Trump? It remains to be seen, I’m talking about Jim Jordan who, as I pointed out yesterday, is in big trouble for his Paternoesque tolerance of sexual abuse of the Ohio State University Men’s Wrestling Team by team physician Richard Strauss (Jim Jordan was Assistant Coach).

Now I understand how all 9 (and counting) accusers could all be lying but his Boss?

Jordan’s Boss, The Head Coach, Admits He Knew
By Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo
July 12, 2018

One of the curious dimensions of the evolving Jim Jordan story is that the defenses of Jordan often become close to indistinguishable from the accusations against him. The first instance was that interlude in Jordan’s interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier in which he switched from adamant denials to making a distinction between formal accusations and “conversations in a locker room.” When Baier asked what “locker room” talk he’d heard, Jordan shifted back and insisted he hadn’t heard any. Now there’s another instance of this, an admission that essentially demolishes Jordan’s denials. The head coach Jordan worked for, Russ Hellickson, admits he knew Dr. Strauss was acting inappropriately with wrestlers on his team and confronted him about it.

To be clear, head coach Hellickson is not one of Jordan’s accusers. He’s one of Jordan’s biggest defenders. He has repeatedly defended Jordan and signed the open letter assembled by the right-wing PR firm which an anonymous funder has retained to attack Jordan’s accusers. “None of us saw or heard of abuse of OSU wrestlers,” one portion of the letter reads. “The well-being of student-athletes was all of our concern. If we had heard of any abuse, we would have spoken up.”

But Hellickson has a problem.

Before Jordan’s involvement in the story broke on July 3rd, one of Jordan’s accusers, Mike DiSabato interviewed Hellickson on videotape. The video has not been publicly released but it’s been shown to multiple news outlets, including CNN and USAToday. On that tape, Hellickson admits to precisely what Jordan is vociferously denying.

On the tape, Hellickson said that many of the wrestlers were “uncomfortable” with Dr. Strauss’s behavior and that he had confronted Strauss about it. There was Strauss’s lingering in the showers with wrestlers and fondling them during weigh-ins.

When Strauss told Hellickson that he showered with the wrestlers as well, Hellickson told him: “Yeah. Not for an hour, doc.”

Hellickson also told Strauss he was “much too hands on” with the wrestlers. In response, Strauss told him he was just being “thorough.” (In a discussion of the tape Wednesday morning on CNN, a CNN journalist who has watched the tape said the being “hands on” was during weigh-ins.) Critically, Hellickson said he’d communicated his concerns about the shower situation to University administrators. “Certainly, all of my administrators recognized that it was an issue for meI’m sure that I talked to all of them on numerous occasions about my discontent with the environment.”

It is important to note that, if not in a narrowly legal sense, these amount to admissions against interest for Hellickson. He was the head coach. He was ultimately responsible for the well-being of the student wrestlers. There’s very little reason for him to say these things if they were not true. There’s good reason to think there’s more detail he hasn’t shared.

News outlets have been trying to get Hellickson to discuss what he says on the unreleased tape for days. On Monday he finally spoke to USAToday. He essentially confirmed what he said on the tape: that that he confronted Strauss about the showering situation and told him: “When you’re doing weigh-ins, you’re too hands on, Doc.” What Hellickson told USAToday in the Monday interview, however, is that there was nothing that appeared to be a “red flag” that the behavior constituted abuse.

What seems clear is that Hellickson is trying to make his defense of Jordan square with what he admitted on tape before he knew Jordan would deny everything. It’s an impossible position. His contradictory claims simply don’t add up. At best, Hellickson’s cobbled together explanation amounts to a version of the one Jordan tentatively floated in his interview with Bret Baier: that “conversations in a locker room” are far different from formal accusations. The simple fact is that Hellickson knew there was a problem enough to confront Strauss for lingering in the showers with the student wrestlers and feeling up wrestlers during weigh-ins. That speaks for itself. He knew enough, by his own account, to repeatedly raise the matter with University administrators.

Nine wrestlers have come forward to say Jordan knew about the abuse. Two of them say they told him directly of specific instances in which Strauss has touched them inappropriately. Hellickson is basically trapped – because of what he said on the video before he realized Jordan would deny everything – into conceding that he knew about Strauss’s behavior and knew it was serious enough to confront him and bring his concerns to administrators. Given Hellickson’s admissions, Jordan’s claim that he was simply in the dark are absurd on their face.

