Qater Threw a Party for Track Athletes and Nobody Came

Moments after the greatest 10.83 seconds of Dina Asher-Smith’s life, the British sprinter grabbed a union flag from her mother and began a victory lap to celebrate her world championship 100m silver medal. But as she trotted round the 40,000-seat Khalifa stadium in Doha on Sunday night she was greeted by banks of empty seats and a ghostly silence.

According to observers, there were no more than 1,000 people still in attendance and many of them were journalists.  Asher-Smith’s teammate Beth Dobbin bluntly said, “I watched Dina’s victory lap and that was a bit heartbreaking--  I feel like she was robbed of that moment.”

The Doha organizers have blamed the start of the work week and an event schedule designed for European TV audiences for the low attendance.  But that cannot hide a simple fact that the 2019 world athletics championships have been a PR disaster for athletics and for Qatar-- a country which has spent the past decade buying up rights to host major events, including the 2022 football World Cup.

Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis said, “Our governing body has let our athletes down massively.” Meanwhile, Eurosport mocked the lack of crowd for the women’s sprint final. “The Doha crowd roars with approval,” it tweeted with an animated gif of tumbleweed.

It is all a far cry from the promises made by Qatar in its first bid for these championships eight years ago. “No empty seats,” Qatar promised, adding that “the atmosphere surrounding the world championships will be fantastic”.  Instead the stadium has often looked at least half empty, even though large parts of it have been covered with fabric and the capacity reduced to 21,000. And that is despite attendances being bolstered by organizers giving thousands of migrant workers from Africa and India free tickets.

This was all a disaster foretold by many.  Doha was controversially awarded the championships after having offered nearly $30M towards extra sponsorship and a promise to build 10 new tracks around the world-- mere minutes before the 2014 vote when it defeated Eugene and Barcelona.  The former IAAF board member Helmut Digel called the decision to award the event to Doha  “incomprehensible”.  José María Odriozola, a Spanish IAAF executive well-versed in sports politics, cut to the heart of the matter, saying, “All Doha has is money.”

For many sports federations that is apparently enough, however--- whatever the athletes may think. Yet with every passing hour, more of them are voicing discontent. The French decathlete Kevin Mayer, the world record holder, has called the championships a “catastrophe”. Other athletes have claimed they are being treated as “guinea pigs” by a governing body that has forced marathon runners and race walkers to compete in 88-degree heat and high humidity, which has led to some being carried off the track in wheelchairs.

As Belarus’s Volha Mazuronak, who early Saturday morning finished fifth in the women’s marathon put it: “I thought I wouldn’t finish. It’s disrespect towards the athletes. A bunch of high-ranked officials gathered and decided that it would take the world championships here but they are sitting in the air conditioning or probably sleeping right now.”

IAAF President Sebastian Coe continues to maintain that track and field must venture into new territories to help spread the word. Tell that to the 1,972 athletes from 208 countries here in Doha. For many this will be the pinnacle of their careers. How sad, then, that it has turned into a nadir for their sport.

Testament to Technology

Ariana, Miley and Lana: Don't Call Me Angel

Explosive Whistleblower Complaint Exposes Trump's Attempts to Illegally Influence the 2020 Election, the White House's Efforts to Cover It Up, and the Attorney General's Conflict of Interest in Trying to Prevent Congress From Finding Out About His Involvement

With the release of the whistleblower complaint on Thursday, the first item on the whistleblower’s list of concerns was the July call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The second item was “efforts to restrict assets related to the call.” In this section, the whistleblower says that White House officials removed the transcript of the call and other documents from the server where such documents are usually kept to provide access to Cabinet-level officials. Instead, the documents were sent to a special server for “classified information of an especially sensitive nature.”

If you want to hear an audio recording of the whistleblower complaint, click here.

At the house hearing today, the first things that was clearly established was that Acting DNI Maguire took the whistleblower complaint directly to the subject of the complaint, Donald Trump's White House, for advice on how to proceed with the complaint.  I'm sure most people don't have to be a lawyer to know that is clearly NOT the right thing to do.
 
Acting DNI Maguire also testified, "Election security is my most fundamental priority."  Maguire's assertion completely destroys the logic behind the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel opinion reasoning that the DNI shouldn't relay the complaint to Congress because election security didn't fall within his purview.

Maguire said several times that the whistleblower acted in good faith and adhered to the law in making the complaint.  This entirely refutes Trump’s maligning of the whistleblower as an unpatriotic partisan with an axe to grind.


