;)
The Commentariat -- August 27, 2017
Philip Rucker & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: This past spring, President Trump "asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against [Joe] Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation. After talking with Sessions, Trump decided to let the case go to trial, and if Arpaio was convicted, he could grant clemency. So the president waited, all the while planning to issue a pardon if Arpaio was found in contempt of court.... Trump's Friday-evening decision to issue his first pardon for Arpaio was the culmination of a five-year political friendship with roots in the 'birther' movement to undermine President Barack Obama. In an extraordinary exercise of presidential power, Trump bypassed the traditional review process to ensure that Arpaio ... would face no time in prison. Trump's pardon, issued without consulting the Justice Department, raised a storm of protest over the weekend, including from some fellow Republicans, and threatens to become a stain on the president's legacy.... Trump's spring inquiry about intervening in Arpaio's case is consistent with his alleged attempts to influence the federal investigation of Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So it comes back to Trump's envy of Barack Obama. So much does. ...
Asking the Attorney General to drop a case against a political ally is the kind of thing people get impeached for https://t.co/iUC1no2YHx -- Dan Pfeiffer [President Obama's communications director] (@danpfeiffer) August 27, 2017
... Words. Matt Shuham of TPM: "House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Saturday criticized ... Donald Trump's decision to pardon former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.... 'The speaker does not agree with the decision,' Ryan's spokesperson, Doug Andres, told the Wall Street Journal. 'Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.'" Mrs. McC: A statement of "disagreement" issued through a spokesperson is better than nothing. Initiating impeachment proceedings would be better. ...
... On the other hand, Ryan's "disagreement" with the pardon was probably no more than a smarmy attempt to keep a few Latinos in the Republican party's tent. Conor Friedorsdorf of the Atlantic: "If the Latinos who are threatened by this action [-- the pardon --] and the decent people of all races and ethnic groups who are offended by it hold it against Republicans who support the Arpaio pardon or stay silent, the GOP will deserve every last election and vote that they lose, having flagrantly failed to stand up for the creed of liberty and justice for all." ...
... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted President Trump over his pardon of former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, arguing it 'undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law.' 'Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge's orders,' McCain said in a statement. 'The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Trump 's decision to pardon Joe Arpaio ... came late on a Friday night as a hurricane bore down on Texas. It concerned a crime some said was particularly ill-suited to clemency, and it was not the product of the care and deliberation that have informed pardons by other presidents. But it was almost certainly lawful. The Constitution gives presidents extremely broad power to grant pardons.... Mr. Trump ... used his constitutional power to block a federal judge's effort to enforce the Constitution. Legal experts said they found this to be the most troubling aspect of the pardon, given that it excused the lawlessness of an official who had sworn to defend the constitutional structure." ...
Arpaio action was appalling & political. It also sends message to witnesses in Russia investigation to keep quiet, stay loyal & get pardon. -- Adam Schiff August 26, 2017
Amanda Erickson of the Washington Post asks several experts on authoritarianism about Trump's pardon of Arpaio. Cas Mudde provides a plausible explanation for the timing of the pardon, which has befuddled others: "... the timing is probably ... more linked to the issue that predominates President Trump's mind: the Russia investigation. There are several key people in his former entourage who are at the point of caving to pressure to working with the [Robert S.] Mueller investigation. Trump has shown them that they have nothing to fear, because he can and will pardon them, irrespective of the circumstances. This, of course, is a fundamentally undemocratic position, but not so much informed by ideology but by naked self-interest." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Seems to me what Mudde misses is that "naked self-interest" is Trump's ideology.
... Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "President Trump has set his presidency on an unambiguous course for which there could be no reversal. He has chosen to be a divider, not a uniter, no matter how many words to the contrary he reads off a teleprompter or from a prepared script. That's one obvious message from Friday's decision to issue a pardon for controversial former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. Trump has been a divisive force from the very start of his campaign for president, a proud disrupter of the political status quo.... The more he is under fire -- as he is now -- the more he returns to that strategy.... The pardon was an extraordinary act coming so early in a presidency and sets a tone both on immigration and on the president's willingness to use this power to take care of those who have been loyal to him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker: "Even before Arpaio was found to be in contempt of court, advocates and community members in Arizona beat him at the ballot box, which showed that Trump, too, could be defeated democratically.... What ultimately mobilized the community against Arpaio was his decision to work formally and systematically with federal immigration authorities. The sheriff's department began arresting Hispanic residents with little or no pretense at all, and if they happened to be undocumented Arpaio would turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation. 'Before then, no one really had an official agreement with ICE; there was no police agency handing people over,' [Puente director Carlos] Garcia said. 'Arpaio used to set up a perimeter around immigrant communities, and send out hundreds of officers who would arrest and detain anyone they wanted.' The Trump Administration has spent the last six months trying to force local law-enforcement agencies to collaborate with ICE as Arpaio did, and many police chiefs and sheriffs across the country have resisted."
** AP: "Active-duty transgender troops say a policy change that puts them at risk of being removed and indefinitely bars transgender people from enlisting in the military is a step backward for civil rights that will promote inequality in the armed forces.... The guidance from the White House contradicts Trump's words, Army Capt Jennifer Sims said, pointing out that the president just praised the military for its tolerance when he [spoke to] veterans in Nevada on Wednesday.... Days earlier, Trump, speaking to thousands of soldiers ... in Arlington, Virginia, denounced prejudice, bigotry and hate in the wake of violence that erupted at a rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.... A 2016 study by the Rand Corporation estimated it would cost the military $2.4m to $8.4m a year to provide gender transition-related coverage, an increase of 0.04% to 0.13% in healthcare spending for active-duty members.... It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to discharge thousands of transgender personnel, according to a study released this month by the Palm Center, an independent research institute." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, the cost of gender-transition coverage would be somewhere between (1) less than a single Trump weekend at one of his golf courses and (2) three Trump weekends at one of his golf courses. Trump loves to talk about military sacrifices, but he won't give up even a couple of weekends to give these military personnel the medical treatment they need. But the great irony here is that Trump's stated rationale for banning transgender military personnel -- saving tax dollars -- will instead cost hundreds of millions more than would maintaining the status quo. This is about bigotry, pure and simple; it has nothing whatever to do with cost-savings. What Capt. Sims doesn't consider is the increasingly schizophrenic nature of the Trump presidency. @realbigotDonaldTrump abuses most minorities; @scriptedDonaldTrump reads rational, presidenty speeches. This is largely new chief-of-staff John Kelly's contribution, a contribution that does not seem to be helping much. ...
... Citing Trump's July tweets banning transgender military service, former Navy diver Jennifer Detlefsen wrote on her Instagram account, "This man [Trump] is a disgrace. I've tried to keep politics out of my social media feed as much as possible, but this is inexcusable. This veteran says sit down and shut the fuck up, you know-nothing, never-served piece of shit." What is remarkable about Detlefsen's post is that she is the daughter of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who "frequently mentioned [her] in his successful 2016 re-election campaign for the U.S. House," Jayme Fraser of the Billings (Montana) Gazette reports. Mrs. McC: I wonder if Detlefsen's tweet cost Americans a few thousand acres of national monuments. ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel delivered one of the most memorable speeches of last year's Republican National Convention, predicting that Donald Trump would, swiftly and without mercy, end the culture wars. How is that working out?... Far from sharing Thiel's attitude that no one should care about 'who gets to use which bathroom,' Trump has shown he cares deeply. One of Trump's first acts as president was to issue a letter withdrawing federal protection for transgender high school students who want to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities. In July, the president tweeted that he would reinstate a ban on transgender people in the military, and this week, he made good on the threat, issuing a directive that bars new transgender recruits, blocks funding for sex reassignment surgeries, and gives Defense Secretary James Mattis six months to decide whether to expel the thousands of transgender soldiers already serving. And these are not the only ways in which Trump is governing as a right-wing cultural warrior."
** Jill Filipovic in a New York Times op-ed (August 24): During the second presidential debate during which Donald Trump stalked her, Hillary "Clinton did what most women do when they face harassment or intimidation: She ignored it. But now she's stewing in the what-if.... Had Mrs. Clinton responded forcefully during that debate, she would most likely have faced the same penalties other women do when they speak up at work: being seen as unpleasant, aggressive and less competent.... For Mrs. Clinton, on that stage, that lack of intervention put her in the same position as so many women who are harassed in plain view of others who do nothing: all alone, second-guessing her own gut reaction.... [Trump] stalked a woman onstage while we all watched, and then he won the election. Now we expect her to be very sorry. Perhaps it's not just Hillary Clinton who should be thinking about what she could have done differently." ...
