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2:00PM Water Cooler 9/9/2016

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Here’s another vacation artifact from along the Maine Coast:

beach_rose

I like Rosa Rugosa. Some say “invasive” but I think “tenacious” would be a better word.

* * *

What fresh hell:

“Anxious Dems urge Clinton to open up” [The Hill].

Democratic senators, anxious over Hillary Clinton’s inability to pull away from Donald Trump, have some advice for their nominee: Be more open, show your soul, focus on the economy and talk about blue-collar jobs.

Recent polls show Trump within striking distance of Clinton in the presidential election, defying predictions in Washington that he is doomed in November.

After all that money, the complete support of the Democrat establishment, and the virtually unanimous support of the political class, including the press, and eruption after eruption from the Trump campaign. Stupid voters? Or weak candidate? You decide.

These lawmakers, who served with Clinton in Congress and have known her for years, say her public persona is too guarded.

They struggle to reconcile the charismatic, warm and funny woman they know in private with Clinton’s public persona, which can come across as stern, aloof or annoyed.

The sycophants in HillaryLand wish everybody could be like them!

“Her decades in this arena have taken their toll,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “When you’re hit a lot there’s almost an unconscious shield that controls the answers to your questions. I think she’s got to get rid of that and just let herself be.”

“Everybody that knows her loves her. They know her heart is full,” she added. “That’s what she ought to do, just take the shield away from the heart.”

Vice President Biden offered similar advice earlier in the week, calling on her to be “more open.”

“Hillary knows it’s a problem, and she’s trying to figure out how to remedy it. And my advice to her, the best way to remedy it, is to talk about what you care about and talk about it with some passion,” he told CNN.

He advised her to “open up” and let voters “see your heart a little more.”

“It would be great if she showed her soul more, but she’s got to be comfortable and it has to be authentic,” said one senator, who requested anonymity to offer a frank assessment.

Is Clinton going to reintroduce herself again? Help me. Look, I don’t care about what’s in her heart, if any, and ditto Trump. How about Clinton comes out and says those Wells Fargo execs should be thrown in jail? That might get my attention, and m-i-i-i-i-ight make me put her in a different box. (And Manafort better hop to it and get Trump out in front on this. Eh? If he really wants Trump to be a populist.)

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (ML):

sunflower_bee

ML writes: “End of summer here in south central Alaska. Here are sunflowers and pollinators on Moonstone Farm in Palmer, AK (~ 3 blocks from Parks Highway!)”

I had very good luck this year with a patch of sunflowers self-seeded from last year. So I transplanted many of them elsewhere about the property, and expect even better luck next year!

* * *

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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162 comments

  1. Jim Haygood

    “They struggle to reconcile the charismatic, warm and funny man they know in private with Adolph’s public persona, which can come across as stern, aloof or annoyed.”

    Lament of National Socialist party supporters in the early 1930s, before elections become unnecessary.

      1. Unorthodoxmarxist

        He needs to bring his pal Benito along on some campaign swings, that guy can liven a rally up!

        1. shinola

          Well, a couple of weeks ago I did catch the last minute or so of a Joe Biden speech on the TV;
          all flapping his arms, pounding his fist & spouting jingoistic platitudes (the USA is the “essential” country, the “exceptional” country, blah, blah…). He ended the speech with “…we own the finish line!”

          I thought at the time: If this was in black & white and ol’ Joe was wearing a uniform, it could be old European newsreel footage from the 1930’s.

      6. NotTimothyGeithner

        Hitler was a fabulous painter. He could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon. Two coats.

        1. ambrit

          He got good and tired of competing with those ‘Middle Eastern’ cats who did ‘coats of many colours.’

    2. fresno dan

      Jim Haygood
      September 9, 2016 at 2:06 pm

      I saw a documentary about Adolph and the zeitgeist at the time, where they sing a song, which first of all, singing the full name of the fuhrer is kinda awkward – – Adolph Hiiiiit-ler.
      Anyway, the song is about how the leader’s favorite flower is the humble edelweiss.

      1. Jim Haygood

        One modern art critic was asked to review some of [Hitler’s] paintings without being told who painted them and judged them “quite good”.

        The different style in which he drew human figures, however, the critic said, represented a profound uninterest in people. — Wikipedia

        Fortunately, being more open, showing his soul, focusing on the economy and talking about blue-collar jobs overcame this minor impediment. :-)

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          He should have gone into classic Chinese landscape painting – all human figures are just tiny dots before gigantic mountains.

          “Humans are nothing compared to Nature.”

          That’s as uninterested and detached as you can get.

    3. Robert Hahl

      When Hillary was secretary of state, everyone I encountered who knew her personally made a point of saying how smart she was, in almost identical terms, as if that was required of them. Now, everyone who knows her personally is required to say how warm and kind she is. It’s just a different play from the same playbook.

      1. Bubba_Gump

        When she was SoS, the few people I encountered who knew her personally said her leadership cabal was a shitshow. That’s what counts to me.

    4. Buttinsky

      I have in fact always pictured Adolph Hitler at his warmest, entertaining guests in his home, standing beside Eva as she plays the piano and he sings a very upbeat version of that old standard, “Somebody loves me, I wonder who, I wonder who it can be.”

  2. Lambert Strether Post author

    Readers, if you have any current information on the Dakota Pipeline, please post here (and especially which financial interests are pushing it, and who the investors are for the private security firm that set dogs on the prote[c|s]ters. Thank you!

      2. Bev

        Water Protectors instead of Protesters, just like Lambert renamed those politicians who support TTP as Traitors; these are more accurate names.

        People affected by fracking ruining their water are natural allies; they are the post Water Protectors. If they had had a chance to protect their water more vigorously ahead of water poisoning by fracking, they would have.

        Democracy Now did a wonderful job showing up and reporting what the Water Protectors are going through. Roads block, dog bites, poor cell phone availability to prevent twitter coverage, helicopters and drones above at night to prevent sleep, and now the National Guard.

        The Water Protectors need signs and sites which show that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump along with all the companies funding this theft–the Banks who are broke, the oil companies who are broke but amazingly able to print, out of nothing, the money/debt to buy trampling on people’s water, land, rights, and elections. They don’t really have the money to do this, without printing it themselves.

