;)
The Commentariat -- February 14, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Adam Goldman & Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy F.B.I. director, said in an interview aired on Thursday that top Justice Department officials were so alarmed by President Trump's decision in May 2017 to fire James B. Comey, the bureau's director, that they discussed whether to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office. The concerns about the president's actions also prompted Mr. McCabe to order the bureau's team investigating Russia's election interference to expand their scope to also investigate whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice by firing Mr. Comey. They also were to examine if he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests.... Mr. Trump appeared to react to the interview, attacking Mr. McCabe and his wife, both frequent targets of Mr. Trump, via Twitter."
... The Atlantic has published an excerpt of Andrew McCabe's book.
Erin Banco & Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Two teams of federal officials assembled to fight foreign election interference are being dramatically downsized, according to three current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. And now, those sources say they fear the department won't prepare adequately for election threats in 2020.... The task forces, part of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), were assembled in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... One of the task forces is now half the size it was a few months ago.... There are concerns it will completely wither away. The other task force also shrank significantly shortly after the midterms..., and before its members produced a thorough assessment of what happened during the 2018 elections."
Carol Morello & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence on Thursday launched a combative broadside against some of America's closest allies, calling on European countries to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran and accusing them of attempting to break U.S. sanctions against 'that vile regime' in Tehran. Officials from Britain, France and Germany -- all countries that negotiated and signed the 2015 landmark agreement that President Trump withdrew from last year -- were in the audience as Pence accused them of essentially joining sides with America's enemy. Pence threatened to impose more U.S. sanctions against Iran and praised countries that are moving to reduce their oil imports from the country 'to zero.'"
*****
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Lawmakers introduced a bill late Wednesday night to prevent a second partial shutdown days before the deadline. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, filed the legislation to fund approximately a quarter of the federal government roughly 48 hours before the funding lapse deadline.... The 1,159-page bill includes $1.375 billion for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border -- well below the $5.7 billion President Trump has demanded.... A Congressional Democratic aide said the funding bill would only allow the administration to use 'existing technologies' for fencing and barriers.... Back pay for federal contractors impacted by the shutdown and an extension of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) were both left out of the bill." ...
... Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As he inched closer to reluctantly accepting a bipartisan spending compromise without the money he demanded for his border wall, Mr. Trump offered no acknowledgment on Wednesday that his pressure tactics had failed even as aides sought to minimize the damage by tamping down criticism on the right. One call was made to Lou Dobbs, a favorite of Mr. Trump's whose Fox Business Network show he often tries to catch live. Another was placed to Sean Hannity.... The message: Mr. Trump deserved support because he still forced concessions that he would never have gotten without a five-week partial government shutdown. Even so, it was arguably the most punishing defeat Mr. Trump has experienced as president, and it left the White House scrounging for other ways to pay for a wall on the southwestern border and rethinking its approach to a Congress now partly controlled by Democrats."
... Dana Bash & Betsy Klein of CNN: "... Donald Trump intends to sign the border security deal to avoid another partial government shutdown, according to two sources who have spoken directly with the President." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to prosecutors after he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The decision by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of United States District Court may affect the sentence she hands out in the coming weeks to Mr. Manafort, 69. Judge Jackson said that Mr. Manafort had intentionally lied about his contacts with a Russian associate during the campaign and after Mr. Trump was elected. Prosecutors have said that the associate, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, has ties to Russian intelligence services. The judge also found that Mr. Manafort had lied about a payment that was routed through a pro-Trump political action committee to cover his legal bills, and about information relevant to another undisclosed investigation underway at the Justice Department."...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post provides a chronology that places into context Manafort's August 2, 2016, Grand Havana Room meeting with Kilimnik, a meeting about which Judge Jackson ruled Manafort lied. ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Here's how we know for certain that Donald Trump was complicit in "collusion" with Russia. If an innocent person learned that some of his employees even appeared to be involved in nefarious dealings with a foreign adversary, he would welcome or demand an investigation to find out who had betrayed him (and in this case, the nation) & why. (This was the tack Trump's lawyers initially tried, & eventually failed, to get him to take.) Instead, Trump has attempted to quash the investigations, has trashed the investigations & the investigators hundreds of times, has called cooperating witnesses "rats," & has supported those who refused to cooperate. (For instance, besides Trump's many remarks praising Manafort, according to Andrew Prokop of Vox, "... $125,000 paid out from a pro-Trump Super PAC to a political media firm during the campaign was later used to help pay Manafort's legal fees.") He has also refused to rule out pardons for those found guilty of crimes. Trump not only participated in the underlying crimes, he has done everything he can -- short of shooting Michael Cohen on Fifth Avenue -- to cover up those crimes. This is the way a guilty person acts.
