Month: November 2017

You can’t take him anywhereby digby

Think Progress:

President Trump warned during his first visit to Japan — a country America attacked with atomic bombs twice during World War II — that dictators, regimes and nations have underestimated American resolve in the past. Roughly 200,000 people were killed or injured in the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“No dictator, no regime, and no nation should underestimate ever, American resolve. Every once and a while in the past, they underestimated us. It was not pleasant for them, was it?” he asked the audience of U.S. service members stationed in Japan.

Watch:

While his remarks sounded a bit tone-deaf in English, they reportedly sounded particularly worse in the Japanese translation:

“Those who underestimated us in the past didn’t meet a good end,” New York Times reporter Hiroko Tabuchi‏ observed was the translation that scrolled along a major Japanese television network.
Trump never mentioned North Korea specifically, but promised to defend freedomfrom foreign adversaries. Trump’s relationship with Japan was already on unsteady footing stemming from remarks he made while on the campaign trail.

During a March 2016 interview with the New York Times, Trump said America no longer has the money and the military is too depleted to continue protecting Japan from adversaries such as North Korea.

“There’ll be a point at which we’re just not going to be able to do it anymore. Now, does that mean nuclear? It could mean nuclear,” Trump said, suggesting that perhaps Japan should become a nuclear power.

Trump also took to Twitter last year to ask if Obama during his trip to Japan, would discuss the U.S. ally’s “sneak attack on Pearl Harbor” during WWII. He also cautioned that Obama should not apologize for the U.S. nuking Hiroshima.

Dispatch from Bizarroworldby digby

That is not an SNL sketch. It’s where the most powerful man in the world gets his information.
Buzzfeed:

The rumour started with a video posted in September that warned viewers about an “upcoming civil war.” It was posted by Jordan Peltz, who works for the private company US Warrant Service and maintained a Facebook page that had a profile picture of donkey wearing a Nazi armband. Peltz also has a website called Nazi-donkeys.com.

Anti-Trump protests were planned from Nov. 4 onward by Refuse Fascism, but the group told BuzzFeed News that the protests are meant to be non-violent. No “antifa” group has called for violence online during the Nov. 4 protests.

“What they’re saying is completely false,” Taylor said. “They’re blatant lies, and they’re creating and intending to intimidate people who want to stand up to the Trump/Pence regime. It’s concerning that these lies are being spread and that they’re unleashing threats.”

The “antifa apocalypse” and “antifa overthrow” ideas were then baselessly perpetuated by right-wing websites like InfoWars and the Gateway Pundit.

The false narrative gained more and more popularity as it was being repeated. Right Richer, a newsletter written by The Hill editor Will Sommer, even noted fabricated campaign posters and InfoWars sold Nov. 4 swag.

Many publications picked up on the claims to debunk them, including Time, Snopes, Washington Post, and BuzzFeed News. However, the Fox News report put more weight on the false claims of pro-Trump commentators. “Antifa apocalypse? Anarchist group’s plan to overthrow Trump ‘regime’ starts Saturday,” says the headline. The Fox News article already has 46,000 shares, comments, and likes on Facebook according to social tracking tool BuzzSumo. Fox News didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Welcome to the Paradise Papersby digby

The Big Story of the moment is the Paradise Papers, a trove of leaked emails from a secretive law firm in the Bahamas that reveals where a whole lot of rich people’s money and associates are. Another guide to the international oligarchy, if you will. This one features some folks from the Trump administration. First up is filthy rich commerce secretary Wilbur Ross who seems to be entangled with Russians. Imagine that.
Apparently, this is just the beginning of a big story that investigative reporters from all over the world have been working on for months.

Apropos of nothing, I can’t help but recall when Trump was talking about all the wealthy plutocrats in his administration last summer and said,

“I love all people, rich or poor. But in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person.”

Or when he said back in 2016,

“We’re going to make our country rich again; we’re going to make our country great again. And we need the rich in order to make it great, I am sorry to tell you.”

All the way back to July 2015:

I — I know the richest people in the world, I know the toughest people in the world, I know these people, they’re brutal. You wouldn’t like them and they probably wouldn’t like you very much…. These are brutal people, great negotiators, great business people, but not nice people, they’re not the happiest people. They are very rich, they are very smart. I would use them to negotiate against Japan. I would get one of them, bing, you’re here, you’re here, you’re here like checkers, like — like chess….”

