaly says:

        Thanks, bmaz

        I’m still around. Never left, but I’ve been commenting less just because I’ve been getting to most posts too late to add much to the always excellent commentary. Always thankful to be able to turn to this site for sane analysis of insane events.

    • harpie says:

      Yes, that’s good news! bmaz retweeted Levin’s twitter thread…it’s definitely worth a read!
      https://twitter.com/RepAndyLevin/status/1139921792901013505
      8:45 AM – 15 Jun 2019

      […] I have concluded that the only way to get to the bottom of Mr. Trump’s activities and inform the public about what we learn is to centralize and expedite the process through one select committee with the focus, power and urgency that come with an impeachment inquiry. […] [but read the whole thing!]

      Also:
      The list: Over 60 House members — including half the Democrats on Judiciary — favor starting Trump impeachment inquiry
      https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/full-list-house-members-who-favor-starting-trump-impeachment-inquiry-n1011981
      May 30, 2019, 11:47 AM EDT / Updated June 11, 2019

      Here are the 64 members of the House of Representatives who favor starting an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. There are 63 Democrats — including 13 of the 24 Democrats who serve on the House Judiciary Committee — and one Republican. […]

      With Levin, it’s now 65. He’s on the House Foreign Affairs Committee

  15. quebecois says:

    Not much into it again this year, but, damn, Ferrari is truly atrocious this year. The car ain’t that bad, strategies and that numero uno driver suck big time.

    • bmaz says:

      It has been a total clusterfuck. Hamilton is living in Vettel’s head full time rent free, and it is bad.

      • quebecois says:

        Maybe I could have used “this year” more in my post. bmaz, I agree Vettel is slowly losing his mind. Punaise, ça va bien, merci. Nouvelle automobile, nouveau vélo, même vie heureusement.

  16. jdmckay says:

    Slightly OT: Thom Hartman last week said Trump reclassified “employed” as anyone who works one hr. p/week. Explains Trump’s low unemployment “miracle”.

    • P J Evans says:

      I heard that some states count one hour per month as “employment”, but either one is ridiculous. They shouldn’t count anything under 12 hours weekly as “employment”.

  18. Blueride27 says:

    Met up with an old friend I haven’t seen in a decade plus. He told me about his job as an enviromental compliance officer at a large lead acid battery manufacturer. Said that he took the job knowing that the company wasn’t in any sort of compliance, but they offered a large budget to get the job done. 2016 rolls around the budget disappears. Now he is thinking about retiring early, discouraged that nothing can be done.

  19. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Good piece on Trump’s long history of lying – knowing, willful falsehoods – and intimidation to inflate his business acumen and his financial success: “Saving Face: How Donald Trump silenced the people who could expose his business failures.” That “talent” gave us a reality TV star, and that gave us President Trump.

    [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/06/14/feature/how-donald-trump-silenced-the-people-who-could-expose-his-business-failures/]

    How did Donald Trump, a self-serving promoter who lost billions of dollars for his investors, convince the world that he is a financial genius? It wasn’t just by fabricating tales of his success. It was also by bullying and silencing people who could have stopped those deceits — particularly reporters and Wall Street analysts — forcing all but a very few into a conspiracy of silence.

    Trump handsomely compensated himself – some $82 million from casinos that went bankrupt – and left his investors, lenders, employees, contractors, and local communities to pick up the pieces. He corrupts everything he touches.

    His brand survived all that, and even thrived, because he wasn’t just concocting tales of his greatness; he was also forcing others to repeat them, or at least not to contradict them. It was a strategy that more recently has paid off handsomely against onetime opponents like Sen. Lindsey Graham. Nobody can succeed on this scale simply by lying. Trump’s greatest and most cynical skill, honed during the 1980s and 1990s, was learning how to win by silencing truth-tellers and suppressing the truth when it matters most.

    • BobCon says:

      The obvious followup question for the Post (and other outlets) from stories like this are how will they be integrating this kind of information into their political reporting?

