Month: January 2018

The Secret Society and Muellerby digby

I wrote about both for Salon this morning:
This week we finally saw the right’s defenses of Donald Trump crystallize into an overarching “theory of everything,”as Salon’s Matthew Sheffield wrote on Thursday: A Department of Justice and FBI cabal worked feverishly to help Hillary Clinton escape accountability for her crimes, and was only thwarted by the stable genius of Donald Trump. This “secret society” is now doing everything in its power to overthrow the president. We spent the week following three specific strands of this alleged scandal, all of which have disintegrated by Friday morning.

First we had the so-called secret society which was excitedly flogged by the entire Fox News apparatus and taken up, perhaps a bit gingerly, by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. That turned out to be a joke in a text message from one of the FBI lovers at the center of the Republican conspiracy theory. Literally. So that was that.

The second strand was the case of the “missing texts,” in which some of the messages on the two lovers’ cell phones were lost in the transfer to new devices. President Trump got into that one, claiming that 50,000 texts were gone and declaring it “one of the biggest stories in a long time.” The Republicans basically just dusted off their old “Clinton emails” talking points and made it all sound suspicious for a couple of days. Then the Department of Justice informed them that thousands of phones had been affected in the switch — and that all the missing text messages had been restored. So much for that.

Finally there was “The Memo,” a document written by House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes, R-Calif., that purports to show a conspiracy to misuse the FISA court process to authorize an illegal surveillance of former Trump adviser Carter Page. Unfortunately, nobody but Nunes and other House members can see the memo because it’s classified and releasing it, even to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee or officials at the Department of Justice, would be wrong.

None of which makes much sense. The Democrats who have seen the underlying classified intelligence say the memo is bunk, the DOJ has refuted its conclusions and it turns out that even Nunes hasn’t seen it and instead depended upon the judgment of longtime Benghazi inquisitor Trey Gowdy, R-S.C
Shep Smith just totally shattered the Nunes memo narrative his colleagues Fox News have been pushing.

Shep Smith just totally shattered the Nunes memo narrative his colleagues Fox News have been pushing. pic.twitter.com/JAdkVjQOtA— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 25, 2018

Poor Devin! The same thing keeps happening. The White House slips him some information to use to defend the president, it doesn’t pan out and he looks like a fool. Still, Republicans thought they had built some momentum that would give Trump some cover as Robert Mueller’s probe closes in on the White House. On his own Fox News show, Sean Hannity thundered that salvation was at hand because “the walls are closing in on those responsible for this massive corruption and abuse of power at the top levels of government in what we are now calling state-sponsored sabotage.”

That imaginative narrative collapsed on Thursday night with the explosive story in the New York Times reporting that Trump had ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller back in June — and McGahn, a staunch Republican and Trump loyalist, said he would quit rather than follow that order. This happened shortly after James Comey was fired at the FBI and around the time it became clear that Mueller was looking at possible White House efforts to obstruct justice. Trump had unleashed a series of Twitter rants about the investigation, most of which went something like this:

You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017

Trump confidant Chris Ruddy went on television and said outright that the president was thinking of firing Mueller, which in retrospect looks like a trial balloon:

Chris Ruddy to @JudyWoodruff: President Trump is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who he considered for another position. pic.twitter.com/X4IIHlh8at— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) June 12, 2017

At the time, the White House furiously denied that Trump was thinking any such thing and claimed Ruddy didn’t know what he was talking about. While the president has publicly denied that he ever wanted to fire Mueller, we can’t say for sure whether that was the only time he’s come close to pulling the trigger.

In Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury,” he mentions Trump’s obsession with Mueller, which Wolff suggests is really about Trump’s fear of the prosecutor getting into his personal financial dealings. He writes that one of Trump’s “repetitive loops” is “I can fire him.” Wolff describes the president’s thinking this way:

He lived in a mano a mano world, one in which if your own respectability and sense of personal dignity were not a paramount issue — if you weren’t weak in the sense of needing to seem like a reasonable and respectable person — you had a terrific advantage. And if you made it personal, if you believed that when the fight really mattered that it was kill or be killed, you were unlikely to meet someone willing to make it as personal as you were.

