The Commentariat -- November 18, 2017
Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The White House asked Congress on Friday for $44 billion in additional relief in response to this year's devastating hurricanes, but facing rising budget deficits and pushing a tax cut that could cost $1.5 trillion, the administration also suggested that lawmakers make spending cuts to offset disaster costs. Republicans have been conspicuously quiet about the ballooning national debt as they press to enact deep tax cuts before the end of the year. The deficit for the 2017 fiscal year totaled $666 billion, an increase of $80 billion from the previous year. And spending continues to climb." Mrs. McC: Republicans are trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip, & if you're not Warren Buffett or Donald Trump, you're the turnip. ...
... How much Donald Trump knows about macroeconomics? Nothing: ...
... ** Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "President Trump has promised to cut federal taxes and reduce the nation's trade deficit with the rest of world -- two economic priorities that are in direct conflict with each other. A wide range of experts agree that cutting taxes is likely to increase the trade deficit.... In fact, a larger trade deficit is not a byproduct of the tax plan -- it is the heart of the plan.... The connection between tax cuts and trade deficits is not controversial.... Republicans are proposing to reduce federal revenue through a $1.5 trillion tax cut without a commensurate reduction in federal spending. To pay for the tax cuts, the government will need to borrow more dollars, some of which will come from foreign investors. Foreigners will get those dollars by selling more goods and services to Americans, which will widen the trade gap.... One widely cited economic simulation, the Penn Wharton Budget Model, projects that the tax plan approved by the House on Thursday would increase the trade deficit by about $800 billion over 10 years. That would increase the annual trade deficit about 16 percent from its 2016 total of $502 billion." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We could have a contest to see who can come up with the worst feature of the GOP tax bill. Trouble is, the contest would be like the ones they have in kindergarten -- everybody wins. ...
... Here's a Winner, with a BUT. Josh Delk of the Hill: "The latest version of the Senate Republican tax reform bill includes a break for companies that manage private jets. A measure in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would lower taxes on some of the payments made by owners of private aircraft to management companies that help maintain, store and staff those planes for owners. The language would exempt owners or leasers of private aircraft from paying taxes on certain costs related to the upkeep and maintenance of the jets, according to a description from the Joint Committee on Taxation." Uh-oh, looks as if Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) & Warren Buffett are behind this little scheme. Brown's spokesperson claims jet owners themselves don't actually get a break. Uh-huh.
... Joe Williams of Roll Call: "Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski suggested Thursday that her vote on the current version of theSenate GOP tax overhaul is contingent on the passing of a separate bill to stabilize the individual health insurance market. The tax legislation now includes a section to repeal the individual mandate in the 2010 health care law -- a provision that opens up more than $300 billion in revenue -- but could also threaten the viability of the overall law. The measure has caused some heartburn for moderate Republicans, particularly Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, two of the three senators who helped sink the GOP effort to repeal the health care law this summer." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, that's nice, but why don't Murkowski & Collins care about all the other crap that's in the bill? ...
... Steve Benen on the Sherrod Brown/Orrin Hatch dust-up (see yesterday's Commentariat): "... it's hard not to wonder if Hatch's outburst was the result of his genuine belief that Sherrod Brown's argument is 'bullcrap' or if it was because the truth hurts. The Republican National Committee [Friday] morning highlighted the committee clash and said the GOP chairman 'set the record straight' -- which, in reality, is the opposite of what actually happened.... As the Washington Post's Greg Sargent put it, the exchange 'perfectly captured the GOP's whole handling of the tax debate -- in all its dishonesty, misdirection and bottomless bad faith.'... Note, as part of diatribe, Hatch added, 'If we worked together, we could pull this country out of every mess it is in.' Hatch was in the process of pushing a partisan tax plan, written in secret, passed without so much as a meaningful hearing. Perhaps this was the wrong time to lecture committee members on the benefits of bipartisan cooperation."
