;)
Sunday
Feb042018
The Commentariat -- February 4, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Elise Viebeck & Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee dissented Sunday from President Trump's view that corruption has poisoned the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a sign of a growing rift within the House GOP, four members of the panel dismissed the idea pushed by Trump and other Republicans that a controversial memo criticizing how the FBI handled elements of its Russia probe undermines the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into possible coordination between Trump associates and the Kremlin. The memo's release Friday by the Intelligence Committee has raised fears Trump will fire Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the probe. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who helped draft the memo, said Trump should not fire Rosenstein and rejected the idea that the document has bearing on the investigation. 'I actually don't think it has any impact on the Russia probe,' Gowdy, who also chairs the House Oversight Committee, said on CBS's 'Face the Nation.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Trump, he had only "a few hours" to read the memo, so he has had to rely on Sean Hannity to find out what it says. (In the linked commentary, Jonathan Chait doubts that "a few hours" alone with a memo is any guarantee he Trump would read it. "(The television isn't going to watch itself)," Chait explains. ...
... Shane Harris: Former CIA Director "John Brennan accused Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, of selectively releasing information to accuse law enforcement officials of improperly obtaining a warrant to monitor the communications of a former Trump campaign adviser. 'It's just appalling and clearly underscores how partisan Mr. Nunes has been,' Brennan said in an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'He has abused the chairmanship of [the Intelligence Committee],' Brennan said.... He emphasized that the dossier played 'no role whatsoever' in an assessment by all U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. He added that intelligence agencies were also developing their own information on Russia's interference 'on multiple fronts' and that the FBI had its own sources of information." ...
... Molly McKew in Politico Magazine: "Russian bots and their American allies gamed social media to put a flawed intelligence document atop the political agenda.... The #releasethememo campaign came out of nowhere. Its movement from social media to fringe/far-right media to mainstream media so swift[ly] that both the speed and the story itself became impossible to ignore. The frenzy of activity spurred lawmakers and the White House to release the Nunes memo, which critics say is a purposeful misrepresentation of classified intelligence meant to discredit the Russia probe and protect the president." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: That is to say, having helped elect Trump, Putin/Russia is now helping to protect him from U.S. law enforcement agencies. Think about that. There is a reason the Founders went out of their way to try to protect the presidency from foreign coups (the president & veep must be native-born). See also Emoluments Clause (a/k/a Title of Nobility Clause). Unfortunately, the Founders could not foresee bots. So congratulations! Many of you have now become subjects of the nation ostensibly ruled by Prince Donaldovich von Putin von Clownstick. The rest of you will be deported. ...
... Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press reports on what it's like for one 39-year-old family man to be deported from the U.S. to a country where he hasn't lived since he was 10 years old.
*****
The Gray Lady Removes Her Dainty Gloves. Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "The war between the president and the nation's law enforcement apparatus is unlike anything America has seen in modern times.... The president has engaged in a scorched-earth assault on the pillars of the criminal justice system in a way that no other occupant of the White House has done. The president's focus on a memo drafted by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee and released on Friday reflected years of conspiracy-minded thinking by Mr. Trump.... At the start of his administration, Mr. Trump targeted the intelligence community for his criticism. But in recent months, he has broadened the attacks to include the sprawling federal law enforcement bureaucracy that he oversees, to the point that in December he pronounced the F.B.I.'s reputation 'in tatters' and the 'worst in history.'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Simple mental acuity test notwithstanding, this is the New York Times' news arm -- not the editorial pages -- announcing the POTUS* is nuts. See also Emily Cochrane's story linked late yesterday morning. She pulled no punches, either, on Trump's Lie-o'-the-Day, even tho it was the sort of lie (one in which a measure of judgment is needed as opposed to a cold hard fact, like how many people showed up at an event) to which the paper would have applied the he-said/she-said standard a couple of years back. ...
... Renato Mariotti in a New York Times op-ed: "... Mr. Trump's approval of the release of the [Nunes] memo and his comments that releasing it could make it easier for him to fire [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein could help Robert Mueller, the special counsel, prove that Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, with a 'corrupt' intent -- in other words, the intent to wrongfully impede the administration of justice -- as the law requires.... The memo also offers the outlines of a broader probable cause case against [former Trump campaign aide Carter] Page.... The fact that the warrant was renewed three times indicates that the F.B.I. obtained useful intelligence each time -- a judge wouldn't have approved a renewal if the prior warrant came up empty.... Because the allegations in the memo are legally irrelevant, I would be surprised if the memo was more than a short-lived publicity stunt." ...
