;)
The Commentariat -- January 17, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Show Trial of the Century. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump plans on adding former independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and the defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz to his legal team for his trial by the Senate, a person briefed on the plan said Friday. Mr. Starr, whose investigation into President Bill Clinton's sexual relationships led to his impeachment, will be joined by Robert Ray, who succeeded Mr. Starr as independent counsel and wrote the final report on Mr. Clinton, the person said. Rounding out the team will be Mr. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who became famous as a defense counsel for high-profile defendants like O.J. Simpson. The White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, will lead the legal team." CNN's story is here. No mention of whether or not there will be dogs & ponies. ~~~
~~~ Emily Shugerman of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump is lawyering up for his impeachment trial with a team that looks surprisingly similar to that of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The president bolstered his legal team Friday with attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr, who helped Epstein evade prison time in a now infamously lenient plea deal with Palm Beach prosecutors. Epstein originally faced multiple charges of soliciting and trafficking underage girls, but escaped with just 13 months of house arrest in a deal that caused Trump's Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to resign under pressure last year. A suit unveiled by Virgin Islands prosecutors this week alleges Epstein continued to traffic and abuse girls as young as 12 on his private islands until 2018, a decade after Starr and Dershowitz helped him walk free." Read on.
Pompeo Speaks. Matthew Lee of the AP: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday broke nearly 72 hours of silence over alleged surveillance and threats to the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, saying he believed the allegations would prove to be wrong but that he had an obligation to evaluate and investigate the matter. In interviews with conservative radio hosts, Pompeo said he had no knowledge of the allegations until earlier this week when congressional Democrats released documents from an associate of ... Donald Trump's personal attorney suggesting that Marie Yovanovitch was being watched. He also said he did not know and had never met Lev Parnas...." Mrs. McC: I suspect Pompeo chose these venues because (a) no tough questions and (b) harder to tell someone is lying if you can't see his face.
Trump's Enemies List Is Bill Barr's To-Do List. Jonathan Chait: "No single case is egregious enough to prove bias on its own. The pattern of selective prosecution under Trump's Department of Justice, and his fanatically partisan Attorney General William Barr, has become evident in a series of cases that all resemble [the probe of Jim Comey's possible leaks, NYT story linked below]. The connecting thread is that Trump's enemies are scoured for any violation that can be found, and held to the strictest letter of the law, while his allies are given broad latitude.... In theory, there would be nothing wrong with the Department of Justice tightening up its standards of conduct. But all the evidence points to the conclusion those standards are being raised only for Trump's political enemies.... The flagrant nature of the 2016 anti-Clinton [emails!] leaks show just how unseriously the bureau has taken its rules on leaking.... The message Trump has sent to his bureaucracy is unmistakable. Political loyalists will be granted broad latitude, and displays of troublesome independence will be held to the strictest accountability." ~~~
~~~ David Knowles of Yahoo! News: "... Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump's attempts to convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr.... Trump, Parnas said [to Rachel Maddow], was made more powerful 'when he got William Barr.'... On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also criticized Barr in harsh terms. 'Does anyone think that the rogue AG is going to appoint a special prosecutor?' Pelosi said ... in reference to the revelations stemming from Maddow's interview with Barr. 'No, because he's implicated in all of this. This is an example of all of the president's henchmen. And I hope that the senators do not become part of the president's henchmen.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's easy to think of Parnas as Rudy's goon or Trump's goon. But in fact, especially in understanding the structure of power, he is -- in his own way -- just as smart about it as Jonathan Chait, and Chait, IMO, is a very smart guy. ~~~
~~~ Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: Lev "Parnas told The Daily Beast that his former friends' reaction to his arrest has strengthened his resolve to speak out. Parnas said that after he and his associate Igor Fruman were arrested at Dulles Airport on Oct. 9 and charged with campaign-finance violations, he was disappointed with [Rudy] Giuliani's silence. He said Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing -- a Trump-friendly husband-and-wife legal team with deep and longstanding ties in Washington's conservative legal world -- also kept mum about their relationship with him. That silence, he said, left him feeling betrayed.... He noted that the trio rarely shy away from defending controversial clients and allies on TV. But in his case, Parnas said, they were silent."
