Lazy Afternoon

in the Philadelphia area.  Perfect day for reading,

Media critic, Steve Simels, had this to say:

"A riveting suspense novel with deftly drawn characters, a wonderfully creepy bunch of plot twists and an eerie backstory, plus an ending you won't see coming, the whole thing set in an interesting and well drawn rural milieu (the protagonist is a reporter for a local Bucks County newspaper, and the journalism stuff feels utterly authentic). Nothing about this comes off as stock or inauthentic, and some smart producer should make a movie of this post haste. Highly recommended."

Get your copy here. 
You won't regret it.

Omnishambles

From bean to cup they do fuck up.

A major flaw in the Conservatives’ official conference mobile phone application has made the private data of senior party members – including cabinet ministers – accessible to anyone that logged in as that particular conference attendee.

The data of hundreds of attendees to the Tory conference could be viewed by second guessing attendees’ email addresses, with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Gavin Williamson and others among those whose personal information – including their phone numbers – was made accessible.< Once logged into the app, users were able to both amend and make the personal details of prominent MPs public. Twitter users claimed Johnson’s picture had been briefly changed to one featuring a pornographic image.

What a Country

Only the best people.

In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in South Texas.

Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases.

But in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks. There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.

We Got Saturday Out Of The Way

Let's see what Sunday has in store for us.

Saturday, Saturday

I did much driving today and that always puts me in a great mood! Did you know you can't even internet while you are driving?

Because This Joke Is As Inevitable As The Sun Rising In The East

Never tweet.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his aborted bid to take the company private, with the billionaire expected to remain as the helm of the company but relinquishing his chairman title and getting slapped with a hefty fine.

As part of the settlement, which is still subject to court approval, Musk will also pay a civil penalty of $20 million and give up his role as chairman of the board for at least three years. Additionally, Tesla will also pay a $20 million fine, and appoint two new independent directors to the board.

Afternoon Thread

Here's Echidne's take on the Kavanought hearing. Spot on, as usual.

Norms

I know it's a quaint notion, but a functioning society does require that most people obey "the rules" even without threat of law enforcement or other sanction. Letting the top judge get away with lying to Congress just makes us all go LOL NOTHING MATTERS.

I'm not one who ever believed in the golden age of the Grand Old Party, but this was the type of thing they used to pretend to care about.

As I Keep Saying

If informing readers isn't the point of a newspaper, what is?

Federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh misled Congress (er, “lied”) and the New York Times describes it as a fucking skill. pic.twitter.com/SI37xfsOSe

— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) September 29, 2018

cancel it.

Saturday Morning Thread

Wow So Tired

Everything is horrible.

Flakey

I can't believe they're gonna put this guy on the Court.

Welcome Back My Friends

I'm starting to suspect that Elite Law is a bit of a sham.

I Tried To Tell You

I spent many years composing blog posts that basically said "George Bush is bad" and the desire to suggest that he was actually good has enraged me.

George W. Bush has called several moderate Republican senators and Manchin to whip votes for Kavanaugh, per people briefed. Trump, who doesn’t like Bush, has far less sway with the key voters. https://t.co/txBatZRHo2

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) September 28, 2018

If The Law Is On Your Side

Pound the law.

If the facts are on your side, pound the facts.

If neither the law nor the facts are on your side,  pound the table.

Yesterday's hearing was a perfect demonstration of that old maxim. And it seems to have worked.

Walkies

I decided to take the day off yesterday. Even turned off the twitter for a few hours! Apparently there are nice places to walk in the urban hellhole.

I guess I missed some things.

Middle-of-the-night Thread

Forget Happy Hour

Just chug-a-lug it down. You're going to need it to get through this hearing.

Kavanaugh Hearing

Part whatever.

Train

I was in a fraternity. It was a good social experience for me. I am not going to claim that that we were all perfect, but I will say that the social pressures to not be rapists were greater than the social pressures to rape. I don't think any of my dudes were rapists, but if I knew they were I would tell you.

Happy Monday

This will be a bad day.

Thursday Morning

I predict a whole bunch of eyeballs will be tuning in to CSPAN this morning.

Remind Me What Good Will Come Of This

Probably nothing

It Begins Early

There aren't even that many elite prep schools, and yet...

Off the Table

A very strange belief by many people in the world of dem-leaning politics is that there are pesky complicated issues which get in the way of us winning elections and if only you can take them off the table somehow then we can just stop fighting and enjoy ruling.

The obvious issue is abortion because it somehow involves "conscience" and "morality" unlike all those other issues. For years (some) Democrats tried to forge some Grand Compromise on the issue. Something like we'll just make it legal for 8 weeks and you guys stop talking about it, deal? That deal was never going to be made, but more importantly that deal can never be kept. There are not two static "sides" and the people who actually count, the voters, don't necessarily support your shitty deals. The Washington Post editorial board might, but who cares?


The other one was the Social Security Grand Bargain. Even when I was in grad school in the 90s, the "we must cut benefits before they cut benefits" mantra by supposedly left leaning people was out there. The idea being that - I think! I never quite understood - if we cut the benefits then they will no longer try to cut the benefits, because we will own "benefit cutting" and be national heroes.

Republicans are smarter about this stuff - con Democrats into doing their dirty work and then turn around the next day and start the battle again.

We'll know better next time.

No Deal

"No Deal" is basically inevitable (I could be wrong!) at this point, so the only question is whether they hit the eject button at the last minute and agree to extend the status quo.

The National Farmers Union has warned of “catastrophic” consequences for the industry if there is no Brexit deal, after being warned by the EU that the UK faces a six-month wait to be certified as an approved third-country supplier.

This will be a major setback to the food and drink sector, where exports to the EU are worth £13.2bn a year.

The NFU says it has been told informally that although Britain is in complete regulatory alignment with the EU, if there is no deal, the same health checks countries such as China and the US undergo will apply to UK suppliers.

Accessory Journalism

Hey a neologism! By me! It's a good one I think!!! But Bunch's column that inspired it is good too.

The power to control the perception of reality — to deny the fundamental truth even when you are staring it in the face — has been the calling card of despots for more than a century. "Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are hearing is not what's happening," Trump told a VFW convention back in July. Some were amused; many were terrified. But the terrifying truth is that if you flipped on your TV on Monday, Trump's words were prophetic. What you were seeing and hearing was not what was happening, but the "fake news" was coming from inside the (White) House — the foul, fishy-smelling chum that Trump tossed to journalists way too eager to take the bait.

Please Contribute To My Hedge I Mean Campaign Fund

I have never seen this before in a campaign finance report. @realScottWagner lost over $600K of his contributors' money in the past three months through failed investments.

How can Pennsylvanians trust him with their own money? cc: @timelywriter @CPotterPgh @AndrewSeidman (1/) pic.twitter.com/G7slqTLAcu

— Adam Bonin (@adambonin) September 26, 2018

Click through the thread and the obvious suggestion (not saying Adam is suggesting it, but I am!) is that this is a giant loophole in reporting requirements that makes it pretty easy to siphon off campaign funds.

Wagner is the Republican candidate for governor here in PA.

He Likes That Joke

Hopefully (and pretty sure it's true!) I stopped telling tales of exciting college drunkenness not all that long after college. I mean, a good story can be a good story even if booze is involved, but there is a genre of "this one time...I got really fucked up... and..." that really doesn't go anywhere else. Those stories usually end with "fortunately, what happens in X stays in X..." at least they did, in 1997, when that joke was slightly fresh.

Years before his Supreme Court nomination, Kavanaugh acknowledged heavy drinking in a 2014 speech to the Yale Federalist Society. He recalled organizing a boozy trip for 30 of his Yale Law classmates to Boston for a baseball game and a night of barhopping, complete with “group chugs from a keg” and a return to campus by “falling out of the bus onto the steps of Yale Law School at about 4:45 a.m.”


According to his scripted remarks, he said: “Fortunately for all of us, we had a motto. What happens on the bus stays on the bus.”