        Jill Stein is the only candidate worth voting for. Jill Stein showed up to help the Water Protectors. Her polling numbers are being artificially hammered lower, as the number of independent voter numbers are also being hammered lower by the very polling companies helping to rig elections…not Russia.

            1. Oregoncharles

              OSU? What’s the reference? I can only think of a couple of universities – and I remember the late 60’s vividly.

    3. diptherio

      The Judge denied the Tribe’s request:

      http://www.yahoo.com/news/key-ruling-dakota-access-pipeline-due-end-friday-062820374.html

      U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington denied the tribe’s request for a temporary injunction in a 58-page opinion. A status conference is scheduled for Sept. 16.

      The ruling said that “this Court does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance to the Standing Rock Sioux” and that, given the federal government’s history with the tribe, “the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care. Having done so, the Court must nonetheless conclude that the Tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here.”

      Attorney Jan Hasselman with environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it’ll be challenged.

      “We will have to pursue our options with an appeal and hope that construction isn’t completed while that (appeal) process is going forward,” he said. “We will continue to pursue vindication of the tribe’s lawful rights even if the pipeline is complete.”

    4. diptherio

      http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/9/national_guard_on_standby_in_north

      North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has activated the National Guard ahead of today’s ruling on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government over the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is set to rule today on an injunction in a lawsuit challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to issue permits for the pipeline, arguing it violates the National Historic Preservation Act. This comes as over 1,000 people representing more than 100 Native American tribes are gathered along the Cannonball River by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to resist the pipeline’s construction. It’s been described as the largest unification of Native American tribes in decades. We go to North Dakota for an update from Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth.

  3. tegnost

    G4S solutions (trying to think what that acronym might stand for…)
    http://peoplesworld.org/l-a-protest-calls-out-security-firm-for-involvement-in-attack-on-dapl-protesters/
    from the article
    “We have to think of not our own selves but of the seven generations to come,” said Idle No More Los Angeles member Menoman Martinez to the crowd. “We’re standing our ground. You [should] put people first, not profits. Not the corporations. These corporations keep digging into our sacred earth mother trying to extract these items, her lungs, her blood… For what? To sell it to us. To make a profit.”

    1. tegnost

      from the wiki
      “G4S Secure Solutions (USA) is an American security services company, and a wholly owned subsidiary of G4S plc. It was founded as The Wackenhut Corporation in 1954, in Coral Gables, Florida, by George Wackenhut and three partners (all are former FBI agents). In 2002, the company was acquired for $570 million by Danish corporation Group 4 Falck (itself then merged to form British company G4S in 2004).[1] In 2010, G4S Wackenhut changed its name to G4S Secure Solutions (USA) to reflect the new business model.[2][3] The G4S Americas Region headquarters is in Jupiter, Florida.[4][5]”

  4. Vatch

    And Manafort better hop to it and get Trump out in front on this. Eh? If he really wants Trump to be a populist.

    Did I miss something? Isn’t Manafort no longer part of Trump’s team? It’s so hard to keep up!

    1. a different chris

      No you didn’t, he’s been gone for awhile. It’s Kelly Anne Conway. BTW, you of course know where I learned this, from the All-Trump-All-The-Time channel. AKA Daily Kos.

      Which comically has a post up, almost buried in all the main-page Trump hysteria, castigating the media for paying an unbalanced amount of attention to The Donald.

      1. Ptolemy Philopater

        All the Trump baiting playing into Hitllary’s play book. Has any presidential nominee since FDR, said that the “System is rigged”! He single handedly destroyed the Republican Party! Kudo’s. He has also neutralized Hitllary’s Basket of Deplorables, they are voting for a closet progressive. He has spoken out unequivocally against the Iraq war and neo-imperialism. What he plans to do about it is still a question devoutly to be answered. Sure he is a blowhard self promoter, but so was Teddy Roosevelt. Sure he talks out of both sides of his mouth, the only way to gain traction in a divided polity. I don’t know what a Trump presidency would bring, but we all know what a Hitllary presidency will bring and it ain’t pretty. He has also stated that a nation cannot go bankrupt. Sounds like Modern Monetary Theory to me. I support Jill Stein, but in a lesser of two evils world, to my mind Trump is the lesser of 2 evils. Likewise, a Trump presidency is the only hope for War Crimes Trials long overdue. It’s time to see some white men in those bullet proof glass boxes for a change. The crimes committed by the neo-liberal coterie are rapidly approaching the magnitude of Nazi Germany. How many millions have died? How many more if Hitllary gets elected? It’s very fashionable to decry Trump, but don’t play Hitllary’s game and scare people into voting for her.

  5. Roger Smith

    At this point Clinton is like those relic discs of America Online. What version are we on now? Clinton 8.0!!

    I get the feeling the plan is for all these people to go on the record saying she “has a heart”, hoping that is enough to slow the descent.

    She has such a heart, she defended a likely rapist by saying the teenage girl was “asking for it”. Such warmth!

    1. Jim Haygood

      “Clinton is like those relic discs of America Online.”

      Cold, shiny and a relic of a bygone era.

      1. cwaltz

        If only it were a bygone era, unfortunately the beltway appears to reside in a bubble where Clinton’s politics are like that classic, little black dress.

        The rest of us may recognize that she and the policies she promotes should be relegated to relic status but I’ve yet to see the beltway recognize us “little people” should have any say in who acts as the grifter in charge and gets the pleasure of representing our corporate aristocracy.

            2. Big River Bandido

              Oh my Dog, I just realized that no matter which way the vane swings, the wind is always blowing to the right! Even better.

        2. NYPaul

          There’s a famous quotation, “if you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”

          Of course, if you’re a pathological liar, whenever you’re asked a question you have to stop and think through all the lies you’ve told so that you don’t get tripped up over the lie you’re about to tell.

          So, when Hillary hesitates after being asked a question, picking through the immense store of lies residing in her mental rolodex, is it any wonder the public reacts like “Miracle Max’s wife” did in “The Princess Bride,”……”LIAR!! LIAR!!”

          1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

            Photographic memory is an admired virtue in our society.

            “She’s such a genius. I am so jealous.”

          2. NotTimothyGeithner

            Pathological liars don’t have that problem. They are pathological. They are Incapable of telling the truth. They get away it because memory can be faulty and there is too much ignorance.