So if you’re as angry at Jim Jordan as TMC is because of his outrageous performance at Peter Strzok’s Congressional Hearing today, take heart in the fact that it’s likely his swan Song because I don’t see how he survives this politically.

Yup, this is everything the mighty United States can do after stealing 103 babies under the age of 5 years old. Fifty seven have been ‘reunitied’ (according to the government and who knows what they mean by that of if they’re making it up out of the whole cloth?) and forty six have been left behind.

For 22 of them there are a variety of reasons offered–

• 22 children couldn’t be reunited due to safety concerns posed by the adults:
• 11 adults have a criminal history (charges or convictions for child cruelty, kidnapping, murder, human smuggling, domestic violence, etc.).
• 7 adults were found not to be a parent.
• 1 adult falsified a birth certificate (parentage is being examined).
• 1 adult was alleged to have abused the kid.
• 1 adult had planned to house the kid with an adult charged with sexually abusing a child.
• 1 adult is currently being treated for a communicable disease.

• 24 children are not currently eligible for reunification due to other circumstances:
• 12 adults have been deported and are being contacted.
• 9 adults are in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service for other offenses.
• 2 adults are in custody of state jails for other offenses.

This sample of 103 is representative of a universe of at least 3,000 cases (many reputable sources indicate more that 5,000) of minors illegally kidnapped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Customs and Border Patrol (sound redundant? It does to me too. ICE until recently was the much friendlier named Immigration and Naturalization Service, as if we welcomed immigrants and naturalized citizens and we wanted to provide “services” to help them do that).

That’s at least 1300 children stolen as ransom for Trump’s ugly, stupid, and feckless Wall.

Trump administration says 57 young children have been reunited with parents
Associated Press
Thu 12 Jul 2018

The administration was under a court mandate to reunify families separated between early May and 20 June, when Donald Trump signed an executive order that stopped his own policy of family separations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman who had been separated from her child, and US district court judge Dana Sabraw ordered all children reunited with their parents.

Fifty-seven children were reunited with their parents as of Thursday morning, administration officials said.

“Throughout the reunification process, our goal has been the wellbeing of the children and returning them to a safe environment,” according to a statement from the heads of the three agencies responsible for the process.

Sabraw’s deadline for reunification had already come and gone Tuesday night. In a response Thursday morning, Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said: “If in fact 57 children have been reunited because of the lawsuit, we could not be more happy for those families. But make no mistake about it: the government missed the deadline even for these 57 children.”

The officials said 46 of the children were not eligible to be reunited with their parents; a dozen parents had already been deported and were being contacted by the administration. Nine were in custody of the US marshals service for other offenses. One of the children deemed ineligible was identified Tuesday as perhaps being a US citizen, along with their parent who officials have been unable to locate for over a year. Officials declined to provide more information on that case Thursday.

In 22 other cases, adults posed safety concerns, they said. Officials said 11 adults had serious criminal histories including child cruelty, murder or human smuggling. Seven were not determined to be a parent, one had a false birth certificate, one had allegedly abused the child. Another planned to house the child with an adult charged with sexually abusing a child.

The zero-tolerance policy calls for the criminal prosecution of anyone caught crossing the border illegally. Because parents can’t take their children to jail, they were separated. The move caused an international uproar.
…
Part of the issue, administration officials said, is that systems were not set up to reunify parents with their children; they were set up to manage tens of thousands of minors who cross the border illegally without family. Health and human services manages their care, the US. homeland security has control over adults in immigration detention, and the justice department manages the immigration courts.

Earlier this week, government attorneys told Sabraw that the Trump administration would not meet the deadline for about 20 children under five because it needed more time to track down parents who have been deported or released into the US.

Sabraw indicated more time would be allowed only in specific cases where the government showed good reasons for a delay.

The administration defended its screening, saying it discovered parents with serious criminal histories, five adults whose DNA tests showed they were not parents of the children they claimed to have, and one case of credible child abuse.

The administration faces a second, bigger deadline – 26 July – to reunite more than 2,000 older children with their families. Immigration attorneys say they are seeing barriers to those reunifications from a backlog in the processing of fingerprinting of parents to families unable to afford the airfare to fly the child to them – which could run as high as $1,000.