Elizabeth McLaughlin & Mark Osborne of ABC News: "The U.S. military confirmed late Thursday that some American troops were evacuated for blast injuries sustained in Iran's ballistic missile attacks on bases in Iraq last week. Ten service members injured at Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq were flown out of the country on Wednesday, and another service member was flown out on Jan. 10. 'While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad Air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed,' said Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command.... In the wake of the attack, which was done in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani..., Donald Trump said no one was injured.... TBI [traumatic brain injury] would not meet the threshold for the Pentagon to be notified of the injuries, and that's why the department was only told on Thursday [about the injuries], officials said." Mrs. McC: So one of the few times Trump has made an untrue statement that wasn't his fault.
Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "... a Washington Post-Ipsos poll of African Americans nationwide ... [found that] while personally optimistic about their own lives, [they] today offer a bleaker view about their community as a whole. They also express determination to try to limit Trump to a single term in office. More than 8 in 10 black Americans say they believe Trump is a racist and that he has made racism a bigger problem in the country. Nine in 10 disapprove of his job performance overall. The pessimism goes well beyond assessments of the president. A 65 percent majority of African Americans say it is a 'bad time' to be a black person in America."
Georgia. AP: "A computer security expert says he found that a forensic image of the election server central to a legal battle over the integrity of Georgia elections showed signs that the original server was hacked. The server was left exposed to the open internet for at least six months, a problem the same expert discovered in August 2016. It was subsequently wiped clean in mid-2017 with no notice, just days after election integrity activists filed a lawsuit seeking an overhaul of what they called the state's unreliable and negligently run election system. In late December 2019, the plaintiffs were finally able to obtain a copy of the server's contents that the FBI made in March 2017 and retained. State officials have said they've seen no evidence that any election-related data was compromised. But they also long refused to submit the server image for an independent examination." Mrs. McC: So this is Republican election officials trying to hide a hack or hacks of their system. If you're still thinking maybe Stacey Abrams really got more votes in the 2018 gubernatorial election -- an election in which her opponent Brian Kemp was "managing" the vote count -- keep on thinking.
~~~~~~~~~~
I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, yesterday
It's almost as if he's obsessing over something he doesn't understand at all. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate formally opened the impeachment trial of President Trump on Thursday, bracing for a grave and deeply divisive debate over his fate as senators swore to deliver' impartial justice' and installed Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to preside over a proceeding with little precedent. In a somber ceremony that initiated only the third presidential impeachment trial in the nation's history, Chief Justice Roberts vowed to act 'according to the Constitution and the laws.' He then administered the same, 222-year-old oath of impartiality to the senators, setting in motion the final stage of a process that has roiled a polarized Congress, and could shape the outcome of the 2020 elections, along with Mr. Trump's legacy."
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sadly, Roberts -- as expected -- wore a plain judicial robe, unlike his predecessor William Renquist, who had gold stripes sewed to sleeves of his robe. His inspiration: "one worn by the Lord Chancellor in a local production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe,: which Renquist had seen. Of his experience in overseeing the impeachment trial, Renquist riffed on a line from "When Britain Really Ruled the Waves" in Iolanthe: "I did nothing in particular, and I did it very well." One might think Renquist thought the Clinton impeachment and trial amounted to a grand farce -- one that unfortunately lacked appropriate musical accompaniment. ~~~
~~~ AP: "The Senate is one man short on the opening day of ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial. Republican James Inhofe is back in Oklahoma 'to be with a family member facing a medical issue,' his office says. Inhofe says he'll return to Washington in time for the start of opening arguments on Tuesday."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... as senators formally convened on Thursday as a court of impeachment in the case of Donald John Trump, new revelations were still emerging and important questions remained unanswered. The latest interviews by Lev Parnas..., as well as documents released by House investigators, only reinforced the reality that there is more still to be learned.... Underscoring the fluidity of the story was the release on Thursday of a damning new report by the independent Government Accountability Office. [story & document linked below]... And the recent offer to testify by John R. Bolton, the president's former national security adviser who privately denounced the geopolitical 'drug deal' orchestrated by Mr. Trump's other advisers, only underlines that many of the key players in the tale of intrigue have yet to publicly disclose what they know.... It is clear the Senate is opening a trial in a far different position than it did in 1868 when it determined [Andrew] Johnson's fate or in 1999 when it considered charges against [Bill] Clinton...."