That may be what Trump believes about himself. But the New York Times article reports that in the end he didn’t have the guts to fire Mueller himself. He tasked McGahn to do it, who told others in the White House that the president “would not follow through on the dismissal on his own.” In fact, for all his bluster and his TV catchphrase “you’re fired,” Trump is a coward who always has others do his dirty work. You may recall that Jim Comey heard he’d been dismissed from a TV news broadcast.

Everyone wonders why this story would come out now, with four sources all telling the same tale to more than one reporter. Logic says it was leaked by McGahn, to defend himself from potential criminal charges. But whoever the leakers are, this suggests that people are getting nervous about being implicated as accessories to Trump’s obstruction of justice. The evidence is piling up.

This news that Trump ordered McGahn to fire Mueller comes in the same week when we heard that FBI Director Christopher Wray had threatened to resign if Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn’t back off his demands for a full-scale purge of the FBI. Earlier in this tortured tale, you may recall, Trump had asked Sessions to resign because the latter had recused himself from the Russia investigation, and then Trump declined to accept his resignation. That’s not all. As the Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand tweeted recently, “Trump asked Comey for loyalty; asked him to drop the Flynn probe; fired Comey; pressured Sessions not to recuse; pressured Sessions to fire McCabe; pressured Coats, Rogers, Pompeo and multiple congressmen to say he wasn’t under FBI investigation; and tried to fire Mueller.”

On his way to Davos on Wednesday Trump denied obstructing justice and mockingly said, “You fight back and oh, it’s obstruction.” Mr. President, you cannot fight back by abusing your power to cover up a crime or by intimidating and influencing witnesses. He simply doesn’t seem to understand that the rule of law applies to him.

The good news for the president is that his base of hysterical supporters is sticking with him no matter what. Here’s Sean Hannity, right after he heard the latest news about Trump and Mueller:

Liberal media sheep shocked @realDonaldTrump thought about firing Corrupt Mueller and his liberal team of Hillary lovers, which HE DID NOT DO! They have NO CLUE about what’s coming. Tick tock, tick tock….Stay tuned Irredeemable deplorables. Best Sean— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) January 26, 2018

They’re all handling this well, aren’t they? “What’s coming” is likely to be ugly indeed.

.

The old I haven’t given it any thought
by Tom Sullivan

President Donald Trump responded in August when asked if he had ever “thought about or considered” firing special counsel Robert Mueller. “I haven’t given it any thought,” he told reporters. (Think Progress has video.) White House aides made similar denials. Except.

The New York Times reported last night Trump had ordered Mueller fired from the Russia investigation in June. He only relented when White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused and threatened to quit. The Times cites four sources “told of the matter,” adding the episode was “the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel.” How many others have reporters not been able to confirm?

The Times adds:

Mr. McGahn disagreed with the president’s case and told senior White House officials that firing Mr. Mueller would have a catastrophic effect on Mr. Trump’s presidency. Mr. McGahn also told White House officials that Mr. Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own. The president then backed off.

The White House refused comment.

Trump and his aides had sought a marketable pretext for firing Mueller and focused on potential conflicts of interest:

Around the time Mr. Trump wanted to fire Mr. Mueller, the president’s legal team, led then by his longtime personal lawyer in New York, Marc E. Kasowitz, was taking an adversarial approach to the Russia investigation. The president’s lawyers were digging into potential conflict-of-interest issues for Mr. Mueller and his team, according to current and former White House officials, and news media reports revealed that several of Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors had donated to Democrats.

Trump had also considered firing the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, and moving Rachel Brand, the No. 3 official in the Justice Department into that position as a way of working his way down the Justice food chain looking for someone who would do his bidding which, as McGahn suggested, Trump was unwilling to do himself.

This week, the sitting president told reporters he would be willing to testify under oath before Mueller, only have to have White House lawyer Ty Cobb modify that statement, saying Trump was “speaking hurriedly” before leaving for Davos.

