;)
The Commentariat -- April 17, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Washington Post: "The Internal Revenue Service's electronic system that allows Americans to submit their tax returns online at least partly failed on Tuesday, complicating filing for the millions of Americans attempting to meet the midnight deadline." This is a breaking story. Mrs. McC: Just yesterday MAG wrote that she wouldn't use electronic filing. I thought that was so-o-o-o retro. Maybe not.
Benjamin Hart of New York: "China lobbed another volley in the Sino-U.S. trade battles on Tuesday. The country imposed an extremely steep tariff -- 176.8 percent -- on sorghum, an American-made cereal grain that is used as a cattle feed and sweetener for baijiu, the popular Chinese liquor. After conducting an investigation, China concluded that the U.S. was dumping sorghum on the Chinese market, hurting its domestic producers. China imports about $1 billion a year worth of the grain from the U.S. Sorghum is mainly produced in the American South, in regions that voted heavily for President Trump."
Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt upgraded his official car last year to a costlier, larger vehicle with bullet-resistant covers over bucket seats, according to federal records and interviews with current and former agency officials. Recent EPA administrators have traveled in a Chevrolet Tahoe, and agency officials had arranged for Pruitt to use the same vehicle when he joined the administration in February. But he switched to a larger, newer and more high-end Chevy Suburban last June. One former EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said that Pruitt remarked that he wanted the larger car because it was similar to ones in which some other Cabinet officials rode.... Meanwhile, the 2014 Chevy Tahoe with four-wheel-drive that was used by Gina McCarthy, Pruitt's predecessor as EPA administrator, has largely sat idle at the EPA's headquarters...."
Mike DeBonis & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.), a frequent critic of President Trump and a leader of the GOP's moderate bloc in the House, said Tuesday that he will resign from Congress within weeks. His decision could set up a costly special election if the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania orders one. Dent had already announced his retirement from Congress in September, citing personal reasons for the decision while also lamenting the marginalization of the 'governing wing' of the Republican Party as the GOP has moved further to the right." ...
... In a statement, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf thanked Dent for his service. "Once Governor Wolf receives an official resignation notice with an exact date, he will make a formal decision regarding scheduling the date of a special election."
Jessica Gresko of the AP: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday that part of a federal law that makes it easier to deport immigrants who have been convicted of crimes is too vague to be enforced. The court's 5-4 decision -- an unusual alignment in which new Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices -- concerns a catchall provision of immigration law that defines what makes a crime violent. Conviction for a crime of violence makes deportation 'a virtual certainty' for an immigrant, no matter how long he has lived in the United States, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her opinion for the court. The decision is a loss for ... Donald Trump's administration, which has emphasized stricter enforcement of immigration law. In this case, President Barack Obama's administration took the same position in the Supreme Court in defense of the challenged provision." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Would have posted this sooner, but I got the vapors when I read Gorsuch voted with the "liberals."
*****
Remember Way Back Last Week When Trump Said Russia Would "Pay a Big Price" for Supporting a "Gas Killing Animal*"? Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as 'international economic raiding. Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House. Haley had said on CBS News's 'Face the Nation' that sanctions on Russian companies behind the equipment related to Assad's alleged chemical weapons attack would be announced Monday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. But Trump conferred with his national security advisers later Sunday and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Say, Nikki, how's the view from under the bus?
* As Akhilleus pointed out last week, a "gas killing animal" is likely some microbe. I'm thinking if you had enough of them running around your intestines, you could eat beans without embarrassment.
... The New York Times story, by Peter Baker, is here. Here are White House "officials" trying unsuccessfully to cover for Trump: (1) Mrs. Huckleberry: "'The president has been clear that he's going to be tough on Russia, but at the same time he'd still like to have a good relationship with them.'" (2) Anonymous official: "Mr. Trump concluded that [sanctions] were unnecessary because Moscow's response to the airstrike was mainly bluster, the official said." A wiser head explains how it works:
Trump seems to think that if he accepts what his advisers recommend on even days of the month and rejects their recommendations on odd days, the result will be a strategy. By and large, other governments don't know whether to laugh or cry at all this. But in Russia, laughter is getting the upper hand. -- Stephen Sestanovich, former U.S. ambassador
... Oops! Looks as if It Was Macron Who Exaggerated This Time. James McAuley of the Washington Post: "French President Emmanuel Macron attempted Monday to walk back surprising comments that suggested he had convinced President Trump to keep U.S. forces in Syria 'long term.' The remarks -- during a TV debate Sunday after Western missile strikes on Syria -- hinted at a major policy shift by Trump and brought a sharp response from the White House less than a week before Macron is scheduled to visit Washington.... 'I did not say that either the U.S. or France will remain militarily engaged in the long term in Syria,' Macron told reporters after meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. 'We have a military objective in Syria and one only: the war against ISIS,' he added...." Mrs. McC: Macron is meeting with Trump next week at the White House. Watch for Trump to ding him on this. (Also linked yesterday.)
