Donald Trump Used Legally Dubious Method to Avoid Paying Taxes - The New York Times

Donald Trump Used Legally Dubious Method to Avoid Paying Taxes - The New York Times: "It is unclear whether the I.R.S. ever challenged Mr. Trump’s use of this specific tax maneuver. According to a financial disclosure statement prepared by Mr. Trump’s accountants, he was under audit by the tax authorities as of 1993, only a year after he avoided reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income because of this legally suspect tactic. But the results of that audit are unknown, and the agency declined to comment on Monday.

"



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U-2 Incident . Eisenhower . WGBH American Experience | PBS

U-2 Incident . Eisenhower . WGBH American Experience | PBS:

These activities have their own rules and methods of concealment, which seek to mislead and obscure - just as in the Soviet allegations there are many discrepancies. For example, there is some reason to believe that the plane in question was not shot down at high altitude. The normal agencies of our Government are unaware of these specific activities or of the special efforts to conceal them.

Third point: How should we view all of this activity?

It is a distasteful but vital necessity.

We prefer and work for a different kind of world -- and a different way of obtaining the information essential to confidence and effective deterrence. Open societies, in the day of present weapons, are the only answer.

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The Next President’s Headaches, According to America’s Top Spy - Defense One

The Next President’s Headaches, According to America’s Top Spy - Defense One:

ROSE: So what do you think is driving Putin?

CLAPPER: I think he’s somewhat of a throwback, not so much to the—throwback to the tsar era. I think he has this vision of a great Russia, as a great power. It’s extremely important to him that Russia be treated and respected as a global power on a par with the United States. And I think that has a lot to do with impelling his behavior.

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Thanks to Trump, we can better understand how Hitler was possible - U.S. Election 2016 - Haaretz - Israel News | Haaretz.com

Thanks to Trump, we can better understand how Hitler was possible - U.S. Election 2016 - Haaretz - Israel News | Haaretz.com: "But while Hitler was becoming the darling of the masses nonetheless, he never considered himself one of them. As historian Yaakov Talmon wrote in Myth of the Nation and Vision of Revolution, Hitler was contemptuous of the slow-witted German masses. “Denying them rational understanding, judgment, willpower, and mental balance, he composed an astonishingly shrewd vade-mecum (handbook, CS): how to bamboozle them with hysteria and incitement, oversimplification and repetition, stunts and tricks, parades and ceremonials. Brooding morbidly over its lost glory and wallowing in an ecstasy of self-pity, a defeated Germany offered a uniquely propitious target for the possessed demagogue to cast his spell and hypnotize its masses: he and they shared the same resentment of defeat and foreign dictation.”
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My Halloween email led to a campus firestorm — and a troubling lesson about self-censorship - The Washington Post

My Halloween email led to a campus firestorm — and a troubling lesson about self-censorship - The Washington Post: "It takes more than Yale’s admirable free speech code to ensure a healthy habitat for learning. My fear is that students will eventually give up trying to engage with each other, a development that will echo in our wider culture for decades. My critics have reminded me that there are consequences to my exercise of free speech. Now it’s Yale’s turn to examine the consequences of its own stance: the shadow on its magnificent motto, “Light and truth.”

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Study: GOP defense officials confident in Clinton | TheHill

Study: GOP defense officials confident in Clinton | TheHill:



Data provided to The Hill by Capital Point, a Washington-based research firm, finds that top military experts — Republicans and Democrats alike — are alarmed by the prospect of Trump handling the nation’s foreign affairs from the White House.

Capital Point interviewed 100 high-ranking former military officials and national security experts, selecting 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.

On the question of which candidate is more qualified to deal with foreign policy issues, all 100 chose Clinton. 

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NoahsArcade84 comments on Texas House Candidate: Don’t Vote for My Opponent Because She’s a “Self-Proclaimed Atheist”

NoahsArcade84 comments on Texas House Candidate: Don’t Vote for My Opponent Because She’s a “Self-Proclaimed Atheist”: "Basically the premise is that these people do everything with the church. For most of these people, they've never experienced anything negative associated with the church. For a lot of towns, the church is the only thing everyone has in common, and EVERYONE has it in common. Most of these people were married at the church, got couple's counseling at the church, held funerals for their grand parents, parents, siblings and friends at the church, and, from their perspective, associate a lot of strong emotions and positive experiences with the church.



And then people like us come along and sneer and say "lol your religion is stupid because it makes you hate gay people. stop believing in fairy tales, idiot"."



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At Least 6 Women Accuse University of Wisconsin Student of Assault - The New York Times

At Least 6 Women Accuse University of Wisconsin Student of Assault - The New York Times: "One by one, at least six women have come forward to accuse Alec Cook, a 20-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin, of sexual assault. The charges have roiled this campus, while also revealing the continued reluctance of some women to come forward with sexual assault complaints, even amid national and campus conversations about the problem.

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Obama Brought Silicon Valley to Washington - The New York Times

Obama Brought Silicon Valley to Washington - The New York Times: "The White House can’t be as freewheeling as a start-up, he said, because “by definition, democracy is messy. And part of government’s job is dealing with problems that nobody else wants to deal with.” But he added that he didn’t want people to become “discouraged and say, ‘I’m just not going to deal with government.’ ” Obama was the first American president to see technology as an engine to improve lives and accelerate society more quickly than any government body could. That lesson was apparent on the lawn. While I still don’t believe that technology is a panacea for society’s problems, I will always appreciate the first president who tried to bring what's best about Silicon Valley to Washington, even if some of the bad came with it."