Reading is FUNdamental

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Julius Caesar born; Walter Mondale taps Geraldine Ferraro as the first woman to run on a major party ticket for the White House; Boris Yeltsin quits the Soviet Communist Party; Comedian Bill Cosby born.

In some parts of the world, students are going to school every day. It’s their normal life. But in other part of the world, we are starving for education… it’s like a precious gift. It’s like a diamond.

Malala Yousafzai

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You know, what Manafort out to be really afraid of is a guy named Boris with a toothbrush in the exercise yard.

Or Novichok in your soap.

Paul Manafort to be moved from jail where prosecutors say he has ‘VIP’ treatment
by Rachel Weiner, Washington Post
July 11, 2018

Manafort also has said he has “all my files like I would at home,” has “gone through all the discovery now,” and is being treated like a “VIP.”

Manafort speaks to his attorneys every day and often multiple times a day, they said. While the calls are limited to 15 minutes in length, there is no limit on how many calls he can make.

“Among the unique privileges Manafort enjoys at the jail are a private, self-contained living unit, which is larger than other inmates’ units, his own bathroom and shower facility, his own personal telephone, and his own workspace to prepare for trial,” the prosecutors wrote. “Manafort is also not required to wear a prison uniform.” He also has a personal laptop, they say, with an extension cord so he can use it in his unit and not just the workroom.

Manafort has even “developed a workaround” to send emails, which prisoners normally would not be allowed to do, according to prosecutors: “In order to exchange emails, he reads and composes emails on a second laptop that is shuttled in and out of the facility by his team. When the team takes the laptop from the jail, it re-connects to the Internet and Manafort’s emails are transmitted.”

Manafort’s lawyers replied in a filing that “while it is possible for Mr. Manafort to provide counsel with information he would like communicated, any communication is then sent by counsel in a manner that is consistent with the rules of the detention facility.“
…
In his order, Ellis directed the Alexandria jail to allow Manafort, “to the extent practically possible” to meet with his attorneys for eight hours a day until trial.

He noted that the Alexandria jail has housed many high-profile detainees, “including foreign and domestic terrorists, spies and traitors.”

Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said he was “aware that he’s been remanded to our custody and when he arrives he’ll go through the proper classification process. We’ll house him properly in order to meet everyone’s needs.”

You hear that Cohen? Ossining for you.

One need neither look far or hard to find many Republican Sexual Perverts. I’m talking people who like getting their diapers changed, folks with a “wide stance” that abhor homosexuality but see nothing but “natural urges” in bestiality, and especially those who are pedophiles that will with equal alacrity sodomize a Page or terrorize teens at a Mall.

You know, creeps with creepy fantasies they act on for several reasons, one of which is they are fervent believers in death bed repentance (sure, why not, you’re genuinely sorry that in moments you’ll be facing a vengeful Yaweh who will be quite cross indeed if your regret for your life of sin is not ‘sin’cere) and another of which is that they think because of their power and influence they can simply bully people into letting them get away with it.

I’m appaled at the barbarism of the Scarlet “A”, but I think some temporal punishment, say a lifetime of reflection on societal norms, is not inappropriate in the most egregious cases and would certainly reduce the danger to the populace.

I despair of persuading people of the fundamental folly of religious belief and practice, but surely there must be a special circle of fictional Hell for the hypocrites who claim righteous practice and yet aid and abet, accessory before, during, and after the fact actions that are not merely sins, but crimes.

Jim Jordan is such a person and Richard Strauss is that criminal.

What the Jim Jordan scandal tells us about GOP morality
by Paul Waldman, Washington Post
July 11, 2018

In the 1980s and 1990s, Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State, and during that time, a university doctor named Richard Strauss allegedly molested large numbers of athletes. According to multiple wrestlers, everyone knew what Strauss was doing, and it was a frequent topic of conversation among both athletes and coaches, with people warning each other that when they went for an examination with Strauss they were likely to be fondled.

At least seven former Ohio State wrestlers have now come forward to say that Jordan knew about Strauss, some of whom say they spoke to him directly about it. “Jordan definitely knew that these things were happening — yes, most definitely,” one said. “It was there. He knew about it because it was an everyday occurrence … Everybody joked about it and talked about it all the time.” Another wrestler said he and others complained directly to Jordan about Strauss on multiple occasions.

