JustOneMinute

Not So Magic Now

Incendio!

I Can't Keep Up

Magic Eight Ball says "Whole lotta shakin' going on":

Trump Removes Anthony Scaramucci From Communications Director Role

Upon hearing the news Scaramucci's reply was :

(a) "Yeah? Communicate this."

(b) "I got something for you to communicate right here."

(c) Utterly unprintable yet soon to be printed somewhere.

This Just In!

From the flailing NY Times "Captain Obvious" edition:

Republicans Worry That White House Disarray Is Undermining Trump

No way!

 

The Party That Can't Govern Versus The Party That Can't Campaign

Ross Douthat is very interesting in discussing why a Republican Party that can't govern retain power in competition with a Democratic Party that can't campaign.

Douthat includes a link to a poignant piece by Peter Beinart, card-carrying progressive, who contrasts the current totally 'woke' Democratic view on immigration with Democratic notions of a decade ago.

This snippet is on one consequence of the takeover of academia by the left:

Academics face cultural pressures too. In his book Exodus, Paul Collier, an economist at the University of Oxford, claims that in their “desperate [desire] not to give succor” to nativist bigots, “social scientists have strained every muscle to show that migration is good for everyone.” George Borjas of Harvard argues that since he began studying immigration in the 1980s, his fellow economists have grown far less tolerant of research that emphasizes its costs. There is, he told me, “a lot of self-censorship among young social scientists.” Because Borjas is an immigration skeptic, some might discount his perspective. But when I asked Donald Davis, a Columbia University economist who takes a more favorable view of immigration’s economic impact, about Borjas’s claim, he made a similar point. “George and I come out on different sides of policy on immigration,” Davis said, “but I agree that there are aspects of discussion in academia that don’t get sort of full view if you come to the wrong conclusion.”

No kidding. That tends to follow from the "Everyone who disagree with me is a bigot" style of argumentation from the left. 

In a similar vein, Beinart is just being polite here, or delusional:

Liberals must take seriously Americans’ yearning for social cohesion. To promote both mass immigration and greater economic redistribution, they must convince more native-born white Americans that immigrants will not weaken the bonds of national identity. This means dusting off a concept many on the left currently hate: assimilation.

Liberals have to attempt to show some solidarity with the racists and rubes in flyover country? LOL. If that is the answer to the Democrats electoral woes we can look forward to a long period of Republican (non)rule.

A Wake-Up Headline

This should help elevate the old BP:

WAR FOOTING 

US Air Force unleashes supersonic bombers in ‘North Korea nuke drill’ as it’s claimed Donald Trump is ‘poised to launch military strike’ against the rogue state

Nuclear-capable B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighters over the peninsula

Oh, my.

My two cents: China doesn't want a unified, democratic, Western-leaning Korea on its border. They also don't want to deal with the refugees from a failed NoKo state.

But they ought to be fine with regime change if it means the Chinese help install a general who can rule a separate North Korea a bit more calmly.

Good morning and good luck to all of us.

Legacy Media Not Quite AWOL on Awan (But They Want To Be)

Andy McCarthy at NRO reprises the House/Wasserman-Schulz/techie debacle:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Pakistani IT Scammers

There’s more than bank fraud going on here. In Washington, it’s never about what they tell you it’s about. So take this to the bank: The case of Imran Awan, Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s mysterious Pakistani IT guy, is not about bank fraud.

Now for laughs, not to mention fairness and balance, let's peruse a failing NY Times piece mumbling about why this is probably No Big Deal:

Trump Fuels Intrigue Surrounding a Former I.T. Worker’s Arrest

So already a warning to their Upper West Side readership - it's Trump, so feel free to discount it heavily. For those readers for whom the caffeine has yet to kick in they open with the same theme:

WASHINGTON — For months, conservative news outlets have built a case against Imran Awan, his wife, two brothers and a friend, piece by piece.

To hear some commentators tell it, with the help of his family and a cushy job on Capitol Hill, Mr. Awan, a Pakistani-American, had managed to steal computer hardware, congressional data and even — just maybe — a trove of internal Democratic National Committee emails that eventually surfaced last summer on WikiLeaks. It helped that the story seems to involve, if only tangentially, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who is the former chairwoman of the committee and an ally of Hillary Clinton’s.

The Daily Caller, with almost two dozen articles on the family, has led the pack in reporting the story, packaging new details that have dribbled out of the investigation into a growing web of material, even as few in the mainstream news media paid attention.

Nothing to see here, until the paragraph four plot twist:

That is until Monday, when Mr. Awan was arrested by the F.B.I. and United States Capitol Police on seemingly unrelated charges as he tried to board a flight to Pakistan. In the days since, the story has raced down an increasingly familiar track at warp speed, from the fringes of the internet to Fox News and other established publications.

By Thursday morning, President Trump gave an added boost to the intrigue, reposting a tweet from the conservative news site Townhall suggesting a cover-up by TV networks.