Maguire also said he sought advice from the Office of Legal Counsel, which reports to the Department of Justice and Attorney General Bill Barr, who is also a subject of the complaint. 

An explosive letter from an unnamed intelligence official was later released detailing attempts by the White House to cover up Trump’s wrongdoing.   On more than one occasion, White House officials put transcripts of Trump’s conversations into a “standalone computer system” that was meant for storing sensitive and classified intelligence information.

Officials were abusing that system, the letter says. They used it to protect politically sensitive conversations, rather than national security secrets. It’s the place they put the transcript of Trump’s conversation with the president of Ukraine when he asked for foreign help in going after former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.  Hiding this transcript was deliberate. According to the whistleblower’s letter, White House officials said they were “directed” by White House lawyers to move it there, away from the regular computer system that holds other call transcripts that are distributed to Cabinet-level officials.

The whistleblower complaint also named Attorney General William Barr as being part of the alleged misconduct that sparked the complaint. The Justice Department attempted to suppress the whistleblower complaint by advising the acting director of national intelligence that the document should not be disclosed to Congress.  The problem is that Barr himself was directly involved in the effort from Trump to “solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”  The complaint states: “This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president’s main domestic political rivals. The president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well.” The complaint states Trump instructed the Ukrainian president to follow up on the requests he'd made with Giuliani and Barr.

An interesting (and chilling) postscript to today's events (which Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld wrote about that here)-- At a private breakfast this morning in New York City, Donald Trump discussed the whistleblower complaint, telling attendees that the person who leaked information to the whistleblower was “close to a spy”; and then he shockingly alluded to execution as he went on to say, “You know what we used to do in the old days.”   It doesn't take a lawyer to know that this sounds like witness intimidation-- I sure hope that the media helps to protect the identity of the whistleblower.


 

Trumpworld

Ukraine Whistleblower Case Proves Snowden Was Right

Edward Snowden did it all wrong, his critics thundered.

The former National Security Agency subcontractor should have used “other avenues available for somebody whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions,” then-President Barack Obama claimed in an August 2013 press conference, citing an executive order he had signed that — in theory at least — gave intelligence officers some whistleblower protections for the first time ever.

“Snowden could have come to me,” George Ellard, then the NSA’s inspector general, claimed in 2014. 

As Nick Baumann wrote on Huffpost, Snowden did, in fact, try to report his concerns through official channels. He questioned the legality of surveillance programs 10 times, he later testified before the European Parliament. He said he was brushed aside. So in 2013, he leaked reams of national security information to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, revealing the details of multiple surveillance programs and launching a global debate on privacy. Thanks to Snowden, people all over the world now know far more than they otherwise would have about the NSA’s collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, its use of data from internet giants like Google and its spying on the phone calls of world leaders like Angela Merkel.

Snowden’s reward was criminal charges and effectively permanent exile from the U.S. But his concerns were aired publicly and the proper scope and scale of massive government surveillance programs was debated in the open.

So far, the latest fight over an intelligence community whistleblower seems to be vindicating Snowden’s decision. Recently, the intelligence community’s inspector general received a whistleblower complaint that he deemed “urgent and credible.” The inspector general then sent it up to the acting director of national intelligence. The law says the director of national intelligence “shall” at that point pass the complaint on to Congress. But President Donald Trump and his administration are blocking that complaint — which reportedly concerns a call Trump made to the president of Ukraine in which he asked for Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden — from being seen by Congress.

That sort of politicization “is precisely the reason so many [whistleblowers] go to the press,” said Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department legal ethics adviser and whistleblower who now works as a lawyer for whistleblowers.  Can't agree more-- read further here.

Drug-Cheat Russia Still Playing Games With Testing Lab

Russia could face a ban from all major sports events over "discrepancies" in a lab database, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has warned.

The country has been given three weeks to explain "inconsistencies" or risk being excluded from the Olympics and world championships.  Russia also faces being barred from hosting major events.

"There's evidence this data has been deleted," chairman of WADA's compliance panel, Jonathan Taylor said.  "We need to understand from the Russian authorities what their explanation is."

Russia handed over data from its Moscow laboratory in January as a condition of its reintegration back into the sporting fold after a three-year suspension for a state-sponsored doping program.

But on Monday WADA said its executive committee had been informed that a formal compliance procedure had been opened over the discovery of "inconsistencies".

