DramatistDreamer

Overlooking the fact that this is a NYT article, the workarounds that Columbia sportswear employees to circumnavigate trade tariffs is a perfect illustration of why Trump's ad hoc tariff 'policy' (if you can call it that) is likely to flop at it's main goal-- to try to force companies to repatriate jobs back to the U.S.

A Winter-Coat Heavyweight Gives Trump’s Trade War the Cold Shoulder

Well, since I don't subscribe to cable, there's no question that I won't be watching this soap, lol.

I tried to listen to the DC podcast years ago but found it way too shrill and overlong but I distinctly remember a lot of mocking by JG of Eric Nelsen, in particular, as if to suggest that Nelsen was a bad actor.  I thought that, for a novice soap actor, Nelsen was a relatively quick study and made decent improvements.  I've certainly seen much worse on daytime soaps.  

The critiques seemed to be pretty shallow and based on the superficial.  It wasn't long before I stopped listening to the podcast because all and all, I found it to be tiresome.

Come to think of it, remembering the last episode of the Y&R that I watched, they'd be lucky if they could look anything like  PP soap, tbh.

The day after Thanksgiving is notorious in the media as the single best time to bury bad news. At the Wall Street Journal they'd save crummy pieces for months to bury then. Don't let this story get snuffed out- too important! https://t.co/9x7Qi4znoy

— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) November 23, 2018

I read somewhere that Gimelstob's production company produces the ATP Tour Uncovered show.

BREAKING: Jerome Corsi, an associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone, in plea talks with special counsel Robert Mueller's team

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 23, 2018

Here's more tidbits on that PR firm (a.k.a. opposition research firm) Definers.  Their Tim Cook for president campaign seems simply outrageous.

NEW: The NYT's next deep look at Definers Public Affairs, Facebook's embattled P.R. firm, and how it brought its political trickery to Silicon Valley.

It wasn't just Facebook. Qualcomm, Juul, Lyft & Lime all hired Definers.https://t.co/RFQoYKNqaL

— Jack Nicas (@jacknicas) November 22, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.

— James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018

10 hours ago, Juliajms said:

^ Ugh. Going after an 80 year old holocaust survivor.  They should all be ashamed of themselves. 

From what I've read/heard, the finger-pointing at Facebook has begun in earnest.  

I'm not a fan of how Krajan has been known to treat the players in the WTA that he coached previously.  I have my suspicions about his time coaching Dinara Safina.

Speaking of folks who creep me out.  WTF is this?  I don't know much about Gimelstob's personal life but this has to be a new low!

Former tennis star Justin Gimelstob arrested on suspicion of Halloween night attack https://t.co/o4wN0oaVPP

— Richard Winton (@LAcrimes) November 22, 2018

I'm not a Facebook  member but based on what I read from that NYT article last week, this sounds like confirmation of their horrible deeds.

Facebook dumps news at 5 pm ET before Thanksgiving that it did ask Definers to go after Soros https://t.co/r1aOd85rtZ pic.twitter.com/2yK54mhrIt

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) November 21, 2018

Trump, in his ridiculous statement about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, feels compelled to mention, not once but twice that he doesn't take Saudi money. 

"I don't make deals with Saudi Arabia" (remember how he repeatedly chants "No collusion" with Russia?) Also, "I don't have money from Saudi Arabia". 

Yeah, that's convincing.

3 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

I'm talking about things like this:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/911-saudi-government-embassy-dry-run-hijacks-lawsuit-cockpit-security-a7938791.html

 

but maybe in the end it's all just conspiracy theory. I definitely don't have the energy to go down the rabbit hole of figuring it out when so much crazy is happening in the present.

Eeh, any article that cites the New York Post as a primary source though...The Post is more of a tabloid to me.  It doesn't mean that what they report isn't often true but they definitely give me pause because they tend to rely a lot on gossip and hearsay.  I admit that seeing The NY Post highlighted in red stopped me in my tracks.

Geez, it never ends.

