Month: August 2018

The Myanmar Genocide and Facebook 

by tristero

If ever there was an argument for a liberal arts education, it’s the way our social media are constructed. Here’s one example.

Hardly anyone in the US cares, but finally, the Myanmar genocide was called exactly that by the UN The situation is horrific:

The investigators documented rapes, sexual slavery and abductions, including of children, said panel member Radhika Coomeraswamy. 

“The scale, brutality and systematic nature of rape and (sexual) violence indicate that they are part of deliberate strategy to intimidate, terrorise or punish the civilian population. They are used as a tactic of war,” she said.

Implicated in exacerbating the problem is our old friend Facebook whose upper management wouldn’t know a moral value if it came up and bit them on their digitals:

The investigators sharply criticized Facebook, which has become Myanmar’s dominant social media network despite having no employees there, for letting its platform be used to incite violence and hatred. 

Facebook responded on Monday by announcing it was blocking 20 Myanmar officials and organizations found by the U.N. panel to have “committed or enabled serious human rights abuses”. 

The company already acknowledged this month that it had been “too slow” to respond to incitement in Myanmar, following a Reuters investigative report into its failure to tackle rampant hate speech including calls for all Rohingya to be killed. 

“Too slow?” That translates into exactly how many extra rapes, tortures, murders, and enslavements, Mr. Zuckerberg?

“Too slow” is the response of people completely unfamiliar with the complexity and darkness of the human condition. If, at its inception, anyone developing Facebook had read Toni Morrison or Charles Dickens as avidly as they pored over C++ manuals, they would take it as a given that they’d need to design a social platform that could never enable genocide.

A return to the abyss — he is unravelling

by digby

Take a deep breath before you read this:

After Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week, Donald Trump spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against “flippers” in a rambling Fox & Friends interview, and lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General Jeff Sessions,the Justice Department, and Robert Mueller. In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak,and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an “intervention” last week. “It was supposed to be a war council,” one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. “You know Trump—he hates being lectured to,” the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didn’t comment.)

More than ever, Trump is acting by feeling and instinct. “Trump is nuts,” said one former West Wing official. “This time really feels different.” Deputy Chief of Staff Bill Shine has privately expressed concern, a source said, telling a friend that Trump’s emotional state is “very tender.” Even Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are unsettled that Trump is so gleefully acting on his most self-destructive impulses as his legal peril grows. According to a source, Jared and Ivanka told Trump that stripping security clearances from former intelligence officials would backfire, but Trump ignored them. Kushner later told a friend Trump “got joy” out of taking away John Brennan’s clearance. His reaction to the death of John McCain—quashing a White House statement in praise of the senator, and restoring White House flags to full staff—falls into the same self-indulgent category.

The news of Cohen’s plea and Paul Manafort’s conviction, which were followed by revelations that Trump Organization C.F.O. Allen Weisselberg and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker are cooperating with federal prosecutors, have rattled Trump like few other turns in the investigation have, sources said. Flying on Air Force One to his West Virginia rally last week, Trump seemed “bummed” and “down and out,” a person briefed on his mood told me. “He was acting like, ‘I know the news is bad, but I don’t know what to do about it,’” the source said. At the rally, an uncharacteristically subdued Trump barely mentioned Cohen or Manafort.

By the weekend, though, his anger had returned. “He spent the weekend calling people and screaming,” one former White House official said. According to sources, the president feels cornered with no clear way out. His months-long campaign to get Sessions to resign—so that Trump could appoint a new A.G. who would shut down the Russia probe—not only failed to get Sessions to step down, but it’s caused him to dig in, as evidenced by Sessions’s rare statement asserting the independence of the Justice Department. “Trump knows at least through the midterms he won’t get another A.G.,” a former White House official said.

After Cohen effectively named Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in campaign-finance crimes with the payments to Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, Trump’s public posture was that the payments weren’t crimes. Privately, according to two sources, Trump attorneys suggested that a strategy for dealing with the issue could be for Trump to admit to having affairs with women and paying hush money to them for years. That way, he could assert that the payments to Daniels and McDougal were normal business—not campaign donations meant to influence the 2016 election. Trump, according to the sources, rejected this advice. “It was because of Melania,” one source said.

