;)
The Commentariat -- December 8, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Michael Shear & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the retired Marine general tapped as chief of staff by President Trump last year to bring order to his chaotic White House, will leave the job by the end of the year, Mr. Trump said on Saturday, the latest departure from the president's inner circle after a bruising midterm election for his party. Mr. Trump, speaking with reporters on the White House lawn before departing for the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, said that he would announce a replacement for Mr. Kelly -- perhaps on an interim basis -- in the next day or two."
Max Bergmann & Sam Berger in The Daily Beast: "Mueller may still be only showing us part of his hand, but it's a damn good hand. He has signalled to us he's found collusion. He has shown us that the president is compromised. He has told us that he has gathered information important to his investigation about contacts with people in the Trump Organization, the campaign, the transition, and even the White House. That's everyone Trump has been connected with since he started running.... Mueller is coming.... Not simply for obstructing justice but for conspiring with a hostile foreign power to win an election. This is a scandal unlike any America has ever seen." --s ...
... Ken White in the Atlantic: "Federal prosecutors filed three briefs late on Friday portending grave danger for three men: the former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, the former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, and ... Donald Trump.... The brief [on Manafort] oozes a level of confidence notable even among professionally hubristic prosecutors: Mueller says he's ready to present witnesses and documents, and that he gave Manafort's lawyers an opportunity to refute the evidence but they could not. Mueller is sure he has the receipts.... The [SDNY] prosecutors' rebuttal of Cohen's sentencing brief is one of the more livid denunciations I've seen in more than two decades of federal criminal practice.... If the Southern District's fury at Cohen is notable, its explicit accusation that President Trump directed and coordinated campaign-finance violations is simply stunning.... Most significant [in Mueller's brief on Cohen], the special counsel indicates that Cohen 'described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements within it.' That statement suggests that the special counsel believes that someone in the Trump administration knew of, and approved in advance, Cohen's lies to Congress. That's explosive, and potentially impeachable if Trump himself is implicated." ...
... Eli Hogan in a CNN opinion piece: "President Trump and his allies have long rallied around the defiant battle cry that special counsel Robert Mueller is conducting a 'witch hunt' that has uncovered 'no collusion' with Russia. But public filings by Mueller and the Southern District of New York over the past two weeks have changed the game. We still do not know everything Mueller knows, but the contours of a broad scheme by the administration to conspire with Russia -- to the personal benefit of Trump and the detriment of the United States -- are now coming into sharper focus.... First, the evidence mounts that Trump has committed federal crimes unrelated to Russia.... The evidence also builds that Trump has attempted to obstruct justice by impeding the investigation of Russian election interference.... Second, it is increasingly clear that Trump had deep financial and political incentives to curry favor from Russia as the 2016 election approached.... Because of his own financial dealings and lies to the public, Trump gave Russia the ability to influence and potentially manipulate him.... The puzzle pieces fit together." ...
... Timothy O'Brien of Bloomberg: "Trump's name isn't in any of the unredacted portions of the Manafort sentencing memo but his presence looms large in all of the court filings since both Manafort and Cohen worked for him. In a taste of what might still be coming, CNN reported earlier on Friday that one of the president's ersatz lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, said Mueller's team told Manafort that Trump was lying when he said he didn't know about a 2016 Trump Tower meeting Donald Trump Jr. arranged with a Russian attorney offering compromising information about Hillary Clinton. Manafort was present at that meeting, along with the president's son-in-law and current White House adviser, Jared Kushner.... In addition to noting Cohen's willingness to sacrifice his accountant to save himself, the Manhattan prosecutors also take issue with the idea that Cohen's cooperation emerged from some a newfound sense of duty.... They plainly state that Cohen cooperated to save his hide and avoid a harsher penalty."
How Mohammed Wooed Jared. David Kirkpatrick, et al., of the New York Times examine the relationship between Jared Kushner & Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia."
