;)
The Commentariat -- January 17, 2018
Afternoon Update:
The Comments function appears to be fixed!!
Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Republicans on Wednesday expressed cautious optimism about averting a government shutdown at midnight Friday, with rank-and-file members grudgingly accepting a short-term spending bill.... If Republican leaders can quell dissent among deficit and defense hawks and pass the measure with only GOP votes, House Democrats will lose the leverage they planned to exercise on behalf of dreamers during the current round of negotiations."
Heather Caygle & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "House Democrats left a meeting with top White House officials Wednesday seemingly no closer to reaching a deal on immigration or government funding before a critical Friday deadline. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said their hour-long meeting with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was 'positive' -- a dramatic change in tone from their contentious encounters with him in the past -- but mostly a rehashing of talking points that doesn't bring the two sides closer to an agreement." Mrs. McC: Maybe that's because Kelly is even more a racist than Trump.
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) rebuked President Trump's attacks on the press from the Senate floor on Wednesday, urging his colleagues to publicly push back against the rhetoric. 'The enemy of the people was how the president of the United States called the free press in 2017. ... It is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president used words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies," Flake said.... Flake's speech marks one of the strongest Republican rebukes of Trump from the Senate floor." Mrs. McC: See also Flake's Arizona colleague John McCain's essay, linked below.
Eamon Javers of CNBC: "The White House believed it had an agreement with the House Intelligence Committee to limit questions for Steve Bannon only to events on the presidential campaign, and not during the ousted former chief strategist's time in the Trump administration, an official told CNBC. According to the White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, staffers for the committee and the White House on Friday discussed the parameters of Bannon's testimony.... Then, hours into Bannon's closed-door testimony on Tuesday, Bannon's lawyers informed the White House from Capitol Hill that the questions would extend beyond the scope of what the White House understood the agreement to be. At that point, the White House told Bannon not to answer any further."
Ben Protess of the New York Times: "As a photographer for the Department of Energy, Simon Edelman regularly attended meetings with Secretary Rick Perry and snapped pictures for official purposes. Now he is out of a job and seeking whistle-blower protections after leaking photographs of Mr. Perry meeting with a major energy industry donor to President Trump. Late last year, Mr. Edelman said, he shared with journalists photos he shot at the private meeting between Mr. Perry and the campaign contributor, Robert E. Murray, the head of one of the country's largest coal mining companies, Murray Energy. One photo showed the two men embracing; another captured the cover sheet of a confidential 'action plan' that Mr. Murray brought to the meeting last March calling for policy and regulatory changes friendly to the coal industry.... Based on the 'action plan' and conversations he overheard, Mr. Edelman said, Mr. Perry had tilted the administration's energy policy to favor Murray Energy and other coal companies.... Mr. Murray has been a financial backer of Mr. Perry...." ...
... For more on that nice Bob Murray, let's ask John Oliver (at about 4:40 mins. in & at about 12:30 in):
... And, yeah, Murray did sue Oliver for libel.
Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to have their athletes march together under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics next month and to field a joint women's ice hockey team, the most dramatic gesture of reconciliation between the two nations in a decade.... The two countries' delegations will march at the opening ceremony behind a 'unified Korea' flag that shows an undivided Korean Peninsula, negotiators from both sides said in a joint news release...."
*****
Michael Shear & Lawrence Altman of the New York Times: "President Trump's physician said Tuesday that the president received a perfect score on a cognitive test designed to screen for neurological impairment, which the military doctor said was evidence that Mr. Trump does not suffer from mental issues that prevent him from functioning in office. 'There's no indication whatsoever that he has any cognitive issues,' Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy and the White House physician, told reporters on Tuesday. 'I've found no reason whatsoever to think the president has any issues whatsoever with his thought processes.' Dr. Jackson said that a cognitive test was not indicated for Mr. Trump when the president went underwent his annual physical on Friday, but that he conducted one anyway because the president requested it after questions from critics about his mental abilities. He said Mr. Trump received a score of 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a well-known test used by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other hospitals." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump is just a lazy, ignorant narcissist? Well, good, now I don't have to feel sorry for him any more. I couldn't find a place to take the test but I found a copy on the test online & tried it. The only one I had trouble with was an easy subtraction question. It's the same trouble I would have had with the question when I was 10 years old, so probably not newly-diminished capacity. ...
... Yeah, "Excellent" Health. But ...
Sleaziest President Ever, Ctd. Jacob Weisberg of Slate: Stephanie Clifford, a/k/a porn star Stormy Daniels, told me "in a series of phone conversations and text exchanges that took place between August and October of 2016... [that] she'd gone to Trump's hotel room after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada in 2006. There they'd begun a sexual relationship, which continued for nearly a year. They'd met in New York and more than once in Los Angeles. In early 2007, Trump had invited her to a party to promote Trump Vodka.... Daniels said she was holding back on the juiciest details, such as her ability to describe things about Trump that only someone who had seen him naked would know. She intimated that her view of his sexual skill was at odds with the remark attributed to Marla Maples.... Daniels said she was talking to me and sharing these details because Trump was stalling on finalizing the confidentiality agreement and paying her. Given her experience with Trump, she suspected he would stall her until after the election, and then refuse to sign or pay up.... About a week before the election, Daniels stopped responding to calls and text messages. A friend of hers told me Daniels had said she'd taken the money from Trump after all." ...
... Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Fox News had a story at the height of the presidential election that detailed an alleged sexual relationship between porn actress Stephanie Clifford -- whose stage name is 'Stormy Daniels' -- and Donald Trump, but opted not to publish it, four people familiar with the matter told CNN.... One of the network's reporters, Diana Falzone, had filed a story in October 2016 about an alleged sexual relationship between Clifford and Trump, people familiar with the matter said. Falzone had an on-the-record statement from Clifford's manager at the time, Gina Rodriguez, confirming that her client had engaged in a sexual relationship with Trump, three of these people said, and Falzone had even seen emails about a settlement.... Falzone is a reporter for Fox News.... She filed a lawsuit against the network in May 2017 alleging gender discrimination. Fox News has denied her allegations and the case is ongoing. In a statement, Noah Kotch, who became editor-in-chief and vice president of Fox News digital in 2017, said, 'Like many other outlets, we were working to report the story.... In doing our due diligence, we were unable to verify all of the facts and publish a story.'" ...
... Kevin Drum: "The affair itself is not that big a deal. However, the agreement to pay Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet is a very big deal. Trump's lawyer has admitted the payment was made, but refuses to say anything more about it. How is this happening? How can the president of the United States get away with what looks like hush money paid to a mistress in the middle of an election? How is it that this isn't front-page news....? ...
**Rent-a-Puppet. Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Conservatives embrace Trump not despite his inability to conduct the functions of his office in a satisfactory manner, but because of it.... Indeed, because he is so exceptionally unwilling to put in the time to do the job properly, he ends up hewing more rigidly to conservative dogma than even the most establishment-oriented alternative you can imagine.... Donald Trump is not really running the Trump administration.... Trump spending hours a day on 'executive time' and not understanding the issues at hand is actually preferable to them than if he did the work.... The result is an administration that's been much more conventionally conservative in its policymaking than one might have expected -- and much less popular as a result. It's Trump's sloth and ignorance that makes this possible." --safari
Sen. John McCain writes a powerful condemnation of Trump's attacks on the press in today's Washington Post: "While administration officials often condemn violence against reporters abroad, Trump continues his unrelenting attacks on the integrity of American journalists and news outlets. This has provided cover for repressive regimes to follow suit. The phrase 'fake news' -- granted legitimacy by an American president -- is being used by autocrats to silence reporters, undermine political opponents, stave off media scrutiny and mislead citizens. [The Committee to Protect Journalists] documented 21 cases in 2017 in which journalists were jailed on fake news' charges. Trump's attempts to undermine the free press also make it more difficult to hold repressive governments accountable."
In case you harbored hope anybody in the Trump administration planned to allow some form of DACA to be reinstated:
... ** Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would appeal a federal judge's ruling that temporarily derailed plans to phase out DACA, the Obama-era deportation protections for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States since they were children. The Department of Justice said it filed a notice of appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking to overturn the judge's order in California, and said it will also 'take the rare step' later this week of asking the Supreme Court to directly intervene. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said 'it defies both law and common sense' that a 'single district court in San Francisco' had halted the administration's plans to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program starting in March." Mrs. McC: At least Trump will have a friend in the Inferno. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Democrats now must shut down the government. It is beyond clear that Trump has no intention of signing a bill to grant even permanent residency status to Dreamers, much less a path to citizenship. Every suggestion that he might cave was merely a tease. Trump has the backing of hardassed bastards like Kelly, Sessions & Miller, who would knock the pen out of his hand if he tried to sign the bill. ...
... Greg Sargent: A "Post report [also linked here yesterday] confirms that despite Trump's denial of the 'shithole countries' comment, Trump did, in fact, privately conclude that the deal would result in more people coming to the United States 'from countries he deemed undesirable.' This shows that Trump rejected the deal ... because it does not do enough to reverse the current racial and ethnic mix in the U.S. But it gets worse: The Post also reports that Trump was originally favorable towards the deal, but the anti-immigration hardliners around him intervened, on the grounds that it would supposedly be 'damaging' to Trump and 'would hurt him with his political base.' This included (unsurprisingly) Stephen Miller and even (disturbingly) Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. After that, The Post reports, Trump began telling friends that the agreement was 'a terrible deal for me.'" The Post report is here. ...
... Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Over a three-day weekend at his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., President Trump showed little or no concern about the angry reaction set off by his use of obscenities to describe the third world countries he fears immigrants could come from under a new immigration bill. His base loved what he said, he told guests at the club, Mar-a-Lago, a refrain he repeated in phone calls over the holiday weekend. But back in Washington on Tuesday, his advisers and congressional allies have tried to limit the fallout from his remarks in an Oval Office meeting last week, insisting that he had never described the countries as 'shitholes.'” ...