Benjamin Weiser & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday rejected an attempt by President Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to block prosecutors in Manhattan from immediately reviewing a trove of materials seized in F.B.I. raids last week on Mr. Cohen's office, home, hotel room and safe deposit box. But feeling her way toward a resolution of the clash involving Mr. Trump and prosecutors investigating Mr. Cohen, the judge, Kimba M. Wood, signaled that she was considering appointing a special master to assist prosecutors if and when they cull through documents seized in the raids." (A brief version of this story was linked yesterday afternoon. The story has been expanded.)
David Voreacos of Bloomberg: "Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, says he gave legal advice to three clients in the past year, including the president and Elliott Broidy, former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Cohen declined to identify the third client in a filing in Manhattan federal court...." (Open link in private/incognito window.) Mrs. McC: So some other Friend of Donald who paid off a Playboy "model"? (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Holy Update, Batman! And the Mystery Third Man Is Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Sean Hannity! Zachary Fryer-Biggs of Vox: "A federal judge forced ... Michael Cohen to reveal the identity of a secret client. It's Fox News host and Trump ally Sean Hannity. Cohen was trying to protect Hannity's name as part of a lawsuit he filed to prevent the FBI from searching through the documents agents took on April 9 during a raid on Cohen's office and hotel room.... On Monday afternoon, during a hearing, [Judge Kimba] Wood rejected the plea from Cohen's team and demanded to be told who the third client was. '"I understand that he doesn't want his name out there, but that's not enough under the law,' Wood said. After a back and forth in which Cohen's lawyers offered to tell the judge confidentially, they gave in and announced the unnamed client was Hannity." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: Sean Hannity's "closeness with the president may not sit well with media watchdogs, but the cozy relationship has been good for the Hannity business: 'Hannity' is the most-watched cable news program, averaging 3.2 million viewers in the first quarter of 2018, up from 1.8 million in the early months of 2016.... Mr. Hannity denied on Monday that he was a client of Mr. Cohen's, saying that he had never paid him for his services and that his discussions with him centered on real estate.... Before the name was revealed, [Mr. Mr. Cohen's lawyer, Stephen] Ryan argued that the mystery client was a 'prominent person' who wanted to keep his identity a secret because he would be 'embarrassed' to be identified as having sought Mr. Cohen&'s counsel. Robert D. Balin, a lawyer for various media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN and others, interrupted the hearing to argue that embarrassment was not a sufficient cause to withhold a client's name, and Judge [Kimba] Wood agreed. After Mr. Hannity was named, there were audible gasps from the spectators." ...
... At about 11:15 minutes in, Rachel Maddow begins a sort of dramatic reading of the court proceedings that led to the outing of Hannity as Client No. 3. Entertaining:
... Michael Calderone of Politico: "Sean Hannity has wavered over the years on whether he is a journalist or conservative activist, but ethics specialists say that whichever hat the Fox News host was wearing last week when he condemned the FBI raid on attorney Michael Cohen's office, he should have disclosed that he's a client of Cohen's. 'It doesn't matter if you're a newspaper reporter or an opinion journalist,' said Indira Lakshmanan, the journalism ethics chair at the Poynter Institute. 'If you want to maintain credibility with an audience, and be honest with them, you have to disclose all facts.'" ...
