Weekend Painting Box Music

A happy 75th birthday to Mike Heron, of Scotland's pioneering The Incredible String Band.  "Painting Box" is a song written by Heron and released on the band's "The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" album in 1967.  Robin Williamson has a nice flute interlude starting after the 2:00 mark. While often overlooked in their era (their acoustic performance at Woodstock was cut out of the more rock- heavy eponymous film), ISB was influential in the spread of folk and world music idioms. Sir Paul McCartney dubbed this album as his favorite release of 1967 (where there was heavy competition, to say the least).  Hope you enjoy.

The Strategic Blindness Of Chuck Todd

By now you may have read about the Chuck Todd interview in Rolling Stone, the purpose of which was to promote a special December 29 Meet the Press edition focused on the spread of disinformation in the Trump era.  Todd, the political director at NBC News since 2007 and host of MTP, has a well- documented history of playing the "neutral" "journalist" who, in fact, is simply a "both sides" cultist --  for example, notoriously claiming it was not his job to correct Republican lies about Obamacare, saying Hillary Clinton was "over- prepared" in a 2016 debate with the incompetent shitgibbon, and reinforcing the diversionary Republican narrative that the Mueller hearing was an "optics" disaster for Democrats.

Well, it seems the Rolling Stone interview became a moment of confessional clarity to Todd, who now realizes that he's been "naive" about Republican bad faith and lying all these years. But, Todd's not a slow learner.  He's just providing a little disinformation of his own.  Here's a small excerpt from Jay Rosen's epic takedown of the "naive" Mr. Todd in "Press Think":

Todd repeatedly called himself naive for not recognizing the pattern, itself an astounding statement that cast doubt on his fitness for office as host of Meet the Press. While the theme of the interview was waking up to the truth of Republican actions in the information warfare space, Todd went to sleep on the implications of what he revealed. It took him three years to understand a fact about American politics that was there on the surface, unconcealed since the day after inauguration. Many, many interpreters had described it for him during those lost years when he could not bring himself to believe it. (I am one.)

You cannot call that an oversight. It’s a strategic blindness that he superintended. By “strategic blindness” I mean what people mean when they quote Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”  (our emphasis)

Rosen goes on to pick apart Todd's rationale for sleepwalking* through his entire tenure as political director at NBC News, but it basically is captured in the Upton Sinclair quote above.  As far as Todd's "naive" excuse, Rosen outlines what many have observed for years about how Todd and others in the "elite" media have handled the asymmetrical devolution of the Republican Party into madness;  Rosen rebuts the naiveté argument in several areas (each has supporting narrative worth the read):

It’s not naive of him. It’s malpractice...

It’s not that he was naive. He did not care to listen...

It’s not naiveté. It’s a willful blindness to what the Republican Party had become...

He’s not naive. He’s an insider who thought his read was better...

It’s not naive. It’s a lack of imagination, a failure of insight... 

But, as Rosen says, Todd and his fellow news packagers across the "mainstream media" spectrum have no clue how to escape the cycle (Rosen calls it an "epistemological crisis").  Therefore, after Todd hosts his "special" MTP on disinformation, expect next week's guests and pundits to include those very same purveyors of Republican disinformation Todd now admits he was "naive" about.  Rest assured it will be the same on "Face the Nation" and "This Week" and on the op/ ed pages of your newspapers.  "Strategic blindness" is here to stay.
______________________
*  We note the incompetent shitgibbon's epithet for Todd is "Sleepy Chuck Todd," a rare occasion we'll give him credit for accuracy.

Poll: 55 Percent Support Removing Trump

The MSN daily tracking poll as of today shows the highest percentage yet favoring removal of malicious moron Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump from office:  55 percent (click on image to enlarge):



Note the dramatic swing on or about December 19 in favor of removal.  We wonder what happened on or about that date...  oh, right, the shitgibbon was impeached by the Constitution- supporting Democrats in the House of Representatives.  Impeachment was no longer a gleam in our eyes; it was now just over 8 pages of clearly argued rationale organized into two Articles of Impeachment.

What else might be responsible for the shift over the past week?  We think it might be Republican Senate leader Moscow Mitch McConnell's pronouncement that the shitgibbon would be quickly acquitted in a kangaroo court made up of his fellow rotted- out Republican lickspittles.  Apparently, that isn't going over so well with more and more of the American people.  Even the most casual neutral observer must be thinking: "If Trump's innocent why don't they want to have witnesses and documents to prove it?  What are they hiding?  Why the bum rush?"

Speaker Pelosi and Democrats are in control and gaining public support, regardless of Republican spin to the contrary and the dutiful stenographers in the media who report that spin as fact. This is the "will of the American people," that you so hear often twisted into a Trump- favorable narrative.  This is the peril facing Trump and Republicans, not Democrats, heading into 2020.

