January 24, 2017

General Subject Articles


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/comey-to-remain-fbi-director-trump/

Trump isn't firing James Comey as FBI director...yet
By PAULA REID CBS NEWS
January 24, 2017, 10:32 AM

Play CBS News Video – Comey

CBS News’ Pat Milton confirms that President Trump has asked James Comey to remain in his job as FBI director. Comey has a ten-year term that extends for another six years, so in essence, Mr. Trump has just decided not to fire Comey at this point. Comey was appointed FBI director in 2013 by Obama.

But, Mr. Trump will likely have to revisit Comey’s job status in about a year.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General’s (IG) is currently working on a review of how the FBI and the rest of the Justice Department handled its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server. Inspector General Michael Horowitz says his team will review the actions leading up to Comey’s decision to send letters to Congress on Oct. 28 and Nov. 6 alerting Congress and the public to new emails that were found in the investigation.

Shortly before Election Day, the FBI had discovered Clinton-related emails on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the scandal-ridden former congressman who had been married to top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, which became public when Comey notified Congress of the discovery. Clinton and many Democrats believe that this was a factor in her loss of the election to Mr. Trump. The IG says that he will look at whether certain underlying decision were based on “improper considerations.”

Also under review -- whether certain officials should have been recused from the investigation and whether the Department and FBI improperly disclosed non-public information.

The report is expected to be embarrassing for the FBI, since it will review many of its most controversial decisions in its one of its most controversial cases. It will provide Mr. Trump another opportunity to consider replacing the FBI Director, armed with a detailed watchdog report.

Mr. Trump treated Comey warmly when he saw him Sunday at a White House event. He singled Comey and the head of the U.S. Secret Service, Director Joe Clancy out for praise. He summoned both up for handshakes and pats on the back. Trump said of Comey, “He’s become more famous than me.”

CBS News’ Mark Knoller contributed to this report.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-claims-3-5-million-illegal-ballots-cost-him-popular-vote-cites-no-evidence/

Trump claims 3-5M illegal ballots cost him popular vote, cites no evidence
CBS NEWS
January 23, 2017, 10:57 PM
Last Updated Jan 24, 2017 2:04 PM EST


At a small reception for a bipartisan group of congressional leaders, President Trump claimed that 3 to 5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote, CBS News’ Nancy Cordes and Catherine Reynolds confirmed on Monday night. The claim is unproven.

Trump signs three executive actions
Play VIDEO
Trump signs three executive actions

Mr. Trump made a similar claim before. After the election, he tweeted that he “won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” but he cited no evidence to back up his claim.

At the White House press briefing Tuesday, press secretary Sean Spicer was asked if Mr. Trump really believes that millions voted illegally in the election.

“The president does believe that. He has stated that before. I think he’s stated his concerns of voter fraud and people voting illegally during the campaign,” Spicer said. “He continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him.”

Asked what evidence Mr. Trump has specifically, Spicer was unable to provide any information.

“As I said, I think the president has believed that for a while based on studies and information he has.”

Politico first reported Mr. Trump’s comments, which were made at the Monday evening White House reception for congressional leadership, his first meeting with them at the White House.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were among those who met with Mr. Trump.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters “it was an interesting meeting.”

“It was really more of a get-together,” she said, adding that they exchanged ideas about “how we could work together.”

She said that they had talked about the Affordable Care Act, infrastructure and trade, among other topics.

A reporter asked whether anything about Mr. Trump surprised her.

“Well, I won’t even go into that,” the minority leader replied.

McConnell said the meeting was “pretty light-hearted.”

“We enjoyed listening to the president and Senator Schumer talk about the people they knew in New York, for example,” he told reporters at the Capitol, according to CBS News’ John Nolen.

According to the White House pool reporter, the president said of the reception, “It’s very good, we have a fantastic relationship with everybody at the table, it’s a totally -- just a beautiful, beautiful relationship.”



