Intercepted

Jeremy Scahill's podcast from The Intercept via Stitcher



For the most part, I can do without Glenn Greenwald - a little too prissy, in that he sounds like he's setting himself up as the Purity Police, which seems to push the Both-Sides crap; so, a bit of a fart-breather.  That said, he's good at keeping us informed as to how we go about sifting thru all the chaff coming at us from the Press Poodles in order to get a little closer to figuring out What Is vs What Ain't.

Anyway, I'll take Scahill any day, and I've crushed on Naomi Klein for quite a while.

Today's Today

On February 17, 1600, Fr Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy.  According to a letter from the time, he made "a threatening gesture" towards his judges and said, "Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it".

People with balls (using that word in the figurative sense) are the ones who move this whole thing forward - in big and little ways.

Giordano Bruno

... was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer.[3] He is celebrated for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own (a philosophical position known as cosmic pluralism). He also insisted that the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its "center".

Beginning in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges including denial of several core Catholic doctrines (including Eternal Damnation, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and Transubstantiation). Bruno's pantheism was also a matter of grave concern.[4] The Inquisition found him guilty, and in 1600 he was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori. After his death he gained considerable fame, being particularly celebrated by 19th- and early 20th-century commentators who regarded him as a martyr for science,[5] although historians have debated the extent to which his heresy trial was a response to his astronomical views or to other aspects of his philosophy and theology.[6][7][8][9][10] Bruno's case is still considered a landmark in the history of free thought and the emerging sciences.[11][12][13]

In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. Historian Frances Yates argues that Bruno was deeply influenced by Arab astrology (particularly the philosophy of Averroes[14]), Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and legends surrounding the Egyptian god Thoth.[15] Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial concepts of geometry to language.[16]

WTF Moments

Rolling Stone

Standout: "The leaks are real. The news is fake."

I can say I've been a little impressed with the Press Poodles performing better than they've done before.  We still need to find the new Sam Donaldson, but they're starting to get up and push back.

Let's Lay Down A Marker

To be clear:

Obama inherited a big fucking mess from W and in his calm and cool way, he went about fixing what he could fix over the next several years.

45* inherited the thing in fair-to-middlin' shape and in his hysteria-mongering and chaos-creating way, he's fucked it up in less than a month.

The 45* Problem

Headlines at Vox this morning:

This is a very bad pattern.

The View From Out There

Getting pretty dark, boys and girls.

One For Ms Sarandon

You have the right to hold your opinions, and to speak, and to vote for whomever you want, and to urge others to do the same.

But (you knew there was a "but" comin', right?), you end up sounding a lot like Ayman Zawahri back in the 70s when you say things like having 45* in office is better than Hillary.

Because we need to be shocked violently in order to wake us up? So we can see the wonder and glory of whatever it is you think is better because that's what you think is better?

What you're doing is leveling a charge of false consciousness. We have this big horrible problem but all those dopes are just too ignorant to know it. We'll make some big horrible thing happen to snap 'em out of it - for their own sake.

Pithy adage 1: Revolutionaries always come in promising bread and freedom, but they always deliver years more of misery.

And look, I do it too. There's prob'ly 100s of posts on this blog that have something to do with "those rubes are so fucking stoopid".

I get it. But there's a bit of a difference in that I'm not the one hoping for the worst so I can prove my point and take advantage of the crash to make things the way I want them. And that's what I see you doing.

Pithy adage 1a: I'll take evolution, not revolution.

And also too, remember this one?
Predicting disaster
Expecting disaster
Wanting disaster
Facilitating disaster
Causing disaster

Where are you on that list?

Please stop doing shitty things to me and saying it's really for my own good - and that I'll thank you in the end. Just stop.

In closing - and I say this with all the love and charity in all the hearts of all the saints - Fuck off, lady.

Colbert And The Massacre

Hmmm

Obviously not the whole story. There's always a lot more when you drill down a ways, but still. 

Hey - I wonder what amazing things might've happened to get Clinton's number under average, and Obama's number down so so so very much.

And by the same token, that "free market approach' the Repubs love? In Healthcare, it seems to work exactly the opposite from how they tell us it will - and some of us have known that for-fucking-ever.

National health spending growth

Reagan years
1980-1988: 127%

Clinton
1992-2000: 60%

W Bush
2000-2008: 75%

Obama
2008-2016: 40%

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) February 16, 2017

They Never Go Away

Authoritarians are always there.  And they're forever trying to pull the same shit.

In this case, we can look at Voter Fraud and Intimidation and violence against the innocent perpetrated by Democrats at the direction of the Clinton campaign - as hypothesized by none other that Carter Page.

For anybody who's been paying attention, we know that when you're dealing with 45* and his minions, every accusation is a confession.

A piece by Jon Schwarz at The Intercept:

CARTER PAGE, briefly a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, sent a peculiar, rambling letter this week to the Department of Justice, asking it to review “the severe election fraud in the form of disinformation, suppression of dissent, hate crimes and other extensive abuses led by members of Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s campaign and their political allies last year.”

