Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Another rat leaves the sinking ship

A very important rat: Hope Hicks.
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, President Donald Trump's longest-serving aide, announced her resignation on Wednesday.

Hicks, 29, has been a longtime member of the Trump family's inner circle, having served as press secretary for his presidential campaign before being tapped to join the White House staff. Hicks, a former model, previously worked for the Trump Organization and for Ivanka Trump's fashion brand.

[...]

In a statement, Hicks thanked the president for his "gratitude."

  NBC
Huh?
Trump also issued a statement praising Hicks for her service. "Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person," the president said. "I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future."
Perhaps in the prison laundry.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told NBC News on Wednesday that Hicks’ departure had "nothing to do with yesterday,” referring to her testimony before the House panel investigating Russian interference. Sanders said that Hicks’ departure had been in the works for "several weeks" and "didn't happen overnight."
Several weeks....Hmmmm....about the time her boyfriend Rob Porter got busted for beating up his two exes?

Hicks was interviewed by Mueller's team back in December.  Since she was intimately involved in all of Trump's presidential affairs, and particular in forging a false statement by Junior on the Trump Tower meeting, I wonder what she spilled back then, what she's been doing since, and whether she'll get called back.  Or did she already make a deal?
Simply put: This is a White House in crisis. Hicks' departure adds to that sense that the sky is falling around and on Trump. There's no spin to put out that. You can't polish a turd. And when you try to, it tends to get all over the place.

  CNN
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 3/1:

Certainly possible:




President Trump reportedly berated former White House communications director Hope Hicks the day before her resignation, according to a new report.

CNN’s Erin Burnett reported Wednesday that Trump was angry with Hicks following her closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, in which she reportedly revealed she was sometimes required to tell “white lies” as part of her work in the White House.

Burnett reported one of Trump’s “close allies” told CNN that Trump asked Hicks after her testimony “how she could be so stupid.”

“Apparently, that was the final straw for Hope Hicks,” Burnett said.

  The Hill

Jesus wept



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Other countries take advantage of Kushner's position

Gee, I bet that surprises you.
Officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.

Among those nations discussing ways to influence Kushner to their advantage were the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the current and former officials said.

It is unclear if any of those countries acted on the discussions, but Kushner’s contacts with certain foreign government officials have raised concerns inside the White House and are a reason he has been unable to obtain a permanent security clearance, the officials said.

[...]

The issue of foreign officials talking about their meetings with Kushner and their perceptions of his vulnerabilities was a subject raised in McMaster’s daily intelligence briefings, according to the current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

  WaPo
But not, I presume, raised in the presidential daily briefings.
Officials in the White House were concerned that Kushner was “naive and being tricked” in conversations with foreign officials, some of whom said they wanted to deal only with Kushner directly and not more experienced personnel, said one former White House official.
Naive and self-serving.
Foreign governments routinely discuss ways they can influence senior officials in all administrations.

[...]

But Kushner came to his position with an unusually complex set of business holdings and a family company facing significant debt issues.
A veritable foreign influence jackpot, shall we say?
Officials from the UAE identified Kushner as early as the spring of 2017 as particularly manipulable because of his family’s search for investors in their real estate company, current and former officials said.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Must be a liberal trick



The Dalton Police Department reported that “shot or shots” had been fired at Dalton High School just after 11:15 a.m. on the department’s official Twitter account.

[...]

At 11:23 a.m., the department tweeted an update that read “The teacher is in custody.”

No students were harmed, and no children were in danger during the shooting, but one student did sustain an ankle injury running inside the school during the evacuation, according to the DPD.

  WGNO
That's harm.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Sessions responds to latest presidential jab






I wonder whose integrity and honor he's going to be using.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ohhhhhhhhh! Some revenge tweeting can't be far behind.

The faculty at Lehigh University has voted that the college should rescind President Trump's honorary degree.

Faculty voted online, with 83 percent of respondents saying the university should rescind the degree the president received in 1988, WFMZ-TV reported.

The vote had a 76 percent response rate among the faculty, according to the publication.

Faculty members had argued that Trump's actions do not fall in line with the university's character or standards.

  The Hill
Or standards on character, for that matter.
The results of the vote will now be presented to the university's Board of Trustees, according to the publication.

Last year, nearly 35,000 people signed a petition urging the board to rescind Trump's honorary degree.

The board chose to take no action last October, saying at the time the university "encourages respectful dialogue, discussion, and learning about important societal issues."
Yes, well, boards and faculty are very distinct creatures. I'm guessing the board will ignore this vote, too.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"You can't even buy a decent chair for $5,000"

That story on Helen Foster's lawsuit sparked some investigative journalism.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will reportedly spend $165,000 on “lounge furniture” for its D.C. office, according to The Guardian.

This comes on the heels of President Trump proposing a $6.8 billion budget cut for the department, cuts that would leave fewer resources for programs that help the poor and homeless.

  The Hill
If they're going to be following suit on Trump's deconstruction of America and underfunding of programs, they won't need to work.  And if they aren't working, they're going to need some good lounge furniture.
On Tuesday it was also reported that HUD Secretary Ben Carson spent $31,000 late in 2017 on a dining set for his office.
A dining set for his office??
HUD officials are also reviewing Carson’s family involvement in the department after officials reportedly expressed concerns about Carson’s oldest son inviting potential business partners to HUD an event.
What's good for the Trumps is good for the Carsons.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 3/1:





FURTHER UPDATE:


Is he saying his wife doesn't tell hiim what she buys?

And, to answer Chris' question:  because we left planet reality in November 2016, and we're not going back any time soon.

FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE:




😁

UPDATE 3/14:  He was as surprised as anyone.
An email [...] sent to Carson's assistant last August reportedly cites "printouts of the furniture the Secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out" and has a subject line that says: "Secretary's dining room set needed."

