Month: March 2018

Look at all the women

by digby

… especially the young women,  moving to the Democratic party:

As noted in our recent report on generations and politics, Millennial voters are more likely than older generations to affiliate with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic. Nearly six-in-ten Millennials (59%) affiliate with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic, compared with about half of Gen Xers and Boomers (48% each) and 43% of voters in the Silent Generation. A growing majority of Millennial women (70%) affiliate with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic; four years ago, 56% of Millennial women did so. About half of Millennial men (49%) align with the Democratic Party, little changed in recent years. The gender gap in leaned party identification among Millennials is wider than among older generations.

I suspect that this younger generation of women are more independent than women who came before them and are not afraid to assert their political views even if it conflicts with the men in their lives. They aren’t as afraid of being “unlikable.” Good for them.

People tend to stick with the political identities they take on in their early adulthood. If that holds true, the Republicans are doomed.

As they should be.

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QOTD: Bob Corker

by digby

Corker explains why the congressional GOP is refusing to do their duty:

The president is, as you know — you’ve seen his numbers among the Republican base — it’s very strong. It’s more than strong, it’s tribal in nature. People who tell me, who are out on trail, say, look, people don’t ask about issues anymore. They don’t care about issues. They want to know if you’re with Trump or not.

Ok. So GOP officials are just responding to their constituents as they should do in a democracy. Of course they do take an oath to  defend the constitution but they aren’t going to be sticklers about that as long as these millions and millions of conservative Americans are supportive of this traitorous, cretinous moron.

Tell me, is this really about Trump at all? Or does the problem really lie with those millions and millions of Americans?

And yes, whatever you do don’t call them deplorable. That’s very hurtful.

The Austin Bomber

by tristero

Question: If a white conservative terrorizes a city, does that make him a white conservative terrorist?

Answer: You bet it does.

Meet Mark Conditt.

• Mr. Conditt is believed to be linked to six bombs that killed two people and injured five others. Four explosions hit locations in Austin where bombs were left. An additional device detonated at a FedEx distribution center in Schertz, Tex., near San Antonio, while the sixth was found undetonated in a facility near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. 

• Mr. Conditt created a blog about his political views as a requirement for a political-science class he took at Austin Community College, according to McKenna McIntosh, a classmate of Mr. Conditt’s. In an author description, he described himself as a conservative. His posts include arguments against same-sex marriage and sex offender registries and a defense of the death penalty. 

• Mr. Conditt, the oldest of four children, was home-schooled by his mother…

 A little more about his views:

“Living criminals harm and murder, again — executed ones do not,” he wrote in a piece in support of the death penalty. 

In a commentary on a deal the government made to release an Al Qaeda terrorist, Conditt was dead-set against it. “I think it is just plain dumb to release a terrorist, much less a senior one — no matter what he can provide,” he wrote. 

On the issue of gay marriage, he wrote, “homosexuality is just not natural.” Commenting on free abortions, he wrote: “If a woman does not want a baby, or is incapable of taking care of one, she should not participate in activities that were made for that reason.” 

But in another post, he suggested eliminating sex offender registries, saying they punished people who had already served their time or were convicted of minor offenses.
“You have to really hate the guy to make him suffer for the rest of his life,” he wrote.

In short, a white conservative. And a terrorist. A white conservative terrorist.

Stable genius at work

by digby

Make him stop:

He’s a robot, saying exactly the same things, in exactly the same words as he said them during the campaign. Nothing that has happened since he became president has been able to penetrate. He cannot learn facts because he is a fucking moron. All he learns is some kind of feral, instinctive survival tactics to get him through the moment.

The list of things Trump believes Russia can “help” with is laughable. They are the cause of some of these crises and where they aren’t, he is. He’s an utter fool and everyone on the planet knows it, not least of whom is Vladimir Putin.

I don’t see Putin as an evil Bond villain, but he does have an expansionist agenda and he is a kleptocratic, authoritarian thug. Let’s just say that he doesn’t have my personal well-being at heart. Or any average person who isn’t on his team. I don’t think it’s being paranoid to worry about Trump being the most moronic useful idiot in world history and doing something that could destabilize the world in terrible, dangerous ways.  He already is doing that in dozens of different ways.

