;)
The Commentariat -- April 20, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Scott Glover, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge in California said Friday that he needed to hear from ... Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen directly before deciding whether to issue a stay in a civil lawsuit involving porn star Stormy Daniels.... Judge S. James Otero gave Cohen's attorney until Wednesday to file a declaration by Cohen himself indicating whether his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination could be at issue in the civil case due to an ongoing criminal investigation in New York."
Kevin Brueninger of CNBC: "Memos leaked by former FBI Director James Comey contain information that is now considered classified, prompting the Justice Department's watchdog to review the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. At least two of the memos Comey gave to a friend contained classified information, the Journal reported. Comey reportedly redacted portions of one of those two memos himself before sending them to his friend.... A person familiar with the matter told the newspaper that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is now spearheading an investigation into the classification of the documents. Comey has said he considers the documents to be personal documents. But in a Jan. 7, 2017 email containing the first memo he wrote, Comey said he was 'not sure of the proper classification here so have chosen SECRET.'"
Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Friday against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump. The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and help Trump by hacking the computer networks of the Democratic Party and disseminating stolen material found there.... The case asserts that the Russian hacking campaign — combined with Trump associates’ contacts with Russia and the campaign’s public cheerleading of the hacks — amounted to an illegal conspiracy to interfere in the election that caused serious damage to the Democratic Party." Read on. The Democratic party won a similar suit against the Nixon campaign for the Watergate break-in.
Greg Sargent has a good column arguing that release of the Comey memos sunk Trump: "These memos, if anything, confirm more credibly than before what Trump’s frame of mind was in leading up to that firing — that is, the level of acquiescence that Trump wanted but did not get from Comey before firing him. These memos go further than before in supplying Trump’s likely motive for the firing." Sargent is amused by the GOP's ludicrous claim that the memos actually vindicate Trump because Comey never wrote in a memo, "Woe is me! I feel so obstructed!" Sargent also notes an important question Rachel Maddow asked Comey last night in regard to Rudy Giuliani's foreknowledge of Comey's plan to reopen the Clinton investigation. Worth a read. Here's that portion of Maddow's interview:
... Stephen Collinson of CNN: "If House Republicans thought they were helping ... Donald Trump by forcing the release of James Comey's memos, they might want to think again. The documents written by the then-FBI director, detailing his interactions with Trump, present a contemporaneous and deeply unflattering view of a President throwing his weight around in his first days in the White House -- that at the very least seems highly inappropriate.... The Comey memos suggest Trump has a scattershot and self-obsessed mindset, brooding about his subordinates, leaks, his campaign and his inaugural crowd size and not appreciating or caring about protocol boundaries that separate the White House and the Justice Department. Furthermore, the conversations with Comey soon after Trump moved into the White House paint a picture of a new President more concerned with own fortunes than the burden of his new responsibilities.... Trump responded to the release of the memos on Twitter in an apparent attempt to direct conversation away from the embarrassing substance of the documents."
Thug-in-Chief. Murray Waas in Vox: "... Donald Trump sharply questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray during a White House meeting on January 22 about why two senior FBI officials — Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — were still in their jobs despite allegations made by allies of the president that they had been disloyal to him and had unfairly targeted him and his administration, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The president also pressed his attorney general and FBI director to work more aggressively to uncover derogatory information within the FBI’s files to turn over to congressional Republicans working to discredit the two FBI officials.... The very next day, Trump met Sessions again, this time without Wray present, and even more aggressively advocated that Strzok and Page be fired, the sources said. Trump’s efforts to discredit Strzok and Page came after Trump was advised last summer by his then-criminal defense attorney John Dowd that Page was a likely witness against him in ... Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice, according to two senior administration officials." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bad news, Donaldo. Now both Sessions & Wray could wind up as witnesses against you, too.
Jonathan Greenberg, in a Washington Post story: "In May 1984, an official from the Trump Organization called to tell me how rich Donald J. Trump was. I was reporting for the Forbes 400, the magazine’s annual ranking of America’s richest people, for the third year. In the previous edition, we’d valued Trump’s holdings at $200 million, only one-fifth of what he claimed to own in our interviews. This time, his aide urged me on the phone, I needed to understand just how loaded Trump really was. The official was John Barron — a name we now know as an alter ego of Trump himself.... It took decades to unwind the elaborate farce Trump had built to project an image as one of the richest people in America. Nearly every assertion supporting that claim was untrue." Includes audio. If Trump's lies amuse you, read on.
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Federal civil rights prosecutors have recommended charges against a New York police officer in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, three current and former officials said, but top Justice Department officials have expressed strong reservations about whether to move forward with a case they say may not be winnable. Mr. Garner died on a Staten Island street after the police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, used a chokehold to subdue him.... In recent weeks, career prosecutors recommended civil rights charges against Officer Pantaleo and sought approval from the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, to seek an indictment.... Based on the discussions so far, it appeared unlikely that Mr. Rosenstein would approve charges. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also been briefed on the case and could weigh in after Mr. Rosenstein makes his own recommendation, officials said."
Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Wells Fargo is paying $1 billion to two federal regulators to settle an array of investigations into its mortgage and auto-lending practices. The settlements with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were announced on Friday, as expected. The bank is effectively paying $500 million to each regulator. The consumer bureau said it was imposing a $1 billion penalty but was deducting from that the amount that Wells Fargo was paying to the currency comptroller."
Ricardo Cano of the Arizona Republic: "Arizona educators and school employees fueling the teacher-led #RedForEd movement have voted in support of a walkout — an unprecedented action aimed at pressuring state leaders to act on their demands for more education funding.... [Teacher & organizer Noah] Karvelis said they will continue non-disruptive walk-in demonstrations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then walk out Thursday. This will give schools and parents time to prepare, he said."
*****
Try to keep up, people!
Brandon Conradis of the Hill: "President Trump late Thursday night trumpeted the release of a series of memos written by former FBI Director James Comey, claiming they exonerated him of allegations that he obstructed justice and colluded with Russia. 'James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION,' Trump tweeted. 'Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?'" Mrs. McC: Needless to say, 100 percent of the tweet is inaccurate and/or nonsensical. ...
... Update: Now Trump is all upset about poor Michael Flynn, even tho Trump trashed Flynn to Comey. here's Trump's tweet, released at about 6:35 am ET: "So General Michael Flynn’s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!"
... Thursday Afternoon. Billy House of Bloomberg: "The Justice Department has agreed to give Congress memos that former FBI Director James Comey wrote about his meetings with ... Donald Trump, averting a potential legal and political standoff, according to a Republican familiar with the arrangement. The move would head off a subpoena for the documents that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia had said he might issue. A push by Republicans to obtain the memos comes amid the release this week of Comey’s memoir, 'A Higher Loyalty,' and interviews in which he portrays the president as a liar and immoral. Some Republicans complain that Comey has been talking about the memos in his book promotion tour even as the Justice Department withheld them from lawmakers." (Open link in private window.) ...
... So Then. AP: 7:45 pm ET: "The Justice Department has sent Congress confidential memos written by former FBI Director James Comey. In a letter sent to three Republican House committee chairmen Thursday evening, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd writes that the department is sending a classified version of the memos and an unclassified version. The department released Boyd’s letter publicly, but not the memos." ...
... So Then. AP: 8:30 pm ET: "The Associated Press has obtained 15 pages of memos that former FBI Director James Comey drafted about his interactions with President Donald Trump. The Justice Department provided the documents to Congress on Thursday [same link]." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, it took Congressional Republicans all of 45 minutes to leak the Comey docs. ...
... So Then. Here are the 15 pages of the memos which Republicans leaked to the AP (and other outlets), published at about 9:10 pm ET. ...
... Mary Jalonick & Eric Tucker of the AP: "... Donald Trump told former FBI Director James Comey that he had serious concerns about the judgment of his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, according to memos maintained by Comey and obtained by The Associated Press. The 15 pages of documents contain new details about a series of interactions that Comey had with Trump in the weeks before his May 2017 firing. Those encounters include a White House dinner at which Comey says Trump asked him for his loyalty, and a meeting the following month in which he says the president asked him to end an investigation into Flynn." Also dropped at about 9:10 pm ET. ...
... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The broad outlines of the memos have already been reported by The Times, and were relayed by Mr. Comey in testimony before the Senate and in his recent memoir, 'A Higher Loyalty.' But they are believed to be key evidence in a possible obstruction of justice case against Mr. Trump being pursued by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Mueller was appointed after Mr. Comey was dismissed in May.... The Justice Department is expected to deliver on Friday unredacted versions of the memos to lawmakers via a secure transfer." ...
... ** Margaret Hartmann writes an excellent summary of the memos. ...
... Joshua Keating of Slate: "In a Feb. 8, 2017, memo, Comey says that Trump ... [said] that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'had told him "We have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world.’” Comey notes that Trump didn’t mention when Putin had told him this, but Putin had made public comments about the beauty of Russian prostitutes that January. The two leaders had conducted their first official conversation just 11 days earlier. Perhaps the two leaders also discussed 'beautiful hookers' then, or perhaps Trump was merely referring to Putin’s public statements and Comey misunderstood." Mrs. McC: Nah. I'd bet that Trump thinks Putin and others speak to him directly through the teevee. This could be because in Trump's experience, Fox "News" hosts & guests actually do speak directly to him thru the teevee. Also, Trump has special TV receptors in his teeth. ...
... Jeremy Stahl of Slate wonders why GOP allies of Trump would be so anxious to leak memos that make Trump look like the delusional idiot he is -- even to the point of threatening Rosenstein with impeachment if he didn't hand them the memos. Stahl suspects it's that the House leaders were trying to bolster the GOP-Trump myth -- re-expressed in Trump's post-release tweet -- that Comey had leaked classified material. One minor problem: the memos the GOP immediately leaked to the press are unclassified.