            Hillary is searching for something that sounds good as opposed to seeking truth.

          3. neo-realist

            She probably studied plenty of Bush/Cheney videotaped interviews to prepare lies and evasions for future questioning.

          4. VietnamVet

            It passed almost unnoticed but Hillary Clinton had either a senior moment or lied once more on board the USS Intrepid when she pledged no-ground-troops in Iraq or Syria. There are thousands of special operators, contractors, military trainers and a brigade of the 101st Airborne on the ground now in both countries in the war against the Islamic State.

    2. nippersmom

      And she sold whatever soul she had a long time ago.

      With as worse-for-wear as she’s looking these days, I shudder to think what the painting in the attic looks like by now.

    3. reslez

      It makes me wonder if the reason we don’t get to see Hillary’s “heart”, if any (/s Lambert), is because if she really did drop shields and bare her true feelings, we’d be horrified by the derision with which she regards average citizens, the transparent neoliberal cant, and the self-absorbed greed.

      I mean it’s possible there’s an underlying warm and generous person there, but people who are warm and generous to their close friends and family but don’t care much about anybody else are hardly rare, are they? And they’re not all that appealing to talk to.

    5. Emma

      If blame is to be assigned in the case where Hillary Clinton loses against Trump (but not necessarily Stein or Johnson – it’s not the two-way POTUS race US MSM would have us believe), this is a “charming” way to go about it. It’s a subtle indication that some unconstructive members of her entourage are already shirking their own responsibility and duty to show her in her best light to the public.
      It reminds me of a very old inventory taken at an English farm in the early 1700s which stated “In the cheese chamber: all the cheeses”. IMHO, in Hillary Clintons’ camp, there are a number of rotten cheeses…..

  7. Jim Haygood

    Mr Markey’s new nemesis: WIRP.

    “They [FOMC members] want to show that they are not guided by the markets,” [fixed income manager Jeffrey] Gundlach said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

    “The Fed wants to show, at some point, that they can’t be replaced by WIRP (World Interest Rate Probability). The only way they can do that is to tighten when WIRP is below 50,” he said.

    WIRP is Bloomberg’s measure of rate-hike odds. Gundlach told Reuters that when WIRP odds hit 40-45%, the Fed could tighten and surprise the majority of investors. WIRP levels sits around 32% presently [sic] for Sept. and 60% for December, according to traders.

    The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee holds its two-day confab in less than two weeks on Sept. 20-21.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-gundlachs-fed-tightening-talk-set-stage-for-a-stock-bond-market-meltdown-2016-09-09

    Jeffrey — you broke the bull, man. Didn’t help your bonds, though.

  9. JohnnyGL

    “After all that money, the complete support of the Democrat establishment, and the virtually unanimous support of the political class, including the press, and eruption after eruption from the Trump campaign. Stupid voters? Or weak candidate? You decide.”

    That whole “evil russkies hacking our elections and hacking the idiots at the DNC” narrative seemed like such a surefire vote winner?!?!?

    It’s a sign of how detached the political class have gotten from the citizenry that they have no idea which propaganda narratives will work and which will fall flat. They’ve always had some misses, but they’re really misfiring a lot, lately. :)

  11. PeonInChief

    It may be that Hillary simply makes the distinction between her equals, with whom she is warm, friendly and funny, and the losers who need discipline and punishment–rather like the difference between professional women, and welfare recipients and retail clerks.

      1. Patricia

        I’m dead tired of the stupid meme. It is stupid, not the kind that comes from low intelligence but from laziness.

  12. Jim Haygood

    Platte River Networks “Oh shit moment” IT guy of FBI report fame is unmasked:

    A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton’s emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department, according to a law enforcement official and others briefed on the investigation.

    The F.B.I. described the deletions by Paul Combetta in a summary of its investigation that was released last Friday. The documents blacked out the specialist’s name, but the law enforcement official and others familiar with the case identified the employee as Mr. Combetta.

    Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, said “It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton’s and Platte River’s attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request.”

    in his May FBI interview, [Combetta] said that at the time he made the deletions “he was aware of the existence of the preservation request and the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton’s email data” on the Platte River server.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-investigation.html

    *sigh*

    That nihilistic Paul Combetta. We urged him not to destroy valuable national archives. But he wouldn’t listen.

    Kid just had an appetite for destruction. Too much rocking out to Guns ‘N Roses, most likely. :-(

    1. nippersmom

      If I were Mr. Combetta, I’d be looking for a way to get out of the country and lay very low for a long time,lest anyone recall me to revisit my testimony. Someone might decide it would be better not to take the risk that he could change his mind about how any of those events transpired.

      1. Paid Minion

        Who needs to lay low?

        He knew what he needed to do to cover GodHillarz azz, and did so without being told.

        Next up. A six-figure job in government, or at the Clinton Foundation, or anyone/anywhere who profited from the communications.

        1. Kurt Sperry

          I think he just lost his golden parachute job at the CF when his name came out now. He tried though, he really tried. Sometimes things just don’t work out.

    2. fresno dan

      Jim Haygood
      September 9, 2016 at 3:10 pm

      Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, said “It appears he acted on his own and against guidance given by both Clinton’s and Platte River’s attorneys to retain all data in compliance with a congressional preservation request.”

      in his May FBI interview, [Combetta] said that at the time he made the deletions “he was aware of the existence of the preservation request and the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton’s email data” on the Platte River server.
      ============================================================
      Fantastic….
      People sometimes don’t know the predominate definition of “fantastic”

      Full Definition of fantastic
      1
      a : based on fantasy : not real
      b : conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy
      c : so extreme as to challenge belief : unbelievable; broadly : exceedingly large or great
      2
      : marked by extravagant fantasy or extreme individuality : eccentric
      3
      fantastic : excellent, superlative

      It is beyond credulity that based on his job, Combetta did not have familiarity with Federal laws pertaining to preserving records, as well as laws regarding complying with subpoenas.

      It is also unbelievable that he would do such a thing unless he knew that he would NOT face the full force and effect of the law.

      So did anybody at the FBI bother to ask why?
      Combetta: You know how some people like to draw on an etch-a-sketch??? I like to pick it up and erase the pictures that took hours and hours to draw – that’s just how I roll.
      FBI: Ok

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        So many words that contains two opposite meanings.

