;)
The Commentariat -- August 24, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
As the Worms Turn, Ctd. The Trump Family Is So Screwed. Tom Winter of NBC News: "The longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, was given immunity by federal prosecutors in New York during the course of the Michael Cohen investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The news was first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal. Weisselberg is 'Executive 1' ... of the criminal information filed by prosecutors in the Michael Cohen case, a person with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.... Weisselberg, 70, began working for the Trump Organization as an accountant in the 1970s, when ... Donald Trump's father Fred ran the company. Weisselberg was also treasurer of The Donald J. Trump Foundation, the president's charitable organization, which has been sued by the New York attorney general for alleged violations of state law." Thanks to MAG for the lead. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Weisselberg ... becom[es] the latest figure close to President Trump to cooperate with investigators in exchange for leniency for himself. Weisselberg follows Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, David Pecker and, of course, [Michael] Cohen. But the latest news is potentially even bigger than its predecessors. And that's because none of these other figures can likely hold a candle to Weisselberg when it comes to knowing about any skeletons in Trump's closet.... How much Weisselberg actually knew the specific details of [the McDougal & Daniels hush-money] arrangement[s] isn't clear. But the fact that there was reason to subpoena him and make him cut an immunity deal is big. That means he personally had potential criminal liability, and he had to give something of real value to get out of that."
Julian Barnes & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "In 2016, American intelligence agencies delivered urgent and explicit warnings about Russia's intentions to try to tip the American presidential election -- and a detailed assessment of the operation afterward -- thanks in large part to informants close to President Vladimir V. Putin and in the Kremlin who provided crucial details. But two years later, the vital Kremlin informants have largely gone silent, leaving the C.I.A. and other spy agencies in the dark about precisely what Mr. Putin's intentions are for November's midterm elections, according to American officials familiar with the intelligence. The officials do not believe the sources have been compromised or killed. Instead, they have concluded they have gone to ground amid more aggressive counterintelligence by Moscow, including efforts to kill spies, like the poisoning in March in Britain of a former Russian intelligence officer that utilized a rare Russian-made nerve agent. Current and former officials also said the expulsion of American intelligence officers from Moscow has hurt collection efforts. And officials also raised the possibility that the outing of an F.B.I. informant under scrutiny by the House intelligence committee -- an examination encouraged by President Trump -- has had a chilling effect on intelligence collection."
Nicholas Fandos & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, will no longer be treated for his condition, his family announced on Friday, a sign that the Republican war hero is most likely entering his final days."
Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who ran the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years under President Obama, was arrested in Brooklyn on Friday morning on a sex abuse charge after an incident in October 2017, the police said. A 55-year-old woman came forward to the police in July and said that Dr. Frieden, described by the authorities as an acquaintance, grabbed her buttocks against her will nine months earlier, on Oct. 20, at his residence ... in Brooklyn Heights, the police said."
Some Good News. Victor Blackwell, et al., of CNN: "In a meeting that lasted less than 60 seconds, a Georgia elections board voted down a plan Friday to close seven of a majority-black county's nine polling places ahead of November's midterm elections. Critics had said the plan to consolidate polling places in Randolph County, Georgia, was a brazen attempt to suppress the black vote in Georgia's governor race, which pits former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams, who is black, against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is white.The vote came amid widespread national criticism and days after the county terminated its contract with Mike Malone, the consultant who made the recommendation. Malone had argued that closing the polling stations would save the county money, and that some of the sites suggested for closure did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's unclear whether the termination of Malone's contract impacted the vote." There are only two people on the Randolph County Board of Elections.
*****
Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "There is, again, a cancer on the presidency. But the comparison to Watergate offers a caution to the advocates of impeachment. [John] Dean's testimony was not enough. Many dismissed it as the words of a disgruntled employee. It took a series of developments to turn the public decisively against Nixon. It was the White House recordings that sealed the president's fate -- including the tape on which he said he could raise $1 million in hush money. It took the firing of the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox.... And the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew. And the allegations of tax evasion. And the missing 18½ minutes on the tapes. And 'expletives deleted.' And 'I am not a crook.' It was only in June 1974 that a majority of Americans thought Nixon should resign or be impeached.... Yet Trump still has serious cause for worry [-- reasons which Gerson lists.]... Every time we gain a peek into the inner workings of Trump world, we see a leader with the ethics of an Atlantic City casino owner who surrounds himself with people chosen for their willingness to lie and cheat at his bidding. A world in which Paul Manafort is 'a very good person.' A world in which payoffs and election tampering are all in a day's work. Left to his investigation, Mueller will expose this world to the light. And the choice for Congress is likely to be clear: Impeach, or tolerate massive corruption." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: While I generally agree with Gerson on this, there is another huge difference between Nixon & Trump: Nixon hid his bad deeds from the public; Trump is trying to hide only those that put him in legal jeopardy; many others he puts on display every day. Today's news about his feud with JeffBo, his desire to pardon Manafort, his touting of white nationalism, not mention his rich-people-first & anti-environmental policies, are but a smattering of that display. Also, we know mike pence, and mike pence is no Jerry Ford. I wonder if Nixon would have been impeached if Agnew were the alternative. ...