  The Hill

Kudus to Dick's Sporting Goods

After the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, Dick’s Sporting Goods said they were taking a stand — they removed assault-style weapons from their chain of stores.

But a year later, the company developed and opened a chain of stores called Field & Stream, which focused on hunting and fishing. Assault-style weapons were sold in its 35 stores, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

On Wednesday morning, Ed Stack, the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods announced on ABC’s Good Morning America that they would eliminate the sale of these type of guns permanently from all of its stores.

[...]

Additionally, the sporting goods store will no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age and will no longer sell high-capacity magazines, according to a press release from the retailer.

Stack said the company is prepared for any backlash it might get, but he points to the brave survivors and victims of the Parkland shooting as inspiration for the company’s decision.

  People
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

When I posted this earlier today, I wondered what Walmart would do.  Wondering no more...



UPDATE 3/1:

It's a trend...



Doesn't say anything about assault rifles.

UPDATE 3/2:

There goes LL Bean.

Georgia may have hung itself

Or maybe a more apt phrase would be "shot itself in the foot."




Cuomo is not the only Democrat to make an offer to Delta amid the backlash. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) on Tuesday invited Delta to relocate its headquarters to Ohio.

  The Hill
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 3/2:

Pre-determining the outcome on gun control



A bit like gerrymandering.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Predictive policing in the US

Predictive policing technology has proven highly controversial wherever it is implemented, but in New Orleans, the program escaped public notice, partly because Palantir established it as a philanthropic relationship with the city through Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s signature NOLA For Life program. Thanks to its philanthropic status, as well as New Orleans’ “strong mayor” model of government, the agreement never passed through a public procurement process.

In fact, key city council members and attorneys contacted by The Verge had no idea that the city had any sort of relationship with Palantir, nor were they aware that Palantir used its program in New Orleans to market its services to another law enforcement agency for a multimillion-dollar contract.

[...]

Even within the law enforcement community, there are concerns about the potential civil liberties implications of the sort of individualized prediction Palantir developed in New Orleans, and whether it’s appropriate for the American criminal justice system.

[...]

Six years ago, one of the world’s most secretive and powerful tech firms developed a contentious intelligence product in a city that has served as a neoliberal laboratory for everything from charter schools to radical housing reform since Hurricane Katrina. Because the program was never public, important questions about its basic functioning, risk for bias, and overall propriety were never answered.

  The Verge
P.S.
James Carville, the Democratic Party power broker and architect of Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign. Carville is a paid adviser of Palantir whose involvement with the data-mining company dates back at least to 2011.

In an interview, Carville told The Verge that he was the impetus for the collaboration between Palantir and New Orleans. “I am the sole driver of that project. It was entirely my idea,” said Carville, adding that he and Palantir CEO Alex Karp flew down to New Orleans to meet with Mayor Landrieu. “To me, it was a case of morality. Young people were shooting each other, and the public wasn’t as involved as they should have been.”
So his idea of how to rectify that was to introduce a secret project? Interesting approach.

We've heard about Palantir before.  I posted excerpts from an Intercept article back in 2016:
Since 2011, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has paid Palantir [Palantir Technologies, the data mining company co-founded by billionaire and Trump transition advisor Peter Thiel] tens of millions of dollars to help construct and operate a complex intelligence system called FALCON, which allows ICE to store, search, and analyze troves of data that include family relationships, employment information, immigration history, criminal records, and home and work addresses.

In a separate multi-million-dollar contract signed in 2014, Thiel’s $20 billion company is building a complex case management system for ICE’s HSI, which processes tens of thousands of civil and criminal cases each year.

[...] 

In recent years, the federal government has reportedly paid Palantir  some $340 million in contracts. Concerns over Thiel’s potential conflicts deepened last week when it was reported that he would not confirm whether or not he had signed standard paperwork barring him from participating in Trump transition matters that might conflict with his private interests. 

  The Intercept
All the horror stories of late about how ICE has been systematically rounding up and deporting people who have been model citizens for years in this country should be a cautionary tale about the use of data mining programs.  But it won't be. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Judge sets trial date for Manafort

September 17.  That ought to bring it pretty close to the midterm elections.  Cue the Republican outcry.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Hicks testimony

White House communications director Hope Hicks spent nine hours testifying Tuesday behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee, a month after her initial appearance was abruptly postponed. Like at least two other witnesses before her -- including former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon -- Hicks initially relegated her testimony solely to events that took place during the campaign and refused to answer questions related to the transition or her time in the White House.

Later in the afternoon, after it was revealed she had addressed some transition matters in an earlier, separate interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Hicks slightly broadened her testimony to answer "some" questions related to the transition, members said.

[...]

[Adam Schiff] said the minority moved, as it did in Bannon's case, to subpoena some of Hicks' testimony "on the spot," but that the majority declined to do so.

Earlier in the day, Rep. Denny Heck, D-Washington, summed up the testimony in three words: "We got Bannoned."

  CBS
As always, this investigation is an incredible waste of time and money.
A source familiar with Hicks' testimony tells CBS News she did answer a question about whether she had ever lied for Mr. Trump by saying she has told "white lies" for him at times.
How does she define "white lies"? Saying the infamous Junior meeting in Trump Tower was about adoptions and help to formulate his response offering that excuse?

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Keeping score

Aside from Jeff Sessions, Trump keeps score on who hasn't been loyal.  Well, somebody keeps score for him.



Many of President Trump’s political aides made it a priority to ensure that the Tennessean, who has accused the president of “debasing” the country with his “untruths” and “name-calling,” did not reenter the race. So they went straight to the one person with the ability to give Corker a new lease on his political life: Trump himself.

They frequently reminded the president of Corker’s criticism, at times even providing specific examples. They kept folders documenting the attacks from Corker and other Trump detractors.