Russia has already risked fresh sanctions by missing the original 12/31/18 deadline to hand over the data.   WADA lifted a three-year ban on the country in September on the strict condition samples were sent by the end of the calendar year.

On Monday the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) confirmed its decision to uphold a ban on Russia just four days before the start of the World Championships in Doha after hearing a report from its task force overseeing the country's reinstatement efforts.

But Russia now faces the prospect of being excluded from many other events, including next year's Olympics in Tokyo and football's 2022 World Cup.

Pollution from Crop Burning Turns Indonesian Skies Red

Skies over an Indonesian province turned red over the weekend, thanks to the widespread forest fires which have plagued huge parts of the country.

One resident in Jambi province, who captured pictures of the sky, said the haze had "hurt her eyes and throat".

Every year, fires in Indonesia create a smoky haze that can end up blanketing the entire South East Asian region.  This year's haze levels have been some of the worst in years.

The haze is caused by open burning in Indonesia and to a lesser extent, parts of Malaysia. The burning usually peaks from July to October during Indonesia's dry season.

Eka Wulandari, from the Mekar Sari village in Jambi province, captured the blood-red skies in a series of photos taken at around midday on Saturday.  The haze conditions had been especially "thick that [day]", she said.

Indonesia meteorological agency BMKG said satellite imagery revealed numerous hot spots and "thick smoke distribution" in the area around the Jambi region.

Associate Professor Koh Tieh Yong, of the Singapore University of Social Sciences, explained that this phenomenon, known as Rayleigh scattering, has to do with certain types of particles that are present during a period of haze.

"In the smoke haze, the most abundant particles are around 1 micrometer in size, but these particles do not change the color of the light we see," he said.

"There are also smaller particles, around 0.05 micrometers or less, that are somewhat more abundant during a haze period, which scatter red light frequencies more in the forward and backward directions than blue light - and that is why would you see more red than blue."

The blame for the haze lies with big corporations and small-scale farmers, which take advantage of the dry conditions to clear vegetation for palm oil, pulp and paper plantations using the slash-and-burn method.

This slash-and-burn technique employed by many in the region is arguably the easiest way for farmers to clear their land and helps them get rid of any disease that may have affected their crops.

However, these fires often spin out of control and spread into protected forested areas.

Slash-and-burn is illegal in Indonesia but has been allowed to continue for years, with some saying corruption and weak governance have contributed to the situation.

Dictionaries Are Not the Enemy

Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition calling for Oxford University Press to change the “sexist” definitions of the word “woman” in some of its dictionaries.

Launched this summer by Maria Beatrice Giovanardi, the petition points out that Oxford dictionaries contain words such as “bitch, besom, piece, bit, mare, baggage, wench, petticoat, frail, bird, bint, biddy, filly” as synonyms for woman.

The petition calls on Oxford to  1) eliminate all phrases and definitions that discriminate against women and/or connote men’s ownership of women, 2) to enlarge the dictionary’s entry for ‘woman, and 3) to include examples that are representative of minorities.

While the petitioners' efforts are well-intentioned, it is laudable that the Oxford folks are resisting such over-zealousness and taking a more sensible approach. 

For instance, Oxford’s head of lexical content strategy Katherine Connor Martin has said that editors are investigating “whether there are senses of woman which are not currently covered but should be added in a future update.

She also pointed out that the content referred to in the petition is not from the Oxford English Dictionary, but from the Oxford Thesaurus of English and the Oxford Dictionary of English, which are drawn from “real-life use” of language,  Martin added, “If there is evidence of an offensive or derogatory word or meaning being widely used in English, it will not be excluded from the dictionary solely on the grounds that it is offensive or derogatory.”

The petitioners also criticize the fact that the definition of "man" is much more exhaustive than that of "woman" – with 25 examples for men, compared to only five for women.  But Oxford said that as its dictionary is based on "evidence of actual usage, entries for two different words will only be perfectly parallel if the words are genuinely used in a perfectly parallel way."

In today's culture, Oxford said, the words man and woman are not used in identical ways. “For instance, sense four of ‘man’ is ‘a figure or token used in playing a board game’, but that meaning is not evidenced for woman,” said Martin.  “Statistical analysis of large digital text databases shows that there are significant differences in how the words man and woman are used. People speak of a ‘man about town’ but rarely of a ‘woman about town’; of a ‘ladies’ man’ but not a ‘gentlemen’s lady’; of ‘womanly’ curves and wiles, but ‘manly’ handshakes and jawlines.”

