Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Trump launches early blame game on markets and the economy
Politico | Ben White | 10/30/18

The president looks to blame Democrats and the Fed for declines in the stock market. Analysts cite many other explanations.

In recent days, Trump and his senior advisers have repeatedly argued that recent turbulence in the stock market reflects investor fear that Democrats will retake the House in the midterm elections next week. "If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat," Trump tweeted Tuesday. And he has repeatedly bashed the Federal Reserve in recent interviews for its modest campaign of rate hikes.

The Trump campaign's closing ad of the midterm cycle -- using footage from the 2008 financial crisis -- suggests that handing power to Democrats would bring back sky-high unemployment. "I think election risk is a big part of this correction," Larry Kudlow, Trump's top economic adviser, said in an interview. "The market doesn't want to see an overturning of the business tax cuts or the deregulation or the energy boom. Until this is settled, it's going to be hard." Economists and market analysts say these arguments bear little connection to reality. ... Read more

'Over A Million' Jobs From The Saudi Arms Deal? Not Quite | All In | MSNBC | 10/30/18 | 3:05

Steve Schmidt: President Donald Trump Is 'Stoking And Inciting' Worst Among Us | All In | MSNBC | 10/30/18 | 10:45

Mattis, Pompeo call for ceasefire in Yemen
Axios | Haley Britzky | 10/31/18

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis both separately called for a ceasefire in Yemen's civil war on Tuesday night.

The big picture: Both voiced continued U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen last month, but the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has seriously disrupted the U.S.-Saudi relationship. And Yemen is facing the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crisis as a result of the war.

Trump Wants To Order End To Birthright Citizenship
HP | Willa Frej | 10/30/18

The law offering citizenship to babies of non-citizens is "ridiculous" and "has to end," the president said.

President Donald Trump said he's considering an executive order removing the right to citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to parents who aren't citizens. Trump said in an interview with "Axios on HBO" taped Monday that he recently learned he could execute the change via executive order.

"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump said. "You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order." ... Read more

How Hysteria And Hatred About Migrants Spread From Fox To Trump -- And Pittsburgh
HP | Matt Gertz | 10/29/18

There is no crisis except for the one that Fox News and Trump have sought to create in order to get GOP voters to the polls.

The role of President Donald Trump's ominous warnings about the caravan of migrants headed toward the U.S. border from Central America in inspiring the virulent anti-Semite who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday highlights the destructive consequences of Fox News' grip on the president.

While Robert D. Bowers, the man accused of carrying out the mass shooting, had criticized Trump for being insufficiently anti-Semitic, critics pointed out that president had "stoked the fears of the Bowerses among us," deploying incendiary and false rhetoric about the migrant caravan in hopes of bolstering the Republican Party's standing. "The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day," Adam Serwer wrote for The Atlantic. "But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread and that his followers chose to amplify." ... Read more

Why this far-right candidate won Brazil's election | Vox | 10/25/18 | 7:54

Trump's Latest Claims About Migrant Caravan Echo Language Used by Pittsburgh Shooter
MotherJones | Noah Lanard | 10/29/18

Both the president and the suspect in the synagogue massacre have called the caravan an invasion.

President Donald Trump is making more unfounded claims about a migrant caravan "invasion," two days after a man who posted similar language on social media killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Referring to the caravan of Central American migrants who are slowly walking toward the US-Mexico border, Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday morning, "This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!" ... Read more

The Dark, Uncomfortable History of Political Tribalism and What It Means for November 6
MotherJones | Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn | 10/26/18

Especially after a week like this one, it's easy to think of the United States as a divided nation that will never change. But it didn't always feel that way.

"We take for granted the concept of 'Red America, Blue America' as just part of our politics. The reality is that it's a concept that's basically two decades old...even less," says Steve Kornacki, a national political correspondent for MSNBC and author of the new book The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism. ... Read more

Admit it. Republicans have broken politics | Vox | 10/29/18 | 9:58

Pence Says Trump's Rhetoric Has Nothing To Do With American Violence
HP | Nick Visser | 10/29/18

Vice President Mike Pence defended President Donald Trump on Saturday amid criticism that the divisive rhetoric pouring from the White House had influenced the mass pipe bomb mailings sent to prominent Democrats or the attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh last week.

"Everyone has their own style, and frankly, people on both sides of the aisle use strong language about our political differences," Pence said on NBC News Saturday. "But I just don't think you can connect it to acts or threats of violence."

The U.S. is reeling from a shocking week of threats and attacks after Cesar Sayoc, 56, was arrested for allegedly mailing at least a dozen packages containing likely pipe bombs to prominent Trump critics. Days later, 11 people were gunned down inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh during Saturday services. ... Read more

Alan Greenspan on What Trump Gets Wrong and Sweden Gets Right
Barrons | Reshma Kapadia | 10/16/18

Now, a decade later, Greenspan has co-authored Capitalism in America with Adrian Wooldridge, an editor at the Economist. The new book traces U.S. economic history since colonial times to see what has helped the U.S. stand apart, and shed light on why its leadership is in jeopardy today.

The co-authors argue that key to the country's economic success has been a knack for enabling and tolerating "creative destruction"--a trait facilitated by an entrepreneurial spirit fueled by a country of immigrants and a Constitution that called for limiting federal government reach. But today, the markers of this creative destruction are headed the wrong way: Geographic and social mobility are becoming harder, the rate of new-company creation is the lowest since the 1980s, and consolidation has led to competition falling in three-quarters of major economic sectors. ... Read more

Ecological Armageddon! Insects Vanish All over the World | Climate State | 10/19/18 | 11:15

Full Panel: Is divide growing in America with acts of violence? | Meet The Press | NBC News | 10/28/18 | 9:40

White House weighs executive actions to block migrant caravan at the border
Politico | Ted Hesson, Nancy Cook | 10/25/18

The White House is weighing an executive action and regulatory change to block a caravan of Central American migrants from entering the United States, according to a DHS official, an administration official and three people familiar with the move.

Under the plan, the Trump administration would publish fast-track regulation that would restrict certain migrants' ability to seek asylum. The regulation would be paired with a related proclamation from President Donald Trump. ... Read more

This Is What It's Like to Be a Migrant in the Age of Trump
Politico | Lauren Markham | 11/2018

Rosa's problem hadn't started with the gangs, but with her husband. He drank, and when he was drunk enough he liked to beat up Rosa. One night, earlier in the summer, he came home and beat her up again. For Rosa, it was the last straw. She took her two kids and left. He begged her to come home, but she refused. Then, desperate, he swallowed poison, was taken to the hospital and died.

