;)
The Commentariat -- January 5, 2018
** Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House's top lawyer [Donald McGahn]: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department's investigation into whether Mr. Trump's associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election.... McGahn ... carried out the president's orders and lobbied Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry.... Mr. McGahn was unsuccessful, and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama. Mr. Trump then asked, 'Where's my Roy Cohn?'... The lobbying of Mr. Sessions is one of several previously unreported episodes that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has learned.... Mr. Mueller has also substantiated claims that [James] Comey made in a series of memos describing troubling interactions with the president before he was fired in May." There's lots more. Read on. ...
... Barbara McQuade in The Daily Beast: "To be effective, the Department of Justice must be independent from partisan politics. And, just as important, it must be perceived as independent.... The Department of Justice is not the president's personal legal team, designed to lock up his rivals.... Bowing to the wishes of the president to investigate his political enemies would undermine public confidence in the objectivity of DOJ's charging decisions in this case and all others.... Reopening this case could set a dangerous precedent for future administrations to reconsider all charging decisions with which they disagree.... Even that sort of charade would be an abuse of the awesome powers of the Department of Justice and a waste of resources that could be better spent on new cases." --safari
Michael Wolff publishes the second excerpt of his upcoming book in The Hollywood Reporter. Some highlights: "[A]fter the abrupt Scaramucci meltdown, hardly any effort inside the West Wing to disguise the sense of ludicrousness and anger felt by every member of the senior staff toward Trump's family and Trump himself. It became almost a kind of competition to demystify Trump. For Rex Tillerson, he was a moron. For Gary Cohn, he was dumb as shit. For H.R. McMaster, he was a hopeless idiot. For Steve Bannon, he had lost his mind. Most succinctly, no one expected him to survive Mueller.... There was more: Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions. It used to be inside of 30 minutes he'd repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories -- now it was within 10 minutes.... At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends." --safari ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Another good read. Less sensational than the parts excerpted yesterday -- unless you consider numerous proofs of a sitting U.S. president's unfitness for office to be a matter of some interest. ...
... Michael Wolff's third installment of his new book, in British GQ. Some highlights: "Trump, goaded by Bannon, would continue to do the things that would delight conservative media and incur the wrath of liberal media. That was the programme.... But Trump himself was desperately wounded by his treatment in the mainstream media.... Slights were singled out and replayed again and again, his mood worsening with each replay (he was always rerunning the DVR).... Women, according to Trump, were simply more loyal and trustworthy than men. Men might be more forceful and competent, but they were also more likely to have their own agendas. Women, by their nature -- or Trump's version of their nature -- were more likely to focus their purpose on a man. A man like Trump ... felt women understood him.... [Kellyanne] Conway seemed to have a convenient 'on-off' toggle.... She channelled Trump: she said exactly the kind of Trump stuff that would otherwise make her put a finger-gun to her head." And so on. --safari ...
As a former prosecutor, it is clear to me that the repeated attempts by @POTUS to influence the criminal investigation against him, such as this attempt to order AG Jeff Sessions to not recuse, screams CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT -- Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), in a tweet
... Andy Borowitz: "Donald J. Trump, legendary among U.S. Presidents for his aversion to reading, demanded on Thursday that members of his White House circle act out Michael Wolff's new book, 'Fire and Fury,' in a command performance in the Oval Office. According to those who witnessed the dramatic presentation, Jared Kushner played the role of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump played the role of Ivanka Trump, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders played Steve Bannon." ...
... Eric Levitz looks over some of the evidence, including that which Wolff provides, that Trump is suffering from some degree of dementia. But that's not all: "By all accounts, most GOP Congress members recognize that Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist with early stage dementia and only peripheral contact with reality -- and they have, nonetheless, decided to let him retain unilateral command of the largest nuclear arsenal on planet Earth because it would be politically and personally inconvenient to remove his finger from the button. You don't need a degree in psychiatry to call that crazy." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Quite a while back -- I (or my also-imaginary predecessor) mentioned that I thought Trump suffered from dementia -- based heavily on the contrast between his speech pattern from years ago & the childish way he speaks now (and also on my experience with older people). I don't believe anyone commented on my assessment, which suggested to me that people kinda thought mine was a far-out opinion -- or perhaps too kindly. It is, after all, more satisfying to feel someone like Trump is an evil wanker than it is to feel a little sorry for him because he's suffering from a neurological disease. But I would hope that by now some would agree with my unprofessional diagnosis. ...
... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... most of all, the book confirms what is already widely understood -- not just that Trump is entirely unfit for the presidency, but that everyone around him knows it.... And yet these people continue to either prop up or defend this sick travesty of a presidency.... Some of the military men trying to steady American foreign policy amid Trump's whims and tantrums might be doing something quietly decent, sacrificing their reputations for the greater good. But most members of Trump's campaign and administration are simply traitors. They are willing, out of some complex mix of ambition, resentment, cynicism and rationalization, to endanger all of our lives -- all of our children's lives -- by refusing to tell the country what they know about the senescent fool who boasts of the size of his 'nuclear button' on Twitter.... Trump, Wolff's reporting shows, has no executive function, no ability to process information or weigh consequences. Expecting him to act in the country's interest is like demanding that your cat do the dishes. His enablers have no such excuse." ...
