Instead of acknowledging gross failure and astounding errors, the party’s leaders and campaign professionals wallowed in self-pity and righteous indignation. Sample of Findings
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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In the News
By Ralph Ellis & Emmanuella Grinberg @ CNN.com, Oct. 30, 6:59 pm
[....] The storm drenched the region over the weekend before racing into Canada early Monday. It left behind swollen rivers and downed trees that damaged roads, snarled traffic and left millions without power. By Monday evening, more than 1.1 million power customers were still without electricity, including 248,557 in Massachusetts and 137,900 in Rhode Island.
In Maine, which was especially hard hit, Gov. Paul LePage declared a state of emergency to give power companies more flexibility to make repairs. Central Maine Power said more than half of its customer base was without power Monday. By nightfall, 384,000 were still without power [....]
[....] Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked provisions of the memorandum concerning the enlistment and retention of transgender military service members, holding that the plaintiffs "have established that they will be injured by these directives, due both to the inherent inequality they impose, and the risk of discharge and denial of accession that they engender. "The judge also blasted Trump's initial abrupt announcement via Twitter that came "without any of the formality or deliberative processes that generally accompany the development and announcement of major policy changes that will gravely affect the lives of many Americans."In partially granting a preliminary injunction pending appeal, the judge said the plaintiffs -- current and aspiring service members who are transgender -- are "likely to succeed" on their due process claims [....]
By Barbara Starr & Zachary Cohen @ CNN.com, Oct. 30, 6:49 pm
US forces captured Mustafa al-Imam in Libya for his alleged role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the White House announced on Monday.
"Yesterday, on my orders, United States forces captured Mustafa al-Imam in Libya," President Donald Trump said in a statement. "To the families of these fallen heroes: I want you to know that your loved ones are not forgotten, and they will never be forgotten."Mustafa al Imam may have operated under different aliases, an administration official told CNN. The US government has video of al Imam present at one of the two sites of the attacks that killed four Americans, the official said. It's not initially clear whether the video shows al Imam at the consulate or the annex which was also attacked [....] Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised Monday that al-Imam "will face justice in federal court for his role in the attack." [....] His capture comes as the attack's suspected mastermind -- Ahmed Abu Khatallah -- is currently on trial in Washington [....]
Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos' guilty plea is a must, must, must read. He confesses to colluding with Russian agents to arrange a meeting between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. One of his contacts mentions "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." This was not a rogue operation. Papadopoulos acknowledges communicating about this plan with at least three unnamed individuals referred to as "Campaign Supervisor," "Senior Policy Advisor," and "High-Ranking Campaign Official."
And there may be even more that Mueller has not disclosed in the guilty plea, which begins, "These facts do not constitute all of the facts known to the parties concerning the charged offense; they are being submitted to demonstrate that sufficient facts exist that the defendant committed the offense to which he is pleading guilty."
Lawmakers look willing to move beyond their party’s orthodoxy in bid for win ahead of 2018 midterms.
By Brian Faler @ Politico.com, Oct. 28
House Republicans are so desperate for a win on taxes that they’re agreeing to proposals that would have caused internal party warfare just a year or two ago.
They’re considering forgoing a big cut in the top income tax rate on the rich, offering moderate-income Americans so many tax breaks that many would be excused from paying taxes entirely and passing a potentially 1,000-page tax bill few have seen within a matter of weeks. Last week, they agreed to a budget that ignored their demands for deep cuts in federal spending just so they could pass a tax bill using a special procedure that enables them to move forward without any Democratic votes.
It’s an open question whether Republicans will be as flexible when party leaders release their entire tax bill, due Nov. 1, and everyone can see exactly who will be the losers under their plan. They already have some internal battles [....]
The former House speaker feels liberated—but he’s also seething about what happened to his party.
By Tim Alberta for Politico Magazine's Nov./Dec issue, currently available online @ Politicio.com
There's so much juicy stuff in the piece that it intluenced a trifecta of stories all in a row today @ TheHill.com:
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In The Know— 5m 31s ago
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Blog Briefing Room— 16m 19s ago
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Blog Briefing Room— 36m 15s ago
In a country where flirting is a way of life, and where a unique blend of Gallic machismo with age-old codes of chivalry can be seen in virtually every corner café, women, it would seem, have had enough.
