Daily Check-In 05/10/2018

Daily Check-In

Thursday, May 10th.  This post will be light on my writing.  The last few days have kicked my butt.

 

COHEN: FOLLOW THE MONEY

Another connection to Russians?  There are more connections to Russians in Trump’s world than in Fydor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  I’m not sure what’s funnier, the news coming out right after AT&T won an award for ethics, or that AT&T actually won an award for ethics.  I’m guessing PharmaBro wasn’t available to come to the awards banquet.

 

RUDY

Mr. Giuliani took a leave of absence last month from the firm, Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s largest, to represent Mr. Trump. But the firm announced on Thursday that he no longer worked there as of a day earlier.

…

In a statement released by the firm, Mr. Giuliani said it “is in everyone’s best interest that I make it a permanent resignation” so he can focus on the special counsel’s investigation.

Firm partners had chafed over Mr. Giuliani’s public comments about payments that another of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Michael D. Cohen, made to secure the silence of a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. The president has denied her allegations. In interviews, Mr. Giuliani suggested that such payments were common at his firm.

“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds,” he said on Fox News.

He added, “Michael would take care of things like this like I take care of this with my clients.”

The New York Times asked Greenberg Traurig several times to explain those remarks over the past week. On Tuesday, a firm spokeswoman asked for more time to provide answers.

Rudy got shitcanned from his law firm, and it’s just a matter of time until he’s fired from Team Trump.  Couldn’t happen to a more deserving asshole.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

As I’ve mentioned before, Pence is dirty AF.  He’s skilled, but he’s not covered in teflon.

So here’s the situation: we have a president that is under criminal investigation, with congressional Republicans willing to put intelligence assets at risk in order to obstruct the probe. That makes them complicit in whatever crimes the president has committed.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

GOP:  THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

Long before Mr. Trump even existed as a political force, many of us noted with alarm the rise of a backlash among right-wingers deeply angry and profoundly terrified by the writing on the demographic wall. Said writing foretold — and for that matter, still foretells — the declining preeminence of white, Christian America. As several studies now show, a sense of alarmed displacement among white, Christian America is the soil from which the weed of Trumpism grew.

The idea that we must “understand” those folks carries with it an implicit suggestion that in so doing, we might find some ground for compromise. It would be a great idea in normal times. But again, these times are not normal.

No compromise is possible here for a simple reason Trump followers seem to understand better than the rest of us: You can’t compromise with demography, can’t order numbers to stop being what they are and saying what they say about the coming tide of change. But what you can do is seize the levers of power and change the rules of the game in hopes of blunting the force of that tide. That — again, look at the studies — is what Trump supporters elected him to do.

So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves: When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.

Here’s the thing: The rest of us have the moral high ground here. We see the same demographic writing on the wall that Trump followers see, but where it makes them angry and fearful, it leaves us energized.

Many of us are excited to see the nation that will arise from this cauldron of change.

That’s because the idea of change doesn’t threaten us. It will challenge us, yes, but we’re ready for that. We know that this is a big country, big enough for many different kinds of people, many different ways of life. We know what it means to live and let live. And we know that welcoming the stranger, caring for the stranger, is simply what you do as a human being.

I submit that those are core American virtues. And that now would be an excellent time for progressives to exhibit a little courage in their defense. Trump followers see a nation in demographic peril, so they seek a nation where those who frighten them can be regulated into irrelevance. There’s no big mystery about that. There never has been.

So no, they don’t really need to be understood.

What they need to be is defeated.

 

This note in the post illustrates how clickbaity the headline is.

[–]CylinsierPennsylvania [score hidden] 

Just remember that as of 2016, only 26% of the population identified as Republican. So while 61% of Republicans think he is being framed, that’s only around 16% of Americans. Compare that to 29% Democrats and 42% Independents. They’re the majority in their own party but are a small minority of the country as it is unlikely more than a handful of Democrats and Independents feel the same way.

http://news.gallup.com/poll/188096/democratic-republican-identification-near-historical-lows.aspx

 

Basics of statistics and shrinking group dynamics.  Fewer people identify as Republicans, and most of those that left did so because of the crazies.

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

BORDER ISSUES

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) filed a discharge petition Wednesday morning that, if signed by a majority of House members, would force votes on immigration bills under a so-called “queen of the hill” rule. Whichever of those bills receives the most votes, exceeding a majority, would pass the House — a setup that is calibrated to secure passage of a bipartisan compromise.

 

HIJINKS ON THE HILL

 

BLUE WAVE

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today.  Like I said earlier, the last few days have kicked my butt, so I’m taking it easy today.  Yes, this is my definition of taking it easy.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

Published by noneofthisisnormal

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One thought on “Daily Check-In 05/10/2018”

  1. Pingback: Daily Check-In 05/14/2018 – None of this is Normal

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