Jennifer Jacobs & Chris Strohm of Bloomberg: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told ... Donald Trump last week that he isn’t a target of any part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter. Rosenstein, who brought up the Mueller probe himself, offered the assurance during a meeting with Trump at the White House last Thursday, a development that helped tamp down the president’s desire to remove Rosenstein or Mueller, the people said. After the meeting, Trump told some of his closest advisers that it’s not the right time to remove either man since he’s not a target of the probe." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Robert Costa & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a combative former prosecutor and longtime ally of President Trump, told The Washington Post on Thursday that he has joined the president’s legal team dealing with the ongoing special counsel probe.... He also said he will soon take a leave from his law firm, Greenberg Traurig. Giuliani is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is the office currently overseeing an investigation of Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.... Trump counsel Jay Sekulow said Thursday in a statement that Giuliani is joining the team along with two former federal prosecutors, Jane Serene Raskin and Marty Raskin, a couple who jointly run a Florida-based law firm."
David Voreacos of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort stemmed in part from his suspected role as a 'back channel' between the campaign and Russians intent on meddling in the election, a Justice Department lawyer told a judge. The disclosure by U.S. prosecutors came Thursday during a hearing on whether Mueller exceeded his authority in indicting Manafort on charges of laundering millions of dollars while acting as an unregistered agent of the Ukrainian government. Manafort’s lawyers say those alleged crimes have nothing to do with Mueller’s central mission.... 'He had long-standing ties to Russia-backed politicians,' [DOJ attorney Michael] Dreeben [said in court].... 'Did they provide back channels to Russia? Investigators will naturally look at those things.'” (Open in private window.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Embattled attorney Michael Cohen has dropped a pair of much-touted libel suits against BuzzFeed and the private investigation firm Fusion GPS over publication of the so-called dossier detailing alleged ties between ... Donald Trump and Russia. Cohen abandoned the suits late Wednesday as he continues to fight to recover documents and electronic files seized from his home, office and hotel room last week by federal authorities as part of what appears to be a broad criminal investigation into his conduct.... Dropping the suits could help Cohen avoid being questioned by lawyers from Fusion GPS or having to turn over evidence related to the case — both steps that could undercut his defense in the criminal probe.... The move could also bolster Cohen's effort to delay a suit brought in Los Angeles by porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump about a decade ago. It could have been difficult for Cohen to convince that judge to put Daniels' case on hold while Cohen continued to press civil suits in other federal courts." Thanks to MAG for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Frank Rich weighs in on various aspects of the Trump crime family. Entertaining, as usual. Thanks to MAG for the lead.
Shut Up! Cristiano Lima of Politico: "... Donald Trump threatened Thursday to cut off federal funding for the deployment of California's National Guard if Gov. Jerry Brown insists that the troops 'do nothing,' an apparent jab at the state official's insistence that they not perform immigration enforcement duties. Brown on Wednesday mobilized 400 members of the state's National Guard to fight gangs and smugglers as part of the president's push to beef up border security. The California governor said that federal authorities agreed to fund the plan, which he announced last week, but that the troops would not enforce immigration policy. 'Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy "up to 400 National Guard Troops" to do nothing,' Trump tweeted. 'The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Brown’s charade. We need border security and action, not words!'" Mrs. McC: Like Jeanne (see yesterday's Comments), I'm sick of this crap. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... BUT. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "There was no immediate comment from [Gov.] Brown’s office in Sacramento. But the seesawing exchanges continued to play out on Twitter, where an account operated by the California National Guard said the state had 'written confirmation' that the Pentagon will pay for the troop deployment agreed upon with Brown.... Trump’s threat to yank funding also appeared to undercut a statement by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who thanked Brown late Wednesday after his office announced the agreement with federal officials [and who tweeted about it].... After his morning tweet, Trump slammed those policies again during a visit to a U.S. military installation in Key West, Fla., where he appeared alongside Nielsen and congratulated her for doing a 'fantastic job' stopping seafaring migrants and smugglers from reaching U.S. shores." ...
... Mrs. McC: Perhaps you noticed that Trump has no idea what he's doing, & at the Key West event at least seemed to be entirely unaware that he had dissed the work of his DHS secretary in the same breath that he praised her.
