;)
Monday
Jul232018
The Commentariat -- July 24, 2018
Afternoon Update:
The Liar-in-Chief had the audacity to tweet this today: "I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!"
"Tariffs Are the Greatest!" -- Trump. Damian Paletta & Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday plans to announce a $12 billion package of emergency aid for farmers caught in the midst of President Trump's escalating trade war, two people briefed on the plan said, the latest sign that growing tensions between the United States and other countries will not end soon. Trump ordered Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to prepare a range of options several months ago, amid complaints from farmers that their products faced retaliatory tariffs from China and other countries. The new package of government assistance funds will be announced Tuesday and is expected to go into effect by Labor Day. The aid package is expected to target soybean farmers, dairy farmers, and pork producers, among others. White House officials hope it will quiet some of the unease from farm groups, but the new plan could revive debates about taxpayer-funded bailouts and the degree to which Trump's trade strategy is leading to unforeseen costs." ...
... Adam Behsudi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday threatened Europe's car exports ahead of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's visit to Washington later this week, saying the European Union has been 'very tough' on the U.S. 'They're coming in to see me Wednesday and we'll see if we can work something out,' Trump said at a White House event celebrating American-made goods. 'Otherwise, we'll have to do something with respect to the millions of cars that they send in every year. Maybe we can work something out.' Trump is weighing a 20 percent tariff on imports of automobiles and auto parts under a law that allows the executive to impose tariffs and other trade restrictions if the Commerce Department determines that imports of certain goods threaten national security." ...
... Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "President Trump praised tariffs in a tweet Tuesday morning, saying 'tariffs are the greatest!' and countries that treat the United States unfairly on trade must either negotiate fair deals or get 'hit with tariffs. It's as simple as that - and everybody's talking!' Trump wrote. 'Remember, we are the 'piggy bank' that's being robbed. All will be great!"
Jill Colvin of the AP: "Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan is dismissing ... Donald Trump's threat to revoke the security clearances of six former top national security and intelligence officials who have been critical of his administration. 'I think he's just trolling people, honestly,' Ryan told reporters at a news conference Tuesday, addressing what opponents and experts say would be an unprecedented politicization of the clearance process."
Rachel Bade of Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday that [Vladimir] Putin will not be invited to give a joint-session of Congress, echoing comments Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office made Monday. 'We would certainly not be giving him an invitation to do a joint-session, Ryan said, referring to foreign leaders' ceremonial speech to Congress when they visit the nation's capital. 'That's something we reserve for allies.'... Meanwhile, the White House is moving forward with its plans to hold a second summit between Trump and Putin." ...
... Jen Hayden of Daily Kos: "... Department of Homeland Security officials say the Russians successfully hacked into the control rooms of U.S. electrical utilities and could've thrown the switches at any time. From the Wall Street Journal: 'The Russian hackers, who worked for a shadowy state-sponsored group previously identified as Dragonfly or Energetic Bear, broke into supposedly secure, 'air-gapped' or isolated networks owned by utilities with relative ease by first penetrating the networks of key vendors who had trusted relationships with the power companies, said officials at the Department of Homeland Security. 'They got to the point where they could have thrown switches' and disrupted power flows, said Jonathan Homer, chief of industrial-control-system analysis for DHS." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd guess Trump doesn't believe that. As he "explained" in December 2016, "Hacking is very interesting. Once they hack, if you don't catch them in the act, you're not going to catch them. They have no idea if it's Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place."
Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump would agree to an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators if it's limited to questions on whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on Monday night. Trump is demanding in return that he isn't asked questions about obstruction of justice in the probe into election interference, under a proposal the president's legal team submitted to Mueller, Giuliani said. The president's legal team is concerned that Mueller and his staff might believe witnesses who contradicted Trump's account, such as former FBI Director James Comey, Giuliani said. That could leave the president vulnerable to a perjury charge, he added. Mueller hasn't yet responded to the proposal, Giuliani ... said on Monday."
