Author: craigcrawford
Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks. View all posts by craigcrawford
68 thoughts on “Happy October!”
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User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Amuck! Amuck! Amuck!
Tina S playing potential background music for current activity level in the west wing.
John Oliver discusses the ongoing controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh, the sexual assault allegations against him, his Supreme Court nomination, and what that could all mean for the highest (mostly-dog) court in the land.
Comic Rolaids: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGSLiLm43E
Dumb Ass in Chief should have thought about this before he spent all those months insulting and humiliating Jeff Flake.
NYT: Trump called McConnell and “unleashed an expletive-filled tirade, telling Mr. McConnell that he had let the process get away from him.”
HAPPY 94th BIRTHDAY PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER
The real Ms. Midler has a sweeter take on the morning, attaching this pic.
Bette Midler
Good morning! Take a deep breath, put your game face on, and go outside! You’ll feel better immediately.
Poobah, my prediction is that after a weak of a limited and largely unrevealing investigation – by design – Flake will fall in line, Kavanaugh will be confirmed and we’ll have a justice with an asterisk beside his name for the next 30 or so years. Sad.
So SFB got rid of some of the provisions of NAFTA and renamed it. BFD. The devil is in the details, and those are scant, even in the WaPo article explaining the contents of the pact. I did laugh at the provisions that make it easier for Mexican auto workers to unionize – which with an incoming left leaning government shouldn’t be much of a shock. I’m still trying to wrap my head around why Trudeau agreed to teh changes since the steel tariffs on Canada remainin place and the changes regarding milk products have to affect Canadian milk producers. But then again, I’ve seen the milk kerfuffle as symbolic since it is such a minute percent of Canada’s and the US economies.
Oh, and by the way, screw Kavanaught and screw SFB for fucking up a reasonably decent Supreme Court.
happy birthdays of yore
craig, were you at this one perchance?
That young lady can play the shit out of a guitar. Yngwie Malmsteen would be proud if she were his student. And Ludwig would be smiling.
something that oliver mentioned about k-naughty’s testimony also struck me as odd that no one else has noted was the emotion surrounding the dad’s calendar which he said started in 1978 (only 4 years before his of 1982, year of alleged assault).
PatD, if that was 1979 I was, worked in WH that year and attended his party but sadly I don’t remember where it was or much about it (NO, I did not black out).
You might be right Pogo. However Flake did set the bar for n 60 Minutes last night: He won’t vote for Naught if it’s proven he lied to the committee.
I loved the part of Oliver’s show where he riffed on the calendars – describing his dad reading his like it was the fucking Night Before Christmas – I could just see them sitting in front of the fire… And noting that his dad was sitting behind him in the hearing… priceless.
Renee, saw the invasion of the leaf peepers video – loved it. They are the first cousin of the cone eaters.
“(NO, I did not black out)”
craig, how would you (or for example a guy named brett who really really likes beer) remember a black out?
isn’t what happens in a black out no memory, brain erasure? unless one wakes surprisingly later in a strange bed, gutter or boat in R.I. how does one know they never blacked out?
This WaPo piece by Bob Shapiro points out the wage increase BS SFB is feeding his idiotic followers. Shapiro started ourt withthe unemployment rate then dove into the wages of working Americans.
A realtor friend in Deep Creek MD area said that he believes the market there – which took a dive in the 2008 debacle and since values have not returned and volume has stayed depressed – has been depressed by the increase in healthcare costs since about 2000 – with people having to pay in healthcare what they would otherwise have available for a second home. Deep Creek is fed heavily by the Pittsburgh and DC areas. With no decrease since SFB was elected, there’s been no appreciable change in the market there. (Of course he’s a Republican, but factor in a lack of wage growth with the continuing increased cost of heath insurance and healthcare and he might have a point).
Alcohol induced out-blackening……it’s one of them Rites of Passage……
nbc news:
Kavanaugh Yale classmate to tell FBI of nominee’s ‘violent drunken’ behavior
WASHINGTON — Charles Ludington, a classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at Yale University, will provide information to the FBI Monday, he confirmed to NBC News.
News of Ludington’s involvement was first reported by The Washington Post, which said he planned to give a statement to the FBI at its field office in Raleigh, N.C., “detailing violent drunken behavior by Kavanaugh in college.”
In a copy of his statement given to The Post, Ludington, a professor at North Carolina State University, described Kavanaugh as a “belligerent and aggressive” drunk.
“On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail,” the statement said.
During his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Kavanaugh was repeatedly asked about his drinking habits in high school and college and denied having a problem.
