On another platform, valued commenter Le Comte (etc.) drew my attention to this article from The Post. Holy fucking shit:
Ian M. Smith, a Department of Homeland Security analyst who resigned this week after he was confronted about his ties to white nationalist groups, attended multiple immigration policy meetings at the White House, according to government officials familiar with his work.
Smith quit his job Tuesday after being questioned about personal emails he sent and received between 2014 and 2016, before he joined the Trump administration. The messages, obtained by the Atlantic and detailed in a report published Tuesday, depict Smith engaging in friendly, casual conversations with prominent white supremacists and racists.
In one email from 2015, Smith responded to a group dinner invitation whose host said his home would be “judenfrei,” a German word used by the Nazis during World War II to describe territory that had been “cleansed” of Jews during the Holocaust.
According to The Post, colleagues in the understaffed policy shop where this Nazi worked said this guy wasn’t a supervisor but also “wasn’t just some low-level schlub.” He helped develop policy on refugee issues, temporary worker visas, and penalties for legal immigrants who use tax credits or government benefits.
The Nazi also attended White House meetings held by Stephen Miller. Shocked, gambling, etc.
Smith is the second “blood-and-soil” shit-stain booted from the White House this month:
A White House speechwriter for President Trump was terminated last week after revelations that he had spoken at a conference attended by well-known white nationalists, according to three people familiar with the decision who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Darren Beattie, who was a visiting instructor at Duke University before he joined the White House speechwriting team, was fired Friday after a media inquiry about his appearance at the 2016 H.L. Mencken Club conference, where Beattie spoke on a panel alongside Peter Brimelow.
Brimelow, founder of the anti-immigrant website Vdare.com, is a “white nationalist” and “regularly publishes works by white supremacists, anti-Semites, and others on the radical right,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group that tracks extremists.
I’m sure Ivanka privately opposes the employment of Nazis in the West Wing, but they just keep tumbling out of the woodwork.
In more local news, something equally baffling happened in the gubernatorial race between racist Trump toady Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum:
racist robocalls against Andrew Gillum paid for by a neo-Nazi group in Idaho are going out to voters in Tallahassee https://t.co/JIRlEuNw6C
— Alazar Moges (@zarzarbinkss) August 31, 2018
‘Tis a mystery.
[Post title is an homage to a justly famous opinion column from The Onion, circa 1998. But you knew that.]
Jeffro
Catherine Rampell retweeted an article that noted not one but TWO open Nazis are running for mayor of Hilton Head, SC. (Apparently there are seven people total running, so let’s hope that one of the other five is a nice, sane, appealing Democrat).
Jesus, WW II vets must be spinning in their graves.
On another note, this Patten plea deal today is quite interesting. It includes an admission that he lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which if you think about it puts a LOT of Trumpov/Russia folks squarely in Mueller’s crosshairs. By time all of the separate perjury charges, money laundering charges, conspiracy charges, campaign finance violation charges, FARA charges, and more are added up and dropped on their heads, it really IS going to be “hundreds of charges against dozens of people* ”
*or so this one guy I know says…;)
Jeffro
Here’s the article Rampell referenced
Baud
I wish I could say I did Nazi that coming, but I totally did.
MoxieM
Holy Cannoli. I mean, I think we knew it if we were paying attention. But that’s just disgusting. And what it says about norms and boundaries in this White House is frankly close to terrifying.
I seem to remember a story about the *resident keeping a copy of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, early in the campaign. In hindsight, it seems more worth of attention that Her Emails, doch?
I don’t remotely know enough German for a good enough insult, and maybe the wrong language under the circumstances. It’s not exactly fire with fire. Except, that kind of abominable speech and behavior is illegal in Germany, with good reason (despite the vile racists in the East, Pegida, AfD, and fellow travellers.)
Jeffro
Betty I might have missed someone’s earlier post…has it already been noted/discussed that DeSantis is one of the moderators of some RWNJ FB page? I haven’t seen it hit the mainstream media yet.
Millard Filmore
@Jeffro:
I would think perjury to Congress would be handled by Congress. Can Mueller go after this without an invitation from the Ruling Party?
debit
I wonder what we’re going to do when the shitshow circus leaves town. Life is going to be so blessedly boring.
trollhattan
Nice turn of phrase. “Daddy, Eichmann’s in the wainscotting again!”
Major Major Major Major
Appalled but not surprised.
Aleta
Was this illegal practice somwhat common and accepted? Did none of the Congress members who were asked to meet with the foreign nationals have aides who checked on registration? Or did they know and ignore the law, or refuse the meetings but not report?
From From Doc 1 filed in USDC for DC (a copy of it at cnn)
Foreigner B is said to be Serhiy Lovochkin.