        Fantastic – delusional and excellent.

        I concede being delusional can be excellent, but at other times….

        And we have many words like that…so many auto-antonyms.

        I sanction this poster.

        1. Synoia

          Words have precise meaning only in context and when spoken.

          Sarcasm can have the effect of reversing meaning.

  13. JohnnyGL

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/09/08/nancy_pelosi_time_to_move_on_from_hillary_clintons_emails_too_much_ado_about_it.html

    Okay, everyone, Pelosi said it’s time to move on from our fun with Hillary’s emails.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/09/trump-card-republican-voter-registration-bright-spot-for-campaign.html

    And some interesting details on voter registrations in the above. Check out FL in particular. That one’s a MUST-win for Trump. PA isn’t MUST-win, but it’s really hard for Trump to win without PA or some other rust-belt state (MI and WI polling looks tighter in recent days) in its place in addition to MUST-win Ohio.

    1. optimader

      On to an indictment?… I’m guess she isn’t proposing that :o/
      what (two) things do HClinton and AStevenson, BDole, AGore, JKerry all have in common?

      1. cwaltz

        Good Lord no.

        *clutches pearls*

        Accountability is always “off the table” for the 1%(and she’s very bi partisan-y on this.)

  14. L

    I don’t care about what’s in her heart,…

    I agree. I, like most voters I know, am more concerned about things like this than about her emotional side.

    The fact that she backed Iraq and Libya because she “listened” to the wrong people and didn’t ask the right questions worries me. The fact that she opposes the TPP but has convinced her close allies that it is a stunt worries me. And now the fact that she chooses to take military advice from Petreus, a man who, lest we forget, gave piss-poor strategic advice with the “surge”, and who admitted to (but escaped punishment for) giving top secret information to his mistress.

    When you stop to think about it even being in the same room as him is horrific on every level. She is staking her claim to office on the premise that she is the most competent person, and the one you can trust with national security. And from this position she has condemned those, like Edward Snowden, who have leaked secrets to the public. Yet she willingly seeks advice from a former general who gave horrible, though politically opportune, strategic advice, and who compromised national security for sex.

    1. Roger Smith

      Whistle-wetting is okay. It’s the whistle-blowers that are traitors.

      Speaking of Snowden, Peter Gabriel wrote a song for him for the new Scorsese film: The Veil.

  15. katiebird

    Here in Kansas City, we all want to go to Gritner’s Farm I haven’t made it yet but I will as soon as I can:

    Walk around the Grinters’ sunflower field and ask folks why they came, and you get the usual superlatives. “Beautiful.” “Spectacular.” “Awesome.” But you can hear them in any number of languages. English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French, Russian.

    “Very nice,” said Yu Zhen, as translated by her son Wei Tu of Overland Park. She was visiting from China.

    Paige McGovern wanted to surprise her husband, Joe, for his birthday. The Iowa State University students took a weekend getaway to Kansas City, where Paige learned of the farm.

    “I thought, ‘Wow, where in the world would we ever find a field full of sunflowers,’ ” she said. “I surprised him. It’s like a sea of sunshine.”

    “A sea of sunshine,” Joe repeated. “I like that.”

    1. katiebird

      Grr. I am sorry: I got rattled by something in real life and hit send of just letting the comment sit until I had time to think…

      The point of my link is the photos. They are gorgeous. Don’t worry about reading the post…. just visit for the pics…..

      It’s VERY relaxing.

      1. Anne

        Here are some photos from the sunflower fields a couple miles from my house…it’s really quite stunning in its beauty.

        But it’s hell trying to drive through the area around the sunflower fields – takes all one’s concentration to focus on the traffic and the people walking dangerously close to, or sometimes in, the road, and not on the beautiful flowers that stretch for acres and acres.

        1. katiebird

          Those are lovely!!! Thank you.

          One of the reasons I haven’t visted our local sunflower farm is the driving parking issue. The farm has been posting warnings all week on Facebook about cars getting stuck in the mud.

    2. Emma

      Sounds like those Kansa sunflowers provide much inspiration. Just as they did for the beat poet Allen Ginsberg with his ‘Sunflower Sutra’. For Ginsberg, the sunflower symbolized hope. Hope in his mind that America might rediscover its progressive roots: “We’re not our skin of grime, we’re not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all golden sunflowers inside, blessed by our own seed and hairy naked accomplishment-bodies….”

  16. timbers

    This link that Lambert offered in this morning’s LInks:

    The Kremlin Really Believes That Hillary Wants to Start a War With Russia

    Contained this fascinating link with an account of what the Russians observed of Hillary from her behavior including this enlightening episode which had an interesting account of Hillary’s overall arrogance, hostility, and tantrums. it’s worth a read. It contains some juicy details.

    Why Putin Hates Hillary

    http://www.politico.eu/article/why-putin-hates-hillary/

    “Her temper became legendary in Moscow when she breached diplomatic protocol by storming out of a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov just moments after exchanging pleasantries.”

    “In September 2012, Clinton was to meet with Lavrov on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vladivostok, Russia. Lavrov, a sophisticated member of the Soviet foreign policy aristocracy, took great pleasure in being gentlemanly toward Clinton. He personally picked out the flowers for her hotel room in Vladivostok. But when they met, Lavrov slammed her with some unexpected news: Russia was kicking out USAID and gave the Secretary of State 30 days to pack them up and move them out. Stunned, Clinton stood up and walked out. According to people with knowledge of the meeting, Lavrov tried to get her to stay and talk, but Clinton wasn’t having any of it. She dropped her notes and said he could read those if he wanted to talk, and walked out.”

    That does NOT appear to be a Sec of State Obama had much control over, or a Hillary Clinton who gives a flying F*CK about being a team player and consult with Obama on a big issues. Looks like Obama was taking orders from Clinton on foreign policy and saying “yes, mam.’

    1. optimader

      In those situations isn’t the SoS supposed to smile and say, “they will be out in 15, may I see the lunch menu?”

      She believes her own BS.

      1. cwaltz

        With all due respect I don’t quite get how we know, based on this commentary, that immediately after leaving the negotiations that she didn’t consult Obama. We know that there were policy occasions(Syria) where Clinton and Obama disagreed(and Obama got the final say) and we know there were occasions that Obama has said that he wishes he would have been more diligent(Libya) in questioning the SoS.