Populism, 2017.

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Only the best peopleby digby

Trump promised to being in only the best people. He’s an expert on that because he’s rich and famous. You can trust his judgment.
Strangely, it turns out they aren’t even the best criminals:

Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

The investigators are speaking to multiple witnesses in coming days to gain more information surrounding Flynn’s lobbying work, including whether he laundered money or lied to federal agents about his overseas contacts, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

From left, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, his son Michael G. Flynn, and Boris Epshteyn, a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, board an elevator at Trump Tower in New York on Nov. 17, 2016. Carolyn Kaster / AP file
Mueller’s team is also examining whether Flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, two officials said.

A spokesperson for the special counsel had no comment.

Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked closely with his father, accompanied him during the campaign and briefly worked on the presidential transition, could be indicted separately or at the same time as his father, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

If the elder Flynn is willing to cooperate with investigators in order to help his son, two of the sources said, it could also change his own fate, potentially limiting any legal consequences.

The pressure on Flynn is the latest signal that Mueller is moving at a rapid, and steady, pace in his investigation.

Flynn isn’t just dirty, he’s nuts. Everyone knew he was nuts too. And he was Trump’s most important National Security Adviser.

Also, one of Trump’s most egregious obstructions of justice was firing the acting AG who warned them and then telling the head of the FBI to go easy on Flynn.

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QOTD: Who else?by digby

He’s smart. He has a good brain. He uses all the best words

The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said.

What was it Rex Tillerson called him? Oh right. Fucking moron. Yeah. That.

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Disquiet on the western North Carolina front
by Tom Sullivan

Boundary line between North Carolina’s 10th (right) and 11th (left) Congressional Districts. League of Women Voters of Asheville–Buncombe County

A left turn here. A right there. Up a block, over, then back. Several hundred citizens surveyed the front lines of high-tech gerrymandering yesterday by walking and running them through neighborhoods in Asheville, North Carolina. The local League of Women Voters sponsored the first Gerrymander 5k in this heavily Democratic city to drive home the reality of redistricting performed “with almost surgical precision.”

In last year’s presidential primary, I voted in North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District. By November, I was in the 11th Congressional District. Again. That is where I had voted until the Republicans’ first 2011 redistricting maps split the city in two. Multiple court challenges to those maps had the line flipping back and forth over my house. Not that the flipping improved my representation. Patrick McHenry, professional Republican, represents NC-10. Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows represents the 11th.

League of Women Voters of Asheville–Buncombe County

John Kennedy, a video producer and artist who first thought about holding a run in 2016, told the Guardian, “Democrats must have been asleep at the wheel when the Republicans took this gerrymandering to a whole new level.”

They were. In their hubris, state Democratic leaders rebuffed requests to move to nonpartisan redistricting when they had control. Terry Van Duyn has a story she tells here often:

Before state Sen. Terry Van Duyn, a Democrat, ran for office in North Carolina she lobbied against gerrymandering only to find out that her predecessor, Martin Nesbitt, a fellow Democrat, wasn’t so opposed when his party was drawing the maps.

“I would go to Raleigh every year and ask him to support nonpartisan redistricting,” she said in an interview at her home in Asheville. “He would just lean back in his chair and say, ‘Terry, Democrats draw great districts.'”

Until they didn’t.

Now it is Republicans in control, and they are not bashful about the products of their designs. They are boastful:

“I acknowledge freely that this would be a political gerrymander, which is not against the law,” state Rep. David Lewis, chairman of the House’s redistricting committee, is quoted as saying in a transcript of a committee meeting last year when the legislature was forced by courts to rework the maps again. “I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.”

That lawsuit notes that Democrats won 51 percent of statewide votes in 2012, but Republicans won nine of 13 seats, adding a tenth seat the next year with just a slim 53 percent majority of votes.

“It’s fundamentally messing with democracy,” Alana Pierce, president of the League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County, told the Guardian.

Calling Asheville “the best example of cracking in the country,” David Daley, author of “Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count,” reinforced in yesterday’s Asheville Citizen-Times why I harp on progressives’ misplaced infatuation with the quadrennial presidential contest. The front-line battles are local and more frequent. Daley writes, Republicans “locked-in power by going down-ballot – and then drawing themselves such friendly, unbeatable districts that they’d control veto-proof supermajorities in many states even with fewer votes.” President Bernie can’t help with that. Neither can president Hillary.