Martin said that as the usage of English speakers changes over time, the dictionary would change to reflect the new lexical terrain.  Oxford added that dictionary staff “are taking the points raised in the petition very seriously … As ever, our dictionaries strive to reflect, rather than dictate, language so any changes will be made on that basis.”

In other words, Maria Beatrice Giovanardi and her petitioners should focus on changing the culture--  instead of manipulating the mirror the reflects it.

Missy Elliott - Throw It Back

Why Are We Going to Get Involved in an Attack on Saudi Arabia?

Why in the world would the U.S attack Iran over the Saudi Arabia oil refinery strike?  No troops were killed or injured. No U.S. citizens were involved.  No U.S. assets or property were involved.

Many believe that Trump is taking marching orders from Saudi Arabia.  Karen Attiah, global opinions editor at the Washington Post, called the tweet the "clearest expression of Trump's 'Saudi Arabia First' doctrine yet."

"The Saudi regime has drained its economy of billions to bombard Yemen for years," said Attiah. "All there is to show for it is a humanitarian disaster. This is the regime Trump wants to take targeting orders from."

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said in a statement that allowing the Saudis to dictate U.S. foreign policy heightens the risk of "triggering a regional war more catastrophic than the 2003 invasion of Iraq."

"The U.S. is not obligated to fight Saudi Arabia's wars," said Abdi, "and we urge Trump to discard his repeated willingness to cede U.S. policy to other nations."

Lawmakers reminded the president that Congress alone—not the White House nor the Saudi dictatorship—has the constitutional authority to approve U.S. military action.

"Mr. Trump, the Constitution of the United States is perfectly clear," tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Only Congress—not the president—can declare war. And Congress will not give you the authority to start another disastrous war in the Middle East just because the brutal Saudi dictatorship told you to."

The Trump administration released satellite images purporting to show the oil facility attacks-- apparently carried out with drones that originated from Iran.  But, the New York Times reported the photos do "not appear as clear cut as officials suggested, with some appearing to show damage on the western side of the facilities, not from the direction of Iran or Iraq."

NIAC's Abdi slammed Trump for threatening military action on Saudi Arabia's behalf even before the facts have become clear.  "We do not know definitively who was behind the attacks-- Houthi forces in Yemen have been at war with the Saudi coalition since 2015 and have claimed responsibility for them."

So if the Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for the attacks, why is there a rush by the Trump administration to blame Iran?  Because it serves Trump's purpose to pressure Iran into negotiations over a deal (a deal that Iran was in compliance with until Trump ended it)?  Or is it because it serves the purpose of murderous Mohammad bin Salman, who is trying to isolate Iran like he did with Qatar?

Sean Spicer Embarrasses Himself on TV

Three Kids Shot in Their Homes in a Single Texas County-- on the Same Day

In the span of a couple of hours, three children were shot in three separate incidents on Sunday in Tarrant County, Texas. One of the children, an 8-year-old girl, is expected to make a full recovery. A 4-year-old boy died after he was shot by a “juvenile sibling” at their home, and a 6-year-old is in the hospital in “grave condition” after he was shot in the head by his sibling.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the 6-year-old in grave condition was reportedly shot in the head by his 10- or 11-year-old brother after the older sibling discovered a .22 caliber rifle in the home. The boy thought it was a fake gun, aimed it at his brother, and shot. According to reports, an older teenage son says he had purchased the rifle. The parents in the home told investigators they were unaware there was a firearm in their home. The child’s 6-year-old sister was also struck by shrapnel but is expected to make a full recovery.

In another incident nearby, an 8-year-old girl who was shot in the buttocks when she accidentally sat down on a what was described as “an Uzi or MAC-10 equivalent” is reportedly recovering. Police say the weapon was reportedly stolen, and the initial statements by those on the scene tried to place the weapon outside of the home. Witnesses later admit the shooting took place in the home after a bullet hole was discovered inside.

Finally, a 4-year-old boy died after he was shot by a sibling “who is also a juvenile.” There is still very little information on what happened in the fatal case, but the results are usually tragic whenever a firearm is left unsecured in a home.

Cam Spam

Why Would Anybody Help the U.S. When We Treat Whistleblowers Like This?