Page is reportedly one of several targets of a counterintelligence investigation by the FBI into possible links between Trump associates and Russian officials.

This move - fuck with the election, and then proclaim loudly that the election's been fucked with - is straight out of the School of the Americas training the CIA used to provide for people in Central and South American countries in order to get "our guys" into power and keep them there.

You may recall, it was widely presumed that Manuel Noriega was a prize pupil, and became such a sore spot that Poppy Bush felt compelled to invade Panama in an effort to clean up a mess he helped create.

But anyway. It should seem really clear now that the initiative to investigate voter fraud is a setup. Once they splash the inevitable hyped up scary scenario across DumFux News and Breitbart, and it bounces around in the echo chamber for a while - even though it'll be practically nothing but unsupported assertions and rumors the states will have all the "justification" they need - cuz hey, it's coming from the FBI so it's gotta be official - and the Voter Suppression efforts will balloon.

And those new restrictions will include (buried in the amendments language) the legal structure to wipe those 3 million Hillary voters off the rolls.

Now, those last coupla paragraphs are almost pure speculation. Obviously, I think there's a better than even chance I'm right about what's coming (or what they intend to try), but that's not evidence. So grains of salt, even when you're here reading your favorite blogger's outstandingly noble and awesomely righteous bullshit.

He Gets It Wrong

...again.

WaPo:

In a meeting with educators, Trump asked the principal of a center that serves students with disabilities about the prevalence of autism. The principal, Jane Quenneville, spoke about the increasing number of students with autism at the Kilmer Center, a Fairfax County public school. But Trump then claimed that there was a “tremendous amount of increase” in autism in general — “really a horrible thing to watch.”

This exchange is especially noteworthy, because Trump wants to create a vaccine safety commission that could roll back vaccine laws based on the widely discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Since as early as 2012, Trump has falsely claimed there is a vaccine-autism link. On the presidential campaign trail, Trump again cited the junk science to explain the reason he believes so many children are diagnosed with autism.

So, is autism on the rise?

-and-

The rate in the 2016 report was the same as it was in 2014 — and the definition for autism was broadened in 2013.

The parameters for autism were changed in 2013, so that more kids who need help would get help. Way more important is that the Rate of Incidence didn't change for the three years after they re-jigered those parameters.

But 45* just goes right along pimping the Jenny McCarthy-style anti-vaxxer bullshit.

Here it is, putz: "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is a Logical Fallacy.

In terms even 45* can understand: A legless dog won't come when you call him, but that don't mean he's deaf. 

So yeah - 45* is that guy.

Today's Pix

Not That It'll Matter

via Right Wing Watch:

A new study by three political science professors found that state laws ostensibly targeting the fictional menace of voter fraud “have a disproportionate effect on minorities.”

Writing today in the Washington Post, professors Zoltan L. Hajnal, Nazita Lajevardi and Lindsay Nielson reveal a wide “turnout gap between whites and Latinos, Asian Americans and African Americans in states with and without strict voter ID laws.”

After noting that “strict voter ID laws suppress minority votes,” they add that these laws have also skewed the electorate to help Republicans win elections.
While proponents of strict voter ID laws—almost always Republicans—claim that there is a need to crack down on virtually nonexistent voter fraud, they effectively tilt elections to help Republicans by preventing people of color from voting, a fact admitted by many Republicans.

I saw this up close in November while I was staffing the Dems' table outside my voting station. A lady was turned away because the address on her Voter Registration card didn't match the address the on her ID. She'd been dropped off by a friend because she doesn't have a car, so I drove her to the County Offices, where it took maybe 10 minutes for her to get a picture printed out on regular PC printer paper - which magically passes as her Voter ID. We went back and she was allowed to vote.

That was not a huge ordeal. But it illustrates the main point of this shit - if you put any obstacle in front of people, a good percentage of them will just blow it off.  And the Repubs know that.  Just like they know exactly what Prof Hajnal et al confirmed with their study.

These people have no honor.

Today's Tweet

Just remember that Pence is all the evil, half the narcissism & none of the entertainment value.#TrumpImpeachmentParty

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) February 15, 2017

Today's Winner Of The Internet

A blogger with the Twitter handle of @yourauntemma put this up:

"Fascism doesn't come in with a bang, but with a sycophantic whimper."

Aunt Emma's blog

Meet President Pence

First, I really don't know what I'm talking about here. Because nobody knows what's really going on with the exception of some dedicated spooks and insiders who've been in Washington for a good long time, and who won't be telling us everything that's going on for just as long a time.

Even when (or if) somebody blows it open, we'll see the top layers - maybe several layers - but while we'll be told this is the most amazing revelation of the inner workings of the political machinery, we won't ever know the whole thing. Because if we did, we'd burn the joint down with everybody inside.  But - 'twas ever thus and ever thus 'twill be.

So anyway, Mike Pence.

