Grab 'em by the Trump Jr.

This link.

This Trump administration: The next communications director, experienced. [UPDATED]

He is the lumberjack and he's okay.

UPDATE: Suck up.

Make Scaramucci great again.

Just saying . . .

The McCain vote after an aggressive brain cancer diagnosis is reminiscent of Lee Atwater's recantation on his death spiral, where it seems Atwater earlier suggested GHW Bush run against Willie Horton instead of Mike Dukakis, and GWH Bush said, "Run with it, Willie's our ball carrier."

No links. You remember things or you don't.

Not needing any Betsy DeVos voucher from all of us to her already enriched benefit, Rebekah Mercer homeschools her children. Apparently she admirably eschews taking that next logical step from the DeVos voucher position, "I homeschool, cut me a taxpayers' check."

photo credit

Can you imagine the education the young tykes are getting? Ann Coulter as a substitute teacher? Robert Mercer can cut big checks, and with integrity comparable to Ted Cruz, Coulter likely would take the job were it suitably offered.

Perhaps the Mercers would hesitate to pull that trigger. Coulter being Coulter after all.

UPDATE: Politico, here; second paragraph.

FURTHER: Same item, sixth paragraph. When it gets to naming names . . . what have the Mercers done for trump, lately?

A surprise. Trump gives crass speech. To boy scouts. Were they there in uniform? Showing off merit badges?

Only a screen capture.



Time to transition, Trump and Pence to trump and pence. And ryan. Forfeiting the right to upper case lead letters seems in vogue in these times. jarad.

___________UPDATE____________



Editorial imperative, no capital "b". As with, "bannon." Or "great again."

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________



Please, get rid of that capital "b" in the logo. It's unmerited. Overinflated. Unearned.

On the other hand, there might be news to . . .

. . . drivers envisioning a plannerless future.

Is it not great to be great again? As great as the nation was . . .

Who put an Apprentice into the White House? Same mood and beliefs as put a Gipper there, a Nixon, a Bill Clinton. An Abigail Whelan into the legislature. A Michele Bachmann into Congress. A Newt Gringrich anywhere.

If the nation ever had quality and class, it's gone. Or never was. Sorry but option three is nonexistent.

A saying used to be, "Think it over." Not "Tweet over it." Downhill is clear, where the bottoming out is, that's next year's question, give or take a few years.

Fascists are as fascists do.

The new Foxconn factory will stretch 20 million square feet, the size of 11 football fields — and Wisconsin will shell out serious cash for it, if all goes according to Gov. Scott Walker’s plan.

On the table is up to $3 billion in state tax breaks. The Legislature could approve the economic incentive package as early as August.

These payouts, state officials said, come with lofty expectations. As long as Foxconn — an electronics titan that makes gadgets for Apple, Google and Amazon, among other firms — keeps hiring U.S. workers at the new flat-screen manufacturing facility, Wisconsin would cut the company $200 million to $250 million a year for up to 15 years.

That works out to a rough cost to the state of about $230,700 per worker, assuming the factory goes on to generate 13,000 jobs.

The coming plant represents a political victory for Walker, who bills himself a jobs creator and who faces re-election next year, as well as for President Donald Trump, who has made U.S. manufacturing central to his economic agenda.

Buying elections leads to buying factories and jobs? From the Chinese? From Chinese fascists. With taxpayer money. Crazyland. What would Ron/Rand Paul say?

Given the contested issues, don't take normal deposiitons. Interrogate them.

This link.

Well, it is an interesting exigesis, and then there is the "Where was Bernie during Occupy" dimension when Bannon was allowed free uncontested rein to demonize the most necessary of events and proto-movements.

Occupy was put down with police brutality nobody mentioned, and now nobody on the press or politician inside mentions Occupy either. Go figure.

The essay critical of Bernie, here. The book, this link. There is that lingering feeling, a young Bernie delegate to the national convention from Minnesota who I grew to respect from little contact expressed it as feeling betrayed. Ellison gave a solidarity speech early at that convention, and was deluded into thinking of an uncontested DNC leadership role. And then, what a whopping balloon drop. Every balloon in the nation consigned for the event except ones lacking red, white, or blue color. They stayed on the toy shelf. But wow! So many balloons with "STRONGER TOGETHER" belted out the PA system, in all its subtlety. What an event. Bill and Hillary together. On state.

That lingering feeling is why Justice Democrats has an appeal as strong as the better funded and promoted "Our Revolution." Who is who, and can we find agendas beyond an agenda are questions that can bog down an army. The essay seems to say most of what a book would say, yet there is a book, same author:




The naysayers may have their say. Yet - Hope for each, Our Revolution and Justice Democrats; else there is no hope. Tune time. Hello, Jarad. Is that a whiff of an Ivanka perfume on you?

UPDATE: Nina Turner.

Two Three more, here, here and here. Gee. Any guess you'd see Jerry Springer at the Nissan plant?

This.

FURTHER UPDATE:
1. It is not a "fake news" joke.

2. History is important, when considering Jerry Springer - Nina Turner.

A Counterpunch link.

JULY 28, 2017 - Enter Scaramouche, Stage Right - by ANDREW LEVINE - online here.

Juxtaposition.

Here. Then, here.

A lot of inner party dolts had a vote back then. Broom time is coming. It cannot be soon enough.

Nancy Pelosi, crowing over a vote in the other chamber, lacks knowledge of the words: single payer. The lady needs teaching.

The best teaching is around primary time.

A link. Find there the word "single" or the word "payer" on that link, and win a bobblehead for your collection. 100% plastic, washable, will break if hammered hard will melt with heat.

This link, entry marked 5:40 a.m. "Update and improve" wording used about a legislated sop to the insurance industry, big pharma, and rapacious provider types - Romneycare and never forget that. Dump such language, say "single payer" or get out of the way yesterday.

Will melt with heat. Will break if hammered hard. Primaries await the deserving ones.

UPDATE: What a coincidence, writing "deserving ones," checking again that 5:40 am entry; Shumer mentioned.

Praise for a title using the past tense.

This link. Keep it to the past tense, together.

Yup. If they start jumping I'll be there laughing.

Foxconn in Wisconsin. Do factory robots jump?

Freezing fares, trimming the planners was an option for some reason off the table. Why?

Q. How many Met Council planners does it take to change a light bulb?

A. Do any know how?

Perhaps too harsh. But all that regular and locally costly comp plan stuff with the iron fist in the velvet glove propaganda that local control matters, and with Lake Elmo as history, casts its light on Met Council's relationship with those metro towns to which it dictates. An unfavorable light. Town planning staffs, they're happy, taxpayers, well . . .

Hello, Lake Elmo.

For context, Strib here and here.

Given a name, will it sell or will there be rebranding?

