;)
The Commentariat -- July 12, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here: "More than 15,000 new cases of the coronavirus were announced on Sunday in Florida, marking the highest single-day total of known cases in any state since the start of the pandemic.... Florida also saw single-day records in the counties that include Florida's largest cities, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach, Pensacola and Sarasota."
Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, but this photo-op of Trump wearing a mask Saturday at Walter Reed Medical Center is ridiculous. He has to glower? He has to be in a hospital full of sick people to wear a mask? He has to be followed by an entourage of mask-wearing men in suits & military uniforms? Also, too, it's been reported staff had to beg him for a week before the hospital visit to don the mask, which includes the presidential* seal: ~~~
Justin Wise of the Hill: "President Trump late Saturday lashed out at a pair of Republican senators after they criticized his decision to commute the prison sentence of ... Roger Stone.... 'Do RINO'S Pat Toomey & Mitt Romney have any problem with the fact that we caught Obama, Biden, & Company illegally spying on my campaign? Do they care if Comey, McCabe, Page & her lover, Peter S, the whole group, ran rampant, wild & unchecked - lying & leaking all the way? NO!'"
Mariam Khan of ABC News: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., blasted Republicans for failing to stand up to the president and for not defending the 'rule of law,' after the president moved to commute the prison sentence of his longtime friend and former campaign adviser, Roger Stone. 'I think anyone who cares about the rule of law in this country is nauseated by the fact that the president has commuted the sentence of someone who willfully lied to Congress,' Schiff told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week' Sunday.... When asked by Stephanopoulos if Trump's action was an impeachable offense, Schiff said it would be if Trump abused the pardon power to protect himself from criminal liability. But, Schiff noted, 'If the Republicans won't even say a word, of course they're not going to vote to impeach and convict.'"
Lindsey Suggests Bob Mueller Will Pay for Writing Op-Ed. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) suggested Sunday that former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III may be invited to testify before his panel, although Graham did not give any details on the timing of any potential invitation. Graham's statement came one day after Mueller defended his office's prosecution of Roger Stone ... in a Washington Post op-ed.... In his statement Sunday, Graham suggested that he had reconsidered his position on allowing Mueller to testify in light of the former special counsel's op-ed. 'Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing -- and also capable -- of defending the Mueller investigation through an oped in the Washington Post,' Graham said. 'Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted.'"
Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a part I accidentally left out of my outtakes from Michael Shear's NYT interview of Elaine Duke, former acting Homeland Security secretary: "She said she was especially taken aback, during the response to Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico, when she heard Mr. Trump raise the possibility of 'divesting' or 'selling' the island as it struggled to recover. 'The president's initial ideas were more of as a businessman, you know,' she recalled. 'Can we outsource the electricity? Can we can we sell the island? You know, or divest of that asset?' (She said the idea of selling Puerto Rico was never seriously considered or discussed after Mr. Trump raised it.)" Island Swap: Buy Greenland (white people); sell Puerto Rico (browner people).
Kevin Blackstone of the Washington Post reminds us of "the most athletic activist feat during an era in which we have come to celebrate the notion of athlete activism[:]... Bree Newsome ... scal[ing] a 30-foot flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina State House and snatch[ing] from its truck and finial with full dishonor a Confederate flag that flapped there..., as a rebuttal to racial justice for more than half a century.... She was arrested after coming down, flag in hand. '[Physicality] was significant,' Newsome Bass [now married] said. 'Because people see me do this labor of climbing up the pole as symbolic of the struggle to dismantle a white supremacist system.' A few weeks later, South Carolina removed the flag and stuck it in a museum." Newsome, who wasn't an athlete, got a Greenpeace activist to teach her to climb a flagpole. ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
A Reprieve for Roger
Robert Mueller, in a Washington Post op-ed, whacks Donald Trump & defends the Russia investigation & the case against Roger Stone. "... I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office.... Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so. Russia's actions were a threat to America's democracy.... The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Omertà. Sharon LaFraniere & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Months before F.B.I. agents arrived in darkness at his Florida home to take him into custody, Roger J. Stone Jr. promised ..., 'I will never roll on Donald Trump'.... The president's decision on Friday to commute Mr. Stone's prison sentence for impeding a congressional inquiry and other crimes was extraordinary because federal prosecutors had suspected that Mr. Stone could shed light on whether Mr. Trump had lied to them under oath or illegally obstructed justice. Even Mr. Stone suggested a possible quid pro quo, telling a journalist hours before the announcement that he hoped for clemency because Mr. Trump knew he had resisted intense pressure from prosecutors to cooperate.... Mr. Trump repeatedly praised Mr. Stone and others for refusing to aid the investigation. In a December 2018 tweet, he singled out Mr. Stone for resisting 'a rogue and out of control prosecutor,' adding, 'Nice to know that some people still have "guts!"'" Mrs. McC: The relationship between Trump & Stone is an exemplar of how the Mafia & other crime organizations operate.