But the Emails! Emily Holden of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's first Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator [Scott Pruitt] repeatedly violated agency policy [over a period of months] to use personal email for government business, according to newly released public records.... Using personal rather than government email shields messages from public records requests and can put sensitive information at risk.... Others in the administration, including the president's daughter Ivanka Trump, have used personal email accounts for work.... In response to a previous request, the EPA had officially released just one message Pruitt wrote to anyone outside the agency during his first 10 months in office. His emails offer a new look at his close relationships with influential conservatives." --s
Sam Fulwood III of ThinkProgress: "True to the form of our hyper-dysfunctional politics, [Mitch] McConnell is openly defying the president as well as a large contingent of GOP senators by refusing to bring the measure [on criminal justice reform] to a vote before the current session ends. The irony of McConnell's spiking the only idea that has a sliver of merit from the White House is a bright-line example of just how dysfunctional Congress has become. Even though this criminal reform legislation is favored by President Donald Trump and key White House insiders, a significant number of GOP lawmakers, and nearly all of the Democrats in Congress, its chances of passage are doomed because the Senate's top Republican doesn't like the bill." --s
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[T]he likelihood that Trump will experience any consequences for his actions -- even if there is ironclad proof that Trump committed very serious crimes -- is close to zero so long as Trump occupies the White House. Simply put, the framers of our Constitution had no idea how politics actually work. And that left us with a Constitution that offers no good remedies against a criminal president." --s
Lee Fang of The Intercept: "President Donald Trump's pick to serve as his next attorney general, William Barr, pushed repeatedly to expand the role of the military [abroad] to strike drug traffickers during his last stint at the Justice Department, while serving in President George H.W. Bush's administration.... Barr called the failure to ramp up the drug war the 'biggest frustration' he faced.... In 1992, Barr signed off on a book titled 'The Case for More Incarceration,' writing that the nation must 'identify, target, and incapacitate those hardened criminals who commit staggering numbers of violent crimes whenever they are on the streets.'" --s
** Sharon Lerner of The Intercept: "A new water rule will greatly reduce federal water protections, imperiling drinking water, endangered species, and ecosystems across the country. According to the rule that the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release next week -- some details of which were leaked Thursday -- streams that are dependent on rainfall and wetlands not physically connected to year-round waterways will no longer be covered by the Clean Water Act. As a result of the change, an estimated 60-90 percent of U.S. waterways could lose federal protections that currently shield them from pollution and development, according to Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.... By removing water quality standards and permitting requirements, the rule will open these streams, rivers, and wetlands to being paved over, filled in, or polluted." --s
Popular Information: "The election scandal engulfing North Carolina's 9th district, where Republican Mark Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, took an unusual turn on Friday night. Jens Lutz, the Vice Chair of the Bladen County Board of Elections abruptly resigned, WBTV reports.... Why? We don't know for sure but it may be related to his extensive connections to Leslie McCrae Dowless, the convicted felon at the center of the election fraud scandal in the 9th District."
Emma Roller of The Intercept: "Wisconsin isn't the only state where Republicans have been ramping up efforts to negate the will of voters -- it's becoming part of the GOP's regular playbook. In Michigan, a lame-duck push by the GOP is also seeking to neuter incoming Democratic elected officials. The same thing happened in North Carolina in 2016.... Republicans' message is consistent: If elections don't go the way they want, then they have no intention of respecting the results. In their minds, voters who don't support Republican candidates are illegitimate, for the simple fact that they don't support Republicans. This circular thinking isn't an aberration within the GOP -- it's the foundation for all of their machinations. And more naked power grabs like this are sure to come in the next two years, as Republicans continue to feel their popular support slip out from under them." --s
Natalie Lung of Bloomberg: "China's trade surplus with the U.S. hit a record in November, even as overall export growth slowed amid waning global demand and uncertainty about a constructive resolution to the trade war." --s
*****
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd. -- Freakout Friday Edition
Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors on Friday mounted a scathing attack on Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, rejecting his request to avoid a prison term and saying that he had 'repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends.' The prosecutors said Mr. Cohen deserved a 'substantial' prison term that would most likely amount to roughly four years. Mr. Cohen, 52, is to be sentenced in Manhattan next week for two separate guilty pleas: one for campaign finance violations and financial crimes charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, and the other for lying to Congress in the Russia inquiry, filed by the Office of the Special Counsel in Washington. Prosecutors in Manhattan said the crimes Mr. Cohen had committed marked 'a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life.'... In a lengthy memo to the judge, William H. Pauley III, prosecutors wrote that Mr. Cohen was motivated by 'personal greed' and had a 'rose-colored view of the seriousness of the crimes.' At the same time, the special counsel's office released its own sentencing recommendation to the judge for Mr. Cohen's guilty plea for misleading Congress..., saying he 'has gone to significant lengths to assist the Special Counsel's investigation.'" ...
... The story has been updated, with Sharon LaFraniere as the lead reporter & the new lede: "Federal prosecutors said on Friday that President Trump directed illegal payments to ward off a potential sex scandal that threatened his chances of winning the White House in 2016, putting the weight of the Justice Department behind accusations previously made by his former lawyer." Much better.
... Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The special counsel's office credited Cohen with significant cooperation -- including providing 'useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact' with Trump organization executives during the campaign, as well as 'relevant and useful information concerning his contacts with persons connected to the White House during the 2017-2018 time period.' They revealed that Cohen told them of what seemed to be a previously unknown November 2015 contact from a Russian national, who claimed to be a 'trusted person' in the Russian Federation offering the campaign 'political synergy' and 'synergy on a government level.'... The Mueller memo says Cohen 'repeated many of his prior false statements' when he met with the special counsel's office in August, and it was only in a second meeting on Sept. 12, -- after he had pleaded guilty to the campaign finance charges -- that he admitted 'his prior statements about the Moscow Project had been deliberately false and misleading.'" ...
... Axios has both Cohen sentencing memos here. ...