“ABC, NBC, And CBS Pretty Much Bury IT Scandal Engulfing Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Office,” Townhall wrote, adding a link to an article explaining Mr. Awan’s ties to the Florida Democrat.

And the Times goes on to find a million reasons to ignore this. Great to see those journalistic instincts kick in!

A sample for the click-through averse:

But for all the publicity, few if any of the fundamental facts of the case have come into focus. The criminal complaint against Mr. Awan filed on Monday alleges that he and his wife conspired to secure a fraudulent loan, not to commit espionage or political high jinks. And Mr. Awan’s lawyer, Christopher Gowen, says the more explosive accusations are the product of an anti-Muslim, right-wing smear job targeting his client and his client’s family.

So is the family’s story the stuff of a spy novel, ripe for sleuthing and criminal prosecution, or simply an overblown Washington story, typical of midsummer? Many here are finding it hard to say.

The irony of "few if any of the fundamental facts of the case have come into focus" and "simply an overblown Washington story" seems to be lost on the "All the Russian Speculation That Is Fit To Print" Times.

Flashing Back

A bit of "on this day" trivia from ESPN:

On this date in 1996, one of the greatest Olympians of all time completed his most impressive feat.

At the Summer Games in Atlanta, Carl Lewis squeaked into the final round of the long jump on his last attempt. Then on his third jump of the final round, Lewis unleashed a jump of 27 feet, 10¾ inches, which moved him into first place.

Lewis passed on two of his last three jumps, and when Mike Powell fouled on his last leap, Lewis had done it.

He won the long jump for the fourth straight Olympics, becoming the second track and field athlete to win four consecutive Olympic golds in the same event, along with discus thrower Al Oerter from 1956 to 1968.

Only two other athletes in any sport have won four straight golds in one Olympic event: Michael Phelps in the 200-meter individual medley from 2004 to 2016, and Denmark’s Paul Elvstrom in the one-person dinghy from 1948 to 1960.

I would say Carl Lewis has been eclipsed by Usain Bolt, leaving Jesse Owens in the mix for greatest Olympic sprinter. On the men's side - I don't want to get in an argument with or about John McEnroe.

I have Michael Johnson and Alberto Juantorena in an Extraterrestial "Nobody human does that" category. Edwin Moses merits a mention for his absurd dominance of a brutal event.

We can leave the distance guys for another day.

Punting On Third Down

We're starting Saturday morning slowly but building to a mighty, tumultuous wave. Or not. Kind of excited to find out myself.

Reince Out!

Reince Preibus is out as Trump's chief of staff.

People are puzzling over his resignation note:

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramook, Scaramook, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me.

Frightening to all of us.

EQUAL TIME: Scaramucci responds.

We Are All Dupes Of The Russians?

This op-ed is reasonable in its argument that the Trump Jr. meeting with the Russians was a Putin ploy meant to be discovered in order to generate scandal, but how dare the not-so-failing NY Times run it?

Resist!

THIS JUST IN: Reince out, Gen. (ret.) Kelly in as Trump's chief of staff. The eerily prescient NY Times had made this very call earlier today (via The Week).

If You're Not Yet Sick Of Health Care...

Bloomberg News surveys the post-McCain wreckage. As opposed to the pre-McCain wreckage.

Never Let 'Em See You Sweat

Never let 'em see you sweat - tat up.

Nunes: Unmasking The Multitudes

Big if true:

Intelligence chairman accuses Obama aides of hundreds of unmasking requests

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is accusing top political aides of President Obama of making hundreds of requests during the 2016 presidential race to unmask the names of Americans in intelligence reports, including Trump transition officials.

Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, said the requests were made without specific justifications on why the information was needed.

“We have found evidence that current and former government officials had easy access to U.S. person information and that it is possible that they used this information to achieve partisan political purposes, including the selective, anonymous leaking of such information,” Nunes wrote in the letter to Coats.

The letter was provided to The Hill from a source in the intelligence community.

Second of all, another deplorable leak from the Deep State. First of all, if Nunes can back this up then yikes. However, this is all under a cloud:

Nunes recused himself from his committee’s work on its investigation over Russia’s meddling in the 2016 campaign after a controversy over his charges about Obama-era unmasking.

The chairman had reviewed intelligence reports on White House grounds that he said showed unmasking of Trump officials by Obama aides. Democrats accused him of working with the White House to make the disclosures.

That said, the accusations are big. I would say "newsworthy", but these are big enough to require the Legacy Media Cone of Silence:

In Thursday’s letter, Nunes said the total requests for Americans’ names by Obama political aides numbered in the hundreds during Obama’s last year in office and often lacked a specific intelligence community justification. He called the lack of proper justifications a “serious deficiency.”

His letter noted requests from senior government officials, unlike career intelligence analysts, “made remarkably few individualized justifications for access” to the U.S. names.

“The committee has learned that one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration,” Nunes wrote. “Of those requests, only one offered a justification that was not boilerplate.”

 

 

Let's Play Whack-A-Mole With Mooch!