In his statement, however, Ludington wrote that “if he lied about his past actions on national television, and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences.”
[…continues…]
Ahhhh…. October…. my favorite month!
The foliage is going to be spectacular this year after several years of it being kinda dull.
Flatus… almost… the Browns almost won a second game. I love watching that Mayfield kid play.
oh yeah… I still think Kavanaugh will be confirmed… still hoping I’m wrong.
Poobah, it may be that checking on his lies about his involvement in judicial nominees, stolen emails, etc. now and when he was confirmed for the DC Circuit seat he now occupies may hang him, but what little I’ve seen on what the FBI is looking into doesn’t give me any comfort that they are really looking for his lies. With two accusers – a couple of people who have semi-publicly refuted his account of his drinking and a guy in the room, none of whom have been or seemingly are on the FBI list to interview, unless something jumps out like fake snakes from scan of “peanuts”, I just don’t see it happening.
Meanwhile … what’s happening with Mr Rosenstein? Wondering if he welcomes or dreads these convenient diversions.
Charles
Hmmmm………lost edit/delete, also…old Brett in flux is playing havoc with the narrative……
SJ, was thinking yesterday it sure looks like Rosenstein called Trump’s bluff when he heard rumblings of getting fired, and then the wimp caved, even postponed (canceled?) the meeting they had scheduled.
Romeo and Juliet are hard at work on the North East Florida nest even in the rain.
https://nefleaglecam.org/
Have to laugh, thinking back on how many people condemned the Carter Administration in comparison to now what we have. Not blind to the fact that there were people in Carter’s world who were less than qualified ( I’m being nice ) but overall I never doubted they were loyal Americans trying to do good. Putting on a sweater & calling out the real malaise in our politics.
Jimmy Carter wanted to bring out the better angels in our nature. Imagine that sentiment today. Mrs Carter brought forth the rights & dignity of the mentally challenged & the mentally ill. Always liked her for that.
Must be iPad…..works right with phone.
“As you were, Lads”
Gop sank Jimma same as they sank Eugene, Kerry, Hillary, LBJ, McGovern, and tried but failed to sink Clinton and Obama….crippled ’em up quite a bit but couldn’t sink ’em
they did it any way they could by saying whatever they had to, and doing whatever they felt called upon to do.
Or as Mrs Jack texted me this morning. A new week, a new month, a new drug.
She went into surgery Friday for her stomach cancer, it was bad enough that they removed the whole stomach. As I told her Saturday, we will adjust. She was doing fine and recovering swiftly and moved out of ICU 2 days early.
Then she encountered the Sunday nursing staff.
Before the operation they installed an epidural spot to pump pain meds directly into the spinal cord. Reason fewer drugs less nasty ones and better pain management. Well some how they pulled it out. So yesterday evening. when I came in she was in intense pain. I told her to call a nurse and the nurse came in helped her move around a bit and that was it, disappeared. 15 min later I go out to the nursing station and go wtf, you have a patient in extreme pain what are you going to do about it. So we finally got a nurse with authority to look at her then 20 min for the anesthesiologist to look at her, he ordered drugs. At this point I thought a nurse would come in and give her a shot but no it was another 30 min. So I’m back out in the hall way glowering up and down the hall way until a couple of nurses dragging a machine came down the hall to mrs jacks room. I must have a mean glower because I never said a word but got a lecture about how mean I was to the nurse from her supervisor/trainer. that it wasn’t her fault they had a process they had to follow. To which I replied it is a hell of a process that lets a patient lay in intense pain and agony for 2 hrs.
After throwing a second fit(amazingly I used no profanity) Mrs Jack got pain meds that took the edge off her pain.
It didn’t reduce it to where she could sleep procedures don’t allow that. So from what she texted me this morning they finally have her on a morphine drip. So her pain is undercontrol. She said she is going to nap the rest of the morning
It must be a Sunday thing at the hospital.
Jack
I don’t know what scruples are, but if they have them, I bet they belong to somebody else.
–maddie, sort of.
Jack, so sorry to hear about Mrs. Jack’s encounters with the hospital staff. That’s outrageous – I hope they’ve got her on the short list to reinstall the port.
Jack… that’s a horrible tale. Thank god you were around to try to help her. Sending both you and Mrs. Jack much love and light.
putzes…
Pogo
It was bureaucrats, hiding behind the “we gots rules”
Christ, we got the worst of both worlds, the expense of the private system with the bureaucracy of the British system. Wonder what other bad ideas we can incorporate into our healthcare system?
Jack
Give em hell, jack
All the best to Mrs & Mr Jack. I am sorry you are going through this.