... The Farce Bes with Him. Margaret Hartmann on how Hannity handled the news of his Cohen connection on his top-rated teevee show last night. Despite Hannity's brushing off the news as the product of an "insane media," Alan Dershowitz called him out for not disclosing his relationship with Cohen, and Hannity accidentally forgot to mention that another of his guests last night, Joe diGenova, represented him last year. ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN: "While his off-air relationships might be just a logical extension of Hannity's on-air cheerleading for Trump, it still came as a surprise, immediately raising questions about both Hannity and Fox. By any standards of any normal newsroom, the Cohen-Hannity relationship is a glaring conflict of interest. Fox is not a normal newsroom.... Monday's disclosure demonstrates just how tight-knit the pro-Trump media world is.... Cohen is one kind of Trump protector, Hannity is another kind.... Hannity is downplaying the extent of the lawyer-client relationship between himself and Cohen.... 'I never retained him in the traditional sense as retaining a lawyer; I never received an invoice from Michael; I never paid legal fees to Michael, but I have, occasionally, had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective,' Hannity said on the radio." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Several pundits on the teevee -- including Preet Bharara & Jeff Toobin, both legal experts -- noted the disconnect between Hannity's claims & Cohen's. When a lawyer says he has only three clients, & one of them is Hannity, it's pretty odd that Hannity is claiming he merely shot the breeze with Cohen. If that were the case, there certainly is no attorney-client privilege, Bharara & Toobin said. IMO, Cohen would not have described Hannity as a client unless he was aware that information on Hannity was included in those seized documents. But unless that info was relevant to a crime Hannity & Cohen cooked up together, I don't see why it would become part of the investigation. ...
... Andy Borowitz (satire): "One week after lambasting the F.B.I.’s raid on Michael D. Cohen's office as a 'fishing expedition,' Sean Hannity said that he 'totally forgot,' when he made those comments, that Michael D. Cohen was his lawyer." Thanks to MAG for the link.
Lordy, Is There a Pee Tape? Michelle Goldberg: "... Trump insisted to Comey that it was unimaginable that he would sleep with prostitutes. (The former Playboy model Karen McDougal ... has said that he tried to pay her the first time they had sex.) In another, he said he'd just remembered that he never even stayed overnight in Moscow: 'He claimed he had flown from New York, had only gone to the hotel to change his clothes, and had flown home that same night,' Comey writes.... This contradicts the story that Trump's former bodyguard, Keith Schiller ... said that a Russian associate offered to send five women to Trump's room, but was turned down. 'Schiller said the two men laughed about it as Trump went to bed alone,' NBC reported.... The possible existence of the tape isn't relevant because it would prove that Trump is sexually debauched and longs to desecrate everything Obama touched; we already know that. It matters because, like the former director of the F.B.I., we don't know if Trump has been compromised by Russia." Read on. Goldberg makes a case for the veracity of the pee tape. "To seriously discuss this presidency, you have to open your mind to the truly obscene."
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump resumed his attacks Monday on James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and said that Mr. Comey, his former deputy [Andrew McCabe] and others 'committed many crimes!' The president -- in his first Twitter post since the airing of Mr. Comey's first public interview about his months serving in the Trump administration -- again accused Mr. Comey of lying to Congress, but he did not specify which other crimes he believed Mr. Comey and others committed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Needless to say, it is inappropriate for any president to accuse American citizens of crimes for which they have not been convicted. Trump's remarks can only help McCabe's case against his 11th-hour firing. The "presumption of innocence" is not a specifically-guaranteed Constitutional right, but it is a bedrock of English-American common law, & U.S. courts usually interpret the "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment as an expression of presumption of innocence. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former FBI director James B. Comey is pushing back against President Trump's suggestion that he should be jailed, saying in a new interview that Trump's pronouncements on Twitter pose a 'great danger.' 'The president of the United States just said that a private citizen should be jailed,' Comey said. 'And I think the reaction of most of us was, "Meh, that's another one of those things." This is not normal. This is not okay. There's a danger that we will become numb to it, and we will stop noticing the threats to our norms.'" ...
... Comey made the comments in an interview by NPR's Carrie Johnson & Steve Inskeep. The full transcript of the interview is here. ...
... ** Jonathan Chait: "The most shocking-but-not-surprising aspect of James Comey's account of meeting Donald Trump is the ease with which he drew upon his experience prosecuting organized crime.... It is a pure coincidence, but a revealing one, that Comey's story has come out at the exact same time that Michael Cohen has emerged as a first-tier, and perhaps pivotal, figure in the prosecution of Trumpworld. Cohen has called himself Trump's consigliere and is the most palpably moblike character in Trump's orbit.... Organized crime is somewhere between a metaphor for the ethos that Trump has imposed upon his world and a literal description of the way his business operates.... Trump has run his business like a mafia operation because maintaining secrecy is the paramount value." ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic pushes backs against the notion that the raids on Cohen's records signal the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, as Adam Davidson of the New Yorker argued (linked yesterday). Mrs. McC: I'm inclined to agree with Heer, although I will not rule out the possibility that Trump himself is so in over his head that something -- and that might include an acute physical or psychological illness -- could cause him to walk out gracelessly. ...
