;)
The Commentariat -- April 7, 2019
Afternoon Update:
"The Fix Is In." Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: William "Barr has taken every possible step to lessen the sting of the Mueller report -- and, so far, to block it from view altogether." ...
... Matthew Choi of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani wants the full Mueller report to go to Congress -- because 'believe me, there was nothing there.' Appearing on CBS' 'Face the Nation' Sunday, the former New York mayor ... argued the president has nothing to hide and has demonstrated 'unprecedented' cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election."
Trump Is Hiding Something Big. Michael Burke of the Hill: "Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that Democrats will 'never' see
~~~~~~~~~~
Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump warned on Saturday that a Democratic victory in 2020 could 'leave Israel out there,' as he highlighted his pro-Israel actions in an effort to make the case for Jewish voters to back his re-election. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Trump touted his precedent-shredding actions to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recognition last month of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria in 1967. 'We got you something that you wanted,' Trump said of the embassy move, adding, 'Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises.' The group, backed by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, supported Trump's 2016 campaign and is preparing to spend millions on his 2020 effort." ...
... Trump Fan Threatens to Kill Ilhan Omar. Kevin Bohn of CNN: "A New York man is in custody after having been arrested and charged with threatening to assault and murder Rep. Ilhan Omar, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York. Patrick W. Carlineo, Jr., 55, of Addison, New York, threatened to kill Omar because of her Muslim faith, according to a criminal complaint and accompanying affidavit....A call was placed to Omar's Washington, DC, office on March 21, an FBI agent stated in the affidavit. During the call, an individual, who identified himself as Pat Carlineo, said to a staff member: 'Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she's a (expletive) terrorist. I'll put a bullet in her (expletive) skull.'Omar's office referred the threat to the US Capitol Police, which began an investigation with the FBI." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Besides being a dangerous bigot, Carlineo is not too bright: "Carlineo sounded angry during the call but provided the spelling of his name and contact information, the affidavit said. He was later interviewed by authorities where he stated that he was a patriot, that he loves ... Donald Trump, and 'that he hates radical Muslims in our government,' the affidavit stated." Anyway, I was wondering if Trump or the White House issued a pro forma statement condemning violence, supporting freedom of religion, & so forth. Not exactly. ...
... Seung Min Kim & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Saturday criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar, one day after a New York man was arrested and charged with threatening to kill the Minnesota Democrat. In remarks to a conservative Jewish group, Trump thanked several Republican lawmakers for their support before proceeding to mock Omar, an outspoken critic of U.S. policy toward Israel who has also made comments that some say invoke anti-Semitic stereotypes. 'Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota,' Trump told members of the Republican Jewish Coalition in a ballroom of the Venetian Resort. 'Oh, I forgot. She doesn't like Israel. I forgot. I'm so sorry.'" ...
Sexual Assaulters Club. Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "When President Donald Trump exited Air Force One at the start of his Saturday trip to Las Vegas, he was greeted on the tarmac by former casino executive Steve Wynn, a longtime business rival and friend who was a major fundraiser for the president during the 2016 campaign. Wynn has kept a low profile since resigning his post as CEO of Wynn Resorts in February 2018, after multiple accusations alleging sexual misconduct by Wynn with subordinates at the casino company.... Wynn, who denies the allegations, also resigned from his post as the Republican National Committee's finance chair last year. Despite Wynn's denials, this past week, Massachusetts state gaming regulators released a scathing report finding that Wynn's company had worked to cover up the allegations against Wynn." --s
Blustering Bluffer-in-Chief. Michael Tackett & Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "For President Trump, a threat is frequently his first impulse.... But his threats often remain just that. The most recent example was when Mr. Trump backed down from a vow to close the border with Mexico, instead saying he would give one of the United States' most essential trading partners a year to deal with the migrant crisis. This came only a day after he had threatened to act if Congress did not bend to his will on the issue. The price of Mexican avocados spiked, but the government of Mexico seemed unmoved. (Mr. Trump has warned Mexico of an impending border closing at least three times before, in October, November and December.)... Here is a look at some of Mr. Trump's more high-profile threats...." ...