... Owen Daugherty of the Hill: "President Trump took to Twitter late Friday afternoon, moments after court filings from special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosectors in New York were made public, claiming the documents 'totally clear the President.' 'Totally clears the President. Thank you!' he tweeted.... Following the filings, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that the filings revealed 'nothing of value that wasn't already known.'" Mrs. McC: So here we have the President*, writing in the third person as if the President* were Some Other Guy*, making a claim that is totally at odds with what the docs lay out about "Individual-1" who is the Same Guy as (2) Trump the tweeter & (3) "the President" named in the tweet. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not sure where Trump is today, but it's still a reality-free zone. He tweeted this morning, "AFTER TWO YEARS AND MILLIONS OF PAGES OF DOCUMENTS (and a cost of over $30,000,000), NO COLLUSION!" Actually, the Cohen sentencing memos hint very strongly at Trump's collusion with Russian officials.
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The document [filed by Southern District of New York prosecutors] went further than simply articulating the punishment the government believes Cohen should receive. It also fleshed out two of those charges ... related to violations of campaign finance laws in 2016. For the first time, government prosecutors themselves directly implicated Trump in those violations -- and added new alleged evidence to bolster Cohen's culpability. At issue are the payments to two women who alleged sexual relationships with Trump prior to his running for president.... 'With respect to both payments, Cohen acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election,' the filing reads. 'Cohen coordinated his actions with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments. In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1.' We know ... that 'Individual-1' is the person currently serving as president of the United States." Emphasis added. ...
... "The Department of Justice Calls Donald Trump a Felon." Jonathan Chait: "The payments ... to two women who claimed to have affairs with Trump..., according to prosecutors, were intended to influence the campaign, and thereby constituted violations of campaign finance law. They have not formally charged Trump with this crime -- it is a sentencing report for Cohen, not Trump -- but this is the U.S. Department of Justice calling Trump a criminal.... The fact that he is being called a felon by the United States government is a historic step. And it is likely the first of more to come.... The special counsel sentencing recommendation for Cohen also reveals that Russian contact with the Trump campaign began as early as 2015, not the following spring. And Russians promised 'political synergy' -- which is essentially a synonym for campaign collusion -- and 'synergy on a government level.' That means a quid pro quo in which Russia would help Trump win the election and Trump, if elected, would give Russia favorable policy. This is the heart of Mueller's very much ongoing investigation." ...
... Victoria Clark, et al., of Lawfare: "... the Department of Justice, speaking through the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is alleging that the president of the United States coordinated and directed a surrogate to commit a campaign finance violation punishable with time in prison. While the filing does not specify that the president 'knowingly and willfully' violated the law, as is required by the statute, this is the first time that the government has alleged in its own voice that President Trump is personally involved in what it considers to be federal offenses.... The memo states that Cohen's actions, 'struck a blow to one of the core goals of the federal campaign finance laws: transparency. While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows.'... One struggles to see how a document that alleges that such conduct took place at the direction of Individual-1 'totally clears the president.'"
... Tom Winter, et al., of NBC News: "Mueller's office said Cohen gave federal investigators 'relevant and useful' information about his contacts with people connected to the White House as late as this year, according to a sentencing memo the office filed. The memo says Cohen also offered a detailed account of the effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow as well as information about Russia-related matters 'core to (the special counsel) investigation' that he obtained from Trump Organization executives. The court papers reveal for what appears to be the first time that Cohen was in contact with the Trump White House last year and this year, although it does not disclose what was discussed during that contact." ...
... Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Those vague descriptions [in the Mueller memo] may prompt a wave of unease among members of Trump's inner circle, many of whom have already given their version of events to federal investigators and congressional committees. Among those under the most intense scrutiny is Donald Trump Jr., a high-ranking Trump organization executive."
... One Constitutional Scholar Who's Not Too Smart. Aidan McLaughlin of Mediaite: "A very amped up Alan Dershowitz called into Fox News on Friday, following the breaking news of Michael Cohen's sentencing memo.... 'It really gives everybody a caution,' Dershowitz said of the 'harsh' sentencing recommendation for Cohen. 'Cooperating with the government is an extraordinarily risky act.' 'I think it sends a message to potential cooperators: Be a little bit wary of cooperating with this special counsel, because in the end you may not get much in exchange for your cooperation,' Dershowitz added." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Dershowitz completely mischaracterized the "lesson" to be learned from the sentencing recommendation. The SDNY memo faults Cohen for not fully cooperating & notes that Cohen made an "affirmative decision not to become a cooperator." As a result, the SDNY recommends a substantial sentence. The Mueller memo credits Cohen with significant cooperation & "does not take a position with respect to a particular sentence" but recommends "any sentence of incarceration to be served concurrently to any sentence imposed" in the New York case. Ergo, the "risky act" is the opposite of what Dershowitz asserts: the two memos, taken together, make clear that cooperation pays off. ...
