;)
The Commentariat -- March 1, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is demanding that President Trump's White House comply with an ongoing investigation into the security clearance process, accusing the White House of stonewalling congressional requests for documents and transcribed interviews. Cummings also raised concerns Friday about the actions by President Trump and others in the White House in reaction to a New York Times report that Trump ordered then-chief of staff John Kelly to grant his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance despite issues raised by the intelligence community and then-White House lawyer Donald McGahn. 'If true, these new reports raise grave questions about what derogatory information career officials obtained about Mr. Kushner to recommend denying him access to our nation's most sensitive secrets, why President Trump concealed his role in overruling that recommendation, why General Kelly and Mr. McGahn both felt compelled to document these actions, and why your office is continuing to withhold key documents and witnesses from this Committee,' Cummings wrote in a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone on Friday."
A Big Freebie for Li'l Kim. Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "The U.S. military is preparing to announce that annual large-scale joint exercises conducted with South Korea every spring will no longer be held, according to two U.S. defense officials. The major U.S.-South Korea exercises are being curtailed as part of the Trump administration's effort to ease tensions with North Korea, the officials said. The exercises -- known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- will be replaced with smaller, mission-specific training, according to the officials.... Word of the planned announcement comes less than 48 hours after a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came to an abrupt end with no agreement. Trump said afterward that the annual military drills with South Korea were 'very, very expensive' and the government in Seoul should pay more for them. U.S. officials said the decision is not related to the summit in Hanoi but has been under consideration for some time."
David Nakamura & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died after being detained for 17 months in North Korea, on Friday directly blamed leader Kim Jong Un for their son's death a day after President Trump said he believed Kim's account that he was not responsible. 'We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out,' Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement. 'Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuse or lavish praise can change that. Trump said at a news conference in Hanoi that Kim felt 'very badly' about Otto Warmbier's death in 2017, several days after being released in a coma from captivity in North Korea. 'He tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word,' Trump said, responding to a question from a Washington Post reporter."
Trump's New Fixer Fixes Former Fixer. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has fallen under investigation for an apparent threat against Michael Cohen -- which he may have made at ... Donald Trump's request.... Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff reporter for The Atlantic, tweeted Thursday that he overheard a phone conversation between Gaetz and Trump, whom he said called the Florida Republican from Hanoi to discuss the Cohen testimony and apparent threat. I was happy to do it for you,' Gaetz said, according to Dovere. 'You just keep killing it.' Gaetz later refused to discuss the call, [telling Dovere he didn't discuss his phone calls with Trump]...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It isn't clear from Gaetz's remark to Trump that Trump asked Gaetz to send the tweet threatening to out Michael Cohen's purported extra-marital sex life. Gaetz could have been freelancing. On the other hand, how would Gaetz, who is from Florida, know Cohen had or was rumored to have had affairs? Trump of course would have been much morely likely to know this. So it seems to me that -- at the very least -- Trump provided the dirt for Gaetz's tweet. Did he direct Gaetz to send the tweet? Nah. He likely said something like, "Michael has had all these affairs. Wouldn't it be something if somebody tweeted them out right before he's scheduled to testify on TV? It would be great if the tweet said Michael's wife would be banging everybody in the building (except Jarad!) while the rat is in the clink." Because, you know, that's the way the capo dei capi gives orders to his capi.
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The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House's top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said. Mr. Trump's decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been 'ordered' to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance. The White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, also wrote an internal memo outlining the concerns that had been raised about Mr. Kushner -- including by the C.I.A. -- and how Mr. McGahn had recommended that he not be given a top-secret clearance. The disclosure of the memos contradicts statements made by the president, who told The New York Times in January in an Oval Office interview that he had no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.... House Democrats are in the early stages of an investigation into how several Trump administration officials obtained clearances, including Mr. Kushner." ...