[...]

On Tuesday, Corker announced that he would not run, ending a stretch of uncertainty that put the Republican Party on edge.

[...]

Corker’s decision ensures one thing: Trump’s two most vocal Senate Republican critics will be gone from the chamber next year, barring further surprises. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has lambasted Trump, is also retiring.

[...]

The White House has also distributed lengthy surveys asking candidates to explain why they like the president and the president’s agenda.

  WaPo
Christ.  Banana Republicans.
Looking ahead to the fall midterm stretch run, the senior White House official said, Trump hopes to be on the road as “often as four or five times as week.”
And if any Republican into whose territory he wanders thinks he's going to do anything but perform a campaign speech for his own re-election in 2020, they're going to be sorely disappointed.

In the case of California, it's an entire state he's punishing.




He doesn't have to make sense to feel like he's successfully punishing someone.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Is Jeff Sessions still covering for Old Lard Ass in the Russia probe?

He shouldn't be, as often as Old Lard Ass shits on him.


Is the Inspector General not part of the DOJ, and therefore a "Justice Department lawyer"?  Will he be personally investigating the issue all alone?  Are the people who work in the IG department not "Justice Department lawyers?"  Who said something stupid on Fox News this morning?

Old Lard Ass doesn't get it that DOJ lawyers are all expected to be impartial politically.  He put Bilbo Bigot* in that position in the first place because he thought Sessions would "be loyal".  In fact, Sessions did go before the House Justice Committee and lie and deflect for his boss, but got no appreciation for that.

So far, the only "disloyal" thing Sessions has done is recuse himself from the Russia probe (which he was required to do since he was part of the campaign committee under investigation) allowing Deputy AG Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.  But that was a biggie. It enraged Old Lard Ass, and he's still going after Sessions for it...on Twitter, ffs.  Trump could just replace Sessions, but he seems to prefer to keep him in position and punch him periodically.  What an ugly, nasty man we have in the White House.  DISGRACEFUL!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S. He's really worried about that pee tape.

*h/t @AngryBlackLady

UPDATE:

Kushner demoted

Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded, according to reports on Tuesday, leaving the senior adviser and son-in-law to Donald Trump without direct access to top secret intelligence and sensitive documents that include the president’s daily brief.

Kushner was notified of the downgrade in a memo on Friday, along with other White House aides who had access to the highest-level interim clearances, Politico and others reported on Tuesday.

Kushner and the aides previously held what is known as Top Secret/SCI-level clearances, which provided them with unfettered access to classified information and some of the country’s most guarded secrets.

The president has the unilateral authority to share classified information as he sees fit, including with his son-in-law, despite the clearance downgrade.

[...]

A former spokesman on the US national security council, Tommy Vietor, posted on Twitter that Kushner would now find himself cut out of top-level intelligence discussions.

  Guardian
This is a win for Kelly, with whom Kushner and Ivanka have both been crossways since he was brought in to run things.

I never thought this would happen. Does it mean The Most Notable Loser also won't be bailing Kushner out of the trouble he's in with Mueller? If not, will Kushner turn on him? Has he already, and Old Lard Ass suspects it, so won't give Kushner top secret clearing? Am I getting a little beyond the evidence?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



UPDATE 2/28:

Is Kilgore Trout getting a little ahead of the evidence, or are we smelling the same aroma?



Of course, that doesn't necessarily apply to Old Lard Ass himself, but it could.  If it did come down to Trump v. Kushner, which side would Ivanka take?  I don't think that's obvious.

UPDATE 3/2:

For what it's worth...
Mr. Trump is also frustrated with Mr. Kushner, whom he now views as a liability because of his legal entanglements, the investigations of the Kushner family’s real estate company and the publicity over having his security clearance downgraded, according to two people familiar with his views. In private conversations, the president vacillates between sounding regretful that Mr. Kushner is taking arrows and annoyed that he is another problem to deal with.

[...]

Privately, some aides have expressed frustration that Mr. Kushner and his wife, the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, have remained at the White House, despite Mr. Trump at times saying they never should have come to the White House and should leave. Yet aides also noted that Mr. Trump has told the couple that they should keep serving in their roles, even as he has privately asked Mr. Kelly for his help in moving them out.

  NYT
Of course, in the era of Trump, all we get is leaks, rumor and inuendo, because nobody will talk on the record. And after the leaks and rumors, The Most Notable Loser - or somebody - sends out that harpy Sarah Sanders to deny what was just reported. So, as always caveat lector.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Announcing: Trump campaign staff 2020





And that CPAC speech was essentially just a campaign speech.

Wouldn't it be nice if they settled down and worked on this term?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Central character in Russia probe has disappeared



The Maltese professor [Joseph Mifsud], who allegedly delivered word of Hillary Clinton’s stolen emails to Donald Trump's campaign [via George Papadopoulos], is an authentically mysterious figure, his true role and ties to Russian intelligence unclear.

[...]

His biography disappeared from one university where he taught and he quit his job at another university. His email and cell phones went dead. And politicians, colleagues and journalists can't find him.

Neither can Anna, his 31-year-old Ukrainian fiancee, who says he is the father of her newborn child.

[...]

[Mifsud] cut off all contact with Anna, including phone calls and WhatsApp messages. That silence has held, even six weeks after the daughter Anna says he fathered was born.

“He never helped me,” she said. “Only talk and promises.”

[...]

The result is new information about Mifsud’s activities, including his claim of having dined with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister.

“He said, ‘I have dinner with Lavrov tonight. Lavrov is my friend. Lavrov this, Lavrov that,’” Anna said. “He even show me picture with Lavrov.”

[...]

