The Ledes

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments Tuesday as powerful Hurricane Milton moves through the Gulf of Mexico toward Central Florida.

New York Times: “Cissy Houston, a Grammy Award-winning soul and gospel star who helped shepherd her daughter Whitney Houston to superstardom, died on Monday at her home in Newark. She was 91.”

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The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “H​urricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 and hurricane and storm surge watches are now posted along Florida's western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek. 'Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida,' the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said in a briefing Monday morning.” ~~~

     ~~~ New York Times live updates are here for what is now a Cat 5 hurricane. 

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Monday
Oct142019

The Commentariat -- October 15, 2019

For Your Evening Viewing Pleasure. Matt Stieb of New York: "Tuesday night marks the fourth [Democratic presidential] debate on the primary calendar -- meaning there's only eight more of these gauntlets to go in the Democratic primary race.... Hosted by Otterbein University near Columbus, Ohio, the festivities will start at 8 p.m. ET and drag on until 11 p.m.... Co-hosted by CNN and the New York Times, the debate will be available for streaming -- without requiring a cable-provider log-in -- at CNN.com, the New York Times mobile app, and on Facebook."

Afternoon Update:

Carlotta Gall & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Russia said on Tuesday that its military units were patrolling territory in northern Syria vacated by the Americans following the withdrawal ordered by President Trump, underscoring the sudden loss of United States influence in the eight-year-old Syria war."

Yuliya Talmazan, et al., of NBC News: "The Turkish military incursion into northeast Syria is compounding an already dire humanitarian situation and forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes, according to human rights monitors. According to U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 160,000 civilians have been displaced since the Turkish offensive began on Oct. 9. The agency said they continue to receive additional reports of people on the move, so the actual number of displaced could be higher. The Kurdish-led authority said Tuesday more than 275,000 people have been displaced, Reuters reported."

Nicholas Fandos & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "The procession of high-ranking witnesses to the House's impeachment inquiry continued apace on Tuesday, as George P. Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of Ukraine policy, arrived on Capitol Hill to face questions from investigators about his knowledge of the widening Ukraine scandal. Mr. Kent, who appeared behind closed doors despite the State Department directing him not to do so, raised concerns to colleagues early this year about the pressure being directed at Ukraine by Mr. Trump and his private lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to pursue investigations into Mr. Trump's political rivals, according to people familiar with Mr. Kent's warnings. As far back as March, they said, Mr. Kent was pointing to Mr. Giuliani's role in what he called a 'disinformation' campaign intended to use a Ukrainian prosecutor to smear targets of the president.... Mr. Kent's appearance followed an emerging pattern. According to officials familiar with the investigation, the State Department directed Mr. Kent not to appear and sought to limit his testimony. The House Intelligence Committee then issued a last-minute subpoena ordering him to appear, and he complied."

Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Donald Trump's impeachment blockade has collapsed. The president's former top Russia adviser, Fiona Hill -- the first White House official to cooperate in Democrats' investigation of the Ukraine scandal -- has sketched for lawmakers a trail of alleged corruption that extends from Kiev to the West Wing. In dramatic testimony on Monday, she roped in some of Trump's top advisers as witnesses to the unfolding controversy. And on Tuesday, a senior State Department official, George Kent, appeared on Capitol Hill to testify about his knowledge of the episode.... As lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, a growing number of witnesses this week will describe their own role in the controversy, even as the White House has vowed not to engage with House Democrats'" illegitimate' impeachment effort.... Despite the series of breakthroughs, Democrats will still face resistance from the White House to some of their high-level requests. When asked whether Trump's budget office planned to comply with a Tuesday subpoena deadline for documents, a senior administration official did not say, instead pointing to a White House letter last week that deemed the House impeachment probe 'unconstitutional.'"

BBC News: "David Connors, 30, and his wife Eileen, 24, say they are being held in Pennsylvania with their three-month-old baby and are 'traumatised'. They say they were driving with family members on 3 October when, to avoid an animal, they veered onto a small road. A police officer then pulled them over, told them they were in the US state of Washington and arrested them." The Washington Post story is here. Mrs. McC: Yes, our taxpayer dollars are being spent to send these dangerous animal-lovers across the country & locking them up for nearly two weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ben Hubbard & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Syrian government forces streamed into the country's northeast on Monday, seizing towns where they had not stepped foot in years and filling a vacuum opened up by President Trump's decision to abandon the United States' Syrian Kurdish allies. Less than a week after Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria with Mr. Trump's assent, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, considered a war criminal by the United States, has benefited handsomely, striking a deal with the United States' former allies to take the northern border and rapidly gaining territory without a fight. In addition to Mr. al-Assad, Mr. Trump's decision to pull United States forces out of the way has also quickly redounded to the gain of Russia and Iran, as well as the Islamic State, as the American retreat reconfigures battle lines and alliances in the eight-year war."

James LaPorta & Tom O'Connor of Newsweek: "The U.S. military has begun a hasty exit from Syria's northern city of Manbij, and is set to help Russia establish itself there amid a Turkish attempt to defeat Kurdish-led, Pentagon-backed fighters at the strategic location, Newsweek has learned. The U.S. was scheduled as of Monday to officially withdraw from Manbij within 24-hours, leaving the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces behind as two rival factions -- the Syrian government, backed by Russia and Iran, and the Turkey-backed Syrian insurgents opposed to it — sought to seize control of the strategic location. A senior Pentagon official told Newsweek that U.S. personnel, 'having been in the area for longer, has been assisting the Russian forces to navigate through previously unsafe areas quickly.'" Mrs. McC: Pretty remarkable: the U.S. military is relying on Russian military because Trump.

Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose: "Defense Secretary Mark Esper has confirmed that ... Turkey's incursion has led to 'the release of many dangerous ISIS detainees.'... Turkey's Islamic proxies are freeing ISIS fighters from unguarded prisons, Foreign Policy reporter Lara Seligman brought to light on Monday.... Donald Trump tweeted on Monday that he suspected it was the Kurds who were intentionally freeing ISIS fighters as part of a ploy to win U.S. support again. 'Kurds may be releasing some to get us involved,' the president tweeted, without providing any evidence. 'Easily recaptured by Turkey or European Nations from where many came, but they should move quickly.'"

Spencer Ackerman & Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast: "The retreat of U.S. forces in Syria away from the Turkish invasion is having a downstream effect benefitting the so-called Islamic State. The American surveillance aircraft that had been watching ISIS are now watching their own troops. Protecting the remaining U.S. forces in Syria is now the priority for the U.S. drones and manned aircraft overhead, according to a knowledgeable U.S. official who was not permitted to speak to reporters. It's a mission of necessity now that the remaining hundreds of American servicemembers in Syria have come under attack from the army of their NATO ally[.]" --s

If I ever catch you sneaking a piece of chocolate cake, I'll tell you not to. -- Mom, warning toddler with chocolate smeared all over his face ~~~

~~~ Seung Min Kim & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to implement an immediate cease-fire in northern Syria and imposed sanctions against Turkey on Monday in response to its military aggression, as the situation on the ground continued to deteriorate after President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. forces. Vice President Pence announced that he and national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien would lead a delegation to Turkey in the 'immediate future' in an effort to end the violence in the region that has increasingly become a political problem for Trump at home." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As Fred Kaplan writes (post linked below), "The sanctions will have little if any effect, and certainly not quickly enough to matter -- except to show even authoritarian leaders who make detestable deals with Trump that they can&'t trust him to keep his word with them either."

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Islamic State flag has been raised once more and the last vestige of US credibility as a reliable partner lies crushed under Turkish tank tracks. It has arguably been the worst seven days for US foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq.... The speed of the unravelling has been breathtaking.... Trump, increasingly unmoored, convinced of his own 'great and unmatched wisdom', is just improvising, calling foreign leaders and making decisions affecting millions of people." --s

** David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump's acquiescence to Turkey's move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has in only one week's time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border, and given an unanticipated victory to four American adversaries: Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and the Islamic State. Rarely has a presidential decision resulted so immediately in what his own party leaders have described as disastrous consequences for American allies and interests. How this decision happened -- springing from an 'off-script moment' with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, in the words of a senior American diplomat -- likely will be debated for years by historians, Middle East experts and conspiracy theorists. But this much already is clear: Mr. Trump ignored months of warnings from his advisers about what calamities likely would ensue if he followed his instincts to pull back from Syria and abandon America's longtime allies, the Kurds. He had no Plan B, other than to leave. The only surprise is how swiftly it all collapsed around the president and his depleted, inexperienced foreign policy team." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the most scathing assessment of any president or President* I have seen from the news side of the New York Times. ~~~

~~~ digby embeds a bunch of Trump's Monday Twitter vomit re: his huge Syria-Turkey decision, then paraphrases, "In other words, it's nothing but a shithole country and I don't care what happens to any of them unless they put money in my pocket (or have some kompromat.)" Mrs. McC: Of course this isn't what Trump actually wrote so I guess digby should be impeached or something. ~~~

Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, making light of his abandonment of the Kurds ~~~

~~~ ** Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump didn't make a 'mistake' in pulling troops out of northeastern Syria last week, as many have charged. It's what he has long wanted to do. The mistake was not understanding -- and, more to the point, not caring about -- the consequences. Trump's fateful phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 6, giving him the green light to cross the Syrian border and crush the Kurds without U.S. resistance, did more than any single act has ever done to demolish the post-WWII global order and isolate America from the rest of the world. This, again, has been Trump's goal since he entered the White House.... Trump ... doesn't realize that America's might and wealth depend, in large measure, on the cooperation it receives from others -- either offered or coerced -- in pursuing its interests around the world.... It's worth emphasizing, over and over, that the Turkish invasion wasn't an unforeseen side effect of Trump's withdrawal; it was an explicit part of the decision. The official statement that the White House released on Oct. 6 made this clear: Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation....'... Now, surprised that even the most loyal Republicans are lambasting him for the withdrawal, Trump is saying that he never intended for Turkey to send in troops...."

Marisa Fernandez of Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) spoke Monday to discuss bipartisan efforts to overturn President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria and sanction Turkey for its military offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces.

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "... a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing [will be held] Thursday with two State Department officials and a rash of unhappy members from both parties.... In a break from the normally staid titles of congressional hearings, this one is titled 'The Betrayal of our Syrian Kurdish Partners: How Will American Foreign Policy and Leadership Recover?', a sign that it could be far more explosive than a normal House oversight meeting, with representatives from both parties likely to ask tough questions of the Trump officials. The session will focus on Trump's decision to abandon the Kurds, who have become targets of the Turkish military after fighting Islamic State terrorists alongside the United States for the past five years. Later that morning, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are scheduled to privately brief Senate Armed Services Committee members on 'the situation in Syria and the wider region.'"

Trump -- The Impeachment Inquiry, Ctd.

New York Magazine welcomes "impeachment season" with several related stories. Jonathan Chait lays out the "(full) case" for Trump's impeachment. Gabriel Debenedetti describes Nancy Pelosi's strategy & tactics." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trumpy-Dumpty's Stonewall Is Falling Down:

Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "Michael McKinley, the former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is expected to testify behind closed doors on Wednesday, according to two officials working on the impeachment inquiry. The testimony of McKinley, who resigned his position last week, could shed light on Pompeo's actions and how they have affected the State Department.... [at 6:30 pm ET Monday] Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper is expected to appear in closed session on Friday, the officials said." (This report is part of a liveblog.) Update: CNN's story is here.

I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up. -- John Bolton, to Fiona Hill, on what to tell White House lawyers ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The effort to pressure Ukraine for political help provoked a heated confrontation inside the White House last summer that so alarmed John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert White House lawyers, House investigators were told on Monday. Mr. Bolton got into a sharp exchange on July 10 with Gordon D. Sondland, the Trump donor turned ambassador to the European Union, who was working with Rudolph W. Giuliani ... to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to testimony.... Mr. Bolton instructed Fiona Hill, the senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs, to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council that Mr. Giuliani was working with Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on a rogue operation with legal implications, Ms. Hill told the investigators, according to two people familiar with her closed-door testimony." This is a substantial update of a story linked yesterday. The story since has been updated again to add more details of Hill's testimony, based on sources present at the hearing. The NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Acting White House chief of staff MicK Mulvaney was implicated by a former top National Security Council official during nine-hours of congressional testimony, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The newspaper reported, 'In her testimony, she detailed a July 10 meeting she attended with senior Ukrainian officials, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, and other U.S. officials in which the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, raised the issue of the investigations....' 'People in the room took the comments to refer to an investigation that could implicate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, the people said. Both [Fiona] Hill and Mr. Bolton left the meeting with concerns about what had transpired, and Ms. Hill said Mr. Bolton instructed her to talk to NSC lawyer John Eisenberg,' the newspaper's sources said. 'Sondland also appeared to be coordinating his efforts with acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Ms. Hill testified, the people said...," The Journal noted." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The meeting Hill recounted took place in July. Remember that the WashPo reported Oct. 12 that "Sondland appears poised to say that he and other diplomats did not know that the request to mention Burisma was really an effort to impugn the reputations of Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a Burisma board member. Sondland contends that he didn't know about the Biden connection until a whistleblower complaint and transcript surfaced in late September." Right.

~~~ Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the Washington Post: "Fiona Hill, the White House's former top Russia adviser, told impeachment investigators on Monday that Rudolph W. Giuliani ... ran a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine that circumvented U.S. officials and career diplomats in order to personally benefit President Trump, according to a person familiar with her testimony.... In a closed-door session that lasted roughly 10 hours, Hill told lawmakers that she confronted Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, about Giuliani's activities which, she testified, were not coordinated with the officials responsible for carrying out U.S. foreign policy.... And in a sign the impeachment inquiry is widening, investigators were discussing whether to question John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, according to people familiar with the matter. Bolton was Hill's direct superior at the NSC." ~~~

~~~ Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Fiona Hill ... raised concerns about Rudy Giuliani's role in US foreign policy toward Ukraine, telling lawmakers on Monday that she saw 'wrongdoing' in the American foreign policy and tried to report it to officials including the National Security Council's attorney, according to multiple sources.... Hill additionally told lawmakers about what she described as a rogue operation carried out by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney..., [a] source said. A separate source said Hill ... [testified that] Sondland and Trump 'were in direct contact.'... This source said Hill said the contacts between Trump and Sondland went beyond the discussion about texts exchanged between Sondland and other American diplomats in Ukraine that have been made public.... Hill also told lawmakers that she was not part of Trump's July call with Zelensky.... Another source said she had not been involved in planning for the specific call on July 25. By the time the call took place, Hill had left the National Security Council." ~~~

~~~ Cristina Marcos & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Democrats asserted that [Fiona] Hill corroborated what they described as a concerted effort by Trump allies who were pushing for the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens to remove Yovanovitch from her post in May. 'Rudy Giuliani has clearly been a leading force for the administration in defining a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine. There was an official foreign policy, which was attempting to counter corruption in Ukraine,' said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).... 'So you had two foreign policies that were working completely against each other.'... Democrats said Hill's testimony only bolsters the allegations that Trump and those in his closest orbit had pressured foreign officials to tarnish a domestic political adversary for the purpose of boosting his reelection chances next year. They also characterized her as a highly credible civil servant -- one Republicans would have difficulty discrediting. 'Her recall of meetings and content and who was there, with such specificity, was in some ways extraordinary,' Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) ... said afterward.... Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) predicted that the transcripts would be released eventually. In the meantime, Heck said, Trump and his allies 'are darn lucky these weren't public.'"

This morning we see further evidence that Adam Schiff's clown show of an impeachment proceeding continues. Adam Schiff lied when he said that he & his team had not had contact with the whistleblower. He lied when he read a false transcript into the record. -- Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), after getting kicked out of a closed-door hearing ~~~

When the final history of this historical malignancy is written, this argument that Schiff's comic paraphrase of the president*'s guilt-laden telephone call was a 'false transcript' is going to be reckoned as one of the dumbest things they ever got the MAGAs to swallow, much less one of the dumbest chunks of pure mendacity ever to emerge from Congress. -- Charles Pierce

~~~ Charles Pierce: "On Monday morning, Fiona Hill, the administration*'s former Russia expert, came to Capitol Hill to testify in closed session to the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees regarding the president*'s attempt at running a protection racket on Ukraine. [Matt] Gaetz [(R-Breathalyzer)] is a member of neither committee, but he showed up anyway, obviously as a mole on behalf of Camp Runamuck. Acting perfectly within the rules of the House, the committees threw his truckling ass out. Gaetz immediately found a bank of microphones in front of which to drive the nails into his own palms. 'It's not like I'm on the Agriculture Committee,' Gaetz moped. Good thing, too, since he apparently could be outsmarted by produce." ~~~

~~~ Josh Lederman, et al., of NBC News: "The White House tried to limit what Fiona Hill, who until August served as ... Donald Trump's top Russia analyst, could say to Congress in its impeachment inquiry, correspondence between her lawyers and a White House deputy counsel shows. The letters, obtained by NBC News, illustrate that while the White House did not try to block Hill from testifying, it did tell Hill's lawyers about four areas that could potentially fall under executive privilege.... Monday morning, via an emailed letter from White House Deputy Counsel Michael Purpura to Hill's attorney Lee Wolosky, the White House wrote back and generally dismissed most of the arguments by Hill's lawyers.... Hill, the source said, raised concerns [during her testimony] about Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine and also spoke in support of ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch." Mrs. McC: Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) told Lawrence O'Donnell that Hill's testimony did not seem to be circumscribed by the White House's efforts to limit the topics on which she could speak. ~~~

~~~ CNN: "Attorneys for ... Donald Trump's former top Russia adviser argued in a letter sent on Sunday that no executive privilege issues were in play for her testimony, citing potential 'government misconduct' as one reason for their decision." A full copy of the letter from Fiona Hill's attorney to White House lawyers is embedded. Mrs. McC: Translation: Your boss engaged in corrupt acts, so you're screwed.

Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "In the course of casual conversations with advisers and friends, President Trump has privately raised suspicions that a spiteful John Bolton ... could be one of the sources behind the flood of leaks against him, three people familiar with the comments said. At one point, one of those sources recalled, Trump guessed that Bolton was behind one of the anonymous accounts that listed the former national security adviser as one of the top officials most disturbed by the Ukraine-related efforts of Trump and Rudy Giuliani..., who remains at the center of activities that spurred the impeachment inquiry."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that ... Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani is having his banking records scrutinized as part of the federal criminal investigation into his dealings in the Ukraine. The report says that prosecutors are also looking into his work for a city mayor in the country. The WSJ report is here. A CNN summary of the WSJ story is here. ~~~

~~~ Lev & Igor Paid Rudy Half-a-Million. Karen Freifeld & Aram Roston of Reuters: "Rudy Giuliani, was paid $500,000 for work he did for a company co-founded by the Ukrainian-American businessman arrested last week on campaign finance charges, Giuliani told Reuters on Monday.... Federal prosecutors are 'examining Giuliani's interactions' with [Lev] Parnas and ... Igor Fruman, who was also indicted on campaign finance charges, a law enforcement source told Reuters on Sunday.... According to an indictment unsealed by U.S. prosecutors, an unidentified Russian businessman arranged for two $500,000 wires to be sent from foreign bank accounts to a U.S. account controlled by Fruman in September and October 2018. The money was used, in part, by Fruman, Parnas and two other men charged in the indictment to gain influence with U.S. politicians and candidates, the indictment said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I definitely have not emphasized this last point, and I should have: Lev & Igor got at least some of the money they dumped into Trump's & other GOP campaigns from "a Russian businessman." This sounds an awful lot like Russia "meddlng in the 2018 midterm & 2020 presidential elections."

Katherine Faulders & Benjamin Siegel of ABC News: "House Democrats are seeking to interview White House budget director Russell Vought on Oct. 25, according to a copy of the letter to the Office of Management and Budget​ obtained by ABC News, the latest sign that they are increasingly focused on the withholding of nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine as part of their impeachment investigation. Vought, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, would be among the most senior administration officials called to appear before Congress in the Ukraine probe, though multiple sources told ABC News that the White House is likely to block their appearances before the committee, as they have vowed not to cooperate with the Democrats' investigation.... The committees investigating the matter have also sought interviews with several Pentagon officials, along with Michael Duffey, an associate director of national security programs at OMB, according to requests obtained by ABC News."