She was racked with guilt, but there was another problem: His suicide triggered the fury of his brother, a high-up local gang leader. "They blamed me," she said. Rosa -- who asked me to not to use her real surname for this story, for her safety -- went into hiding, living with a friend in another neighborhood. But the gang members started threatening her 28-year-old brother. Gangs in El Salvador have deep reach, holding entire communities in their grip, and they often follow bloodlines for revenge. ... Read more

A President Who Condones Political Violence
TheAtlantic | David Frum | 10/26/18

Bombs are sent through the mail to CNN, George Soros, James Clapper, former President Barack Obama, and other persons targeted by President Donald Trump for vilification and abuse. A theory begins to circulate on the far edges of the right that the bombs are a "false flag" intended to discredit the president and his party. The theory rapidly moves from the edge to the center.

There the theory lingers, even as police apprehend a suspect and tow away a van festooned with pro-Trump stickers.

On the afternoon of October 24, the false-flag theory was all but endorsed by Rush Limbaugh:

... Read more

GOP Lies About Pre-Existing Conditions May Have Reached Peak Absurdity
HP | Jonathan Cohn | 10/25/18

President Donald Trump on Wednesday sent out another tweet on health care. "Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions," he wrote. "Democrats will not!"

By now, the fundamental dishonesty of that statement shouldn't require explanation.

Anybody even dimly aware of recent history ? specifically, the part where Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act, only to have Republicans spend eight years trying to repeal it ? should recognize the claim as a lie. ... Read more

Trump slams media as package probe grows
Politico | Caitlin Oprysko | 10/25/18

Authorities are investigating more suspicious packages sent to Joe Biden and Robert De Niro.

Authorities are investigating additional suspicious packages, including two addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden and one sent to actor-activist Robert De Niro, as President Donald Trump on Thursday morning accused the media of stoking political anger with "purposely false and inaccurate reporting."

The FBI has not yet released any information about who is behind the rash of pipe bomb-like devices sent to CNN and prominent Democratic figures, but have warned that more may still be discovered. Trump, meanwhile, has called for national unity, even while placing blame on his political opponents and the media.

"A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News," Trump tweeted on Thursday. "It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!" ... Read more

Trump decries 'political violence' after years of stoking it
Politico | Andrew Restuccia | 10/24/18

The president cast himself as a uniter after bombs were sent to several top Democrats, infuriating critics and touching off an argument about America's political discourse.

In 2016, he encouraged the roughing-up of protesters at his campaign rallies. Last year, Trump tweeted a video of himself tackling a man with a CNN logo superimposed across his face, adding the hashtag #FraudNewsCNN. And just last week, he made light of a Republican congressman who was convicted of assault for body-slamming a reporter.

Amid disturbing reports that explosive devices were sent to some of the president's top political enemies by one or more unknown persons, Trump's critics say he has a reckless penchant for, at a minimum, celebrating violence against his enemies -- and, at worst, inciting it.

But the president embraced a very different message on Wednesday, decrying "political violence" and presenting himself as a bipartisan healer during remarks at the White House, touching off an unexpected national debate about political discourse that itself quickly grew divisive, with left and right each accusing the other of bad faith. ... Read more

Conservatives: Bomb Threats A 'Hoax' | TYT | 10/24/18 | 11:26

Republicans Run DISGUSTING Ad | TYT | 10/24/18 | 11:31

Trump warns that migrants created 'total mess' in Europe
Politico | Caitlin Oprysko | 10/24/18

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said mass migration in Europe has created a "total mess" on the continent, warning that immigration advocates in the U.S. will regret their position -- just as, he claimed without evidence, Europeans do. ...

... Europe has seen a surge in migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East, over the past five years that has put a strain on countries like Greece and Italy that sit along the southern border of the European Union. ... Read more

Donald Trump's humiliation of Ted Cruz | CNN | Chris Cillizza | 10/23/18 | 6:29

Photos of the Central American Immigrant Caravan
TheAtlantic | Alan Taylor | 10/22/18

On October 13, a group of hundreds of people gathered together to flee their impoverished home country of Honduras in a caravan headed toward the United States, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. That caravan quickly swelled to approximately 7,000 Central American immigrants as it passed north through Guatemala. As of today, most of these men, women, and children have just entered Mexico, yet they remain more than a thousand miles south of the U.S. border. President Donald Trump has called the approaching group a "national emergency," vowed to cut tens of millions of dollars in aid to three Central American countries, and will possibly cancel a recent trade deal with Mexico if the caravan isn't stopped before it reaches the U.S. Below, photographs of the caravan from its first 10 days and some of the difficult paths taken by those involved. ... Read more

Trump's Closing Argument
TheAtlantic | David A. Graham | 10/22/18

There was a moment, some 45 minutes into President Trump's rally in Houston on Monday night, when it seemed like he wasn't really going anywhere. The president was running through some of his standard talking points, but as with many of his more recent speeches, there wasn't a spark.

And then suddenly there was. Trump launched into the darkest, angriest section of his speech, a furious tirade at Democrats, laced with falsehoods. He ran through several areas--health care, entitlements, supposed voter fraud--but the climax was immigration.

"The crisis on our border right now as we speak is the sole result of Democrat laws and activist Democrat judges that prevent us from returning illegal aliens from Central America and all over the world--it's called catch and release," Trump said. "They're killing and hurting innocent Americans. Democrat immigration policies allow poisonous drugs and MS-13 to pour into our country, and Democrat sanctuary cities release dangerous criminals from jail and into your neighborhoods." ... Read more

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley

Fascist politics are running rampant in America today--and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don't have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism's roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics--the language and beliefs that separate people into an "us" and a "them." He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations. He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation's past; propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves; anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts; law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals; and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare. These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership.

By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics--charged by rhetoric and myth--can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals.

Fed up: Jerome Powell's rough road
Axios | Jonathan Swan | 10/22/18

The life of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is going from bad to worse. Trump is furious that Powell is raising interest rates quickly and even called the Fed the "biggest threat" to a booming economy.

What's happening: According to a source familiar with Trump's thinking, the president feels the only way to get his message to Powell is by bashing him in the media. And I've heard nothing to suggest Trump will back off these attacks. ... Read more

The looming danger of non-banks
Axios | Felix Salmon | 10/22/18

The most likely cause of a future financial crisis isn't the banks, it's the non-banks. They're enormous, they're much less regulated than banks are, and they tend to have much greater leverage.

Flashback: Never forget that when the U.S. financial system fell apart in September 2008, the bank (Lehman Brothers) was deemed small enough to fail. It was the insurance company (AIG) that was too big to fail and needed a $182 billion government bailout. ... Read more

Massive Twitter data release sheds light on Russia's Trump strategy
Politico | Nancy Scola | date

Twitter on Wednesday released a trove of 10 million tweets it says represents the full scope of foreign influence operations on the platform dating back nearly a decade -- including Russia's consistent efforts to disparage Hillary Clinton and an initially erratic approach to Donald Trump that eventually settled on a concerted pro-Trump message during the 2016 campaign.