~~~ Nicholas Fandos & Michael Shear of the New York Times with live updates (Thursday): "For the second time in two days, the seven House members who will serve as prosecutors made a solemn march through the Capitol to the Senate chamber, this time to formally announce the charges against President Trump and initiate only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history....
"Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the lead impeachment manager, said his team would consider whether to press the Senate to call Lev Parnas to testify once the trial begins.... Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Lev Parnas, the Soviet-born businessman who says President Trump was fully aware of efforts to dig up damaging information that would help him in the 2020 election, would be 'a credible witness'during the impeachment trial, though she stopped short of saying he should testify.
"It was a straightforward question being put to nearly every Republican senator in the Capitol on Thursday: Should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial? But when Manu Raju of CNN, a well-respected congressional reporter, put it to Senator Martha McSally of Arizona, the first-term Republican who is up for re-election this fall went on the attack. 'You're a liberal hack,' she said. 'I'm not talking to you. You're a liberal hack.'" Mrs. McC: I've seen Raju on CNN many times. He's a straight reporter, not a "liberal hack." (Also linked yesterday. There are numerous updates to liveblog since first linked.) ~~~
~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer condemned Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) for calling CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju a 'liberal hack' on Thursday -- describing the attack as 'disgusting.'... [Blizter said to Raju on air,] 'Instead of answering a fair question, she simply called you a "liberal hack." It was disgusting, it was awful. She should know better. Certainly, you're one of the most respected congressional reporters up on Capitol Hill.'" ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Instead of being ashamed and embarrassed that she snapped at Raju without cause, McSally is fundraising off video of the incident. Sargent calls this "beyond pathetic. Note that it is now seen as 'liberal' to merely ask a Republican senator whether she feels any obligation to consider the full set of facts...."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Thursday that it's 'likely' she would support calling witnesses after the initial phase of the impeachment trial but has not yet made a decision on any particular individual. 'While I need to hear the case argued and the questions answered, I tend to believe having additional information would be helpful. It is likely that I would support a motion to call witnesses at that point in the trial just as I did in 1999,' Collins said in a statement, referring to the Clinton impeachment trial." ~~~
~~~ Ed Kilgore of New York: "As the impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins, a lot of attention is being paid to Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has made a lot of ambivalent noise about possibly cooperating with Democrats on allowing new evidence and witnesses to appear during the trial, against the wishes of her party leader, Mitch McConnell. Now comes news from Morning Consult that as her moment of truth approaches, Collins has displaced McConnell as the senator with the highest disapproval rating back home[.]" As Kilgore points out, Collins is losing ground from all sides, so no matter what she does re: impeachment, she can't please everyone.
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate assesses Republican Senators' approach to impeachment. She focuses on McConnell & Collins, but she doesn't let others off the hook.