The Nation, here. Links in the excerpt are from the original item:

The University of Chicago Stigler Center’s three-day conference asked: “Does America Have a Concentration Problem?” A sufficient response to this could be “go outside.” Virtually every major sector in our economy has been whittled down to a few major players. Two companies produce nearly all of America’s toothpaste. One, Luxottica, produces nearly all the sunglasses. There are four cable and Internet providers, who have divvied up the country and rarely compete. There are four major airlines. There are four major commercial banks. There are four major Internet platforms—Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google—controlling your information flow, your data, and your virtual life.

[...] A new group of scholars and activists has rebelled against Chicago-school dictates. You can call them the “New Brandeis movement.” Louis Brandeis, before reaching the Supreme Court, advised President Woodrow Wilson in the election of 1912, condemning “the curse of bigness” and favoring breakups of those trusts that the Sherman Act had yet to dismantle. Under Wilson, Congress closed Sherman Act loopholes with the Clayton Antitrust Act and created the Federal Trade Commission to combat monopoly power. As Brandeis wrote, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

“America was founded to provide people the wherewithal to protect ourselves from enslavement,” said Barry Lynn of the open-markets program at the New America Foundation. Perhaps nobody in the New Brandeis movement has done more than Lynn to revive the Progressive-era conception of monopoly as a danger to American liberty. “Anti-monopoly, from the Boston Tea Party onward, was one of the key tools that we the people used to keep ourselves free,” he said.

[...] The Chicago school, perhaps through its rigidity, has begun to lose its grip on antitrust theory. The Obama Council of Economic Advisers started taking antitrust seriously last year in a series of reports. Justin Pierce, a Federal Reserve economist, presented his research at the conference that manufacturing mergers are associated with price markups of between 15 and 50 percent without any statistically significant effect on productivity, undermining even the base Chicago-school case. Senator Elizabeth Warren gave remarks on concentration in July: “Today, in America, competition is dying.” Senators of both parties are pushing for more aggressive antitrust enforcement. Renata Hesse, briefly the acting head of antitrust at the Justice Department, gave a powerful speech last September dismantling Chicago-school interpretations.

But few of these battles played out face-to-face. And the New Brandeis movement’s challenge left the Chicago school with few friends. Richard John, a history professor at Columbia University, derided the subverting of Sherman’s vision for ideological interests, arguing that the Chicago school “remains intent on reclaiming the past to invent the future.” Former Obama officials like Peter Orszag and Austan Goolsbee were unwilling to line up with the “nothing to see here” crowd. “There are cracks in the aqueduct and it will split soon,” said Barry Lynn.

[...] In other words, the New Brandeis school’s forward assault can do more than change politics. It can change minds.

[italics added] So, "New Brandeis" must look at "Old Brandeis," the man himself in the Wilson, Jekyll Island, WW I, Smedley Butler, Palmer Raids history, and in light of that, is it a good name or not so good? Surely something is wrong when cable bills are so high and the bundled packages are so full of forced-on-us dreck. Somebody's policy is shorting us big time, but Louis Brandeis was not Paul Revere, or was he? History of those times seems unclear and given short shrift in our national educational structuring.

UPDATE: Where was Brandeis, what was his role, when this was passed - something keeping Snowden in exile? Along with two Presidents - two Parties - declining a pardon for Snowden. Answers to questions are seldom as clean and clear-cut as the asking.

FURTHER: Unanimous Supreme Court decision.

"If you follow the discourse in the American newspapers and financial news outlets, you would notice that most of the discussion on the possibility that Iliad, the company controlled by Niel, could enter the U.S. market by buying T-Mobile is centered on the price offered to shareholders that apparently wasn't high enough to conclude a deal. This is the common American approach: to focus on the "value" created or destroyed by companies in the eyes of shareholders. But when prices of companies such as AT&T, Verizon or T-mobile rise, is it really a value that is being "created" or rather only extracted from consumers? After all, these are mere utilities companies from which most of their profits are from rent-seeking derived from the concentration in the market and regulatory protection -- and not from innovation in products or processes. What are the negative externalities that high prices of Internet connection or mobile connection have on the U.S. economy? What could be the positive externalities on the U.S. economy if it were leading the world in low communication prices?"

The extended headline is from here, and the inevitable conclusion is we citizens of the US of A are being screwed by telco/cable pirates and that the regulators are in bed with them against us, and it has been so under Democrats and now under Republicans, and how can one say it is dissimilar to the healthcare crap we have had shoveled onto us? Cooption of erstwhile regulators has been an endemic problem in the nation. And atop that, the Creature from Jekyll Island. We are being plucked.

Trump and his billionaires; the Clintons and their slush. There was no difference beyond Trump projecting as if likable, Ms. Clinton not bothering.

Tom Perez thinks things these ways are fine. Tom is a problem, not anyone's solution to anything except for the exploitative oligarchs.

Any questions?

Any answer? How about, don't get mad get even.

Why does "A Better Deal" not ring like "An Honest Deal?"

Websearch. This item.

Get with it or keep losing? Throwing dirt at Trump is not a policy. Rather it is a tactic. Putting heat to Paul Ryan's nastiness would be a happier thing.

Crap like this thing, do a word search for "single." Do a word search for "payer." Do a word search for "Wall Street." Not there, because the op-ed author does not care. Broom time? Why not?

Other missing words: tuition and student.

Also, missing is the phrase, "Feel the Bern." Also, "Revolution," ours, anyone's. Pablum is as pablum tastes.

Chip of the Beast?

This link. What about the forehead? Something for a second confirmation assurance during an iris scan. A new way to handle driver's licenses? Vast opportunities.

Globe and Mail. Opening quote, "Canadians often make the mistake of viewing U.S. health care through the prism of our own (semi-) universal system, where everyone gets treated more or less in the same fashion. The concept of one-size-fits-all health care is antithetical to the ethos of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans see health care as a status symbol, like big houses and expensive cars. Even most Americans who support some form of public health coverage for the poor shudder at the thought of a Canadian-style system where everyone waits in the same line and no one, regardless of income, gets to jump the queue. That’s fine for 'other people' but not them." [UPDATED]

This whole-item context. For an insight into the truth of that headline-quote observation, follow the link in the post below this one. For more context on that linked item in the prior post, look here, scrolling to the Magerman quote for the gist, then scan the entire thing. Perhaps wrong, I see robber barons and politician purchasers as having negative social value. I doubt that's a wrong view, however. I see Mr. Mercer and daughter as a disease.

In fairness, "disease" might be too harsh or precise a judgment, make it "some form of pathology." The added ambiguity does not hurt the thrust of the thought.

Robert and Rebekah Mercer are heartless thugs, with money. If social, moral conscience were to be the measure each merits life in prison without parole.

Do read that Globe and Mail item. It is short, clear, and sobering. Thugs at work rigging both sides of the health provision/consumption equation. Thugs like the Mercers. Like the UnitedHealth CEO and/or its board chairman. Any Senator or Representative not 100% behind single payer should be replaced. A better system than "Slime Prospers" is needed, but don't wait for the new Trump communications coordinator to say so. He prospers.

Scum.

This link.