      When the Democrats demand tax and financial information, will it simply be positioned as part of a political battle? Or will it be positioned as an investigation into someone with decades of fishy and fraudulent finances to the tunes of hundreds of milliins of dollars?

      When we get more hand wringing pieces noting that Bernie Sanders has legitimately earned a few million dollars over the past few decades, will it be noted that there is no such scummy history as what we see with Trump? Will Warren’s occasional legal work at market rates finally get a fair treatment with proper perspective compared to Trump?

      And when the GOP inevitably begins investigations of Democrats, will their complicity in Trump’s scams be broadcast?

    • fpo says:

      The most infuriating/frustrating/tragic aspect of this is that ALL of the information about Trump and volumes more was known and/or easily discoverable by the media well in advance of the 2016 election. Where were they in 2015 and 2016?

      Like it or no, the media was complicit in Trump’s election and I would not expect that they’ll do any better by the American public for 2020. RU impact, by comparison, was minimal – criminal, but minimal. And we seem to be comfortable with allowing that to happen all over again as well.

      All I can say is ‘good luck’ to the Democrats that stand by and do nothing to avail themselves of the remedies that are available and established by the Constitution. And yes, AOC, I will welcome seeing primary challenges to those individuals – they will have earned it.

      • Areader2019 says:

        Yes. And to add to that…even when there is excellent reporting and detailed, nuanced articles, what we get in headlines is “A Cloud Over Trump’s Presidency Is Lifted”.

        Why? How? Headlines matter. Did the a hole writing that even talk to the reporters?

        • earlofhuntingdon says:

          Indeed. Better headlines for this WaPo article write themselves. One would be, “Trump promotes himself by being a serial liar and cheat.” Another, “Trump punishes journalists and publishers who accurately report his misdeeds.”

          In its choice of headline, the WaPo focused narrowly on Trump’s business failures, as if they were unrelated to his persistent personal conduct. (The article does not.) It is as if assessing his character is off limits, as if it were an opinion only the reader could hold.

        • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

          I do not for an instant mean to let anyone off the hook, but two points:

          1. Trump is so extremely unusual that it is hard for some people – particularly those who watched ‘The Apprentice’ for years, and who can’t distinguish between tabloids and genuine news – to recognize how dangerous he is to their health, economic stability, and personal freedom.

          2. Mitch McConnell is culpable. Because without McConnell’s obstinate refusal to act on FBI warnings about Trump-Russia, none of what’s happened could have been possible. McConnell and Trump share one characteristic: they are remorseless.

          All of which means that by failing to act, the Dems are losing credibility and political legitimacy by the day. Alas.

  20. Jenny says:

    Rayne, thanks for the open thread. I totally understand. Dizzy days with Agent Orange is overwhelming. Perhaps you need a funny pick me up to change the energy.
    You might consider Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher.

    Trump’s ‘Friend’ Kim Jong Un Is Becoming A Movie Supervillain
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zK0HPyBIf0)

    Trump Signals Interest In 2020 Election Interference
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taMOAVQLtbM&t=105s)

    New Rule: The Deadbeat Dad Party
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFSUij_0RKI&t=1s)

  21. Eureka says:

    I just went over to Marcy’s twitter where there is MAJOR BREAKING NEWS. It’s about a dog…who has apparently broken the Resistance into action…but the writers had another obstacle in store…

  22. sneakynordic says:

    NOAA’s fault, but it’s super annoying seeing maps that leave off Alaska and Hawaii… just saying.

    • Rayne says:

      They show up in other prediction maps along with too-often forgotten Puerto Rico. TBF, the scale and impact of flooding is very different for these three states/territory than mainland.

      • PeteT says:

        They can leave off Florida. My sense over the last few years is that it does not rain at all for long periods of time when it should followed by raining too long during times when it shouldn’t even though now is the rainy season).

        In other words…climate driven weather disruption. On the positive side, Trump can’t be playing golf down in Southeast FL in these monsoons (realizing this is a minor inconvenience compared to the rain-floods in the farm belts). It’s all effed up.