... Massimo Calabresi & Alana Abramson of Time: "Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page bragged that he was an adviser to the Kremlin in a letter obtained by Time that raises new questions about the extent of Page's contacts with the Russian government over the years. The letter, dated Aug. 25, 2013, was sent by Page to an academic press during a dispute over edits to an unpublished manuscript he had submitted for publication, according to an editor who worked with Page. 'Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,' the letter reads.... 'I just came to see him as a kook,' the editor says." ...
Until now, we could only really accuse House Republicans of ignoring the President's open attempts to block the Russia investigation. But with the release of the Nunes memo ... we can only conclude that House Republicans are complicit in the effort to help the President avoid accountability for his actions and the actions of his campaign. -- Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), in a rebuttal to the Nunes memo ...
... Mike Memoli of NBC News: "NBC News has exclusively obtained a six-page rebuttal to the Nunes memo from Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, which was to be circulated to all House Democrats on Saturday.... Nadler is one of the small number of lawmakers who has viewed the highly sensitive documents that are the basis of Nunes' memo. The rebuttal focuses on four key points.... That [Rep. Devin] Nunes' memo fails to demonstrate that the government lacked enough evidence beyond a dossier from former British spy Christopher Steele to obtain a FISA warrant on [Carter] Page. That Steele's expertise on Russia and organized crime would have outweighed any concerns a FISA court would have had about the funding of Steele's work by partisan actors -- funding sources that Steele may not have even known about. That Nunes' memo 'provides no credible basis whatsoever' for removing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.... That Nunes' memo shows that Republicans 'are now part and parcel to an organized effort to obstruct' [Robert] Mueller's probe." Unlike the Democratic House Intelligence Committee's rebuttal, Nadler's rebuttal does not contain classified information. ...
... A pdf of Nadler's memo -- which he describes as a "legal analysis" -- is here. ...
... Rats Clinging to a Stinking Ship. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "This was the week when the Republican Party finally went all in with President Trump.... The turnaround in the relationship came from two directions.... Big majorities of Republicans said they approved of the job Trump was doing, and his personal ratings were far better than those of [Paul] Ryan, [Mitch] McConnell or any other prominent Republican leader.... The other major turning point came from the inside, with the passage of the tax cut in late December.... The Nunes memo moves the relationship to a different place. Its release puts much of the Republican leadership fully behind the president in his efforts to discredit the Russia investigation.... The fact that the memo's release came with the imprimatur of the House speaker and many other leading Republicans only adds weight to what has become a Trump-led effort to muddy the eventual conclusions of the investigation." ...
... Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A federal judge told the Department of Justice to explain why the release of the House Intelligence Committee's memo today shouldn't force investigators to acknowledge the existence of more records related to foreign surveillance.... The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed by the James Madison Project and USA Today reporter Brad Heath in April, sought records from the FBI of FISA applications and authorizations for surveillance of the Trump Organization..., Donald Trump, his campaign and associated people. A filing from USA Today's lawyers Friday pointed out that the ate-October 2016 issuance of the FISA warrant on [Carter] Page matched the month that Trump claims the Obama administration started wiretapping his phones at Trump Tower in New York." ...
Katie Rogers & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times introduce us to the "real author" of the Nunes memo -- Kashyap Patel, a 37-year-old lawyer & screw-up. Patel, for instance, was apparently the catalyst for a federal judge's issuing this "Order of Ineptitude." Mrs. McC: Are we surprised that Devin Nunes picks/attracts the same quality of staff our dear leader hires? ...
... A Note of Caution. Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: "In the context of FISA, it wouldn't have taken much to get a warrant, with or without [Christopher] Steele, especially given [Carter] Page's business relations in Russia. Although the memo notes that the application was one involving 'probable cause,' under Title I of FISA, rather than the even more lax Section 702 of Title VII, one problem that the memo does illustrate is how easy it is to get permission to spy on Americans; the FISC is non-adversarial and almost never says no. And ... whatever one thinks of Page, any American with whom he had been in contact might have been drawn into the surveillance, too. (The government calls this 'incidental' contact.) Republicans, including [Devin] Nunes, have not been as interested in abuses of FISA that do not involve their President, and recently passed on a chance to reform the standards of Section 702, in particular. (Many Democrats have been absent, too.) But critics of Trump should also not fall into the trap of elevating that process.... Otherwise, they risk landing in the same territory as Trump, who, in a tweet on Thursday, claimed that the 'investigative process' had once been 'sacred' -- until it was directed at him." ...
