The Commentariat -- February 24, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump spent his Sunday morning in his own unique way, tweeting away about his admiration for the worst people in the world. This time it was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whom Trump is scheduled to meet in Vietnam to discuss, as Trump put it, 'Denuclearization?' Boasting of his 'great relationship' with Kim, Trump called the brutal dictator an asset to his country with a potential for great things[.]... Conducting diplomacy with dictators is sometimes just part of the job, but Trump is unique in his insistence that the brutal dictators he's conducting diplomacy with are, in fact, good people.... Trump's admiration, he explained, stemmed from Kim's ability to consolidate power at such a young age -- something Kim was able to do through a campaign of assassinations and terror." ...
... Josh Smith & Hyonhee Shin of Reuters: "North Korea's state media criticized U.S. Democrats and American intelligence officials on Sunday for 'chilling the atmosphere' ahead of leader Kim Jong Un's second summit with ... Donald Trump this week.... In some parts, the article appeared to echo Trump's own recent talking points, which have blamed former President Barack Obama for taking the two countries to the brink of war.... One U.S. government Korea analyst ... said the commentary appeared aimed at softening Trump up ahead of the summit."
Connor O'Brien of Politico: "... Donald Trump is preparing to ask Congress for yet another increase in defense spending in the coming weeks. But his plan would evade federal budget limits by stashing nearly a quarter of that money in an off-the-books account -- and both Democrats and Republicans say it won't fly in Congress. The White House plans to stuff as much as $174 billion of its $750 billion request for national defense for the coming fiscal year into a special war fund, according to reports, allowing the administration to maintain its long-sought military buildup without violating a 2011 law aimed at reining in the deficit. The gimmick is especially striking given that Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney once fought to limit the very same war account, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations fund." Mrs. McC: Guess we'll have to have a war against Mexico, so Trump can further fund wall."
"Eight Days in May." Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, writes a brief review of Andrew McCabe's book The Threat. "... anyone who has followed Trump will recognize the accuracy of the portrayal of him in 'The Threat.' And Trump's disrespect for the norms of American democracy extends well beyond his personal dishonesty and pettiness. It can be seen at the level of policy, too, and his transgressions in that realm are now threatening the constitutional order."
"We Shall Fight on the Beaches...." Quint Forgey of Politico: "House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff on Sunday threatened to call Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill and subpoena his investigative findings if Attorney General William Barr does not make public the special counsel's highly anticipated report. 'We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary,' Schiff told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 'This Week.'"
Gregory Korte of USA Today: "A federal judge in Texas has declared that the all-male military draft is unconstitutional, ruling that 'the time has passed' for a debate on whether women belong in the military. The decision deals the biggest legal blow to the Selective Service System since the Supreme Court upheld the draft in 1981. In Rostker v. Goldberg, the court ruled that the male-only draft was 'fully justified' because women were ineligible for combat roles. But U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled late Friday that while historical restrictions on women serving in combat 'may have justified past discrimination,' men and women are now equally able to fight. In 2015, the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service. The case was brought by the National Coalition For Men, a men's rights group, and two men who argued the all-male draft was unfair." Miller is a Bush II appointee. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Um, did this fairly right-wing organization accidentally strike a blow for women's rights?
*****
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Chad Day & Eric Tucker of the AP: "Woven through thousands of court papers, the special counsel has made his public report. This is what it says." Read on. Mrs. McC: It's worth noting that much of what appears in the court documents relates, hardly surprisingly, to chargeable criminal activities. It's possible that Trump never did anything -- or at least not much -- that would elicit a guilty verdict in a court of law but that he did plenty that does rise to the level of "high crimes & misdemeanors."
The Company Trump Keeps. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is a 'hardened' criminal who 'repeatedly and brazenly violated the law,' prosecutors told a Washington federal judge. But they recommended no specific punishment for those crimes, saying that is the practice of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose office brought the case. Prosecutors noted that federal guidelines call for a sentence of 17 to 22 years, although under Manafort's guilty plea in his D.C. case, the maximum he faces behind bars is 10. The special counsel team said it may ask for Judge Amy Berman Jackson to impose a sentence that runs after any prison time Manafort is given for related crimes in Virginia federal court. 'Manafort chose repeatedly and knowingly to violate the law,' prosecutors said, from 'garden-variety crimes such as tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and bank fraud' to 'more esoteric laws' involving foreign lobbying." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The sentencing memo, which is here (via Axios), is more than 800 pages, mostly appendices. Adam Davidson of the New Yorker says there's nothing in it.