... Frank Rich: "... the unrelenting lockstep loyalty of the feckless GOP leadership and the party's base to Trump are not indicators of his fate. An occasional outlier in the Jeff Flake vein aside, Nixon's party was wholly loyal to him too. Like today's Vichy Republicans, they remained loyal despite the indictments of Cabinet members and aides as close to Nixon as Manafort, Cohen, and Michael Flynn have been to Trump. They remained loyal after the nation was riveted by the devastating Watergate hearings of the summer of 1973, which portrayed all the president's men as counterparts to the mobsters seen in the previous year's Hollywood hit The Godfather. They remained loyal even that fall, when Nixon's firing of the special prosecutor in the 'Saturday Night Massacre' attempted to blowtorch the Constitution and the rule of law.... [Assuming that Democrats take the House in November,] the [most] plausible scenario is that Trump, even if he has to be pushed kicking-and-screaming by Ivanka and the possible jailbirds Donald Jr. and Jared, gets out of Dodge. As with Nixon, his administration is most likely not to end with impeachment but with a self-pitying and self-justifying resignation in which Trump lashes out against both Republicans and Democrats, declares another ersatz 'win,' and flees."
The Elf Strikes Back. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, pushed back against President Trump's recent attack on him -- namely that Mr. Sessions never took control of the Justice Department.... 'While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,' Mr. Sessions said in a rare public statement released Thursday afternoon.... 'I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department,' Mr. Trump said in an interview with 'Fox & Friends' recorded on Wednesday and aired on Thursday morning. 'Jeff Sessions never took control of the Justice Department and it's a sort of an incredible thing.' He later asked: 'What kind of man is this.' Mr. Sessions appeared to answer that question: 'I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action,' he said in the statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: "Two key Republican senators signaled to ... Donald Trump that he could replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the midterm elections in November, a move that would open the way for firing Robert Mueller or constraining his probe.... 'The president's entitled to an attorney general he has faith in, somebody that's qualified for the job, and I think there will come a time, sooner rather than later, where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice,' Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who may be in line to head the Judiciary Committee next year, told reporters Thursday.... Graham warned against acting against Sessions before the election.... A year ago..., [Graham] warned Trump publicly that if he fired Sessions 'there will be holy hell to pay.' Senator Chuck Grassley, the current Judiciary chairman, also changed his position on Thursday, saying in an interview that he'd be able to make time for hearings for a new attorney general after saying in the past that the panel was too busy to tackle that explosive possibility." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Eliana Johnson & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Top Senate Republicans sent dueling signals on Thursday about whether it would be safe for ... Donald Trump to fire the attorney general he can't stand. GOP leaders moved quickly to quell a rebellion against Jeff Sessions after Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa signaled publicly that they'd be willing to give Trump what he wants and confirm a new attorney general after the midterms -- even at the cost of betraying a former Senate colleague. 'Do we really want to go through that kind of confirmation fight? Is there anybody we can confirm? Our conference supports Jeff,' Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 GOP leader, said in an interview with Politico.... The Senate majority whip, John Cornyn of Texas echoed those concerns.... More than a half-dozen GOP senators backed Sessions publicly after Graham and Grassley's comments...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump responded to JeffBo on Twitter this morning: "'Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by politica considerations.' Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the 'other side' including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr...... ...FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems - and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!" Because unjustified probes of King Donald's opponents would not constitute "political considerations." ...
... Update: John Wagner of the Washington Post has the story. ...
... Update 2: Katie Benner, et al., of the New York Times cover Trump's latest, plus a lot more. Here are two nuggets, both concerning Chuck Grassley. The first probably explains Grassley's willingness to dump Sessions: "Mr. Grassley has warred with Mr. Sessions over one of his top policy priorities, a comprehensive bipartisan criminal justice overhaul also championed by ... Jared Kushner. Mr. Grassley has said he believes that Mr. Sessions has led opposition within the administration to the legislative package. During Thursday's meeting at the White House, the president held off on backing the proposal at least until after November's midterm elections...." AND "Mr. Grassley also reached out on Thursday to lawyers representing [Michael] Cohen, inviting him to testify privately before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans on the panel have led an intermittent investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia but have not sought new witness testimony in months." ...
... Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump took his criticism of the criminal justice system to new heights Thursday, prompting alarm from national security and law enforcement officials who fear the president is seeking to protect himself from encroaching investigations at the expense of lasting damage to institutions.... Taken together, critics said, the president's actions demonstrate his shifting, inconsistent principles when it comes to law enforcement and suggest a dangerous lack of understanding about the criminal justice system that is likely to have repercussions well beyond the White House.... Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor who was part of the team that convicted Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, described Trump's statements about the criminal justice system as 'the modern-day version of a particularly inarticulate mobster. If you remove all the lies, there's nothing left,' Cotter said." ...
