Here’s the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security using a public twitter account to try to defend the President’s racist conspiracy theories.
Citizens of countries outside Central America, including countries in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere are currently traveling through Mexico toward the U.S.
— Tyler Q. Houlton (@SpoxDHS) October 23, 2018
As we try to wrestle all the information we can out of the run-up to the midterm election on November 6th, we have an Inside Briefing scheduled tomorrow with Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress, at 1 PM Eastern. Next Wednesday at 1 PM we’re talking to Amy Walter, National Editor of The Cook Political Report. In both conversations we’ll dig into the latest happenings, trends, news and clues about the final days of what is truly the most important midterm election of our lifetimes.
The news that Rudy Giuliani is headlining a pro-Putin oligarch-funded conference in Armenia today made me think again of something that occurred to me yesterday when I was writing about the Turks, the Saudis and the Trump family: in a phrase, oligarch international relations.
In this case I don’t only mean Russian oligarchs. I mean oligarchs as they exist in many countries. Let’s define them as extremely rich individuals whose wealth either originated with or requires the continued assistance or forbearance of the government in power. With the Giuliani story, to a degree, Rudy’s just slimy. But I do think there’s lots of this stuff going on behind the scenes that we’re not hearing about. With the Rudy story, a source put me on to it. It’s not the hugest deal in itself. But I don’t think there’s been any other mention of it in the US press. I am pretty sure it’s just the tip of the iceberg of Russian and post-Soviet money ties to Trump and people in the Trump entourage. Read More
Check out this must-read story. The first installment in our four part series on Social Insurance and Risk in the US Economy by Jacob Hacker.
Pilots know that in a storm or in any instruments-only flying situation you watch your instruments rather than your perceptions or your gut. Your perceptions are frequently wrong and following them can lead to catastrophe. In elections, our instruments are the data, a mixture of polls, early voting, fundraising. These can’t predict the future. But they are the best evidence we have.
This has been rattling through my mind as I read and listen to the news this morning. To listen to it the election has taken a dramatic turn in the Republicans’ direction. The AP writes: “In the closing stretch of the 2018 campaign, the question is no longer the size of the Democratic wave. It’s whether there will be a wave at all.” A few moments ago I heard one of morning TV’s top political talk hosts press a Democratic talking head over a new poll showing that with just two weeks to go it’s a dead heat in the most competitive battleground districts. Read More
Is there a need to state the obvious? People in positions of great power shouldn’t engage in rhetoric of incitement or targeted demonization.
We’re covering breaking developments in today’s bomb scare news here.
We’re now getting an overall view of the range of targets who were sent explosive devices. We also have a list of false alarms. (John Light has a quick rundown here.) The gist is the Clintons, Obamas, George Soros, Eric Holder, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Maxine Waters and John Brennan. Brennan’s was actually the name on the device sent to CNN’s offices in New York. The common denominator here is pretty clear. These are not only Democrats or people generally on the left. In Brennan’s case he’s not really clearly either. These are all high profile targets of President Trump and relatedly nemeses of your standard Trumpite media outlets like Breitbart and The Daily Caller. Read More
I’ve added some new names to my Twitter list of polling and election data experts. If you’re interested you can subscribe to it here.
The Hollywood Reporter reports tonight that CAA, the Hollywood mega-agency, has dropped Megyn Kelly as a client. Normally this isn’t the sort of news we’d take much notice of. But it’s a good barometer of the degree to which she’s quickly become radioactive in the entertainment and quasi-news world after her blackface comments. NBC News Chief Andy Lack blasted her in a NBC News staff town hall today. They are apparently already negotiating the end of her morning show, which – critically – simply hasn’t done very well. Read More
The pipe bomb sent to CNN has on it a mock ISIS flag that is part of an Internet meme that has been prevalent on far-right sites and message boards since 2014. This NBC News story explains the backstory. It started on a rightwing parody run by a guy who’s a frequent commentator on Breitbart and The Daily Caller and got kicked off Twitter in 2017. Not exactly surprising. Just another bit of confirmation that the bomber is someone from the pro-Trump, 4Chan, alt-right hate world.