Angie Craig. This ain't no phoenix, DCCC. It's what got the party where it is and it's what can keep it there. Ashes stay ashes, no magic, no hope, no sense to it.

It is reassuring when a voice you generally regard as sound says something you've already postulated as sound.

Only this link.

No excerpt.

It speaks for itself. Well and thoroughly. Read it.

Angie Craig is yesterday's fish; unrefigerated. A leftover. No dynamism, no populism, no progressive bone in her body. Money and ambition with little else, you cannot deny such traits as her base Gestalt, traits to find in abundance in the GOP which did not cut it against galt.io, will not cut it, should not cut it.

She is Tired Tom Perez of the other gender.

And the story at that link goes beyond Angie's appeal, such it be, to Jeff Erdmann, with this image leading the post:

It is telling when the best thing to say of Angie Craig is, "MEET JEFF".

If the nation were to repeal Romneycare and substitute Putincare, what would that be? What healthcare program does Russia have?

No links. Just the question. Go search the web if you care for the question enough to wonder about the answer.

With the new White House spin meister replacing Sean S. it is tune time yet again.

This tune link.

Real news? Is a manure spreader news? To whom?

UPDATE: The Mercer-Breitbart version will  not  be laid on with a trowel, but by using a front loader. Be ready for "buried in it day-in, day-out."

FOX being stressed to keep up with:

The IQ90 News

How would you expect FOX to repackage what's packaged FOX-style at the start?

UPDATE: Six months ago, everyone's friend, a truth, since Spicer said so to the press. In Britain the term is "minister without portfolio" which term would fit Scaramucci then, but now would fit Spicer.

FURTHER: Globe and Mail op-ed.

Bunny news?

Boston Herald, this item:

Now that he’s officially submitted his resignation as press secretary, Spicer can make boatloads more money in the private sector. In fact, the owner of a legal brothel in Nevada, The Bunny Ranch, has already made an offer for a spot on his public relations team.

If that job offer doesn’t float his boat, Spicer can always join a cable news outlet as a high-paid commentator. Not a bad gig. Just ask Jason Chaffetz, who recently quit his day job as a U.S. Rep. to join Fox News as a contributor. The pay’s better, with less day-to-day stress doing battle with anti-Trump reporters at the daily White House press briefings.

Spicer tweeted yesterday he’ll stay on as press secretary through August. That’ll give his replacement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, time to ramp up as well as give newly tapped Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci time to revamp the administration’s overall messaging. A task long overdue.

With Trump’s approval rating lower than any of the last four presidents at the same point in their term — an anemic 38 percent, per Gallup’s latest polling — Trump was smart to shake up his communications team.

Spicer is not the only celeb on the release that got a Bunny Ranch offer. This item:

O.J. Simpson officially has his first post-prison job offer ... from a Nevada brothel who says they're willing to let the juice run loose all over their establishment.

There's just one problem ... some of the working girls at the place have thrown a penalty flag, threatening to quit if O.J. is hired at their place of business.

TMZ Sports talked with Dennis Hof, owner of the Bunny Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, and he told us he's got a position all ready for O.J. when he's released, which could be as early as October 1.

Hof says O.J. would work as a greeter in the establishment, and be able to live on the premises of the ranch as long as he's employed.

"One of the conditions of a prisoner being granted parole is always having an established place to live and a job to go to, and I can offer O.J. both of those in a unique situation."

Now, with that in the recent news, what are you supposed to wonder about the new guy? NBC News reports:

Prior to founding SkyBridge, Scaramucci was the co-founder of Oscar Capital Management and a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

He hasn't previously served in government and dodged questions Friday on how he plans to work with Trump, who often usurps his own communications team. The president, Scaramucci said, is "the best communicator" in the White House.

"I love the president and the president is a very, very effective communicator," Scaramucci said. [...]

Scaramucci was raised in a working-class Italian family in Long Island, New York — not too far from Trump's childhood stomping grounds in Queens, where Scaramucci’s father was a construction worker, according to his book, "Hopping over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Failure into Success."

In the book, Scaramucci recalls working odd jobs to help fund his college education — with his father also pitching in for his schooling — and struggling to balance his working-class roots with big-city dreams.

"Coming from a middle-class Italian American family on Long Island, you were always fighting for people to take you seriously. When someone slighted you, you remembered it," he wrote. "Embarrassment and shame were the worst feelings of all."

Well, despite the "Rabbit Hole" book title, Scaramucci has not been noted as having any Bunny Ranch job offer in line with his skill set, that clearly being a slight and an embarrassment to be remembered.

My favorite Bunny? Rebekah Rabbit, who also is not reported with any Bunny Ranch job offer.

Rebekah Rabbit is distinct from Rebekah Sea Owl, as prey, not predator.

_____________UPDATE_____________
Bunny Background, and the guy never looked better.

It depends on how you define "meetings?"

Go figure. Were "conversations" "meetings" or in some formal sense, encounters only, but with words exchanged? Must a "meeting" be something planned in advance and discoverable as an entry within some subpoenaed desk calendar or e-calender on the iPhone?

It's reminiscent of the Bubba "never had sex with that woman" delving into word meanings. At least Sessions never had sex with the Russian Ambassador, so far as the record currently shows. And it seems nobody in any DC authority position is asserting any such encounter.

This WaPo link, so what's a "meeting???"

There would be no howl of unfairness were Sessions jettisoned and replaced with someone more sensible about marijuana legalization. While certainly a separate issue, two birds with one stone is an old adage worth liking in some situations.

There would be beauty if this former prosecutor were to be entangled in a "not to my recollection" weaseling around in testifying under oath, this excerpt from the WaPo item [link in original]:

Sessions appeared to narrow that assertion further in extensive testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, saying that he “never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States.”

But when pressed for details, Sessions qualified many of his answers during that hearing by saying that he could “not recall” or did not have “any recollection.”

A former U.S. official who read the Kislyak reports said that the Russian ambassador reported speaking with Sessions about issues that were central to the campaign, including Trump’s positions on key policy matters of significance to Moscow.

Sessions had a third meeting with Kislyak in his Senate office in September. Officials declined to say whether U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted any Russian communications describing the third encounter.

As a result, the discrepancies center on two earlier Sessions-Kislyak conversations, including one that Sessions has acknowledged took place in July 2016 on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

It appears the intelligence information is of a form without any "recollection" cloudiness over intervening time; whereas Sessions, he's navigating on his "recollection" which would not contradict the other evidence, but would impeach his ability to recall things; which is not a good trait for a sitting AG.

It looks as if Trump is wanting to Bork Mueller, and Sessions is in the way of Trump finding a sufficiently flexible and willing Bork to do that heinous job.

However, back to Sessions and his ability to recall being put into question, the linked philly.com item cited by the WaPo report states:

"I did not have communications with the Russians," Sessions said when asked whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had communicated with representatives of the Russian government.

He has since maintained that he misunderstood the scope of the question and that his meetings with Kislyak were strictly in his capacity as a U.S. senator. In a March appearance on Fox television, Sessions said, "I don't recall any discussion of the campaign in any significant way."