The White House leaks. Always. IIRC Bush 43 had a brief, early run of iron discipline, but that was unusual.

Supplementing The Customary "Don't Drink The Water" Advice

If you go to Mexico, just don't drink, capish?

U.S. State Department warns tourists about tainted alcohol at Mexico resorts after blackouts reported

Lest you assume this advice only applies to the heartiest of partiers:

The new State Department travel alert cautions people to drink in moderation, but many told the Journal Sentinel they had only a drink or two before losing consciousness and waking up hours later — with no recollection of how they got back to their rooms or to the hospital, or how they were injured.

 

Bernie-Bannon 2020?

The White House's resident economic populist lays out a tax plan:

STEVE BANNON PUSHING FOR 44 PERCENT MARGINAL TAX RATE ON THE VERY RICH

That would kick in on incomes over $5 million. That is in contrast to Wild Bill Clinton's famous "millionaires tax", which kicked in around $250K. And do let me add - few things gall me more than Democratic rhetoric about yachts, private jets, billionaires and people buying the political system when their policy answer is a tax on people earning more than $250K. For those who were promised there would be no math, it takes a lot of years at $250K per to make it to a billion and buy a few Congressfolks.

TOP WHITE HOUSE adviser Steve Bannon is pushing for tax reform to include a new 44 percent top marginal tax rate, hitting people who earn more than $5 million a year, with the revenue paying for tax cuts for the rest, according to three people who’ve spoken to him recently.

The top rate is now 39.6 percent and most Republicans have been planning to lower it significantly as part of tax reform. The plan Trump put out previously would have only three brackets, with the top one brought down to 35 percent.

Raising taxes on the very rich has been a rare policy that President Donald Trump has publicly espoused throughout much of his life. On Tuesday, he told the Wall Street Journal, “if there’s upward revision it’s going to be on high-income people.”

“I have wealthy friends that say to me, ‘I don’t mind paying more tax,’” he said. White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders was pressed on Trump’s comment at a televised briefing Wednesday, and said that further specifics of the plan would be released shortly, with an emphasis on tax cuts for the middle class.

If I were advising Trump (If? Say What?!?) I would back Bannon on this. It's outside the box of thirty-seven years of Republican orthodoxy and appeals to the people who voted for Trump, rather than his contributors.

As to whether the numbers add up, I will be surprised to learn that a tax with a $5 million threshold raises all that money to be sprinkled amongst lesser earners. Per the article it takes in maybe $18 Billion per year.

We have roughly 140 million taxpayers. $18 billion spread evenly over 100 million taxpayers is $180 per taxpayer per year.

This is sort of the Willie Sutton problem - taxing the extremely high earners is not where the money is. I should add that after transfers our current system is already progressive, per the CBO. I don't think tax policy has been driving the rise of income inequality here, but I am not feeling a strong commitment to the current approach either.

As to the economics, supply-siders will abhor this. But I am old enough to remember backing Reagan when he wanted to cut the top rate from 70% to 50%, as well as reduce government regulation. 

Obviously if you believe this will be a jobs killer you advise Trump to stay away from this. But if you suspect it will be jobs-neutral at worst, the politics are appealing. Despite his character defects Bannon is shrewd enough to see this.

 

Notwithstanding The Selection Bias

This is not the news with which we want to open football training camps:

110 N.F.L. Brains

A neuropathologist has examined the brains of 111 N.F.L. players — and 110 were found to have C.T.E., the degenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head.

Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist, has examined the brains of 202 deceased football players. A broad survey of her findings was published on Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Of the 202 players, 111 of them played in the N.F.L. — and 110 of those were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., the degenerative disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head.

Eventually they discuss the obvious selection bias issue:

The set of players posthumously tested by Dr. McKee is far from a random sample of N.F.L. retirees. “There’s a tremendous selection bias,” she has cautioned, noting that many families have donated brains specifically because the former player showed symptoms of C.T.E.

But 110 positives remain significant scientific evidence of an N.F.L. player’s risk of developing C.T.E., which can be diagnosed only after death. About 1,300 former players have died since the B.U. group began examining brains. So even if every one of the other 1,200 players had tested negative — which even the heartiest skeptics would agree could not possibly be the case — the minimum C.T.E. prevalence would be close to 9 percent, vastly higher than in the general population.

Can Coca Cola and the NFL endure another fifty years?

No Transgender Troops At The Border Wall... Or Something

Rachel Blade and Josh Dawsey of Politico explain Trump's seemingly impromptu announcement on transgender troops:

Inside Trump’s snap decision to ban transgender troops

A congressional fight over sex reassignment surgery threatened funding for his border wall.

After a week sparring with his attorney general and steaming over the Russia investigation consuming his agenda, President Donald Trump was closing in on an important win.

House Republicans were planning to pass a spending bill stacked with his campaign promises, including money to build his border wall with Mexico. 