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-to-sign-executive-orders/

Donald Trump signs three executive memos
CBS NEWS
January 23, 2017, 12:03 PM

President Trump signed three executive memos on trade Monday morning -- one withdraws the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), another reinstates the Mexico City Policy dealing with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and abortion access, and a third freezes federal workforce hiring.

Asked about the ethics lawsuit filed against him, Mr. Trump said only, “Without merit. Totally without merit.”

What is the TPP?
TPP was an enormous trade deal that would have aligned the U.S. and 11 nations in the Asia-Pacific region including Japan, Australia, Vietnam, Canada and Mexico under an agreement that would have eliminated thousands of tariffs and streamlined regulations. The countries involved in the deal collectively conduct 40 percent of global trade.

“Everyone knows what that means, right? We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Mr. Trump said as he signed the order withdrawing the U.S. from the TPP. “Great thing for the American worker, what we just did.”

As he signed the federal workforce hiring freeze, Mr. Trump noted that the military was exempted from the hiring freeze.

TPP also would have required ratification by Congress, and President Obama had hoped to see it ratified before he left office.

The Mexico City Policy was originally announced by President Reagan in 1984 and required nongovernmental organizations to agree as a condition of receiving any federal funding that they “would neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.”

What is the Mexico City Policy?
Then-President Bill Clinton rescinded it in January 1993 upon taking office, and George W. Bush reinstated it when he took office. And then Barack Obama rescinded it again in 2009.

On Friday evening, President Trump signed one executive order that cancelled an FHA mortgage premium cut that helps low-income home buyers and another that waived provisions of the Affordable Care Act that impose a financial burden on states or individuals.

CBS News’ Major Garrett contributed to this report.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-governor-abbott-threatens-austin-sheriff-sanctuary-cities-immigrants/

Texas Governor Abbott threatens Austin sheriff over "sanctuary cities" policy with immigrants
CBS/AP
January 24, 2017, 8:35 AM

Photographs -- At left, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez after being sworn into office in Austin, Texas, on January 4, 2017. At right, Governor Greg Abbott at a press conference on February 18, 2015, in Austin, Texas. TRAVIS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE/GETTY/CBS NEWS COMPOSITE
Video -- ICE Policy by Travis County TX on YouTube
Play VIDEO -- Sanctuary cities prepare for fight


AUSTIN, Texas - Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday told Austin’s sheriff that her jail would become the first in the state to lose taxpayer money over so-called “sanctuary cities” policies unless she reverses plans to curtail working with federal immigration authorities by February.

The governor has previously threatened other “sanctuary cities” in Texas, and ultimately did not withhold funds.

President Donald Trump made similar vows as a candidate, declaring that his “Day One” priorities would include stopping all federal dollars to places where local officials rebuff federal agents and don’t arrest or detain immigrants living in the country illegally. Several big cities, including New York and Chicago, already have formal sanctuary policies on the books.

Newly elected Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez on Friday - in a defiantly timed announcement after Trump was inaugurated - said starting Feb. 1 she would end her predecessor’s policy of honoring all jail detainers sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hernandez is a Democrat whose campaign in Texas’ most liberal city partly ran on promises to change how detainers are handled.

Abbott, who attended Trump’s inauguration, is now effectively threatening to carry out the president’s promise on a state level. Abbott has previously warned local officials against adopting sanctuary policies but has not delivered such a direct ultimatum before now.

“Your unilateral decision will cost the people of Travis County money that was meant to protect them,” Abbott wrote. He said funding would be lost by Feb. 1 unless the county changes course.

CBS Austin affiliate KEYE-TV reports the letter went on to describe what Abbott thought the consequences of Hernandez’s decision would be, although it’s not clear it provided the data to back up the claim.

Abbott claimed that those being released on bond would include ex-cons, “...dangerous criminal aliens convicted of felonies like murder ... will be turned loose into Travis County without permitting ICE the opportunity to collect them.”

