Friday, December 29, 2017

Reading archive 2017-12-29

A Baffling Brain Defect Is Linked to Gut Bacteria, Scientists Say

Tesla’s enormous battery in Australia, just weeks old, is already responding to outages in ‘record’ time

Putin may be in more trouble than we know

A Republican deficit hawk flies alone - "'I guarantee you, if Mr. Obama was the president and he put this tax bill in, those deficit hawks in my party would get out of the nests and start squawking,' Jones said. 'But here they are, and because it’s a Republican president possibly adding $1.5 to $2 trillion to this country’s deficit, they’re going to stay in the nest and not squawk about it.'"

Polls show Americans distrust the media. But talk to them, and it’s a very different story.

The Most Honest Man in Medicine?: Dr. Joseph Mercola reigns over a long-running “natural health” website and e-commerce empire. He wants to save people from pharmaceutical profiteers, toxic chemicals, and greedy doctors. But former colleagues and medical experts say he’s more dangerous than the supposed threats he preaches about.

Season of the Witch: The Enduring Power of Stevie Nicks: Underestimated and overwhelming, Nicks remains the bewitching woman of our time. Here’s how the Fleetwood Mac songstress became an intergenerational icon. - "Her friend Danny Goldberg has called Stevie Nicks an 'autodidactic mystic who viewed the universe through the eyes of middle America.' Her critics used to hold that idea against her—that there was something surface, shallow, and silly about her brand of vaguely occult spirituality. I see this, instead, as Nicks’s enduring strength—her appeal across generations. She 'seems to embody,' Davis writes, 'the idea that we all have sacred powers within us.'"

Forced out over sex, drugs and other infractions, fired officers find work in other departments

New tax law expected to slow rise of home values, creating winners and losers

‘SMOTHERED’ AND ‘SHOVED ASIDE’ IN RURAL AMERICA

2018’s challenge: Too many jobs, not enough workers

Iraq’s rapid-fire trials send alleged ISIS members — including foreigners — to the gallows

As airline rules relax under Trump, here’s a survival guide to flying in 2018

How to fix the American diet, according to the man who coined the term ‘junk food’

Iranian cities hit by anti-government protests

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Reading archive 2017-12-21 through 2017-12-28

Apple slows your iPhone as the battery ages, but doesn’t give you a cheap way to replace it

5-year-old calls 911 to report that Grinch plans to steal Christmas

Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands just got caught lying about the Dutch

Trump Promised to Protect Steel. Layoffs Are Coming Instead. - "The layoffs have stunned these steelworkers who, just a year ago, greeted President Trump’s election as a new dawn for their industry. Mr. Trump pledged to build roads and bridges, strengthen 'Buy America' provisions, protect factories from unfair imports and revive industry, especially steel. But after a year in office, Mr. Trump has not enacted these policies. And when it comes to steel, his failure to follow through on a promise has had unintended consequences."

Trump Gives Presidential Challenge Coin a Makeover, and It Shows

Stoking Fears, Trump Defied Bureaucracy to Advance Immigration Agenda

REPUBLICAN ATTACKS ON ROBERT MUELLER ARE ABSURD. BUT THE GOP HAS BEEN LAWLESS FOR DECADES.

Top Democrats Are Wrong: Trump Supporters Were More Motivated by Racism Than Economic Issues

Sex, Lies and Wikipedia: Pro-Palestinian Editors Accused of Protecting Linda Sarsour Over Harassment Claims

Six years later, Penn State remains torn over the Sandusky scandal

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Reading archive 2017-12-20

The Year’s Best Late Night Moments Weren’t Funny at All: In a year when comedy shows were struggling to keep up with news, the sharpest hosts were the ones who embraced sincerity

The Republican Tax Bill Doesn’t Actually Simplify The Tax Code - "By cutting down on the opportunities to wiggle out of paying an annual contribution to the Treasury, governments can reduce the burden of most taxpayers while making the system more fair. The government refers to these benefits as “tax expenditures.” The Treasury’s latest annual roundup lists hundreds of them. According to the TAS, forgone revenue from expenditures ($1.4 trillion) was greater than what Congress budgeted for discretionary spending ($1.2 trillion) in the 2016 fiscal year. But while the Republicans talked about broadening the base and getting rid of many of these expenditures, they never got serious about it. The original Senate bill would have eliminated only one of the 10 most expensive expenditures: the state-and-local-tax deduction. Then Republicans lost their nerve when politicians and supporters from states such as New York, New Jersey and California complained about losing the benefit.

