12.17.2017

Oops

12.16.2017

Orwell Meets Reality TV

12.15.2017

Anniversary Gift

For this crowd, it's quite literally the custom to give blood money.Blood money, and other services rendered. Thread on some of the test marketing history—

Back To The Good Old Days

12.14.2017

Today In Photo Ops

12.11.2017

Alabama Special

Come now; surely he could say what he means—just narrow it down to #13...Basest of bases, GOP voters, are just fine...

R.I.P., Simeon Booker

Good article by Serwer from August 2013: Witness to history: Simeon Booker remembers fight for 'ideal America'. Booker's civil rights reporting memoir had been published earlier that year; Serwer's article includes an interview of Booker and his wife/co-author, Carol McCabe Booker.

11.28.2017

R.I.P., Jon Hendricks

A giant passes, at 96. That happened on the 22nd, but it's a sign of the onslaught of other news that I only happened to hear today.

Some obits, from Guardian and NPR.

I hadn't known about his World War II experience, described by the Washington Post. It certainly is of a piece with how black soldiers were treated—
Drafted into the Army... Mr. Hendricks served in France after the Normandy invasion. But his most harrowing wartime experiences came from mistreatment by white soldiers in his own army, he recalled more than six decades later to Lee Ellen Martin, a University of Toledo graduate student writing a thesis on the singer. Mr. Hendricks said U.S. military police officers fired at him and other black soldiers they suspected of consorting with French women.

Out of fear, the black soldiers fled their unit. As a battalion clerk with access to military papers, Mr. Hendricks said he requisitioned a car and two trucks, loaded with gasoline, food and other supplies. He and the other African American soldiers sold the goods on the black market for several months before they were arrested and charged with "desertion in the face of the enemy."

"What enemy?" Mr. Hendricks said he responded. "You mean the white military police firing on us?"
He spent nearly a year in custody, before being returned to the front.

It's an enormous legacy to try choosing from, but here's a treat from the early days:

10.28.2017

Wrapped In A Flag

Fox: Vanessa and Donald Trump Jr.'s kids will wear patriotic Halloween costumes...
"...patriotic..."

10.25.2017

Tomorrow's News Today

Background...
Scandalous, that Hillary Clinton then used it to steal an election she lost.

And so...

10.02.2017

273 In 275

That's "mass shooting" considered any with 4+ victims.

Nevertheless, opportunity knocks.And...
Among other things, 4-chan hoaxing placed at top of Google News. Rundown of memes here. No new laws, profiling, or persecution needed, this time. This, too, was going along nicely, but may need a little postponing, until headlines have changed.

9.09.2017

Not Acts Of God

Florida: the state with the highest percentage of elderly residents. Add in the usual category of invisible people, too poor to have vehicles or enough money to evacuate...







9.08.2017

Cooking Things Up


8.28.2017

Expected

Tengrain, on the 25th
...ABC reports that Hair Führer Donald Trump is probably going to end the DACA program next week. 800,000 people who came to the U.S. illegally as children could be deported. So more fodder for his base. The optics of deporting 800,000 people will be shocking, by the way. I cannot see how he can do it without boxcars and camps to process them
Ethnic cleansing, to be bolstered by even harsher occupation forces, arrayed against a certain set of citizens...

8.27.2017

Is Our Medias Learning?

Our NYT? Sadly, never...



Twitler Twittles While City Drowns

Along with an evident pre-pardon of Clarke and the usual inappropriate electioneering, Trump continued hurling insults at Mexico.

It being up to the rest of the world to act like adults, the foreign ministry once more defended its sovereignty, while offering to send aid to Texas...
... Just as Mexico had sent aid after Katrina.

8.14.2017

Today In White Supremacy

8.09.2017

If TV Caused It, TV Could Fix It

7.28.2017

Today In Spite

7.04.2017

July 4, 2017

State of the Union? Decades of institutional damage, accelerated daily, as unprecedented looting proceeds from the top. As Bob Schooley says, "I don't think Trump has realized his usual 'break the company, move onto the next grift' method is a little trickier with an entire country." When that behavior is so obvious, so are "You had a good run, America" cracks, in response.

Yet we know millions more voted against this. I like tengrain's don't give up the ship view of the holiday. Fly the flag and celebrate the day, "tell your Facebook Rage Uncle about why we liberals care so much about America," and stay committed to fighting for the future. Because despite all to the contrary, present and historic, the country can survive only by
... moving towards the promise of the Declaration of Independence: all people are "created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Always, the noble ideals have need to be remembered jointly with the realities. In the words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

And in A. Philip Randolph's observation: "Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact..."

6.28.2017

Highly Successful Audition

State-run media's newest hire.

6.24.2017

Count On It Being Worse

After seeing what made the rounds yesterday...
... There had to be more examples of such confident self-expression. As Steve M. notes today, not only more short form ...
... But previously published long, threatening screeds against chosen targets. Steve cites this from the Washington Post—
In 2015, he resigned from his post at West Point after writing an academic paper arguing the United States should threaten to destroy Muslim holy sites in war "even if it means great destruction, innumerable enemy casualties, and civilian collateral damage."