Jesse Byrnes & Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "GOP Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) on Saturday sharply condemned President Trump's commutation for ... Roger Stone.... 'Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president,' Romney tweeted Saturday morning.... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted Friday before the commutation was announced that 'in my view it would be justified' for Trump to intervene, saying, 'This was a non-violent, first-time offense.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Zach Brendza of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Sen. Pat Toomey [R-Pa.] calls President Trump's commutation of Roger Stone's sentence a 'mistake.'" Mrs. McC: Toomey's "criticism" was mighty mealy-mouthed.
Emma Newburger of CNBC: "Attorney General William Barr spoke with ... Donald Trump about Roger Stone and recommended against granting him clemency, an administration official told NBC News. Other White House officials were also opposed to Trump's decision due to fears of political blowback, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to a person familiar with the matter. Another person familiar with the matter told NBC that advisors told the president that granting Stone clemency 'was a big mistake.' The official also said that the Department of Justice had nothing to do with the president's decision to commute Stone's sentence.... Barr had previously said that Stone's prosecution was 'righteous' and the sentence was fair, and defended his decision to oppose a stricter sentence for Stone."
"Worse Than Nixon." Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker: "... Nixon never gave a pardon, or commuted a sentence, of anyone implicated in the Watergate scandal. But, on Friday night, Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of Roger Stone.... William Barr ... had already overridden the sentencing recommendation of the prosecutors who tried the case -- a nearly unprecedented act.... But Barr's unseemly interference ... was somehow not enough for the President.... The only trace of shame in Trump's announcement was that he delivered it on a Friday night -- supposedly when the public is least attentive.... The Stone commutation isn't just a gift to an old friend -- it is a reward to Stone for keeping his mouth shut during the Mueller investigation. It is, in other words, corruption on top of cronyism.... One of the touchstones of authoritarian political cultures is the use of the criminal-justice system to reward friends and punish enemies." (Also linked yesterday.)
Max Boot of the Washington Post: "... what makes Trump the worst president ever is not simply that he is colossally incompetent. It is that he is also thoroughly corrupt. It is hard to think of a single major decision he has made for the good of the country, rather than for his own advantage.... While seeking vengeance against those who spoke the truth about his ugly machinations, Trump has sought to reward those who broke the law on his behalf.... He is not just the worst president ever; he keeps getting worse."
Quinta Jurecic & Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare: "... the predictable nature of Trump's action should not obscure its rank corruption. In fact, the predictability makes the commutation all the more corrupt, the capstone of an all-but-open attempt on the president's part to obstruct justice in a self-protective fashion over a protracted period of time.... Trump publicly encouraged Stone not to cooperate with Robert Mueller's investigation, he publicly dangled clemency as a reward for silence, and he has now delivered. The act is predictable precisely because the corrupt action is so naked.... According to newly unsealed material in the Mueller report, [Stone is] a person who had the power to reveal to investigators that Trump likely lied to Mueller -- and to whom Trump publicly dangled rewards if Stone refused to provide Mueller with that information.... Trump clearly knew about and encouraged Stone's outreach to WikiLeaks, the unredacted report shows. Yet in written answers the president provided to Mueller's office..., Trump insisted that he did not recall ... any discussions with Stone of WikiLeaks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
David Frum of the Atlantic: "The amazing thing about the Trump-Stone story is how much of it happened in the full light of day.... Stone told the journalist Howard Fineman why he lied and whom he was protecting. 'He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn't.' You read that, and you blink. As the prominent Trump critic George Conway tweeted: 'I mean, even Tony Soprano would have used only a pay phone or burner phone to say something like this.' Stone said it on the record to one of the best-known reporters in Washington. In so many words, he seemed to imply: I could have hurt the president if I'd rolled over on him. I kept my mouth shut. He owes me." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
With the economy in the tank & millions of Americans out of work, the Lincoln Project -- with a little help from Trump -- obliterates Trump's only remaining campaign theme: the Nixonian, racist "law and order" dog-whistle:
Cohen's Re-imprisonment Unconstitutional. Ryan Goodman of Just Security: "On Thursday morning, Michael Cohen ... was returned to prison.... Cohen's reimprisonment followed his apparently being caught on camera at a NYC restaurant in violation of conditions of home confinement.... However..., as the New York Times' Maggie Haberman described, 'Cohen imprisonment wasn't related to NY Post photo of him at restaurant. When he went to switch from furlough to home confinement, he had to sign papers saying no media or publishing a book, which he refused to sign.'... I asked some of the country's leading First Amendment law experts for their views about the agreement Cohen was told to sign.... They are almost uniform in decrying the condition placed on Cohen by the Bureau of Prisons, an agency under William Barr's Justice Department.... Former Provost of the University of Chicago and Professor Geoffrey R. Stone calls the government's action 'patently unconstitutional.' Robert Corn-Revere says it is 'an obvious violation of his First Amendment rights.' The ACLU's Vera Eidelman writes that it is 'almost certainly unconstitutional.' Laura R. Handman ... writes that the government's action is a 'profound affront to the First Amendment ... all the more so when the content of what he would share would likely be ... information that is particularly vital to an informed public as they decide whether the President merits re-election.' Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University..., also not[ed] 'this gag order is to suppress speech about the president, which is speech at the core of the First Amendment's concern.'"