But an internal House Republican fight over transgender troops was threatening to blow up the bill. And House GOP insiders feared they might not have the votes to pass the legislation because defense hawks wanted a ban on Pentagon-funded sex reassignment operations — something GOP leaders wouldn’t give them.

They turned to Trump, who didn’t hesitate. In the flash of a tweet, he announced that transgender troops would be banned altogether.

Team Trump believes the politics are, well, workable:

The president’s directive, of course, took the House issue a step beyond paying for gender reassignment surgery and other medical treatment. House Republicans were never debating expelling all transgender troops from the military.

"This is like someone told the White House to light a candle on the table and the WH set the whole table on fire,” said one senior House Republican aide. The source said that while GOP leaders asked the White House for help, they weren't expecting — and got no heads up on — Trump's far-reaching directive.

While Democrats and centrist Republicans are already blasting the move, one White House official said the decision would be "seen as common-sense" by millions — though likely vociferously protested by others.

"It's not the worst thing in the world to have this fight," the administration official said.

If having sex-change operations is a new civil right than we could pass a Federal program funding that for all eligible citizens (Sorry, undocumented friends!), rather than mandating the burden onto private insurers and, in this case, the Pentagon. But that won't happen.

UPDATE: The NY Times reviews the policy evolution on this under Obama and Trump.

Sacking Sessions. Or Not.

Ross Douthat on Trump's pursuit of his own AG:

Donald Trump’s campaign against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in which he is seemingly attempting to insult and humiliate and tweet-shame Sessions into resignation, is an insanely stupid exercise. It is a multitiered tower of political idiocy, a sublime monument to the moronic, a gaudy, gleaming, Ozymandian folly that leaves many of the president’s prior efforts in its shade.

OK, then - "Undecided". Just to pick one of his many points:

Next in our tower of folly is the institutional level. Trump has had difficulty staffing his administration, his secretary of state is muttering about leaving, and his White House is riven by factionalism and paranoia. Meanwhile, he is both under investigation by Senate Republicans and dependent on their good will to keep the investigations contained to just the Russia business.

Trying to defenestrate Sessions, the lone Republican senator in Trump’s corner during the primary campaign and a popular figure among his former Senate colleagues, will make things worse for the president on both fronts. It demonstrates a level of disloyalty that should send sane people running from Trump’s service, it tells other cabinet members to get out while the getting’s good (and to leak and undermine like crazy on their way), and it further alienates Republican senators whom Trump needs to confirm appointees (including any Sessions replacement) and to go easy on his scandals.

 

Well, alienating Senate Republicans would be more of an issue if Trump had hopes of seeing his appointees confirmed. But since, per Douthat, people will be exiting the Trump administration rather than entering, maybe Trump doesn't need the Senate.

 

Hmm. If Yoda were advising Trump he might say that there is no "try" - there is either "fire" or "don't fire".

 

I'm sure neither Ross nor I are seeing the big picture. Sorry, YUGE picture. Biggest, bestest picture ever.

 

Hackers In The House

A story that has been percolating for months finally cracks a bit. OMG, ANOTHER Game of Thrones thread? NO! This is trouble in Our Blue Heaven for Debbie Wasserman Shultz and the House Democrats:

Wasserman Schultz staffer arrested trying to leave the country

A House IT aide working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, was arrested this week on bank fraud charges while trying to leave the country.

The arrest was reportedly at Dulles Airport outside DC.

Awan, an IT staffer who has worked for many House Democrats and was employed by Wasserman Schultz, was allegedly at the center of a scheme that involved double-charging the House for IT equipment, and may also have exposed House information online, according to Fox.

A spokesperson for Wasserman Schultz said that Awan had been fired on Tuesday.

“Mr. Awan previously served as an employee in our office, but his services have been terminated," Wasserman Schultz' spokesman David Damron said in a statement.

Awan and his family have reportedly worked for House Democrats for years. He declared bankruptcy in 2012, but has made millions of dollars on the House payroll over at least a decade of work for various members, according to a Politico report.

Lots of rumor and innuendo have circulated suggesting that these IT scammers knew too much about too many Democrats. In any case, the evidentiary standards will be somewhat comparable to Trump seeing a problem with the Russian contacts of his underlings:

In March, a group of House Democrats fired Awan and one other stafferover their alleged involvement in the scheme and the looming criminal investigation. However, Fox News reported Tuesday that Wasserman Schultz still has Awan on her staff's payroll despite him being barred from accessing the House's computer system since February.

At the time, Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) both defended Awan.

“As of right now, I don’t see a smoking gun,” Meeks told Politico in March. “I have seen no evidence that they were doing anything that was nefarious.”

The Daily Caller provided some recent flavor as well and Politico is on this. But perhaps the best Explainer has been prepared by JOM commenter "daddy", who brings his many talents to bear here.

THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE: Need proof - PROOF! - that this is a huge story gravely implicating House Democrats in their ongoing undermining of the rule of law? As of Wednesday morning neither the failing NY Times nor the "Democracy Dies in Darkness But Our Brand Thrives On BS" Washington Post have any detectable coverage of the arrest.