I'm Shocked, Shocked, to Find that Money-Laundering Is Going on Here. -- Ivanka Trump. Aggelos Petropoulos [of Reuters?] & Richard Engel of NBC News: "An NBC News investigation into the Trump Ocean Club [in Panama City, Panama], in conjunction with Reuters, shows that the project was riddled with brokers, customers and investors who have been linked to drug trafficking and international crime. [Mauricio] Ceballos, who investigated the project, went as far as to call the skyscraper 'a vehicle for money laundering.'... Ceballos, who says he investigated transactions related to the Trump Ocean Club during his stint as an anti-corruption prosecutor in Panama, describes the building as a magnet for international organized crime, particularly from Russia.... The investigation revealed no indication that the Trump Organization or members of the Trump family engaged in any illegal activity, or knew of the criminal backgrounds of some of the project's associates. But [Alexandre] Ventura[, a real estate salesman,] said that the Trumps never asked any questions about the buyers or where the money was coming from.... Ventura says that the Trump family, and Ivanka Trump in particular, was involved in the details of the Trump Ocean Club, and that she interacted with him extensively.... 'The Trump Organization has to approve everything because of his name on the project,' Ventura said, describing the project as Ivanka Trump's 'baby.'... The Trump Organization was not the actual developer of the Panama tower.... For this deal, the Trump Organization would license its brand, operate the hotel and sell its expertise in managing the building, receiving a cut of every condo sale." ...
... Paul Waldman: "... it's fascinating how one Trump property after another winds up being associated with mobsters, criminals, and money launderers. Must be just a coincidence! It's also incredible when you consider how many years and millions of dollars Republicans devoted to investigating Whitewater, a two-bit land deal on which the Clintons lost some money. Is there going to be a congressional investigation of this, or the other shady Trump deals? Of course not."
Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision to mock Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) for groping a sleeping woman while posing for a photo has once again made him a central figure in the national discussion about sexual assault, harassment and misconduct -- and has again brought attention to past accusations against the president himself.... Trump did not mention that [Franken accuser Leeann] Tweeden also accused Franken of kissing her against her will -- the same thing that at least eight women have publicly accused Trump of doing.... As a growing number of prominent men have publicly faced accusations, Trump has been selective in responding, largely on the basis of whether the accused is an ally or foe and focusing relatively little on the alleged victims. Trump called his own accusers 'horrible, horrible liars' and threatened to sue them, while coming to the defense of friends such as political commentator Bill O'Reilly and former Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes, accused of harassment or assault. Trump has also been mostly silent on Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama.... Trump has also said he was not surprised by accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, a major Democratic donor; released an ad during the presidential campaign calling former New York congressman Anthony Weiner a 'pervert;' and hosted a campaign news conference with three women who had accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual assault or misconduct, calling those women 'very courageous.'" ...
** Like everything else Trump touches, he hijacks it with his chronic dishonesty and childishness. The intense, angry and largely ignorant tribalism afflicting our politics predates Trump’s arrival on the scene. But he has infused it with a psychopath’s inability to accept that social norms apply to him. -- Mark Salter, longtime adviser to Sen. John McCain --
Very well said. Salter catches the essence of Trump. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... the notion that Mr. Trump himself would weigh in given his own history of crude talk about women and the multiple allegations against him surprised many in Washington who thought he could not surprise them anymore. A typical politician with Mr. Trump’s history would stay far away from discussing someone else’s behavior lest it dredge his own back into the spotlight." Mrs. McC: This is quite a good synthesis of the state of the conversation in Washington, incorporating several shorter stories. My favorite is Mrs. Huckleberry's rationale for Trump's behavior, which goes something like this: "He won, so STFU." ...
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Friday that he will uphold a government ban on hunters bringing trophies of elephants that were killed in Zimbabwe into the United States, pending a further review. His evening Twitter message reversed a decision by his own administration that was announced this week and promoted as recently as Friday afternoon by ... Sarah Huckabee Sanders." Mrs. McC: Guess Trump is mad at Junior, Ace Elephant Hunter, after all.
** Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "A senior Russian official who claimed to be acting at the behest of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia tried in May 2016 to arrange a meeting between Mr. Putin and Donald J. Trump, according to several people familiar with the matter. The news of this reached the Trump campaign in a very circuitous way. An advocate for Christian causes emailed campaign aides saying that Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime, had proposed a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. The subject line of the email, turned over to Senate investigators, read, 'Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,' according to one person who has seen the message. The proposal made its way to the senior levels of the Trump campaign before Jared Kushner ... sent a message to top campaign officials rejecting it, according to two people who have seen Mr. Kushner’s message.... Mr. Torshin’s request ... came just weeks after a self-described intermediary for the Russian government told a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, that the Russians had 'dirt' on Mr. Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton, in the form of 'thousands of emails.'... The latest disclosure about Mr. Torshin, who is a leading figure in Mr. Putin’s party, United Russia, shows the direct involvement of a high-ranking Russian official in the Kremlin’s outreach to the campaign.” ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So now we know what that "dinner invite" was, which was a mystery yesterday when it appeared as the subject of an e-mail from Jared Kushner which he accidentally forgot to turn over to Senate investigators. ...
... Manu Raju of CNN: "A West Virginia man ... proposed setting up a meeting with Russians and the Trump campaign last year to discuss their 'shared Christian values,' raising new questions for investigators to explore as part of their Russia inquiry. Current and former US intelligence and law enforcement officials, as well as other intelligence experts, say that Russians sought to employ covert tactics to find entry points into the Trump campaign. And more broadly, experts say, Russian intelligence services have sought to court conservative organizations, including religious groups, to build alliances in the United States.... The Trump campaign appears to have rejected the meeting request -- and seemed to believe it was serious enough to suggest that the matter should be handled by the State Department...." ...
... Something Else Jared Accidentally Forgot. Jeremy Herb & Evan Perez of CNN: "White House senior adviser Jared Kushner told congressional Russia investigators that he did not communicate with WikiLeaks and did not recall anyone on the Trump campaign who had, a source with knowledge of his testimony told CNN. But Kushner did receive and forward an email from Donald Trump Jr. about contact Trump Jr. had with WikiLeaks, according to a new report this week and a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee.... A Democratic committee source said that Kushner was interviewed at a date when the panels 'did not yet have the documents we needed for the interview.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: On most mornings, Ivanka makes sure Jared is wearing pants before he leaves the house. Sometimes he just plain forgets.
... AND Jeff Sessions thinks the whole Russia-Trump-Sessions, et al., conspiracy is so funny that he tells jokes about it. In public. ...
... ** Tim Egan: "The Russians ... uploaded a thousand videos to YouTube and published more than 130,000 messages on Twitter about last year’s election. As recent congressional hearings showed, the arteries of our democracy were clogged with toxins from a hostile foreign power. But the problem is not the Russians — it’s us. We’re getting played because too many Americans are ill equipped to perform the basic functions of citizenship.... As we crossed the 300-day mark of Donald Trump’s presidency on Thursday, fact-checkers noted that he has made more than 1,600 false or misleading claims. Good God. At least five times a day, on average, this president says something that isn’t true. We have a White House of lies because a huge percentage of the population can’t tell fact from fiction." Read on. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is an essential element of the conversation we should be having. Egan's column may be the first time I've seen Americans' primal ignorance named as the root cause of Russia's great success in undermining our democracy. I would add that our often-inane, often-negligent news media are partly at fault, too. Where the public schools have failed our students, the media should pick up the slack by putting stories in context. Oftentimes they do, but too often news reports are limited to the most sensational or salacious aspects of a story. Important as it is for the public to know the facts, so is it essential that people can understand the meaning & implications of those facts. ...
... Should you care to find more evidence for Egan's contention, Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast obliges: "As I toggled over the home page [of Snopes], I was flabbergasted by what a high percentage of Snopes articles now are devoted to debunking fake news.... I mean, if I may use the phrase, real fake news. Garbage. And more specifically, right-wing garbage. Some stuff that’s in the actual news, though completely distorted, and other stuff that’s just totally made up, that who-knows-how-many thousands, or millions, of people are out there believing." Tomasky provides a number of laughable examples.