The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dennis Romero & Austin Mullen of NBC News: "The United States saw another record day for new coronavirus cases, surpassing 70,000 for the first time, according to an NBC News tally Friday.... Sunbelt states experiencing surges including California, Florida, Texas and Georgia contributed to the record tally. California reported 7,798 new cases Friday, and state officials said they're considering releasing about 8,000 inmates from a prison system battered by the virus. In South Florida, NBC Miami reported [t]hat seven area hospitals have no intensive care beds available as a result of being inundated with virus patients." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Eileen Sullivan & Erica Green of the New York Times: "Federal materials for reopening schools, shared the week President Trump demanded weaker guidelines to do so, said fully reopening schools and universities remained the 'highest risk' for the spread of the coronavirus. The 69-page document, obtained by The New York Times and marked 'For Internal Use Only,' was intended for federal public health response teams to have as they are deployed to hot spots around the country. But it appears to have circulated the same week that Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would release new guidelines, saying that the administration did not want them to be 'too tough.' It is unclear whether Mr. Trump saw the document, nor is it clear how much of it will survive once new guidance is completed.... And as Mr. Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos were trying to pressure local schools to comply with their reopening vision, the document was expressly saying the federal government should not override local judgment."
Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "... as the Trump administration has strayed from the advice of many of its scientists and public health experts, the White House has moved to sideline [Anthony] Fauci, scuttled some of his planned TV appearances and largely kept him out of the Oval Office for more than a month even as coronavirus infections surge in large swaths of the country. In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president's crosshairs. During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci 'is a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes.'... Fauci has found other ways to get his message out, from online Facebook chats to podcasts and print media interviews. And in recent days, with coronavirus cases slamming hospitals in the South and West, he has been frankly critical of the U.S. response -- and implicitly, of the president." There's a rich bit about the White House's cancelling Fauci's network TV appearances after Fauci displeased King Donald.
Americans Subsidizing Hate. Roger Sollenberger of Salon: "Organizations listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) received millions of dollars in government-backed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, according to data from the Small Business Administration. The Center for Media and Democracy was the first to report on the loans, which went to six nonprofits for a total of somewhere between $2,350,000 and $5,700,000.... The largest loan went to the American Family Association, which was allotted between $1 million and $2 million to support 124 jobs.... Between 2013 and 2017, the group reported combined revenues in excess of $105 million.... The SPLC listed AFA as a hate group in 2010 after former top official Bryan Fischer blamed gay men for the Holocaust.... Right-wing activist David Lane posted an article Tuesday on the AFA website calling antifa and Black Lives Matter an 'alliance between the two devils of Nazism and communism.'" --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Worth remembering: those millions are more gifts than loans: if the organizations meet (or claim to meet) certain criteria, the loan amounts are forgiven.
A Grieving Young Woman Speaks Truth to Power. Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "When her father died of covid-19 last month, Kristin Urquiza minced no words assigning blame. Mark Urquiza, 65, should still be alive, his daughter wrote in a scathing obituary, published Wednesday in the Arizona Republic. 'His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk,' she wrote. The searing tribute encapsulates the fury of critics who say governments a multiple levels are failing at their most basic duty: keeping citizens safe. The obituary also nods at the outbreak's disproportionate impact on black and Hispanic communities, which have experienced higher rates of coronavirus-related hospitalization and death. Among the leaders whom Kristin Urquiza feels failed her father, a Mexican American resident of Phoenix who worked in manufacturing, are Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) and the Trump administration. Ducey, she said, 'has blood on his hands' for beginning to reopen the state in early May, roughly three weeks before new infections started to rise quickly."
