The Commentariat -- June 9, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Damian Paletta & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump told foreign leaders at the Group of Seven summit that they must dramatically reduce trade barriers with the United States or could risk losing access to the world's largest economy, delivering his most defiant trade threat yet to his counterparts from around the globe. But there were numerous signs here that leaders of other countries stood their ground, having stiffened after months of attacks and insults.... If they don't back down and Trump does try to stop -- or at least slow -- the flow of trade, it could impact the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars in goods, potentially impacting millions of jobs in the United States and around the world. Trump, in a news conference before leaving for Singapore, described private conversations he held over two days with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. He said he pushed them to consider removing every single tariff or trade barrier on American goods and that, in return, he would do the same for products from their countries. But if steps aren't taken, he said, the penalties would be severe." ...
... Julian Borger & Anne Perkins of the Guardian: "The president departed a summit of the G7 major industrialised democracies in Quebec the same way he arrived, firing off threats of a trade war. His fellow leaders were warned not to respond to the steel and aluminum tariffs he has imposed on them. 'If they retaliate, they're making a mistake,' Trump told reporters before leaving several hours early, ducking sessions on climate change and the oceans. In a tense session on trade on Friday, European and Canadian leaders had sought to defuse the gathering conflict, rolling out statistics on how many US jobs depended on their countries' trade and investment and arguing that the US had more barriers to trade than its partners. The discussion had no effect on Trump, who stuck to the claims he made throughout his election campaign: that the US was being ripped off. 'The European Union is brutal to the United States,' he railed. 'And they understand that. They know it. When I'm telling them, they're smiling at me. You know, it's like the gig is up.' Canada too, the president said, 'can't believe it got away' with its trade deal with the US. 'We're like the piggy bank that everybody's robbing. And that ends,' Trump said. The president even threatened to stop doing business with US partners if they did not change their policies. 'And it's going to stop,' Trump said. 'Or we'll stop trading with them. And that's a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.' The disparaging tone towards leaders seen by all former administrations as America's closest allies was in marked contrast to the hopeful language he used in anticipation of Tuesday's planned summit with Kim Jong-un." ...
... The New York Times story, by Michael Shear, is here. "Mr. Trump also blamed former President Barack Obama for Russia's invasion, in which the country sent troops into Crimea. Mr. Trump said that it was Mr. Obama who should take responsibility for Russia's actions. 'Crimea was let go during the Obama administration, and you know, Obama can say all he wants, but he allowed Russia to take Crimea,' the president said. 'I may have had a much different attitude, but, so, you really have to ask that question to President Obama. You know, why did he do that?'" In fact, in the wake of the Russian invasion in 2014, it was Mr. Obama who led the other six nations in the Group of 7 to expel Russia in a joint statement known as The Hague Declaration." Mrs. McC: FDR caused WWII; Wilson caused WWI. ...
... Benjamin Hart of New York: "During the few hours he spent at the G7 Summit in Quebec, President Trump effectively acted as a one-man turd in the punch bowl, distancing America from its supposed allies at just about every opportunity. On Saturday morning, Trump threw in straight-up rudeness to his list of offenses, showing up conspicuously late to a meeting assembled by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the topic of women's empowerment -- which, admittedly, is not high on Trump's list of concerns." ...
... His Touch, His Feel. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump predicted Saturday that he will know almost immediately when meeting Kim Jong Un whether the North Korean leader is serious about negotiating a nuclear deal, suggesting his intuition is enough to size up the leader of the world's most opaque authoritarian regime. 'Within the first minute, I'll know. My touch, my feel -- that's what I do,' Trump said during a news conference in Quebec as he prepared to depart the Group of Seven summit en route to Singapore, where he is scheduled to meet Kim on Tuesday. 'You know the way they say you know if you like somebody in the first five seconds?' he added. 'Well, I think very quickly I'll know whether something good is going to happen. I think I'll also know whether it will happen fast.' Trump's remarks came two days after he said he didn't need to do a lot of preparation ahead of the historic summit because the interpersonal relationship between the two leaders would be the more important factor."
*****
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yesterday was a day in American history like no other. The U.S. has been a Western leader since the country entered into World War II, arguably since World War I. It has been a world leader since the end of World War II. Donald Trump is turning that all around. It really is difficult to go on with our daily lives as if we are experiencing some slight disruption of norms that a national election can smoothly correct or reverse. ...