... Zeke Miller & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "... Donald Trump's Homeland Security secretary became the latest GOP official to offer an inconclusive version of a meeting in which Trump is said to have used vulgar remarks that have been criticized as racist.... Under persistent questioning, [Kirstjen] Nielsen said she didn't recall the specific language used by Trump. 'What I was struck with frankly, as I'm sure you were as well, was just the general profanity used in the room by almost everyone.' New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, angrily criticized Nielsen's comments, telling her during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, 'Your silence and your amnesia is complicity.'" ...
... Ed O'Keefe & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed on Tuesday that President Trump used 'tough language' in an Oval Office meeting last week, but she said she did not hear him describe some African countries and Haiti as 'shithole countries,' as has been reported.... Later, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) began by telling Nielsen, 'I hope you remember me. We were at two meetings together' last week." A dry wit. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yesterday I wrote that Nielsen had finally, after repeatedly questioning by Durbin, confirmed that Sen. Graham had repeated the derogatory term Trump used but that she couldn't remember. In fact, she refused to admit anything more "specific" than "tough language," & it was Durbin who informed her what Trump & Graham said. I don't know what "tough language" is. I think "tough language" could include your saying to your kid, in a stern voice, "That was a terrible thing to do! Go right to your room!" Or this is tough language: "Get over it, lunkheads. The only people who get into this country are Norwegians!" ...
... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "It is almost inconceivable that the president used such damning language, and yet Kirstjen Nielsen does not recall what he said. She remembers 'tough language' but not the words, or something close, to the words that were said? This is as preposterous as her response to a question that she was unaware Norway is a predominantly white country.... When you say under oath you don't remember something when you do, that is lying under oath.... This is why you cannot serve a president who is racist, dishonest or personally corrupt. You inevitably wind up enabling racism, dishonesty and corruption. If you thought you could remain untainted, you were wrong. And now, you need to either quit or face the legal and personal consequences." ...
... Jennifer Rubin: "After dutifully lying on behalf of the president regarding his abhorrent language ('shithole countries'), Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) were outed by the White House. The Post reports: 'Three White House officials said Perdue and Cotton told the White House that they heard 'shithouse' rather than 'shithole,' allowing them to deny the president's comments on television over the weekend. The two men initially said publicly that they could not recall what the president said. Not only did these two repeatedly lie, but Cotton also impugned the integrity of Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who told the truth. Asked whether the accusation that Trump spoke the offending words or the sentiment was phony, Cotton lied, 'Yes.' He went on to say, 'Senator Durbin has misrepresented what happened in White House meetings before, and he was corrected by Obama administration officials by it.'... The incident is telling in many respects, but none more important for Republicans than this: They can lie and enable the president hoping to score brownie points, but this White House won't repay loyalty in kind. Instead, Republicans will find themselves humiliated." ...
... Dara Lind of Vox: "The 'shithole' comment was a clarifying moment. Such moments often make clear fundamentally contradictory visions of America. It's impossible to negotiate with people who believe any change to America-as-they-see-it is an existential threat -- and when they're direct or boorish enough to say that out loud, it saves everyone the time and trouble of trying to compromise.... You can't negotiate with people who believe that an America that lets in people from 'shithole countries' isn't the America they know or love. Either America is a nation of immigrants or it is a nation of blood and soil. It cannot be both." --safari...
... USA Today Editors: "It's bad enough that the president of the United States is an inveterate liar. It's even worse when members of Congress and his Cabinet feel compelled to lie on his behalf.... Five days after word leaked out that President Trump used bigoted and vulgar remarks during an Oval Office meeting on immigration, it's clear who's telling the truth. Spoiler alert: It's not the president and his enablers.... It defies credulity to think that anyone else who was in the room could forget such a remarkable exchange. Yet the other participants have chosen to lie, develop amnesia, or go mute.... Truth is the great leveler.... [N]o legislative priority is worth sacrificing your credibility to protect a president with so little regard for decency and honesty." --safari
... He's in the Shithouse Now. Frank Bruni of the New York Times: "One day it's all sun and sycophantic fun on one of the president's fancy golf courses, where you're telling yourself that to marvel at his putts and swoon over his swing are small prices for influence and will pay off in the end. The next you're in the middle of a surreal feud among your fellow Republicans about whether he used 'shithole' or 'shithouse' to describe poor countries of dark-skinned people, and you look like a sellout and fool for having thought and said better about him. That's the story of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Its moral couldn't be clearer. There's no honor or wisdom in cozying up to Donald Trump -- just a heap of manure." ...
... Sorry, but this is too excellent to pass on:
I knew a man named Ramblin' Graham
He used to steal, gamble, and scam
He thought he was the smartest guy around
Well, I found out last Monday
That Graham got stitched up Sunday
Trump's got him in the shithouse way 'cross town
He's in the shithouse now
He's in the shithouse now
Well I told him you're a chump
Stop playin' golf with that Donald Trump
He's in the shithouse now.