... Update. As Victoria Clark & others at Lawfare write in the analysis linked above, "Cohen, the SDNY contends, did not submit to a full debriefing, and his 'efforts thus fell well short of cooperation, as that term is properly used in this District.' The SDNY prosecutors are also unimpressed with Cohen's cooperation with an investigation by the New York State Attorney General, writing that Cohen only corroborated information already known by that office and which he could have been compelled to provide anyway. Notably, in a footnote, the memo flags that Cohen was at one point considering taking the path of full cooperation but chose not to do so."
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III told a judge Friday that Paul Manafort ... told 'multiple discernible lies' during interviews with prosecutors, including about his contacts with an employee who is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence. The allegations came in a new court filing by the special counsel that pointed to some the questions prosecutors have been asking a key witness in their closely-held investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Mueller's prosecutors filed a portion of the document under seal and redacted other key points from view. But they said that Manafort had told numerous lies in five different areas, including about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian employee of Manafort's political consulting firm who prosecutors have said has Russian intelligence ties. Manafort met twice during the campaign with Kilimnik." ...
... Axios has Mueller's filing on Manafort here. ...
... Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "... Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors about direct contacts with senior Trump administration officials after he signed a plea agreement that has now collapsed, according to court papers filed Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller. 'The evidence demonstrates that Manafort had contacts with administration officials,' Mueller's team wrote in a memo outlining why he should be considered in breach of his deal. He alleged: Manafort sent a text message in May 2018 authorizing an unnamed person to speak with a Trump official on his behalf. Manafort told a colleague that he had been in touch with senior administration official through February 2018. Documents recovered from a search of Manafort's electronics reveal additional contacts with administration officials. Mueller also accused Manafort of deceiving Mueller's team about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik and Kilimnik's attempts to reach out to witnesses and obstruct justice on charges that the two men failed to file as foreign agents for their lobbying work. And Manafort allegedly lied about an unspecified 'investigation in another district.' In a sparse account, prosecutors say he changed his story after being presented with evidence that his earlier statements were false."
John Wagner & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Friday that his lawyers are preparing a 'major Counter Report' in response to expected findings from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation.... Trump confirmed the plan in a spate of angry morning tweets in which also took fresh aim at Mueller and his legal team, accusing them of conflicts of interest and overzealous prosecutions that have 'wrongly destroyed people's lives.' 'We will be doing a major Counter Report to the Mueller Report,' Trump said. 'This should never again be allowed to happen to a future President of the United States!'... 'It has been incorrectly reported that Rudy Giuliani and others will not be doing a counter to the Mueller Report. That is Fake News. Already 87 pages done, but obviously cannot complete until we see the final Witch Hunt Report.'... The president's confirmation of the plan appears to have been spurred by reports that his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and others were doing little to prepare to rebut Mueller, who is also looking at whether Trump has obstructed justice. Trump said 87 pages had already been written, adding, 'obviously cannot complete until we the see the final Witch Hunt report.'" See also the Atlantic & related reports linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Mary Jalonick of the AP: "Former FBI Director James Comey spoke to House investigators behind closed doors for almost seven hours Friday, begrudgingly answering questions about the Justice Department's decisions during the 2016 presidential election. Comey, who appeared under subpoena, announced after the meeting that he would return for more questioning Dec. 17. Appearing annoyed, he said 'we're talking about Hillary Clinton's emails, for heaven's sake, so I'm not sure we needed to do this at all.' A transcript of the interview, expected to be released shortly, 'will bore you,' Comey said.... Republicans argue that department officials were biased against Donald Trump as they started an investigation into his campaign's ties to Russia and cleared Democrat Hillary Clinton in the probe into her email use. Comey was in charge of both investigations. Democrats have said the investigations by the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees are merely a way to distract from and undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe." ...
... Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Former FBI director James Comey on Friday called ... Donald Trump's attacks against the Justice Department 'deeply troubling.'... 'The president's attacks on the Justice Department broadly and the FBI are something that, no matter what political party you're in, you should find deeply troubling and continue to speak out about it, not become numb to attacks on the rule of law,' Comey told reporters after closed-door testimony with House Republicans...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Then again, Morin reports that "Comey praised the president's decision to nominate [William] Barr, saying 'he cares deeply about the integrity of the Justice Department.'" That's funny because, as Michael Balsamo & others of the AP report, "In a May 2017 op-ed for The Washington Post, Barr defended Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, an action Mueller has been examining for possible obstruction of justice. He was quoted two months later in a Post story as expressing concern that members of Mueller's team had contributed to Democratic candidates." I think we can agree that Comey is kind of a goofy guy. He is the prime example of why Democratic presidents (Obama, in this case) should not appoint Republicans to critical posts. Also too ...
... Jen Kirby of Vox: William "Barr was quoted in a New York Times article last November discussing the president's call to the Justice Department to investigate Hillary Clinton. When asked what he would do in that situation, Barr indicated that more evidence existed to prompt an investigation into the 'Uranium One' deal, a false theory that Clinton sold 20 percent of US uranium to Russia, than potential collusion into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russians to sway the 2016 presidential election. 'To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility,' Barr said." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: We'll be hearing a lot more about Bill Barr as his confirmation hearings near. Like back when he was Bush I's AG & "recommended to Bush that he pardon six individuals involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, four of whom had already been convicted of lying to federal and congressional investigators about the secret illegal operation." Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate is thinking Barr would have the same advice for President* Trump when it comes to pardoning the reprobates, mobsters & petty criminals in Trump's circle.
