What’s the Matter With Kansas: How conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank

The Wrecking Crew: How conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation

Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency by Joshua Green.

Why Trump Won: And Why He Will Win Again in 2020 by Mitchell Steven Morrison.  Author and former FBI employee.  Talks about how corruption in mainstream media outlets will help Trump win 2020.

Unbelievable by Katy Tur.

Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump win the White House by luke Harding.

Creeping Fascism: Brexit, Trump and the Rise of the Far Right by Neil Faulkner.

Proof of collusion: How Trump Betrayed America by Seth Abramson.

Fear: Trump in the white House by Bob Woodward

Imperial Life in the merald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Blind Ambition by John W. Dean

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas by jane Mayer

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the  War on Terror Turned into a war on American Ideals by Jane Meyer

The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies are Undermining America and Dismantling the West.

The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and Wikileaks Tried to steal the 2016 Election by Malcolm nance

Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a Presient What We Don’t, Can’t, and Do Know by Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America by John Nichols

The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

Messengers from Saudi Arabia contact a Saudi living in Canada

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/secret-recordings-give-insight-into-saudi-attempt-to-silence-critics/2018/10/17/fb333378-ce49-11e8-ad0a-0e01efba3cc1_story.html?utm_term=.2264ff1cf5e9

Voting Rights

Brennan Center article about the Voting Rights Act

https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/the-voting-rights-act

Another blow to the voting Rights Act

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/supreme-court-voting-rights-735696/

 

• Republicans are trying to depress the Democratic vote all over the country. They are trying to make it as hard as possible to vote by closing polling stations, long lines, long waits, a difficult process, a vaguely threatening atmosphere – all designed to keep people from voting, especially minorities and the poor.
• In North Dakota, Republicans are targeting Native Americans. The State Legislature passed a law saying that voter IDs had to have a street address.  Native Americans who live on reservations don’t have street addresses.  When Republicans passed this law clearly targeting Native Americans, they knew that a small number of Native Americans helped elect Democrat Heidi Heidkamp to the Senate in 2013.
• There are various lawsuits in Georgia about voter suppression.
• In Texas, a conservative organization is trying to raise money by sending out direct mail flyers saying that Democrats are trying to unfairly influence the voting system by registering far too many people and swamping the system. (Rachael Maddow)
• In Cobb County, Georgia there was a three hour wait to vote on the first day of early voting (Rachael Maddow). In Jefferson County, Georgia, when elderly African Americans left a Senior Center in a bus to vote, County authorities were notified.  County officials called the senior center to stop the senior citizens from voting.  I don’t even understand how that was possible, but it happened.  The group was told to get off the bus that was transporting them to the polls.  The Senior Center is run by the county.
• Brian Kemp, the Secretary of State in Georgia has been asked to investigate the Jefferson County incident.  That’s a joke.
• Brian Kemp is running for office as a Republican in the same election he’s supervising as Secretary of State.
• If you phone his campaign office to complain about Kemp’s public lies about his opponent, you are likely to get an abusive argument, as I did yesterday.  When you phone Kemp’s state office, you are told (rudely) that the State of Georgia has no control over Kemp’s behavior or that of his campaign.  He’s not employed by the Secretary of State’s Office, I was told.  HE IS THE SECRETARY OF STATE I responded.
• Oh, and please don’t forget, the Supreme Court (before Kavanaugh) gutted the Voting Rights Act which freed states to engage in this kind of voter suppression.
• People died for your right to vote.  Please, please use it.  Use your vote, your body to protest, your voice to agitate and phone and ask questions.  What I fear most is that by the time people in this country are walking around saying: “They can’t do this can they” it will be too late.

 

Quotes from a Salon interview with Craig Unger, author of “House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia.”

“…Donald Trump has for decades laundered billions of dollars for Russian organized crime figures and other oligarchs.  This fits a larger pattern in which Trump and his inner circle have shown a great comfort with financial crimes and other forms of unethical or illegal behavior to personally enrich themselves at the expense of the American people.”

Unger:

“Donald Trump has had contacts with the Russian mafia for 35 years.  His properties have laundered money for them.  The Russian mafia are connected to Russian intelligence.  They’re living and have been working in Trump’s building.  Trump has even partnered with them.  There are so many ways in which he’s compromised…The Republicans are also implicated….the Russians didn’t just go after Donald Trump: They went after the entire Republican Party.  There is Russian money going into the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the N.R.A., and then to Republicans officials and candidates directly.”

 

Unger, Craig (2018) House of Trump.  House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia.

Filkins, Dexter (2018) “Was there a connection between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?” October 15, 2018 Issue of the New Yorker.

Jamieson, Kathleen Hall  (2018)  Cyberwar: How Russian hackers and trolls helped elect a president – What we don’t, can’t and do know.”