... ** More Cynical GOP Brinkmanship. Thomas Kaplan & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "With little hope of an immigration agreement this week, Republicans in Congress are looking to head off a government shutdown this weekend by pairing another stopgap spending measure with long-term funding for the popular Children's Health Insurance Program, daring Democrats to vote no. The bill would leave in limbo hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. But Democrats would still be left with a difficult political decision: withhold their votes unless the plight of such immigrants, known as Dreamers, is addressed and risk a government shutdown, or vote to keep the government open and fund the Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for nearly nine million children." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Having thwarted the Democrats' evil plot to save hundreds of thousands of young people, Republicans move on to using 9 million even younger Americans as a bargaining chip. Congratulations, GOP. You have now decisively announced that the U.S. is the Evil Empire, one that treats about 10 million of the most innocent Americans as pawns in a power game. "Shameful" is far too mild a descriptor. ...
... BUT, If You're an Itty-Bitty Fetus, You're in Luck (for 6 to 8 Months). Dan Diamond & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "The Trump administration is planning new protections for health workers who don't want to perform abortions, refuse to treat transgender patients based on their gender identity or provide other services for which they have moral objections. Under a proposed rule -- which has been closely guarded at HHS and is now under review by the White House --; the HHS office in charge of civil rights would be empowered to further shield these workers and punish organizations that don't allow them to express their moral objections, according to sources on and off the Hill."
Hallie Jackson, et al., of NBC News: "FBI agents showed up at Steve Bannon's Washington home last week intent on serving him with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury investigating possible ties between ... Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. The agents were unaware at the time that Bannon had retained Washington lawyer William Burck just hours earlier, according to two people familiar with the events that took place on Jan. 9. Once redirected, the agents sent the order to Burck, who is also representing two other witnesses in the probe being led by special counsel Robert Mueller.... Bannon ... could end up being interviewed by Mueller's team before the end of the month, according to one source...." ...
... Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju of CNN : "... Steve Bannon faced angry lawmakers from both parties during a contentious interview that stretched more than 10 hours on Tuesday, as he was hit with subpoenas on multiple fronts and was accused by a top Democrat of agreeing to a White House 'gag order.'...Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said after the hearing that Bannon was instructed by the White House in advance of the hearing not to respond to certain topics. The California Democrat said the attorney for Bannon consulted with the White House after the committee subpoena was served Tuesday and was told his client was still not to answer questions regarding the time during the transition and in the White House. Schiff called it a 'gag order,' saying it was an 'audacious' move by the White House to assert that at a later date they may seek to invoke executive privilege." ...
... Kyle Cheney of Politico provides a conflicting account re: the invocation of executive privilege: "... Steve Bannon refused to answer questions Tuesday from the House intelligence committee about his time in the White House, prompting panel members to subpoena him on the spot, according to a person familiar with the interview. Bannon appeared before the committee as part of its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, speaking just weeks after a falling-out with Trump over comments he made in an explosive new book.... According to the person familiar with the interview, Bannon's attorney told the committee he wouldn't discuss anything about his time in the White House or during the transition after the 2016 election.... Bannon did not invoke executive privilege, the source said." ...
... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast has yet another version: "During a closed-door hearing before the House intelligence committee today, Bannon reportedly told lawmakers that ... Donald Trump has invoked broad executive privilege for the purposes of Congressional inquiries. Because of that, Bannon refused to answer committee members' questions about what happened during the presidential transition and in the White House.... But executive privilege -- the president's right to keep certain information from the public so he can have frank conversations with aides -- will not keep Steve Bannon from sharing information with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, according to a person familiar with the situation.... 'He quickly informed through his counsel the committee he was not going to answer questions that pertained to meetings, conversations, events, etc., that took place either during the transition or while he was part of the administration. And what's more, we would later learn that would be extended to even after he left the White House,'Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat, told MSNBC." ...
... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon ... was subpoenaed last week by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into possible links between Mr. Trump's associates and Russia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The move marked the first time Mr. Mueller is known to have used a grand jury subpoena to seek information from a member of Mr. Trump's inner circle.... The subpoena could be a negotiating tactic. Mr. Mueller is likely to allow Mr. Bannon to forgo the grand jury appearance if he agrees to instead be questioned by investigators in the less formal setting of the special counsel's offices.... The subpoena is a sign that Bannon is not personally the focus of the investigation. Justice Department rules allow prosecutors to subpoena to the targets of investigations only in rare circumstances." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "In an ominous development for Republicans, a federal judge overseeing the upcoming trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates rejected Mueller's request to begin in May and instead outlined a scheduled start as soon as September or October -- peak election season. 'The timing of the Manafort-Gates trial will dictate major coverage going into early voting,' said veteran Republican strategist John Weaver. 'And this is without knowing for certain how many more indictments and how much closer this Siberian political cancer gets near the Oval Office.'"