Evan Perez & Dana Bash of CNN: "White House chief of staff John Kelly was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team in recent months, three people with knowledge of the matter told CNN. Kelly responded to a narrow set of questions from special counsel investigators after White House lawyers initially objected to Mueller's request to do the interview earlier this summer, the sources said.... The Mueller questions to Kelly centered on a narrow set of issues in the investigation of potential obstruction of justice, chiefly Kelly's recollection of an episode that took place after new reporting emerged about how the President had tried to fire Mueller." (Also linked yesterday.)
All Fly-over Country Looks Alike. Trump just commended a law enforcement agent for his work fighting 'rival gangs, right here in St. Louis.' Members of the audience in Kansas City did a double take. -- Annie Karni of Politico, in a tweet (via New York mag)
Charlie Savage & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday said he intended to nominate William P. Barr, who served as attorney general during the first Bush administration from 1991 to 1993, to return as head of the Justice Department.... Mr. Trump also announced that Heather Nauert, the chief State Department spokeswoman, is his pick to be the next ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Nikki R. Haley.... In another personnel move, John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his post in the next few days, ending a tumultuous 16-month tenure still among the longest for a senior aide to Mr. Trump, two people with direct knowledge of the developments said Friday." See more on Barr in yesterday's links. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "John Kelly is expected to resign as White House chief of staff in the coming days, two sources familiar with the situation unfolding in the West Wing tell CNN.... Kelly and ... Donald Trump have reached a stalemate in their relationship and it is no longer seen as tenable by either party. Though Trump asked Kelly over the summer to stay on as chief of staff for two more years, the two have stopped speaking in recent days. Trump is actively discussing a replacement plan, though a person involved in the process said nothing is final right now and ultimately nothing is final until Trump announces it. Potential replacements include Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, who is still seen as a leading contender." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
When you talk about Germany, we have a very strong relationship with the government of Germany. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany, and we have a strong relationship with the government. -- Heather Nauert, June 5, 2018 ...
... Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The United Nations came into existence to vanquish Germany, as 26 nations jointly pledged in 1942 not to surrender to 'savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world.' Three-quarters of a century later, the woman who would soon become President Trump's pick to represent the United States at the United Nations cited the D-Day landings -- a cornerstone of this unwavering Allied pledge and the basis of the Nazi defeat on the Western Front -- to showcase the strength of German-American relations." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Do read Akhilleus's commentary in yesterday's thread on Nauert. (More than one post.)
Ryan Browne of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to name Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to two US officials. If chosen, Milley would succeed the current chairman, Gen. Joseph Dunford, whose term expires later next year. Dunford is expected to serve out his term. The chairman is the highest-ranking military officer in the country and serves as the principal military adviser to the president. Trump hinted the announcement would be coming earlier Friday when he said he would be making an announcement at the Army-Navy football game he will be attending Saturday in Philadelphia. 'I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession,' Trump told reporters at the White House before his departure for Kansas City."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Nearly nine months after his unceremonious firing by tweet, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is breaking his silence on his time in the Trump administration, venting that he had to repeatedly tell ... Donald Trump that what he wanted to do would violate the law. The former ExxonMobil CEO appeared at a fundraiser in Houston on Thursday evening where he sat for a conversation with CBS reporter Bob Schieffer and outlined how Trump had a 'starkly different' style from Tillerson, who said the two also did not share a 'common value system.'... The two continued to clash when Trump would test the limits of his executive power and would grow frustrated when Tillerson would inform him that he didn't have unilateral authority to do something." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Tillerson himself had no government experience prior to being named secretary of state, so in many cases, he would not have known what the limits of the law were, either. But his remarks illustrate the difference between an intelligent person & a "moron": Tillerson took the trouble to find out what he didn't know. Trump not only didn't bother to ask; he didn't want to know the answer. He just wanted to do whatever hairbrained idea he had, the law or treaties be damned. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "'What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented Exxon Mobil corporation,' Tillerson said, was 'to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't like to read, doesn't read briefing reports, doesn't like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, "This is what I believe."'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... "You're a Moron." "No, You're a Moron." Nick Wadhams of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump called Rex Tillerson 'dumb as a rock' and 'lazy as hell' after his former secretary of state broke his public silence and said he often had to push back against ideas that would have violated the law. Trump tweeted Friday that Tillerson 'didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn't get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell.'... With the new tweet, Trump escalated a feud that appeared to have started in October 2017, when NBC News reported that Tillerson had called Trump a 'moron.' Trump fired Tillerson -- also in a tweet -- in March of this year."