        This doesn’t mean I disagree with Russia’s decision to kick out USAID by the way. It probably was a very shrewd decision considering the 2014 revolution in Ukraine had the US government’s fingers all over it.

    2. Pat

      And we get lectures from Clinton and her surrogates about how Trump doesn’t have the temperament to govern?!?!?! Perhaps she was blindsided by the fact that the Russians had their own agenda for the meeting and were going to pursue what they thought was in their best interests, but walking out? Why the hell did we have to pay her salary, her aides’ salaries, her security costs and all her travel expenses for that junket? And no that is not a throw away question. We were paying her to be our top diplomat. Explain to me what was diplomatic or smart or strategic about throwing down your notes in a friggin’ fit because you don’t like the opener.
      Whether Obama was in charge or Clinton, I don’t care, what I do care about is this ‘warm, charismatic, funny woman’ is and always has been incompetent at every public job she has had in the last sixteen years – including that of candidate. Oh, sure she may be great at giving a speech to a room full of people who are trying to curry favor with her because ‘access’, but that is a pretty low bar. Otherwise she can’t even write a book without needing further editing because it didn’t do what it was supposed to do – make her look presidential.
      No, I don’t need introduction 110, we get a new version every few months anyway. How many have we had in the last year alone: Hillary invincible, Hillary progressive, Hillary generous winner, Hillary vindictive winner, every general’s favorite – Hillary, Hillary Trump slayer… the reason none of them are working is because everyone knows we are going to get RC Cola with a new more Coca-Cola like label complete with cute polar bears next week. Unlike many others here, the only version I want to see of Hillary Clinton version next is prison Barbie Clinton. She can even get her favorite designers to update the orange jumpsuit for her as long as she ends up behind bars finally. Because everything else is going to be as big a lie as the previous versions.

      1. timbers

        And you haven’t gotten to OTHER article linked in Lambert’s link regarding the Russian’s observing Clinton’s heavy drinking!

        Long list of her in-your-face insults to Putin…from USA’s top “diplomat”

        She’s a shrew (is that sexist? I got it from watching old British movies…).

        1. Anne

          Yes, “shrew” is sexist.

          What I find so unlikable about Hillary has nothing to do with her looks, the pitch of her voice, how warm or cold or fat or thin or anything else she is that is based on what she looks or sounds like.

          What I find unlikable about her has to do with her lack of character and principle, her need for wealth and power, her authoritarian bent, her disdain for rules and protocols, and her lack of respect for our intelligence.

          1. cwaltz

            I think what aggravates me is how much the focus is on innuendo and this fixation on how some of her traits aren’t “feminine” enough for some. I really don’t care about what she does in the privacy of her bedroom or her sexuality.I don’t care about the clothing she chooses to wear and whether it flatters her figure. I’m even okay with the fact that she’s ambitious and aggressive(I’d certainly be cheering her heartily if she was ambitiously and aggressively pursuing things like single payer or universal college?)

            What I dislike is that she appears to be a person who believes that rules are for the little people and that her poor judgment should not only be forgiven but rewarded with a promotion. That coupled with her flips, flops and failures on policy like TPP gravely concern me.

            My litmus test on sexism is whether or not the same complaints would be leveled if it were a male running. We don’t exactly complain that men are shrill or shrewish when they do things like act assertive, so yeah those types of complaints feel pretty grounded in people’s perception of how they believe a “well mannered and well bred woman” should look and behave, then in Hillary herself.

      2. Paid Minion

        I thought the whole point of the State Department was talking. And hissy-fits were illegal.

        As for the Russians……….we have a long track record with them, so nobody should be surprised by anything they do or say.

        Reaction should have been…….. “Okay……..let’s discuss it.”

        The Rooskies probably took a crap on a Clinton Foundation revenue source, and she took it personally.

        Is it possible the Russians are trying to do us a favor? That, having read her e-mails and intercepted her cellphone calls, they know the true nature of the Clinton kleptocracy? And now that the honest and honorable candidate has been eliminated, they are trying to help out the “lesser of two evils” candidate, by showing the truth?

        It’s funny that the Acela crowd has been bitching about “foreign interference” in the election, but says nothing about the criminal conduct of the candidate, or that they are just following the game plan of the Israelis and Saudis.

        1. cwaltz

          I’m fairly certain that diplomatic conversations aren’t always fun and games. I daresay she’d be the first diplomat to lose patience and walk off when they felt they were being disrespected(and no guys just because you buy a girl flowers and act “gentlemanly” you shouldn’t expect a female to rollover and play dead when she has traveled on business to negotiate with you and you essentially tell her everything has already been decided.)

          I have a lot of complaints with Clinton on policy but this particular encounter doesn’t strike me as all on her. She was blindsided. The intelligent position IMO actually would be to regroup before deciding whether and how to continue with negotiations.

          1. Kurt Sperry

            Agreed and I was thinking the same exact thing. If you walk into a meeting and get blindsided, immediately walking out the door should be at or right near the top of the options list. As a negotiator, you don’t want to allow yourself to be forced into a position where you are artificially time constrained to your opponent’s advantage. You’d like to think that in the same position you’d be clever and formulate a killer response on the spot, but no, nobody is likely to do that and a smart player will realize as much.

            1. witters

              In Australia it is called a dummy-spit and is viewed as an immature hissy fit. But in the US it is “negotiation”. Things fall into place…

              1. Kurt Sperry

                The disengagement can be done very civilly and politely if that is in order.

                “In light of this new and unexpected information, I’ll have to do additional consultations or fact checking or [blank] before the diplomatic process can go forward. I’m sure you understand.” Or such. No need to spit the dummy!

                In general, delaying communicates a confident position and is more often than not tactically sound, particularly in response to attempted blindsiding or brinksmanship. The party overplaying their hand is the one likely to be anxious to hurry the process forward or use blindsiding tactics.

            2. Pat

              And I am going to disagree. While it is an option, it should not be the top of the list. Just because you sit and hear the other party out as they make their demands does not mean you agree with them or accept their opening move. Walking out does however mean that YOU ended the negotiation without even trying to negotiate or persuade.

              1. Optimader

                USAID was there at the pleasure of the Sovereign Government of Russia.
                Don’t mistake USAID getting kicked out as a negotiating point, it was a demand, fullstop.