Animal House. I smell a rat here. The guy is crooked as a snake. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Trump), commenting on new evidence provided by Lev Parnas, yesterday on Fox "News"
"But He Didn't Commit a Crime!" -- Another Faulty Trump Defense Topples. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Trump administration violated the law in withholding security assistance aid to Ukraine, a nonpartisan federal watchdog agency said on Thursday.... The Government Accountability Office said the White House&'s Office of Management and Budget violated the Impoundment Control Act when it withheld nearly $400 million for 'a policy reason,' even though the funds had been allocated by Congress. The decision was directed by the president himself, and during the House impeachment inquiry, administration officials testified that they had raised concerns about its legality to no avail.... The White House budget office promptly rejected the report's conclusions.... Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland..., on Thursday called the G.A.O. report a 'bombshell legal opinion.' It 'demonstrates, without a doubt, that the Trump Administration illegally withheld assistance from Ukraine and the public evidence shows that the president himself ordered this illegal act,' he wrote on Twitter." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The GAO's decision report is here, via Politico. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The GOP has made the idea there was no crime a central argument in its impeachment defense of President Trump. The articles of impeachment, Republicans argue, don't actually accuse Trump of a specific, statutory criminal act, so the process is illegitimate. This, of course, ignores that you don't need a crime to impeach. But that strained argument was just severely undermined. The Government Accountability Office ruled Thursday the Trump administration's withholding of aid to Ukraine violated the law, because Trump can't use his policy priorities to supersede the constitutional power of the purse that Congress enjoys.... [In his decision,] GAO general counsel Thomas H. Armstrong delivers rebukes to Trump and his administration, saying it has failed to abide by the law, failed to substantiate its actions and failed to cooperate by providing the necessary documentation.... Now [impeachment managers] can plausibly argue Trump took an illegal action here as part of his pressure campaign on Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The rapid sequence of events in mid-May marks one of the earliest known moments when [Rudy] Guiliani's shadow campaign to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations that would benefit Trump inextricably merged with official U.S. foreign policy -- and, if [Lev] Parnas's account is accurate, appeared to move the levers of the American government. In the process, the vice president was dangled as a bargaining chip -- perhaps unwittingly -- to exert leverage over a foreign government, according to Parnas.... Text messages and other documents released by the House this week, as well as congressional testimony during the impeachment inquiry, corroborate the timeline that Parnas detailed in interviews with MSNBC and CNN about the episode -- and show how a rogue operation engineered by Giuliani began subsuming official U.S. policy.... While Giuliani emphasized his Ukraine trip was intended for Trump' personal benefit, Parnas said he went to Ukraine empowered to invoke core powers of the U.S. government -- military aid, official travel, a White House visit -- to force the Ukrainians' hand.... [Parnas told Giuliani he had failed in his attempt to get a commitment from a top Zelensky aide to get a statement that Ukraine would investigate Biden.] Pence's top Russia adviser, Jennifer Williams, said she was surprised the following morning to receive a call from an assistant to Pence's chief of staff informing her that preliminary plans for Pence to travel to Ukraine for the inauguration had been canceled, she later testified to Congress." ~~~
~~~ Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, told CNN that he witnessed ... Donald Trump telling a top aide that the US ambassador to Ukraine should be fired.... 'In the conversation, the subject of Ukraine was brought up,' Parnas said. 'And I told the President that our opinion that (Ambassador Yovanovitch) is badmouthing him -- and that she said that he's gonna get impeached -- something like that....' Parnas continued, 'and his reaction was, he looked at me, like, got very angry, and basically turned around to (then-White House aide) John DeStefano, and said, "Fire her. Get rid of her."' It was of several instances when Trump attempted to fire then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Parnas told CNN's Anderson Cooper in the latest installment of a wide-ranging interview that aired Thursday night." Mrs. McC: Here are the videos of the interviews CNN has made available:
Mrs. McCrabbie: In yesterday's Comments, I noted that Lev was following the old mob script of retaining a lawyer "recommended" by the boss -- in this case, John Dowd, who represented Trump during Mueller's investigation -- and that this arrangement usually did not work out well for the accused. In the second part of his interview with Rachel Maddow, which aired Thursday night, Lev elaborates on this. The full episode is here, though unavailable @5:45 am. (You have to have a cable teevee "subscription" to view it.) The Hill has an abbreviated report on Parnas' description of Parnas' relationship with Dowd. It supports my supposition. In the interview (but not in the Hill report), Parnas said that Dowd called Jay Secolow, another of Trump's personal attorneys, while at a meeting with Parnas, and they told him not to testify to the House Intel Committee because Parnas had "three-way [attorney-client] privilege" regarding his interactions with Trump via Giuliani. Former prosecutor Barbara McQuade, appearing on Lawrence O'Donnell's show said that was plausible, just as prosecutors could not force a lawyer's secretary to testify about what he knew about the lawyer's client. ~~~
~~~ Here is video of Parnas explaining to Maddow how Trump kept trying to fire Yovanovitch. Yes, yes, it's a comic horror story (thanks for the phrase to Dwight Garner's review of the Rucker-Leonnig book, linked below).