Dudes...we all got fucked up on a bus... and fortunately, what happens on the bus, stays on the bus.

Cool story, [checks notes] 49-year-old bro.

When The Loop Comes To Town

Sure, Jan.

Now, a handful of state legislators want Pennsylvania to hop on board nascent Hyperloop planning, calling for a study of a Keystone State connection between proposed Hyperloop routes along the Northeast corridor and in the Midwest.

“This is a huge opportunity for us in the Commonwealth and we don't want to miss the boat — or more importantly, we don't want to miss the Hyperloop on this one,” said state Rep. Aaron Kaufer (R-Luzerne), the resolution’s lead sponsor

People are so stupid.

Wednesday Morning Thread

I keep track of the days so the boss doesn't have to.

Your You're welcome.

/s

edited

I Don't Even Know What Day It Is

One of those weeks.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Hey, Hey, Hey

Cosby sentenced to no less than 3 years in state prison.

Workout Buddies

I know we're supposed to love nothing more than the idea of Chuck Schumer and John Cornyn being gym buddies and running side by side on treadmills (Chuck really was gym buddies with Jeff Sessions). Every Thanksgiving liberals (for some reason only liberals?) get lectured on how we're supposed to be nice to our conservative family members. But Chuck Schumer, for all his flaws, isn't actively trying to ensure that women die, and those annoying Thanksgiving liberals aren't actually questioning the basic humanity of much of the US population. My point is these are basically bad people in a way that can't be covered up in the age of Trump and Kavanaugh.

And, really, they are bad people. If conservatives want to think all liberals are bad people because we are baby killers... fine. If they believe that (most are full of shit about abortion, but not all!), they shouldn't want to hang out at the gym or slice turkey with us either. My point is that this idea that we should be buddies with people who have views we find abhorrent is ridiculous. These mostly aren't debates about top marginal tax rates or whether cash grants or food stamps are the better for poverty reduction. This isn't just abstract debate stuff club. Sure I have plenty of friends who disagree with me about things, but I have no interest in being friends with, you know, racists, or homophobes, or misogynists. Why the hell would I be? Why the hell would anyone claims to care about that stuff? Oh, gee, that Andrew Sullivan, so charming as he walks around with his caliper set at parties.

Pulling Away

People will tolerate a lot of shit as long as there is relatively broad-based prosperity, and "broad-based prosperity" basically means that "you" and your kids, if you do everything reasonably well and don't fuck up too much, can buy a car and a house and can afford kids (and grandkids) and maybe go on vacation occasionally. If you're a lucky ducky maybe even some nicer things sometimes!

Elite nepotism, which is certainly nothing new, gets a bit more angering and disgusting when the scraps that are left for the rest are fewer and fewer.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The pundits who probably annoy me the most, aside from the purely evil ones, are the ones who put themselves front and center of every narrative. The issue at hand is less important than their personal thoughts about the issue. Their intellectual journey is an extraordinarily exciting story to tell. "My thinking on this has evolved [7000 words]...". Especially the ones who treat the entire exercise like it's a public conversation among them and their 5 other Important Pundit Friends. You know, "after reading this article by X, I had to reconsider my argument that...". Blahblahblah.

I'm not saying there's never a place for someone being forthright about why their opinion changed on something, but that's more an issue of honesty. It isn't an action thriller!

Shut up. Yes I am trying to deplatform you because you are boring.

It's An Aaron Sorkin Fantasy

This was a joke, but it does strike me how much this stage is set for an Aaron Sorkin dream moment. You know, the one courageous GOP senator who breaks with his party and gives an impassioned speech about doing the right thing, proving once and for all that Actually, Republicans (well, one at least) Are Good, and saving the day yet again. I'm not going to put this on the women - though Collins especially is likely going to prove her whole career has been a big sham - but if one of the male twitter fretters like Flake or Sasse or (hahahahahaha) Rubio shamed his party in a dramatic moment, Kavanaugh would be gone.


That's why they call it "fantasy."

Morning Thread

What Would John McCain Do?

No I don't care but it'd be funny.

Twitter Fight!

This is such disgraceful bullshit. @gabrielsherman should be ashamed of himself and should stop doing stenography for Steve Bannon. Rosenstein offered his resignation to Kelly. We wrote “verbally resigned.” Justice Dept isn’t denying he offered his resignation. https://t.co/RHsNKuS0bH

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) September 24, 2018

But Axios And The NYT Told Me He Was Resigning

Statement on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: pic.twitter.com/yBgAydv9oR

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) September 24, 2018

I'm sure journalists will let us know just how they were misled about this important story.

hahahaha I keed.

Resigned? Fired? Who Knows? We Report, We Have No Idea!

Days like this the press really shines.

Groundhog Day

A little flashback from the impeachment era.

Check the byline.

Elites

When I was a child...and probably longer... I didn't think adults were perfect, but I figured they were basically honest and responsible, except for the "bad people." This is what you're taught, after all! How to behave! By adults! You don't quite know how to behave correctly, yet, because you are a child, so people are teaching you right and wrong etc.

People just lie, and elites lie with impunity.

“Everything that is being said about the advice I give to students applying to Brett Kavanaugh ― or any judge ― is outrageous, 100% false, and the exact opposite of everything I have stood for and said for the last fifteen years,” Chua said.

She insisted in the statement that she always encouraged students to dress professionally, not casually, for interviews with any federal judge.

Yet a woman who recently graduated from Yale Law School and received advice from Chua on interviewing for a coveted clerkship position with Kavanaugh, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, disputed the professor’s statement.

“She’s lying,” the woman told HuffPost.

Coal Rollers With Homicidal Road Rage

That's the Republican party base, and many of their elected officials, right now.

Good Grief

For me, the big story is still the fact that they all knew Kavanaugh had a sketchy background. They just didn't care. They are probably still hoping to plow this nomination through. They are, also, probably placing the entire blame on the women coming forward, instead of on K or themselves. Nasty women, one and all.

Sunday Evening

Everything's getting stupider and stupider by the minute.

Send Them

What a country!

Chua said in the statement that, contrary to allegations that she told students that it was “no accident” that Kavanaugh hired attractive clerks, she “always” told her students to prep “insanely hard” and that substance was “the most important thing”.

But another former law student who was advised by Chua and approached the Guardian after its original story was published on Thursday said his experience was consistent with the allegations presented in the article.

The male student, who asked not to be identified, said that when he approached Chua about his interest in clerking for Kavanaugh, the professor said it was “great”, but then added that Kavanaugh “tends to hire women who are generally attractive and then likes to send them to [supreme court Chief Justice John] Roberts”.

It was a reference to Kavanaugh’s role as a so-called “feeder” judge, whose clerks often go on to win highly coveted clerkships at the US supreme court.

Setback for the Team

Maybe try the Philly Philly, coach?

Setback for Ford team: Leland Keyser, believed to have been identified as one of 5 people at the party, told the cmte she “does not know Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, w/ or w/o Dr. Ford” https://t.co/QSaVkYixEs

— Nicholas Fandos (@npfandos) September 23, 2018

It's absurd that anyone would remember a small high school house party from 35 years ago, if nothing notable happened to you personally at that party, but more than that, what kind of monster sees this as a clash between "teams." What the hell is the "Ford team"?

People who work at the New York Times are truly weird.

Dads With Guns

We've all seen the posed pictures and related t-shirts of concerned daddies threatening (maybe jokingly! haha) their daughters' suitors with guns.

They just assume all men (and boys) are like them, and that their daughters are actually their "property" to protect from "intruders."

And then they become Supreme Court justices.

Good Morning

Who Talks Like This

I have some opinions about elite law - and The Law as a "scholarly" endeavor - which I might share sometime after a few lines of coke (joke), but something which drives me nuts is how they all talk about each other in terms of "giant intellects" and "intellectual prowess" and "my friend, the jurist, has always impressed me with his deep intellect."

