The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

INAUGURATION 2029

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Constant Comments

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolvesEdward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns

I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.

Wednesday
Jul172019

The Commentariat -- July 18, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Kevin Liptak & Barbara Starr of CNN: "... Donald Trump says a US ship 'destroyed' an Iranian drone on Thursday. He said the drone came within 1,000 yards of the USS Boxer and ignored 'multiple calls to stand down. 'Speaking at the White House Trump said the drone was 'threatening the safety of the ship and the ship's crew' in the Strait of Hormuz and was 'immediately destroyed.' The drone was destroyed using electronic jamming, according to a US defense official. The crew of the Boxer took defensive action after the drone came within a threatening distance of the US ship, the official said. 'This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters,' Trump added." With video. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Watching Trump haltingly read from the teleprompter, leaving the viewer/listener with no confidence he has any idea what he's talking about, I couldn't help think of President Obama & other previous real presidents who, even when they mostly read their remarks about national security issues, seemed to know not only what they were talking about but much more than they revealed. We must not forget how real presidents communicate in crises. You can watch Trump in the video accompanying the CNN story & contrast the presentation by Trump -- a former TV star & con-man/professional actor -- with this:

Oh. Actual Populists. Sheryl Stolberg & Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The House voted Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, delivering a long-sought victory to liberals and putting the Democratic Party's official imprimatur on the so-called Fight for $15, which many Democratic presidential candidates have embraced. The bill would more than double the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour -- about $15,000 a year for someone working 40 hours a week, or about $10,000 less than the federal poverty level for a family of four. It has not been raised since 2009, the longest time the country has gone without a minimum-wage increase since it was established 1938. The measure, which passed largely along party lines, 231-199, after Republicans branded it a jobs-killer, faces a blockade in the Senate, where Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he will not take it up." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, Trump & McConnell deserve credit for giving themselves huge tax breaks at the expense of the rest of us. The truth is, Trump's antics are extremely useful to McConnell. Few are paying attention to McConnell's stonewalling of almost every bill the House passes when we're all tearing out hair out over Trump's latest outrage.

Tom Winter & Adam Edelman of NBC News: "The FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump was closely involved in a scheme to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, court documents from the closed campaign finance case against former Trump-fixer Michael Cohen show. The documents, released Thursday, describe a 'series of calls, text messages, and emails' among Cohen, Trump, Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks, Keith Davidson -- an attorney for Daniels... -- and David Pecker, an executive of the company tha published the National Enquirer." ...

... Kara Scannell & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Federal search warrants released Thursday detail how Donald Trump and others scrambled in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign to arrange a hush-money deal to hide his alleged affair and contain the fallout from related stories in the press. The internal chaos consumed Trump, then-attorney Michael Cohen campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks and even reached campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, according to the documents unsealed by a federal court in New York. After the 'Access Hollywood' tape came out in October 2016, there was a mad scramble inside the Trump campaign to contain the damage and suppress additional allegations of a sexual nature from reaching public view, according to the documents."

Once Again, Trump Denies Reality Caught on Tape. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday disavowed the 'send her back' chant that broke out at his re-election rally Wednesday night when he railed against a Somali-born congresswoman, as Republicans in Congress rushed to distance themselves and their party from the ugly refrain. Mr. Trump said he was 'not happy' with the chant, directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a hijab-wearing freshman Democrat whom the president has singled out repeatedly for verbal excoriation. On Thursday he claimed that he had tried to cut off the chant, an assertion contradicted by video of the event. Asked why he did not stop it, Mr. Trump said, 'I think I did -- I started speaking very quickly.' In fact, as the crowd roared 'send her back,' Mr. Trump looked around silently and paused as the scene unfolded in front of him, doing nothing to halt the chorus.... Mr. Trump's effort to dissociate himself from his own supporters reflected the misgivings of his allies, who have flooded the upper echelons of his team with expressions of concern in the wake of a rally that veered into ugly nativist territory.... Among them were House Republican leaders, who pleaded with Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday morning to separate the party from the message embraced by the crowd in Greenville, N.C." Ivanka Trump reportedly got to Daddyo this morning. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's not forget Trump's late Wednesday tweet: "Just returned to the White House from the Great State of North Carolina. What a crowd, and what great people. The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left. 2020 will be a big year for the Republican Party!" (Linked below.) IOW, Trump only accepted the notion that a threatening, racist, nativist taunt was not that good a look after advisors & allies begged him to disavow the fascist chant. Up till then he thought it was so great he congratulated the chanters. Then he pretended the chant had nothing to do with him and said he heroically tried to stop it. And I am the Queen of Romania.

... Benjamin Weiser & Ali Watkins of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday denied bail for Jeffrey Epstein, the financier facing sex-trafficking charges, rejecting his request to await trial under home detention at his Upper East Side mansion. The judge, Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said Mr. Epstein, who owns property in Paris and has a private plane, would be detained in jail until his trial on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. Judge Berman emphasized Mr. Epstein's danger to the others, particularly his accusers and 'prospective victims as well.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

I have to be out until late afternoon, and there may be newsworthy developments during the late morning/early afternoon in the Trump-Cohen hush-money case & in the Jeffrey Epstein case. So if you come across a good story or these or other matters, please provide a link in the comments, & I'll catch up later. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Daily Beast: "Donald Trump has showered praise upon the crowd who launched into a' Send her back!' chant directed towards Rep. Ilhan Omar during the president's Wednesday night rally in North Carolina..., writing late Wednesday: 'Just returned to the White House from the Great State of North Carolina. What a crowd, and what great people. The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left. 2020 will be a big year for the Republican Party!'" ...

... At 7:52 pm ET Wednesday, Trump is at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, and his racist crowd is chanting re: Rep. Ilhan Omar "Send her back! Send her back!" See MAG's prophetic remark in yesterday's Commentariat. Update: Rachel Maddow pointed out that the Trump crowd, not surprisingly, was "almost all white" even though the population of Greenville is about 30 percent African-American. ...

The crowd at Trump's rally chanting 'send her back' after the President viciously and dishonestly attacked Ilhan Omar is one of the most chilling and horrifying things I've ever seen in politics. -- Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, in a tweet ...

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise. -Maya Angelou

     -- Rep. Ilhan Omar, in tweet responding to Trump's latest attack

... Contributor Hattie puts Trump's rally in its historical context:

... "Trump Batters Dem Congresswomen on Campaign Trail." Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump doubled down on the go-back-to-where-you-came-from trope during a Wednesday rally in Greenville, N.C., laying into the four progressive House members who have styled themselves as the foil to the Republican president. During his first rally since officially relaunching his re-election campaign, Trump spent more of his initial energy focusing on the four new Democratic members ... than his assorted 2020 presidential opponents. The rally was a campaign distillation of the racist tweets he had sent Sunday where he insisted the four members 'go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.' 'They are always telling us how to run it, how to do this,; Trump said Wednesday of the Democratic freshmen. 'You know what? If they don't love it, tell them to leave it.' Save for the occasional heckler, the crowd at East Carolina University seemed to enjoy his new campaign themes, chanting 'send her back.'..." ...

... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Goaded on by the president, a crowd at a Donald Trump rally on Wednesday night chanted 'send her back! send her back!' in reference to Ilhan Omar, a US congresswoman who arrived almost 30 years ago as a child refugee in the United States.... But clearly sensing a political winner -- notwithstanding polling showing that a majority of Americans found his remarks to be offensive -- Trump riffed on the theme at his rally.... Trump's 'go back' tweets were prompted by an appearance before a House committee in which [four] congresswomen testified to inhumane conditions they witnessed during tours of migrant detention facilities in Texas." ...

     ... Delusional Donnie. Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "President Trump falsely claimed during his campaign rally Wednesday night that he has never 'had an empty seat at any event.' Reporters online were quick to point out that the president's statement is incorrect, with multiple events having open spaces, including Wednesday's rally." ...

... Matt Novak of Gizmodo: "Donald Trump held another neo-fascist rally yesterday in North Carolina.... Online dictionary searches in the U.S. from last night show just how bad things have gotten. Merriam-Webster reports that the most common searches last night included the terms: racism, socialism, fascism, concentration camp, xenophobia, and bigot. The searches are quite a snapshot of what it's like to live in 2019, when toxic xenophobia and hatred are coming not just from the political fringes but from the most powerful man in the country." --s ...

... Mediaite: "... Donald Trump was asked on Wednesday night about whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) should be investigated for possibly marrying her brother, bringing a scandalous rumor from the congresswoman's home state onto the national stage. In response to the question -- from a reporter at OANN, a right wing network best known for pushing conspiracies -- Trump said: 'There's a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother. You're asking me a question about it. I don't know, but I'm sure that somebody will be looking at that.'... Without more evidence, the allegation remains unproven.... But for now, the claim that she married her brother is just a rumor -- as Snopes laid out in thorough detail here." Omar has vehemently denied it. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The only things Trump "proved" was that he stays up on right-wing theories and that he's willing to go to almost any lengths to "otherize" nonwhite opponents. ...

... Julie Davis & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday killed an attempt to impeach President Trump for statements that the chamber condemned this week as racist, turning aside an accusation that he had brought 'ridicule, disgrace and disrepute' to his office. But 95 Democrats signaled their support for impeachment, while 137 opposed it -- a dramatic split signaling trouble ahead for a divided party. The 332-95 vote to table the impeachment article drafted by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, constituted the first action by the House since Democrats took control in January on a measure to impeach Mr. Trump, a significant move that Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and other party leaders have toiled to avoid. By agreeing to table the article, Ms. Pelosi and the Democrats put off -- at least for now -- a prolonged and divisive debate over whether Mr. Trump's conduct warrants his expulsion." ...

... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... before becoming president, [Donald Trump] did not believe in 'American exceptionalism,' he said, because America was not exceptional. Instead, it was a 'laughingstock' that was no better than Vladimir V. Putin's Russia. By promising to make America great again, he made it clear that he believed it was not great anymore. That was then. Now the president who trash-talked America more than any other in modern times says anyone who trash-talks America should leave. The president, who took office with an inaugural address decrying 'American carnage,' now says that it is unpatriotic to speak ill of the country. And on Tuesday, he went further, equating attacks on him by his political opponents with attacks on 'the Country, the Flag.'... Assailed for inflaming racial divisions, Mr. Trump this week sought to reframe his attack on the so-called squad of congresswomen into a question of patriotism and loyalty, claiming that they 'hate our country..'" ...

... Qusay Speaks. Quint Forgey of Politico:"Eric Trump said Wednesday he supported his father's racist Twitter post, which the House formally condemned in a resolution the previous evening. He called the so-called squad of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) an 'absolute clown show.' 'I love the tweet, "If you don't love our country, get out. Leave,"' Eric Trump said. 'You know, if you complain about our country, you know, go to somewhere -- go experience somewhere else in the world. I have seen a lot of the world, right? We have it so great in America. America is doing so well.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Stupid Republican Thoughts. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "Republican Rep. Mike Kelly (Pa.) on Tuesday weighed in on criticism of President Trump's tweets targeting four minority congresswomen, saying that he is a person of color because he is white. 'You know, they talk about people of color. I'm a person of color. I'm white. I'm an Anglo Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don't get offended,' Kelly told Vice News before a vote on a resolution condemning the president. 'With a name like Mike Kelly you can't be from any place else but Ireland,' he said. The term 'person of color' is widely used in the U.S. to refer to anyone who is not white or of European descent." ...

     ... Charles Pierce: "The Irish are not Anglo-Saxon, dumbass. They are Celts with a little Scandinavian Viking mixed in.... Also, you're not a 'person of color' because you're white, either. These really are the fcking mole people."

... Susan Page of USA Today: "A clear majority of Americans say ... Donald Trump's tweets targeting four minority congresswomen were 'un-American,' according to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll. But most Republicans say they agreed with his comments, an illustration of the nation's sharp partisan divide on issues of patriotism and race. More than two-thirds of those aware of the controversy, 68%, call Trump's tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, 57% say they agree with tweets that told the congresswomen to go back to the countries 'from which they came,' and a third 'strongly' agree with them. All four lawmakers are American citizens; three were born in the USA." ...

... Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has written specific rules that protect people, mostly immigrants, against employment discrimination on the basis of their national origin.... 'Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, "Go back to where you came from,' whether made by supervisors or co-workers,' it [reads]." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Aris Folley of the Hill: "Many on social media have been pointing to a federal guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that identifies the phrase "Go back to where you came from" as language that could violate anti-discrimination laws in the wake of recent attacks by President Trump targeting four lawmakers of color." Among those pointing out the EEOC reg were 's husband), Chris Hayes, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), & Lawrence O'Donnell. O'Donnell wrote, "Trump broke the law and would be fired from any federal job except the one he has." ...

... "The Party of Racist Bastards." Charles Pierce: "Congratulations, George Corley Wallace.... It took a little over 50 years, but you finally did it. You got one of our two major political parties to remake itself in your image. Your deep drilling into the foul national Id has finally come home a gusher. All the demons you unleashed from history are now on the main stage and dancing in perfect rhythm and singing in perfect harmony. It took a little over 50 years, and the effort of a lot of people inside the Republican Party establishment and outside in the conservative movement, but you won, you old bastard. You truly did. Born as the Party of Lincoln, the Republican Party is now yours. It is the party of racist bastards, up and down the scale." Read on. ...

... No, No, They're Not Racists; You Are. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos on how Republican officials & voters have learned to explain away Trump's & their own racist sentiments: Step one: Trump isn't racist, because he didn't mention race. The definition of racism for the modern Republican is completely down to whether someone used a racial epithet. Trump did not say the N-word, so nothing else he could say could possibly be racist according to the Republican rules. Step two: Trump isn't racist; he's just telling it like it is. Step three: Democrats are the real racists, for saying that Trump is racist. Being a racists is a bad thing, but Trump isn't racist because that's already been established in step one and step two. So if Trump didn't say anything about race, then whoever mentioned race first is the real racist. QED. As Reuters reports, Trump's net approval among Republicans rose by 5% following his "go back" tweets and his double-, triple-down aftermath." ...

... Jonathan Chait provides some concrete examples that jibe with Sumner's theory & concludes: "There appears to be no point at which evidence of Trump's racism will compel most Republicans, though. They are only able to process offense at the charge itself. Indeed, the more evidence Trump supplies for the charge, the more offended they become." Chait's recitation of Marco Rubio's both-sides fake excuse is a classic.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Manhattan disclosed on Wednesday that prosecutors have concluded their investigation into campaign finance violations involving President Trump and ordered that they publicly release some of their files.... 'Now that the government's investigation into those violations has concluded,' Judge [William] Pauley wrote, 'it is time that every American has an opportunity to scrutinize the materials.'... The judge's order did not answer one of the lingering questions of the investigation: whether prosecutors in the United States attorney's office in Manhattan still plan to file additional charges in connection with the case. The investigation, which centered on hush money payments arranged during the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump, already resulted in the conviction of the president's former fixer, Michael D. Cohen." ...

     ... Rachel Maddow said Wednesday night that the government had wanted to delete a great deal of material to :protect private third parties: and "government officials," but Judge Pauley ordered that material to be unredacted because the material prosecutors wanted redacted Pauley wrote, "are a matter of national importance." Maddow also remarked that the only "government official" who was involved in the hush-money scheme was Donald Trump (Mrs. McC: as far as we know). The NYT report notes that "Judge Pauley is still allowing the prosecutors to black out some portions, which he called imited references' to an 'uncharged third-party.' The identity of that person is unclear."

Lifestyles of the Rich & Sleazy. Jack Bohrer of NBC News: A "November 1992 tape in the NBC archives shows Donald Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, now a private club, more than a decade before Epstein pleaded guilty to felony prostitution charges in Florida. At one point in the video, Trump is seen grabbing a woman toward him and patting her behind.... The future president was largely surrounded by cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills, in town for a game against the Miami Dolphins.... Trump is seen talking to Epstein and another man while they watch the women on the dance floor. Trump noted the presence of an NBC camera to Epstein, and both point out women...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The old tape begins at about 3:05 min. in:

     ... Update: According to MSNBC, "The 1992 footage of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein was shot by NBC for a Faith Daniels talk show called 'A Closer Look' which profiled the then-newly divorced Trump. During that episode Faith Daniels and Trump describe the circumstances of how he ended up on the show." Those circumstances: at a "Celebrity Show" dinner, Trump walked up to Daniels & kissed her on the lips in front of the paparazzi, & she told him he'd have to pay that off by appearing on her show. Trump's attack of Daniels, as Chris Matthews points out in the segment embedded below, is consistent with what Trump told Billy Bush in the "Access Hollywood" interview. ...

... Joe Nocera in Bloomberg: "Instructed by the court to list his assets, Epstein turned in a financial disclosure form claiming a net worth of more than half a billion dollars. He listed $379 million in cash and investments, and valued his six (yes, six) properties at $181 million. There were no further details. At Monday's bail hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman described the document as 'cursory' and unhelpful.... Plainly, the government will need to dig deep to gain a complete understanding of Epstein's wealth. Under the criminal forfeiture statute, it has the right to take any asset that can be connected to a crime -- in Epstein's case, his properties, if it is proved that underage girls were abused there.... [I]f he acquired any of his wealth from trafficking[, t]hat money could also be taken away by the government.... Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing one of the victims, told the Washington Post that 'it's easy to foresee 160 victims in this case and possibly more.' He added that Epstein's 'exposure' from such lawsuits could exceed $1.5 billion.... [T]he mystery of how Epstein became rich enough to own six properties, plus a private jet, plus all the rest of it remains just that: a mystery." --s ...

... ** Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "The Jeffrey Epstein case is an asteroid poised to strike the elite world in which he moved.... Likely within days, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will release almost 2,000 pages of documents that could reveal sexual abuse by 'numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders,' according to the three-judge panel's ruling.... Another person involved with litigation against Epstein told me: 'It's going to be staggering, the amount of names. It's going to be contagion numbers.'... For those in Epstein's orbit, the stakes of exposure are bound to get higher as more and more women come forward. Every day seems to bring new horrors about Epstein's alleged depravity." --s ...