Sessions appeared to narrow that assertion further in extensive testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, saying that he "never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States."

But when pressed for details, Sessions qualified many of his answers during that hearing by saying that he could "not recall" or did not have "any recollection."

In fairness to the man, I cannot recall specifics of unfavorable commentary I may have published here about Sessions; but again as with the DC happenings, there is the archive - evidence which recalls without error - and is hence more reliable than frail human abilities.

So, Sessions did as the intercepts said, and merely fails in memory.

Sad.

Tell Zygi to cram it. Many, many, many resent still and opposed then the Wilfare given to the Jersey guy. Tell him.

It was bad use of public money but the trade unions wanted the intervening job opportunities and Dayton and other DFL'ers went along to get along.

Now overreaching by the owner of the team that grew its capital value vastly upon public money being so directed has the surprising audacity to say the public can get screwed because he wants all the revenue, regardless. Tell him this is Minnesota and not Bridgegate land, not Trump land, but better. Clearly, Zygi's got a major East-Coast attitude problem, call it greed for lack of a better term; greed coupled with an astounding chutzpah alien to the midwest (aside from the likes of Michele Bachmann).

Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial staff writes strongly about body cam policing policy.

This link. Earlier Crabgrass on the issue days ago, here. This other Strib item on the change atop the MPD, stating mid-item:

In 2012, then-Mayor R.T. Rybak picked her for the top job when Chief Tim Dolan retired, and she won the approval of the City Council. At the time, Rybak called her “a smart cop, a savvy administrator and a natural leader” and said she would make an exceptional chief.

But Harteau has publicly fought with city and state officials many times since then. In October 2013, she pushed back against a body camera proposal supported by Hodges and other council members, a month before Hodges was elected mayor.

[...] In a news conference 24 hours before resigning, Harteau tried to distance the department from the Damond shooting, calling it “one individual’s actions” and not representative of the force. She said the officers should have been recording with body cameras and that Damond “didn’t have to die.” [...]

With Mayor Hodges running for reelection, and with this latest fatal encounter with police involving a white person, there is room for conclusions which might be wrong. The cumulative nature of events likely is more a factor than race. And no body cam usage in this shooting, that is inexcusable and a strong policy would need to be top down with the police union either with it or bent down. Either way, the things were purchased for sound reasons and when not used in a fatal encounter with an unarmed person who'd summoned the police presence, things exceeded any acceptable level of police practice.

The officer who fatally shot the civilian in the latest incident had no criminal justice training, or apparently none, prior to making the force. Norms of use of deadly force need to be clear as policy, top down, and always any officer should reasonably be expected to be protective of the weapon and its use rather than enduring an excessive risk of personal injury or death. Drawing lines is difficult, but clearly they were not properly drawn and articulated with sufficient force as shown in the failure to use body cams - by either officer in the encounter, both of whom should be fired immediately. Not just the chief under the bus, but the pair of failing perps too.

One can see how Donald Trump identifies with V. Putin. Much as George W. Bush said he understood Putin's "soul" and could deal with him.

First, "soul brothers" of the talking tour; the too-easy use of Jesus by loose users using a "Christian" route to a whatever agenda:

“The reason why I said that is because I remembered him talking movingly about his mother and the cross that she gave him that she had blessed in Jerusalem,” Bush told Hewitt. “Nobody knows that, and I never tried to make an explanation of why I said what I said until the book.”

In the book, Bush writes that he interrupted Putin as the then-Russian President spoke from note cards and “seemed a little tense.” Bush asked whether the story of his mother giving him a cross was true, and writes that “a look of shock washed over Putin’s face.”

Putin then told the story of recovering the cross from a house fire and said that when a worker found the piece of jewelry it was as if it was meant to be. Bush writes that he remarked, “Vladimir, that is the story of the cross. Things are meant to be.”

But in his interview with Hewitt Monday, Bush said that Putin was “emboldened” by Russia’s resurgent economic outlook – spurred in large part by the rising price of oil – and by the fact that the U.S. was increasingly becoming a debtor nation, financing both government and consumer spending through careless levels of borrowing.

The first item Putin raised in their June 2001 meeting, Bush said, “was about Soviet debt saddling the Russian Federation.”

“At that point, oil was selling for $26 per barrel,” Bush writes in “Decision Points.”

But in a September 2007 meeting, with oil at $71 a barrel and “on its way to $137 in the summer of 2008,” Putin began by asking Bush about the performance of Wall Street created mortgage-backed securities owned by the Russian government.

So, Bush and Putin understood a shared worldview and if you watch this video you can see Trump joining the pair to make a troika of common Gestalt and means toward ends. Only Trump delegates his Jesus patrol to Godfather Pence. And Pence gets a press clean slate despite lying like a rug right after the Comey dismissal when he had to know the actual truth but thought he could sell a full sack to America? Jesus blessed and forgave the liars? Those playing with a rigged deck? In which Testament? Which Epistle?

At about 1:40 or so into that video, "That's not what this is about," lying in full disdain of the honed ability of most Americans to smell bullshit when closely exposed to it.

I probably need Abigale Whelan to explain the bona fides of this man to me.

The Music Man.

Make America Great Again. Ain't Got No Home. Mr. Tangerine Man. And, folk singers age gracefully.

Nixon in his grave, "They never sang about me. Called me a crook. If Hunter Thompson were sucking air still, this East Coast guy'd have a harder time."

__________UPDATE___________
Bonus. Variation on a theme.

Corpse flower blooms again.

Read of the stench.

You remember, right?

The Horror.

Image from thinkprogress.com, here. Past coverage, here.

............................

There's a story here, (an opensecrets.org item), top "vendor" listings - the Treasury twice; Minnesota Dept. of Revenue. That's the 2016 election cycle, while for the 2014 cycle, online here, notable top "vendor" accolades to Holland and Knight ("... noted among 'Ones to Watch'") at eighty grand, the Treasury again, and "Cardinals Fec Compliance Services" Michele PAC ringing that bell at fourteen grand AND Bachman for Congress also ringing in at forty-two grand, 2013 expenditures, i.e., after 2012's shenanigans (aka Bachmann 2012; THE HORROR!).

That Strib report, mid-item, mentioned that in a 45min speaking stretch Bachmann opined:

“That’s what I see in Minnesota — too many people who are afraid of being called ‘racist,’ ‘bigots,’ ‘Islamophobe,’ ” Bachmann said. “I’m not afraid of it.”

[...] “In Minnesota, we have been marinated in political correctness so long we dare not even allow ourselves to think about cultural questions,” she continued.

For someone saying she's not afraid of much, the lady sure lawyered up heavily, and that's from spending fact and not from any "she said" stuff.

Lawyering up must be over one of those other "cultural questions" that do ring into a Bachmannian fear loop. Something substantial, beyond word usage.