Bradford also called for legal scholars "sympathetic to Islamist aims" to be imprisoned or "attacked." He dubbed such academics "critical law of armed conflict academy," or CLOACA, which is also a term for the orifice out of which some animals defecate. He suggested journalists with whom such scholars speak could also be targeted.
Bradford's name didn't ring a bell, but the charming fellow naturally has a history. Steve cites a 2015 piece in The Atlantic
To suppress this "fifth column"—which is his actual term for fellow academics with whom he disagrees—Bradford offers a range of options. First, he suggests introducing loyalty oaths and firing "disloyal scholars." Next, he recommends charging them with material support of terrorism and even treason. He even suggests treating these American academics as "unlawful enemy combatants," a legal term used to deny Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters the protections of U.S. and international law.

Shocking and extreme as this option might seem, CLOACA scholars, and the law schools that employ them, are—at least in theory—targetable so long as attacks are proportional, distinguish noncombatants from combatants, employ nonprohibited weapons, and contribute to the defeat of Islamism.

Yes, even "the law schools that employ them"—presumably places like Harvard and Yale—could be legitimate military targets. So, too, could their homes, where their families and children live. Even a journalist like myself could be a lawful military target if I happen to quote one of these professors, Bradford argues:
Further, the infrastructure used to create and disseminate CLOACA propaganda—law school facilities, scholars' home offices, and media outlets where they give interviews—are also lawful targets given the causal connection between the content disseminated and Islamist crimes incited.
Shocking and extreme as this option might seem, CLOACA scholars, and the law schools that employ them, are—at least in theory—targetable so long as attacks are proportional, distinguish noncombatants from combatants, employ nonprohibited weapons, and contribute to the defeat of Islamism.
As much as I try to keep up, this is one that had escaped my notice until now. But he certainly would be known to people around Trump. In particular, people named "Steve Bannon." Surely, Camp of the Saints' most influential fan would find the height of wit in branding opponents CLOACA.

Steve M.—
Let me say it again: This man has a job in the Trump administration.

Johnny Depp joked about a Trump assassination (and has now apologized) -- but he's not in the government. Neither is Kathy Griffin (who's lost work for her Trump death joke).

Phil Montag, a Nebraska Democratic Party official who made offensive remarks about Representative Steve Scalise, has lost his job. Al Baldasaro, by contrast, is still a New Hampshire state legislator.

6.22.2017

Enemies Of The State

The one-party state.
This uncouth rabble forced police to drag them from their menacing wheelchairs. After all, their  language was an offense against the delicate ears of McConnell, et. al.
Uncivil! Everyone knows Senate business is properly conducted through polite bribes and behind closed doors.
Not such great PR for a certain party, you would think.
On the other hand...

Live To Tape (Not!)


Mr. Schooley was on the right track...


Who's In, Who's SOL

Yesterday: some people were let into the secret.
Now, isn't that just fair, when they wrote it themselves?
All will be restored to the deserving.
On the other hand...
Sarah Kliff on "The littlest lobbyist"
This morning...


5.27.2017

Today In Enablers

Bloomberg...
Easily refuted by a non-Villager...

ABC...
Not ABC...
Furthermore, JFK was already president; RFK had government experience; the backchannel served nuclear disarmament efforts. To build trust, both sides had agreed to speak away from the interference of hawks in their respective countries. Now being used to justify secret self-dealing expected from Kushner-TrumpCo.
Washington Post...
Simple reporting? It advances a concocted story line, when in fact—

Today In Unindicted Co-conspirators

Today In The Hate Crime Presidency

5.26.2017

Mutual Admiration Society

Does Trump aspire to his pal's greater openness? He surely admires it—
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte joked Friday that soldiers could rape up to three women, as he reassured them of his full support under his newly imposed regional martial law.
Duterte, who often peppers his language with man-on-the-street curses, made the comments in jest during a speech at a military base to lift the spirits of troops tasked with quelling what he says is a fast-growing threat of Islamist terrorism.

"For this martial law and the consequences of martial law and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible. Just do your work. I will handle the rest," he said.

"I will be imprisoned for you. If you rape three (women), I will say that I did it."
He is the law, so may well keep to his gruesome words. Unlike Mr. "Knock the crap out of them" counting on lawyers, to claim he never ordered any such thing.

Today In Unindicted Co-conspirators



5.15.2017

Area Man Over Shares With Significant Other

Washington Post, breaking story: Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador
The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.

The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump's decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump's meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency.
...

The CIA declined to comment, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment.

But officials expressed concern about Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States' and its allies' ability to detect future threats.