Juan Cole: "It's official. Trump has put US manufacturing, which is about 14% of the US gross national product, into recession, according to AFP. Recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of decline. The recession in manufacturing has many reasons.... But on top of them all came Trump's trade war with China, which tipped the balance.... Trump's support, like that of most Republican candidates, comes from the upper middle class and the rich (along with, in his peculiar case, Evangelical Christians determined to go to hell for hypocrisy). But about 14% of blue collar workers who had voted for Obama switched to Trump, mainly over his promise to restore US manufacturing and to bring jobs home from China.... The 14% of blue collar workers who switched to voting for the Republican Part[y] -- in hopes that their class interests would be served by a billionaire narcissist -- got taken for a ride." --s

... Mike Lofgren, former GOP Congressional aide, in Common Dreams: "In the age of Trump, the wrongdoing has become so blatant, the attitude towards the rest of us so contemptuous, that a presumption of guilt may be the only realistic attitude[.]... In the rarified world at the intersection of oligarchy and celebrity, the rules are different. Trump's presidency and Epstein's arrest have pulled back the curtain -- ever so slightly -- on this twisted world. It is a black pit of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), codes of omerta, sending batteries of lawyers and sleazy detectives to harass people who saw things they shouldn't have, lining up character witnesses, setting up fake charities both as attestation of beneficence and tax dodge." Worth reading.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House voted Wednesday evening to hold Attorney General William P. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt of Congress for their refusal to turn over key documents related to the Trump administration's attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The citations for two cabinet officials, approved 230-198, will breathe new life into a dispute that has touched all three branches of government over why Trump administration officials pushed to ask census respondents if they were American citizens and what that question's impact would be. Democrats investigating the issue believe that the documents and testimony being shielded would confirm that the administration's long-stated rationale for collecting the data -- to better enforce the Voting Rights Act -- was merely a cover for a politically motivated attempt to eliminate noncitizens from population statistics used to allocate political representation, diminishing Democratic power. The Supreme Court hinted at that theory last month when it rejected the administration's stated reason for adding the question as 'contrived.'... And in an unusual twist, President Trump himself all but confirmed those suspicions earlier this month when he said of the citizenship question, 'You need it for Congress, for districting.'"

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "[Currently] Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer ... runs the [defense] department temporarily while Trump's permanent choice [for Defense secretary], Army Secretary Mark Esper, awaits Senate confirmation. Meanwhile nearly two dozen senior civilian positions remain unfilled by Senate-confirmed appointees. Temporary officials like Spencer now occupy the most crucial roles at the Pentagon, including the top three positions: secretary of defense, deputy secretary of defense, and chief management officer. Twelve senior roles within the secretary's office are vacant in total.... But the staffing problem is not isolated to the Defense Department's central division. The Army and Air Force lack permanent civilian leaders. Trump's choice to be chief of naval operations withdrew his nomination last week, creating another vacancy for the White House to fill.... The wave of vacancies has left the Pentagon without relevant policy advisers or Senate-confirmed leaders during a time when the White House is responding to a myriad of foreign policy challenges[.]" --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but Pentagon leaders are superfluous. The main function of Trump's generals is to come to the White House to tell Trump, "Sir, you were right all along. Thank you for setting us straight, Sir." Then the toughest men you've ever seen openly weep with gratitude for the stable genius. (See Daniel Dale post, linked yesterday, for context.) (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "There is a 'culture of fear, censorship, and suppression' within the Trump administration that is impeding government scientists from doing their best work, former Interior Department policy director and scientist turned whistleblower Joel Clement warned on Wednesday[, s]peaking to lawmakers on the House Science Committee.... But the scientists said that under President Donald Trump, political interference had reached a new level." With multiple examples. --s

One of Those "Great" Border Patrol Agents. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "A border agent who worked at a child detention facility in Clint, TX allegedly sent harassing messages to the mother of a 12-year-old child who was detained where he worked, according to the Washington Post. The mother filed a complaint with Customs and Border Protection about the alleged incident. The complaint alleges that the agent sent abusive chats and video calls to the undocumented Guatemalan woman living in California while he held her son in detention. The messages included a video of the agent masturbating. The agent apparently asked for her Facebook handle after she was allowed to speak by phone with her son, and she agreed, hoping she might find out more information about his case.... The woman says she met with CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility in May and showed them the Facebook messages. In June, she was reunited with her son for the first time since he was 8 months old."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Democrats to pass an extension of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tried to win the Senate's consent to approve the House-passed bill, which would reauthorize funding until fiscal 2090. The bill cleared the House in a 402-12 vote last week.... A spokesperson for Paul later told The Hill that Paul 'is not blocking anything,' adding that he is 'simply seeking to pay for it.'" Mrs. McC: Li'l Randy can't help it; he has his principles, you know. Maybe he can take the money from the widows & orphans fund. ...

     ... Update. Justin Wise of the Hill: "... Jon Stewart on Wednesday strongly condemned Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) after he and another GOP senator objected to legislation to extend the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.... 'It's absolutely outrageous. Pardon me if I'm not impressed in any way by Rand Paul's fiscal responsibility virtue signaling, Stewart said on Fox News while appearing alongside 9/11 first responder John Feal." ...

... Nonetheless, Trump & Li'l Randy Think He Would Be a Great Diplomat. Eliana Johnson & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Over a round of golf this past weekend, Sen. Rand Paul asked ... Donald Trump's blessing for a sensitive diplomatic mission. Paul proposed sitting down with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to extend a fresh olive branch on the president's behalf, according to four U.S. officials. The aim: to reduce tensions between the two countries. Trump signed off on the idea."

Amanda Becker of Reuters: "Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman lawmaker who has clashed with ... Donald Trump and her own Democratic leadership, has sought a meeting with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to discuss their relationship, a Pelosi aide said on Wednesday."

Presidential Race 2020

Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Axios: "It might seem like improvisational madness when President Trump tells American citizens in Congress to 'go back' where they came from, but those close to Trump say there's a lot of calculation behind his race-baiting.... It's central to his 2020 strategy, they say. Trump's associates predict more, not less, of the race-baiting madness.... Trump sees the four progressive women in The Squad as perfect foils until he gets a Democratic nominee to run against." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison, ending one of modern history's most brutal and notorious criminal careers. The life sentence, mandated by law as a result of the severity of Mr. Guzmán's crimes, was handed down in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, where the kingpin was convicted last winter of drug, murder and money laundering charges after a sprawling three-month trial. As some of the federal agents who had chased him for years looked on from the gallery, Judge Brian M. Cogan issued the life term and Mr. Guzmán, 62, was hauled away to prepare himself -- pending an appeal -- for spending the rest of his life behind bars." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Race 2020. Homophobic Alabama. Tim Fitzsimons of NBC News: "Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican contender in the 2020 U.S. Senate race, has set off a new controversy after saying Americans' fixation with 'homosexual activities' has, in part, caused the country's moral decline. Merrill, 55, is running to defeat Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat who won the seat in 2017 after his Republican challenger Roy Moore was accused of soliciting sex from underage girls.... Merrill's remarks about gays come on the heels of several other controversial comments made by Alabama officials, including a mayor who suggested killing gay people and a police officer who mocked a gay teen's suicide.... [Roy] Moore blamed gays, liberals and socialists for the emergence of sexual misconduct allegations against him during his ill-fated first Senate run in 2017." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Puerto Rico. Patricia Mazzei & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "For the fifth consecutive day, [protesters] demanded Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló's resignation. As on Monday, the night ended with chaotic confrontations with the police.This time, there were many more protesters packed into the narrow colonial streets of Old San Juan, including a hardcore group that faced off with the authorities for hours. Police officers in riot gear deployed tear gas and rubber bullets. Ostensibly, the demonstrators were protesting the arrogant and crass exchanges by the governor and his inner circle in a leaked group chat and the corruption of top politicians unveiled by a series of high-profile arrests. But the forceful display on the streets of Old San Juan amounted to a rejection of decades of scandals and mismanagement involving affluent and disconnected leaders who have time and again benefited at the expense of suffering Puerto Ricans."

Way Beyond

France. Elian Peltier, et al., of the New York Times: Paris's Cathedral of "Notre-Dame still stands only because firefighters decided to risk everything, a New York Times reconstruction has found.... This is how it was saved. With lots of graphics.

Tuesday
Jul162019

The Commentariat -- July 17, 2019

Late Morning Update:

Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Axios: "It might seem like improvisational madness when President Trump tells American citizens in Congress to 'go back' where they came from, but those close to Trump say there's a lot of calculation behind his race-baiting.... It's central to his 2020 strategy, they say. Trump's associates predict more, not less, of the race-baiting madness.... Trump sees the four progressive women ... as perfect foils until he gets a Democratic nominee to run against." ...

... Qusay Speaks. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Eric Trump said Wednesday he supported his father's racist Twitter post, which the House formally condemned in a resolution the previous evening. He called the so-called squad of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) an 'absolute clown show.' 'I love the tweet, "If you don't love our country, get out. Leave,"' Eric Trump said. 'You know, if you complain about our country, you know, go to somewhere -- go experience somewhere else in the world. I have seen a lot of the world, right? We have it so great in America. America is doing so well.'" ...

... Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has written specific rules that protect people, mostly immigrants, against employment discrimination on the basis of their national origin.... 'Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, "Go back to where you came from," whether made by supervisors or co-workers,' it [reads]."

Lifestyles of the Rich & Sleazy. Jack Bohrer of NBC News: A "November 1992 tape in the NBC archives shows Donald Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, now a private club, more than a decade before Epstein pleaded guilty to felony prostitution charges in Florida. At one point in the video, Trump is seen grabbing a woman toward him and patting her behind.... The future president was largely surrounded by cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills, in town for a game against the Miami Dolphins.... Trump is seen talking to Epstein and another man while they watch the women on the dance floor. Trump noted the presence of an NBC camera to Epstein, and both point out women...." ...