Baud
@Baud:
You know who else saw that coming (I know you do)?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/25/hillary-clinton-alt-right-racism-speech-donald-trump-nevada
trollhattan
@debit:
Similar to waiting for surgery pain to disappear. The blissful lack of something is its own reward–I’m too much of a pessimist to envision my Trumpfree future. Hopefully I’ll outlast the bastard.
Roger Moore
We need a tag like “Only The Best People” for when this kind of thing happens.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jeffro:
My father-in-law lives in Hilton Head. It’s one of the three primary hellmouths of old white entitlement (the others are in Sun City AZ and The Villages).
If you’re an old white woman living there, your main fear is of anyone darker than a plain, colorless, cheap manila folder from Office Depot. If you’re an old white man, you fear the same but need to exercise dominance displays via the organs of the state, lest they get uppity.
Since the first week I ever visited once they moved there, I’ll never forget two things I saw:
1. Two cop cars, 3 cops rousting a black teen of about on a bicycle on the side of the road (and I was a Bush voting republican at the time – I was shocked and appalled – wife wouldn’t let me step up at the time).
2. The news article and my father in law’s explanation that of 9 members of the water board, two were people of color although people of color made of 55-60% of the permanent residents – and that the areas of HHI that didn’t have running water were the areas where people of color lived.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: It was in the local news, but I don’t know if it’s hit the national media. Probably not, even though DeSantis is a back-bench Trump protege who wouldn’t be anywhere near the GOP nomination in Florida’s gubernatorial race without Hair Furor.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: “…one of the three primary hellmouths of old white entitlement…” Well said — consider it heisted!
Jeffro
And here’s a little good news since it looks like we aren’t getting a nice Friday indictment drop: GOP pulling plug on unwinnable House races…including Barbara Comstock’s?!?!?
FSM let it be so!
Aww poor baby! But then, if you’re a Comstock friend and financial backer, F. U.
Jeffro
@Millard Filmore: Good question! Legal experts?
MattF
I guess this answers the earlier question of who would take a job in the WH these days.
James E Powell
@Baud:
Hillary called them deplorable and the entire press/media world clutched pearls and headed for the fainting couch.
I am going to hate all of them for the rest of my life
NotMax
Know essentially nothing about the area, but re: Gillum –
Isn’t Tallahassee up in the South Alabama area of Florida? As he’s got a track record of winning there, does that aid in greasing the skids for the other, um, less enlightened parts of the state?
Aleta
@Aleta: If these violations were in fact reported when they happened in 2015, I guess that means that Patten, Manafort etc may have been watched since then. And that the entry of Russian-Ukraine $ into Republican funds was known to the watchers?
SiubhanDuinne
Wait, a white supremacist named Ian Smith?!
Jeffro
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Ugh. (Had to look up what The Villages were).
Let ’em all head south. Given what I’m seeing re: global warming predictions, I’m thinking about spending my retirement years in mild-n’-wonderful North Dakota, lol
EBT
Operation Paperclip tainted the American Conservative movement in an incurable fashion.
efgoldman
@debit:
Appropriately, Stravinsky’s Circus Polka just came up in my random music feed.
debbie
@Baud:
Oy.
HeleninEire
Re-posted from the last thread, since once again I was posting in an almost dead thread.
A final update on my work friend. Her mother took her off of life support this morning. The “good” news is that her children were born here so they are Irish citizens. In addition, she has a brother here who she named as guardian. So all is as well as it can be in this horrible situation. They will be raised here. My supervisor told us to go home at lunchtime and I went home and took a 3 hour nap. This shit is exhausting. Thank you to everyone here for your kind words and a special thank you to Satby for putting me in touch with Tom. While we won’t need his services it was heartening to have that option.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: He’s mayor of Tallahassee, college town and liberal oasis in the red Panhandle. That’s not to say he can’t win, but…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow. Isn’t he the incumbent Sharice Davids is taking on?
efgoldman
@James E Powell:
In my head, I’m seeing and hearing the old grey kinescope of Tailgunner Joe McCarthy “I have in my hand the names of [random number between 20 and a hundred] communists working in the state department….”
I have on this blog the names of multiple nazis currently working in the White House.
Hey, why not?
Fuckem
Matt McIrvin
@debit: Trumpism is not going away with Trump. We’ll be dealing with these people for the rest of our lives somehow.
debbie
Every time I think he’s slithered into obscurity, that fucker Richard Spencer oozes back up.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
Which is why it’s so essential we thoroughly defeat them and send as many to prison as possible. The Republicans need to thoroughly learn the lesson that Trumpism is not the route to long-term political success
efgoldman
@Matt McIrvin:
McCarthyism didn’t go away with McCarthy, either. The difference is 70+ years of social media development.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I was surprised to hear Rick Wilson say he has a real shot. Wilson’s a gun nut first and foremost, is what I’ve gleaned from the last year of paying attention to him, and he gives that issue a lot of weight. Maybe he’s right, I don’t know. But he said if Gillum can meet Obama’s turn out with African Americans, and DeSantis keeps doubling down on trump and scares college-educated whites, he’ll win.