... Josh Kovensky & Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "A super PAC closely linked to Paul Manafort is facing FEC scrutiny over why it failed to report a $1 million contribution received just before the 2016 presidential election. In a Tuesday letter, the Federal Election Commission asked the Rebuilding America Now PAC for more information about the contribution, which the PAC first disclosed in an amended report in November 2018 -- some two years after the fact. The FEC letter raises new questions about the murky financial operations of the PAC, which was operated by two Manafort deputies. Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating whether Rebuilding America Now illegally received foreign funds and was connected to a scheme that Manafort allegedly lied about while purportedly cooperating with Mueller.... Geoffrey Palmer, [a] Los Angeles real estate [developer, was the] donor whose $1 million contribution shows up on the PAC's amended report but was not reported on its original FEC report."
CBS News: "Soon after speaking to President Trump about the firing of his boss James Comey, Andrew McCabe, who became the bureau's acting director, began obstruction of justice and counterintelligence investigations involving the president and his ties to Russia. In his first television interview since his own firing, McCabe tells 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley he wanted those inquiries to be documented and underway so they would be difficult to quash without raising scrutiny. 'I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground, in an indelible fashion, McCabe tells Pelley in the interview. 'That were I removed quickly, or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace.'"
Brent Griffiths of Politico: "Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pressed acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Wednesday to clarify his recent testimony, after Nadler and his panel found that Whitaker's responses were 'unsatisfactory, incomplete or contradicted by other evidence.'... The New York Democrat's request includes the possibility that the Judiciary Committee could have direct evidence indicating that Whitaker lied during his testimony.... Nadler writes of Whitaker's answers to questions about whether or not he spoke with ... Donald Trump about the decision by Michael Cohen ... to plead guilty in federal court to lying to Congress and violating campaign finance law by arranging hush money payments on Trump's behalf. 'Your testimony on this topic is directly contradicted by several media reports,' Nadler writes of Whitaker's answers to questions about Trump and Cohen. The Judiciary Committee, Nadler continues, 'has identified several individuals with direct knowledge of the phone calls you denied receiving from the White House.'" Nadler's letter to Whitaker is here.
David Shortell, et al., of CNN: "As William Barr..., Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, awaits a Senate vote to confirm his move to the top of the Justice Department, his daughter and son-in-law, both Justice Department employees, are on their way to different jobs. Mary Daly, Barr's oldest daughter and the director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Efforts in the deputy attorney general's office, is leaving for a position at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit, a Justice official said.... Daly's husband will remain in his position in the Justice Department's National Security Division for now....Tyler McGaughey, the husband of Barr's youngest daughter, has been detailed from the powerful US attorney's office in Alexandria, Virginia, to the White House counsel's office, two officials said.... Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics..., [said] that McGaughey's detail to the White House counsel's office was 'concerning.' 'That's troubling because it raises further questions about Barr's independence,' Shaub said." ...
... OR, as New York's Daily Intelligencer put it, "William Barr's daughter and son-in-law want to avoid talk of nepotism ... so his son-in-law is going to work for the office defending the president in an investigation overseen by the Justice Department." No link. ...
... Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "William P. Barr is all but guaranteed to become President Trump's next attorney general, after clearing a procedural hurdle Tuesday with the support of not just Republicans but also a few Democrats, as well. The 55-to-44 vote to advance Barr's nomination comes after weeks in which Democrats sounded alarm bells about his previous statements regarding special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe of Trump and his alleged ties to Russia, including a memo Barr wrote last year questioning whether Mueller would be overstepping the law by investigating potential obstruction of justice." (Also linked yesterday.)
Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "The White House Twitter czar oversaw workers he knew were undocumented immigrants while managing President Trump Dan Scavino, the White House social media director who helps the President craft his tweets, used to be the general manager of the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor and supervised the upscale estate's day-to-day operations -- including the hiring of immigrants with fake employment papers, three former undocumented workers told the Daily News this week. Gabriel Sedano, a Mexican national who worked at the club from 2005 until he was fired last month along with dozens of other undocumented employees at Trump properties in New York and New Jersey, said ... Scavino -- like other managers -- knew of their illegal status but looked the other way."
Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a billionaire real estate investor who is one of President Trump's closest confidants, apologized Wednesday after defending Saudi Arabia in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's killing and saying the United States has committed 'equal or worse' atrocities. Barrack’s remarks on Khashoggi, made Tuesday at a summit in Abu Dhabi organized by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Milken Institute think tank, were first reported by Dubai's Gulf News. 'Whatever happened in Saudi Arabia, the atrocities in America are equal or worse to the atrocities in Saudi Arabia,' Barrack told the crowd at the Milken Institute's MENA Summit, according to audio provided by Gulf News reporter Ed Clowes.... In a statement Wednesday, Barrack ... appeared to suggest responsibility for the killing should not rest on Saudi leadership. 'I feel strongly that the bad acts of a few should not be interpreted as the failure of an entire sovereign kingdom,' Barrack said, maintaining that 'rule of law and monarchies across the Middle East are confusing to the West.'... In the 1970s, Barrack worked in Saudi Arabia, where he befriended sons of the Saudi king; he later went on to serve as their U.S. representative...."
Kara Scannell & Erica Orden of CNN: "The Justice Department is investigating the leak last year of confidential reports about Michael Cohen's personal bank records which led to revelations that the former Donald Trump lawyer was profiting by selling his access to the White House, two people familiar with the matter say. Prosecutors with the US attorney's office in the Northern District of California are leading the criminal investigation, one of the people said, and criminal charges in the case could be announced soon. The bank transactions of Cohen became public last May when lawyer Michael Avenatti posted a memo online outlining numerous payments to Cohen from a company linked to a Russian oligarch, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, AT&T, which owns CNN, and others."
Laura Strickler of NBC News: "A White House security specialist is seeking official whistleblower protection from the federal government after raising concerns about 'unwarranted security clearances' for administration officials, including Jared Kushner, according to two sources.... The specialist, Tricia Newbold, filed the whistleblower complaint less than two weeks after she was suspended without pay for defying her supervisor, Carl Kline."
Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "... it turns out that [Michael Avenatti] ... seemingly hid millions of dollars from bankruptcy court when his firm went under in 2017. The firm, Eagan Avenatti, was required to file monthly reports on its finances throughout 2017. Avenatti signed those reports, swearing that they were accurate. But the reports didn't disclose that Avenatti had opened six bank accounts where he put millions of dollars of legal fees during the bankruptcy proceedings. That's what his former legal partner Jason Frank is now claiming in court documents, according to the Los Angeles Times.... Frank and his team obtained evidence through subpoenas of banks showing that Avenatti was hiding money from bankruptcy court. It includes documents showing that one client ... sent nearly a million dollars to one of Avenatti's undisclosed accounts." Mrs. McC: The LA Times story is firewalled.
About That "Executive Time." David Fahrenthold & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has installed a room-sized 'golf simulator' game at the White House, which allows him to play virtual rounds at courses all over the world by hitting a ball into a large video screen, according to two people told about the system. That system replaced an older, less sophisticated golf simulator that had been installed under President Obama, according to two people with knowledge of the previous system. Trump's system cost about $50,000, and was put in during the last few weeks in a room in his personal quarters, a White House official said. The official ... said Trump had paid for the new system and the installation personally. President Trump has built his schedules around long blocks of 'executive time' -- unstructured periods in the day where the president's schedules show no official meetings. He often spends this time watching TV, tweeting, holding impromptu meetings and making phone calls, aides have said.... The White House official said Trump has not used his new golf simulator during executive time -- or at all since it was put in." Right. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yesterday I suggested that the government put a putting green in the exercise yard of Trump International Prison so he could pretend he was at a golf resort. Turns out there's a better option available right now, one which will allow him to pretend he's at any number of great golf courses. Perfect!