Ken Vogel & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "In the nearly two years that ... Robert S. Mueller III, has been investigating whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, few figures seem to have offered more tantalizing leads than Konstantin V. Kilimnik.... Mr. Kilimnik pops up repeatedly as a possible connection, with ties to both sides that are as enigmatic as they are deep.... Dozens of interviews, court filings and other documents show Mr. Kilimnik to be an operator who moved easily between Russian, Ukrainian and American patrons, playing one off the other while leaving a jumble of conflicting suspicions in his wake."
On the Mar-a-Lago Dessert Menu: Conspiracy Cake. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort appears to employ a pastry chef who frequently posts online about her belief in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. Elizabeth Alfieri, a Florida pastry chef, has posted dozens of times on Instagram using QAnon hashtags and slogans, often using pictures taken at Mar-a-Lago itself. Alfieri's Instagram posts were first reported by 1100 Pennsylvania, a newsletter that reports on Trump's properties. On Christmas, for example, Alfieri posted an Instagram picture of a gingerbread house in what appears to be a Mar-a-Lago ballroom. The side of the gingerbread house is emblazoned with a 'Q' made of blue frosting and dusted with glitter." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps the most famous "presidential" cake -- up till now! -- is the Martha Washington cake. Hereinafter, it could be the Trump conspiracy cake: four cups of flour; five whites of goose eggs beaten to stiff peaks; too much sugar; a cup of Diet Coke to moisten; three cups of the nuttiest nuts; topped with 7-minute icing, glitterly blue"Q"s decorating the sides & three cups of finely shredded-orange peel arranged in a weird, thin bouffant.
Brian Faler & Aaron Lorenzo of Politico: "The average tax refund issued so far this year is down by 17 percent, the IRS said, a steep decline that promises more headaches for Republican lawmakers. The agency released data late Friday showing refunds are down for the third consecutive week, with the typical payment made through Feb. 15 totaling $2,703, compared to $3,256 during the same period last year. This filing season is the first under Republicans' overhaul of the tax code, and lawmakers have already been under fire as some taxpayers find their expected refunds smaller or gone altogether. The payments are sacrosanct to many Americans who rely on them to fill holes in their budgets.... Democrats ... have accused Republicans of manipulating people's withholding in order to boost workers' paychecks last year, ahead of the midterm elections, though that would sap their refunds come tax time. The House Ways and Means committee is planning to hold a hearing soon on the issue." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
John Bowden of the Hill: "The Pentagon announced Friday that it would direct an additional 1,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to install barbed wire along existing border fences. Defense officials said at a news briefing that the total size of the U.S. deployment of troops to the southern border would reach 6,000 by March 1, with 140 miles of additional concertina wire to be installed.... The news came as Pentagon officials on Friday also refused to say whether the Defense Department would seek congressional approval to appropriate billions of dollars for President Trump's project to construct a wall along the border. 'It has been the practice of the Department of Defense to request approval and it's not required by law,' an official told reporters when asked whether the department would move forward without congressional approval." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sarah Okeson of DC Report: "The Trump administration has drawn up plans for another tent city for migrant children in Texas [at& Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo] that would hold up to 7,500 children in a camp built on or next to a former dump and not far from Superfund sites.... 'Public records show the migrant children&'s housing site proposed for Goodfellow will be built atop a former landfill, in an area riddled with lead, benzene, and other chemicals particularly hazardous to children,' said Lisa Evans, an attorney for Earthjustice. A health department spokesman said the Goodfellow site and other proposed sites in Arkansas and Texas are not under active consideration at this time. Our nation's only temporary camp for immigrant children is now in Homestead, Fla., near another Air Force Base. State child welfare regulations don't apply to the camp." --s
Melanie Zanona of Politico: "House Democrats are laying the groundwork to subpoena the Trump administration for a trove of documents relating to its controversial migrant family separation policy at the border.... The House Oversight Committee will vote next Tuesday to authorize three subpoenas for the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services, teeing up the first subpoena of the panel's new Democratic majority." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "President Donald Trump's pick for ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Knight Craft, is a major supporter with deep ties to the coal industry who has argued that 'both sides' of the climate science debate are equally valid." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: And you know there is not a chance the Coal Queen won't be confirmed. Senators unanimously confirmed her by voice vote as ambassador to Canada. Jen Kirby of Vox says she may have a bit more trouble this time around: Her both-siderism on climate change "is sure to worry Democrats, and will likely be a topic at her confirmation hearing -- especially since combatting climate change is among the UN's major goals." Once again, the U.S. will be a major international embarrassment.