The only money Abbott has the power to cut off for now is criminal justice grants controlled by his office. Travis County received about $1.8 million of that grant money last year - about 1 percent of the sheriff department’s budget.

Both Abbott and the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature are eager to pass new laws by summer that would impose tougher penalties over sanctuary policies.

A spokeswoman for Hernandez said she had no immediate comment on Abbott’s letter, but in a video posted to YouTube last week, the sheriff said honoring all federal immigration detainers ties up her deputies and sows distrust between officers and county residents. Detainers are requested when federal immigration authorities, while reviewing jail records, raise concerns about whether a suspect is in the country legally and asks for them to remain jailed so their status can be investigated.

Critics contend that the system results in suspects making long stays in jails or being deported over minor crimes. Under Travis County’s new policy, the jail will now only comply with detainers on murder, aggravated sexual assault and human trafficking charges. For other crimes, Hernandez said she would keep suspects jailed when there is a court order or judicial warrant issued.

“We cannot afford to make our community less safe by driving people in to the shadows,” Hernandez said.

Abbott similarly threatened Dallas County in 2015 over how the local jail worked with federal immigration authorities. But he never gave a deadline then and ultimately never withheld any funding to Dallas jails, and even went so far as to claim he had.

Houston law enforcement officials could also ultimately test Abbott. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who until last year was Austin’s police chief, said this weekend he supports working with federal immigration agents over “hardened criminals” but not what he called “peaceful, law-abiding” residents.

“We don’t have time to deal with economic immigrants,” Acevedo said.



GET OUT YOUR OLD DVD OF WATERWORLD, STARRING KEVIN COSTNER.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sea-level-rise-will-hit-the-us-this-century-noaa-warns/

Sea level rise will disproportionately hit U.S. this century, NOAA warns
By SHANIKA GUNARATNA CBS NEWS
January 24, 2017, 3:02 PM


Global sea level rise is unfolding at a stunning pace, and a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) says the U.S. will find itself directly in the crosshairs. Over the coming decades, some parts of the nation’s coastline will be hit harder than others, the study finds.

The report — co-authored with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, the South Florida Water Management District, and scientists from Rutgers and Columbia University — outlined six likely scenarios for sea level rise, ranging in severity from low to extreme, so that communities and the federal government can plan around those likelihoods.

In almost all the scientists’ projections, sea level rise will disproportionately affect the coasts of the U.S. Northeast and the western Gulf of Mexico, compared to averages across the globe. Except for Alaska, the report says nearly all of the U.S. coastline is more vulnerable than the global average if more severe scenarios come to pass.

In the mildest projected scenario, global sea levels will rise by about one foot by the end of this century. In the worst-case scenario, global sea levels will rise by 8.2 feet.

Though eight feet may not sound like a huge number, the consequences would be devastating: researchers have estimated that a lower rise of six feet would be enough swallow up the homes of about six million Americans.

miami-flooding.jpg
Sandy Garcia walks through a flooded street caused by the combination of rising sea levels and the lunar orbit which caused seasonal high tides on September 30, 2015 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES

The new report is an update to one issued in 2012, and paints a significantly darker picture of sea level rise. The worst-case scenario outlined in this report is 1.6 feet higher than the worst-case scenario scientists projected for this century just five years ago.

What’s behind the growing concern about sea level rise? A major factor, scientists say, is the rapid melting of Arctic ice due to global warming. The Earth saw its third straight year of record-high temperatures in 2016, while polar ice diminished to record lows.

Scientists warn of sea level rise as Antarctic glacier melts
Play VIDEO
Scientists warn of sea level rise as Antarctic glacier melts
In historical perspective, Arctic warming over the past five years is “as fast and as large a magnitude” as the warming that occurred during the last vestiges of the Ice Age 11,500 years ago — the transition that gave birth to our modern climate era, Paul Mayewski, professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, told CBS News last month.