Craig – I was in DC on a school trip in 1979. Wonder if we saw each other in passing? It was the day of the Cater/Begin/Sadat Peace Accord. Attended a vigil at the Lincoln Memorial that night, too.
Pogo/Craig/Anyone – Can someone file charges against Kava-Nasty-Drunk for lying under oath, preventing him from being seated if confirmed?
jack, you done good. now get some sleep so you’ll be in fighting shape for any more rounds with rules/protocols.
Anyone in the hospital needs an advocate at all times.
Good luck to the Whiskey Jacks
Happy October now we have to think about our Halloween costumes. Our best couples outfit was when we went as pigs in a blanket One year I went as Jerry Garcia (Mr C made me a cardboard guitar) and I won the costume contest
jack – Glad you were there to “glower” and to hell with the nurse’s feelings. All the best.
*It was whatever they signed in early 1979.
Jack, really sorry for the agony the both of you are going through. A couple of years back I assumed temporary responsibility for a neighbor until her family arrived from out-of-state. Ran into the same type of pain control problems/lack of meaningful attention. It was a Sisters of Charity hospital so I went downstairs and found the head nun. She sorted things out quickly and effectively. I was impressed.
Keeping your good notes and being assertive to the right individuals will, fingers-crossed, work. And, of course, your reassuring presence next to Mrs Jack is of remarkable benefit to ‘your’ patient. Both of you, understand that we are all in your corner
Flatus
It’s been on my mind.
Good one Corey
If the FBI “background check” is a fraud Flake has said he will not vote for Kavanaugh
and he said if he lied he won’t vote for him. We already know Kavanaugh lied
Flake is keeping faith with the Arizonans that put him in office. They may be Republicans, but that doesn’t mean that they demand that he suborn perjury by elevating a Republican felon to the Supreme Court. He will vote Nay
the twit dangling another flashy distraction for media to go off on a tangent
business insider:
[….]
“They’re going back to high school, they’re saying he drank a lot one evening in high school,” Trump said, referring to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questions into Kavanaugh’s past drinking habits after two women described drunken incidents of sexual assault and misconduct from his time in high school and college that Kavanaugh denied.
Trump continued: “I happen to know some United States senators, one on the other side who is pretty aggressive — I’ve seen that person in very bad situations … somewhat compromising.”
Trump then added that though he thought it was “very unfair to bring up things like this,” he left responsibility for the scope of the investigation to “whatever the senators want.”
Trump’s comments come after a weekend of mixed messages for the FBI’s additional background check on Kavanaugh that Trump approved Friday afternoon. Experts and lawmakers have spoken out on the investigation’s apparently limited scope and time allowance, though Trump said Sunday investigators had “free rein.”
When later pressed to elaborate on the comment about catching senators in “compromising” situations, Trump told the reporter that he would “save it for a book like everybody else.”
“I’m not giving it to you,” he said.
at same presser according to business insider:
Trump mocks reporter during press conference as she asks a question on Kavanaugh: ‘I know you’re not thinking. You never do.’
resident Donald Trump on Monday mocked a reporter he called on during a press conference, saying she “never” thinks.
“She’s shocked that I picked her,” Trump said of ABC’s Cecilia Vega. “She’s, like, in a state of shock.”
Vega said, “I’m not, thank you Mr. President.”
Trump replied: “That’s OK. I know you’re not thinking. You never do.”
After the awkward exchange, Vega asked the president whether it was fair to contend he had limited the scope of the FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh, his Supreme Court nominee.
Three women have publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, and the White House has agreed to allow an FBI investigation into two of the allegations before a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.
Trump would not answer Vega’s question at first. He also refused to answer a question on the subject from Kaitlan Collins of CNN.
The president addressed the allegations later in the press conference, saying it “wouldn’t bother me at all” to have the FBI question the third woman, Julie Swetnick, though he described her as having “very little credibility.”
“The FBI should do what they have to do to get to the answer,” Trump said. “I want it to be comprehensive.”
is it just me or was there a hint of misogyny in how he talked to the two female reporters? he also rather pointedly directed them to sit down… at least he left off the “and shut-up” part
really, you saw it happening and did nothing to stop it or were you too busy grabbing
Oh Jack, that is sadly not unusual, especially for private care, from my experience. Once recently I had to take Dad to our local hospital which is 30 min. closer than VA and they let him twist in agony with a blocked bowel full of blood clots for 90 min. before irrigating it. The registration clerk showed up for our money before he got any care — tossed her out the door. Next time he needed ER treatment we gutted it on out to the VA and they had him stable and well taken care of in 20 min.