A Brief, Infinite History of Saturn Return: The astrological turning point affects all late 20-somethings. But what does it mean, and why has it become a powerful guide for so many young people?

Paul Ryan on whether the tax bill will add to the deficit: 'Nobody knows the answer to that question'

Sen. Collins, it’s bogus to blame sexism for tax-bill backlash - "She is the only senator who staked her continued presence in the Senate (forgoing a run for governor) on bridging the divide between the parties and who vowed to protect the Obamacare exchanges. What she got was a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to pass two partial offsets that would mitigate some of the harm done by repeal of the individual mandate. She also at the time stated that she’d have a vote on those bills in hand before voting for the tax bill. She doesn’t have that promised vote and likely won’t get the bills through the House (which objects to anything shoring up Obamacare). Collins nevertheless will vote for a bill that included repeal of the individual mandate without receiving any offset. Her vote in that regard is no different from that of other Republicans who vowed to rip up Obamacare root and branch. Her constituents and local media are understandably very upset with her."

Sen. Collins says she will vote ‘yes’ on Republican tax bill: In remarks from the Senate floor Monday, Collins affirms her support and details several amendments she sought to provide relief to middle-income taxpayers. - "The bill would also increase the national debt by at least $1 trillion over 10 years after accounting for economic growth, according to an official congressional analysis. Tax cuts for individuals would expire after nine years, while corporate tax cuts would be permanent. Maine’s Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, remains a staunch opponent of the tax bill. The bill, which could be voted on as early as Tuesday, wouldn’t eliminate the ACA, but it would repeal its individual mandate, which would lead to 13 million more uninsured Americans and higher health insurance premiums, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

Democrats unlikely to force DACA vote this week, probably averting shutdown

Scientists stunned by massive snowfall increases among Alaska’s highest peaks

Trump just admitted the GOP’s tax cuts were deceptively sold - "Trump's second admission was about the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate being repealed in the bill. Apparently eager to argue that this constituted him having cut taxes and slew Obamacare in one fell swoop (after Congress came up short on Obamacare this year), he argued that repealing the individual mandate was basically the same as repealing Obamacare. But, he said, he told Republicans not to talk about that. Trump said he told allies to 'be quiet with the fake news media because I don't want them talking too much about it.' 'Now that it's approved, I can say that,' he said."

With this tax bill, the GOP has finally killed family-friendly conservatism

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Reading archive 2017-12-19

African-American History Seen Through an African-American Lens

As Moscow goes high-tech, so does its surveillance system

B.H.P. Billiton, Acknowledging Climate Change, to Quit Coal Group - "It represents the latest example of a business that is largely built around traditional fossil fuels responding to investor and government concern over climate change. Last week, the oil and gas giant BP said it would spend $200 million to acquire a large stake in a solar power developer, while Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total have also made investments in renewables."

Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program

The Daily 202: Why a Louisiana GOP senator keeps bringing down Trump judicial nominees - "Republicans have literally changed the rules of the Senate related to filibusters and broken with century-old precedents related to blue slips to ram through a record number of judges, several of whom would never have passed muster to get nominated in normal times. In addition to a Supreme Court justice, the Senate has confirmed 12 circuit court judges and six district court judges this year. Several more are in the pipeline.
...
"The White House has prioritized picking younger candidates (these are lifetime appointments) who have demonstrated loyalty to Trump (and fealty to his agenda). Multiple nominees have been rated Not Qualified by the nonpartisan American Bar Association, yet they got confirmed on party-line votes anyway."

Hacking the Tax Plan: Ways to Profit Off the Republican Tax Bill - "If you can afford to pay some of your mortgage or student loan bills early, including interest — or pay for big, anticipated medical expenses — you will probably get a bigger benefit if you do it this year."

People couldn’t believe two dogs killed their owner. So the sheriff described the horror.

In defamation case, Trump offers new twist in Bill Clinton’s Paula Jones defense

A single vote leads to a rare tie for control of the Virginia legislature

The Republican tax bill was the easy part. The next debate could be much uglier.