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Obama Brought Silicon Valley to Washington - The New York Times

Obama Brought Silicon Valley to Washington - The New York Times: "The White House can’t be as freewheeling as a start-up, he said, because “by definition, democracy is messy. And part of government’s job is dealing with problems that nobody else wants to deal with.” But he added that he didn’t want people to become “discouraged and say, ‘I’m just not going to deal with government.’ ” Obama was the first American president to see technology as an engine to improve lives and accelerate society more quickly than any government body could. That lesson was apparent on the lawn. While I still don’t believe that technology is a panacea for society’s problems, I will always appreciate the first president who tried to bring what's best about Silicon Valley to Washington, even if some of the bad came with it."



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What the Right’s Intellectuals Did Wrong - The New York Times

What the Right’s Intellectuals Did Wrong - The New York Times: "The second failure was a failure of recognition and self-critique, in which the right’s best minds deceived themselves about (or made excuses for) the toxic tendencies of populism, which were manifest in various hysterias long before Sean Hannity swooned for Donald Trump. What the intellectuals did not see clearly enough was that Fox News and talk radio and the internet had made right-wing populism more powerful, relative to conservatism’s small elite, than it had been during the Nixon or Reagan eras, without necessarily making it more serious or sober than its Bircher-era antecedents.

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Chipotle Eats Itself | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Chipotle Eats Itself | Fast Company | Business + Innovation: "Chipotle has said it won’t be satisfied until it’s regained all of its lost sales and resumed its momentum. It has pledged to continue to refashion the food system. As a longtime customer, I want to believe them. Everyone wants to believe them. But as I learned, what’s ailing Chipotle is more pervasive and insidious than any foodborne illness. For Chipotle to win back all it has lost will require a soul-cleansing broader than perhaps even Ells and Moran realize.

"



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Is the Self-Driving Car Un-American?

Is the Self-Driving Car Un-American?: "But these are just slivers of the vast changes that will take place — culturally, politically, economically, and experientially — in the world of the driverless car. Stop for a moment to consider the magnitude of this transformation: Our republic of drivers is poised to become a nation of passengers.


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The romance delusion | Prospect Magazine

The romance delusion | Prospect Magazine: "All of which should lead us to conclude: if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. Because let’s face it, the one you love is just that: the one—the impossibly unique individual, who is nevertheless moulded entirely to the lineaments of your very particular desire. While as for the one you’re with, well, I’m sure you agree—you may not love them that much, but they’re entirely deserving of your charity.


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Imagine a Sane Donald Trump - WSJ

Imagine a Sane Donald Trump - WSJ:

Sane Donald Trump would not treat the political process of the world’s greatest democracy as if it were, as somebody said, the next-to-last episode of a reality-TV series. That’s the episode that leaves you wondering how the season will end—who will scream, who will leave the drunken party in a huff, who will accuse whom of being a whore. I guess that’s what “I’ll keep you in suspense” as to whether he’ll accept the election result was about. We’re being teed up. The explosive season finale is Nov. 8. Maybe he’ll leave in a huff. Maybe he’ll call everyone whores.

Does he know he’s playing with fire? No. Because he’s a nut.

Sane Donald Trump for president. Too bad he doesn’t exist.

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Why we shouldn’t forgive the Republicans who sold their souls - The Washington Post

Why we shouldn’t forgive the Republicans who sold their souls - The Washington Post:

Maybe when those who caved to Trump in 2016 begin their campaigns for 2020, some voters will recall that at a moment of national crisis, those politicians promising strong leadership were too weak, too obsessed with winning elections, too afraid of Trump’s angry faithful to have the steady moral compass, the calmness under fire, the vision in the fog of battle that real leadership demands. And maybe voters at that point will look away from those who self-servingly tried to foist Trump on the nation and will turn instead to the handful of Republican officeholders who had the courage of their convictions and tried to stop him from the beginning. Maybe there will be enough voters willing to reward that kind of genuine political courage, enough to make a difference. When that day comes, the party’s reformation and renewal can begin.



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FromYourHomePhone comments on WikiLeaks' Collateral Murder: U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord (2010)

FromYourHomePhone comments on WikiLeaks' Collateral Murder: U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord (2010):

This is a strategic vs tactical argument:

Tactically, it's better to shoot first, sort out the details later;

Strategically, the occupying force's credibility as a "liberating force" evaporates in a heartbeat.

People who aren't "in the shit" determine the ROE with a perspective beyond the war itself, which is balanced against an operational assessment that the mission can still succeed with such restrictions in place. This is the difficulty of claiming a moral high ground when conducting war: tactical risks must be taken to maintain it. The enemy knows this and will take advantage of it.

To me, this is one of the more insidious sacrifices armed forces personnel must make: you are consciously sacrificing your own self-preservation based on someone else's decision. You sit there in the turret of your HMMWV, knowingthere's a very good chance an approaching vehicle is a VBIED but not being able to engage because it might cost your country a whole lot more if you do.

To most people, this is insane, but for nation-states and their militaries, it is necessary.

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Carter Center Statement on the Integrity of U.S. Elections

Carter Center Statement on the Integrity of U.S. Elections: "ATLANTA – Recent claims about rigging of U.S. elections are unfounded and irresponsible.  Based on our knowledge of the electoral system in the United States and of the many independent analyses of U.S. polling processes, The Carter Center has great confidence in the overall administrative integrity of U.S. elections. Checks and balances within our electoral system exist to protect it against manipulation.  These include processes and checks before and after election day to ensure the integrity of the election process, such as pre-election testing of voting technology and postelection audits that take place in some states; the widespread presence of agents from both parties in polling stations; and the broad access to election results given to the media and the public, enabling transparent reviews of the election results. The American electoral process also benefits from the hard work and dedication of hundreds of thousands of poll workers and election officials, who represent both parties and ensure the integrity of the voting and counting process.