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "American Media, Inc. and the National Enquirer shredded sensitive Donald Trump-related documents that had been held in a top-secret safe right before Trump was elected in 2016, according to fresh allegations made in a new book by journalist Ronan Farrow. During the first week of November 2016, the book alleges that Dylan Howard, who was then editor in chief of the National Enquirer, ordered a staff member to 'get everything out of the safe' and that 'we need to get a shredder down there.'" --s


About That U.S. China Trade "Deal." Fred Imbert of CNBC: "China wants another round of talks before signing what ... Donald Trump called last week the first phase of a trade deal between the two nations, a source told CNBC's Kayla Tausche on Monday.... Bloomberg News first reported the news and said in its report that China also wants the U.S. to scrap a tariff hike scheduled for December. China and the U.S. held trade talks in Washington last week that ended with Trump saying both sides reached a 'very substantial phase one deal.' As part of that deal, China will address intellectual property concerns raised by the U.S. and buy $40 billion to $50 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products.... But while Trump characterized the talks' outcome as a success, Chinese state media said 'substantial progress' was made. Also, it did not call phase one a 'deal' while making little mention of the agricultural product purchases."Mrs. McC: IOW, Trump lied; there was no agreement. He needed a win, so he invented one. (Also linked yesterday.)

Brooke Seipel of The Hill: "Several mountain climbers have reportedly scaled a wooden replica of ... Trump's steel border wall that was built to disprove Trump's claims that a portion of the wall is 'impossible to climb.' Rick Weber -- a 75-year-old retired engineer, and active rock climber built a replica of an 18-foot tall section of border wall in Kentucky earlier this month, inviting mountain climbers to compete to see who could climb it the fastest.... As of Friday, Oct. 11..., numerous people have already scaled the replica wall, including an 8-year-old girl.... Another climber, 29-year-old Erik Kloeker, made it over the wall in approximately 30 seconds during a demonstration for reporters. He later climbed the wall a second time while also juggling." --s

The tendency to a usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded against by an entire abstinence of the Government from interference in any way whatever ... in the rights of religion..., beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect against the trespasses on its legal rights by others. -- Former Secretary of State James Madison, letter to a Christian minister

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. -- Former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Danbury Baptist Association

I learned how to lead ... through ... an experience with God and my own personal faith in Christ. -- Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, excerpt from text of a speech, as delivered, posted on the State Department's .gov Website ~~~

~~~ Savannah Behrmann of USA Today: "A recent speech about 'Being a Christian Leader' by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was promoted on the State Department's homepage Monday, and has been met with criticism that it potentially violates the principle of separation of church and state enshrined in the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The speech was delivered at the America Association of Christian Counselors on Friday in Nashville, Tennessee. Pompeo touts Christianity throughout the remarks, describing how he applies his faith to his government work, referencing God and the Bible during the entirety of the speech. The remarks, posted and promoted on the department's homepage, begin with Pompeo, America's top diplomat, saying he wanted to 'use my time today to think about what it means to be a Christian leader.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ One unintentionally funny part of Pompeo's speech: "... now I have the incredible privilege to serve President Trump as his 70th Secretary of State." Trump regime turnover is even higher than we realized. ~~~

~~~ Mike Berardino of the Indianapolis Star (Oct. 11): "U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Friday decried what he saw as a concerted attack on religious freedom perpetrated by state governments that use laws as a 'battering ram to establish moral relativism.' In a 37-minute speech at the University of Notre Dame's law school...., Barr also claimed that 'over the past 50 years, religion has been under increasing attack' in the U.S."

Presidential Race 2020. Victoria Thompson, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump continues to fill his Twitter feed and campaign speeches with attacks on Hunter Biden over his foreign business deals, the former vice president's son defended the ethical implications of his private ventures in an interview with ABC News, but conceded taking a misstep in failing to foresee the political implications on his father's career.... Hunter Biden reiterated that he never discussed his foreign business dealings with his father...."

Natasha Bertrand & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hosting informal talks and small, off-the-record dinners with conservative journalists, commentators and at least one Republican lawmaker in recent months to discuss issues like free speech and discuss partnerships. The dinners, which began in July, are part of Zuckerberg's broader effort to cultivate friends on the right amid outrage by ... Donald Trump and his allies over alleged 'bias' against conservatives at Facebook and other major social media companies."

Resistance. Phil McCausand of NBC News: "Nearly one year ago, the Trump administration fired a panel of more than two dozen scientific experts who assisted the Environmental Protection Agency in its review of air quality standards for particulate matter. Now, as the EPA prepares its report on those standards later this month, 20 of those scientists met independently to prepare the release of their own assessment of current air pollution levels, with a focus on the particles from fossil fuels that can make people sick.... This group of scientists, engineers and researchers have formed a nongovernmental committee called the Independent Particulate Matter Review Panel." --s

Jillian Ambrose of the Guardian: "The world's rising reliance on fossil fuels may come to an end decades earlier than the most polluting companies predict, offering early signs of hope in the global battle to tackle the climate crisis. The climate green shoots have emerged amid a renewable energy revolution that promises an end to the rising demand for oil and coal in the 2020s, before the fossil fuels face a terminal decline. The looming fossil fuel peak is expected to emerge decades ahead of forecasts from oil and mining companies, which are betting that demand for polluting energy will rise until the 2040s." --s

Beyond the Beltway

** Ohio. Nicholas Casey of the New York Times: "When Ohio released a list of people it planned to strike from its voting rolls, around 40,000 people shouldn't have been on it. The state only found out because of volunteer sleuthing.... Few people had expected a problem at that scale.... This year, a group of elected officials in the state, mostly all moderate Republicans, tried to answer the concerns with an experiment of their own: Rather than purge the voter rolls behind closed doors as had been done in the past, the government released the full list of those to be removed this summer, and gave the list to advocacy groups. The groups said they found the list was riddled with errors." For instance, Jen Miller, director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, discovered she was among those the state's list of inactive voters; she says she voted three times in the past year.

Texas. Elizabeth Chuck & Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "The Fort Worth, Texas, police officer who fatally shot a woman while she was babysitting her nephew over the weekend has been charged with murder. Aaron Dean was booked into the Tarrant County Correction Center and later released on $200,000 bond, according to jail officials. Fort Worth Police Sgt. Chris Daniels acknowledged the outrage that the killing of Atatiana Jefferson, 28, had sparked.... The arrest came just hours after Dean's resignation from the police force. Interim Police Chief Ed Kraus said during a press conference earlier that he intended to end Officer Aaron Dean's employment, but that Dean tendered his resignation first."

Way Beyond

U.K. Alexander Smith of NBC News: "Monday marked the state opening of Parliament, a formal procession where the government set out the legislative agenda for the coming parliamentary term.... The Queen's Speech was delivered by Queen Elizabeth II -- although the speech itself is actually written by the government as a way to announce its policy agenda. 'My Government's priority has always been to secure the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union on 31 October,' she said, reading the government's words. 'My Government intends to work towards a new partnership with the European Union, based on free trade and friendly cooperation.' In reality, [PM Boris] Johnson does not have enough power in Parliament to achieve any of the aims, however -- meaning the U.K. is almost certainly headed for an election soon." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ CNN here and the Guardian here are liveblogging updates. (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments Off
Sunday
Oct132019

The Commentariat -- October 14, 2019

Late Morning Update:

** David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump's acquiescence to Turkey's move to send troops deep inside Syrian territory has in only one week's time turned into a bloody carnage, forced the abandonment of a successful five-year-long American project to keep the peace on a volatile border, and given an unanticipated victory to four American adversaries: Russia, Iran, the Syrian government and the Islamic State. Rarely has a presidential decision resulted so immediately in what his own party leaders have described as disastrous consequences for American allies and interests. How this decision happened -- springing from an 'off-script moment' with President Recep Tayyip Erdoganof Turkey, in the words of a senior American diplomat -- likely will be debated for years by historians, Middle East experts and conspiracy theorists. But this much already is clear: Mr. Trump ignored months of warnings from his advisers about what calamities likely would ensue if he followed his instincts to pull back from Syria and abandon America's longtime allies, the Kurds. He had no Plan B, other than to leave. The only surprise is how swiftly it all collapsed around the president and his depleted, inexperienced foreign policy team." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the most scathing assessment of any president or President* I have seen from the news side of the New York Times.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Fiona Hill, President Trump's former top Russia and Europe adviser, headed to Capitol Hill on Monday morning where she is prepared to testify that she and other officials objected strenuously to the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine, only to be disregarded.... Ms. Hill will be the first person who worked in the White House to be deposed by House investigators.... The White House has not attempted to stop Ms. Hill from testifying, according to the person familiar with her account, but White House lawyers have exchanged letters with Ms. Hill's lawyer about precedents regarding the confidentiality of presidential communications." Mrs. McC: According to news accounts this morning, the House issued Hill a subpoena today; whether or not this was because the Trump administration tried to quash her testimony was not clear.

New York Magazine welcomes "impeachment season" with several related stories. Jonathan Chait lays out the "(full) case" for Trump's impeachment. Gabriel Debenedetti describes Nancy Pelosi's strategy & tactics."

About That U.S. China Trade "Deal." Fred Imbert of CNBC: "China wants another round of talks before signing what ... Donald Trump called last week the first phase of a trade deal between the two nations, a source told CNBC's Kayla Tausche on Monday.... Bloomberg News first reported the news and said in its report that China also wants the U.S. to scrap a tariff hike scheduled for December. China and the U.S. held trade talks in Washington last week that ended with Trump saying both sides reached a 'very substantial phase one deal.' As part of that deal, China will address intellectual property concerns raised by the U.S. and buy $40 billion to $50 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products.... But while Trump characterized the talks' outcome as a success, Chinese state media said 'substantial progress' was made. Also, it did not call phase one a 'deal' while making little mention of the agricultural product purchases." Mrs. McC: IOW, Trump lied; there was no agreement. He needed a win, so he invented one.

U.K. Alexander Smith of NBC News: "Monday marked the state opening of Parliament, a formal procession where the government set out the legislative agenda for the coming parliamentary term.... The Queen's Speech was delivered by Queen Elizabeth II -- although the speech itself is actually written by the government as a way to announce its policy agenda. 'My Government's priority has always been to secure the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union on 31 October,' she said, reading the government's words. 'My Government intends to work towards a new partnership with the European Union, based on free trade and friendly cooperation.' In reality, [PM Boris] Johnson does not have enough power in Parliament to achieve any of the aims, however — meaning the U.K. is almost certainly headed for an election soon." ~~~

~~~ CNN here and the Guardian here are liveblogging updates.