... ** Jonathan Chait: "Trump wants to ban flipping because he is almost literally a mob boss.... Over the weekend [Trump] denounc[ed] President Nixon's lawyer John Dean as a 'rat.'... To gangsters, a rat is considered the worst kind of person because they pose the greatest danger to their ability to escape prosecution.... Trump ... has worked closely with Mafia figures throughout his business career. 'I know all about flipping, for 30, 40 years I've been watching flippers,' he tells Fox News. 'Everything's wonderful, and then they get ten years in jail and they flip on whoever the next-highest one is, or as high as you can go.' Trump's claim of expertise in his area is not some idle boast. He hired Roy Cohn, by that point a mob lawyer, worked closely with figures linked to the Russian-American mafia, Felix Sater and Michael Cohen, and made money in his properties attracting money launderers.... He also follows mafia practice of surrounding himself with associates chosen on the basis of loyalty rather than traditional qualifications.... [']The only reason I gave [Sessions] the job [is] I felt loyalty.' Trump cannot imagine that admitting he picked an attorney general solely out of the expectation of personal loyalty is a confession of an intent to corrupt law enforcement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Chait's post is an elaboration -- and a very good one -- on what I wrote in the Comments section a couple of days ago. ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "... as Mr. Trump faces his own mushrooming legal troubles, he has taken to using a vocabulary that sounds uncannily like that of [John] Gotti and his fellow mobsters in the waning days of organized crime, when ambitious prosecutors like Rudolph W. Giuliani tried to turn witnesses against their bosses to win racketeering convictions.... Mr. Trump is comfortable with the wiseguys-argot of [the Queens neighborhood where he grew up.... Nicholas] Pileggi[, who writes about the Mafia,] traced the president's language to the Madison Club, a Democratic Party machine in Brooklyn that helped his father, Fred Trump, win his first real estate deals in the 1930s. In those smoke-filled circles, favors were traded like cases of whiskey and loyalty mattered above all. Mr. Trump honed his vocabulary over decades through his association with the lawyer Roy Cohn, who besides working for Senator Joseph McCarthy also represented Mafia bosses like Mr. Gotti, Tony Salerno and Carmine Galante." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There's a delicious irony in watching a sleazy parvenu cheat his way to the pinnacle of American renown, only to have his ill-got success expose him to the whole world as an unsavory thug from the outer boroughs. This is the stuff of classical fiction; if only we were watching Oedipus Rex instead of living a 1930s B-mob movie. (Trump's undoing, like Nixon's, also exposes the essential defect in Sophocles' play: Oedipus comprehends & acknowledges his failure. Trump, like Nixon, does not have the intellectual & emotional capacity to recognize his fundamental flaws. Real despots are irredeemable.)
** Neal Katyal, a former U.S. solicitor general, in a New York Times op-ed, on Trump's latest "defense" for conspiring to make hush money payments to women. "It is a mistake to think about Mr. Cohen's allegations as some sort of routine paperwork error. Structuring a transaction to intentionally avoid reporting it as required by the law is a very serious offense, not a technical one that can be forgiven. That is particularly true of the secret payments to the two women, which, had they been disclosed before the election, as they should have been, might have altered the outcome.... For over 500 years..., the law has ... treated conspiracy harshly.... The idea behind conspiracy liability is that when two people agree to commit a crime, it's much worse for society than when a lone actor does.... It's no surprise that Mr. Trump himself came out ... against the practice of 'flipping.'... Flipping and conspiracy charges go hand-in-hand; the latter is what enables the former."
As the Worms Turn
Jeff Horwitz of the AP: "The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.... The Trump records were stored alongside similar documents pertaining to other celebrities' catch-and-kill deals, in which exclusive rights to people's stories were bought with no intention of publishing to keep them out of the news. By keeping celebrities' embarrassing secrets, the company was able to ingratiate itself with them and ask for favors in return. But after The Wall Street Journal initially published the first details of Playboy model Karen McDougal's catch-and-kill deal shortly before the 2016 election, those assets became a liability. Fearful that the documents might be used against American Media, [CEO David] Pecker and the company's chief content officer, Dylan Howard, removed them from the safe in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration, according to one person directly familiar with the events. It was unclear whether the documents were destroyed or simply were moved to a location known to fewer people." ...
... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Federal prosecutors granted immunity to tabloid publisher David Pecker as part of their investigation into Michael Cohen's hush money payments to women, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.... According to the Journal, neither Pecker nor AMI chief content officer Dylan Howard [Mrs. McC: who apparently kept watch for anti-Trump stories so that Peter Pecker's pickled papers could head them off] will be charged in relation to the Cohen criminal investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "The New York Times's Adam Goldman reports that COO Dylan Howard is cooperating and was 'known to have a recording device in his office.'" ...
... Kevin Breuninger & Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "The immunity deal could hold significant consequences for Trump, as Pecker could have as much damaging information about the president as anyone in Trump's orbit." ...
... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed News: "... looking at this week's criminal charging document in Cohen's case shows that Pecker's cooperation is key to two additional lines [besides the Karen McDougal catch-&-kill conspiracy] of inquiry that directly implicate Trump's presidential campaign in the scheme to silence the women.... Pecker would be able to discuss his 'offer' in August 2015 to 'help deal with negative stories' about Trump's 'relationships with women' by 'assisting' the campaign 'in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.' Prosecutors say the offer was made 'in coordination with Cohen ... and one or more members of the campaign.' This is key because it would show a longstanding plan, since the opening months of Trump's campaign, to use money and secrecy to silence women -- with an expectation that such stories were expected to surface during the campaign.... Pecker also would be able to discuss details about the payment to Stormy Daniels." ...