In a series of WhatsApp messages sent in May 2017, Mifsud also told Anna he was in Saudi Arabia at the same time as President Donald Trump’s visit, and in Sicily, Italy, for the G7 Summit.

[...]

Mifsud acknowledged in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica published last November that he met former Trump campaign aide Papadopoulos “three or four times,” and facilitated connections between "official and unofficial sources," but denied any wrongdoing.

  Buzzfeed
But went to ground. Do you think Mueller has him secreted away? Or is he hiding out on his own? Hiding from Anna and the baby? Or has something untoward happened to him because he knows too much?
In late October 2015, Mifsud proposed to her. Anna says they were at a restaurant overlooking the Kremlin in Moscow celebrating Anna’s sister’s birthday. The Maltese academic asked Anna to marry him at the restaurant, and gave her a ring.

[...]

“He came to celebrate a New Year, birthdays, my sister’s baby. He knew all my family. Something we celebrate, he would come. We had a good relationship,” [Anna] said.

[...]

“We had a plan to live in Rome. We spoke about this, but only speak,” Anna, who works in marketing, said. “He tell me I want a baby with you, I want a family with you.”

[...]

When the couple split up for a few months in 2016, Mifsud sent her an email asking her to return the ring and handbags, one of which was a Chanel handbag that Mifsud had bought for her during a visit to Rome in the spring 2015.

Pretty formal signature for a man who gave a woman an engagement ring. Maybe that's for any future lawsuit.
[Anna] provided access to her entire WhatsApp history with Mifsud. She also shared dozens of photos of the couple together, including in Ukraine and Russia. BuzzFeed News has seen many photos of the baby and of Anna during different stages of her pregnancy and at the clinic where she gave birth. Anna also said that she wants to do a DNA test to prove that Mifsud is the father of the baby.
He'll have to turn up first.
Anna said she and Mifsud last met in person in Kiev in early April 2017. The academic told her then that he had recently been questioned by the FBI in the US, she said.

“He told me he was in his hotel room when he was called downstairs by reception. It was the FBI. He said they wanted to talk about connections he set up between people in Britain and Russia.”

“He said his phone was probably being checked,” Anna added.

[...]

After finding out that she was pregnant, according to WhatsApp messages seen by BuzzFeed News, Mifsud repeatedly told Anna he really wanted to see her and promised to visit her soon, but he never did, often making excuses or citing health reasons.

[...]

Mifsud at first expressed “shock” at the news of Anna’s pregnancy. He asked if she slept with anyone during a recent work trip she’d made to Denmark and Norway, and whether she wanted to keep the baby.

But in later messages, he put his initial reaction down to being surprised and told Anna that he was “super excited” and that the “child will have great parents.”

[...]

But there were also signs that Mifsud was not as enthusiastic as he portrayed himself, and the tone of their messages changed in the final months of her pregnancy. The professor stopped answering the phone and would reply only to Anna’s WhatsApp messages, saying he was ill with heart problems or in the hospital, but promising to fly to her as soon as given the green light.

[...]

In late October, he told her in a message that he was “fighting to live.”
Yeah, he could be hiding from Anna.
Just days later, on Nov. 1, one day after Papadopoulos’s guilty plea was unsealed in Washington, La Repubblica published an interview with him at the Rome university where he was working, in which he acknowledged being the unnamed professor referenced in the court documents in which investigators allege that Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Clinton. The journalist who did the interview said in an email that it had taken place the previous day.

[...]

According to court documents, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russians had thousands of emails from Democrats in April 2016, two months before the Democrats themselves were aware that their computer system had been hacked. Mifsud told Papadopoulos he’d learned of the emails during a trip to Russia, but who told him is unknown.
And now, he's disappeared. Just what we needed. More mystery in the Russia probe.

A little encouragement

Mona Charen, the conservative columnist [...] faced audible boos and jeers from the crowd at CPAC on Saturday when she criticized Trump and Moore, but she says she’s also seen an outpouring of support since speaking up about the way GOP leaders have treated sexual misconduct among prominent candidates.

“There are fewer and fewer people who are speaking up. Even I was getting depressed and demoralized,” she said Monday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “But since I said what I did, there’s been such an outpouring of support that I feel more than ever that people who are — who adhere to basic principles of dignity and integrity and belief that we should stand up for honesty, there are a lot of them out there, and they just need a little encouragement, I think.”

  TPM
That outpouring of support wouldn't be from liberals, would it? Conservatives can see how viciously their compatriots get attacked when they speak out against the president, the GOP fascists, and their financial backers. I doubt too many of them are willing to take the hit. They saw what happened to Mona, too.
After she left the CPAC stage, she was approached by security guard and escorted out of the venue, Charen told “Morning Joe.” However, she said that on her way out, she did see some CPAC attendees give her “the thumbs up.”
I'm skeptical. I think they were giving the security guards the thumbs up.
“There’s a tone of sort of sophomoric clownishness that’s creeped into conservatism now,” she said. “There’s this mood of trolling the opposition, that if you can create liberal tears, then anything goes.”
You got it, Mona. Time to change parties. Or make a new one.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

She speaks

One year into her non-bullying campaign, Melania Trump finally has something to say about it.
Melania Trump, whose husband is known for the barbs he hurls on Twitter, says adults should be “encouraging positive habits on social media” as an example for children.

“As I have said before, it is important that as adults we take the lead and responsibility in helping our children manage the many issues they're facing today,” the first lady said Monday, according to a press pool report, in remarks at the White House at a luncheon for spouses of the country's governors, who were meeting with President Trump.

“This means encouraging positive habits on social media and technology,” Melania Trump said. “Even limiting time online and understanding the content they are exposed to on a daily basis.”

“I am asking you all to join me today and commit to promoting values such as encouragement, kindness, compassion and respect in our children,” the mother of 11-year-old Barron Trump added.