Inside the West Wing, a sense of numbness and dread has set in among senior advisers as they gird for what Trump will do next. “It’s a return to the abyss,” said one former official who’s in frequent contact with the White House. “This is back to being a one-man show, and everyone is on the outside looking in.”

There’s more. He really, really, really wants to pardon Manafort and is thinking of bringing in a new lawyer since McGahn isn’t cooperating. —- which raises the question of just what in the hell Manafort knows about him.

Update: Well, this explains Trump’s pardon dangling last week. Undoubtedly, Manafort’s lawyers let it be known they were dealing.

Paul Manafort’s defense team held talks with prosecutors to resolve a second set of charges against the former Trump campaign chairman before he was convicted last week, but they didn’t reach a deal, and the two sides are now moving closer to a second trial next month, according to people familiar with the matter.

The plea discussions occurred as a Virginia jury was spending four days deliberating tax and bank fraud charges against Mr. Manafort, the people said. That jury convicted him on eight counts and deadlocked on 10 others. Prosecutors accused Mr. Manafort of avoiding taxes on more than $16 million he earned in the early 2010s through political consulting work in Ukraine.

The plea talks on the second set of charges stalled over issues raised by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, one of the people said. It isn’t clear what those issues were, and the proposed terms of the plea deal couldn’t immediately be determined.

Representatives for Messrs. Manafort and Mueller declined to comment.

The talks were aimed at forestalling a second, related trial for Mr. Manafort, which is scheduled to begin on Sept. 17 in Washington.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers have been arguing over how to describe that case to the jury and what evidence can be presented at trial. They are scheduled to discuss those issues at a hearing Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Mr. Manafort faced two separate trials on related allegations in neighboring districts because he declined to let prosecutors combine the charges into one case. From a defense perspective, such a move can force prosecutors to fight two battles and divide resources.

The plea discussions on the Washington case represent a softening in posture for Mr. Manafort, who has fought charges brought by Mr. Mueller’s 15-month investigation longer and more aggressively than other defendants in the probe.

Let’s be clear. If Manafort didn’t have something to say about Trump, Trump would not be dangling a pardon.

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The world is arming up

by digby

Via:

French President Emmanuel Macron announced an “exhaustive review” of defense cooperation in the European Union, claiming the EU can no longer rely on the U.S. for its security, reports the AFP.

“Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security. It is up to us to guarantee European security.”
— Emmanuel Macron

The big picture: Macron said defense proposals would be revealed in the coming months, and that discussions would include all European countries — even Russia. President Trump left his European allies reeling after the July NATO summit in Brussels, during which he made some veiled threats to withdraw the U.S. from the military alliance if other countries didn’t boost their defense spending.

Europe and the far east deciding that they need to arm up is such a wonderful idea, especially with the scary rise of fascism throughout the continent. What could go wrong?

*This is not to say that the US needs to be the policeman of the world. But this sort of chaotic withdrawal, while telling the world that they should be buying more guns and armor from the United States “because we make the best weapons” is a recipe for disaster.

“The Guns of August“ is a relevant book to re-read if you’ve forgotten what happens when Europe decides they need to buy a bunch of war toys and inevitably find a reason to use them.

Old School

by digby

I’m not eulogizing John McCain because I have complicated feelings about him and I don’t think it’s necessary to air them during a period of mourning. I try to stay away from doing that when any politician dies because I always have complicated feelings about them. It’s just my own personal rule.

However, I do want to make one observation about McCain because he reminded me a lot of my father and other men of his age and I realized that although McCain is of a slightly younger cohort (born in 1936) he is the very last of the Greatest Generation politicians still serving. They have been venerated as cookie cutter heroes by their kids in the baby boom and now the Millennials, but in truth they were a complex lot, full of all the contradictions McCain exhibited as a politician.