President Trump sought to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey in April. The White House counsel said the move could lead to impeachment. https://t.co/ZocoVthW5d

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 20, 2018

14 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

But isn't it the case that 9/11 was state sponsored by the Saudi's? I don't think we have the smoking gun on that, but it seems like we've gotten bits and pieces of info on that front over the years.  Given how many of the attackers were of Saudi origin it would have made a lot more sense to go after them.  It would have made even more sense not to go after anyone, of course. Revenge was in the air back then though, I remember that much for sure.

The thing is, that there are rivals and factions that don't get along even within the KSA.  Al Qaeda, right from the start was a pan Islamist militant organization, meaning they draw extremists from all over the Islamic world, not just Saudis.  Bin Laden himself was ethnically Yemeni and Syrian.  Bin Laden fought alongside the Pakistani mujahideen in the '80s against the Soviets.  (which might be why he felt so comfortable retreating to Pakistan in the wake of the 9-11 attacks)

There was some support for Al Qaeda within KSA, many from Wahabis who ostensibly hated the royal governing family.  To calm them, the ruling royal families allowed the Wahabis to carve out their own sphere of influence within the kingdom, which many believed the governing families within KSA would later regret as it pulled the kingdom further toward Wahabism and an extremely conservative form of Islam, which the jet-setting, conspicuous consuming Saudi royals did not care for.

Ironically, MbS seemed to be pulling KSA away from those more conservative aspects which were rooted in Wahabism, which is why MbS initially had so much support, particularly from Western countries and KSA's youth (which he may still have support from, tbh).

We should never forget that Al Qaeda attacked and bombed other countries years before they attacked the U.S.   Al Qaeda killed hundreds, thousands of people, mostly Muslims before they attacked the U.S.  Bin Laden was already on the Most Wanted Lists for Terrorists, years before September11th, 2001.

I'm not really sure where the theories of collusion between the Saudi government and Bin Laden stem from as I'm not familiar with those theories but I do remember that in Bin Laden's manifesto (written years after the attack), he claimed that Al Qaeda's motives for the attacks were a reaction against the U.S. having troops stationed in KSA, where the U.S. used Saudi airfields and airspace, as well as sanctions against Iraq. 

The bitterly cruel irony is that, of course, Al Qaeda would ultimately use airplanes as weapons of destruction.  In short, we know that there are individuals who have been highly supportive of terrorist organizations and some of them are in KSA, as well as the UAE but from what I've read and saw in documentaries, Bin Laden, in particular had a distaste for the Saudi royal family and the feelings were mutual.

26 minutes ago, Khan said:

Exactly.  However, in order to sell America on the idea of starting another war with Iraq and Saddam, they had to lie about finding WMD's in Iraq.  (Which there weren't, of course, as folks were insisting even back then.  Just as folks were confused and outraged that tracking down and capturing and/or killing the architects of 9/11 suddenly turned into rooting out and annihilating Saddam.)

 

Frankly, I think George W. Bush attained the presidency with the idea of settling the score with Saddam.  He had no other goals, no other agendas -- that was strictly Dick Cheney's and others' domain.  All he cared about was destroying Saddam and toppling his regime; and he used the most devastating act of terrorism on U.S. soil to make that happen.

Unfortunately many people were fooled by the contrived statements about WMDs that were never proven to exist.  Also, the U.S. never understood how complex ethnic and religious rivalries were, which was one of the reasons why Iraq was such an unmitigated disaster.

Once upon a time, the U.S. had use for Saddam Hussein (under Reagan...again) until they didn't.  He was every bit as much of a despot back then but back then, he was a useful despot.

Sometimes I wonder, personally if Al Qaeda was timing it specifically for an American presidential administration that was prone to war-mongering like a G.W. Bush administration.  Would bin Laden have tried this during an Al Gore presidency? He didn't do this during the Clinton years.

12 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

Yes, the personal corruption of the Trump administration might be worse than that of the Bush administration.  I really can't say because with Bush being from oil country it's not clear to me how much he and his family benefited from the connection to Halliburton and the oil industry. Let's just say I'm suspicious that we don't know everything there is to know on that front.