Mayer, Jane (2018) “How Russia helped swing the election for Trump.”  October 1, 2018 Issue of the New Yorker.  Review of the Jamieson book by the wonderful Jane Mayer.   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump

Sanger, David (2018) The perfect weapon.  Book on cyber sabotage.

 

 

Jennifer Rubin is one of the former Republicans who are now all over Cable TV, criticizing Trump.  They come in various colors.  There’s Elise Jordan, who is a critic of everything Trump, but  who supported Bret (Frat Boy) Kavanaugh and who retweeted a tweet lending credence to the idea that the Dr. Ford attempted rape was a case of mistaken identity.  There’s Charlie Sykes, Steve Schmidt (who helped confirm Alito), and others.  I find Jennifer Rubin, along with Steve Schmidt, the most likable of the crew.  But evidently, they have learned nothing from the Trump presidency.  Rubin drives me crazy by repeatedly suggesting that Nikki Haley would be a good alternative to Trump in 2020.  I think this partly is due to the fact that Haley is at least on the surface sane and a woman.  But…

• Nikki Haley is a frequent critic of the UN’s stance on Israel which has the most right wing government in its history. She called Jared Kushner a “hidden genius,” and questions have been raised by her use of a private jet paid for by taxpayers (The Independent). In addition,
• CREW requested that Haley be investigated for accepting “seven free flights for herself and her husband on luxury private aircraft from three South Carolina businessmen.” “By accepting gifts of luxury private flights, Ambassador Haley seems to be falling in line with other Trump administration officials who are reaping personal benefits from their public positions,” said CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder. “Our ethics laws are clearly written to prevent even the appearance of corruption and improper influence. We’re calling on the State Department’s inspector general to further investigate the nature of these gifts, determine whether they are in line with ethics rules, and ensure that employees like Ambassador Haley are fully trained on the application and importance of ethical standards.” (CREW)

 

 

 

I had to stop watching the news when, after Bret Kavanaugh pitched a white privileged male temper tantrum on national television, MSNBC switched back to Nicolle Wallace and she started talking about how sorry she felt for him.

I don’t feel sorry for him.  I feel sorry for those of us living with a population that cares so little about the rule of law, or even understands what it means, that a dishonest, lawless, frat boy can be put on the Supreme Court.  It makes me sick, just sick.

 

Call me cynical, but I don’t trust this agreement to spend a week conducting an FBI investigation of the charges against Bret Kavanaugh.

• This move is designed to provide cover for Republicans who realize just how bad they look railroading this lying, torture enabling (see closed files on Kavanaugh’s Bush era work) frat boy onto the Supreme Court.
• Everyone in the media and almost everybody in Congress is oozing touchy/feely sentiments about “bipartisanship.” Sen. Flake is one senator, making one move on one issue, (and Flake is a Senator who was publicly shamed by survivors in a Senate elevator).  This is not a sudden turnaround by the Republicans to be reasonable and start participating in the democratic process.  All you have to do is look at the footage from the Kavanaugh hearings, listen to Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and the unutterably horrid Chuck Grassley to see that the Republicans are committed to gaslighting the entire country.
• There is no guarantee that an FBI investigation (supervised by another frat boy, Christopher Wray) will uncover anything. The more likely outcome is that it will come up with nothing because it will be constrained and basically defined out of existence or potency before it begins.  Sen. Blumenthal tried, but was cut off by Grassley, to state that any investigation had to be a real investigation not just a show.  If the Republicans have anything to do with it, it will be a show.
• The investigators evidently have no subpoena power. Witnesses will talk only voluntarily.
• Mark Judge has already stated that he will talk only “confidentially.” What the hell does that mean?
• The FBI is only allowed to investigate “credible” accusations. And, who do you think will define which are “credible” accusations?

I have little faith that this will be anything but a checking off of a box by the Republicans.  Democrats, however, will bend over backward to be “reasonable” and shut up after the investigation.

Finally, even if Democrats do manage to get this disgusting nomination stopped, they will bend over backward to approve the next nomination in order to prove that they are not “partisan.”  And we will wind up with a partisan right-wing, anti-democratic, corporate loving Supreme Court that will help crown Donald Trump, eviscerate environmental protections and erode civil liberties.

Diane Feinstein said today that this was not a political issue.  It is probably one of the most important political issues of our generation.  It is a political question about whether we are going to have a democracy based on the rule of law, or an autocracy, a kleptocracy, an authoritarian state.  It is a political issue about whether women are going to be allowed to control their own bodies or be vessels controlled by men.

Sen. Coons may think it makes him sound like an honorable person to quote Joe Biden (part of the reason we’re in the Kavanaugh mess in the first place) by saying that it is proper to question the Republican’s positions, but not their motivations.  To me, that sounds like something off the back of a cereal box.  If the Democrats don’t start questioning the Republican’s motivations, we are all going to wind up in an authoritarian country.  The nice guy stance is just not going to work.  It’s really like saying: We have to understand the Nazis, understand their perspective, listen to them and maintain a civil, respectful relationship.  NO WE DON’T.  WE CAN’T.