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Trump couldn't overturn election, but could undermine it - POLITICO

Trump couldn't overturn election, but could undermine it - POLITICO: "But a refusal to concede, while rallying his followers through social media, would violate a deeply ingrained tradition of candidates peacefully accepting election results, which most people in politics consider a sacred affirmation of faith in the American system.

"



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On the wikileak-ed emails between Tanden and... | LESSIG Blog, v2

On the wikileak-ed emails between Tanden and... | LESSIG Blog, v2: "But I can’t for the life of me see the public good in a leak like this — at least one that reveals no crime or violation of any important public policy. 

We all deserve privacy. The burdens of public service are insane enough without the perpetual threat that every thought shared with a friend becomes Twitter fodder. Neera has only ever served in the public (and public interest) sector. Her work has always and only been devoted to advancing her vision of the public good. It is not right that she should bear the burden of this sort of breach."



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Two Days With Donald Trump’s Staunchest Supporters

Two Days With Donald Trump’s Staunchest Supporters:

The two sides continue like this, chanting and counterchanting, pausing to shuffle around among themselves or to hurl scattered insults back at each other. Finally, as the protesters begin another round of anti-Trump chants, the Republican nominee’s supporters shift tracks.

“USA! USA! USA! USA!”

As soon as it starts it spreads, grabbing lingerers and bystanders. All across the plaza, more and more mouths open and fists raise to the sky. As the chant spreads, the anti-Trump protesters go silent for just a second. They gather themselves, as if figuring out what to do next. Finally, they join.

“USA! USA! USA! USA!”

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Economic Anxiety and the Limits of Data Journalism | The Baseline Scenario

Economic Anxiety and the Limits of Data Journalism | The Baseline Scenario: "The other problem with the Rothwell paper, which I discuss at length here, is multicollinearity. It is true that Rothwell found that income was a positive and significant predictor of Trump support, at least in the full sample. But his “controls” included employment status, “works in blue collar occupation,” union member, highest degree, share of college graduates in the region, and median income in the region, all of which are correlated with household income. For example, if blue-collar workers make less money and are more likely to support Trump, that effect could be attached to the blue-collar variable (which it was) and not to the income variable (which it wasn’t). Multicollinearity doesn’t bias your results, but it makes them much more fragile.



 The general problem with arguments of the form Trump-supporters-are-actually-rich is this: compared to what? If you want to answer the question of how well Trump is doing with working-class voters, you need a baseline. You can’t expect him to poll evenly with Clinton among any group of poor people: as Matthews acknowledges, “Lower-income whites are always likelier to support Democrats than other whites.” So saying that Trump supporters are richer than Clinton supporters, or that some group of poor people favors Clinton, doesn’t prove much. And as we’ve seen, Trump voters are not rich compared to other Republican primary voters.

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On Behalf Of The Amherst Men's Soccer Team | Huffington Post

On Behalf Of The Amherst Men's Soccer Team | Huffington Post:

Donald Trump defended his comments by saying, “I’m not proud of my locker room talk. But this world has serious problems. We need serious leaders.”

Serious leaders take the issue of sexual assault seriously. Sexual assault is a crime. Bragging about sexual assault can never be excused as being what boys and men talk about behind closed doors. To excuse such behavior is to perpetuate a culture of abuse of power that has no place in 21st-century America.

If Donald Trump wants to know what actually is said in real locker rooms, he is welcome to visit ours to understand how real men speak about and treat women.

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In February, I subscribed to all the presidential candidates’ email lists. – Medium

In February, I subscribed to all the presidential candidates’ email lists. – Medium: "But what Trump’s saying when he says “We’re gonna build a wall” is just “We have advanced our extraction technology to stabilize more of the active plant compounds and essential oils without oxidation.”
It’s just marketing babble designed to sell us something that is not truly intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
It’s just junk mail."



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Panama: The Hidden Trillions | by Alan Rusbridger | The New York Review of Books

Panama: The Hidden Trillions | by Alan Rusbridger | The New York Review of Books: "Gradually, a picture emerges of how the substantial mechanisms of offshore tax avoidance work. The rich person with money to hide would generally contact Mossfon via an intermediary—a bank, a lawyer, or an asset manager. These were Mossfon’s “clients,” the ones who ordered up an off-the-peg offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, or elsewhere. Mossfon would then appoint directors to look after this company. These directors, uniquely in the world of high finance, appeared to have few qualifications for the job.

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Even if Trump loses big, the anger will remain. Here’s how the left can address it. - The Washington Post

Even if Trump loses big, the anger will remain. Here’s how the left can address it. - The Washington Post:

This should be an aspiration for all of us. And it means that those who live cosmopolitan lives must go about “taking an interest in the practices and beliefs” of those whom the late Rev. Andrew Greeley called “neighborhood people.” Being “citizens of the world” is not high on their priority list. They love the particular patch where they were raised or that they have adopted as their own.

I suspect that many of Trump’s backers are neighborhood people. Economic change, including globalization, is very hard on them. It can disrupt and empty out the places they revere, driving young people away and undermining the economic base a community needs to survive.

Liberals and conservatives alike insufficiently appreciate what makes neighborhood people tick and why they deserve our respect. Liberals are instinctive cosmopolitans in the citizens-of-the-world sense. They often long for the freedom of big metropolitan areas. Free-market conservatives typically say that if a place can’t survive the rigors of market competition, if the factories close, the people left behind are best off if they find somewhere else to live.