... Josh Marshall: "The latest news is that National Enquirer chief David Pecker also 'flipped' and agreed to cooperate in the Cohen/Trump case. This was pretty clear in the Cohen Information document, though it was not stated explicitly. For what it's worth, this seems like the least surprising thing in the world.... The Enquirer would troll for Trump-damaging stories, which there were obviously going to be a lot of, buy them and then sell them to Trump.... It was a specific, standing financial arrangement. The Enquirer would essentially act as a cut-out, buying stories on Trump's behalf without the seller of the story knowing what was happening.... The Enquirer was doing this as a company, with multiple employees involved.... There is potentially real legal jeopardy for him and AMI Media. And he may have more information to share than we yet realize." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Pecker's apparent decision to corroborate Cohen's account, and implicate Trump in a federal crime, is another vivid example of how isolated Trump is becoming as the walls close in and his former friends look for ways out. 'Holy shit, I thought Pecker would be the last one to turn,' a Trump friend told me when I brought up the news. Trump and Pecker have been close for years.... Pecker's friendship with Trump now seems to be over. According to a source close to A.M.I., Pecker and Trump haven't spoken in roughly eight months." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
MEANWHILE, in Downtown Manhattan. William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney’s office is considering pursuing criminal charges against the Trump Organization and two senior company officials in connection with Michael D. Cohen's hush money payment to an adult film actress, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter. A state investigation would center on how the company accounted for its reimbursement to Mr. Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who has said she had an affair with President Trump, the officials said. Both officials stressed that the office's review of the matter is in its earliest stages and prosecutors have not yet made a decision on whether to proceed."
Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump asked his lawyers several weeks ago for their advice on the possibility of pardoning Paul Manafort and other aides accused of crimes, his lawyer said Thursday.... Trump's lawyers counseled the president against the idea of pardoning anyone linked to the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election, according to [Rudy] Giuliani, saying Trump should at least wait until special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has concluded his probe. Giuliani said the president agreed and did not push the issue further.... Inside the West Wing, the prospect of a Manafort pardon is met with near universal opposition." ...
... Matt Ford of the New Republic suggests Trump's & Giuliani's public hint-hint-hints to Manafort that Trump may pardon him could run afoul of bribery laws. It is unlawful to make an "official act" -- like a pardon -- in exchange for "something of value" -- like Manafort's silence. It is also unlawful for anyone to bribe a witness. "Trump and Giuliani haven't explicitly said in public that Manafort will receive a pardon if he keeps his mouth shut. But a reasonable observer could conclude that such a pardon is on the table, and that cooperating with Mueller might make the president less inclined to grant it." Mrs. McC: The thing is, mobsters usually don't break just one law -- like say, shooting a guy on Fifth Avenue; they violate a lot of laws in the course of business: -- obstruction of justice, conspiracy, bribery. And, hey, extortion. ...
... BUT. Bad News for "a Very Good Person." Jed Shugarman in Slate: "It is ironic that the one hold-out juror who caused a mistrial on some charges opened up Manafort to state retrials." Shugarman provides a long explanation of why this is. "If Trump pardons Manafort on the charges from this month's federal case alone, then he would still face prosecution in three very blue states (New York, Illinois, and California) and one increasingly blue-ish state (Virginia). Those are four jury pools that would potentially be altogether worse for Manafort. If, in this month's trial, Manafort could only persuade one juror out of 12 on about half of these charges, his chances would seem pretty low at running the table in four more trials in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Northern Virginia.... Ultimately, a Trump pardon wouldn't benefit Manafort..., but it would build a stronger case for impeachment and removal. Such a pardon would only add proof of Trump's obstruction, providing additional evidence of criminal corrupt intent."
American Nihilists. Lorraine Woellert of Politico: "Republican finance leaders have been flaming out amid scandals, but donors, frankly, don't give a damn. On Monday ... the Republican National Committee announced it had notched a record-breaking cash haul for July. The next day, [Michael] Cohen, a former RNC deputy finance chairman, pleaded guilty on charges of campaign finance violations and tax evasion. He is part of a troika of GOP finance officials felled by scandal this year, after Las Vegas casino giant Steve Wynn and venture capitalist Elliott Broidy left the party's leadership ranks over allegations of sexual harassment and paying off a woman, respectively. Donors, meanwhile, have mostly shrugged.... The RNC raised $14.2 million in July, the group's best-ever take for that month in a midterm cycle and almost twice what the Democratic National Committee took in." --safari
Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo! News: "A bill that would have significantly bolstered the nation's defenses against electoral interference has been held up in the Senate at the behest of the White House, which opposed the proposed legislation, according to congressional sources. The Secure Elections Act, introduced by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., in December 2017, had co-sponsorship from two of the Senate's most prominent liberals, Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., as well as from conservative stalwart Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and ... Susan Collins, R-Me.... A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... declined to say whether the majority leader ... was involved in efforts to hobble the Secure Elections Act.... The Trump administration has been unable to settle on how elections should be secured, and whom they should be secured against.... Lankford ... vowed to press on." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kimon de Greef and Palko Karasz of the New York Times: "President Trump waded into South Africa’s proposal to seize land from white farmers, saying in a post on Twitter late Wednesday that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to 'closely study' the 'the large scale killing of farmers' -- a claim disputed by official figures and the country's biggest farmer's group. Mr. Trump's comment ... came after the Fox News host Tucker Carlson presented a late-night program on South Africa, including land seizures and homicides, and described President Cyril Ramaphosa as 'a racist.' The tweet gives prominence to a false narrative pushed by some right-wing groups in South Africa that there have been numerous seizures of white-owned land and widespread killings of white farmers. Some of those groups have brought their claims to the United States on lobbying trips." The story goes into detail on the, you know, facts. More on this embarrassing story linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump has not had time to name an ambassador to South Africa, but the Trump administration apparently did have time to tell the U.S. embassy in Pretoria not to assist President Obama, except with security, during his recent visit there. Waiting for Trump to nominate Tucker for ambassador to South Africa since he's already done a teevee show on the country & seems to know all the white people. ...