The huge data cache consists of tweets from some 3,400 accounts tied to the Kremlin troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency and 770 others linked to Iran. It also includes some 2 million GIFs, videos and other pieces of visual content. Twitter said it's making the information available to "enable independent academic research and investigation," according to a company blog post. ... Read more
Data archive

You Think The GOP Is Extreme Now? It'll Be Worse If They Win In November.
HP | Jesse Lee | 10/18/18

The Republicans' last-ditch campaign message before the midterms has gone exactly where you might have expected: trying to instill sheer terror of what Democratic control of one branch of government might bring. The president's auxiliary super PAC raises the ominous specter in a closing ad: "violence," "socialism" and "undefended open borders."

Far more real are the catastrophic prospects of another two years of total GOP control. If Republicans squeak by in both chambers and have another two-year runway to do whatever they want, to grab whatever they can and to rig the 2020 election, we don't have to imagine what will happen. They have already told us.

Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will be gutted. ... Read more

Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras by Adrienne Pine (2008)

"Honduras is violent." Adrienne Pine situates this oft-repeated claim at the center of her vivid and nuanced chronicle of Honduran subjectivity. Through an examination of three major subject areas?violence, alcohol, and the export-processing (maquiladora) industry?Pine explores the daily relationships and routines of urban Hondurans. She views their lives in the context of the vast economic footprint on and ideological domination of the region by the United States, powerfully elucidating the extent of Honduras's dependence. She provides a historically situated ethnographic analysis of this fraught relationship and the effect it has had on Hondurans' understanding of who they are. The result is a rich and visceral portrait of a culture buffeted by the forces of globalization and inequality.

Joe And Mika: We Need Nothing From Saudi Arabia | Stephen Colbert | 10/19/18 | 6:15

Mike Pompeo's Worldview? Do As Trump Does.
TheAtlantic | Uri Friedman | 10/19/18

Even when they are thousands of miles apart, President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, act in symbiosis.

As Trump speculated from Washington this week that "rogue killers" rather than Saudi leaders might have targeted the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Pompeo smiled with the crown prince in Riyadh and sidestepped mounting evidence that Khashoggi was murdered by the Saudi state, citing ongoing investigations. From the Oval Office and Brussels airport, each man emphasized how vital Saudi Arabia is to the U.S. economy and to American priorities like countering Iran and terrorist groups. ... Read more

Is Fraud Part of the Trump Organization's Business Model?
NewYorker | Adam Davidson | 10/17/18

What, exactly, is Donald Trump's business? The Trump Organization is unusual in that it doesn't appear to do the same thing for very long. It was a builder of apartments for the lower middle class, then a builder of luxury buildings and hotels, then a casino company, and, most recently, a brand-licensing firm, selling its name to anybody who wanted "trump" emblazoned on a building, bottled water, or whatever else. These are wildly different businesses. The way a company raises money, plans projects, and gains profit are entirely different in each of these fields. Middle-class housing, for example, is typically a slow, steady business in which profits come from careful cost control; luxury housing, by contrast, is riskier, with bigger and faster rewards but a higher chance of failure. One hires different sorts of accountants and salespeople and construction managers. Casinos are something else entirely, and licensing is entirely different from any of those other businesses. ...

... Rather famously, Trump overinvested in luxury housing, spent too much on his casinos, and completely blew his brief foray into a regional airline. Far worse, Trump did the very opposite of insuring a long record of fiscal prudence that would allow him to borrow money cheaply. Despite the company's mixed record, it has survived and grown. It's doing something well, so what is it? ... Read more

Where Saudi Arabia fits in the global arms trade
Axios | Zachary Basu | 10/18/18

President Trump has said it would be "foolish" to cancel billions of dollars in weapons deals with Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's alleged involvement in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- a remarkably blunt admission of the role the international arms trade plays in U.S. foreign policy.

The big picture: The U.S. is the world's top arms exporter, competing directly with Russia and increasingly China in a global market that's worth upwards of $89 billion annually. Saudi Arabia is currently the No. 1 buyer of U.S. weapons, purchasing nearly three times as much as any other country over the past two years. Arms deals tie ethics to economics, and they can exacerbate geopolitical tensions in high-risk areas like Yemen and North Korea. ... Read more
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Trump Threatens To Order Military To 'Close Our Southern Border' Over Immigration
HP | Marina Fang | 10/18/18

President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that "many criminals" and "DRUGS" are on their way to the United States from Central American countries.

... The president appeared to have been referring to a caravan of migrants now traveling through Honduras and Guatemala en route to the border. Trump's tweets came after his favorite TV program, "Fox & Friends," devoted several segments to the caravan. ... Read more
Migrant caravan activists: Trump to blame for Honduras situation | HP& Aljazeera | 10/17/18 | 1:33

The great white fight
Axios| Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei | 10/17/18

America is an increasingly diverse nation but a loud, hyper-active group of well-to-do whites on the left and right are tearing it apart from the edges, according to an astonishing new study of our electorate.

The big picture: 14% of America, roughly half left and half right, consistently shouts, posts and votes, while 67% of us are exhausted. ... Read more

Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?
NewYorker | Dexter Filkins | 10/15/18

A team of computer scientists sifted through records of unusual Web traffic in search of answers.

... The group was small -- a handful of scientists, scattered across the country -- and politically diverse. (Max described himself as "a John McCain Republican.") Its members sometimes worked with law enforcement or for private clients, but mostly they acted as self-appointed guardians of the Internet, trying to thwart hackers and to keep the system clean of malware -- software that hackers use to control a computer remotely, or to extract data. "People think the Internet runs on its own," Max told me. "It doesn't. We do this to keep the Internet safe." The hack of the D.N.C. seemed like a pernicious attack on the integrity of the Web, as well as on the American political system. The scientists decided to investigate whether any Republicans had been hacked, too. "We were trying to protect them," Max said. ...

... As Max and his colleagues searched D.N.S. logs for domains associated with Republican candidates, they were perplexed by what they encountered. "We went looking for fingerprints similar to what was on the D.N.C. computers, but we didn't find what we were looking for," Max told me. "We found something totally different--something unique." In the small town of Lititz, Pennsylvania, a domain linked to the Trump Organization (mail1.trump-email.com) seemed to be behaving in a peculiar way. The server that housed the domain belonged to a company called Listrak, which mostly helped deliver mass-marketing e-mails: blasts of messages advertising spa treatments, Las Vegas weekends, and other enticements. Some Trump Organization domains sent mass e-mail blasts, but the one that Max and his colleagues spotted appeared not to be sending anything. At the same time, though, a very small group of companies seemed to be trying to communicate with it. ... Read more

Why Trump can't quit the Saudis
Axios | Ben Geman | 10/17/18

A big reason for President Trump's accommodating stance toward Saudi rulers in the apparent killing of Jamal Khashoggi is rooted in a simple dynamic: Trump needs them.