... Marie Burns: I intended to link this op-ed when the Times published it, but I took it so personally -- partly because of the recent virtual stalking & harassment to which I've been subjected -- that I thought I might write more extensively about Filipovic's essay. Every one of the people who landed on Reality Chex' do-not-comment list -- and half of them are women -- have made surly demands of me in the past and/or have criticized not my ideas but my self. They didn't just get started last week. And I've mostly endured it. Clearly, that tack did not pay off. Rather, it emboldened them. I realize that many of my contemporaries, who grew up in an age when women were supposed to know their place, have that view so imprinted in their hearts that it won't go away. At the same time, women of a certain age may also have become personal feminists; they've been beaten down, and now they feel feminism has given them permission to beat down women they perceive to be weaker than they. I've always thought following the Golden Rule was the best way to conduct one's life. I question that now. I think for women of my generation, an eye-for-an-eye may be a necessity. But, as Filipovic suggests, neither Option A nor Option B wins any prizes. The victim of harassment, no matter how bold or how timid her reaction, will always have to pay for what somebody else did to her. The Constant Weader worked for other people; Mrs. Bea McCrabbie will continue CW's work, but she won't put up with the crap some who availed themselves of her services thought was their due.
This video, which the Washington Post recently obtained. shows a protester (allegedly) firing a pistol directly into a crowd of counterprotesters:
... UPDATE. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting in the direction of a crowd of counter-protesters during the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Aug. 12, the New York Times first reported Friday. Multiple outlets later reported that Richard Wilson Preston, 52, was one of three people against whom police had announced charges Saturday in connection with the Unite the Right rally. He was charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school.... Neither police nor city officials confirmed that Preston was the same man as the one shown in video provided by the ACLU of Virginia.... Preston is a well-known imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."
Beyond the Beltway
Kristine Phillips & Andrew deGrandpre of the Washington Post: "School officials in Denver have fired a cheerleading coach amid controversy over disturbing videos of teenage girls wailing in pain while apparently being forced to perform leg splits. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg announced Friday that newly hired coach Ozell Williams has been fired from his job at East High School. Williams is a Guinness World Record holder and former contestant on the NBC reality series 'America's Got Talent.' The allegations involve at least eight girls, according to Denver's NBC affiliate, KUSA. In one clip obtained by the station, a 13-year-old incoming freshman shrieks 'please stop' nine times during a span of 24 seconds. The technique, known as 'forced splits,' happened at a cheer camp last June and was captured in videos that were later provided to school officials.... A child-abuse investigation by Denver Police is ongoing."
Kristine Phillips: "Scuffles broke out on the streets of San Francisco after hundreds of people descended on the city to protest a now-canceled event by a right-wing group.... Organizers canceled the 'Freedom Rally' as city leaders braced for the kind of protest that drew extremist groups to Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month. The pro-Trump group Patriot Prayer then planned to hold a news conference instead -- but that, too, did not happen after the city blocked the venue from the public. Meanwhile, hundreds of counterprotesters gathered at a San Francisco park on Saturday morning, according to media reports.... The event was scheduled Saturday afternoon at Crissy Field, a recreational area near the Golden Gate Bridge." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I have a feeling these stalwart right-wing extremists cancelled because they were too prissy to march in doggy-doo.
News Ledes
New York Times: "At least five deaths and more than a dozen injuries have been reported in the aftermath of Harvey, the hurricane that tore across the Gulf Coast of Texas over the weekend. On Sunday the powerful system, now a tropical storm, pounded the region with torrential rains that were expected to continue for days, causing catastrophic floods, according to the National Hurricane Center. The public hospital for Harris County, which includes Houston, began evacuating patients after flooding disrupted its power supply. The National Weather Service forecast rainfall of 15 to 25 inches through Friday, with as much as 50 inches in a few areas." ...