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "Two more immigrant women who worked at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey said on Friday that they were undocumented at the time and that golf course management knew it. One of the women said that she was allowed to submit fraudulent documents by the employee who interviewed her for the job. The two women's accounts came a day after a Guatemalan woman, Victorina Morales, told The New York Times that she has worked without legal status as a housekeeper at the club for the past five years.... The latest revelations from both a current employee and several former workers at the New Jersey facility mark one of the first times that such vulnerable workers have elected to speak publicly about their employment at a company owned by the Trump Organization. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump knew of their immigration status or of Ms. Morales's assertion that a manager at the golf club had helped her obtain her fraudulent work documents. But stopping the flow of illegal immigration and saving jobs for American workers has been a cornerstone of his administration, and four women have said that supervisors at the club knew they were working illegally."
Bret Stephens of the New York Times: "Lindsey Graham, the episodically spineful Republican from South Carolina, has claimed that, in private, the 45th president is 'funny as hell' and has 'a great sense of humor.' If so, it's a better kept secret than his tax returns. In public, Trump has almost no humor, even when the moment calls for it.... When Trump does make jokes, they tend to be flattering to his self-image.... Or they are cruel -- and not necessarily meant as jokes.... Trump, I suspect, isn't unfunny. He's anti-funny. Humor humanizes. It uncorks, unstuffs, informalizes. Used well, it puts people at ease. Trump's method is the opposite: He wants people ill at ease. Doing so preserves his capacity to wound, his sense of superiority, his distance. Good jokes highlight the ridiculous. Trump's jokes merely ridicule."
All the Best Confederates. Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie praised Confederate States President Jefferson Davis effusively in a 1995 speech, calling him a 'martyr to 'The Lost Cause'" and an 'exceptional man in an exceptional age.' Wilkie, who delivered the speech in front of a statue of Davis at the US Capitol during an event sponsored by the United Daughters of Confederacy, also said that while he was 'no apologist for the South,' viewing Confederate 'history and the ferocity of the Confederate soldier solely through the lens of slavery and by the slovenly standards of the present is dishonest and a disservice to our ancestors.'Wilkie's speech, a transcript of which ran in the United Daughters of the Confederacy Magazine, reveals his belief in the 'Lost Cause' theory of the Civil War, which portrays the Southern states who seceded as heroic and denies the central role slavery played as a cause for the conflict. A KFile review also found Wilkie attended a pro-Confederate event as recently as 2009, giving a speech on Robert E. Lee to a Maryland division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I was wondering who-all put that statue of Jefferson Davis in the Capitol building. Answer: Mississippi. Of course. The state could replace the Davis statue with a monument to someone who was not a notorious traitor, but it has not. Besides, such a patriotic move would upset Senator Cindy. ...
... ** Ed Kilgore: "I know the president thinks of the veneration of the evil racist conspiracy of the Confederacy as being just part of its admirers' 'heritage.' But you'd figure that even in his administration, the one place you'd expect to be free of nostalgia for the Lost Cause would be the VA, with its heavily minority clientele and its identification with the patriotic United States service-members who were killed and maimed by the traitorous men in grey. But maybe not." Kilgore cites passages from Wilkie's speech about Davis. "This isn't historical commemoration or even 'nostalgia' for the imagined Eden of the antebellum South. This is an example of 'neo-Confederacy,' the effort to whitewash history in the cause of present-day reactionary politics, which flourished before and during the civil rights movement and is enjoying a renaissance more recently...."
Sen. Chuck Schumer, in a Washington Post op-ed lays down his marker: "Now that Democrats will soon control one branch of Congress, President Trump is again signaling that infrastructure could be an area of compromise. We agree, but if the president wanted to earn Democratic support in the Senate, any infrastructure bill would have to include policies and funding that help transition our country to a clean-energy economy and mitigate the risks the United States already faces from climate change." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Eric Levitz: "Rather than trying to meet the president halfway (as has been his wont), the Senate Minority Leader has made Trump an offer he can't accept.... This is a sound approach on (at least) three levels. First, it allows Democrats to obstruct a popular policy idea [Trump's fake "infrastructure" pledge] -- by baiting Republicans into obstructing an even more popular one. Second, it sends a signal to the party's growing left flank and activist base that the Democratic leadership welcomes the former's ideas and energy. Finally, it puts 'green jobs' near the top of the next Democratic government's agenda." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Vildana Hajric & Sarah Ponczek of Bloomberg: "U.S. stocks plunged, capping the worst week for the S&P 500 Index since March, as the Trump administration pressed its trade war with China and the latest batch of economic data added to concern that growth has peaked. Oil rose after OPEC agreed to cut output. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed over 500 points Friday, bringing its decline in the abbreviated trading week to over 1,000. The S&P finished the week down 4.6 percent. The trade outlook appeared to take a negative turn after Huawei Technologies's chief financial officer was charged with conspiracy and the U.S. alleged the company violated sanctions."