Pentagon Proposes Viagra Boost to Trump's Nuclear Button. David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "A newly drafted United States nuclear strategy that has been sent to President Trump for approval would permit the use of nuclear weapons to respond to a wide range of devastating but non-nuclear attacks on American infrastructure, including what current and former government officials described as the most crippling kind of cyberattacks. For decades, American presidents have threatened 'first use' of nuclear weapons against enemies in only very narrow and limited circumstances, such as in response to the use of biological weapons against the United States. But the new document is the first to expand that to include attempts to destroy wide-reaching infrastructure, like a country's power grid or communications, that would be most vulnerable to cyberweapons. The draft document, called the Nuclear Posture Review, was written at the Pentagon and is being reviewed by the White House." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Would this make the U.S. a bigger nuclear threat than North Korea? Probably so.
**Faux "Facts." Trevor Aaronson of The Intercept: "A new report from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security found that three of every four defendants convicted of international terrorism charges from September 11, 2001 to December 31, 2016 were born outside the United States.... The data in the report, released today, would appear to support Trump's policies of limiting immigration from Muslim-majority nations out of national security concerns. However, the report appears to rely on a dataset that has been carefully selected to support the Trump administration's anti-Muslim policies.... It appears that Sessions's Justice Department has edited the data to support the conclusions the president wanted -- that foreign-born individuals are the principal problem." Read on to see how Sessions appears to cherrypick his data. --safari...
... Lachlan Markay & Spencer Ackerman of The Daily Beast: "The Trump administration and its Republican allies are pointing to terrorism statistics in order to argue for ending two immigration programs. But those who study terrorism in the U.S. say that the administration cooked the numbers to arrive at its desired conclusion.... [W]hat statistics the government did produce are completely contradicted by counter-terrorism experts. The administration is trying to argue that terrorism on American soil is largely carried out by the 'foreign-born'; the experts insist that it's the other way around -- that U.S. citizens have been the majority of the offenders since 9/11." --safari ...
... "Trump's Revenge on California." David Siders of Politico: "Fear is rising among Democrats over the prospect that ... Donald Trump's hard line on immigration might ultimately cost California a seat in Congress during the upcoming round of reapportionment. Top Democrats here are increasingly worried the administration's restrictive policies -- and the potential inclusion of a question about citizenship on the next U.S. Census -- could scare whole swaths of California's large immigrant population away from participating in the decennial count, resulting in an undercount that could cost the state billions of dollars in federal funding over the next decade and, perhaps, the loss of one of its 53 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The fears are well-founded...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yet another authoritarian stunt -- manipulating the census to both punish political adversaries AND frighten residents.
... AND THIS. Hamed Aleaziz of the San Francisco Chronicle: "U.S. immigration officials have begun preparing for a major sweep in San Francisco and other Northern California cities in which federal officers would look to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented people while sending a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state, according to a source familiar with the operation. Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, declined to comment Tuesday on plans for the operation. The campaign, centered in the Bay Area, could happen within weeks, and is expected to become the biggest enforcement action of its kind under President Trump, said the source...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: All in all -- the Wall, the Muslim Ban, the support for white supremacists, the DACA recission, the Haitian & El Savadoran decisions, and, and, and -- there has not been such a massive, coordinated federal attack on people of color in my lifetime -- perhaps even since the 3/5ths compromise of 1787. Again, these moves & Trump's remarks must not be viewed only in isolation.
Hannah Levintova of Mother Jones: "Late on Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is planning to 'reconsider' the Payday Rule, an Obama-era rule that created the first federal restrictions on payday loans. The rule takes aim at predatory practices by payday lenders.... This is one of the first major public moves at the CFPB ... since Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney as the agency's temporary director." --safari
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Three-quarters of the members of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service abruptly quit Monday night out of frustration that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year. The resignation of nine out of 12 National Park System Advisory Board members leaves the federal government without a functioning body to designate national historic or natural landmarks. It also underscores the extent to which federal advisory bodies have become marginalized under the Trump administration. In May 2017, Zinke suspended all outside committees while his staff reviewed their composition and work. In a letter to the secretary, departing board chairman Tony Knowles, a former Alaska governor, wrote that he and eight other members 'have stood by waiting for the chance to meet and continue the partnership ... as prescribed by law. All of the signatories had terms set to expire in May."
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former C.I.A. officer suspected of helping China identify the agency's informants in that country has been arrested, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. Many of the informants were killed in a systematic dismantling of the C.I.A.'s spy network in China starting in 2010 that was one of the American government's worst intelligence failures in recent years, several former intelligence officials have said. The arrest of the former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 53, capped an intense F.B.I. investigation that began around 2012 after the C.I.A. began losing its informants in China. Mr. Lee was at the center of a mole hunt in which some intelligence officials believed that he had betrayed the United States but others thought that the Chinese government had hacked the C.I.A.'s covert communications used to talk to foreign sources of information."