Michael Shear of the New York Times interviews Elaine Duke, the acting secretary of Homeland Security in 2017. "Ms. Duke's most lasting legacy is likely to be the memo she signed -- under pressure -- to end [DACA]. Her decision not to cite any specific policy reasons was at the heart of the Supreme Court's ruling, which said the Trump administration had failed to substantively consider the implications of terminating the program's protections and benefits. Ms. Duke said she did not include policy reasons in the memo because she did not agree with the ideas being pushed by [Stephen] Miller and [Jeff] Sessions: that DACA amounted to an undeserved amnesty and that it would encourage new waves of illegal immigration.... Ms. Duke [-- a Republican --] is the latest in a series of senior officials who have gone public to describe -- often in vivid, behind-the-scenes detail -- their discomfort and sometimes shock at the inner workings of the Trump presidency.... She described an administration that is often driven by ideology instead of deliberation, values politics over policy and is dominated by a president who embraces 'hate-filled, angry and divisive' language."
Chantal da Silva of Newsweek: "The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is set to launch a six-week 'Citizens Academy' course on immigration enforcement, which will include [six days of training over a six-week period starting in September] ...for citizens on how to arrest undocumented immigrants.... Included in the course would be training in 'defensive tactics, firearms familiarization and targeted arrests.... Speaking with Newsweek on Thursday..., Chicago Congressman Jesús 'Chuy' García said he was disturbed by the program, which he fears will lead to racial profiling, surveillance and potential violence.'... As a member of Congress, García had thought a program like this would have been brought to lawmakers' attention prior to its rollout, but it never was." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Absolutely horrifying. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump turned the "graduates" of his "Citizens Academy" into troops to defend him when he loses the election and refuses to leave the White House.
Jeremy Schwarz & Perla Trevizo of The Texas Tribune & Propublica: "[Tommy Fisher, president of North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, t]he builder of a privately funded border wall along the shores of the Rio Grande, agreed to an engineering inspection of his controversial structure, which experts say is showing signs of erosion that threatens its stability just months after the $42 million project was finished.... On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane instructed attorneys to work out details of the inspection and to come to an agreement about fixes for a part of the 3-mile fence that violates a treaty with Mexico by deflecting too much water during floods." --s
Sopan Deb of the New York Times: "On Monday, the W.N.B.A. announced that its upcoming season would be 'dedicated to social justice with games honoring the Black Lives Matter movement.' It did not seem to be a relatively controversial or surprising message, considering how engaged W.N.B.A. players have been in the movement, which has also drawn support from a wide range of corporations and even the most controversy-averse sports leagues, like the N.F.L., since the killing of George Floyd in May. But the expression -- and the movement it supports -- bothered at least one W.N.B.A. owner, who also happens to be a sitting senator in the midst of a difficult campaign for her seat. Senator Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, is a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream and has been vocally criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement and the league's embrace of it. Loeffler is now facing widespread denunciations from players around the league. The W.N.B.A. commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, released a statement this week distancing the league from Loeffler. Now, the league is grappling with questions about whether an owner who appears to be fundamentally opposed to the league's stated values can remain in her position."
Presidential Race
Maureen Dowd compares the characters of Joe Biden & Donald Trump. Joe wins.
Fox "News" Execs Shocked & Horrified They Had a Racist on Staff. Aidan McLaughlin of Mediaite: "Fox News brass condemned the 'horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist and homophobic comments' secretly made by Tucker Carlson's lead writer in an internal memo sent to employees Saturday. CNN reported Friday evening that Fox News writer Blake Neff posted shockingly racist and sexist posts anonymously on an internet message board for years. The posts coincided with his time as the top writer of highly rated prime time show Tucker Carlson Tonight. Neff resigned from his position in response to CNN's reporting.... [The executives] added that Carlson will address the controversy on his show Monday night. The Fox News host did not address the CNN report on his show Friday -- though he took a vague shot at CNN."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Russia. Mary Ilyushina of CNN: Russian whistleblowers, environmental groups and reporters have exposed a huge Arctic oil spill near "the Siberian city of Norilsk, where six weeks ago a huge fuel tank at a power plant ruptured, spilling thousands of tons of diesel into the river.... The owner of the plant, the Nornickel metals giant, says the spill was quickly contained, and the damage limited." The spill has received rare public attention, including from Vladimir Putin. --s
News Lede
CNN: "Twenty-one people were injured after an explosion and fire on board a ship at the US Naval Base in San Diego, US Navy officials said. 'Seventeen Sailors and four civilians are being treated for non-life threatening injuries at a local hospital,' the US Navy said in a statement. The sailors on the USS Bonhomme Richard had 'minor injuries' from the fire and were taken to a hospital, Lt. Cmdr. Patricia Kreuzberger told CNN earlier Sunday. All of the crew is off the ship and accounted for, according to a tweet from the US Pacific Fleet Naval Surface Forces Sunday afternoon. Firefighters battled a three-alarm fire on the ship Sunday morning, SDFD's Mónica Muñoz said. Several different agencies worked to fight the blaze."