~~~~~~~~~~

Complete Capitulation

The New York Times is live-updating developments at the Syria-Turkey border. At about 6 am ET, the headline is "Assad's Army Moves into Border Town."

Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "The American military was unable to transfer about five dozen 'high value' Islamic State detainees out of Kurdish-run wartime prisons before the Pentagon decided to move its forces out of northern Syria and pave the way for a Turkish-led invasion, according to two American officials. In the same area on Sunday, hundreds of Islamic State sympathizers escaped from a low-security detention camp in the region, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Turkish ground invasion and the accompanying strikes. Both developments underscored the pandemonium unleashed by President Trump's sudden decision to order American troops to evacuate part of the Syrian region bordering Turkey.... Mr. Trump claimed last week that the United States had taken out the worst ISIS detainees to ensure they would not escape. But in fact the American military was able to take custody of only two British detainees.... As the week progressed and Kurdish casualties mounted, the onetime American ally ... grew increasingly angry at the United States.... The Kurds refused ... to cooperate in permitting the American military to take out any more detainees from the constellation of ad hoc wartime detention sites for captive ISIS fighters. Emphasis added. Update. The AP story is here.

** U.S. Moves Out, Syria Moves In. Liz Sly, et al., of the Washington Post: "Syrian government troops began moving toward towns near the Turkish border Sunday night under a deal struck with Syrian Kurds, following a chaotic day that saw the unraveling of the U.S. mission in northeastern Syria.... The announcement by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that they had reached an agreement with the Iranian- and Russian-backed government of President Bashar al-Assad further undermined the prospect of any continued U.S. presence in the country. The deal will bring forces loyal to Assad back into towns and cities that have been under Kurdish control for seven years." ~~~

     ~~~ Christopher Dickey & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Brett McGurk, who resigned as the presidential special envoy to the coalition against ISIS last December, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that such a move by the Syrian Kurds was predictable under the circumstances. Even last year, when McGurk was still serving, Kurdish leaders in Syria were telling the Americans that if support for them and deterrence against a Turkish attack was not going to continue, they needed to make a deal with the Assad regime and Russia for protection."

Chas Danner of New York has a good recap of developments as of Sunday evening ET.

Julian Barnes & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Sunday that President Trump ordered a withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria, a decision that will effectively cede control of the area to the Syrian government and Russia, and could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State. Mr. Esper, appearing on both Fox News and CBS News, said that American troops, mostly Special Operations forces, would move south but not leave the country in the face of Turkey's incursion into the section of Syria controlled by Kurdish forces, a group of fighters trained and backed by the United States government. The Pentagon has slow-walked previous orders by Mr. Trump to evacuate from Syria, to protect its Kurdish partners and hold the ground it took back from the Islamic State. But Mr. Esper's comments Sunday indicated that this time Mr. Trump's drawdown order was being acted on with haste.... Mr. Esper said the Pentagon expected Turkish forces to annex even more territory than originally estimated." This is confirmation of reports linked earlier yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Seung Min Kim & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's order to withdraw essentially all U.S. forces from northern Syria came after the commander in chief privately agitated for days to bring troops home, according to administration officials -- even while the Pentagon was making public assurances that the United States was not abandoning its Kurdish allies in the region. The officials, granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations, described Trump as 'doubling down' and 'undeterred,' despite vociferous pushback from congressional Republicans.... Behind the scenes, Trump has tried to convince advisers and lawmakers that the United States is not to blame for Turkey's military offensive.... But experts -- and many Republicans -- say otherwise." Mrs. McC: Apparently, all this had no effect because Tucker Carlson & Lou Dobbs.

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump faced bipartisan criticism Sunday for his decision to order a withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria, with one congressional Republican denouncing the move as 'weak' and a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman warning that it will 'diminish the character of our great nation.' Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, announced that both chambers are readying a joint resolution urging Trump to reverse his decision.The developments came on the same day that Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper announced the planned withdrawal of virtually all U.S. forces from northern Syria in the face of a Turkish military offensive targeting Kurdish fighters in the region. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air Force veteran who was a pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan, was among the most vocal members of the president's party to condemn the move."

Committee to Protect Journalists: "The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the Turkish air strike on a civilian convoy that killed journalist Saad Ahmed and injured at least four other reporters. At about 4:15 pm today, a Turkish airstrike hit a civilian convoy traveling between the northern Syrian towns of Qamishli and Ras al-Ain, killing Ahmed, a Syrian Kurdish reporter for the local news agency Hawar News (ANHA), according to ANHA Director Alan Roj and Editorial Director Delshad Judy, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. At least four other journalists from local news outlets were also injured in the attack, according to news reports and sources who spoke to CPJ. According toa report by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, five other civilians were killed in the strike."

Humeyra Pamuk of Reuters: "The United States is looking into reports that a Kurdish politician and captured Kurdish fighters were killed in northeastern Syria amid Turkey's offensive, a State Department spokesman told Reuters on Sunday, adding that Washington found the reports disturbing.... 'We find these reports to be extremely troubling, reflecting the overall destabilization of northeast Syria since the commencement of hostilities on Tuesday,' the spokesman said in an email." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "... with the White House revoking protection for these Kurdish fighters, some of the Special Forces officers who battled alongside the Kurds say they feel deep remorse at orders to abandon their allies. 'They trusted us and we broke that trust,' one Army officer who has worked alongside the Kurds in northern Syria said last week in a telephone interview. 'It's a stain on the American conscience.' 'I'm ashamed,' said another officer who had also served in northern Syria. And the response from the Kurds themselves was just as stark. 'The worst thing in military logic and comrades in the trench is betrayal,' said Shervan Darwish, an official allied with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.... As the Americans pulled back, the Kurds moved north to try to reinforce their comrades fighting the offensive. The American soldiers could only watch from their sandbag-lined walls. Orders from Washington were simple: Hands off. Let the Kurds fight for themselves. The orders contradicted the American military's strategy in Syria over the past four years, especially when it came to the Kurdish fighters, known as the Y.P.G., who were integral to routing the Islamic State from northeastern Syria." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul LeBlanc & Jake Tapper of CNN: "A retired four-star Marine general on Sunday bluntly criticized ... Donald Trump over the ongoing Turkish military offensive in northern Syria, saying, 'There is blood on Trump's hands for abandoning our Kurdish allies.' Gen. John Allen, the former commander of American forces in Afghanistan and former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS under the Obama administration, told CNN the unfolding crisis in Syria was 'completely foreseeable' and 'the US greenlighted it.'"

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Looks as if Trump is getting worried about Republican support. Shortly after patting himself on the back for his "very smart" move greenlighting Turkey's assault on Kurdish regions, he tweeted this: "Dealing with @LindseyGrahamSC and many members of Congress, including Democrats, about imposing powerful Sanctions on Turkey. Treasury is ready to go, additional legislation may be sought. There is great consensus on this. Turkey has asked that it not be done. Stay tuned!" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The WashPo story by SMK & Dawsey linked above confirm my earlier supposition: Republicans privately had been pushing Trump.

Carlotta Gall & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Hundreds of relatives of Islamic State fighters fled a Kurdish-run detention camp on Sunday morning after Turkish airstrikes hit the surrounding area, deepening the crisis prompted by the Turkish-led invasion of northern Syria. The escapes came hours before the United States military said it would withdraw its remaining troops from northern Syria in the coming weeks, despite a likely resurgence of the Islamic State amid chaotic efforts by Turkish-led troops to wrest the region from Kurdish control. A Kurdish official also said that the flag of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, had been raised in the countryside between the camp in the Kurdish-held town of Ain Issa and the Turkish border, another indication of how the Kurdish authorities were losing control of a region they had freed from the extremists only months ago." This is confirmation of reports linked earlier yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Joshua Posaner of Politico: "Turkey's military offensive in Syria threatens to destabilize the region and boost ISIS, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a phone call Sunday.'The chancellor spoke in favor of an immediate end to the military operation,' said Ulrike Demmer, a spokesperson for Merkel, adding that the Turkish leader had requested the call. The call came after Berlin moved to suspend some arms exports to Turkey on Saturday after Ankara launched an offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Syria last week following ... Donald Trump's withdrawal of troops from the region.... EU foreign ministers are meeting early this week ahead of a summit of heads of state, with both sessions set to address the situation in Syria." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

What Trump Has Wrought. Vladimir Isacenkov of the AP: "From Syria to Ukraine, new fault lines and tensions are offering the Kremlin fresh opportunities to expand its clout and advance its interests. The U.S. military withdrawal from northern Syria before a Turkish offensive leaves Russia as the ultimate power broker, allowing it to help negotiate a potential agreement between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Kurds who were abandoned by Washington. And in Ukraine, where the new president saw his image dented by a U.S. impeachment inquiry, Russia may use the volatility to push for a deal that would secure its leverage over its western neighbor."

Mrs. McCrabbie: A pundit (and I wish I could give the person credit) said on MSNBC last week that the real reason Lindsey Graham was so upset about Trump's abandonment of the Kurds was that Trump had failed to consult him first. So this from Felicia Sonmez's WashPo report linked above tends to confirm that opinion: "Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who had previously called Trump's decision on Syria 'the biggest blunder of his presidency,' praised the president Sunday for offering his support for sanctions on Turkey. 'Good decision by President @realDonaldTrump to work with Congress to impose crippling sanctions against Turkeys outrageous aggression/war crimes in Syria,' Graham tweeted.... Earlier Sunday, Trump had tweeted that he was dealing with Graham 'and many members of Congress, including Democrats, about imposing powerful Sanctions on Turkey.'"

Mrs. McCrabbie: So many have feared "what Trump would do in an international crisis," when the more likely eventuality was "what international crisis Trump would cause." We have one answer now; the longer he remains in office, the more certain it is there were be more. safari asks today, "What fresh hell will Monday bring?" The implication of his question is that whatever it may be, there will be fresh hell.

Trump, Inc. -- The Criminal Enterprise, Ctd.