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How Did Walmart Get Cleaner Stores and Higher Sales? It Paid Its People More - The New York Times

How Did Walmart Get Cleaner Stores and Higher Sales? It Paid Its People More - The New York Times:

Walmart’s announcement of what it refers to as “the investments,” made during the all-staff videoconference in 2015, became something of a Rorschach test. To macroeconomists, it suggested that a falling unemployment rate was finally creating the response that theory suggests it should: employers raising wages to attract the workers they need.

To labor activists, it was a sign that political campaigns to raise the minimum wage were paying off. To Wall Street analysts, it was the company owning up to the weaknesses long apparent in customer surveys and sales numbers.

And in the company’s own framing, it was about doing the right thing. “It’s clear to me that one of the highest priorities today must be an investment in you, our associates,” Mr. McMillon said in the video.

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The white flight of Derek Black - The Washington Post

The white flight of Derek Black - The Washington Post: "He learned that Western Europe had begun not as a great society of genetically superior people but as a technologically backward place that lagged behind Islamic culture. He studied the 8th century to the 12th century, trying to trace back the modern concepts of race and whiteness, but he couldn’t find them anywhere. “We basically just invented it,” he concluded."



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Brushing Off the Bro Talk – Medium

Brushing Off the Bro Talk – Medium:

I currently work as an educator at La Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence agency based in San Francisco. I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about the impact of the degrading language that men often chalk up as “locker room talk” or “bro talk”. Domestic violence agencies across the country are acutely aware of the mental and physical impact of this language. We see how it reinforces learned behaviors of power and control.

Many of us hear the term domestic violence and think of one partner physically beating the other. It is easy to identify such physical violence as wrong, as criminal. We struggle a bit more to identify and hold batterers accountable when they commit acts of financial, emotional, or psychological abuse.

Perhaps what is hardest though, is to identify the link between sexist, hypersexual, objectifying language directed at women, and the many different forms of coercive behavior batterers use to control their partners. Or, the link between sexist, hypersexual, objectifying language directed at women and the rate of rape and sexual assault on campuses. I believe that while it may be hard, it is necessary for each of us to make this connection and to change our behaviors to mitigate the harmful impacts.

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The Thing All Women Do That You Don't Know About | Huffington Post

The Thing All Women Do That You Don't Know About | Huffington Post:

They don’t know.

They don’t know about de-escalation. Minimizing. Quietly acquiescing.

Hell, even though women live it, we are not always aware of it. But we have all done it.

We have all learned, either by instinct or by trial and error, how to minimize a situation that makes us uncomfortable. How to avoid angering a man or endangering ourselves. We have all, on many occasions, ignored an offensive comment. We’ve all laughed off an inappropriate come-on. We’ve all swallowed our anger when being belittled or condescended to.

It doesn’t feel good. It feels icky. Dirty. But we do it because to not do it could put us in danger or get us fired or labeled a bitch. So we usually take the path of least precariousness.

It’s not something we talk about every day. We don’t tell our boyfriends and husbands and friends every time it happens. Because it is so frequent, so pervasive, that it has become something we just deal with.

So maybe they don’t know.

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Bottle-Flipping Craze Is Fun for Children but Torture for Parents - The New York Times

Bottle-Flipping Craze Is Fun for Children but Torture for Parents - The New York Times:

Gurgle. Thud. Crunch.

Gurgle. Thud. Crunch.

That is the noise of water bottle flipping — the compulsion promoted through online videos to toss a partly filled plastic bottle and try to get it to land upright — which has captivated children across the country.

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Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster | Tim Harford | Technology | The Guardian

Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster | Tim Harford | Technology | The Guardian: "The paradox of automation, then, has three strands to it. First, automatic systems accommodate incompetence by being easy to operate and by automatically correcting mistakes. Because of this, an inexpert operator can function for a long time before his lack of skill becomes apparent – his incompetence is a hidden weakness that can persist almost indefinitely. Second, even if operators are expert, automatic systems erode their skills by removing the need for practice. Third, automatic systems tend to fail either in unusual situations or in ways that produce unusual situations, requiring a particularly skilful response. A more capable and reliable automatic system makes the situation worse.

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If we don't act now, all future wars may be as horrific as Aleppo | Paul Mason | Opinion | The Guardian

If we don't act now, all future wars may be as horrific as Aleppo | Paul Mason | Opinion | The Guardian:

The danger should be obvious. If we do not stop and punish the targeting of hospitals in the asymmetric wars, then the next big war – should it occur – will see the Geneva conventions go out of the window. Guernica showed a generation what the second world war would be like; Aleppo shows you what any future conventional conflict will descend to, if we don’t act.

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Dangerous idiots: how the liberal media elite failed working-class Americans | Media | The Guardian

Dangerous idiots: how the liberal media elite failed working-class Americans | Media | The Guardian:

The two-fold myth about the white working class – that they are to blame for Trump’s rise, and that those among them who support him for the worst reasons exemplify the rest – takes flight on the wings of moral superiority affluent Americans often pin upon themselves.

I have never seen them flap so insistently as in today’s election commentary, where notions of poor whiteness and poor character are routinely conflated.

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Donald Trump’s art of war: His campaign’s plan for dropping political ‘thermo nukes’ and suppressing votes

Donald Trump’s art of war: His campaign’s plan for dropping political ‘thermo nukes’ and suppressing votes:

Trump’s all-out offensive is not just designed to defend against the groping allegations or to serve red meat to what the source described as his “populist” and “nationalist base.” According to the source, who requested anonymity to discuss high-level strategy candidly, the attacks on the Clintons are also aimed at the “suppression of votes” from millennial women, African-Americans and the “idealistic Bernie Sanders supporter.”