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors plan to call witnesses from the IRS, FBI and the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as part of the upcoming trial involving Paul Manafort, one of the lead investigators said in court Tuesday. The details on which government officials might be asked to testify in the former Donald Trump campaign manager's July 31 trial on bank and tax fraud charges came as the federal judge presiding in the case outlined some of its broad parameters to potential jurors, including the timeline of the alleged crimes. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III on Monday ordered Mueller's team to produce to the court its full witness list of some 30 people. During Tuesday's brief session, Ellis said he'd release that list to the public by the end of the week, despite opposition from the special counsel's office."
Sad! AP: "Ivanka Trump's clothing company is shutting down and all its employees are being laid off, according to news reports. The New York Post is reporting that its sources say the company 'will be shuttered "ASAP" and that staff have been informed that they're being laid off.'"
Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the top law enforcement officer in the country, participated in a chant of 'Lock her up' Tuesday, reviving a rallying cry from Donald Trump campaign events calling to jail Hillary Clinton. Sessions was addressing a conservative group's high school leadership summit in Washington...." Sessions chuckled as he joined the audience's chant.
Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats are largely giving Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh the brushoff, refusing the customary 'courtesy visits' until Republicans agree to turn over voluminous documents from the Supreme Court nominee's past.... Judge Kavanaugh has met with 23 Republicans, and not a single Democrat. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in an interview Monday that he would not meet with Judge Kavanaugh until the top Republican and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee reach agreement on what documents should be produced. And those two senators, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Dianne Feinstein of California, are still far apart.... Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in November, became the first Democrat to agree to a visit from Judge Kavanaugh...."
Heather Caygle of Politico: "House Democrats voted Tuesday to delay their leadership elections a full month past the November midterms, setting up a potentially lengthy and contentious battle for control of the caucus. Democrats will now vote on their leaders -- including speaker if they win back the House -- after Dec. 5."
Book Review. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Former White House press secretary and communications director Sean Spicer's book is riddled with elementary errors, according to a Tuesday review in the Wall Street Journal. ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl, who lived through Spicer's legendarily dishonest press briefings, wrote for the Journal that Spicer's memoir, 'The Briefing,' 'is much like his tenure as press secretary: short, littered with inaccuracies and offering up one consistent theme: Mr. Trump can do no wrong.'... Karl lists some basic mistakes in the book[.]"
Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ramped up threats against special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday, calling him a 'monster' and described shooting the former FBI Director. Jones' nearly 3-hour July 23 InfoWars broadcast ranged from rants about Hollywood pedophilia to social media "shadow bans" to outlandish allegations Mueller was personally involved in a child sex ring composed of left-leaning political figures.... Jones took on a particularly insidious tone during his Monday show, accusing Mueller of violent child sex acts before dramatizing a hypothetical 'wild west' shootout with Mueller.... 'It's not a joke. It's not a game. It's the real world. Politically. You're going to get it, or I'm going to die trying, bitch. Get ready. We're going to bang heads,' Jones continued, pretending to fire a gun at Mueller." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe if JeffBo is looking to lock up somebody, he could start with Jones., who just made a death threat against a top law enforcement official in Sessions' own department.
Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times: "The Los Angeles Police Department announced Tuesday that one of its officers fired the bullet that struck and killed a Trader Joe's employee in the frantic moments they exchanged gunfire with a suspect in an attempted murder case over the weekend.... The chief said he would wait until the investigation was completed before determining what consequences, if any, the officers involved in the gun battle would face internally. But on its face, he said, their decision to shoot at [the gunman] appeared justified."
*****
Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea has started dismantling a missile-engine test site, as President Trump said the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, promised he would during their historic summit meeting in Singapore in June, according to an analysis of satellite imagery of the location. The North Koreans have started taking apart the engine test stand at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, said Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., an expert on North Korea's weapons programs, in a report published on Monday on the website 38 North. The dismantling work probably began sometime within the last two weeks, he said. North Korea has also started dismantling a rail-mounted building at the Sohae station where workers used to assemble space launch vehicles before moving them to the launchpad, Mr. Bermudez said.... But it still remained unclear whether North Korea planned to raze th entire Sohae site in the country's northeast, which has been vital to its space program. In satellite images, other important facilities like fuel bunkers, a main assembly building and the gantry tower remain untouched. But dismantling activities at Sohae could be an encouraging sign for the Trump administration, which has so far had little to show for its efforts to denuclearize North Korea."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's threat that Iran would 'suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before,' delivered before midnight in all capital letters, succeeded in changing the subject after a week of bad headlines about his meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. But it only deepened questions about the long-term direction of Mr. Trump's Iran policy. While the White House on Monday did not rule out direct talks between the president and Iran's leaders over its nuclear program, Mr. Trump's hawkish national security team has put the focus more on toppling the Iranian government than striking a new deal with it. A few hours before Mr. Trump's tweet, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed in a speech that the United States would work with the Iranian people to undermine their clerical leaders, whom he described as 'hypocritical holy men,' guilty of looting their country to enrich themselves and finance Islamist terrorism around the world." ...