Kate Conger of the New York Times: "The reasons that the United States asked the Canadian authorities to arrest a top executive of the Chinese technology company Huawei last week had been shrouded in mystery. On Friday, the details of the arrest and what led up to it came out in a Canadian courtroom. At a bail hearing in Vancouver for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and a daughter of the company's founder, Canadian prosecutors said she was accused of fraud. The heart of the charges related to how Ms. Meng may have participated in a scheme to trick financial institutions into making transactions that violated United States sanctions against Iran, they said. Ms. Meng had 'direct involvement' with Huawei's representations to banks, said John Gibb-Carsley, an attorney with Canada's Justice Department." ...
... Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "The arrest of one of China's leading tech executives by the Canadian police for extradition to the United States has unleashed a combustible torrent of outrage and alarm among affluent and influential Chinese, posing a delicate political test for President Xi Jinping and his grip on the loyalty of the nation's elite. The outpouring of conflicting sentiments -- some Chinese have demanded a boycott of American products while others have expressed anxiety about their investments in the United States -- underscores the unusual, politically charged nature of the Trump administration's latest move to counter China’s drive for technological superiority.... The detention of Ms. Meng, the company's chief financial officer, appears to have driven home the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China in a visceral way for the Chinese establishment — and may force Mr. Xi to adopt a tougher stance against Washington, analysts said."
** Denise Lavoie of the AP: "A man who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia was convicted Friday of first-degree murder for killing a woman in an attack that inflamed long-simmering racial and political tensions across the country. A state jury rejected arguments that James Alex Fields Jr. acted in self-defense during a 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. Jurors also convicted Fields of eight other charges, including aggravated malicious wounding and hit and run.... Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist, was killed, and nearly three dozen others were injured. The trial featured emotional testimony from survivors who described devastating injuries and long, complicated recoveries. The far-right rally had been organized in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hundreds of Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis and other white nationalists -- emboldened by the election of ... Donald Trump — streamed into the college town for one of the largest gatherings of white supremacists in a decade. Some dressed in battle gear. Afterward, Trump inflamed tensions even further when he said 'both sides' were to blame...."
Weird News. Eric Levitz of New York: "Ammon Bundy is best known as a leading light of the American militia movement (a motley coalition of various different flavors of firearms enthusiasts who hate the federal government). He's famous for getting into armed standoffs with federal agents and violently occupying bird sanctuaries. His friends are the kind of folks who co-chair pro-Trump veterans groups; his father is the kind of man who says, 'I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro' -- and proceeds to explain why black people were 'better off as slaves.' So, this being 2018, Bundy naturally just disavowed the militia movement in solidarity with the migrant caravan, suggested that nationalism is actually the opposite of patriotism, and said that Trump's America resembles nothing so much as 1930s Germany. Last week, Bundy posted a video to Facebook in which he criticized President Trump for demonizing the Central American migrants who were traveling in a caravan to seek asylum in the United States."
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Reader Comments (11)
Does Kelly's bruited resignation imply that Mattis' will soon be announced? Don't I remember that the two of them had a pact? The DOD news we hear these days isn't exactly inspiring.
Maybe the RC wordsmiths can help me out because I'm confused by Chait's column. He starts out...
"Federal prosecutors released sentencing recommendations for two alleged criminals who worked closely with Donald Trump: his lawyer Michael Coyhen, and campaign manager Paul Manafort."
Alleged? Cohen and Manafort ARE criminals. They already either pled guilty to or were convicted of crimes. The next step of sentencing only determines what type of punishment they will receive for committing such crimes.
At what point is it no longer alleged? Only after having served their sentences?
Thanks.
p.s. As a friend used to say, "Marriage isn't a word. It's a sentence."
@unwashed: You're right. Chait (or his copy editor) is wrong. He may be so accustomed to having to plug "alleged" into sentences where it's pretty clear the person is a criminal that he just did it without thinking. Or maybe the copy editors have a standing rule, handed down from legal, to always amend "criminal" and "felon" with "alleged."
Anyhow, once a person has been convicted of or pleads guilty to a felony, s/he can be described as a "felon" or "criminal" or whatever. The "allegation" has been proved.
Like Bea, I'd guess Chait's use of "alleged" was a twitch. Unwashed's observation, though, prompted me to read the whole Chait piece and was pleased to find that when he reported that his own justice dept. was calling the Pretender a "felon," there was no alleged" or pretense about it. No Chait twitch there.
He flat out said it.
Which caused me to look up "felon," and was reminded of the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor, something I must have once known but couldn't remember. Thanks for the lesson.
The Pretender is a felon. I like the sound of that.
Unwashed,
You got me, I thought both of those jabronis had achieved post-alleged status. Manafort, after being found guilty in a court of law on about a zillion counts of illegal activity including tax fraud, bank fraud, and fraud fraud. He also accepted a guilty plea as part of a scam he tried to run on Mueller’s guys. Didn’t work very well. Mickey (the Dunce) Cohen also pleaded guilty, a plea the court accepted.