He also said Dems underestimate Scott at their peril, because in spite of his weird affect (Wilson’s phrase or close to it) he’s the most disciplined candidate RW has ever seen. And he’s going after newly arrived Puerto Ricans more aggressively than Nelson. Somebody else said Nelson’s got in his head that he’s an astronaut and people love that. I was wondering what you think of that assessment?
PeakVT
Here at BJ, the commentariat is aware of all internet traditions.
efgoldman
@Roger Moore:
Every time we (and the CW) think “this time they HAD to learn…” it bites us in the ass, going back at least to Watergate.
Thoughtful David
Jeffro–
Did I see something in here about you living in the VA 5th CD? I live in the northern end of it.
MattF
@efgoldman: Nazis aren’t going to stop trying to get into positions of influence– and nowadays, the notion of Republican ‘gatekeepers’ is a bad joke. Think Reince Priebus.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffro: Rod Blum was my rep in Iowa. Even though I’ve moved away, I’d rejoice to see him gone.
JPL
@HeleninEire: I just read that Trump added a visit to Ireland in November. How close are you to his golf course?
LesGS
So apparently Trump just blew up the Canadian trade deal.
efgoldman
@efgoldman:
[No edit function]
The lesson WEN (the clear majority party) fail to learn is: Take nothing for granted; do not get complacent; work your ass off for EVERY fuckiNg election, EVERYWHERE, EVERY FUCKING TIME:
Or face the inevitable consequences.
Aleta
@Jeffro: Last night he announced he’d removed himself from the page. And now he says (or it’s reported) he was “unknowingly a member” of that racist FB page. No way he or his staff could have missed what it was. He can’t claim innocence by saying a staff underling put him there to attract voters, either.
TenguPhule
@debit:
three generations of shoveling elephant crap off of the streets.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Does nobody screen applicants to work in the WH? In 2008, anyone who wanted to work for Obama had to fill out a long form that included info about everything they ever posted online.
I suppose an even worse possibility is that they are screening and these are the people they choose.
Mike in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That was one of the things I took away from reading “Everything Trump Touches Dies”.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Kushner showed that its okay to leave annoying details blank on screening forms.
JPL
Do we have any idea how this very fine person got the job? Did Kelly hire him?
LesGS
I have no idea how my link to the Toronto Star got tangled up in the reply link of my post…
efgoldman
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Hahahahahahahahah!
Very funny.
This is the maladministration that appointed judges who never cracked a law book, and an “education Secretary” who tjhinks her depqartm4nt shouldn’t exists and doen’t know what it does.
TenguPhule
@Aleta:
Just watch him do so.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Those are features and working as intended.
TenguPhule
@Matt McIrvin:
I am optimistic about this.
Martin
@LesGS: There was never going to be a deal. Trade deals take years. They are magnificently complex things, and even if Trump thinks he can jizz one out every few days, the other side of that deal is going to insist on doing their due diligence, plus Congress needs to approve these things, and you can be every single one of those Senators is going to be looking out for their critical fly fishing waders industry to see if they’re protected or not.
schrodingers_cat
@James E Powell: They reached for the fainting couch because heart of hearts they knew that the term described many of them to a T.
Martin
@Aleta: He’ll blame it on his wife like Duncan Hunter did.
Jager
@MoxieM:
Here you go,
dicker Mann mit einem kleinen Schwanz
Learned that when I was about 14 from a mechanic who worked for my father
Cacti
I just read that the Russian separatist leader in Ukraine got hisself blowed up at a Donetsk coffee shop.
It almost makes me wish Boob in Putinland was still here to laugh at.
Almost.
les
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes. And he’s just as bad as you might imagine. Right out of the Brownback/Kobach club.
TenguPhule
@Martin:
To be fair to Hunter, she’s pretty heavily involved in a lot of the charges made against them.
Him hiring on as a $2K and later $3K campaign employee with free access to the campaign credit cards and allegedly she was the one who came up with Balls for the wounded warriors alibi.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Getting on toward quitting time in DC. Chuck Todd promised me a Friday bombshell, god dammit.
Ima go back to ignoring that sawdust-brained, fatuous gobshite.
TenguPhule
Trump: “I can top this.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE PROSECUTORS IN FRONT OF THE CURTAIN THE DEAD WAR HERO OR THE TWO PRESIDENTS AT LEAST ONE OF WHOM YOU LIKE AND SOME OF YOU BOTH OF THEM DADDY WHY DIDN”T YOU LOVE ME
Aleta
@TenguPhule: yeah I expect he will, since “we were only trying to attract racist voters” sounds good to him.