... Jack Shafer of Politico speculates on how Trump "got Wolffed." Mrs. McC: Helpful to read in conjunction with the Hollywood Reporter excerpt. ...
... TMZ: In Fire & Fury, Woolf "claims [Hope] Hicks and the married [Corey] Lewandowski had an affair during the campaign, and she became upset when the media started going after him. Wolff claims Trump responded to her, 'Why? You've already done enough for him. You're the best piece of tail he'll ever have.' Wolff claims Hicks ran from the room." ...
... Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "An enraged President Trump called acting attorney general Sally Yates 'a c[un]t' after she refused to uphold his contentious travel ban targeting Muslims, according to a new book about the Trump administration."
... Timothy O'Brien of Bloomberg: "... one of the more substantive issues Bannon has surfaced shouldn't get lost in the cacophony. Bannon, in his interviews with Wolff, has invited us to consider the families of Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner as possible targets of a significant federal money-laundering investigation.... 'This is all about money laundering,' Wolff quotes Bannon saying. 'Their path to [expletive] Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner.'... 'It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner stuff,' Bannon adds. 'The Kushner stuff is greasy. They're going to go right through that.'" ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Bannon's argument is that Mueller's team is focused not on Russian meddling but on unearthing money laundering by [Paul] Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and [Jared] Kushner that can then be used as leverage against [Donald] Trump.... We contacted Chris Quick, a retired FBI special agent who specialized in financial crimes.... He walked us through how money laundering works in the real-estate industry and how others may be implicated in that criminal activity." ...
... Steve M.: "[T]here are enough doubts about [the] veracity [of Michael Wolff's book] that The Washington Post has already published two columns warning us to read the book skeptically.... Well, Trumpers, if you're being lied about in a high-profile media account, that sucks -- but welcome to our world.... Being slandered and libeled in the media just comes with the territory for Democratic presidents and aspirants. John Kerry allegedly fabricated his military record. Bill and Hillary Clinton allegedly had a lot of people killed. Chelsea Clinton was allegedly the result of a marital rape. Barack Obama is allegedly a Kenyan by birth who allegedly gay-married his Pakistani roommate and then used the same wedding ring (with Arabic inscription!) to marry Michelle.... The GOP has built itself on lies about Democrats. If there's dishonesty in the Wolff book, it's Republicans getting a taste of their own medicine." --safari ...
... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "When candidate Donald Trump first spoke of a plan to 'open up' libel laws..., he seemed serious. And he also seemed ill-informed: As president, Trump would lack the requisite power over the courts to make it easier for people to secure damages for defaming other people. Now installed in the White House, Trump has occasionally returned to his authoritarian fantasy of shutting down independent media outlets.... The Thursday letter from Trump attorney Charles Harder ... directed ... Michael Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt & Co. ... [to] 'immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the Book, the Article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology [blah blah]....' ... Laughable, all of it.... Don't say that the media didn't prepare us for this enduring national embarrassment. A USA Today investigation during the campaign found that Trump had been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions over the previous three decades." ...
... Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... legal experts and historians said the decision by a sitting president to threaten 'imminent' legal action against a publishing house, a journalist and a former aide represented a remarkable break with recent precedent and could have a chilling effect on free-speech rights.... 'Trump is stealing a page out of Richard Nixon's playbook once again,' [presidential historian Douglas] Brinkley said. 'When you get criticized by the press or a book that attacks you, you attack back with ferocity.... It's a misuse of presidential powers.'... For nearly half a century, Trump has used lawsuits -- and often just the threat of them -- as a primary weapon in his arsenal against critics and competitors, deploying libel and slander allegations to push back against those who might embarrass or contradict him. He has had his lawyers threaten book authors, business rivals, attorneys, and critics of his real estate developments and political views." ...
... Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "In a new statement Thursday, billionaire conservative donor Rebekah Mercer said..., 'I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected,' Mercer said. 'My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements.' Mercer almost never speaks publicly, and her statement about her longtime ally represented an extraordinary rebuke. It comes in the wake of new book by journalist Michael Wolff...," which includes incendiary comments by Bannon about the president he helped elect and about Trump's family.... She said she remains committed in her support for Breitbart News, where she holds a minority stake and where Bannon serves as chairman. People familiar with the conservative news website said discussions have begun at the organization about potentially removing him [as chairman]." ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "Republican mega-donor [KKK] Rebekah Mercer publicly rebuked Steve Bannon on Thursday in a rare, and brutal, public statement. But before she did, Mercer spoke to President Donald Trump.... Mercer and Trump addressed Bannon's scorched-earth comments that appear in Michael Wolff's new book on the Trump White House, and the donor reaffirmed her support for Trump's presidency and his agenda. White House spokesman Raj Shah declined to confirm the call or its details, but did not deny that it took place." --safari...