The big picture: Rice University energy scholar Jim Krane has a helpful Forbes commentary on the "crude realpolitik" behind Trump's openness to the kingdom's denials of responsibility. It stems from the president's need for more Saudi barrels on the market to offset the effects of his Iran sanctions. ... Read more

Saudi Arabia | John Oliver | 10/14/18 | 18:10

Lesley Stahl speaks with President Trump about a wide range of topics in his first 60 Minutes interview since taking office | 60 Minutes | 10/14/18 | S51 E3 | 43:26

Trump Told Lesley Stahl He Calls the Truth "Fake News" to Discredit Journalists. So Why Did She Let Him Do It Again on "60 Minutes"?
TheIntercept | Mehdi Hasan | 10/15/18

BACK IN MAY, Lesley Stahl, a 27-year veteran of CBS's "60 Minutes," revealed that President Donald Trump once told her that he deliberately uses the phrase "fake news" to deflect from, and to "discredit," negative media coverage of his presidency.

... The 13-time Emmy award-winning interviewer listened to Trump dismiss reports of chaos inside his administration as "fake news," yet she did not challenge him on his cynical use of this pernicious phrase. She could have said, "Mr. President, didn't you admit to me that you attack the media not because our stories are 'fake,' but because you don't want people to believe anything we say about you?" ... Read more

Losing Mattis would be costly for Trump
Axios | Mike Allen | 10/15/18

President Trump has clearly soured on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and top Republicans and Democrats both tell me his departure would be particularly costly for the White House -- and a disturbing sign for outsiders.

The big picture: A former aide who can read Trump like a book told me: "His tone on Mattis is really striking. ... Will be worth watching whether he's just brushing him back and moving on, or if he launches a sustained effort to get him to quit." And if Mattis departs on anything other than the most cordial terms, confirming a successor will be fraught. ... Read more

Trump may not be crazy, but the rest of us are getting there fast
Politico | John F. Harris | 10/12/18

Psychologists' couches are filling up as Americans seek relief from Trump Anxiety Disorder.

Who else to blame but Donald Trump? A president who excites hot feelings in many quarters has cooled them considerably in the bedroom of a Philadelphia couple, who sought counseling in part because the agitated state of American politics was causing strain in their marriage.

The couple's story was relayed to POLITICO by their therapist on condition of anonymity. But their travails, according to national surveys and interviews with mental health professionals, are not as anomalous as one might suppose. Even when symptoms are not sexual in nature, there is abundant evidence that Trump and his daily uproars are galloping into the inner life of millions of Americans. ... Read more

Kanye West's Meeting With President Donald Trump At The White House (Full Video) | NBC News | 10/11/18 | 24:13

Anderson Cooper: Trump chose Kanye over victims | CNN | 10/11/18 | 7:28

Saudi crown prince's charm offensive coming undone
Axios | Dave Lawler | 10/12/18

Report after report implicates Saudi agents in the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and no credible alternative explanation has emerged. The question is becoming whether his disappearance fundamentally changes the U.S.-Saudi relationship and if not, why not.

Why it matters: The Trump administration, led by Jared Kushner, has placed a massive bet on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) as the partner the U.S. needs in the Middle East and the man to modernize Saudi Arabia. He may well be. He is also proving himself to be a ruthless autocrat responsible for the jailing of his critics, massive civilian casualties in Yemen and -- if reports are accurate -- the assassination of a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist outside of Saudi Arabia's borders. ... Read more

Why we're heading for a 'climate catastrophe' | BBC Newsnight | 10/08/18 | 15:20

Is This the Beginning of the End of the U.S.-SAUDI Alliance?
TheIntercept | Zaid Jilani, Ryan Grim | 10/10/18

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF Jamal Khashoggi last Tuesday is threatening to upend the terms of the decades-long alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. In the nine days since Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian resident of Virginia and a Washington Post columnist, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, politicians, media figures and foreign policy elites -- even those who have fawned over the authoritarian Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman -- have grown increasingly critical of the U.S.-Saudi alliance.

The U.S. has long given the Saudis a blank check, politically and militarily, and there have been voices advocating for a rethinking of that decades-old relationship for nearly as long as it has lasted. But the widespread belief that the Saudis assassinated Khashoggi inside their consulate has brought those voices squarely into the center. Suddenly, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States is being called into fundamental question. ... Read more

Trump says Federal Reserve has "gone crazy"
Axios | Michael Sykes | 10/10/18

President Trump told reporters on Wednesday evening that the 832-point dip in the stock market is a self-correction and said the Federal Reserve has "gone crazy" after it raised interesest rates. "I think the fed is making a mistake. It's too tight. I think the Fed has gone crazy. You can say that's a lot of safety, actually, and it is a lot of safety and it gives you a lot of margin, but I think the fed has gone crazy."

Why it matters: Trump has criticized the Fed for raising interest rates before, but also touted the rise as a signal of a strong economy. The move to raise interest rates was not unexpected and rates are still low amid Wednesday's market crash. ... Read more

Report: Trump raised Adelson casino bid with Japan's prime minister
Axios | Dave Lawler | 10/10/18

President Trump raised a bid from GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson to build a casino in Japan during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to a report from ProPublica's Justin Elliott.

Why it matters: Abe and his aides were "incredulous" that Trump "would be so brazen," according to a source briefed on the conversation. The project is a top priority for Adelson, who donated $25 million to Trump's campaign and inauguration, because Japan only recently legalized casinos and the market is considered a "holy grail" in the industry, Elliot notes. Adelson dined with Trump the night prior to the meeting. ... Read more

Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Rule of Pampered Princelings
TheIntercept | Naomi Klein | 10/10/18

"BORING." That was Donald Trump's instant verdict on the New York Times's blockbuster investigation into the rampant tax fraud and nepotism that undergirds his fortune. Sarah Huckabee Sanders heartily concurred, informing the White House press corps that she refused to "go through every line of a very boring, 14,000-word story." ...

... Trump has been sucking on a spigot of his father's cash nonstop since he was in diapers, becoming a millionaire by middle school. According to the Times, when all was said and done, "Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father's real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day." Moreover, "much of it was never repaid." As for the rest of the mythology, not only was he spending his father's money, he blew much of it on disastrous deal after disastrous deal. Only to be bailed out by his father's millions time and time again. ... Read more

Timothy Snyder: Trump Fills Public's Fear With Fiction By Attacking Truth | The 11th Hour | MSNBC | 10/10/18 | 5:34

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.

