Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped?

[kenberg]

Great piece from the March issue of The Atlantic: The Plot Against America

 

The entire article is fairly long for these days, but is well worth reading regardless of political persuasion. Here is an excerpt:

 

 

With assorted criminals in DC today constantly trying to intimidate legitimate journalists by shouting "fake news" at anyone who tells the truth, it's heartening to read the honest words of those who refuse to buckle.

 

To go a little beyond my above flippant remark, it is worthwhile pointing out a crucial difference between Manafort and, say, the Koch brothers. No doubt the Koch brothers were interested in their profits, but I think they also believe/believed (one having died thus the /) in conservatism. Manafort? I don't think so. Money, power, expensive clothes, yes. Any political principal? Not interested. And of course the same can be said of the man he once worked for. Reagan had once been a liberal but became a conservative. He believed in it. Trump was once a D but became an R. But he believes in Trump, any thing else? Not interested. . This explains a lot, I think.

[barmar]

Only for very large public companies where the shares of the founders were diluted. For private companies or most small public companies, the original founders usually control a majority of the voting shares so basically they can control the Board if there is one. Plus, many boards are weak willed and do whatever they are told. For examples of this, look at the boards of the casinos that Dennison raided and drained dry of capital with self-dealing loans to himself.

I was assuming that most of the 1% have become so by running large, public companies, like Gates, Buffett, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk. I think Trump is more of an exception than the rule (in many ways). But I could be wrong, maybe it's just true of the most well known ones.

[barmar]

Obviously voting fraud does not exist:

No one ever claims that it "does not exist". What we say is that it's not widespread or to the level that Trump claimed. There are no "busloads" of illegal immigrants casting fraudulent votes, there weren't 3 million illegal votes during the 2016 election.

 

And the article you linked to is not even about voter fraud, it's about technical problems with Georgia's voting infrastructure.

[ldrews]

No one ever claims that it "does not exist". What we say is that it's not widespread or to the level that Trump claimed. There are no "busloads" of illegal immigrants casting fraudulent votes, there weren't 3 million illegal votes during the 2016 election.

 

And the article you linked to is not even about voter fraud, it's about technical problems with Georgia's voting infrastructure.

 

Right! Sort of like strict gun control laws in Chicago have all but eliminated gun related shootings. Color me skeptical.

[barmar]

Right! Sort of like strict gun control laws in Chicago have all but eliminated gun related shootings. Color me skeptical.

The world is not black and white, there are few absolutes. The choices are not between "eliminate gun-related deaths" and "do nothing about gun violence". You can make things better even if the problem is not eliminated entirely.

 

BTW, today's XKCD is relevant to the article you linked to: https://xkcd.com/2030/

[Cyberyeti]

Right! Sort of like strict gun control laws in Chicago have all but eliminated gun related shootings. Color me skeptical.

 

If you'd had them since the start of Chicago, would have worked fine, too many guns out there now for it to be the miracle solution although it will slowly improve things, and also without the same laws in the rest of the country it's difficult.

 

Also the numbers on illegals voting are vanishingly small, the Republicans are using it to disenfranchise large numbers of Democrat voters.

[Winstonm]

If you'd had them since the start of Chicago, would have worked fine, too many guns out there now for it to be the miracle solution although it will slowly improve things, and also without the same laws in the rest of the country it's difficult.

 

Also the numbers on illegals voting are vanishingly small, the Republicans are using it to disenfranchise large numbers of Democrat voters.

 

NPR had this about Chicago (Illinois) gun laws: (emphasis added)

 

Neither Wisconsin nor Indiana requires licenses or permits to purchase a gun, for example, nor do they require waiting periods. While Illinois has that B+ rating from the law center, Wisconsin has a C- and Indiana a D-.

 

And there's good evidence that being next-door to those states keeps Chicago criminals well-supplied with guns. A 2015 study of guns in Chicago, co-authored by Cook, found that more than 60 percent of new guns used in Chicago gang-related crimes and 31.6 percent used in non-gang-related crimes between 2009 and 2013 were bought in other states. Indiana was a particularly heavy supplier, providing nearly one-third of the gang guns and nearly one-fifth of the non-gang guns.

 

Other evidence corroborates this — a 2014 Chicago Police Department report found that Indiana accounted for 19 percent of all guns recovered by the department between 2009 and 2013.

 

New firearms trace data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released last week likewise shows that Illinois as a whole faces a massive influx of guns. Of around 8,700 firearms recovered in Illinois and for which the bureau found a source state, more than half came from out of state — 1,366, nearly 16 percent, came from Indiana alone.

 

By comparison, 82 percent of guns recovered in Indiana and traced were from within Indiana, suggesting that criminals in that state don't have to cross state lines, like those in Illinois, to get their weapons.