Wonkette looked back on the latest in the Russia story-- the spy we've been talking about all week long, the one who helped the Obama administration figure out things like "Vladimir Putin personally ordered the ratfucking operation to hurt Hillary Clinton and help install Dear Orange Leader Trump in office."  In the process, they mockingly (how else would they) congratulated the media and the Trump administration on screwing him over.

Monday: CNN reports on the very special spy who was extracted in 2017 during a family trip to Montenegro, at least partially over concerns that Trump would burn the spy's identity to Putin, but doesn't say his name, because no shit.

Monday night: NBC News's Ken Dilanian goes to Smolenkov's house, then spends the evening making the rounds on all the shows saying FOUND HIM! FOUND HIM! LOOK AT ME I FOUND HIM! NOT GONNA SAY HIS NAME BUT YOU CAN PROBABLY FIGURE IT OUT IF YOU TRY REAL HARD! FOUND HIM! FOUND HIM! LOOK AT ME I FOUND HIM!

Ken Dilanian is a shitty reporter (agreed).

Also Monday night: The New York Times follows up with its own story, gives way more detail on what this Russian source did for America, and more context about why the spy was extracted.  Does not name Smolenkov, because again, no shit.  Specifically says US officials didn't want it leaked, because of how dude's life could be in danger.

Yet again on Monday night: Smolenkov and his family reportedly GTFO of their house and go somewhere else.

Tuesday: Russian state media names the guy.  Acts like "no big deal"-- he was the coffee boy, delivered donuts, didn't know about anything.  Dmitry Peskov -- the Stephanie Grisham of the Kremlin (dunno if he's as good a driver as she is) -- says the CNN report is "pulp fiction."  The Washington Post also names Smolenkov that day, without saying for sure that he is definitely the spy in question, but by that point, everybody is like "OK wink-wink nudge-nudge."

Thursday: Russian state media posts a picture of the alleged coffee boy the Kremlin is totally not concerned about.  But for real, Russia is NOT WORRIED ABOUT IT, and DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO TRY TO ASSASSINATE SMOLENKOV ON AMERICAN SOIL OR ANYTHING.   You know, unless they do. YOLO!

All of this is totally great.  Again, heckuva job, everyone!  Do we really think Vladimir Putin had no idea where this guy, whom America extracted in 2017 for his own safety, really was?  Nah. He knew.  But it's not all that important to a person like Putin until or unless that person becomes a source of humiliation for the Kremlin.  Like, say, if the media won't shut up all week about how they found this guy and he's living under his real name in the DC suburbs.  Then it becomes embarrassing. And what does Russia particularly not handle well?  Humiliation.

We sure do hope the Smolenkov family is under good CIA protection somewhere, and that Donald Trump isn't being allowed anywhere near the truth of their whereabouts, unless we're all in the mood to watch Trump help his Real Daddy Vladdy kidnap or murder a CIA source right before our very eyes.  Hell, even if it weren't for Trump's strangely lovey-dovey relationship with Putin, we know that Trump doesn't like spies, not even if they're the foreign kind that helps America.  He thinks they're disloyal to their own governments, especially the strongman authoritarian leaders whose approval he so desperately craves, therefore they are bad.

Clearly, this guy was exfiltrated to America for his own safety, but unfortunately, and as we've seen this week and ever since the beginning of the Trump presidency, it looks like he's not safe here either.

Rush Limbaugh Attacks Another Female Journalist

Conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh has a long history of misogyny and most recently he attacked female journalist Krystal Ball, a former MSNBC host and one time congressional candidate in Virginia who now hosts Rising with the Hill's Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti for Hill.TV.  Limbaugh recently told his audience that Ball had posed nude when she was 14 or 15 years old and shared the pictures on social media.   The problem?  That was a baldfaced lie.

Ball was alerted to Limbaugh's slander and she responded by telling her viewers, "it is not your job to be the moral police or to shame me or any other young woman out there who may have nude photos. If they want to run for office, if they want to be political leaders, they still can and I wanted to make sure that I was able to put that message out there."

It’s amazing someone like Rush Limbaugh thinks he has the right to comment on other people’s looks or even their history. The thrice-divorced radio host was once arrested for doctor shopping to support his prescription drug habit.

Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's records after learning that he had received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his house in Palm Beach. 

Before Limbaugh was arrested, he was a longtime proponent of prison time for drug charges-- saying on his show, "If people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."

Once he was charged with prescription fraud, Limbaugh suddenly wanted drug treatment and fines to be sufficient for a drug crime. Prosecutors agreed and eventually dropped the case if he continued seeking treatment.