Something aside from bigotry, Islamaphobia, or related words being of no threat to her, as she says. So, what is the lawyering up worry? Bigger than being viewed as a bigot; something with teeth to bite? Sticks and stones?

_____________UPDATE______________
Well, tune time, and since it clearly has little to nothing to do with Michele Bachmann, clearly, it could be a separate post. But it's not.

Nothing could be worse than four more Trump-Pence years. Nothing? Nothing!

Yard sign for a winning ticket, perhaps less monstrous, (perhaps more contrived) -

A former public defender authors an op-ed about policing, and civilian control of same.

This Strib link; this excerpt, beginning with naming the three people recently shot dead by police in the main metro area without a single cop body cam having been turned on:

Jamar Clark in Minneapolis. Philando Castile in Falcon Heights. And now Justine Damond — in Minneapolis, again.

For the record, I want it to be known that I object to being policed this way. As between the Minneapolis Police Department and the civilian authorities in my town, it is the civilians who must be in control, [...] It is well past time for our mayor and our City Council to assert their authority. They can start by firing our ineffectual police chief. After that, the City Council should take charge of a complete overhaul of the department.

Since the department can’t seem to hire and train anything but Blue Warriors, the council, rather than the department, should set the rules for what qualifies a person to become and remain a Minneapolis police officer. If the council doesn’t feel it has the expertise to micromanage how cops are qualified and trained, it can hire experts from foreign jurisdictions who don’t think of the citizenry as the people of an occupied country. The council should break up the entire command structure of the department, and demote, fire or reassign everyone in management, because these are the people who have stubbornly failed or refused to reform the culture of our paramilitary Police Department despite scandal after scandal.

[...] I’d like to think that a thorough overhaul of the Minneapolis Police Department and its policies will not be happening just because this time the victim is a white woman who holds citizenship in a predominantly white first-world country and who was shot in an affluent white neighborhood, rather than a black or American Indian person shot in downtrodden north Minneapolis. I’d also like to think that the police and the city won’t try to solve their PR problem by simply throwing the Somali-American police officer who shot Damond under the nearest bus. [...]

I am ashamed of my city, of its arrogant, hypocritical police force, and of its civic leaders [... including] judges and prosecutors of the Hennepin County District Court, who have tortured facts, law and logic to justify almost anything cops chose to do to the people that I spent 28 years bringing before them for justice.

Richard G. Carlson, of Minneapolis, is a retired assistant Hennepin County public defender.

Are there starting and ongoing psychological fitness tests? Could the police union be made responsible for paying from its dues pool the insurance costs for bad cop actions? Give them that kind of incentive to cull. Where an insufficient culling incentive presently seems to exist.

And would not the first step be putting teeth into body cam usage demands? With the second step being to train and require prosecutors to cease regarding the cops as "our clients?"

Then, curbing the rubber stamping of search warrants should be a reform of the bench. Decriminalizing minor drug offenses would eliminate much of snitch-cultivation, which is a perversion of orderly and proper policing. Last, formalizing plea bargaining in some standardized form would eliminate much of the conduct at the prosecutorial and judicial level that rightly has earned reproach.

Noteworthy as to the bargaining dilemma, there is the allegedly common prison comment, "I didn't have a lawyer, I had a public defender." Public defender case loading has led to the bargain-it or face maximum sentences mentality, and suitable funding of public defense would be needed to curb plea bargaining affronts.

Body cam footage in any litigated or prominent case should be a public document, so the citizens could better learn of some dimensions of some police conduct in interacting with the public as well as learning the degree to which police testimony might be rightly trusted during stints of jury service.

Imagine, alone, body cam footage of DWI field sobriety testing. It would not disarm all of the "As I approached the subject I detected the strong smell of alcohol, his speech was slurry and he was red-faced and belligerent" standard litany. A smell of alcohol, if any, could not be documented or discredited by any body cam. However, slurring of speech, facial appearance, and presence or absence of belligerence would be objective evidence which could not "misrecollect" over time. Those would be helpful things, as well as memorializing the conducting and results of field sobriety testing done outside of the subject's vehicle before any custodial detention decision is made.

In short, probable cause considerations would clearly benefit from universally demanded body cam usage.

Finally a former public defender should not be too myopic in casting criticism at others.

Hold up a mirror too.

The absentee town hall. But did you expect more than collecting the pay and mailing in the town hall?

This link. The Indivisible, for the Invisible:

Constituents in Northfield filled a town hall on Monday night seeking clarification on the positions of Rep. Jason Lewis, whose absence, not presence, defined the evening.

Hundreds poured into St. John’s Church in Northfield to voice their concerns and ask questions of their newly elected representative to Congressional District 2.

When asked to attend the town hall, Lewis declined, so event organizers prepared by carefully documenting the event for Lewis and even queuing up some of his responses from the campaign that were played on a projector for the crowd on hand.

In an interview with the Northfield News late last week, Lewis’s Communications Director, Stephen Bradford, pointed out that Lewis has been engaging in “telephone town halls” where a lucky few constituents are given the chance to ask questions of the representative and can voice their views by clicking buttons that align closest with their responses.

In a letter to the editor in the Star Tribune on Tuesday, Lewis indicated that he does, “not endorse a partisan, political point-scoring event filtering down from nationally-organized ‘Indivisible’ groups with handbooks from Democrat former staffers. I want a respectful exchange with those who want to be heard.”

No show because it might have been less than praise-filled back patting? There is distinction between a reason, and an excuse. So, is it an isolated thing, or a pattern?

Strib, here. Screenshots:

Telephone town halls? What's his worry, his record, a debt collector showing up, a process server, or some galt.io pidgeon wanting his/her money back?

I recall seeing the Trump University thing unfold as so much smoke and mirrors and cashflow out from folks into an empty gimmick, and saying to myself, "Trump University? That is just Deja vu, galt.io."

Contemplate, the difference between, "Missing In Action," and "Missing, Inaction." Hiya, Jason.

A losing Dem candidate wants to run again for Minnesota's CD2 seat. Rather than a middling second bite at the apple, what about an Our Revolution or Justice Democrats candidate?

What about a well contested primary? It would not hurt. Craig failed to defeat a talk show idiot, once, and what's the explanation a second shot would differ? Go for a progressive, or stay home and let the talk radio guy build years toward a government pension? What?

Strib reporting, here. The recollection is that there were two DFL wannabes, both middle of the road, Craig the lesser corporatist but still not a progressive. Why waste more time and effort on middling candidates?

If you want the full picture of the incumbent Craig failed to defeat, web search "galt.io" and reflect upon the outcome and Craig as candidate; against that.

Only a total huckster could launch galt.io. Angie, you missed defeating a total huckster, so stand aside, drop out. This is sad stuff, from Strib's report:

In her announcement, however, Craig fixed her aim on Lewis, who she said has "marched in lockstep with President Trump and Congressional Republican leaders. The fight for health care is just one example — he voted to increase premiums and deductibles, to raise costs dramatically for older Americans and to cut coverage for millions of Americans — all to give a tax cut to the rich."