On the ballot in Asheville Tuesday is a referendum on whether the city of 90,000 should accept or fight the city council districts forced on it by the GOP-controlled legislature this year:

The bill, which passed into law on June 29, requires Asheville to amend the city’s charter to implement six single-member election districts for seats on City Council by Nov. 1, a deadline Manheimer says the city has met. The law also establishes a Nov. 15 deadline for the city to draw the district lines.

Asheville’s not rushing to draw the lines, the mayor says. “We are in a bit of a showdown here with the legislature, because we haven’t taken any steps to draw lines, and we’re going to look at the outcome of the vote and decide what to do,” she explains.

In North Carolina, if your city is blue you are a target.

A federal court in April overturned as unconstitutional a similar, state-mandated redistricting plan for Greensboro. U.S. Middle District Judge Catherine Eagles ruled the districts had been drawn to give Republicans an advantage. “The appropriate remedy for a law that violates the one-person, one-vote principle is an injunction against elections conducted under the Act’s unconstitutional redistricting,” Eagles wrote.

After several failed efforts by the Republican legislature to correct unconstitutional racial gerrymanders in N.C. House and Senate districts, Eagles last week entered an order from a three-judge panel to have a “special master” redraw them instead. Republican objections were overruled.

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Request a copy of For The Win, my county-level election mechanics primer, at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

Saturday Night at the MoviesOne and-a-half bar mitzvahs and a wedding: The Women’s Balcony (***½)By Dennis Hartley

In his 2009 Guardian piece “Does Judaism discriminate against women?” Dan Rickman writes:

There is however, a deep conflict between Judaism and feminism which stretches from the public (in synagogue) to the private. For example, in all Orthodox synagogues men pray separately from women and in many women are relegated to an upstairs gallery. Gender hierarchies are entrenched in Jewish thought: a blessing orthodox Jewish men are required to say everyday thanks a God “who has not made me a woman”. […]

There are many couples where the husband is involved and the woman is estranged. What drives this is the dissonance between women’s lives in society at large where, at least in principle, all options are open to them, and their role in traditional Jewish life which is limited and constrained by laws developed by (male) rabbis.

Oy. So that begs an obvious question: Can you really be an Orthodox Jew and a feminist? Funnily enough, that is the name of a 2014 Telegraph article by Emma Barnett (an Orthodox Jew by upbringing and a feminist), who writes:

You see as a fully paid up feminist, I demand and expect total equality in my secular life and yet some would view what I accept as normal in my religious Jewish world, as anything but equal. Although believe me, no women in my personal Jewish life feel oppressed; if anything, they are in total control. […]

In the secular world, common sense must be the order of the day. It isn’t reasonable not to have women occupying the same roles as men and vice versa. But in a religious sphere, where faith is the binding force of a group of people, rationale has less sway or place. If you started applying logic to the beliefs held in most faiths, things would start to fall apart pretty quickly at the seams. […]

Male-led religions present a big dilemma to feminists in the modern world. And yes, on this topic, I am a full fat hypocrite. But as they say, faith begins often where logic ends.

This dilemma lies at the heart of a warm, witty and wise new Israeli dramedy called The Women’s Balcony, from director Emil Ben-Shimon and screenwriter Shlomit Nehama.

The story is set in present-day Jerusalem, in the predominately orthodox Bukharan Quarter neighborhood. As the film opens, a small but lively and close-knit congregation, led by venerable Rabbi Menashe (Abraham Celektar) gather at their modest synagogue for a bar-mitzvah. Unfortunately, what begins as a joyous celebration takes a dark turn when the “women’s balcony” collapses mid-ceremony. Luckily, all survive, but sadly, the rabbi’s wife sustains serious injuries that require indefinite round-the-clock hospital care. The aging Rabbi Menashe, not in the best health himself, has a nervous breakdown.

This leaves the congregation with two major deficits; no place to worship until repairs can be facilitated, and no spiritual leader at the helm until the rabbi (hopefully) recovers from his debilitating mental trauma. A few days after the accident, several of the men from the congregation are discussing the future of the synagogue and decide to pray on it.