The latest report also points out that worldwide, sea level rise will impact different geographic areas in vastly different ways, shaped by factors like land elevation and ocean circulation.

“The ocean is not rising like water would in a bathtub,” said William Sweet, Ph.D., a NOAA oceanographer and lead author of the report, explained in a statement. “For example, in some scenarios sea levels in the Pacific Northwest are expected to rise slower than the global average, but in the Northeast they are expected to rise faster.”

The authors say the report was conceived in response to states and cities’ requests for more information tailored to their specific locations, to help them prepare and make decisions about how to manage and adapt their critical infrastructure.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-trump-says-hell-announce-supreme-court-pick-next-week/

President Trump says he'll announce Supreme Court pick next week
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS CBS NEWS
January 24, 2017, 12:03 PM


Photograph -- U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 22, 2017. REUTERS


President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to announce his pick for Supreme Court next week.

“We will pick a truly great Supreme Court justice,” he said.

He made the comments during the signing of several executive orders at the White House, including ones advancing the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Supreme Court has had one vacancy since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last February. Former President Obama had nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy, but congressional Republicans blocked a hearing or a vote on Garland’s nomination.

Mr. Trump has maintained that choosing a replacement would be one of his first priorities in office. He is expected to meet with bipartisan Senate leadership and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday afternoon to discuss the Supreme Court nominations.

“The President has invited the Democratic Leader, the Chairman and ranking members of the Judiciary Committee and myself to the White House this afternoon to begin to meet with him regarding the Supreme Court vacancy as part of his ongoing consultations with members of the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. “I appreciate the President soliciting our advice on this important matter.”

During the campaign, Mr. Trump released a list of 11 possible Supreme Court nominees. He met with one of those prospects, Judge William Pryor, just days before his inauguration.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brexit-article-50-parliament-vote-british-supreme-court-theresa-may-government/

British Supreme Court gives landmark ruling on "Brexit"
CBS/AP
January 24, 2017, 5:05 AM

Photograph -- Painter Kaya Mar shows his latest painting of British Prime Minister Theresa May in front of the Supreme Court in London, Jan. 24, 2017. AP


LONDON -- Britain’s Supreme Court says the government must get parliamentary approval before starting the process of leaving the European Union, or “Brexit,” potentially delaying Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan to trigger negotiations by the end of March.

British Prime Minister outlines Brexit plan
Play VIDEO
British Prime Minister outlines Brexit plan

Supreme Court President David Neuberger says the vote was a majority of 8-3. The court also unanimously decided that there’s no need to consult Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland on Brexit.

British Attorney General Jeremy Wright said that the government would comply with the ruling, and that a statement would be made in Parliament later.

Tuesday’s ruling will raise hopes among pro-EU politicians that they will be able soften the terms of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the bloc.

“Leave” campaigners have objected, saying Parliament shouldn’t have the power to overrule the electorate, which voted to leave the EU in a June 23 referendum.

Global reactions to Brexit
Global reactions to Brexit

The 11 justices effectively upheld an earlier ruling giving Parliament a direct role in invoking Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, refuting the government’s claim that it could do so without a vote in Parliament.

Article 50, which has never been used before, starts the formal process of taking Britain out of the 28-nation EU.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said recently, after declaring that she would unilaterally trigger Article 50 by the end of March, that she will give Parliament a vote before taking that action. Now she is required to do so, according to the highest court in Britain.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-ryan-says-he-sees-no-evidence-for-president-trumps-illegal-ballots-claim/

Paul Ryan says he's seen "no evidence" for President Trump's unverified illegal ballots claim
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS CBS NEWS
January 24, 2017, 1:01 PM

Photograph -- Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., joined by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, as he announced that he has invited President Donald Trump to address a Joint Session of Congress on Feb. 28. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, AP


House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that he has seen “no evidence” to back up President Trump’s claim that 3 to 5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote.