... The old tape begins at about 3:05 min. in:

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison, ending one of modern history's most brutal and notorious criminal careers. The life sentence, mandated by law as a result of the severity of Mr. Guzmán's crimes, was handed down in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, where the kingpin was convicted last winter of drug, murder and money laundering charges after a sprawling three-month trial. As some of the federal agents who had chased him for years looked on from the gallery, Judge Brian M. Cogan issued the life term and Mr. Guzmán, 62, was hauled away to prepare himself -- pending an appeal -- for spending the rest of his life behind bars."

Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "[Currently] Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer ... runs the [defense] department temporarily while Trump's permanent choice [for Defense secretary], Army Secretary Mark Esper, awaits Senate confirmation. Meanwhile nearly two dozen senior civilian positions remain unfilled by Senate-confirmed appointees. Temporary officials like Spencer now occupy the most crucial roles at the Pentagon, including the top three positions: secretary of defense, deputy secretary of defense, and chief management officer. Twelve senior roles within the secretary's office are vacant in total...But the staffing problem is not isolated to the Defense Department's central division. The Army and Air Force lack permanent civilian leaders. Trump's choice to be chief of naval operations withdrew his nomination last week, creating another vacancy for the White House to fill...>. The wave of vacancies has left the Pentagon without relevant policy advisers or Senate-confirmed leaders during a time when the White House is responding to a myriad of foreign policy challenges[.]" --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but Pentagon leaders are superfluous. The main function of Trump's generals is to come to the White House to tell Trump, "Sir, you were right all along. Thank you for setting us straight, Sir." Then the toughest men you've ever seen openly weep with gratitude for the stable genius. (See Daniel Dale post, linked below, for context.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. -- John Paul Stevens, dissent, Bush v. Gore ...

** Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "John Paul Stevens, whose 35 years on the United States Supreme Court transformed him, improbably, from a Republican antitrust lawyer to the outspoken leader of the court's liberal wing, died Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 99." ...

... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: Stevens' "death is more than just the vanishing of a generational landmark; it's his ideology, his understanding of the Constitution, that's disappearing, too. And that's the gravest loss to the country."

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The House voted on Tuesday to condemn as racist President Trump's attacks against four congresswomen of color but only after the debate over the president's language devolved into a bitterly partisan brawl that showcased deep rifts over race, ethnicity and political ideology in the age of Trump. The measure passed nearly along party lines, 240-187, following one of the most polarizing exchanges on the House floor in recent memory. Only four Republicans and the House's lone independent, Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, voted with all Democrats to condemn Mr. Trump. I know racism when I see it, I know racism when I feel it, and at the highest level of government, there's no room for racism,' thundered Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, an icon of the civil rights movement who was nearly beaten to death in Alabama in 1965.... Among other things, the resolution declares that the House 'believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger,' that 'those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations,' and that the House 'is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith, or country of origin.'" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Appropriately enough, Republicans chose Steve Scalise (La.) to make their closing argument against the resolution. As Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept wrote this week, "... in 2002, Scalise, then a Louisiana state representative, attended and spoke at a convention of the white supremacist European American Unity and Rights Organization, a group founded by David Duke..., the Holocaust-denying former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as 'perhaps America's most well-known racist and anti-Semite.' Scalise later said he 'regretted' -- but did not technically apologize for -- attending the EURO event. When Louisiana-based political reporter Stephanie Grace first met Scalise, he likened himself to Duke. Grace recalled, 'He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage.'" The Democrats chose one of the great civil rights leaders of the 20th century. ...

... Meg Wagner, et al., of CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking from the House floor today, called President Trump's continued defense of his remarks 'shameful' and added that the 'comments are racist.' While addressing the House of Representatives during the debate over a resolution calling for members to condemn Trump's racist tweets, she quoted former President Ronald Reagan: 'If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.' She added that the Democratic House caucus 'will continue to respond to the attacks on our members which reflect a fundamental disrespect for the beautiful diversity of America.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "Republicans on Tuesday demanded that Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) remarks blasting President Trump's comments about four minority congresswomen as racist be removed from the record, freezing action on the floor ahead of a House vote condemning Trump.... After [Rep. Doug] Collins [R-Ga.] asked Pelosi if she would like to rephrase her comments, Pelosi said she had cleared them with the parliamentarian in advance." Mayhem ensued. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Blest of Splinter: "Welcome to the United States, where it's somehow considered more taboo to publicly describe a racist as a racist than actually saying something racist.... On Tuesday, Pelosi ... exposed one of the dumber and more pernicious rules of decorum in the House of Representatives.... Even before Pelosi finished her speech, GOP Rep. Doug Collins asked ... asked that Pelosi's comments be struck from the record.... After much commotion Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver -- who was presiding over the session -- essentially said 'fuck it' and left.... House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer took the gavel and ruled Pelosi's words out of order, but Democrats voted down an attempt from Collins to strike Pelosi's words from the record. According to GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Pelosi has been barred from speaking on the floor for the rest of the day." ...

... Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times makes note of some takeaways from the condemnation vote. ...

... Kellyanne Goes There. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: Andrew “Feinberg, a reporter for the website BeltwayBreakfast.com, asked [Kellyanne Conway] which countries ... Donald Trump was referring to when he suggested Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar -- all U.S. citizens — should 'go back' to where they came from. Instead of answering that question, Conway asked him, 'What's your ethnicity?'... After Conway shares that her ancestors are from Ireland and Italy, the reporter said, 'My ethnicity is not relevant to the question I'm asking you.'" Mrs. McC: In fairness to the lovely Kellyanne, she was having a bad day. Besides working for Trump, "In that same Fox interview, Conway distanced herself from her husband George Conway, whose latest Washington Post column is headlined: 'Trump is a racist president.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... looks like Trump's 'Lock Her Up' campaign slogan will be replaced with 'Go Back to Where You Came From.' -- MAG, in today's Comments

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The president's latest defense of his tweets telling the lawmakers to 'go back' to their home countries, even though they are all U.S. citizens, came hours before the House is set to vote on a resolution condemning them as racist. 'Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don't have a Racist bone in my body!' Trump tweeted. Trump condemned the 'so-called vote' on the resolution as a 'Democrat con game,' sending a message to Republicans to vote against the measure. 'Republicans should not show 'weakness' and fall into their trap. This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat,' he tweeted." Mrs. McC: Trump's assertion is partially true inasmuch as bones are not capable of harboring or expressing racist thoughts. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Aris Folley of the Hill: "Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who was born in Taiwan and is a naturalized American citizen, shared Tuesday that despite the fact that he served in the U.S. military and has been a member of Congress since 2015, people still tell him to 'go back' to China. 'I served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force and currently serve in the U.S. House of Representatives,' Lieu said in an op-ed published in The Washington Post. 'Yet I still experience people telling me to "go back" to China or North Korea or Japan. Like many immigrants, I have learned to brush off this racist insult." ...

... Greg Sargent, via digby: "Trump just unleashed a new tweetstorm aimed at the four nonwhite congresswomen he has been targeting, accusing them of 'vile' and 'hateful' and 'pro-terrorist' rhetoric, and bashing the Democratic Party for refusing to take on the 'Radical Left.' Trump sees this as a winner, claiming that he cleverly forced the party to defend Ocasio-Cortez and 'the Squad,' and this is 'Not good for the Democrats!' Some pundits have endorsed this idea, suggesting this is the turf Trump wants 2020 fought upon. Similarly, Trump campaign operatives tell The Post's Jacqueline Alemany that this is brilliant politics. One claims Trump's attacks 'reinforced in the minds of many Americans that the Democratic Party is the party of AOC and Omar.' Trump advisers made this same boast in 2018[.]... Indeed, it's worth recalling that Trump allies made an almost identical boast in the runup to the 2018 elections." ...

     ... digby: Some of Trump's advisors "are trying to move him toward attacking socialism instead of women of color but it's not going to work. For him, it's all about racism --- because he's a racist and he believes his base voters are too. And sadly, he is right. They are. And now they expect their president to 'tell it like it is' which means dogwhistling is not going to be enough." ...

... Lili Loofbourow of Slate: "It's bad enough to suggest that loyal American citizens should leave the country they serve. It's uncomplicatedly racist to suggest that American citizens who aren't white are therefore not American. But this last point is in some ways scarier: Trump is comparing elected representation to foreign interference. For nonwhite Americans, wanting to improve your country is evidence that you hate it. For nonwhite Americans, criticizing America is anti-American.... For all that Trump wants to make this a story about Democrats embracing each other, this was actually the week Trump fully embraced white supremacy without hinting or hedging. Time will tell whether the 'people who agree with him' -- with white nationalists a group that he now cozily includes -- will be outnumbered by those who prize American dissent." --s ...

... Brendan Morrow of the Week: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday insisted that President Trump's tweets telling four minority congresswomen to 'go back' to where they came from were not racist. McCarthy in a press conference was asked whether Trump's weekend tweets were racist, to which he flatly responded, 'No,' saying that "this is about ideology" and criticizing the so-called 'squad' that Trump attacked while not offering a specific defense of the language used. McCarthy also said he will vote against the resolution condemning Trump's tweets...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast: "Republican Senate candidate Kris Kobach left CNN anchor Chris Cuomo gobsmacked Tuesday night when he had to seriously think about whether he'd continue to support Donald Trump for president if he openly admitted to being a racist, saying he'd have to weigh who Trump was running against." --s ...

... Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Those who study language and rhetoric say the president's 'go back' comments -- or, at least, the sentiment behind them -- have roots beginning as far back as the 1600s, when dissidents were banished from American colonies for advocating total religious freedom. Later, a set of laws passed in 1798 allowed the deportation of noncitizens who were considered dangerous, were from hostile nations or had criticized the federal government.... More than 4,800 ... people who wrote to The New York Times to share their own experiences with the phrase...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "... the moment one examines what 'anti-American' means [to Trump & other Republicans]..., the true color of Trump's nationalism becomes plain. After all, none of the congresswomen in question have said that they 'hate America.' They've merely expressed dissatisfaction with its present state and challenged popular conceptions about its past -- prerogatives of citizenship in a free society that Donald Trump has never denied himself. The mogul centered his presidential campaign, after all, on the assertion that America was no longer great. He described the United States as 'the suckers of the world,' and said that 'we are like, in many cases, a Third World country.'... He has expressed contempt for American prisoners of war, said that George W. Bush did not keep us safe, questioned whether the U.S. government was more 'innocent' than Vladimir Putin's, and declared that America had done 'a tremendous disservice to humanity' in the Middle East. Clearly then, neither Trump nor his defenders believe that dissent is inherently unpatriotic.... Trump has made the color of conservative nationalism more plain to the naked eye. But a tacit faith in white Christian Americans' superlative claim to national belonging has always been native to the creed."

Fox "News" Sets White House Agenda. Again. Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump threatened to launch a treason investigation into Google in a Monday morning tweet for allegedly working with the Chinese government -- based on an 11-second Fox News clip containing no evidence whatsoever. The president cited unsubstantiated allegations made by billionaire investor and Facebook board member Peter Thiel on Monday's installment of Tucker Carlson's Fox News show. Thiel, it's worth noting, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser.... At 7:46 a.m., Trump tweeted, '"Billionaire Tech Investor Peter Thiel believes Google should be investigated for treason. He accuses Google of working with the Chinese Government." @foxandfriends A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone. The Trump Administration will take a look!' Trump's tweet was posted about an hour after a Fox & Friends news segment featured an 11-second clip of Thiel's interview with Carlson.... When Carlson lightly pushed Thiel for some evidence to back up his claim about Google being infiltrated, 'Thiel [said] he was just "asking questions."'... Thiel has been publicly critical of Google for years." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So here's how your federal government works now: (1) A Fox "News" guest makes an unsubstantiated claim against a nemesis. (2) Trump tweets. (3) A Trump factotum jumps & initiates a multi-million-dollar investigation.

** The "Sir" Tell: Trump's Imaginary Minions. Daniel Dale of CNN: "I've fact-checked every word Trump has uttered since his inauguration. I can tell you that if this President relays an anecdote in which he has someone referring to him as 'sir,' then some major component of the anecdote is very likely to be wrong. Lots of people do call Trump 'sir,' of course. But the word seems to pop into his head more frequently when he is inventing or exaggerating a conversation than when he is faithfully relaying one. A 'sir' is a flashing red light that he is speaking from his imagination rather than his memory. In poker parlance, it's a tell. Trump has told false 'sir' stories on all manner of subjects: health care, the Middle East, the courts, unions and -- just last week -- both tariffs and social media. But no genre of Trump story is more reliably sir-heavy than his collection of suspiciously similar tales about macho men breaking into tears of gratitude in his presence." Dale cites several examples, then fact-checks them out of existence, making for a rather fun read.

Two Corinthians. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Furious after he was criticized by evangelicals for stumbling in his reference to a book of the Bible during the 2016 campaign, Donald J. Trump lashed out at 'so-called Christians' and used an epithet in describing them to a party official, according to a new book. Mr. Trump's anger was aroused after he stumbled in an appearance at Liberty University by referring to Second Corinthians as 'Two Corinthians' as he was competing for the votes of evangelicals...." Mrs. McC: This story is a day old, but I decided not to link it yesterday because I was annoyed that Haberman & Martin refused to tell us what "epithet" -- or as they also referred to it, "the most vulgar of terms" -- Trump used. Fortunately, Lawrence O'Donnell said last night that Trump complained about "fucking evangelicals."

Jeremy Herb & Ashley Killough of CNN: "Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas on Tuesday introduced his articles of impeachment against ... Donald Trump, which will force the House to take up the measure later this week. Green's resolution is unlikely to lead to an actual vote on impeachment in the House, but he can force the chamber to act on it under House rules within two legislative days, creating a dilemma for House Democratic leaders and the moderate Democrats who have largely tried to avoid the issue of impeachment. While Green said Tuesday that he wants an up-or-down vote on articles of impeachment, the House has several options to dispose of his effort, though they each have drawbacks."

Shut Yo' Mouth, Roger Stone. Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A federal judge on Tuesday issued an order prohibiting Roger Stone ... from posting anything on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter after finding he violated her previous order limiting what he could say publicly about his case. Pointing to a series of Instagram posts and statements from Stone referring to his case and the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson found that Stone was 'determined to make himself the subject of the story.' Once again, the judge said, she was forced to address behavior that 'has more to do with middle school than with a court of law' -- an apparent nod to comments she made at a previous hearing in former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort's case." ...

      ... Rachel Maddow said that within two hours of the order, Roger Stone's wife got on Instagram to discuss the case.

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "A federal judge in New York on Tuesday signed an order permanently blocking the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, days after President Trump gave up on his efforts to get such a question on next year's census. The order, signed by Judge Jesse Furman, was jointly drafted by the parties opposing the citizenship question." ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "Three civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Trump administration's new asylum rule, which bars asylum claims from most noncitizens who travel through another country on their way to the United States. The rule was published in the federal register on Tuesday and was supposed to take effect immediately. The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center and Center for Constitutional Rights filed the suit in federal court in San Francisco. The suit alleges that the rule violates the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as federal laws governing administrative procedure."

"William Barr Is a More Subdued Version of Donald Trump." Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "It is Attorney General William Barr's job to ensure that all citizens in this country are treated equally, something we've never lived up to. Rather than take up that job responsibility, he just joined his boss in blaming those who are speaking up and fighting for our ideals. In doing so, Barr demonstrated what it means to engage in white identity politics, which is actually the breeding ground for hate and must be rejected. The danger posed by people like Barr is that they do so in a way that sounds reasonable, but conveys the same racist message we hear from Trump." LeTourneau cites a speech Barr gave Tuesday a Summit on Combatting Anti-Semitism at the Justice Department.

All the Best People, Ctd.

Eliana Johnson of Politico: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern about sending one of his top arms control negotiators, Andrea Thompson, to head a U.S. delegation meeting with Russia's deputy foreign minister this week after it was revealed that she had failed to disclose her [personal & financial] ties to the boyfriend [Paul Erickson] of Russian foreign agent Maria Butina. So Pompeo dispatched his deputy, John Sullivan, to lead the delegation instead..., which now includes Sullivan, Thompson and other senior U.S. officials ... attending the strategic security dialogue in Geneva ... to talk ... about arms control.... Thompson failed to alert her superiors that Erickson officiated her 2017 wedding ... and ... that her husband, David Gillian ... had wired Erickson $100,000 for an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme in which Gillian and others were allegedly defrauded by Erickson -- a transaction laid out by the FBI in court filings.... Thompson [is] one of the last remaining acolytes of the president's first national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn[.]" --s

Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Republican operative Jason Miller, the former communications chief for the Trump campaign and transition team, said he hired numerous prostitutes and visited 'hand job' massage parlors as recently as a few months ago in a new videotaped deposition. Miller made the admission while testifying on May 30 in Washington D.C. in connection to his lawsuit against the digital media company Gizmodo -- a case that is being litigated in Southern Florida's District Court. Despite Miller's counsel calling for a protective order to make the deposition confidential, a redacted version was made public on July 11." Mrs. McC: These encounters may or may not be illegal, depending upon the venue and, ah, circumstances of employment. In any event, they're not a good look.


Emily Holden
of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's leases of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling could lead to the production of more climate-warming pollution than the entire European Union contributes in a year, according to a new report. The Wilderness Society estimates heat-trapping emissions from extracting and burning those fossil fuels could range between 854m and 4.7bn metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on how much development companies pursue. The 28 nations in the European Union produced about 4bn metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2014[.]" --s

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The ACLU has won its legal war with the Trump administration over a census citizenship question, but it's not backing down from its demand that certain administration officials be sanctioned for allegedly false testimony in the case. In a court filing Tuesday evening, the ACLU alleged that top Trump administration officials in the Justice Department and Commerce Department 'engaged in litigation conduct that is nothing less than a fraud on the Court.' The ACLU is requesting that the court order 60 days of discovery -- or let the ACLU piggyback on the discovery that may move forward in a separate census case -- 'to determine the scope of potentially sanctionable conduct and the identities of the culpable parties.'" --safari: More of this please!

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) helped honor an Islamophobic former state lawmaker on Friday, at an event ... theme[d], 'Defending Religious Freedom and America's First Amendment.'... Gardner praised former Colorado state Senate President John Andrews (R) for teaching the public about limited government.... Andrews then delivered an 18-minute diatribe, warning that freedom of religion should not apply to devout Muslims and warning that Marxism and Islam are America's enemies." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Sanford on the Path from the Appalachian Trail to the White House. Caitlin Byrd of the (Charleston, S.C.) Post & Courier: "Almost a year after ... Donald Trump urged voters to reject Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman [and governor] is considering a Republican presidential run of his own against Trump in 2020. Sanford, in an interview Tuesday with The Post and Courier, confirmed he will take the next month to formulate a potential run against Trump as a way of pushing a national debate about America's mounting debt, deficit and government spending."