        Pete

        • Rayne says:

          Slowdown or weakening of the Atlantic conveyor likely creating greater volatility in Florida weather. I keep telling my parents they need to sell their house and leave but they won’t listen to me even after hunkering down during a hurricane that missed them by this [ ] much a couple years ago.

        • PeteT says:

          Irma?

          Wilma in 2005 came from lower west coast FL – eye right over our NW Broward County house as a moderate cat 2 – and that screwed up infrastructure and things for a month or more.

          Irma totally hosed SW Florida and messed the infrastructure up for months. Daughter’s children and in-laws stayed with us over a week.

          But Trump collected inflated damages on Mar-a-Lago and all other properties.

          Surprised the the Gulf Stream thermohaline conveyor is not mentioned more like in recent HBO Ice and Fire. Salt water dilution from melting Greenland glaciers affects more that just sea level.

          It’s the eventual end of golf in FL at least south of Orlando.

        • P J Evans says:

          I’ve recommended Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Science in the Capitol” series (40 Signs of Rain, 50 Degrees Below, 60 Days and Counting) elseweb. There’s also a one-book condensed/edited version, “Green Earth”. They go into the thermohaline conveyor stopping because it’s not salty enough, and trying to restart it, among other things they do to fix the planet.

  23. Eureka says:

    Cheers to Rayne, and to all have a good time imaging this Fallopian fimbria fuck-you image everywhere (the profile picture here):
    https://twitter.com/medievalgill

    May it be enjoyed widely: it shall* lift us from our exhaustions.

    *If it wants or we want it to…

  25. Savage Librarian says:

    This is a very long article but full of fascinating details that I had not seen before. It says that Rebekah Mercer played a significant part in Manafort’s leaving the campaign. Brad Parscale may have played a much larger role than Cambridge Analytica. Chock full of interesting stuff.

    A granular look into the players in the Trump Campaign success: Mercers, Cambridge Analytica, Bannon, Brad Parscale, Nick Ayers, Pence, Cruz

    https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/mercers/

  26. K-spin says:

    On the topic of corruption, just read about the need for increased scrutiny (please?) of JKush’s income. Would seem that he / his business / his family have profited BIG time from investments from ‘foreign entities’ since 2016…

    • fpo says:

      It gets worse when you consider how the company operates. It has a history of preying on those that can afford it least – just more proof that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.**

      Just one example…

      “Kushner apartments charge improper fees, tenants allege in lawsuit”

      “Baltimore-area tenants of the apartment company owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law and adviser to President Donald J. Trump, filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging the firm has been charging improper fees and threatening eviction to force payment.”

      ‘If tenants “do not pay the improper fees,” the plaintiffs allege, the company files “summary eviction proceedings to collect these fees, even when the tenant’s rent is current. … If a tenant has not paid his or her monthly rent in full by the end of the fifth day of a month, [the company] charge not only a ‘late fee,’ which purports to be 5 percent of the monthly rental payment, but also other fees.”’

      [ https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/real-estate/bs-md-kushner-lawsuit-20170927-story.html ]

      ** As part of a plea agreement in 2004, Charles Kushner plead guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. Kushner Sr. hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister. He spent 14 months of a 2-year sentence in jail and was fined $508,900.

      [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kushner ]

      On the brighter side of life, Happy Father’s Day! to all you EW Dads. Enjoy the day.

  27. Rayne says:

    We know Trump will “win” because he’s a disgusting cheat who’d even trash a 10-year-old kid’s young player’s game to win. But Graham — what’s he getting out of this exercise in futility?

    I don’t want to kink shame but geez, does Graham get his jollies kissing this flabby chino’d ass for 18 holes? It’s a pathology, this sucking up.

  28. Jenny says:

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Trump claims he read the Mueller report.
    Here is the link and exchange. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/448773-trump-says-he-read-mueller-report-while-claiming-it-said-no-collusion

    Stephanopoulos responded by noting that Mueller’s team “laid out evidence of obstruction.”

    “Oh are you trying to say now that there was collusion, even though he said there is no collusion,” Trump replied, before later stating, “George, the report said no collusion.”