Jonathan Chait: Republicans are trying, and failing, to come up with compelling reasons to allow Trump to continue to hide his tax returns. "One common thread through all [their] defenses is that they take Trump's decision to break precedent and conceal his tax returns as a given. From there, they focus all the scrutiny on Democrats and their nefarious motives for getting the tax returns. And so none of Trump's defenders have bothered to construct a motive for Trump's decision to conceal his tax returns. It's just something we must all accept. The president has done business with, and employed, a large number of criminals, is under state and federal investigation for a wide array of alleged crimes, but his decision to keep his financial information private apparently tells us nothing whatsoever about the secrets it may contain." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Matthew Choi & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Roger Stone urged a federal judge Wednesday to make ... Robert Mueller's office explain why it shouldn't be held in contempt for violating the seal on ... [Stone]'s indictment by allegedly leaking it to the press.... In its motion, Stone's team argues that CNN presented it with a copy of the indictment without a time stamp from the court records database, known as PACER, which it says is a sign the network had the document ahead of time.... However, the special counsel's public release announcing the indictment was sent out minutes before Stone's arrest, and it included a link to the same copy of the indictment without a PACER time stamp. Later that morning, Mueller's office updated its link to an indictment with the PACER markings." ...
... Brian Stelter of CNN: Roger "Stone continues to promote a completely bogus narrative about the circumstances of his arrest. He is pushing a baseless claim about it in U.S. district court. Meanwhile, his wife [Nydia] is raising money off an easily disproven conspiracy theory about CNN's coverage. The Stones are getting help from members of the pro-Trump media, like Tucker Carlson of Fox News, who are ignoring what they learned in journalism 101. Even the acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, has fueled the fire.... Within minutes of the raid [on Stone's Florida home], a conspiracy theory began to take shape on social media. Some of Stone's defenders claimed, without evidence, that Mueller's office tipped off CNN to the timing of the raid. Trump fed this idea by tweeting, 'Who alerted CNN to be there?'... Within hours this idea -- CNN and Mueller in cahoots! -- became gospel in far-right-wing circles.... [Stone and his wife] ... also ... claimed CNN legal analyst Josh Campbell was on the scene of the raid.... Campbell was on live TV from L.A. the morning of the raid."
Josh Lederman of NBC News: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu startled Iranians and even the White House on Wednesday with a strident call for Israeli-Arab action against the government in Tehran that was translated [from Hebrew] by his office as urging 'war with Iran.' Although Israeli officials tried to soften the reference by altering the English translation, the provocative comment was likely to further the perception that Israel, its Gulf Arab neighbors and the United States are interested in using military action to topple the government of Iran. It comes at a particularly delicate moment, as the Trump administration uses a U.S.-organized summit in Warsaw and this week's 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution to try to rally the world against the government in Tehran.... 'This is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran,' Netanyahu said [of the Warsaw summit].'
William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Less than two years into a tenure marked by five major hurricanes, lethal wildfires, and a tense relationship with his boss, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William 'Brock' Long resigned Wednesday 'to go home to' his family, as he put it in an official statement released by the agency. Peter Gaynor, who has served as Long's deputy, will be the acting administrator.... Long clashed with his direct superior, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in September, when Nielsen appeared intent on forcing Long out of his job even as Hurricane Florence dumped historic amounts of rain on the Carolinas. The relationship deteriorated when an internal investigation became public. The Homeland Security inspector general looked into Long's use of government vehicles to travel between Washington and his home in North Carolina." Long's decision to resign "surprised his colleagues."
Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News: "The chief executives of Apple Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Walmart Inc., are among 25 prominent Americans who will shape Trump administration efforts to develop job training programs to meet the changing demands of U.S. employers. The creation of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, announced by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and ... Ivanka Trump on Wednesday, will work with the National Council for the American Worker established last July by an executive order. Ivanka Trump, in a statement, said the board will 'ensure inclusive growth' and that the administration wants all Americans 'to have the skills and opportunity to secure good paying jobs and successfully navigate technological disruptions and the rapidly changing nature of work.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I have complete faith that a "Workforce Advisory Board" formed by Wilbur Get-a-Loan Ross & Ivanka Sweatshop Trump will be great boon to American workers.
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former United States Air Force counterintelligence agent was charged with espionage after she defected to Iran and helped it target her former colleagues, the authorities said. In an extraordinarily detailed indictment made public on Wednesday, prosecutors disclosed that Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, gave the Iranians the code name and mission of a secret Pentagon program involving American intelligence operations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Catie Edmondson & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House voted on Wednesday to end American military assistance for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, a defiant and rare move to curtail presidential war powers that underscored anger with President Trump's unflagging support for Saudi Arabia even after the killing of a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. The 248-to-177 vote, condemning a nearly four-year conflict in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and inflicted a devastating famine, will pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to respond. Eighteen Republicans -- almost all of them hard-line conservatives with the Freedom Caucus -- voted with the Democratic majority."
Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday defended a now-deleted tweet that Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and George Soros were trying to 'buy' November's midterm elections, arguing that the message had 'nothing to do' with religion. McCarthy sent the tweet in October and deleted it the next day. But the topic has been revived in recent days amid bipartisan criticism of freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over tweets in which she suggested that a lobbying group was paying lawmakers to take pro-Israel stances. Omar has since apologized; McCarthy was among those most strongly calling on Democratic leaders to rebuke her.... Soros and Bloomberg are Jewish, and Steyer's late father was Jewish.... The tweet came during a week when prominent Democrats across the country -- including Steyer and Soros -- were being targeted by pipe bombs.... As the debate over Omar&'s tweets has raged, some Republicans, including President Trump and Vice President Pence, have called on the Minnesota Democrat to resign from Congress or at least be removed from her post on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders issued a statement denouncing Omar's use of 'anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel's supporters.' They have signaled they will not take any further steps to punish Omar.&" ...
... ** Eric Levitz of New York: "On Tuesday, the vice-president revealed that he is so adamantly opposed to hate speech, he believes that merely using rhetoric that is reminiscent of anti-Semitic tropes disqualifies a person for high political office. 'Anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress, much less the Foreign Affairs Committee,' Pence tweeted, referring to [Ilhan] Omar's seat on said committee. 'Those who engage in anti-Semitic tropes should not just be denounced, they should face consequences for their words.' The vice-president is, in effect, calling for the immediate resignation of not just Ilhan Omar, but also of Donald Trump, and much of the congressional GOP." Levitz reprises a few of Trump's greatest anti-Semitic hits as well as Kevin McCarthy's. Read the whole post. Levitz has the best summary I've seen of Omar's tweet about AIPAC. ...
... Sarah Jones of New York: During a hearing Wednesday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) questioned Elliott Abrams., whom President* Trump named special envoy to Venezuela. "'In 1991, you pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress regarding your involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, for which you were later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush,' Omar began, before asking Abrams why the committee should believe anything he had to say." And so forth. ...
... The headline in the Washington Free Beacon, a right-wing Website, is "Anti-Semitic Congresswoman Defames Jewish-American Hero." No link.
Jamie Ehrlich of CNN: "Rep. Adam Kinzinger [R-Ill.] is being deployed to the southern border with an Air Force National Guard Unit, according to a statement by his communications director.... Whether members of Congress can serve in active duty has been a source of controversy in the past. In 2006, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, could not sit on a military appeals court that decides criminal cases and also serve as a senator, citing the Constitution's Incompatibility Clause -- also known as the emoluments clause -- which forbids members of Congress from simultaneously holding an 'Office under the United States.' However, Congress has not acted in any case of an individual representative or senator regarding simultaneous service in the Reserves."
Presidential Race 2020. "Howard Schultz's Campaign about Nothing." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "At the start of the town hall CNN gave Howard Schultz on Tuesday night, anchor Poppy Harlow promised, 'We're going to talk about all the issues, because that's what this is about.' Unfortunately, Schultz spent the next hour studiously avoiding taking a position on much of anything. The former Starbucks CEO and potential independent presidential candidate's performance was almost a caricature of an independent candidate trying to say nothing except that the two major parties were doing it wrong. Harlow, to her great credit, repeatedly noted that he was skirting the questions and not talking about his own proposals. But Schultz would not be deterred from his anodyne generalities and platitudes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Wisconsin. Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The state Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday drafted by the Legislature's black caucus to honor prominent black Americans during February -- but only after Republicans blocked it until black Democratic lawmakers agreed to remove the name of ... Colin Kaepernick. Democratic Rep. David Crowley of Milwaukee, who authored the resolution, called the episode 'a textbook example of white privilege' and a 'slap in the face.' Crowley said he was grateful to ultimately have the Assembly pass the resolution authored by black lawmakers, 'but I had to get the blessing of all of my white counterparts.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (14)
How outrageous is our national narrative right now? I forgot that just a few months ago a MAGA turd sent pipe bombs to all the biggest critics of Diaper Donny.
DD got off clean, hardly a week of repudiations and the next scandal du jour threw the media off the path and onto the next muddy trail.