Jason Lemon of Newsweek: Jess McIntosh, "a former adviser to 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, has said that 2020 hopeful Joe Biden is 'dangerously close to using Republican talking points' and sounds like ... Donald Trump when he discusses Medicare for All.... On Monday..., Biden announced his plan to add a public option to the ACA if he were elected president. This would expand Obamacare, and allow it to cover more Americans, but it would fall short of creating a universal healthcare system...." Mrs. McC: Biden is definitely stuck in a time warp. Last week, Biden told Chris Cuomo that scrapping ObamaCare and "starting over would be, I think, a sin." I found his view disqualifying, not because Yeah, Obamacare was a "big fucking deal," but digging in on a flawed system is just the kind of "that's the way we always did it" "reasoning" that marks a poor leader.


Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Planned Parenthood on Tuesday removed its president after less than a year in the job, seeking new leadership at a time when abortion rights have come under increasing attack from statehouses and Republicans in Washington. The sudden ouster reflected a widening disagreement between the president, Leana Wen, and the board of directors over her management style and which direction to steer one of the nation's leading women's reproductive rights groups. Her departure followed a series of negotiations that appeared to end acrimoniously on Tuesday. In a Twitter post, Dr. Wen said her fate had been decided at a 'secret meeting,' which the organization disputed."

The Shelter/Concentration Camp Scam. Kim Barker, et al., of the New York Times: Juan Sanchez, "the leader of the nation's largest provider of migrant shelters for children [-- Southwest Key --] was paid $3.6 million during the charity's most recent tax year, even as the nonprofit organization came under intense scrutiny for its high compensation packages for executives and for its decision to accept children separated from their families by the Trump administration.... Over the past decade, Southwest Key has been awarded almost $1.9 billion in federal funds to care for unaccompanied minors." along with three other highly-paid executives, stepped down after the NYT ran an article in March about possible mismanagement of Southwest Key.

Katie Benner & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against a New York City police officer [Daniel Pantaleo] in the death of Eric Garner, ending a yearslong inquiry into a case that sharply divided officials and prompted national protests over excessive force by the police, according to three people briefed on the decision." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Pete Williams & Minyvonne Burke of NBC News: "According to a senior Justice Department official, U.S. Attorney General William Barr made the final decision not to charge Pantaleo, choosing to follow the recommendations of Brooklyn prosecutors.... A medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide, saying the chokehold was the cause. The chokehold is prohibited by the New York Police Department." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "Attorney General William Barr made the final decision not to charge [officer Daniel] Pantaleo personally, a DOJ spokesperson told ThinkProgress 'after being briefed by [Eastern District of New York staff] and the Civil Rights Division.' He sided with the office that routinely works with NYPD over the civil rights specialists in his own department who have steadily insisted that Pantaleo's conduct was criminal for years. The spokesperson referred further queries about the nature of Barr's thinking to the office that has opposed the charges, which the Washington Post reports won the argument in part by noting Pantaleo's chokehold of Garner only lasted seven seconds.... Though Pantaleo has faced no criminal consequences, the bystander who filmed [Eric] Garner's dying protestations that 'I can't breathe!' was later targeted by police and prosecutors for retaliation."

Pilar Melendez, et al., of the Daily Beast: "An attorney representing Jeffrey Epstein accusers said Tuesday that at least one woman has come forward to say she was abused while the financier was on work release as part of his lenient 2007 plea deal. Lawyer Brad Edwards said Epstein was allowed to have visitors while he was supposed to be working during the 13-month sentence. 'It was not for some business arrangement and it was for... improper sexual contact,' Edwards said, adding that the new accusers said they were under 21, though they may not have been minors."

E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "New research shows that communities in coal country are at an increased risk of fiscal collapse. The data is the latest blow to President Donald Trump's ongoing but faltering efforts to rescue the industry and its workers. Local governments dependent on coal are failing to account for the financial implications of the industry's demise.... That trend is likely to worsen should the federal government take action to curb carbon emissions, which would be likely if a Democrat were to triumph in 2020." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Puerto Rico. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Facing intense pressure to resign, Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló addressed Puerto Rico on Tuesday, the morning after tumultuous street protests shook the capital of San Juan, and refused to step down despite what he acknowledged was widespread public discontent.... Mr. Rosselló appeared to be buying time politically to try to remain in power, perhaps hoping the public furor would die down."

Way Beyond

U.K. Ayshaw Tull of Channel 4 News: "Brexit Party MEP Alexandra Phillips has admitted she secretly worked for Cambridge Analytica on its controversial 2017 election campaign in Kenya [after a secret recording of her surfaced]. Ms Phillips -- a prominent member of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party and former Head of Media for Ukip -- made the admission to Channel 4 News after initially strenuously denying any involvement with the disgraced data firm, and pressurising journalists to drop the story.... The controversial 2017 Kenyan election contest was marred by misinformation with fake news spread across the country via the Internet and on smartphones. President Kenyatta's opponent Raila Odinga was smeared with a series of viral videos, including one notoriously depicting apocalyptic scenes if he were to win the election. Cambridge Analytica strenuously denied any involvement with the content, and any role in negative political campaigning in Kenya." --s

Monday
Jul152019

The Commentariat -- July 16, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

... Meg Wagner, et al., of CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking from the House floor today, called President Trump's continued defense of his remarks 'shameful' and added that the 'comments are racist.' While addressing the House of Representatives during the debate over a resolution calling for members to condemn Trump's racist tweets, she quoted former President Ronald Reagan: 'If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.' She added that the Democratic House caucus 'will continue to respond to the attacks on our members which reflect a fundamental disrespect for the beautiful diversity of America.'" ...

     ... Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "Republicans on Tuesday demanded that Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) remarks blasting President Trump's comments about four minority congresswomen as racist be removed from the record, freezing action on the floor ahead of a House vote condemning Trump.... After [Rep. Doug] Collins [R-Ga.] asked Pelosi if she would like to rephrase her comments, Pelosi said she had cleared them with the parliamentarian in advance." Mayhem ensued.

Kellyanne Goes There. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: Andrew "Feinberg, a reporter for the website BeltwayBreakfast.com, asked [Kellyanne Conway] which countries ... Donald Trump was referring to when he suggested Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar -- all U.S. citizens -- should 'go back' to where they came from. Instead of answering that question, Conway asked him, 'What's your ethnicity?'... After Conway shares that her ancestors are from Ireland and Italy, the reporter said, 'My ethnicity is not relevant to the question I'm asking you.'" Mrs. McC: In fairness to the lovely Kellyanne, she was having a bad day. Besides working for Trump, "In that same Fox interview, Conway distanced herself from her husband George Conway, whose latest Washington Post column is headlined: 'Trump is a racist president.'"

Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "The president's latest defense of his tweets telling the lawmakers to 'go back' to their home countries, even though they are all U.S. citizens, came hours before the House is set to vote on a resolution condemning them as racist. 'Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don't have a Racist bone in my body!' Trump tweeted. Trump condemned the 'so-called vote' on the resolution as a 'Democrat con game,' sending a message to Republicans to vote against the measure. 'Republicans should not show 'weakness' and fall into their trap. This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat,' he tweeted." Mrs. McC: Trump's assertion is partially true inasmuch as bones are not capable of harboring or expressing racist thoughts. ...

... Brendan Morrow of the Week: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday insisted that President Trump's tweets telling four minority congresswomen to 'go back' to where they came from were not racist. McCarthy in a press conference was asked whether Trump's weekend tweets were racist, to which he flatly responded, 'No,' saying that "this is about ideology" and criticizing the so-called 'squad' that Trump attacked while not offering a specific defense of the language used. McCarthy also said he will vote against the resolution condemning Trump's tweets...." ...

... Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Those who study language and rhetoric say the president's 'go back' comments -- or, at least, the sentiment behind them -- have roots beginning as far back as the 1600s, when dissidents were banished from American colonies for advocating total religious freedom. Later, a set of laws passed in 1798 allowed the deportation of noncitizens who were considered dangerous, were from hostile nations or had criticized the federal government.... More than 4,800 ... people who wrote to The New York Times to share their own experiences with the phrase...."

Katie Benner & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against a New York City police officer [Daniel Pantaleo] in the death of Eric Garner, ending a yearslong inquiry into a case that sharply divided officials and prompted national protests over excessive force by the police, according to three people briefed on the decision." ...

... Pete Williams & Minyvonne Burke of NBC News: "According to a senior Justice Department official, U.S. Attorney General William Barr made the final decision not to charge Pantaleo, choosing to follow the recommendations of Brooklyn prosecutors.... A medical examiner ruled Garner's death a homicide, saying the chokehold was the cause. The chokehold is prohibited by the New York Police Department."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Great White Dope

Eileen Sullivan & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of using racist comments, escalating his attacks on four first-term Democratic congresswomen to the leader of the Democratic Party. Ms. Pelosi had criticized the president on Sunday for suggesting four lawmakers of color should 'go back' to their own countries, and she said that his slogan, '"Make America Great Again" has always been about making America white again.' Mr. Trump in turn accused her of racist remarks. 'So Speaker Pelosi said, "Make America white again." That's a very racist -- that's a very racist statement. I'm surprised she'd say that,' Mr. Trump said at an event celebrating American manufacturing at the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The story has been updated: "Hours [after Trump's remarks to reporters], the four [Congresswomen] called a news conference to scathingly denounce Mr. Trump's latest remarks, which they argued were part of a pattern of hateful language designed to distract from what they said were brutal policies and misconduct in office.... In a blistering speech that culminated with a call to impeach him, [Rep. Ilhan] Omar recounted a litany of the president's most offensive comments about people of color, women and immigrants.... 'This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms, or it is happening on national TV, and now it is reached the White House garden.'... Even as the four spoke, [Trump] was online calling them 'radical Democrats' and Twitter-shouting, 'IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!'"