 

But the real reason why pointing to Chicago as gun law failure is such a disingenuous argument is that there is no way to know what Chicago's death toll from guns would be if there were no laws governing firearms.

[jjbrr]

devin nunes is the ldrews of actual politics. here's transcripts without any further comments:

 

Clip #1:

 

REP. NUNES (R-CA): “So therein lies, so it’s like your classic Catch-22 situation where we were at a – this puts us in such a tough spot. If Sessions won’t unrecuse and Mueller won’t clear the president, we’re the only ones. Which is really the danger. That’s why I keep, and thank you for saying it by the way, I mean we have to keep all these seats. We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away.”

 

Clip #2:

 

REP. NUNES (R-CA): “They know it’s ridiculous to go after the president for obstruction of justice. But if they tell a lie often enough and they put it out there and they say, ‘Oh, we’re looking at the tweets,’ cause you know you’ve got a mixed bag on the tweets, right? Like sometimes you love the president’s tweets, sometimes we cringe on the president’s tweets. But they’re trying to make a political, this is all political as to why that story ran in the New York Times on the tweets.”

 

Clip #3:

 

REP. NUNES (R-CA): “Now if somebody thinks that my campaign or Cathy’s campaign is colluding with the Chinese, or you name the country, hey, could happen, it would be a very bad thing if Cathy was getting secrets from the Portuguese, let’s say, just because I’m Portuguese, my family was. So Cathy was getting secret information from the Portuguese. You know, may or may not be unusual. But ultimately let’s say the Portuguese came and brought her some stolen emails. And she decided to release those. Okay, now we have a problem, right? Because somebody stole the emails, gave ‘em to Cathy, Cathy released ‘em. Well, if that’s the case, then that’s criminal.”

 

Clip #4:

 

AUDIENCE MEMBER: “But also, on things that came up in the House on Rosenstein impeachment thing. And it appears from an outsider that the Republicans were not supported.”

 

REP. NUNES (R-CA): “Yeah, well, so it’s a bit complicated, right? And I say that because you have to, so we only have so many months left, right? So if we actually vote to impeach, okay, what that does is that triggers the Senate then has to take it up. Well, and you have to decide what you want right now because the Senate only has so much time. Do you want them to drop everything and not confirm the Supreme Court justice, the new Supreme Court justice? So that’s part of why, I don’t think you have, you’re not getting from, and I’ve said publicly Rosenstein deserves to be impeached. I mean, so, I don’t think you’re gonna get any argument from most of our colleagues. The question is the timing of it right before the election.”

 

REP. MCMORRIS RODGERS (R-WA): “Also, the Senate has to start –”

 

REP. NUNES (R-CA): “The Senate would have to start, the Senate would have to drop everything they’re doing and start to, and start with impeachment on Rosenstein. And then take the risk of not getting Kavanaugh confirmed. So it’s not a matter that any of us like Rosenstein. It’s a matter of, it’s a matter of timing.”

[Winstonm]

And away we go.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) warns that Russian hackers already have gained access to election systems in some Florida counties and have the ability to interfere in the midterms.

 

Tampa Bay Times:

 

"They have already penetrated certain counties in the state and they now have free rein to move about," Nelson told the Tampa Bay Times.

[y66]

To go a little beyond my above flippant remark, it is worthwhile pointing out a crucial difference between Manafort and, say, the Koch brothers. No doubt the Koch brothers were interested in their profits, but I think they also believe/believed (one having died thus the /) in conservatism. Manafort? I don't think so. Money, power, expensive clothes, yes. Any political principal? Not interested. And of course the same can be said of the man he once worked for. Reagan had once been a liberal but became a conservative. He believed in it. Trump was once a D but became an R. But he believes in Trump, any thing else? Not interested. . This explains a lot, I think.

Who supplied this three-year progression of themes for his firm's annual golf outings known as Boodles (after the gin brand): “Excess” followed by “Exceed Excess” capped by “Excess Is Best”?

 

I have nothing against anyone having a good time. I do think it's important to distinguish what makes for a fun golf outing from what makes for good governance.

[kenberg]

From Why I'm Moving Home by the author of Hillbilly Elegy J.D. Vance

 

 

Is this guy for real? We'll see. I hope so.

I am now reading Hillbilly Elegy so I doug up this old post. Ialso found a TED talk by Vance https://www.ted.com/...n_working_class

I disagree with much that he says even though there are things that I can relate to.

