Category Archives: Media
Paul Manafort Swamp Creature
Special Counsel Robert Mueller busted Paul Manafort on Monday. The charges included money laundering, tax evasion and failure to register as a foreign agent.
But there was no mention of President Trump colluding with Russians to steal the election. Which Trump was quick to tweet. What he didn’t tweet is why he hired a swamp creature like Manafort to run his campaign in the first place.
Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager in the summer of 2016.
Swamp Creature Comforts
Prior to that gig Manafort took in $75 million representing the pro-Russian party in Ukraine. Here’s what National Review’s Kevin Williamson has to say about the president’s swamp creature:
In 1980, he founded a lobbying firm with Roger Stone, one of the most disreputable figures in Washington — no minor distinction — a habitual liar who boasts of his dishonesty and whose entrée into politics was setting up Richard Nixon’s dirty-tricks operation.
Manafort has earned a fortune working as a lobbyist for corrupt foreign governments and thugs and kleptocrats ranging from Mobutu Sese Seko to Ferdinand Marcos.
In the indictment Manafort’s accused of stashing Ukranian money in offshore accounts and using it to buy real estate in the U.S. Then he took out loans on those properties to raise cash to fund his lavish lifestyle, without paying taxes.
The future Trump campaign manager also used some of that money to hire the Podesta Group to seek favors for his Ukranian client. Tony Podesta resigned from his firm the same day Manafort was indicted.
Tony’s brother, John Podesta, was Hillary’s campaign manager.
Dossier Doozy
In 1980 Ronald Reagan debated George H W Bush in the New Hampshire primary. The debate was sponsored by the Nashua Telegraph. But the FEC ruled it violated election regulations. So the Reagan Campaign took over sponsorship of the debate.
When the day of the event arrived chairs were only arranged for Reagan, Bush and a moderator. Four other candidates stood awkwardly onstage. Reagan demanded they be included. Editor Jon Breen, the moderator, asked the sound tech to cut off Reagan’s mic. The crowd booed.
The Gipper angrily responded, “I’m paying for this microphone, Mr. Green.” His name was Breen but, whatever. The crowd went nuts.
Dossier
In 2016 Hillary Clinton paid for a dossier on Donald Trump. Among other things, the document claimed Trump paid Russian prostitutes to pee on a bed where Barack and Michelle Obama had slept in Moscow.
Journalists were aware of the dossier but considered it sketchy, unverified and un-newsworthy. At least most did.
The big questions were: Who paid for the dossier and did its allegations contribute to the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Trump for Russian Collusion?
The Washington Post broke the story Tuesday night that the Clinton Campaign and the DNC paid for it. They used the law firm Perkins Coie to hire the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. That way Fusion GPS could claim attorney client privilege when questions were asked. Fusion GPS then subcontracted with British spook Christopher Steele to compile the Dossier.
A Republican donor initially engaged Fusion GPS but dropped out after Trump won the primary.
Update: The Hill reports The Washington Free Beacon hired Fusion GPS first.
Jimmy’s Late Night Opinions
Harvey Weinstein probably won’t have much to say about current events for a while, but Jimmy Kimmel will. The comedian turned policy wonk has had a lot to say about health care and gun control lately thanks to the failed Graham-Cassidy bill and the Las Vegas massacre.
As for Harvey Weinstein’s escapades? Well, Jimmy had a lot to say about Donald Trump.
Jimmy’s Late Night Opinions
What if you don’t like Jimmy’s late night opinions? On CBS Sunday Morning he said, “I mean, you don’t have to watch the show. You don’t have to listen to what I say.”
“Yeah, I mean, I saw, I don’t know if it was a study or a poll, some combination of those two things, that, like, three years ago I was equally liked by Republicans and Democrats. And then Republican numbers went way down, like 30% or whatever. And, you know, as a talk show host, that’s not ideal. But I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
Despite the Deplorable decline his ratings are up 11% from a year ago..
Harvey Weinstein Revelation
Meryl Streep is shocked shocked by the Harvey Weinstein revelation. She reached out to the Huffington Post to call his behavior “disgraceful, inexcusable, and an abuse of power.”
In 2012 she called him “God.”
Hillary Clinton is shocked shocked too. And “appalled“. Weinstein has helped raise $1.5 million for Democratic candidates.
Weinstein Revelation
Holman Jenkins in the WSJ says Harvey is warning the Hollywood liberal elite that his problems are their problems:
He was a guest at the Obama White House 13 times. He gave hundreds of thousands to the Clintons. In 2016, he hosted or headlined multiple fundraisers for Mrs. Clinton with people like Leonardo DiCaprio, Helen Mirren, Julia Roberts and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Cartoon Magazine Publisher Hugh Hefner Dies
Hugh Hefner was a frustrated cartoonist, so he pursued other interests and founded Playboy magazine.
You probably only read Playboy for the fiction. But I read it for the cartoons. Hefner chose the cartoons for each issue.
Cartoon Magazine Publisher Hugh Hefner
I think he also chose the other pictures that appeared in his magazine. And he developed the “Playboy Philosophy” to help him with that task.
But the world of internet porn and political correctness made things difficult for Playboy. An obit in The Atlantic argues that what Playboy offered was “sanitized – Hefner wanted the centerfolds to exude clean-cut charm rather than exotic allure.”
What it should have offered was more cartoons.
Hef was 91 when he died on Wednesday.