Politico includes this:

Awan was released Tuesday on a “high-intensity supervision program,” according to a DOJ spokesman. He must wear a GPS monitor, abide by a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and cannot leave a 50-mile radius of his Lorton, Va., home. He was also forced to surrender his passports and is scheduled to reappear in court for a preliminary hearing Aug. 21.

Nahh, not a flight risk.

Most Democratic lawmakers cut ties with Awan and his family after the criminal investigation came to light in early February. But Awan has continued to be employed by Wasserman Schultz, although it’s unclear what his job duties are given he has been barred from accessing the House IT system for months.

I'm guessing here - his job duty is to keep his mouth shut. 

HOURS LATER: The failing NY Times website posts an AP story at 11:58 AM.

Something For Everyone

People who didn't trust Obama won't trust this surveillance compliance report. On the other hand, a merciful God has spared us until another day the lamentations of the Legacy Media when the report on the Trump Era arrives.

"I've Got To Save Those Kids"

What do a female French philosopher and a young NFL running back have in common? Courage and character.

July 21, 2017:

Anne Dufourmantelle dead: French philosopher who wrote book on risk-taking dies rescuing children

June 29, 1983:

Remembering a hero, 30 years after his death

...

Thirty years ago today, Chiefs running back Joe Delaney noticed that a trio of young boys had waded into a man-made water hole.  It contained an unknown deep end, and they quickly were in trouble.

As Frank Deford, then of Sports Illustrated, later explained it, “There were all sorts of people around, but only Joe dashed to the pond.  There was a little boy there.  ‘Can you swim?’ he asked Joe.

“‘I can’t swim good,’ Joe said, ‘but I’ve got to save those kids.  If I don’t come up, get somebody.’  And he rushed into the water.”

Delaney saved one of the boys.  Two drowned.  So did Delaney.

More on Delaney here. 

Why We Vote

CNBC describes the Senate procedural vote on health care and what may follow.

Waiting For The Plan

Erick Erickson of The Resurgent:

Cabinet Level Revolt Over Trump’s Treatment of Jeff Sessions. “A Clusterf**k” One Secretary Calls It.

Entirely plausible.

"If he can get treated that way, what about the rest of us?” one of the President’s Cabinet secretaries asked me with both shock and anger in his voice. I am told reports about Rex Tillerson (not who I talked to) are legitimate. He is quite perturbed with the President’s treatment of his Attorney General and is ready to quit. Secretary Mattis (also not who I talked to) is also bothered by it. They and other Cabinet members are already frustrated by the slow pace of appointments for their staffs, the vetoes over qualified people for not being sufficiently pro-Trump, and the Senate confirmation pace.

In fact, the Cabinet secretary I talked to raised the issue of the White House staff vetoes over loyalty, blasting the White House staff for blocking qualified people of like mind because they were not pro-Trump and now the President is ready to fire the most loyal of all the Cabinet members. “It’s more of a clusterf**k than you even know,” the Cabinet secretary tells me about dealing with the White House on policy. It is not just Tillerson ready to bail.

If Trump has a plan I hope it wasn't written by George RR Martin.

If You Are Worried That You Are Not Worried Enough...

China and India in a tense border dispute? Yike.

This is hopeful:

7. Will it lead to war as we saw in 1962?

Most observers think not. Conflict wouldn’t serve either country’s interest. India, with an election in 2019, would risk losing an economically debilitating conflict with a much more powerful foe. China would risk its efforts to present itself as an international leader, filling the shoes of an isolationist U.S.

Good then. Still, as China antagonizes all its neighbors the value of a calming US presence rises.

Derrick Rose To Cleveland; Kyrie Where?

Derrick Rose is bringing his talents to Cleveland on a veterans minimum. Kyrie Irving may well be leaving, but where?

This NBA season mirrors the penultimate season of Game of Thrones, new underway - lots of jostling for position but the real drama is next year, when LeBron is likely to lose to the Warriors yet again (unless the Celtics knock him off first). At that point LeBron will probably declare "Mission Accomplished" in Cleveland and head to... well, where?!?

And he probably won't be bringing dragons with him, but maybe!

Bringing Back Rudy?

NO, Rudy won't be back to play in his last game as a senior. He'll be back as Attorney General!

I find this interesting:

Giuliani would have a tough time getting 50 Republicans senators to vote to confirm him. He was such an early and ardent Trump backer that he wouldn't be seen as an independent guardian of the department in these tumultuous times.

In fact, the nomination could be seen as Trump throwing gasoline on a fire. And Giuliani's stop-and-frisk police policy as New York mayor, and clients since then, also would be controversial with many senators.

"Stop and frisk" would surely be controversial with many Democratic Senators. But Republicans?

Of course, the article didn't say Republicans. Maybe it's just a heads up for more than the customary amount of Senatorial Voguing.