Eric Levitz: "... Trump’s aides believe he just might win a Nobel Peace Prize. And that notion is a tad less crazy than it sounds.... When it comes to forging a peace deal with North Korea, Trump’s aversion to sweating the details of geopolitics could be an asset. And his disagreeable (and/or sociopathic) personality could ... are the very reason that peace talks between Trump and Kim are taking place at all: When the president was presented with North Korea’s routine offer of direct talks, he interpreted it as an unprecedented gesture of conciliation inspired by his exceptional leadership — and then pounced on the opportunity to generate a flattering headline, before his advisers could brief him on the potential downsides of such a summit.... Thus, it isn’t hard to imagine Trump leaping at the opportunity to announce that he has reached a historic denuclearization deal with North Korea — even if such an agreement includes concessions on America’s security role in the region that all previous presidents have recoiled from.... More critically, unlike any previous U.S. president, Trump can plausibly brand a withdrawal of the U.S. military from East Asia as a foreign policy 'win' in its own right. After all, the mogul has repeatedly complained about the fiscal costs of maintaining American security guarantees...."
Nicholas Fandos & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "Mike Pompeo came close on Thursday to clinching confirmation as the nation’s 70th secretary of state when Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, announced her support. But before that triumph, he is expected to face a historic rebuke from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which most likely will not recommend his confirmation. Ms. Heitkamp, who faces a difficult re-election fight in a state that President Trump won handily, said in a statement that Mr. Pompeo had convinced her that he would rebuild the State Department, which was seriously depleted under the previous secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson."
Pamela Brown of CNN: "The Justice Department's inspector general has sent a criminal referral regarding former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to the US attorney's office in Washington, according to a source familiar with the matter." ...
... Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Comey said in an interview on Thursday on CNN that he was conflicted about the accusations that Mr. McCabe was not forthcoming to investigators. 'James Comey just threw Andrew McCabe "under the bus,’” Mr. Trump wrote Thursday evening on Twitter. 'Inspector General’s Report on McCabe is a disaster for both of them! Getting a little (lot) of their own medicine?'... Mr. McCabe has rebutted the allegations [in the inspector general's report], describing them as 'egregious inaccuracies.'”
Nicholas Fandos & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "Mike Pompeo came close on Thursday to clinching confirmation as the nation’s 70th secretary of state when Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, announced her support. But before that triumph, he is expected to face a historic rebuke from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which most likely will not recommend his confirmation. Ms. Heitkamp, who faces a difficult re-election fight in a state that President Trump won handily, said in a statement that Mr. Pompeo had convinced her that he would rebuild the State Department, which was seriously depleted under the previous secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson."
Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the Senate confirmed [Jim] Bridenstine, an Oklahoma congressman, as the new NASA administrator in a stark partisan vote: 50 Republicans voting for him and 47 Democrats plus two independents against. The vote lasted more than 45 minutes as Republicans waited for Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona to cast his lot. The vote was also punctuated by the appearance of Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, who cast her ‘no’ vote on the Senate floor with her newborn daughter in hand.... Many who voted against him expressed concerns about his record of partisanship as well as some statements questioning climate change, an area of research in which the space agency plays a central role.... On Wednesday, the Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog organization, raised questions about Mr. Bridenstine’s actions as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium from 2008 to 2010.... One of the events that he organized as executive was an air show in 2010 featuring races by rocket-powered airplanes — by a business he had personally invested in. That could be considered 'self-dealing.'...”
Jeff Mason of Reuters: "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, under fire from lawmakers for travel and security expenses, spent about $45,000 in government money to fly five people to Australia to prepare for a planned trip that was later canceled [because of Hurricane Harvey]." Mrs. McC: While there might be justification for sending a security person or two, it doesn't make much sense to me that two aides had to travel to Australia to set up a few meetings. I'm thinking everybody involved has a phone.
David Kirkpatrick & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "White House aides were worried enough about a visit last year by Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, under investigation by American prosecutors who say he embezzled $3.5 billion from a state investment fund, that he was denied the customary photo in the Oval Office with President Trump. But that did not stop a top Republican fund-raiser, Elliott Broidy, from seeking to use his White House ties to press for Mr. Trump to play a golf game with Mr. Najib, who had the authority over negotiations for a lucrative Malaysian contract with Mr. Broidy’s private defense company, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. In addition to providing new details about Mr. Broidy’s attempts to exploit his White House connections for personal gain, the documents also raise questions about whether Trump administration officials were aware of his efforts.... [Um, apparently so:] The president’s previous chief of staff, Reince Priebus, had confirmed the golf date to Mr. Broidy, but 'unfortunately, the golf game is not appearing on the schedule that has been provided through protocol to the PM,' he wrote."
Paul Krugman examines the reasons the public isn't buying the GOP tax heist the way people fell for Dubya's similarly regressive cut. This leaves the GOP with nothing to run on this year except racism. "And with the tax cut fizzling, I predict that we’ll be seeing a lot of implicit — even explicit — appeals to racism in the months ahead." Mrs. McC: Krugman doesn't give the media any credit, but I do. Most major newspapers (all the ones I read) were willing to at least implicitly trash the Trump bill on their front & editorial pages.