Le Manoir Richelieu in the Charlevoix region of Canada -- site of the G-6 Plus Jerk meeting.
... Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star: "Rifts in the G7 opened wide Friday after ... Donald Trump called for the re-entry of Russia into the exclusive group and publicly slammed the trade practices of his allies. But efforts continued well into the evening to bridge the gaps, with Trump himself joking the G7 could reach a joint final statement -- something that many of the other leaders felt was in doubt.... Once leaders went behind closed doors for what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said would be 'frank' talks about how to tackle economic inequality and create good jobs, Trump's tone changed and was very 'cordial,' according to Canadian officials." ...
... ** Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Rarely has President Trump's role as a disrupter on the world stage been starker. At a moment of tumult over trade and nuclear security, he is shaking up the international order to make friends with America's enemies and enemies out of America's friends. A businessman and entertainer with no diplomatic experience, Mr. Trump arrived at the White House nearly 17 months ago convinced that the economic and geopolitical alignments that have governed the world for seven decades were out of whack and biased against the United States. But after a year of being restrained to some extent by advisers who championed that global order, Mr. Trump has replaced much of his national security team with more like-minded aides and is finally acting on his 'America First' impulses in ways that are sending shock waves across Europe, Asia and North America. At the annual meeting on Friday of seven major economies known as the Group of 7, Mr. Trump was the odd man out as he quarreled with Europeans and Canadians over trade and pushed for the reinstatement of Russia four years after it was cast out. Seemingly reluctant to spend more time with longtime allies than necessary, he planned to leave early on Saturday to meet instead with a longtime adversary, North Korea. (This is a major rewrite of a story linked yesterday with Michael Shear then also on the byline.) ...
What worries me most ... is the fact that the rules-based international order is being challenged. What is surprising is that the challenge is driven not by the usual suspects, but by its main architect and guarantor, the U.S.... Trump's actions play into the hands of those who seek a new post-West order where liberal democracy and fundamental freedoms would cease to exist. - Donald Tusk, European Council President, Friday at the G-7, partially paraphrased ...
... ** Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "When do arguments, sharp-tongued put-downs and perceived betrayal among allies become the collapse of the Western-dominated order that has ruled the world, under U.S. leadership, for the past seven decades? As each day brings a new series of punches and counterpunches between President Trump and longtime U.S. partners, the question appears to be moving beyond the realm of the academic. The most recent episode began with Friday's Group of Seven summit in Quebec, the annual chat-fest with the United States and the world's other self-described economic leaders, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. It followed Trump's decision not to exempt any of them from new U.S. 'national security' tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. That ruling came on the heels of nearly 18 months of clashes over climate change, trade, NATO, Iran and other issues on a list so long it is hard to remember everything on it." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "... Mr. Trump's decision to sow ferment within the G-7 -- to antagoniz America's closest allies -- is more than a childish tantrum or a play for attention. It is an undermining of those values that the G-7 was meant to safeguard. Not only the allies but Americans, too, must come to grips with the fact that the ostensible leader of the free world may not really believe either in the free world or in leading it." ...
... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump railed on Friday against Canadian tariffs on American dairy products as he prepared to travel to Canada, where he is likely to be greeted with an icy welcome ahead of a financial summit meeting with longtime American allies. 'We're going to deal with the very unfair trade practices,' Mr. Trump said on Friday, and threatened to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement if he cannot strike deals with American allies, a promise he campaigned on as well." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Juan Cole: "Trump's 17th century mercantilist trade policies are making the United States the skunk at the party at the G7 meet in Quebec on Friday.... [Emmanuel] Macron is saying ... that the G7 could become the G6 if the other members decided to exclude Trump. It is a breathtaking idea, that the US should be treated by the major industrialized democracies as a rogue state in the same category as Putin's Russia." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "President Trump will leave the Group of 7 summit in Canada early following a public spat with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The timing of his departure will ensure that Trump misses key meetings on climate change and the environment.... An aide will reportedly stay and serve in his place." ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump aggressively confronted America's closest allies on Friday as they convened their annual summi meeting, calling for Russia's readmission to the Group of 7 nations and refusing to ease his assault on the global trading system. The response from the leaders of Europe, Canada and Japan was swift and angry. Most rejected the return of Russia, which was ousted from the diplomatic forum after President Vladimir V. Putin violated international norms by seizing parts of Ukraine in 2014. And they assailed Mr. Trump's embrace of protectionism as illegal and insulting. At a meeting devised for cooperation and comity, public smiles and descriptions of 'cordial' conversations were undercut by what officials said was a struggle to agree on a common direction. The likelihood grew that the United States could be frozen out of a joint statement of principles by the countries that have so often followed America's lead." Mrs. McC: At first glance, I read a word in the front-page headline as "read-mit"; it's "re-admit."