... Update: Do see Akhilleus's comments at the top of today's thread re: "hypocritical holy men." Akhilleus knocks the wind out of Li'l Randy's sails, BTW, much more effectively than Paul's enraged neighbor did. The pen is mightier....
Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "President Trump is considering whether to revoke the security clearances of former national security and law enforcement officials who served in the Obama administration and have criticized Mr. Trump, particularly his pursuit of diplomacy with Russia,the White House said on Monday. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump was looking to strip the clearances of John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director; James B. Comey, fired by Mr. Trump as F.B.I. director last year; James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence; and others.... She also said Mr. Trump is looking to strip the security clearance of Susan Rice, Mr. Obama's national security adviser, and Michael V. Hayden, the former head of the C.I.A. and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush administration.... She also singled out Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy director of the F.B.I., who was fired this year.... Her surprising announcement amounted to an unusual politicization of the security clearance process. Security clearances allow former officials to work with companies on classified programs and provide advice to those firms and sometimes to government agencies. Stripping their clearances could harm their ability to work as consultants and advisers in Washington." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds like a First-Amendment violation to me; the government can't discriminate against a person based upon her expressed opinions, unless those opinions are themselves unlawful. Until Susan Rice starts advocating for the overthrow of the government or putting up kiddie porn on her Facebook page, then she gets to keep her security clearance to the same extent other former high-level officials do. ...
... Update. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who is an attorney, agrees with my amateur analysis: "... the attempt to squelch criticism of the administration based on the content of these ex-officials' speech is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.... It also recalls an embarrassing legal loss in which a federal court instructed Trump not to block people on Twitter based on their political views.... Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe tells me, 'This is probably the clearest and most indefensible of Trump's First Amendment violations.'... Constitutional lawyer Joshua Matz ... concurs. '... Trump's use of that power [to control access to sensitive information] to retaliate against political critics poses a clear threat to First Amendment values. That is most clearly true to the extent Trump is establishing and acting pursuant to a policy of punishing former officials for protected political speech.'... In threatening to 'revoke' NBC';s license, casting the media as the enemy of the people, muzzling scientific panels and attempting to use the U.S. Post Office to punish Amazon for The Post's coverage (Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Post), Trump has aligned himself with a raft of illiberal strongmen who have recently won elections in Eastern Europe (and of course Turkey, Russia and other blatantly undemocratic countries)." ...
The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they politicized and, in some cases, monetized their public service and security clearances. Making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia against the president is extremely inappropriate, and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence. -- Sarah Sanders, Monday ...
... "Your Pointless White House Feud of the Day Is Here." Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "... it's pretty clear that Trump isn't booting them out of the Top Secret club because of some principled opposition to their years of accumulated skeletons in the country's darkest closets. Instead, he's doing what he does best: inventing a bullshit 'controversy' in order to vilify people he doesn't like. Nevertheless, without a hint of irony (or shame!) [Sarah] Sanders explained that 'the president doesn't like the fact that people are politicizing agencies and departments that are specifically meant to not be political.' She also accused those named as having 'in some cases monetized their public service' (unlike, say, the president, whose Washington DC hotel has been doing just gangbusters lately, thanks for asking)." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The first part of [TrumpSanders' rationale] that's rich is the idea that it's unacceptable to 'monetize' political office and experience. Trump as president hasn't gone very far to separate himself from his businesses, and he has made a habit of promoting and using his properties, with foreign leaders and political types frequenting them.... The second part that's rich is the idea that making 'baseless charges' is now disqualifying. Trump has lodged many conspiracy theories from the comfort of the White House.... If making charges with no evidence is now the standard, Trump should be the first person excused from future briefings. But the slipperiest slope of all is the idea that these officials are 'politicizing' their positions.... Most of the people on this list aren't partisans. ;They present problems precisely because they're mostly not, and yet they're still taking the highly unusual steps of speaking out. So the White House must make them into political actors. That's what Monday's spectacle was about." ...