The GOP tax plan has a nasty surprise for upper-middle-class parents with kids in college

The one thing the self-employed want more than a tax cut

Why the U.S. could slap import duties on a plane made in Alabama

This old drug was free. Now it’s $109,500 a year.

FDA takes more aggressive stance toward homeopathic drugs

Friday, December 15, 2017

Reading archive 2017-12-15

Trump judicial nominee fumbles basic questions about the law

First the jury convicted this 19-year-old maid for stealing. Then they took up a collection to pay her fine.

How 3,000 very good golden retrievers could help all dogs live longer

The Finance 202: Rubio’s last stand highlights tax bill’s corporate skew - "Corporations are sitting on a record amount of cash reserves: nearly $2.3 trillion. That figure has been climbing steadily since the recession ended in 2009, and it's now double what it was in 2001. The reason CEOs aren't investing more of their liquid assets has little to do with the tax rate. CEOs aren't waiting on a tax cut to 'jump-start the economy' -- a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a company -- or to hand out raises. It's pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth, as Republicans have promised. Had Congress actually listened to executives, or economists who study these issues carefully, it might have realized that."

Despite Trump’s ire, Ireland expects to avoid any pain from U.S. tax overhaul

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Reading archive 2017-12-06

The Uneven Playing Field: Sure, don’t stoop to their level. But let’s acknowledge that the game Republicans are forcing everyone to play insists morality is for losers. - "This isn’t a call to become tolerant of awful behavior. It is a call for understanding that Democrats honored the blue slip, and Republicans didn’t. Democrats had hearings over the Affordable Care Act; Republicans had none over the tax bill. Democrats decry predators in the media; Republicans give them their own networks. And what do Democrats have to show for it? There is something almost eerily self-regarding in the notion that the only thing that matters is what Democrats do, without considering what the systemic consequences are for everyone."

A congressman's accuser: Blackballed and baby-sitting for cash - "But Greene’s budding career imploded, she said, the minute she accused Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) of sexually harassing her. Since the summer of 2014, when she says Farenthold fired her for raising concerns about a hostile work environment, Greene has been unable to land a full-time job. She’s making $15 an hour working temporary gigs for a homebuilder. She baby-sits on the side to earn extra cash.
...
She later added: 'I was told right away that I would be, quote-unquote, 'blackballed' if I came forward. … That’s exactly what happened.'"

How the Kremlin Tried to Rig the Olympics, and Failed: A study in humiliation

Kushner says Mideast peace is essential to thwarting Iran and Islamist extremism

'If You Hemorrhage, Don't Clean Up': Advice From Mothers Who Almost Died

California decided it was tired of women bleeding to death in childbirth: The maternal mortality rate in the state is a third of the American average. Here's why. - "A group of concerned doctors, nurses, midwives, and hospital administrators, including CMQCC medical director Elliott Main, started a maternal mortality review board to pore over each death in detail and identify its root causes. Pretty quickly, hemorrhage and preeclampsia (pregnancy-induced severe high blood pressure) floated to the top of the list as the two most common — and preventable — causes of death.

"It’s difficult to overstate how revolutionary this simple first step was in the arena of maternal health. About half of US states still don’t formally review the causes of maternal death on a regular basis to find out which deaths are preventable and how to stop future similar deaths from occurring. The US National Center for Health Statistics hasn’t even published an official maternal mortality rate since 2007 — that’s how low-priority this issue is."

Ryan says Republicans to target welfare, Medicare, Medicaid spending in 2018 - "Ryan's remarks add to the growing signs that top Republicans aim to cut government spending next year. Republicans are close to passing a tax bill nonpartisan analysts say would increase the deficit by at least $1 trillion over a decade."

Trump Calls Jerusalem Plan Step Toward Peace, but It Puts Mideast on Edge

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Reading archive 2017-11-28

The Complicated Legacy Of A Panda Who Was Really Good At Sex

America has an internet problem — but a radical change could solve it

‘He’s a little obsessed with me’: Hillary Clinton reflects with raw honesty on Trump and 2016


Reading archive 2017-11-22 through 2017-11-27

What Charles Manson Had in Common with the Alt-Right: Besides fear of black people and anxiety about the collapse of the white race, Manson and the modern far-right also shared fantasies about the future.