... ** "We've Got a Big Problem." Josh Marshall: "Over the course of 16+ months, President Trump has acted consistently and with some success to destabilize and break up the western alliance [in NATO] ... but also its less formal dimensions in trade and other partnerships. He has also worked consistently on really every front to advance the interests of Russia.... The last twenty four hours of attacks on our closest allies capped by President Trump's seemingly out of the blue demand to bring Russia back into the G-7 ... simply brings the matter into a newly sharp relief. If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances ... and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there's really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done. Take a moment to let that sink in." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Kevin Drum: "But if there's anything even worse about this, it's the fact that the Republican Party just doesn't seem to care. A few of them speak out occasionally, usually if they've decided not to run for reelection, but that's about it. Trump is dedicated to total support of Israel, and that by itself seems to be about the only foreign policy issue that matters to them anymore. Russia, China, free trade, NATO--meh. As long as Trump keeps selling plenty of hardware to Israel and delivering lots of right-wing judges to the Senate, they're happy enough." ...
... ** Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "... Trump seems to relish the confrontation [with (former) allies] he has unleashed and is spoiling for more. On Thursday morning, the President tweeted that he was 'getting ready to go to the G-7 in Canada to fight for our country on Trade,' insisting, as he often does, that 'we have the worst trade deals ever made.' But others involved in the summit were preparing for an America more alone than ever before, and now Trump faces the very real risk of allies teaming up against him.... Ever since Trump took office, America's allies have desperately sought to avoid this moment.... Trump may be reorienting U.S. foreign policy away from its closest historical friends, such as Great Britain and Germany, and toward those with whom Trump is more politically aligned in Israel, the Gulf, and along Europe's restive fringes, but his traditional partners have no real strategy for how to respond." Mrs. McC: Glasser wrote her post before Trump urged G-6 nations to include Russia. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Susan Rice, also writing before Trump announced his recommendation to re-install Russia as a member of the G-6, -7 or -8, outlines, in a New York Times op-ed, many of the ways Trump has helped Vladimir Putin re-establish Russia as a first-tier world power. "There is no evidence that Mr. Putin is dictating American policy. But it's hard to imagine how he could do much better, even if he were." ...
... John Harwood of CNBC: "Vladimir Putin tried to help Donald Trump win the presidency. As president, Trump is helping Putin achieve a top strategic goal. And the question is: Why? That mystery deepened Friday when Trump, as he openly attacked U.S. allies while heading for meetings with them, called for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7 club of advanced industrial democracies. The U.S. and its allies ejected Russia after its 2014 seizure of Crimea. With that concession, Trump capped a whirl of activity advancing Russia's objective of splintering the alliances undergirding the Western world's security and prosperity for the past 70 years.... This followed the president's earlier reluctance to embrace North Atlantic Treaty Organization commitments safeguarding Europe against Russia, his delay in implementing new congressional sanctions against Russia and his praise of Putin himself.... The starkness of Trump's words -- he stated no conditions for returning Russia to international favor on the same morning he impugned Canada's honesty -- unsettled observers across the political spectrum." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "One of Russia's principal foreign-policy goals for decades has been to split the United States from is allies. Whether by accident or by design, President Trump appears intent on bringing that dream to fruition.... Western trade partners have attempted to reason with Trump's demands, but the problem is that the basis for his beliefs and actions is entirely fantastical.... One by one, Trump's personal relationship with the leader of each major U.S. ally has been fatally poisoned."