    “Did you read the report?” the ABC News anchor replied, prompting Trump to say, “Yes I did, and you should read it, too.”

    “I read every word,” Stephanopoulos responded.

    • P J Evans says:

      I doubt that he could even follow the executive summary of it, unless it was written in small words and big type and had his name in BIG LETTERS every time it should appear.

      • P J Evans says:

        The Large South American River has a large-type edition of the report, though some of the commenters report that the pages aren’t always readable.

    • earlofhuntingdon says:

      The functionally illiterate Trump would have a hard time reading the title page, or any page without his name on it.

    • Tom says:

      That exchange was more than a little disturbing. Trump getting red-faced and steamed up by “wise guy” George’s refusal to agree with something that was patently untrue. No wonder the Pentagon wants to keep him in the dark. Next time I hope the interviewer has a copy of the Mueller Report with him/her so that the President can point out exactly where it says, “No collusion. No obstruction.”

      • bmaz says:

        Okay, so I read the thing. The only time “collusion” was used in the Report was Mueller explaining that “collusion” was an idiotic and impertinent term.

        • Tom says:

          Exactly! I was being facetious but should have been clearer about it. Still kind of unsettling watching Trump INSIST that green means stop and red means go.

  29. Savage Librarian says:

    When the Good Guys Are Bad

    The Don secured a place in history,
    He commandeered a post.
    To him it was no mystery
    He was better far than most.

    He built all of those glass houses,
    And one of lame Stone,
    He filled some of them with spouses,
    One with a fake throne.

    Hey, ho, here we go
    The more we hear
    The less we know

    The blind men and the elephant,
    Is a tale to savor and to learn,
    In which we see we haven’t spent
    Much time on truths discerned.

    Are we trapped inside our genes
    With McConnell and his whores?
    Mitch tars us with his cronies,
    Are we his dinosaurs?

    Hey, ho, here we go
    The more we hear
    The less we know

    The pattern’s set, we’re in the net,
    The web of circumstance.
    It’s just a bet, a hunch and yet
    Free will seems more like chance.

    Let’s put the brakes on all the fakes
    Directing our stressed lives,
    Heave milkshakes if it takes,
    That so truth survives.

    Hey, ho, here we go,
    The more we hear
    The less we know.

    I’m the collateral damage
    When the good guys are bad,
    The Constitution is ravaged,
    And the Senate’s gone mad.

    I’m just a goddamn citizen,
    Who the hell cares?
    My concerns are not equivalent
    To the ones who put on Ayers.

    Hey, ho, here we go,
    The more we hear
    The less we know.

    Am I due a combat patch
    For the trash I must repel?
    The Conways plot and Hatch,
    Acting as shrapnel in this hell.

    Showing Mercers on the sidelines
    Fencing Pence along the way,
    Prince tends to his designs,
    You Betsy he won’t say!

    Hey, ho, here we go,
    The more we hear
    The less we know.

    I guess it’s Parscale for the course,
    To caddy home the deal,
    Sink that baby with a force,
    That’s sure to Stop-the-Steal.

    (Human) bean counters stand ready,
    For Florida and Midwest,
    Hurl that Koch and stand steady,
    Because I think you know the rest.

    Hey, ho, here we go,
    The more we hear
    The less we know.

    Hey, ho, here we go,
    The more we hear
    The less we know.

  30. Rugger9 says:

    A couple more items from the press over the weekend. Digby today has an article on Mike Pompeo giving Kaiser Quisling a free pass on conspiracy to commit felonies. What this points out is as an example of what I’ve mentioned before in my comments about politically-driven officers. So, Pompeo was a tank driver and an Army Captain (O-3) and therefore took the same oath I did to protect the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Yet, his interpretation appears to be malleable enough to “justify” what KQ did this week with his ABC interview. Pompeo really dug into it here to cover KQ’s ass.
    https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/, read the “Our top diplomat is a rude jerk” covering C&L’s review on Pompeo’s Faux News interview. Folks, the law is clear.