Jordan, however, insists that he never knew anything about it. As each new wrestler comes forward to corroborate the allegations, his denials become increasingly implausible.

This situation isn’t precisely like other cases in which politicians have been swept up in sexual abuse scandals, because Jordan wasn’t the perpetrator; the questions are about how he reacted, as a person who had the authority to do something about the abuse when it was occurring. But the reaction from Republicans has been revealing.

While there are certainly some who are avoiding questions about this subject, I have yet to see a single member of Jordan’s party criticize him or call for an investigation. Quite the contrary: He has benefited from a wave of unequivocal support.

President Trump said about the allegations, “I don’t believe them at all. I believe him. Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington. I believe him 100 percent. No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man.” Paul Ryan offered a similar tribute to Jordan’s character. “Jim Jordan is a friend of mine,” the Speaker said. “I have always known Jim Jordan to be a man of honesty and a man of integrity.”

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Jordan “absolutely would have acted” had he known that the abuse was going on, a sentiment echoed by Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who said he’s sure Jordan would “stand up for his athletes, just like he’s always stood up for what’s right.”
…
All of those tributes are not about the evidence that exists, but about Jordan’s character as those men have seen it in their own dealings with him. You might think that by now they’d realize that it’s possible for someone to seem like a great guy in some contexts while also being capable of actions that are not so admirable, but apparently not.

As for Jordan himself, he has suggested that all the former wrestlers might be part of a Deep State conspiracy against him in response to his criticisms of the Robert Mueller investigation. “I think the timing is suspect when you think about how this whole story came together after the Rosenstein hearing and the speaker’s race,” he said.
…
But taking responsibility doesn’t seem to be an option any Republican is considering. That demonstrates that as the country has confronted the Me Too movement and begun asking itself whether we have to look at these kinds of issues in a different way, the GOP hasn’t changed one iota.

Contrast that to what happened when Al Franken, a respected senator many liberals hoped would run for president, faced allegations of inappropriate conduct. It look just a few days before many of his own colleagues in the Senate demanded his resignation, and he complied.

You might argue that was just crass politics, since the Democrats believed their base wouldn’t stand for them tolerating any sexual misbehavior among their own, and therefore it was less a sincere moral stance than a political calculation. But even if that’s true, it shows that one party — both its representatives and its voters — thinks any degree of sexual abuse is intolerable and is willing to act on that belief, while the other party doesn’t and isn’t.

You can point to cases where at least some Republicans tried to get rid of a member of their party facing allegations of misconduct, like Roy Moore or Larry Craig (of the famous “wide stance“). But in every case it was only when it became too much of an embarrassment to sustain. And let’s not forget that the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House in history, Dennis Hastert, was an admitted child molester who was defended by many Republicans even after his crimes became known. And in a parallel to the Jordan scandal, in 2006 Hastert had been criticized for knowing about Rep. Mark Foley’s inappropriate conduct with teenage congressional pages but doing nothing about it. Then as now, Republicans defended Hastert and resisted calls for him to step down.

Today, when allegations of this sort surface against a Democrat, the first impulse of those in the Democratic Party is to assume that the victims are probably telling the truth and ask whether the member should resign. That wasn’t always their response in the past, but now it is. The first impulse of Republicans when such a scandal touches their own, on the other hand, is to defend the member no matter what the facts suggest and charge that it’s a liberal conspiracy.

That may be partly because they all pledged their loyalty to a president who is on tape bragging about his ability to commit sexual assault with impunity (“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”), and who was credibly accused of sexual misconduct by a dozen women. Whatever the reasons, they haven’t caught up to the morality of the 21st century.

Jenny Nicholson

Star Wars Fanfic

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

America normalizes diplomatic ties with Vietnam; Aaron Burr mortally wounds Alexander Hamilton in a duel; Skylab makes a fiery return to Earth; Babe Ruth’s major league debut; Laurence Olivier dies.

Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. Never in history has the press seized absolute power and muzzled the politicians.

David Brinkley

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The best evidence is that of Harold Bride, junior wireless operator, who left in a collapsible boat only after the Boat Deck was awash up to the base of the funnel. It was preceded by a ragtime tune unknown to Bride.

It ended gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.

Everything you need to know about the Brexit Crisis that could topple Theresa May
By David Gilbert, Vice
Jul 10, 2018

Things are looking up for British Prime Minister Theresa May. It has been almost 24 hours and none of her senior Cabinet ministers have resigned.