... Part of the Problem. Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "Hannity summarized the Nunes memo for his 4 million viewers. Every word is a lie." Most Hannity fans will take him at his word & accept his "summary." Of the few who bother to read the memo, some won't understand it, & some will think they're just not good enough at reading "legal documents" (of which Nunes' memo is not one) to cull from it whatall Hannity has "explained." Not a single Hannity viewer will realize the memo is just smoke-&-mirrors hackery.
Emoluments. Cristina Alesci & Curt Devine of CNN: "An employee for the federal agency supervising the lease for the Trump hotel in Washington spent more than $900 for a stay there last year, according to a document reviewed by CNN -- the first publicly know movement of federal taxpayer dollars into the highly scrutinized business. The federal employee worked for the General Services Administration, the agency which supervises the lease of the Old Post Office building to the Trump Organization. The GSA reimbursed the employee for a majority of the charges, which was in line with the agency's policy on per diem expenses, according to a person familiar with the document.... Multiple other federal agencies have paid Trump companies for lodging or services since Trump's inauguration. CNN previously reported that the US Secret Service paid the Mar-a-Lago Club $63,700 between roughly February and April of 2017. The payments were categorized as hotel costs on government expense forms. In September, the Washington Post credited Property of the People for obtaining a receipt from the US Coast Guard that showed Mar-a-Lago billed the government $1,092 for a two-night stay. That charge was listed as a rack rate, which usually refers to a non-discounted price." Donald Trump can profit personally from these payments....
The Best People, Ctd.
... Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The White House will withdraw its controversial nominee to head the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White.... Hartnett White, who once headed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and now serves as a fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation..., [testified] in the fall before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ... that while humans probably contribute to current warming, 'the extent to which, I think, is very uncertain.'... Just days before she testified, the federal government released its Climate Science Special Report, a collaboration among more than a dozen agencies that found 'no convincing alternative explanation' other than human influence for the warming the world has experienced in the past 70 years.... In November, more than 300 scientists from around the country signed a letter urging the Senate to reject her confirmation.... Before being nominated, Hartnett White criticized the 2007 Supreme Court decision finding that the federal government had the legal authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.... In 2016, she described carbon dioxide -- emissions of which rank as one of the primary ways human activity contributes to climate change -- as a key asset to the planet." ...
... Aaron Davis & Jack Gillum of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's nominee to coordinate billions of dollars in assistance to migrants around the world has suggested in social-media posts that Islam is an inherently violent religion and has said Christians in some cases should receive preferential treatment when resettling from hostile areas. In tweets, social media posts and radio appearances reviewed by The Washington Post, Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, made disparaging remarks about Muslims and denied climate change -- a driving force behind migration, according to the agency the State Department has nominated him to lead.... Isaacs was announced Thursday as the Trump administration's pick to become director general of the United Nations' International Organization for Migration, or IOM.... Trump's pick could be at risk of being the first U.S. nominee since the late 1960s to lose an election by the group's voting members, according to several people involved in international relief coordination."
The Party of Debt, Ctd. Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The federal government is on track to borrow nearly $1 trillion this fiscal year -- Trump's first full year in charge of the budget. That's almost double what the government borrowed in fiscal year 2017. Here are the exact figures: The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It's the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year. Treasury [Mrs. McC: that would be Steve Mnuchin] mainly attributed the increase to the 'fiscal outlook.' The Congressional Budget Office was more blunt. In a report this week, the CBO said tax receipts are going to be lower because of the new tax law.... This is the first time borrowing has jumped this much (as a share of GDP) in a non-recession time since Ronald Reagan was president.... Trump didn't mention the debt -- or the ongoing budget deficits -- in his State of the Union address.... Investors are concerned about all the additional borrowing and the likelihood of higher inflation, which is why the interest rates on U.S. government bonds hit the highest level since 2014. That, in turn, partly drove the worst weekly sell-off in the stock market in two years.... [Trump] campaigned on reducing the national debt." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The experts attributed the U.S. stock market plunge last week largely to a low unemployment rate here & abroad, which would lead to higher production costs. My guess is the freefall had more to do with the ballooning U.S. debt -- the opposite of what should happen in a strong economy. Once again, Mnuchin & Wall Street are facing the fact that trickle-down economics is a con -- even if they won't say so. ...