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) claimed the Green New Deal -- a plan to rapidly decarbonize the entire economy -- would 'outlaw plane travel.' But while the resolution ... makes no such claim, it does fail to consider a game-changing technology for cutting the carbon pollution caused by air travel while still traveling by air: electric planes.... Norway ... anticipates starting passenger flights on electric planes by 2025. The country, also a leader in the use of electric vehicles, is aiming for all short-haul air travel to be completely electric by 2040.... Seattle-based airplane manufacturer Zunum Aero['s] ... CEO and founder Ashish Kumar says their 'roadmap would place aviation on path to eliminate all short-haul emissions by 2040, equating to 50 percent of all emissions from the sector, aligned with the goal set by Norway.'" --s ...
... Feinstein's Hollow I-Know-What-I'm-Doing Defense. Bill McKibben in the New Yorker: On Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told off a group of young people -- one as young as seven -- who met with her in support of the Green New Deal. Her argument: "You know what's interesting about this group? I've been doing this for thirty years. I know what I'm doing. You come in here and you say, 'It has to be my way or the highway.'" I don't respond to that. I've gotten elected, I just ran, I was elected by almost a million-vote plurality. And I know what I'm doing. So, you know, maybe people should listen a little bit." McKibben: "The irony is that, when Feinstein said she's been 'doing this for thirty years,' she described the precise time period during which we could have acted. James Hansen brought the climate question to widespread attention with his congressional testimony in 1988. If we'd moved thirty years ago, moderate steps of the kind that Feinstein proposes would have been enough to change our trajectory. But that didn't get done, in large part because oil and gas companies that have successfully gamed our political system didn't want it to get done. And the legislators didn't do anywhere near enough to fight them."
Presidential Race. How Not to Kick Off a Campaign. John Bowden of The Hill: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Friday that Native Americans should be 'part of the conversation' on reparations.... Warren's remarks came as she continues to navigate blowback from her previous claims to Native American heritage. She apologized earlier this month for previously identifying as Native American. Warren, who also apologized recently to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test to show that she had Native American ancestry, said the apology was meant to include identifying herself as Native American while a professor at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.... Warren previously indicated support, along with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), for reparations for black Americans affected by slavery. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro also suggested support for reparations for black Americans." --s
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Even before Democrats finish draftin bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill 'Medicare for all,' an idea that is mocked publicly but is being greeted privately with increasing seriousness. ctors, hospitals, drug companies and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item. They have hired a top lieutenant in Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign [-- Lauren Crawford Shaver< --] to spearhead the effort. And their tactics will show Democrats what they are up against as the party drifts to the left on health care." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Shaver's campaign job, according to Pear, was "to put marginal states into play." How'd that work out?
William Pitt of TruthOut: "If Donald Trump is the Devil waiting at that moonlit crossroads to tune our guitar at the cost of our souls, Mitch McConnell drove him there and paid for the gas.... McConnell was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article about ... the mainstreaming of progressive policy initiatives. 'I can pretty safely say,' he declared, 'this is the first time in my political career that I thought the essence of America was being debated.'... That essence -- the belief that the nation and its population are a gilded platter to be gorged upon, a fertile field to be plundered and despoiled for profit with the people serving as replaceable tools for the aristocracy -- is McConnell's poisoned birthright, and he defends it with all the powers at his disposal, just as his colonial predecessors did. By recognizing this, we recognize Mitch, and all who rally to his banner.... McConnell's 'essence' is a con, a sham history inflicted upon us from our first kindergarten recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance: 'With liberty and justice for all.'... Men like Mitch McConnell flee the very notion of those six words, because at the far end of the struggle for equality lurks a bill to be paid. Nothing so final as a guillotine awaits them at the conclusion; merely a sharing of power and wealth, of rights and privileges, which is anathema to them and their rampant belief in their own superiority." --s
Follow the Money. Lucky Lindsey Hit the Jackpot. Mrs. McCrabbie: Last week I opined that the reason Lindsey Graham had gone from Trump-eating mad dog to Trump lapdog was because Lindsey had an election coming up. Well, Ken W. did some excavating & found an even more likely reason, espoused in a story published last September: "The Intellectualist, a left-leaning news aggregator, points out that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has received at least $800,000 in campaign donations from a man with ties to Putin-allied oligarchs, which could explain why the Senator has been increasingly supportive of President Trump lately.... [The megadonor, Len] Blavatnik, and oligarch Viktor Vekselberg met attending university in Russia years ago, and together they now own a 20.5% stake in Rusal, oligarch Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company." Look for Russian cutouts like Blavatnik to tame other prominent GOP Trump critics. Moscow on the Potomac is looking more & more likely.