... Washington Post: "While Texas is reeling from Harvey, residents along the East Coast from the Carolinas to Cape Cod are preparing for rain, gusty winds and rough surf from what is likely to become Tropical Storm Irma. Already, the National Weather Service has hoisted a tropical storm watch for the Atlantic coast from Georgetown, S.C., to the tip of Cape Hatteras." ...
... Washington Post: "Harvey continued to pummel Texas during the early hours of Sunday morning, dropping nearly two feet of rain on Houston overnight and causing dire, and deadly, flash floods. Officials in Houston said early Sunday that a woman was found dead by her vehicle, believed to have been trapped during a flood. As midnight local time struck, police and rescue workers continue to plea with residents to stay indoors and not attempt to travel flooded roadways. 'There[s flooding all over this city,' Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a livestream video early Sunday morning. 'We have one fatality, and a potential second fatality from the flood waters out here.' By 4:30 a.m. Central time, the National Weather Service had recorded 20 inches of rain in Houston, as warnings for flash flooding and tornadoes remained in place for a large swath of the state." ...
... Weather Channel: "'There is life-threatening, catastrophic flooding happening now in Southeast Harris County [Houston],' Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District told The Weather Channel. Lindner said water had overtopped Interstate 10, that there had been more than 1,000 water rescues overnight in the Houston area and that hundreds more were stranded in cars across roadways in the area. Flash flood emergencies have been issued area where the extreme rainfall has nundated homes, vehicles and killed at least two people. There are now three confirmed deaths in Harvey." ...
... New York Times "live briefings" of hurricane news are here.
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Reader Comments (13)
Marie: this post made me so sad. I feel like you and I are probably somewhere around the same age; I have never felt that I was beaten down professionally as a woman, but I have plenty of regrets that I didn't assert myself in my personal life, to live a life I wanted to, not what my husband (who is fairly evolved--) wanted me to. I think I am still living that life! It might be just the era we live in, the world we live in, the horrible times we live in. As my mother was a feminist, I grew up with the thoughts that I could do/be whatever I wanted, so I am thankful for that. But watching that horrible stalking, and talking with my daughter who is in from Mumbai, we both get the creeps. She (Hillary) was screwed no matter what. We are angry AND sad. She has put up with this for 25 years. I cannot imagine it.
But one thing I want to say: I am so sorry if things have happened to you through this blog. You are strong and saavy and smart and good. Not all women wish the worst for other women. The march in Washington was an example of women supporting other women, and it was wonderful. I hope you can feel like your present community is supportive and thankful to have you. I know I am.
Like Hilary Clinton's experience, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, Tammy Duckworth, are a few of the women in the public eye who have been subject to demeaning personal attacks by men. Each of them have and continue to make important contributions to the country, often with much greater impact than many of their male counterparts. Not one of them has ever retreated in the face of those attacks. The very characteristics they possess would be seen as highly desirable in men. Equality, where it counts, is a tough and distant road.
This comment has been deleted because the writer wrote that it was "not meant to be posted." I thank the author for writing.
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
I believe that HRC was damned either way, not only during that infamous debate, but throughout the campaign. She couldn't point out the appalling treatment she suffered without being labelled a whining woman. So she soldiered on, hoping that people would realise the abominable behaviour of her critics and her strength as a leader in striding on and getting the job done. As one often has to do, not always having the luxury to work with charming, honest colleagues and adversaries. Who would we rather have negotiating for us, someone who was never going to be distracted from the goal, or mr. "oh look, squirrel!"?
Regarding harassment and belittlement, I have a secret regret that I didn't punch the bums in the face and then dare them to explain to HR why! I look back and think I should have been stronger, though I did wage and win some battles. I realise now they don't admire you for taking the high road, they count on it. So I try to stand up for the "younglings", even when they don't want me to. I want to let people know that someone is watching them, and knows what they're doing.
The Arpaio pardon is still stuck in my craw this fine Sunday morning.
To say in a simpler way what I said twice yesterday, the presidential and governor pardon power is the court of last resort, providing a final opportunity to right a wrong done by the well-intentioned but still imperfect rule of law.
To no surprise in his topsy-turvy presidency, the Pretender used his power to wrong what the courts had done absolutely right...and told us once again how little he really thinks of the democracy and its people he purports to lead.