The Republicans are right about one thing – this is a war, a war they started and it is a war for everything decent and honorable and good that this country represents.  I know which side I’m on and I know who the enemy is.

If Democrats can’t find it in themselves to choose sides, call out the enemy as an enemy and fight for us, they should get out of the way.  The Republicans are implementing one-party rule and they are getting away with it.  I call on the Democrats to either fight or get out of the way.

And, if I can add just one more thing…the very fact that the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee allowed Bret Kavanaugh to talk to them the way he did is a disgrace.  They are United States Senators.  When he interrupts them and talks over them and treats them with contempt, he is doing so to the American people.  Stand up for yourself and for us.

 

 

 

 

On Morning Joe, Donnie Deutsch once again put forward the “if your boss tells you to do it” defense of Michael Cohen.  Seriously?  If your boss tells you to commit a crime (and you’re a f…ing lawyer) you just do it and everybody is supposed to feel sorry for you?  I don’t think so.  What a pathetic excuse of an argument.  It’s almost as bad as Lanny Davis trying to make us believe that Cohen had a moral awakening when he saw Trump bow down to Putin in Helsinki.  

Just after both Manafort and Cohen became felons, and Cohen stipulated before a judge that the President of the United States directed him to commit a crime, Orin Hatch (whose use of oxygen is morally repugnant) offered the excuse that Trump was a better person now then he was in the past.  Orin Hatch is certainly not a better person.  Least we forget, Hatch not only behaved like a self-righteous jerk in the Clarence Thomas hearings, (please watch this choice clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa8uf4vt-EQ), 19 years afterward, he publicly called for Anita Hill to APOLOGIZE to the Thomas and his wife.

Mitch McConnel just refused to answer questions about Trump’s behavior, and went back to packing the judiciary with right-wing political activists.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump asserted:

“I’ll tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash,” he said. “I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe.”

Oh, and Trump was up tweeting at 1 AM.

It’s not even noon.

“I’ll tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash,” he said. “I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking (he points to his head), you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe.”

Another day of jury deliberations in the Paul Manafort trial.  I can hardly sleep for worrying about the outcome.

I keep thinking about the O.J. Simpson case, another case in which the evidence was overwhelming and the guilty walked free.  I think about the case of the young woman in Florida who clearly killed her child and the jury let her walk free.

And, the jury in the Paul Manafort case requested that a birthday cake be brought in to the courthouse for one of the jurors last week.  Not a good sign.  Are adults really this silly?

They’re deliberating the case of a man who, if convicted, may spend the rest of his life in prison and someone has to have a birthday cake in the middle of it?  They are deliberating in a case where the judge has had death threats.  But, somebody has to have a birthday cake.  They are deliberating case that may well dramatically affect the trajectory and the reception of anything the Mueller probe comes up with.  This is a case that will, whatever the outcome, affect the shape of democracy in this country.  But, somebody has to have a birthday cake?  And, no other juror or court official told them to fuck themselves.  I don’t get it.  Why would a juror’s birthday even come up?  Why would a juror’s birthday even be discussed, let alone discussed to the extent of arranging for the purchase and delivery of a cake.  Are we this trivial and self-obsessed.  Well, yes.

And, another thing about the Manafort case that is keeping me up at night is that (talk about trivial and self-obsessed) judge.  Why is he being allowed to intervene in the trial on the behalf of the defense over and over again?

If the prosecution loses because of the influence of the judge on the jury, they don’t get a second chance.  If it were the other way around, if the judge was making prejudicial statements against the defense, they could appeal.  The prosecution is just out of luck.  We are out of luck.

And, again, not to be outdone in the area of triviality and self-obsession, cable news people are doing interview after interview with people who have trial and legal experience who act like this behavior on the part of the judge is just a display of mildly amusing cantankerous antics, not unusual in a trial.  Well, if it’s not unusual, it should be.  No judge should be allowed to behave like this.  It’s unprofessional to say the least.

Sometimes I think the media and the legal professionals have such an investment in maintaining the party line that the legal system is unbiased and based solely on facts, they won’t admit what’s in front of their faces.  This is not behavior characteristic of an unbiased and professional court system.  If the guy can’t control his ego, he shouldn’t be on the bench.  We have got to stop allowing people with power to behave in any way they chose.

O.K.  Finally, about the Manafort Case: I would really like to know why the Russian woman (who it appears to me at least slept with every Republican in Washington) has been moved to the same jail as Paul Manafort.  What’s that about?  I would really love to hear any information anyone has about this.

It’s just Monday.