    We have KQ refusing to fire Kellyanne ConArtist even though his own administration OSC said she repeatedly (and knowingly, noting the sending her to jail comment) violated the Hatch Act.

    We also have KQ tapping Homan as his Border Czar, but Homan wasn’t asked first and turned him down. Before we think this is an improvement in Palace behavior, Homan turned it down apparently because it would not let him be as mean as he wanted to be. It was in the San Jose Mercury News on Saturday.

    Lastly we have the apparent silence on the “wag the dog” exercise in the Gulf of Oman after the rest of the world laughed at the “evidence” presented by Pompeo in contradiction to his intel staff. Note that it makes no sense to “remove an attached mine” from a ship one is trying to damage. Disarming an armed explosive is not something that can be done that smoothly.

    I’ve sailed those waters when things were tight. Understand also that the hyper-Sunni Saudis in particular and Israelis would only be too happy to have the USA take out the Shiite Iranians for them if they can keep their fingerprints off of the casus belli. So, if the IRGC was really going to close the Straits of Hormuz it would not be a onesy-twosy tanker exercise, it will be a filling of the strait opposite Bandar Abbas with mines which they could do within a day and would take us weeks to clear. My opinion is that KQ needed to “wag the dog” and MBS decided to help him out with the view of getting something for himself as well.

    The Houthis are Shia, but different from Iranian Shiites (i.e. they have no imams for starters) like a Baptist evangelical is different from a Lutheran, Methodist or Episcopalian even though all are classified as Protestants. It’s not as ridiculous as Shrub’s attempts to link Saddam Hussein (a secular semi-Shia) to the hyper fundie Sunni Al Qaeda, but it is (ahem) convenient and sadly the US press fell for it again.

    I just saw on Raw Story that the Palace fired their polling firm, someone needs to follow up on that. They’ll need the Soviets for sure now.

      • harpie says:

        Marcy [referencing NYT]:
        https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1140345202848276480
        12:47 PM – 16 Jun 2019

        Trump’s cutting ties w/3 pollsters, keeping 2.
        Curiously Tony Fabrizio, the pollster whose data got shared w/Russians last time, remains on the payroll].
        [link, screenshot]
        So if your data gets secretly shared with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs? You keep your job.
        If your data gets publicly shared with Republican voters? You’re fired.

    • viget says:

      Nah… Not MBS, MBZ. There was a great article in the NYT about him a couple of weekends ago.

      He’s the real brains of the operation. Plus, UAE is right across the Gulf of Oman from Iran, and they have basically an all merc army/navy, so false flag op wouldn’t be impossible for them.

      Not saying this is what happened, but when you ask Cui Bono?… UAE and KSA definitely are up there….

      • Rugger9 says:

        Always a good question to ask (who gains?) especially when Kaiser Quisling and the Palace minions are involved. Its answer frequently points to the proper root cause / bad actor. However, as craven as KQ is in his hunt for cash, it might be worth finding out how the payoff was done and which “cadre”s were involved…

        The Omanis in my time transiting the Strait of Hormuz were the counterbalance to the Iranians, and our ally in counterbalance to Aden (then South Yemen) which was a Soviet client state. The Soviet warships would go to Socotra and drop a hook for deployments. If Aden sounds familiar it is where the USS Cole was bombed shortly after the two Yemens reunited in one of many examples of politically created damage to USN assets [allegedly the CO was under strict rules of engagement to not show a defensive posture to avoid insulting the Aden locals].

    • Rayne says:

      I’ve lost count of how many bills are now passed by the House and stacked up on Mitch McConnell’s desk. Don’t give me that “nobody is willing to do anything” when the problem is clearly the corrupt slacker GOP Senate.

      As for an impeachment inquiry: there are 65 Dems in the House who have said they support impeachment. If you haven’t called your own rep and recruited other people to call their reps to persuade them to support impeachment, then the identity of “nobody” is a little broader.

      • OldTulsaDude says:

        I have called my rep – a red-state Republican who restated the party line via a letter. I’ve written to the Speaker of the House – twice.