Emily Flitter & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Federal regulators are poised to impose a $1 billion penalty on Wells Fargo for a variety of alleged misdeeds, including forcing customers to buy auto insurance policies that they didn’t need, according to people briefed on the regulatory action. The expected penalty, levied by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is likely to be announced Friday. It would mark the toughest action that the Trump administration has taken against a major bank. And it is the latest blow to Wells Fargo, which for years was regarded as one of the country’s best-run banks but lately has been reeling from a string of self-inflicted crises. President Trump has advocated a rollback of regulations on the banking and other industries. He has nominated industry-friendly officials to oversee key government agencies, including the consumer bureau, which is being run on an interim basis by Mick Mulvaney. Mr. Mulvaney has pledged to defang the agency.... At the same time, though, Mr. Trump has pledged to be especially tough on San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. 'I will cut Regs but make penalties severe when caught cheating!' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter in December."
James Wagner & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "After seven months and close to $2.5 billion, almost everybody in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico had their lights back on — until a freak accident on Wednesday plunged the entire island once again into darkness. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority had boasted Wednesday morning that less than 3 percent of its customers remained without power, substantially concluding what some estimates called the biggest power failure in United States history. The island of 3.4 million residents was open for business again, government officials said. It was only a few hours later that an excavator working near a fallen 140-foot transmission tower on the southern part of the island got too close to a high-voltage line. The resulting electrical fault knocked out power to nearly every home and business across the storm-battered American territory, authorities said, a catastrophic failure that could take up to 36 hours to restore." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Mark Zuckerberg was at pains to emphasize how eager he was to protect users’ personal information — including supporting a piece of landmark European Union legislation on data privacy. At the time, he told Reuters reporters that he supported that act 'in spirit' and said that Facebook was working to create a similar version of the law.... On Thursday, it emerged that Facebook was moving 1.5 billion international user accounts out of reach of the new [EU] privacy law, which is scheduled to go into effect on May 25. Instead, Facebook has decided to move the responsibility for all non-U.S. and Canadian accounts from Ireland — where the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) would have jurisdiction — to Facebook’s home in California, which is not subject to the new rules." Mrs. McC: I'm shocked, shocked to read Zuck isn't as sincere as he tried to to look in Congressional hearings.
Juliet Macur of the New York Times: "Lance Armstrong agreed on Thursday to pay $5 million to settle claims that he defrauded the federal government by using performance-enhancing drugs when the United States Postal Service sponsored his cycling team. The settlement ended years of legal wrangling between Armstrong and the government over whether the Postal Service had actually sustained harm because of Armstrong’s doping. After years of vehement denials, Armstrong admitted in 2013 that he had used banned substances while winning a record seven Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005. He wore a Postal Service jersey during the first six of those victories, but he was stripped of all his Tour titles in 2012 after an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency determined that he and many of his teammates had been doping."
Morgan Winsor & Kelly McCarthy of ABC News: "The two black men who were arrested at a Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia last week and accused of trespassing say they were there for a business meeting that they had hoped would change their lives. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson came forward this morning on ABC News' 'Good Morning America' to publicly share their story for the first time." Includes video of the interview. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Cuba’s National Assembly on Thursday officially confirmed 57-year-old Miguel Díaz-Canel as Cuba’s new head of state, ending Castro rule after nearly 60 years and shifting power toward a younger generation born after Cuba’s revolution.... Díaz-Canel’s name was put forward Wednesday as the sole candidate to head Cuba’s council of state, a post that effectively serves as the presidency. On Thursday, officials announced the results of the vote: 603 to 1 backing his nomination as Cuba’s new leader. Díaz-Canel’s selection amounts to the dawn of a new era in a country deeply identified with the Castros, who led the revolution that triumphed in 1959 and resulted in the most enduring communist system in the Western Hemisphere." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (21)
Bea wrote "...While there might be justification for sending a security person or two, it doesn't make much sense to me that two aides had to travel to Australia to set up a few meetings. I'm thinking everybody involved has a phone."
Not only a phone but probably a computer with an internet connection as well.
There's a not-so-newfangled thing called Skype where people from all around the world can join and participate in meetings, have conversations in real time, and view the computer screen of the presenter. If somebody else in the meeting needs to share information from their computer, they can become the presenter with only a couple mouse clicks so everyone can see the same thing at the same time. Other participants can also draw on the presenter's screen using available mark-up tools to highlight items in question, rather than verbally direct the presenter by saying "up at the top right part of the page, no...no...no, further down...to the left...."
I use it every day to discuss project issues with other team members at locations in other parts of the world. Skype makes life so much easier to ensure everyone's on the same page, saves a ton in travel expense, and, more importantly, saves a lot of time quickly.
A trip to Australia eats up over a day, each way. I guess they didn't care because at least they got out of the office, they earned a few extra frequent-flyer points, and somebody else (us) was paying for the trip.