... They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. ... Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "A spokesperson for [Andrew] McCabe responded via Twitter that ... he already had his security clearance deactivated.... General [Michael] Hayden also tweeted that he does not even receive classified briefings, meaning that he is not monetizing or politicizing classified information.... Washington Post national security reporter Devlin Barrett tweeted on Monday afternoon that [James] Comey also no longer has a national security clearance." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: John Brennan also said he no long has clearance. Also, James Clapper says he doesn't "get the briefings" nor does he have access to classified info." So, um, that leaves Susan Rice, who hasn't much criticized Trump & hasn't responded to the TrumpSanders threat. But, hey, picking on a black woman should be a total win in the Land of Trumpbots. Besides, as Ed Kilgore explains, having a security clearance doesn't mean you get to breeze into the Oval or wherever & rifle through classified papers. It means that if someone in the current administration wishes to share classified materials with you, s/he can do so. So, in a "normal" administration, Rice's successor might need to consult her on sensitive matters. But Rice's successor, you may recall, was Michael Flynn, who quickly lost his job & later copped to a felony. ...
... It Was Li'l Randy's Idea! Jamie Ehrlich & Marc Rod of CNN: "Republican Sen. Rand Paul tweeted Monday that he asked ... Donald Trump to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, who criticized Trump's performance last week at the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an unusual move, Paul wrote Monday morning that he would meet with Trump to discuss allegations that Brennan is 'monetizing his security clearance' and 'making millions of dollars divulging secrets to mainstream media.' The Kentucky Republican added that he would ask Trump to revoke Brennan's clearance.... Paul tweeted again Monday afternoon following his meeting with Trump, writing that he 'restated to (Trump) what I have said in public,' and reiterating his earlier statements, while expanding them to include 'other partisans.'" ...
Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump renewed his complaints Monday about the Russia investigation overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller, and came even closer to instructing law enforcement officials to shut it down.... He has threatened to potentially intervene with the Justice Department, and on Monday, Trump came closer to making good on that threat by writing in a ... tweet that law enforcement officials 'should drop the discredited Mueller Witch Hunt now! The statement came as part of a series of tweets in which Trump quoted comments by Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, on 'Fox & Friends.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Trump Does Full Walk-Back of Halfassed Walk-Back. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Six days ago, President Trump held a news conference to walk back comments he made suggesting that he did not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a plan to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.... On Sunday, he suggested that the investigation [into Russian election tampering] was 'all a big hoax.'... White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sought to clarify the tweet during Monday's press briefing. 'The president is referencing the collusion component....'... Then, in a Monday tweet, he walked back his earlier attempt at a cleanup.... Trump falsely claimed that a dossier by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele 'was responsible for starting' the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.' He went on to blast the dossier, calling it 'fake' and 'dirty' before declaring the investigation headed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III a 'witch hunt.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Davis Kris, in a Washington Post op-ed: "President Trump ... [in a series of tweets] ... claimed that the Justice Department and FBI had misled the ... [FISA court] about the potential bias of Christopher Steele.... The president also said the wiretaps were politically motivated.... Trump's ultimate point, in capital letters and an exclamation mark, is that the surveillance was illegal; it's part of that 'Witch Hunt!'... The first contention ... is demonstrably false.... [The second] was also misplaced.... All four judges who approved them were Republican appointees..., although the conclusion would be the same even if they had been appointed by Democratic presidents.... As [Trump] put it, the wiretap applications are 'ridiculously heavily redacted' to protect sources and methods. The redactions mean we don't know all the evidence the government presented about [Carter] Page.... In this asymmetrical dispute, the FBI will be unable to reveal all the facts because the agency needs to protect its sources and methods, while the president and his proxies are free to distort and fabricate at will." ...