Washington Post Editors: "... President Trump's corruption in Ukraine was not limited to his pressure for politicized investigations that could help his reelection campaign. We now know that the president's unjustified firing of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in May advanced the interests of two businessmen who made large contributions to his political campaigns ... and did business with his personal lawyer.... According to reporting by The Post and other news organizations, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two emigres from the former Soviet Union with checkered financial histories, made $630,000 in contributions to Republican candidates and political action committees beginning in 2016." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, "Putin Changes the Channel on Ukraine." Michael Bennetts of Politico: "... when ... Vladimir Putin declared this month that Kremlin-funded television channels should give Ukraine a break..., [his] that Kremlin-funded television channels should give Ukraine a break, underscored a thaw in relations between the two former Soviet states since Volodymyr Zelenskiy ... came to power in Ukraine in May. Last month, in a long-awaited development, the two countries exchanged dozens of prisoners, including 24 Ukrainian sailors seized by Russia during a naval clash in the Black Sea. And then, on October 1, Ukraine agreed to hold elections in its war-torn eastern regions controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists. It's a move that could bring an end to a five-year conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced another million."

Alayna Treene of Axios: "... documents obtained by Axios show how Democrats are taking the impeachment inquiry in two tightly focused directions: Ukraine and obstruction of justice.... There are new temptations for Democrats to broaden the scope of their inquiry after developments last week including President Trump's gift to Turkey, new questions about coordination with the Chinese over Hunter Biden, and the dramatic airport arrests of two of Rudy Giuliani's associates with Eastern European backgrounds and their indictments on campaign finance violations. But ... if the document request for Trump's former Russia adviser Fiona Hill, reviewed by Axios, is a road map for what Dems plan to ask Trump administration officials this week -- and committee sources tell me that it is -- then the inquiry remains focused on Ukraine and has not yet branched out into other countries." Treene lists "some of the key areas of interest to the committees, as outlined in their Oct. 9 letter to Hill," & the link is to the full docs request to Hill.

Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's secretary of defense said on Sunday the Pentagon would cooperate with the House's impeachment inquiry, while cautioning that Trump may try to restrict his disclosure of information. Mark Esper said in two interviews his department would work to comply with a subpoena from committees seeking records relating to the withholding of US military aid to Ukraine.... But Esper warned on Fox News Sunday that Trump and other officials may yet create complications for the compliance before Tuesday's deadline for him to respond. 'I don't know what restrictions we may have internally in regard to releasing them,' Esper said. 'The White House has a say on the release of documents as well.'" Mrs. McC: I find it hard to believe that Esper will stand up to Trump on Ukraine when he didn't stand up to him on the Kurds -- a life-and-death blunder. I'd like to be wrong.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Ever since former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker handed over those text messages, President Trump's defenders have pointed to one of them as supposedly exonerating Trump. 'Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions,' Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told another diplomat. 'The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's [sic] of any kind.' This text has been a linchpin of the Trump Ukraine defense. But on Saturday night, the linchpin broke.... Sondland will ... indicate that he was merely relaying Trump's defense, which he had discussed with the president on a phone call before the text message[.]... This is remarkable stuff, especially considering that Sondland, unlike the two diplomats he was conversing with in those text messages, was a big-time Trump donor.... Sondland's impending testimony sounds like that of a man covering his own backside and knowing his apparent defense of Trump could quickly fall apart upon further examination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Current and former career U.S. diplomats say Trump has handed far too many ambassadorial posts to unqualified candidates, many of whom were political donors with thin diplomatic resumes and little respect for the U.S. Foreign Service. Some say it's time to rethink, if not cap or outright bar, political appointments for ambassadorships. 'It is out of whack under Trump,' said Dana Shell Smith, a former career Foreign Service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Qatar. 'These ambassadorships are being seen as the spoils, as opposed to being very serious jobs that act in the interest of the country.' Most modern presidents have given roughly 30 percent of U.S. ambassador postings to political appointees, with the rest drawn from career government ranks.... As of now, nearly 45 percent of his ambassador picks -- people who have been confirmed or are awaiting confirmation -- are political appointees, one database shows." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "For 24 hours last week, Trey Gowdy, the former South Carolina congressman best known for leading congressional investigations of Hillary Clinton, was the new face of President Trump's outside legal defense and a symbol of a streamlined effort to respond to a fast-moving impeachment inquiry. A day later, the arrangement fell apart, with lobbying rules prohibiting Mr. Gowdy from starting until January, possibly after the inquiry is over. Now, according to two people familiar with events, Mr. Gowdy is never expected to join the team. And Trump advisers are back to square one, searching for a different lawyer.... Several [Trump aides] pointed fingers at Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, suggesting he had botched the rollout." The story goes on to report what-all happened in the "botched rollout." One upside: Gowdy lost his paid gig at Fox "News" in the wake of the annoucement he would be working for Trump. Mrs. McC: I suppose Gowdy will be back on air shortly now that he's not an official frontman for our Top Mobster.

Allan Smith of NBC News: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday that it was wrong for ... Donald Trump to call on China to probe former Vice President Joe Biden and his son in the Texas Republican's most direct rebuke of the president yet. Asked on CBS's 'Face the Nation' whether Trump's comments were 'appropriate,' Cruz said 'of course not. Elections in the U.S. should be decided by Americans and it's not the business of foreign countries, any foreign countries, to be interfering in our elections,' he said.... Host Margaret Brennan then asked if it was improper for Trump to ask Ukraine to probe the Bidens.... 'Listen, foreign countries should stay out of American elections,' Cruz said. 'That's true for Russia. That's true for Ukraine. That's true for China. That's true for all of them. It should be the American people deciding elections....'... Cruz added that it would make 'sense for [Rudy] Giuliani to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has already invited Giuliani to do so." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday hit Fox News anchor Chris Wallace for his coverage of the phone call between Trump and Ukraine's president that is at the center of the House's impeachment inquiry. 'Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of Fox, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the Phone Conversation I had with the President of Ukraine was a congenial & good one,' Trump tweeted. 'It was only Schiff's made up version of that conversation that was bad!' he added." Mrs. McC: I know many of you think it doesn't matter whether or not Trump believes his own B.S., but I think he does believe "it's all Adam Schiff's fault," and I think Trump's amazing facility for deluding himself is an essential ingredient in furtherance the problems he causes. This coping mechanism may appear to work for him, but it a plague upon the nation. ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Grynbaum & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Fed up with the coverage on his favorite cable news station, President Trump ... telephoned the chief executive of Fox News, Suzanne Scott, and let loose. In a lengthy conversation, Mr. Trump complained that Fox News was not covering him fairly.... The president has rarely been satisfied with the adulation he receives from the network's prime-time and morning opinion shows. Instead, he often fixates on any hint of criticism, deeming the network ungrateful for the high ratings that he attributes to himself." The Hill has a summary report here.

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post reports on WSMV Nashville reporter Nancy Amons' interview of Mike Pompeo, embedded here Saturday. Mrs. McC: It really is delicious when a reporter gets the best of a bully like Pompeo who goes out of his way to avoid situations where he might get substantive questions.


Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post: "The uproar in Washington over President Trump's corruption in Ukraine and malfeasance in Syria has obscured a broader story. In little more than a month, virtually every other foreign policy initiative the Trump administration has pursued has imploded -- thanks mostly to the president's increasingly unhinged behavior." Diehl ticks of the catastrophes: the Afghan-Taliban summit at Camp David that didn't happen; the failed "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran' Kim Jong-un's refusal to accept an "interim" nuclear deal. "... there isn't [a common thread], other than Trump's mounting erraticism.... But the carnage of Trump’s foreign policy likely isn't over yet."

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A video depicting a macabre scene of a fake President Trump shooting, stabbing and brutally assaulting members of the news media and his political opponents was shown at a conference for his supporters at his Miami resort last week, according to footage obtained by The New York Times.... The video, which includes the logo for Mr. Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, comprises a series of internet memes. The most violent clip shows Mr. Trump's head superimposed on the body of a man opening fire inside the 'Church of Fake News' on parishioners who have the faces of his critics or the logos of media organizations superimposed on their bodies. It appears to be an edited scene of a church massacre from the 2014 dark comedy film 'Kingsman: The Secret Service.' The disclosure that the video was played shows how Mr. Trump's anti-media language has influenced his supporters and bled into their own propaganda.... A spokesman for Mr. Trump's campaign said ... 'That video was not produced by the campaign, and we do not condone violence.'..." ~~~

~~~ David Cohen of Politico: "The White House Correspondents' Association on Sunday night condemned 'a video reportedly shown' at a pro-Trump event held at a Trump resort in Miami that depicted graphic violence against journalists and various political figures." Cohen also summarizes the NYT story linked above.

Nancy Gibbs in a Washington Post op-ed: "What if the president wants out? There's much about the job he never liked, which is one reason he spends so much time watching TV rather than actually doing it.... He has claimed so often to love being president that it's easy to think he protests too much.... Trump escapes the frustration of failing to accomplish his agenda by not having ever had one, beyond his continued exaltation.... Resigning is out; that's for quitters. Defeat in 2020 is worse; losing is for losers. But being impeached and removed from office is the one outcome that preserves at least some ability to denounce the deep state and the quislings in the Senate who stabbed him in the back, maintain his bond with his tribe, depart the capital and launch a media business to compete with the ever more flaccid Fox News.... With a choice of bad options, impeachment doesn't look so bad, and gets you home to your gilded tower sooner. Assuming, that is, that you don't think you can just burn the Constitution to the ground and be the last one standing." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Every time I'm away from the news for several hours, I open up my computer & hope to see the bold headline, "Trump Resigns." I really do, even though I know any headline involving Trump is apt to be news of another abomination. If Gibbs' thesis is right, I'll have to count on Mitch & Lindsey & Ted to make my fantasy come true.

Presidential Race 2020. Charles Blow of the New York Times: "At a campaign rally in Minnesota, Trump said of Joe Biden: 'He was only a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama's ass.'... The insult invokes a fear and disdain that white racists have had throughout American history: The subjugation of the white man to the black one.... The white supremacists see ... the subjugation of Biden ... to the black man ... as a particular kind of racial betrayal and racial subjugation that can never be made normal.... That is why Obama stays on the tip of Trump's tongue.... The racism is coded, received, without the burden of delivery." Mrs. McC: I was surprised that Trump didn't say "kiss his black ass," but Blow's explanation clears that up: "black ass" is understood in Trumpland. American black English has always employed a lot of code words designed to escape the understanding of white listeners. The irony is that now it is white racists who have to use coded language to appear socially acceptable to the larger population. I'm sure the racists resent that constriction of their freeedoms.


Matthew Green of Reuters: "Almost 400 scientists have endorsed a civil disobedience campaign aimed at forcing governments to take rapid action to tackle climate change, warning that failure could inflict 'incalculable human suffering.' In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne. Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolize their research credentials, a group of about 20 of the signatories gathered on Saturday to read out the text outside London's century-old Science Museum in the city's upmarket Kensington district."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Harold Bloom, the prodigious literary critic who championed and defended the Western canon in an outpouring of influential books that appeared not only on college syllabuses but also -- unusual for an academic -- on best-seller lists, died on Monday at a hospital in New Haven. He was 89."

New York Times: "Three professors who have done experimental work toward alleviating poverty have been awarded the Nobel in economic sciences: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of M.I.T., and Michael Kremer of Harvard University. Professor Duflo is the second woman and, at 46, the youngest person to win the economics prize." The Guardian has a liveblog here.

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Saturday
Oct122019

The Commentariat -- October 13, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Complete Capitulation. Julian Barnes & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Sunday that President Trump ordered a withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria, a decision that will effectively cede control of the area to the Syrian government and Russia, and could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State. Mr. Esper, appearing on both Fox News and CBS News, said that American troops, mostly Special Operations forces, would move south but not leave the country in the face of Turkey's incursion into the section of Syria controlled by Kurdish forces, a group of fighters trained and backed by the United States government. The Pentagon has slow-walked previous orders by Mr. Trump to evacuate from Syria, to protect its Kurdish partners and hold the ground it took back from the Islamic State. But Mr. Esper's comments Sunday indicated that this time Mr. Trump's drawdown order was being acted on with haste.... Mr. Esper said the Pentagon expected Turkish forces to annex even more territory than originally estimated." This is confirmation of reports linked below. ~~~