The White House also refused comment about the gold toilet offered by the Guggenheim. If the offer made it to the Oval Office, one wonders if the president with his fascination for gold-plated accessories might have given the offer any thought before realizing it was an insult.

* * * * * * * *

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

I guess they never watched Megyn’s Fox show before they hired herby digby

Twenty million a year and they didn’t realize that she’s a mean wingnut?

Megyn Kelly got approval from higher-ups at NBC before launching her hair-raising attack on Jane Fonda, Page Six has learned — but we’re told that prominent members of the organization were then stunned by how far the broadside went.

Peacock Network insiders fear that the take-down — in which Kelly dredged up Fonda’s “Hanoi Jane” episode to argue that the actress was in no position to “say what’s offensive” — will make it even harder for Kelly to book celebrity guests on her show in case they suffer the same fate.

On Monday’s episode of NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today,” the host announced that she had stayed silent after Fonda had publicly criticized her for asking the “Grace and Frankie” star about her plastic surgery during a September interview.

But after Fonda brought it up again recently, Kelly had decided that “it’s time to address [Fonda’s] ‘poor me’ routine.”

The morning host said that Fonda had happily discussed the topic in other interviews, then launched into a diatribe about Fonda’s controversial opposition to the Vietnam War. (As Joy Behar said on ABC’s “The View”: “To drag the Vietnam War into a plastic-surgery conversation is a real stretch, Megyn. OK?”).

“The problem is that nobody at NBC is controlling Megyn. They paid her more than $20 million to host the 9 a.m. show, and she’s been given too much power. But the fact remains: You can’t say those things, or be so aggressive, on morning TV,” said an insider. “Plus, Megyn was already having trouble booking celebrities — so how is she ever going to book other stars if they disagree and she goes on air later and trashes them?”

I don’t know what NBC was thinking but it was a mistake. Daytime TV is different than Fox News Prime Time Wingnut Bloc. Why they thought she was right for the morning I’ll never understand.

.

QOTD: Breitbartby digby

Last week a man was arrested for threatening the lives of CNN employees because of their alleged “fake news.” The above is how Breitbart characterized it.

Breitbart has changed the headline, but copy appears to remain the same. It includes lines like, "Last week … CNN got its own taste of that misery and fear." pic.twitter.com/L6y5AQUnXD— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 25, 2018

They’re talking about CNN …

Here’s some batshit crazy from Fox News just so you can see what these people are watching every night:

Just saying.

.

“Bring me some tariffs!!!”by digby

As we watch footage of the f-ing moron stomping around Davos and listen to his toadies pretend that they have a coherent economic and trade philosophy even as they all contradict each other, recall this from last August:

This account — confirmed by sources with knowledge of the meeting and undisputed by the White House — hints at where Trump may be heading with his trade agenda. And it shows he believes some of his top economic advisors are resisting his agenda because they are “globalists.”

The scene: The Oval Office, during Gen. Kelly’s first week as Chief of Staff. Kelly convened a meeting to discuss the administration’s plans to investigate China for stealing American intellectual property and technology. Kelly stood beside Trump, behind the Resolute desk. In front of the desk were U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, top economic adviser Gary Cohn, and Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Trump, addressing Kelly, said, “John, you haven’t been in a trade discussion before, so I want to share with you my views. For the last six months, this same group of geniuses comes in here all the time and I tell them, ‘Tariffs. I want tariffs.’ And what do they do? They bring me IP. I can’t put a tariff on IP.” (Most in the room understood that the president can, in fact, use tariffs to combat Chinese IP theft.)

“China is laughing at us,” Trump added. “Laughing.”

Kelly responded: “Yes sir, I understand, you want tariffs.”

Gary Cohn, who opposes tariffs and the protectionist trade measures pushed by the Bannonites, had his shoulders slumped and was clearly appalled by the situation.

Staff secretary Rob Porter, who is a key mediator in such meetings, said to the president: “Sir, do you not want to sign this?” He was referring to Trump’s memo prodding Lighthizer to investigate China — which may lead to tariffs against Beijing.