Tweets Of The Day -- Troll-La-La-La-La

This is why we can't have nice things. https://t.co/VVmY24fcFJ pic.twitter.com/iX145Tx9Yv

— Mike Duncan (@mikeduncan) December 26, 2019

No worries, the Dept of Defense is on it.  They are "considering" using cyberwarfare against Russia in 2020.

— scout1995 (@originalscout11) December 26, 2019

Here's the story about the DOD "considering" using cyberwarfare against Russia (which is likely to meet the same fate as the most recent round of sanctions against Russia).

Make America Russia Great Again!

Today's Cartoons -- Post-Holiday Lazy Blogger Edition

(click on images to enlarge)


(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)


(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)


(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)


(Kevin Necessary, gocomics.com)
 
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Rob Rogers, robrogers.com)


(Paul Szep, gocomics.com)


(Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News)


(Nick Anderson, Washington Post Writers Group)

"Merry Christmas" QOTD

"ONCE AGAIN, the president has curdled the eggnog by invoking the idea of a 'war on Christmas.' Perhaps President Trump thinks there is a lack of spiritual meaning in such bland greetings as 'Happy holidays' and would have us be more aware of the true meaning of Christmas. That seems unlikely, though, since Christmas is the tale of a family driven from place to place by imperial decrees and the irrational fears of an unsettled ruler.  [snip]

"So, with Christmas approaching, the president, or one of the elves in the darker reaches of his workshop, came up with a plan to cut the number of refugees admitted to the United States to a record low of 18,000. This despite the fact that most refugees have been thoroughly vetted and offer considerable promise to society. A number of communities welcome them and set them on the path to productive citizenship. This latest needless and probably self-destructive action, like many the president has taken, is the reality behind the mirthless jollity of his 'Merry Christmas.'” -- from today's Washington Post editorial, "The true meaning of Christmas."

Tweet Of The Day -- Working Hard At Hardly Working

What number lie would this be?  15,855?  16,023?  17,349?  What number day spent golfing as "president" would this be?  228?  229?  230?

Asked by a member of the military this morning about his holiday plans, Trump said, “I really pretty much work. That’s what I like to do." This afternoon, he went golfing again.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 24, 2019

Early Mid-Week Song

Thirty-five years ago (!) in London, musician and activist Bob Geldof organized "Band Aid," a large supergroup of mostly British (but some American) rock and pop stars, to record "Do They Know It's Christmas," as a fundraiser for Ethiopian famine relief. The effort, a romp of (take your pick) (a) altruism or (b) shameless self-promotion by said stars, was perhaps legitimately criticized as condescending at the time (not helped by many of the stars mugging during the taping). But the bottom line was that sales of the recording raised more than $24 million for the relief efforts. The success of the concept spawned other musical fundraisers like Live Aid and Farm Aid that spawned ever greater fundraising. The song has been re-recorded every decade since by new line-ups of artists. This is the original one, though, with its super catchy coda. See how many artists you recognize, some of whom are sadly no longer with us.

If you want to volunteer or donate to an organization fighting hunger here or worldwide, here's a list of 10 of the best (we personally like Feeding America).  Happy holidays!

Roundup (And) The Usual Suspects

Once again, the regime of malignant moron Donald "Rump" Trump, stands up for the health and safety of the American people:

President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency—already accused of being "pesticide cheerleader"—threw its weight behind chemical company Bayer AG on Friday when the agency asked a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court's ruling in favor of a man who said the company's Roundup weedkiller was responsible for his cancer.

The case centers on Edwin Hardeman of California, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2015 after using the glyphosate-based pesticide, made by Monsanto, for years on his property. Bayer acquired Monsanto last year.

A federal jury in July ordered the company to pay Hardeman roughly $25 million in damages, a lower amount than the $80 million a federal judge had ordered months earlier.

The EPA maintains—to the outrage of environmental and public health groups—that glyphosate is not a carcinogen. The federal decision notwithstanding, California in 2017 agreed with the World Health Organization's 2015 classification of glyphosate as a "probable carcinogen." Trump's EPA has pushed back on the state's finding and said that product labels informing users of that cancer risk would [be] "misbranding" and announced in August of this year that the agency would not approve of labels carrying that warning.

We've all seen that Trump's regime is a rat's nest of industry insiders, lobbyists and extremists like Trump consigliere William "Low" Barr and the EPA's Administrator Andrew Wheeler, himself a former coal industry lobbyist.  In case you need to get a quick picture of Wheeler, here's what the Natural Resources Defense Council had to say about him:

Despite his claims to uphold the EPA’s mission, Wheeler has acted in line with his predecessor’s anti-environment agenda. Since his taking over, the agency has moved to weaken federal fuel-efficiency standards, air pollution safeguards, and the Clean Water Rule, which impacts the drinking water supply for millions of Americans. “He’s worked to worsen the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the heat we feel,” Cohen says, “flouting the mission of the EPA at every opportunity.”