American Oversight (via digby): "We lined up the newly released Parnas messages with the records we obtained from the State Department through FOIA litigation, as well as other records and reports. The timeline is troubling.... Many of the messages between [Lev] Parnas and Robert Hyde, a Trump donor who was apparently assisting Parnas in Ukraine, were sent in late March 2019 -- dates when [Rudy] Giuliani was in touch with Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, according to records we obtained." The report includes the details. (Also linked yesterday.)
I don't know him at all, don't know what he's about, don't know where he comes from. -- Donald Trump, regarding Lev Parnas, to reporters, Thursday ~~~
~~~ David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump and aides sought Thursday to distance him from a Soviet-born businessman who said Trump knew all about efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating U.S. political rival Joe Biden.... 'I don't believe I've ever spoken to him,' Trump told reporters about Lev Parnas.... In an interview with CNN, Parnas said that every time Trump denies knowing him, 'I'll show him another picture. He's lying.'"
Stephen Colbert's monologue is not only funny but helpful as he includes tidbits of impeachment news I haven't linked:
** Where's Mikey? Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has maintained a persistent silence as stunning new evidence has emerged suggesting the former ambassador to Ukraine may have been illegally surveilled before she was forced out of her job by ... Donald Trump. The State Department has not publicly commented on any developments in the more than 36 hours since a new tranche of documents revealed that former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch may have been monitored at the behest of associates of ... Rudy Giuliani. The lack of a response is even more striking following a Thursday morning announcement that Ukrainian authorities have launched a criminal probe into that potential surveillance -- before any such announcement from the US government." ~~~
~~~ There's This. Allan Smith & Tom Winter of NBC News: "The FBI paid visits to Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde's Connecticut home and business on Thursday, a senior law enforcement official said. The agent's visits came days after the House Intelligence Committee released texts Hyde sent an associate of Rudy Giuliani..., suggesting that he had Marie Yovanovitch, then the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, under surveillance.... Connecticut Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano asked Hyde to end his campaign, saying his 'antics' were a distraction."
MEANWHILE, at "Justice." Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors in Washington are investigating a years-old leak of classified information about a Russian intelligence document, and they appear to be focusing on whether the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey illegally provided details to reporters, according to people familiar with the inquiry. The case is the second time the Justice Department has investigated leaks potentially involving Mr. Comey, a frequent target of President Trump, who has repeatedly called him a 'leaker.' Mr. Trump recently suggested without evidence that Mr. Comey should be prosecuted for 'unlawful conduct' and spend years in prison. The timing of the investigation could raise questions about whether it was motivated at least in part by politics.... Mr. Trump has repeatedly pressured the Justice Department to investigate his perceived enemies. In 2018, he told the White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, to prosecute [Hillary] Clinton and Mr. Comey. Mr. McGahn refused...." TPM has a summary report here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That "could raise questions" construction, which reporters commonly use, is a cop-out. Obviously, the matter does raise questions, or the report probably would not have made the front page of the New York Times. Indeed, Goldman goes on to name some of the questions the investigation raises.
Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post in a WashPo excerpt from their new book A Very Stable Genius, describe a July 2017 meeting with Trump at the Pentagon that did not go as planned. The meeting was supposed to be a tutorial on U.S. foreign relations for the stunningly ignorant, impulsive & brash president*: "Rather than getting him to appreciate America's traditional role and alliances, Trump began to tune out and eventually push away the experts who believed their duty was to protect the country by restraining his more dangerous impulses." By the end of the meeting, Trump had worked himself up into "one of his rages. He was so angry that he wasn't taking many breaths. All morning, he had been coarse and cavalier, but the next several things he bellowed went beyond that description. They stunned nearly everyone in the room, and some vowed that they would never repeat them.... 'I wouldn't go to war with you people,' Trump told the assembled brass.... 'You're a bunch of dopes and babies.'" ~~~
~~~ Dwight Garner of the New York Times reviews A Very Stable Genius: "... this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump's shambolic tenure in office to date.... It reads like a horror story, an almost comic immorality tale.... Throughout he is misinformed and confused while at the same time utterly certain of himself."
