Thursday, April 4, 2019
The exoneration that wasn't
Despite some of the ridiculous preening and outright delusional statements by President Unintelligible in the wake of the release of the Mueller report, he's hardly off the hook in many respects - especially concerning the idea that he was somehow exonerated by it. Even the four page summary released by his handpicked Attorney General William Barr didn't say that. And then there's this:
Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.
At stake in the dispute — the first evidence of tension between Mr. Barr and the special counsel’s office — is who shapes the public’s initial understanding of one of the most consequential government investigations in American history. Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public.
Mr. Barr has said he will move quickly to release the nearly 400-page report but needs time to scrub out confidential information. The special counsel’s investigators had already written multiple summaries of the report, and some team members believe that Mr. Barr should have included more of their material in the four-page letter he wrote on March 24 laying out their main conclusions, according to government officials familiar with the investigation. Mr. Barr only briefly cited the special counsel’s work in his letter.
I'll be cautious here and say that there's any number of potential - but entirely hypothetical - reasons as to why that four-pager came off as being an attempt to shove the genie back in the bottle and stopper it up, but one of the potentially most important is that the full report could possibly detail whatever high-level, behind the scenes attempts Team Trump engaged in in terms of intimidation tactics towards Mueller's staff. Besides his Tweets and public statements, that is, and they were bad enough. But the stuff Trump didn't want out in public? It could actually be far worse
Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.
At stake in the dispute — the first evidence of tension between Mr. Barr and the special counsel’s office — is who shapes the public’s initial understanding of one of the most consequential government investigations in American history. Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public.
Mr. Barr has said he will move quickly to release the nearly 400-page report but needs time to scrub out confidential information. The special counsel’s investigators had already written multiple summaries of the report, and some team members believe that Mr. Barr should have included more of their material in the four-page letter he wrote on March 24 laying out their main conclusions, according to government officials familiar with the investigation. Mr. Barr only briefly cited the special counsel’s work in his letter.
I'll be cautious here and say that there's any number of potential - but entirely hypothetical - reasons as to why that four-pager came off as being an attempt to shove the genie back in the bottle and stopper it up, but one of the potentially most important is that the full report could possibly detail whatever high-level, behind the scenes attempts Team Trump engaged in in terms of intimidation tactics towards Mueller's staff. Besides his Tweets and public statements, that is, and they were bad enough. But the stuff Trump didn't want out in public? It could actually be far worse
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
"Congratulations", Andrew
Because if you don't think that Andrew Wakefield is still largely responsible for this happening, I'd like to know why he continues to bang the broken drum of his own fraudulent theories like any disgraced snake-oil salesman would. Granted, he's probably foolish enough to think that his constant promotion of anti-vaccination woo isn't responsible for the rise in cases of measles worldwide, but as this article from the Guardian helpfully points out, he's openly getting anti-vax politicians elected in Texas, which has one of the worse rates of measles cases in the US. And this paragraph is especially telling:
But Wakefield’s most substantial contribution to Texas appears to be the network of autism-related charities and businesses he has been affiliated with, and in some instances drew six-figure salaries from, from the early 2000s onwards.
So much for the Hippocratic Oath. There's a very powerful profit motive in promoting quackery, and it appears Wakefield would take the almighty dollar in a heartbeat over the health and safety of children - actually, of anyone - threatened by a resurgence of preventable diseases caused by science-free opposition to vaccination. And I can't even feign surprise at that.
But Wakefield’s most substantial contribution to Texas appears to be the network of autism-related charities and businesses he has been affiliated with, and in some instances drew six-figure salaries from, from the early 2000s onwards.
So much for the Hippocratic Oath. There's a very powerful profit motive in promoting quackery, and it appears Wakefield would take the almighty dollar in a heartbeat over the health and safety of children - actually, of anyone - threatened by a resurgence of preventable diseases caused by science-free opposition to vaccination. And I can't even feign surprise at that.
Fuxit
Unsurprisingly, the continued effects of Nigel Farage's folly are that Theresa May is probably going to go down as the most ineffective British Prime Minister since Neville Chamberlain, at least in terms of coming up with a cunning plan to get Parliament to approve a method of letting go of "a far away country..." sorry, Europe.
Farage and the rest of the Brexit supporters hither and yon probably weren't thinking of letting go of Scotland, either, but that's now a real possibility again. It just doesn't pay to be a supporter of nativist-driven initiatives these days - in the UK or the US. Because even if you "win", the unintended consequences won't have to jump very far to bite you in the ass.
Farage and the rest of the Brexit supporters hither and yon probably weren't thinking of letting go of Scotland, either, but that's now a real possibility again. It just doesn't pay to be a supporter of nativist-driven initiatives these days - in the UK or the US. Because even if you "win", the unintended consequences won't have to jump very far to bite you in the ass.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Our National Dunning-Kruger Nightmare continues
As if President Unintelligible's inability to listen to any opinions that contradict (or even mildly differ) his wasn't bad enough, Time pointed out that his inability to listen to daily intelligence briefings is especially disturbing:
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s renewed attacks on the U.S. intelligence community this week, senior intelligence briefers are breaking two years of silence to warn that the President is endangering American security with what they say is a stubborn disregard for their assessments.
Citing multiple in-person episodes, these intelligence officials say Trump displays what one called “willful ignorance” when presented with analyses generated by America’s $81 billion-a-year intelligence services. The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.
What is most troubling, say these officials and others in government and on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on the episodes, are Trump’s angry reactions when he is given information that contradicts positions he has taken or beliefs he holds. Two intelligence officers even reported that they have been warned to avoid giving the President intelligence assessments that contradict stances he has taken in public.