  The Hill
Did they all suggest she do something about that other big baby of hers?

You have to wonder why she chose this particular project. She doesn't do anything with it. Did she choose it as a coded SOS?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dear God

An elementary school in Pennsylvania will close[d] for classes this week when a nearby church holds a blessing ceremony involving AR-15 rifles.

The superintendent of the Wallenpaupack Area School District wrote in a letter to parents that students will instead be taken to schools about 15 miles away, The Associated Press reported.

The superintendent in the letter said there is "no direct threat," but said there are worries about parking, traffic and the "nature of the event."

The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pa., is telling couples to bring their semi-automatic rifles to a blessing ceremony it is scheduled to hold Wednesday.

  The Hill
"The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary" is blessing semi-automatics. Irony is dead.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

WITCH HUNT!

Former White House counsel John Dean is warning that former Trump campaign adviser Richard Gates's testimony could be the "end" of the Trump presidency.

"Mueller is throwing everything he can against Manafort, including Gates who can nail him. Increasingly it appears Manafort is the link to Russian collusion," Dean, who served in the Nixon administration, tweeted.

"If Gates can testify that Manafort was acting with Trump’s blessings, it’s the end of his presidency. That’s substantial."

  The Hill
My fear is that we'll finally see proof, but we still won't get rid of the snake. (And even if we do, we're left with Pence, unless he's in the indictment, too.)
Dean said in a subsequent tweet that people have "expressed concern in this Manafort thread that Trump will pardon him."

"Many of the counts in both the VA and DC indictments have state law counterparts that can be charged in NY and VA, where Trump had no pardon power. Checkmate is coming for Paul Manafort," he tweeted.

The Most Notable Loser went all day yesterday without tweeting.  And he's getting his fix this morning to recover.  It's the same old song: Hillary Clinton is a criminal who should be investigated, and there's no evidence of collusion - or as he is tweeting it:  NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION...WITCH HUNT!

And, speaking of the snake...
Oscar Brown Jr.'s daughters are criticizing President Trump for his interpretation of their father's song "The Snake."

During an interview on CNN, the late performer's daughters were asked to explain the message of the song.

[...]

"It's an African tradition to use stories to impart wisdom and that's exactly what that was, teaching us about that."

Oscar Brown Jr., a singer, songwriter, poet and activist who died in 2005, wrote "The Snake" in the early 1960s. It is a tale of a woman taking in a snake to nurse it back to health and care for it, only for the snake to bite her.

Trump frequently read "The Snake" at rallies during his 2016 presidential campaign, refashioning it as an argument for tougher immigration laws.

He again read the tale during his speech last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

[...]

"The elephant in the room is that Trump is the living embodiment of the snake that my father wrote about in that song," Africa Brown said.

  The Hill

They didn't take these positions to be pinching pennies

Trump's administration is full of incompetents who are there for the bling. They fly royalty class, or not at all. They're not peasants, after all.
A senior career official in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has alleged that she was demoted and replaced with a Donald Trump appointee after refusing to break the law by funding an expensive redecoration of Ben Carson’s office.

[...]

[Helen] Foster, 47, claimed that she also faced retaliation for exposing a $10m budget shortfall, and for protesting when she was barred from handling a pair of sensitive freedom of information act (FOIA) requests relating to Trump apparently because she was perceived to be a Democrat.

[...]

Foster said she was told “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair” after informing her bosses this was the legal price limit for improvements to the HUD secretary’s suite at the department’s Washington headquarters.

  The Guardian
By that measure, not a person reading this has a decent chair.
The complaint letter said that the day before Trump’s inauguration in January last year, Foster was asked by acting HUD director Craig Clemmensen to help Carson’s wife, Candy, obtain funds for the redecoration of her husband’s office suite. When Foster replied that there was a statutory limit of $5,000, Clemmensen allegedly told her that administrations had “always found ways around that in the past”.
Maybe why there was a $10 million shortfall.
When she had not relented by 10 February, Foster was repeatedly told by Clemmensen “to ‘find money’ for Mrs Carson.”

[...]

A copy of a complaint letter filed by Foster to a watchdog for federal employees was obtained by the Guardian. It alleges that HUD violated laws protecting whistleblowers from reprisals. Foster is seeking a public apology, compensatory damages and reinstatement as HUD’s chief administrative officer.
Not in this administration.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Contrary to what you might imagine, he can always say something dumber

There's no bottom.
While urging governors to work with him on new school safety measures, President Trump again attacked officers Monday for not entering a Florida high school building and somehow engaging a gunman who killed 17 people with a military-style rifle.

"I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too," Trump told a group of state governors gathered at the White House for talks on multiple issues.

Asked if Trump has had firearms training himself, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said, "I don't think that was the point he was making; he was saying that he would be a leader and would want to take a courageous action."

  USA Today
Unless, of course, he had a flare-up of his bone spurs.



Jesus wept.

Also, Peterson says he thought the shots were coming from outdoors.
According to a statement issued by his lawyer, Peterson thought the shots were coming from outside any school building, and he followed training that says "in the event of outdoor gunfire, one is to seek cover and assess the situation" and communicate with other law enforcement officers.

“Allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue,” the statement said.
If true, he resigned very quickly.


UPDATE3/9:

Police radio records contradict Peterson's claim.
When Nikolas Cruz began firing shots inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Broward Deputy Scot Peterson told cops, “Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building, stay at least 500 feet away,” according to a Miami Herald review of police radio records.

[...]

This is a different story than Peterson has previously told, which was that he thought the shots were coming from outside the school. But audio review reveals he was aware shots were being fired from within the buildings.

  Axios
[I]nternal radio dispatches released by the Broward Sheriff’s Office Thursday show Peterson immediately fixated on Building 12 and even radioed that gunfire was happening “inside.”