“Principally, we’re trying to drive them to a third party or just have them not vote,” the source said.

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We May Be Leaving the Ken Bone Zone - The New York Times

We May Be Leaving the Ken Bone Zone - The New York Times: "Now that he is the opposite of anonymous, Mr. Bone would like everyone to know something: “My message has been one about elevating the level of conversation, and if I want to hold our leaders accountable for their words then I must be accountable for mine.”"



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Trump's refusal to accept intelligence briefing on Russia stuns experts - Chicago Tribune

Trump's refusal to accept intelligence briefing on Russia stuns experts - Chicago Tribune: "Trump has consistently adopted positions likely to find favor with the Kremlin. He has, for instance, criticized NATO allies for not paying their fair share and defended Russian President Vladimir Putin's human rights record.



 "It's remarkable that he's refused to say an unkind syllable about Vladimir Putin," Hayden said. "He contorts himself not to criticize Putin.""



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How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind | Cracked.com

How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind | Cracked.com:

See, rural jobs used to be based around one big local business -- a factory, a coal mine, etc. When it dies, the town dies. Where I grew up, it was an oil refinery closing that did us in. I was raised in the hollowed-out shell of what the town had once been. The roof of our high school leaked when it rained. Cities can make up for the loss of manufacturing jobs with service jobs -- small towns cannot. That model doesn't work below a certain population density.

If you don't live in one of these small towns, you can't understand the hopelessness.

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Barack Obama on Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity | WIRED

Barack Obama on Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity | WIRED:

The gap between the talent in the federal government and the private sector is actually not wide at all. The technology gap, though, is massive. When I first got here I always imagined the Situation Room would be this supercool thing, like Tom Cruise inMinority Report, where he’d be moving around stuff. It’s not like that, at all. [Laughs.] Particularly when it comes to hunting down terrorists on the other side of the globe, the movies display this omniscience that we possess somehow, and it’s—it’s just not there yet, and it has been drastically underfunded and not properly designed.



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The Republican Inferno - The New York Times

The Republican Inferno - The New York Times: "The party’s leaders were afraid Trump would rage against them if they denied him the nomination; instead, he is raging against them for refusing to go to the mat for his caught-on-tape misogyny and pornographic boasts. They were afraid of infuriating his core voters by opposing him at the convention; instead, they are infuriating his core voters by keeping him at arm’s length in the election’s final stretch. They feared a war of Republican against Republican, conservative against conservative; they have one. They feared a turnout collapse, an inevitable defeat; they will most likely get both.

"



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Former Bush DOJer John Yoo: Trump 'Reminds Me A Lot Of Early Mussolini'

Former Bush DOJer John Yoo: Trump 'Reminds Me A Lot Of Early Mussolini': "Donald Trump's "only I can fix it" rhetoric is giving off authoritarian vibes, some conservatives are admitting, including John Yoo, the George W. Bush administration lawyer who authored the so-called "torture memos."

Yoo told the Washington Post that Trump "reminds me a lot of early Mussolini," calling the comparison "very disturbingly similar.”"



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Ann Coulter - October 12, 2016 - CASTING CALL FOR ANOTHER ANITA HILL

Ann Coulter - October 12, 2016 - CASTING CALL FOR ANOTHER ANITA HILL: "
Going way, way, way back to a few weeks ago, the same media gasping in horror at "p*ssy" sure didn't mind my being called a c*nt repeatedly on a Comedy Central broadcast. And when I say "didn't mind," I mean they thought it was awesome.

But saying "p*ssy" 11 years ago is over the line.


Cut the crap, media.
"



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Tyler McNally on Twitter: "To all politico journos who follow me: This is the first official statement for Liberty United Against Trump. https://t.co/fBJfV41N3o"

Tyler McNally on Twitter: "To all politico journos who follow me: This is the first official statement for Liberty United Against Trump. https://t.co/fBJfV41N3o": "This is the first official statement for Liberty United Against Trump."



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Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately - The New York Times

Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately - The New York Times:

Ms. Leeds has told the story to at least four people close to her, who also spoke with The New York Times.

Mr. Trump’s claim that his crude words had never turned into actions was similarly infuriating to a woman watching on Sunday night in Ohio: Rachel Crooks.

Ms. Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate investment and development company in Trump Tower in Manhattan, when she encountered Mr. Trump outside an elevator in the building one morning in 2005.

Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he “kissed me directly on the mouth.”

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Maine Gov. Paul LePage: Maybe the country needs Trump to show 'authoritarian power' - CNNPolitics.com

Maine Gov. Paul LePage: Maybe the country needs Trump to show 'authoritarian power' - CNNPolitics.com: ""Sometimes, I wonder that our Constitution is not only broken, but we need a Donald Trump to show some authoritarian power in our country and bring back the rule of law because we've had eight years of a president, he's an autocrat, he just does it on his own, he ignores Congress and every single day, we're slipping into anarchy," "



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salliek76 comments on #560: Abdi and the Golden Ticket

salliek76 comments on #560: Abdi and the Golden Ticket:

My husband and I (both middle-aged white Americans) visited Paris last year, and one of my memories of the trip still gets me so choked up that I can barely talk about it.

We were on the subway, and sitting in one of the seats near me was an older teenage boy who had the absolute blackest skin I have ever seen in my life. He was wearing brand new blue jeans, brand new tennis shoes, and a plain green t-shirt that still showed the creases from the package. He kept looking down at some papers in his hand, and anxiously looking up at the map on the train wall. Something about him just looked so pitiful to me--like I just wanted to pat his leg or hug him, but of course I didn't.