Nonetheless,their view of America’s role in the world as a purveyor of ideals rather than strict ethnic tribalism (which it only lives up to in disappointing fits and starts) was a powerful one that helped shape the post war world into a more democratic place for millions of people. Perhaps it was all a pose. Certainly the white, conservative McCain faction in this country had no trouble telling people for decades they should “love it or leave it”, willfully misunderstanding the most fundamental of American freedoms. Still, it was better to at least pretend to have those ideals than to be openly self-serving and cynical as that faction is today.

As I said, my feelings about this are complicated, and probably more so these days as I undoubtedly succumb to a certain nostalgia as people are prone to do when they get older.

In any case, here’s McCain’s farewell letter to America. It made me tear up a little bit, maybe just because this man recognized that we are in a serious situation and used his final words to remind us that there is still resilience in this polity. I’m a sentimental fool sometimes:

“My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

“Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

“I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.

“I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

“‘Fellow Americans’ – that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

“We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

“We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

“Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.

“I feel it powerfully still.’

“Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

“Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America.”

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The poor powerless victim in the White House

by digby

If “they” can investigate the crimes of the president of the United States, imagine what they’ll do to you!

Attorney Alan Dershowitz argued on Monday that all Americans are at risk of being targeted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

During an interview with Dershowitz on Fox & Friends, host Brian Kilmeade noted that President Donald Trump is besieged by investigations into his campaign, business dealings, charitable foundation and possible constitutional violations.

“I’m looking at this and I’m asking myself, why?” Kilmeade opined. “Why do you need to get to the bottom of this now? All those things were good or bad before he ran. This is an attack on a president because you don’t like him. Why is that allowed?”

Dershowitz immediately agreed.

“There’s no doubt about that,” he began. “They have targeted the president, they have targeted his business… The vulnerability is in the business and they have targeted. They have said, ‘Look, we’ve known about Mr. Trump’s business dealings for years. We’ve never looked into them. But now, we’re going to start looking into them.’”

“If you look deeply into any complicated business, you’re going to find a loan somewhere in which income is overstated, liabilities are understated,” he added.

“What happens to our republic?” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked. “We are criminalizing political differences. We’re weaponizing government. What’s the outcome for us as a people?”

“The biggest crime you can commit in America today is to be associated with Donald Trump,” Dershowitz ranted. “They’re going to Manafort you, they’re going to Cohen you. They’re going to do all of these things to you.”

The attorney warned that any businessman running for office could expect a “legal colonoscopy.”

“It’s targeting people!” Dershowitz exclaimed. “And if they can target President Trump, they can target you, they can target anyone. That’s the problem.”

This is just daft. Donald Trump is the most powerful man on earth. He can launch nuclear war unilaterally. His answer to being investigated by a special counsel — as has been done dozens of times ever since we found out Richard Nixon was a depraved criminal — is to loudly demand that his Justice Department target his political enemies.

He is the most powerful corrupt politician in the world, a man who lives in ostentatious wealth and privilege, who has refused to divest himself of his international business and won’t open that privately held international business to the world. He has a history of con jobs and was sued thousands of times. He is credibly suspected of conspiring with a foreign government to sabotage the presidential campaign of his rival.

The man had no business running for president and thinking that he would not be subject to intense scrutiny and massive investigations into his businesses and personal dealings. The hubris that led him to hire Paul Manafort, a well-known lobbyist for foreign rivals, and declare publicly “Russia, if you’re listening …” was an invitation to a counter intelligence case against him. What the hell did he expect? (Actually, we know that — he has said many times that he thought once he won that the pressure would be off from the press and that the Justice Department was a supposed to be his personal legal protectors.)

And right now, one of the country’s two political parties is not just refusing to do oversight, it is actively helping him cover up his crimes. He is behaving erratically, throwing the world into chaos with his imbecilic behavior and clear unfitness for the job. He spends his days watching TV and tweeting for Christ’s sake!

No, he isn’t a victim. He will likely survive this investigation due to the institutional power he wields through the supine nature of his party and the eager malevolence of his followers. If he doesn’t he has no one to blame but himself.

The people of this country and the world are victims, not the president of the United States.