Pence seems to be under the impression that he's supposed to be 45*'s righthand man; that he'll fill the Veep spot the way the last 3 Veeps have done - as a close advisor for POTUS, and a kind of partner who's in on the top level meetings, helping shape policy and politicking the agenda behind the scenes - more or less The President's Apprentice if you will (Sorry. I knew that one was coming as I was typing it, but I couldn't stop myself)

But it would seem Pence has been kept in the dark. They loaded him up with bullshit and sent him out to be the picket line of the castle's defense, and he ends up looking really stoopid. If he didn't know, then he's a dope, and if he did know, then he's a co-conspirator. Lose and lose some more.

And also but - it's started to look like the White House didn't fuck him over on purpose and they didn't just keep him out of the loop. It now seems this gang is so dysfunctional, Pence didn't know because communications and the decision-making process are completely FUBAR.

WaPo:
First

“The vice president is a very forgiving man,” said one White House official.

(translation: Chump; easily played; ambition overrides integrity; useful fool)

Next

Nonetheless, the two-week lag between when Trump, Bannon and Priebus learned of Flynn’s misdirection and when Pence himself found out through news reports has raised speculation as to Pence’s true clout — or lack thereof — within the White House.

If they're gonna go after 45*, they know it has to be a long slow process of getting an infrastructure (or a shadow version of the administration) in place that can keep things running as Pence gets his feet under him. Somebody has to guide a stealth transition while making sure 45* stays out of trouble as much as possible. 

Yeah - good luck with that whole coup d'etat thing, fellas. We're being told that there could be a monster constitutional crisis in the making, but it kinda looks like we're already in one.

Things have to happen quickly but can't be rushed.  I'm pretty sure it gets worse for a while.

Questions Remain Unanswered

In WaPo's Daily 202 today:

We're working under some assumptions, which is always a little dicey, but I keep thinking 9 corroborating sources makes this a matter of being pretty solidly confident of the conclusions.

And 9 sources means this is a big fucking deal, and that there's a bigger fucking-er deal yet to be uncovered.

1. What, if anything, did Trump authorize Flynn to tell the Russians before his inauguration?

2. Why was Trump planning to stand by Flynn?

3. What did White House counsel Donald McGahn do after the then-acting attorney general notified him last month that Flynn was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail?

4. What is the status of the FBI investigation into possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia?

5. Will Spicer and Pence apologize for making false statements to the American people?

6. Will Flynn face prosecution under the Logan Act?

7. What will the Senate Intelligence Committee uncover about contacts Flynn and others affiliated with Trump had with Russia before the election?

8. Who replaces Flynn?

9. Who else leaves the White House because Flynn is gone?

10. Who exactly is in charge at the White House?

We Were Warned

Paul Krugman, NYT, July 2016:

If elected, would Donald Trump be Vladimir Putin’s man in the White House? This should be a ludicrous, outrageous question. After all, he must be a patriot — he even wears hats promising to make America great again.

But we’re talking about a ludicrous, outrageous candidate. And the Trump campaign’s recent behavior has quite a few foreign policy experts wondering just what kind of hold Mr. Putin has over the Republican nominee, and whether that influence will continue if he wins.

I’m not talking about merely admiring Mr. Putin’s performance — being impressed by the de facto dictator’s “strength,” and wanting to emulate his actions. I am, instead, talking about indications that Mr. Trump would, in office, actually follow a pro-Putin foreign policy, at the expense of America’s allies and her own self-interest.

That’s not to deny that Mr. Trump does, indeed, admire Mr. Putin. On the contrary, he has repeatedly praised the Russian strongman, often in extravagant terms. For example, when Mr. Putin published an article attacking American exceptionalism, Mr. Trump called it a “masterpiece.”

 

Keith

Watch this video on The Scene.

The Big Diversion

Time Mag online from two fellows at The Brennan Ctr:

The Trump administration continues to double down on its false and widely-criticized assertion that 3 to 5 million non-citizens illegally voted in the 2016 election.

On Sunday, White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller claimed 14% of non-citizens are registered to vote. “We know for a fact, you have massive numbers of non-citizens registered to vote in this country,” he said, appearing on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos. “The White House has provided enormous evidence with respect to voter fraud.”

Actually, it hasn’t. Nevertheless, President Trump announced earlier this month, despite the lack of evidence, that Vice President Mike Pence will lead a federal investigation into voter fraud.

Tons of ink has been devoted to debunking the president’s claims that our elections are marred by widespread voter fraud. But few have focused specifically on his administration’s larger false claims about non-citizens. It is important to put this particular allegation to bed once and for all.

Like voter fraud generally, non-citizen voting is incredibly rare. Simply put, we already know that ineligible non-citizens do not vote in American elections — including the 2016 election — except at negligible rates. Here are the facts.

It's another shiny object dangled in front of us to get us away from the Russia thing. 

• &/or to drive more attempts to suppress the vote 
• &/or to cover the attempts to gut Social Security, etc
• &/or just about any other shitty thing these pricks are always up to

And btw - when did a Veep get the power to investigate anything? That's an honest question for me. I don't know that he doesn't have the standing to do that, it just seems a little, uhm, odd? 

Sure sounds like a snipe hunt to me.