... David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's promotion of a white nationalist conspiracy theory involving South Africa prompted fierce backlash there Thursday and fresh criticism in the United States that he is compromising American foreign policy to stoke his far-right political base. Former U.S. diplomats and South African leaders denounced Trump's declaration in a tweet late Wednesday that he had instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to monitor the 'large scale killing' of white farmers and the government's expropriations of their land. White nationalist groups have for years spread false claims about the murder rates, assertions that have been widely debunked. Local police data show the number of people murdered on farms has dropped by half over the past two decades -- from 140 in 2001-2002 to 74 in 2016-2017, according to the Associated Press.... The president's tweet about South Africa was his latest bid to signal common cause with nationalist movements abroad, including in Europe, where Trump and his top aides have expressed solidarity with populist governments pursuing anti-immigration agendas." ...
... When the POTUS* "Gets His Intelligence Briefings from Fox 'News.'" New York Times Editors: "Trust President Trump, following his familiar tactic of deflecting attention from yet another scandal by issuing some outrageous tweet, to come down hard on the wrong side of an issue he knows nothing about, based on no more than a slanted Fox News program."
Adam Entous & Ronan Farrow of the New Yorker: "In early 2017, some of Donald Trump's advisers ... circulated a memo ... which read like a U.S. military-intelligence officer's analysis of a foreign-insurgent network.... [H]owever, the network described in the memo consisted of former aides to President Barack Obama.... The memo is unsigned and undated, and Trump Administration officials familiar with it offered conflicting accounts of who authored it and whether it originated inside or outside the White House. The officials said that it was circulated within the National Security Council and other parts of the Trump White House in early 2017.... Some of the same conspiracy theories expressed in the memo appear in internal documents from an Israeli private-intelligence firm that mounted a covert effort to collect damaging information about aides to President Obama who had advocated for the Iran deal." --safari
Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Opponents of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants are already gearing up for a legal fight against the Trump administration. Clean air law experts believe the EPA's new plan, dubbed the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, is filled with several problematic provisions that will give litigators a good shot at preventing the rule from getting implemented." --safari
Brian Faler of Politico: "The Trump administration on Thursday moved to knock down efforts by some blue states to get around a new limit on state and local tax deductions.... New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have adopted proposals allowing taxpayers, to varying degrees, to sidestep the SALT cap by recharacterizing their state and local tax payments as charitable contributions, which remain fully deductible. Other blue states like California and Illinois have considered similar moves.... The administration says the new rules will prevent people [from using the states' workarounds]. The move was immediately denounced by Democrats, and the issue is likely to end up in court."
Adam Harris of the Atlantic has more on Betsy DeVos's excellent plan to arm teachers with guns purchased with federal dollars. "On Thursday, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who became one of the most outspoken advocates for preventing gun violence after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, introduced a bill to prevent the use of Title IV funds for the purpose of arming teachers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "A technical glitch kept the Justice Department from reviewing all the email accounts it was supposed to for almost a year, according to a new, previously unreported court filing. That means emails from some DOJ officials weren't examined in response to records requests and lawsuits -- so key emails that should have been made public months ago could have been inadvertently withheld. The department is now redoing records searches to try to belatedly fulfill requests. It's a revelation that concerns transparency advocates and suggests the department struggled to release internal communications as required by law." --safari
2018 Elections. Paul Krugman addresses what's really on those November ballots: "... the unindicted co-conspirator in chief will continue to be protected from the law.... But if the G.O.P. hangs on, there will also be other, bread-and-butter consequences for ordinary Americans. First of all, there is every reason to believe that a Republican Congress, freed from the immediate threat of elections, would do what it narrowly failed to do last year, and repeal the Affordable Care Act.... Longstanding programs, very much including Social Security and Medicare, would also be on the chopping block."
Rachel Bade of Politico: "Indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter told Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday that he will step down from his committee assignments after initially declining to do so, according to a letter obtained by Politico. Ryan (R-Wis.) called on the California Republican, who has been indicted with his wife for allegedly using more than $250,000 in campaign funds to enrich their family, to relinquish his committee posts, including his spot on the House Armed Services Committee. A defiant Hunter, who on Thursday pleaded not guilty to all charges and is also accusing the Justice Department of conducting a 'witch hunt' against ... Trump supporters like himself, initially refused. Ryan's office was readying a plan to strip him of those positions anyway by calling up a House panel that decides committee posts and holding a vote to remove him forcefully. The vote would have easily passed, according to multiple House Republican sources who say members are disgusted with the details in the indictment and Hunter's alleged actions." ...
... It's the Wife's Fault. John Bowden of the Hill: "California Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) says in a new interview that his wife was responsible for his campaign's spending, appearing to shift blame for potential wrongdoing to her as the two face charges for illegal use of campaign funds. Hunter told Fox News on Thursday that the trips flagged by the Justice Department as personal vacations paid for with campaign funds 'were fundraisers,' and that he and his wife are innocent of the accused wrongdoing. 'That' how we campaigned and tried to raise money, is by travelling, having dinners, meeting people,' Hunter told Fox's Martha MacCallum.... 'My campaign did make mistakes,' Hunter said. 'There was money spent on things not by me but by the campaign. And I paid that back before my last election.... [Hunter's wife Margaret] was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did, that'll be looked at too, I'm sure,' he continued. 'But I didn't do it. I didn't spend any money illegally.'" Mrs. McC: Now that's a stand-up guy.