The issue, first raised by Mr. Trump in a post-election tweet last year, was revived Monday night when Mr. Trump repeated the claim to a small reception for a bipartisan group of congressional leaders.

Asked about the claim by CBS News’ Nancy Cordes during a press conference on Tuesday, Ryan said he has “already commented on that” and that his answer hasn’t changed.

“I’ve seen no evidence to that effect,” Ryan said. “I’ve made that very very clear.”

And when Cordes followed up, asking whether Ryan believes it will be difficult to work with a president who “believes certain things that just aren’t true,” Ryan deflected.

“Look, I’m a policy guy,” he said. “I’m going to sit here and focus on policy and I’m not going to get into the puts and the takes on all of these things.”

There is no evidence whatsoever for Mr. Trump’s claim of widespread illegal voting. Mr. Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by approximately 2.8 million votes.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-obama-gets-invitation-to-maryland-country-club-after-rift-over-his-israel-policies/

Report: Obama gets invitation to Maryland country club after rift over his Israel policies
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS
January 24, 2017, 8:03 AM

Photograph -- U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during his last press conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 18, 2017. REUTERS


Former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have been invited to join an exclusive country club in Maryland despite a disagreement among members about whether to let them in because of his administration’s Israel policy, The New York Times reports.

The Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, many of whose members are Jewish, invited the former first couple in a letter Monday, the report said, which said they could become “special members.”

“In the current deeply polarized political environment,” Barry Forman, the club’s president, wrote, “it is all the more important that Woodmont be a place where people of varying views and beliefs can enjoy fellowship and recreation in a relaxed environment.”

“Given our legacy,” he added, “it is regrettable that we have now been portrayed as unwelcoming and intolerant, because that is not who we are.”

The report said that a vocal minority at the club opposed the idea of Obama joining because of his record clashing with the Israeli government, including his administration’s decision to abstain in December during the vote on the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

One member, Faith Goldstein, wrote to Forman, according to The Washington Post, saying that Obama “has created a situation in which Israel’s very existence is weakened and possibly threatened.”

“He is not welcome at Woodmont,” she reportedly wrote.

As special members of the club, the former first couple doesn’t have to pay the $80,000 initiation fee, but must pay dues and other fees, the Times said.

The former first family is currently on vacation in Palm Springs, California and is expected to return to Washington and live in the posh Kalorama neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant.



ALTERNATIVE FACTS. RIGHT.

The “big lies and small lies” concept is, according to Slate, taken from “Mein Kampf,” My father also said it was a Hitlerism. Propaganda is our modern-day word for the same disgusting thing, domination by deceit. Wake up, America!! It’s part and parcel of truly “fake news,” only when the Washington Post, NPR, and other news sites of good repute say challenging things, I don’t feel the same urge to disbelieve them immediately as I do with Breitbart, etc. We can always seek an outside source such as Snopes or Politifact. It also works pretty well to copy the suspicious words in the Google search engine and look at what comes up for feasibility, evidence of simple copying from one source to another, and their good or bad reputations. The Washington Post, CBS or NPR have good reputations.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-alternative-facts-and-economic-data/

Commentary: What if “alternative facts” spread to economic data?
By MARK THOMA MONEYWATCH
January 24, 2017, 8:43 AM

Donald Trump’s inability to accept news that disagrees with the view he has of himself and what his administration can accomplish was on display on his first two days as president. He, and those speaking on his behalf, claimed falsely that “This was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” and then doubled down even when presented with solid evidence it wasn’t true.

Americans were told the new administration relies on “alternative facts,” which seems to mean whatever numbers it can come up with to support Mr. Trump’s claims.

What worries me, among other things, is how the president will react to bad news about the economy. In the next four years, it will have its ups and downs -- that’s inevitable. The fluctuations could be relatively mild, or they could be severe, but at times the economic news will definitely be disappointing.