I can hardly follow the news right now with everyone wasting so much time and energy on "wall". It deserves debate to point out its stupidities, but by now the MSM is just chasing its tail and ignoring the 5,496 other scandals the GOP is concocting against its own nation.
@safari: I'm with you. Trying to follow just the Manafort business gives me a headache. I watched "Nature" last night as I usually do but skipped over later to the hearing on Venezuela and who was sitting on the panel was Elliot Abrams with that little sign telling us he was Special Envoy to Venezuela. WHAT! I shouted–-what the hell–-but then of course it made sense that Trump would put him in that position–-just another pond scum to help America be great again.
When IIhan Omar–-what a plucky gal–-started questioning Abrams she began deriding him for his past sins and asked how could we believe anything he had to say. Wow! that made Elliot sway backward in his chair and the expression on his face was one of shock that this Mooslim lady had the temerity to bring up the fact that he was a convicted war criminal and had lied to Congress in the good old days. Here is a clip of that exchange with some background on Abrams' sterling character.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/ilhan-omar-makes-convicted-war-criminal-elliott-abrams-squirm/
War with Iran? Fatty and Bibi (not to mention Sheldon Adelson and AIPAC) would love that. A bit of wag the dog to distract from the potentially fatal (politically) investigations both are withering under. Plus, a chance to drop bombs on dirty mooslims; the MAGA morons would love it, and then maybe Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity would show the little king the proper respect he’s due. I can just see Fatty practicing his Trumpolini chin jut in between holes on his $50,000 golf toy.
I’ve been wondering how long we’d have to wait for Fatty to start his own war. This way he can let Bibi cast the first bomb, then sidle up next to him. A pair of scrofulous scoundrels.
@Akhilleus: Scrofulous! Hadda look up that one. Certainly has wide application these days.
Marie,
For the sake of both accuracy and additional alliteration (there it is again), I was going to add "sybaritic", but I'm not sure that word applies as globally to Bibi as it does to Fatty.
Nonetheless, "scrofulous" attends perfectly to both.
@AK: wonderful word! I remember when I was writing about Scott Walker and the large number of people who were singing his praises and said they were all suffering from "Scotophilia" and then discovered it was an actual word meaning "love of darkness."
Here's your hat. What's your hurry?
I see where the Queen of Mendacity, Liarbee Sanders, has been flapping her gums again, and out fly the lies.
So what's the rumpus this time, Liarbee? Well, she claims, for one, that Fatty is soooooo sorry that BBC camera guy got beaten up. She then floated the knee-slapper that Fatty is against all kinds of violence directed at the press. Oh, so when he points at the media pen, where he keeps reporters cooped up for the mouthbreathers to taunt and throw things at, and shouts "Get 'em!" he means for his MAGA morons to go over and give them a big hug.
Got it.
And by the way, why can't Fatty say that for himself? Cuz his lips would fall off. It would be a lie too huge even for him. He lives to see reporters attacked.
Let's see, what else? Oh yeah. Nancy Pelosi is a stupid liar who doesn't read.
Wait, wait, wait. Who does that describe? Hold on...it's coming to me.
On this one Liarbee really outdoes herself. Her insult of Pelosi stemmed from a question about the budget bill and whether or not Grumpy Pants would sign it (if they could peel him away from his new golf toy). She said "Well, it's a big bill...blah, blah, blah...but we like to read things before we sign them, unlike that horrible Pelosi person."
This is rich. First, she's referring to a canard floated by the winger press about 10 years ago when they decided that only a few words out of a long sentence should be considered. Their recreant and fictitious result was that Pelosi never read anything she signed.
"In other words, Sanders took one of Trump’s well-known weaknesses and tried to pin it on a top Democrat, using as her shaky foundation a nearly decade-old statement that she not only took out of context, but also hyperbolized. How very much like her boss."
Finally, and with jaw-dropping stupidity, she claimed (I don't think it's necessary, at this late date, to add the qualifiers "without evidence" or "without support" to anything these quacks allege) that Fatty's Wall ("It's big, it's beautiful"... it's not gonna happen) would have stopped El Chapo.
Eediota! Has she not been paying attention? El Chapo doesn't care about no stinking walls. He flies over them or digs under them or drives his product right through legal border crossings. Between the walls.
Jesus, these people and their fucking wall.
And not for nothin', but I thought she was leaving. How much longer do we have to put up with this irksome harpy? Depart already.