Even with Wheeler and Barr on their side, Bayer still faces legal challenges;  as the Common Dreams article points out, there are currently some 43,000 claims related to Bayer's use of glyphosate in federal courts.  However, now that the formerly liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is hearing the appeal, is close to having a Republican majority for the first time in memory (thanks, Moscow Mitch McConnell!), the final disposition of this particular case is hard to predict.

Regardless, it turns out "elections have consequences" can have pretty nasty consequences for a lot of innocent people, and that when the Trump regime talks about "environmental protection," they're only talking about protecting the usual suspects -- the environment's polluters, despoilers, and poisoners.

BONUS:  The Washington Post looks at the full scale of Trump's anti- environment attacks, which the malicious moron thinks is a winning political pitch.

(Image:  via NRDC)

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon -- Merry Trumpmas!

(click on image to enlarge)


(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

Tweets Of The Day -- Bought And Paid For

(click to enlarge)

This is not what the IG found. This is fiction. 1984-esque https://t.co/pOnfKl4cyu

— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) December 22, 2019

Why would House Republican Leader McCarthy lie (beyond that it's in his Republican DNA)?  Oh, right:

Now why would @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy lie about the findings of the IG Report - findings concluding that the Russian interference investigation was PROPERLY opened. Well, he was taking money from Lev Parnas . . . https://t.co/1EPc9lpN4V pic.twitter.com/DOiIHQ0Fqn

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) December 23, 2019

And that's not all, Glenn. We also know from reporting from about two years ago that McCarthy and MT Sen. Steve Daines are tied to Ukrainian lawmakers, money launderers, and prominent figures from the Panama Papers.https://t.co/1vCNFSHeQF

— Charles (@cjs3872) December 23, 2019

And more and more... pic.twitter.com/P4CNnkuIpg

— FergersonTemple (@FergersonTemple) December 23, 2019

And...more Repugs pic.twitter.com/tiMNbMeYg4

— FergersonTemple (@FergersonTemple) December 23, 2019

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Peter Kuper, caglecartoons.com)


(Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun)


(John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune, PA)


(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)


(Patrick Chappatte, caglecartoons.com)


(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)


(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)


(Bart van Leeuwen, politicalcartoons.com)


(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)


(Steve Benson, gocomics.com)

"Once Upon Impeachment"

Stand aside "A Charley Brown Christmas."  Stephen Colbert presents "Once Upon Impeachment" (h/t Crooks & Liars):

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

The Center for Public Integrity has received 146 pages of documents under court order that bolster and underscore the testimony by impeachment witnesses as to the effort by the Trump regime to withhold aid to Ukraine in exchange for announcement of a bogus investigation into the Bidens. Following the infamous July 25 "I need you to do us a favor" call between Trump and Ukrainian president Zelinsky, this is what Department of Defense officials were doing:

They specifically undertook an unusual maneuver, stopping the disbursements by adding a rare footnote to spending documents for Pentagon operations and maintenance efforts, which declared the Ukraine funding in particular was being held up for a week at a time. Then, over a period of about seven weeks, they tacked the footnote again and again onto eight such documents, each time as a temporary measure.

An unnamed lawyer at OMB, not wanting to participate in what appeared to be an illegal funding policy, decided to quit, as did another OMB official, according to congressional testimony by Mark Sandy, the office’s deputy associate director for national security and a 12-year veteran at the agency. OMB spokespeople have disputed the account, saying the resignations were not over the policy.

The documents, though heavily redacted by Trump consigliere William "Low" Barr, still manage to reveal the concern of staff at the Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon that the action violated the Impoundment Control Act.  No wonder Republicans are so fearful of more documents and witness testimony coming out in a Senate impeachment trial.  Here's one of the smoking (or as Trump would spell it, "smocking") guns in the release of documents (click to enlarge):

And here is your bureaucracy version of a literally smoking gun:

Newly released #UkraineDocs show that a mere 90 minutes after Trump's phone call, the White House ordered the military aid to be put on hold, but to be "closely held" infohttps://t.co/IqT70JkWBH
HT @Zeddary pic.twitter.com/H9eeHuOlo4

— Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) December 21, 2019

The Washington Post has a special section of articles written by 13 writers from around the world on "How Trump Changed My Country."  As you might imagine, none of the changes in any of the 13 countries was for the better.  Here's one snippet from a Russian writer, but please go check out the rest because the cumulative effect is sobering:

One evening in August, Russia’s most popular TV anchor, Vladimir Solovyov, indulged in mocking adoration of Donald Trump. The American president had hinted that he wanted to buy Greenland, and Solovyov said he loved Trump for destroying liberal cliches. This particular cliche appeared to be the belief that in the modern world, strong powers will not engage in land grabs — a topical issue in Russia, which had recently snatched Crimea away from Ukraine. “Strong states will get more lands, weak states will lose them, and Trump is showing that in a crude and vivid manner,” said Solovyov, prompting long applause from the studio audience.