Trump Admits He Bases Pardons on Popularity. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Friday that he may soon pardon Muhammad Ali -- a sentiment that a lawyer for the late boxer quickly said was appreciated but unnecessary. Ali was convicted in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military during the Vietnam War. His local draft board rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. 'He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now,' Trump told reporters as he prepared to leave the White House on Friday en route to a Group of Seven economic summit in Canada.... But Ron Tweel, an attorney for Ali, who died in 2016, pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali's conviction in 1971. In a unanimous ruling, the court found that the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance was not motivated by his Muslim religious beliefs." (Also linked yesterday.)
** Michelle Goldberg: "On Wednesday, five days after the official start of hurricane season in the Atlantic, Donald Trump attended what was supposed to be a meeting on storm preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. Most of the meeting was closed to the press, but The Washington Post obtained a recording. According to The Post, Trump spoke about the coming North Korea summit meeting, polling on the midterms, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, his love of coal and his administration's 'great' popularity. He claimed that the government saved $1.6 billion on Air Force One after he got involved in negotiations. The Post reported, 'Military officials have not been able to explain where Trump got such a figure.' One subject Trump did not get around to, according to The Post, were the victims of Hurricane Maria.... Puerto Ricans have been the first American citizens to really feel what it means to have a president who is so wildly unable to fulfill his responsibilities. It's hard to imagine they'll be the last."
Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been hit with a seven-count superseding indictment. Special counsel Robert Mueller filed the indictment Friday in a D.C. court, accusing Manafort and an associate of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements and conspiracy to launder money, among other charges. Konstantin Kliminik, a Manafort associate with ties to Russian intelligence, was also indicted. The filing comes after reports that Manafort attempted to influence two former colleagues' testimony to Mueller." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The more-detailed New York Times story, by Ken Vogel, is here.
... A Weasel Never Changes His Spots. Or Something. Amy Pollard of Slate: "House Speaker Paul Ryan did some damage control on Thursday, one day after he told reporters he had seen 'no evidence' to support President Trump's assertion that the FBI planted a spy in Trump's presidential campaign. At a press conference in the Capitol, Ryan echoed the president's line that there had been no collusion in his campaign. 'There's been no evidence that there's any collusion between the Trump campaign and President Trump and Russia,' Ryan said on Thursday. 'Let's just make that really clear. There's no evidence of collusion.'" ...
... Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Friday that he didn't think House Speaker Paul Ryan was agreeing with Rep. Trey Gowdy's assessment that the FBI acted properly by using a confidential informant to contact members of the Trump campaign as it investigated ties to Russia, even though Ryan said as much this week. 'I think if you look at what Paul Ryan is saying, it didn't come out that way,' Trump said when asked about Ryan agreeing with his fellow Republican. 'The fact is, they had people in our campaign. They had people doing things that have never been done in the history of our country. And it really is a disgrace. Frankly, that stuff is just starting to come out.' But Ryan said this week that he did agree with Gowdy's assessment. 'I think Chairman Gowdy's initial assessment's accurate...," Ryan told reporters at a news conference on Capitol Hill.... 'I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,' Gowdy said in an interview on Fox News."
David Corn of Mother Jones: "On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, made a dramatic request: He essentially asked special counsel Robert Mueller to consider whether perjury charges should be brought against witnesses who testified to the committee during its Trump-Russia investigation. Schiff did not convey this request directly to Mueller. Rather, he released a letter he sent on May 23 to Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif) ... asking that the committee hand over to Mueller the transcripts of all the interviews it conducted during the probe.... Schiff noted that Rep. Mike Conaway (Texas), who led the Russia investigation for the committee's Republicans, and other GOPers on the panel had repeatedly promised to make these transcripts public at the end of the inquiry.... But ... they have 'abandoned this pledge under the unsupported pretext of protecting the Special Counsel's investigation.' Schiff reported that he has asked Mueller if he has any objections to the committee releasing the transcripts and that Mueller has none." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)
About That Stormy Daniels Thing. Greg Price of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump's 'biggest complaint' about living in the White House is that he cannot watch pornography, one of his fiercest cable news critics claimed Thursday. Mika Brzezinski, who has had public battles with the president over Twitter, returned to MSNBC following her regular spot on Morning Joe to appear with host Stephanie Ruhle."