I have some really smart friends (I mean you, my friend, if you are reading this). I say things like "wow my friend is really smart" sometimes. Smart is good! Smart is impressive! But when people in that world wax idiotic about the deep intellect of their pals... and their pals are frat boy rapey types... I realize that no, actually you don't know any smart people.

WE WILL FIGHT FOR YOUUUUU

If Dems take Congress in November, impeachment of Kavanaugh for perjury should be job 1, whatever office he holds at the time.

Guys I Have Some Bad News

It seems that at least one of our great political parties is entirely filled with corrupt racists and misogynists.

Saturday Afternoon

It occurs to me we should have more movies about evil twins.

What A Time To Be Alive

Judge Kavanaugh I just granted another extension to Dr Ford to decide if she wants to proceed w the statement she made last week to testify to the senate She shld decide so we can move on I want to hear her. I hope u understand. It’s not my normal approach to b indecisive

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 22, 2018

Saturday Morning Thread

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

I hope anyone who has thrilled to @nytmike’s scoops when they cut in one direction will at least trust that he is reporting in good faith when they cut in a different direction.

— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) September 21, 2018

Friday Happy Hour

It is always Friday.

I Read Books

Recently we've had several profiles of people like Bannon and Ben Shapiro and some others in which the profiler asserts their intellectual prowess by pointing out that They Read Books. I'm not even one who thinks that Reading Books is the one and true path to knowledge, but I also know that Reading Books is a fairly normal thing that lots of people do, and not the intellectual mountain climbing as it is portrayed. I'd think that people who write for a living and generally hobnob in the literati scene, as such profilers do, would not be impressed by the Reading Books aspect of these people, but for some reason they are. As for reading The Classics like Sun Tzu and Hayek and Ayn Rand and Kilgore Trout, again these are all things which a billion people have read, or have claimed to (except for Kilgore Trout, whose only success was Venus on the Half Shell), so what is there to be impressed about?

America's Worst Newspaper

The New York Times.

As is always the case, liberalish critiques of the paper of record will be chalked up to "you just want us to be propagandists for your side," which has never been the liberal critique of the media, just a comforting bothsides critique from shitty journalists.

I Keep Telling You About The New York Times

Good enough for journalism!

Trendspotting

This is ridiculous. I have nothing to do with anybody. I spotted a trend and explored it. That’s it. I was as shocked as anyone by Whelan’s tweets. On deadline; moving on. https://t.co/NuPW2nfH3q

— kathleenparker (@kathleenparker) September 21, 2018

On deadline! Moving on!

Gonna Stamp Her Feet

May’s problem:

- She says the two options the EU is offering Britain (Canada or Norway) are both unacceptable

- Says they need to offer her another one

- Or what???

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 21, 2018

This isn't even true. Roughly the options are no deal (the apocalypse option), stay in the EU (status quo), Norway, or "Canada" which isn't even quite real, just no deal plus some random agreements that are actually agreed to.

The Shit Shotgun

Yesterday began rather strangely, with all of us wondering if Kathleen Parker's paint huffing habit had finally taken its toll.

Is there a Kavanaugh doppelganger?

Hahaha! Wait, no, she was serious?

This was paired with this Politico piece.

On Tuesday evening, Ed Whelan, a conservative activist and legal commentator, posted a remarkable claim about the charge of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“By one week from today, I expect that Judge Kavanaugh will have been clearly vindicated on this matter,” Whelan wrote. “Specifically, I expect that compelling evidence will show his categorical denial to be truthful. There will be no cloud over him.”

In a follow-up tweet, he added for good measure: “Senator [Dianne] Feinstein will soon be apologizing to Judge Kavanaugh.” Feinstein is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the first senator to learn about the accusation against Kavanaugh.

Wow. Sounds like a big deal! Especially since, as Politico informs us.

But his tweet, along with the perception that he is a sober-minded straight shooter, triggered intense speculation among conservatives and even White House aides about whether he had information that could acquit Kavanaugh.

[narrator: like most leading conservatives, Whelan is anything but a sober-minded straight shooter. like most leading conservatives, reporters treat him as if he is.]

A bombshell was coming! Reporters were excited! It was like James O'Keefe back in the old days! WHELAN HAS GOT THE GOODS!!!!

The goods turned out to be Whelan accusing some other guy of being the actual attempted raper (wow I guess we don't worry about unfounded accusations ruining the lives of MEN anymore) based on nothing more than that they looked alike (not really) and suburban houses all pretty much have the same floor plan.

This SLAM DUNK theory had been circulating for a couple of days, and was known at least in part to some reporters, as our Maggie confirmed (first she instinctively retweeted Whelan's accusations, then realized what a shit sandwich it was).

Deleting tweets of my own that included his thread for that reason. This is something Kavanaugh allies had privately said could be the case for days but doing it this way, as an apparent reaction to Ford likely testifying, suggests a level of panic. https://t.co/zRt2fELDaU

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 20, 2018

This nonsense was circulating for days! And reporters (#notallreporters) could not wait to run with it!

Of course it was coordinated among all the leading lights.

So, the possibility exists that Kavanaugh may have bought into Wheland’s lunacy and encouraged it? pic.twitter.com/FGGINcrAiR

— G O L D I E. (@goldietaylor) September 21, 2018

The Federalist Society's Leonard Leo wrote the menu of potential Supreme Court justices for Trump to pick from. A Politico reporter tweeted this morning that 3 people confirmed to her Leo was "100 percent confident" Whelan's argument would work. https://t.co/LNysxSAD5K

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) September 21, 2018

I can't believe we're losing to these guys.

That went well https://t.co/JGxqiMs8cN pic.twitter.com/Cf34eqD837

— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) September 21, 2018

Morning Thread

The Doppleganger Theory

I don't have time right now to go through this but...that's really what they went with.

Solutions

Nothing wrong with a bit of substitute transportation, but those of you blessed with good spatial visualization skills (the one aptitude test I always bombed was the rotating "3d" images one) can see the limitations of this.

When the L train goes offline in April, the respective transit agencies have put forth an expected breakdown of just where those 275,000 daily commuters will end up. Up to 80 percent (220,000 riders) will take alternate subway routes. Fifteen percent (41,250) will hop onto the cavalcade of new shuttle bus routes; five percent (13,750) will use temporary ferries; and one to two percent (2,750) will ride bikes. There is also an X factor: the number of passengers who can afford to hail Ubers every day.

...

All of that stands to change, of course. Buses could get stuck in traffic, and the subway system, which only saw one morning rush hour without delay in August, could descend into overcrowded chaos. (Both seem likely.) But one figure that is certain? As of mid-September, at least 1,500 of those passengers in question, or half a percentage point, have signed on to take The New L, an ultra-lux shuttle that promises breakfast bars, free WiFi, and phone chargers, as it carries L expats through the street-level mess that the shutdown will unleash.

I'm not criticizing this business. No one solution is going to replace all of those trips and 15 person vans are better for congestion than ubers. The point is, however, that there isn't a substitute for "very big vehicle with quick simultaneous boarding and its own dedicated right of way, preferably with the ability to brake and accelerate relatively quickly." Wishing doesn't make it so.

Whore It Up A Little, Girls

Such fine mentoring at our elite institutions.

A top professor at Yale Law School who strongly endorsed supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a “mentor to women” privately told a group of law students last year that it was “not an accident” that Kavanaugh’s female law clerks all “looked like models” and would provide advice to students about their physical appearance if they wanted to work for him, the Guardian has learned.

Amy Chua, a Yale professor who wrote a bestselling book on parenting called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was known for instructing female law students who were preparing for interviews with Kavanaugh on ways they could dress to exude a “model-like” femininity to help them win a post in Kavanaugh’s chambers, according to sources.

No Deal

I suppose there were two versions (roughly) of the path May chose. One was that she would bluster bluster bluster and then at the last minute "cave" to a deal which basically made the UK into Norway, with respect to its relationship with the EU. The other was that she would bluster bluster bluster wishing for some Deus ex Machina to fix her disaster until it was too late and then... "no deal." Can't hide under the covers forever.