America needs to put up a new statue in Washington. Lets have a national public vote: Joe Arpaio or Heather Heyer.
I am sure I am going to like the result and I am sure Trump won't attend to opening.
Are all those Trumpy underlings who claim they're staying on to make sure the king doesn't do anything really bad rethinking that position? How about the general? Does he think he's doing a good job staying Trumpy's hand from triggering dangerous, damaging, and authoritarian outrages?
No one controls this fool. He does what he wants. Most of these people are staying because they love the rush of working at this
White House knowing that they might be there when the king drops a nuke on someone, or declares martial law against his many enemies. Others are there because they are too incompetent to do anything else.
But even the most scurrilous and inept fraud among this troupe of evil clowns, like Sebastian Gorka, will find lucrative sinecures at places like Fox, home of racists, haters, and liars.
I guess this is what they mean by American Exceptionalism. In the Age of Trump, no incompetent racists are left behind. No exception.
The Hot Rod Party
The Arpaio pardon illuminates, at long last, the importance and the depth of racism to the Republican Party. Forget all the low taxes, small government, pro-business, pseudo Libertarian claptrap. That's all window dressing. Once you get across the window sill, you're in a room of stinking, fetid darkness and hatred. The Republican Party in its current form would not--could not--exist without the racism that is its engine. All that other stuff, claims of being the national security party and the freedom party, is pure decoration.
It's like a slick looking hot rod, chopped and channeled and lowered and louvered, with a bright metalflake, hand rubbed paint job reflecting the shiny chrome Lake pipes. But none of that matters. What drives it is the engine, the source of the power and the transmission system, that translates racial hatred into votes and political power. Without the rest of that crap, with just a chassis, wheels, and the engine, it would still run just fine and do its job: running down all in its path, taking its occupants to the land of (white) milk and honey.
The shiny shit is just there to give pretenders and apologists like David Brooks and Bill O'Reilly the chance to point to this slick hot rod and say, incredulously, "Racism? What are talking about? Look at that gorgeous paint job!"
And those who benefit from the potent fuel of racial hatred, victimization at the hands of unAmerican mongrels, paranoia, and suspicion, like that weasel who promotes himself as a Serious Person in his role as Speaker of the House, who doesn't even have the balls to issue a straight up and down condemnation of the king's latest paean to white supremacy, having some flunky do it for him, do not get to disown the heritage of hate that keeps the lights on in their house (both of them) by saying they "disagree".
They, like every single Republican politician, are nothing and nowhere without the evil of racial hatred. They're shiny hot rods up on blocks in the backyard. Going nowhere.
It's racism that turns their gears.
@Gloria. I feel you. It was a wait to promote to the place where I could make a bit of difference with women and people of color promoting. But, oh so satisfying. The rumor about me was that "she hates white men." I always wanted to say, "no just the asswipes." Alas quite a few of my bosses fit that category.
The Arpaio abomination was a simple act of hating Obama. Trump was anxiously waiting until he could issue the pardon. It was the sweet spot of birtherism. The secondary benefits were satisfying, but definitely secondary to the thrill of the primary goal. The removal of DACA recipients has no security, economic interests and is anti-humanitarian. DACA was an Obama achievement that brought great personal accolades for Obama. It speaks to fairness, opportunity and humanitarianism. When Trump eliminates DACA and deports its recipients, the thrill of overtly hating Obama is the goal. He is incapable of empathy. Criminal and insane.
Get prepared to see Arpaio receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I say that with no sarcasm.
Some music for today:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA
The disaster that is Harvey is a long way from being over. The stories of what is happening there and will be happening over the coming days will be heartbreaking.
FEMA director, William “Brock” Long : Harvey is probably the worst disaster in Texas history.
On the bright side, Oops! there goes the damn wall!
Or this music, Stevie Ray ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjdMLAMbM0
Ms. Burns writes, "I've always thought following the Golden Rule was the best way to conduct one's life. I question that now."
You are not alone. The hate-fueled rhetoric of D.T. and his enablers has created a toxic media culture that emboldens bullies who feel empowered to harass writers like you. What a threat you are to these haters and how important you are to them! Thank you, Ms. Burns, for being a voice or reason and for reminding me and so many others that honor, integrity, compassion and morals still matter.