After a turbulent few days, the PM appears to have stared down critics from within her own ruling Conservative party, after coming under significant pressure following the resignation of two senior aides — Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis. Both dramatically fled over what they viewed as her watered-down plan for how the U.K. would leave the European Union next year.

May hosted a meeting of her new-look cabinet Tuesday after warning party members that failure to unite behind her leadership would inevitably lead to electoral defeat — and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn entering Downing Street as the next prime minister.
…
Following Johnson’s and Davis’ exit, May’s new Cabinet boasts a preponderance of ministers far more aligned to a softer form of Brexit. Yet May’s position remains tenuous, with a significant portion of the party unhappy with her Brexit plan, and the next 48 hours will be critical to her political survival.
…
May gathered her senior ministers Friday for a summit at her country retreat to present a plan for how the U.K. was going to leave the EU, which received the full backing of her cabinet.

But over the weekend, support quickly fell away. On Sunday, Davis — the man responsible for leading the U.K.’s negotiations with the EU for the past two years — resigned saying May’s plan was “unworkable.”
…
Less than 24 hours later Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also quit after it emerged he had slammed May’s plan during the summit as akin to “polishing a turd.”

In his resignation letter, Johnson said the Brexit “dream is dying, suffocated by needless self-doubt.”
…
Along with Johnson, the candidate most likely to challenge May is arch-Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg. However, the fact he has yet to submit a letter of no-confidence in May suggests he is biding his time.

Indeed, some watchers have noted that now May is rid of her most problematic Cabinet ministers, she is in a far stronger position to push through her policies.

With Hunt’s appointment to foreign secretary, the four major positions at the head of the U.K. government — prime minister, chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary — are all filled by people who voted to remain in the EU but are now tasked with negotiating a path out.

May’s plan has been dismissed by Brexiteers as a “semi-Brexit” — a diluted version that retains many ties to the EU.

Yet it appears Tory Eurosceptics are planning on working from within to change May’s plan rather than replacing her altogether.
…
That means the U.K. is in for a further period of instability and confusion, as a government led by people who don’t believe in Brexit finalize a framework to present to the EU by August.

That plan must then be approved by the U.K. parliament and EU members.

The latest crisis has sparked fears in Brussels that political paralysis in London could led to a scenario in which no-deal is agreed between the EU and the U.K. by the deadline — a potential economic calamity for both parties.

“Politicians come and go,” Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said. “But the problems they have created for the people remain. The mess caused by Brexit is the biggest problem in the history of EU-U.K. relations. And it is still very far from being solved.”

I hope I’m spoiling no child’s illusion of Kris Kringle by pointing out that Professional Wrestling is totally fake and scripted.

Well at least to the point where character arcs are the product of writing (not very good writing but nevertheless) and individual performers discuss and choreograph their moves. It is “Entertainment” as the name clearly indicates and their insurance payments confirm, a kind of violent improv soap opera where only the blood is real (stunts don’t always go as planned).

Donald Trump through his friends Vincent and Linda McMahon has at least a peripheral connection to this world, one we know well in its home state of Connecticut (who’d a thunk?) and it is at least a dubious great uncle of all “reality” theater where Trump’s “Z-List” celebrity is based.

So it is no surprise to see stories like this-

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy agreed to retire if Trump promised to replace him with Brett Kavanaugh
By Travis Gettys, Raw Story
July 10, 2018

The Trump administration has been negotiating Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement for months, according to a new report.

Kennedy agreed to retire at the end of the term that concluded last month once he received assurances that President Donald Trump would replace him with a former law clerk, reported NBC News.

On Monday, the president held up his end of the bargain by nominating Brett Kavanaugh, the conservative former Kennedy clerk.
…
A source who was told of the discussions said Kennedy felt comfortable retiring after the Trump team assured him Kavanaugh would be the pick, and the other four names added to the president’s list of Federalist Society-approved judges in November were merely cover.

Zack Morris Is Trash: Season 2, Episodes 7 – 10

Thus endeth Season 2 of Zack Morris Is Trash

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Start of World War II’s Battle of Britain; Telstar satellite launched; Millard Fillmore becomes President; Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev killed; Singer Arlo Guthrie born; Cartoon voice Mel Blanc dies.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.

Jean Kerr

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