** Minority Rule. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[Neil] Gorsuch literally has less democratic legitimacy than anyone who has ever sat on the nation's highest Court. That's the first in a series of bracing facts laid out by Trinity College political science professor Kevin McMahon in a new paper published in the Chicago-Kent Law Review.... The 45 senators who opposed Gorsuch, McMahon writes, received nearly 20 million more votes than the 54 senators who supported him -- 73,425,062 to 54,098,387. The 45 senators in the minority also represent more than 25 million more people than the senators who voted to confirm Gorsuch. By contrast, when President Obama named Chief Judge Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy that is currently occupied by Gorsuch, the 46 Senate Democrats represented about 20 million more people than the 54 Republicans. Also, President Obama won the popular vote. Twice. Gorsuch is unique, in that he is the only person ever confirmed to the Supreme Court by a minority coalition after being nominated by a popular vote loser." Read on --safari
Ian Millhiser: "During an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Wednesday, [Sen. Doug] Jones [(D-Ala.) may have articulated a way for Democrats to stall the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. Jones] called for Senate Republicans to 'push a pause button' on the Kavanaugh confirmation process.... Jones cited two reasons to delay the hearing [the National Archives kerfuffle & the Trump's legal 'cloud'].... Conservative Democrats, in other words, can now offer two process-based objections to Kavanaugh that allow them to oppose his confirmation." --safari
CBS/AP: "A former government contractor who pleaded guilty to mailing a classified U.S. report to a news organization was sentenced to more than five years Thursday as part of a deal with prosecutors, who called it the longest sentence ever imposed for a federal crime involving leaks to the media. Reality Winner, 26, pleaded guilty in June to a single count of transmitting national security information. The former Air Force translator worked as a contractor at a National Security Agency's office in Augusta, Georgia, when she printed a classified report and left the building with it tucked into her pantyhose. Winner told the FBI she mailed the document to an online news outlet. In court Thursday, Winner apologized and acknowledged that what she did was wrong." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Betsy Reed of the Intercept: "Reality Winner was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for disclosing a top-secret NSA document describing a hacking campaign directed by the Russian military against U.S. voting systems. On June 5, 2017, The Intercept published a story about the document. We did not know the identity of the source who had sent it to us. Shortly after we posted our story, we learned that Winner had been arrested two days earlier. After an internal review, we acknowledged shortcomings in our handling of the document. However, it soon became clear that the government had at its disposal, and had aggressively used, multiple methods to quickly hunt down Winner." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jessica Contrera of the Washington Post: "A tenacious Navy officer in World War II, William Liebenow's acts of heroism stretched from the waters of the South Pacific to the beaches of Normandy -- evading the enemy, launching torpedoes, rescuing more than 60 men from a sinking ship on D-Day. But none of these were the tale of war that would come to define him. Everyone wanted to hear about the time he saved the life of John F. Kennedy. On Thursday, the story was remembered ... as Liebenow, who died last year at age 97, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Under the clear sky of an unseasonably cool August day, the former lieutenant's ashes were carried by horse-drawn carriage to a grassy hill less than a mile away from the spot where Kennedy is buried beneath an eternal flame."
News Lede
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Lane is unleashing torrential rain in parts of Hawaii and may produce disastrous rainfall flooding and landslides over much of the island chain, in addition to battering surf, coastal flooding and high winds through Saturday."
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Reader Comments (20)
I realize it's still early in the process, but after these bruising couple of years of Trumpenfraud, I envision my mood ameliorating in equal proportion to the times Drumpf's family members are name-checked as criminal investigations mount. Seeing Agent Orange's corrupt children (minus Barron obviously) take the perp walk à la Manafort, on STATE charges that Daddy can't touch, will truly be Must See TV. Ratings through the roof!
And I love how whiny Donny's claim that the whole world's economy and wealth would evaporate if he were ever kicked out of the White House was completely ignored by the MSM and Wall Street. His dementia has convinced him that everyone's job and wealth is now a direct product of his Amazingness, and without his glowing aura of orange Twittering away in his 'jamas, the world's markets would implode.
I wonder how many eternal flames he's going to have ordered up for his Very Presidential headstone? Or maybe, instead of a presidential library, which would only be filled with news clipping of himself, he'll build a Franco-style mausoleum in Mar-o-Lago, left decrepit by the rising ocean tides. Seems appropriate.
Can't stop laughing. Even 45's Pecker has turned on him; (not the
one that got him in real trouble though).
The person who will not flip, will not flop, will not admit EVER that her beloved boss is a serial liar is––––our favorite gal who talks the legs off a table, then stomps on it and does a fancy two-step tap dance. I don't think I have ever seen or heard anybody quite like Kellyanne. Here she is in an exchange with Chris Cuomo on CNN. Chris does his best but Kellyanne's Con ways will not be deterred.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chris-cuomo-kellyanne-conway_us_5b7f6881e4b0348585ff071f
@safari: Your posit that Trump may actually believe in his aggrandizement (possible dementia) is something to ponder. It's uncanny that he could possibly think he's number one on the hit parade. Given what Kellyanne told Cuomo the media is just spewing negativity day after day and not highlighting all the "great things this president has accomplished." So–––? tis a puzzlement.
@safari & @PD Pepe: Aimee Picchi of CBS News looked into Trump's claims of what safari sarcastically calls Trump's "Amazingness":
"President Donald Trump thinks the stock market would 'crash' if he were impeached and 'everybody would be very poor.' Wall Street analysts beg to differ.
"Exhibit A: For now, financial markets have largely shrugged off Mr. Trump's political woes. Leading stock indexes are little changed since Tuesday, when his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, seemed to implicate the president in campaign finance violations and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight counts of bank fraud.