A Wolff Stalks the White House. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "Author Michael Wolff’s pitch to the White House to win cooperation for his book included a working title that signaled a sympathetic view, a counter-narrative to a slew of negative news stories early in Donald Trump's presidency. He called it 'The Great Transition: The First 100 Days of the Trump Administration.' And in part due to that title, Wolff was able to exploit an inexperienced White House staff who mistakenly believed they could shape the book to the president's liking. Nearly everyone who spoke with Wolff thought someone else in the White House had approved their participation. And it appears that not a single person in a position of authority to halt cooperation with the book -- including Trump himself -- raised any red flags, despite Wolff's well documented history. His previous work included a critical book on Trump confidant Rupert Murdoch.... After [John] Kelly replaced [Reince] Priebus as chief of staff at the end of July, Wolff was no longer allowed to linger in the West Wing lobby, a doctor's waiting room-like area where visitors come and go and staff occasionally cut through. But by then it was too late."
Robert Burns & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "Five officers involved in two Navy ship collisions last year that killed a total of 17 sailors are being charged with negligent homicide, the Navy said Tuesday. A Navy spokesman, Capt. Greg Hicks, said the charges, which also include dereliction of duty and endangering a ship, will be presented to what the military calls an Article 32 hearing to determine whether the accused are taken to trial in a court-martial."
Molly Redden of the Guardian: "The cost of childcare and the cost as a share of families' incomes have risen across the country for decades. Today, roughly one in four families spend more than 10% of their income on childcare, including more than half of families below the poverty line and two out of five families earning twice the poverty level. That's if they can find licensed childcare at all. This summer, researchers at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive thinktank, analyzed census data in 22 states and found that 51% of the population resides in 'childcare deserts.'... And study after study shows the burden falling heavier on mothers.... It's women who are more likely to leave the workforce after becoming parents, often never to work full-time again." --safari: Praise the Lords Ivanka's on the case!
Beyond the Beltway
Gideon Resnick of The Daily Beast: "Democrats won a state Senate seat ;in a deeply red Wisconsin district on Tuesday night, their 34th legislative pickup since President Trump's inauguration. Patty Schachtner defeated Republican Adam Jarchow in Wisconsin's Senate District 10, flipping the seat, which has been held by Republicans since 2000." --safari: Dem candidates reportedly "overperfomed" by +21.49%. #BlueWave
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New definition of the medically used word 'excellent'.
You are obese - 'excellent'.
You have high cholesterol even while taking statin - 'excellent'.
You don't exercise and gained weight- 'excellent'.
And you ask for a standard cognitive function test which you could have practiced online. 'excellent'.
Are we a deplorable country or not?
I asked (myself) the question here yesterday, believing the jury is still out. Akhilleus, in turn said we're not; it's only that the deplorables are in charge.
No argument there; they certainly are.
How could that happen in a democracy? This answer appeared in today's paper.
"Mr. Trump recently repeated one of his favorite claims, again congratulating himself for winning the presidency despite the Democrats’ overwhelming Electoral College advantage. Like the other 2000 lies he has told (Washingtonpost.com), the Electoral College claim is flatly untrue.
Originally created to balance large and small state influence, today the Electoral College places immensely disproportionate power in the hands of the smaller mostly Republican states. In 2008, for instance, solidly Republican Wyoming voters garnered one electoral vote per 177,562 people; California, which leans Democratic, one per 668,303 (quora.com).
We comfort ourselves by calling the United States a democracy, but because of the Electoral College, successful gerrymandering by Republicans, filibusters in unprecedented numbers during the Obama years and energetic voter suppression by Republican-controlled state legislatures, it’s time to shed our illusions and recognize we are often governed by the minority, not the majority.
Polls (Demos.org) tell us the vast majority of Americans support precisely those things Republican either attack (accessible healthcare, a living wage for workers, Social Security and Medicare), exacerbate (the growing chasm between the very rich and the rest) or ignore (the extortionate cost of higher education).
If those facts alone don’t shout how weakened our democracy has become, just listen to the White House’s recent admission that government by the minority is exactly what we have.
Soon after the Electoral College declared him the winner, Mr. Trump, stung by losing the popular vote by nearly three million, set up a so-called Commission on Election Integrity to investigate alleged voter fraud. That commission, having uncovered no evidence of fraud in the 2016 Presidential election, has quietly disbanded.
Mr. Trump did lose the popular vote, but because a minority runs the country, Social Security and Medicare are at risk and Mr. Trump is still around to embarrass us."
This morning I'm wondering if there was ever a time in our history when a minority government bent Mr. King's (and others') moral arc in the right direction and tilted events and the entire country's behavior toward the good.
Thoughts?
Have some problems with Cory Booker, who at times seems a bit too swarmy (and close to Wall St.) to me, but kudos to him for his performance yesterday. He got this one absolutely right.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/16/sen-cory-bookers-statement-reflects-the-sentiments-of-many-black-americans-in-the-trump-era
Ken,
Booker isn't perfect but I think he would make a great POTUS.
I have to admit I have a bias. About 6 years ago, when Booker was mayor of Newark, I met him, shook his hand and chatted for a few minutes. So if he is elected I get to say that I once met with a POTUS!!