As we moved toward the door to get off at our stop, I could see that what he was holding had a big UN logo at the top, and in French and English the header said that it was an official application for asylum.

My heart absolutely aches when I think about what that poor guy must have endured up to that point in his life, how anxious he looked, my realization that he or someone had bought those clothes specifically for that day and he was literally as dressed up as it was possible for him to be.

I wish every single xenophobe in the United States could experience a moment like that. I just know that it would change so many minds if they could have just one single interaction with someone who is so desperate to escape their situation.

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Al Gore: 'Consider me exhibit A' for why each vote matters - POLITICO

Al Gore: 'Consider me exhibit A' for why each vote matters - POLITICO: "“Here’s my second message: Your vote really, really, really counts — a lot. You can consider me as an exhibit A of that group. Now, for those of you who are younger than 25, you might not remember the election of 2000 and what happened here in Florida and across the country,” Gore said, prompting boos from the crowd.

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Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages taken down or deindexed

Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages taken down or deindexed:

Now, you might ask, what’s the point of suing a fake defendant (to the extent that some of these defendants are indeed fake)? How can anyone get any real money from a fake defendant? How can anyone order a fake defendant to obey a real injunction?

The answer is that Google and various other Internet platforms have a policy: They won’t take down material (or, in Google’s case, remove it from Google indexes) just because someone says it’s defamatory. Understandable — why would these companies want to adjudicate such factual disputes? Butif they see a court order that declares that some material is defamatory, they tend to take down or deindex the material, relying on the court’s decision.

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Divided by meaning – Medium

Divided by meaning – Medium: "Here is the thing I want to hammer on. When the front row (me, you, pundits, politicians) call Trumps voters, the back row, stupid. Or dumb. Or idiots. When we scold them for supporting such an awful man (he is!). That plays right into everything they have been told all of their lives.
"

Nobody wants a life that feels meaningless. Everybody wants to feel a valuable member of something bigger than themselves. Calling Trump voters deplorable (some are!) will only make them angrier, and only increase their humiliation. That will just make all of this stuff worse.

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Donald Trump and the Generals - The Atlantic

Donald Trump and the Generals - The Atlantic: "However, no one has bothered to figure out Trump’s plan B to even judge how good or bad it is (and Trump himself probably doesn’t even have a Plan B because he believes all his Plan A’s are The Greatest). This is one of the tells that shows more than just about anything else that he isn’t qualified to be President. Plan A’s fail all the time. Having a workable plan B, C, D, and E is the difference between an Eisenhower and a Patton, a Ridgeway and a MacArthur.
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‘Missing’ woman unknowingly joins search for herself

‘Missing’ woman unknowingly joins search for herself: "A woman who was reported missing from an Icelandic tour unwittingly joined a search for herself.

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Vengeance

Vengeance:

I served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, all of whom assiduously stood by the principle that law enforcement should never be used for political purposes. In a time-honored approach, the White House is not allowed to contact prosecutors about cases they are handling, and neither is the Congress.

Prosecutors must make their decisions based solely on the law and the facts, tempered only by their obligation to do justice for our citizens.

No president should ever use the Justice Department to attack political opponents. No principle is more fundamental to how we ensure the integrity of our democracy.

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ISIS Media Output Drops as Military Pressure Rises, Report Says - The New York Times

ISIS Media Output Drops as Military Pressure Rises, Report Says - The New York Times:

Beginning in 2014, Islamic State propaganda was effective not just because it was often sophisticated and well-produced, but because of its message of inevitable victory, urging Muslims around the world to join the successful state-building effort.

As long as the group was expanding by seizing cities and territory in Syria and Iraq, and later in Libya and elsewhere, that message resonated with some young Muslims across the Middle East and North Africa, in some European countries and, on a smaller scale, even in the United States.

But as the military campaign by the United States and its allies has shrunk the Islamic State’s turf and killed some of its leaders, it has started to look less like a religious state with a future and more like an eroding terrorist army.

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Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal

Dear Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal: "This is not funny. It is terrifying. The Russians engage in a sloppy disinformation effort and, before the day is out, the Republican nominee for president is standing on a stage reciting the manufactured story as truth. How did this happen? Who in the Trump campaign was feeding him falsehoods straight from the Kremlin?

"



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Not their job: Turning Afghanistan’s special forces into regular troops - The Washington Post

Not their job: Turning Afghanistan’s special forces into regular troops - The Washington Post: "The Afghan army, a force with inconsistent levels of competence and with nearly unsustainable casualty numbers, is increasingly relying on the commandos as stopgap cover in a campaign it — more often than not without external support — is losing. The reliance on the commandos risks both burning out the elite force and creating a sense of complacency within the regular army, according to U.S. advisers.

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Trump Voters Are Not Immoral | The Resurgent

Trump Voters Are Not Immoral | The Resurgent:

Trump voters have legitimate grievances. They see Republicans making promises then breaking them. They see Barack Obama extending the powers of the Presidency while the GOP fails to constrain him. They see a Republican Party that refuses to fight. They see family and friends addicted to drugs, their lives crumbling, their jobs going away. They see a national government imposing one size fits all morality upon local communities.

They are eager to push back against growing liberal efforts to homogenize national culture, opinion, and values. They believe their local communities are under assault.

Many of them sided with Trump because he looked most eager to fight back. They made their decision emotionally and will live with the consequences.

There are other Trump voters who look at Hillary and Trump and have concluded that come hell or high water the odds are better with Trump than Hillary for change in Washington, though they know there is no guarantee.

They are not immoral and they have reason to support him. They see Republican efforts now to oust him as confirmation that the GOP rejects them and their issues.