Conservatives have a breathtaking plan for Trump to pack the courts

Congressman on tape tells woman he would report her to Capitol Police because she could expose his secret sex life

Anita Hill and her 1991 congressional defenders to Joe Biden: You were part of the problem

WHAT TRUMP REALLY TOLD KISLYAK AFTER COMEY WAS CANNED: During a May 10 meeting in the Oval Office, the president betrayed his intelligence community by leaking the content of a classified, and highly sensitive, Israeli intelligence operation to two high-ranking Russian envoys, Sergey Kislyak and Sergey Lavrov. This is what he told them—and the ramifications.

A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore. She appears to be part of undercover sting operation.

Is Elizabeth Warren Native American or What?: The Democratic Senate candidate can't back up family lore that she is part Cherokee—but neither is there any evidence that she benefited professionally from these stories.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Reading archive 2017-11-16

John Raines, accomplice in 1971 burglary that revealed FBI abuses, dies at 84

The GOP plan to kill Obamacare’s least popular provision could backfire on some in the middle class

Republicans: Enrage your colleagues - "Then there is this sleight of hand: While the Senate bill makes the corporate tax cut permanent, it sets all the proposed reductions for individuals to expire at the end of 2025. This artificially decreases the short-term costs of the bill. If those tax cuts did expire, Americans in large numbers would eventually see their taxes go up under this deal. (ed. note: that is, up compared to what they pay right now, or way up compared to what they pay the next ten years)

"Let’s take a step back and ponder the exceptional irresponsibility of what’s transpiring here. The same people who complained that more than a year of hearings, analysis and debate around Obamacare constituted “rushing” the bill are now recklessly spiriting through the system a gigantic piece of legislation that would touch all corners of the American economy."

Mother's boyfriend guilty of murder in torture death of 8-year-old Palmdale boy - "The prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments this week that the 6-foot-2, 270-pound Aguirre clearly enjoyed torturing the small boy and had systematically brutalized him in the months leading to his death, forcing him to eat cat litter and feces and making him sleep bound and gagged in a small cabinet overnight.

"Hatami said Aguirre couldn't blame either drugs or mental health problems for his actions, and he added that Aguirre hated Gabriel because he suspected the boy was gay."

Homeland Security official resigns after comments linking blacks to ‘laziness’ and ‘promiscuity’ come to light

Monday, November 13, 2017

Reading archive 2017-11-13

The love of his life was lured into a deadly trap. Then so was he.

Yes, the G.O.P. Can Block Roy Moore

Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core: A serial leak of the agency’s cyberweapons has damaged morale, slowed intelligence operations and resulted in hacking attacks on businesses and civilians worldwide.

National Museum of African American History's program digitizes old family memories

Digital Is More Than a Department, It Is a Collective Responsibility

New woman accuses Moore of sexual misconduct when she was a minor

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks

Bill Clinton: A Reckoning: Feminists saved the 42nd president of the United States in the 1990s. They were on the wrong side of history; is it finally time to make things right? - "When more than a dozen women stepped forward and accused Leon Wieseltier of a serial and decades-long pattern of workplace sexual harassment, he said, 'I will not waste this reckoning.' It was textbook Wieseltier: the insincere promise and the perfectly chosen word. The Democratic Party needs to make its own reckoning of the way it protected Bill Clinton. The party needs to come to terms with the fact that it was so enraptured by their brilliant, Big Dog president and his stunning string of progressive accomplishments that it abandoned some of its central principles. The party was on the wrong side of history and there are consequences for that. Yet expedience is not the only reason to make this public accounting. If it is possible for politics and moral behavior to coexist, then this grave wrong needs to be acknowledged. If Weinstein and Mark Halperin and Louis C.K. and all the rest can be held accountable, so can our former president and so can his party, which so many Americans so desperately need to rise again."