... Adam Raymond of New York: "If Bannon is fired by Breitbart News, the move would have the support of the White House. When she was asked Friday if Bannon should be ousted..., Sarah Sanders said, 'I certainly think that it's something they should look at and consider.'" Mrs. McC: Needless to say, remarking on private companies' employment decisions is not something a real presidential press secretary would do, even in more extreme cases of wrongdoing. But it does stand to reason that a president* also would have a press secretary.*
... Pax Trvmpvs Never Lasts Long. Ron Klain in a Washington Post op-ed: "On Nov. 22, 2016 ... Donald Trump ... said that he opposed further investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, as it would be 'very, very divisive' for the country and Clinton had already 'suffered greatly in many different ways.'... A year later, Trump ... has all but ordered his Justice Department to reopen the investigation into Clinton's emails, and to explore the fantabulous theory that the Clinton Foundation somehow got nine federal agencies to tamper with the review of a commercial uranium transaction. This week, he called for jailing a former Clinton aide and prosecuting former FBI director James B. Comey. If that weren't enough, Trump's allies are calling for an investigation of 'high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent' Trump's election.... Trump and his allies are proposing a bargain, with a not-so-subtle message to Democrats: '... If my people are going to be investigated, then so will yours.'... The actions of Trump and his allies tell us a lot about what they fear could be found." ...
... Josh Marshall: "The idea that a sitting President can seek to silence critics and silence dissent using the civil courts is as monstrous as it is comical and is entirely in keeping with the practice of broken democracies that slip into autocracy.... Have you ever see a coiled hose that suddenly has hugely pressurized water run through it?... It swings and jerks violently this way and that. It gets everyone wet.... That's our President. But it's not water, it's fire.... That's what's happening today and will continue for every day of his Presidency, albeit with lulls of lethargy and torpor here and there. He is likely the most reviled and mocked man in the entire world today. He is also the most powerful.... The whole situation is comical, mind-boggling and deeply dangerous." --safari
Today in Il Duce's New Rules
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States waters, it announced Thursday. The plan would give the energy industry broad access to drilling rights in most parts of the outer continental shelf, including Pacific waters near California, Atlantic waters near Maine and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The proposal lifts a ban on drilling, imposed by President Barack Obama in his final days in office, that protected more than 100 million offshore acres along the Arctic and Eastern Seaboard. Such a reversal deals a serious blow to Mr. Obama's environmental legacy and signals that the Trump administration is nowhere near done unraveling the environmental restrictions of its predecessor in an effort to promote domestic energy production." ...
... Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration unveiled a controversial proposal Thursday to permit drilling in most U.S. continental-shelf waters, including protected areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic, where oil and gas exploration is opposed by governors from New Jersey to Florida, nearly a dozen attorneys general, more than 100 U.S. lawmakers and the Defense Department. Under the proposal, only one of 26 planning areas in the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean would be off limits to oil and gas exploration, according to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke." Even Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R-Trumpy) is pissed off. ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: When Trump is having a bad day, he lashes out at some perceived enemy. There need not be cause-and-effect. Neither President Obama nor the coastline had anything whatsoever to do with Michael Wolff or Steve Bannon or other White House leakers. But hey, whatever -- good time to roll out a program for creating coastal waters catastrophes. AND there's more. Much more. ...
Emily Badger & John Eligon of the New York Times: "Undermining another Obama-era initiative, the Trump administration plans to delay enforcement of a federal housing rule that requires communities to address patterns of racial residential segregation. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register, says it will suspend until 2020 the requirement that communities analyze their housing segregation and submit plans to reverse it, as a condition of receiving billions of federal dollars in block grants and housing aid.... Since joining the agency, [Secretary Ben] Carson [-- who has opposed the rule --] has said that he wants to 'reinterpret' the rule."
Mark Landler & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The United States will suspend nearly all security aid to Pakistan, the Trump administration announced on Thursday in a sign of its frustration with the country's refusal to confront terrorist networks operating there. Administration officials said as much as $1.3 billion could be frozen, although Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, did not provide an estimate of the total aid funds affected. Ms. Nauert said the suspension could be lifted if Pakistan changed its behavior by doing more to fight terror groups.... The United States has provided Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid since 2002. Additionally, the State Department announced earlier on Thursday that it had placed Pakistan on a special watch list for what it described as the country's severe violations of religious freedoms."
** Sessions Is a Cowardly Sack of Shit. Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Justice Department officials are taking a fresh look at Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State, The Daily Beast has learned.... A former senior DOJ official familiar with department leadership's thinking said officials there are acutely aware of demands from ... Donald Trump that they look into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State -- and that they lock up her top aide, Huma Abedin.... It's an open question as to whether Justice Department officials would have the same level of interest in Clinton's server without a political directive from the White House, the former official said.... Conservatives said the revelation that Justice Department officials are looking at Clinton's email server comes as a relief." --safari ...