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Reader Comments (26)
Tonight I'm thinking of Barr's Pontius Pilate hand washing protestations over the Stone commutation is likely just part of an act, staged as a righteous counter to all the deserved reputation-ruining press he's gotten lately.
See what they've done to me?
Note to Lindsey Graham, who is lavishing even greater than usual tonguing attention to Trump’s shit and blood stained boots, describing a despicable and historically corrupt act, the quid pro quo commutation by Fatty of the sentence of a co-conspirator who threatened to roll on him, as perfectly okay because Stone is a “non-violent first time offender”:
Treason is not a “non-violent” offense. Stone’s actions helped propel a vicious criminal into the White House, a sociopathic thug who has wreaked more violence on the American system and its constitution than all the wars of the 20th century put together. As for “first time offender”? By the time he was a “first time offender”, Ted Bundy had wracked up quite a resume. Stone has been a serial offender since his first job. He was just never prosecuted and found guilty. You might as well say that a treasonous double agent like Aldrich Ames, who was responsible over many years for the exposure and murder of many CIA assets (kind of like Trump), was a “first time offender” when he was finally nailed.
New ring of hell, please, Signor Alighieri. Better make it a big one.
By your companions (and head writer) they shall know ye...
Can’t wait for whatever laughable bullshit excuse C.K Dexter Bow Tie Tuckface comes up with for hiring and promoting a racist, homophobic, misogynistic piece of shit as his head writer. “Oh my goodness! I had no idea!”
Decent people don’t surround themselves with lowlife creeps. Similarly, card carrying bigots and white supremacists don’t hire open minded, honorable, unbiased thinkers to put words in their mouth.
This Neff douchebag has been working with Fuckface Carlson for years, since they were spreading hatred and fomenting violence against gays, non-whites, and women back at the Daily Cholera.
And Fox? A safe haven for bigots and haters. An open sewer.
No wonder it’s Fatty’s first stop for his daily injection of off the chain bigotry and stupidity.
Carlson may try to whine about having no idea that the person who loads up his teleprompter every night is a “Nigger this and faggot that” kind of vermin, but he’ll just be doing what he always does: lying.
And leave us not forget that Fuckface Carlson, who keeps his “Nigger this...” guy right beside him is on Fatty’s speed dial.
KNIVES OUT:
If we just take the words of Howard Fineman, Max Boot, the Lincoln Project video above, and Elaine Duke, it would suffice to bring down a thoroughly corrupt head of state speedily and throughly along with his parade of marching order miscreants. We, however, are not living in "normal"times and the heaping vitriol and revealing corruption writ large will probably sit like an infected boil on the thin skin of accountability.
I want that "ring of hell" brought down to earth–-I want to SEE the burning. There is not an inch of forgiveness in my otherwise forgiving nature––I'm with the Lord, on this one: Revenge is mine saith the Lass.
A morning expansion of last night's remark:
It may take years to locate, treat and heal (where it is not already terminal or unrecoverable) all the damage this administration has done to the planet and the polity.
We here have already suggested the Biden team and some in the blessed Deep State that have been keeping the nation minimally functional during the horrible last three years have already been making a list of what damage needs immediate treatment. Fortune willing, in Biden's first year we'll get to see how well they've begun to treat and reverse the course of the worst of those Pretender-induced ailments.
Among those worst, leading the list perhaps, is faith in government. From the beginning, building on the silly Reagan slogan and the impulse of the party that wants to control the government they wish to destroy, the Pretender and his buddy Bannon, with their Deep State shit and their self-serving attacks on the institutions that got in their personal way, like the FBI, or in the way of their own or their buddies' profit, like the EPA, did all they could to undermine faith in government, even going so far as to staff departments with people who oppose their very purpose.
And leading the way, a double-whammy presidunce, whose constant stream of lies proves by example you can't trust anything that comes from him or his office, while some of those lies and cries of "hoax, hoax" simultaneously diminish the credibility of other government institutions and the people who work in them.
The Pretender has finally made Reagan Republicans' wet dream come true. The Pretender government is the problem.
Some of that damage may be irreversible, particularly where it is lodged in that part of the population that has been trained over the generations to reflexively blame government for everything, but I'm hoping that the Biden administration will make restoring government's reputation and trust in its institutions and the people who make government work for the people a deliberate priority.
Wouldn't it be refreshing, for instance, to have the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protections agencies' names actually mean what their titles say?
There's more to the fishy Fisher story, but here's some of it:
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/fisher-sand-gravel-wins-400m-army-corps-border-wall-contract/568399/
Another instance of the top to bottom Pretender corruption destroying any trust people might have in their government.