... For the Love of Money. Mrs. McCrabbie: I missed this story earlier in the week. It seems Steve Mnuchin invited his wife, the Lovely Louise, on a visit to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing to admire the very first sheet of dollar bills with Mnuchin's signature on them. Martin Belam of the Guardian posted a few Twitter reactions to the pix. Here's one suggested caption: "Louise Linton holds the great love of her life. Also pictured, her husband #StevenMnuchin."
Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "By day, he was a clerk to a federal judge, a Harvard Law School graduate at the start of his career. By night, he was a ghost hunter and a devotee of the macabre. Brett Joseph Talley is now President Trump’s nominee for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench as a U.S. District Court judge in Alabama. Few in memory have been nominated with credentials quite like those of Talley, 36, an Alabama native, a political speechwriter, an author of horror books and a fledgling lawyer who has never tried a case. In 2009 and 2010, he was a member of the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group, a volunteer operation that ... has held all-night vigils and used infrared cameras, handheld sensors and other devices to search for spectral entities in plantation mansions, abandoned hospitals and other buildings.... He is one of four Trump nominees to receive 'not qualified' ratings [from the American Bar Association] this year, the first such ratings to be disclosed by the association in more than a decade."
Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "Documents released by law enforcement officials in Montana on Friday show that Greg Gianforte, then the Republican candidate in the state’s special congressional election, told police in May that a reporter from the Guardian had grabbed his wrist during a physical altercation at his campaign headquarters, blaming the 'liberal media' for 'trying to make a story.' His statement appears to contradict the apology he later issued to Ben Jacobs, saying the reporter 'did not initiate any physical contact with me,' raising questions about whether the congressman was truthful with authorities. Gianforte won Montana’s lone U.S. House seat 24 hours after the assault and in June, he pleaded guilty to charges that he assaulted Jacobs and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management classes and a $385 fine in court costs, according to the Associated Press.” ...
... Julia Wong of the Guardian: "US congressman Greg Gianforte misled police after his assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in May, falsely stating that Jacobs had initiated physical contact.... shortly after the assault, Gianforte’s campaign spokesman, Shane Scanlon, placed the blame for the violent incident on Jacobs.... That narrative was soon contradicted by audio of the incident captured by Jacobs, as well as the eyewitness accounts of a team of Fox News journalists. Jacobs decried the statement as 'defamatory', and Scanlon was harshly criticized by the political press for lying about the incident.... The police report suggests that the misleading narrative originated from Gianforte himself, however." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So very hard to believe Gianforte is a liar. Here I thought he was just a thug & a bully.
Democrats Behaving Badly:
Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Some former female staffers of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) spoke out on Friday in his defense, saying that he had treated women with respect while they worked in his office.... The statement is co-signed by eight former Franken staffers who have worked for him since he was elected to the Senate in 2008.... The statement came on the same day that Leeann Tweeden, the Los Angeles radio news anchor who accused Franken of kissing and groping her against her will, said that she had heard directly from the senator and is willing to meet with him to discuss the allegations.... Tweeden made a round of national television appearances on Friday to discuss her allegations and to reiterate that she accepts Franken’s apologies...." ...
... AND. Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Hillary Clinton slammed ... Donald Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore on Friday over their alleged sexual misconduct, criticizing them for not accepting responsibility' and 'apologizing' for their reported transgressions as Sen. Al Franken did.... [Clinton] said Franken’s request to have the Senate ethics panel investigate his sexual misconduct 'is the kind of accountability I’m talking about.' 'I don't hear that from Roy Moore or Donald Trump,' she added during an interview with New York’s WABC radio. 'Look at the contrast between Al Franken, accepting responsibility, apologizing, and Roy Moore and Donald Trump, who have done neither.'... Asked whether there was anything she admired about the Trump’s tenure in office thus far, Clinton replied: 'No. The answer is absolutely no. I didn’t think he’d be as bad as he turned out to be,' she added.” ...
... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The clamor for Franken’s head is, at best, premature — sentence first, trial (or Senate Ethics Committee investigation) later. At worst, it is alarmingly extreme, absent evidence of a pattern or misbehavior in the Senate. Let us stipulate: ... His behavior was appalling.... The focus is, and should be, on victims. But as employers engage in an overdue reckoning on how to rid workplaces of intolerable conduct, they — we — are going to have to wrestle as well with how to treat the victimizers." ...