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department took a significant step this week toward advancing its long-promised crackdown on leaks, charging a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer with lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters, and seizing the phone and email records of a journalist to help make its case. As the man charged in the brewing controversy made his first court appearance, free-press advocates warned that federal prosecutors' heavy-handed tactics might send a further chill through the government, where officials already are reluctant to share information. To support the charges against James A. Wolfe, prosecutors obtained years of phone records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins, who had been in a romantic relationship with Wolfe and previously covered the congressional committee where he worked as security director. A person close to the Intelligence Committee said investigators had obtained so much material from Wolfe's devices, they would not have needed to seize Watkins's records to bring charges.... The charges against Wolfe ... are perhaps more significant for what they say about the government's increasingly aggressive campaign -- spanning Democratic and Republican administrations -- to stop leaks."
Awk-ward! Another Rule for Thee But Not for Me. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration's Department of Justice will not defend in court the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's consumer protections, including the ban on discrimination against people with pre-existing medical conditions, it announced Thursday. While Attorney General Jeff Sessions is far from the first to opt not to defend a law he deems unconstitutional, many prominent Republicans -- including Sessions himself -- were highly critical of the practice just a few years ago. Back in February 2011, President Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder announced that his DOJ would no longer defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act..... At a March 2011 confirmation hearing for the Solicitor General, [Sessions] said that Holder should have stood up to Obama and resigned, rather that stopping his DOMA defense.... His view that the administration was obligated to defend laws they disagreed with was echoed by many others on the right at the time[.]" ...
... Cristian Farias of New York: "When the Obama administration declined to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in pending litigation over same-sex federal benefits, the DOJ looked at the state of constitutional law vis-à-vis the historic treatment of gays and lesbians in the country and concluded that the law couldn't stand. Some lawyers within the ranks were uncomfortable with the decision, but it was a careful, considered opinion, one the Supreme Court ended up adopting when it struck down the part of DOMA defining marriage as 'a legal union between one man and one woman.' No such thoughtfulness is at play here. Sessions is just playing along with long-shot legal tactics aimed at toeing the party line -- achieving through callous litigation what he himself couldn't do when he was in Congress."
... Erica Werner & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's startling decision to abandon one of the Affordable Care Act's most popular provisions -- protections for people with preexisting medical conditions -- put Republicans on the defensive Friday and handed Democrats a potentially potent political message. Democrats had already made health care a major focus in their campaigns heading into November's midterm elections, with polls consistently showing it as a top issue among voters. Now, the Justice Department's stance in a federal-court case in Texas will allow Democrats to argue that Republicans want to deny affordable health coverage to some of the people who need it most. Late Thursday, the department said the health law's requirement that most Americans carry insurance will become unconstitutional next year and so will consumer protections forbidding insurers to deny coverage to sick customers or charge them more."
Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The revelation that federal prosecutors seized years' worth of email and phone records from a New York Times reporter drew criticism on Friday from news organizations and press rights groups, which expressed outrage at the first known instance of the Trump administration's pursuing the private communications of a journalist. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the move 'a fundamental threat to press freedom.'... Under Mr. Obama, the Justice Department prosecuted more leak cases than all previous administrations combined. Mr. Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said last year that the Justice Department was pursuing about three times as many leak investigations as were open at the end of the Obama era.... Documents filed in the indictment of Mr. Wolfe suggested that prosecutors were especially interested in a scoop by [Ali] Watkins published in BuzzFeed in April last year. The article revealed that Russian spies had tried to recruit Carter Page, a former Trump adviser, in 2013 -- information that had been furnished to the Senate Intelligence Committee.... [BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith said] he was 'baffled' by the Justice Department's aggressive action against Ms. Watkins, given that Mr. Page had confirmed the information in the article."
Charles Pierce: "[By tearing apart families at the border,] the United States government is now committing human rights atrocities within its own borders and against the most vulnerable people it can find. I don't need to 'understand,' much less take seriously, anyone who still supports this president* and his administration* because, if you do, you've taken the idea of America and run battery acid through its veins." --safari
Here's Why Trump Thinks Scotty Is Doing a Great Job. Emily Holden & Anthony Adragna of Politico: "A prominent GOP donor and ... Donald Trump supporter helped EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt choose the head of the influential scientific body charged with reviewing EPA's regulations, according to newly released documents. Doug Deason, a Dallas businessman, submitted a list of names of candidates for Pruitt's Science Advisory Board in August that had been supplied by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, on whose board he serves. Deason and his father, Darwin Deason, donated over $900,000 in 2016 alone to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates. His influence over the SAB appointments is the latest example of the high-level access that politically powerful conservatives have to [Peuitt].... Last year, Pruitt overhauled EPA's advisory boards, banning scientists who received EPA funding and replacing many of them with employees of energy companies and state agencies. The new emails, released under the Freedom of Information Act to the Sierra Club, show that some of those appointments were made at the suggestion of campaign contributors and oil and coal industry officials."