Jared Kushner Denies Everything

The failing NY Times covers Kushner:

"I Did Not Collude,’ Kushner Says After Meeting with Senate Investigators

I am waiting for Vox to dust off Glenn "This Is How It's Done" Carle, an ex-CIA specialist who can Voxplain to us that this sort of denial is EXACTLY what we should expect from a trained, covert Russian operative.

The New Media Order Will Be Joke Free

This is in the top spot at Memeorandum so I guess its news but I am not sure why:

Anthony Scaramucci On Hot Mic: I Called On CNN To Send A Message To Jeff Zucker

...

After his interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Scaramucci confirmed that he spoke on the phone with Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief.

According to the transcript, Scaramucci offered pleasantries about when the two could get together before moving on to business.

“I called on Sara on Friday for a reason. I want to make sure you know that,” Scaramucci said, referring to CNN White House correspondent Sara Murray, according to the transcript. “But then I went on Breitbart after that for a reason,” he added, referring to a Saturday interview on Breitbart’s radio broadcast where he praised the right-wing site.

“I’m trying to deescalate the tension across the entire media spectrum,” Scaramucci told BuzzFeed News in an interview on Sunday night. “Breitbart would be on the right and CNN would be on the left. I intentionally sought out both to send a symbolic message that we are trying to deescalate.”

“The president feels that 97% of [CNN’s] coverage is about him, and 93% of the 97% is decidedly negative. We’re hoping that we can change it,” Scaramucci told BuzzFeed News.

Politico is having kittens about praise for Breitbart so maybe that's the problem.

These media gatekeepers should have formed a union back when Obama's administration would have recognized it.

 

Piling On

Chuck Schumer taking shots at Hillary Clinton as the Democrats "re-brand"? Why not?

Bracing For History

Jordan Spieth is a great American, but can he bring that greatness to the Open in Britain?

CONTROVERSY QUELLER: Yes, per both the PGA schedule and Wikipedia, the British Open is "The Open" and all others need a modifier. I've been living a lie for decades - who knew?

 

Where's The Love In Cleveland?

Where's the love in Cleveland? And more to the moment, where is the Kyrie?

Kyrie Irving requesting trade out of Cleveland to find bigger role

This article makes sense - Irving does not want to remain on a sinking ship while LeBron skips out on a dysfunctional owner (again!) and moves to LA next year.

"Dysfunctional" is a broad term, of course - the Knicks are truly dysfunctional; the Cavs are plenty good enough to get back to the NBA Finals again and lose to the Warriors again. But why LeBron would put up with that is a mystery and owner Gilbert has no apparent plan to improve the squad.

Back In Merry Olde England

How is that golf going?

And I know people will enjoy this. OK, not everyone...

Sean Spicer Out

Sean Spicer resigns rather than work under his new boss.

Golf, Anyone?

I may collude with the Brits this weekend and watch my man Jordan.

A Bracer From Victor Davis Hanson

VDH bashes the media. Be forewarned - red meat can raise Ye Olde Bloode Pressure.

Surprise, Surprise! Or, Big Bang Theory

Filed under "Things Nobody Saw Coming, Other Than Everybody":

Mueller Expands Probe to Trump Business Transactions

This round of expansion includes Trump's business activities that have an obvious Russian connection, such as various apartment sales, a mansion sale, and the Moscow Miss, uhh, Hotty. (Universe!).

But like the universe, this probe will continue to expand rapidly.

Ain't Nothin' Gonna Break His Stride

Ok, what? Usain Bolt had a leg issue that may have slowed him down? What next, LeBron has some critical vitamin deficiencies?

YOU KNOW WE DO! Nothing is gonna break-a my stride either. Ooops.

Trump Unchained

The failing NY Times has a subtle scheme to collect a few Pulitizers AND bring down Trump - turn on a microphone and get him talking:

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”

In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.

Not helpful to Team Trump, but impulse control has never been Trump's strength.

The Dog Ate My Student Loan

$5 billion in undocumented student loans is a drop in a $1.4 trillion bucket, but... other drops may follow.

And among the Frequently Unasked Questions: If progressives are so keen to protect the rights of "undocumented" residents, shouldn't they be eager to protect the rights of undocumented lenders?

Run, Bernie Run!

I love this headline for so many reasons:

Donald Trump would lose 2020 presidential election to Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden, new poll suggests

Senator Elizabeth Warren also beats incumbent in latest survey, as 53 per cent of voters still want Obama in the White House

OMG! Putting the woman last!?! The shred of logic there is that her polling margin over Nearly Pure Evil Adulterated Only By Foolishness (Sorry, just trying to help their editors)  is less than Bernie's.

But Joe Biden runs best of all, so why not lead with him? OK, none of these geriatrics will be literally "running" in 2020, but Biden out-polls and out-strolls Trump.

But I like Bernie as the nominee anyway - one old, cranky New Yorker isn't enough. 