... Quinta Jurecic of the Atlantic: "... prosecutors can only do so much. Mueller ... may never share the whole of his findings with the public. More concerning, however, is the possibility that law comes up against the edifice of falsehoods and fails. That is, what if the special counsel unveils a catalogue of wrongdoing by the president and those around him, only to find that Trump has succeeded in undermining the idea of truth to the extent that a substantial proportion of Americans simply won't believe whatever investigators have found?" ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The Trump administration has been throwing every possible charge it can think of at James Comey, in order to scuff up the image of the fired FBI director. This morning, Kellyanne Conway made an accusation that she and her boss might not have thought through: 'This guy swung an election,' Conway told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. 'He thought the wrong person would win.' That is probably true, but also probably not something Conway should admit." Conway later claimed she was being sarcastic, but Chait provides evidence otherwise. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Steve M.: "Even before his interview with George Stephanopoulos aired, the knives were out for James Comey, and not just at the White House or the Republican National Committee. 'James Comey Is No Hero,' wrote Charlie Pierce. 'James Comey Is No Hero,' wrote Adam Serwer. Today, Ryan Cooper writes,'James Comey Is Not a Hero.' I get it.... But I keep thinking about the aphorism made famous by James Carville: When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil.... So if Comey is hurling a heavy object into the water, I'm inclined to step back and let him get in a good throw." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Scott LeMieux of LG&$: "The transcript for the opening show of the Most Principled Man in America world tour is up if you're so inclined [linked below]. The constant pivots between discussions of how inappropriate it would be to let politics influence his decisions and his extensive discussions of how politics influenced his decisions is remarkable.... Comey's behavior was an absolutely perfect illustration of why the rules against commenting on ongoing investigations before an election are there in the first place.... Even if you buy the argument that Comey was justified in ignoring the rules in this case, there is no possible justification for selectively informing the public about investigations into the candidates and their campaigns. Which is why history is not going to remember Comey well despite his extensive PR efforts." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... This point, which LeMieux highlights, by former U.S. ethics director Walter Shaub is a knockout punch: "Comey had to know Chaffetz would leak the letter on the reopened Clinton investigation. But if Comey had written, 'This is to inform you that the FBI is investigating both major party presidential candidates,' Chaffetz would've dug a 6-foot hole and buried it in the forest," Shaub tweeted. Mrs. McC: Comey didn't know how either the investigations of Trump (dumpster fire) or of Huma Abedin's & hubbie's computers (nothing-burger) would turn out, so there's full equivalency in terms of what was known to him in October 2016. He had, at the least, an obligation to be bipartisan, if he was going to write to Congress at all. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Carlos Lozado's review of Comey's book in the WashPo, which LeMieux also recommends, is here. Mrs. McC: I don't disagree with any of the criticisms, but I'm stick with Steve M. (linked above) on the big picture. I guess I think there are rare times when the means justify the ends, & this would be one of those rare times. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Andy Borowitz (satire): "Melania Trump said on Monday that she did not understand the controversy swirling around James Comey's new memoir, because the book she is writing is 'so much meaner.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
The Most Corrupt President Ever. Dominic Rushe of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's US businesses have raked in $15.1m in revenue from political groups and federal agencies since he began his run for the presidency, according to a report released on Monday. For the report..., Public Citizen, a Washington-based nonprofit, analyzed all the available records of political and federal taxpayer spending at Trump businesses. The report concludes that Trump, his campaign and Republican political committees have diverted millions of dollars to the president's businesses -- spending money on his airplanes, at his hotels, golf courses and restaurants, and even buying his Trump-branded bottled water.... 'Trump's propensity for travel to his own resorts and dining at his own restaurants has resulted in considerable spending of tax dollars at Trump-owned properties,' the report concludes. However, it is difficult to assess quite how much money has been spent as the information is not yet fully available. The final tally is likely to be far larger than the $15.1m identified in Public Citizen's report." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Chait & Comey argue (linked above), Trump operates like the capo dei capi of a crime family. Comey notes that the mafia distinguish between "your family" and "Our Family." But the men (and women) Trump hired out of the hinterlands to run the Family operations in D.C. may not understand that family distinction and thus assume they too can operate as "made men." So they do. ...