The Moar You Know
That’s no mystery, that’s straight up money laundering through a Neo-Nazi group.
I remember a time when this would be treated as the federal crime that it is.
TenguPhule
JFC.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Rudy’s timeline was today, but Trump is not running so Mueller need not worry about a timeline
Gex
@efgoldman: Just as their dog whistles areused to pull in the hard core bigots, any decency they display is used to draw in moderate/reasonable people. They are first and foremost the party of white male Christian supremacy – the actual policies are the tell.
efgoldman
Why do I fall asleep at about this time every afternoon?
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Large lunch?
JCJ
Seeing the word “judenfrei” made me queasy.
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
Has nurse Ratched just played the music?
trollhattan
@JCJ:
You’re not the only one. We tolerate this shit at our considerable peril.
The Moar You Know
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Fun fact: The Villages has the highest rate of new herpes infections in the entire United States.
Steve in the ATL
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I won a closest to the pin contest there, shortly before our group was ejected for being drunk and disorderly. Which we were. Ah, those bachelor party weekends back in the 90’s….
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think Wilson is correct on both counts: Gillum has a shot IF he can generate huge turnout — and I think he can! I’m gonna work my ass off to help. The mostly white, middle-aged Dems I know who didn’t support Gillum in the primary are all in for him now. It helps that his opponent is a goddamned nutcase. Black turnout should be strong, and hopefully the Parkland kids’ efforts will pay off with the yoots.
Scott is a worry. As I’ve said here before, Scott is the worst retail politician I’ve ever seen. That’s not hyperbole; he is literally the worst! But he’s won twice in the governor’s race, and he is indeed disciplined, as Wilson noted.
Now, I think it bears repeating that Scott has never cracked 50%, and there were unique circumstances in each of the two races he won that allowed him to eek out a win. In the first race, the Dems stupidly ran a charisma-free bankster against Scott in the aftermath of the crash during the Tea Party wave year. In the next race, Crist the party switcher had the Democratic nomination, and there were indy ratfuckers in both races.
It’s also worth noting that Scott dumped more than $70M of his personal fortune into the races. Right now, he’s getting bad press for an ongoing environmental catastrophe (algae bloom) and for parking millions on offshore tax havens. But still, he’s been a crook all along, and caveats aside, he’s also been a winner down here, and that is worrisome.
I am going to plaster my vehicles with Nelson signs and hang them on my fences. But to be honest, I look forward to the day we have a better Democrat to get behind. Nelson almost always votes the right way after hemming and hawing. But the fake astronaut thing is annoying. (He got to hitch a ride on a shuttle as a congressman; he’s actually a lawyer.) And poor guy, he looks increasingly like one of the vampires from Buffy, as someone noted on Twitter. But he’s our man, and to give him his due, he’s made a career out of being a Florida politician and has survived some close shaves, so he knows how to win too.
Bottom line: if Gillum generates the turnout he’ll need to get elected, I think Nelson will win too, partly on Gillum’s coattails. But we could wake up November 7th with a racist Trump sycophant heading for Tallahassee and a reptilian crook heading to Washington to join Rubio the Spineless. I’m trying not to panic, but it’s going to be a scary couple of months. Probably more than you wanted to know! :)
Steve in the ATL
@Steve in the ATL: ETA: my victory was not a statement of my good progress, but rather of the drunkenness and disorder of our group
And since you’re all interested, it was 130 yards and I used an 8-iron. Ping Eye 2, red dot. Still have that set in my garage! Along with five others….
Steve in the ATL
@Betty Cracker: to my great shame, and/or pride, I knew where you got the thread title the second I read it!
Elizabelle
Michael Eric Dyson takes the stage at Aretha’s funeral:
“To President Clinton. And her husband Bill.”
Mary G
Michael Eric Dyson got up at Aretha’s funeral and gave his regards to President Clinton and her husband Bill. Love it!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
On the contrary. Scott’s success makes me crazy because he’s a fucking medicare fraudster getting elected by old white people in God’s Waiting Room, fercrissake! I remembered he got in the first time with a splitter third party, didn’t remember about the second round
I’ll be damned. I never went deep into his bio– I think anyone would fall asleep by the end of the first sentence, but my understanding was he was a lesser-known but honest-to-god astronaut, like Major Tony Nelson
Mary G
@Elizabelle: Jinx! I owe you a drink.
Calouste
@JPL: And besides, 60 days from election day is next Friday, not today (most years it would have indeed been the Friday before labor day, but not this year). Mueller still has 4 working days to indict Rohrabacher, Nunez, etc.