P.S. Actually I think he would make a 'good' POTUS.
Last week when the comments section went south I had just finished a lengthy piece about how China was taking advantage of our fine feathered fiend. The fact that this comment was whisked away into the puffy clouds was commiserate with my physical state which was the onset of this new flu strain that is going around––you know the one––it seems harmless, you get close, shake its hand and WHAM! it hits you hard. So–––have been under soft throws while being under the weather for the past week. It probably was a good idea I wasn't commenting because due to fever dreams I might have called our country a shit-hole–-might have called all those enablers "Max" and envisioned Trump as Nora Desmond who says, "I'm still bigly, its congress that got small", might have even wished upon a star thinking I was back when America was so great.
I'm better now and want to thank Marie for all the monkey business she has had to deal with here.
@Ken:Watched the Homeland security hearing and was blown away by Booker's performance. I use that word because he does perform, but this time I sensed a deep visceral anger ––matched only by Kamala Harris who had no patience for Kristjan's pussy footing.
As for your question, I'd have to think on that one.
By the by–––along with the flu uptake there is also something quite rampant going around––CBIES is the name––stands for "Cotton Balls In Ears Syndrome.
Upon hearing that Trump is in "excellent" shape (aside from all the things Marvin mentioned) and that he is not cognitively impaired (still don't entirely believe that), I had the same reaction as Marie, that, if his cognitive functions are intact and he's not suffering from some early form of dementia, then he's just a cheap, no good rat bastard.
I feel much better now.
Even if he passed that test (I took it--good news, I'm as cognitively unimpaired as Trump) it still doesn't mean he's fit for office. He's a not very bright, incurious, malicious, sociopathic asshole with an ego even bigger than his fat ass.
And I'm guessing that the doctor may have had to have modified that test. That part where the person being tested is required to tap their hand when they hear the letter "A" in a long list of letters, I'm gonna bet that the doc substituted the word "TRUMP". He always responds to that. Plus, he must have liked that there were cute pictures of animals. (Although just for fun, I'd like to have an "adjusted" test that, instead of a lion, camel, and rhinoceros, substituted a potto, a pangolin, and an echidna. Just to see how he'd react. "Fake animals!")
So good news. Trump isn't losing his mind. He's just a fucking asshole.
About Cory Booker, I agree with Ken on his entirely appropriate dressing down of yet another lying Trump sycophant. And I hope Marvin is right. I've just always felt a bit off about Booker. All politicians are opportunists, but he seems more so than many of them. That by itself is not an irredeemable defect of course, but there's just something about him, a kind of manufactured, curated "authenticity", that seems a bit off-putting. I never, ever felt that way about Obama. I'm fine with him as a senator, but president? Well.....I dunno.
Gillbrand, like Booker, has too much Wall Street baggage. Plus there's the ties to the Clintons. I love Kamala Harris. She kicks Confederate ass! And I'd love to see Sheldon Whitehouse run for the, um, White House. I also think Julian Castro is an interesting possibility. Is name recognition a problem? Don't know. Obama made a splash with a big speech at the Democratic National Convention before throwing his hat in the ring a few years later. Before that he was pretty much unknown.
Whoever it is, as I've been saying (pleading?), they've got to get moving on this. Maybe Booker's outburst was a way for him to get out in front. I'd love for Warren to give it a go but I don't know how she'd fare in a national race. She's just way too smart for the knuckledraggers. Plus, Harvard professor and all? AND she's too uppity for the misogynists. She doesn't let the MEN tell her what to do, and that's bad.
I'm still thinking that we are not a nation of deplorables, but if we're unable to beat Trump back into the cage he slithered out of, I'm going to have to reassess that opinion.
PD,
Trump as Norma Desmond? OMG! I have to erase that image quickly or I'll never be able to watch that movie again!
Although, like Norma, Trump has a tendency to shoot anyone in the back who gets close to him then pisses him off. Does the White House have a pool? Is that KKK Steve floating in it? And wow, look at that long line of idiots waiting for Donald Desmond to shove them in too.
"I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Adelson!"
Looks like the Koreans, north and south, are working out somewhat of a détente, entirely without the superior deal-making abilities of a certain fat man (239lbs? Never. He's 270 if he's an ounce) with a BIG button, a little brain and a smaller heart.
The sight of Koreans marching under a unified banner into the Olympic games will surely rankle fatty. I'm guessing that tumbleweed on his head will be ready to roll down the hall once he realizes that the tiniest bit of smart diplomacy goes miles further than bluster, braggadocio, and threats of annihilation ever will, and his dreams of nuking Pyongyang have been sent out to the shithouse to stew, his twitchy tweety fingers (extra small size) will be flying.
Such an embarrassment.