... Kate Harding, in a Washington Post op-ed: "As a feminist and the author of a book on rape culture, I could reasonably be expected to lead the calls for Al Franken to step down.... I firmly believe he should suffer social and professional consequences for it. But I don’t believe resigning from his position is the only possible consequence, or the one that’s best for American women.... I am a Democrat because I am a feminist who lives under a two-party system, where one party consistently votes against the interests of women while the other sometimes does not.... Men’s harassment of and violence against women is a systemic issue.... Its roots lie in a patriarchal culture that trains men to believe they are entitled to control women’s bodies — for sex, for sport, for childbearing, for comedy.... If we set this precedent [of ousting known harassers] in the interest of demonstrating our party’s solidarity with harassed and abused women, we’re only going to drain the swamp of people who, however flawed, still regularly vote to protect women’s rights and freedoms.... In a sharply divided political climate where toxic masculinity knows no party, yet is only ever acknowledged by one, we must think about how to minimize harm to women." ...
... Eoin Higgins in the Huffington Post: "Lilian Adams and Zoey Jordan Salsbury were teenagers when they started working on opposite sides of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Adams, then 19, joined Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Salsbury, then 18, joined Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign.... But each woman says she was sexually harassed by a fellow campaign worker — and that both campaigns were ill-equipped to address the allegations. ...
... MEANWHILE, in Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the Tampa Bay Times: "Stephen Bittel's rocky tenure as Florida Democratic Party chairman ended in disgrace Friday after he resigned following accusations from women that he leered at them, made suggestive comments and created an unprofessional work environment.... Elected in January after a contentious internal campaign, Bittel lasted less than a year on the job.His departure marks the latest case of sexual impropriety shaking the state Capitol. Bittel’s position became untenable after all four major Democratic candidates for Florida governor urged his ouster following a Politico Florida report late Thursday in which six women anonymously complained about Bittel’s behavior. They said he was 'creepy' and 'demeaning.' Bittel apologized, but it was not enough." ...
... Gubernatorial Race? Or Not. Lindsey Bever & Marwa Eltagouri of the Washington Post: "An Ohio Supreme Court justice who recently declared his intention to run for governor defended 'heterosexual males' Friday amid mounting accusations of sexual misconduct. Justice William O’Neill took to Facebook on Friday morning to make a statement about what he described as the 'national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions,' and in doing so he disclosed details about his sexual history. 'In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females,' O’Neill, a Democrat, wrote. 'It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland.'... By Friday afternoon, after a storm of bipartisan condemnation from Ohio politicians, the post was deleted. Shortly before 6 p.m., O’Neill posted new comments. 'As an aside for all you sanctimonious judges who are demanding my resignation, hear this. I was a civil right lawyer actively prosecuting sexual harassment cases on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office before Anita Hill and before you were born,' O’Neill wrote. 'Lighten up folks. This is how Democrats remain in the minority,' he wrote.” O'Neill's campaign spokesman is quitting. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently none of these 50 lucky duckies is a person with, you know, a personality, intellectual attributes, talents, etc. They're all "gorgeous blondes" or "drop-dead gorgeous redheads." "very attractive," or whatever. Pig. ...
Kaitlin Riordan of KREM TV (Spokane, Washington): "Officials with the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island said one of their aircraft was involved in the obscene skywritings spotted in Okanogan County. Photos sent to KREM 2 by multiple sources show skydrawings of what some people are saying is male genitalia.... In a statement to KREM 2 News navy officials said, 'The Navy holds its aircrew to the highest standards and we find this absolutely unacceptable, of zero training value and we are holding the crew accountable.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
News Lede
Washington Post: "Bobby Baker, a protege of future president Lyndon B. Johnson whose career of wealth and privilege came crashing down in an influence-peddling scandal, died Nov. 12 — his 89th birthday — in St. Augustine, Fla.." ...
... As I recall, my father -- who was a T-man -- was one of the team who arrested Baker. -- Marie