Villago Delenda Est
@JCJ: Now, imagine Bibi retooling that as “Palestienfrei”.
Elizabelle
@Mary G: I will make sure to get out West and collect it.
Elizabelle
Oh that’s right. We still get Stevie Wonder. This has been incredible.
Has Chaka Khan performed yet?
jl
Really irritating to hear total slimeballs like Pence, Ryan and McConnell headlined almost nonstop in the news reports this morning talking at McC’s postmortem appearance at the Capitol today. And that just sunk in even more when I read Pence saying today that the GOP will continue to try to completely repeal ‘Obamacare’.
McC had an extremely mixed record, but I do credit him with his vote to stop the GOP health reform repeal scam (the famous 2 AM thumbs down stunt he pulled). He had some limits and I think the total fraud of that attempt offended him. But McC was very mixed, and if he had been able to continue Senate attendance he may well have voted for an equally bad plan that he sincerely believed was OK.
Another part of McC’s very mixed record was on economic policy. He could support very good and solid and also absolutely nutso economic policies. I think he had no clue about economics, and it all depended on who he snagged for his economic advisers at a given time. Zandi was good, and the McCain camp had some good proposals for the 2007 financial panic. Other advisers were GOP hacks. I noticed that McCain couldn’t formulate one sensible word on economics when he was on his own and trying to talk economic policy. That sure showed when he participated in public brainstorming conferences during the 2007-8 financial panic.
But, whatever McC’s mixed record, Pence and Ryan and McConnell are far worse.
efgoldman
@Steve in the ATL:
What do you do with six sets of clubs? you got six arms?
Elizabelle
This orange apparition …. you lugubrious leach. You …. doppleganger… foolish fascist. I cannot keep up!
Mary G
@Elizabelle: Yes, she has. Michael is trashing “The Orange Apparition” and it’s giving me life. He’s got the crowd on its feet.
John Revolta
@efgoldman:
Because you CAN.
You’ve earned it. I say go for it.
Elizabelle
@Mary G: I hope they are registering voters for blocks around. And making sure people have their ID in order. Vote. Vote. Vote.
jl
The very idea of the likes of McConnell and Ryan piously intone about the evils of hypocrisy this morning was, in the words of Alexander Hamilton (I think, maybe it was Madison), ‘a spectacle both hilarious and disgusting’.
OK, I think Madison was ‘a tragedy or a farce, perhaps both’.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mary G: It’s a sign of my age and Detroit girlhood that I’m thinking OMG, it’s Smokey.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle: @Mary G:
Heh, love it to pieces.
SFAW
Saw Andrew Gillum interviewed yesterday AM. He was asked whether — in light of DeSantis saying that Gillum would “monkey things up” (or something similar to that) — whether he thought DeSantis was a racist. Much to my amazement, Gillum did NOT say “No.” And although he did not say “Yeah, he’s a straight-up racist,” he pointed out that DeSantis hadn’t apologized, and appeared to be doubling down. I don’t think that Gillum pointed out the FB page DeSantis helps moderate, but there’s plenty of time for that.
Gillum also claimed he got something like (I think) $30K in donations (of $10 and $20) when he visited The Villages. [Note: Until I done read about The Villages here, I had no idea of the significance.] So that’s a hopeful sign.
Martin
@TenguPhule: That’s not fair to Duncan! I could care less if his wife was involved in a lot of them. He was the candidate, it was his responsibility, and what kind of a shitty coward husband blames his wife anyway? Pretty sure at least one of his kids is still in K-12. What kind of shitty dad looks at felony charges against himself and his wife, looks at his kids, and says ‘My wife did it!’. No, for the sake of your kids, you admit to your wrongdoing and cut a deal to spare your wife any prison time so your kids can at least have one parent.
Fuck I hate these fake-ass family values, morals flag waving motherfuckers.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Replace the clubs thrown into the water hazards after blowing a par 3 shot.
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
Ah. The usual steely self-control of a union arbitration lawyer.
Mary G
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Me Too! Smokey and Stevie both my crushes.
Litlebritdifrnt
Totally OT but I am going down to the pads tomorrow Blackberry picking, will also pick some apples from the communal orchard if there are any left and perhaps some Hazelnuts because I love them. I am so grateful to be home and living in a community like this.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Worse, a lot of them don’t tip the caddies.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace this morning. RESPECT, Aretha.
https://twitter.com/JulieDash/status/1035565185556258817
Dorothy A. Winsor
And Auntie Maxine does the Wakanda salute.
TenguPhule
@Martin: I rejoice that both shitty Republicans are gonna get it good and hard. Hunter helped ruin too many other families with his shitty record in Congress.