Spencer Ackerman & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "More than a month after requesting information from the Department of Justice about the president's decision to give clemency to convicted or accused war criminals, two Senate Democrats [-- Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) --] continue to be stonewalled by the administration.... The lack of answers from the Justice Department, which is supposed to play a key role in pardon reviews, is likely to fuel allegations that Trump recklessly decided on a round of clemency that has disgusted many in the military community.... The two senators cited a department manual instructing the pardon office to review 'all petitions' for clemency and 'in every case' prepare recommendations. They referred to the pardon office as an 'institutional safeguard' against abuse of a broad presidential authority."
Ryan Browne & Geneva Sands of CNN: "The Pentagon received a Department of Homeland Security request Wednesday to build and pay for hundreds of additional miles of border wall on the southwest border, according to the Department of Defense. The request is for roughly 270 miles of border barrier and other infrastructure to be built in areas that are considered drug corridors, a mix of rural and urban areas, a senior Department of Defense official told CNN. Because the request is to ostensibly help combat drug smuggling, the Pentagon will be allowed to construct these barriers under its pre-existing '284' counter drug authority, which allows the Defense Department to build barriers, lighting and roads for the purpose of countering drug trafficking, according to the official.... In order to pay for hundreds of miles of additional border wall, the Defense Department will likely have to divert funds from other military accounts in order to provide adequate funding, something it did previously to pay for $2.5 billion of wall that was authorized via the counter drug account.... The reprogramming of money from various military accounts into the counter-drug account to fund the border wall proved controversial among many lawmakers on Capitol Hill who threatened to strip the Pentagon of its ability to move money in the future."
Sabrina Rodriguez of Politico: "The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed ... Donald Trump's signature trade deal with Mexico and Canada, helping him fulfill a 2016 campaign promise in a rare bipartisan vote. It's a big win for the president going into his reelection campaign, as he seeks to prove that his disruptive trade agenda is delivering results. But it'll take years of costly work before American workers and businesses begin to benefit from the new trade pact with Mexico and Canada, which passed the Senate in a 89-10 vote.... Some Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, voted against the pact for not doing enough to protect American jobs or address environmental issues.... The USMCA will not go into full effect until Canada approves the pact when its House of Commons reconvenes in late January." (Also linked yesterday.)
Timothy Williams of the New York Times: "Virginia on Wednesday became the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, a symbolic victory for those who for generations have been pushing for a constitutional guarantee of legal rights regardless of sex. Virginia's decision does not seal the amendment's addition to the United States Constitution. A deadline for three-quarters, or 38, of the 50 states to approve the E.R.A. expired in 1982, so the future of the measure is uncertain, and experts said the issue would likely be tied up in the courts and in the political sphere for years. But the symbolism of the action in Virginia was significant after a struggle that had been raised, hard fought and, at times, forgotten over nearly 100 years.... Women packed the galleries of the State Capitol as the debate unfolded.... Some members of the House of Delegates, which for the first time in its 401-year history is led by a woman, Eileen Filler-Corn, brought their young daughters to witness the vote." The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Virginia. Timothy Williams, et al., of the New York Times: "A sense of crisis enveloped the capital of Virginia on Thursday, with the police on heightened alert and Richmond bracing for possible violence ahead of a gun rally next week that is expected to draw white supremacists and other anti-government extremists. Members of numerous armed militias and white power proponents vowed to converge on the city despite the state of emergency declared by Gov. Ralph Northam [D], who temporarily banned weapons from the grounds of the State Capitol.... The unease increased after the F.B.I. announced the arrest on Thursday of three armed men suspected of being members of a neo-Nazi hate group, including a former Canadian Army reservist, who had obtained weapons and discussed participating in the Richmond rally. The men were linked to The Base, a group that aims to create a white ethnostate, according to the F.B.I." Mrs. McC: Um, the "gun-rights" rally is scheduled for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. Just a coincidence, I guess. The Daily Beast has a story about the arrests.