~~~ Humeyra Pamuk of Reuters: "The United States is looking into reports that a Kurdish politician and captured Kurdish fighters were killed in northeastern Syria amid Turkey's offensive, a State Department spokesman told Reuters on Sunday, adding that Washington found the reports disturbing.... 'We find these reports to be extremely troubling, reflecting the overall destabilization of northeast Syria since the commencement of hostilities on Tuesday,' the spokesman said in an email." ~~~

~~~ Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "... with the White House revoking protection for these Kurdish fighters, some of the Special Forces officers who battled alongside the Kurds say they feel deep remorse at orders to abandon their allies. 'They trusted us and we broke that trust,' one Army officer who has worked alongside the Kurds in northern Syria said last week in a telephone interview. 'It's a stain on the American conscience.' 'I'm ashamed,' said another officer who had also served in northern Syria. And the response from the Kurds themselves was just as stark. 'The worst thing in military logic and comrades in the trench is betrayal,' said Shervan Darwish, an official allied with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.... As the Americans pulled back, the Kurds moved north to try to reinforce their comrades fighting the offensive. The American soldiers could only watch from their sandbag-lined walls. Orders from Washington were simple: Hands off. Let the Kurds fight for themselves. The orders contradicted the American military's strategy in Syria over the past four years, especially when it came to the Kurdish fighters, known as the Y.P.G., who were integral to routing the Islamic State from northeastern Syria." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks as if Trump is getting worried about Republican support. Shortly after patting himself on the back for his "very smart" move greenlighting Turkey's assault on Kurdish regions, he tweeted this: "Dealing with @LindseyGrahamSC and many members of Congress, including Democrats, about imposing powerful Sanctions on Turkey. Treasury is ready to go, additional legislation may be sought. There is great consensus on this. Turkey has asked that it not be done. Stay tuned!" ~~~

~~~ Carlotta Gall & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Hundreds of relatives of Islamic State fighters fled a Kurdish-run detention camp on Sunday morning after Turkish airstrikes hit the surrounding area, deepening the crisis prompted by the Turkish-led invasion of northern Syria. The escapes came hours before the United States military said it would withdraw its remaining troops from northern Syria in the coming weeks, despite a likely resurgence of the Islamic State amid chaotic efforts by Turkish-led troops to wrest the region from Kurdish control. A Kurdish official also said that the flag of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, had been raised in the countryside between the camp in the Kurdish-held town of Ain Issa and the Turkish border, another indication of how the Kurdish authorities were losing control of a region they had freed from the extremists only months ago." This is confirmation of reports linked below.

Joshua Posaner of Politico: "Turkey's military offensive in Syria threatens to destabilize the region and boost ISIS, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a phone call Sunday. 'The chancellor spoke in favor of an immediate end to the military operation,' said ... a spokesperson for Merkel, adding that the Turkish leader had requested the call. The call came after Berlin moved to suspend some arms exports to Turkey on Saturday after Ankara launched an offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Syria last week following ... Donald Trump's withdrawal of troops from the region.... EU foreign ministers are meeting early this week ahead of a summit of heads of state, with both sessions set to address the situation in Syria."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Ever since former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker handed over those text messages, President Trump's defenders have pointed to one of them as supposedly exonerating Trump. 'Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions,' Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told another diplomat. 'The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's [sic] of any kind.' This text has been a linchpin of the Trump Ukraine defense. But on Saturday night, the linchpin broke.... Sondland will ... indicate that he was merely relaying Trump's defense, which he had discussed with the president on a phone call before the text message[.]... This is remarkable stuff, especially considering that Sondland, unlike the two diplomats he was conversing with in those text messages, was a big-time Trump donor.... Sondland's impending testimony sounds like that of a man covering his own backside and knowing his apparent defense of Trump could quickly fall apart upon further examination."

Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Current and former career U.S. diplomats say Trump has handed far too many ambassadorial posts to unqualified candidates, many of whom were political donors with thin diplomatic resumes and little respect for the U.S. Foreign Service. Some say it's time to rethink, if not cap or outright bar, political appointments for ambassadorships. 'It is out of whack under Trump,' said Dana Shell Smith, a former career Foreign Service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Qatar. 'These ambassadorships are being seen as the spoils, as opposed to being very serious jobs that act in the interest of the country.' Most modern presidents have given roughly 30 percent of U.S. ambassador postings to political appointees, with the rest drawn from career government ranks.... As of now, nearly 45 percent of his ambassador picks -- people who have been confirmed or are awaiting confirmation -- are political appointees, one database shows.&"

Allan Smith of NBC News: "Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday that it was wrong for ... Donald Trump to call on China to probe former Vice President Joe Biden and his son in the Texas Republican's most direct rebuke of the president yet. Asked on CBS's 'Face the Nation' whether Trump's comments were 'appropriate,' Cruz said 'of course not. Elections in the U.S. should be decided by Americans and it's not the business of foreign countries, any foreign countries, to be interfering in our elections,' he said.... Host Margaret Brennan then asked if it was improper for Trump to ask Ukraine to probe the Bidens.... 'Listen, foreign countries should stay out of American elections,' Cruz said. 'That's true for Russia. That's true for Ukraine. That's true for China. That's true for all of them. It should be the American people deciding elections....'... Cruz added that it would make 'sense for [Rudy] Giuliani to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has already invited Giuliani to do so."

~~~~~~~~~~

This Is Not Going Well

Mark Esper Today. Emily Tillett & Margaret Brennan of CBS News: "The U.S. is 'preparing to evacuate' about 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria 'as safely and quickly as possible,' Defense Secretary Mark Esper told 'Face the Nation' in an interview airing Sunday.... 'In the last 24 hours, we learned that [the Turks] likely intend to extend their attack further south than originally planned, and to the west,' Esper said. 'We also have learned in the last 24 hours that the ... SDF are looking to cut a deal, if you will, with the Syrians and the Russians to counterattack against the Turks in the north.' Esper told 'Face the Nation' the troops remaining in the country were caught between Turkish forces and the SDF..... 'So I spoke with the president last night, after discussions with the rest of the national security team, and he directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of [all] forces from northern Syria.'" ~~~

~~~ Mark Esper Friday. Robert Burns & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "Top Pentagon officials on Friday denied the U.S. is abandoning its Syrian Kurdish allies in the face of a Turkish military offensive, although the future of a counterterrorism partnership with the Kurds was in grave doubt. 'We have not abandoned the Kurds. Let me be clear about that,' Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters. 'We have not abandoned them. Nobody green-lighted this operation by Turkey -- just the opposite. We pushed back very hard at all levels for the Turks not to commence this operation.'" Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Liz Sly & Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: "U.S. troops withdrew on Sunday from another town in Syria as Turkish-backed forces pushed deeper inside Syrian territory, seizing positions along a major highway that serves as the U.S. military's main supply route into Syria -- potentially cutting off U.S. troops further west, according to a U.S. official. The withdrawal came amid reports that hundreds of Islamic State supporters may have escaped from a camp housing displaced people in the town of Ain Issa, taking advantage of the mayhem that ensued as Turkish artillery pounded the area. The Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria said in a statement that 785 people affiliated to the Islamic State were among those who got away, escaping from a camp that had housed 12,000 displaced people, mostly women and children. Around a thousand of those who had been identified as Islamic State supporters, including foreigners, were housed in a separate section of the camp known as the Annex, which is now 'completely empty,' according to an aid worker...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: MEANWHLE: Trump is unconcerned: "Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!" he tweeted, in part, this morning. AND: "Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change."

America the Untrustworthy. David Kirkpatrick, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's surprise acquiescence to a Turkish incursion into northern Syria this week has shaken American allies, and not just because it was a betrayal of a loyal partner. What alarmed them even more was his sheer unpredictability. His inconsistent and rapidly shifting positions in the Middle East have injected a new element of chaos into an already volatile region and have left allies guessing where the United States stands and for how long.... His decision to get out of the way of the Turkish incursion ... was just the latest in a series of flip-flops in American policy in the region, including two in Syria this year alone.... Critics say that Mr. Trump’s zigzagging policies have emboldened regional foes, unnerved American partners, and invited Russia and various regional players to seek to exert their influence."