2.3 TRillion Dollars Missing from DOD Day before 911 | 09/10/01 | 3:57

**Daily Ticker | Find the $8.5 Trillion the Pentagon Can't Account For | 2014 | 5:32

Dr. Mark Skidmore, of Michigan State University, as he talks about $21 Trillion Missing from US Federal Budget | 12/02/17 | 33:32

The 2018 NDAA approves $700 billion for the Pentagon. This was done despite the fact that a recent report on the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, found that between the two departments, they have lost over $21 trillion in the last 17 years.

MSU scholars find $21 trillion in unauthorized government spending... | MSUToday | staff | 12/11/17 | article

Hurricane Michael Intensifies Into Extremely Dangerous Category 4 Storm
HP | AP/Jay Reeves | 10/10/18

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Gaining frightening fury overnight, Hurricane Michael closed in Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with potentially catastrophic winds of 145 mph, the most powerful storm on record ever to menace the stretch of fishing villages, military bases and spring-break beaches.

With more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast warned to clear out, the hurricane's leading edge began lashing the shoreline with tropical storm-force winds, rain and rising seas before daybreak, hours before Michael's center was expected to blow ashore.

The unexpected brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, reaching Category 4 early Wednesday as it drew energy from the Gulf's 84-degree waters. That was up from a Category 2 on Tuesday afternoon. ... Read more

New UN Climate Report Dims Hope For Averting Catastrophic Global Warming
HP | Alexander C. Kaufman and Chris D'Angelo | 10/10/18

The world is rapidly running out of time to scale back greenhouse gas emissions, dimming hopes of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, beyond which catastrophic planetary changes are forecast.

"This is one of the most important reports ever produced by the IPCC, and certainly one of the most needed," Hoesung Lee, the chair of the body, said at a press conference in South Korea on Monday. "Climate change is already affecting people, livelihood and ecosystems all around the world."

The report -- authored by 91 researchers and editors from 40 countries citing more than 6,000 scientific references and released Sunday night following a summit in Incheon, South Korea -- details how difficult it will be to keep the planet from warming beyond the 1.5-degree target, considered the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris climate accord. ... Read more

Donald Trump's Deep Unpopularity A Burden To Campaigning Republicans | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC | 10/08/18 | 12:24

GOVERNMENT REPORT: "An Entire Generation" of American Weapons is Wide Open to Hackers
The Intercept | Sam Biddle | 10/09/18

A NEW REPORT from the U.S. Government Accountability Office brings both good and bad news. For governments around the world that might like to sabotage America's military technology, the good news is that this would be all too easy to do: Testers at the Department of Defense "routinely found mission-critical cyber vulnerabilities in nearly all weapon systems that were under development" over a five-year period, the report said. For Americans, the bad news is that up until very recently, no one seemed to care enough to fix these security holes.

In 1991, the report noted, the U.S. National Research Council warned that "system disruptions will increase" as the use of computers and networks grows and as adversaries attack them. The Pentagon more or less ignored this and at least five subsequent warnings on the subject, according to the GAO, and hasn't made a serious effort to safeguard the vast patchwork of software that controls planes, ships, missiles, and other advanced ordnance against hackers. ... Read more

Hurricane Michael rapidly intensifies, heads toward Florida
Axios | Andrew Freedman | 10/09/18

Hurricane Michael rapidly intensified on Sunday and Monday between Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba, and is headed for Florida's Big Bend region -- likely coming ashore between Destin and Apalachicola on Wednesday -- as a major Category 3 or 4 storm. Hurricane and storm surge warnings are now in effect for parts of Florida, with watches extending west into Alabama.

Why it matters: This storm presents a particularly dangerous situation for the Sunshine State, since computer models and official forecasts have trended toward a stronger hurricane. The storm's track means residents will have only a few days at most to prepare, and some may be caught unaware after a long holiday weekend. ... Read more

Fossil Fuels Are a Threat to Civilization, New U.N. Report Concludes
TheIntercept | Kate Aronoff | 10/09/18

... On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a daunting report, suggesting that we are currently on track for around 3 degrees Celsius of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The IPCC authors promise that we will see coastal cities swallowed by the sea, global food shortages, and $54 trillion in climate-associated costs as soon as 2040.

That fast-approaching catastrophe is the motivation for the demands of Global South residents and their allies, for whom rising tides and superstorms are already a reality. They've long chanted "1.5 to survive" through the fluorescent-lit halls of U.N. climate talks, and this new report -- which outlines pathways to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius -- is a testament to that work. The figure is in line with the "well below 2 degrees" target outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement and, according to the co-chair of one of the IPCC working groups that crafted the report, Jim Skea, hitting that target "is possible within the laws of physics and chemistry." ... Read more

Trump's New NAFTA Shows What He Really Cares About
HP | Zach Carter | 10/08/18

The Trump administration's overhaul of the North American Free Trade Agreement is both the best trade pact signed by an American president in 30 years and a corrupt mess that offers working people almost nothing.

Almost nothing, according to leading mathematicians, is still more than nothing at all. But as with most of Donald Trump's trade proclamations, the president's threats and boasts on NAFTA have obscured a policy agenda that generally reproduces the outrages overseen by the last four presidents. It's an agreement with Mexico and Canada that has generous protections for Republican-aligned industries, including Big Pharma and fossil fuel polluters; no meaningful environmental protections; weak consumer safeguards; and no mechanism to enforce the moderately improved labor standards contemplated by the deal.

The global trading order built over the past generation has been a comprehensive effort to emancipate global corporations from the laws and regulations devised by the world's democracies to protect citizens from corporate abuse. The new NAFTA offers clues on how to change that balance of power but does nothing to alter it, as evidenced by the enthusiasm shown for Trump's new deal by top corporate lobbyists. ... Read more

Mitch McConnell Mad For Being Fact-Checked Live | TYT | 10/08/18 | 6:06

UN details massive changes needed to slow global warming
Axios | Ben Geman | 10/08/18

Keeping global warming in check will require deployment of carbon-trapping technologies and aggressively moving away from fossil fuels, a major new United Nations report concludes -- far more quickly than current forecasts envision.

Why it matters: The scientific analysis of what's needed to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- the ambitious goal of the Paris climate agreement -- reveals huge hurdles to avoiding widespread damages from climate change.

