May 8 Open Thread: Pervs ❤️ New York
Calling all pervs — there’s a government job for you in New York, at least if you’re a male Democrat. Eliot Spitzer’s call girl problem looks tame next to Anthony Weiner’s texting his junk to minors, which looks harmless compared with the allegations, revealed in the New Yorker, that state AG Eric Schneiderman slapped around several women in recent years. Schneiderman swiftly resigned and hired a criminal defense lawyer. This removes a thorn from Trump’s side, as Schneiderman was looking for ways to charge Trump aides who might get presidential pardons.
Kudos to the NRA for gathering America’s Most Despicable in one place. Their choice for their new president: Oafish criminal Oliver North, who’s been riding the wingnut welfare circuit ever since he was caught stuffing shredded Iran-contra documents under Fawn Hall’s dress. Some people say it’s entirely in keeping with the NRA’s strategy of playing the victim.
Robert Reich, the guy Bill Clinton wouldn’t name Treasury Secretary because he’s too liberal, points out the damage being done to consumers by what he calls the monopolization of America, a result of both Democrats and Republicans ignoring anti-trust concerns.
Remember when Trump hired actors to cheer his entry into the presidential race? It’s apparently not as unusual as it seemed. Turns out an energy company hired actors for public hearings to play the part of residents who claimed to want a power plant built near them.
The paid actors, who played the role of civic-minded residents, held signs about the power plant project’s job-creating potential at New Orleans City Council meetings. Some of the actors also gave speeches in favor of the proposed Entergy New Orleans LLC power plant during the public comment period.
Roughly 50 people turned out to support a $210 million effort to build a power plant in the city during an October 2017 meeting. Several of them told the Lens, a local New Orleans news outlet, they were paid $60 to wear orange shirts. Others were paid more to speak in front of the city council members. In a vote of 6-1, the New Orleans City Council in March ended up voting in favor of Entergy’s proposed power plant.
Seems like a rush to judgement on Schneiderman:
“In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity. I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in nonconsensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”
I dunno about that. This isn’t Al Franken or Old George Bush playing grab-ass at photo ops. It’s four women, two of whom let their names be used, who appear not to have realized it was “role-playing.” The allegations note the fact that alcohol was involved, making Schneiderman an unreliable narrator.
Let’s just hope that he handed off all his files to someone decent and honorable.
Agreed.
Y’all ready for bloody Gina to use the classic Nuremberg defense today? That old gambit should be a real hoot. Of course rather than in the dock, where she should be, she’ll be promoted!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/gina-haspel-questions-cia.html
“I have no idea how long I was in the Thai secret prison because no one would let me sleep. The cell was white and stark, with nothing in it but a camera and hooks on the wall. The masked abductors were waiting. I was terrified. They chained me to the hooks. Because I was midway through my pregnancy, I could barely move or sit.
Some of what they did to me in that prison was so awful I can’t talk about it. They hit me in the abdomen just where the baby was. To move me, they bound me to a stretcher from head to toe, like a mummy. I was sure I would shortly be killed.
For the rendition flight to Libya, I was taped to a stretcher again. The tape caught the corner of my eye. It stayed that way, my eye taped open, tears streaming down my face, for more than 14 hours.”
Haspel ran a dungeon in Thailand. She tortured some folks. But like Barack Obama, our savior (ret.), we’ll look forward not backwards. Accountability be damned!
Yeah. It is pretty horrible. And delivered no actionable intelligence. But that was never really the point. The point was “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!”
Now we have the “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!” President and his “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!” war cabinet, so this is going to go well.