However, they realize that they are a few bodies short of a minyan (a quorum of 10), which they will need in order to conduct a service. They ask a young man who passes by.

As fate would have it, he happens to be a rabbi, who is more than happy to fetch some of his students and shore up the minyan. The men instantly take to the charismatic Rabbi David (Aviv Alush), who quite quickly ingratiates himself as the “temporary” head of their synagogue. A little too quickly, perhaps, for the women of the congregation, who are chagrinned to learn that the hastily remodeled synagogue eschews the open balcony model for a stuffy glorified walk-in closet where they’re now relegated to sit for services.

The more the charming but duplicitous Rabbi David’s ultra-orthodox slip begins to show, the less enthralled are the women, who eventually find themselves reluctantly engaged in virtual guerilla warfare against this fundamentalist redux of their previously progressive synagogue. Still, they must step lightly; with marriages and long-time friendships on the rocks (much less the future of their once harmonious congregation) there’s much at stake.

This formidable coterie of strong female characters are well-served by their real-life counterparts (Israeli comedian Orna Banai, in her first major screen role; popular Israeli singer Einat Sarouf, making her film debut; acclaimed Moroccan-born actress Evelin Hagoel; actress-comedian Yafit Asulin) who deliver a wonderful ensemble performance.

How this extended family resolves their fractious row is relayed with compassion and astute observation, steeped in what I once described in a review as “…a rich tradition of comedic expression borne exclusively from a congenital persecution complex and cultural fatalism (trust me on this-I was raised by a Jewish mother).” That said (if I may re-appropriate a classic advertising slogan) “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s real Jewish rye” or in this case, to love Ben-Shimon and Nehama’s real Jewish wryness.

Previous posts with related themes:

Who’s Gonna Love Me Now?
A Serious Man
The Student
Religulous
The Little Hours

More reviews at Den of Cinema

On Facebook

On Twitter

–Dennis Hartley

Trump pleads innocentby digby

What me worry?

Trump pleads innocent. But he sure doesn’t sound very convincing:

“Well I hope he’s treating everything fairly and if he is I’m going to be very happy because when you talk about innocent, I am truly … not involved in any form of collusion with Russia. Believe me. The last thing I can think of to be involved in.”

okie dokie

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Banana Republicans getting their hate onby digby
Here’s an incomplete timeline of “lock her up” and it’s ongoing and getting more dangerous by the day:

Dec. 22, 2015

Then-Republican primary candidate Trump tweeted a picture of what appears to be one of his own supporters wearing a “Hillary for Prison” shirt.

Women defy media narrative, love Trump at packed Michigan rally.
VIDEO: https://t.co/yreUny7shA pic.twitter.com/dE9odwIRQi— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2015

June 2, 2016

As Trump was closing in on the GOP nomination, he intensified his attacks on Clinton, who also appeared poised to take the Democratic nomination.

Trump called for Clinton to be jailed during a campaign rally in San Jose, Calif., calling her “guilty as hell.”

“Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. She has to go to jail. I said that,” he said.

It was at the Republican national Convention where it really took off, with Chris Christie leading chants of “guilty!” and “lock her up” becoming the crowd’s favorite slogan, led by Michael Flynn and others from the podium.

Roger Stone and Alex Jones pushed the “Hillary for Prison” t-shirts and signs and there were people throughout the crowd dressed in orange jumpsuits with Hillary Clinton masks.

That was when it took on a life of its own — on national television before millions and millions of people and the chant was heard at every rally. The crowds loved it just as much as “the wall.” The media shrugged.

That’s Trump, just doing his thing. Besides, she deserved it because she wasn’t “accessible” — or something. And emails.

Aug. 22, 2016

Trump called on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Clinton foundation donors received special treatment while Clinton was secretary of State.

“The Justice Department is required to appoint a special prosecutor because it has proved to be, sadly, a political arm of the White House,” he said at a rally in Akron, Ohio. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it before.”

Trump’s comments came after the Clinton Foundation announced that it would no longer be accepting foreign donations if Clinton was elected president.

Oct. 9, 2016

Trump publicly warned Clinton at a debate in St. Louis, Mo., that he would look into her private email server if elected president.

“If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. There has never been so many lies, deception — there has never been anything like it,” Trump told Clinton.

“When I go out and speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion, the people who have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious,” he continued.