** They're All Corrupt, Ctd. The Two Faces of Ryan Zinke. Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was a state senator from [Whitefish, Montana]..., he drove a Prius, sported a beard and pushed President Barack Obama to make clean energy a priority. Today, the beard and Prius are gone, and Mr. Zinke has emerged as a leading figure, along with Scott Pruitt..., in the environmental rollbacks that have endeared President Trump to the fossil fuel industry and outraged conservationists. In the last year, Mr. Zinke has torn up Obama-era rules related to oil, gas and mineral extraction and overseen the largest reduction of federal land protection in the nation's history, including an effort to slash the size of Bears Ears National Monument. But ... in Montana, where support for drilling in certain beloved areas can be a career killer, Mr. Zinke has struck a different note.... An examination of his Interior Department record shows that his pro-development bent has not always applied to his home state, where he is viewed as a fiercely ambitious candidate for future office. In the past year, Mr. Zinke has halted the sale of oil and gas leases near Yellowstone National Park, opposed gold mining in that area, and urged the president to protect one national monument, Montana's Upper Missouri River Breaks, while creating another, the Badger-Two Medicine, just miles from his childhood home." ...
... They're All Corrupt, Ctd. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency violated the law when it installed a soundproof phone booth for the administrator, Scott Pruitt, at a cost of roughly $43,000, a congressional watchdog agency ruled on Monday. The congressional agency, the Government Accountability Office, said in a report that the E.P.A. had not notified Congress as required before spending more than $5,000 on office equipment. In a separate report Monday, the E.P.A.'s inspector general published records showing that Mr. Pruitt's chief of staff signed off on hires and thousands of dollars in raises for political appointees under a provision of a clean water law. That report was part of an ongoing audit of salaries and hiring practices at the agency." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "President Trump should have fired Mr. Pruitt a long time ago. The latest reports underscore the swampy behavior Mr. Trump appears willing to tolerate and excuse.... The EPA should have informed Congress it wanted to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an unnecessary security upgrade. By failing to do so and spending the money anyway, it violated two federal laws, the GAO concluded. The EPA says Mr. Pruitt required access to a secure telephone line in an appropriate setting. But there already were two secure facilities at the EPA available for just such a purpose.... Mr. Pruitt insisted he did not know about [extraordinary raises given to two of Mr. Pruitt's favorite staffers] or about the way his staffers bypassed White House objections. But his chief of staff appears to have signed the forms 'for Scott Pruitt,' suggesting that he was acting with explicit or implicit permission." ...
... 'Earth, Wind & Liars." Paul Krugman: "... there is no longer any reason to believe that it would be hard to drastically 'decarbonize' the economy. Indeed, there is no reason to believe that doing so would impose any significant economic cost.... For now, however, the problem isn't technology -- it's politics. The fossil fuel sector may represent a technological dead end, but it still has a lot of money and power. Lately it has been putting almost all of that money and power behind Republicans.... Trump and company aren't just trying to move us backward on social issues; they're also trying to block technological progress. And the price of their obstructionism will be high."
They're All Corrupt, Ctd. Nick Statt of the Verge: "A broadband advisor selected by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to run a federal advisory committee was arrested last week on claims she tricked investors into pouring money into a multi-million dollar investment fraud scheme, according to The Wall Street Journal. The advisor, Elizabeth Pierce, is the former chief executive of Quintillion, an Alaska-based fiber optic cable provider operating out of Anchorage. In her capacity as CEO, Pierce allegedly raised more than $250 million from two New York-based investment companies using forged contracts with other companies guaranteeing hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue. Pierce resigned from Quintillion in August of last year, and she stepped down from her role in Pai's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) the following month."
Elliott Spagat & Luis Lugo of the AP: "The Trump administration said Monday that California Gov. Jerry Brown rejected terms of the National Guard's initial deployment to the Mexican border, but a state official said nothing was decided. 'The governor determined that what we asked for is unsupportable, but we will have other iterations,' Ronald Vitiello, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's acting deputy commissioner, told reporters in Washington. Brown elicited rare and effusive praise from ... Donald Trump last week for pledging 400 troops to the Guard's third large-scale border mission since 2006. But the Democratic governor conditioned his commitment on his state’s troops having nothing to do with immigration enforcement, even in a supporting role. Brown's announcement last week did not address what specific jobs the California Guard would and would not do, nor answer the thorny question of how state officials would distinguish work related to immigration from other duties."
David Kirkpatrick & Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "The United States and Britain on Monday issued a first-of-its-kind joint warning about Russian cyberattacks against government and private organizations as well as individual homes and offices in both countries, a milestone in the escalating use of cyberweaponry between major powers. Although Washington and London have known for decades that the Kremlin was trying to penetrate their computer networks, the joint warning appeared to represent an effort to deter future attacks by calling attention to existing vulnerabilities, prodding individuals to mitigate them and threatening retaliation against Moscow if damage was done."
Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The hidebound U.S. Senate is expected to soon change its rules for a member who just made history as a new mom. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who this month became the first sitting senator to have a baby while in office, has submitted a resolution that would allow senators to bring a child under one year old onto the Senate floor during votes. Senate leaders appear poised to approve the request, according to Senate sources. The Illinois Democrat has been on a campaign to change the chamber's rules, which prohibit children from the floor, arguing that the archaic ban doesn't support working parents and would make it difficult for her to vote." (Also linked yesterday.)
Rachel Siegel & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "The chief executive of Starbucks on Monday called for 'unconscious bias' training for store managers and apologized for what he called 'reprehensible' circumstances that led to the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia store last week. Kevin Johnson said in an interview on 'Good Morning America' that the company was reviewing the actions of the store manager who had called the police. Johnson said that 'what happened to those two gentlemen was wrong.'... Starbucks said later Monday that the store manager [who called the police] 'is no longer at that store.'... The two unidentified men were taken out in handcuffs.... They were held for nearly nine hours before being released, said ... an attorney who represented the men.... No charges were filed, authorities said." Protests continued at the store, which was "temporarily closed" by 1 pm Monday. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not sure how "unconscious" the bias was. The woman who first posted video of the arrests -- who is white -- said in an interview that just last week she sat in the store for at least an hour without making any purchases, & employees did not ask her to leave. According to witnesses, the men did not cause any kind of disturbance but were told to get out after they asked to use the restroom. They were waiting for a (white) realtor to join them, & it's reasonable to think that since he was pitching them on an investment, they counted on him to buy their beverages, which I think are $4 or $5 a pop for anything more complicated than black coffee.
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Ren Laforme of Poynter: "Winners of the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes were announced at Columbia University in New York City on Monday." Includes list of winners & runners-up for journalism awards. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update: The New York Times has a list with details, & includes the prizes for the arts.
News Ledes
ABC News: "One person has died after a Southwest plane engine failed in midair today, marking the first accidental domestic airline fatality in nine years, said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Flight 1380 was en route from New York City's LaGuardia International Airport to Dallas Love Field when the engine failure forced the plane to make an emergency landing at the Philadelphia International Airport this morning. Passenger Matt Tranchin said the flight took a turn when he saw a 'huge explosion and glass shattering three rows ahead of me.'... Witnesses have described seeing a woman be partially sucked out a window near the engine. Officials have not confirmed these details."
New York Times: "Harry Anderson, an actor who starred as the kindhearted, zany Judge Harry Stone on the long-running NBC comedy 'Night Court,' was found dead early Monday at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 65. The Asheville Police Department, which confirmed the death, did not release a cause but said no foul play was suspected."
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Reader Comments (19)
So Cohen works for Hannity for 'free'. So Hannity gets bribes from Cohen. And I wonder if the time was really free or perhaps paid by someone else?
Every time we think we are finally coming to the end, another story pops up. Writing the Trump history book is a serious challenge.
Bea, thanks for labeling the Borowitz piece as (satire).
Its getting harder to tell, every day.
Had Michael Cohen named Rachel Maddow as his mystery third client, Sean (Here's ten bucks) Hannity would be first in line screaming that she should be banned from the airwaves and severely punished by MSNBC for misleading her viewers.
And I agree, the media operation that oversees on-air talent who lies (by omission or commission) to his/her viewers, should suspend or otherwise punish that person, and upon returning to the line up, he or she should be ordered not to comment on stories involving them personally.
But that would be a well run, above board, actual news operation.
Not Fox.
Hannity's nightly lie-a-thons bring in millions to Fox. They've already killed their previous big money maker (Loofah Boy O'Reilly). I doubt they'll do it to the next in line.
But the fact that the two biggest money makers at Fox are (were, in the case of LB) liars, cheats, and in O'Reilly's case, an unrepentant sexual predator says a lot about the culture at Trump Media (aka Fox).
And despite Mr. Here's Ten Bucks' claim that he was never a client of Cohen's, why the desperate attempt to hide that connection? Not to mention the fact that Cohen seems to think that Hannity was/is a client of his. But Fox continues to allow him to use air time to spin a line about his hidden connection to a story he's been trying to twist to his benefit.
Meh. No biggie. Just another day in Right Wing Media World.