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Dear Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal

Dear Vladimir Putin, I Am Not Sidney Blumenthal: "For now, though, Americans should be outraged. This totalitarian regime, engaged in what are arguably war crimes in Syria to protect their government puppet, is working to upend a democracy to the benefit of an American candidate who uttered positive comments just Sunday about the Kremlin's campaign on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. Trump’s arguments were an incomprehensible explication of the complex Syrian situation, which put him right on the side of the Iranians and Syrians who are fighting to preserve the government that is the primary conduit of weapons used against Israel.

So no, Mr. Putin, I’m not Sidney Blumenthal. And now that you have been exposed once again, get the hell out of our election."



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The forces at play in this election are not new

McCain: Obama not an Arab, crowd boos - POLITICO: "Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was "an Arab."

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:thinking face:

Taylor Swift needs to say something about Trump | Fusion: "What duty does a pop star have to voice a political opinion? Well, none at all. It’s not a pop star’s job to push a political agenda. Taylor Swift does not owe anyone her opinion on Trump, or racism, or anything. Celebrities, of course, may choose silence. But silence is not an apolitical action, as much as Swift seems to suggest that it is. To remain silent is to remain complicit—a choice that’s all the more egregious in light of Swift’s enormous platform.

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Acts of War Cannot Go Ignored | commentary

Acts of War Cannot Go Ignored | commentary: " The proximate culprit appears to be the Houthi movement, which is mad at America for backing an assault on it by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Just last week, an Emirati ship was destroyed off the same part of the Yemen coast. But the Houthis are hardly lone actors. They do not manufacture their own missiles. They get them from Iran. That suggests this could be seen as an act of war by Iran against the United States.

It is an incident that is far more serious than the way it is being treated. It is, in fact, almost entirely overshadowed by the furor over the Trump campaign. The Obama administration should not be allowed to ignore it–if that is, in fact, its intent."



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Why Donald Trump Can’t Back Down - POLITICO Magazine

Why Donald Trump Can’t Back Down - POLITICO Magazine:

I’ve been reporting on Trump for more than a year, reading close to everything that’s ever been written about him, or by him (or his co-writers and ghostwriters), and sifting through transcripts of his hundreds of television interviews, as well as talking to people like Nusbaum, Res, O’Brien and dozens and dozens of others. And I’ve come to see the GOP nominee more than anything else as an entitled rich kid who grew old more than he grew up, who had a submissive mother and a stern, workaholic father whose idea of showing him affection was taking him to the office or a job site. And I think Trump has tried his whole life to address the lack of love he felt as a boy by attracting as much attention as he could as a man. “I don’t do it for the money,” he wrote in 1987 in The Art of the Deal—it’s the first sentence of his first book—and I believe him. He does it for the notoriety.



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How the GOP Slowly Went Insane - The Atlantic

How the GOP Slowly Went Insane - The Atlantic:

America needs a strong, rational, positive, practical conservative movement. It needs that bulwark against liberal delusion and hubris. It needs a voice that says we are imperfect, that life is complex, that government can create need even as it meets need, that you can’t fix everything and freedom is worth some danger and sorrow. And there are smart, honest conservatives at the ready to be that voice, to help govern practically and sincerely with that voice, but they are drowned out by the guttural scream of craven utopians raging against reality.

This moment in American political life is insane. That a group of narrow-minded zealots could push us to the brink of economic ruin, that they maintain a base of support in their frenzied, quixotic, incompetent gambit, that there is an apparatus that exists to defend this kind of nonsense—it came on us slowly but it is no less an emergency. This is broken. This cannot go on. 

And if you can’t see that then it’s not just the world that’s gone mad. You're crazy too.

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Monday's Campaign Round-Up, 10.10.16 | MSNBC

Monday's Campaign Round-Up, 10.10.16 | MSNBC: "* Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running mate, insisted this morning that ABC’s Martha Raddatz “misrepresented” his Syria policy during last night’s presidential debate. For the record, Raddatz quoted Pence literally word for word.
"



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If Donald Trump has done anything, he has snuffed out the Religious Right - The Washington Post

If Donald Trump has done anything, he has snuffed out the Religious Right - The Washington Post:

There is good news, though, behind all of this, regardless of how this election turns out. The old-school political Religious Right establishment wonders why the evangelical next generation rejects their way. The past year is illustration enough. The evangelical movement is filled with younger, multiethnic, gospel-centered Christians. They are defined by a clear theology and a clear mission — not by the doctrinally vacuous resentment over a lost regime of nominal, cultural “Christian America.”

The people who have used the gospel to sell us politically cynical voting guides have done damage. But they are not replicating themselves in the next generation.

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The Governing Cancer of Our Time - The New York Times

The Governing Cancer of Our Time - The New York Times:

We live in a big, diverse society. There are essentially two ways to maintain order and get things done in such a society — politics or some form of dictatorship. Either through compromise or brute force. Our founding fathers chose politics.

Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules, enshrined in a constitution or in custom, to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate.

The downside of politics is that people never really get everything they want. It’s messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. Politics is a muddled activity in which people have to recognize restraints and settle for less than they want. Disappointment is normal.

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Hillary Clinton for President of the United States | Foreign Policy

Hillary Clinton for President of the United States | Foreign Policy:

In the nearly half century history of Foreign Policy, the editors of this publication have never endorsed a candidate for political office. We cherish and fiercely protect this publication’s independence and its reputation for objectivity, and we deeply value our relationship with all of our readers, regardless of political orientation.

It is for all these reasons that FP’s editors are now breaking with tradition to endorse Hillary Clinton for the next president of the United States.