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Make America White Again

by digby

Sign posted in response to proposed Sojourner Truth Housing Project, Detroit February 1942

Fox News is now openly leading the charge for blatant xenophobia and white supremacy:

On his top-rated Fox News show Tuesday night, conservative pundit Tucker Carlson opined on demographic change and immigration in America, saying that though “most immigrants are nice … this is more change than human beings are designed to digest,” and asking viewers, “How would you feel if that happened in your neighborhood?

The segment was focused on a National Geographic article featured in the magazine’s April issue. Though the article, centered on the Pennsylvania town of Hazleton, was titled “As America Changes, Some Anxious Whites Feel Left Behind,” Carlson focused his remarks on the growth of Hazleton’s Hispanic population, which has increased exponentially since 2000 — a change that Carlson said “makes societies volatile.”

But he saved his strongest words for “our leaders … who caused all this,” who, in his words, live in neighborhoods that “are basically unchanged — they look like it’s 1960. No demographic change in their zip code.” He concludes, “Our leaders are for diversity, just not where they live.”

Carlson has faced accusations of catering to white nationalism on his show before, particularly on the issue of immigration — and white nationalists like Richard Spencer are among his biggest fans.

It’s worth noting that Carlson lives in the Kent neighborhood of Washington, DC, a neighborhood with house prices averaging $1.7 million. He told the American Conservative in February, “We have wonderful neighbors, and we love it. And what’s not to love? Our neighborhood looks exactly like it did in 1955.”

Tucker Carlson is a terrible, terrible person. He knows what he’s doing.

#ICYMI Check out the segment from tonight about the changing demographics in America pic.twitter.com/eM1VJkN8OG

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 20, 2018

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They are fine with Nazis

by digby

I’d imagine that many of these people didn’t know or didn’t really take seriously that the man they were voting for is a Nazi. But some did and more than we might be comfortable with:

The former head of the American Nazi Party ran for the Republican nomination of Congress in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. No Republican stepped up to oppose him.

On Tuesday, despite his vocal Holocaust denial, his anti-Semitic rhetoric, and his white supremacist views, 20,339 Illinois Republicans, according to preliminary totals, cast their ballots for Arthur Jones.

Jones’ Nazi-sympathies were not a secret going into election day. His campaign website features a slideshow of pictures of him speaking at white nationalist events. He is a perennial candidate who has previously run for U.S. House, Chicago alderman, and mayor of Chicago, and even mayor of Milwaukee. Chicago media extensively covered the race. The Anti-Defamation League warned voters of his record. The chairman of Illinois Republican Party even disavowed him, saying “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones. We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.”

Still, a stunning portion of the GOP primary electorate opted to cast their ballot for Jones rather than nobody. This includes, according to unofficial totals as of Wednesday morning, 13,158 voters in suburban Cook County (more than 70 percent of 18,595 GOP primary ballots cast), 4,093 voters in Will County, 3,023 voters in the City of Chicago, and 65 voters in DuPage County.

I think we need to accept and understand that there are quite a few Americans who are fine with open Nazis, authoritarians and blatant white racists. And they are not all old white guys in the rural south.

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Trump’s congrats

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“Ashamed” of the Fox “propaganda machine”
by Tom Sullivan

Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, a longtime Fox News analyst announced his departure in a letter calling out the network for harming democracy. Buzzfeed acquired the email Peters sent to colleagues. Peters signed off in Russian, accusing Fox of “wittingly harming our system of government for profit.”

Peters condemned the network for “assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers.”

Otherwise known as the business model for the full spectrum of conservative media.

Peters continued, “Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.”

The Los Angeles Times adds:

Peters’ missive is the second time in a week Fox News’ top-rated conservative opinion hosts have been subjected to internal criticism. While not nearly as harsh, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said in an interview with Time magazine that some of the network’s opinion programming “is there strictly to be entertaining,” which led to some blowback from Hannity and Ingraham on social media. (Hannity called Smith “clueless” about the reporting done on his program).

But Peters’ remarks are noteworthy because as a Fox News national security analyst for 10 years, he has been a foreign policy hawk who frequently criticized the Obama administration. He was once suspended from the network for a week in 2015 after an appearance on the Fox Business Network in which he used a vulgar term to describe former President Obama’s fortitude in combating terrorism by Islamic extremists.