... My Racist Tweets Are Okay Because Many People Agree with Me. Claudia Koerner of BuzzFeed News: "President Trump on Monday claimed his racist tweets attacking progressive congresswomen weren't racist, and he added that he's not concerned about backlash because 'many people' hold his same views.... 'Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and white nationalists are finding common cause with you on that point?' a reporter asked. 'It does not concern me because many people agree with me,' Trump said. 'And all I'm saying, they wanna leave, they can leave. It doesn't say leave forever. It says leave.'"(Also linked yesterday.) The AP reports that Trump added, "A lot of people love it, by the way." ...

Kathryn Krawczyk of the Week: "... in doubling down on [his] attack [on Rep. Ilhan Omar] Monday, Trump falsely accused Omar of 'speaking about how wonderful Al Qaeda is,' despite Omar having no ties to the terrorist group and Trump having no idea how to spell it.... The Washington Post's Jabin Botsford later shared ... photos he captured..., which show that Trump's notes were covered in black marker scribbles reminding him to bring up the mysterious 'alcaida' and the even vaguer 'some people.'" Mrs. McC: Actually, I think that's "Some Peopel"; you be the judge. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll never be able to spell "Al Qaeda" again. Anyhow, it's worth noting that Trump brought these notes knocking non-white Congresswomen to an event that was supposed to be the "Made in America Product Showcase." ...

... Linda Qiu of the New York Times fact-checks Trump's extended false claim that Omar has talked "about how great Al Qaeda is" and expressed "love ... for enemies like Al Qaeda." ...

... Heather Caygle & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Democrats are drafting a resolution to condemn ... Donald Trump's racist tweets against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other high-profile freshman congresswomen, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: Trump "ratcheted up his [racist] attack on Monday by asserting that the congresswomen owe him an apology.... 'When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said. So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... ** Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "When Trump told these women to 'go back,' he was not making a factual claim about where they were born. He was stating his ideological belief that American citizenship is fundamentally racial, that only white people can truly be citizens, and that people of color, immigrants in particular, are only conditionally American. This is a cornerstone of white nationalism, and one of the president's few closely held ideological beliefs. It is a moral conviction.... Trump today accused the women of 'foul language & racist hatred.' White nationalists in the United States have always asserted that they are, in fact, the true victims of racial hatred.... Trump's remarks about the representatives followed a week in which he unsuccessfully attempted to overturn a Supreme Court decision that hobbled an administration effort to use the census to expand white voting power. The president's remarks about Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, and Tlaib are not only consistent with that effort; they provide its moral foundation." Read on. Thanks to Anonymous for the link. ...

... Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Trump's "theory of citizenship is an old one, brought back from the margins of American politics and expressed in his crude, demagogic style. And it has found a comfortable place in a Republican Party that elevates its narrow, shrinking base as the only authentic America and would rather restrict the electorate than persuade new voters. With that said, what's more striking than the president's blood-and-soil racism is how Democratic Party elites -- or at least one group of them -- are playing with similar assumptions. It helps explain the current feud between Pelosi and the four congresswomen.... Indeed, it is instructive -- and frankly disturbing -- that top Democrats leaked a poll to Axios showing broad dissatisfaction with Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Omar. Not from the entire public or Democratic voters, but from '1,003 likely general-election voters who are white and have two years or less of college education.'" ...

... David Remnick of the New Yorker: "At a press conference Monday, Ocasio-Cortez said that when she visited Washington, D.C., as a girl, her father showed her the Capitol, the reflecting pool, the Lincoln Memorial, and other sites of American democracy and told her, 'This belongs to all of us.... This weekend that very notion was challenged.'... This was precisely the point: Trump was saying that these four women of color did not belong.... Trump can hardly run a reëlection campaign on policy triumphs.... And so he will sling as much filth as possible and hope his base comes out in sufficient numbers." ...

... "Racism Comes out of the Closet.' Paul Krugman: "Sorry, there's no way to both sides this, or claim that Trump didn't say what he said. This is racism, plain and simple -- nothing abstract about it. And Trump obviously isn't worried that it will backfire. This should be a moment of truth for anyone who describes Trump as a 'populist' or asserts that his support is based on 'economic anxiety.' He's not a populist, he's a white supremacist. His support rests not on economic anxiety, but on racism.... This isn't just about Trump; it's about his whole party.... Although most of the commentary focuses on Trump's demand that native-born Americans 'go back' to their home countries, his description of their imaginary homelands as 'crime infested' deserves some attention, too. For his fixation on crime is another manifestation of his racism."

... Steve M.: "If Trump is doing this now, 16 months before the election, how inflammatory will his rhetoric be by the fall of 2020? He thinks he's bulletproof. He thinks he's an expert on winning elections, based on sample set of one, and is certain that this (rather than Russian interference of James Comey's incompetence) is what worked for him." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "President Trump's weekend tweets in which he used racist language to attack four progressive Democratic congresswomen are not against Twitter's rules, a company spokesperson told CNN Business Monday -- a conclusion apparently contradicted by Twitter's written policies.... Twitter's ... policy on hateful conduct prohibits 'targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.'... The episode represents a tough first test for a new stance Twitter announced less than a month ago, in which it will label and down-rank tweets from Trump and other world leaders that break its rules, rather than removing them." ...

... Jon Allsop of the Columbia Journalism Review runs down how the MSM avoided calling Trump's tweets racist. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Zack Ford of ThinkProgress: "Marc Short, chief of staff to ... Mike Pence, told Fox Business on Monday that ... Donald Trump can't be racist because his current transportation secretary [Elaine Chao] is an Asian immigrant.... Chao's Cabinet role, Short explained, was proof Trump couldn't possibly be racist.... The vast majority of Trump's Cabinet members are white men; Chao and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson are the two notable exceptions." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: And of course Chao has a unique attribute: she's married to Mitch McConnell. Trump can't fire her. ...

... Lindsey Changes His Mind, Embraces McCarthy's Tactics. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) ... attacked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) by name and others by association during a Fox News interview, claiming they were' Communists' who 'hate our own country.'... In the 1950s, Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI) and others famously accused American citizens of secretly being Communists -- often without evidence.... Last year, he angrily denounced the women who had come forward with allegations of sexual predation against Trump's then-Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. 'This is as close to McCarthyism as I hope we get in my lifetime,' he charged." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... If you scroll pretty far down the page, this Politico report by Quint Forgey & Caitlin Oprysko relays reactions from some Republican legislators. ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Monday that she thinks President Trump';s tweets suggesting that minority Democratic lawmakers 'go back' to the countries they came from was racist.... Asked [by reporters] if she thought Trump's comments were specifically racist, Ernst acknowledged, 'Yeah, I do.' She reiterated that view when asked on another occasion by a CNN reporter if she found Trump's comments racist." ...

... Ron Brownstein at CNN: "... Donald Trump's openly racist and xenophobic attacks on four Democratic House women of color, like his threatened immigration enforcement raids in major cities and the sweeping proposed new restrictions on asylum seekers that he announced Monday, underscores his transformation of the Republican Party into a coalition centered on the voters and places in America most hostile to immigration in particular and demographic change in general. This latest flurry of activity continues the drive by Trump and other Republicans elected mostly from the parts of America least touched by immigration to impose a restrictionist agenda on migration over the nearly undivided opposition of Democrats elected by the areas where most immigrants, both undocumented and legal, actually live.... Hardly any Republicans at any level now represent urban constituencies with the large immigrant populations that Trump has threatened...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is true for most of the country, but those redneck confederate senators from Southern states represent a helluva lot of rural minorites. ...

... Speaking of the Party of White People, Politico Magazine has published another excerpt of Tim Alberta's book, this one on the struggle between Trump & Paul Ryan for "the soul of the Republican party." As if the Republican party had a soul.


Marshall Cohen
, et al., of CNN: "New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.The surveillance reports also describe how Assange turned the embassy into a command center and orchestrated a series of damaging disclosures that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States." Mrs. McC: CNN has produced a fascinating video report, which accompanies the article. Well worth watching.

Morgan Chalfant, et al., of the Hill: "The Trump administration is moving to end asylum protections for most Central American migrants, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced Monday. According to text of the rule set to publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, asylum seekers who pass through another country before reaching the United States will be ineligible for asylum when they reach the southern border.... The Departments of Homeland Security and Justice announced the Interim Final Rule (IFR) in a joint statement Monday. Under the rule, those who have been the victims of trafficking are granted exceptions. The rule also allows exceptions for migrants passing through countries that have not signed major international refugee treaties and for migrants who have been denied asylum in the countries they traveled through.... 'The Trump administration is trying to unilaterally reverse our country's legal and moral commitment to protect those fleeing danger,' Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project said in a statement. [']This new rule is patently unlawful and we will sue swiftly.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The AP story, by Colleen Long, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Daniella Silva of NBC News: "Immigrant rights advocates and attorneys denounced ... Donald Trump's latest move Monday to restrict asylum at the southern border as the 'most egregious' and 'extreme' policy targeting the form of protection by the administration yet.... Attorney General William Barr called the interim final rule a 'lawful exercise of authority provided by Congress to restrict eligibility for asylum.'... In Guatemala, the State Department's own human rights report in 2018 said 'identification and referral mechanisms for potential asylum-seekers were inadequate.... Both migration and police authorities lacked adequate training concerning the rules for establishing refugee status,' the report said." ...