I now have vast experience in both worlds, could testify under oath that VA care is far superior.
Here’s my conspiracy theory: The VA gets all the bad press because they don’t advertise in local media, which overlook horror stories by private hospitals that damn near keep local TV and newspapers in business (same goes for car dealers and grocery store chains that advertise — precious few investigative stories about them).
new Yorker:
Annals of Politics
October 1, 2018 Issue
How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump
A meticulous analysis of online activity during the 2016 campaign makes a powerful case that targeted cyberattacks by hackers and trolls were decisive.
[….]
Politicians may be too timid to explore the subject, but a new book from, of all places, Oxford University Press promises to be incendiary. “Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President—What We Don’t, Can’t, and Do Know,” by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania, dares to ask—and even attempts to answer—whether Russian meddling had a decisive impact in 2016. Jamieson offers a forensic analysis of the available evidence and concludes that Russia very likely delivered Trump’s victory.
The book, which is coming out less than two months before the midterm elections, at a moment when polls suggest that some sixty per cent of voters disapprove of Trump, may well reignite the question of Trump’s electoral legitimacy…..
[…continues…]
Flake: It’s ‘No Good To Have An Investigation That Just Gives Us More Cover’ (TPM)
Blue – filing charges against Kavanaugh strikes me as a long shot. Too easy to misremember events from 36 years ago to make a perjury or false testimony under oath to Congress charge stick. I suppose it could be done, but do you think Sessions’ DoJ or the Republican Congress would do that? It ain’t gonna happen.
I think Flake likes being the good guy in this scenario and if he is harboring any political future – this is a great thing for him
He’s a liar and there is plenty of evidence Plenty of people who do “remember.”
And he has lied about other things during the hearing
I think if he does get appointed – there will be a move to impeach him
Might be something to keep tabs on: Stephen Colbert likes Jeff Flake & vice versa. Will Senator Flake be a guest on this show as 2020 comes closer? David Letterman used to state The Road To the White House Runs Through Dave. Wondering now if Mr Colbert will do likewise in featuring candidates he finds to his liking. The interview he did with Joe Biden was priceless. There is a certain slant to the Colbert show, a determined decency. Should be interesting.
Ever wonder why things end up in the junk file? “We’ve been trying to reache you please respond” The body of the email was just the usual click here links to hell.
A weekend on my boat and I am starting to feel human again. Whatever URI I got out of N.C. I have to say it ranks right up there with the worst of the worst I have had since moving East in 2010.
Oh, he’s a liar alright – and impeachment is a distinct possibility. I still contend prosecution as a criminal is a long shot.
He lied to the FBI and the Senate
FiveThirtyEight has a fun page re: SFB’s approval – which is lower than the one at RCP (538 uses fewer polls and rates them the trend is the lower the poll is rated the higher SFB’s approval rating (Rasmussen takes the cake). The interactive charts at the bottom comparing SFB to his predecessors back to Truman are fun messing.
KC I agree – although I don’t really now what he said to the FBI, but I assume it’s what he testified to. But as I said earlier, doesn’t matter – Sessions’ DoJ and the Republican Congress won’t pursue it.
Pogo
But the Democratic House can impeach him — they don’t need no stinkin ‘DOJ
and even if he didn’t get convicted by the senate airing all the crimes would be a good thing
packing the court with sleazy Shrub operatives ugh
looks like the ” anybody but a Republican” trend I’m seeing in Kansas is also effecting this side of the state line, A CNN poll has McCaskill over Hawley 47% to 44% and that is after she came out against Cav.
Also my sisters were up this weekend the two who live in the Springfield/ Branson area say that McCaskill is running a lot of ads in the market and visited there so she is not conceding any part of the state
My other sister (the Republican) is actively not watching or reading the national news. I doubt if she even votes.
Jack
The National Republican Congressional Committee is pulling the plug on Yoder in KS 3rd
Not a good sign for the Republicans nationally. When a Native American activist/lesbian/ kick boxer is kicking your butt for the votes of mild mannered upper middle class Kansas Republicans……….
Jack
nbc news:
In the days leading up to a public allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to a college classmate, the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim, according to text messages obtained by NBC News.
Kerry Berchem, who was at Yale with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has tried to get those messages to the FBI for its newly reopened investigation into the matter but says she has yet to be contacted by the bureau.
The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both friends of Kavanaugh, suggest that the nominee was personally talking with former classmates about Ramirez’s story in advance of the New Yorker article that made her allegation public. In one message, Yarasavage said Kavanaugh asked her to go on the record in his defense. Two other messages show communication between Kavanaugh’s team and former classmates in advance of the story.