"It is all kind of shocking," said a former senior U.S. official who is close to current administration officials. "Trump seems to be very reckless and doesn't grasp the gravity of the things he's dealing with, especially when it comes to intelligence and national security. And it's all clouded because of this problem he has with Russia."

In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. "I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day," the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.

Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner. He did not reveal the specific intelligence-gathering method, but he described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances. Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State's territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat.
The article has many more concerns from sources, including expectations that Russian will now use the intelligence for its own ends in Syria.
At a more fundamental level, the information wasn't the United States' to provide to others. Under the rules of espionage, governments — and even individual agencies — are given significant control over whether and how the information they gather is disseminated, even after it has been shared. Violating that practice undercuts trust considered essential to sharing secrets.

The officials declined to identify the ally but said it has previously voiced frustration with Washington's inability to safeguard sensitive information related to Iraq and Syria.

A Win

4.19.2017

Good-Bye Is Not Good Enough

When it comes after decades of his particular brand of toxic spew. Not only did it play so large a role in poisoning political discourse, it also inspired a quite literal body count. Now that he's out of prime time, the mockery is as deserved as could be.





Video: "Bill O'Reilly Tells Black Professor That He Looks Like A Drug Dealer"
So apt (gross as it necessarily is)...
Tom Tomorrow has a thread here, about his O'Reilly cartoons. After the first was published in 2000, he happened to meet the man...
I hadn't realized it before, but size must be yet one more thing he's used to intimidate.

Finally...

4.18.2017

Please, Please, Please

4.17.2017

Worth A Thousand Words

It speaks, this image of bored, uncomfortable children forced to be there. The picture says, too, that these undoubtedly are children of White House staff. And volumes are spoken by how strikingly white they are.  

Most telling of all: the starkness of contrast between this and all pictures taken on such occasions in the previous eight years. But during those eight years, kids weren't used as props, and they were thrilled to be with the adults in the picture.

This time, the adult in the picture couldn't appear less simpatico with children. But her sole reason for being here (and in her job) is her being a fundamentalist billionaire, eager to siphon public money into family profit and theocratic control of schools.

So much going on in the image itself, it took a minute for me to see the story told by the caption.

The End




4.10.2017

Today In Historical Press Agentry

On the other hand...

4.09.2017

Graphic Reminders

Admirable thread here, on Coretta Scott King as leader in her own right.
"We must never forget that Mrs. King led a silent march for striking sanitation workers in Memphis, 3 days after her husband was killed.

...In 1985, Mrs. King/her daughter @BerniceKing were arrested for protesting apartheid..."
And she warned Congress against confirming a Southern segregationist to a federal position he would abuse, in pursuit of an agenda hostile to civil rights.

Ancient History, Never Happened, Yada Yada


4.06.2017

Pass The Cornpone

Nunes "temporarily" out as House Intel Committee chairman, blames those omnipotent "leftwing activist groups" for filing ethics "accusations."
To be replaced by... impartial guy wearing hat...
Well, let him explain in his own words—.

With extra helping of Benghazi.


4.05.2017

Family Matters

Because, there is one family that matters...




WhiteHouse Washing


4.04.2017

Friend Of A Friend





Good Questions

Sarah Kendzior, retweets her finds from last August. That Trump in 2014 was planning to leverage his Russian connections is clear. Also clear: his eagerness to get his hands on the US economy, and personally light the match to a purifying flame.

This Day In History

4.03.2017

Brotherhood Of Brutes

3.30.2017

"Only Day 70"

By the calendar, maybe. But each day sure feels sort of like dog years elapsed.



Targets


A suggestion from testimony at Senate Intel hearings
Former FBI special agent Clint Watts ... told the committee that the Russians may now be trying to cover their tracks.

"Follow the trail of dead Russians," Watts said. "There's been more dead Russians in the past three months that are tied to this investigation who have assets in banks all over the world."
Sarah Posner: Today's Russia hearings actually revealed something new and important. Which was Clinton Watts startling the Senate committee by explaining with what serious journalists and researchers had known—
According to Watts (who was backed up by other witnesses who testified), the Russians have been using "active measures," which are built on propaganda tactics that date back to Soviet times, to spread disinformation, fear, confusion, and chaos in multiple democratic countries, including the United States.

These efforts include the use of visible Kremlin propaganda outlets, such as RT and Sputnik, to publish false news stories and conspiracy theories. Russian actors then deploy social media bots to spread these false stories far and wide. In the U.S., Watts said, the goal has been to provoke the Trump into repeating them or retweeting them to his millions of followers.

In a moment that stunned the hearing room, Watts flatly stated that the president himself has become a cog in such Russian measures. When asked by Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, who appeared visibly dismayed, why, if Russians have long used these methods, they finally worked in this election cycle, Watts' answer was extraordinary.

"I think this answer is very simple and is one no one is really saying in this room," he said. Part of the reason, he went on, "is the commander in chief has used Russian active measures at times against his opponents."
For instance,

Also, extensive operations targeting journalists and others.