Play VIDEO
White House faces criticism over "alternative facts"

When this happens, Mr. Trump can respond in several ways. He can accept the bad news, which seems unlikely. He can also undermine the news by claiming the numbers are fixed by people in government working against him, that the numbers are misleading, or false, and then present his own “alternative facts.” If he does this, many people will believe him.

He might even try to underfund or actually eliminate agencies that report things that suggest his administration isn’t the best economic machine to ever come to Washington.

But the worst thing he could do -- and I see this as a real danger -- would be to politicize the agencies that produce government economic data, to put people in place that will skew the numbers in his favor. If that happens, the data will be useless, and we’ll essentially be flying blind when it comes to the true state of the economy.

It would also bring a lot of economic research to a screeching halt. Both macro- and microconomists depend greatly on government data for their research.

Unlike the physical sciences, economists for the most part cannot do laboratory experiments to generate the data needed for their research. They must rely on government-produced data. Any degradation in the quality and availability of these data would be a setback to economists’ ability to generate new and important knowledge. And remember that microeconomists, who have made important contributions in areas such as health care, social insurance, labor policy and all sorts of other important areas have been far more successful than macroeconomists.

Potential impact of President-elect Trump's economic plans
Play VIDEO
Potential impact of President-elect Trump's economic plans

It would also hinder economists’ ability to characterize the current state of the economy (what’s the true unemployment rate?), which is essential for formulating monetary and fiscal policy.

Third-world dictators manipulate data about the economy to make themselves look good. But even if President Trump doesn’t go that far, undermining public confidence in government data and the research derived from it, cutting funding for data-collection and data-reporting agencies or, in the worst case, politicizing these agencies, would simply be a disaster for economic research. And, perhaps more important, it would destroy Americans’ ability to understand what’s happening in the economy, where it might be headed next and what it could mean for their own lives and ambitions.

Government-generated data isn’t perfect, but it’s an honest attempt to provide the best possible window into the state of the economy now and in the past. Although it would be helpful to have more data, not less, the information we have does a great job of informing us about how the economy is performing and helping settle important policy questions, not to mention its value in economic research.

Let’s hope that President Trump’s need for “alternative facts” to support his ego doesn’t result in the loss or obfuscation of this crucial information.



http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/09/04/you_know_who_else_used_words_to_make_a_point_.html

You Know Who Else Used Words to Make A Point?
By David Weigel
SEPT. 4 2012 2:05 PM

CHARLOTTE -- Please tell me that this isn't going to be one of the trends of the week.

David Weigel
DAVID WEIGEL
David Weigel is a reporter for the Washington Post.

Pat Lehman, the "dean of the Kansas delegation" and the president of the Kansas Democratic Labor Committee, is the latest Democrat to compare Republicans playing loose with the truth to Nazis.

In an interview with The Wichita Eagle, Lehman invoked Adolf Hitler to argue that Republicans are lying when they say voter ID efforts are designed to combat voter fraud.

“It’s like Hitler said, if you’re going to tell a lie, tell a big lie, and if you tell it often enough and say it in a loud enough voice, some people are going to believe you,” Lehman said.

It's an inescapable fact of history: Some of the most detestable monsters had some of the best quotes. In 2009, Anita Dunn spent days explaining that she didn't literally think that Mao was one of her "favorite philosophers," which should have been obvious, because Dunn wasn't trying to force farmers to reach iron-smelting quotas by melting down their goods in backyard furnaces. She was quoting a Mao aphorism. The "big lie" is a Hitler aphorism. The scandal, this week, is that California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton also used the aphorism -- and thus, he was comparing Republicans to Hitler.

I've never understood this. When you quote somebody, are you assuming all the characteristics and contexts of the person responsible for the quote? The "big lie" comes from Mein Kampf. It was Hitler's (bogus, obviously) explanation for why people seemed to blame German military leaders for their defeat in World War I, when they should have been blaming the Jews.