God Digs Coal. Brian Palmer of Slate: "Environmentalism and American evangelicals are like oil and water.... Just 20 percent of committed Christians consider themselves active participants in the environmental movement.... The proportion of Christians who prioritize environmental concerns over energy production has dropped by about 20 percentage points in the last 25 years. And indications are that the more ardently Christian an American becomes, the less he or she cares about the environment. Evangelicals are the least environmentally inclined of committed U.S. Christians.... [T]he Environmental Protection Agency is currently headed by an evangelical, the now-infamous Scott Pruitt.... Pruitt has supporters who like him so much ... because he thinks like them: He puts people before the environment, just like God does." --safari
Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Republican leaders have drafted the outline of an immigration agreement they hope will stave off an intra-party war over Dreamers according to multiple lawmakers and aides. These Republicans cautioned that there is no deal at this time. But news of a framework, which has not previously been reported, represents a significant development in the House GOP's effort to reach a consensus on an issue that's bedeviled the party for years." (Also linked yesterday.)
Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "A federal district court judge grappled Thursday with whether a group of about 200 congressional Democrats can sue President Trump for not seeking congressional approval before accepting payments and benefits from foreign governments through his personal business holdings. Democrats, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler D-N.Y.), allege Trump has violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which they say was designed by the founders to prevent corruption.... Thursday's hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia focused solely on whether the lawmakers have suffered the required injury to bring the case forward. The lawmakers say they've been injured because they've been denied their constitutional right to vote on whether Trump can accept the payments, benefits and gifts.... Brianne Gorod, one of the Democrat's attorneys with the Constitutional Accountability Center, said there's nothing Congress can do regardless of who has the majority because any law that passes would require the president's own signature. She said members are largely in the dark because Trump is not sharing with Congress what gifts or payments he wants to accept, nor providing information about his business holdings." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Blumenthal said[in a phone interview with Rubin] that while Congress has the power to approve or not approve the president's receipt of foreign monies, 'We can't approve what we don't know.' He explained that the plaintiffs are merely seeking an order requiring the president to tell what foreign monies he is getting and get permission before pocketing them. (This would apply both retrospectively and prospectively.) It is the height of chutzpah for the administration to claim that Congress can always pass a resolution or that litigation has to be on behalf of the whole Congress.... In other words, because Republicans are delinquent in their duties, the Trump administration argues, responsible lawmakers cannot enforce a constitutional provision. That in effect renders the emoluments clause a dead letter when the president's party controls Congress. That does not seem to comport with the framers' acute concern to prevent foreign corruption.... 'This is not just corruption,' Blumenthal says. 'It's also about national security.' For Trump, however, it's about the money." (Also linked yesterday.)
Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Six House Democrats on Friday sought a criminal investigation into Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt for reportedly using his office in a bid to secure work for his wife. Writing to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and acting assistant attorney general John Cronan, the lawmakers said Pruitt had used his office for 'the personal gain of himself and his family, in violation of federal law.' Their letter was released by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)."
Ellen Nakamura & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare -- including secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines..., according to American officials. The breaches occurred in January and February, the officials said.... The hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization headquartered in Newport, R.I., that conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weaponry. The officials did not identify the contractor.... The Washington Post agreed to withhold certain details about the compromised missile project at the request of the Navy...."