... Here's the Times audio of Trump lying through his teeth to Haberman January 31:
... Quint Forgey of Politico: "The chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Thursday threatened to subpoena the White House for information related to its protocol for distributing security clearances, following a report earlier in the day that ... Donald Trump ordered his ex-chief of staff to grant a top-secret clearance to Jared Kushner.... 'The security clearance process is supposed to function in an even-handed and neutral manner based on the national security interests of the United States,' the chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), said in a statement Thursday night. 'This latest report indicates that President Trump may have granted access to our country's most sensitive classified information to his son-in-law against the advice of career staff -- directly contradicting the President's public denials that he played any role.'... Congressional Democrats have sought to revoke Kushner's clearance as far back as May 2017, and the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the White House security clearance process last month. But Cummings said Thursday that administration officials had neither produced the documents nor scheduled the interviews he called for as part of that inquiry.... Trump told The Times in January that he had no role in Kushner's receiving a clearance.... Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and Kushner's wife, told ABC News in February that her father 'had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband's clearance.'" ...
... P.S. The whole family are accomplished liars. Well, I take that back; I've noticed that when Donald Trump is asked a question & he gives an answer that's a flat-out lie because the truth would implicate him in something shady or illegal, his eyes widen (a modified deer-in-the-headlines reaction) & he modulates his voice to "sound sincere." This is the most infamous example, but there are others:
** Marcy Wheeler, in a New York Times op-ed, brilliantly pieces together the clues that Robert Mueller, Michael Cohen & others have dropped to make a convincing case that Donald Trump conspired with Russians to tilt the election; she lays out the quid pro quos, too. ...
...Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: My thanks to the NYT editors, who made Wheeler's essay quite readable. On MSNBC Thursday, various pundits were wringing their hands over the efficacy of bringing impeachment proceedings on the flimsy legs of illegal payments to Stormy Daniels & Michael Cohen since "this Rusher thing" is falling apart; Wheeler makes a strong case that all is not quiet on the Russian front.
Mary Jalonick, et al., of the AP: “... Donald Trump's former lawyer has completed three days of testimony on Capitol Hill -- and is coming back for another day next week.... [Michael] Cohen was interviewed behind closed doors Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee for more than eight hours.... He said as he left that he would be returning to Capitol Hill on March 6 for another round of questioning with the same panel. House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff called the closed-door session with Cohen productive and said lawmakers were able to 'drill down in great detail' on issues they are investigating. Schiff said the committee will also hear from Felix Sater, a Russia-born executive who worked with Cohen on an ultimately unsuccessful deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, in an open hearing March 14.&" ...
... Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Oversight Committee will pursue interviews with some of ... Donald Trump's children and closest allies who were implicated in Michael Cohen's bombshell testimony before the panel, Chairman Elijah Cummings said Thursday. 'All you have to do is follow the transcript. If there are names that were mentioned or records that were mentioned during the hearing, we want to take a look at all of that,' Cummings told reporters.... After Wednesday's hearing, Democrats said they were interested in speaking with Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of The Trump Organization." ...
... Alan Neuhauser of US News: "... Donald Trump's eldest son and daughter were regularly briefed about a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, Michael Cohen, the president's former longtime lawyer and confidant, testified Wednesday. Cohen, testifying to the House Oversight Committee, said that Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were involved in discussions about the deal, interactions he said were conducted in the regular course of business. 'Our goal was to get this project. We were interested in building what would have been the largest building in all of Europe,' Cohen said. 'After each communication' about the project, he continued, 'I would report back' to Trump. The testimony corroborates news reports detailing the Trump family's apparently close involvement in the Trump Tower deal....Ivanka earlier this month said that she knew 'almost nothing' about the Trump Tower deal." Mrs. McC: Sorry, the dumb-blonde feint won't work in the 21st century.
... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The House intelligence [committee] intends to call the Trump Organization's chief financial officer to testify.... Allen Weisselberg received renewed congressional attention after disgraced Trump fixer Michael Cohen on Wednesday repeatedly mentioned the Trump Org CFO as crucial to various aspects of dubiously legal practices by the president, from the Stormy Daniels hush-money payments to potential insurance fraud.... Weisselberg is uniquely positioned to address questions about financial transactions or relationships that concern potential foreign leverage over Trump -- which new intelligence committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has indicated for months that he intends to investigate." ...