The big picture: The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that to stay within 1.5ºC, net human-caused CO2 emissions must decline by 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels, and reach "net zero" by roughly mid-century. ... Read more

Brazilian Elections | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver | 10/07/18 | 16:13

The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority by D. D. Guttenplan

The Next Republic profiles nine successful activists who are changing the course of American history right now:

1. new labor activist and author Jane McAlevey
2. racial justice campaigner (and mayor of Jackson, Mississippi) Chokwe Antar Lumumba
3. environmental activist (and newly elected chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party) Jane Kleeb
4. Chicago's first openly gay Latino public official Carlos Ramirez-Rosa
5. #ALLOFUS co-founder Waleed Shahid
6. young architects of Bernie Sanders amazing rise, digerati Corbin Trent and Zack Exley, founders of Brand New Congress
7. and author and anti-corruption crusader Zephyr Teachout.

Additionally, the introduction to The Next Republic ties in the election and first year of the Trump presidency to the current rise of populism of the left, and there are three historical chapters that describe key moments in American history that shed light on current events: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Lincoln Republic, and the Roosevelt Republic. Guttenplan understands the magnitude of the problem of democracy, and at the same time the great possibilities for its resurgence. Like a cross between George Packer's The Unwinding and John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, The Next Republic is both unyielding and deeply hopeful, the first book to come out of the Trump ascendency that stakes a claim for seeing beyond it.

Senator Bernie Sanders FURIOUS Speech Ahead of Senate Final Vote on Kavanaugh Confirmation | TNF | 10/05/18 | 18:50

The GOP's gender gap problem
Axios | David Nather | 10/08/18

This was a striking graphic in a recent slide deck by Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. It shows how rapidly women have drifted away from the Republican Party since the 2016 election -- opening up a lopsided preference for Democrats to control Congress in just the last few months.

Why it matters: The Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight isn't likely to help. And with men preferring Republicans by a narrower margin -- 47% to 44% in the September NBC/WSJ poll -- the graphic is a vivid illustration of the troubles ahead if the GOP alienates women voters. ... Read more

Votes on Supreme Court nominees are getting tighter
Axios | Lazaro Gamio | 10/07/18

Most Supreme Court justices are confirmed by lopsided majorities, but since the 1990s, partisan votes have become more common. The bottom line: Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed Saturday with the lowest number of yes votes for a justice in the history of the Supreme Court. ... Read more

*SHAM: The Dozens of Witnesses The FBI Whiffed On
HP | Matt Ferner | 10/04/18

Here Are The People The FBI Didn't Ask About Brett Kavanaugh

The FBI interviewed just nine people about the Supreme Court nominee. This isn't what a thorough investigation looks like.

The FBI on Wednesday wrapped up its supplemental background investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. President Donald Trump and key Republican senators quickly expressed satisfaction with the report, calling it a "thorough investigation" and a "comprehensive review." But dozens of interviews with Kavanaugh's former classmates at Yale University revealed that FBI investigators interviewed just a small fraction of the witnesses who could shed light on the allegations and declined to speak with several people who contacted the bureau with relevant information.

The FBI reached out to 10 people in the course of its dayslong investigation and interviewed nine of them, according to The New York Times. The bureau spoke with Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's who has accused the judge of thrusting his penis in her face at a college party; Mark Judge, a Georgetown Prep classmate of Kavanaugh's who Christine Blasey Ford said was present during Kavanaugh's alleged attempt to rape her at a high school party; Leland Keyser, a high school friend of Ford's who she said attended that party; Patrick "P.J." Smyth, a prep school classmate of Kavanaugh's who Ford said was also at the party; Chris Garrett, a prep school classmate of Kavanaugh's; and Tim Gaudette, another prep school classmate of Kavanaugh's. ... Read more

Kavanaugh advances to final vote
Politico | Burgess Everett | 10/05/18

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh advanced to a final confirmation vote, narrowly clearing a key procedural hurdle on Friday morning, 51-49.

The vote was mostly on party lines, though Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted "no" and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voted "yes." Kavanaugh's confirmation is not assured: Swing vote senators could conceivably vote differently on Saturday during an expected confirmation vote.

Murkowski, Manchin and GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Jeff Flake of Arizona were undecided going into the vote, having raised questions about sexual assault investigations facing Kavanaugh and demanding an FBI investigation into those charges. Collins said she will announce her final decision on Kavanaugh on Friday afternoon. ... Read more

The secret of why Trump won't release his taxes | CNN | 10/04/18 | 7:25

What Most Disqualifies Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court?
NewYorker | Adam Gopnik | 10/04/18

book that every young man and woman starting out in life these days ought to have handy is Dariel Fitzkee's "Magic by Misdirection," a classic in the magical arts written decades ago by a once famous American performer. It basically tries to lay out all the varieties of misdirection--the ways that you can be asked to pay attention to one thing while the performer is doing another. A staggering catalogue not of gaffes or gimmicks but of behaviors, it's a study in all the ways of drawing your attention away from this thing I'm doing here to that thing I'm doing there. The repeated moral is that everything I'm doing may be something other than it seems, and it doesn't matter how brazenly I do it; you'll still buy it. Intricate to the point of rococo, Fitzkee's book makes a distinction between, for instance, simulation and dissimulation: "Simulation is a positive act. It shows a false picture. Dissimulation is a negative act. It hides a true picture. One reveals and the other conceals." A good magician can be simulating with one hand and dissimulating with the other, and you don't know which is which. ...

... All of which is to put us in mind of the truth that the Brett Kavanaugh drama--with all the debates over the layout of suburban Maryland houses and the parsing of the repeated use of the letter "F"--is a distraction. Kavanaugh is not unqualified for the Supreme Court just because of something that he may have done when he was seventeen, or because of how he may have lied to the Senate about this or that specificity of his youthful behavior or about how he may have accepted illicitly obtained Democratic e-mails when he worked in the George W. Bush White House, or about his possible involvement in the effort to make torture seem acceptable. (Kavanaugh maintains innocence on all fronts.) He became disqualified for the Supreme Court the moment that he accepted the offer from Donald Trump. ... Read more

I Lived With Brett Kavanaugh At Yale. The FBI Never Returned My Call.
HP | William Scheuerman | 10/04/18

Last Saturday, I called the FBI to offer information potentially useful to its investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's alleged sexual misconduct. Like many others, I hoped that the FBI inquiry would shed additional light on the serious but uncorroborated accusations against Kavanaugh. The FBI never returned my call.

I went to college at Yale with Kavanaugh, lived in the same residential halls, and graduated with him in 1987. We did not move in the same circles: I went to a public high school located in a factory town in upstate New York, while he came from the nation's capital and attended one of its premier prep schools. I have only vague memories of him and his activities. ...