... Seung Min Kim & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "... unauthorized immigration has surged to the highest levels in a decade, leaving [President* Trump] searching for quick-fix solutions and his administration roiling with internal tensions over how to address a problem the president promised to solve.... His public indecision over the past week -- threatening in a tweet to close the border with Mexico before reversing himself six days later -- revealed an administration that is grasping to deal with a humanitarian challenge without a well-defined strategy and with significant divisions within Trump's team. A sign of the discord came Friday when the White House yanked the Senate nomination of a longtime federal immigration official, Ronald Vitiello, to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a senior White House adviser, Stephen Miller, lobbied Trump to cut him loose.... He has focused on outdated models of hard-line deterrence and punishment developed more than a decade ago to stop Mexican men from sneaking into the country in search of jobs. Those methods, including a border wall, are largely ineffective in keeping out the asylum-seeking families who are driving the recent immigration spike, immigration experts said." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So on one of Trump's favorite white supremacist issues, both the New York Times & Washington Post use their front pages to point out that Trump is an incompetent, indecisive clown. So unfaaaair!
... Good Grief! Elliot Spagat of the AP: "The Trump administration wants up to two years to find potentially thousands of children who were separated from their families at the border before a judge halted the practice last year, a task that it says is more laborious than previous efforts because the children are no longer in government custody. The Justice Department said in a court filing late Friday that it will take at least a year to review about 47,000 cases of unaccompanied children taken into government custody between July 1, 2017 and June 25, 2018 -- the day before U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw halted the general practice of splitting families. The administration would begin by sifting through names for traits most likely to signal separation -- for example, children under 5. The administration would provide information on separated families on a rolling basis to the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to reunite families and criticized the proposed timeline on Saturday. 'We strongly oppose a plan that could take up to two years to locate these families,' said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead attorney. 'The government needs to make this a priority.'"
Heather Long of the Washington Post: "As President Trump threatened to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border in recent days, his Department of Homeland Security nearly doubled the number of temporary guest worker visas available this summer. The Homeland Security and Labor departments plan to grant an additional 30,000 H-2B visas this summer on top of the 33,000 they had already planned to give out, the agencies confirmed. The H-2B visa allows foreign workers to come to the United States legally and work for several months at companies such as landscapers, amusement parks or hotels. About 80 percent of these visas went to people from Mexico and Central America last year, government data shows.... On Friday, [Trump] implored migrants to turn around and go home. 'Can't take you anymore,' Trump said, while standing at the border in California. 'Our country is full.'" Mrs. McC: Apparently not.
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Lucia Mutikani & David Brunnstrom of Reuters: "... Donald Trump said on Saturday he had not read Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report.... 'I have not read the Mueller Report yet, even though I have every right to do so,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Only know the conclusions, and on the big one, No Collusion.'... In another tweet, Trump called the report 'a total waste of time.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What is not addressed here is whether or not Trump has received the Mueller report & had staff tell him the highlights. That would explain Trump's change of heart on releasing the report. ...
... Marcy Wheeler, in a Washington Post op-ed, argues that "we already know Barr's summary was too easy on Trump.... Barr's judgment that Trump didn't obstruct justice because 'the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference' doesn't hold up. Eve the public record shows that Trump's associates appear to have tried to coordinate with Russia.... The same public record suggests Trump's potential abuse of his pardon power may have thwarted Mueller's ability to get at the underlying crime." Wheeler goes over some of the evidence against Roger Stone & Paul Manafort that surfaced in court filings to make her case. ...
... William Saletan of Slate: "Until we see the report, we won't know what's in it. But we do know what Republicans have said about it, and eventually -- unless it's buried forever -- we'll be able to check these descriptions against the document. Here's a catalog of what Trump and his surrogates have said since Barr's letter came out. Some of these claims have been repeated uncritically by TV anchors, headline writers, and reporters. If the claims prove to be false, the media has a clear duty: to acknowledge that the report is more damning than we were told.... [The report] might show that some of these claims are true. But if they're false -- if Republicans lied about the report, and the media fell for those lies -- then it will be time to talk less about exoneration and more about cover-up. The Barr letter and the blitz of spin around it could turn out to be another chapter in a Republican campaign to bury the truth." --s
... Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The federal appeals court in Washington, DC, sided with grand jury secrecy on Friday, ruling that federal district judges don't have the power to make the grand jury's records public, even in historically significant cases.... The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday split 2-1 in its grand jury secrecy decision, ultimately siding with the Justice Department in a case brought by researcher Stuart McKeever seeking records from 60 years ago.... The decision has major implications for the release of grand jury records -- especially at a moment when the lower federal court in Washington has been asked to make grand jury information related to the Mueller investigation public.... The appeals court notes that in other cases, grand jury secrecy was overcome to aid in other investigations. Judges still are able to disclose grand jury records 'in connection with a judicial proceeding' in some circumstances, such as when the House Judiciary Committee weighed the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.... Friday's opinion 'says nothing about Congress and its access to the full Mueller report,' Deana El-Mallawany, counsel at Protect Democracy, said in a statement Friday. 'Before and after that decision, House Judiciary clearly has a right to seek information from the Mueller grand jury under the express exception to grand jury secrecy.'"