 

My real point is that while Trump is personally corrupt, W actually sent us to war with the wrong country to protect the Saudis.  How many people died because of the lies that administration told and the misdirection they did concerning 9/11? Some reports say that half a million children died as a result of things like starvation and lack of medical care, when we all know that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That seems worse to me than 45's greed, but at the same time the impunity Trump has given the Saudis is also dangerous and I'm sure a lot of innocent people will pay for that too.

Bush's issues in Iraq from what I've read, had more to do with Saddam Hussein and 'finishing the job that his father George H.W. didn't complete'. 

bin Laden, on the other hand had already been expelled by the Saudis, no?  While Reagan and the U.S. military trained bin Laden and the mujahideen against the Soviets (skills that would boomerang back on Sept 11th).  I doubt that the Saudis needed U.S. protection on that matter since Bin Laden was far from KSA in the caves of Afghanistan.  Kuwait, Iraq's vulnerable neighbor, was another matter.

Sometimes U.S. and Saudi oil industries collaborate (oil production, strategically driving down oil prices) and sometimes they are at cross-purposes (e.g. Trump administration granting waivers enabling businesses to buy from mutual enemy Iran, for seemingly political purposes).  I haven't done much reading/research into Halliburton and oil, but Halliburton profited handsomely in Iraq by catering to the U.S. military in the theaters of war (catering, supplies, etc.)  The war in Iraq itself was highly profitable whereas the war in Afghanistan (where bin Laden was thought to be hiding for a decade), was not.

Trump's vested interest in KSA is likely to be much the same as the other autocratic countries he does business with.

10 minutes ago, Juliajms said:

Of course Trump would overlook anything when the people involved have more money than god.  At the same time, I'm not sure this is anything worst than what the Bush administration did after 9/11. It's more obvious in the moment though and in that way disturbing, just like so much of what's going on right now.  The masks are off and all pretense of moral leadership is gone.

I thought that the administration of Bush Jr. was one of, it not the most destructive presidencies in my lifetime (I can only speak for myself) but one tangible difference between the two is that Trump likely has personal business with the Saudis. 

Dick Cheney might have had business with KSA through his contracting firm Halliburton and though, he may have been the 'unseen hand' behind the president, he didn't hold the actual title.  Trump, who is the current occupant of the title has business with the Saudis through Trump Inc.   

One of the reasons why I hope Rep. Maxine Waters demands and digs through those tax returns, is that there may be some irrefutable proof of Trump's conflicts of interest-- then again, he may have figured out a way to obscure the evidence by January '19.

It's well known that the U.S/KSA (oil) alliance has been in effect for several decades through various presidential administration in both political parties but KSA/MbS and Trump Inc. seem to be especially connected to each other. And the Trump administration is in the intrigue up to their necks.

holy hell. Mike Pompeo reportedly hand-delivered a plan to Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) outlining a roadmap to help MbS shield himself from the fallout of the Jamal Khashoggi murder scandal.

(h/t @AviAhvee) https://t.co/XPrFkYc1vt

— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) November 20, 2018

Update:

I read this article this morning but here are the latest developments, I'm not even going to post that ridiculous statement that the Trump WH put out.  Rather clumsy lede by AP.  Trump didn't do the pressing, he was the one being pressed to be tougher on KSA.

President Trump's decision not to punish Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman or cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia over Jamal Khashoggi's killing will disappoint and anger critics. U.S. intelligence officials reportedly concluded bin Salman ordered the killing. https://t.co/Sw28ENw67A

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 20, 2018

12 hours ago, JaneAusten said:

Sherrod Brown doesn’t represent me and Marceline can likely share a lot more about him, but an interesting topic the last few days about comments Brown made about the Abrams race in Georgia. I have to say he didn’t let weasel Chuck Todd get away with his usual finger wagging at democrats for using the word “stolen”.

 

I bring this up because there was a battle on social media the past couple of days at why and why not the term #stolenelection may or may not be appropriate when referring to the election. A debate between Richard Hasen and Charles Pierce.  Me, Brown is right and mostly Abrams is right.

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/georgia-stacey-abrams-brian-kemp-election-not-stolen.html

 

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25224334/sherrod-brown-stolen-election-georgia-brian-kemp-chuck-todd/

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

 

Were Chuck Todd and the usual pretentious types at Slate out there saying this about media darling Marco? 