"Although investors famously hate the kind of uncertainty that can come with a major presidential crisis, analysts say Wall Street remains focused on more tangible concerns, such as how Mr. Trump's protectionist trade agenda could affect U.S. economic growth. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR, also notes that investors are already reaping the benefits of Mr. Trump's economic policies, such as his steep corporate tax cuts.
"'The market isn't sentimental,' Hogan said. 'It looks at the administration, and we've gotten the pro-business policies that the market wanted. That's locked and loaded.'
"The president's exit from the political stage could even benefit stocks given the widespread opposition in the financial and corporate world to Mr. Trump's trade policies, which have led to tensions with China, Europe and other major economies around the world. Mr. Trump's Twitter habits also wouldn't be missed, Hogan said."
Thanks for the info, Marie. Here's another good run down on why recent stock market gains might not benefit the economy: (with video)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-recent-stock-market-gains-might-not-benefit-the-economy
With regard to the Ds' critical need to regain control of Congress, I strongly recommend these two pieces, linked today at NakedCapitalism.com:
https://theweek.com/articles/791802/lesson-refuse-learn-about-republican-voters
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/08/what-the-party-strategists-say-is-not-what-the-voters-want.html
Duncan Hunter emulates a Youngman
Marie,
Loved your connection of the Trump Saga to classical fiction. There are quite a few tales of a protagonist who comes up from the bottom, makes it all the way to the top, then, through a series of personal failings experiences the inevitable precipitous fall from grace.
There are some differences here however. First, Trump was never within a mile of the bottom. He started on the 75th floor. But he did learn from dear old dad a few lessons. First, fuck the other guy before he fucks you. Second, don't rent to darkies, and if you're bagged by the Feds, don't admit to shit. Then he learned a few more lessons from his surrogate dad, Roy Cohn. Never back down, never apologize, hit them harder than they hit you, don't worry about truth, and only concern yourself with Number One. Cohn learned how well his pupil learned that last lesson. When he was lying in the hospital dying from AIDS, Trump deserted him completely.
The Trump Saga might have the makings of a tragedy if he were at all a likable, relatable, or even vaguely sympathetic character. Nixon, as bad as he was, did have some of the makings of a tragic figure. He did come up from unremarkable beginnings, he served in the Navy during the war, he was always trying to prove himself but always seemed to find himself coming up short. When he finally attained ultimate power, he was in the middle of a war that was fast becoming hugely unpopular, and his chief adviser on that conflict was a murderous war criminal. He did feel, like Trump, that having at last scaled the heights, he was above the law, but I don't think, like Trump, that Nixon believed that his entire life. The images of him wandering the White House in the dead of night, drunk, talking to pictures on the wall does have the ring of tragedy to it. Or comedy, depending on your mood.
Trump gets not a single iota of sympathy. He's a rat bastard. Always been a rat bastard. He surrounds himself with rat bastards, most of whom learned the same lesson that he did: take care of Number One and fuck everyone else when the shit hits the fan.
And you're right. A big part of the structure of classical tragic narratives is for the central character to learn, too late, that his or her failings have brought destruction to their door. Think of Lady Macbeth attempting to wipe out the spot, or Macbeth himself seeing Banquo's ghost, and Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane.
Even were Trump to look out the White House windows one gray dawn and see trees marching toward him, he would probably blame Zinke for not cutting down those damned trees when he had the chance and blame everyone but himself, learning not one fucking thing in the process.
A rat bastard right to the end.
But since we're talking about narrative structures, how about these for drugstore novel plot twists.
A criminal in the White House nominates a guy who may very well be able, once he's on the Supreme Court, to cast a vote in his favor should any case or element of the investigation make it to the Court.
And how about this? Young Jared, a possible future jailbird, is in the process of developing PRISON SENTENCING REFORM!
Hmmm....let's see. How about anyone with the initials JK who is sentenced for, say, treason or collusion, doesn't have to actually go to prison, but will be sentenced to house arrest at a penthouse in Manhattan for.....seven days. Yeah, that sounds good.
Then the criminal in the White House decides that basic investigative and prosecutorial standards are now illegal. Oh, and he fires the Attorney General who isn't going after his enemies, has a lackey shoved into the office who then fires the assistant AG and the guy investigating the criminal, declares the investigation over and himself cleared of all charges.
Would you buy that storyline?
Trump and his minions must be taking the possibility of impeachment seriously. Trump promises complete economic meltdown ("everyone will be poor"--except him, of course), Rudy threatens revolution in the streets, and Fox warns Democrats that they will all die a horrible electoral death if they dare to impeach the Glorious Leader.
This is the sound of desperation. And fear.
I'm likin' it.
But seriously folks, Democrats demanding impeachment (and I'm not saying it's unwarranted) should chill. Trump may still implode on his own. I'm enjoying the Mueller Chinese Water Torture, drip, drip, drip, with the occasional waterboarding of some of Trump's insiders like Manafort and Cohen. So what's the count now? Six? Seven Trump insiders who have already pleaded or been found guilty of crimes? Plenty more to come. And I don't want to hear any impeachment talk until Junior and Young Jared do the Perp Walk.
Frank Rich suggests that Trump may finally decide to resign. I don't think so. I think he'll play it out 'til the bitter end, believing, like Manafort, that he will finally win and won't be subject to any laws or rules.
Democrats have a mountain of great stuff to work with here. They will never have a better chance of taking back control from the miscreants, dolts, racists, and traitors than they have right now.