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If I Die Before You Wake… | The Resurgent

If I Die Before You Wake… | The Resurgent:

My faith and politics are more and more irreconcilable. What matters more to me now is to do what I think is right, not to do what is popular. It is not to lead others, but to speak for those who cannot speak and do for others what they cannot do. I am no leader. I am just blessed with a platform where I say what I think is right and true and make sure those who agree know they are not alone.

The world wants believers to be alone and if my wife and I die before my children wake, they will feel alone and helpless in the world. So they must know Truth on the cross. That truth can guide them when I cannot and sustain them when I cannot and comfort them when I cannot.

I have never before worried about leaving my children alone in the world. But here I sit mindful of my health and their mother’s health. I see a fallen world and a nation turning in against itself. I want them to know neither they nor I nor their mother get reprieve from this world and its decay. But once through it we get eternity where there will be no tears, no sickness, no cancer, and no death. I just want to see them to the other side.

If I die before they wake, I want them to know these things.

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Donald Trump’s threat to imprison Hillary Clinton is a threat to democracy - Vox

Donald Trump’s threat to imprison Hillary Clinton is a threat to democracy - Vox:

In his last line — “you’d be in jail” — he is outright saying that he would imprison Hillary Clinton in office (if he could). This comes despite the fact that there is no evidence Clinton committed a crime in her handling of the email servers, despite lengthy investigations that found evidence of carelessness and dishonesty. That would be a politically motivated prosecution — retribution for daring to run against Trump and attack him during the campaign.

This is everything we feared about Donald Trump. His long history of trying to silence critics with lawsuits, his inability to let personal slights go, his pettiness: The nightmare scenario is that these would incline him to use the power of the presidency to forcibly silence his critics and opponents. That’s what is done by tin-pot dictators spanning the globe from North Korea to Zimbabwe. That’s what happens in countries where peaceful transitions of power are the exception, not the rule.

Donald Trump just threatened to bring that to America.

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Donald Trump: America's Slimy Director | Huffington Post

Donald Trump: America's Slimy Director | Huffington Post: "Certainly some women allow men to manhandle them because they are awed by fame or because they are willing to do whatever it takes to make it in their career. But more often than not, young women in entertainment tolerate the intolerable because it’s so hard to get a job and so easy to be blacklisted.  We know the power is weighted entirely against us.  Just look at how the young soap actress in the leaked Access Hollywood tape feels she has to flirt with Trump and Billy Bush to assuage their egos.

It is such a rampant problem in entertainment that it’s considered kind of normal, not even worth mentioning. The industry’s attitude toward women is a major reason why I have moved to the other side of the camera. 

The entertainment industry will have to look at itself and change or get left behind in the dark ages.  But that’s a longterm wish. "



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Pre-planning my 'I Told You So' | National Review

Pre-planning my 'I Told You So' | National Review: "Americans and Republicans, remember: You asked for this. Given the choice between a dozen solid conservatives and one Clinton-supporting con artist and game-show host, you chose the con artist. You chose him freely. Nobody made you do it.

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A Letter to the Doctors and Nurses Who Cared for My Wife - The New York Times

A Letter to the Doctors and Nurses Who Cared for My Wife - The New York Times: "And one special evening, you gave me full control to usher into the I.C.U. more than 50 people in Laura’s life, from friends to co-workers to college alums to family members. It was an outpouring of love that included guitar playing and opera singing and dancing and new revelations to me about just how deeply my wife touched people. It was the last great night of our marriage together, for both of us, and it wouldn’t have happened without your support.



 There is another moment — actually, a single hour — that I will never forget."



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So you’re thinking of voting for a pro-choice candidate...

So you’re thinking of voting for a pro-choice candidate...: "So even though I think abortion is morally wrong in most cases, and support more legal restrictions around it, I often vote for pro-choice candidates when I think their policies will do the most to address the health and economic concerns that drive women to get abortions in the first place. For me, it’s not just about being pro-birth; it’s about being pro-life. Every child deserves to live in a home and in a culture that welcomes them and can meet their basic needs. Every mother deserves the chance to thrive. Forcing millions of women to have children they can’t support, or driving them to Gosnell-style black market clinics, will not do. We have to work together—pro-life and pro-choice, Democrat and Republican, conservative Christian and progressive Christian—to create a culture of life that celebrates families and makes it easier to have and raise kids. This is the only way to make our efforts at rarifying abortion truly sustainable.  

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'The Atlantic' Editors Endorse Hillary Clinton for President - The Atlantic

'The Atlantic' Editors Endorse Hillary Clinton for President - The Atlantic: "For the third time since The Atlantic’s founding, the editors endorse a candidate for president. The case for Hillary Clinton."



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You Think the Campaign Is Bad? Just Wait Until It's Over - The Atlantic

You Think the Campaign Is Bad? Just Wait Until It's Over - The Atlantic: "But, after the campaign is over and the election lost, Trump faces trouble unprecedented in American history*. It’s conceivable that Trump could face civil or criminal prosecution on several fronts: federal income tax evasion, mail fraud connected with Trump University, fraud connected to his charitable foundation, espionage associated with Wikileaks, illegal lobbying associated with Russia.

(* Well, there’s Aaron Burr. Warren Harding died in office. Eugene Debs wound up in prison, but he wasn’t quite a major party candidate, his offense—if offense it was—occurred years after the campaign, and his red-scare prosecution is not something of which the country has been proud.  I can’t recall another example.)

We can easily imagine that some of these matters might arrive in federal or state court in the coming years.



Whatever the outcome of those cases, Trump supporters will believe that the charges are Hillary Clinton’s personal retribution. And, next time the Democrats lose the White House, they will call for matching prosecutions of the losing candidate. “Lock Her Up” may have awful echoes."



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