                So a professional imo would send a flunky out with that piece of info for consideration at a higher paygrade while politely proceeding with the negotiation at hand.

                Nothing has to be decided in a first meeting of a negotiation! So why get rattled?

                No less, it is disturbing that there wasn’t a scenario flip tab in the State dept playbook for a response to “USAID gets kicked out of Russia”. That should be written the before they even arrived, and continuously updated by one of the SoS’s analysts.

                The notion that the response should be get flustered and leave an unrelated negotiating gig shows weakness, and unpreparedness in my book.

                In 2012 how big a suprise should have been anyway??

                1. cwaltz

                  If you walk into a negotiation and the other side starts off a)treating you as if your their “date” rather than someone there to negotiate, and b)starts off with a strong hand by telling you they are kicking your diplomatic team out, I’m inclined to believe leaving them with reading material(which shows she was prepared for negotiations) and walking out isn’t that horrible or particularly weak.

                  I also don’t expect that Russia doesn’t have an agenda by trying to portray her in this particular manner(as someone who was unreasonable because she didn’t continue negotiating after their “gentlemanly” behavior turned out to be them telling her they were booting out a state department funded group.

                  Now based on what occurred in Ukraine I believe that Russia was probably incredibly smart to make the choice they made in their own interest(particularly since disclosure of USAID money distribution is opaque) but it’s kind of absurd to suggest it was weak for Clinton to overtly express her displeasure for that card being played if her job is to not act in Russia’s interest, but in behalf of our government(again this does not mean I agree that US policy should be to attempt to place people who are sympathetic to our interests rather than the nation of origin in office. I oppose our efforts to overthrow governments that we don’t like or agree with.)

                  My point is that walking away from the table is a very valid negotiating tactic particularly if you feel like you may be being strong armed.

  17. Kim Kaufman

    The newest New Hillary:

    Bipartisanship Doesn’t Work, Despite What Hillary’s New Ad Says

    “Donald Trump says he alone can fix the problems we face,” Clinton says into the camera. “Well, I don’t believe that’s how you get things done in our country. It takes Democrats and Republicans working together.”

    Hold on to your wallet.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/clintons-new-ad-is-a-paean-to-bipartisan-compromise.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Intelligencer%20-%20September%209%2C%202016&utm_term=Subscription%20List%20-%20Daily%20Intelligencer%20%281%20Year%29

    1. nippersmom

      I guess that depends on what you want to “get done”. Endless war and the passing the TPP probably do require Democrats and Republicans working together. The thing is, most citizens (Democrats, Republicans, or none of the above) don’t want to get those particular things done. But then Clinton doesn’t identify the “problems we face” the same way we do, either. What are problems for the rest of us are “business opportunities” for her and her cronies.

    2. Mo's Bike Shop

      “Donald Trump says he alone can fix the problems we face,” Clinton says into the camera.

      English major, not Marketing, but persuasion-wise that seems like a really dumb thing to do on video. Look how nice it is out of context.

      Has she made any ads that aren’t all about il douche?

      I’ve kind of stopped watching msm video, and can’t get out of the habit.

  18. Anne

    Oh, this whole thing about Clinton needing to be more likable is giving me a pain. The whole thing is giving me a pain.

    I don’t need her to grow an engaging and warm personality – I need her to grow some principles with roots and get over the FOBO – Fear of Better Options – that has her swapping out her positions on issues the way people change out the wreaths on their doors with the seasons.

    Give me some good policies, stop seeing everything as an opportunity to line her own pockets, quit pandering to conservatives and Republicans. Bernie Sanders wasn’t all warm and fuzzy – he is a crotchety, cranky man who endeared himself to millions because at his core he is a good and principled person who understands that the meaning of “public service” isn’t “getting the public to serve the interests of politicians.”

    Showing us her sense of humor isn’t the answer: funny people can still be lying a-holes.

    When all is said and done, Hillary is where she is because what drives her isn’t serving the public – it’s serving herself (with a fair bit of one-upping her lying, cheating husband in the mix). No amount of engaging personality will change that.

    1. temporal

      The problem for the political/pundit class is that any answer that has a chance of explaining why Trump, of all people, is still in striking distance involves recognizing that the current path, which they created, is failing most Americans. They won’t believe for a second that is true because they’ve made oodles of money selling out. Any honest attempt to fix this would mean getting off the gravy train.

      If Hillary said she was going to try to change course, yet again, it would mean exactly as much as when she said she she was named after Edmund Hillary.

      Being more likable only works for first impressions after that it’s the person’s integrity and positive actions – which are in pretty short supply in this case. Maybe if she tones down the Don Rickles routines she’s been using on TV recently some people will mistake smiling for being nice.

      1. KurtisMayfield

        Step #1. Gut the center of the country with trade and fiscal policy.
        Step #2. Start calling it “flyover country” because it isn’t as well off as the coasts.
        Step #3. Wonder why the people who live there don’t want to vote for them.

        It’s all so insane, and they can’t put the dots together. It’s almost enjoyable watching how stupid they are.

        1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

          Come to think of it, the term flyover-country is insulting. Not quite like ‘the Redskins’ but people there still might object.

          The term flyover-country likely is an xenonym or exonym. Do people there call it that?

          Do racists call themselves racists? What do they call themselves? Colorists – as in, what is your color, yellow, black, brown or white (so I can discriminate against you)?

          Yesterday, on the local public radio, they were talking about whether to say ‘illegals’ or ‘undocumented,’ because we hear more than what we hear.

          Like, “in 1492, America was discovered.’

          Or ‘the West was settled.’ Like it was empty or something. So many copycats – Hokkaido was settled shortly after the West was settled (You are an Ainu?). In a few more decades, Palestine was settled.

        2. Michael

          I’m from the middle of the country.

          There are good reasons to call it “Flyover”. It really doesn’t have to be nearly as bad as it is. Nobody made them elect Rauner, Rahm, Brownback, or Walker.

          The Midwest, where I grew up, is self-immolating. I’m glad to have escaped and to be slowly recovering my physical and mental health.