By James McAuley from Paris, @ WashingtonPost.com, Oct. 29
[....] A social media campaign erupted here almost simultaneously with the appearance of #MeToo in the United States — except French women took it further with #balancetonporc, which loosely translated means “squeal on your pig.” As in the United States, after women began naming and shaming their attackers, some of the most prominent men in French public life stood accused of sexual assault.
Most notably, the Swiss-born academic Tariq Ramadan, whose stance on Islam in Europe has transformed him into persona non grata among French elites, has been accused of raping two women, charges he denies.
The outrage has only grown. Marlène Schiappa, a government minister who oversees gender equality, proposed fining men for “wolf whistling” and sexually suggestive comments made on the street.
On Sunday, thousands of women — and men — marched through the streets of nearly every major French city to voice their anger and demand an end to sexual harassment and assault [....]
He had good intentions but repeatedly fell short, like America itself.
Guest op-ed by (Constitutional scholar and law professor) Noah Feldman @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 28
When we think about the framers of the Constitution and how they handled the issue of race, we conjure up the extremes: the hypocrites and the heroes. At one end is Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that “all men are created equal” but believed Africans were inferior and fathered children with an enslaved woman. At the other end is Alexander Hamilton, who, at least as depicted by admirers like the biographer Ron Chernow and the playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, was an ardent abolitionist.
This framing, however, is simplistic and misleading. It is simplistic because it overlooks harder-to-categorize positions like that of James Madison, the lead drafter of the Constitution, who genuinely rejected the idea of racial inferiority yet still failed to put his beliefs in equality and liberty into practice. And it is misleading because it implies that as long as we avoid having racist attitudes, we can succeed in avoiding racist policies. We think that if we’re not Jefferson, we must be Hamilton. But this is not the case [....]
The Pew Research Center’s political typology report, explained.
By Andrew Prokop @ Vox.com, Oct. 27
US politics has gone in some pretty strange directions lately. But now the Pew Research Center has come along to try to make sense of just what Americans are thinking, with a new edition of its study of Americans' political typology — its first since 2014.
Pew's analysis stands out from standard polls because it doesn't simply sort Americans by demographic factors like age, race, and gender, and instead finds divisions within political parties that don’t fall along typical lines. To them, it’s not all about Hillary voters versus Bernie voters, or Trump populists versus establishment Republicans — what people actually believe creates divisions that are more complicated than that.
Instead, in surveys this summer of about 5,000 people, Pew asked respondents several ideological questions, and then used statistical techniques to try to figure out the clearest way to divide respondents’ views into a series of coherent groups [.....]
By Dean Baker @ Politico.com, Oct. 25
An economist argues that American doctors get paid too much—and offers some bold ideas on what to do about it.
nice roundup of links to recent pieces by elite intellectual cosmpolitans pondering on topic
By Jillian Caddell @ Apollo Magazine, Oct. 25
Last week, former U.S. president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama named the artists who will paint their official portraits for the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Commentators who looked forward to learning how the Obamas, noted patrons of the arts, would shake up the stuffy establishment tradition of (white, male) artists depicting (white, male) presidents were not disappointed. Kehinde Wiley, a portraitist famed for depicting African Americans he meets on the streets in the manner of European masters, will paint the former president, while Amy Sherald, who recently won the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, will capture Mrs Obama’s likeness [....]
This really is as big of a deal as the writer is arguing. These choices are like forcing 21st-century radical elite liberal global cosmopolitan taste down the throat of staid Washington D.C. culture, pushing the hand of culture change. They can do that because these portraits are privately funded, the sneaky part is that they get the imprimatur of the White House and the presidency. Let me be clear: you just don't chose this kind of avant garde artist for official portraiture unless its for the CEO of a young tech startup or a Hollywood mogul. But It doesn't take long once someone pushes the envelope like this into conservative taste land.. Wasn't so long ago that Picasso was widely ridiculed,. now he's Mr. Blockbuster, same for like Jackson Pollock
A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.
By Maya Salam @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 26
Four years before Adam Lanza massacred more than two dozen people in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, police officials were warned of his homicidal plans, according to documents released by the F.B.I. this week.
In one entry dated Dec. 26, 2012, 12 days after the shooting, a man said he had been privy to a conversation in which Mr. Lanza said he had an assault weapon and was planning to kill children at Sandy Hook Elementary School and his mother.