... The Costco Bump. Thanks, Paul! Avi Selk of the Washington Post: "... Saturday morning, by way of good news [about the GOP tax heist, Paul] Ryan's Twitter account shared a story about a secretary taking home a cool $6 a month in tax savings. 'A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week ... she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.'... The tweet was deleted within hours, probably guaranteeing it will never be forgotten, and leaving people baffled as to why Ryan ever thought it would make a good advertisement for the tax plan's supposed middle-class benefit. It's true that the bill is stingy to people at the bottom of the pay scale. In fact, the average tax break for someone making $25,400 a year or less happens to be $60 -- the exact price of a Gold Star Costco membership. And it's true that the bill showers money on those in the top income brackets. But between these extremes, millions of workers should see substantial cuts, ranging into the hundreds and thousands of dollars." Twitterworld turned up its sarcasm dial. See also Akhilleus's comment in yesterday's thread.
News Ledes
CNN: "Two people were killed in a crash involving a freight train and an Amtrak passenger train headed to Miami early Sunday in South Carolina, authorities said. In addition to the fatalities, more than 50 people were injured, according to Derrec Becker of South Carolina Emergency Management Division. Amtrak Train 91 was involved in the crash with a CSX freight train about 2:35 a.m. in Cayce. The lead engine and some passenger cars derailed, Amtrak said in a statement." ...
... Washington Post Update: "An Amtrak train en route from New York to Miami collided with a CSX freight train and derailed near Columbia, S.C., early Sunday, leaving two dead and 116 injured, police and Amtrak officials said. The crash occurred at 2:35 a.m. in Cayce, S.C., about four miles southwest of Columbia, causing the lead engine and 'some passenger cars' to derail, Amtrak said in a statement. There were eight crew members and approximately 139 passengers on board, Amtrak said. The CSX train was empty, according to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R). The two people killed were Amtrak employees, the railroad said. The Lexington County coroner identified the victims as the train's engineer, Michael Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Ga., and conductor Michael Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Fla." ...
... New York Times Update 2: "Amtrak suffered its third high-profile crash in less than seven weeks early Sunday when a passenger train traveling on the wrong track slammed into a stationary freight train in South Carolina, killing two people and intensifying worries about the safety and reliability of passenger rail service in the United States. Although the crash was the subject of a federal inquiry on Sunday, Amtrak's chief executive, Richard H. Anderson, said that a signal system had been down and that dispatchers from another company, CSX, were routing trains at about the time of the wreck. The passenger train, heading south, was diverted onto a rail siding where, while apparently traveling below the speed limit, it crashed into a CSX train that had been loaded with automobiles."
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Reader Comments (14)
Favorite Twitter taunt after loser moron Paul Ryan bragged about how the GOP tax scam saved a secretary $78 a year, the price of a Costco membership: Gee, with the $500,000 Ryan got from the Kochs for their tax break he could buy a Costco.
You guys are being so disingenuous to Lyin' Ryan. His highlighting a gold-star CostCo membership is actually a brilliant example of GOP Laffer economics.
Think about it. By bestowing $1.50 of tax breaks on the toiling masses with their overlords' generosity (they could'a taken the whole pie AND the crumbs mind you), the average Joe and Jane can throw those precious pennies into the ol' piggy bank and watch GOP generosity grow by the week. Then, after a year of contemplation and excitement, voilà, CostCo member status! The GOP has thus unlocked those steely gates to achieving what the richy riches always flaunt: Buying in Bulk.
What better example of tickle down economics? Before, struggling Americans had to buy a single box of Frosted Flakes at their local supermarket. Now, they've got access to the jumbo versions of everything! Houses across America will soon be filled with kilos of Cheeze-Its, pounds of pre-prepared pancake mix, and liters upon liters of sugary drinks for the kiddies budding diabetes.