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Given that Stephen Miller is probably one of the people doing the screening, I suspect this is it.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That gave me goosebumps, and thank you for the link.
les
@jl:
Hey, c’mon, he knew how to steal from federally insured savings and loans. He know his personal economics.
Kent
I suppose one plus side to climate change is that Hilton Head will be one of the first places to wash away.
jl
@Martin: I for one am waiting for convincing evidence that Duncon Jr. has sobered up before I judge him. I am fair and balanced!
Aleta
I have a question about the admissions lawsuit against Harvard that the administration is loudly supporting. (DOJ filed a statement of interest and Sessions, DeVos, others made proclamations.)
Sessions: “As a recipient of taxpayer dollars, Harvard has a responsibility to conduct its admissions policy without racial discrimination by using meaningful admissions criteria that met lawful requirements.”
Harvard is private. It receives research funding from the federal government– is the lawsuit tying those project grants to their student admissions policy? Aren’t the feds the ones who select which grant applications they will fund, so it’s on the awarding federal agency? (And afaik, applicants who seek, say, to include lab operations funding must adhere to EEOC rules when they hire, say, lab techs who aren’t students.)
I suppose that since research grants are written to support x grad students and y undergrads, that could be related to admissions policy in a roundabout way–is that what the DOJ is claiming? Or is it because a portion of each federal grant that a university receives has to be paid to the university for overhead — administration, lights, space?
I know that a political issue is that universities don’t pay tax on money accumulated from endowments. The conservatives call that “federal subsidies” and unfair tax breaks. (That’s rich). But that seems unrelated to being “a recipient of taxpayer dollars” as Sessions claimed.
Info about the lawsuit, which says that Harvard “has never seriously considered race-neutral alternatives in its more than 45 years of using race to make admissions decisions,” is at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/politics/asian-students-affirmative-action-harvard.html
.
jl
@les: He knew how to not get caught when I think a bipartisan half a dozen of other Congresscritters did get caught, and I think 4 got sanctioned, back in the 80s. So, pro is that he was bipartisan. Con, is apparently he put some knowledge of economics to bad use.
Mixed: a ‘reformer’ was born!
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
Citizens United says this is a permissible outside expenditure. Those Neo-Nazis are just exercising their free speech.
HeleninEire
@JPL: I saw that. They are not giving the dates. I will be in America from Nov 2 to 8. If that fucker is here after that, anywhere in the country, I will join the protests. I try really hard not to talk about Irish politics here because I just don’t know enough about it. But when the Irish talk to me about American politics and don’t have a clue I want to scream. There are people here who actually argue American politics with me. But here’s what I need to say: Leo needs to stand his ground and say “Not on my watch you anti-civil rights asshole. And by the way asshole Donald, why has the American Ambassador to Ireland been vacant for 2 years. The easiest Ambassador to appoint and you don’t give a shit to do it.
jl
@SFAW: I think Gillum is playing his response just right so far. He looks to be a very formidable candidate.
I watched an interview where he promised with a wry smile, to be very ‘articulate’ in his response. Very nice.
Kent
@Aleta:
I think Federal student loans and grants count as “taxpayer dollars” when it comes to this sort of thing. So as long as Harvard provides student loans and pell grants as a component of financial aid packages they fall under federal anti-discrimination statutes. That is why certain uber-right wing colleges have refused to take student loan dollars such as Hillsdale College and Grove City College
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/the-controversial-reason-some-religious-colleges-forgo-federal-funding/490253/
efgoldman
@Aleta:
Basically, Harvard is the elitiest of elite Northeastern Universities. Buncha’ snobby assholes, conservatives have always thought. Any opportunity to fuck with the school in Cambridge is Evil Leprekkkaun’s Nirvana.
sukabi
@Jeffro: he was one of 50 moderators, has quit (removed himself?) from admin roll…(or changed his name for admin list. Who knows with these h8ers?)
Claims he didn’t know he was part of the group ? https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/08/31/ron-desantis-leaves-racist-facebook-group-says-unknowingly-member/
rikyrah
Solo Sports Brother Big T
@SoloSportsComms
22m22 minutes ago
More
OMG!! Prof. Dyson, Calling out the “Orange Appirition”
“You Lugubrious Leech!!
You Dopey Doppelganger of Deceit and Deviance!
You Lethal Liar!!
You Dimwitted Dictator!!
You Foolish Fascist!!”
DAMN!!!
#arethahomegoing
rikyrah
I have been watching Aretha Franklin’s funeral since 10 am this morning..LOL
it’s been a wonderful Homegoing service.
HeleninEire
@John Revolta: This.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
How fitting is it that the guy’s name is Ian Smith?
B.B.A.
@SiubhanDuinne: The writers are getting lazy.