When Russia ditched the communists back in the early 1990s, the triumphant West, led by the United States, beckoned, a shiny role model to pursue. Today, visionless and rudderless, the United States is a laughingstock to Kremlin mouthpieces like Solovyov — and a source of bewilderment, if not disgust, to the country’s liberal critics of President Vladimir Putin. Embodying that disillusionment is Trump, who seems intent on proving decades of Kremlin propaganda about America’s cynicism and lack of scruples. (See: Ukraine.)

The damage Trump has done to our country at home and abroad is already likely irreversible, because it's reasoned that if a debacle like Trump happened here once, it can always happen again.
 
As we noted yesterday, Jon Allsop at the Columbia Journalism Review has consistently pertinent analyses of the intersection of politics and media in our information- diffuse, dystopian times. Here's a segment of a piece he wrote on December 16 on the cult of "bothsideism:"

When it comes to much impeachment coverage, bothsidesism isn’t the beginning and end of the problem, but part of our broader reflex to frame contentious political stories around the concept of partisanship. In parts of the press, a set of party-oriented impeachment narratives has taken hold that contains some truth, but also rests on a selective interpretation of available evidence. Entrenched partisanship—in Congress and the country—is real, and newsworthy, as is the role that our fragmented information ecosystem has played in stoking and reinforcing division. And yet it does not follow, as some journalists and pundits seem to have surmised, that impeachment has been a waste of time. At the beginning of his show yesterday, Todd said the “national response” to impeachment has been “whatever.” And yet, as I wrote earlier this month, support for impeaching Trump, while recently static, is historically high. (A Fox News poll out yesterday reinforced that finding.) Six Republicans in Michigan are not the country.

The media’s job, done properly, is multidirectional: it holds power to account, and communicates matters of public interest to news consumers. On impeachment, too much coverage seems to have got stuck in a feedback loop: we’re telling the public that politicians aren’t budging from their partisan siloes, and vice versa, with the facts of what Trump actually did getting lost somewhere in the cycle. The cult of “both sides” is integral to this dynamic, and it’s serving the impeachment story poorly. Now, more than ever, our top duty should be to fight for the truth.

Perhaps some of our media need to begin with a refresher course like this:



The glitter and sequins are for when you achieve media elite status.

Following the editorial in Christianity Today calling for Trump's removal from office, a conservative newspaper in a deep red state editorializes in much the same vein.  From the Sunday Fargo Forum (ND):

Regardless of one’s faith tradition, Trump stands as a leader who has shredded norms and values and morals. He has undeniably used his office for personal gain — and for the benefit of his sons, daughter and son-in-law — yet the far-right refuses to hold him accountable.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws, not of men. Our Constitution spells out separation of powers as well as checks and balances between equal branches of government.

However we deal with Trump’s misconduct, there will be consequences, for the country and for conservative causes. We want a viable, upright conservative party to shape policy.

The Forum has about a 47,000 circulation on Sundays, and is the primary daily paper in southeast North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

Luckily for us (and you), Infidel 753 is back providing us with thought- provoking posts as well as his link round- up, which is the best collection of links to interesting posts on the Internet (in our humble opinion).  As we've said before, if you haven't bookmarked his blog, you're missing out.

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Galactic Bulges

(click on image to enlarge)

From NASA/ ESA, December 16, 2019:  This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows IC 2051, a galaxy in the southern constellation of Mensa (The Table Mountain), lying about 85 million light-years away. It is a spiral galaxy, as evidenced by its characteristic whirling, pinwheeling arms, and it has a bar of stars slicing through its centre.

This galaxy was observed for a Hubble study on galactic bulges, the bright round central region of spiral galaxies. Spiral galaxies like IC 2051 are shaped a bit like flying saucers when seen from the side; they comprise a thin, flat disc, with a bulky bulge of stars in the centre that extends above and below the disc. These bulges are thought to play a key role in how galaxies evolve, and to influence the growth of the supermassive black holes lurking at the centres of most spirals. While more observations are needed in this area, studies suggest that some, or even most, galactic bulges may be complex composite structures rather than simple ones, with a mix of spherical, disc-like, or boxy components, potentially leading to a wide array of bulge morphologies in the Universe.

This image comprises data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 at visible and infrared wavelengths.

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et al.