David Corn, et al., of Mother Jones have more reporting on the "Mar-a-lago/China affair" where we're introduced to: "... an unusual Chinese fellow named Charles Lee [whose real name is Li Weitian], who ran a business bringing Chinese execs to the United Stateson travel packages that included visits to Mar-a-Lago for events.... Lee ... established the United Nations Chinese Friendship Association in 2011. According to a press release issued at the time, the UNCFA ... was accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council and the Chinese Embassy in New York City. (According to the Washington Post, the UNCFA 'is not on any list of nongovernmental organizations with UN affiliation.')... After Lee's name emerged in this scandal, the UNCFA's website was taken down.... Much about Charles Lee does not check out. Lee seems to be an operator and a mixer ... who has long-standing ties to Chinese government and Communist Party organizations of concern to counterintelligence experts.... Yet he has obtained access to Mar-a-Lago and Trump events. " --s
Let Them Eat Salt. Catherine Kim of Vox: "Six states and Washington, DC, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, are fighting President Trump's mission to make school lunches unhealthy again. During the Obama administration, first lady Michelle Obama pushed for healthier school meals as part of her agenda to tackle obesity. In 2010, Congress passed legislation requiring school lunches to be more nutritious, and the Department of Agriculture published new regulations to enforce the law. The Trump administration rolled back those guidelines in 2018, allowing schools to abandon their commitment to lowering sodium and increasing whole-grain foods. Now the states are suing to set the standards high again.... The lawsuit focuses on three key changes from 2018: the reintroduction of refined grains and two of the changes meant to gradually reduce sodium from school meals." --s
Supreme Gun Nuts. Ian Milhiser of ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court handed down a brief order on Friday denying a request to block a federal ban on 'bump stocks,' a device that effectively converts a semi-automatic rifle into a fully automatic weapon.... Yet, while even the Trump administration deemed these devices to be too dangerous for civilian use, two members of the Supreme Court would have blocked the ban. Both Justice Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch voted to grant a request to stay a lower court decision allowing the ban to take effect." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, we have two Supreme Court justices who believe the Second Amendment guarantees the right to mass-murder.
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Ernest F. Hollings, a silver-haired South Carolina Democrat who served 38 years in the United States Senate in an era of rising prosperity and often painful accommodation to racial tolerance in his state and across the South, died on Saturday at his home in Isle of Palms, S.C. He was 97."
Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "Scientists estimate that at least 100 million and maybe as many as a billion birds die each year in the US when they collide with buildings, especially glass-covered or illuminated skyscrapers.... Most birds migrating through the US do so at night, when the airspace is cool and calm -- and often end up veering through cities because their glow stands out. Scientists have long known that birds are attracted to light, so when they fly over a bright city at night, they are naturally drawn toward it, unaware they are in dangerous territory.... Houston and Dallas, which also lie along some of the most popular migration paths, round out the top three most deadly cities after Chicago. New York, Los Angeles, St Louis and Atlanta also pose risks during migration." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Louisiana. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Three historically black churches have burned in less than two weeks in one south Louisiana parish, where officials said they had found' suspicious elements' in each case.... The F.B.I. and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are involved in the investigation, said Jeff Nowakowski, a spokesman for the A.T.F.'s New Orleans field division."