Juan Cole: "American television news, having fainted with the vapors at the very idea that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) might openly say that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobby for Israel that directs money to the campaigns of American politicians, has abruptly fallen silent on the issue of Israel's prime minister openly allying with a party [the Kahanist 'Jewish Power' (Otzma Yehudit) Party] linked to a tendency known for its stone racism.... Kahane's Jewish Defense League was considered the most dangerous terrorist group in the US by the FBI in the 1970s and 1980s.... Jewish Power calls for the ethnic cleansing of the 20% of the Israeli population that is of Palestinian heritage.... If Netanyahu is prime minister again in coalition with Kahanists, the Israel lobbies will suck it up and find some way to praise the Kahanists and seek to stop anyone from criticizing them. Apparently they can get 70 senators to join them in taking any ridiculous stance." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Alabama. Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "A newspaper in a small city in Alabama that drew condemnation over an editorial calling for the Ku Klux Klan to 'ride again' has a new editor and publisher: a 46-year-old black woman. The new editor,Elecia R. Dexter, is taking over The Democrat-Reporter, a weekly newspaper serving Linden in western Alabama.... The newspaper's longtime editor, Goodloe Sutton, who is white, stepped down this week amid widespread criticism of an editorial he wrote railing against 'Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats' and calling for the return of the most infamous white supremacist group in the nation's history. In an interview with The Montgomery Advertiser, he went even further, suggesting that the Klan 'go up there and clean out D.C.'... After the editorial was published, [Ms. Dexter] said, she and Mr. Sutton had a 'very open and direct dialogue.' She was debating whether to stay in [her clerical] job [at the paper] when he offered to turn the newspaper over to her, she said."
Kansas. The Art of the Shame. Aris Folley of The Hill: "A Kansas state lawmaker [Ron Highland (R)] issued a public apology this week after his daughter penned an open letter publicly condemning his decision to back an anti-LGBT bill.... The lawmaker's comments came after his daughter, Christel Highland, posted an open letter Wednesday on Facebook asking the Kansas Republican why he would 'openly attempt at policy that elevates hate and hurts my family or friends.'... 'I love you, I always will, in spite of your flaws,' she wrote. 'I cannot, however, condone your cruel actions. Shame on you.' Shortly after the letter was released, Highland's father said that his decision to back the legislation 'was a mistake.' House Bill 2320, the legislation at the center of the controversy, characterizes same-sex marriages as 'parody marriages'[.]" --s
Mississippi. Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress: "A pro-Confederate rally Saturday at the University of Mississippi, or 'Ole Miss,' in the town of Oxford, claimed to be a defense of Southern heritage instead of racism. It also began with a prayer of thanks to Southern plantation owners for teaching 'heathen' Africans about Christianity." --s...