A discussion of Theresa May's Chequers Brexit trade plan by the 27 EU leaders resulted in "everybody" agreeing that the proposal "will not work", the president of the European Council has said.

I don't think even the harsh cynical skeptics have come to terms with just what a disaster "no deal" is.

Forward And Back

On one hand it's good that people are starting to realize that I am gonna be proved fucking right, on the other hand I worry that upon finally accepting that they aren't going to work 100%, they're going to forget that if they don't work 100%...they don't really work.

Toyota doesn’t necessarily buy the hype about self-driving vehicles quickly taking control of roads in the U.S. and beyond. Leonard himself isn’t sold. “Taking me from Cambridge to Logan Airport with no driver in any Boston weather or traffic condition—that might not be in my lifetime,” he says. On its website, the research institute describes its goal as to “someday develop a vehicle that is incapable of causing a crash.” It doesn’t specify whether this uncrashable car would be driverless.

Of course enhanced safety features, if they *enhance safety* in practice, not just in concept, are good, but there is the basic problem that if any of these features encourage people to not quite pay as much attention as they should, then they're probably self-defeating.

Toyota is seeking a middle ground with a system it calls Guardian, which would harness the machine-intelligence and sensor capabilities that make full self-driving theoretically possible and bundle them in vehicles designed for human drivers. These cars and trucks would be able to see much farther ahead and behind, across multiple lanes of traffic, than any human would, and would be more adept at anticipating the behavior of other cars and pedestrians. Actual people would continue to steer and brake, but when Guardian detected potential danger, it would assume control and swerve, slow, stop, or otherwise act to avoid the problem.

Morning Thread

It's Thursday, damnit. Not Monday, not Friday, not Saturday. Thursday. Thursday.

Wednesday Night

Tomorrow is Monday.

Sorry For All Of My Bad Words About Golf

I'm sure it is lots of fun. I just spent a summer temping in a father/son office where, when not yelling at their administrator (their 50-year-old "girl"), they did nothing but talk about golf.

Nevertheless, the Erie County District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., has vacated the murder conviction of Valentino Dixon, 48, who was serving a 39-years-to-life sentence—the bulk of it in the infamous Attica Correctional Facility—for the 1991 killing of Torriano Jackson. On that hot August night long ago, both were at a loud street party with underage drinking when a fistfight over a girl turned to gunfire.

But before we dive into what really happened, a quick refresher on why golfers might care extra about Valentino Dixon. Six years ago, Golf Digest profiled this inmate who grinds colored pencils to their nubs drawing meticulously detailed golf-scapes. Although Dixon has never hit a ball or even stepped foot on a course, the game hooked him when a golfing warden brought in a photograph of Augusta National’s 12th hole for the inmate to render as a favor. In the din and darkness of his stone cell, the placid composition of grass, sky, water and trees spoke to Dixon. And the endless permutations of bunkers and contours gave him a subject he could play with.

More Thread

One of those "spend 2 hours on the phone with the cable company" kinda days. You decide if that's literally or figuratively!

Wednesday Crass Commercialism

My friend wrote a book! Well more of a friend of many friends, but close enough. Boomer1





Reviews are never wrong!

Boomer1 by Daniel Torday, coming out Sept. 18, is a brilliant novel about a new lost generation.

Mark Brumfeld and Cassie Black are overeducated Brooklyn bluegrass musicians with no jobs and no real skills, navigating the ever-extending transition to adulthood.

Mark fails to parlay a Ph.D. into a professorship, ends up back in his parents’ basement, and blames the entire generation of baby boomers hording all the desired careers. Using the handle “boomer1,” Mark starts posting videos threatening retaliation against the boomers that won’t retire.

Lunch Thread

enjoy

Area Reporters Report Their Prime Sources Don't Know Anything, Miss This Big Scoop

Title is slight exaggeration, but Marcy gets this right.

In an article about how Trump’s lawyers, generally, are clueless, and demonstrating though not reporting that the lawyers providing information to the press are part of that general cluelessness, Maggie and Mike don’t pause to reflect on whether that leaves them, too, clueless.

So when Trump tries to understand his plight by reading Maggie and Mike, he would believe a fiction largely created by the lies he has already told his lawyers and his preference for PR rather than solid legal advice.

Roughly, Trump's lawyers don't really know anything, but they (the real lawyers and especially the teevee ones) talk to the press a lot to spin the investigation. Trump gets his information about it from these press reports, especially the conservative propaganda channel version of those reports, and this further reinforces the bullshit loop.

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

Rich space nerds have this fantasy that the Earth is going to be turned into a smoldering fireball, or an unlivable post-climate change dystopian hellscape, and, well, there's just nothing we can do about that so we'd better figure out how to send 8 smart unappreciated rich guys and A LOT of hot breeding age women and some robot babysitters to do the hard work to, say, Mars, where they will solve the simple problem of interplanetary colonization and terraforming and begin the new utopian future dedicated to freedom and rule by rich nerds. To save humanity!

Probably a bit easier to clean things up a bit here at home, I imagine, but what do I know.

Wednesday Morning Thread

Tuesday Night

Tomorrow is Friday.

As I Have Been Trying To Tell You

George W. Bush is bad. I did point it out a couple of times somewhere in the archive of this dumb blog.

Exclusive: George W. Bush is standing by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, whose confirmation has been thrown into doubt amid sexual assault allegationshttps://t.co/qhnhzXH32y

— POLITICO (@politico) September 18, 2018

It Was Only Horseplay That Did Not Happen At That Party He Definitely Did Not Attend Maybe

The thing about the conservative shit cannon is that it is always full of shit, but journalists love to explore each flung piece lovingly.

Notable update: Hatch spokesman now says Kavanaugh did not say what Hatch said he did. Instead, he says, Kavanaugh only said he was "not at any party like the one she describes."https://t.co/hXhD1GpIUO

— Dan Eggen (@DanEggenWPost) September 18, 2018

America's Worst Humans

Rosa Brooks.

They'll Know Better Next Time

Kavanaugh has a long history of being a corrupt partisan hack, a prejurer, and someone with frightening public views on "the law." No attempted rape necessary to know that self-described (if full of shit) liberal lawyers shouldn't be supporting him. At least the internet will remember their names forever!

Not Complicated

I've long been amazed that apparently no one said, "uh, guys, this isn't legal..." on the inside.

Facebook has met criticism in recent years over revelations that its technology allowed landlords to discriminate on the basis of race, and employers to discriminate on the basis of age. Now a group of job seekers is alleging that Facebook helps employers exclude female candidates from recruiting campaigns.

Get back to inventing the bus, techbros, it's what you do best.

Figuring Out How To Get In This Guy's Will

Good luck!

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa stood before the audience gathered at SpaceX headquarters Monday evening and was greeted by cheers when he echoed a line from a famous speech by President John F. Kennedy, proclaiming "I choose to go to the moon."

Maezawa was introduced by SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk in Hawthorne, Calif. He is the first to book a trip as a private passenger with the commercial space company for a voyage that hasn't been attempted since NASA's Apollo missions ended in 1972.

A Tax On The Buyer

Like everything else with Trump, even if you have a sense that his instincts might, sort of, possibly, maybe (but probably not), be not be entirely wrong, you know that he has no idea what he's talking about so getting it right is about as likely as me being appointed Attorney General. One could spend all day doing "haha Trump is dumb" posts but this is something you know they have explained to him 700 times and he still doesn't get it.

At the White House, Trump wrongly said that “China is now paying us billions of dollars in tariffs” and he celebrated the Treasury Department collecting “tremendous amounts of money, which is great for our country.”

In fact, tariffs are taxes that are paid by Americans who import goods from abroad. Through the end of August, the administration had collected nearly $22 billion in revenue because of its new tariffs, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

It isn't that he's stupid, it's that he has brain worms, and he's going back in time. As happens.