Note to all about "Citizens Academy"? Sign up as a pro-immigrant rights citizen. I bet if the classes filled with Pat Schroeder loving grandparents, BLMers, immigrants, and law supporting liberals then the program would be mysteriously cancelled.
And because no week is full until the Blackfeet are mentioned twice:https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-closed-border-pandemic-weary-tourists-and-a-big-bottleneck-at-glacier-national-park/2020/07/10/607694f2-c2c0-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html. Simply put, Native American have been dealing with the malevolence and ineptitude of the white, christian, male-dominated, hierarchical government since the Euro's invaded. Why should they trust the untrustworthy?
@Ken Winkes: Thanks for the essay on "government is the problem." It's clear that Republicans, at least since the Reagan era (I"m looking at you, Newt Gingrich) have done their damnedest to make Reagan's infamous pronouncement a self-fulfilling prophecy. Skillful Republicans (I'm looking at you, Moscow Mitch) have done so sneakily and diabolically. Now Trump and his Band of Merry Miscreants have come in with sledgehammers & chainsaws to do as much damage as possible.
A renewed faith in the potential of government is not something a real president can do by himself (or, someday, herself). There has never been a better teacher in the Oval Office than Barack Obama, and he could not make a dent in the minds of the Freedumb crowd. Maybe the president is the de facto American patriarch, but real fathers and mothers are going to have to do their parts. So are local leaders, from preachers to, yes, the cop on the beat. Government workers not only have to teach; they have to lead by example -- that is, do their jobs right. (And, hell, if that doesn't work, let's repurpose Trump's alarming "Citizens Academies" [is this really going to happen?], round up the Freedumb fighters & "re-educate" them in just the way Michele Bachmann feared).
I read the linked article on ICE's "Citizens Academy." The proof will be in the execution, but on its face it doesn't seem worse than any of the other similar programs run by some agencies for decades. The FBI tour at DC HQ used to be famous as a "serious" tourist attraction, which took participants through the FBI's capabilities; a popular part was the gratuitous indoor range demo featuring tommy guns. The Army and Navy run open houses and some demonstrations (they don't call them "courses") that are keyed to congressional staff, governors' staff, senior emergency planners from feds/state/local/tribal organizations, which include mission briefs and capabilities demonstrations. The Army used to include helicopter lifts to troops training in the field (Ft Bragg) and allowing participants to drive a Bradley and shoot a few cannon rounds at the range. And so on.
The agencies that have whiz bang stuff like to use it to impress upon citizens (voters) and legislators (appropriators) how their mission is critical and how well they do it. They are reinforcing their budget justifications. Even the CIA has classified versions of this type of PR.
Conversely, the agencies that DON'T have whiz bang stuff tend not to hold demos and teach-ins that don't grab the attention. Too boring.
You probably don't have to worry about ICE's deal. The last major effort by DOJ, from the nineteen twenties to the fifties, to create a "citizen's g-men corps", was a serious problem. DOJ is the agency to worry about, not ICE.
@citizen625
You remind me of that wonderful T-shirt with a rifle-carrying Apache, I think it was, over printed with "Homeland Security since 1492" or some such.
When I see my older son later today, will ask if he still has it.
And, @Bea, you said it so well. In that sense, the most critical one, all government, from family to town, to state, to nation, is truly local. It all begins and ends with the people, individually and as groups, that are charged with forming and maintaining a more perfect union.
Seeing as we have mobsters running the White House, two observations:
-The achievement of the Roger Stone "commutation" should dispel arguments that the show is run by a bumbling clusterfuck. He can be BOTH a complete moron AND normalize overt corruption by knowing his way around the courts and legal stratosphere. He's perfected lawfare. Not only that, but politically, he just pulled off the ultimate 'stay out of jail' heist. Not even Nixon pardoned his fellow criminals. Here, only TWO GOP senators could utter a peep. That's it. And 85% of Republican voters have been brainwarped (it's a verb now, natch) into cheering on the disintegration of our legal system, apparently because of 'liberal tears'. That is some genius-level fuckery.
I mean, look at him. He has cheated, dodged, and bribed his way to the presidency. He's an idiot, but a very able one, with a whole network of enablers and grifters (barely) holding up a mask of competence while they steal and ransack behind the curtains. I remain very afraid and hardly confident about November.
-Given the very real mafia-esque qualities, I have to ask myself WHY Lindsey Graham, a US Senator himself, would have put out a tweet ahead of the announcement of commuting Stone's sentence, that he thought it'd "be okay" if he did it. Why would he put himself in front of the firing squad like that, over Roger fucking Stone? How does he benefit, at all? Remember that while John McCain was in the late stages of battling brain cancer, Stone tweeted that he would "burn in hell" for eternity.
https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/2017/08/26/trump-ally-roger-stone-says-sen-john-mccain-burn-hell/605685001/
Lindsey doesn't seem to be particularly close to Stone and doesn't have anything really invested in this fight besides being a complete and total brown-noser crammed up Drumpf's dirty diapers. That still doesn't explain why he wouldn't just hide in his own bunker away from microphones like every one of his other colleagues.