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by digby

My Salon column this morning:

With Trump’s political woes being overshadowed by the news of John McCain’s death over the week-end one would think he’d be relieved to have a change of subject from his no good, very bad week. And yet one imagines that he’s angry and fulminating at all the praise and attention for his nemesis as even his beloved Fox give their airwaves over to some paeans to the man Trump loathes above all others. The Washington Post reported that he even refused to issue a laudatory tribute to McCain’s years of service to the country insisting instead on issuing a flaccid tweet sharing thoughts and prayers for the family after which he tweeted some standard insults about the Mueller investigation, threw out some economic news, complained about social media censorship and whined about President Obama getting too much credit for the economy. Even some of his defenders who evidently expected him to step up and act like a normal president in this circumstance, were disappointed.

Still not a kind word about McCain himself. https://t.co/kKflh8Iq33

— Brit Hume (@brithume) August 26, 2018

Of course that didn’t deter the Fox News anchor from shrugging his shoulders and carrying on as usual. He went right back to defending the president, retweeting a Washington Examiner story that claimed “Robert Mueller’s ‘win’ exposes how the media never cared about Russia ‘collusion'” and linking to a story entitled “How Anti Trump Hyperbole Fosters Insanity.”

Brit Hume has known John McCain for decades and seemed to genuinely grieve at the news of his passing. He was also once a respected newsman, even during his early years at Fox. But his allegiance to Trump is so central today that the president behaving like a petulant child at a moment that requires political leaders to be gracious and dignified (all of whom rose to the occasion except him) he didn’t miss a beat before going right back to rationalizing and excusing his childish behavior. Not that anyone should expect otherwise. Trump’s degradation of McCain’s years of torture as a POW is well known and yet massive numbers of Republicans still adore him.

Recall that last week was widely seen as Trump’s worst among many bad weeks. He started off still trying to fend off his former staffer Omarosa who is peddling a book (and tapes!) about her time with the campaign and in the White House. The entire intelligence community was up in arms about Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of former CIA chief John Brennan’s security clearance for political reasons. His former lawyer Michael Cohen pled guilty to a felony and said under oath that Trump had ordered him to do it and his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of 8 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.

Soon he was talking like a gangster and pretty clearly dangling a pardon for Manafort on twitter as long as he doesn’t “break.” Then he found out that his pal David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer (who apparently literally kept Trump’s secrets in a safe) was reported to have been given immunity by the feds along with the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg. The state of New York is also pursuing an investigation into the misuse of his private charity funds.

Oh, and he also took after his besieged Attorney General Jeff Sessions again on Fox and Friends prompting a rare response from the AG. By the end of the week it appeared that the Republicans in the Senate were so afraid that Trump was about to blow his lid and fire Sessions before they can pack the Supreme Court with right wing extremists that they signaled him the go ahead to do it after the mid-terms.

That’s a lot and none of it is good for the president. His legal jeopardy is more acute by the day and it’s coming from different directions. The chaos in the White House is all-consuming and the twitter feed is a stream of consciousness expression of a man who is drowning. At one point in the week he sent out one of his “NO COLLUSION — RIGGED WITCH HUNT!” primal tweets at 1:10 in the morning. It feels as though something has to give.

And yet, according to the latest NBC/WSJ poll:

After a week that saw President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman convicted on eight counts of fraud and his former lawyer plead guilty to felony campaign finance charges, the president’s job approval rating remains virtually unchanged…Between Aug. 18 and Aug. 22 — the day after the news involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen — the president’s approval rating stood at 46 percent approve, 51 percent disapprove. In a separate NBC/WSJ survey, conducted Aug. 22 through Aug. 25, Trump’s approval rating was 44 percent approve and 52 percent disapprove. That’s within the poll’s margin of error.

Republicans are more behind him than ever. 90 percent of them approve of the job he’s doing. The more trouble he’s in, the more they like him. And this week could bring him some more very serious trouble:

We may be in for a big week.

With Justice Dept’s reported moratorium on major actions in run up to midterm elections (Sept 1-Nov 6) … brace yourself.