They Knew

The thing about Kavanaugh is that it's 100% obvious that thew knew he had some sort of questionable incident(s) involving women in his past. The "he's a girls' basketball coach" is such a conservative way of trying to "deal" with that problem, even though it's actually the creepiest possible way to try to deal.

Knowing doesn't mean they believed it, and certainly didn't mean they cared about it other than as a LIEBERAL obstacle to conservative Nirvana, but they knew.

OTA

I pick on Tesla, but this is fast becoming an issue for everything. Just more important for high speed death machines.

A Tesla over-the-air update this week left the Consumer Reports Model 3 electric car without key features for more than a day, including automatic emergency braking (AEB) and Autopilot.

Happy Hour

enjoy

Shit Shotgun

We're in the middle of the "spray as much feces as you can against the wall and see what sticks" phase of the Kavanaugh defense. The latest is, and I am not making this up, that he clearly remembers that he was not at that party... you know... that party... on, um, that date... 30 years ago.

We will laugh, but the shit shotgun is effective, because our great cable news overlords will lovingly examine each shot of shit.

Perfectly Normal Behavior

I think horny teenagers have broken brains, and if you add a bit of alcohol they're even more broken, but nobody, not even the "bad kids," were open about thinking it was ok to try to rape a girl because she was drunk (or the guy was) back in the day. Sure there's a greater awareness, I think, that nonphysically but still coercive behavior is also, too, very bad, but holding a girl down and covering her mouth so she didn't scream while trying to rip off her clothes? Nobody would have said that was just normal teen behavior. (Obviously some people did it! That was very bad and they should have been, but would not likely have been, arrested.)

65 Classmates

I'm still marveling that they (and, yes, the "Chief Counsel for Nominations, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary" did this, not some random hacks) pushed out the claim that "65 female high-school classmates" of a guy who went to a boys' school wrote a letter on his behalf.

Spending My Day Posting Some Memes

I know the internet and social media are just parts of life now, so it isn't entirely to correct to think "wow if I were rich I wouldn't be spending my days liking sick memes on the Instagram," but, you know what? Give me a few million dollars and let's test that one out.

Generally I'm just amazed that trappings and limo rides aside, the Trump boys and their Dad seem to live the aspirational lives of 1980s car salesman sitcom dads (plus the internet).

The Worst People In The World

I didn’t think this was real. The president’s son posted this on Instagram yesterday. The “🤣🙌” comment at the bottom is from senior HUD official @LynnePattonHUD. pic.twitter.com/nzRqMN0sIG

— andrew kaczynski🧐 (@KFILE) September 17, 2018

Click for a better view. And here. Twitter embedding still sucks.

"Some Dems"

I have no doubt this is true but also the universe of possible "Democrats" Maagie could be referring to is giant.

Some of the Dems currently talking about why Kavanaugh should be delayed are also talking up possible support for Bloomberg. https://t.co/Ps45zSaJfK

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 17, 2018

I mean, who? Senators? Some shithead mercenary who calls himself a "Democrat" and works for Third Way? All is possible, but it's just hypocrisy innuendo without a name attached to it. I mean, the dude is rich. For 8 figures I'll say nice things about him. But this is ridiculous.

But it's Maggie!

Midnight Thread

Enjoy

Afternoon Thread

All these rich white guys being accused of criminal deeds makes me think hard about the cruelties of our justice system for the first time.

Everything's All Right

I doubt there's anyone around Trump who can actually bring themselves to tell him anything resembling the truth about anything. Being a lying irrational rage monster does not encourage others to try to level with you.

Sunday Morning

Thread  Place needs some air.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Impressive Work

Finding 65 female classmates at an all boys prep school.

Judge Kavanaugh's former law clerks started organizing the 65 female high-school classmates' letter after 5 pm yesterday. Grassley's office released the letter today right after we received it. Impressive work. https://t.co/GT7j9H00d8

— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) September 14, 2018

Morning Thread

Overnight Thread

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Body Count

It is funny that Ice T has played a cop on TV for years. The freakout about this song was bigly at the time.

Snitches Get Stitches

Manafort cooperating, supposedly, but who knows what that means...

Why?

I certainly wish Mr. Gayle all the best (I think? I met him once), and do not fault these efforts, but why does a Senator's press secretary and his friends need to beg for money on the internet for medical expenses?

I mean I know the answer to that which is: because he does. But shit is fucked up and bullshit.

On Teevee

I never desired fame (being at one point in my life somewhat internet famous was sort of amusing but I didn't precisely like it) which is why when a certain cable news network host asked me to come on as a sort of audition to be a regular I said "nah..." Also I didn't much like that host and traveling to NYC regularly in nice clothes and doing this blog for you, dear readers, at the same time would have been hard (I also probably would have been bad at it). My bank account regrets the decision.

Still there are people who... seem to just need to be on teevee and radio? I even mean over and above the general desire for fame. Like life isn't real if they aren't on teevee. Trump is like that, of course, but we also see it in people who have been driven out of their jobs (Bill O'Reilly) who, despite being rich and still famous, can't cope with just not being on teevee.

It's weird.

Amazon

I bet from the beginning (and still would bet!) that the winner of Amazon's absurd "woo us for a headquarters" contest was always pre-determined to be the DC metro area, even though given their own stated desires it isn't exactly a great choice. The man bought a house and a newspaper there.

A lot is made of municipalities handing over fistfuls of cash to subsidize big companies. Local taxes are generally pretty regressive (sales, flat income, property, etc.) so it's basically shifting money upwards in hopes of "trickle down." But even aside from that it stacks the deck against smaller employers.

Guns Kill People

I'm starting to get pretty annoyed by the term "road rage" though I don't have a better one. Rage is a real thing that people experience, a sudden uncontrollable anger. People hulk up sometimes. That doesn't excuse any behavior that results, but it's a bit different than "being mad and acting like a jerk." Most road rage incidents are more the latter, and sometimes they're the latter with guns. There's no moment of irrationality, just assholes with guns.

The road rage incident Tuesday morning began like so many others: Two drivers — one angry at the other's driving — flipped each other off.

But then they drew guns. Then they fired from their driver seats.

When the firing stopped, though, it was a passenger who was fatally shot. Brandy Brock was 31.

Cuomocrats

Cuomo won last night (unsurprisingly), but a bunch of his cronies lost. Lots of talk about democratic purity these days, but overlooked except by hippies is that Cuomo essentially set up a system where a bunch of notional Dems caucused with Republicans in the state Senate in order to thwart anything resembling a Dem agenda. 6/8 lost last night.

Its All Fun And Games Until A Tree Falls On Your Head

Not a new observation but it is irresponsible for a variety of reasons to stick reporters outside in the middle of a hurricane just so we can watch them get blown around in floodwaters.

Morning Thread

Seems to be a whole lot of shaking going on.

Florence
Manafort Plea
NYS Primary Results

I Know Nothing About This Stuff

But how does this even make sense.

Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon said 60 to 100 fires are burning across the Merrimack Valley at 6:35 p.m., and multiple people were hurt, according to reports.

The fires are attributed to problems with Columbia Gas Co. and officials are telling people that if they have Columbia Gas service they should evacuate their homes — even if their is not an odor.

Bunch of explosions in homes, basically.

A Few Bad Apples....

...spoils the bunch. Everyone always leaves off that last part.

He Won't Even Need All The Money

Simply having it will give him all the free media he needs.

Small --> Big

One thing I used to teach back when I taught, and which I would teach a bit differently now that I am old and wise, is how people only need to be a little bit racist (for example) for there to be big economic impacts of that racism. Weirdly I would say that back then the general point being conveyed was "sorry about your lot, but people aren't really all that racist!!!" instead of the more important point that it only takes a tiny bit of racism (or misogyny or...) for there to be big outcome differentials.

The rough economist logic is if the marginal benefits of trying harder are lower, you won't try as hard. Discontinuities in credentialing make this worse. Why get a Ph.D if you have a 20% harder time getting a job?