[I subscribe to a similar service and have often thought of offering to set up a meeting for other RCer's to learn the basic syntactical mechanics of creating a hyperlink to share their contributions as well as the basics of the other html tags (as listed below this box) to make text bold, italics, etc. It's really quite basic and I believe that once others see how it's done they'll no longer be apprehensive to try it. I'm just not sure what the level of interest would be or how to handle the logistics of setting up an event for others to join without giving up their anonymity. I have an idea but it would require Bea's consent since this is her site.]
Read the redacted notes last night (Margaret Hartmann's piece this am) and it appeared that followers of this story knew much in the broader sense from previous interviews/testimony/news items....true, there are some newer details with the more complete Comey synopsis/notes.
Certainly appears that Putin called first and Flynn 'forgot' indicated by the letter-spacing hidden by the redacted portions.
Must say, I find this oversight by Flynn quite curious!
...and Nobody knows how to spell Theresa!
...and this, "Comey and Flynn Joked About Jailing Reporters" (see Hartmann's last section in New York article). I don't recall where Comey and Flynn had such a conversation.
Could be in the rush to post her piece, a typing error?
Or did I miss something?
@unwashed: It's easy enough to Google the 'tips' of how to 'write' html code for such things as italic, boldface,
strikethrough, etc...as well as how to include a hot link to another Web page. I keep a sort of template on file, and as I usually write responses offline to use the various tricks and incorporate such features.One caveat, if someone saves such a template in say a Word.docx, be sure the quotation marks are straight, not the 'proper' grammatical curly ones. Otherwise these tricks won't work.
@MAG: That's a typo (and it's still there in big print). Obviously, Hartmann meant Comey & Trump, not Comey & Flynn. Interesting that Comey despises the press as much as any politician & agrees with Trump it's a swell idea to "put reporters in jail." The Greatest American Public Servant must have skipped Constitutional Law the day the professor covered the First Amendment. (She writes this stuff at 3 in the morning. I forgive her.)
Even more interesting from that graf is this: "The President wrapped up our conversation by returning to the issue of finding leakers. I said something about the value of putting a head on a pike as a message." Andy McCabe (whose head can currently be found on a pike of the White House fence) surely has already instructed his lawyer has certainly put that in his evidence book.
Echos from Idiots (should be "echoes"...thought it didn't look right)
There's a wonderful Ray Bradbury story (I forget the name...Ken, do you remember?) about a man stranded on Mars, left alone in a colony abandoned by fellow explorers. He routinely sends out calls for help, interspersed with lengthy commentary on how his solitary life is progressing on the red planet.
After years of doing this, he finally receives an incoming message. The man is thrilled. He responds and there is a back and forth. The man tries desperately to discover the source of the signal. He races across Mars to various deserted bases and soon the messages begin to take on an eerie familiarity. Then he recognizes the voice. It's his. The messages are nothing more than scrambled bits of those commentaries he had been sending out into space for years, coming back to him in pieces. There is no rescue at hand. He's been talking to himself.
In much the same way, the instant leaking of the Comey memos, if one buys the theory put forward by Jeremy Stahl at Slate (linked above), exposes a similar type of conversation.
Confederate plotters believed the Comey memos to be classified and they further believed that leaking them would help Trump. How did they know these memos were classified (because, obviously, they never bothered to actually check, natch)? Fox told them. Who told Fox? Trump.
So, Trump says "Classified!". Fox, trying to help out Trump, says "Oh yeah, classified, baby!" Confederate caucus idiots say "Classified? Wow. Okay. Hey, Mr. President*! Classified!" Trump wakes up and reads "Classified". "HOLY SHIT! This is great! Classified! I'm saved!"
Sorry, boys. There is no rescue at hand. You're all talking to yourselves.
Of course, unlike the poor man in the Bradbury tale, the provenance and accuracy of these messages was stupidly easy to discover. Just pick up the phone. "Are these memos classified? No? Okay, thanks."
But, no. They prefer the authority of some idiot at Fox.
Idiots are as idiots do, do..do...do.....do......do.........do.......d
(Yet another example of the total intellectual failure and corruptibility of right-wing ideology and policies. The very people who should know better, those who were ushered into office by the lies of Fox pundits, turn right around and believe the apodictic verity of everything they're told by those same liars. I don't know whether to laugh or book a flight to Canada. Or maybe Mars.)
And speaking of "the value of putting a head on a pike..." Here is Ted Cruz who just put his own head on one of those pikes. What on earth he thinks he is gaining by slobbering all over the man who denigrated him, his wife and his father is a mystery to many. My boy Beto has just been handed the message of the hypocrisy of the year award to use in his run for that senate seat that has been warmed for much too long by "Lying Ted"––let's put him to bed along with his phony green eggs and ham scenario.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-donald-trump-time-fawning-praise_us_5ad9892de4b03c426dacef2f
So yet another government agency (NASA this time) taken over by a completely unqualified, incompetent con man with a history of helping himself to big pieces of whatever pie is on the table, to the detriment of those who actually baked that pie.