A Cameo With Jane Austen

Kathleen Flynn of the NY Times talks about Jane Austen. All very interesting, especially because of the star turn taken briefly and anonymously by a JOM commenter:

We learned that many scholars were tackling the analytics of Austen. A team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had, among other feats, cataloged the use of free indirect discourse in the entire corpus of her work. And txtLAB, at McGill University, had mapped her novels along with those of other female 19th-century novelists “on a sliding scale of sociability vs. interiority.”

That prompted "Catsmeat" to take a bow at 6:08 PM. The permalink is glitching for me so here goes:

Totally off-topic on a day when we're all really mad, but still--my austen.unl.edu datamining site on Austen's free indirect discourse got a mention today in the NYT in a piece on new computational approaches to Austen--doesn't name me, but just a "team at the University of Nebraska," but I do happen to be the PI (and motive force and chief sufferer when it came to figuring out all the FID in each novel).

So there you have it - JustOneMinute bracing for the future while peering into the past.

A Bench That Would Impress, Well, The Knicks

The NY Times attends the Democratic Governors conference. Yes, there are still enough of them to organize a bowling match, and a few may belabor as with a Presidential run. Take a few deep breaths because you are about to have it taken away:

As Party Drifts Left, Pragmatic Democratic Governors Have Eye on White House

Well, Bill Clinton, an unknown governor of an irrelevant state, ran as a New Democrat in an attempt to bring his party rightwards toward reality. Of course, that was then and his devoted wife repudiated most of his policies (the crime bill, welfare reform, free trade) in the last go-around, but whatever. Maybe the time is right for a new mix of unknown and irrelevant.

Which takes us to Montana:

“I believe the time is right to lend my voice, the voice of someone that after getting elected has been able to govern in what’s viewed as a red state,” Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana said in an interview. “Some of the things that I’ve been able to do in Montana can also translate beyond just the state’s border.”

Mr. Bullock is creating a federal political action committee, Big Sky Values PAC, that will offer a political infrastructure to let him meet Democratic donors, contribute to the party’s candidates and fund his out-of-state electoral travels.

I suspect the Dem Party will quickly agree that what happens in Montana stays in Montana. 

To reassure us they don't lack for middle-aged white guys the next man up is the crook and Clinton crony from Virginia:

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, the chairman of the National Governors Association, exuberantly led a panel that drew Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and the Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk, with an eye toward raising his profile...

And while each is from a decidedly more Democratic state than Mr. Bullock, both are also unapologetic, business-friendly pragmatists with a focus on economic development that borders on obsessive.

Mr. McAuliffe will not retreat from his support for free trade pacts, slyly noting that he stands with “the president” (as in: Barack Obama) on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

And if Terry McAuliffe just seems like Mr. Clean, the Dems have a player from Rhode Island. No, really - forget about its long reputation as one of the most corrupt states in the Union and look to the future:

The host governor, Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, may also be open to a presidential run.

And while each is from a decidedly more Democratic state than Mr. Bullock, both are also unapologetic, business-friendly pragmatists with a focus on economic development that borders on obsessive.

...

And Ms. Raimondo, noting that “all I’m doing is jobs,” recalled with a touch of incredulity how she recently gave an economic speech and was told afterward by attendees that it was “risky” to “have that pro-growth, pro-job message as a Democrat.”

Recounting her efforts to promote apprenticeships in Rhode Island’s shipyards, Ms. Raimondo echoed Mr. Bullock on free college for all. “I don’t care if they ever go and get a four-year degree or not,” she said, warning her party not to be “snobby” about higher education.

She's a woman with an ethnic-y name so she has to be the early favorite. Until Oprah announces.

Health Care Follies

The Perils of Pauline, Republican Senate style.

All About MATGA

We are all about Making Absurd Trivia Great Again. I know the NBA season is over and I need to let go but:

The NBA First-Name Game

If you were building a team using only players with the same given name, which squad would win? Spoiler: It’s not the Toms, Dicks, or Harrys.

Team Michael is competitive because it has Michael but it would not be the favorite.

ESPN's Kevin Pelton (Hmm, spoiler hint?) has more in his mailbag.

My favorite is the Bonus Wrinkle, the All Mr. Lonely Team of guys who have no matching first name teammates in the history of the NBA. Hint - this team would crush all opposition before it, and LeBron might not even be the best player on it.

And a related query - who makes the Best Nickname team? This may be a Golden Age for sports but nicknames are something of a thing of the past. Anyway, I have The Dream, The Mailman, Dr. J, Magic and either Clyde or The Answer for my starting five. Bill Russell had no nickname and neither "The Stilt" nor "The Big Dipper" impress me nearly as much as the player himself did.

A Fine Day For The Irish

I'm arriving late to this Fake News but Snopes describes a fine day for the Irish. Also a fine day for the Nigerians, but for the media, less so. Snopes did a mass debunking of the mass media, described at PJ Media:

In an example of "Trump the Buffoon," Daily Kos, BuzzFeed, The Root, Stephen Colbert and others spread a false narrative about a poem President Trump recited while in Ireland.