        It’s all nice that the Democrats are passing bills that have no chance in the Senate, but at this point in time that smacks of fiddling while Rome burns.

        When the country is in the hands of a criminal gang that has now corrupted the Justice Department, Office of Legal Counsel, and, potentially, even the SCOTUS, it is difficult to see how passing bills that will go nowhere is much improvement.

        • Tom says:

          But scrounging for good news, the President says he plans to do a lot more network interviews, I guess because the last one with George Stephanopoulos went so well.

      • Eureka says:

        Exactly, Rayne.

        It’s always great to ask ~what’s something more or different I could do. If I find myself recurrently unsatisfied about something, it’s a sign that I need to find productive or different ways to approach the problem. It’s important to just keep trying.

        Yesterday, during what he called a “teach-in” on Independence Mall, Rep. Evans said* ~ the most important title (as opposed to titles of office-holders) is CITIZEN.

        *In his remarks starting at ~ 35:50, during the 36th minute IIRC. Dean spoke at ca 4/5 min mark, Scanlon at ca 24 mins; citizens spoke throughout (and a “Free Roger Stone” heckler who wouldn’t respect boundaries escalates and gets removed ~19-20mins). Also, there’s a Devin Cow (in character, per sign it wears).

        “It’s a beautiful day to #ImpeachTrump @IndivisibleTeam @PA_Indivisible (embedded video)”
        https://twitter.com/indivisiblephl/status/1139928094955966465

      • Jenny says:

        Thanks Rayne for the constant reminder.
        You are correct. Call! Call your Reps plus Pelosi, McCarthy, McConnell and others. They need to hear from We the People.

    • harpie says:

      About that official transcript, Marcy points out on twitter:
      https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1140563926138142723
      3:16 AM – 17 Jun 2019

      For some reason, the ABC transcript claimed Stephanopoulos was inaudible in that first exchange abt Mueller Report. [screenshot]
      That’s absurd. As HuffPo reported [link], it’s quite clear that Steph refuted Trump. This amounts to doctoring the official transcript.

      • harpie says:

        Marcy has deleted this tweet.
        https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1140609910125846528
        6:19 AM – 17 Jun 2019

        I’ve deleted this tweet. There are two ABC-released versions of this transcript. […] I think neither is totally correct./ It would be really useful if ABC released a “definitive” transcript, since there’s variance even on one of the most notable exchanges.

    • harpie says:

      And about that interview, Marcy notes:
      https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1140561009981218818
      3:05 AM – 17 Jun 2019

      Dear the Press:
      The Tweep-in-Chief says he continues to engage in his dangerous, inflammatory tweeting because you treat each one of his tweets like breaking news.

      The other day, I was commenting about Dean/Altemeyer.
      https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/06/10/thread-house-judiciary-committee-hearing-with-john-dean/#comment-794886
      The following was one of the quotes:
      Altemeyer on Trump’s Supporters 7 JUL 2017 JOHN DEAN [link]

      [Altemeyer:] […] One can expect some of Trump’s followers to waver if the months ahead are thick with damaging revelations like those that brought down the Nixon White House. But a repeat of “Watergate-type scandals” may not damage Trump as much as they did Nixon.
      Nixon had little means of communicating directly with his supporters.
      Trump’s followers eagerly await his tweets to tell them the truth they will believe and repeat to one another.
      And so far, they have apparently believed everything he’s said.

      • harpie says:

        “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ― Voltaire

      • harpie says:

        Yale History Prof, Expert on early US politics Joanne Freeman
        https://twitter.com/jbf1755/status/1140643308978544643
        8:32 AM – 17 Jun 2019

        1/ In relation to my “word” morning on Twitter… We’re living in a moment when words matter in particularly profound ways. When pronounced by someone in power, they have an added weight. Indeed, that’s what people in power count on.

        2/ It’s easy to dismiss extreme accusations and extremist language as just that — “mere” extreme language. And in one sense, that’s true.
        But they have a wide and powerful reach. We need to realize that — and the press has to consider how best to deal with that.