Several wags have pointed out the similarities between the Cohen/Hannity connection and the TV series "Breaking Bad", notably a scene in which sleazy underworld lawyer and fixer, Saul Goodman, instructs a couple of drug dealers to slip him a couple of bucks (Hey, Sean, this guy only charged his clients a buck! You got screwed) so they could all invoke attorney-client privilege later on if everything blew up (or, ya know, they had to appear before a judge in a United States District Court).
By the way, according to a now famous series of essays in an obscure legal journal that looks more carefully at the sort of legal issues described above, as reported a few years ago in the Guardian, "...a dollar bill is not a prerequisite to the formation of a privileged relationship; and not all communications with a lawyer are protected."
Got that Sean? You fucking mope.
So shoving ten bucks in Cohen's pocket, hoping you could hide behind attorney-client privilege and get away with whatever it is you're trying to hide, ain't gonna do it. And I don't for a second believe the legal advice sought was about the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or some other spurious fabrication.
The longer this goes on the clearer it becomes that there's not a smart person within ten crooked miles of Donald Trump.
@Patrick: I label Borowitz's stuff satire because way back when there was more of a difference between comedy & reality, I got questioned or criticized at least twice for linking to Borowitz posts that readers said they didn't find credible. I decided it was snobbish of me to take for granted that everybody who read Reality Chex also read the New Yorker & knew about Borowitz's metier, so I generally indicate a Borowitz post is satire unless it's a screaming joke.
Comey is being criticized for being political but it's clear he has essentially a disdainful view of politics:
"His well-earned sense of horror at Donald Trump is only one example of this disdain; a theme of his statements in the interview was that the F.B.I. must be seen as trustworthy at all costs, because there’s not much chance that politicians will be. That is a depressing and, to borrow another of Comey’s words, “dangerous” notion for a democracy." Amy Sorkin–-New Yorker
Last year our family had a crisis of our own. We made a poor judgement re: a financial matter involving another family member's marital situation. We––several members of the family–-believed it was in the best interest of the other member in question (and in fact it was) but we went about it in a way that backfired and the ramifications were serious and almost catastrophic. Poor judgement made by people who thought they were doing the right thing.
Comey's poor judgement, on the other hand, has impacted our whole
country and when he once said he was sick over it, I can well imagine how sick. But the thing about not being able to trust politicians, therefore our laws must be trusted above all is paramount. And the fact that we have a president that is besmirching our FBI and its affiliates is constitutionally a crisis. As I wrote that last sentence I thought–-every day brings some kind of crisis–-the effluvia spreading over everything ––even including *Sean Hannity!
* Seems to me that when Bill O'Reilly was being canned there were rumors that Hannity had his hand in some of those feline pursuits but nothing came of it. Maybe it was then that Cohen got a call––and put a stop to it.
'Joke' posted on FB:
Married couple Heidi and Jacques went into city and visited a dress shop. When they came out, there was a police officer writing out a parking ticket.. Jacques went up to the officer and he said, “Come on, sir, how about giving a senior citizen a break?” The police officer ignored the couple and continued writing the parking ticket. Jacques called him an “as*hole.” He glared at him and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires. So Heidi called the officer a “but*head”.
The officer finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing more and more tickets.
This went on for about half an hour. The more they abused him, the more tickets he wrote. The police officer finally finished, sneered at Heidi and Jacques, and walked away. Just then their bus arrived, and they got on it and went home.
Heidi and Jacques always look for cars with Trump stickers. They try to have a little fun each day now that they’re retired. It’s so important at their age.
Marvin,
Hahahahaha...good one.
I'd try that where I live, but it would take me weeks to get to all the cars with Trumpy bumper stickers, in just one parking lot.
My favorites are the cars with "Jesus Saves" and "There is a Hell!" stickers right next to the ones supporting criminal, adulterer, traitor, and serial liar Trump.
PD,
I'd suggest that as much as Comey states that he disdains politics (and by that, he probably means electoral politics) you don't get very far up the chain of command in any network in Washington without having a very strong political streak.
In most walks of life, political acumen and/or a political feel for what works, when, and how much of whatever to apply, or how to position yourself, whose wheels to grease, and whose to jam up, will often reward the merely(or barely)competent (or in Trump's case, startlingly incompetent) at the expense of the extremely competent who lack such skills.
I had a friend who was in the military and rose to a certain position but then decided to leave that life. I asked him why, since he had a sterling record, combat experience, and was greatly respected. He told me that he lacked the political dexterity and the taste for the jugular needed to go further up the ladder.
Comey, whatever he says, is a political animal. We all are, to varying degrees, but I'm pretty sure no one rises to the levels he attained at Justice and the FBI without a pretty muscular political proficiency.