The fact that both have been found guilty of crimes makes them, in my estimation, crime-inals, as it were. So no need for Chait to hedge with the “allege”, I pledge.
In any event, ‘‘tis a great day, although methinks the fat orange blob currently inhabiting the White House May still get off scot-free.
And not for nothin’ but for all those wingers complaining that enough is enough and why are we spending all this time and money on a little thing like “oppo research” on behalf of Fatty and Co., I’d say we’ve only just scratched the surface of the rampant criminality of his campaign and the running of his administration so far. Besides, they were all perfectly fine with spending four years and tens of millions of dollars investigating Hillary, investigations that are STILL going on (new one to start up right soon).
Their ignorance is not alleged. It has long been proven.
@Akhilleus: Or, as Trump would say "Scott Free."
That fan has finally begun to shoot the shit and THEY are getting hit flat in the face with it. There were never any witches in the hunt–-it was an old fashioned British fox one from the start. Will there be the clicking of wine glasses at the end, do you suppose? Toasting the roasting of all those that were part of that "synergy"––a word that means "collusion."
And talk about loyalty: The King's slaves and knaves have turned against him––his party is still hanging on though–– and he in kind has called them vile names after he once used superlatives. Where is character here–-gone with the wind.
Kelly will leave with hurt in his heart, the organ that was constantly beating against what he was ordered to do. Pence will have to give up his chief of staff–-a young, good looking guy who will try to whip up some vigor and some semblance of order but will probably become as frustrated as everyone else. And then there's Pompeo–-the overweight, jolly man about the globe who can joke with a Saudi killer and not be bothered as to the optics. Below is a link to a piece whose heading is:
POMPEO IS HEADING A FOREIGN-POLICY FARCE
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-07/trump-and-pompeo-are-leading-a-foreign-policy-farce?srnd=premium
So it looks like we are coming full circle in a crazy lopsided way and are finally reaching some kind of revelatory explanation for what could be called a FAKE Presidency≠––from the very beginning. Of course some of us knew this right off the bat––now it's up to the people of this country to demand a recount.
Marie,
I’ll kindly ask you to not take the name of Scott Free in vain. As pointed out in your link, Mr. Free is a veteran, along with the Glorios Leader, of the Bowling Green Massacre, a noble gentleman who deserves our thanks for gettin’ after thim Mooslims, and is probably at this very moment the subject of a new Bob Mueller Witch Hunt!! (a phrase that now must be capitalized and followed by multiple exclamation points).
Fortified with a cup of tea for Saturday morning and with a lusty chorus wassailing away on the CD player, I ran across this observation while consulting with my old pal Emerson (he has never struck me as either a Ralph or a Waldo, so he’s just Emerson).
From an Emerson speech, reprinted as “Illusions” in his book “The Conduct of Life”:
“The visions of good men are good; it is the undisciplined will that is whipped with bad thoughts and bad fortunes. When we break the laws, we lose our hold on the central reality. Like sick men in hospitals, we change only from bed to bed, from one folly to another; and it cannot signify much what becomes of such castaways, — wailing, stupid, comatose creatures, — lifted from bed to bed, from the nothing of life to the nothing of death.”
Remind you of anyone?
Emerson’s abiding concern for what constitutes American genius comes down, as one might might expect, to a general appreciation of humanity and virtue (sounds a tad Socratic, don’t it?). In another essay (I think he was talking about Montaigne, but I could be mixing up the essays), he suggests that true genius is able, at a glance, to pick out the overall design of a situation or idea and not be distracted, as he puts it, by “corners and angles”, a person who can stand their ground with a moral strength that comes from character. For Emerson, as someone once wrote, character is fate.
If so, we are, in a word, fucked. At least so long as this idiot of base character and low morals is in the White House, eyes darting from dark corners to odd angles, unable to ever see or understand the whole, buffeted by the fate he has always incurred, that of a loose, louche person who hasn’t the strength to withstand the winds he has inherited. He is an unprincipled fool more acquainted with vice than virtue, a “wailing, stupid, comatose creature”.
Somewhere else Emerson observes that even the wisest can be fools, but if so, better to be a fool for virtue than for vice.
Nuff said.
@Ak: I always envied Louisa May for having Emerson as her neighbor. Thanks for the Saturday tea conversation–-only wish it could be in person although I'd have to turn down the music.
The late great James Baldwin said this:
"It is not too much to say that whoever wishes to become a truly moral human being (and let us not ask whether or not this is possible; I think we must BELIEVE that it is possible;) must first divorce himself from all the prohibitions, crimes, and hypocrisies of the Christian church. If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot to this, then it is time we get rid of Him."
Don't know if Emerson would agree but his Transcendentalism always made me think he would.
Great Krugman tweet I picked up from the Daily Kos.
Paul Krugman
✔
@paulkrugman
I read the news today, oh boy. Shocked at how little there is about the anti-democratic coup in Wisconsin. A once-progressive US state has just been turned into Hungary on the Great Lakes. Where's the wave of outrage?
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4:32 AM - Dec 7, 2018