Wednesday Reads: So much shit…

This Administration and Republican Party has become an overwhelming… tRump-enema induced, massive blasted explosive shit…taken on American Democracy.   Yesterday Boston Boomer wrote about the Ice Cube/Big3 Basketball connection that has shed light on the Qatar/Flynn bribery and money laundering scheme that was sparked by tweets from Michael Avenatti.

Maddow put it together last night:

I don’t know about you, but being a visual person…I found her explanation easier to follow. At least I was not lost in words that make me dizzy and disgusted.

Here is something else to get physically ill over:

Oklahoma GOP candidate proposes euthanasia for disabled and poor to avoid food stamps

Republican gubernatorial candidate in Oklahoma proposed euthanasia for people on food stamps who are too disabled to work.

In a Facebook post made by a page purporting to be for OK governor candidate Christopher Barnett, the administrator initially posted a poll about food stamp requirements — and then made comments claiming euthanasia is a solution to the “issue” of the poor and disabled.

In a post made by Tulsa resident Lisa Schwart, screenshots of the thread from the Chrisforgov campaign page that shares a name with Barnett’s campaign websiterevealed the comments.

“Most receiving food stamps work, or are disabled,” a user commented on the poll post. “Some are elderly.”

“The ones who are disabled and can’t work…why are we required to keep them?” the Chrisforgov account responded. “Sorry but euthanasia is cheaper and doesn’t make everyone a slave to the Government [sic].”

Defending his now-deleted comments, the account admin mused as to why American taxpayers should “have to keep up people who cannot contribute to society any longer?”

“Obviously, I’m not saying the Government [sic] should put these people down,” the Chrisforgov account wrote, contradicting its earlier statement. “I’m just saying that we shouldn’t keep them up.”

“If they can take care of themselves without Government assistance, great,” the comment continued. “If not, let them starve and die. Easy as that.”

Though the comments have since been deleted, the account admin wrote that they “stand by” the remarks in the poll thread, and later that day wrote that the interaction had been “fun.”

Screen shots at the link.

Fox News has settled several lawsuits according to The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox Settles Workplace Claims From Nearly 20 Individuals | Hollywood Reporter

For the past couple of years, 21st Century Fox has been haunted by hostile workplace and gender and racial discrimination claims in the wake of reports alleging misbehavior by former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. The company has now reached a major settlement that could resolve nearly all — if not all — pending lawsuits on this front. Fox’s potential settlement is a bit unusual because the deal was negotiated with Douglas Wigdor, an attorney who represents plaintiffs across many different lawsuits. Not all of his clients were ready to drop their claims.

Among Wigdor’s cases against Fox is a discrimination suit in federal court from local TV reporter Lidia Curanaj, who accuses the company of fostering a “misogynistic culture” and alleges that she didn’t get a job at Fox News when she wouldn’t submit sexually to Ailes. The attorney is also representing more than a dozen women in New York state court on claims that Fox fosters a hostile environment for dark-skinned employees. In addition, there’s a lawsuit by political pundit Scottie Hughes, who says she was raped by a Fox Business host and that the company retaliated against her for complaining by blacklisting her.

There’s more, including a defamation suit by Rod Wheeler, who investigated the death of former DNC staffer Seth Rich, plus retaliation and discrimination claims from Fox News radio correspondents Jessica Golloher and Kathleen Lee.

Wigdor has become, as Bloomberg once put it, the Trump-loving lawyer who won’t stop suing Fox News.

But that could all be coming to an end.

Fox has reached a deal with Wigdor’s firm, which would technically be 19 individual settlements; the deal was signed today. But the overall financial package, arrived after the parties engaged in extensive mediation, is said to be far less than the $60 million that Wigdor reportedly demanded and Fox rejected last summer. Not all plaintiffs got money. One received nothing while others received little, but others received substantial compensation including contract buyouts. A source with knowledge of the agreement said it’s approximately 20 cases for closer to $10 million.

It seems to me that Fox News would have to deal with fines when it comes to discrimination lawsuits…I don’t know.

Tom Wolfe died on Monday:

Tom Wolfe, 1931–2018

Tom Wolfe died yesterday at age eighty-eight. Between 1965 and 1981, the dapper white-suited father of New Journalism chronicled, in pyrotechnic prose, everything from Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters to the first American astronauts. And then, having revolutionized journalism with his kaleidoscopic yet rigorous reportage, he decided it was time to write novels. As he said in his Art of Fiction interview, “Practically everyone my age who wanted to write somehow got the impression in college that there was only one thing to write, which was a novel and that if you went into journalism, this was only a cup of coffee on the road to the final triumph. At some point you would move into a shack—it was always a shack for some reason—and write a novel. This would be your real métier.”

Tom Wolfe Kept a Close, Comical and Astonished Eye on America – The New York Times

The bursts of asterisks, the scattering of exclamation points and ellipses, the syncopated distribution of repeated phrases and capitalized words — one could spot a Tom Wolfe sentence a room away. He seemed astonished by America, and he expressed that astonishment in sentences that zinged up and out like bottle rockets.

Wolfe, who died on Monday at 88, was a breaker of journalistic conventions at a time when American society was breaking many of its own, and his was a style other writers liked to imitate and parody. Kurt Vonnegut, in his review of “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” (1965), Wolfe’s first book, wrote: “Holy animals! Sebaceous sleepers! Oxymorons and serpentae carminael! Tabescent! Infarcted! Stretchpants netherworld! Schlock!”

Vonnegut was on more solid ground when he considered whether the young Wolfe more resembled Mark Twain or an extra member of the Beatles. With his trademark white linen suits and two-tone shoes, Wolfe did later seem like a dandified figure from the cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

Those are two of the most interesting Obits I could find.

On with the fucking cartoons:

05/16 Mike Luckovich: Welcome mat. | Mike Luckovich

05/15 Mike Luckovich: Bagman: | Mike Luckovich

Peace process: 05/15/2018 Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

Allies: 05/13/2018 Cartoon by Adam Zyglis

Trump bomb: 05/15/2018 Cartoon by Ed Hall

05/15/2018 Cartoon by Gustavo Rodriguez

05/09/2018 Cartoon by Gustavo Rodriguez

Nick Anderson cartoon: 05/15/2018 Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson cartoon: 05/10/2018 Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Clay Bennett editorial cartoon: 05/12/2018 Cartoon by Clay Bennett

Jerusalem Embassy: 05/15/2018 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Hostages: 05/13/2018 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Nuclear Deal: 05/10/2018 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Impeachment: 05/08/2018 Cartoon by Rob Rogers

Graduation: 05/15/2018 Cartoon by Paul Fell

New Lows: 05/14/2018 Cartoon by Paul Fell

05/14/2018 Cartoon by John Cole

05/13/2018 Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson

05/10/2018 Cartoon by Signe Wilkinson

This is an open thread.