Zorro
Zorro's JournalRepublicans convene the cult of Trump
That Rep. Devin Nunes serves as the ranking member on something called the Intelligence Committee has always been a contradiction in terms. The California Republican displayed his intellectual heft earlier this year by suing a fictitious dairy cow that was mean to him on Twitter.
Even so, what he said on the House floor during Thursday’s debate to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry was jaw-dropping. He railed about the sort of person who believes in “conspiracy theories” and relies on “defamation and slander,” who spins a “preposterous narrative” with “no evidence” and only “bizarre obsession.”
Surely he was describing one Donald J. Trump to a T?
On the contrary, Nunes applied these Trumpian signatures to Democrats. “What we’re seeing among Democrats on the Intelligence Committee,” he said, “is like a cult. These are a group of people loyally following their leader as he bounces from one outlandish conspiracy to another.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/31/republicans-convene-cult-trump/
Trump Mortified After World Series Crowd Starts Booing, Chanting 'Lock Him Up' At Melania
WASHINGTON—As a chorus of jeers began to fill Nationals Park during Game Five of the World Series, President Donald Trump was reportedly mortified Sunday after the crowd started chanting “Lock him up!” at first lady Melania Trump.
“Why would they do that? It’s so mean,” said Trump, adding that when they stood up in their box seats to wave, the crowd began viciously booing Melania, an act he claimed was extremely disrespectful to the office of the first lady, especially since he was pretty sure she hadn’t done anything illegal.
“Listen, there are plenty of things about Melania that I don’t like. I’ve definitely thought about replacing her. Heck, I got caught up in the chant for a little bit there too. But she should be able to attend a baseball game in peace. Someone even pulled out a sign that said ‘Impeach Trump,’ which is silly, because I don’t think she can be impeached. Overall, we were incredibly embarrassed for Melania, but she was able to put on a brave face. I went over to console her and she didn’t seem bothered by it at all.”
At press time, Trump kicked himself for being foolish after realizing that the crowd was probably booing Senator David Perdue (R-GA) for his unpopular agricultural policies.
https://politics.theonion.com/trump-mortified-after-world-series-crowd-starts-booing-1839417630
'Oh Jesus, Now What?' Says Exhausted Trump Turning On News To See What Bullshit Thing President Did
WASHINGTON—Bemoaning the never-ending stream of news about the current occupant of the Oval Office, an exhausted President Donald Trump reportedly asked himself, “Oh Jesus, now what?” after turning the TV Wednesday and seeing what bullshit thing the president had done this time.
“Just a single day without this garbage would be nice, but with this administration, there’s always something, isn’t there?” said Trump, who groaned that everywhere he looked—the television, the newspaper, even his Twitter feed—he was confronted with yet another fucking insane story about the president.
“No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to escape that asshole. Every day I ask myself, ‘When will it all end?’ Because it’s seriously becoming more than I can handle.”
At press time, Trump was overheard mumbling to himself that with his luck, he’ll probably wind up having to put up with this horseshit for another four years.
https://politics.theonion.com/oh-jesus-now-what-says-exhausted-trump-turning-on-n-1839478742
GOP wipeout feared as impeachment fever spills over into House and Senate races
As the impeachment battle rages in Washington, Democrats’ position appears to be improving up and down the ballot.
Projecting current trend lines — admittedly a risky undertaking — shows it’s entirely possible the party could win the presidency, the Senate and the House next November.
Let’s start with impeachment itself. Before news of the Ukraine scandal began to snowball, only about 40 percent of Americans supported impeachment, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average; a majority opposed it. Today, those numbers have pretty much flipped, with nearly 49 percent in favor and about 43 percent opposed. Ask only how people feel about starting the impeachment process, meanwhile, and the gap widens; about 52 percent say yea versus about 42 percent who say nay. Particularly problematic for Trump is the increase in support for impeachment among independents, to 47.5 percent from 33.9 percent in late September. And the latest impeachment developments — the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council plans to testify Tuesday about how troubling he found Trump’s Ukraine call, and Democrats are set to begin public hearings — are unlikely to help the president’s cause.
In parallel with the shift in sentiment on impeachment, Trump’s approval rating has fallen from about 43 percent in late September to 40.6 percent today, while his disapproval rating has risen from 52.8 percent to 54.2 percent. These aren’t huge swings, but the president’s approval numbers rarely move much — Americans already know how they feel about the guy — so any movement tends to be significant. And a net approval rating of negative 13.6 percentage points heading into a reelection year is not good. For comparison, the only modern president in worse shape at this point in his presidency was Jimmy Carter; even Barack Obama, who faced similar polarization and a much worse economy, was performing about 8 points better in October 2011 than Trump is now. Carter lost reelection; Obama won.
https://news.yahoo.com/gop-wipeout-feared-as-impeachment-fever-spills-over-into-house-and-senate-races-155259352.html
I like reading this headline. The GOP needs to be wiped out, and will be if justice prevails.