Remember that Drumpf brought Graham to the golf course just a couple weeks ago. I wonder what they talked about?
Citizen Academies? Don't we already have those, by way of the militia mighty morons?? It has not been mentioned in the MSM, but Elizabethtown, PA, had mysterious armed, bearded, tattooed yahoos standing on downtown roofs during a march last month-- supposedly not "invited" by local town fathers/mothers... It spawned the usual "defense" mouthing in the local press, but more people said it was frightening to see heavily armed men responsible to no one on the job of "defending" the businesses. A week or two later, a mysterious fully armed guy was spotted in the historical market in Lancaster. Conversation was had with him, and he claimed to be just sporting his open-carry rights, but people do NOT feel safe with rifles at the ready in public places. Why should they? Now, the armed white men could be, not only responsible to no one, but a threat to anyone that "looks" like a refugee or immigrant. It is super scary.
Interesting that moldy-mouth (haha, Marie-- improved on mealy-mouthed) Toomey actually said something vaguely critical of his lord and master. I don't think this was a road-to-Damascus moment-- he has shown how truly weather vane-y he is. I hope he has unpopulared himself into losing his job next time he is up for reelection, and November takes a worse guy, Lloyd Smucker, in the House, before him. Neither of them are worth a grain of salt. Smucker actually has his name on the yard signs with Dumpiepants.
On the plus side, the only Dump sign on a major boulevard in my hood is gone-- I think they moved, leaving us blues behind. Was it the finger I flung its way every day during walks? Anyway, happy to have one offending sign out of my sight. Biden signs are picking up speed.
Have a nice Sunday, everyone. The PA humidity is temporarily less so that is good for us. Stay cool.
This is the kind of law enforcement/citizen vigilantism we should worry about, from WW1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Protective_League
And here is the ACLU showing the FBI's flyer on how the current FBI Citizens Academy works:
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/ACLURM000534.pdf
It is actually quite popular.
Thanks to our Dear Leader and his henchman Ron DeSantis, Florida now holds the record for daily new cases of C-19 with 15,300.
While any federal or state action is unlikely other than to blame this on increased testing I expect some cities will be shutting down.
Jennifer's wish list.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/12/ten-ideas-post-trump-reform/
I hope she gets it for Christmas.
Safari,
Why would Lindsey Graham debase himself for a corrupt gang boss and his slobbering hit man?
I was chatting with a friend from South Carolina last week and he suggested that it’s connected to Graham’s affinity for male prostitutes. I had never heard anything about him being gay but my friend assured me that it’s the worst kept secret in the state. If that is the case, or if Graham, a staunch homophobe in the true GOP mold, is worried about appearances, that might explain his drooling sycophancy. He’s in a tight race for his job, and should Fatty decide to out him as a lesson in unquestioned fealty to his greatness to any other R thinking of opening his or her mouth, he would be toast.
Then again, if it really were a barely kept secret, I can’t see the majority of SC homophobic, Evangelical R’s voting for him, so who knows?
Whether it’s true or not is beside the point. If Graham fears a sharp gay-baiting tweet to the neck, he’d be happy to load the guns Fatty uses to shoot people on Fifth Ave., then fawningly compliment him on his excellent marksmanship.
On the other hand, he could just be a standard issue GOP serial asshole.
@Ak, here's an article from the WaPo from early June about Lady G.
@Patrick: Thanks for the links. Come to think of it, the Fort Myers police had a similar program (without the guns), and when I headed up the my neighborhood watch, I was invited/forced to attend. It wasn't bad, and I didn't become a police groupie.
And once when I was in Ireland, I came upon a small county fair. Among the festivities, the air force was taking fair-goers on helicopter hops. I think I could have gone, even tho I wasn't a citizen. And when I happened to be in Stockholm on July 4th, the U.S. Navy invited Swedes (and me!) onto a small ship for a tour. Both pretty harmless.
@Akhilleus: I have long assumed that Graham was gay, and I don't blame him for not broadcasting his orientation in a state like South Carolina. I imagine bigoted South Carolinians accept Graham in the same way they accept their "bachelor" uncles. As long as the subject doesn't arise, it's okay. It's the same reason all of us little girls in Hialeah, Florida, were allowed to go to ballet classes taught by a couple of "New York" men who lived together. That's the way it was. What a relief most of us are past that and people can be themselves. In most places.
@unwashed: Thanks for the link. I missed the story last month.