 

 

My strongest reaction: The white working class environment that he describes is not the white working class environment that I grew up in. This is not just a matter of the times they are a'changin. He goes back to the lives of his mother, the various men in her life, his grandparent's lives and so on, some of this from the period when I was growing up. He describes how his family was not accepted easily into the general culture of Middletown Ohio. Of course they weren't, but this was not because they were from the hills of Kentucky, it was because of how they acted. At times he seems to understand this, at other times he seems proud of the way his family acted. He describes a time when his uncle was a young child and was in a drug store by himself and was playing with a toy. The clerk made him leave. The child's father. so J.P.'s grandfather, went into the store, smashed that toy and other toys, threw toys against the wall, grabbed the clerk and threatened him. Vance seems to write this off as just the way the Scotch-Irish are. No. Not the way the white working class I grew up with were, and I have no reason to think it's the way the Scotch-Irish are. It's the way his grandfather was, to the extent the story is true. And that's another thing. My Uncle Floyd, an iron miner, often spoke of his physical combativeness. One learns to be a bit skeptical. In the drugstore scene I wondered: Was there nobody else in the store? Did the clerk not later call the police? If not, how about the owner when he found the store trashed? Did the grandfather ever enter the store again? Or even go to that mall again (I think it was in a mall)? We can all think of stories that get told and re-told, becoming more and more embellished, and it seems nobody ever stops to say "This doesn't sound like something that would really happen". Vance seems to take the story at face value. Naive, I think.

 

 

J Dot's mother (he was known as J.P. or J Dot) was a total disaster. That's where the action is, I think. You don't have to be Scotch-Irish and you don't have to be poor ( his grandparents were in fact middle class with a considerably bigger house than the one I grew up in) to have disastrous family circumstances. Some survive this, with scars, some don't. I grew up with stability, my mother slept only with my father, my father slept only with my mother. That helps. It helps a lot. Perfect? No, but who's childhood was?

So I applaud any effort Vance makes in trying to bring hope and stability to troubled families. Much of the rest? To borrow a line from

"Your story's so touching but it sounds just like a lie"

[Winstonm]

I am now reading Hillbilly Elegy so I doug up this old post. Ialso found a TED talk by Vance

I disagree with much that he says even though there are things that I can relate to.

 

 

My strongest reaction: The white working class environment that he describes is not the white working class environment that I grew op in. This is not just a matter of the times they are a'changin. He goes back to the lives of his mother, the various men in her life, his grandparent's lives and so on, some of this from the period when I was growing up. He describes how his family was not accepted easily into the general culture of Middletown Ohio. Of course they weren't, but this was not because they were from the hills of Kentucky, it was because of how they acted. At times he seems to understand this, at other times he seems proud of the way his family acted. He describes a time when his uncle was a young child and was in a drug store by himself and was playing with a toy. The clerk made him leave. The child's father. so J.P.'s grandfather, went into the store, smashed that toy and other toys, threw toys against the wall, grabbed the clerk and threatened him. Vance seems to write this off as just the way the Scotch-Irish are. No. Not the way the white working class I grew up with was, I have no reason to think it's the way the Scotch-Irish are. It's the way his grandfather was, to the extent the story is true. And that's another thing. My Uncle Floyd, an iron miner, often spoke of his physical combativeness. One learns to be a bit skeptical. In the drugstore scene I wondered: Was there nobody else in the store? Did the clerk not later call the police? If not, how about the owner when he found the store trashed? Did the grandfather ever enter the store again? Or even go to that mall again (I think it was in a mall)? We can all think of stories that get told and re-told, becoming more and more embellished, and it seems nobody ever stops to say "This doesn't sound like something that would really happen". Vance seems to take the story at face value. Naive, I think.

 

 

J Dot's mother (he was known as J.P. or J Dot) was a total disaster. That's where the action is, I think. You don't have to be Scotch-Irish and you don't have to be poor ( his grandparents were in fact middle class with a considerably bigger house than the one I grew up in) to have disastrous family circumstances. Some survive this, with scars, some don't. I grew up with stability, my mother slept only with my father, my father slept only with my mother. That helps. It helps a lot. Perfect? No, but who's childhood was?

So I applaud any effort Vance makes in trying to bring hope and stability to troubled families. Much of the rest? To borrow a line from

"Your story's so touching but it sounds just like a lie"

 

[kenberg]

Well, I have now just about finished it. J Dot has his accomplishments. I doubt that he and I would agree on much.

 

Added: I have now finished it completely and I might back off a bit on my criticism. We could find some common ground perhaps.

 

[johnu]

What do you do when your neighbor is a Neo-Nazi?

 

Never mind, I thought it was about the other guy who sometimes stays at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. :rolleyes:

[Winstonm]

I wondered why Andrew Miller ducked out on his appointment with the grand jury - turns out he is being represented by a non-profit, The National Legal and Policy Center.