The important point is not "wow these shitty outcome differentials don't mean that people are really racist." The important point is "even a tiny bit of racism matters a lot."

A Good Tweet!

A big new organization problem these days is that when Trump says or tweets something obviously and insanely false, they just tweet it as a news story, like "President Trump says that Ohio is not a state," without any suggestion that it might possibly not be true. We can debate how much this matters, but even with the president being Trump, reporting things as presidential proclamation gives them the air of truth.

So kudos to NBC. This is how you do it!

BREAKING: Pres. Trump rejects independent study that reports an estimated 2,975 people died in Puerto Rico in 5 months after Hurricane Maria; provides no evidence to discount the study; declares, without evidence, that the higher death toll is political ploy to make him look bad.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 13, 2018

Incumbency Is Bad But Incumbents Are Always Good

Admittedly my view of this take is colored a bit by the time dirty fucking hippies tried to drive The Last Honest Man In Washington, Joe Lieberman, out of the Senate, but it is the kind of general elite media sentiment you often find. Newspaper editorial boards (which probably don't matter much anymore, but they still tell us something) rarely endorse primary challengers to the seats of incumbents, and in fact are often actively hostile to them, but will, on another day, fret about how little turnover there is in politics due to the power of incumbency.

Related: Andrew Cuomo is horrible.

Morning Thready Goodness

Late Night Thread

Stay safe

Big And Wet

We quantify things for obvious reasons, but the human toll of millions losing their homes isn't easy to measure.

Yes I am making a bigger point.

Truth and Reconciliation

Are we ever going to come to terms with how bad Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman, and Justice League were?

Power

My decisions mostly impact my cat. The decisions of the powerful impact millions. Own it.

They Figured That Out All By Themselves

That was one of my minor interests back in the great and glorious reign of Bush II. The news media, broadly defined, is still bad in many ways, but at least one way or another more viewpoints get through than did in the early days of this stupid blog. It was always fascinating when polls showed the Amurkan People completely out of step with Beltway Conventional Wisdom, because back then it was almost impossible to find, except on stupid blogs, anything that deviated much from Beltway Conventional Wisdom. I don't mean that people read blogs and got smart - nobody ever read blogs - I mean that it was quite fascinating that people... figured things out all by themselves. It's possible!

Even the Iraq war was... depending on how the question was asked... never all that popular in polls before it happened.

Just Evacuate

Not everybody drives and not everybody has a place to go or the money to make it happen.

Good morning.

Batten down the hatches, folks.

After reading Mutiny on the Bounty, I always wanted to say that.

Evening Thread

Tremendously big and tremendously wet edition.

Katrina

I've told this tiny story several times, but it's a good time to retell it because it shows the conservative attitude towards disasters: opportunity!

A couple of years after Katrina I was at a bar late at night in a resorty town, eavesdropping on the conversation one table over. Some 30something well-dressed bros discussing their rising fortunes in government contracting. The phrase which jumped out at me and is enough to get the point was:

And then Katrina happened, and everyone got rich.

Cop Killer

I suppose the guy killed by a cop in his own apartment might still be alive if he had killed her instead, though I suspect that instead of being gunned down by an off duty officer for no reason he would have been gunned down "fleeing" the scene of "murdering" a cop by her colleagues and the NRA would mysteriously not see this as a legitimate self defense case.

Why Do We Expect Them To Be Knowledgable

Even if we grant that the various techbros (Zuckerberg, Jack, Musk, whoever else) are geniuses at what they do instead of people who just won the lottery (certainly true of Jack, largely true of Elon and his paypal money), when did we start expecting successful businessmen of any kind to be modern Renaissance men? I know we generally have deference to rich guys in our culture - they must be brilliant! - but brilliant doesn't mean brilliant about literally everything. I don't even think we expect people who run publishing houses or cable news networks to be brilliant in the way there's this expectation that the techbros are brilliant, and there's more reason to think those types have a breadth of knowledge (whether they do or not). Zuck probably doesn't know anything about anything and I have no idea why we would expect otherwise?

America's Image

A very weird thing about this country is how we still (sort of) basically run the world and our elites are obsessed with whether the other kids in school think we are cool. There are also the beliefs that people in the rest of the world are basically idiots who are pelted with our national myths constantly, and therefore as dumb as we are, and who can be conned by our marketing slogans, and that they are as obsessed with "us" as we are. Our elites are all narcissists. Trump is such a mystery.

It is true that people in, say, Portugal know a bit more about our politics than "we" know about theirs (nothing) but most people of Portugal probably get through most days without thinking once about the United States of America. As it should be. Also Joe Scarborough is a fucking idiot.

For those of us still believing that Islamic extremists hate America because of the freedoms we guarantee to all people, the gravest threat Trump poses to our national security is the damage done daily to America’s image. As the New York Times’s Roger Cohen wrote the month after Trump’s election, “America is an idea. Strip freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law from what the United States represents to the world and America itself is gutted.”

Sure George Bush's "they hate us for our freedom" is fucking stupid but marvel at how this paragraph is even more stupid than that. I mean, if Islamic Extremists hate us for our freedom, and they're a big threat to national security, doesn't that mean that less freedom lessens the threat to our national security? Joe Scarborough is a child. And not a bright one.

He Lies About Everything

No, not Trump. That we know. Cuomo.

The administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo offered the contractor building the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge enticements to meet a late August deadline to open, including the possibility of absorbing extra costs and reducing their responsibility for potential traffic accidents, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times.

...

Engineers worried that a “potentially dangerous situation” had developed involving the neighboring old Tappan Zee Bridge, which had destabilized and threatened to impact traffic on the new eastern span of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. The initial concern was that a damaged and rusted piece of the old bridge might potentially fall onto the new one.

...

The governor and his administration have denied playing a role in the timetable for the bridge’s opening.

“We didn’t make the decision on the opening of the new span. The contractor did,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference on Sunday. Mr. Cuomo mocked those accusing him of political motivation by saying it was as “nonsensical” as him saying “the world is flat.”

That politicians present themselves as PR, as theater, means they all are a bit dishonest. Call it "spin" or whatever. But some people who happen to be politicians just lie constantly and shamelessly. The truth is irrelevant. Cuomo is one of them.

“Can you stop interrupting?” Cuomo said.

“Can you stop lying?” Nixon replied.

“Yeah, as soon as you do,” the governor said.

9/11 Day

Awful day, awful consequences. Hard to explain America 9/11/01-06 to The Kids Today.

Morning Thread

America's Worst Humans

Tucker Carlson.

Whatever, Jan

Shocking.

Just short of a year ago, General Motors garnered widespread national attention by announcing it planned to start testing autonomous cars on the busy streets of Manhattan in “early 2018.” But the automaker’s pilot has yet to launch, and no one is willing to publicly offer a detailed explanation for the delay

Please send 10% of the money you keep lighting on fire so I can advise you to not light the other 90% on fire.

Nobody Knows In America North Carolina Is In America

Will North Carolina Be Trump's Katrina????????

I worry that there's no longer any minimal expectation that the government takes care of anything, except perhaps hurricanes which threaten Northern Virginia McMansions. There can be no more "President Cruz's Katrina" because fuck everyone amirite.

Hurricane

Government, what is it good for?

Talking About That Generation

A great mystery to me is how anyone willingly spends their life in the more central bits of NYC (parts of the outer boroughs are different of course) and has such contempt for the subway. This actually applies to the mayor more than the governor (though the governor runs the subway no matter how much he pretends otherwise). I mean, look, I love urban hellholes but they have their disadvantages. One of those disadvantages is that they are absolutely shitty places to drive. One of the advantages is that, you know, you don't have to.

I don't mean that the actual mayor and governor have to ride around on the subway every day. I get that they don't, especially as they can have someone to drive them around. But these guys never did. I just can't imagine thinking "oh, I'm in (say) downtown, let me just drive up to Midtown real quick..." and arranging your life like that full time. New York, what is it for?