The man, whose name was redacted, was so troubled by this information that he reported it to the Newtown Police Department in 2008, according to the document, which was among about 1,500 pages released by the agency on Tuesday. But he said the police told him that “Lanza’s mother owned the guns and that there was nothing N.P.D. could do about it.” [....]
CNN Exclusive, By Pamela Brown, Evan Perez & Shimon Prokupecz, Oct. 27, 8:29 pm
Washington -- A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are [....]On Friday, top lawyers who are helping to lead the Mueller probe, including veteran prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, were seen entering the court room at the DC federal court where the grand jury meets to hear testimony in the Russia investigation. Reporters present saw a flurry of activity at the grand jury room, but officials made no announcements [....]
Alternate headline:Catalonia finally declared independence — but Spain vows it won’t last long
By William Booth & Pamela Rolfe from Barcelona @ WashingtonPost.com, Oct. 26
Spain began to move against what it views as an insurrection, suspending the breakaway Catalonian government, taking over regional police and calling for December elections. There were also reports that Spanish prosecutors were preparing rebellion charges against Catalan President Carles Puigdemont.
major Democratic donors were guilty of
financial fraud and tax evasion have been
embraced at the highest levels of the
Russian government
Yury Martyanov/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
[...] The coordination between the Trump Tower visitor and the Russian prosecutor general undercuts Ms. Veselnitskaya’s account that she was a purely independent actor when she sat down with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Paul J. Manafort, then the Trump campaign chairman. It also suggests that emails from an intermediary to the younger Mr. Trump promising that Ms. Veselnitskaya would arrive with information from Russian prosecutors were rooted at least partly in fact — not mere “puffery,” as the president’s son later said.
In the past week, Ms. Veselnitskaya’s allegations — that major Democratic donors were guilty of financial fraud and tax evasion — have been embraced at the highest levels of the Russian government. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia repeated her charges at length last week at an annual conference of Western academics. A state-run television network recently made them the subject of two special reports, featuring interviews with Ms. Veselnitskaya and Mr. Chaika. The matching messages point to a synchronized information campaign [....]
"Chengdou Journal by Amy Qin for NYTimes.com, Oct. 26
[....] Once an underground subculture, hip-hop — the music, the culture and the fashion — has stormed the Chinese mainstream in recent months. Fans are flocking to nightclubs and music festivals to see their favorite local rappers and D.J.s perform, while English terms like flow, freestyle and even diss have made their way into popular urban parlance.
Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than here in Chengdu, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 16 million that is best known for its pandas and mouth-numbing spicy food but is quickly becoming a hotbed of hip-hop, particularly rap [.....]
Nothing to see here - literally. now move along.
Evidence tampering? first you'd have to find the evidence.
[let's hope the FBI made copies, if not the Russians]
Canadian man who survived getting shot in the head during the massacre at a Las Vegas country music festival has been bombarded with death threats from online conspiracy theorists.
Why do I believe they are almost certainly, avid Trump disciples?
By Colin Moynihan @ NYTimes, Oct. 26
The Theodore Roosevelt statue outside the
American Museum of Natural History after
protesters had splashed it with a red liquid.
Credit Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
Protesters splattered red liquid onto the base of the bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, and later published a statement on the internet calling for its removal as an emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.”
“Now the statue is bleeding,” said the statement Thursday from the protesters, who identified themselves as members of the Monument Removal Brigade. “We did not make it bleed. It is bloody at its very foundation.”
The group said the museum should “rethink its cultural halls regarding the colonial mentality behind them.” [.....]
The statue of Roosevelt, a conservationist, has stood outside the museum since 1940. Created by James Earle Fraser, and owned by the city, it depicts Roosevelt astride a horse and flanked by a Native American and an African-American [....]
By Christine Hauser @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 26
Reddit, the online internet forum, has started to implement a new policy to ban content that glorifies and incites violence, and among the first to go were forums for Nazi, racist and white supremacist groups.
The company outlined the update to its policy on Wednesday, with one statement in its help center and another by an administrator on the site itself, where a vocal community challenged the changes.
Reddit said it was taking the steps to clarify the way it has moderated posts in the past, and to bring its policy on allowable content in line with its values. “In particular, we found that the policy regarding ‘inciting’ violence was too vague,” the statement said. [....]