Democrats, being importuned by loser Confederates to go along with a one month reprieve for their lies and stupidity by authorizing a (nother) short term spending bill should insist that these traitors tell their story walkin'. Confederates believe that they can get away with the most heinous bullshit and still pay no price. They believe they can just lie their way out or blame everyone else for their own perfidy. Not this time. Time for Democrats to give these schmucks a taste of their own medicine. Just say "no". They want to stick it to the dreamers (and everyone else of color) and still be able to claim that they're large and in charge and leaders like you read about.
They're traitors and liars and should be shown up as such. They have no honor, no moral core, and no sense of ethical behavior. They bow to a racist imbecile and the deep pocket money men who own them all.
Tell them to fuck off.
Oh, and don't miss the holier than thou "Freedom Cock-us" assholes now parading themselves as "deficit hawks". How many of you voted for Trump's deficit atom bomb tax plan, hmmm? Where was your concern for the deficit then?
More liars and hypocrites. They've got 'em to burn.
Well now, here's a surprise!
Fox is doing a seven part series on impeachment. Oh...not Trump's. Clinton's. Natch. Because it's such a topical item of burning interest.
Never one to turn down a chance to direct attention away from their Golden Boy Liar and Traitor in the Oval Office, especially if they can smack the Clintons, Fox (and all wingnut media) is heavily promoting their upcoming hatchet job. How do I know it will be a hatchet job? Easy. One: according to NPR media critic David Folkenflik, the seven hour docu-something features interviews with only Republicans. Not a single Democrat who was around at the time has been interviewed (you can guess that they didn't bother with either of the Clintons or anyone in the Clinton White House). Oh, you may see that Joe (slimeball traitor) Lieberman is on the list of interviewees. He was never a Democrat. Eever. So he doesn't count. Two: Fox.
And "...it's good to remember that, thanks to the concerted efforts of Fox News and pundits such as Rush Limbaugh, many Americans still believe, without evidence, that the Clintons have murdered multiple people,...Fox News under Roger Ailes used the investigations into both [Clintons] as a launching pad for such toxic, provably false conspiracy theories about the Clinton family and administration — propaganda that, in part, helped usher Trump into office and inspire everything from Pizzagate, to Bernie Bros, to the formerly fringe fairy tales both parties use. Twenty years on, Fox News' late-90s propaganda is still present and influential."
So it's a two-fer. Distract the crazies from White House treason and lies and whack the Clintons. It will also serve as a counter-narrative to the ongoing Mueller investigation of Trump's collusion with Russia to steal the election.
The Clinton era is long gone, but Fox cannot resist another chance to attack them at length while at the same time supporting a president* who truly deserves impeachment. The Fox Way.
Doing this on an iPhone so will keep it short. @ akhilleus, the problem isn’t that we are being governed by a minority. I’d be fine with being governed by the minority who is the smartest, most capable, and most honorable among us. The problem is that we are being governed by the minority that is the stupidest, least capable, and most dishonorable.
I just played online. If Trump was a half inch shorter and 2 lbs. heavier he would hit the BMI of 30 -OBESE. Just a coincidence, right?
A test and @Rockygirl:
Rockygirl, Agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of our current state, but still believe that a purported democracy should be more democratically arranged if it is to function as a democracy at all. Traditional Senate rules have much to do with our situation, but I see that changing to accommodate the majority party (not the same as those representing the majority, note).
As it is, our government is not all that representative, or in its original meaning, what with computer assisted gerrymandering, even republican. We oughta change the name if we're not going to change the way we do things.
And Bea, now that Squarespace is back up, do those of us who logged in successfully lose the privilege(??)?
O frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!
Rockygirl,
With you right there, girl. I could not have said it better me'self.
Although I would offer a codicil to your bulls-eyed estimation. Not all of the Confederate confederates are stupid and incapable. Quite a few are no more than vile, dishonorable, two-faced wretches. They know better, but they don't care. Many of them were Never Trumpers, until it became Forever Trump. They don't care as long as anyone who doesn't kowtow to their corrupt worldview is screwed and as long as their coffers are filled to the brim.
In fact, not only don't they care, they are not in the least bit concerned that the philosophical, moral, and ethical bedrock supports of the American Experiment are being fracked by a traitorous, evil (yes! evil!), narcissistic, pusillanimous prick. They are double-crossing, perfidious worms. And that makes them far worse than stupid and incapable (although plenty of them hit that mark, smack dab in the middle).
We are living through a singularly stentorian period of treasonous, mercenary mendacity the likes of which have never been seen in American history, and every single one--EVERY SINGLE ONE--of these malevolent Confederate lackeys laying pipe for this evil prick deserve perdition and eternal historical denunciation.
But don't look to Fox for anything like that. To Fox they're all tantamount to the Founders. Just imagine: Tom Cotton right alongside James Madison. It'd be like Jack Pudding a Socrates. Or Dubya a Thomas Jefferson.
Ken,
You know what they say...beware the Jabberwock, my son. The Trump that bites, the Kelly that catches, the Javanka that...um...Javankas....
You know what'a mean.
These lit'ry liberals. Can't trust 'em a'tall. Not a'tall a'tall.
Oops...you dropped your vorpal sword...