Martin Chulov & Mohammed Rasool of the Guardian & Agencies: "Turkish-backed proxies leading a ground offensive on Kurdish-held border towns in north-eastern Syria have killed nine civilians including a female politician, a human rights monitor has claimed. The civilians were executed on a highway after being taken for their cars by Turkish-backed militias who had crossed the border as the push into Syria deepened. The killings were captured on camera phones and the gruesome scenes have raised the spectre of ethnic bloodletting emerging five days into the Turkish offensive. Ankara's proxies are Syrian Arabs from elsewhere in the country and their foes are Kurdish with long ties to the territory." See also NYT report linked next re: these murders. Thanks to Hattie for the link.

Ben Hubbard, et al., of the New York Times: "Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters killed at least two Kurdish prisoners on Saturday, one of them lying on the ground with his hands bound behind his back, in a powerful illustration of the forces unleashed by President Trump's decision to pull back American troops shielding former Kurdish allies in northern Syria. A video that captured one of the killings shows two of the Turkish-backed group's fighters firing bullets at close range into the man with his hands tied while their colleagues shout 'God is great!'... The killing of two Kurdish captives by Arab fighters -- a possible war crime -- is an indication of the ethnically tinged hatreds flaring in the wake of President Trump's pullback of American forces in the area.... On Saturday, Turkey and its allied Syrian fighters established a foothold in a strategic Syrian border town, Ras al-Ain, and were gathering to launch an offensive against another, Tel Abyad, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry and a spokesman for the Turkish-backed fighters. The new hostilities have displaced at least 100,000 people and ignited fears that tens of thousands of ISIS fighters and their relatives held by the Kurds could escape their camps and prisons." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: According to the report, it isn't clear whether the two prisoners were among the nine murdered civilians also cited in the Guardian's report above, but the fact that the Times says one of the two people was "uniformed" suggests these were separate murders. BTW, how much do you think Trump asked Erdogan about his collaboration with these Syrian Arab forces, and exactly what demands did Trump make of Erdogan regarding the control of prisons housing ISIS members & their families before Trump gave Erdogan the go ahead? What other conditions did Trump place on his green light? Oh, none? Also, what-all did Pompeo & Esper do to push back against Trump's green light? We know they didn't resign, as Jim Mattis did after Trump announced a troop pullout late last year (before backing down). And where the hell are our NATO allies?

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Turkish forces who launched multiple artillery rounds near a U.S. Special Operations outpost in northeastern Syria on Friday have known for months that Americans were there, according to four current and former U.S. officials, raising questions whether Turkey is trying to push American troops farther from the border.... The situation, first reported by Newsweek, was more serious than characterized Friday, several officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.... One Army officer ... said that multiple rounds of 155mm fire were launched from Turkey's side of the border and that they had a 'bracketing effect' in which shells landed on both sides of the U.S. outpost.... The officer said that Turkey knew there were Americans on the hill and that it had to be deliberate. The service members vacated the outpost after the incident but returned on Saturday, according to a U.S. official and images circulating on social media." ~~~

     ~~~ See also the Common Dreams story republished in the Raw Story. Update: NBC News has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Juan Cole: "The fire was so intense that the US military seriously considered firing back, a step that could have provoked an unprecedented firefight between two NATO armies."

Barbara Starr & Ryan Browne of CNN: "The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told a senior US diplomat, 'You are leaving us to be slaughtered," demanding to know whether the US is going to do anything to protect Syrian Kurds as Turkey continues its military operation targeting America's Kurdish allies in Syria. You have given up on us. You are leaving us to be slaughtered,' Gen. Mazloum Kobani Abdi told the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, William Roebuck, in a meeting Thursday, according to an internal US government readout that has been obtained exclusively by CNN. 'You are not willing to protect the people, but you do not want another force to come and protect us. You have sold us. This is immoral,' Mazloum added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Christian Vasquez of Politico: "Former Defense Secretary James Mattis said ISIS 'will resurge' in Syria, in his first public comments following ... Donald Trump's withdrawal of troops from the region. 'I think Secretary of State Pompeo, the intelligence services, the foreign countries that are working with us have it about right that ISIS is not defeated. We have got to keep the pressure on ISIS so they don't recover,' Mattis said in an interview on NBC News' 'Meet the Press' set to air Sunday.... '... If we don't keep the pressure on then ISIS will resurge. It's, it's absolutely a given that they will come back,' Mattis continued.... 'The Endless Wars Must End!' Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon."

Trump, Inc. -- the Criminal Enterprise, Ctd.

Aaron Davis & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, intends to tell Congress this week that the content of a text message he wrote denying quid pro quo with Ukraine was relayed to him directly by President Trump in a phone call, according to a person familiar with his testimony. Sondland plans to tell lawmakers he has no knowledge of whether the president was telling him the truth at that moment. 'It's only true that the president said it, not that it was the truth,' said the person familiar with Sondland's planned testimony, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... The White House and its defenders have held up Sondland's text, which included 'no quid pro quo's of any kind' [in a September 9 text exchange,] as proof that none was ever considered.... Sondland is expected to say that for months before the Sept. 9 message, he worked at the direction of Rudolph W. Giuliani ... to secure what he would call in another text message the' deliverable' sought by Trump: a public statement from Ukraine that it would investigate corruption, including mentioning Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, by name. In exchange for the statement, the president would grant Ukraine's new president a coveted White House audience.... Sondland appears poised to say that he and other diplomats did not know that the request to mention Burisma was really an effort to impugn the reputations of Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a Burisma board member.... To trust Sondland's testimony, members of Congress will have to believe Sondland had not seen televised appearances by Giuliani over the spring and summer, or numerous newspaper and magazine articles questioning whether Hunter Biden's role at Burisma could prove to be a drag on his father's presidential campaign." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This sounds like CYA testimony that could get Sondland fired. Also a perjury rap: Bill Taylor texts Sondland on Sept. 1: "Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?" Sondland's response: "Call me." On Sept. 8, Sondland texts Taylor again saying he had "multiple conversations" with Trump & Zelensky & wants to talk with Taylor. Taylor texts back, "Now is fine." Later that days Taylor texts Kurt Volker, confirming he has talked with Sondland. The next day, Sept. 9, Taylor texts Sondland, "As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." According to the WashPo report, "Sondland contends that he didn't know about the Biden connection [to Burisma] until a whistleblower complaint and transcript surfaced in late September." That would mean that it the phone discussions Sondland had with Taylor, Taylor never mentioned that the purpose of investigating "Burisma" was to collect dirt on Biden, which seems to be what Taylor mean by "help with a political campaign." Sondland, who is apparently prepared to testify that he was working "at the direction of" Giuliani, then also is claiming Giuliani never mentioned the Bidens to Sondland, either, even as Giuliani was going on the teevee smearing them. Perhaps Sondland had his planned testimony leaked to the Post so reporters would help him clean up the gaping holes in his cover story. ~~~

     ~~~ David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "So it turns out that when Trump tweeted this: '... Importantly, Ambassador Sondland's tweet, which few report, stated, "I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo's of any kind." That says it ALL!' He was apparently quoting himself having told Sondland what to say. This is the sort of comical coverup one only engages in either under desperation or a belief that no public accounting of your crimes will ever be made under oath." ~~~

~~~ David Graham of the Atlantic: "... the fact that State Department employees are testifying shows that the White House's total-obstruction strategy doesn't work as well when the players aren't sycophants like [Corey] Lewandowski who are willing to buy the claims of executive shield. It is, after all, a privilege and not a right." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although I think Trump's behavior as outlined in the Mueller report were grounds for impeachment, the reaction of State Department & other agency personnel to the Ukraine conspiracy shows that -- for many people -- Ukraine was a bridge too far. The public's reactions back that up. Apparently people are not nearly as offended by obstruction as they are by the crimes underlying obstruction. Perhaps they see stonewalling as more of a political act but selling out the U.S. as treasonous. I don't agree with that, but it's not a nutty distinction to make.

Ken Vogel & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump had lunch on Saturday with Rudolph W. Giuliani amid revelations that prosecutors were investigating Mr. Giuliani for possible lobbying violations, and speculation that his position as the president's personal lawyer was in jeopardy. The lunch, at Mr. Trump's golf course in Sterling, Va., was among several shows of the president's support for Mr. Giuliani on Saturday. They seemed meant to tamp down questions about Mr. Giuliani's status with a client famous for distancing himself from advisers when they encounter legal problems of their own. Mr. Trump, during a Saturday night appearance on Fox News, called Mr. Giuliani 'a great gentleman' and said he is still his lawyer. 'I know nothing about him being under investigation. I can't imagine it,' he told the host Jeanine Pirro.... It is not clear what was discussed at the lunch. The lunch is unlikely to end speculation over whether the president will ultimately consider Mr. Giuliani a liability." ~~~

~~~ John Hudson of the Washington Post: "President Trump defended his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani on Saturday amid reports that federal prosecutors are investigating whether the former New York City mayor broke lobbying laws in his efforts to oust the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yavonovitch. 'So now they are after the legendary "crime buster" and greatest Mayor in the history of NYC, Rudy Giuliani,' Trump tweeted. 'He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and wonderful lawyer.' In defending Giuliani, Trump revived one of his recurring conspiracy theories that a 'Deep State' of entrenched bureaucrats and law enforcement officers are continuing to undermine him and his associates. 'Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!' he said." The Hill's story is here. Mrs McC: Trump calling anybody "a little rough around the edges" is a joke. Update: Trump's describing Giuliani as "a great gentleman" is laughable. Obviously, neither knows the meaning of the word. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Some people in Twitterland are unconvinced by Trump's stand-by-your-man pose.

** Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "In [Rudy] Giuliani's fevered alternative reality, Ukraine's most stalwart foes of corruption are actually corruption's embodiment. Deeply compromised figures with vendettas against the activists -- particularly the ex-prosecutors Viktor Shokin and Yuriy Lutsenko -- are transformed into heroes. This addled, through-the-looking glass fantasy came to drive American foreign policy in Ukraine.... If America can be said to have a foreign policy at this debased stage of the Trump administration, it mostly consists of sucking up to strongmen while betraying everyone who ever believed in America's putative ideals.... Throughout our history, America has committed many sins against democracy around the world, but we used to be on the right side in Ukraine. Not anymore.... We're with the oligarchs now."