... Tom Winter & Anna Schecter of NBC News: "... three people with direct knowledge of the matter tell NBC News that Weisselberg is not cooperating [with federal prosecutors], has never been a cooperating witness, and has provided limited details in the course of his testimony. A person close to the Trump Organization tells NBC News that Weisselberg is still with the Trump Organization and defends Trump and the company." ...
... Rachel Bade & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "House Democrats on Thursday made plans to dig deeper into President Trump's business and charity, using testimony from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen as a road map to call new witnesses and seek new internal documents.... On Capitol Hill, at least six committees are investigating some piece of Trump's life before the presidency. Their staffers meet at least three times a week, to share information and plans. On Thursday, all of them were planning next steps based on Cohen's testimony.... On the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees banking, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said Democrats will follow up on allegations by Cohen that Trump exaggerated his wealth to receive bank loans and lower his insurance premiums." ...
... Rachel Maddow noted that an estate Trump owns in Bedford, New York, which was assessed at $18MM or less in 2011, and which, according to Cohen's testimony & documents he provided, Trump inflated to a value of $291MM for the purpose of obtaining a loan from Deutsche Bank. ...
... ** Matt Ford of the New Republic: "In Cohen's telling, Trump uses vague and elliptical statements to instruct his subordinates to commit wrongdoings on his behalf. 'Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress,' he said. 'That's not how he operates.' Instead, Cohen said, Trump would 'look me in the eye' during the campaign and say that he wasn't conducting business in Russia -- even while Cohen worked on his behalf toward a Trump hotel project in Moscow. 'In his way, he was telling me to lie,' he explained. This description of Trump's behavior is all too familiar. Former FBI Director James Comey documented how Trump repeatedly tried to elicit his loyalty during their one-on-one interactions in early 2017, telling him that he 'needed loyalty.' Though Trump did not directly order Comey to drop the investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn, he made his intentions plain. 'I hope you can let this go,' Trump reportedly told the FBI director shortly after Flynn's ouster that February." ...
... AP: "Fordham University is confirming it received a letter from Donald Trump's then-lawyer threatening legal action if Trump's academic records became public. Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has testified to Congress that Trump directed him to write letters warning his schools and the College Board not to disclose his grades or SAT scores." Includes copy of Cohen's letter to Fordham, which Cohen presented as an exhibit to his testimony. ...
... Jeremy Herb & Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Two of ... Donald Trump's closest allies on the House Oversight Committee referred Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to the Justice Department Thursday for possible criminal prosecution, claiming to have evidence that Cohen 'committed perjury and knowingly made false statements' to lawmakers during his day-long testimony Wednesday. The criminal referral -- sent by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, and North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows -- outlined several areas of testimony they urged the Justice Department to investigate, including Cohen's claims Wednesday that he did not seek a job in the Trump White House, his denial of committing bank fraud, as well as his assertion that he did not have any reportable contracts with foreign entities.... A spokesperson for the Justice Department said it is reviewing the referral." ...
... Mark Meadows Knows Some Black People. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "The most emotionally fraught moment during the Michael Cohen hearing ... was a tense exchange after one lawmaker [Rashida Tlaib] accused another [Mark Meadows] of engaging in a racist act by bringing a black woman to the hearing 'as a prop.' Though the issue was mostly resolved during the hearing, the aftershocks of it continued Thursday with the resurfacing of three videos from 2012 of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) making birther comments about President Barack Obama and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) going on CNN to reiterate her belief that Meadows's actions were insensitive to people of color.... Meadows brought in [Lynne] Patton [-- who has worked both for the Trump Org & in Trump's White House --] who stood silently behind him while he made his remarks, in an attempt to counter Cohen's testimony that Trump is racist. But having an employee, friend or family member of color does not shield a person from racism or at capitalizing on others' racism for political gain." ...