That isn’t Limbaugh’s only brush with the law.  He was once detained at the Palm Beach airport after a trip to the Dominican Republic with four buddies. Customs authorities discovered he was carrying a bottle of Viagra that was not in his name.  That case was also eventually dropped.



News alert to Rush:  if you're going to slander fellow journalists, be prepared for your own (actual) checkered past to be paraded in public.

Post Malone - Circles

Peeved Partner Prunes Penis, Phones Police

A North Carolina woman has been charged with tying up her husband and chopping off his penis after she called the authorities and told 911 operators that she attacked "his favorite part of himself."

56-year-old Victoria Thomas Frabutt, 56, is said to have tied up 61-year-old James Frabutt before cutting off his member at their Newport, North Carolina home.   She complained to emergency workers that she "couldn't even get enough blood to make the sign of the cross, or write sinner, or anything like that," following the assault.

The harried hacker told operators during a 13-minute call that a pruner was used during the attack, adding,  "Actually it's good for pruning roses."

It is believed that the incident was motivated by their impending divorce, as Frabutt referred to her husband James as her "soon-to-be ex" during the 911 call.   She added, "That would be part of the message against sinning against God and fornication."

When asked what part of the body her husband was bleeding from, Victoria replied: "That would be his favorite part of himself."

The wronged whacker then put a towel on her husband, saying he wasn't going to die "because you're going to carry a message."  She later told 911 operators that her husband was 'just dandy' when asked if he was conscious and breathing.

When responders arrived, the Carolina clipper told responders, "There’s a thing in there that needs your assistance. I don’t know whereabouts it is, it could be anywhere.'"  The parted pecker was successfully located by law enforcement, put on ice and transported to Vidant Medical Center for reattachment. 

The Unfortunate Truth

The Art of the Non-Deal

Ending the war in Afghanistan has been one of Trump's priority since taking office, a signature accomplishment that could help him win re-election next year.  For nearly a year, Zalmay Khalilzad, a former ambassador to Afghanistan, had been engaged in talks with the Taliban to make that happen.

In recent weeks, it had been increasingly clear that the United States and the Taliban, after nine rounds of painstaking negotiations in Doha, Qatar, had ironed out most of the issues between them.  Khalilzad reported to the White House that the agreement document had been finalized “in principle.”

By the time Khalilzad was ready to leave Doha on September 1, he and his Taliban counterparts had finalized the text, initialed their copies and handed them to their Qatari hosts.  Khalilzad brought up the idea of a Taliban trip to Washington. Taliban leaders said they accepted the idea — as long as the visit came after the deal was announced.
That would become a fundamental dividing point contributing to the collapse of the talks.  Trump did not want the meeting to be a celebration of the deal; after staying out of the details of what has been a delicate effort in a complicated region-- Trump wanted to be the dealmaker who would put the final parts together himself, or at least be perceived to be.

In the days that followed, Trump came up with an even more remarkable idea — he would not only bring the Taliban to Washington, but to Camp David, the crown jewel of the American presidency. The leaders of a rugged militant organization deemed terrorists by the United States would be hosted in the mountain getaway used for presidents, prime ministers and kings just three days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the Afghan war.

Trumps demands (and what many believe is greed for a Nobel Prize) eventually led to the deal falling apart-- with Trump catching everyone off-guard by announcing the cancellation of the Camp David meeting via Twitter.

Trump Using Military Flights to Float His Bottom Line

Earlier this year, an Air National Guard crew made a routine trip from the U.S. to Kuwait to deliver supplies.  What wasn’t routine was where the crew stopped along the way-- Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort, about 50 miles outside Glasgow, Scotland.

As a result, the House Oversight Committee has been investigating why the crew on the C-17 military transport plane made the unusual stay (both en route to the Middle East and on the way back) at the luxury waterside resort/  However, the committee has yet to receive any answers from the Pentagon.

The inquiry is part of a broader probe into U.S. military expenditures at and around the Trump property in Scotland.  According to a letter the panel sent to the Pentagon in June, the military has spent $11 million on fuel at the Prestwick Airport (the airport nearest to Trump Turnberry) since October 2017-- fuel that would have been cheaper if purchased at a U.S. military base (as is the normal practice). The letter also cites a Guardian report that the airport provided cut-rate rooms and free rounds of golf at Turnberry for U.S. military members.  The report also cited Defense Logistics Agency records showing 629 fuel purchase orders worth $11m since October 2017.