At this point, it's far more the fault of the Confederate crooks in Congress than the Orange Fraud. They rubber stamp every lying, scheming piece of shit he sends their way.
If Trump picked one of his former mob lawyer pals to be the next AG (when he dumps JeffBo), invertebrates in Congress would cheer.
It never ends.
@AK: Bradbury had something called the Martian Chronicles and I think that was one of the stories within. I think your connecting that particular story to our current situation is spot on. Hello? Hello? anyone out there????? The realization of the void––that no one is there and words you thought were others were only your own is pretty terrifying. I doubt seriously that those involved in their own "discovery" that led to nothing will feel anything but a slight headache and that, too, will be lied about.
Egg-ZACTLY, Ak. It's all so circular. Government by Fox. All of it, even the "appointments..." Turned off the teevee, took a nice long walk with a friend, remarked on the gorgeous spring flowers (a real asset in this state, when it isn't snowing--) and am planning to throw in some pansies into the front planters. I do want to check in on the children walking out of their classrooms this hour-- thank goodness for the children providing us with some hope and bulwark against the stupid and insane!
The thought of an ignorant, saber rattling baboon like Trump being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize gives me agita like you read about. Just imagine the chest thumping and flippant triumphalist tweetery that would accompany this travesty. The only thing that might ameliorate such an unjustified reward for knuckleheadedness would be that he would likely share it with his Little Rocket Man buddy.
Two warlike authoritarian thugs sharing a peace prize.
Jeeeezus.
If it did happen, it would be because Kim has had it with the sanctions and being the pariah of the planet, not because of any amazing deal making skills on the part of the Orange Baboon. But that won't matter if some kind of détente ensues. The fact that Trump could be the incredibly lucky beneficiary of decades of stolid application of pressure won't matter. He'll be strutting around like Mussolini with extra starch in his jodhpurs and a ramrod up his ass.
Even worse? With his very own Nobel, he could sail to re-election. Fox will paint him as a combination of Caesar and Gandhi (although the thought of Trump wearing either khadi robes or a toga does have some vague entertainment value).
Bob Mueller, if you're listening, we could use some help here...
@Akhilleus, et al.: I'd like to think that if Trump got the lion to lie down with the lamb, the Nobel committee wouldn't be stupid enough to give him another shiny gold object.
Well kids, this being Friday, how 'bout a vocabularistic divertissement?
Here are the most recent words trending on the Meriam-Webster site. Trending words are those receiving the most look-ups, meaning they tend to be words showing up with some regularity in the media.
Guess who these words relate to?
lowlife
kakistocracy
slimeball
salacious
oligarch
glib
depose
omnibus
excoriate
white lies
hoax
unwitting
treasonous
redaction
malfeasance
spurious
And as an extra lexical lagniappe, today's Word of the Day is "bloviate"!
D'ja get it?
Ha. I knew you would. They got "unwitting" but left off "witless". Or perhaps "witness", as in "for the prosecution"...
Maybe next week.
Marie,
It could be a lion and lamb thing, but it might be hard to pretend that a tree sloth and a jackal look convincing in lion and lamb outfits. XXL for both of those fat asses
Bulbophyllum Trumpus
Jeanne's mention that she was going to plant some pansies to ward off the Trumpies got me thinking...if Trump were a flower, what kind would he be?
So far I've got:
Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), a yuuuuge fat ugly thing that stinks like a rotting corpse.
Yeah, I know, that will be tough to beat.
Okay, how 'bout:
Eastern Skunk Cabbage. This smelly thing attracts flies, like the Musca Lewandowskus and the Diptera Sandersia. Sounds familiar, don't it?
Then we have:
Hydora Africana, a parasite plant with a distinct odor of feces left in the hot sun, attracting dung beetles known to populate Trumpian regions. Hey, not bad.
But hold on, we can't leave out this:
Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis, a kind of orangey-pinky, hairy orchid that smells like dead mice. Could be a winner!
I guess there's always the Venus Flytrap. Like the blood sucking one in "Little Shop of Horrors".
What do you guys think? Suggestions? There's a bunch of opportunistic weeds I haven't gotten to, and invasive, environment choking things like purple loosestrife that suck up all available nutrients but give nothing back to the biosphere.
I can picture it now, just outside Marred-a-Lago, the Trumpy Botanical Garden, filled with the nastiest, stinkiest, most invasive floral monsters on the planet.
PD,
It certainly could be one of the Martian Chronicles stories. I should get those out again. I'm recalling another Martian story he wrote about a traveler meeting famous authors from Earth, like Edgar Allen Poe and Dickens, who, after they die, are reborn (or something) on Mars.
Gotta love Ray. He was one of the best. Not just a wonderful writer, but a lover of great writing. Hey, just like Trump!
Kissinger got the NPP for his deal with Le Duc Tho.
Le had the class to turn it down.