Lewis spokesman Stephen Bradford said in a statement that voters rejected Craig's "radical ideas" in 2016. He said Craig and other "very liberal candidates either obstruct real health care, tax and regulatory reform or veer hard-left with dangerous new schemes."

Two folks each in their sad and stupid way staking a lesser evil claim. We need a greater good - a progressive. A single payer progressive. A student debt reform progressive. An income inequality fixing progressive. Not a wealthy Dem candidate whose income distribution history has been cracker jack fine, for her.

BOTTOM LINE: Angie Craig needs a progressive primary opponent, and that's a big time need.

Again, this link, for present Strib reporting.

___________UPDATE____________
Angie, go away. There is a better person already committed to run, with policy aims where a belated Craig "me too" would not ring very true. Angie's aim seems more about Angie with a bit of fluff thrown in, less about strong progressive stances on issues. Running as "I'm the moderate, Jason's too extreme" did not move the voters. Compare that ballotpedia item, history preserved, to this clear set of ideals:

Click the thumbnail to read what candidate Jeff Erdmann puts first as policy aims, or better link over to the original page to read his entire belief set on issues:

https://erdmannforcongress.com/on-the-issues/

That is clearly a sub-page of the Erdmann campaign website:

https://erdmannforcongress.com/

Jeff Erdmann's online contribution page; here.

Jeff Erdmann's volunteer page:

https://erdmannforcongress.com/get-involved/

That last link has the snail mail address for the Erdmann campaign, if you want to mail a check as I will. Mine will be a multiple of $27.

ERDMANN FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
PO Box 122 Rosemount, MN 55068
651-456-8828

Erdmann seems less an early-retirement wealthy health-industrial-complex insider than Craig, more one of the people tired of an ineffective status quo and wanting to reform and improve things. More Wellstone to the man and to his beliefs. Could you rationally expect to ever see this from Angie Craig except if as a "me too" tactic, too little, too late:

As a disclaimer: There was no indication found of either an Our Revolution or a Justice Democrats endorsement, nor tie-in by Erdmann to either group. Just a sense of more fire-in-the-belly ability to take it to a clown like Jason Lewis than the medical device retiree did, or might.

The fact is, without a passing reference in the Strib item initially noted to Erdmann already being a candidate, his effort would have been under Crabgrass radar. His name in the item prompted this websearch, and lo, there already is the better candidate ready and willing and not a perhaps or a maybe again.

One can wonder, why Strib choose to feature a maybe-try-again corporatist Democrat with only a passing reference to an already landed and running individual with more promise. At a guess, Strib sees Craig as better placed to get beltway money, DNC and such, Wall Street cash backing, much as status quo Clinton spouses did while massive feeling the Bern went unreported in mainstream media. There is that as history, and Glen Taylor is mainstream Republican more than Tea Party, in being owner of Strib. Pay the piper and call the tune? Perhaps, perhaps not. In any event that one passing reference let the cat out of the bag, and deflated Angie Craig's balloon.

_____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
The Jeff Erdmann volunteer link given above is a very important one. The man is not going to get any corporatist help, the effort will be to starve him for money and tout and fund Craig in another "okay whether she wins or loses" donor class attitude display; so that it will be ---

GRASSROOTS FOR ERDMANN or more of the same.

That would even serve as a good primary campaign slogan, but, aside from that, Craig/Erdmann in juxtaposition with Strib featuring the one and not the other goes to the heart of saving the Democratic Party from the worse of itself. Backing Erdmann early, with donations statewide and volunteer help in his district will be essential to trying to keep the Democratic Party relevant. Please help.

___________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Craig, 2016 run, financing. Craig, potential candidate, 2018 fundraising page.

In 2016 Craig was clearly the better choice of two; and would decisively have been an improvement, if elected, over Col. Klink. However, not elected. Were she now the incumbent, perhaps a differing analysis might have been written here. There would at least have been a track record to praise or critique. But she lost. To Jason Lewis. That seems the whole of the story.

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Video. Erdmann. Craig. Neither is a bad candidate. But Jason Lewis has got to be moved; an incumbent now, while the seat was open last cycle with Col. Klink moving on after for-profit pseudo-colleges unconscionably running up student debt became a hot potato for the nuclear-football man.

___________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Without knowing anything of the bona fides of the CROWDPAC website, there is a self-published statement of an independent Minnesota CD2 candidate, Jacob Cassidy, with a seeming progressive orientation, one readers should at this early stage note. If progressives push one another to better state detailed progressive agendas, good would result. Angie Craig differentiating her agenda from that of Lewis, and of progressives, would also prove helpful to voters. Generalities are the bane of gaining widespread informed voter judgment.

HIGH-STRUNG HUBRIS RIDDEN OFFENSIVE PERSON RAISES ONE BAFFLING QUESTION.

This WaPo link, this quote:

Coulter didn’t just slam Delta for moving her from her “PRE-BOOKED seat” with extra leg room (to another seat in the same row, according to the airline). She also documented the experience in photos and tweet after tweet, which she shared with her 1.6 million followers, not to mention the wider spectrum of people fascinated by things Ann Coulter does.

Big baffling question: How can a total joke like Ann Counter have 1.6 million twit followers? Don't people have real things to do? Don't they treasure their brief time on earth more than to do something as brain-dead stupid as being an Ann Coulter follower? Have we as a nation sunk that low that Trump is only the tip of the iceberg with 1.6 million twit followers for Ann Coulter representing the underwater body of the beast, a greater extent of national degradation than a blowhard TV personality in the White House with a Dominionist a heartbeat away and a clown in third place? 1.6 million people give a shit about Ann Coulter? No? Really?

Say it ain't so, Joe.

It should be a felony offense for any police officer on duty with a working body camera to not have it turned on in ANY encounter with a citizen.

This link explains why. If a city goes to the expense of a body cam program, after having reached a policy decision to go that way, there is simply no excuse for non-use. It is criminal that a woman was killed by a cop without any body cam record of the encounter in a city with bady cam usage required. If the cops can get away with this, why have the program? Put teeth into it. Make non-use in citizen encounters a felony, and let the courts deal with suggestions of extenuating circumstances or exculpatory factors. If body cams are issued or used on any shift in non-working condition the person responsible for quality assurance should have no job security beyond recourse to the courts. Any bargaining unit contract interfering with or compromising protecting the public via body cams should be held void as against public policy. No employer-union can, for cops, bargain away protection of the public from rouge or criminally stupid (aka grossly negligent) police actions. You issue a badge and firearm and powers, you have to keep reasonable checks and balances. The public deserves no less.

There is NO EXCUSE.

UPDATE: Even while buying a cup of coffee while on shift, the camera should be activated and recording the encounter. NO EXCEPTIONS.

An extended advertising page but nothing said about Russian oligarch/mafia chops? Transferable skill set, in general.

Lawyer du jour. No senior discount given. No base left untouched.

A trade parity in balance of payments with China is not a mere fantasy. It could be a policy of nations.