There's only a little bit of Philly which is "like" the New York of the imagination (not all of NYC is like the NYC of the imagination). I get why people drive around Philly if they don't actually have to travel to that bit. Outside of Center City, driving around (if not parking) is actually pretty easy. It isn't how I want to live my life, but I get it.

But I don't get how you can enjoy those bits of NYC with a windshield perspective. Like, why do you live there? The indignities of urban hellhole life are real, and if you are not a fan of the advantages... I just don't get it.

Passive Straphanger

Not like being driven around in town cars and helicopters. Nothing passive about that.

It's not like his advisers haven't tried to persuade him to give it a try. They've urged Cuomo, who is running for a third term, to ride the subway on more than one occasion, according to two knowledgeable sources. The governor has demurred.

One explanation has it that the image of a “passive straphanger” doesn't align with the governor’s can-do persona. It doesn’t enable him to don a windbreaker or grapple with machinery alongside predictably deferential transit workers.

The alpha costume of [checks notes] the windbreaker.


Cuomo beats Rahm for "worst Democratic politician in America" and I'm including any that happen to be in prison now.

They'll Play Along Every Time

I think there's some slight hope that THIS TIME the press won't fall for it when in about 8 weeks Republicans once again become the party of Fiscal Responsitude and start claiming that the greatest threat to your children is the deficit. But they "fall for it" every single time Republicans take power. This goes back to Reagan. They'll go right back to the script.

Morning Thread

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Sunday, Sunday

enjoy

NeverTrumpers

It is not "the deep state" as imagined by Trump or even by some liberals, but there is still a permanent floating class of elite professionals in DC who truly believe they do, or at least should, run the place. Mark Halperin (burning in hell somewhere, hopefully) used to call it the "gang of 500" and while his version was a bit heavy on the press and comms, the concept was sort of right. And the key thing is that because DC is a nexus of money and even the powerful "gang of 500" liberals are not so liberal, even after 8 years of Clinton, and then 8 years of Obama, this permanent floating class is basically a bunch of conservative Republicans and their centrist buddies and enablers. As long as everyone gets rich, as long as all of our buddies get the good spots, as long as the NoVa McMansion mortgages gets paid, everything is good.

Ignore anyone who claims to think (they're lying) Trump is bad but the Republican party is otherwise great. The lack of a single elected Republican doing anything other than tweeting furrowed brows or kissing up to Jake Tapper is proof enough, though this is otherwise obvious. And besides elected Republicans, consider the "establishment" embrace of Gorsuch and then especially Kavanaugh. The latter clearly fails even the "good guy" test, as an obvious ratfucking liar, despite their bleatings, and he will kill their wives and daughters and mistresses and they don't care.

Boom.

Sunday Morning Thread

Good People Beget Good People

Flashback Frist!

Tears of a Clown

Funny.

WASHINGTON – Something remarkable happened, according to Donald Trump, when Donald Trump arrived at his campaign rally in Evansville, Indiana last week.

Nine “miners” greeted him backstage. They were “tough guys,” “seriously tough cookies,” men he wouldn’t want to fight. But eight of the nine were crying.

It mostly isn't the lies. It's the lying. He (and they) lie about everything.

Would Love To See Those Emails

Undoubtedly a lot of pressure from the governor's office to make the bridge open before the primary.

Cuomo was apparently too eager to hold a ribbon-cutting 6 days before the primary that he’s clearly concerned about; brought Hillary Clinton in for a pseudo campaign event and... https://t.co/52PjFR4WNC

— Ben Max (@TweetBenMax) September 8, 2018

We Settled That Dispute During The Great Blog War Of Aught '03

One thing about doing "this" way too long as you find yourself circling back to the same dumb arguments you had 15 years ago with people who have just come in and are like, "well, have you thought about...?"

YES I HAVE FUCKING THOUGHT ABOUT IT.

Swarms

The only surprising thing about this is that people are surprised by it.

According to a major new study, Uber, Lyft and their smaller rivals are clogging major U.S. cities — not relieving congestion — and even more traffic may be on the way when self-driving cars are commonplace.

People have similar fantasies about self-driving cars which are also wrong. Not that the self-driving cars are going to work, but if they did work they aren't going to reduce congestion or even parking requirements.

Morning Thread

Rainy Saturday.

TrumpCo

Neverending.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether anyone in the Trump Organization violated campaign-finance laws, in a follow-up to their conviction last month of Michael Cohen, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Afternoon Thread

Everyone's gonna forget about the hyperloop and start throwing money at me for my... transporter technology... which will be working any day now.

Any Day Now

Sure.

Elon Musk also mentioned on “The Joe Rogan Experience” tonight that Tesla’s on the verge of turning on Autopilot functionality that will basically allow a Tesla car to drive itself — go from Point A to Point B with essentially no human input. This was supposed to be demonstrated on a coast-to-coast trip by the end of 2017, but “production hell” clearly delayed a few things, and getting the Autopilot tech to a stage genuinely ready for such a trip might have run into some hurdles as well.

The Life Unlived

I know Trump is mostly fake rich, but he's fake rich enough to live richly, and I just can't fathom that he spends his life playing golf and watching cable news.

Give me all your money. I promise to live better than that.

Oh Elon

I thought he's been chained to the Tesla assembly line working 487 hour weeks.

Billionaire Elon Musk took viewers by surprise late Thursday when he smoked marijuana and drank whiskey during a live interview.

The Tesla chief executive was speaking with comedian Joe Rogan, an advocate of legalizing weed, on his live internet show when he was handed the joint. A spokesperson for Tesla was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Run away!

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) disclosed that on September 4, 2018, Tesla’s Chief Accounting Officer, Dave Morton, provided notice that he was resigning from Tesla, effective immediately. Dave stated: “Since I joined Tesla on August 6th, the level of public attention placed on the company, as well as the pace within the company, have exceeded my expectations. As a result, this caused me to reconsider my future. I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting.”

Run away!

and the hits keep coming for $TSLA... Tesla HR chief says she isn't returning from leave - Bloomberg

— Streetinsider.com (@Street_Insider) September 7, 2018

Gonna take it private at... 420!


He'll always have Rahm's airport tunnel.

Trump's A Democrat Now

Funny.

PHILADELPHIA (CNN)- President Donald Trump sought to heighten the sense of urgency for his base Thursday when he told supporters that if he is impeached, “it’s your fault, ’cause you didn’t go out to vote.”

Morning Thread

A bit disappointed that Kerri Evelyn Harris didn't beat Carper last night. It was always a long shot. She's a gem and I predict this won't be her last run for public office. Whatever that may be, she's got my vote.

MAGA Melons

There is much I do not understand about Trump's appeal to the MAGAs, but certainly near the top is that they're impressed (if they are? who knows) that Kim Jong Un thinks he's nifty and peachy keen.

Conservative Men

That they fail to understand that lack of birth control and legal abortion will affect them, too, and their mandatory child support payments, mystifies me.

Yes, yes, the wealthy, blahblahblah, but as with everything else in this country, being "wealthy enough" is a lot more expensive than it used to be.

Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn

It doesn't even really matter what "Europe" wants in the sense of the EU as a representative body or its negotiators. Ireland gets a veto.

The UK is refusing to table a new plan for a Northern Ireland border backstop in Brexit talks – raising the prospect of disastrous no-deal as the negotiating deadline looms.

Frustrated EU officials are complaining that the UK is even making it harder for them to come up with their own new plan to break the deadlock, by dragging its feet on releasing data relating to existing checks on the border.

Elites

Many (most? who knows) even benevolent elites think that elites, in the very specific context of what that means in the United States, should run the country and by implication the world. Upper middle class (at least) background, elite universities (and elite high schools!), connections, etc. The "good" ones might not express this. They might not actually know that they believe this. But it doesn't take too many overheard "jokes" about who did and didn't go to Ivy equivalents, or even just understanding that this is a perfectly normal topic of conversation for people who are 20 years out of college, to get the point. Good liberal federal judges aren't hiring law clerks from Kabumfuck State University Law School, for example. (I am sure there are exceptions proving the rule).