It Was Just a Bug! Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [Facebook] said it had again failed to keep the information of millions of users private. As many as 14 million Facebook users who thought they were creating private posts last month that only a small group of friends could see were, in fact, making public posts that anyone could view. Facebook blamed a software bug for the problem. The company did not say how it had found the bug, or how it knew the problem was limited to 14 million people. In a statement, Facebook said the bug affected users from May 18 to May 22, while the company was testing a new feature. By May 27, the company had changed the affected posts from a public setting back to a private one." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jeet Heer of the New Republic: Charles "Krauthammer, the Washington Post columnist who has been fixture on national policy debates since the 1970s, has written a note explaining that the cancer he had removed last August has returned and doctors have told him he has only a few weeks to live."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida Conducted No Gun Background Checks for More than a Year Because an Employee Didn't Know How to Log into the National System. Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times: "For more than a year, the state of Florida failed to conduct national background checks on tens of thousands of applications for concealed weapons permits, potentially allowing drug addicts or people with a mental illness to carry firearms in public. A previously unreported Office of Inspector General investigation found that in February 2016 the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stopped using a FBI crime database called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that ensures applicants who want to carry a gun do not have a disqualifying history in other states. The employee in charge of the background checks could not log into the system, the investigator learned. The problem went unresolved until discovered by another worker in March 2017 -- meaning that for more than a year applications got approved without the required background check. During that time, which coincided with the June 12, 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub that left 50 dead, the state saw an unprecedented spike in applications for concealed weapons permits. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam [ -- who is the front-running GOP candidate for governor --] has made it a priority to speed up the issuing of concealed weapons permits since he was elected in 2010." ...
... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam's agency failed to conduct complete criminal background checks on concealed weapons permit applicants for more than a year, a failure that could have allowed tens of thousands of unqualified people to secretly pack heat in a state that has become known for its mass shootings. The mistake, first reported Friday by the Tampa Bay Times, was kept hidden from the public for more than a year as Putnam became the Republican front-runner for governor and as he called himself a 'proud NRA sellout' -- a term he used on Twitter in July 2017, one month after an Office of Inspector General report, marked 'confidential,' detailed the background check failure." Emphasis added.... Democrats called on Putnam to drop out of the gubernatorial race for incompetence. Even the National Rifle Association expressed concerns. Some Republicans were also critical, with Gov. Rick Scott's office noting it was blindsided by the news."
Lisa Huriash of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Two months before the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School, a retired Secret Service agent warned administrators that the school could be vulnerable to a gunman. Gates were unlocked. Students did not wear identification badges. A fire alarm could send students streaming into the halls. Active-shooter drills were inadequate, he said. The retired agent, Steve Wexler, said he made his point by strolling through the school with Post-it notes, attaching them to places his bullets or knife would land if he were an intruder. No one stopped him, he said. In an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Wexler said he was invited to analyze the school's security and presented his recommendations to four staff members. 'I said, "This stuff is blatantly obvious. You've got to fix this,"' Wexler said. He never heard another word from the district, he said."
Share Article
Reader Comments (9)
Republicans are trying to get the courts to cut down Obamacare so they can deflect blame for rising prices and scandalous coverage. Obviously it's not their fault, blame Obama. But let it be remembered that to this day, after almost a decade of howling to the moon about its socialist threat to America, the GOP STILL hasn't presented a viable alternative that provides better coverage at better prices. 8 years to come up with something. And still nothing. I don't see how they get out of this, except blaming Very Angry Obstructionist Democrats. Are Republican voters okay with dying earlier and unnecessary deaths just to jump Trump's leg harder? I guess we're going to find out.
As graduates in all our schools of higher learning throw their caps high in the air, the air they breathe may not be the cleanest. This class of 2018 is facing a future that may be rife with problems that this country has never before faced. They now have a president* and an administration that is ruining and destroying the very fabric of our democracy. This is not an exaggeration. But given this sad commentary our young, eager beavers might very well help change our world in significant ways. Here are 11 pieces of advice by commencement speakers for the classes of 2018:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/11-of-the-best-pieces-of-advice-for-the-class-of-2018
One of my favorite commencement addresses was Joan Didion's from 1975:
"I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but live in it. To look at it. To try and get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. to make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. and if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace. Nor do they sing there or write or argue or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that's what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it."
No matter how much I cut back on the news, too much still gets through. I am shocked, disappointed, outraged--and occasionally startled into laughter--too often. Of course, this apparently is part of the plan of this second-rate Mousse-olini (stole that from gemli). As stated here earlier, chaos is control.
My blood hit the boiling point in the past week or so with the news that of course Purdue Pharma knew its new wonder drug was dangerously addictive and was being misused by people who had--surprise, surprise--become addicted. I'm in NH. Show me someone in this state who says they don't know anyone affected by the opioid crisis and I'll show you someone who needs to get out more.