Barry O'B's Nobel probably gets under DiJiT's skin more than DiJiT's lack of Emmy.
Here's betting that he will be willing to throw the interests of the U.S.. Japan, S. Korea and Taiwan into the China Sea in order to get that piece of glitter.
@Ak, I would lean more towards a fungus rather than a flower. Particularly, those of the family Phallaceae, more commonly known as stinkhorns.
Tales of Brave Donaldus
The normalization of Trump has given way, on the right, to the startling veneration and apotheosis of Trump. A piece of dreck with a pretentious quotient off the charts now presents Trump as a Tragic Greek Hero.
Pardon while I barf.
The writer, Victor Davis Hanson (I've complained about this idiot before), a military historian (of sorts) and so-called classicist, has a single shtick that he trots out without fail. Everything he loves (Trump, war, Republicans, tax cuts) can be traced to the glory of Greece and Rome. Everything he hates (Democrats, minorities, multiculturalism, women's rights) can be traced to the godless mongrel hordes that brought down those great empires.
So it's not much of a surprise that he compares his latest winger crush, Trump, to the great line of Greek literary heroes and aligns never Trumpers and anyone else set against his orangeade Miles Gloriosus with weak sister wannabes who never amount to much, who suffer greatly in comparison with the Great Trump, and whose best efforts can only weaken the nation.
Why bother with a schmuck like this? Because he pisses me off, that's why.
If you're going to compare a narcissistic, ignorant, thuggish crook like Trump to Ajax and Oedipus and classic western heroes, Will Kane in "High Noon" and Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers", not to mention General George Patton, you better have your shit together and be able to back it up.
He doesn't.
This is the idiot who once called Bush's War of Choice in Iraq "Our Peloponnesian War". Wow. Really? First, Vic, the Peloponnesian War was a conflict between Greeks. Is Bush's war between Americans? No? Then your analogy dies at first light.
But back to his most recent crapola.
Not to overstate the case, but Trump is no hero. Hanson pretends that Trump is the mighty warrior standing between us and destruction, a figure that many hate but all fear, the kind of hero who never minds what others say about him because his goal is pure and clear. Okay, I'll give him that. Trump's goal is to make himself a pile of money while draping himself in unearned glory. Heroic?
The classic hero (Greek or otherwise), tends to be a flawed character (okay, we'll give him that), but one who, through pain, suffering, and self-inflicted chaos, comes to a better understanding of the world and his or her place in it and betters that world through sacrifice. The hero, while flawed, is never an amoral or fundamentally immoral character (even if they act immorally at times). And the final piece in the hero puzzle? He or she gets it in the end. Either they die or are banished or undergo terrible suffering, but through it, they rise to the status of nobility and true heroism.
Does any of that sound vaguely Trumpian? The classical hero may start out trying to finagle his or her place, attain some standing, win some contest, or overcome some problem of their own, but in the end, their sacrifice is made for the greater good of the community, the city-state, the country. And they do so not for glory or honor, or a fuzzy love shack session with Sean Hannity, but because it's the right thing to do.
Trump is all in on himself. As Patrick mentions he would gladly toss the US, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and any other country that might stand between himself and a Nobel Peace Prize, into the nearest dumpster.
As someone with a general interest in classical literature and Greek and Roman history, it offends me heartily to read someone attempt to press the concept of the classical hero into the service of venerating a mangy ball licking dog like Donald Trump.
Okay, rant over.
By the way, no link, again, as I don't like to unnecessarily spread diseased thoughts, but if you want to read this crap, it's on the National Review site.
I'll end with a quote from the other Akhilleus (from the Lattimore translation of The Iliad), something for that sterling wonderment of the ancient world, Donaldus Trumpius, to think about as he gets ready to don the raiment of the hero, courtesy of Victor Davis Hanson.
"You wine sack, with a dog's eyes, with a deer's heart. Never
once have you taken courage in your heart to arm with your people
for battle, or go into ambuscade with the best of the Achaians.
No, for in such things you see death. Far better to your mind
is it, all along the widespread host of the Achaians
to take away the gifts of any man who speaks up against you.
King who feed on your people, since you rule nonentities;
otherwise, son of Atreus, this were your last outrage.
So stick that in your Peloponnesus, Victor.
Unwashed,
Nicely priapic, if much too big. But fungus is probably a good choice. Maybe so anti-fungal cream...?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-oil-minister-president-trump-spar-over-oil-prices-1524243020
Guess the Pretender hasn't sucked up enough to Putin or the Saudis... but I'm sure he can do better.
Nothing like more of those moving classification goalposts.
I think the same thing occurred with some of HRC's, after the fact, second thoughts for the convenience of the party whose definitions of any and all things (like what's voter fraud, what's voter suppression, what's pollution, what's racism.....what' right and what's wrong) have always been squishy.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/20/comey-memos-under-investigation-by-doj-watchdog-over-classified-information-wsj.html