[Winstonm]

The Grifter-in-chief "suggested" to Mike Pence that he stay at the Trump property - although that was 180 miles out of the way. Guess where Pence stayed?

Quote

SHANNON, Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence drew criticism from Democrats on Tuesday when he began a two-day visit to Ireland with meetings in the capital, Dublin, but stayed at a hotel owned by President Donald Trump almost 300 kilometers (180 miles) away.

Pence flew to Dublin on Tuesday after spending the night at the Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg on the west coast of Ireland. The hotel also hosted the Trump family during a short trip to Ireland by the president in June.

There's no dollars like tax dollars
there's no dollars I know
everything about them is appealing
I steal them 'til the deficit is reeling

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2019-September-03, 00:59, said:

Between rounds of golf, the Mulligan in Chief had this to say

Trump Insists His Hurricane Warning Was Right Even After NWS Corrected Him


So many states start with "A", Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Arizona. Surely one of them was threatened by Hurricane Dorian. These states should change their names so that the Stable Genius in Chief won't get confused.

On a serious note, that he is incapable - literally - to admit any error is a national security threat. A narcissist feels immense, crushing shame when shown to err and must at any and all cost refute "the lie".

[johnu]

Winstonm, on 2019-September-03, 07:38, said:

The Grifter-in-chief "suggested" to Mike Pence that he stay at the Trump property - although that was 180 miles out of the way. Guess where Pence stayed?

More emoluments clause material. Item #199 on the list of impeachable offenses.

[y66]

From Jacob Rosenberg at Mother Jones:

Quote

On Tuesday, a panel of three judges ruled that legislative districts drawn by Republican lawmakers for state legislative races “do not permit voters to freely choose their representative” and therefore qualify as partisan gerrymandering.

The striking decision in Common Cause, et al v. Lewis found partisan gerrymandering “contrary to the fundamental right of North Carolina citizens to have elections conducted freely and honestly to ascertain, fairly and truthfully, the will of the people.”

According to the ruling, the maps were purposefully created in 2017 to maintain a Republican supermajority in the state legislature. North Carolina has a long history of voter suppression, but the judges deemed these maps “tainted by an unconstitutional deprivation of all citizens’ rights to equal protection of law, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly.”

Although the US Supreme Court ruled in June that partisan gerrymandering cannot be challenged in federal court, North Carolina’s constitution prohibits the practice via the state constitution’s Free Elections Clause, which states that “all elections shall be free.” Partisan gerrymandering flies in the face of the spirit of this demand. “It is not the will of the people that is fairly ascertained through extreme partisan gerrymandering,” the judges said. “Rather, it is the will of the map drawers that prevails.”

The map drawer, in this case, was Thomas Hofeller.

Hofeller, a GOP redistricting mastermind who worked with the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, was hired by North Carolina to help redraw the state legislative maps after the federal court tossed out the racially gerrymandered districts from 2011. After he died, documents were turned over to the court and became linchpin evidence of the purposeful nature of partisan gerrymandering.

In Hofeller’s documents, the court found “hundreds of files focused overwhelmingly on each party’s expected vote share in the draft districts and on the identities and party affiliations of the incumbent members in each district.” The decision notes this was “persuasive evidence that partisan intent predominated in the drawing of the 2017 Plans.”

The maps in question were created in 2017 after a federal court threw out the old legislative districts for racial gerrymandering, but the new maps were also challenged for attempting to cement a Republican majority. Republican David Lewis, who chairs the state’s Senate Committee on Redistricting, openly discussed plans to create partisan districts. In November 2018, a group of North Carolina voters, the Democratic Party, and Common Cause, a voting rights group, filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the maps violated the state constitution.

Jowei Chen, a University of Michigan political scientist who works on voting maps, documented starting discrepancies in the maps. He determined, and the court agreed, that the redrawn districts “cannot be explained by North Carolina’s political geography.” In simulating potential plans, North Carolina’s 2017 maps appeared as a vast outlier in certain measures of map fairness, such as splitting of municipalities and compactness of districts.