And, just as school shooter Nikolas Cruz was fleeing the building after killing 17 people, Peterson warned his fellow officers to stay away — even as wounded students and staff lay inside.

  Miami Herald
Wow.
“Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building, stay at least 500 feet away,” a panicked Peterson shouted as people screamed in the background.

[...]

At 2:22 p.m. the fire alarm was triggered, blaring throughout the entire campus. The first 911 call also went out, via Coral Springs emergency dispatch center.

“Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired —1200 building,” Peterson radioed at 2:23 p.m.

At that moment, according to the video, Peterson arrived at the southeast corner of Building 12, where he appeared to remain “for the duration of the incident.” “We’re talking about the 1200 building, it’s going to be the building off Holmberg Road,” Peterson said frantically seconds later.

“Get the school locked down, gentlemen!” he shouted.

[...]

Peterson, according to the timeline and radio dispatches reviewed by the Miami Herald, remained focused on Building 12.

“All right... We also heard it’s by, inside the 1200,” Peterson said at 2:25 p.m.

[...]

As the shooting progressed, calls began “blowing up” the 911 call centers. Students were spilling out of the campus. Peterson radioed to make sure “no one comes inside the school.”

[...]

At 2:27 p.m., six minutes after Cruz went into Building 12, the shooting stopped. Cruz ditched his AR-15 in the third-floor stairwell and left.

Five seconds later, Peterson radioed for officers to “stay at least 500 feet away at this point.”

[...]

Coral Springs officer Tim Burton had just arrived at Douglas High. At 2:28 p.m., he radioed out the first description of Cruz: “White male with ROTC Uniform Burgundy Shirt” — exactly what the shooter was wearing when he was arrested later. How Burton obtained the information was unclear from the timeline.

At 2:29 p.m., as officers began encountering wounded students, Burton met with Peterson outside Building 12.

[...]

It was at 2:32 — 11 minutes after the shooting began — that four Coral Springs officers and two BSO deputies made the first police entrance into the building, helping to “extract a victim.”

[...]

By 2:35 p.m., officers were seen transporting a victim on a golf cart. One minute after that, 10 officers burst into Building 12 through an east-side entrance.

[...]

Down the street, Cruz had entered a Walmart and bought a drink at the Subway inside. At 3:40 p.m., a Coconut Creek officer saw Cruz and arrested him without incident. Cruz was indicted Wednesday on 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

[...]

Peterson resigned eight days after the shooting rather than be suspended without pay pending an internal affairs investigation.

No bunch of sniveling teens is gonna sway the Georgia Senate



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 2/28:

Georgia may have hung itself.

Or maybe a more apt phrase would be "shot itself in the foot."




Cuomo is not the only Democrat to make an offer to Delta amid the backlash. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) on Tuesday invited Delta to relocate its headquarters to Ohio.

  The Hill



Newsflash!

Himself has not tweeted today!

I would have thought he'd have hit out at Governor Inslee by now.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Macron to visit



Old Lard Ass wants to get tips on how to have a great military parade.


...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus what a moron




Aside from Gov. Inslee's comments, I wish someone had asked him why, when the outcome has always been death by cop or suicide, or capture to stand trial, does he think these shooters go into schools anyway. Obviously the threat of death isn't stopping them. What does he think will? Torture?

By the way, Governor Inslee, watch your back.  "Less tweeting.  More listening."  To his face.  In front of all those other governors.  Washingtonians should be proud.  And we've got Greitens.  Sad!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 2/27:  Jesus wept.

The evil that is Jared Kushner

Jake Bernstein has pulled together all the reasons to keep a close eye on Jared Kushner.  Click here to read.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

The kids are alright




In the era of click-bait and algorithms

LIKE MANY THINGS at Facebook, the ads auction is a version of something Google built first. As on Google, Facebook has a piece of ad real estate that it’s auctioning off, and potential advertisers submit a piece of ad creative, a targeting spec for their ideal user, and a bid for what they’re willing to pay to obtain a desired response (such as a click, a like, or a comment). Rather than simply reward that ad position to the highest bidder, though, Facebook uses a complex model that considers both the dollar value of each bid as well as how good a piece of clickbait (or view-bait, or comment-bait) the corresponding ad is. If Facebook’s model thinks your ad is 10 times more likely to engage a user than another company’s ad, then your effective bid at auction is considered 10 times higher than a company willing to pay the same dollar amount.

A canny marketer with really engaging (or outraging) content can goose their effective purchasing power at the ads auction, piggybacking on Facebook’s estimation of their clickbaitiness to win many more auctions (for the same or less money) than an unengaging competitor. That’s why, if you’ve noticed a News Feed ad that’s pulling out all the stops (via provocative stock photography or other gimcrackery) to get you to click on it, it’s partly because the advertiser is aiming to pump up their engagement levels and increase their exposure, all without paying any more money.

  Wired
In other words, it can cost me more for the same advertising space as you because I'm not as creative. Do I want that? Do you?
During the run-up to the election, the Trump and Clinton campaigns bid ruthlessly for the same online real estate in front of the same swing-state voters. But because Trump used provocative content to stoke social media buzz, and he was better able to drive likes, comments, and shares than Clinton, his bids received a boost from Facebook’s click model, effectively winning him more media for less money.
So, it pays to be a flaming dickhead.  At least on Facebook. And "negative ad campaigns" really do work.
The above auction analysis is even more true for News Feed, which is only based on engagement, with every user mired in a self-reinforcing loop of engagement, followed by optimized content, followed by more revealing engagement, then more content, ad infinitum. The candidate who can trigger that feedback loop ultimately wins. The Like button is our new ballot box, and democracy has been transformed into an algorithmic popularity contest.
I've just lately realized (been educated) that every time I "like" something on Facebook or Twitter, I'm narrowing what I see in the future. It's blithely called targeting and is supposed to be for marketing purposes. But it's also reinforcing what I think by virtue of feeding me information that coincides with what I like. I don't get the opposing view. And neither do you. Unless you specifically seek it out. No wonder we're becoming more and more polarized.