... Gone Fishin'. John Solomon of The Hill: "The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.... Several GOP members of Congress have recently urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to look at the myriad of issues surrounding the Clintons. Justice officials sent a letter to Congress in November suggesting some of those issues were being re-examined, but Sessions later testified the appointment of a special prosecutor required a high legal bar that had not yet been met." --safari...
... No, No, Sessions Is Tough on Trivial "Crime." Charlie Savage & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "The Trump administration freed federal prosecutors on Thursday to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, effectively threatening to undermine the legalization movement that has spread to six states, most recently California. In a move that raised doubts about the viability and growth of the burgeoning commercial marijuana industry, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era policy that had discouraged federal prosecutors from bringing charges of marijuana-related crimes in states that have legalized sales of the drug. In a statement, Mr. Sessions said the Obama-era guidance undermined 'the rule of law. and the Justice Department's mission to enforce federal statutes.... The move seemed certain to increase the confusion surrounding whether it is legal to sell, buy or possess marijuana in the United States.... Mr. Sessions was a vocal opponent of marijuana legalization as a United States senator from Alabama. At his confirmation hearing in January, he ... [Mrs. McC: ... lied his elfin ass off.] ...
... "Senator Cory Gardner, Republican of Colorado, accused Mr. Sessions of violating promises had made and threatened retaliation. 'This reported action directly contradicts what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation. With no prior notice to Congress, the Justice Department has trampled on the will of the voters in CO and other states,' Mr. Gardner wrote on Twitter, adding: 'I am prepared to take all steps necessary, including holding DOJ nominees, until the Attorney General lives up to the commitment he made to me prior to his confirmation.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yo, Jeff, what happened to prosecutorial discretion? What happened to your preference for states' rights? What happened to common sense? ...
... Thomas Fuller of the New York Times: "The sale of recreational cannabis became legal in California on New Year's Day. Four days later, the Trump administration acted in effect to undermine that state law by allowing federal prosecutors to be more aggressive in prosecuting marijuana cases. A memo by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday was widely interpreted in the nation's most populous state as the latest example of Trump vs. California, a multifront battle of issues ranging from immigration to taxes to the environment. And on marijuana, once again California reacted with defiance. 'There is no question California will ultimately prevail,' Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, said."
Kira Larner of Think Progress: "Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap (D) had strong words for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) on Thursday after Kobach tried to lay blame for the failure of President Trump's Election Integrity Commission at the feet of Dunlap and three other Democratic commissioners. '[It's a] bunch of balderdash,' Dunlap told ThinkProgress in an interview.... Kobach, the commission's vice-chair, claimed that Democrats on the panel jeopardized their opportunity to be involved in setting federal voting policy.... Kobach [was] likely referring to over a dozen lawsuits against the group by Democrats and voting advocates, including one by a Democratic commissioner against his own commission.... Dunlap said he suspected that Kobach would choose to terminate the commission rather than involve the four Democrats." --safari
Chip, Chip, Chipping Away. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday proposed sweeping new rules that could make it easier for small businesses to band together and create health insurance plans that would be exempt from many of the consumer protections mandated by the Affordable Care Act.... The proposal would allow small business owners, their employees, sole proprietors and other self-employed individuals to join together as a single group to buy insurance in the large-group market. The new health plans could be exempt from some requirements of the Affordable Care Act. They would, for example, not have to provide certain 'essential health benefits' like mental health care, emergency services, maternity and newborn care and prescription drugs.... Consumer groups, state officials and Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans have strenuously opposed similar ideas for years. Association health plans, they say, will tend to attract employers with younger, healthier workers, leaving behind sicker people in more comprehensive, more expensive plans that fully comply with the Affordable Care Act." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: When you look at all the "new rules" that came out yesterday, it seems like a safe bet that Trump or some White House staffer called every Cabinet head & told them that if they had any draconian measures in the works -- especially draconian measures that would appease Trump's hatred for President Obama -- to roll them out today to help temper President Tantrum. Those who answered the call included Zinke, Tillerson, Sessions, Carson & whoever is running HHS now. Why hasn't Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao ordered the trains to run on time?
Thomas Homan Embraces His Inner Trump. Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker: "Even though he leads [Immigration & Customs Enforcement,] the federal agency that's arguably been the most receptive to Trump's agenda, [Thomas] Homan wasn't seen as an extremist by those who worked with him. A career immigration-enforcement official who has served under six Presidents, he didn't have the profile of a Trump supporter, either -- in fact, he was expected to retire at the start of last year, and had a job lined up at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international consulting firm. ICE colleagues even held a goodbye party for him one Friday last January, only to be surprised the following Monday when he returned to work. (He became ICE's acting director that very night, when Trump unexpectedly demoted Homan's former boss.) 'He was thoughtful and nuanced,' a former Obama Administration official who worked closely with Homan in 2014, while implementing new enforcement priorities at ICE, said. 'None of us recognize this guy.'... In November, Trump nominated him to be the official head of ICE."
Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "Veteran Republican operative and self-described 'ratfucker' Roger Stone is advocating for military operations, including drone strikes, in Somalia on behalf of his first lobbying client in 17 years. Stone recently disclosed that he had done lobbying work for a Buffalo-area company that acts as a middleman for the sale of African livestock to clients around the world.... Stone's work for Capstone began in May 2017, as the Trump administration stepped up U.S military operations in Somalia, including a href="https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/a3jjaz/u-s-airstrikes-on-somalia-have-soared-under-trump">major escalation in drone strikes against insurgent groups in the country. The number of U.S. troops in Somalia has more than doubled to over 500 since Trump took office." --safari...
... safari: Roger Stone, Somali expert,Trump whisperer, drone strikes. Another normal day in TrumpWorld.
Complicit. Laura Jarrett, et al. of CNN: "House Speaker Paul Ryan backed his fellow congressional Republican, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, during a meeting over the Russia investigation Wednesday, capping off a months-long dispute between the committee and the Justice Department.... At Wednesday's meeting -- initiated at [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein's request -- Rosenstein and Wray tried to gauge where they stood with the House speaker in light of the looming potential contempt of Congress showdown and Nunes' outstanding subpoena demands.... During the meeting ... it became clear that Ryan wasn't moved and the officials wouldn't have his support if they proceeded to resist Nunes' remaining highly classified requests.... Sources also ... had learned recently that the White House wasn't going to assert executive privilege or otherwise intervene to try to stop Nunes.... A compromise was reached later Wednesday that allows House Intelligence Committee members to go to a Justice Department facility to view the documents, sources said.... The Justice Department has also approved a slew of Justice and FBI officials to be interviewed by the committee in January." --safari...
Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post: "In a lawsuit that echoes a civil case against President Trump, an Alabama woman on Thursday sued failed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore and his campaign for defamation, citing harsh personal attacks she faced after coming forward with allegations he touched her sexually when she was 14 years old. Leigh Corfman is not seeking financial compensation beyond legal costs. She is asking for a declaratory judgment of defamation, a public apology from Moore, and a court-enforced ban on him or his campaign publicly attacking her again. She said in a statement that the suit seeks 'to do what I could not do as a 14-year-old -- hold Mr. Moore and those who enable him accountable.'... Under a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the legal standard for defamation of a public figure is that the statements were known to be false or showed a 'reckless disregard for the truth,' experts say." Mrs. McC: Good for Corfman: I hope she wins, even though we know Brother Roy will swear an oath on the Bible & promptly bear false witness again & again, so help him, God.
Richard Morgan in a Washington Post "Perspective" essay: "... I've seen [Woody Allen's] whole career up close -- going through all of his drafts and scribblings ... that exists in the 56-box, 57-year personal archives he has been curating since 1980 at Princeton University (which he did not attend).... From cover to cover, and from the very beginning to the very end, Allen, quite simply, drips with repetitious misogyny. Allen ... never needed ideas besides the lecherous man and his beautiful conquest.... Allen's work is flatly boorish. Running through all of the boxes is an insistent, vivid obsession with young women and girls." Mrs. McC: In real life, Woody Allen is as creepy as you imagined.
Reality Check. Sydney Pereira of Newsweek: "The ocean is running out of oxygen at a rapid speed -- and the depletion could choke to death much of the marine life these waters support. A sweeping review published Thursday in Science documented the causes, consequences and solutions to what is technically called 'deoxygenation.' They discovered a four-to-tenfold increase in areas of the ocean with little to no oxygen, which researchers say is alarming because half of Earth's oxygen originates from the ocean.... Without oxygen in the oceans, marine life will die off or relocate.... [T]he amount of water in the open ocean without oxygen has quadrupled in 50 years. It is more than twice as bad for coastal waters, such as estuaries and seas.... Oxygen is typically replenished when surface water mixes with the deeper water, but when the oceans are hotter, there is less vertical mixing." --safari
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Reader Comments (20)
Here's a general question I can't answer, but maybe some of you can: let's say I'm a buffoonish reporter like Michael Wolff or Mark Halperin & I write a book or article full of derogatory claims about a public figure. I frame the allegations like this: "So-and-so or Joe Blow told me blah-blah." So-and-so & Joe are people who would be in a position to know if blah-blah were true, & they did make those assertions of fact to me. But I have no corroboration that what they told me was truthful. I write it all down & publish it anyway. I did not personally libel Mr. Big Shot, but I did spread gossip which I cannot substantiate. Am I in legal jeopardy? (I think the public-figure part makes a big difference.)
Scurrilous undoubtedly and some of it possibly untrue, inspired more by the understandable rancor of those who may have said exactly what Wolff says they said , but as you say, well deserved by the gander.
My limited knowledge of libel laws (as they stand today in the our republic) suggests the Pretender has no legal recourse. He has only bluster. He has felt free to deliver carloads of untruths about his enemies without a second thought about legal consequence, and glorying as he does in being a public figure, he cannot pretend (delusion aside) that he's an ordinary private citizen.