Not sure about Adlai Stevenson. He was married & had three children. After his divorce, he had a number of liaisons with women, including a long-time affair with the famously-beautiful (and married) Marietta Tree and, days before he died, a one-night stand with Kay Graham, the WashPo publisher. As I recall, she copped to it in her autobiography. While it's certainly possible he also had sexual relationships with men, from what I've read, those are fictions spread by FBI agents; Hoover, who was gay, didn't like Stevenson. Anyway, it seems Stevenson had a good time, and that's a good thing, no matter whom his partners might have been.
@Patrick. Your knowledgeable comment is calming. THX. In my county, we had a DA citizen’s academy. It was really helpful in educating the public about the criminal justice process. ‘Course the whiz bands for DAs are mostly their intelligence and the rule of law.
DJT is always compared to a mafia crime boss. He’s a crime boss only because he has the enormous resources of his position that he uses to crime. In his real life, it seems as if stood on the outside of the mafia who used him. If not for his money, made from grifting from his family and anyone else he could, he’d be a 3rd level hanger on. The guy you send for pizza.
Lindsey calling Mueller to testify?
I'm sure Mr. Mueller is terrified, but I doubt it will happen.
Mueller's op-ed was a calm expression of of his justified rage. Does Lindsay want to experience face to face his long-simmering outrage brought to a boil by Barr's and the Pretender's lies about his investigation and the more personal Pretender's lies about him?
I would think the last thing Republicans want in the months before the election is to hand Mueller another microphone.
@Anonymous: If my vast knowledge of the Mafia -- acquired from watching a couple of "Godfather" movies and pretty much all of "The Sopranos" -- is any indication, Donnie would indeed be a Mafia capo, a la Tony Soprano. This is not because Donnie is so smart and superior to other dumbos in his organization but because he is indeed family. That is, Donnie (not to mention the "Godfather"'s smarter Michael) inherited his position -- i.e., his wealth -- from his natural father. It's true that in each of these families, including Donnie's, the capo dei capi becomes the boss only after some family squabbles in which at least one rival dies. That is, all of these families are dysfunctional, and the most cunning of them comes out on top, at least for a period of time. (We don't know what happened to Tony in that last restaurant scene, but he very well might have ended up like the bent police captain in the famous "Godfather I" restaurant scene. David Chase won't say so, but I think that's why he ended the series in a restaurant where Tony felt "safe"; that is, to reference Francis Ford Coppola's famous restaurant assassination. Tony's time at the top might have ended at the restaurant.)
I once listened to an actual wiretap tape of a conversation between a couple of actual Mafia goons (I think I heard it on NPR), and they were as dumb as rocks. Smart guys don't become Mafiosi (The "Godfather"'s Michael was an exception to that rule, and Mario Puzo devised a plot twist to "turn" him from a straight-arrow to the leader of the family business.) These are people who, when they can't get what they want legitimately, break legs -- or in Donald's case, threaten, don't pay and/or bring nuisance lawsuits. Their hallmark is that they always cheat, and they're proud of it. Trump is so proud of cheating to win an election that he does it again and again, and effectively boasts about it every time: "of course I want to hear oppo info about my opponent from foreigners", a "perfect" call with Zelensky.
Donnie was a dope who kept screwing up and his father had to keep bailing him out, but Donnie was less a disappointment to the old man than was Fredo, I mean Fred, Jr. Donnie "won" by beating out his siblings.
And that's the story of why Donald Trump is President* of the United States instead of being a made man yelling at the pizza guy to hurry it up.
@Bea -
Your mafiosi narrative has recalled the following:
A dear buddy (first gen American via Italia) grew up in my current neighborhood when it was ruled by fearsome Famiglia thugs with handles like Jimmy The Jackhammer and Beppe The Butcher. (I’ve invented those as I’d sworn never to repeat the real names. Their offspring, I was warned - while now residing in the ‘burbs like Tony S. - were still in The Business.)
When in my twenties, I was walking along West Houston (you’ve mentioned living in NYC) when, flying out of a shiny black limo’s window, a partially eaten slice landed near my feet. (I was lots more risk-taking in those days.) How DARE someone litter and with PIZZA!
Well, I caught up with the limo at a red light and threw the slice back into the window where a plump, suited dude was seated. When the light changed, the slice came flying out again to the tune of (it sounded like) Italian profanity. I was to learn how lucky it was only the slice aimed at me as that limo had been driving a “Jackhammer”.
Re: Bree Newsome Bass’ Flagpole Climb & Descent
Ms. Newsome Bass appears (still squinting with generic replacement specs) to have achieved this gloveless and with long fingernails. Even with harness & gear this requires immense strength. (I was envisioning the chains and leather straps of slavery.)
A spectacular, physical metaphor.