As for actual merchandise advertising, it apprently works a little differently.
What advertisers want to do is find the person who left a product unpurchased in an online shopping cart, just used a loyalty card to buy diapers at Safeway, or registered as a Republican voter in Stark County, Ohio (a swing county in a swing state).

Custom Audiences lets them do that. It’s the tunnel beneath the data wall that allows the outside world into Facebook’s well-protected garden, and it’s like that by design.

Browsed for shoes and then saw them on Facebook? You’re in a Custom Audience.

Registered for an email newsletter or used your email as login somewhere? You’re in a Custom Audience.

Ordered something to a postal address known to merchants and marketers? You’re definitely in a Custom Audience.
The really fun one is when I've just bought something online and then I start receiving ads for the very thing I just bought. I don't need it now.  I'm not going to click on the picture to look at it.  I have it.  Somebody really needs to fix that algorithm.
Here’s how it works in practice:

A campaign manager takes a list of emails or other personal data for people they think will be susceptible to a certain type of messaging (e.g. people in Florida who donated money to Trump For America). They upload that spreadsheet to Facebook via the Ads Manager tool, and Facebook scours its user data, looks for users who match the uploaded spreadsheet, and turns the matches into an “Audience,” which is really just a set of Facebook users.

[...]

In the language of database people, there’s now a “join” between the Facebook user ID (that’s you) and this outside third-party who knows what you bought, browsed, or who you voted for (probably). That join is permanent, irrevocable, and will follow you to every screen where you’ve used Facebook.
One thing I always avoid - and by this point, I don't know what difference it could possibly make - probably none, but I do it anyway - is signing in to any other account using Facebook, or Google, or whatever options it gives me. Theoretically, that should keep Facebook from at least tying in to that account, but they probably have plenty of other ways.  I'm the internet advertising equivalent of people who think they're safer traveling by air if they take their shoes off to get through security.  Not true, but if it makes you feel better, eh?
The above is pretty rudimentary data plumbing. But only when you’ve built a Custom Audience can you build Lookalike Audiences— the most unknown, poorly understood, and yet powerful weapon in the Facebook ads arsenal.

With a mere mouse click from our hypothetical campaign manager, Facebook now searches the friends of everyone in the Custom Audience, trying to find everyone who (wait for it) “looks like” you. Using a witches’ brew of mutual engagement—probably including some mix of shared page Likes, interacting with similar News Feed or Ads content, a score used to measure your social proximity to friends—the Custom Audience is expanded to a bigger set of like-minded people. Lookalikes.
This bit becomes really obvious when Facebook puts "people you may know" into your feed. It really should say "people who may know someone you know" or "people who happen to like something you also like, so maybe you'd like to know each other."
One of the ways the Trump campaign leveraged Lookalike Audiences was through its voter suppression campaigns among likely Clinton voters. They seeded the Audiences assembly line with content about Clinton that was engaging but dispiriting. This is one of the ways that Trump won the election, by the very tools that were originally built to help companies like Bed Bath & Beyond sell you towels.

[...]

The above isn’t mere informed speculation, the Trump campaign admitted to its wide use of both Custom and Lookalike audiences. There seems to be little public coverage of whether the Clinton campaign used Facebook Ads extensively, but there’s no reason to think her campaign did not exploit the same tools.

[...]

If we’re going to reorient our society around Internet echo chambers, with Facebook and Twitter serving as our new Athenian agora, then we as citizens should understand how that forum gets paid for. Rarely will the owners of that now-privatized space deign to explain how they’re keeping the lights on. Plotting Russians make for a good story, and external enemies frequently serve an internal purpose, but the trail of blame often leads much closer to home.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:





Twitter discussion.

The NRA takes on teenagers




One small correction:  the NRA is changing, not missing, the point.  They're framing it this way on purpose.

Here's a face you'll be seeing in your political future:

Clearly threatened by the powerful advocacy of the Parkland survivors, the NRA and its right-wing allies have spent the past week pushing demonstrably false smears and conspiracy theories in a failed effort to discredit the teens.

Hogg has been called a “crisis actor” by some, while others claim he’s a “pawn” for the gun-control agenda who has been “coached” to deliver anti-gun talking points. Some have also accused Hogg’s father, a former FBI agent, of coaching his son to speak out against Trump — a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump Jr. endorsed on Twitter.

The NRA has good reason to be scared: The teens from Stoneman Douglas have sparked a movement that is driving the NRA’s corporate sponsors to flee in unprecedented numbers.

They’ve also kept the nation’s attention focused on gun violence prevention for ten days straight — something that no one else has been able to achieve in the aftermath of any other major mass shooting in modern history.

But there’s one thing that terrifies the NRA more than anything: By the next presidential election, most of these teens will be old enough to vote.

[...]

[Parkland school shooting survivor David] Hogg’s voice is so powerful, in fact, that the NRA and its attack dogs are terrified of it — and they’ve launched an all-out smear campaign in an attempt to silence him.

But the teenage shooting survivor isn’t letting them get in his way, as he made clear Saturday morning on MSNBC’s “AM Joy.”

“The right is claiming that you are being led around by celebrities, by George Soros, by the left,” host Joy Reid said. “Your response?”

“I’m so sorry for each and every one of them,” Hogg said, before turning to the camera and addressing his attackers directly. “It’s so sad to see how many of you have lost faith in America, because we certainly haven’t, and we’re never going to.”

“You might as well stop now,” he added, “because we’re going to outlive you.”