...The Daily Beast: "Several Ole Miss basketball players knelt during the national anthem Saturday afternoon, before a game against the University of Georgia that was played about a mile away from a Mississippi pro-Confederacy rally." --s
North Carolina. John Bowden of the Hill: "A judge in North Carolina on Friday tossed out the state's constitutional amendment requiring a voter ID, citing prevalent gerrymandering in the state's General Assembly. Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in a ruling late Friday afternoon that the North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members do not truly represent the state's residents and thus should never have proposed a voter ID amendment in the first place. 'An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state's constitution,' Collins wrote. Collins also tossed out a second Republican-backed amendment implementing a cap on the state's income tax." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Alan Blinder & Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Republican politicians across the country have for years railed against the threat of voter fraud. Some have made unproven claims about how rampant it has become in order to pass voter ID laws and open sweeping investigations. The sanctity of the vote, they have said, must be protected at all costs. But when a hard-fought congressional election in North Carolina -- in which a Republican candidate appeared to narrowly beat his Democratic opponent -- was overturned this week because of election fraud by a Republican political operative, the party was measured, and largely muted, in its response." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Italy. Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: "A bombshell investigation published Friday by Italy's L'Espresso magazine reveals a plot that might sound familiar. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the hard-right Lega Nord party, L'Espresso reports, last year sought a 3 million euro funding commitment from Kremlin-linked entities to finance his political campaign. The scheme, reportedly organized by a loyal aide and former spokesman to Salvini named Gianluca Savoini, enabled the money to flow to Lega Nord covertly, tucked behind an ordinary-seeming oil export deal between Italian and Russian companies.... There is no clear indication of whether this money ever actually made its way to Salvini and his party.... L'Espresso reports that the deal came to be in October 2018 when Salvini, a self-proclaimed fan of Trump and an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made an official trip to Moscow, disappearing after a press conference and mysteriously ditching his Italian press pool only to reappear the next morning.... The next day, reporters overheard Savoini take part in a hotel meeting with Russian oil executives working out the details of a deal that would for a year send 250,000 euros monthly to the Lega Nord, disguised as diesel sales[.]" --s
Venezuela. Mariana Zuñiga, et al., of the Washington Post: "A massive effort to break President Nicolás Maduro's blockade of humanitarian aid descended into violence and chaos Saturday across the string of border flash points -- showing both the growing defiance of Juan Guaidó and the U.S.-backed opposition but also Maduro's willingness to fight back. In a day of fast-moving developments..., anti-Maduro crowds at a Colombian border town faced tear gas fired by Venezuelan units, cheered as dozens of Venezuelan security forces switched sides and tried to rescue desperately needed aid packages from burning trucks. In all, 285 people were injured and 37 hospitalized on the Colombian side of the border, according to Colombia's foreign minister. At least four were killed on the Venezuela-Brazil border after clashing with pro-government militias. In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, the embattled Maduro danced at a pro-government rally, mocked the United States and broke off ties with neighboring Colombia. Late in the day, Venezuelan navy vessels threatened to open fire on a ship carrying 200 tons of aid from Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, governor of Puerto Rico, said in a statement. He said he had ordered the vessels to abandon the area temporarily, decrying the threat as 'unacceptable.'"
Share Article
Reader Comments (4)
Bea,
The story behind the story I sent yesterday and you linked today:
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
It seems Lindsey is not the only R-senator tainted by Russian money.
Add this to the what (little?) we know of the fruits of the Mueller investigation, the NRA-Russian links so far hinted at, the Russian money tossed willy-nilly at the inauguration, it's almost as if there's some kind of plot afoot.
I really admire you people for keeping at the hidden stories, such as Lindsey Graham's born-again presidunce love, and how much Russian money has permeated every bit of our lives, because these stories, plus the probably assurance that we are going to be bitterly disappointed if and when the Mueller report comes forward, are making me miss Watergate. Every. damn. day. I feel like I am going to lose my breakfast when I read this blog. That is why I admire heroic blog owners who somehow provide the rest of us with information we don't get anywhere else. Bravo for your bravery, all of you at RC and beyond. I will keep reading, despite the nausea...
Reparations? Really? More than slavery of Africans and genocide of Native Americans, the downstream fallout of each: Jim Crow and the Indian boarding schools, continue to rain on their decendents. Harris and Warren et al. would be well advised to propose funding for intensive remediation for the children being given shameful educations in schools intentionally starved for resources. They then could at least claim that that was what they meant by "reparations." Otherwise such an empty proposal will be a poison pill not just to them but to most or all progressives.
Whyte,
Less of a mare's nest and yet maybe more radical than reparations for all those mistreated by the top-down, white, economic pressures exerted on its various victims over the centuries and into the present might be some kind of guaranteed basic income structure that would better serve to give everyone a reasonable starting place in life's race.
When material wealth is so closely tied to freedom as it is and has been in our culture, attacking wealth inequality would seem a good place to start. It would think it the easiest lever to pull.
I take all the talk about medicare for all, free public education through college and a more progressive tax policy as signs that people are recognizing (sensing anyway) something along these lines, which is why political momentum seems to be moving in that direction.