... Though I did not attend the party, I was able to dig up an old yearbook and draw up a list of people I thought the FBI probably should interview. That list consists of residents of entryway "B" and others who might recall the event. Some of those names have surfaced in news reports, but others have not. ... Read more

*Kavanaugh's college roommate: He was lying | Anderson Cooper | CNN | 10/03/18 | 10:22

Why Brett Kavanaugh's High School Friends Try To Protect His Reputation -- and Theirs
TheIntercept | Peter Maass, Alice Speri | 10/04/18

THERE IS AN under-appreciated reason that explains why, apart from Christine Blasey Ford's remarkable testimony about her summer of 1982 and what a drunken 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh did to her, almost nothing has been heard about his after-hours conduct from the people who knew Kavanaugh best at Georgetown Preparatory School. The reason for this silence emerges in a little-noticed article written by one of his closest friends from those long-ago days -- Mark Judge.

Judge's article from 2011 starts by recounting a party where he saw many of his old friends from high school. At the time, their graduation was two decades behind them. A woman with whom he left the party observed how close they still were. "She was amazed at the humor, camaraderie and brotherhood of the Prep family," Judge wrote of his proverbial kin. His companion saw that he loved the lifelong friends that Prep had bequeathed him. Their bonds were so strong that when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, the first 10 phone calls and emails he received were from Prep friends and teachers, he said. "The place is truly a community and a family," Judge continued. "The guys become like brothers." ... Read more

The F.B.I. Probe Ignored Testimonies from Former Classmates of Kavanaugh
NewYorker | Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow | 10/03/18

Frustrated potential witnesses who have been unable to speak with the F.B.I agents conducting the investigation into sexual-assault allegations against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, have been resorting to sending statements, unsolicited, to the Bureau and to senators, in hopes that they would be seen before the inquiry concluded. On Monday, President Trump said that the Bureau should be able to interview "anybody they want within reason," but the extent of the constraints placed on the investigating agents by the White House remained unclear. Late Wednesday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the F.B.I. probe was over and cleared the way for an important procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination to take place on Friday. NBC News reported that dozens of people who said that they had information about Kavanaugh had contacted F.B.I. field offices, but agents had not been permitted to talk to many of them. Several people interested in speaking to the F.B.I. expressed exasperation in interviews with The New Yorker at what they perceived to be a lack of interest in their accounts.

Deborah Ramirez, one of two women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual abuse, said in an interview that she had been hopeful that her story would be investigated when two agents drove from Denver to Boulder, Colorado, last weekend to interview her at her lawyer’s office. But Ramirez said that she was troubled by what she perceived as a lack of willingness on the part of the Bureau to take steps to substantiate her claims. "I am very alarmed, first, that I was denied an F.B.I. investigation for five days, and then, when one was granted, that it was given on a short timeline and that the people who were key to corroborating my story have not been contacted," Ramirez said. "I feel like I’m being silenced." ... Read more

The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism by Steve Kornacki

From MSNBC correspondent Steve Kornacki, a lively and sweeping history of the birth of political tribalism in the 1990s -- one that brings critical new understanding to our current political landscape from Clinton to Trump

In The Red and the Blue, cable news star and acclaimed journalist Steve Kornacki follows the twin paths of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, two larger-than-life politicians who exploited the weakened structure of their respective parties to attain the highest offices. For Clinton, that meant contorting himself around the various factions of the Democratic party to win the presidency. Gingrich employed a scorched-earth strategy to upend the permanent Republican minority in the House, making him Speaker.

The Clinton/Gingrich battles were bare-knuckled brawls that brought about massive policy shifts and high-stakes showdowns -- their collisions had far-reaching political consequences. But the '90s were not just about them. Kornacki writes about Mario Cuomo's stubborn presence around Clinton's 1992 campaign; Hillary Clinton's star turn during the 1998 midterms, seeding the idea for her own candidacy; Ross Perot's wild run in 1992 that inspired him to launch the Reform Party, giving Donald Trump his first taste of electoral politics in 1999; and many others.

2 Of Brett Kavanaugh's Former Classmates Withdraw Support For Him
HP | Jennifer Bendery | 10/02/18

WASHINGTON ? Two former law school classmates of Brett Kavanaugh's who previously vouched for him wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to say they are withdrawing their support for him because of "the nature" of his recent testimony.

"Under the current circumstances, we fear that partisanship has injected itself into Judge Kavanaugh's candidacy," Michael J. Proctor and Mark Osler say in a letter to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee's chairman and ranking member, respectively. "That, and the lack of judicial temperament displayed on September 27 hearing, cause us to withdraw our support."

Proctor and Osler were among 23 classmates of Kavanaugh's at Yale Law School who signed a letter in August pledging their support for his confirmation. At the time, they cited his "exemplary judicial temperament" as a reason for their support. But after watching Kavanaugh's explosive behavior in his confirmation hearing as he addressed the sexual assault allegation against him by Christine Blasey Ford, the two former classmates say they can't stand by him in his Supreme Court bid. ... Read more

Donald Trump, who called Christine Blasey Ford's testimony "very credible" last week, mocked her account of the night she claims Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. | Twitter | 10/02/18 | 1:00

Trump Helped Parents Shield Millions From Taxes: New York Times
Reuters & HP | staff | 10/02/18

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in tax schemes that included cases of fraud in which he and his siblings helped their parents dodge millions in taxes, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The Times investigation, which the White House said was "misleading," showed Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father's real estate business. ... Read more

BOMBSHELL: Trump Being Investigated For Tax Evasion And Fraud | TYT | 10/02/18 | 12:06

'Outright Fraud:' Bombshell NYT Investigation Obliterates Trump's Self-Made Myth | Deadline | MSNBC | 10/02/18 | 14:27

NYT Reveals President Donald Trump's Elaborate Tax Con | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC | 10/02/18 | 15:50

Trump's trade agreement isn't a done deal yet
Axios | Caitlin Owens | 10/03/18

While reaching an agreement with Mexico and Canada on an updated trade deal is a major win for the administration, that's just the beginning of the battle, which now heads to Congress and will likely stretch into next year.

The big picture: Forget about Congress approving this before the midterms. Passing major legislation is tricky even in less partisan times. But because of all the steps required, the push to implement the new trade deal will likely continue into the new Congress -- when the fate of the deal could easily be up to a Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ... Read more

I Read Every Memoir by a Presidential Mistress. Including Stormy's.
Politico | Bill Scher | 10/01/18

Before she has sold one copy, Stormy Daniels has already broken a publishing record: the fastest publication of a book authored by a presidential mistress. Full Disclosure is scheduled to hit the shelves on Tuesday, the 621st day of the current administration, eclipsing Gennifer Flowers' Passion and Betrayal by 211 days.