 

Oh wait, they only care when a Democrat says it. 

 

Sherrod Brown is right. They don't want to admit it because it upsets their narrative.

Yesterday, I very nearly posted a tweet by Maggie Haberman where she was trying to amplify that very same concept by retweeting some ridiculous opinion piece from Slate.

Why do these people only lecture Democrats and/or liberals to shrink from using language that is direct and bracing, while merely mentioning the abrasive, often insulting tones of Republican/Trumpists in the most matter-of-fact tone possible?  Why no lecture for the Trumpists? 

I thought better of posting anything that Haberman tweets because by now, we all know what she's all about and frankly, I'm tired of her 'access journalism'.

If you're one of those news organizations that treated Clinton's private emails like they were a national emergency, the solution isn't to treat Ivanka's private emails like they're also a national emergency—rather, it's to acknowledge that you kinda fucked up on Clinton.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 20, 2018

Someone posted several videos from The Price Is Right from 1983 when the show did a salute to CBS daytime dramas by featuring actors from the network's soaps.  This episode featured "Steve" and "Betsy" introducing prizes during the Showcase Showdown.  They come on at around the 52nd minute.

A review by White House ethics officials revealed that throughout much of 2017, Trump often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner. https://t.co/5IXUBOofxy

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 19, 2018

Wow @Costello, how did I miss your post??

Looks like Cibulkova is doing a cameo in the Li Na movie.

This is fun. Pome will be in the Li Na movie! pic.twitter.com/AGQWRzdAoU

— Foot Fault Tennis (@footfaulttennis) November 19, 2018

It's amazing how the U.S. media is neglecting to report the massive failures of the Trump administration on the international stage. 

The 2018 APEC Conference just concluded and for the first time since 1988, the participants weren't even able to summon enough agreement to craft a joint statement.  The reason-- the U.S. and China and what some are referring to as an increasing Cold War.

Ever wonder why there is virtually no news on the so-called U.S./North Korea summit relations?  Because it's not going well.  At all.

Not to mention the fact that, according to reports, Trump is refusing to even listen to the evidence that implicates KSA crown prince MbS.  Trump claimed that this arms deal was going to be 'yuge' but to this day, there has not been one completed deal between the U.S. and KSA.  Not. one.

Oh and what about that Middle East peace deal?  How's that going? Weren't Jared and MbS supposed to craft some sort of new New World Order of peace and prosperity (namely for their own family's fortunes)?    It seems stalled, at best, to me.

Let's not even get into Europe.  Or Canada.  Or...sigh...Latin America.

If I didn't read/watch international news, I swear, I'd know nothing of any of this!

On the domestic front...

There's been a turkey salmonella outbreak going on for about a year now, announced just in time for Thanksgiving...Gobble Gobble!

Shade.

Junior Slam champ
Won Rome 2017
Won Canada 2017
Played 2018 Rome final
Won 2018 Year End Finals
Career high of #3
Never advanced past Slam QF pic.twitter.com/raz0dpBrox

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) November 18, 2018

1 hour ago, I Am A Swede said:

I'm not even sure they had that illusion in the first place. From what I gather many people just voted against the E.U. without any thought to what a British exit would lead to. I think it's quite revealing that so many of the younger people voted to stay while many older voted for Brexit. Sadly it seems that a lot of people in Britain still live in the past when their island empire ruled the world. Now that the actual ramifications of Brexit are beginning to dawn on people many regret their Brexit vote.

But believing that they could extract themselves from a decades long socio-economic pact with minimal complications is a form of illusion, no?  The younger people had no such illusions, they knew that their futures were tied to access to a global marketplace where they were permitted the right to travel across Europe without a tangle of bureaucracy. Many who work in the corporate sector probably work for multinationals.  They knew what they stood to lose.

As I understood, those (like Boris Johnson) who had been extolling the 'virtues' of an exit from the EU hadn't been doing it for 2+ years but for 20+ years!  That's quite a long period of indoctrination, which could partially explain why older people were more likely to believe the Brexit mythology--they've been absorbing it for so long. 

To paraphrase on that old adage of 'a lie can become like the truth if repeated often enough'.