You're correct that politicians cannot be trusted. This is, in part, why the founders created statements like "congress shall make no law..." rather than, "we trust you guys will do the right thing..." Trust in the system is what the Party of Traitors has been attacking since Reagan and is the single most important weapon in the Trumpy war chest. Attack Americans' essential faith in the system and everyone will throw their hands up in despair. Then you can unleash the Pruitts and Zinkes and Ryans and McConnells and Trump family members to plunder and pillage at their leisure.
The best thing to come my way so far today is picturing Bea with "the vapors."
Struck my funny bone hard, and just typing this made me laugh again.
Laughter aside, I've been wondering if Gorsuch, whose mother my environmental lawyer son has said was by far the worst EPA head before the present travesty, might prove to be one of those conservatives who can't stand the Pretender.
Focus on the Family, a right-wing evangelical influence organization, became a church last year, and acquired tax and immunity advantages thereby.
It is only logical. If the law allows it you'd be nuts not to take advantage of all of the other taxpayers. And you'd probably be defying God's will by failing to minimize Caesar's portion.
Despite what I wrote recently counseling pundits to shut up about Comey and letting him take his whacks at the fat man in the White House who spends hours every day screaming at his TV set, I have to say, after listening/watching to several of his many interviews, that he is a smug, sanctimonious, self-serving son of a bitch who cloaks himself in the raiment of justice and honor even as he piles up hypocritical and contingent defenses for why it was okay for him to climb to the mountaintop and tell all about the suddenly Reopened Hillary Investigation, but to keep quiet about Trump's campaign being investigated for collusion with a foreign power to steal an election.
Also, he had no choice. Lordy! He had just had to tell the folks all about Hillary. But Trump? Well...he really had no idea what was going on, so best to keep it on the down low.
He never really meant to weaponize that phony email bullshit and hand the election to Trump, but it couldn't be helped, could it now? It was the Right Thing to Do.
Bite me.
Lyin' right to the bitter end.
This weekend Lyin' Ryan went on Chuck Todd's Sunday morning gasbag extravaganza and lied his ass off.
Presented with statistics about corporate tax revenues cratering in the wake of the Ryan/Trump 2017 tax scam, the soon to be ex-Speaker did what he does best: he lied.
Of course revenues aren't falling! In fact, they're RISING! After a 40% drop in rates. Seems impossible? It is. Of course it is. But facts and hard numbers have never forced Ryan to stray from the path of self-serving mendacity.
"Income tax revenues are still rising. Corporate income tax revenues. Corporate rate got dropped 40 percent, still rising" he lied.
But according to factcheck.org, "...corporate tax revenues are down for the first six months of the fiscal year, and they are projected to be less over the next 10 years than they otherwise would have been because of the [tax scam]. In fact, revenues in general will be less than they otherwise would be — resulting in even larger projected deficits. The CBO now projects $1 trillion annual deficits starting in FY2020."
And there's more evidence of Lyin' Ryan's latest fraudulent claim:
The "CBO projects that the federal government will take in about $409 billion less in corporate income tax revenue because of legislative changes, mostly those in the new tax law."
Mark Mazur of the non-partisan Tax Policy Center puts Ryan's latest pusillanimous prevarication into perspective.
"The whole point of [Ryan's tax scam] is to cut corporate taxes."
Yup. Same ol' Ryan. Lyin' right to the end.
Hey, a new way for idiots who signed up to work at the Blight House to escape their self-assigned hell. Paging John Kelly...
@Akhilleus: Nice try. Based on past performance, the baboons in the White House are not nearly as innovative as the ones in Texas. As we learned from the White House personnel office staff, give them a keg & they'll hold a kegger. They'll never escape.
@Marvin Schwalb: Thanks for sharing. Gave me a laugh, & I didn't see the end coming. I'd be tempted to try it myself, but the cop would probably see that bumper sticker & give me a pass. If I called him a name anyway, he might say, "Holy shit, Lady, that's just what Trump called Comey yesterday. You following him on Twitter, too?"
Holy Crap!
Fox stands by sleazy, self-serving, hypocritical, unethical host with enormous conflict of interest in biggest story of the year, who kept vital information from his viewers then lied to them when his conflict was revealed (he's either a client or he's not...he claims to be both; one of those claims is a lie).
"...we have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean and he continues to have our full support..."
So there ya go.
You could knock me down with a loofah.
Interesting (provocative?) alternative explanation in Syria