Trump replied: “No, I’ll sign it, but it’s not what I’ve asked for the last six months.” He turned to Kelly: “So, John, I want you to know, this is my view. I want tariffs. And I want someone to bring me some tariffs.”

Kelly replied: “Yes sir, understood sir, I have it.”

At one point in the meeting, Navarro pulled out a foam board chart. Trump didn’t pay attention to it, saying “I don’t even know what I’m looking at here.”

Trump made sure the meeting ended with no confusion as to what he wanted.

“John, let me tell you why they didn’t bring me any tariffs,” he said. “I know there are some people in the room right now that are upset. I know there are some globalists in the room right now. And they don’t want them, John, they don’t want the tariffs. But I’m telling you, I want tariffs.”

Kelly broke up the meeting and said the group would work things out and reconvene at the appropriate time.

Trump isn’t a protectionist or an isolationist. He just wants his tariffs so he make everyone stop laughing at us. I don’t think that’s exactly the same thing.

.

Another rising GOP star for the era of Trump

Sessions will do anything to advance his own agendaby digby

I wrote about the latest example of Jeff Sessions kissing Dear Leaders’ hem for Salon this morning:
President Donald Trump and his loyal followers in the U.S. Congress and conservative media have declared war on the FBI and the intelligence community. Yes, they give lip service to the “rank and file,” but they are more than willing to slander any one of them who may have found a clue that Donald Trump was involved in something unethical or illegal.

This seems bizarre in light of the Republican Party’s longstanding image as the champion of “law and order,” which was even one of Trump’s many slogans purloined from previous Republican campaigns. But since Trump is personally under suspicion in a counterespionage investigation, conservative fidelity to criminal justice and intelligence institutions are no longer operative. Interestingly, for all their newfound concerns about these powerful organizations, Republicans have not held hearings about CIA torture or inappropriate NSA surveillance of average citizens or FBI entrapment of Muslims into plots they never would have thought of themselves. Indeed, all of those who are railing about the Deep State’s nefarious persecution of Donald Trump voted just last week to renew a controversial NSA spying program without batting an eye.

Oversight of law enforcement and intelligence institutions by elected officials is necessary to a healthy democracy. Oddly, the only thing these people have found time to look into are a closed case pertaining to their leader’s defeated rival in the 2016 election and alleged misconduct by career professionals investigating credible charges against the president. And as I wrote on Wednesday, they have been very busy indeed.

It’s not clear how the rank and file of the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies are taking this attack by their normally supportive friends in the Republican Party. One imagines they are a bit confused. The leader of the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has been in the middle of all this, despite having deeply angered the president for following DOJ guidelines and recusing himself from overseeing the investigation of the Trump campaign’s Russian connections.

Trump was so politically inexperienced and unqualified for the presidency (not to mention instinctively unethical and historically corrupt) that he had no concept of the necessity of independence in the application of the rule of law. So when he publicly said that if he’d known Sessions would recuse himself from the ongoing counterespionage case he would never have appointed him in the first place, Trump was apparently unaware that he was admitting he wanted a toady in the job who would ensure that he remained above the law.

The New York Times reported this week that Sessions was interviewed by Robert Mueller’s prosecution team about the dismissals of James Comey and Michael Flynn, as well as what seems to be a continuing “pattern” of Trump seeking to illegally influence witnesses and intimidate members of his administration — including Sessions himself — into ending that probe.

At one point, the attorney general reportedly offered to resign. Trump apparently wanted to kick him around some more so he kept him on. Sessions has figuratively prostrated himself at Trump’s feet ever since, to the point that Sessions has taken the president’s side in this inane crusade against the FBI and in the process has likely turned everyone with any integrity in his own agency against him. Sessions’ servile behavior has to stick in the craws of the career employees, many of whom are as conservative as he is but are unlikely to think it’s OK for the attorney general to engage in this level of partisanship at their expense.