Way Beyond
Guardian: "Thousands of protesters have clashed with security forces in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in a huge demonstration against president Omar al-Bashir's 30-year rule, witnesses said.... Security forces fired tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators gathered outside the presidential residence on Saturday in one of the biggest protests against Bashir in months of unrest.... The Sudanese Professionals Association has spearheaded calls for an end to Omar al-Bashir's three-decade rule soon after protests began on 19 December over surging prices and a failing economy." --s
Share Article
Reader Comments (6)
Win some, lose some: Texas senate passed SB17 which bars state
licensing agencies from taking action if licensed professionals use
their religious beliefs as a justification for discriminating against
LGBT people. They just don't give up. Glad my family left when
I was 10 years old.
https://tfn.org/texas-freedom-network-statement-senate-passage-SB17/
I heard the first signs of Spring this morning–-chirping birds and I envied their optimism. It's not easy for us humans to rally round the May pole these days–-after years of sheer chaos and disintegration. But yesterday Marie illustrated beautifully the kindness of strangers:
"She was big and round and soft and wearing a 1950's-style flowered dress" and gave succor to a young woman's suffering–-unexpected warmth and empathy in a super market parking lot. A story that sticks–-a story that we can hold on to.
"Since this is very hard, & likely useless, & all is nightmare & catastrophe, I'll begin singing & crying–––and then you can join in,"
––––W.S. Merwin
Last week's RC scribblings eventually took this shape in a LTTE:
"In 2019 what do conservatives really want to preserve?
It’s surely not the environment we all share. As agri-business lobbyist David Bernhardt’s nomination to head the Interior Department (nytimes.com) and the Trump administration’s repeated, extensive attacks on public lands, air, water and the nation’s health conclusively demonstrate (nationalgeographic.com), that old meaning of “conservation” has become a sick joke.
Is it fiscal responsibility conservatives value? The Great Tax Scam of 2017, which added trillions to the national debt, did little or nothing for the American middle class, and made the vastly wealthy even wealthier shouts a loud “no” to another former meaning of the word.
How about the rule of law? Though he frequently references brown-skinned criminals to cast himself as the law’s champion, Mr. Trump doesn’t hesitate to question laws he finds inconvenient or to vilify judges who don’t bend to his will. Speaking of immigration judges charged with enforcing the law as it stands, he recently said, "And to be honest with you, I have to get rid of judges.” ((propublica.org) Because so many of his policies and executive orders are poorly thought out or downright illegal, courts keep telling him “No” (washingtonpost.com). No wonder the president doesn’t like judges or the laws they uphold.
Family values? Aside from continuing the politically charged war against a woman’s right to choose, this ethically-challenged president has understandably little to say about morality of any kind.
Mr. Trump’s recent threat to close our southern border, his apparent wish that Puerto Rico were not part of the United States and Republicans’ overwhelming support for his blatantly racist immigration policies reveal even more about what today’s conservatives are most desperate to foster and to keep (politico.com):
For conservatives in 2019, the ideal state exists to serve only the wealthy, the male, and the white."
And no, "wealthy, male and white" doesn't exhaust the potential list, but the local paper allows only 300 words...and I see some of the other, hot-button issues that get the Pretender's base riled--god, guns and gays still do the job--as tools employed to keep wealthy, while males in power.
@forrest
One would think (I would like to think) that any set of beliefs that purports to lay out a system or good or ideal human behavior would crack asunder when it is used to justify nastiness.
But too often it seems religion's primary use is to make people feel good about being bad.
Maybe that's why we keep religion around. It so often comes in handy.
.....Pardon the short, Sunday anti-sermon
Trump administration wants up to 2 years to re-unite 47,000
children separated from their parents.
I'm hoping he didn't see a docudrama we watched recently (Netflix)
about Britain after WWII on children separated from their parents
for various reasons, some from orphanages, and many illegitimate
children snatched from mothers, etc.
The total eventually reached 130,000. They were shipped mostly
to Australia to become slave labor, servants, and to monasteries.
After some 60 years these children were still trying to find their
origins, birthparents, and why they were treated as chattel.
'Oranges and Sunshine' is the title. Not very uplifting but timely.
@Ken: good job re: the LTTE. And apropos of your Sunday sermon thought you may relish this comment from one of Igmar Bergman's characters summing up a man of the cloth:
" He is all too clearly a man who sees his rigor and strictures of organized religion to prop up a hopelessly crippled inner self."
POETIC JUSTICE: SOUTH AFRICA:
A poacher was killed by an elephant and then eaten by lions. you can't get better than that.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47843999
@PD Pepe: Gosh, I sure hope the poacher wasn't that nice Donnie Junior or his smarter brother Eric.