    2. Spring Texan

      Yep. It’s not about personality. If for instance she were talking about the REAL evils of the TPP instead of talking about it in terms that make it so clear she’d like to waffle . . . if she were NOT running ads about bipartisanship and fixing to declare a tax holiday . . . it’s ALL about the policies. Even if it was weak tea, I was glad to hear her talk about drug prices a little, because that’s actually important.

  19. Kim Kaufman

    To me, I think “invasive” is only relative to the size of your property and how much you like or dislike the plant in question.

    1. Steve C

      In some areas, the decision to plant Rosa rugosa is a decision that, before long, your neighbors and their neighbors will be growing this plant too, whether they want to or not. That’s even more true for some species of bamboo, which are rampant spreaders and are virtually impossible to get rid of short of nuclear weapons, and even then…

      The advantages that rugosa has include repeated blooming all summer long, abundant fruit that all kinds of creatures find irresistible, and the ability to send out runners to establish new plants. I was on Nantucket 20 years ago and saw solid masses of rugosa all over the place. Of course now, it may be all that holds the island together against the rising sea.

      Rugosa also is a major component of some of the best rose varieties of the past 100 years.

    2. Waldenpond

      I think ‘invasive’ is relative to the size of my neighbors property and how much I like or dislike the plant in question.

      I have three neighbors with ivy. It has destroyed my sedum bed along one driveway, destroyed a fence (the roots rot the wood) and invaded by chicken coop (it’s poisonous). I happen to hate ivy as it’s impossible to remove.

    3. Medbh

      I bought mint for one of my first gardens, and saw the warning about it being invasive. I thought “whatever, I really like mint.” That stuff was like an alien invasion. It sent runners across the garden and seeded like an atomic bomb. I constantly tore out branches of it all summer long, and it didn’t seem to mind at all, and kept getting bigger and bigger.

      They ended up tearing down the house with my garden and expanding a highway the following year. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see mint popping up through the pavement. That stuff was just crazy, and made me wonder why it hasn’t taken over the world already. It made me much more appreciative of the warning about “may be invasive.” They’re not exaggerating.

    1. Pat

      As so many people have pointed out, if you want majorities in Congress, you don’t decide not to run candidates in certain districts because the current Republicans are your friends (DWS), you don’t refuse to fund candidates because they are not the same race as the white majority of the district (the odious Steve Israel), and you make sure there are programs in place to register voters, and to help voters who want to register, up to and including help getting the documentation demanded by the laws meant to disenfranchise them.

      So in this season that has essentially ripped the mask off of mainstream politics in America, the idea that the DCC is hamstringing its own election chances is just situation normal/fubar for the Democratic Party.

      1. Steve C

        Democrats don’t want to win Congress. It’s better for the donors if the Republicans are in control. As long as a good neoliberal Democrat is in the White House.

        1. Pat

          Poor Chuck, he’ll be devastated if Marco is back. He was so looking forward to having a reliable Republican vote in his caucus to help excuse their inability to do anything.

  21. dcblogger

    One of the most bizarre things about this election is watching the same pundits who hyped every pseudo scandal and smear against Hillary Clinton in the 1990’s now cover up for real scandals. forgive me if I have said this before, but it has really been on my mind.

  22. rich

    Houlihan Lokey’s Adelson Gets $7.6 Million as 2013 Loan Forgiven

    Houlihan Lokey Inc., the investment bank that had an initial public offering 13 months ago, paid co-President Scott Adelson about $7.6 million in compensation for the fiscal year ended March 31 as the company boosted his annual stock grant

    and forgave a loan from 2013.

    The sum includes a stock award of $5.7 million, up from $75,000 a year earlier, the Los Angeles-based bank said Friday in a regulatory filing.

    Also in the package is $1.21 million reflecting forgiveness of outstanding principal and interest on the loan.

    His salary was $400,000 and he got a bonus of almost $300,000 in connection with the IPO.
    http://www.bloomberg.com//news/articles/2016-09-09/houlihan-lokey-s-adelson-gets-7-6-million-as-2013-loan-forgiven

    hmmm….loan forgiveness.?..I thought that was only a crazy socialist idea….funny how things work. Stock options and loan forgiveness…best of both worlds.

    1. Jim Haygood

      Call it the Gundlach Break. But Jeffrey was just the messenger. As he pointed out, the root cause is Fed Groundhog Day, all over again.

      Seems like just last Friday when a tepid labor report came out, sending the Fedsters scurrying back into their burrows. But now, to prove that “we are relevant,” they want to do an atypical rate hike to demonstrate that they aren’t predictable plodders who could be replaced by a five-dollar iPhone app (though they could).

      If they do hike on a treading-water economy, it won’t work out well. More likely, though, it’s just another dip to buy, as Wall Street spooks at the empty chatter of idle eclownomists who feel they aren’t getting enough attention and respect.

      The Federal Reserve is Hollywood for PhDs who make people’s eyes glaze over at cocktail parties.

  24. DJG

    Hmmm: “They struggle to reconcile the charismatic, warm and funny woman they know in private with Clinton’s public persona, which can come across as stern, aloof or annoyed.”

    Yes, I’ll never forget the time when old Hill slipped the whoopee cushion under Diane Feinstein during another endless hearing on why the Obama administration won’t release the report on torture by the “intelligence” agencies. She was the cut-up of the Senate, but she always brought in s’mores to pass around, especially after a big donation by the Saudis to the Clinton Foundation (which she calls Daddy Warbucks–snicker, snicker). Heck, after the killing of Gaddhafi, she spent the afternoon putting Mentos into bottles of Coke!

    Sorry, I’m not buying. One of the hallmarks of being an adult is that you should show some kind of unity of action. If you are warm and kind in private, it should be obvious in public, even if you are attending a solemn ceremony. But we now seem to be stuck in the endless U.S. melodrama, and people don’t even know how to act anymore. For all of their faults and the turmoil of their lives, I have little doubt that Jefferson, Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were genuine publicly and privately. Not so with Bill and Hill.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      My guess is she falls further behind Trump when they next poll.

      Then, it will be back to ‘Coldblooded decision maker who makes tough decisions.”

  25. ekstase

    “Be more open, show your soul, focus on the economy and talk about blue-collar jobs.”
    I have to say, the listing of these items is quite disturbing. It’s as if a p.r. flak discovered the word “soul,” and decided to pretend to know what it was.

