US Politics, February 2018: Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots

i have heard from a reliable source that she way overstated the nature of her relationship w/swartz at the time of his death

hope the times cans bari next

any reflected glory from association with swartz has to be weighed against friendships with weev and other nazis too

Bari was reallll quiet yesterday.

House investigating WH handling of Porter

You forgot the scare quotes.

"WH"

Good lord:

nvestigators determined Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during a European trip last summer that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $122,000, according to a VA inspector general report released Wednesday.

His chief of staff, Viveca Wright Simpson, made false representations to a VA ethics lawyer and altered an official email to secure approval for taxpayer funding of Shulkin’s wife’s flights, which cost more than $4,000, the VA inspector general found.

Disgraceful. How are other government officials expected to enjoy their taxpayer-funded vacations when one guy hogs the coffer like that? Sounds like it might be time to tax those shiftless poor people again.

and he's one of the Obama holdovers

seems like this is going well

@freedomcaucus Chair @RepMarkMeadows just called for “new leadership” in the House Republican Conference, accusing @SpeakerRyan's team of slacking on putting forth a GOP immigration vote

— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) February 14, 2018

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-lawyer-seattle-charged-stealing-immigrants-ids-n847856?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

#MAGA

yeah, Shulkin was the alleged answer to "who'd be the first decent option in the line of succession"

cuz u know Obama

you'd prefer Kirstjen Nielsen? she's the only person behind him in line.

That VA guy is nothing compared to Pruitt:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/first-class-travel-distinguishes-scott-pruitts-epa-tenure/2018/02/11/5bb89afc-0b7d-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html

And from CBS:

n early June, Pruitt traveled to Italy for meetings at the Vatican and to attend a summit with international energy ministers. Taxpayers picked up the tab for his round-trip business-class flight, which cost at least $7,000, several times the cost of what was paid for other staffers who accompanied him on the trip.

CBS News has learned that when Pruitt returned home from Milan on June 11, he flew on Emirates Airlines, whose business class cabins are some of the world's most luxurious, complete with an onboard lounge that promises what the airline calls a "truly unique journey."

To take the flight, Pruitt needed special dispensation. Government officials are bound by the Fly America Act, which requires them to "use U.S. air carrier service for all air travel… funded by the U.S. government."

Sources have told CBS News that Pruitt regularly flies in first class along with his unprecedented, round-the-clock, security detail. The costs of their travel has not been made available.

A certificate justifying the return flight from Milan that the EPA provided to CBS News said Pruitt flew on a foreign carrier because it was the only available flight "that would get the administrator back in time" to attend a Cabinet meeting with President Trump the next day.

"It's good to be back in the United States -- I actually arrived back this morning at one o'clock from Italy, from the G-7 Summit," he told the president during that meeting.

The entire trip cost more than $43,000 dollars, according to travel vouchers obtained by the Environmental Integrity Project. To make his departing flight to Rome on June 7, Pruitt flew on a military aircraft from Cincinnati, where he had attended a rally with the president.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epas-scott-pruitt-got-waiver-to-fly-business-class-on-non-u-s-carrier-from-italy-to-u-s/

1 Vice President Mike Pence (R)
2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R)
3 President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch (R)
4 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R)
5 Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R)
6 Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
7 Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R)
8 Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R)
9 Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue (R)
10 Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R)
11 Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta (R)
12 Secretary of Health and Human Services Eric Hargan (R)
Acting
13 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
- Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R)
14 Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (R)
15 Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos (R)
16 Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (I)
17 Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (I)

what if we just let everybody on this list be president for a few months apiece over the next 7 years

I think Elaine Chao might be our best hope for survival on this list

but then Iago McConnell would be whispering in her ear

but one assumes from the marriage Elaine can keep a secret

Turds all the way down.

I think Elaine Chao might be our best hope for survival on this list

To my mind, it's less about the quality of the individual who would succeed to the presidency. More about how happy I'd be that the first seven (at least) were dead or disgraced or both.

I'm no fan of Zinke or Perdue, but I'd be okay with having them in office if it meant that Trump, Pence, and Sessions were behind bars or underground.

An administration that got itself into such a state would be so crippled as to be comical.

But really, line of succession only works if the successions take place very quickly. It's not like everybody slides up a notch when somebody drops out.

Current replacement would be the Vice President - who would himself get to nominate a Vice President. That new Vice President, once confirmed, would become #1 on the list again. It's not like we can just keep going down that list until we find one we approve of.

...but suppose we COULD

You can go down the list, you just need to do it quickly.

"Kind Hearts and Coronets"

improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during a European trip last summer that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $122,000

how do you even spend this much on a trip

even if you stayed in a $5000 per night hotel for 2 weeks straight, you'd have $50,000 more to blow through

Current replacement would be the Vice President - who would himself get to nominate a Vice President. That new Vice President, once confirmed, would become #1 on the list again. It's not like we can just keep going down that list until we find one we approve of.

― I'm walking on Sondheim (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, February 14, 2018 9:09 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...but suppose we COULD

― YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, February 14, 2018 9:11 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You can go down the list, you just need to do it quickly.