Locals Were Troubled by Roy Moore’s Interactions with Teen Girls at the Gadsden Mall

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Reading archive 2017-11-11

Trump Says Putin ‘Means It’ About Not Meddling - "Mr. Trump heaped disdain on the former leaders of three American intelligence agencies — John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director; James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence; and James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired this year — appearing to suggest that they were less trustworthy than Mr. Putin. 'I mean, give me a break — they’re political hacks,' Mr. Trump said. 'You have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have Comey. Comey's proven now to be a liar, and he’s proven to be a leaker, so you look at that. And you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that.'" (ed. note: U.S. intelligence report says Putin targeted presidential election to 'harm' Hillary Clinton's chances)

The Vacuity of the Vice President

Trump says U.S. won’t be ‘taken advantage of anymore.’ Hours later, Pacific Rim nations reach deal on trade without America.

Bannon is right: It’s no coincidence The Post broke the Moore story

I did a stand-up set about Louis C.K.’s offenses. It wasn’t enough.

Trump’s intentional behavior in Japan was much worse than his etiquette mistakes

Reading archive 2017-11-10

‘I don’t feel wealthy’: The upper middle class is worried about paying for the tax overhaul

‘Love Thy Neighbor?’: When a Muslim doctor arrived in a rural Midwestern town, “it felt right.” But that feeling began to change after the election of Donald Trump.

One of the busiest websites in the U.S. in 2016 regularly linked to Russia propaganda (ed. note: it's Drudge)

Trump judge nominee, 36, who has never tried a case, wins approval of Senate panel - "When Trump took office in January, there were more than 100 vacant seats on the federal courts, thanks to an unprecedented slowdown engineered by McConnell during the final two years of President Obama's term. The Senate under GOP control approved only 22 judges in that two-year period, the lowest total since 1951-52 in the last year of President Truman's term. By contrast, the Senate under Democratic control approved 68 judges in the last two years of George W. Bush's presidency."

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Reading archive 2017-11-07

ACLU scolds Taylor Swift for effort to protect reputation

How Anti-Terrorism Design Can Also Make Cities More Livable

CIA DIRECTOR MET ADVOCATE OF DISPUTED DNC HACK THEORY — AT TRUMP’S REQUEST - "The meeting raises questions about Pompeo’s willingness to act as an honest broker between the intelligence community and the White House, and his apparent refusal to push back against efforts by the president to bend the intelligence process to suit his political purposes. Instead of acting as a filter between Trump and the intelligence community, Pompeo’s decision to meet with Binney raises the possibility that right-wing theories aired on Fox News and in other conservative media can now move not just from conservative pundits to Trump, but also from Trump to Pompeo and into the bloodstream of the intelligence community.

"Some senior CIA officials have grown upset that Pompeo, a former Republican representative from Kansas, has become so close to Trump that the CIA director regularly expresses skepticism about intelligence that doesn’t line up with the president’s views. Pompeo has also alienated some CIA managers by growing belligerent toward them in meetings, according to an intelligence official familiar with the matter."

The Twitter thought experiment that exposes “pro-life” hypocrisy

The disturbing history behind an NFL owner’s explosive comments

Chilling tale of Harvey Weinstein’s spies shows Ronan Farrow’s reporting chops — and compassion

Trump just made a bad night for Republicans much worse for himself

Monday, November 6, 2017

Reading archive 2017-11-04 through 2017-11-06

Elizabeth Warren and Donna Brazile both now agree the 2016 Democratic primary was rigged - "The timeline here is also important. Many of those emails described above came after it was abundantly clear that Clinton would be the nominee, barring a massive and almost impossible shift in primary votes. It may have been in poor taste and contrary to protocol, but the outcome was largely decided long before Sanders ended his campaign. Brazile doesn't dwell too much on the timeline, so it's not clear exactly how in-the-bag Clinton had the nomination when the alleged takeover began. It's also not clear exactly what Clinton got for her alleged control.

"This is also somewhat self-serving for Brazile, given the DNC continued to struggle during and after her tenure, especially financially. The op-ed is excerpted from her forthcoming book, 'Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.' Losses like the one in 2016 will certainly lead to plenty of finger-pointing, and Brazile's book title and description allude to it containing plenty of that."

White House attacks legacies of both Bush presidents after reports that they refused to vote for Trump

Commerce Secretary’s Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies’

Saudi Arabia Arrests 11 Princes, Including Billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal

Citigroup, Twitter, Lyft: Prince’s Arrest Touches Many

India turns to public shaming to get people to use its 52 million new toilets

They spent years planning to live with Alzheimer’s disease. The GOP tax bill threatens those plans.

