Alby's Latest Posts
The News Journal Plays the Patsy Again
A week ago the News Journal ran a front-page article on a confidential report on the state Auditor’s Office and the performance of Kathleen Davies, who was second-in-command to elected Auditor Tom Wagner. Davies apparently ruffled a lot of feathers in her six years on the job, enough so that people under her command clearly […]
Kaboom
In a piece of timing Iraqi terrorists setting off bombs would envy, Trump’s twin nemeses were both adjudicated guilty within two minutes this afternoon. Paul Manafort is guilty on eight courts, with a mistrial declared on the other 10. Michael Cohen pled guilty to eight crimes. Trump holds another Nuremberg rally in West Virginia tonight. […]
Aug. 21 Open Thread: The Great Security Clearance Purge
The Great Security Clearance Purge has dominated headlines for the past couple of days, mainly because Trump is enjoying his unfettered power to punish people who displease him and it gives reporters a new reason to be shocked, shocked at his disrespect for norms. What most of those reporters are missing is how out-of-character it […]
Aug. 20 Open Thread: The Case of the Vanishing Republicans
The underreported story of the midterms is the exodus of Republicans from elected office. Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report notes that one of every six incumbent Republicans is not running again, which is increasing the odds of a blue wave. So we’re one-sixth of the way to a solution of the country’s problems. […]
Aug. 19 Open Thread: You Can’t Corner Someone in an Oval Office
The New York Times got Trump’s dander up yesterday with the story that White House counsel Don McGahn has spent something like 30 hours in interviews cooperating with to the Mueller probe. President Rage Muffin was still at it this morning, claiming Mueller’s probe “makes [Joseph] McCarthy look like a baby,” apparently unaware that it’s […]
Aug. 18 Open Thread: If Power Corrupts, What Does It Do to the Already Corrupt?
Michael Gerson, the Bush speechwriter turned conservative WaPo columnist, writes a “no shit, Sherlock” column for the ages: Our republic will survive Trump, he intones, but it will never be the same. He offers this as a lament rather than a call for a Constitutional amendment to restrict the powers of the presidency. As we […]
Aug. 17 Open Thread: We All Know He’s Guilty
Josh Marshall addresses the only important question in American politics: The greatest conceit in public life today is the notion that we don’t already know President Trump is guilty. … Why there’s such resistance to this reality is an interesting question. My own best guess is that it is too disquieting a reality to grapple […]
Aug. 16 Open Thread: Trump Is the Leader the GOP Always Wanted
The GOP is a dumpster, and Michael Tomasky raises the lid to find the source of the stink: Republicans don’t just fear Trump’s base, they approve of Trump’s destruction of political norms, because that’s the best way their minority party can rig the game to gain permanent power. Consider the announcement that former CIA chief […]
Aug. 15 Open Thread: Surreality Show
I really did try to ignore the Omarosa publicity tour, but give her credit — she learned a few things from playing the foil on Trump’s reality shows. Her slow drip of audio recordings, usually released after someone has questioned the truth of some ludicrous claim in her tell-all book, has mesmerized the media and […]
Aug. 14 Open Thread: Death By Florida
Beyond its usual plagues of alligators, invasive snakes, sinkholes and crazy residents, Florida is in even worse shape than usual these days. Popular tourist beaches in places like Sanibel are clogged with dead sea creatures, killed by algae blooms and toxic red tides. The ecological destruction prompted a declaration of emergency from Gov. Rick Scott, […]
Aug. 13 Open Thread: Supremacists So White They’re Invisible
Did the Unite the Right organizers really need to bother with a permit for their Sunday march in Washington? It attracted about 40 people, perhaps the biggest conservative crowd since Trump’s inauguration but still smaller than most family reunions. Naturally, thousands turned out to protest these pathetic mooks. The ones who should be embarrassed are […]
Aug. 12 Open Thread: Russia Helped Unite the Right
There’s little to learn from the weekend’s flood of Charlottesville anniversary stories, except for this one, which has gotten almost no coverage: Rep. Tom Garrett, the Republican who represents Charlottesville in Congress, told CNN the FBI told him the Russians helped promote last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally. “I sat in a closed session […]
Aug. 11 Open Thread: DNC Caves to Fossil Fuel Industry
Two months ago, the Democratic National Committee announced it would reject donations from the fossil-fuel industry. This uncharacteristically populist move lasted all of two months before the mainstream organization reversed itself, declaring the party wants to show support for fossil fuel workers. And some people still don’t understand why “centrists” lose election after election. Speaking […]
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