This week, Sessions stepped up to try to get a twofer: Kiss the king’s ring and appeal to the rank and file at the same time. He wrote a fawning, over-the-top op-ed praising the president for what he claimed was a dramatic cut in violent crime. He even evoked Trump’s embarrassing inaugural catchphrase, “American carnage,” which depicted the nation as a dystopian nightmare:

I’ll just leave that there for you to chuckle over for a moment, in light of the current right wing crusade against the Department of Justice.

Naturally, the substance of his claim is completely wrong. There was no crime wave to begin with, and to the extent there was a slight decline in violent crime last year (about 0.8 percent), that was the continuation of a long-term trend. (Crime rates have been falling pretty much continuously since the early 1990s and have now reached historic lows in many cities.) As with everything else in the Trump administration, including the misleading “terrorism“ report released a week ago, its minions are simply making up facts.

In this case, the rosy misdirection is not only meant to make Trump feel good about himself, it is also designed to make the GOP base (which includes a lot of law enforcement) feel reassured. Even though Trump is slandering the FBI and federal prosecutors on a daily basis, the Law and Order president is still going after “real criminals.”

Jeff Sessions has been a dedicated anti-immigrant crusader for decades. He is determined to make sure that drug users are harshly punished, and he wants to Make America Great Again by imprisoning as many African-Americans as he can. That’s why he signed on with Trump in the first place, and it’s why he is willing to take mountains of public grief from his president in order to remain in office. Apparently, Sessions is so determined to enact his dark, antediluvian agenda that he will put up with any level of humiliation and betray his own Justice Department to get the job done.

.

Mr Popularby digby
via GIPHY
New Q Poll refutes the inane media speculation that Trump is winning over the public:

It is important that a president be a good role model for children, 90 percent of American voters say, but President Donald Trump is not a good role model for children, these voters say 67 – 29 percent in a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today.

There is almost no gender gap in grading President Trump’s standing as a role model. Every party, gender, education, age and racial group, except Republicans, say the president falls short, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll finds.

Republicans say 72 – 22 percent that Trump is a good role model for children. Another key element of the president’s base, white voters with no college degree, say 54 – 41 percent that he is not a good role model for children.

President Trump does not provide the U.S. with moral leadership, American voters say 63 – 33 percent. Again, there is virtually no gender gap as all listed groups, except Republicans and white voters with no college degree, say by wide margins the president does not provide moral leadership. Republicans say 80 – 16 percent he does provide moral leadership and white voters with no college degree are divided 47 – 47 percent.

“For President Donald Trump, it’s a troubling trifecta: Stagnant approval numbers, low grades on most character traits and the reality that if parents are looking for someone their kids should emulate, that person is not residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

“Only 27 percent of American voters say they are proud to have Donald Trump as president, while 53 percent say they are embarrassed – a 2-1 negative.”

American voters disapprove 58 – 36 percent of the job Trump is doing, marking 12 months of negative scores and seven months since his approval rating hit 40 percent.

The only groups approving of Trump are Republicans, 86 – 9 percent, and white voters with no college degree, 50 – 42 percent. White men are divided as 47 percent approve and 49 percent disapprove.

Trump’s grades on most character traits remain negative as voters say:
60 – 35 percent that he is not honest;
59 – 38 percent that he does not have good leadership skills;
57 – 40 percent that he does not care about average Americans;
65 – 30 percent that he is not level-headed;
61 – 36 percent that he is a strong person;
54 – 40 percent that he is intelligent;
61 – 34 percent that he does not share their values.

He’s over in Davos right now telling world leaders they’d better kiss his ass or else.

He will not be disrespected.

.

And the winner of the award for dumbest freshman in congress?
by digby

Matt Gaetz of Florida!

“If you’re going to make an analogy at least know what you’re talking about.” Oof. This clip. https://t.co/iWXsZAhky7

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 25, 2018

Gaetz, the only congressman out of 435 to vote against an anti-human trafficking bill, is all over the TV for some reason. Apparently, they believe he’s so telegenic and serious that he’s the best choice to attack the FBI and the Department of Justice for selling out the country for the Hildebeast.

Meet the GOP candidate for president, 2028.