... Michelle Goldberg: "Some white conservatives ... seem convinced that you can’t be racist if you have an affectionate relationship with a person of color. And so when Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, called out [Rep. Mark] Meadows [R-N.C.] toward the end of the hearing, he was so aggrieved he nearly melted down.... There's a mainstream assumption that it is racist to say that Obama secretly hails from Africa. This should, but somehow doesn't, translate into a mainstream assumption that Trump, who rode birther conspiracies to political prominence, is an unrepentant racist." ...
... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "The President, Cohen said in his opening statement, had admitted to him that his decades-old story about why he did not serve in the Vietnam War was false, revealing that he had never had bone-spur surgery, as he claimed in order to receive a medical deferment. The disclosure from Trump came during the 2016 campaign, when Cohen's job was to shut down the bad press coverage of Trump's dubious explanation for why he had not served in Vietnam.... Cohen disclosed this on a day when Trump was actually in Vietnam.... [Trump] declared victory in his Singapore summit, last year, without having, in fact, achieved the deal he touted, forcing his negotiators to scramble afterward to secure concessions he had already claimed. It wasn't to be.... No amount of Trump bluster or deflection could obscure the twin disasters of the last twenty-four hours.... Rarely has a President been so publicly humiliated, in different settings by such different actors, in such a short span of time." ...
... Joyce Vance in a Washington Post op-ed: "Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday was a master class in how prosecutors can present cooperating witnesses who have lied and engaged in criminal conduct, and use their testimony to obtain convictions from juries.... Choirboys don't often end up in the middle of criminal conspiracies.... On Wednesday, Cohen began the transformation from deceitful criminal to believable witness.... First, Cohen, as they say, brought the receipts.... Second, Cohen didn't go too far, when he easily could have.... Third, Cohen's story made sense.... Finally, there was Cohen's demeanor.... He was serious and respectful." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "The House of Representatives has always been the shallower end of the legislative pool. But the performance of Republicans at the Cohen hearing was in a class of its own. Their game plan seemed to consist of shouting, vilification and shouted vilification. Most of them apparently got their degrees from the Roy Cohn School of Law.... At some point, kissing up involves moral corruption. And Republicans passed that milestone some time ago.... Cohen started the hearing with an absolutely awful reputation and still came across looking more trustworthy than his accusers.... Years ago, I posed the question: What happens when a narcissist who thinks he is at the center of the universe is actually placed at the center of the universe? We are seeing what happens. The whole apparatus of a political party -- including its legislative and religious wings -- is now dedicated to the defense of one man's feral will."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The foreign-linked mystery company fighting to avoid handing over records demanded by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to have incurred a fine of $2.25 million as it presses its legal fight, according to court records released on Thursday. The $50,000-a-day penalty a federal judge imposed on the foreign-government-owned firm continues to grow and might be boosted to accrue at a higher rate in the future, one court order made public indicates."
Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: “Trump said the main impediment to a deal [with North Korea] was Kim's requirement that the United States lift all economic sanctions on North Korea in exchange for the closure of only one nuclear facility, which still would have left Pyongyang with a large arsenal of missiles and warheads. But Trump also raised concerns about North Korea's concealment of parts of its nuclear industry. Hours later, North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, offered a slightly different take at a rare news conference, arguing that Kim's regime sought only 'partial' sanctions relief in return for dismantling the North's main enrichment capabilities for fissile material." ...
... Eric Talmadge of the AP: "So who's telling the truth?... According to a senior official who briefed the media on condition he not be named..., the North Koreans 'basically asked for the lifting of all sanctions. But he acknowledged the North's demand was only for Washington to back the lifting of United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed since March 2016 and didn't include the other resolutions going back a decade more. What Pyongyang was seeking, he said, was the lifting of sanctions that impede the civilian economy and the people's livelihood -- as Ri had claimed.... Kim was indeed seeking a lot of relief -- including the lifting of bans on everything from trade in metals, raw materials, luxury goods, seafood, coal exports, refined petroleum imports, raw petroleum imports. But Kim wasn't looking for the lifting of sanctions on armaments. Those were imposed earlier, from 2006, when the North conducted its first nuclear test. For Pyongyang, that's a key difference." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's an instance where Trump wasn't telling the truth, but he wasn't necessarily lying, either. It's quite possible he's too ignorant to under the "key difference."