        3/ Social media has effectively weaponized words in a new, powerful, immediate, & seemingly unstoppable way & we have a president who takes full advantage of that fact.
        His tweets are attacks in a word war. (Will you ever get “no collusion” or “fake news” out of your head?)

    • Jenny says:

      The line about Abraham Lincoln, well, can’t make this stuff up. As the Brits would say, he is crackers. Ugh.

      “TRUMP: I– I disagree. Look, it’s been acknowledged. Although they do say Abraham Lincoln was treated really badly. I must say that’s the one. If you can believe it, Abraham Lincoln was treated supposedly very badly. But nobody’s been treated badly like me. And this way I can fight the dishonest media, the corrupt media, the fake news.”

  33. K-spin says:

    Probably a stupid question, but suspect I’m not alone in asking it… and not just because I’m Australian!
    Ok, so I’ve read the (redacted) OSC report and fully support impeachment of DT on the basis of the evidence contained in that document alone.
    But what I’m asking about is not so much the campaign, but actions taken by DT and his staff since he was elected. And yes, I know that Mueller looked at the actions of some, as far as he was able… but the continuing narrative seems to be so focused on the election itself, not what has happened since. Do you – in the US – see a line in the sand regarding pre/post election actions and what can/can’t be investigated? Do you see the latter as something that is so ‘protected’ by ‘privilege’ that it’s going to be a wasted effort? Or not?
    Please note that my question is serious. Sure, I’m not a US citizen, but the effects of this ‘presidency’ are felt far and wide, and IMHO the problems you’re facing are ones we should all be aware of.
    Love your site and thank you so much for keeping us all informed and reminding us to hold our representatives to account! Wherever we are.

  35. MattyG says:

    O/T; DT must be so jealous of Kim and Vlad and his other buddies that he can’t just have his pollsters executed in the Rose Garden.

  36. harpie says:

    Records may reveal how Methbot virus allegedly helped swipe $36M in online ad dollars
    https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article231577108.html
    Kevin G. Hall JUNE 17, 2019 07:30 AM

    […] It is unclear if the arrest of Zhukov and the takedown of the Methbot scheme are in any way related to probes into interference in the 2016 elections. A large section of the 400-plus page report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III was blacked out where there were details about cyber investigations.
    The Steele dossier, a collection of opposition-research memos by former British spy Christopher Steele, warned of Russian cyber meddling to help Donald Trump and without corroboration alleged that XBT and Webzilla were used by Russia to spread malware and viruses aimed at election malfeasance.
    XBT steadfastly denied this, but the lawsuit it brought against Buzzfeed in 2017, defeated last year but still under appeal, exposed the company’s inner workings and finances. Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami ordered that most of the documents in the case be made public.

    • Eureka says:

      It seems like the same story over and over again: mal-actors exploit our reliably predictable systems and other predictable (behavioral) habits.

  37. earlofhuntingdon says:

    MSNBC reporter Ned Price seemed surprised that most US allies were demanding “more” or rather credible evidence that Iran is responsible for the recent tanker attacks. He lamented that US intelligence assessments were no longer regarded as the “gold standard.” His comment suggests typical ignorance of the history of American foreign policy.

    I suggest he giggle “mushroom cloud,” “Iraq,” and the name of any top figure in the BushCheney administration. I recommend Condi Rice or Colin Powell, but any Bush admin name would do. He could look at the wiki entry for “Gulf of Tonkin,” or at any foreign policy claim by the Trump administration. Or, he could read any work by the American Empire Project. I suggest works by Chalmers Johnson, Alfred McCoy, Noam Chomsky, and Andrew Bacevich.

    The chaotic UK is following the US lead on this unsupported claim about Iran. It did the same over the Iraq war. Abandoning Europe, it has given itself nowhere else to go and thus suspends disbelief. But the Germans and Japanese are less credulous.

    Iran might indeed have been involved. But it should be routine to ask for credible evidence. The longer the US insists on its position without offering that evidence, the more the claim looks like propaganda, which is pretty much all this administration has to sell.