That said, neither the Wolff nor the Bannon book is on my reading list.
Isn’t Trumpy the past master at “everyone is saying” and “everyone knows that blah, blah, blah...”?
Sorry, I have zero sympathy for this fool. Legal jeopardy? I doubt it. Plus, whether the details are exact and provable, the whole, at least what I’ve read so far, sounds eminently plausible. And anyone who listens to Liarby Sanders complain about someone else’s veracity should be directed to Roy Moore for hints on respectful treatment of underage girls.
Bea,
No, not far out on the dementia thing.
I may have mentioned here that following my mother's death some years ago (she as in her 90's and in her last years suffered from dementia, which eventually progressed to the point where her body forgot how to breathe), I have continued to visit the rest home where she gradually faded away. Diminishing, her doctor called it.
I focus my visits primarily on men, talking about the work they did and the tools they used, most of which I know something about, I even listen to some of them talk about cars, which I do not. Many of the relationships have allowed me (a doubtful privilege) to see these men sink through stages of senescence, which I have found can take many forms.
Today a bedridden man I have visited for years asked me if I had seen the airplane he built (out of heavy materials, he said) fly. He said he was just flying it. I told him he'd been sleeping when I arrived and he might have dreamed it. No, he had not, he said and asked me to pull his blankets back so he could search for it under the covers. I did as he asked and tried to let the subject drop, but he kept coming back to it. He couldn't let it go.
Having read some Wolff excerpts last night and this morning, dementia in the White House was already on my mind, and I thought as I watched this 93 year old former teacher and pipe fitter, that those close to the Pretender might be very familiar with the feelings of helplessness that my rest home visits frequently raise in me.
With a few major differences. The men I visit aren't my boss, as far as I know they aren't corrupt, they don't tweet, and they don't have their finger on the world's biggest button.
Bea,
I've been saying dementia for at least a year, based on the same things you identify. I further identified the mental deterioration in the contrast between the way Obama and Michelle danced and the way Trump and Melania danced. Dementia is a global thing, not just limited to speech and memory. I also want the MRI and the mental status checked and made public. But I guess that won't happen.
Also, based on his humungous weight gain in the last year, I would predict the onset of a serious medical illness which, I guess, will also be hidden.
If we as citizens don't get him evaluated, we are cooked.
I think we may have finally crossed the line. Today's NYT opinion column has the post of all times: "Everyone in Trumpworld Knows He’s an Idiot". I'm pretty sure no POTUS in history justified that title. And the NYT had no problem printing it.
A second post: 'Trump’s Disdain for Science' dosen't mention the reason, Trump is an idiot. Science is way to complicated for him and it scares him off.
Or to sum it up: A very loud mouth trying to hide a tiny brain.
A lot of talking heads are astonished at how no one in the White House even bothered to read up a little bit on the past of Michael Wolff before allowing him to be the perennial fly on the wall. This fact in and of itself confirms (which needs no confirming) that everyone working there is a completely clueless, even the Kellyanne Conjobs who were supposedly experienced in Washington politics. The oh so unflattering portrait painted of her is fucking revolting. Good luck working anywhere outside of the fever swamps after the Trump train derails and explodes.
And yet, this seems to me to be a wonderful moment of history repeating itself, with the GOP and their followers so insulated to Fox News cover that they forget that a whole New World actually exists. This thinking led to one of the greatest comedy acts of all time, à la Stephen Colbert roasting George W. Bush AND the Washington Insiders "covering" politics for a living, whose corrupt both-siderism ethos gave a huge lift in bringing us full circle to Trump's election.
And on another note: Very interesting to note that Vice President mike pence is basically nowhere to be seen in this tell-all. Many think he'll take over the Oval Office with little dirt on his name if Trump does indeed get squeezed out. I'm not betting on it.
Trump has already threatened to take the GOP down with him if they don't show their "loyalty" and cover his ass. I seriously doubt such an insecure, narcissistic coward would ever let Pence just take his place without doing his absolute best to throw Pence into the burning building with him if it comes crashing down.
Trump will insult, slander and hopefully implicate pence in his own machinations, no doubt about it.
Having wolfed down all of Michael's salacious snippets and West Wing intrigue along with all the other news, I am spent! The old "The shit has hit the fan" appears to be the operative tone here and from here on out we will all be on high alert. But for now, we here on the east coast are in the process of digging ourselves out of this thing called a snow storm––even the trees are frozen.
@Ken: What a kind man you are to continue to visit occupants of your mother's rest home. Your observations ring a bell––my mother, (died at 100) and my husband's mother who died at 69, both suffered from dementia. Early signs of this disease present as "well, she's just getting forgetful" until other more significant patterns emerge. A man I knew well, our dentist for years, our neighbor for years, began to show signs of decline slowly but looking back they resemble many of the early fumblings–-repetition, a change in personality, a tenancy to think others were "after their stuff," a loss of recognition of people ( my mother thought my husband was the postman, that my brother was her husband and that I was her mother.)