The texts also demonstrate that Kavanaugh and Ramirez were more socially connected than previously understood and that Ramirez was uncomfortable around Kavanaugh when they saw each other at a wedding 10 years after they graduated. Berchem’s efforts also show that some potential witnesses have been unable to get important information to the FBI.
[…]
NBC News reached out to Berchem for comment after obtaining a copy of a memo she wrote about the text messages. In a statement to NBC News, Berchem, a partner in the law firm Akin Gump, said: “I understand that President Trump and the U.S. Senate have ordered an FBI investigation into certain allegations of sexual misconduct by the nominee Brett Kavanaugh. I have no direct or indirect knowledge about any of the allegations against him. However, I am in receipt of text messages from a mutual friend of both Debbie and mine that raise questions related to the allegations. I have not drawn any conclusions as to what the texts may mean or may not mean but I do believe they merit investigation by the FBI and the Senate.”
On Sunday, Berchem emailed FBI agent J.C. McDonough her memo. After getting no response, she resent the summary on Monday morning along with screenshots of certain texts that she thinks raise questions that should be investigated. “I’m sure he’s really busy and expect that he’ll get back to me,” said Berchem.
Berchem’s memo outlining her correspondence with Yarasavage shows there’s a circle of Kavanaugh friends who may have pertinent information and evidence relevant to the inquiry who may not be interviewed.
[…]
Berchem, 51, a graduate of Yale and a Connecticut resident, reached out to Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office last week. Blumenthal, a Democrat, sits on the Judiciary Committee.
“We heard from Kerry late on Thursday and submitted her summary to the Judiciary Committee early Friday,” a spokeswoman for Blumenthal said in a statement to NBC News. “After we were made to jump through several hoops that delayed our moving forward, it became clear that the majority Committee staff had not turned this summary over to the FBI and, in fact, had no intention of turning it over to the FBI. With our assistance, Kerry submitted her summary to the FBI herself.”
[…]
Berchem’s texts with Yarasavage shed light on Kavanaugh’s personal contact with friends, including that he obtained a copy of a photograph of a small group of friends from Yale at a 1997 wedding in order to show himself smiling alongside Ramirez 10 years after they graduated. Kavanaugh was a groomsman and Ramirez a bridesmaid at the wedding.
Berchem hired a lawyer on Sunday to help her get her information into the right hands. She has twice sent her memo to the FBI and has yet to hear a response, according to her lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He flagged two texts in particular.
In a series of texts before the publication of the New Yorker story, Yarasavage wrote that she had been in contact with “Brett’s guy,” and also with “Brett,” who wanted her to go on the record to refute Ramirez. According to Berchem, Yarasavage also told her friend that she turned over a copy of the wedding party photo to Kavanaugh, writing in a text: “I had to send it to Brett’s team too.”
Bob Bauer, former White House counsel for President Barack Obama, said: “It would be surprising, and it would certainly be highly imprudent, if at any point Judge Kavanaugh directly contacted an individual believed to have information about allegations like this. A nominee would normally have been counseled to leave to his legal and nominations team the job of following up on any questions arising from press reports or otherwise, and doing so appropriately.”
Further, the texts show Kavanaugh may need to be questioned about how far back he anticipated that Ramirez would air allegations against him. Berchem says in her memo that Kavanaugh “and/or” his friends “may have initiated an anticipatory narrative” as early as July to “conceal or discredit” Ramirez.
Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath that the first time he heard of Ramirez’s allegation was in the Sept. 23 article in The New Yorker.
Kavanaugh was asked by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, when he first heard of Ramirez’s allegations. Kavanaugh answered: “In the New Yorker story.”
[…]
Finally, Berchem is concerned about what she witnessed at the 1997 wedding where Ramirez and Kavanaugh were both in the wedding party.
According to the information Berchem provided, Ramirez tried to avoid Kavanaugh at that wedding of their two friends, Yarasavage and Kevin Genda.
Ramirez, “clung to me” at the wedding, Berchem wrote to Yarasavage in a Sept. 24th text message. “She never went near them,” a reference to Kavanaugh and his friends. Even in the group photo, Berchem wrote, Ramirez was trying to keep away from Kavanaugh.
Collusion
Let Kavanaugh join the Supreme Court on the condition he gives up drinking beer. I doubt he would do it.
Dear Corey,
Only as his last meal.
I once had an experience something like the one Ms Jack had. It’s PAIN scoring an Olympic 10.0, while staff hides out in the ‘procedures tower.’ It’s Medieval hell on earth. Poor Mrs Jack.