The full text of the Peters letter is below. He did not spare the rod on some of the network’s anchors:

On March 1st, I informed Fox that I would not renew my contract. The purpose of this message to all of you is twofold:

First, I must thank each of you for the cooperation and support you’ve shown me over the years. Those working off-camera, the bookers and producers, don’t often get the recognition you deserve, but I want you to know that I have always appreciated the challenges you face and the skill with which you master them.

Second, I feel compelled to explain why I have to leave. Four decades ago, I took an oath as a newly commissioned officer. I swore to “support and defend the Constitution,” and that oath did not expire when I took off my uniform. Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers. Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association. Now I am ashamed.

In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration. When prime-time hosts–who have never served our country in any capacity–dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the FBI, the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller–all the while scaremongering with lurid warnings of “deep-state” machinations– I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove. To me, Fox News is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.

As a Russia analyst for many years, it also has appalled me that hosts who made their reputations as super-patriots and who, justifiably, savaged President Obama for his duplicitous folly with Putin, now advance Putin’s agenda by making light of Russian penetration of our elections and the Trump campaign. Despite increasingly pathetic denials, it turns out that the “nothing-burger” has been covered with Russian dressing all along. And by the way: As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true–that’s how the Russians do things.. The result is that we have an American president who is terrified of his counterpart in Moscow.

I do not apply the above criticisms in full to Fox Business, where numerous hosts retain a respect for facts and maintain a measure of integrity (nor is every host at Fox News a propaganda mouthpiece–some have shown courage). I have enjoyed and valued my relationship with Fox Business, and I will miss a number of hosts and staff members. You’re the grown-ups.

Also, I deeply respect the hard-news reporters at Fox, who continue to do their best as talented professionals in a poisoned environment. These are some of the best men and women in the business..

So, to all of you: Thanks, and, as our president’s favorite world leader would say, “Das vidanya.”

Peters’ resignation follows on the heels of Shepard Smith’s aforementioned interview with Daniel D’Addario of Time in which he too took a shot at his network’s infotainment programming:

Smith says he’s unbothered by the divergence between his reporting and Fox’s opinion slate. “We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion. I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy.” He laughs, enigmatic punctuation that may indicate he’d been trying for a bon mot, or might just be a Mississippi-nice way of indicating he’s said what he’s going to say, bless my heart.

It is too soon to predict that Fox News may see an exodus resembling the West Wing’s. The pay at Fox is too good and the capacity for shame too vestigial. But it couldn’t happen to a more unworthy organization.

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

They just cheat

by digby

Here is the final segment of the Cambridge Analytic expose:

An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran key parts of the presidential campaign for Donald Trump.

The British data company was secretly filmed discussing coordination between Trump’s campaign and outside groups – an activity which is potentially illegal.

Executives claimed they “ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy” for President Trump.

In the third part of a Channel 4 News investigation into Cambridge Analytica, bosses also talked about:

The full scale of their pivotal work in Trump’s election win
How they avoid Congressional investigations into their foreign clients
Setting up proxy organisations to feed untraceable messages onto social media
Using a secret email system where messages self-destruct and leave no trace
Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in the “Defeat Crooked Hilary” brand of attack ads
In a series of meetings filmed at London hotels over four months, between November 2017 and January 2018 an undercover reporter for Channel 4 News posed as a fixer for a wealthy client hoping to get candidates elected in Sri Lanka.

I’ll just let Michelle Goldberg put this whole thing in perspective:

After days of revelations, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Cambridge Analytica. But we’ve learned that an operation at the heart of Trump’s campaign was ethically nihilistic and quite possibly criminal in ways that even its harshest critics hadn’t suspected. That’s useful information. In weighing the credibility of various accusations made against the president, it’s good to know the depths to which the people around him are willing to sink.

Created in 2013, Cambridge Analytica is an offshoot of the SCL Group, a British company that specialized in disinformation campaigns in the developing world. It’s mostly owned by the Mercer family, billionaire right-wing donors and strong Trump supporters. Before becoming the Trump campaign’s chief executive, Steve Bannon was Cambridge Analytica’s vice president. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., also served as an adviser to the company.

