Open Thread For October 19, 2017
Tech Giants Resist Disclosure Of Who Paid For Political Ads. Facebook, Google and the like. Leading the charge against disclosure are…lawyers who worked for Hillary Clinton. Because protecting billions of dollars of their clients is more important than uncovering which foreign actors helped to deep-six her candidacy. I cannot make this stuff up.
Trump Pledged $25K To Fallen Soldier’s Father. Didn’t Send The Check. Until Called On It. This story is so bizarre on so many levels. Apparently the victim’s father groused that all the survivor benefits money went to the mother. Think Trump would have sent $25 K to the mother if the dad had gotten the survivor benefits? Did he pledge $25 K to other families? Is it his money or someone else’s money? Possibly taxpayers’ money? Just more weirdness from the mentally-ill Prevaricator In Chief.
Bizarro Politics In Virginia. Trump Outreach operative for Gillespie’s gubernatorial campaign feels snubbed, and quits. A ‘colorful evangelical preacher’ from SW Virginia. Shades of the Marino State Senate campaign. I’ll say now what I said then: Campaigns that lose key operatives to resignation just weeks before the election aren’t generally winning campaigns.
Why Seattle Is Relieved That Part Of Amazon Is Heading Elsewhere. Be careful what you wish for. BTW, check out what Philly is offering. Can you imagine the economic dislocation and gentrification that would result? BTW, giving America’s wealthiest corporation a billion dollars in tax breaks defines ‘The Delaware Way’. An economic obscenity.
This Voting Fraud Commission Is Fraudulent. D members were never told that Rethug operative recently charged on child porn violations was even working there. A black guy who claimed that white voters in Mississippi were being discriminated against. Again, I can’t make this stuff up.
Trump And Campaign Supporters Pushed Russian Propaganda Days Before Election. Direct from the troll farms to the electorate from Trump and Conway.
Senate As Nursing Home. Frail and disoriented Senator not retiring. Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
How Big Pharma Buys Congress. BTW, we know what they got for their money when they bought (and continue to buy) Tom Carper. He is ripe to be defeated in a primary, if only someone will run.
What do you want to talk about?
THIS should rub some salt into a Trump wound:
http://theredzone.org/Blog-Description/EntryId/66074/Shad-Khan–Trump–jealous-of–NFL-amid-failure-to-buy-team
Betcha didn’t know that Trump tried and failed to buy the Buffalo Bills back in 2014. Now you do.
If preparing the ground for huge corporations to “create jobs” actually solved civic problems and if constructing the architecture to protect mountains of capital (i.e. chancery courts, franchise fee tax havens) helped labor and working people I would have thought we’d have everything straight by now, no?
Thirty years of Pete DuPonts and Mike Castles and Tom Carpers and Jack Markells and John Carneys and Mike Purzyckis… yet here we are. Same problems.
If you think it’s in your interest because John Carney says it I am going to need to break the news to you. You’re being duped. Start calling it out as you see it.
A comprehensive look at Trump’s grudge against the NFL. I’m frankly surprised that this context has been missing from Trump’s war with the players:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-long-love-hate-relationship-with-football-and-pro-sports
“The first mayor to tell Jeff Bezos to upshove HQ2 and his grasping corporate shakedown assward will be America’s new political hero.” —David Simon
Anyone read the News Journal today about the guy who killed these people in DE and MD? Did you read how many times charges were either dropped or dismissed on a technicality with this guy? UNREAL ! It makes the DE justice system look like a joke.
My man XAW wrote that supporting bit. Big shout out…
Chris – I don’t feel good about breaking the news to you, but this isn’t just a Delaware issue.
XAW did a great job on the story….shocking facts in that story….deserves some follow up investigation and reporting..that guy should not have been walking the streets with that rap sheet.
I was hanging with him Tuesday and he had a stack of court documents he was going through just for research, looking for untoward interesting shit. Looked like 300-400 pages.
the guy he beat up in jan 2016 is the guy he eventually killed…. this serial felon got let go so many time by cops on “technicalities” what does that even mean??? sad
In the discussion of Google and Facebook accepting ads from Russian “agents”, I must confess that I’m not sure how these ads would have appeared on my timeline. In other words, I’m not sure I ever saw one. What about you?
Unless you already demonstrated the profile of someone susceptible to the advertising, you wouldn’t see them. And even if you saw one, there would be no indication who placed the ad.
The only part of any of this that’s illegal would be if the Russian government paid for them, which would make it an illegal campaign contribution.
Came across this looking up another story — a Denver GOP fund-raiser featuring Mike Pence had to lower ticket prices because they weren’t moving.
Daniel Cole, the party’s spokesman, explained: “We are hearing from a lot of people that they very much want to see the vice president but the tickets were too expensive. We couldn’t fill the large room at that ticket level.”
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/18/mike-pence-fundraiser-ticket-sales/
Should have studied Ian Faith’s response:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ6JxAgmxXg
Alby, how did you add the video?
Just cut and pasted.
This appeared a few days ago but I forgot to post it here. You might have heard of Greg Palast, a muckraking lefty journalist I’ve been reading since the W presidency.
Turns out he went to high school with the Las Vegas shooter. This is his take on him:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/46300-focus-i-went-to-school-with-the-vegas-shooter
alby, are you running apple or pc for that cutting and pasting?
Apple. What’s a PC?
PC is Personal Computer. In non-techie circles, “Apple” is a personal computer running Macintosh software, and “PC” is a personal computer running Windows software. Weird, but it is the result of decades of branding by Apple and Microsoft.
It is funny because if you have either Macintosh or Windows, your “personal” computer is now totally pwned by Apple or Microsoft. And probably a bunch of Russians too.
Nice mansplaining, but it was just a joke. I’ve had to use a PC at every job I’ve ever had, and they always ran Windows. Guess why.
Their access is only relevant if they care about me. They don’t.
Alby, I tried to cut and paste and could not make it work. What am I doing/not doing to post a .jpg here? I’m on Apple