In glyphosate review, WHO cancer agency edited out “non-carcinogenic” findings

A fake shooter and ‘false flag’ rumors at the hospital — how dark online hoaxes came to Texas

Brazile says she found ‘no evidence’ that Democratic primaries were rigged for Clinton

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Reading archive 2017-10-31

‘Fat but Fit’? The Controversy Continues

‘This is a nothing burger’: How conservative media reacted to the Mueller indictments

The repeated, incorrect claim that Russia obtained ‘20 percent of our uranium’

Historians respond to John F. Kelly’s Civil War remarks: ‘Strange,’ ‘sad,’ ‘wrong’ - "Kelly makes several points. That Lee was honorable. That fighting for state was more important than fighting for country. That a lack of compromise led to the war. That good people on both sides were fighting for conscientious reasons. Both McCurry and David Blight, a history professor at Yale University and author of 'Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory,' broadly reject all of these arguments. 'This is profound ignorance, that’s what one has to say first, at least of pretty basic things about the American historical narrative,' Blight said. 'I mean, it’s one thing to hear it from Trump, who, let’s be honest, just really doesn’t know any history and has demonstrated it over and over and over. But General Kelly has a long history in the American military.'"

Blue states already subsidize red states. Now red states want even more.

Monday, October 30, 2017

Reading archive 2017-10-30

She bought 26 Lady Gaga tickets to celebrate beating cancer. She never made it to the concert.

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN

Einstein scribbled his theory of happiness in place of a tip. It just sold for more than $1 million.

The ‘dossier’ and the uranium deal: A guide to the latest allegations

John Boehner Unchained: The former House speaker feels liberated—but he’s also seething about what happened to his party. - "Republicans, having spent and borrowed extravagantly during the Bush years—and expanded the reach of the federal government with No Child Left Behind, the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, and the bailouts—now faced a conservative backlash. Pivoting sharply, GOP lawmakers greeted the election of Barack Obama in 2008 with unified opposition to his stimulus package. This brought accusations of hypocrisy. 'People thought we had spent too much. Thought the tax cuts were too much,' Boehner says. 'OK, fine—we need to look ahead. We’ve got a spending problem.'
...
"The rising influence of Heritage and other 'outside groups' on the right—Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots—made the speaker’s job infinitely harder. Egged on by an angry GOP base, they repeatedly cornered Republicans into fights they couldn’t possibly win. The defining implosion of their first year in the majority came in late July when it was revealed that Jordan’s staff had been conspiring with outside groups to pressure RSC members—Jordan’s own members—to vote against Boehner’s debt deal. It was a stunning breach of decorum and a confirmation of what Obama had already figured out: that Boehner wasn’t dealing from a place of strength. Jordan apologized profusely to the conference, but it was too late. Whatever trust once existed between the warring GOP factions had vanished, never to return—and it destroyed Boehner’s credibility with Democrats. 'He could practically never deliver his votes,' Pelosi tells me. When I ask Boehner about this, during a rain delay at Wetherington, he smirks. 'It’s hard to negotiate when you’re standing there naked,” he says. “It’s hard to negotiate with no dick.'
...
"The resentment toward Boehner was rooted in many grievances, some more legitimate than others. Without question, he ran the House in a top-down fashion inherited from Gingrich, centralizing the policymaking process in leadership offices and spurning input from back-bench members. He would also anger conservatives by allowing deadlines to creep up, refusing to state the conference’s strategy because he knew they would disapprove—and then he would jam them at the last minute. There also was outrage at his punitive tactics. In late 2012, he had kicked Huelskamp and several other conservatives off key committees as punishment for their votes against leadership initiatives. It was predictable: The earmark ban had robbed Boehner of his best tool to incentivize on-the-fence members, leaving him to lead with all sticks and few carrots. With outside groups actively recruiting primary challengers, members in red districts often saw no political upside in voting with the leadership—a dynamic Boehner could not counter.
...
"Boehner worries about the deepening fissures in American society. But he sees Trump as more of a symptom than the cause of what is a longer arc of social and ideological alienation, fueled by talk radio and Fox News on the right and MSNBC and social media on the left. 'People thought in ’09, ’10, ’11, that the country couldn’t be divided more. And you go back to Obama’s campaign in 2008, you know, he was talking about the divide and healing the country and all of that. And some would argue on the right that he did more to divide the country than to unite it. I kind of reject that notion.' Why is that? 'Because it wasn’t him!' Boehner replies. 'It was modern-day media, and social media, that kept pushing people further right and further left. People started to figure out … they could choose where to get their news. And so what do people do? They choose places they agree with, reinforcing the divide.'