  38. Tom says:

    My reading of the President’s recent actions is that he’s laying the foundations for disputing the results of the 2020 election in the event the vote goes against him. Marcy mentioned in a June 16th tweet that the attacks on the press as “the enemy of the people” now seem to be official WH policy, not just Trump’s impulsive rants. He’s also reverted to labeling the Russia investigation as a hoax and in the interview with George Stephanopoulos he was insistent that the Mueller Report cleared him of “collusion” and obstruction even though it clearly does not. Although polling results show him behind most if not all Democratic candidates, the President maintains he’s doing better with voters now than in 2016. The logical conclusion to this counter-factual pattern of pronouncements would seem to be that Trump will claim voter fraud and a rigged election if and when he loses next year.

    As the Mueller Report states (p. 141), Paul Manafort anticipated that a defeated Hillary Clinton might dispute the 2016 election results on the grounds of voter fraud, cyber-fraud, and Russian hacking into voting machines. He sent an email to Jared Kushner about “Securing the Victory” in case the Clinton campaign raised doubts about the legitimacy of Trump’s win. So the mindset and possibly even some planning may be in place to cling to the Oval Office in the event of defeat in 2020, just as Michael Cohen warned. In the meantime, in Trump World everything will be presented as proceeding according to plan, so that the President’s outraged claims of victimhood will seem all the more persuasive when he finally loses.

  39. Hops says:

    Y’all see the SCOTUS decision on double jeopardy? Pardon won’t get Manafort or others off the hook.

  40. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Mitch McConnell calls it “socialism” for DC and Puerto Rico to want statehood. He has an odd definition no socialist would recognize. But if he thought either would vote reliably Republican, he would want it admitted in a heart beat, socialist or not.

  43. harpie says:

    1] I see this headline:
    Lawyers: Alex Jones sent child porn to Sandy Hook families https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Lawyers-Alex-Jones-sent-child-porn-to-Sandy-Hook-14005437.php via @connpost 2:42 pm EDT, June 17, 2019
    2] I read the very confusing story….WHAT????
    3] I find this thread [via Quinta Jurecic], which not only breaks down what’s in the filing…but LINKS to the filing!:
    https://twitter.com/dellcam/status/1140707731323654144
    12:48 PM – 17 Jun 2019

    The phrasing plaintiffs use in the Alex Jones case:
    “The FBI advised counsel that its review located numerous additional illegal images, which had apparently been sent to Infowars email addresses.”
    FBI’s job is now to ascertain whether Jones knowingly possessed the images. [screenshot] / […]

    4] Marcy makes me laugh:
    https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1140716184482066432
    1:21 PM – 17 Jun 2019

    Media outlets that report on court filings (like the Alex Jones porn one, where the reporting seems to be sprinting beyond what the filing says) without linking the filing can just burn in hell, IMO.

    • harpie says:

      Marcy thread continued:
      https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1140720856487931904
      1:40 PM – 17 Jun 2019

      OK, on the Jones child porn allegations. The filing in question (ht @ncweaver) is a request for briefing about Jones’ threats to plaintiffs, NOT the porn itself.
      But as a number of people have noted, correctly, this is porn that was sent TO Jones, not porn they found hosted on his servers. He may be ignorant and negligent.
      He’s the shithole of all shitholes, but the record does not YET support the firestorm that’s happening.

      • P J Evans says:

        It’s interesting that Jones is threatening the lawyers who found and reported it, plus the parents (who had nothing to do with it), rather than the people who apparently sent it to Infowars email addresses (and why were they doing that?). It makes him look even more unhinged than usual.

  44. Eureka says:

    That was me on the paypal (about a half hour ago, the repeating digit). I’m not familiar with using it and got a sinking feeling like I did it wrong (and I was so excited and happy at the outset!). I tried to add a note but it wasn’t there at the end.

    Anyway, thank you again Marcy, Rayne, bmaz, Ed, Jim, and commenters for the outstanding journalism, writing, and community.

Comments are closed.