I agree with Victoria: We have been talking about Trump's mental acuity from the get-go––it could be possible that he doesn't have the beginnings of dementia and that he is just a first class asshole that has lost his moorings and displays his malatesta bigly and often or/and his paranoia and fanaticism naturally occupies a mind that is closed and fearful. Whatever may be lurking in that lecher's insides we just want him GONE!
@safari: Good question about pence. He surfaced as briefly as Constitutionally possible for the swearings-in of Jones & Smith. (How likely is it that people named Smith & Jones would be sworn in as senators at the same time? Well, more likely than Murkowski & Barrasso, I guess. But I do think it's likely that the House will open & investigation of these two Democrats to find out if Smith & Jones are aliases.)
Also, too, it seems Ivanka & Jared are partying down rather than consoling Dad or worrying about the styles of their own orange jumpsuits. Newsweek:
"Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner were both seen at a party at the Trump hotel in Washington Thursday night while President Donald Trump was still battling it out with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon because of his remarks from journalist Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. 'Meanwhile, Kushner and Ivanka Trump are doing a party at the Trump hotel tonight, as the Bannon book rages on,' tweeted Maggie Haberman."
The condemned couple ate a hearty meal?
Weekend at Trumpy's
First, dementia. Yes. No question, Marie, you had it right. And not just dementia, but dementia with the standard issue Trump base (and I do mean base) qualities of bigotry, misogyny, nativism, and white supremacy, doused liberally with his core narcissism. Even if we had a president who had been the most sterling example of competence, kindness, wisdom, and intelligence, the onset of dementia changes things. But we don't have that. Instead we have a vulgar, greedy, malicious, double-dealing, callous cheat....who is descending into dementia. Minus a penchant for serial killing and torture (oh wait, he LOVES torture--never mind), about as bad as you can get.
Congressional Confederates all know this and all will let him rattle on until it's too late.
As Victoria suggests, we're cooked. Confederates will never demand that Trump be tested to see if his mental wherewithal is sufficient for the job at hand. If he were to suddenly keel over, they'd do a "Weekend at Bernie's" and have little mikey pence shove his hand up Trump's ass and move his head around to make it look like he was still alive. pence is used to having his hands in pretty nasty things, so he won't mind.
As for the Wolff problem, I'd be stumped...if we were talking about a minimally competent White House with a professional staff. There isn't anyone I don't know who steps into my office that I don't at least casually check out (you can check out most professionals on Linked In), if for no other reason than to see what their background is like. Were I to get a call from a journalist, I'd spend a half hour or so reviewing their work, just because you can, now. And were I to see that the writer asking for an interview (never mind asking to take up residence for six months) had done a fair number of hard core tell-alls, I'd very likely say thanks but no thanks. Don't need that kind of headache.
And I don't work in the freakin' White House! Incompetent jamokes, the lot of 'em.
It does look as if Wolff was laying pipe for this book with at least a couple of aggressively pro-Trump pieces. A piece in the Hollywood Reporter after the election (gleefully reprinted by Breitbart!) describes Trump as some kind of genius who took the dim media for a ride and kicked them out just as he was driving triumphantly across the finish line. We all admit the media fell down bigly in 2016, but not because they were wrong about Trump's faults. But according to Wolff, Trump has changed everything by dint of his wonderfulness. I'm sure that went a long way to gaining him access. I'm tempted to say that Wolff will never be given similar access again after this, but people are stupid. That's how Trump was elected. How many times has Trump lied and cheated, then bragged about it? And still, idiots believed everything he said.
Stupid.
And now we're stuck with Weekend at Trumpy's. A brain-dead fat body being lugged around by courtiers, family members, and Confederate "leaders" in order to get what they can before the corpse starts rotting.
Thanks, PD.
I'll take the compliment, but I really don't know where the original urge came from. Can report though it's now a habit like doing dishes in the morning, weather allowing (glad I'm not dealing with yours) riding a bike into the nearby town along the diked river road, or assailing our local paper with a succession of what's the matter with Republican screeds.
Probably initially arose from a there but for fortune (and age) kind of thing, but as I tell everyone who asks when I show up, I'm just keeping my own bed warm.
I do see a chicken and egg thing here that meshes with my frequent thoughts about the difference between liberals and today's conservatives. To what degree is that difference simply a state of mind?
Is one "kind" because one is a liberal...or is it the reverse?
I don't know. What I do know is that what we call kindness doesn't have its roots in greed, and whatever the source of my behavior, though watching people fade into nothingness is not always pleasant, I do it because it makes me feel good.
I also know that wherever the difference between liberals and conservatives originates, because of their effects I have concluded that the behavior of today's Republicans is not just mistaken or misled but downright evil, which leaves me with this head scratcher:
The truly evil things they do must make them feel good, too.
Who will the little king blame when cruise ships in Bar Harbor burn and sink after the oil-filled water catches fire, or when sea life and birds killed by an oil leak wash up on Malibu?