... Maybe You Missed It. Caitlin Oprysko: "... Donald Trump on Monday asserted that the mass-deportation raids he confirmed and publicized last week took place, despite few signs of removals being carried out at the scale he promised. 'The ICE raids were very successful -- people came into our country illegally, illegally,' Trump told reporters during an event at the White House showcasing American-made products. 'Many, many were taken out on Sunday, you just didn't know about it.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: That Made in America event was supposed to be a taxpayer-funded campaign promo, but the real campaign tactic was promoting racism.

Humeyra Pamuk & Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "In a court case that could further strain American relations with Turkey and weigh on the sentencing of former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn, a criminal trial began on Monday involving a former Iranian-American business partner of Flynn. Bijan Rafiekian's trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, turns on whether he conspired to lobby on Turkey's behalf to try to persuade the U.S. government to extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed by Turkey for a failed coup in July 2016." Mrs. McC: According to Wikipedia, "Kian was a partner of ... Michael Flynn in the Flynn Intel Group and worked with the incoming Trump administration's transition team on matters relating to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence." Rachel Maddow said that in his capacity on the transition team, Rafiekian's job was to vet potential CIA officials.

Demetri Sevastopulo & Sue-Lin Wong of the Financial Times (July 10): "Donald Trump told Chinese president Xi Jinping last month that the US would tone down criticism of Beijing's approach to Hong Kong following massive protests in the territory in order to revive trade talks with China. The US president made the commitment when the two leaders met at the G20 summit in Osaka, according to several people familiar with the meeting.... Following the Trump-Xi meeting, the state department told Kurt Tong, the departing US consul general in Hong Kong, to remove several critical comments about China from his final speech in the Asian financial hub.... [T]he veteran diplomat was forced to water down the July 2 address [about democratic erosions]." --s

Hans Nichols, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump has told aides and allies that he is considering removing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross after a stinging Supreme Court defeat on adding a citizenship question to the census, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations. While Trump has previously expressed frustration with Ross, 81, in particular over failed trade negotiations, Ross' long personal relationship with the president has allowed him to keep his job." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump were firing Ross because he lied to Congress, the move would be justified. But Trump is Trump, so he will have someone fire Ross for not lying well enough.

Julia Ainsley & Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "Seventy current and former U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees are under investigation for participating in a secret Facebook group in which users joked about dead migrants and made sexist, derogatory comments about Latino Congress members, officials said Monday. Speaking to reporters, Customs officials said that 62 are current employees and eight are former employees. The office of professional responsibility is conducting the investigations, the officials said. Investigations into two employees have been completed and handed over to CBP for a disciplinary decision."

Kate Morrissey of the San Diego Union Tribune, in Stars & Stripes: "A deported Marine Corps veteran who has been unable to come back to the U.S. for more than a decade was denied entry to the country Monday morning when he asked to be let in for a scheduled citizenship interview."

Marisa Fernandez of Axios: "Larry R. Felix, the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from 2006 to 2015, said the probability of releasing a concept design [for the Harriet Tubman $20 bill] in 2020 had always been low due to security and fraud risks, despite then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's desire for an unveiling that coincided with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Felix told the [Washington] Post: 'Those announcements were not grounded in reality. The U.S. had not at the time acquired the security features to redesign and protect the notes.'... A former Obama appointee told the Post that the new $20 bill had always been scheduled for release toward 2030, consistent with the Trump administration's claims." (Also linked yesterday.)

Catherine Garcia of the Week: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday night said the House of Representatives will not raise the debt ceiling unless it is combined with a budget agreement. Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters that if a budget deal is not reached soon, Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling before its August recess, otherwise there won't be enough money to pay the government's bills. This idea, Pelosi said, is not 'acceptable to our caucus.'"

Twitter Diplomacy. Iain Marlow & Dandan Li of Bloomberg: "A senior Chinese diplomat [based in Islamabad] deleted a tweet that prompted former U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice to call him a 'racist disgrace' as China's diplomats become increasingly vocal on the social media platform. In a string of messages aimed at highlighting U.S. hypocrisy in criticizing China's human rights record, Lijian Zhao ... mentioned everything from school shootings and income inequality to racial segregation, adding that if 'you're in Washington, D.C., you know the white never go' to the Southeast part of the U.S. capital, home to historically African-American areas.... 'You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too,' she tweeted at Zhao o Sunday.... [S]he also [wrongly] addressed the Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, who recently joined Twitter: 'Ambassador Cui, I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home.'" --s

Macron's Bastille Day parade bested Trump's July Fourth thing with this flyboard demonstration:

The Epstein Treasures. Tom Winter & David Li of NBC News: "Agents unearthed a 'pile of cash, diamonds' and 'a passport from a foreign country' in a safe belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors told a judge Monday during a bail hearing for the wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker. Federal authorities are arguing for Epstein to be denied bail and to remain behind bars until he's tried for sex-crime charges in acts allegedly involving underage girls.... 'The passport was issued in the name of a foreign country, it was issued in the 1980s, it is expired, it shows a picture of Jeffrey Epstein, and another name,' [the prosecutor] said, adding the passport showed Epstein's residence as Saudi Arabia." The court will rule Thursday on the bail plea. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "Jeffrey Epstein's arrest is reverberating in Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party are calling for a criminal probe into former prime minister Ehud Barak's personal and business ties with the accused sex trafficker, Israeli media is reporting. Barak, 77, served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001. This month he formed a new party to run for prime minister against Netanyahu, who called for new elections in September.... Netanyahu took to social media, writing: 'Investigate Ehud Barak immediately.'... Netanyahu is at the center of three criminal investigations into alleged corruption, which he denies." --s

Denise Lavoie of the AP: "An avowed white supremacist was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years Monday for deliberately driving his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Virginia, killing one woman and injuring dozens. James Alex Fields Jr., 22, remained stoic as Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore formally imposed the recommendation of a state jury that convicted him in December of murder and maliciou wounding charges for his actions in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. Fields showed no visible emotion as victims of the car attack described severe physical and psychological injuries - broken bones, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression - inflicted by Fields when he plowed his car into them.... Last month, Fields received a life sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges."

Salvador Hernandez of BuzzFeed News: "A federal judge ruled more than $14 million should be awarded to a woman who was barraged with anti-Semitic and threatening messages online after a neo-Nazi blogger instructed his followers to target her and her family with a 'troll storm.' The ruling was handed down Monday against Andrew Anglin, a white supremacist and publisher of the website The Daily Stormer. In his decision, judge Jeremiah Lynch found that Anglin 'acted with actual malice' when he told followers: 'Let's Hit Em Up. Are y'all ready for an old fashioned Troll Storm? Because AYO - it's time, fam.' What followed were a series of racist and sometimes threatening messages to Montana real estate agent Tanya Gersh, her co-workers, an her family, including her 12-year-old son." Mrs. McC: Gersh lives & works in Whitefish, Montana, also the home of our one-time Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.

Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "Prominent anti-abortion campaigners in New York developed and funded the Femm app, which collects intimate information about women's sex lives and sows doubt about hormonal birth control methods. The app has been downloaded more than 400,000 times globally, according to its developers, and appears to be the first ideologically aligned fertility tracking app [supported by the Catholic Church]. But leaders of the organization are also promoting the app and teaching the 'Femm methods' of natural family planning in places such as rural Nigeria, where women are at high risk of HIV infection, child marriage and sexual violence.... Natural family planning methods have an up to 33% failure rate per 100 women per year, according to the most recent review in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.... Abortion is illegal in Nigeria under almost all circumstances. These laws are 'a major contributor to the country's high levels of maternal death', according to the Guttmacher Institute." --s

Sarah Boseley of the Guardian: "The number of people with not enough to eat [820 million people worldwide] has risen for the third year in a row as the population increases, after a decade when real progress was made. The underlying trend is stabilisation, when global agencies had hoped it would fall." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Russia. Andrey Biryukov & Evgenia Pismennaya of Bloomberg: "Vladimir Putin's 20-trillion-ruble ($300 billion) weapons-buying binge over the last decade has ... left the country's defense industry with a massive hangover of debt that officials now say is suffocating the strategic sector. The industry 'is living from hand to mouth' and doesn't have enough money to invest in vital new technology, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov told an industry conference earlier this month.... At the core of the problem is the way Russia funds its big weapons budget. The government doesn't release the funds for new systems until they're completed, forcing producers to borrow from commercial banks.... But the rates on those loans average about 10% a year..., leaving the companies with huge debt costs." --s

BBC: "Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing will feature on the new design of the Bank of England's £50 note. He is celebrated for his code-cracking work that proved vital to the Allies in World War Two. The £50 note will be the last of the Bank of England collection to switch from paper to polymer when it enters circulation by the end of 2021. The note was once described as the 'currency of corrupt elites' and is the least used in daily transactions." Mrs. McC: Maybe the £50 will become more popular in a couple of years. (Also linked yesterday.)