Clinton pushed back at Trump’s characterization of the situation, saying, “It’s good that somebody with the temperament of Donald Trump is not running this country.”

Oct. 28, 2016

Trump reacted to then-FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress that said new emails pertaining to the probe into Clinton’s emails had been discovered.

“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” Trump said, referring to Comey’s previous announcement that charges would not be filed against Clinton.

“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” Trump said.

Nov. 22, 2016

President-elect Trump appeared to walk back his previously aggressive rhetoric toward Clinton, saying that he did not feel as strongly about prosecuting her for the use of a private email server.

“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways,” Trump told The New York Times.

“My inclination would be for whatever power I have on the matter is to say let’s go forward. This has been looked at for so long, ad nauseam,” he continued.

Trump quickly faced backlash from his supporters, most notably the conservative media site Breitbart.com, which ran a headline blasting Trump’s “broken promise” to his base.

July 25, 2017

Trump was in the midst of launching a slew of attacks on his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions, when he lashed out at him for his weak position on Clinton.

The president went on to rip then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for not investigating Clinton.

Sept. 22, 2017

Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Alabama that they would have to “speak to Jeff Sessions” after the crowd chanted “lock her up” in response to a reference to Clinton.

“You’ve got to speak to Jeff Sessions about that,” Trump said.

Nov. 2, 2017

Trump said that he hoped the Justice Department was investigating Clinton and that he was “frustrated” that he couldn’t be involved in the process.

“Hopefully they are doing something,” Trump said of the Justice Department probing Clinton during a radio interview with host Larry O’Connor on Washington’s WMAL. “At some point maybe we’re going to all have it out.”

“The saddest thing is, because I’m the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved in the Justice Department. I am not supposed to be involved in the FBI. I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing and I’m very frustrated by it,” he continued.

Nov. 3, 2017

Trump doubled down on his call for the Justice Department to investigate Clinton and Democrats after former acting Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile said the party tipped the scales in Clinton’s favor during last year’s primary.

“I’m really not involved with the Justice Department. I’d like to let it run itself, but honestly, they should be looking at the Democrats,” Trump told reporters outside of the White House.

“They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty, they should be looking at a lot of things, and a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me,” he said, referencing the former chair of Clinton’s campaign.

Now he has the congress in on it and he’s pressing for a partisan special prosecutor. He’s not letting this go. His slavering base demands it. They are deplorable, horrible people.

But then a whole lot of people in this country from all sides seem to think this isn’t a big deal and I’m sure many of them would be very happy to see the hated old woman thrown in jail if actually comes to that. The fact that a sitting president of the United States is pushing for a political prosecution of his defeated rival doesn’t seem to raise the hackles of anyone too much. If he manages to do this, we’re fucked. It will be over.

Just remember, in the kind of Banana Republic where they lock up their rivals, no one is safe. It won’t just be that person you hate who gets caught in this maw. The next person will likely be someone you like.

It might even be you.

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This isn’t a diplomatic trip. He’s visiting his propertiesby digby

This is not normal people. Not normal at all. He’s basically doing promotional public appearances at his global properties on the taxpayer’s dime:

President Trump stopped at Trump International Hotel Waikiki during his trip to Hawaii on Saturday so he could “say hello” and thank employees. A statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump wanted to congratulate employees on the “tremendously successful” project.

“The president stopped by the Trump Hotel on his way to the airport. It has been a tremendously successful project and he wanted to say hello and thank you to the employees for all their hard work,” Sanders said.

Pool reports said that press members were kept in vans while Trump and senior White House aide Jared Kushner entered the hotel.

And he’s spending extra time with his BFF, the monstrous admitted murderer Rodrigo Duterte. I’m sure he’ll want to visit his Philippines property too:

Trump embarked Saturday on a five-nation visit to Asia, which will include stops in China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. The president announced Friday that his trip would be extended by a day in order to include a key summit of eastern Asian nations, the East Asia Summit.

The summit, held in the Philippine city of Angeles, is a two-day summit of more than a dozen countries. The administration had previously informed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that Trump would not attend the summit, but that decision was reversed.

“We’re staying an extra day, because the following day is actually the most important day,” Trump told the White House press pool on Friday.

I’d guess the two blood-thirsty leaders want a sleep-over to exchange authoritarian despot tips.

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