But how will Daniels' book stand up when compared with the other works in the "kiss-and-tell" presidential canon? Will it prove to be as historically consequential as Judith Exner's My Story? Will it carry as important a social message as did Nan Britton's The President's Daughter? Will it humanize the president as much as did Kay Summersby Morgan's Past Forgetting or Gunilla von Post's Love, Jack? Will it have as powerful a life lesson as did Mimi Alford's Once Upon a Secret? Or will it be marred by reckless conspiracy theorizing, like Madeleine Duncan Brown's Texas in the Morning and Flowers' Passion and Betrayal? Most of all, will presidential historians and the general public believe that Full Disclosure is, as the title suggests, accurate? ... Read more

Full Disclosure by Stormy Daniels

"Standing up to bullies is my kind of thing."

How did Stormy Daniels become the woman willing to take on a president?

In this book, Stormy Daniels tells her whole story for the first time: what it's like to be a leading actress and director in the adult film business, the full truth about her journey from a rough childhood in Louisiana onto the national stage, and everything about her interaction with Donald Trump that led to the nondisclosure agreement and the behind-the-scenes attempts to intimidate her.

Stormy is funny, sharp, warm, and impassioned by turns. Her story is a thoroughly American one, of a girl who loved reading and horses and who understood from a very young age what she wanted?and who also knew she'd have to get every step of the way there on her own.

All The Lies Brett Kavanaugh Told
HP | Paul Blumenthal and Jennifer Bendery | 10/01/18

WASHINGTON ? Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath, his nomination is over.

"Oh, yes," Flake told CBS News' Scott Pelley.

Well, Senator? Do we have some news for you! Kavanaugh lied throughout his confirmation hearing. He told big lies and easily disprovable small lies. This may not even be the first time he has lied under oath: former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said Kavanaugh lied to him in his 2006 confirmation hearing for his current seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Read more| Lot of examples

Kavanaugh's classmate gives details of 1985 bar fight | CNN | 10/01/18 | 17:07

Amazon increases minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15
Axios | Haley Britzky | 10/02/18

Amazon is increasing its minimum wage to $15 an hour for part-time, full-time, temporary and seasonal workers in the U.S. starting November 1, the company announced on Tuesday. The raise will apply to Whole Foods.

The details: CEO Jeff Bezos said company "decided we want to lead" the effort and encouraged "our competitors and other large employers to join us." Amazon plans to lobby Congress for a higher federal minimum wage as well. ... Read more

Elliott Broidy's All-Access Pass -- "Trump, Inc." Podcast
ProPublica | Eric Umansky | 09/26/18

"Trump, Inc." is back. Our podcast with WNYC focused earlier this year on the many mysteries around President Donald Trump's businesses. This season, we're widening the lens to look at the people around Trump and how they are benefitting from his presidency.

Our first episode looks at Elliott Broidy. You might remember him as the Republican financier who agreed to pay a Playboy model $1.6 million in return for her silence. (Broidy has said it was just to help her financially.) ... Read more

Elliott Broidy's All-Access Pass -- "Trump, Inc." Podcast | ProPublica | 09/26/18 | 7:31

David Brock I knew Brett Kavanaugh during his years as a Republican operative. Don't let him sit on the Supreme Court.
NBC News | David Brock | 0older, but good 09/07/18

... Kavanaugh was not a dispassionate finder of fact but rather an engineer of a political smear campaign. And after decades of that, he expects people to believe he's changed his stripes.

Like millions of Americans this week, I tuned into Kavanaugh's hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee with great interest. In his opening statement and subsequent testimony, Kavanaugh presented himself as a "neutral and impartial arbiter" of the law. Judges, he said, were not players but akin to umpires -- objectively calling balls and strikes. Again and again, he stressed his "independence" from partisan political influences.

But I don't need to see any documents to tell you who Kavanaugh is -- because I've known him for years. And I'll leave it to all the lawyers to parse Kavanaugh's views on everything from privacy rights to gun rights. But I can promise you that any pretense of simply being a fair arbiter of the constitutionality of any policy regardless of politics is simply a pretense. He made up his mind nearly a generation ago -- and, if he's confirmed, he'll have nearly two generations to impose it upon the rest of us. ... Read more
David Brock: I've seen Brett Kavanaugh do things that were disqualifying | Stephanie Miller Show | 09/10/18 | 14:49
David Brock: Blasey Ford will face 'full-scale smear campaign' | All-In | MSNBC | 09/28/18 | 6:57

Here Are Five Questions the FBI Should Ask MArk Judge About Brett Kavanaugh
TheIntercept | Peter Maass, Akela Lacy | 09/29/18

A LAWYER FOR Mark Judge has said that Judge will talk with agents from the FBI, which is reopening a background check of Brett Kavanaugh -- so the question of the moment is, what information can the FBI get out of him?

Judge is in a position to know pretty much everything there is to know about whether -- and how and when -- Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford in the summer of 1982. Ford has accused Kavanaugh of drunkenly trying to tear off her clothes while groping her and covering her mouth to stifle her screams during a house party in the Maryland suburbs. She has testified that Judge was also in the locked bedroom, watching and laughing as Kavanaugh attacked her. She was 15 years old at the time, and Kavanaugh and Judge were two years older. ...

"Our Silence Will Serve No One" -- Alumni of Brett Kavanaugh's High School Urge Graduates to Share Information About Sexual Assaults
TheIntercept | Peter Maass, Liliana Segura | 09/29/18

A GROUP OF alumni from Brett Kavanaugh's high school is calling on fellow graduates to come forward if they have information about any sexual assaults the Supreme Court nominee committed, stating in a new petition, "Please do not remain silent, even if speaking out comes at some personal cost." ...

... The petition was posted on Medium on September 29 by two graduates of the Class of 1986, Fikri Yucel and Bill Barbot. In an interview with The Intercept, Yucel said that when Ford's allegation first surfaced, he was inclined to believe it, because it is rare for women to come forward with false accusations of sexual assault. "Knowing what I know about sexual assault in general, and putting that together with what I know about that time and place, the student body of Georgetown Prep back in the middle '80s, it was plausible," he said. "There was certainly a strong streak of sexism and sexual objectification that lots of people just ascribed to 'boys will be boys.'" ... Read more

Yet Another Former Classmate Of Brett Kavanaugh Says He Drank More Than He Lets On
HP | Doha Madani | 09/30/18

Chad Ludington, who went to Yale with Kavanaugh, told the New York Times he often saw Kavanaugh "staggering from alcohol consumption."

North Carolina State University professor Chad Ludington has joined a handful of other former classmates of Brett Kavanaugh in contradicting the Supreme Court nominee's claims about his past drinking habits. Ludington told the New York Times in a statement Sunday that Kavanaugh played down "the degree and frequency" of his drinking to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. He said he often saw Kavanaugh "staggering from alcohol consumption." ... Read more

Steve Bannon | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) | 09/28/18 | 13:10