What could happen:

Indictments of others involved in Cohen’s campaign law violations
Roger Stone’s time in the barrel
+ more

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) August 26, 2018

The world will see John McCain lying in state at the capitol and he’ll be eulogized by former presidents Bush and Obama. Trump is not invited and for good reason. He would almost certainly make a mockery of the occasion and turn it into a bragfest for himself. His boorish behavior toward the man during his illness was almost certainly a bridge too far for McCain’s family.

I wouldn’t expect any of that to affect the esteem that 90 percent of Republicans feel for Donald Trump, however. I’m honestly not sure that Trump wasn’t right when he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters. At this point I can’t imagine what it would take.

Update: You cannot make this stuff up —

As the nation continued to mourn the death of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the White House returned its flag to full-staff on Monday, although past presidents have kept the flag lowered for longer after the deaths of other sitting senators. The Capitol flag remained at half staff. 

For example, after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., on Aug. 25, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation ordering flags be flown at half-staff for four full days. 

Obama said in the proclamation that the “flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of his interment.” 

Obama issued a similarly worded proclamation on Dec. 18, 2012, one day after the death of Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, calling for the American flag at the White House and at public buildings and military posts to be flown at half-staff “until sunset on the day of his interment.” 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want flags on all government buildings to be at half staff until McCain’s funeral and have asked the Department of Defense of help in doing so, Schumer’s spokesman tweeted.

Jesus…

No denouement
by Tom Sullivan

After a Sunday filled with remembrances for John McCain, the flawed, principled, predictable/unpredictable, etc. late senator from Arizona, the airing of Monday’s Fox & Friends will return us to our regularly scheduled shitshow. The White House has returned its American flag to full staff less than 48 hours after McCain’s death.

The sitting president, isolated underneath that flag and beset on all sides as he is, could not bear losing the country’s attention for even a day. He has yet to issue any statement acknowledging his political foe’s over half-century’s contributions to the country. Even in McCain’s death, Trump is graceless.

Flag back at full staff atop WH. Pres Trump did not issue proclamation on the death of @SenJohnMcCain, which usually calls for flags to remain at half-staff through the day of interment, which is Sunday at the @NavalAcademy. pic.twitter.com/NGasNPT0VB— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 27, 2018

White house flag is currently at full staff for those of you who really care about kneeling and respect and all that.— CJ (@CJintheKeys) August 27, 2018

This morning I woke up to find out the White House flag is at full staff. Not half in honor of Senator John McCain. My stomach churned with a deep sickening for Trump. Deeper than ever before. I pledge to do my very best to vote and get everyone I can…— Tracy Pardue (@PardueTracy) August 27, 2018

Charles Blow sees narrative twists in this “dramatic opera of demons” in which Stormy Daniels becomes Joan of Arc and “foul-mouthed, bullying Michael Cohen, Trump’s “fixer,” becomes an antihero. Robert Mueller’s defenders may yet shield Jeff Sessions, the “monster” enforcing the family separations policy on the southern border. Session is high on Trump’s naughty list for not protecting Him by falling on his sword. Now justice makes hangs like one over Trump as by a thread.

Blow writes:

Trump is a man who has lived a life evading justice, using the legal system and the threat of legal action against people. For him, the justice system is a tool at the disposal of the wealthy and the ruthless, one to be used against anyone of lesser means and lesser fortitude.

In his mind, the fact that he may be implicated by the justice system is a blasphemy, a distortion of the American power structure, in which the wealthy almost always win.

Someone, somewhere, some time will turn Trump’s tale into theater if not opera. A sleazy Trump in Korea, the president’s courtiers will be “rats and weasels,” flippers and faithful, his family as base as Himself, third-rate mobsters. Farce, for sure. It cannot be a tragedy (for him). Maybe for the country, though. And the denouement will be what?

* * * * * * * * *

For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail.