Gremcat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know exactly how you feel. There is a commercial running that actually makes the claim that Democrats are the ones who will take your social security and Medicare away and that Nelson voted to cut $700B from medicare. It ends with Democrats are trying to “steal” your ss/medicare. This coming from the actual scumbag that was fined $1.7B for Medicare fraud. It’s always projection with these people.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: Nelson may have a chance with some of the more “independent-y” residents of The Villages who look at the old white guy and see someone like them or their husbands.
Martin
@Kent: Exactly. In order for an institution to be eligible for federal financial aid programs, they have to comply with federal education requirements (Title IX, etc.) Even in the case of Harvard, that money is critical. Less well known is that depending on what rules you violate, you can lose access to federal grant money, and that’s a VERY big risk for Harvard, particularly if it would affect grant funding to their medical program which is north of $1B per year.
Now, the feds have never been too aggressive in this sort of thing, but this crew is pretty fucking unpredictable.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Me too. Never seen anything like this, nor likely will again. And Stevie Wonder still to come. It’s been a banquet.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Chaka did perform :)
rikyrah
Karen Maria Alston
@advertisingdiva
Follow Follow @advertisingdiva
For those asking why Minister Louis Farrakhan is at the funeral #ArethaFranklinHomegoing #arethahomegoing
https://twitter.com/advertisingdiva/status/1035631420281180166
Jeffro
@Thoughtful David: Not quite – I’ll be moving there next year, though. Smack-dab in the middle!
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I missed her. Although I will be able to find her on youtube, etc. later. Sometimes, one must leave the room …
Jeffro
@Aleta: Oopsie, then! I’m sure it’s just a coincidence/he was framed by the Deep State/but what about Hillary???
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t understand the third one:
“Congratulations, Sir, on a job not done!”
rikyrah
Kimberly Bryant
@6Gems
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Most of the gospel songs performed during #ArethaHomegoing #ArethaFranklinFuneral are those she performed on her iconic Amazing Grace live album. #Intention
rikyrah
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Let the choir say amen! 11 memorable moments from our celebrity elders at Aretha Franklin’s homegoing service https://bit.ly/2oqQM2s #ArethaHomegoing
https://twitter.com/Blavity/status/1035636381303730176
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jeffro: Hillary and Obama ARE the Deep State.
Mary G
@Elizabelle:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Basically just lying so Fox can report another international victory to the deplorables
Elizabelle
@Mary G: Thank you. Dang. I was probably making a sandwich.
sukabi
A guilty plea and cooperation with Mueller, just another guy in drumpf’s orbit.
Elizabelle
This gentleman is giving the audience the jitters. Probably more effective when not at the end of a 6 hour service. Wind it down, sir.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Praise the lord! Now when do we all get saved?
Elizabelle
Seriously, I would call this guy “the chiller.” Took all the momentum out of the service. More about him than about Aretha. Everyone else was superb.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
I have that CD and haven’t listened to it in years but I’m just about to.
jl
@JPL: Watch out what you say. BillingGlendale recently revealed in comments on this very blog that he just happens to be God. I guess someone has to put up with the job, didn’t know BillingGlendale got stuck with it.
Some of the Old Testament stuff makes more sense now, though.
Elizabelle
Gladys Knight can bring everyone back to life. She looks fabulous. Excellent voice.
As they set up Stevie Wonder’s keyboard nearby.
rikyrah
Stevie bringing the Holy Ghost with a harmonica!
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
My God, the Lord’s Prayer has never been performed like that! What a master!
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: He is so good.
zhena gogolia
MAKE LOVE GREAT AGAIN!
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You’d never know it to look at them…they sure seem pretty ‘chill’, as the kids say, considering all the strings they’re supposedly pulling.
Actually now that I think about it, it was probably Obama being ‘chill’ as twice-frozen ice cubes during the whole Bin Laden operation that sent the tinfoil hat brigade into overdrive. “ITSINHUMANHOWCANHEHAVEALLTHATSHITGOINGONANDSTILLFUNCTIONMUCHLESSSMILE?!?!?!?1?”
Because he’s OBAMA, you nitwits…
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Brought the young Franklin family to their feet.
“Black lives do matter. All lives matter.”
rikyrah
Talia Whyte
@taliawhyte
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Stevie Wonder: “We need to make love great again, because black lives do matter” #arethahomegoing
3:28 PM – 31 Aug 2018
mozzerb
@SiubhanDuinne:
Glad it wasn’t just me who thought that …
zhena gogolia
OMG I missed Chaka Khan earlier, but she looks fantastic!
Aleta
@efgoldman: I see it as an attack on affirmative action, in this case in admissions policy, rather than on Harvard. But I think you’re right, the choice of Harvard instead of a public U would be from hatred or politics.