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Reader Comments (11)
Mrs. McCrabbie says, "It's almost as if he's obsesssing over something he doesn't understand at all."
There's a lot of that going around.
Last night one of the Time's intellectual stalwarts, who has been wrong almost as many times as the Pretender has lied, said again to someone named Virginia that in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, "there is no class war."
Perfect phonecall. Perfect economy. What's the difference to the seriously deluded?
Went to bed feeling better after firing this off:
"The universe presents many mysteries. What are its origins? Where did we come from? Why are we here?
I know the "Baltimore Catechism" answered all these questions and more (tho' not to my adult satisfaction), but it and no one else has answered this one: How can intelligent people like yourself look at mountains of incontrovertible evidence and deny the obvious?
Climate change is real. The numbers say so. The experience of the last few decades says so. Period. One may not like it, but that (as my grandpa said) makes no matter.
And if you have not noticed the hundreds of millions, make that billions poured into fighing unions and supporting practices, laws and policies that allow the rich to become richer at the expense of the vast majority, if you have not discerned the hollowing out of the middle class since the early 1960's, if you have not heard that the average worker's earnings are unable to keep up with the the costs of healthcare and his children's schooling, if you have failed to notice that home ownership rates have declined, if (fill in a multitude of other harsh 21st C. realities), then call it something else if you wish, but it sure ain't class peace.
Which leaves us with this imponderable: With all the evidence and the daily experience of millions to the contrary, how can you or anyone else say such silly things?
I can think of only one explanation . Some people--maybe you-- confuse capitalism with religion.
But life isn't Sunday School."
As I said, felt better for a while, but now this morning I read that nearly ninety percent of some folks (skipped the details) associated with Goldman Sachs believe the Pretender will be re-elected and so I feel worse again.
The Pretender may be deluded, Brooks may be living in fantasy land, fossil fuel use may kill us, there is a class war, life is not Sunday School, but in the economic system we have tied ourselves to-delusion sure does pay.
If James Inhofe is still flying his own plane, I hope the airspace is cleared between OK and DC for his return.
Lindsay (Trump Testicle Cozy) Graham sez that Lev (very recent BFF of Trump's personal lawyer) Parnas is "crooked as a snake". We'll leave off, for the nonce, the problem that snakes are not, by nature "crooked". They're pretty up front about their business.
Rather, let's consider how many other former intimates of the Trump circle, once considered vital to Fatty's continued ability to feed his ego, stuff his pockets, and stick it to his many enemies, have fallen out of favor either through a late arrived at personal sense of self-preservation or through the offices of various judges, prosecutors, FBI, investigators, and media curiosity, and went suddenly from smiling thumbs-up grinning-monkey portraits with the president* to persona non grata, unknown to the Dear Leader and now described as some sort of animal, rat, snake, whatever.
The number is legion. And growing by the week.
It really does resemble gangster relationships. Goodfellas one day, then after a falling out with the big boss, on the outs and in fear of losing their freedom or their lives.
Graham is just another capo in Fatty's gang. He too, were he ever to discover his own testicles--and finding that they weren't just ornamental--would be a stinking rat/crooked snake quicker than Sean Hannity can give a white supremacist a woody.
Like any crime family, it's all about "earning" and keeping the boss happy. You fuck up? He turns his back on you and the other capos do the same. You're on your own. /And now you're a rat. Would Graham ever go this route? I mean, recover his oath of office and do what's right for America rather than a cheap gangster?
This is unlikely. Graham is far too cowardly. McConnell too. He loves to give off the air of Master of the Senate, but he's no Lyndon Johnson. LBJ would call sniveling, groveling creeps like McConnell and Graham into his "office" (the Oval Office bathroom) and make them stand there being upbraided while he took a crap (one of his favorite moves to humiliate his victims).
When the history of these days is written, Graham will be the one depicted as snaking his way through the tall grass. McConnell? Who knows? Rat? Cockroach? Vermin? How about simply "traitor"?