 

Looking a little more deeply, Wikileaks says this about NLPC's mission:

 

1)

Asserting that the social responsibility of the corporation is to defend and advance the interests of the people who own the company, the shareholders.

Well stated. No debate here.

2)

True responsibility is fidelity to one's own mission, not someone else's, or someone else's political agenda.

Oh, so true responsibility is NOT to shareholders but to one own mission. Curious.

3)

Exposing influence peddling on public officials by corporations, which inevitably is the result of high levels of government spending and intervention in the marketplace.

Yes, and it is the bank's fault that it is robbed because of all the money they keep in there!

4)

Combating practices that undermine the free enterprise system, including philanthropic giving to groups hostile to a free economy.

So, influence peddling is the free market at work - and influence peddling must be stopped - cause it's the gubment's fault that the cheaters cheat - and no restraints on the market can be tolerated.

 

And to do all this you started a non-profit instead of a engaging in the free market with other lawyers.

 

Sounds about right.

[johnu]

Dennison supporter Laura Ingraham disavows white nationalists

 

Fox's Laura Ingraham: I wasn't talking about race

 

A very believable denial. I have no doubt that she does not harbor any bad thoughts about people based on race. Skin color is another matter.

[shyams]

Dennison supporter Laura Ingraham disavows white nationalists

 

Fox's Laura Ingraham: I wasn't talking about race

 

A very believable denial. I have no doubt that she does not harbor any bad thoughts about people based on race. Skin color is another matter.

 

Well her viewership stats are up. For all we know, she might get a raise soon enough.

[Winstonm]

I'm considering proposing a new reality game show to NBC. It will be called, "Who's the Lowlife?" in honor of Dennison's tweet:

 

The big story that the Fake News Media refuses to report is lowlife Christopher Steele’s many meetings with Deputy A.G. Bruce Ohr and his beautiful wife, Nelly. It was Fusion GPS that hired Steele to write the phony & discredited Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary & the DNC....

 

Narrator: All right here is what really happened: (Cut to stock film of Steele)

When the information he was gathering on Mr. Trump seemed alarming, Mr. Steele informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his concerns.

 

(Cut to Beavis and Butthead clip)

When the Russian government offered dirt on Mr. Trump’s opponent, his campaign didn’t alert authorities about this sketchy behavior. It eagerly took the meeting.

 

For $500, who's the lowlife?

[johnu]

Rudy Giuliani Now Says Dennison, Comey Never Discussed Michael Flynn

 

My prediction is that next week, Giuliani will claim Dennison never ever talked with Comey, and in fact, has never met the man.

[johnu]

Stephen Colbert Schools Dennison Over Latest Geography Goof

[jjbrr]

From the chas_p school of effective hiring: this email

 

Vernon Parker

Vernon Parker was one of the higher level black political appointees in the Bush Administration. He has been an active supporter of ours since April and worked to help us in the delegate fights at the state and district levels.

 

Recommended Position: Deputy AG, Dept of Justice

 

As a black appointment, Parker would bring administrative skills to the position and would be a visible answer to the bogus racist charges that will be leveled against Jeff Sessions.

 

Alternative positions:

 

Assistant AG Civil Rights:

The Assistant Attorney General's spot for Civil Rights at Justice will be a hotbed, and the Trump administration will be under the microscope with every move. Parker was the first ever Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at USDA.

 

Director of Office of Personnel Management, White House

He served as General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management under President H.W Bush.

[Winstonm]

From the chas_p school of effective hiring: this email

 

Paul Manafort:

Vernon Parker was one of the higher level black political appointees in the Bush Administration. He has been an active supporter of ours...

 

Donnie Brasco:

When I introduce you, I'm gonna say, "This is a friend of mine." That means you're a connected guy. Now if I said instead, this is a friend of ours that would mean you a made guy. A Capiche?

 

Must be hard to discard habits...

[Winstonm]

Yahoo reports there are reasons to believe at least one Omarosa claim:

 

Campaign finance records show several former aides to President Donald Trump have received payments of roughly $15,000 per month from campaign or party accounts, bolstering part of former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman’s claim that she was offered the same amount to keep quiet about her time in the White House.

 

The Apprentice contestant turned White House aide Manigault Newman has alleged that multiple former Trump Administration aides have been taking money for their silence since leaving their posts, a hush money payment under the guise of a no-show job that she says she turned down.

[Al_U_Card]

I had thought that W was an unbeatable low as President but at least he had Darth Cheney as Veep... Mike Pence? Sheesh

[barmar]

BTW, does anyone else find it weird to hear everyone using Omarosa's full name? As if writing a book suddenly erases the fact that for years she was just a reality star.

 

Even when she was working in the WH the media rarely said her last name.