In March, Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny came to the White House for a traditional St Patrick’s Day visit with the sitting President. During a speech, Trump recited a verse:

As we stand together with our Irish friends, I’m reminded of that proverb — and this is a good one, this is one I like, I’ve heard it for many, many years and I love it:

“Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue, but never forget to remember those that have stuck by you.”

The response was huge. Almost instantly, Trump was mocked for citing as an Irish proverb a poem written by a Nigerian man. The Daily Kos web site wrote:

Uh uh, no spoilers here! The PJ Media story picks up part-way down.

Anonymized History

History won't be kind to Obama, or any other recent US Presidents, if this NY Times evaluation of the Iranian takeover of Iraq is any guide. No President (or anyone else) is named and associated with any decision. 

Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over’

By Tim Arango   July 15, 2017

...

When the United States invaded Iraq 14 years ago to topple Saddam Hussein, it saw Iraq as a potential cornerstone of a democratic and Western-facing Middle East, and vast amounts of blood and treasure — about 4,500 American lives lost, more than $1 trillion spent — were poured into the cause.

From Day 1, Iran saw something else: a chance to make a client state of Iraq, a former enemy against which it fought a war in the 1980s so brutal, with chemical weapons and trench warfare, that historians look to World War I for analogies. If it succeeded, Iraq would never again pose a threat, and it could serve as a jumping-off point to spread Iranian influence around the region.

In that contest, Iran won, and the United States lost.

That's bad but is anybody to blame? Not really - instead we get weird passages like this:

Some are seeing an American troop commitment as a chance to revisit the 2011 withdrawal of United States forces that seemingly opened a door for Iran.

When American officials in Iraq began the slow wind-down of the military mission there, in 2009, some diplomats in Baghdad were cautiously celebrating one achievement: Iran seemed to be on its heels, its influence in the country waning.

“Over the last year, Iran has lost the strategic initiative in Iraq,” one diplomat wrote in a cable, later released by WikiLeaks.

But other cables sent warnings back to Washington that were frequently voiced by Iraqi officials they spoke to: that if the Americans left, then Iran would fill the vacuum.

Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador in Iraq from 2007 to 2009, said that if the United States left again after the Islamic State was defeated, “it would be effectively just giving the Iranians a free rein.”

But many Iraqis say the Iranians already have free rein. And while the Trump administration has indicated that it will pay closer attention to Iraq as a means to counter Iran, the question is whether it is too late.

“Iran is not going to sit silent and do nothing,” said Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite politician who has good relationships with both the Iranians and Americans. “They have many means. Frankly, the Americans can’t do anything.”

One might have mentioned the prioritization of Obama 2012 and noted that the most qualified Presidential candidate in the history of forever was then Secretary of State, but why annoy the readership?

However, the most mysterious passage is this:

But after the United States’ abrupt withdrawal of troops in 2011, American constancy is still in question here — a broad failure of American foreign policy, with responsibility shared across three administrations.

But which three administrations? Bush 41 exhorted the Shiites to rise up against Saddam and then abandoned the southern Iraqis; he did establish the no-fly zone over the Kurds that led to the de facto Kurdish state we see today.

Clinton is probably the guy getting the pass here, although his approach to Saddam was certainly criticized from the right as weak,

Bush 43 invaded Iraq with no clear plan for managing the post-liberation occupation. On the other had, he Persevered and handed off to Obama a winnable (or at least, non-lost) war, or so said Obama and Biden as they pulled the plug prematurely in 2011.

Well. There is plenty of blame to go around but the Times doesn't serve up any at all. Weird. 

Nor do they blame Trump. Double weird.

Remodeling My Brain

"When Is Speech Violence" asks professor of psychology Lisa Feldman Barrett. Prof. Althouse has more but I fell in love with this artful phrasing from the column:

But we must also halt speech that bullies and torments. From the perspective of our brain cells, the latter is literally a form of violence.

"[T]he latter is literally a form of violence". My Imaginary Sources tell me that the original submission read "the latter is literally metaphorical violence", which would have been perfect. Darn editors!

Let me try it this way - violence is not normally (or ever) defined as "an activity that rewires the brain in a predictable and undesirable way". That may well be a consequence of some types of violence, but brain re-wiring is also a consequence of all sorts of other things.

And regardless of her qualifier about "from the perspective of the brain", believe me - my brain feels fully capable of distinguishing between this violent assault on logic and a smack in the nose.

Yeah, yeah - I'm a victim of false consciousness, or false unconsciousness. Well, sue me. Or don't - that might stress me out and rewire my brain too.

Bagels With Roger

It's Breakfast at Wimbledon so we are prepping for bagels with Roger. As if we didn't get enough Bagels with Boston last night. And just in case no one's dead on their feet the Yanks and Red Sox play another eighteen innings (at least!) today. As the great Ernie Banks never said, "Let's play two times two!".

From Fountainhead To Drainpipe

With the exception of a few dead-enders we have seen a generational shift from "Who is John Galt?" to "Who is Jon Snow?". Not good.