... Samantha Vinograd in the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's failure to engage in the most basic preparatory work for [the Hanoi] summit -- and his longstanding penchant for putting personal convictions ahead of his experts' opinions -- meant that there was no way that he could have come out of this summit with a denuclearization deal.... In January President Trump said that his intelligence community was wrong on North Korea and there's reporting that he put more faith in Vladimir Putin's North Korea analysis (which is never unbiased).... Because President Trump still thought that denuclearization was possible heading into the Hanoi Summit -- based on his own personal assessment (or Putin's) of Kim Jong Un's intentions -- his goals for the Summit were out of touch with reality.... Time is on Kim's side, and while he keeps proliferating weapons and new global relationships, we are freezing major military exercises, at least while we determine next steps.... said [in walking away yesterday] that he wants to do things 'right' not 'fast' but his addiction to doing things fast, not right, is what got us here in the first place." ...
... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: Trump's "diplomatic" pratfall "should surprise no one, says Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress. 'What happened on North Korea is a textbook case of what not to do,' he says. 'He flew all the way on the other side of the world for a deal that wasn't anywhere close to having the necessary ingredients -- let alone being partially baked.' He adds, 'It was so poorly planned it makes me think Trump may have wanted an excuse just to get out of town during the damaging and embarrassing [Michael] Cohen testimony.'... There was no agreement worked out in advance, so the risk of failure was high.... Kim didn't need to give an inch, and Trump wound up with another diplomatic belly-flop.... More egregious than Trump's diplomatic malpractice was Trump's defense of the murderous Kim....'It is simply disgusting what he said exonerating Kim for the murder of a U.S. citizen,' Katulis says. 'No one has been brought to justice for that murder. The episode shows how weak Trump is when he meets with leaders like Kim and Putin -- he turns into a fawning, shrinking violet who kowtows to America's worst adversaries.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Erica Werner & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "GOP opposition to President Trump's emergency declaration at the border grew in the Senate Thursday, even as Trump warned that fellow Republicans who vote to overturn it are putting themselves 'at great jeopardy' politically. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined two Democrats in introducing a disapproval resolution identical to one that passed the House earlier this week.... Another Republican senator, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, delivered a floor speech proposing how Trump could get the money he wants to build his U.S.-Mexico border wall without use of a national emergency.... And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) ... said that if he determines Trump's emergency declaration would jeopardize military construction funds, he would be inclined to vote to overturn it.... Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has also announced plans to support a disapproval resolution.... Numerous other GOP senators have also expressed reservations about Trump's move, among them Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Rand Paul (Ky.)." ...
... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Republicans are offering a choice to ... Donald Trump: Withdraw your national emergency declaration at the border or face a potential rebellion from the GOP. The message was delivered clearly on Thursday by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), part of an effort by senior Republicans to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump on the Senate floor.... 'We've never had a case where the president has asked for money, been refused the money by Congress, then used the national emergency powers to spend it anyway,' [Alexander told reporters]. 'To me that's a dangerous precedent.'"
Alex Guillen of Politico: "The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as EPA's fifteenth administrator Thursday, cementing the authority of one of ... Donald Trump's most effective and prolific de-regulators. He was confirmed by a vote of 52-47. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) was the only Republican to vote against him; no Democrats voted for him. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) did not vote. ... In the eight months since he took over EPA, Wheeler -- whose previous clients include coal company Murray Energy, as well as a uranium company and cheese giant Sargento -- has efficiently carried out the president's de-regulatory agenda while avoiding the same constant stream of scandals that plagued [former administrator Scott] Pruitt." Guillen lists some of Wheeler's greatest hits to the planet.