Today's discussion of the Pretender's non-tragedy reminded me of my reaction to something that appeared in "Newsweek" ten years ago. Google remembered it for me:
"I read your excerpt from "The Bush Tragedy" by Jacob Weisberg ("Fishing for a Way to Change the World," Jan. 28). Tragedy requires the downfall of a hero, someone more than life-size destroyed by a fatal flaw. Few could argue that George W. Bush would qualify as heroic or larger than life despite awkward attempts to package him as such. (Who can forget the flight suit of the unfortunate "Mission Accomplished" moment?)
Many of us are flawed. We may exhibit pride, greed or a penchant for denying obvious facts, but such shortcomings do not make us tragic, only ordinary.
A great nation peopled by generous and energetic citizens brought to its knees by an administration whose hallmarks have proved to be arrogance, acquisitiveness and denial is truly a great tragedy.
Ken Winkes
Conway, WA"
Nothing new, it seems. Just a thought that coincidentally popped into my head yesterday before I read Bea's observation about the ironic consequences of the Pretender's ascent to national prominence.
If you're a sewer rat (and the Pretender has been speaking of rats, hasn't he?), you're far better of staying in the noisome environs of the sewer's dark, as far as possible from the light of day.
Words in the news. Criminal, mobster, mafia, mob, bribe, hoodlum.
The tone of Trumpworld is changing. We are going from incompetent politician to incompetent mob boss.
Like the drip, drip, drip, Akhilleus, but this one could be a flood:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/allen-weisselberg-longtime-trump-organization-cfo-is-granted-immunity-by-federal-prosecutors-in-michael-cohen-investigation-1535121992
Yeah! yeah! and Oh! yeah! Ak! Things keep drip, drip,dripping per your take of "Mueller's Chinese Water Torture" (good analogy....as this just in on CNBC:
"...Allen Weisselberg, longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors as part of their investigation into President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, NBC News reported Friday, citing multiple people with knowledge of the matter."
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/24/longtime-trump-organization-cfo-weisselberg-granted-immunity-in-cohen-probe-dj-citing-sources.html
I'm changing my mind about the relative talents of the Pretender and his Russian allies. The Russian trolls are FAR smarter than the Pretender, and even better at sowing discord in our body politic.
This one was new to me.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/23/health/russia-trolls-vaccine-debate-study/index.html
MAG and Ken,
Man, with all this flipping, all we need are a few flops and this place will start to look like Rand Paul's office.
And speaking of the littlest Trump Stooge, his latest attempt to hog the spotlight involved trying to screw mothers and little kids (I know, it's a Confederate tradition...) by defunding Planned Parenthood.
Everytime this little asshole runs that faux Libertarian flag up the pole, I want to use it for shotgun practice.
Li'l Randy has been doing his damnedest to get on the good side of the little dictator, running to Russia to lick some Rooskie boots and coming back to tell about how great it is there. Why, he even met with some Libertarian dude there...who hasn't even been gulagged yet!
"Senator Paul recounted for his father a meeting he’d had with the head of the Libertarian Party of Russia who, the younger Paul reported, 'has been getting crowds of 10-, 20-, 30,000 people to show up' to hear the libertarian message in Russia. 'It’s not perfect, he’s not allowed on the ballot there,' Senator Paul explained, but “at least he was able to speak with us while we were there.'"
Lemme get this straight. Some Libertarian guy in Russia, who is not allowed on the ballot--i.e., not a friend of Putin--is getting 30,000 people to come hear him speak. Yeah. And I'm the Ringtailed Baron of Bucharest. And not for nothin' but in trying to shiv Planned Parenthood, the Little One claimed that he will "always stand up for life" dammit. So how does he square that with licking the boots of a murderer like Putin? I dunno. Go figure.
But my favorite is the part where Paul is sooooo excited about what a great place PutieLand is...even though, ya know, his pal can't ever be elected because Putie does Anti-Democratic even better than Paul and his Confederate buds. Just the sort of Best People we want to associate with.
Making America Russian Again.
Such a douchebag.
Trump tweets that he likes war heroes who don't have brain cancer.
Ken,
Your reminder that Bush was no hero is an important one. In fact, while we're all mired in the stinky Trump Swamp, it's easy to forget that Bush, at least so far, is still in the running for Worst President Ever.
Trump may be seriously undermining the pillars of a democratic republic and attacking the core values that built this nation, but he hasn't, as of yet, started a vanity war which displaced, killed, crippled and otherwise damaged millions of people and cost the US trillions, not to mention served as the primary recruitment tool for a resurgence of terrorism under ISIS, Al Qaeda, and many other smaller terrorist cells, global issues that we're still dealing with.
Plus, as has been noted, the little dictator didn't just appear out of the blue. His arrival, like the anti-Christ, has been predicted for some time but it was the Bush-Cheney Debacle that jump started the engines of treason and hyper-partisanship that now support Trump's every outrage.
I'm not sure the country can survive another Republican president. Because who's on the horizon after the Trump Monster departs? Cruz? Cotton? Li'l Randy? mike fucking pence??
Geee-zus. We might as well appoint Louie Gohmert or Ron Johnson and have done with it.
Dear damsels in distress, if you see big, strong, manly man Duncan Hunter beware. He will most likely try to push you in the dragon's mouth as he run away screaming like the pussy he is. There are those family values conservatives have been championing!
Some of this send-up rings too true.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/23/trump-michael-cohen-broad-daylight