Fantastic. And you thought that his ham-fisted approach to domestic politics was bad.
Oh, but it gets better. If you're into gallows humor, that is.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA), which oversees the spy satellites that map and photograph key areas, had tried to impress upon Trump the size and complexity of the North Korean site. In preparing one briefing for the President on the issue early in his administration, the NGIA built a model of the facility with a removable roof, according to two officials. To help Trump grasp the size of the facility, the NGIA briefers built a miniature version New York’s Statue of Liberty to scale and put it inside the model.
Intelligence officials from multiple agencies later warned Trump that entrances at the facility that had been closed after the summit could still be reopened. But the president has ignored the agencies’ warnings and has exaggerated the steps North Korea has taken to shutter the facility, those officials and two others say. That is a particular concern now, ahead of a possible second summit with the Kim Jong-Un later this month.
The briefers’ concerns are spread across multiple areas of expertise. Two briefers worry that a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could produce a trade agreement that the President can trumpet but that fails to address China’s espionage, its theft of intellectual property that ranges from circuit boards to soybean hybrids, its military buildup, and its geopolitical ambition.
Three other officials worry about what one of them calls “precipitous troop withdrawals” from Syria and Afghanistan and a peace deal with the Taliban that in time would leave the extremist Islamic group back in charge and wipe out the gains made in education, women’s rights and governance since the U.S. invaded the country more than 17 years ago.
I have to wonder if I need to start stocking up on antacid, or just cut to the chase and start buying an over-the-counter proton pump inhibitor. Because if all of this this isn't ulcer inducing...
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s renewed attacks on the U.S. intelligence community this week, senior intelligence briefers are breaking two years of silence to warn that the President is endangering American security with what they say is a stubborn disregard for their assessments.
Citing multiple in-person episodes, these intelligence officials say Trump displays what one called “willful ignorance” when presented with analyses generated by America’s $81 billion-a-year intelligence services. The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.
What is most troubling, say these officials and others in government and on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on the episodes, are Trump’s angry reactions when he is given information that contradicts positions he has taken or beliefs he holds. Two intelligence officers even reported that they have been warned to avoid giving the President intelligence assessments that contradict stances he has taken in public.
Fantastic. And you thought that his ham-fisted approach to domestic politics was bad.
Oh, but it gets better. If you're into gallows humor, that is.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA), which oversees the spy satellites that map and photograph key areas, had tried to impress upon Trump the size and complexity of the North Korean site. In preparing one briefing for the President on the issue early in his administration, the NGIA built a model of the facility with a removable roof, according to two officials. To help Trump grasp the size of the facility, the NGIA briefers built a miniature version New York’s Statue of Liberty to scale and put it inside the model.
Intelligence officials from multiple agencies later warned Trump that entrances at the facility that had been closed after the summit could still be reopened. But the president has ignored the agencies’ warnings and has exaggerated the steps North Korea has taken to shutter the facility, those officials and two others say. That is a particular concern now, ahead of a possible second summit with the Kim Jong-Un later this month.
The briefers’ concerns are spread across multiple areas of expertise. Two briefers worry that a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping could produce a trade agreement that the President can trumpet but that fails to address China’s espionage, its theft of intellectual property that ranges from circuit boards to soybean hybrids, its military buildup, and its geopolitical ambition.
Three other officials worry about what one of them calls “precipitous troop withdrawals” from Syria and Afghanistan and a peace deal with the Taliban that in time would leave the extremist Islamic group back in charge and wipe out the gains made in education, women’s rights and governance since the U.S. invaded the country more than 17 years ago.
I have to wonder if I need to start stocking up on antacid, or just cut to the chase and start buying an over-the-counter proton pump inhibitor. Because if all of this this isn't ulcer inducing...
Thursday, January 17, 2019
The kind of Fearless Leader we're stuck with
Lose your majority in a house of Congress lately? Most Presidents would at least give lip service to the idea of possibly talking compromise on certain issues. Not President Toddler, though, since partial Federal shutdowns are apparently the price everyone gets to collectively pay these days for paranoia-induced vanity projects not getting built.
Then again, for Trump this is probably a great distraction from certain other issues - not the least of which includes some very private conversations with a very special friend of his where even his own interpreter was personally warned to keep his yap shut in front of other members of the administration. As morbid as my imagination can get, I can hardly imagine what the subject matter of that series of conversations amounted to. And considering some recent revelations about the FBI's thinking on Trump in 2016 and 2017, I hardly want to.
Then again, for Trump this is probably a great distraction from certain other issues - not the least of which includes some very private conversations with a very special friend of his where even his own interpreter was personally warned to keep his yap shut in front of other members of the administration. As morbid as my imagination can get, I can hardly imagine what the subject matter of that series of conversations amounted to. And considering some recent revelations about the FBI's thinking on Trump in 2016 and 2017, I hardly want to.
The alien abduction failed!
So I decided not to use a more pedestrian explanation of why I haven't posted for over a month. So sue me.
I have been busy as of late, though, especially with the anime programming for this particular convention, so please attend it in mid-February if you can.
I have been busy as of late, though, especially with the anime programming for this particular convention, so please attend it in mid-February if you can.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
In Memoriam: Pete Shelley, 1955-2018
Adios, Pete. The Buzzcocks were easily one of my favorite first-generation punk bands growing up, capable of combining melodic sensibilities and chainsaw guitars to produce memorable songs by the truckload. And as he would've wanted it, I'll remember the music above all else.
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