Paul Krugman: Ivanka Trump recently claimed "that Americans 'want to work for what they get,' that they want to live in a country 'where there is the potential for upward mobility.'... It doesn't get much better than being lectured on self-reliance by an heiress whose business strategy involves trading on her father's name.... We know a lot about upward mobility in different countries, and the facts are not what Republicans want to hear. The key observation, based on a growing body of research, is that when it comes to upward social mobility..., Americans whose parents have low incomes are more likely to have low incomes themselves, and less likely to make it into the middle or upper class, than their counterparts in other advanced countries. And those who are born affluent are, correspondingly, more likely to keep their status.... The policies that are associated with high levels of upward mobility around the world -- are exactly the things Republicans denounce as socialism."
Heather Caygle & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Democrats held an emotional debate behind closed doors Thursday over how to stop losing embarrassing procedural battles with Republicans -- a clash that exposed the divide between moderates and progressives. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took a hard line at the caucus meeting, saying that being a member of Congress sometimes requires taking tough votes."
Presidential Elections. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times calls the Electoral College “the greatest threat to our democracy.... The Electoral College routinely threatens or produces perverse outcomes, where the will of the voters is thwarted by an ill-considered 18th-century electoral device. It has no place in a democracy that strives for a standard of 'one person, one vote.' And most Americans still don't like it. In a 2018 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, 65 percent said presidents should be elected by popular vote.... A [presidential] primary campaign is the perfect forum for raising the issue, giving it high-profile support and wide attention. That, in turn, might move Americans from passive dissatisfaction with the status quo to action against it."
Presidential Race 2020. Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday morning that he is running for president, pledging to put the environment at the heart of his campaign for the Democratic nomination. 'I am the only candidate who will make defeating climate change our nation's number one priority,' Inslee said in a video launching his campaign."
Ed Kilgore: "In a saga that reflected how focused Republicans are on eliminating reproductive rights, for all their protestations of objectivity on the subject, Neomi Rao was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote for a prized seat on the D.C. Court of Appeals, by far the most influential circuit court in the country." Rao, an Asian-American, got an assist from the Justice for whom she clerked, Clarence Thomas. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Edmund Burke, my ass. Rao -- and to a lesser extent, Thomas -- confirm something you already knew: that confederates are exquisitely stupid. The underlying purpose of "conservatism" in the U.S. is to "conserve" the power of white men. One can surmise that Thomas, known for harassing female employees, would be satisfied with half a loaf. But that a woman of Asian descent could be hoodwinked into furthering the white man's cause boggles my mind. More surprising yet, when the Federalist Society's token minorities come up for Senate confirmation, no senators ever ask them why they've allowed themselves to promote the white man's project. I am inclined to think that even liberal senators have not figured out the confederate scheme. If so, that's pretty amazing.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Pacific Gas & Electric said Thursday that its equipment had probably caused the Camp Fire, the catastrophic November blaze that destroyed thousands of homes in Paradise, Calif., and killed at least 86 people. PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, said it had recorded a $10.5 billion charge in anticipation of damage claims for that fire, the deadliest in state history. Largely as a result, the company reported a $6.9 billion loss for 2018. Though the cause of the fire is still under official investigation by California officials, PG&E said it 'believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire.' Attempts to determine the fire's cause center on the 56-mile Caribou-Palermo electric transmission line."
Way Beyond
Israel. Yuliya Talmazan & Paul Goldman of NBC News: "Israel's attorney general announced Thursday that his office had indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation. The prime minister faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Stephanie Nebehay & Dan Williams of Reuters: "Israeli security forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in killing 189 Palestinians and wounding more than 6,100 at weekly protests in Gaza last year, United Nations investigators said on Thursday. The independent panel said it had confidential information about those it believes to be responsible for the unlawful killings, including Israeli army snipers and commanders. It called on Israel to prosecute them. 'The Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities,' it said, adding that the protests had been civilian in nature'. The victims included children, journalists, and a double amputee who was in a wheelchair."
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