I guess that'll be Obama's fault.
I can see it now, South Beach: sea, sand, wind, and Quaker State.
Oh, here's something else to think about. As the little king, his evil elf, and the industry toady pretending to be in charge in Interior toss out regulations and environmental protections, forget about a quick clean up with reparations made by whichever oil companies in the upcoming Spill of the Week, are at fault. There'll be no laws or regs on the books requiring Trump's pals to do anything.
Better get ready for Oil Slick Around America.
So much winning.
"Oil Slick Around America". MAGA: Make America
Greasy Again.
Well one thing Wolff's Tales from the Monkey House has cleared up is that screaming match between Trumpy article cutter-outer and suit steamer, Hope Hicks, and his resident thug Corey Lewandowski. Some time back, they were seen on 61st St. in Manhattan in the midst of a full scale blowout, with Hicks "doubled over with her fists clenched" screaming "I am done with you!"
At the time, Trumpy spinners tried to say it was some kind of minor "campaign disagreement" or perhaps the "continuation of a discussion". Really? Continuation of a discussion? About what? Fucking off and dying?
It seems now Lewandowski was trying to be just like the boss, cheating on his wife. And with a much younger woman, to boot; and said woman, it seems, had had just about enough of her philandering douchebag, assault-loving boyfriend. And in public too!
All the best people.
So much winning.
Kicked to the Curb
The guy who appeared on the cover of Time not long ago, described as the Master Manipulator, but looking more like Darth Vader without his helmet, is getting his comeuppance. The slide happens quickly when it comes, don't it?
In fairly short order, Bannon, promising WAR on the Confederate machers like Mitch McConnell, flamed out in his backing of child molester Roy Moore. Trump, by association, looked bad as well, something the little king does not forget or forgive. Then comes the Wolff revelations of Bannon's incendiary quotes (throwing more fuel on the collusion fire), and a day or so later, a Dear John letter from Rebekah Mercer. "Dear Steve, kindly drop dead."
So what to make of it all?
First: hahahahahahahaha. Okay, now that that's out of the way, the Mercer thing. It's pretty clear that no matter how nasty, how evil, how manipulative oligarchs like the Mercers have been, they don't want to appear to be nasty, evil, and manipulative. The Kochs pretend to be just folks who just want a "better guv'mint". Yeah. And Bashar al-Assad wants world peace and happiness for all.
The Mercers, white supremacist assholes, are terrified of being seen as white supremacist assholes, and thus, continued association with one of the great white supremacist assholes, Bannon, as "smart" as they took him to be, is costing them money, and that, dear friends, is the bottom line.
Bannon and Trump. It couldn't last, could it? Two gigantic egos based mostly on fantasy, except that in Trump's case, his desires now carry the weight of the office he inhabits, despite losing the popular vote by millions.
Verdi, in his titanic opera, Don Carlo, offers the massive encounter of two similarly enormous egos in a battle for supremacy, King Phillip, and the Grand Inquisitor. The Inquistor demands that the king bow to the church and hand over his son and another trusted advisor to the Spanish Inquisition for torture and death. The king is forced to submit. The cross beats the crown. Here, however, the little king banishes the Right's New Inquisitor who thought he had them all by the short hairs. He's lost everything he thought he held firmly in his DT shaken hands.
Sic transit gloria, asshole.
Say what? Callum Borchers of the Washington Post article from The Fix has an headline that is totally baffling. What? Click bait?
( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/05/trump-book-author-michael-wolff-made-a-damaging-admission-on-the-today-show )
"Trump book author Michael Wolff made a damaging admission on the ‘Today’ show"
............Boldface above is mine.
As though Wolff made some huge journalistic faux pas by admitting on his Today interview...
GUTHRIE: Did you flatter your way in?
WOLFF: I certainly said what was ever necessary to get the story.
Oh, yeah. That's so shocking! So scandalous! that someone might do that.
MAG,
Saw that. Ridiculous. Should he have said, "Well, I'm here to do a hit piece on your fraud of a boss"? No one does that. If he said "I'm going to be a fly on the wall for the first 100 days", that would have been absolutely truthful. Was the assumption that he would ignore the insanity, inanity, and stunning incompetence evident all around the place? If so, they're all stupider than they already seem.
But attempting to question the veracity of what Wolff saw and heard because he "flattered his way in" is silly on its face. Are these people small children? Have they never spent time with a salesman? Flattery is a tool used every day in many walks of life by all kinds of people for all sorts of reasons. Most adults learn to take it for what it is. Trumpies apparently believe it and thus were somehow unfairly taken advantage of? Is that the idea? Puh-leese.
Marie,
Alias Smith and Jones?
Heh-heh. I get it.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, you have to be kinda old to get that.
BYW, that's "Sic transit gloria mundi." For you kids, the English translation is "Gloria got sick on the bus Monday."
@Bea: Don't toy with us. Us kids can all Wickipedia "Sic etc."
And better that Smith and Jones got in instead of
Smith and Wesson.