This, my friends, is tax breaks in action, multiplying happiness across the Great Plains of America. So much winning!
Ak's estimate in yesterday's thread was off by a factor of 2 to 3. The Koch payoff is estimated to be $1.0 - 1.4 billion, that's with a b.
Fucking phone. This link should work for the Koch payoff.
@safari: And leave us not forget the prestige of having the wherewithal to become a card-carrying member of Club Costco. Who needs Mar-a-Lago's crappy caviar-on-a-plastic-spoon when you can dine on bulk-frozen tilapia in the comfort of your own mini-chateau sur railroad tracks?
According to the article unwashed linked, each koch brother will
save about $500,004,765.00 on their taxes. Trying to wrap my brain
around that compared to the $1.50 a week savings for that working
person. If the kochs payoff to lyin' ryan was $500,000.00, that means
they each can buy a hundred more politicians just with their tax
savings, a great investment for their future.
So happy that I will be contributing with my small tax payment which
won't even cover lunch for one of those billionaire politicians.
MAGA: Morons Are Governing America.
@Forrest, I think you're off by one order of magnitude. Rather than 100 politicians, they can buy 1000 for the price of one Lying Ryan.
I stand corrected. Thanks.
As Senator Dirksen said "a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon,
you're talking real money,"
THE WOMEN BEHIND WHITE POWER: Elizabeth Gillespie McRae-NYT:
An element of surprise, although not a surprise for black women, still animates discussions about white women supporting white supremist politics. In part, it's because the narrative of white supremacist history in the U.S. is not immune to the same sexist forces that have shaped so many of our national historical narratives. It has left out the women. and that has consequences for how we think about those politics today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/opinion/sunday/white-supremacy-forgot-women.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront
I still have vivid memories of the bus boycott in Boston where scores of white women, faces contorted, were calling out vile execrations at black students and I remembering thinking then that women like that were a whole lot scarier than men. I have always thought women as a gender much more powerful than men––-even female new borns are on average stronger than males. Makes sense evolutionary wise.( Of course there is the male sea horse who carries the female eggs in his pouch and in due time delivers them into the deep blue sea.) but I digress–––––
@Forest: Love the Dirksen––a voice like no other and quips like "I suffered a kind of poignant pining" when a bill went through not to his liking. He was like a great white lion.
I'm pretty good with numbers, but when we get to 1.5 Trillion, my brain just sees a "big number." Let's look at the Costco thing a bit more:
One Twitter person said it would cost about $16.1 Billion to give everyone (every household?) in the US a Costco membership. That 16.1 Billion also seems like a big number. How do these numbers compare?
1.5 Trillion = 1,500 Billion.
Subtract Costco 16 Billion.
---------------------------------
That leaves $1,484 Billion to go somewhere, after every household has their Costco membership. And many, many households are only going to get, at most, the Costco membership.
If you are a percentage kind of person, those Costco memberships equal 1.07% of the whole boondoggle.
I have learned over the years that offering a great product at a fair price is a recipe for making a modest living. The way to make real money is to figure out how to charge lots and lots of people a small amount in a way that will not piss them off too much. The level of greed involved in looting the nation to the tune of $1.484 Trillion is beyond comprehension. Once again, I weep.
Oy! Oy! PDPepe: I think you cudda eliminated the color adjective and still made your (Dirksen) king of the political jungle point! :-)
To everyone else wrapped up in the maths, I sort of stumbled into this the other week...trying to think of arguments I could use to explain to the bonus happy people how they are really getting screwed over the long run. I like how the rest of you have gone into details even more and pointed how the huge disparity that benefits the Kock-ilk.
@MAG: the "white" had to do with his sliver locks, not his skin.
The #releasethememo Russian bot campaign not only gives a leg up for Trump to further wreck havoc, but it also gave the Russians a public look into confidential espionage actions of suspected Russian agents. With the FISA info now public, Putin's pals can compare timelines to figure out more or less when Page started getting wiretapped. That way, his Russian masters will know more or less what dirt they potentially have on him, and can move forward accordingly.
The emperor with no clothes is revealing our cards to Putin's inner circle, and the "patriot" GOP is happy to pave the way.
@PD Pepe: I took it as you meant it when I read it. I did pause to think about it, tho. Some words do evoke more than one meaning.