  Shareblue
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Koch Brothers are winning bigly

Documents obtained by The Intercept and Documented show that the network of wealthy donors led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have taken credit for a laundry list of policy achievements extracted from the Trump administration and their allies in Congress.

The donors have pumped campaign contributions not only to GOP lawmakers, but also to an array of third-party organizations that have pressured officials to act swiftly to roll back limits on pollution, approve new pipeline projects, and extend the largest set of upper-income tax breaks in generations.

“This year, thanks in part to research and outreach efforts across institutions, we have seen progress on many regulatory priorities this Network has championed for years,” the memo notes. The document highlights environmental issues that the Koch brothers have long worked to undo, such as the EPA Clean Power Plan, which is currently under the process of being formally repealed, and Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, among their major accomplishments. The memo also highlighted administration efforts to walk back planned rules to strengthen the estate tax in a list of 13 regulatory decisions favored by the network.

[...]

The president’s lawyer, Don McGahn; the president’s chief liaison to Congress, Marc Short; and the president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, all previously worked for the Koch network before taking their current positions in the White House. Ethics forms reveal that officials across the government, including at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, previously served at Koch think tanks or other Koch groups. Vice President Mike Pence also maintains a very close relationship with the Koch brothers.

[...]

To win support for the Republican tax legislation, the Koch network claims that it organized over 100 rallies in 36 states, contacted over 1.8 million activists, and knocked on over 33,000 doors. The group also spent freely on digital and television advertisements, with $1.6 million in TV spots to support the legislation in Wisconsin alone. As The Intercept previously reported, the Koch network told its surrogates to downplay concern over the deficit, a major issue they raised during the Obama administration, in order to convince lawmakers to support the package.

[...]

The memo details efforts to weaken the power of labor unions, including a broad attack on private sector labor unions in states controlled by Republicans in 2017.

[...]

“Labor reform is not an overnight process; advancing major federal labor reform requires a long-term strategy,” it adds. To that point, the Koch network plans to press forward with the Employee Rights Act, legislation to extend right-to-work laws nationally and set up new barriers for labor activists hoping to form new unions.

  The Intercept
You have to appreciate that they name these movements "Right to work" and "Employee rights act", when they are totally anti-employee and pro-management.
The memo notes that they believe Justice Anthony Kennedy will soon retire, and the effort to replace him will be “far more contentious” than the effort to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“If President Trump nominates a principled, constructionist nominee for Justice Kennedy’s seat or any other vacant seat, we anticipate engaging with both grassroots and under-the-dome tactics, bringing paid and earned media and events to support the confirmation.” The memo notes that the network sponsored pressure effort on Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., all of whom eventually voted to confirm Gorsuch.

[...]

The Koch brothers intend to spend $400 million to preserve the Republican majority in Congress and maintain GOP power at the state level [in the midterm elections].

[...]

“We’ve made more progress in the last five years than I had in the last 50,” Charles Koch reportedly said. “The capabilities we have now can take us to a whole new level.”
Which Koch Brother will run for the presidency? Or would that hold them back too much?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We knew he was a snake when we brought him in







...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No collusion




I think he was always talking about himself.  He's the only person he's ever really concerned about.

I haven't watched the Pirro interview.  She would only have been interviewing him to portray how wonderful he is.  But I've read a few comments that indicate he gave a rambling and crazy performance.  I doubt they went too close to the Russia investigation issues, other than general denial of wrongdoing except by "the other side," but if I see anything other than that, I'll post.  I'm not going to watch it.  I saw some clips of the idiot talking about how we should arm teachers and put a stop to "sickos" going into schools, because, hey, they may be sickos, but they're logical and clever enough to realize they could get shot, so arming teachers will "take care of the problem."  Jesus, what an idiot.  How can anyone stand to watch/listen to him?


...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

The other "Panama Papers"


Representatives of the hotel owners’ association formally sought to fire Trump’s management team Thursday by hand-delivering termination notices to them at the Trump International Hotel and Tower, according to a Panamanian legal complaint filed by Orestes Fintiklis, who controls 202 of the property’s 369 hotel units. Trump’s managers retreated behind the glass walls of an office where they were seen carrying files to an area where the sounds of a shredding machine could be heard, according to two witnesses aligned with the owners. The legal complaint also accused Trump’s team of improperly destroying documents.

The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity over concerns they would be drawn into an expensive and protracted legal fight.

  AP
Practically guaranteed. It's the Trump way.
On Thursday, Fintiklis arrived at the property with management staff and lawyers intending to take over the hotel immediately. The Trump management team again refused to yield control of the property, and according to the legal complaint filed by Ithaca’s lawyers, refused to allow Fintiklis to check into any of his company’s 202 hotel rooms.

[...]

Elsewhere in the building, the hotel owners’ team and its allies were barred by Trump Hotel staff from entering the room containing the building’s closed-circuit TV system as well as key computer servers for the hotel and apartments that share the property. In response, they shut off power to the room — temporarily bringing down phone lines and internet connections within the building.

According to the legal complaint, Trump’s chief of security and six security guards “pushed and shouted at” Fintiklis when he came to deliver the termination notices. The complaint said the hotel employees then called the police.

[...]

The AP reported that the Trump management team ran off a group of Marriott executives who had been invited to tour the property amid a search for a replacement hotel operator.

[...]

The showdown is the newest low in a months-long fight over control of the property. Last August, Fintiklis’ Miami-based Ithaca Capital Partners bought the 202 units in a fire sale from the property’s struggling developer. As part of the deal, Trump Hotels sought and received some assurances that Ithaca would not seek to act against its interests as hotel manager.

Relations quickly soured amid abysmal hotel occupancy numbers and allegations by Ithaca and other hotel unit owners of financial mismanagement or misconduct.
Not the Trump organization! Who's gonna believe that?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.