Lawmakers in the state have until September 18 to prepare new maps, which may crack a window for Democrats as the 2020 election season approaches. If they retake a majority in the state legislature under fair maps, it would put them in charge of redrawing maps after the 2021 census in North Carolina, which would be crucial in the wider push by Democrats, led by Eric Holder, to fix lingering gerrymanders by Republicans.

[y66]

From David Graham via Matt Yglesias:

Quote

The "actually the U.S. should have a Parliament" crew seems quiet today.

[awm]

y66, on 2019-September-03, 21:03, said:

From David Graham via Matt Yglesias:

This is much more interesting viewing than the US Congress! That doesn't necessarily make it better -- it's an amusing topic to discuss whether the US or UK has a worse government currently in power.

[johnu]

Winstonm, on 2019-September-03, 08:34, said:

On a serious note, that he is incapable - literally - to admit any error is a national security threat. A narcissist feels immense, crushing shame when shown to err and must at any and all cost refute "the lie".

On a not so serious note

Trump displays map with Dorian's original path extended toward Alabama

Quote

President Trump on Wednesday displayed a map that he said reflected Hurricane Dorian's original path, but the image appeared to be manually altered with a marker to show the storm's trajectory continuing toward Alabama.

Trump later told reporters that he did not know anything about the changed map, but was adamant that original forecasts called for Alabama to be impacted by the hurricane.

Amazing, the Grifter in Chief was too cheap to pay for a professional graphics person to redraw the projections on the map and it looks like he drew the new black lines himself with a Sharpie.

At least this wasn't important in the grand scheme of things, like a map of weapons of mass destruction (GWB, you are still remembered) or a map of Russian troops occupying Crimea or lined up Georgia's (note to Manchurian President, Not the one next to Alabama) border.

[kenberg]

What do we hope for in the upcoming Democratic debate? Who knows what they are doing, who is telling it straight? And what should we make of the polls?

Bear with me while I cite an article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-we-still-have-the-fiscal-capacity-to-deal-with-a-recession/2019/09/03/2f5081b4-c8f0-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html

The author says that if/when the recession comes, he advocates a 1.7 trillion dollar stimulus. As you can see, he has impressive credentials. I am not prepared to debate him. But 1.7 trillion works out to about five thousand bucks for every man woman and child. So it's a lot of money. I confess I have no idea how to judge the practicality of his suggestion.

Well, he isn't a candidate. But I am also uncertain how to judge the practicality of their suggestions. Ok, I could figure out that building a wall and having Mexico pay for it was not apt to work, but anyone could see that. Sanders isn't stupid. Neither is Warren. And no, Biden isn't either. And so on. However I also never thought Hillary was stupid and this time we need to win. Making good excuses for losing is not the goal.

So I am hoping for clarity. No ducking and weaving. I have never expected a candidate to either read my mind nor to agree with my thoughts. That's not needed. But we need someone whose ideas will hold up under the far more intense scrutiny that they will receive after the nomination is complete. Let's get to it, guys.

[johnu]

A prospective Republican presidential candidate in 2034

Jacob Wohl Wanted on Felony Arrest Warrant

Quote

Wohl’s detractors have often puzzled over how, until now, he had avoided serious legal consequences. That’s because Wohl has routinely pushed the legal and political envelope to seemingly absurd lengths.

In November 2018, Wohl teamed up with Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman for a spectacularly failed attempt to concoct a bogus sexual assault smear against then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The pair also attempted to fake a similar allegation against Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, which flopped after The Daily Beast obtained audio of Wohl and Burkman trying to pressure a potential “victim” into making a false allegation against Buttigieg.

In February, Wohl faked a death threat against himself, then reported the bogus crime to Minneapolis police. This summer, a phone number associated with Wohl was used to threaten a former GOP campaign worker, although Wohl denied involvement in the incident.

Quote

Investigators with the National Futures Association started to look into the operations of another Wohl company after a client complained that Wohl claimed to have rapidly increased the client’s $75,000 investment to $89,000. When the client tried to withdraw his money, however, Wohl allegedly only sent back $44,000.

The investigators noted in a report that Wohl’s promotional materials for the company claimed that Wohl had nine years of trading experience. That claim meant that Wohl, then 17 or 18 years old, would have been trading since he was 8 or 9 years old.