RT here, stating:

Through June, trade between Russia and China was worth $39.78 billion. Russian exports increased 29.3 percent to $20.34 billion, while Chinese exports to Russia were up 22.2 percent to $19.44 billion.

In 2016, trade between Moscow and Beijing grew only 2.2 percent to $69.52 billion. The countries have set a goal to boost trade to $200 billion by 2020.

In July, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the China Development Bank (CDB) agreed to establish a Russian-Chinese investment fund worth 68 billion yuan ($10 billion). It was created to make settlements in ruble and yuan easier.

Both Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly talked about the importance of payments in local currencies for bilateral trade.

The agreement was signed at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, while he was in Russia on an official visit.

The countries are also jointly building the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the Yamal Peninsula in the Russian Arctic. Over the past year, Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia as China's top oil supplier.

China is building a new transport corridor to Europe as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (also known as the New Silk Road), which goes through Kazakhstan and Russia to Europe.

Trade growth both ways, nearly equal payment flows each way, energy sold outside of any dollar hegemony, more liquefied natural gas on the market with Qatar stating an aim to substantially increase production/export, possibly in response to actions of its neighbors backed by whoever, and a new Silk Road to replace that of Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, or referring back to Marco Polo, or a bit of both presumably with containerized shipping. Shipping of whatever, you name it, and shipping might be an improper usage, in context.

Central Asia being essential in the planning and with no mention of the Indian subcontinent. With that New Silk Road it may be easier for North Korea to ship plutonium hither and yon, although care likely is taken to size individual shipments properly, not too large and too close together. And it is likely a supplier's market. A high demand commodity at a guess.

What might the Saudis think, and what might the near equal balance of payments along with the Saudi reference imply for your continuing price at the gas pump? And for Tesla?

Over them I would choose Huntley-Brinkley. In a heartbeat.

This link.

It is a good thing it was the firm it was, and not Goldman Sachs.

Were it Goldman Sachs, it would look as if that firm had advanced its agenda a step. This link.

A fifth person allegedly present when Trump Jr., Jarad, and Manafort met the Russian lawyer. Do you consider that, if true, a material omission by Donald Jr. which makes the remainder of the "for transparency" disclosure misleading? Especially if the fifth person has a sizzling story to tell?

AP story, online here. And, if a fifth, what about a complete agenda list, sixth, seventh, etc., if the room held that many.

TRAPPED!  [this link]

Third Man; fourth man, what's the difference when it's the full and complete story, unshaded and unslanted, that counts?

Combing through the Trumpster's dumpster.

Dateline July 11, here and here.

Dateline July 7, here.

A hypothetical - after Trump Jr. met with the Russian lady lawyer; Jarad and the then-campaign-chief Manafort in tow; did Trump tweet or speak about Clinton emails more than previously; is there a timeline?

What exactly did the Trump Jr. emails say, and how else but obvious ways can they be read? Surfacing now, not earlier, must be its own story too.

Comic relief.

UPDATE: About a month after that foursome meeting, Seth Rich was murdered. For now, an isolated data point. But - what if . . .

FURTHER UPDATE: WND has the only timeline Crabgrass could find re Seth Rich; with no info online of when he began work for DNC, or what his duties were during his tenure there up to his death. Zippo online, it appears.

Curiously, about a week after Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer met, the WND timeline [not second-sourced] has its first entry:

If WaPo had its Russian hacking story June 14, days after Trump Jr. etc., then presume DNC had notice around then and began an internal investigation of its email system log files; including that part belonging to Seth Rich and his system access record. Comey claimed DNC denied the FBI voluntary access to DNC computers, and there was never any subpoena. It was an instance of an imperative sentence being not a command, but a polite request, from appearances. Presuming the FBI through the spook network already knew what was there, no need to press the issue would exist. Presuming they did not, why in the world was the issue NOT pressed? As in, "Show me the Bear tracks." That loose string has never been tied off in public in any sane manner.

Shot in the back and NOT robbed, wallet and watch left on the body.

FURTHER UPDATE: Crowdstrike was the DNC tech guru consultant/operative firm [sand bur] that "found" Bear tracks at DNC. Meaning that firm's minions had open and full access to the DNC system - servers and stations - which was denied Comey; and that would have to include logs of Seth Rich activity anywhere within the system without any hint Rich had Snowden levels of sys-admin skills to go with his employment. That Bear facts link was on the web dated June 15, 2016, so previously the firm had to have done its sleuthing to reach its conclusions. Close to the Trump Jr. et al. confabing at Trump Tower. However productive it was, Trump Jr.'s recollection is it was not. Not being there, I have no corroborating or contradicting evidence. But it seems the meeting was kept under a hat for a lengthy time; causes for that being outside of today's public domain knowledge.

And, since the Bears were alleged Russian, and a Russian national met with DJT Jr and colleagues; let's keep things Russian - Crowdstrike having the access Comey's FBI lacked to DNC hardware and logs; look here, here, and the extended fine story here.

Seth Rich in the story was not a Russian, and searching the web might more likely than not show that the hospital treating staff was not either.

Although finding hospital attending staff names on the web might be a search for someone else, starting here might help. And, well, gee. If that is not fake news, it is intriguing. And if it is fake news, it's genesis would be a fine thing to learn.

FURTHER UPDATE: Something seems missing from the Trump Jr. release - there is the email exchange representing damaging negative Clinton info, then, for example, Business Insider reports:

Trump Jr. on Sunday said the meeting was set up on the premise that Veselnitskaya would provide damaging information on Clinton, but he said that material was never presented. Instead, he said, in a roughly 30-minute meeting Veselnitskaya pivoted to discussing the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russians accused of human-rights abuses that so enraged Putin that he retaliated by barring US citizens from adopting Russian children.

" ... none was presented ... " begs the question of what was discussed. Seguing to a possible quid pro quo thing, if having mentioned info of a general nature - without presenting it - surely is within the parameters describing the meeting as set out above. Was Wikileaks as an outlet discussed? Who knows but those present, and that question is adroitly skirted in what appears to be part of an official statement.

Later in the linked item Trump Jr. is quoted, two paragraphs:

"To everyone, in order to be totally transparent, I am releasing the entire email chain of my emails with Rob Goldstone about the meeting on June 9, 2016. The first email on June 3, 2016 was from Rob, who was relating a request from Emin, a person I knew from the 2013 Ms. Universe Pageant near Moscow. Emin and his father have a very highly respected company in Moscow. The information they suggested they had about Hillary Clinton I thought was political opposition research."

"I first wanted to just have a phone call but when that didn't work out, they said the woman would be in New York and asked if I would meet," he continued. "I decided to take the meeting. The woman, as she has said publicly, was not a government official. And, as we have said, she had no information to provide and wanted to talk about adoption policy and the Magnitsky Act. To put this in context, this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue. As Rob Goldstone just said today in the press, the entire meeting was the 'most inane nonsense I ever heard. And I was actually agitated by it.'"