"He continues: 'I always liked Rush [Limbaugh]. When I went to Palm Beach I would always meet with Rush and we’d go play golf. But you know, who was that right-wing guy, [Mark] Levin? He went really crazy right and got a big audience, and he dragged [Sean] Hannity to the dark side. He dragged Rush to the dark side. And these guys—I used to talk to them all the time. And suddenly they’re beating the living shit out of me.' Boehner, seated in his favorite recliner, lights another cigarette. 'I had a conversation with Hannity, probably about the beginning of 2015. I called him and said, ‘Listen, you’re nuts.’ We had this really blunt conversation. Things were better for a few months, and then it got back to being the same-old, same-old. Because I wasn’t going to be a right-wing idiot.'"

Nancy Pelosi isn’t going anywhere. Will it help or hurt Democrats in 2018?

Fix this democracy — now 38 ideas for repairing our badly broken civic life

The 6 worst things men have said about sexual harassment in just one month

‘I’m the victim here’: Corey Feldman defends himself in contentious ‘Today’ interviews

Megyn Kelly blasts Bill O’Reilly on her NBC morning show

Mueller’s moves send message to other potential targets: Beware, I’m coming

Reading archive 2017-10-27 through 2017-10-29

The Daily 202: The GOP civil war is bigger than Trump. A new study shows deep fissures on policy.

Robert Mueller Sends a Message: He’s Deadly Serious

You can spend a lot on ‘true’ cinnamon, but does it taste better than the rest?

Monday, October 23, 2017

Reading archive 2017-10-23

Trump is now effectively calling a Gold Star widow a liar, despite the White House not backing him up

Guy completely shuts down the anti-abortion argument with one question.

The Seeds of Trump's Victory Were Sown the Moment Obama Won

What Donald Trump has in common with Napoleon III: Alexis de Tocqueville famously extolled democracy in America, but his look at French politics may say more about us today.

The great dealmaker? Lawmakers find Trump to be an untrustworthy negotiator. - "Tony Schwartz, a longtime student and now critic of Trump who co-wrote the mogul’s 1987 bestseller 'The Art of the Deal,' said Trump’s dealmaking modus operandi is, 'I am relentless and I am not burdened by the concern that what I’m doing is ethical or truthful or fair.'
...
"Schwartz said playing to Trump’s ego, as Graham has with his golf compliments, is an effective way to manage him. His advice to those seeking to make deals with Trump: Find the most persuasive way to portray one’s agenda as a personal victory for the president, and be the last person to talk to him. 'Trump is motivated by the same concern in all situations, which is to dominate and to be perceived as having won,' Schwartz said. 'That supersedes everything, including ideology.'"

Donald Trump just hit a new low in the La David Johnson fiasco

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Reading archive 2017-10-22

Lawyers Begin Sketching Legal Strategy to Challenge Possible Nafta Withdrawal

The fact-checkers venture into Red America to try to win over skeptics

Tom Price's wife asks about 'legally' quarantining HIV patients

The New York Times sacks Bill O’Reilly. Again.

Nine Responses to “But What About Chicago?” - "If you insist on using the deeply problematic misnomer of “black-on-black crime” while discussing the rise of gun violence as it relates to gang activity in the greater Chicago area, particularly with guns flowing in from Indiana, Missouri, and Kentucky, then that is a conversation that I am not currently willing to have. Most crime, including murder, is intraracial. That is due in no small part to discriminatory housing practices (redlining, for instance), which are symptoms of a much bigger issue in this country. Historically, racism and arguments using racist logic have been dams blocking the flow of ideas and the streams of justice in America. In regard to the history of discriminatory housing practices and economic stagnation, and the effects that they can have on working-class African-Americans, I suggest reading (or viewing) 'A Raisin in the Sun' by Lorraine Hansberry. It takes place in . . . you guessed it."

The race to save coffee: America's favorite beverage is under attack from climate change and other woes. Science may offer a solution.