A word about Lev Parnas: After watching two nights of interviews with this man, which I found absolutely riveting, I couldn't help feeling sorry for him. Goon, yes, but having been thrown under the bus as he has by those that he thought were his buddies has given him the impetus to do "them" all in. He loved Trump––thought of him as a savior–-his home decorated with pictures of his god was like a shrine which is much more serious than just taking a shine to someone. There's something truly naive about Parnas––for so long he felt he was an actual mover and shaker in this scam––now he feels used and tossed out, the one he loved most says he doesn't even know who he is. It smacks a bit like a doomed love affair or a religious awakening realizing there ain't that big guy in the sky to save your sorry ass. But here he is with papers of proof and knowledge of the whole mess; he's more than a smoking gun–-he's on fire! He wants to testify; he needs to testify––along with those "others" who "were in the loop."
And Ken: "How can intelligent people like yourself look at mountains of incontrovertible evidence and deny the obvious?" this question directed at Brooks' answer to someone named Virginia –-maybe the same one that as a little girl asked if Santa was real. Your question, Ken, has been sitting there for ages and for ages many have tried to answer it even going as far as using the word "stupid." But Brooks is not stupid nor is, perhaps, Virginia. So could we go with that old "cui Bono"–-to whom (is it) a benefit? And you wondering whether they confuse capitalism with religion might be spot on.
And––when you mention "middle class" I wonder what that actually means anymore.
Found this is the stack next to my chair. If referenced here before, apologies, but thought it might be worth a (re-) look anyway.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/14/viktor-orbans-far-right-vision-for-europe
In a short space the article offers a cartload of insight into contemporary Europe and presents an intriguing portrait of a politician who could be serving as the Pretender's model if the Pretender were half as smart as Orbans obviously is.
But they are no doubt playing from the same playbook. Fortunately for us, if not for Hungary, Orbans, is playing better
@Akhilleus: Yeah, as some former prosecutor said on MSNBC yesterday (might have been Barbara McQuade, but I'm not sure), "The Democrats didn't choose Lev Parnas; Donald Trump chose Lev Parnas." It's not the Democrats' fault that some of their evidence comes from "a rat: who's "crooked as a snake"; or from Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort or or or; these goons are Trump's choices.
If Lindsey Graham is going to point fingers at Lev, he should do so while looking in the mirror. Lindsey may not have a long career as a professional criminal, as does Lev, but Lindsey is just as duplicitous and craven and self-serving as any grifter.
Would it be too horrible of me to hope that Dershowitz' defense of the Pretender will have the same happy result as it did of the late and unlamented J. Epstein?
Jesus god, please tell me we don't have to go through another impeachment show trial with Ken ("Quick! Get to the dirty bits") Starr. And now we get, as an added bonus, in addition to Fatty's usual wretched assortment of "legal" help, Alan ("Epstein Buddy") Dershowitz to boot.
Administrations of the past have often been named according to programmatic goals of those presidencies: the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, etc (I left out "The Invented War").
Trump's administration, (even though it's more than a bit ridiculous to call the chaos, calumny, greed, and malfeasance of this presidency an "administration") needs its own appropriate sobriquet.
My suggestion: Into the Gutter.
I invite additional suggestions.
Akhilleus,
And Monica L., who certainly knows whereof she speaks, had the same reaction.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/17/politics/monica-lewinsky-ken-starr-senate/index.html
Dershowitz sure hates being out of the limelight, doesn't he? Guess more invites on Martha's Vineyard will dry up, too. Ken Starr is shameless as well. One former law student of Starr's recalled (Wapo comments) that in his Constitutional Law classes that Starr stressed the importance of witnesses and cooperation from the White House. Ah, but that was Clinton time....
Friend of mine called up Susan Collins' office to voice her dissatisfaction with her impeachment postures, Alas! she got cut off and couldn't vent her frustration. Hope Sara Gideon gets the votes and Collins disappears from the political scene. Maybe Susan can move to Florida and join Paul LePage in exile.