    “Oh my god! I totally know how to be more open! I read about it somewhere, ‘Cosmo,’ probably. They’re the best. You just, like say stuff and then people are all like, ‘what she said,’ and you don’t have to restrain yourself in any way. The ‘economy,’ and like, ‘blue collar jobs’ – those are just words, right? We just say them because market testing was good on those. Something about the middle of the country and people and such. I don’t know too much about it; it just works. But the ‘soul’ stuff, that’s a new one on me. Where do people get this stuff? I guess it’s like there’s supposed to be another you inside of you… I guess it’s like mini-me. And this other you — well, I don’t know what it does, but people like it, and so we want to find a way to show it. Only it’s invisible and stuff. So we might have to use a song or a montage instead. Those are the same thing, right?”

  26. Pat

    Oh, and from some blurb I just saw running across a screen, no link or reference, apparently Clinton decided that Putin was not enough in the days leading up to the 9/11 anniversary, no ISIL loves the idea of a Trump presidency.

    I really have to question that assessment. Do they really think they will end up with more money and arms from Trump than from Clinton? I mean if he backs off regime change in the Middle East how many of their groups will get guns and ammo for free for supposedly being all about that anymore. (See Syria). They know that Clinton will be all about overthrowing regimes and supporting the groups they think will do that.

  27. Tom Stone

    I saw something like Hillary’s soul once, I think.
    I sure closed the lid on that privy quick, tarantulas scare me.

  28. Tom Allen

    If the “Let Clinton be Clinton” strategy to improve her image fails, why not get Trump’s name removed from the ballot altogether? That’s the tack the DFL is taking here in Minnesota. (The technical grounds being that the 10 alternate Electoral College electors for Trump/Pence weren’t chosen until August, rather than in the spring.)

    It’s doubtful that Trump will win Minnesota anyway, so I’m not sure why the DFL (the MN Democrats) think this is useful.

  29. rich

    Carlyle’s Stressed PES: Yergin to Rescue

    The Carlyle Group’s Philadelphia Energy Solutions is “significantly stressed” according to Bloomberg.

    Company pension contributions will be frozen, healthcare benefits will be cut and buyouts will be offered to salaried employees,

    Carlyle experienced regular explosions at the Philadelphia refinery, so one has to wonder how postponing maintenance will turn out.

    Maintenance planned at the 335,000 barrels-a-day Philadelphia refinery will move to 2017.

    It’s not clear if any workers died under Dr. Yergin’s leadership. I’ll venture the PEU quest for energy money and power will take down many workers, directly or indirectly. Pensions frozen, healthcare cut: It spells pain at the bottom. The greed and leverage boys.take care of themselves.

    http://peureport.blogspot.com/

    Sounds safe.

  30. fresno dan

    http://www.vox.com/2016/9/9/12864156/gretchen-carlson-roger-ailes-harassment-geraldo-greta-van-susteren-apologize

    When news of Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes broke in July, many at Fox reacted skeptically. But Ailes has now been ousted amid numerous other allegations, and Carlson has won a $20 million settlement.
    ….
    At the same time, Carlson still has many former colleagues, like Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and others, who haven’t apologized yet for doubting Carlson or supporting Ailes. And even in Rivera and Van Susteren’s apologies, there’s still a whiff of reluctance, a dash of lingering skepticism.
    ===================================================
    A good portion of the FOX “journalists” – – unswayed by evidence and unconvinced by facts (Carlson had recordings of Ailes harassing her).

    How many repubs are finding out too late that the “red” network is full of lying, dishonorable people unconstrained by truth or any sense of probity….
    They have sown the wind, and reap the whirlwind.

  31. robnume

    Good Water Cooler today, Lambert. Many thanks. Got me thinking. Since we’ve all been finding out about the Clinton Foundation, CGI and C – what is it – CGHAI, is that right?, I find it incomprehensible that Hillary would even attempt to go the populist route. That is simply not who she is. She is from an extremely wealthy Republican family, who inherited her wealth, went to elite schools of learning and, other than breathing air like the rest of us, can therefore hardly be expected to know or to care about the 99.9% of the rest of us. The observations of her elitist friends, who obviously like her as a person is nice for her personally, but does nothing to sway me particularly after seeing first hand the effects of her husbands destruction of the “welfare entitlement” programs which fed and housed countless numbers of the poorest Americans, most of them children. These folks have fallen even farther behind with no hope for the future since.
    There are no viable candidates for POTUS, IMHO, and I will sit this one out.

    1. wombat

      + Although, I don’t know if that is that fair robnume- you don’t remember how tough it was for Bill, and Chelsea, and her when they left the White House. If I recall they were “dead broke”- surely they understand our plight.

      As for the elites who surround and love her and want her to reveal her personality to the rest of us peasants- my theory is that the list of top elites is filled with sycophants (natural selection within the 1% habitat if you will). You don’t make it to the top 0.005% by telling the truth about the few elites who wield power above you. The Hamptonites are throwing fundraisers ad nauseum, Saudi Princes throw a few coins in the Clinton Pot, and even Buffet is with HER!

  32. Paid Minion

    The Minion, always trying to be helpful, and knowing that Godzillary is pretty busy about now, just tried to help her out.

    Tried to sign up the White House with AirBnB.

    It’s not like they haven’t thought of it before. Think of all of the “synergies/efficiencies/overhead reduction”, if she uses the latest technologies. Not to mention eliminating all of those “little fish” the FBI can get leverage against.

    To get a head start, went ahead and used the phone number of the Clinton Foundation as the contact number. I’m sure they have started working this project already.

    She’s even okay with the AirBnB “Non-Discrimination Policy”. It doesn’t say a damn thing about discriminating against people who don’t have $10 million burning holes in their pockets.

  33. Nahtanoj

    Hear, hear for the Rosa Rugosa!

    I like them so much I was tempted to plant some in a spot in coastal Maine where they aren’t already established, but then looked them up and found they are invasive and people go to great lengths trying to eradicate them, so I held off. Planted raspberries instead – also tenacious, once they get started.

  34. ambrit

    Reading earlier today, I stumbled across a passage from Aldous Huxley that is very appropriate to todays politics. From “The Devils of Loudun:”
    “The effects which follow too constant and intense a concentration upon evil are always disastrous. Those who crusade not for God in themselves, but against the Devil in others never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began.”

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