― louise ck (milo z), Wednesday, February 14, 2018 9:19 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Why don't we drop this subject ... it's one thing to engage in badinage with these youngsters, but this sort of thing could be so easily misunderstood.

more champagne!

improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during a European trip last summer that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $122,000

how do you even spend this much on a trip

even if you stayed in a $5000 per night hotel for 2 weeks straight, you'd have $50,000 more to blow through

I'm assuming a whole squad of security people, etc.

I am thinking that the NYT didn't offer Quinn the position because of 'reflected glory' from Aaron fucking Swartz, but rather because she's a very good and nuanced writer.

I am thinking that the NYT didn't offer Quinn the position because of 'reflected glory' from Aaron fucking Swartz, but rather because as an institution is has an almost comical inability to read the room, and the opinion section is the worst section in the paper.

I'd guess the reflected glory bizarro's talking about is a reference to tombot's rooting his skepticism about the bad shit in her association with Swartz. I met her at Occupy & we talked what felt like a lot--I had the impression she can hold a lot of complexity and discern within it, and that's reflected in her writing--all that makes her continued public friendship with weev make sense to me, but irks me no less.

https://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/files/2017/04/TASM-2017_0410_NICHOLASKRISTOF_298x262.jpg

Quinn Norton is both a talented writer who has covered certain topics with incredible insight, and also someone who's friends with a literal nazi who's attempted to ruin the lives of friends and friends of friends of mine.

— Matthew Garrett (@mjg59) February 14, 2018

To be clear, I don't believe that she agrees with Weev's repulsive beliefs or behaviour. But she's never displayed empathy for those affected by him, never shown any sign that she understands that her friend *hurts* people

— Matthew Garrett (@mjg59) February 14, 2018

I don't want to hear about the culture around technology from someone who doesn't have a visceral understanding of the pain that can be caused by people who've weaponised that culture. I don't think it adds to the conversation in a useful way.

— Matthew Garrett (@mjg59) February 14, 2018

i'm not asking this in a snarky way but after reading some tweets defending (in a manner of speaking) weev, i'm wondering if she has a similar level of discourse w/POC or others? the epithets in those tweets are next-level idiotic and reprehensible of course.

Her tweets itt address a lot of what's been discussed:

OK, omg, all of this. I have a movie to go see, but talk to you all later!

— Well that was fun. (@quinnnorton) February 13, 2018

I've got concerns about some of her thinking but the page woulda been better with her on it. A shame.

"You were powerful today. You changed at least one person's life, and if I'm honest, my family's too. It feels good to be powerful. But this power doesn't go away. It doesn't evaporate when you use it without thinking, or at the wrong person. What I need is for you to see yourself as powerful, as people who can change the world. And I want you to think about how you wield that power. Choose the targets of your power wisely. History is watching you."

"Signed, a Hallmark card."

I just don't understand how one is friends with an avowed, active neo-nazi. either you are capable of liking avowed, active neo-nazis, or you actively dislike your friends. this isn't about the hiring decision, it's just a thing I don't understand personally

Anyway:

#BREAKING: Third White House official resigns after being told he wouldn’t qualify for full clearance https://t.co/jUdHrjAQOX pic.twitter.com/I6HFLxYbHi

— POLITICO (@politico) February 14, 2018

"I'm my own man, really!"

.@VP on Porter (breaking w/ Kelly): "I think the White House could have handled this better and I still feel this way"

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 14, 2018

sorry about more quinn-posting, but so that was THAT john perry barlow she retweeted (sort of):

I retweeted @JPBarlow using offensive language in a sarcastic tweet that was meant to slap back at racists after Obama's first election. Eh, not my best retweet, even if the intentions, both mine and Barlow's, were in the right place.

— Well that was fun. (@quinnnorton) February 14, 2018

I just don't understand how one is friends with an avowed, active neo-nazi. either you are capable of liking avowed, active neo-nazis, or you actively dislike your friends. this isn't about the hiring decision, it's just a thing I don't understand personally

it's nice to know that she has excuses for all the time she said "fag", hung out with a nazi (and talked to him about his racism while doing it), and sarcastically retweeted a racist thing about Obama using the n-word.

she exercises even worse judgment that i do, even, and i'm sitting here in a library unemployed for 2 years trying to put together an application for a job totally unrelated to anything i'm good at or interested in. so maybe she shouldn't get to write for the nyt, just a thought

whenever someone like that is pals w/someone on the extreme right i suspect it's a bit of wanting to seem "down" w/anyone, but extending courtesy and nuance to someone like that is worthless. gives me "but behind the scenes they're all friends with Milo" vibes.

basically let her write on a blog, too bad about the power of the people being wielded haphazardly or w/e

kinda remarkable that it was the revelation of yet another Trump wife-beater/assaulter that is pushing these security-clearance stories, and none of the people caught actually compromising national security

I'm supportive of Karl Malone, NYT Op Ed writer, if that's what's on the table.

w/all this, in the end the hilariously ineffectual Devin Nunes memo was spectaculary ill-timed as well.

Norton wasn't unhired for Nazi friendship or the defense of that friendship, but because her slur tweets violated their civility rules. (This is also why, no matter how Good or Bad my writing or opinions are, the Times will not be knocking on my door.)

— slackbot (@pareene) February 14, 2018