 

 

“It borders on scandalous how the media treats what Trump did to Brennan—and now implies he’ll shortly do to others—a *political* move. In fact, these are *witnesses against him in a federal case*—and he’s trying to intimidate and silence them. This is a *crime*. RT if you agree.”

Seth Abrahamson on Twitter

 

 

Yesterday was a particularly bad morning.

A number of media outlets decided to publish editorials reminding their readers of the Constitutionally secured status of the media as part of a democratic society.  It is ridiculous that they even had to do this.  It is ridiculous that in an advanced industrialized country the media had to remind people (or tell them for the first time) that independent journalism is a guarantor of individual rights.  Without journalism, information, we have no way of controlling government, corporations, the powerful, anything.

But, media anchors in covering this story yesterday were seriously asking other media representatives if the defense of this constitutional right was “counterproductive” because it “feeds into” Trump’s narrative that the media is the enemy of the people.  WHAT?  I SAID WHAT?  The argument is that one shouldn’t say what is obviously true for fear of provoking a reaction by liars and charlatans?

How can intellectually functioning adults sit on a set and ask questions like this?  Do they not even think through what they are saying on national television?

O.K. Next.  Donald Trump takes away the security clearance from John Brennan to signal that anyone, especially those in the intelligence community, opposing his policies, questioning his actions, or speaking out against him will be punished.  He has already made sure that the careers of Justice Department officials who might testify against him, have have been seriously affected, if not destroyed.  This is the behavior of a autocrat – using the government to destroy anyone who opposes him.

There is no doubt that this is what he is doing.  He even admitted it before the day was out.  The direction here is crystal clear.  Omarosa herself once said in an interview with NPR that the Trump presidency was about making people bow down, everybody who had ever questioned, challenged, or criticized Trump.  Stephen Miller said on national television that no one was allowed to question Trump.

If you have half a brain you can look at the actions of this administration and see that Trump and the Republican party are advancing a coup, a slow coup, but a coup.  They are installing one-party government, a kleptocracy with dictatorial powers, run for the benefit of a few wealthy individuals.  And it has to be stopped.

But, the discussion on morning cable news yesterday was not about Trump’s clear use of the federal government to destroy his enemies, about the serious implications this has for a democracy.  The narrative was actually about John Brennan’s behavior, whether Brennan “crossed a line” or whether he was “too political.”  His motives were even called “impure” by Noah Rothman in a weird kind of rationalization where he both argued that Brennan was at fault and that Trump’s action was abuse of power.

But, damn it, JOHN BRENNAN IS NOT THE ISSUE.  This is not about what John Brennan has done or said, it is about TRYING TO SILENCE and INTIMIDATE OPPOSITION.  If they can do it to John Brennan, who is next?

But, the Cable news media never disappoints when it comes to trivializing every event.  The conservative wimp-ass line started (at least for me) Thursday night with Elise Jordan, who I have no doubt is decent enough personally.  She was vociferously arguing with Katy Tur that Brennan shouldn’t have a security clearance anyway.  Jordan argued that Brennan didn’t need a security clearance because the administration wouldn’t rely on his advice.  He had, according to Jordan, clearly made himself objectionable to the administration.  In her mind, Brennan deserved to have had his security clearance taken away.

But, damn it, JOHN BRENNAN ISN’T THE POINT.

Whether Brennan should or shouldn’t have a security clearance isn’t the point.  The goddamn point is that Trump took the security clearance away to punish him for speech, and to intimidate other speech.  This is a dangerous path, an extremely dangerous path.

Fortunately, the discussion Thursday night was a little better, but this morning, on MSNBC, the head of Axios was advancing a truly strange argument that Trump was not trying to silence speech, he was actually attempting to elevate Brennan, to make him more important.  Trump himself then picked up this argument on the White House lawn talking to reporters.  I have no idea what the guy from Axois was arguing.

Trump and the Republican party are clearly moving to install one-party rule in this country and it’s not going to be nice.  As someone else said today, there’s nothing I would put past them in pursuing this goal.

MY HAIR IS ON FIRE.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a quote from an interview done by Thom Hartman in 2015. Hartman asked Carter about Citizens United.

“It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. Senators and congress members. So, now we’ve just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for themselves after the election is over. … At the present time the incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody that is already in Congress has a great deal more to sell.” Jimmy Carter. Zuesse, Eric (8/3/15) Jimmy Carter is correct that the U.S. is no longer a democracy.” Huffington Post.

See the entire article:

https://search.myway.com/search/GGmain.jhtml?p2=%5EBNF%5Exdm007%5ES24930%5Eus&ptb=458F4819-AD6C-4FBD-99FD-E5773D2AC6EF&n=7848652c&cn=US&ln=en&si=EAIaIQobChMIkYfGte2-2AIVibfsCh1ocwqqEAAYBCAAEgLI2fD_BwE&tpr=hpsb&trs=wtt&searchfor=the%20teflon%20don&st=tab