The italicized language, doubtlessly vetted by an attorney before being released, does not say what would be more reassuring " ... that she had no information to provide us or anyone else, then or at any later time, under any conditions ... ". It seems feasible under the released statement that existence of info, if not then "presented," might have been discussed with impact of possible third-party publication also discussed; and with Wikileak being mentioned in such a context and all that if it happened would not make the formal released statement a direct lie, only phrased in an incomplete and arguable misleading way. If that was a part of the conversation. The public has not been told of any detail of the conversation beyond things the Russian meeting participant would like to see changed. There is that loose thread needing tying off one way or another. Curiously, Trump Sr. raved about worry over recording of things at Trump Tower. Without any particular circumstantial context given in the raving. Was there worry that a contact between a Russian national and U.S. citizens that day in Trump Tower was swept up full and intact as part of the giant sucking vacuum that is the U.S. intelligence community? That an actual recording of the meeting in full might be stored in some obscure NSA data site in Utah?

These are questions. Some official named Mueller or working for him should be looking into answers and evidence, so another shoe might drop. Absent that we can only guess and wonder about why a more definitive statement about the meeting is lacking. Having nothing to present at that time differs greatly from having nothing. Words. Facts. Speculations. This Trump Jr. meeting bit has all three.

Yet stepping back a bit: If there was Russian held info of misconduct by either or both Clinton spouses, even if obtained by questionable hacking, the plain factual matter having the greatest interest to an electorate on the eve of Presidential voting would be the info itself, what, if any, misconduct a wannabe-President and/or a former President together or separately might have engaged in during the course of each being during his/her lifetime little besides a career politician and becoming together a multi-millionaire pair of spouses out of that career. That's still the most relevant question. And it always was. What Podesta's emails said being more relevant - to a voting public - than the ways and means by which they went from private to published.

FURTHER NOTE: The cited Business Insider item, again online here, includes the text and headers of the released emails, so readers can read them and draw their own conclusions of how important they may be - and how important the full disclosure of all things discussed at that meeting might be. That news outlet presenting the evidence itself instead of only commentary about it, is an example of better journalism and we citizens should have more if it from every news outlet.

A month late is better than missing something altogether. Ro Khanna, a Bay Area Congressman, IS a Justice Democrat.

Videos here and here.

A Reddit thread.

Where the line is drawn - not taking corporate PAC money. Rich individuals can contribute. If they lean toward Our Revolution and/or Justice Democrat policy, that might incline them to contribute; whereas the Koch brothers likely gave zippo to Ro. Organized union money? That might have an answer, but none is known to Crabgrass. The prevailing terminology "no corporate PAC funding is accepted."

Now if Michele PAC were to offer Khanna a contribution, would that be accepted? Clearly a hypothetical. Does Michele PAC give to anyone besides Bachmann lawyers, these days, if ever?

Is Michele PAC still alive and accepting money? Seems so, given that PAC accepting it in 2016.

UPDATE: Campaign spending is a part of things. Apart from campaigns, there also are the independent (allegedly independent at least) slush funds [can you say Norm Coleman] which collect and spend lavishly, primarily on the Republican side but also some for corporatist Dems to work to tamp down progressives.

However, the hope is there is less a direct dependence/indebtedness in practice (as well as a formal fig-leaf), when the money stays out of the campaign coffers.

Money corrupting politics by corrupting politicians; or by helping the already corrupt ones; is the problem. The nation's supreme court [deserving lower case for this] are the ones who green-lighted the spending of the green, more is merrier, and if you want to criticize and hate on anyone John Roberts john roberts is as deserving as any mafia Don, or that is the opinion held here. The line he and court confederates crossed is not one with any criminal penalty, but little else favoring it can be said beyond that. And before all else there was Buckley v. Valeo. For the old timers, not the young, the former Senator allegedly is still sucking air, age 94. Outliving brother Bill, the publisher/writer.

Dominionist indoctrination aimed toward a political outcome should be taxed. It is conspiring against the rest of us who are civil secular humanists.

This first link. It is clear political proselytizing which is being touted as "tax deductible." It has a purely political agenda. Prove to me otherwise. This second link states pure political intent and aimed-for outcome of a political nature:

To respond to this challenge, and to give pro-family voters the opportunity to vote for stronger pro-family candidates, Family Policy Foundation created the Statesmen Academy. This Academy provides rigorous training by experienced Christian legislative leaders, who produce graduates bonded in an enduring fellowship of mutual encouragement and accountability, spiritual strength and political wisdom.

[...] Your generous financial support will identify, recruit, train and build a vibrant community of future statesmen—who will be equipped to begin transforming our political system from the inside!

[italics added] What else is it but a political exercise when the operation's top dog calls shots that way? How can it be tax exempt. It's not a church. It's a political propaganda and indoctrination mill. Aimed at a political outcome - aimed at "transforming our political system" to theocratic rather than nonsectarian. It offends.

Bigotry, spoken in low-key sanctimonious tones. By a Dominionist.

This video.

This follow-up. Judge Minnery on the facts. Judge his organizational pyramid on the facts of how he shapes facts. Assess character and/or capability. Sheep or goat?

UPDATE: Here. Here. Same theme as the "follow-up video" cited above; except this item goes to the study's author, who says Franken was correct in correcting the doctrinaire theocrat.

Dominionism and theofascism are terms used without precise [universally accepted tight] definitions. Here Dominionism is considered an intent for establishment of a state endorsed and favored religion rather than wanting and having a nondenominational government. Theofascism is the use of and integration of theocratic inclined individuals into a coalition which has fascistic intent; i.e., fascists using theocrats to gain numbers within their ranks. Some voicing or claiming leadership of the fundamentalist religious right are actual theofascists, i.e., both theocratic and fascist in mindset and intent and world view.

Fascisism here is used to mean wanting a policy and intent of a strong and intrusive state to support aims of very wealthy corporatists and financiers in having great freedom among themselves with little actual liberty or privacy among the bulk of a people. Strong and intrusive government is a required part; aims to promote income and power inequality which virtually disenfranchises the common man is also a requisite. Use of propaganda to quell the will and strength of a people is a means, not an aim, of fascist persons. Use of debt burden, especially to ensnare the young, is also an expected fascistic technique and those espousing its use that way, to disempower questioning and popular will are fascists. "Turn 'em toward fears in order to better be shorn passivly" is a way to say it. "Distract and attack."

Theofascism, as a dimension of abject fascism, is a threat of great menace. Theocrats taking their place in the bundle.

Some are more pluribus than others. You have Koch money you buy plenty sticks.

The Liberty dime has two sides, which can be viewed as in conflict with Liberty facing us all, up front, and that bundling around the war ax as the flip-side of Liberty.

Here and here, for more thought of an image of many sticks bound around a war ax. Accept whatever you want to as a truth. You can find almost any point of view on the web.

Prelude to answering a prior posed open question.

This link.  

At seconds 12-25 in particular - please wait that long before tab-closure; tune time, JC to AW.