It’s time for Former FBI Director #Mueller to resign from Special Counsel position. @replouiegohmert@RepAndyBiggsAZhttps://t.co/YSZO85Ohrb

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) November 3, 2017

.

Without consent of the governed
by Tom Sullivan

Two pieces require more than your attention. They require your action.

Ian Millhiser recounts at Think Progress how in spite of Barack Obama’s resounding wins in 2008 and 2012, Democrats lost ground and continued to for a decade.

Republicans pushed back in the states during Obama’s years in the White House. After deep losses for Democrats in 2010 during the ongoing recession and weak recovery, Republicans gained control of state legislatures and post-census redistricting. Aggressive gerrymandering meant that while in 2012 Democrats’ House candidates won won nearly 1.4 million more votes than Republicans nationwide, in some states, Republicans held over 70 percent of congressional seats.

State-level races reflected the same imbalance.

By the death of in February of 2016 of Justice Antonin Scalia, Republicans holding a 54-46 majority in the U.S. Senate were prepared to deny a Supreme Court appointment to the sitting president on the absurd pretext that it was an election year. Those 46 Democrats represented more than 20 million more people than their GOP counterparts, writes Millhiser. The appointment of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court vacancy went to Donald Trump, who in November 2016 won the presidency with three million fewer votes than his Democratic opponent.

Millhiser concludes:

The government of the United States no longer derives its powers from the consent of the governed. And by the time voters head to the polls in November to elect a new Congress, America will have existed in this state of profound undemocracy for nearly a decade.

In state after state, Republicans systematically enacted an undemocratic quilt of laws to ensure their continued control even in the face of declining popular support.

The dogged Ari Berman covers the same gerrymandered ground for Rolling Stone and once again delivers a familiar bill of particulars.

Gerrymandering is a huge part. Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts in Wisconsin are at this point legend, “among the most extreme in U.S. history.” North Carolina’s state and federal districts have been struck down by courts. But voter suppression enacted through voter ID and other voting restrictions passed in Republican-held states, plus “dark money” from billionaire donors as a result of Citizens United form an interlocking pattern:

“All three of these things have to be seen as part of a whole,” says Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s attorney general, who founded the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in 2016 to challenge Republican gerrymandering efforts. “Unregulated dark money combined with these voter-ID laws combined with gerrymandering is inconsistent with how our nation’s system is supposed to be set up. American citizens ought to be concerned about the state of our democracy. We could end up with a system where a well-financed minority that has views inconsistent with the vast majority of the American people runs this country.”

Both Berman and Millhiser see signs the tide is turning. Berman writes:

The lower courts have already signaled a willingness to push back on unfair redistricting. On January 9th, a federal court struck down North Carolina’s U.S. House map, which gives Republicans a 10-to-three advantage over Democrats, the first time a federal court has invalidated congressional lines for partisan gerrymandering. But on January 18th, the Supreme Court blocked the redrawing of North Carolina’s maps, pending appeal. GOP-drawn districts have also been struck down in Alabama, Florida, Virginia and Texas. Many of these rulings are similarly being appealed by Republicans, making it unlikely such districts will be redrawn before the 2018 elections. After this story went to press, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the state’s Congressional maps – which give Republicans a 13 to 5 advantage – and ordered they be redrawn in 2018, boosting Democratic prospects in the state.

Millhiser also sees hope the courts are beginning to see and undo the violations to democracy wrought in the last decade. But there is a caution:

If America continues to polarize on geographic lines, with Americans in densely populated areas favoring Democrats and Americans in sparsely populated states preferring Republicans, that means that Republicans may soon enjoy an all-but-guaranteed majority in the United States Senate large enough to ensure that no legislation is enacted and no judge is confirmed under a Democratic president.

The remedy he sees is not just one, but two constitutional amendments: “one to amend the amendment process itself, and the other to amend the Constitution again to fairly apportion the Senate.” Don’t hold your breath.

Democrats could make an effort to show up and compete in those less-populated states and win Senate seats by winning hearts and minds there. But that’s just crazy talk.

* * * * * * * *

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