And the non-benevolent ones. Well, they truly think they should run the world. And own it. And the rest of us can fuck off.

Treason

Like our president and Brian Kilmeade, I do think whoever wrote the NYT piece should be tried for a capital crime.

Maybe not for precisely the same reasons.

Sometimes I Find It Comforting That Other People Have Governments That Are As Horrible And Stupid As Ours

Only sometimes, of course.

Health Secretary @MattHancock on supplies of medicines in the event of a no deal Brexit: "We have proposed that there is stockpiling by the pharmaceutical companies, not by the NHS. If everybody does what they need to do then we can have a unhindered flow of medicine" #r4today

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) September 6, 2018

Some people are just greedheads and don't believe anything they say, but for actual true believers, the "magic of the market" and of private companies is that they face incentives which cause them to behave in certain ways and under certain conditions if everyone does that the outcomes are good. But you quickly get from that to "private companies good!" even when they face absolutely no incentives to do whatever it is you think they should do.

The incentives for pharma companies in this situation are quite obvious: run shortages and then demand billions from the government to miraculously fix the problem, after lots of people have died of course. "Please stockpile medicines" is not actually going to work.

Morning Thread

Wasn't it just last week that Dear Leader informed us, via tweet, that his WH runs like a "well oiled machine"? Oh, my!

Late Night Sheets

Enjoy

Happy Hour Thread

The president of the United States is YOU.

Brain Worms

These things can happen slowly, but Trump is getting worse, not better.

As I have said throughout this nightmare, I've been hearing the Donald my whole adult life. He was always a narcissistic blowhard, but not like this. It isn't just a show he's putting on for the rubes.

Remember When He Blamed It All On His Wife

That was "hilarious"!

The 47-page document also says the five-term Republican from Alpine had “personal relationships” with five unnamed individuals. The federal indictment offers few details about the relationships, and Hunter’s lawyer objected to the turn the investigation took.

...

According to Vega’s letter, prosecutors told the defense that they have pictures of indiscretions.

“While there may be evidence of infidelity, irresponsibility or alcohol dependence, once properly understood, the underlying facts do not equate to criminal activity," Vega wrote.

Oh Jerome

Won Bingo finally.

Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist and political commentator with connections to the former Trump adviser Roger J. Stone Jr., has been subpoenaed to testify on Friday before the grand jury in the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and whether Trump associates conspired with the effort, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

I find it amusing that Maggie just asserts he is "a conspiracy theorist" as factual. Not objecting, just interesting the labels "objective" journalists feel comfortable using sometimes and sometimes don't.

The Mean Streets of Bethesda

I grew up in a little crack ravaged neighborhood of Philadelphia known as Devon.

Brett Kavanaugh just said he "grew up in a city plagued by gun violence, and gang violence, and drug violence."

Brett Kavanaugh is from Bethesda, Maryland, and went to Georgetown Prep for high school. (h/t @nfernandez_92)

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 5, 2018

(West Philadelphia born and raised...no, a little farther west...farther...farther... )

The First Rule Of Elites Is - Don't Be Mean To Us

I'm not quite sure how Bannon got in "the club." Yes he's a rich white guy with a Goldman Sachs background, etc, but also part of his thing was, at least for show, shitting on the club. You have to be a member in pretty good standing to be able to get away with that. They want to know you are one of them even if you tell the rubes you aren't. Also he's an anti-Semitic white nationalist fascist? Usually the first one of those gives people a little pause, or at least it used to. Also, too, most club members are required to have at least better self-presentation skills than I do.

Now he's all washed up but club members still treat him like a big curiosity instead of a Saturday Night Live joke. Sure he's a white supremacist fascist, but the big problem is David Remnick obeying the twitter mob and his own unruly employee and disinviting him from an event which was in the process of losing the rest of its guests, shrieks Bret Stephens on America's Worst Oped page (you can find it yourself). This is the kind of defense which is only made for club members by other wannabe club members.

Blogofascism, the twitter mob, "campus PC,"... all variations of the same thing. Free speech requires that people who aren't in the club shut the fuck up. OK, I get that, as dumb as it is, but how the hell is Bannon in the club?

Morning Thread

Happy Hour Thread

Enjoy

No Way To Get Proper Medical Treatment

Even if you think abortion should be illegal, there's no way women can get proper medical treatment - or that doctors will be willing to provide it - if accidental disruption of a blastocyst is a potential consequence of examination, treatment, medication, etc. Sure relatively wealthy people will always be able to get abortions, but how rich will you have to be just to... see a doctor while female?

More Division

Except for "evenly divided," which is a fair characterization when polls about something are roughly 50-50, I suspect the country is labeled as "divided" on something when clear majority opinion diverges from elite opinion.

Booby

I don't really like Woodward's weird "reporting" style which seems to always be like reading a fictionalized version of events, but have at it..

By fictionalized I don't mean false, just that the quotes are more like paraphrases, the narratives dictated rather than uncovered. Truthy if that.

The Biggest Mistake

This is true.

A 64-year-old woman waiting at a bus stop was struck and killed by a hit-and-run vehicle in Northeast Philadelphia Sunday afternoon.

..

Joseph Thompson, 52, of the 3100 block of Draper Street was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and related offenses.

"It's a shame," the suspect's neighbor said. "He just made a mistake, that's all. He ran away. That was the biggest mistake."

Absent drugs/alcohol or hit-and-run (of course the former leads to the latter) or maybe clear evidence of texting, it's almost impossible to be prosecuted for running down a pedestrian, even if they're on a sidewalk, in the crosswalk, etc.

Have You Heard About Racism, Fascism, White Supremacy, Ethno-Nationalism, And Ethnic Cleansing?

Aparently these are all new ideas for Malcolm Gladwell. Ideas to which an audience of wealthy elites must be exposed!

Huh. Call me old-fashioned. But I would have thought that the point of a festival of ideas was to expose the audience to ideas. If you only invite your friends over, it’s called a dinner party. https://t.co/VwkL4zOrbX

— Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) September 4, 2018

We have the worst elites.

But also utterly pointless is the notion that Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, might have something new or valuable to offer.

That’s why it was a thoroughly lousy idea for the New Yorker magazine to offer a high-profile perch — an onstage interview by top editor David Remnick — at next month’s annual festival to the deposed Svengali.

There is nothing more to learn from Bannon about his particular brand of populism, with its blatant overlay of white supremacy.

The Country Is Divided

And we need a uniter!

The "funny" thing is I've seen the "divided" frame applied to almost every issue, no matter what the polls say. 50-50? The country is divided! 75-25? The country is divided! I mean, the country is always "divided" in that a significant number of people believe X and a significant number of people believe not X.

I wonder if any newsroom has a style guide about what evidence is required for the country to be "divided" about an issue. I have no idea if the answer should be "50-50" or "75-25" or anything other than "95-5" which would mean the country was divided about everything. It's a completely meaningless description.

Torture Is So Fun

I can't even imagine what's in Kavanaugh's papers that is so important that they want to hide it. I mean, of course he's anti-abortion-except-abortions-he-likes and pro-torture. But this was the Bush years! Even the liberals were pro-torture back then (some of them). Everybody forgets.

...I don't mean there isn't anything. I mean, "wow, it must be bad!"

How Hard Is It To Find A Native Spanish Speaker in America

Translating ad copy doesn't exactly take weeks of time. Pass one person's card around. Or, obviously, hire this guy.

Democrats may be fielding a more racially diverse slate of candidates than ever before, and they acknowledge they are more dependent on nonwhite voters to deliver their victories. But in 2018, the party still relies in the extreme on white political consultants and campaign professionals — with potentially disastrous results.

Sometimes that means they push a message that rings false with constituents; Democrats air so many mistranslated Spanish ads, said Chuck Rocha, the founder of the Latino-owned consulting firm Solidarity Strategies, that he barely notices anymore.

(Rocha might be talking his book, but it is a real and persistent issue.)