Taken together, the incidents raise the possibility that the military has helped keep Trump’s Turnberry resort afloat — the property lost $4.5 million in 2017, but revenue unexpectedly went up $3 million in 2018.

“The Defense Department has not produced a single document in this investigation,” said a senior Democratic aide on the oversight panel. “The committee will be forced to consider alternative steps if the Pentagon does not begin complying voluntarily in the coming days.”

Trump Voters Find Out Karma's a Bitch

Here's yet another story about Trump voters who supported him because he was going to hurt other people and are now sad to learn that they too will take a hit. This time around, it’s not farmers hit by a trade war or people shocked to learn that their immigrant loved ones are also going to be deported.  

Now, it’s senior citizens living at the River Bend Resort and Golf Club in Brownsville, Texas, who
are facing the prospect of Trump’s border wall being built right through the middle of their community.  Fifteen holes of the golf course and 200 homes could be on the wrong side of the border wall, and residents worry that the key code-operated sliding gates proposed for the new border barriers will malfunction.

“You’re fixing to fence 400 U.S. citizens behind a wall with a gate and most of them have medical problems,” one man told The New York Times, saying that ambulances are needed at the complex at least three times a week. “If our gate fails, somebody’s going to die.” Oh, so now fencing people up and denying them medical care is a bi

Resident Susan Kaper said that “If there’s a good purpose for having that wall cut right through our little community, I guess I would go along with it. But I’ve yet to hear any reason why to do that.”  In the same interview, Susan also said (I'm not kidding here) that it would be “silly” to base her 2020 vote on the wall.

Donald Trump declared a national emergency and took money from a power substation in Puerto Rico and multiple schools on military bases to get his silly wall built-- and it’s going to go through the middle of her retirement resort, leaving hundreds of people outside the wall, but it would be silly to consider a little thing like that when voting.   Another resort resident said, “None of us at our age need the additional stress,” but that doesn’t mean he won’t vote for Trump again in 2020. 

These are real actual people saying this nonsense.  How much sympathy can you have for moronic Trump voters who end up victimized by Trump’s policies?

Sharpie Madness Continues

Zimbabwe Can Finally Move On From Its Brutal Past

Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean independence icon turned authoritarian leader, has died aged 95.

Mugabe had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017 after 37 years in power. He died far from home, bitter, lonely, and humiliated - an epic life, with the shabbiest of endings.

Mugabe spent more than a decade in prison without trial, for criticizing the white government in Rhodesia.  In 1973, while still in prison, he was chosen as president of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu), of which he was a founding member.

The country he finally led to independence was one of the continent's most promising, and for years Zimbabwe more or less flourished. But when the economy faltered, Mugabe lost his nerve. He implemented a catastrophic land reform program. Zimbabwe quickly slid into hyperinflation, isolation, and political chaos.  The security forces kept Mugabe and his party, Zanu-PF, in power - mostly through terror. But eventually even the army turned against him, and pushed him out.

Few nations have ever been so bound, so shackled, to one man. For decades, Mugabe was Zimbabwe: a ruthless, bitter, sometimes charming man - who helped ruin the land he loved.  In 2000, he seized land from white owners, and in 2008, used violent militias to silence his political opponents during an election.

He famously declared that only God could remove him from office.  He was eventually forced into sharing power in 2009 amid economic collapse, installing rival Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister.  In 2017, amid concerns that he was grooming his wife Grace as his successor, the army - his long-time ally - turned against the president and forced him to step down.

By that time, Mugabe and his wife Grace had built up a huge personal fortune and property empire while their countrymen suffered in the starvation and grinding poverty as a result of his brutal and incompetent regime.

Diplomatic cables from 2001 estimated the family wealth at that time to be more than $1billion, including six residences and a series of farms around the country.  The cables also revealed that an engineering firm chaired by Mugabe's nephew had won a contract to build a new airport terminal in Harare.

The controversial land seizures which the Zimbabwean President claimed would distribute land to poor black people also boosted the Mugabes' own property empire, while causing economic crisis.  Land reform was supposed to take much of the country's most fertile land - owned by about 4,500 white descendants of mainly British and South African colonial-era settlers - and redistribute it to poor black people.