Nunes Aide Is Leaking the Ukraine Whistleblower's Name, Sources Say
A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative politicians and journalists with information—and misinformation—about the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald Trump’s presidency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast.
Derek Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of the high-profile depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the impeachment inquiry. The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to get the whistleblower’s name into the record of the proceedings, which committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it’s an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.
On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that GOP lawmakers and staffers have “repeatedly” used a name purporting to be that of the whistleblower during the depositions. The paper named Harvey as driving lines of questioning Democrats saw as attempting to determine the political loyalties of witnesses before the inquiry. A former official told the Post that Harvey “was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time” ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill was testifying.
“Exposing the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint’s allegations,” said Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys. “What it would do, however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm. Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican.” Zaid has represented The Daily Beast in freedom-of-information lawsuits against the federal government.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say
Robert Evans, a Maverick Producer of Hollywood Classics, Dies at 89
Source: New York Times
A women’s pants salesman comes to Hollywood and jumps into the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel, drawing the attention of an A-list actress. With her help, he begins an acting career, which leads lickety-split to the top job at Paramount Pictures. He helps deliver masterworks like “The Godfather” and “Chinatown.” A cocaine blizzard, legal spats and financial ruin come next. In the final reel, a comeback.
If a screenwriter had invented Robert Evans, the script would have been tossed on the rejection pile as too tall a tale. But Mr. Evans, who died on Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., was living proof that, at least in Hollywood, truth can still be stranger than fiction.
In a world full of big lives, he lived one of the biggest: boardroom fights, tabloid romances, tennis with Henry Kissinger, even a murder trial.
Mr. Evans was 89. His death was confirmed on Monday by a family spokeswoman, who gave no other details.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/arts/robert-evans-dead.html
We're Less and Less a Christian Nation, and I Blame Some Blowhards
Some intolerant conservative evangelicals have tainted the faith.
Perhaps for the first time since the United States was established, a majority of young adults here do not identify as Christian.
Only 49 percent of millennials consider themselves Christian, compared with 84 percent of Americans in their mid-70s or older, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.
We don’t have good historical data, and the historians I consulted are wary of definitive historical comparisons. But something significant seems to be happening. The share of American adults who regard themselves as Christian has fallen by 12 percentage points in just the last decade.
“The U.S. is steadily becoming less Christian and less religiously observant,” the Pew study concluded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/opinion/sunday/christianity-united-states.html
In impeachment inquiry, Republican lawmakers ask questions about whistleblower, loyalty to Trump
Republican lawmakers have used the congressional impeachment inquiry to gather information on a CIA employee who filed a whistleblower complaint, press witnesses on their loyalty to President Trump and advance conspiratorial claims that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 election, according to current and former officials involved in the proceedings.
GOP members and staffers have repeatedly raised the name of a person suspected of filing the whistleblower complaint that exposed Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine to conduct investigations into his political adversaries, officials said.
The Republicans have refrained during hearings from explicitly accusing the individual of filing the explosive complaint with the U.S. intelligence community’s inspector general two months ago, officials said.
But the questions have been interpreted as an attempt “to unmask the whistleblower,” whose identity is shielded under federal law, said several officials with direct knowledge of the depositions. Republicans appear to be seeking ways to discredit the whistleblower as well as other witnesses “by trying to dredge up any information they can,” one official said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/in-impeachment-inquiry-republican-lawmakers-ask-questions-about-whistleblower-loyalty-to-trump-and-conspiracy-theories/2019/10/26/bf733450-f760-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html
They are not interested in the truth.
Elon Musk says Tesla has finally made a ready-to-deploy solar roof
Almost three years after Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled solar roof shingles as part of his push to buy SolarCity, the automaker says it finally has a version of the tiles that it can mass produce.
“It’s been quite hard,” Musk said on a conference call late Friday. “Roofs need to last a long time. When you add electrification to the roof, it’s a fair bit of complexity.”
The sleek roof is a key part of Tesla’s push to revive its struggling solar business. Musk unveiled the product in 2016, but the company hasn’t been able to bring production up to full scale.
The photovoltaic tiles are designed to resemble regular shingles, unlike solar panels atop a roof.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-25/elon-musk-says-tesla-has-finally-made-a-ready-to-deploy-solar-roof
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