I don't know those gentleman.... I don't know, maybe they were clients of Rudy. You'd have to ask Rudy. -- Donald Trump, Thursday, speaking of Lev Parnas & Igor Fruman ~~~

~~~ Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "A photograph of ... Donald Trump posing with [Lev Parnas,] a recently indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, was posted online in April 2014, two years prior to what had been their first known interaction.... The circumstances of the meeting captured in the photograph remain unclear.... [A Facebook] post [published two weeks earlier] suggests the meeting captured in the photo was not a chance interaction, and that Parnas had discussed his access to Trump [with the owner of the Facebook account]. Trump has sought to distance himself from Parnas, the Florida businessman at the center of a ballooning scandal over illicit foreign influence in his administration and, more broadly, the American political system. But the photograph and post provide further evidence that the two men are more closely tied than Trump has let on." Mrs. McC: There are quite a few people I would say I know, even tho I haven't appeared in any photos with them, much less in multiple photos beginning more than five years ago. ~~~

~~~ "Always Hustling." Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... a $50,000 donation to Trump's campaign and the Republican Party, [delivered just after the WashPo published the 'Access Hollywood' tape] ... helped propel [Lev] Parnas and his business partner..., Igor Fruman, on an extraordinarily rapid rise into the upper echelon of Trump allies -- before they became central figures in the presidential impeachment inquiry. By spring 2018, the two men had dined with Trump, breakfasted with his son and attended exclusive events at Mar-a-Lago and the White House, all while jetting around the world and spending lavishly, particularly at Trump hotels in New York and Washington. That May, a pro-Trump super PAC reported receiving a $325,000 donation from an energy company the duo had recently formed.... Parnas and Fruman demonstrated a remarkable facility for capitalizing on their newfound connections.... They also appeared to be constantly in pursuit of new business ventures.... In 2018, they hired ... Rudolph W. Giuliani, to serve as a consultant as they launched a security business -- and then helped Giuliani, in turn, reach Ukrainian officials in his quest to find information damaging to Democrats.... '"We'e best friends with Rudy Giuliani,&"' [Anthony] Scaramucci said the two men told him. "We work with him on everything."'

Deb Riechmann of the AP reports on how presidential and presidential* phone calls with foreign leaders are handled. Here's one part of her report: "One individual with firsthand knowledge of how the Trump calls with foreign leaders are handled said the president 'hates' [customary] 'pre-briefs' and frequently has refused to do them. Trump doesn't like written background materials either, preferring to handle the calls himself, often in the morning from the residence. Occasionally, while on the phone with foreign heads of state, Trump has handed the receiver to his daughter, Ivanka Trump, so she can talk with the leader, according to this individual. The person said a six-page pre-brief with attachments was once prepared for Trump before a call to a foreign leader. But that turned out to be too long, as did a single-page version. Preparing pre-brief note cards that offered about three talking points for Trump to make on a call was the norm.... The individual said that when Trump is done with the note cards, he often rips them up and tosses them in a burn bag. Staff who handle records have had to retrieve the burn bags from the residence, put the papers out on a table and tape them back together to preserve them as official presidential records, this person said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So here's a report about Trump's SOP that, besides amply demonstrating that Trump likes to conduct "international diplomacy" by purposely going in stupid, almost casually mentions that it is his practice to violate the Federal Records Act, which requires retention of briefing notes. And that part about putting Ivanka on the phone to chat? Yeesh! "Yo, Recep. Sure, go ahead, attack the Kurds. After all, we paid them too much for defeating ISIS, which they couldn't have done without me. But first my little girl wants to tell you how much she appreciated you dropping by the fantastic Trump Towers Instanbul.... Here, Honey, take the phone. Recep wants to tell you there's nothing like Trump Istanbul anywhere in the world. Be sure to mention the other deals we have going in Turkey."

Justin Wise of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday night lambasted the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, saying his administration would look into possibly suing Speaker >Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) over the probe. 'We're going to take a look at it. We're going after these people. These are bad, bad people,' Trump said while speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. 'I actually told my lawyer, I said sue [Schiff] anyway. I said, even if we lose, the American public will understand,' Trump said.... 'And sue Nancy Pelosi, or maybe we should just impeach them, because they're lying and what they're doing is a terrible thing for our country.' The U.S. Constitution stipulates that members of Congress cannot be impeached." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, the U.S. Constitution also specifies that "The House of Representatives ... shall have the sole Power of Impeachment." Trump would have a better case if he sued for not impeaching him sooner. Even Trump acknowledges that what he's threatening is a nuisance lawsuit.

Forgot this one. Brett Samuels of the Hill (Oct. 10): "President Trump on Thursday said former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) can't to join his outside legal team for a 'couple months' because of lobbying rules one day after it was announced that Gowdy would serve as his counsel.... 'I think there's a problem with -- he can't start for another couple months because of lobbying rules and regulations,' he added. '... So I don't know. We'll have to see.' Trump's lead personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, said Wednesday night that Gowdy would serve as counsel to the president in response to the House's impeachment inquiry." Mrs. McC: So if you were wondering why the ever-venomous Gowdy wasn't out there making fake accusations, apparently it's an ethics thing. Ironic.

Barbie Nadeau of the Daily Beast: "Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, is stepping down from the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company, according to a statement given to Bloomberg. The younger Biden, whose business interests in Ukraine are at the center of Donald Trump's impeachment scandal, also promises to 'forego all foreign work' if his dad is elected president in 2020." Mrs. McC: Surprising, isn't it, that Uday & Qusay haven't done the same, what with their being so upset at Hunter's international exploits.

Mark Stern of Slate: "One of Donald Trump's most controversial judicial nominees unleashed a bizarre and embarrassing dissent on Friday that seeks to shield the president from congressional oversight while flouting Supreme Court precedent. The author of Friday's dissent [in Trump v. Mazars], Neomi Rao, was Trump's choice to fill Brett Kavanaugh's old seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Her opinion marks a lawless effort to insert the judiciary into the House of Representatives&' investigations into Trump, limiting lawmakers' ability to access potentially incriminating evidence. It also implies that federal courts could stop the House from impeaching Trump. In short, Rao is running interference for the president who put her on the bench.... [Rao's dissent in the 2-1 ruling], is utterly detached from Supreme Court precedent and instead rooted in a startling and novel conception of presidential power. It rests on the assertion that 'allegations of illegal conduct against the President cannot be investigated by Congress except through impeachment.' According to Rao, impeachment 'provides the exclusive method for Congress to investigate accusations of illegal conduct by impeachable officials.' If the House attempts to probe the president's alleged wrongdoing on any basis other than impeachment, he is insulated from its demands." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Commonly reports will include, somewhere down the page, that "Judge So-and-So was appointed by Bill Clinton." Some of Dubya's far-right appointees get a little more attention. But what the future holds, no doubt, is commentary on court cases that amounts to dismissing an opinion with, "Oh, well, s/he's a Trump judge." Unfortunately, there are a lot of "Trump judges."

Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker paints a nuanced portrait of Kevin McAleenan, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, who quit that job Friday. But, Blitzer warns, with the "two partisan appointees ... Ken Cuccinelli ... and Mark Morgan ... [who] have been auditioning for [McAleenan's] job ... D.H.S. runs the risk of becoming an overt arm of the Trump reëlection campaign, which is a genuinely frightening prospect.... We'll never know all the outlandish policies McAleenan probably had to avert, redirect, or quietly defuse during his tenure at D.H.S. Now, without him there, we're about to find out."

Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "Penzeys Spices, a family-owned company in Wauwatosa, spent nearly $92,000 on Facebook advertisements related to impeachment from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, according to data from a communications agency that tracks political spending.... Penzeys sells spices online and has dozens of brick-and-mortar stores across the United States.... The company's ads aren't subtle. 'This week the curtain href="https://www.facebook.com/Penzeys/posts/10157762425507834">Facebook post on Oct. 3, referring to the impeachment inquiry against Mr. Trump. The same post encouraged readers to sign up for a cooking newsletter." Last week Penzeys was the second biggest spender on Facebook ads related to impeachment; the first was Donald Trump's re-election campaign. Thanks to unwashed for the link. See also commentary in yesterday's thread. You might want to put in an order for "Justice" or "Tsardust Memories."

Presidential Race 2020. Warren Trolls Facebook Fake Ads Policy. Emma Newberger of CNBC: "Elizabeth Warren is buying ads on Facebook that falsely claim Mark Zuckerberg has endorsed ... Donald Trump, in a deliberate ploy that targets Facebook's controversial decision to allow politicians to make false claims in paid advertising.... 'Breaking news: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook just endorsed Donald Trump for re-election,' the ads reads.... Facebook's own policy exempts ads by politicians from third-party fact-checking. That includes Warren' trolling ad, which includes a disclaimer that says the content isn't true."

Beyond the Beltway

Louisiana. Mark Ballard of the Baton Rouge Advocate: "Republican millionaire Eddie Rispone, making his first bid for public office, edged his way into a Nov. 16 runoff with incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. By a margin of about 50,000 votes, Rispone, of Baton Rouge, beat his Republican rival, U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, to face off with Edwards, who led the field Saturday night but not by enough to win outright. Edwards garnered 626,000 votes, 47% of the total cast, according to the Secretary of State's complete but unofficial results. Rispone, who spent about $11.5 million -- mostly of his own money -- on the campaign, came in second with 368,318 votes, or 27%, followed by three-term Congressman Abraham ... with 317,115, or 24% of the vote."

Texas. Staying at Home, Minding Your Own Business While Black. Ryan Mac & David Mack of BuzzFeed News: "A black woman was shot and killed by police inside her own home early Saturday morning in Fort Worth, Texas, after her neighbor called a non-emergency police number for a wellness check on her [because the caller noticed her doors were ajar]. Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, 28, was killed in a bedroom at the home at around 2:30 a.m., according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner.... One officer [who is white], after seeing someone through the window of the home, drew his weapon and fired one shot, killing the woman.... Body camera footage ... [shows] the officer peer[ing] through a window, where he presumably sees a person. He quickly raises his flashlight in one hand, gun in another. 'Put your hands up, show me your hands,' he shouts before firing a shot -- all in less than four seconds. The Forth Worth shooting comes weeks after Amber Guyger, a former cop in neighboring Dallas, was found guilty of murder for fatally shooting her unarmed neighbor in his apartment. Her neighbor, Botham Jean, was a 26-year-old black man from Saint Lucia."

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