Speaking of El Chapo...
Okay class, see if you can guess who I'm talking about.
He's got a big mouth. He never shuts it. He's an opportunistic douchebag. He cooks bacon by wrapping it around the muzzle of an AK. Fatty insults his wife and calls his dad a murderer and he says "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"
YES! Tailgunner Ted.
And because he doesn't want the other kids to have all that wall fun, he has decided to run a new acronymic atrocity up the flag pole. First, he decides that El Chapo should pay for the wall (and let's ignore for starters that the Sinaloa Cartel is still in business and walls do nothing to stop them). Second, smart guy that he is, he comes up with an inane, and gloriously unmemorable title for his "Make This Guy Pay" legislation.
Ready?
Okay. But don't say I didn't warn you...
"Cruz’s Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order (EL CHAPO) Act" (And correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't that be the CEL CHAPO Act? Which is pretty fucking meaningless.)
Didn't this guy go to Princeton?
Okay, okay. I got one. I'm gonna call my state's legislative delegation and see if they can pass the TEDCRUZ Act. "To Evade Douchebags, Cease Reading Unctuous Zipperheads."
Think it'll pass?
PD,
My all-time favorite synonym for "darkness" is found as part of dictionary maven Noah Webster's last words, "The room grows crepuscular". Much more dignified than "Holy crap, is this it?"
But the adjective scotophilic works wonderfully for shadow creatures like Scott Walker, meaning, as it does, things that flourish in the dark.
Lotta that going around.
Hold on! Lyndon LaRouche is dead?
Can't be. It's a conspiracy. Queen Elizabeth kidnapped him and is keeping him in a the scary Victorian doll room at Windsor Castle along with Elvis and Henry Kissinger's Russian handlers.
Oh, the humanity!
Will he be back in time to run for president in 2020?
Oh-oh. I just found out that "zipperhead" is considered a racial slur. Oops. I've never heard it that way. Mostly heard it as a reference to someone with an easily removable brain.
Okay, scratch that legislation. I'll change it to "zeros".
Nothing Says Happy Valentine's Like a Weapon.
The NRA is offering a special "military-grade killing machine" with a pink trigger. Cute, huh?
"The AR-15 that the NRA says is a perfect Valentine’s Day gift is designed especially for women and features a pink trigger.
'A crowning jewel—just like your special lady,' says the NRA Family web page.
Who cares that Valentine’s Day is the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old armed with a legally purchased AR-15 killed 17 classmates?"
Fucking monstrous. That's what it is. Monstrous. These people are soulless monsters. And so is every member of Congress who supports them.
And make no mistake, this is not an error. This is not some idiot marketing dweeb who had no clue about the Parkland murders. This is the NRA spitting in the face of everyone ripped apart by that massacre. This is them saying "Fuck you and your grief. And fuck your dead kids. We're the only ones who matter. Us and our guns. So fuck off with your whining and crying. Guns for everyone!"
Since Parkland, almost 1,200 kids have been killed in America. But no matter. 1,200, 1,500, 2,000. Who cares? Not the NRA or their ball lickers in Congress. If 2,000 kids have to die by this time next year so the NRA can have the FReeeeeeedom to sell pink triggered weapons, then so be it.
Monstrous.
Took the Pretender two years to recognize it, but most agree have had a national emergency since January of 2017.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/14/trump-decides-whether-to-sign-border-security-deal-to-avoid-shutdown.html
As the Turtle and Trump and Fox try to scuttle any ideas about a Green New Deal (or anything connected to energy conservation or renewable energy), the real world, as it often does, intrudes to break into their dreams of a carbon dioxide atmosphere.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has closed two coal fired plants which have been increasingly unreliable and expensive to operate.
Fatty is not happy. For one thing, he promised to drag the country back to coal country heaven as it existed back in the 19th century. Moreover, both of these plants purchase coal from Trump backer and donor, Bob (Safety? What's that?) Murray, of Murray Energy. In between killing his own workers and fending off dozens of lawsuits over unsafe work conditions in his mines, Murray has been whispering sweet anthracite and bituminous nothings into Fatty's cauliflower ears.
Sorry, boys. Facts are facts.
And losers are losers.
So try as they might to kill a Green New Deal, the fact is that we are living on borrowed time, and those whose job it is to produce energy know this, even if Fatty and Co. don't.