It required the whole bottomless falsehood of the Jews and their Marxist fighting organization to lay the blame for the collapse on that very man who alone, with superhuman energy and will power, tried to prevent the catastrophe he foresaw and save the nation from its time of deepest humiliation and disgrace By branding [Gen.] Ludendorff as guilty for the loss of the World War they took the weapon of moral right from the one dangerous accuser who could have risen against the traitors to the fatherland. In this they proceeded on the sound principle that the magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds they more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others; yes, even when enlightened on the subject, they will long doubt and waver, and continue to accept at least one of these causes as true. Therefore, something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick-a fact which all the great lie-virtuosi and lying-clubs in this world know only too well and also make the most treacherous use of.

And so on. A few catch phrases aside, Hitler was a ponderous writer. My point, though -- the idea of the "big lie" is useful, and it's odd to think that its users literally think their foes are like the Nazis. Hitler wasn't even referring to the Nazis when he coined this!

Oh, well. I'm a hopeless anti-pedant on the whole issue of quoting dictators. Let the feigned outrage continue.

David Weigel is a reporter for the Washington Post.


I DON'T WANT TO BE "PEDANTIC," AS THE WRITER ABOVE PHRASES IT, BUT WHETHER THE TRUMP GROUP WILL PROVE TO BE A GREAT DEAL LIKE THE THIRD REICH POWERS, THEY AREN'T STARTING OFF WELL, AND THEY ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE WITH THE BIG LIE; AND THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY SHOULD NEVER HAVE ELECTED THEM. I BELIEVE THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN STAFF SHOULD SELECT THIS NEXT YOUTUBE SELECTION AS THEIR THEME SONG. DO LISTEN FOR SOME SHEER PLEASURE AND FUN CONCERNING “THE BIG LIE.”

POLITICS, ALONG WITH ALL FORMS OF SALES AND BUSINESS ARE STEEPED IN DECEITFULNESS AND GREED. MAKING MONEY ISN'T EVIL, OF COURSE, BUT NECESSARY. THOSE WHO GET TOO WEALTHY TOO FAST, HOWEVER, HAVE VERY FREQUENTLY CHEATED MORE THAN ONCE IN ORDER TO GET THEIR FORTUNE. THEY AREN'T HEROES UNLESS THEY DO GOOD THINGS WITH THE MONEY AS WELL AS BUY YACHTS. THEN THEY'RE HEROES.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo4zFEs8g-Y
Gesticulate lyrics - Kismet Cast

When you tell a story
Amorous or gory
You can tell it best if you gesticulate

Suppose the mighty Sinbad
Meets a Djinn who's been bad
They can guess the rest if you gesticulate

A tongue is a tongue
And a lung is a lung
In a tale you can shout or sing
Without the gesture? Nothing!

Should Scherazade
Undulate her body
That can be expressed if you gest...
Can be assessed if you gest...
She'll be undressed if you gesticulate

If I tell you I was walking by the sea
and found a genie in a bottle, that's trite!

Right! For practically everyone has seen a genie someone had to throttle...in a bottle!

Right! But if I say the bottle was soooo teeny
And sooooo was the genie

Until with trembling hand, I pulled the cork
And threw the jug and covered up my eyes

And the smoke began to curl
And the smoke began to swirl
And it curled and it swirled
And it swirled and it curled
As higher it did rise
Till it was sooooo high
And soooo was the genie
Then two great arms reached down
And liftd me up, up, up
Into the sky

And we did fly, the genie and I
We did sail, did sail....

Is this a tale? This is a tale!
Are you impressed? We are impressed!

You see, you see, you seeeeee

For the facile finger
Listeners will linger
They will be impressed if you gest...
Applaud with zest if you gest...
If it's a question of a story, gory, Sinbad, Djinn bad, bottle, smoke, genie, arms, fly, high, sky..
I state, reiterate, gesticulate
With your hands!