Wohl withdrew from the NFA ahead of the investigation, and eventually received a lifetime ban from the group.

People are not born as world class grifters and con men. You have to start early and hone your practice with years of cons. Good start by Wohl as a future replacement for the Grifter in Chief.

[Winstonm]

I don't think the prez altered the map by himself - he's not that Sharpie.

[y66]

From David Leonhardt at NYT:

Quote

“Steve Bullock is the most important person on the planet,” Robert Frank, the economist and author, recently wrote to me in an email.

Bullock is the populist Democratic governor of Montana who’s running a lackluster campaign for president. But he’s so popular in Montana, despite its deep conservatism, that he is the only Democrat with any reasonable chance of beating the state’s incumbent Republican senator, Steve Daines, next year. That’s why Frank thinks Bullock is the most important person on the planet.

“The window of opportunity for effective action on the climate crisis is rapidly closing,” Frank wrote. “Absent robust measures to curb greenhouse gases, climate scientists forecast steadily more frequent and intense storms, droughts, flooding, and wildfires. Alone among major political parties worldwide, Republicans have refused even to admit the existence of climate change, much less enact meaningful legislation for dealing with it.” And seemingly the only way the United States will take meaningful climate action in the next couple years is if the Democrats control both Congress and the White House.

Nobody has a greater opportunity to affect Senate control in 2021 than Bullock. The Democrats need to win a net of at least three seats to retake Senate control, and Bullock would immediately expand the field of competitive races. If I could think of one person facing a decision that might similarly affect the 2020 presidential race, I would be tempted to argue with Frank. But I can’t.

According to Montana law, Bullock’s deadline to enter the Senate race is March 9. He has said that he doesn’t find the prospect of being in the Senate all that interesting, but I don’t understand how anyone who cares about all of the issues Bullock cares about — not just the environment, but also inequality, education and much more — could pass up this opportunity.

[Winstonm]

Quote

The Trump administration is reportedly set to weaken rules that would have made Americans use energy-saving light bulbs—a move experts say will needlessly contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions. The rules being weakened, which date from George W. Bush’s administration and were due to start in the new year, would have effectively banned incandescent bulbs. An estimate by the Natural Resources Defense Council stated that the ban could have saved the electricity equivalent to the output of at least 25 large power plants

What exactly goes through these peoples' minds? Anything? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

[barmar]

johnu, on 2019-September-04, 14:14, said:

Amazing, the Grifter in Chief was too cheap to pay for a professional graphics person to redraw the projections on the map and it looks like he drew the new black lines himself with a Sharpie.

And there's actually a law specifically prohibiting altering forecasting maps from the Weather Bureau.

Too bad the Justice Dept won't indict a sitting President. Oh well, just another charge that's waiting for him when he gets out of office (although I suspect the statute of limitations on this one may be pretty short).

It should be noted that he adamantly denies doing this when reporters called him on it. But he also adamantly claimed that his inauguration crowd was the biggest ever, and that he won by the largest electoral college margin in recent decades.

[Winstonm]

Quote

As Hurricane Dorian unleashed torrential rains on the Carolinas on Thursday morning, President Trump continued to push his erroneous contention from the weekend that Alabama could have been affected by the life-threatening storm.

In his first tweets of the morning, Trump insisted that what he first said in a Sunday tweet was accurate at the time and attacked the news media.

“What I said was accurate! All Fake News in order to demean!” Trump wrote.

Again, the Narcissist-n-chief cannot let go of a simple error - in his mind, it is up to his court to make reality fit his message. Can you imagine what this type of psychological illness would mean if a more important mistake had been made, say, that a wall on the southern border would cure immigration problems, or that tariffs on China would be the solution to trade imbalances, or that Vladamir Putin is a great leader, and Russia was justified to take back Crimea.

[johnu]

The grifting and cons never stop

Air Force crew made an odd stop on a routine trip: Trump’s Scottish resort

Quote

Since April, the House Oversight Committee has been investigating why the crew on the C-17 military transport plane made the unusual stay — both en route to the Middle East and on the way back — at the luxury waterside resort, according to several people familiar with the incident. But they have yet to receive any answers from the Pentagon.