Cambridge Analytica shared office space with Trump’s San Antonio-based digital operation, and took substantial credit for its success. “We are thrilled that our revolutionary approach to data-driven communications played such an integral part in President-elect Donald Trump’s extraordinary win,” Nix said in a Nov. 9, 2016, news release.

It’s long been hard to judge how well psychographic profiling actually works. Many consider Cambridge Analytica overrated. Last year, BuzzFeed News reported that former employees said “that despite its sales pitch and public statements, it never provided any proof that the technique was effective or that the company had the ability to execute it on a large scale.” Those who feared that Cambridge Analytica was conducting information warfare on the American people may have been giving the company’s self-serving propaganda too much credence.

But whether or not Cambridge Analytica’s methodology works, the fact that the Trump campaign had a crew of high-tech dirty tricksters on its payroll is significant. We already know that Cambridge Analytica reached out to Julian Assange about finding and disseminating Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails. We know that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, has asked the company to turn over documents related to the Trump campaign. Channel Four News plans to air additional undercover footage about Cambridge Analytica’s role in the Trump campaign on Tuesday.

At a minimum, we’ve learned that the Trump campaign’s vaunted social media program was built on deception. Shortly after the 2016 election, Forbes ran an article crediting Jared Kushner for his father-in-law’s shocking triumph. Thanks to digital tools, it said, the traditional presidential campaign was dead, “and Kushner, more than anyone not named Donald Trump, killed it.”

For those who knew something of Kushner’s pre-election career, this portrait of him as some sort of analytics genius was befuddling. The small, gossipy New York newspaper he’d owned, The New York Observer, didn’t even have a particularly good website. “He wasn’t tech-savvy at all,” Elizabeth Spiers, the paper’s former editor in chief, told me.

Cambridge Analytica’s corruption helps provide the missing piece in this story. If the Trump campaign had a social media advantage, one reason is that it hired a company that mined vast amounts of illicitly obtained data.

There’s a lesson here for our understanding of the Trump presidency. Trump and his lackeys have been waging their own sort of psychological warfare on the American majority that abhors them. On the one hand, they act like idiots. On the other, they won, which makes it seem as if they must possess some sort of occult genius. With each day, however, it’s clearer that the secret of Trump’s success is cheating. He, and those around him, don’t have to be better than their opponents because they’re willing to be so much worse.

Why not Tiffany?

by digby

If Trump was known to drink I’d assume he was on a bender. As it is, it’s clear that he’s still just an f-ing moron:

Cohn, who resigned in early March amid a fight over tariffs, told associates at the time that he would consider rejoining the administration if Trump called and offered him “the right big job,” but he did not elaborate on what that job would be. In fact, according to three people close to the president, Cohn had already talked with Trump about taking the helm of the CIA, a job that suddenly opened up last week when Trump nominated his spy chief, Mike Pompeo, to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

Trump, these people said, informally offered Cohn the position, telling him he thought he’d be a good fit for the job, and Cohn had agreed to take it. Trump long ago decided that Pompeo would replace Tillerson as secretary of state, and the president in recent weeks had bounced off his closest external advisers the idea of sending Cohn to the CIA. It is unclear why Trump decided to change course at the last minute, but last week he named Pompeo’s deputy Gina Haspel to the CIA role instead. 

Two senior administration officials acknowledged that Trump discussed other positions with Cohn. But they did not specify any other position, and they said the president didn’t extend a formal offer.

The episode offers a window into Trump’s decision-making a little more than a year into his tenure. While he is growing more comfortable in the job, willing to follow his instincts and make unorthodox personnel choices, his decisions remain entirely unpredictable, leaving even his most senior advisers in a state of perpetual uncertainty.

Cohn has no background in intelligence but told associates he was interested in running the CIA or, potentially, serving as secretary of state. He was at one point the leading candidate to be chair of the Federal Reserve, but his standing cooled after he criticized the president’s equivocal response to a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.

What on earth qualifies Gary Cohn to head the CIA? Why would he even want that job? What the hell?

But hey, Mike Pompeo’s wife is there everyday managing his schedule and using CIA personnel so why not put Tiffany Trump in the job?

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