Instead, Mugabe gave prime farms to ruling party leaders, party loyalists, security chiefs, relatives and cronies.  Many of the most profitable farms ended up in the hands of well-connected public figures including Mugabe's wife, Grace.  Robert Mugabe was reported at the time to have given 15 of the stolen farms to himself.

On top of that, the Mugabes bought a $4.9 million villa in Hong Kong in 2008, just as his reign appeared under threat.  Grace Mugabe was known for her shopping and holiday trips to Asia, including Hong Kong and Bangkok, and earned the nickname 'Gucci Grace'.   Grace owns vast tracks of land in Mazowe, some 20 miles north east of Harare, and is also believed to own houses in South Africa, Dubai and Singapore.  Reports of Grace's corruption, lavish spending and explosive temper earned her the title 'Dis-Grace' - and eyebrows were raised in 2014 when she gained a PhD in three months.

Mugabe's  farm seizures helped ruin one of Africa's most dynamic economies, with a collapse in agricultural foreign exchange earnings unleashing hyperinflation.  Inflation reached billions of per cent at the height of the crisis before the local currency was scrapped in favour of the US dollar. 

Mugabe was regarded as one of the world's most controversial political leaders.  According to the Black Scholar journal, "depending on who you listen to ... Mugabe is either one of the world's great tyrants or a fearless nationalist who has incurred the wrath of the West."  He has been widely described as a "dictator", a "tyrant", and a "threat", and has been referred to as one of Africa's "most brutal" leaders.  At the same time he continued to be regarded as a hero in many third world countries and received a warm reception when traveling throughout Africa.  For many in Southern Africa, he remained one of the "grand old men" of the African liberation movement.

George Walden, one of the British negotiators at the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979 which ended white-minority rule, said Mugabe was a "true monster".

The agreement "turned out rather well... and looked good for a while", but Mugabe later became "a grossly corrupt, vicious dictator", he said.

Zimbabwean Senator David Coltart, once labelled "an enemy of the state" by Mugabe, said his legacy had been marred by his adherence to violence as a political tool.  "He was always committed to violence, going all the way back to the 1960s... he was no Martin Luther King," he told the BBC. "He never changed in that regard."

Trump Lies Again, Committing a Crime in the Process

It appears Donald Trump has broken the law yet again in order to justify his baseless tweet last weekend that Alabama was at risk of being hit by Hurricane Dorian. That tweet was so reckless, in fact, that Alabama’s National Weather Service issued a correction, noting that Alabama would “NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.” 

But Trump got the last word yesterday, during one of his indispensable hurricane updates from the Oval Office.  He apparently altered a landfall forecast with a Sharpie so it would look like Alabama had originally been at risk.  According to multiple sources, Trump himself used a sharpie to make it look like the forecasted cone of uncertainty incuded Alabama.

To make things even worse, Trump used a 7-day old NOAA chart (likely, on purpose) to justify his idiotic tweet last week that Alabama was in jeopardy.  “It was going to hit not only Florida but Georgia—was going toward the Gulf,” Trump bullshitted, “that was what was originally projected, and it took a right turn.”

As it turns out, falsifying a forecast is actually illegal.  (Oooops!)   Not that Trump is much of a stickler for the law, but here’s U.S. Code, Title: 18, Section: 2074 on False Weather Reports: “Whoever knowingly issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau,  United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both.”

A reporter later asked Trump whether he altered the map he showed in the Oval Office and he didn’t deny it. “I don't know. I don't know. I don't know," he said. How could this pathetic episode possibly get more embarrassing?

 

More Military Funding Being Stolen to Fund Fake Walls

In a slap in the face to all veterans, Trump is misusing the National Emergency Act to effectively steal $3.6 billion from military projects to fund additions to the border wall.   The new $3.6 billion theft comes on top of $2.5 billion in military funding that Trump already stripped from the DOD budget to put razor wire on existing fences and create a series of already-destroyed demonstration walls in the desert. 

But the new funding won't actually go to build a wall.  The only thing we'll get is 175 miles of fencing-- far short of the 500 miles he promised before the 2020 election.  Trump has already lied about what has already been built.  Not one foot of new wall has been constructed-- all we've gotten is a new barricade that replaced a barrier that was already in place.   And much of the newly-funded fencing will only be a replacement of existing barriers.

This is Grand Bahama Island Today

In this satellite image, the green/blue areas are under water-- the black area is above water.  The yellow outline shows the original boundary of dry land before the hurricane.

Lana Del Rey - Doin' Time

Jesus Saves