And that dreadful "Look at her" comment from "America's Mayor," in regards to Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. So much derision, so much judgment, the belittling of an entire gender. Makes me wonder if Rudy has found himself an unwilling member of the incel movement.
I work part-time in a store in a largely democratic town. All of us, from the owner on down, including four people who don't work there anymore, despise Mousse-olini. Except for one woman who has been working at the store for a year. She is 50, immigrated from Poland with her family when she was 16. Her husband works for Sig Sauer. They are staunch Trump supporters, hated Obama--and are genuinely kind people who would give you the shirts off their backs. I had to unfollow her on Facebook (I know, I know; I need it for my business) because too many of her posts echoed some of the imbecilic and damaging things this Pretender has said. None of us talks politics with her. And I wish I could, because maybe I'd understand why she thinks he's a good leader for this country.
Mrs. McC is right. What happened yesterday and today in Canada was globally disruptive. At this point I'm mostly hoping that once Humpty Dumpty falls, we can put the world back together in much better shape.
Speaking of suicides lately in the news, the statistics on suicide in the age bracket 10-19 are interesting. At those ages, until about 15 years ago, the first 3 most common causes of death were accidents, infections, congential malformations. No more: suicide/homicide, accidents, suffocation, poisoning are now most common. Suicides are up 56% since 2007. Homicides are down 8%.
Not surprisingly, suicides exactly parallel the persons access to guns over the last 10 years.
What did get my attention, though, is the shocking increase in suicide in girls: the numbers are up 70% in girls and "only" 44% in boys. This has caused the ratio of suicides in girls as compared to boys to go from (1 girl to 5 boys) to (1 girl to 3 boys).
exact numbers of means of death since 2007 (just in kids):
guns: 22938
suffocation: 11642
poisoning: 6698
National Vital Statistics Report (67) 4: June 2018
I know people respond to the stories of people who kill themselves "in the prime of life," but there seems to be something really complicated going on in every age group, especially kids.
I know that RC watches Digby's blog (Hullabaloo.) The
Tom Sullivan post there this morning cuts close to the bone.
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com
@Keith: Thanks for this–-and it certainly does cut close to the bone. The crux of the messages here:
""Give people a minimum feeling of security and support, and they will take risks to do important things." Take that away and they retreat into ideological bunkers and into self-medicating. They become prey for con men who, rather than address their problems, give them Others to blame for them. And here we are, with white nationalists marching in the streets and their spiritual leader occupying the White House."
Thanks, Keith, for the digby post. It makes me wonder what sort of lack of support young girls are dealing with. It can't be just the availability of guns, because boys are not increasingly killing themselves compared to girls.
Also, thanks for the baby elephant video.
Re tearing apart families at the border, one WaPo reader commented:
"Dear Christian supporters of Trump,
When you get to the Pearly Gates....expect to be separated for additional questioning."
Today, another wrenching story.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-family-was-separated-at-the-border-and-this-distraught-father-took-his-own-life/2018/06/08/24e40b70-6b5d-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html
The family in this story crossed the border at Granjeno, a hamlet that predates the state of Texas. Home to a few dozen families, all Spanish-speaking, half living in poverty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granjeno,_Texas
The Wikipedia statistics tell the story. No surprises there. Except for the seemingly incongruous name of one of the two high schools serving this population, as well as many colonias surrounding it: Hidalgo Early College High School. Another Wikipedia article describes this surprising institution: "…enrollment of 810 …100 percent Hispanic origin… Roughly 50% of its students' parents never finished high school. Despite this, the school has a 94% graduation rate and was rated as #11 on the U.S. News and World Report's 2007 list of the best public high schools, the highest ranking of any high school in the state of Texas."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidalgo_Early_College_High_School
Perhaps they are sending us some of their best people after all. Hurry up and build that wall!
"We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing. And that ends,"
saith the Pretender.
He oughta know. Or if he doesn't, he could ask Mr. Pruitt, Mr. Zinke, Mrs. DeVos, Mr Mulvaney, or Mr. Carson, his picked predators all hollowing out the nation as quickly as they can.
He must talk to them once in a while (when he's not tweeting).
Kinda like the "and that ends" part. If only it were so.