President Petulant

by digby

Did I mention he was a low class POS? Yes, I did. There was no way this deranged cretin couldrise above personal feelings to lead the nation. It’s just not in him:

President Trump nixed issuing a statement that praised the heroism and life of Sen. John McCain, telling senior aides he preferred to issue a tweet before posting one Saturday night that did not include any kind words for the late Arizona Republican.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a “hero,” according to current and former White House aides, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said.

But Trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead, and the statement praising McCain’s life was not released.

“My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!” Trump posted Saturday evening shortly after McCain’s death was announced.

Sanders declined to comment Sunday afternoon.

I’ll just say again that it’s probably better if he says nothing at all. As McCain’s friend John Weaver said, “if we heard something today or tomorrow from Trump, we know it’d mean less than a degree from Trump University.”

He’s not a leader. He’s a demagogic cult figure. No need for him to pretend to be anything but what he is:

McCain’s popularity among Republicans has dropped as Trump has taken over the party. In a recent Fox News poll, 41 percent of Republicans said they had a favorable opinion of McCain, while 60 percent of Democrats shared the view. Trump’s approval is close to 90 percent among Republicans.

McCain was once a big hero in the GOP. Maybe Trump should think about that…

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Palin angling for another invitation to the Trump House

by digby

Always a class act:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says late Senator John McCain will be remembered as an American hero but admits it was ‘unfortunate’ that he was surrounded by people ‘who weren’t serving him well,’ during their run for office.

McCain died at his Arizona home at 4:28pm on Saturday surrounded by his wife Cindy, and their family.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Palin, 54, and her husband Todd, 53,  reflected on her time as McCain’s running mate during the 2008 presidential election and revealed her frustration over his political hangers-on. 

‘I respect his military service. I think it’s unfortunate that he had people around him – and they continued to be around him for a very long time – who weren’t serving him well,’ she said.

‘They certainly weren’t serving the country well with what they were trying to do.’

‘I believe he was told things about what America really wanted or really needed because he’s been in that DC bubble for so many years.

She goes on to whine and whine and whine about how terrible the people around McCain were while giving tepid (and stupid) kudos to the man himself.

She is Trump’s political forebearer — and the proof that McCain would not have made a good president. Still, you’d think she’d have enough gratitude to McCain for making her a national figure not to trash him in order to suck up to Trump the day after he died.

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Individualism has morphed into toxicity

by digby

This observation by Roger Cohen in the NY Times is well put:

The thing about all the shocking Trump revelations — Michael Cohen’s about violating campaign finance laws by paying hush money to two women in coordination with a “candidate for federal office” being the latest — is that they are already baked into Trump’s image. His supporters, and there are tens of millions of them, never had illusions. I’ve not met one, Babcox included, who did not have a pretty clear picture of Trump. They’ve known all along that he’s a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and a generally miserable human being. That’s why the “Access Hollywood” tape or the I-could-shoot-somebody-on-Fifth-Avenue boast did not kill his candidacy.

It’s also why the itch to believe that the moment has come when everything starts to unravel must be viewed warily. Sure, Trump sounds more desperate. But who’s the enforcer if Trump has broken the law? It’s Congress — and until things change there (which could happen in November) or Republicans at last abandon a policy of hold-my-nose opportunism, Trump will ride out the storm.

There’s a deeper question, which comes back to the extraordinary Western landscape and the high American idea enshrined in it. Americans elected Trump. Nobody else did. They came down to his level. White Christian males losing their place in the social order decided they’d do anything to save themselves, and to heck with morality. They made a bargain with the devil in full knowledge. So the real question is: What does it mean to be an American today? Who are we, goddamit? What have we become?

Trump was a symptom, not a cause. The problem is way deeper than him.

For William Steding, a diplomatic historian living in Colorado, American individualism has morphed into narcissism, perfectibility into entitlement, and exceptionalism into hubris. Out of that, and more, came the insidious malignancy of Trump. It will not be extirpated overnight.

American “individualism” was always crap. But as long as this faction of Americans wasn’t forced to endure sharing their privilege with the people they have always seen as “lesser” they could pretend that their individualism had room for decency and even, sometimes, honor. Obviously that’s no longer the case.

These people know he is a snake. And they love him for it.

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