the LePen threat (and for many French voters its the LePen temptation) has been haunting French elections for a long time — I wrote this profile of Marine’s father Jean-Marie LePen in 1996 newyorker.com/magazine/1997/… I wrote of papa LePen that he asked me, “What do I have to do to not be racist? Marry a black woman? With AIDS if possible?” He sent a letter saying I’d missed his joke because he said “un noir”—a Black man—not “une noire.” Vile man. His Putinist daughter’s no better.

well…

The Times obtained Donald Trump’s tax information extending over more than two decades, revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.
nytimes.com/interactive/20… "Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made."

CNN reports UAE denies involvement in Rusesabagina’s arrest, saying he arrived in Dubai on commercial flight & departed legally on private jet for “East African country.” A senior Rwanda government source tells me “can confirm what UAE said is accurate"
edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/afr… Sr Rwandan govt source says Rusesabagina “departed UAE voluntarily by private jet en route to a country in East Africa” & “When that plane made a stop in Rwanda, he was placed under arrest pursuant to the international arrest warrant issued in November 2018.”

these are just great american tableaus northern mariana islands

rainy day windows

a lot of history and of literature in those 121 yrs of paper, including— if I remember from a photo of this I saw—a long ago serialization of Madame Bovary in Yiddish, which was read aloud by readers on ladders amid the laborers hand-rolling cigars in Lower East Side sweatshops…

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1085733057435332608

the letters of that radio station’s call sign stood for Eugene V. Debs

Trump tweet said report on McGahn limiting FBI investigation incorrect—but @NYTimes paints Trump tweet as incorrect nytimes.com/2018/09/29/us/… Times says McGahn, working with McConnell/Senate GOP, is indeed setting FBI limits: only 4 people are approved for FBI interviews: Judge, Keyser, PJ Smyth & Ramirez. FBI to ask Judge about Swetnick allegations, but not Swetnick. Question of Kav downplaying drinking are off limits

sources “characterized the White House instructions as a significant constraint on the FBI investigation” nbcnews.com/politics/polit… "the FBI cannot ask the supermarket that employed Judge for records verifying when he was employed there, one of the sources was told."

long before sex assault accusations surfaced, Kavanaugh was manifestly unfit for SCOTUS: what other nominee made his name as a sleazy partisan operative, hid most of his record, lied repeatedly under oath to Congress & came saddled with such a mess of dodgy unexplained finances? except for Thomas, has any Justice in living memory been confirmed with anything even close to such a blatantly compromised profile? many have faced fierce ideological opposition, but none has so reeked of personal & public corruption & represented such a dishonor to the court