The inquiry is part of a broader, previously unreported probe into U.S. military expenditures at and around the Trump property in Scotland. According to a letter the panel sent to the Pentagon in June, the military has spent $11 million on fuel at the Prestwick Airport — the closest airport to Trump Turnberry — since October 2017, fuel that would be cheaper if purchased at a U.S. military base. The letter also cites a Guardian report that the airport provided cut-rate rooms and free rounds of golf at Turnberry for U.S. military members. The Criminal in Chief is living up to his name.

Taken together, the incidents raise the possibility that the military has helped keep Trump’s Turnberry resort afloat — the property lost $4.5 million in 2017, but revenue went up $3 million in 2018.

“The Defense Department has not produced a single document in this investigation,” said a senior Democratic aide on the oversight panel. “The committee will be forced to consider alternative steps if the Pentagon does not begin complying voluntarily in the coming days.”

So Turnberry resort is bleeding money, and the Prestwick Airport which is the airline gateway to that part of the country is also bleeding money and in danger of being forced to close. If Prestwick Airport closed, Turnberry resort would likely be forced into bankruptcy which would actually not be a problem because the Bankruptcy King in Chief knows all there is to know about declaring bankruptcy.

Also, aviation fuel at US airbases is available at wholesale prices for US military aircraft, and refueling at Prestwick Airport is at full retail prices. Ka-ching And Turnberry resort gets their hotel rooms and restaurants filled up with captive US military personnel. Yet more corruption and emoluments clause crimes.

[Winstonm]

johnu, on 2019-September-06, 23:03, said:

The grifting and cons never stop

Air Force crew made an odd stop on a routine trip: Trump’s Scottish resort


So Turnberry resort is bleeding money, and the Prestwick Airport which is the airline gateway to that part of the country is also bleeding money and in danger of being forced to close. If Prestwick Airport closed, Turnberry resort would likely be forced into bankruptcy which would actually not be a problem because the Bankruptcy King in Chief knows all there is to know about declaring bankruptcy.

Also, aviation fuel at US airbases is available at wholesale prices for US military aircraft, and refueling at Prestwick Airport is at full retail prices. Ka-ching And Turnberry resort gets their hotel rooms and restaurants filled up with captive US military personnel. Yet more corruption and emoluments clause crimes.

These activities are "high crimes and misdemeanors" and should lead to impeachment.

[Winstonm]

Reports are that Jerry Nadler will next week try to narrow the definitions of his so-called "impeachment inquiry". I think Nadler is screwing this up. However, I hope this leads to an impeachment resolution. Not that there is any hope that the Senate will convict but so that the Republicans in the Senate will be forced to show their wanton disregard for norms, laws, democracy, history, and the US constitution.

A failure to impeach this president would be an affront to history and the rule of law.

[barmar]

Winstonm, on 2019-September-07, 11:58, said:

Republicans in the Senate will be forced to show their wanton disregard for norms, laws, democracy, history, and the US constitution.

Hasn't that ship already sailed? At least as far back as refusing to even hold hearings for Obama's SCOTUS nominee.

[Winstonm]

barmar, on 2019-September-07, 13:01, said:

Hasn't that ship already sailed? At least as far back as refusing to even hold hearings for Obama's SCOTUS nominee.

In a sense, sure, but not in the sense of voting to protect a demagogue, a thief, a grifter. History is watching. If you supported Mussolini, history should have your name and your vote recorded for posterity.

[cherdano]

Today, we welcome a guest post from Hannah Ahrendt.
NOAA:

Quote

From Wednesday, August 28, through Monday, September 2, the information provided by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center to President Trump and the wider public demonstrated that tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama.

To which Hannah Ahrendt replied:

Quote

The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end---is being destroyed.
(...)
The essential conviction shared by all ranks, from fellow traveler to leader, is that politics is a game of cheating and that the ‘first commandment’ of the movement: ‘The Fuehrer is always right,’ is as necessary for the purposes of world politics, i.e., world-wide cheating, as the rules of military discipline are for the purposes of war.