Two months ago, at Fortune:
Obama-Era Guidelines on Using Race in College Admissions Decisions To Be Reversed by Trump Administration
A year ago at the WaPost:
Article about the white legacy student who didn’t get into UT Austin and sued and lost (2014-16; went to the SC), and the wrong assumptions behind these attacks. We still need affirmative action for African Americans in college admissions.
The ugly part about the Harvard suit is that the focus is headlined as something like “Asian American students suing Harvard for admissions discrimination.” And the sleazy part is, seems like the case would be harder to make against a private university. They must want bonus points for the play act — we’re going after rich elites–no not us–them. Like you suggested.
Elizabelle
Love this song.
zhena gogolia
This is the America I love (Aretha’s funeral). I hope we can lance the pustulent boil of Trump and all that he represents.
Aleta
Sorry I’m missing the tributes to Ms. Franklin. Can’t stream or play videos or anything.
Jeffro
Jesus this is harsh and also entirely appropriate: Rest In Peace, Lindsey Graham.
Dana Milbank, why I doooo de-clay-uh: is working for the same outfit that publishes Catherine Rampell and Alexandra Petri rubbing off on you?
“Hello, burn unit? Yeah, it’s a bad one. It doesn’t look like he’s going to make it.”
So here is the rationale…the same thing that made his “Mavericky” buddy roll over on the Confederate flag and other issues (although to be fair, eventually McCain recanted): he’s a politician who wants to get re-elected to the World’s Most Exclusive Club (and oh hey possibly some Russian dirt on his after-hours interests)
Good luck with that, Lindsey.
Unfortunately, Milbank weakens this whole thing with his very last line, where he asks for “that” Graham back, too. Me, I merely hated the old Lindsey Graham. The current one, I despise just like all the other GOP cowards. I don’t want either of them back, but the current version has earned a stop on my processed Bud Light disposal tour.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Who is “this gentleman”?
Mary G
Now that was a funeral fit for a Queen.
zhena gogolia
@Aleta:
I hope a lot of it is available on YouTube later. I missed Chaka Khan. Stevie Wonder’s performance of the Lord’s Prayer on harmonica, and his words, and the song “Always,” are something I will always (!) remember.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
I assume it’s Jasper Williams. I missed it but it was apparently bad.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks. I had to Google him, but it seems they’ve worked together in the past.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: Errgh, was just in an argument with a friend who responded to a complaint about the profusion of Nazis on social media by whatabouting about Farrakhan and the Panthers.
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
OMG, that means I would have to tell them about my life on B-J!?!?! I’m banned from working at the White House forever!!!
Oh Noes!!!
Elizabelle
@debbie: Yes it was Jasper Williams. Jasper Pound Cake Pound Cake Pound Cake Williams.
Haranguing the audience about how important fathers are and how lacking in the Black Community. At the Queen of Soul’s funeral.
Longwinded, self-important; couldn’t read the audience because they were all bored, bored, bored. Don’t watch; it’s 30 plus minutes of your life that you will never get back, and to no advantage.
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
Point out to him that “whataboutism” was a Soviet Propaganda tactic used to deflect from the discussion rather than engage in the issues.
So why is he using Communist tactics to protect Nazi’s on twitter?
Aleta
@zhena gogolia: Thanks. I feel a tear come just from your description.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Thanks. What a lousy thing to do at that time.
Shana
@Jeffro: Yeah, Barbara Comstock, FU.
Possibly interesting story: Her husband was the Vice Principal at my daughters’ high school, prior to Barbara running for office. When my older daughter started as a freshman she looked over the list of clubs, saw that there was a Young Republicans club but no Young Democrats club so she decided to start one. Went to the administration to find out what the requirements were. Turns out they needed a teacher in the Government department to sign on as a sponsor, but getting just that information from Mr. Comstock was like pulling teeth. She did get a teacher to sign on as their sponsor, but Mr. C continued to be at least unhelpful and at most actively working against whatever the club wanted to do: put up signs for meetings, etc.
J R in WV
@Shana:
Republicans don’t believe in Democracy, not at all. Your experience shows that, proves that, in living history. Thanks to your daughter, to the teacher she got to help sponsor a Young Democrats club at her high school. Please pass it along.
MoxieM
@Jager: har har… I was thinking of plebeian things like Hosenscheißer or Kotzbrocken. (Pants-shitter or lump of puke). Lump of puke works.
Shalimar
The shocking part is that absolutely everyone knows that a search of Stephen Miller’s emails over that period would produce exactly the same thing, but he keeps his job because they aren’t embarrassed that everyone knows what he is.
cleosmom
@James E Powell:
I second that. I started hating them around 1996.
My mother’s standard-issue response to statements of that kind was “now, you don’t hate anybody.” But in addition to not having either the knowledge or the authority for that statement, she was a lifelong Republican.