... Liar, Liar. Salvador Rizzo, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump tweeted a series of false or misleading claims over four days, ranging from the Russia investigation to NATO funding to North Korea to the price of soybeans. From July 20 to July 23, accurate statements on the president's Twitter feed were swamped by faulty claims. We rounded up 14 tweets worth fact-checking.... Trump posted a series of misleading tweets about the FBI's court application requesting wiretap surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, often citing statements made by supporters that were factually wrong or politically biased.... [Trump tweeted,] "I gave up NOTHING' [in talks with Putin.]" Reports, including Trump's own statements & Russian assertions, suggest otherwise. And so forth.
GOP Lawmakers Tried a Trump Intervention Sunday. William Saletan of Slate: "On Sunday, congressional Republicans fanned out on TV to deliver a common message.... They targeted a single viewer: Trump. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Rep. Trey Gowdy spoke directly to the president, often looking into the camera and occasionally pleading with him by name. They staged a collective intervention, begging him to understand that Russian interference could be true even if collusion by Trump's campaign wasn't.... Trump's enemies on the left have long speculated about his peculiar behavior around Putin and the Russia investigation.... But the ... explanation ... on which Republican lawmakers openly agree, is bad enough: Trump sees any accusation against Russia as an accusation against himself. No one who thinks that way can faithfully serve as president of the United States." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie PS: Trump's Monday morning tweets indicate he must have been golfing while the boys were pleading. At any rate, he didn't listen. But he never does. The voices in his stable-genius head know better.
Laura Nahmias of Politico: "Twelve audio recordings seized from ... Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen in an April FBI raid were handed over to federal prosecutors on Friday, according to a court filing made public Monday. The tapes were handed over on the same day that Trump's attorneys confirmed the existence of a September 2016 recording in which Trump and Cohen discussed a possible payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who has said she and Trump had a 10-month affair that ended in 2007. The 12 audio recordings had initially been designated as 'privileged,' meaning prosecutors wouldn't get to look at them as part of their ongoing criminal investigation into Cohen.... But on July 20, 'the parties withdrew their designations of "privileged" as to 12 audiotapes that were under consideration by the Special Master,' according to the filing in New York's Southern District Court. The filing did not describe the contents of the recordings handed over to prosecutors or say whether the recording of Trump and Cohen was among the 12."
David Kurtz of TPM: "A federal judge Monday unsealed the names of five witnesses granted immunity by special counsel Robert Mueller to testify at the upcoming trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The witnesses, who Mueller's team had sought to keep from public view until they were called to testify, are: James Brennan, Donna Duggan, Conor O'Brien, Cindy Laporta, [and] Dennis Raico. The unsealed court documents do not provide details about what the witnesses may be expected to testify about. None of the newly revealed witnesses have figured prominently in the case or the coverage of the case to this point." Kurtz attemps to ID the potential witnesses. ...
... Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: Federal Judge T.S. Ellis "granted the request Monday for five witnesses to testify with immunity in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the first trial in the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller." ...
... Rachel Weiner & Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Alexandria has delayed the trial of Paul Manafort on bank and tax fraud charges until July 31. Manafort, who appeared in court Monday for the first time since his June incarceration, had hoped the trial would be postponed until after he faces related charges in Washington, D.C. federal court on Sept. 17. Judge T.S. Ellis III ... did give Manafort's defense an extra week to review tens of thousands of documents recently turned over by prosecutors."
Rachel Bade & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined a House panel's request to explain ... Donald Trump's interactions with Russian and European leaders, snubbing his former colleagues who are deeply concerned with the president's foreign policy shifts. Pompeo, a former House GOP lawmaker, turned down an invitation to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee by citing a scheduling conflict, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Pompeo, however, will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, angering House Republicans who also want answers."
Trump's War Against Earth, Ctd. Ryan Beene, et al., of Bloomberg: "The Trump administration will seek to revoke California's authority to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions -- including its mandate for electric-car sales -- in a proposed revision of Obama-era standards, according to three people familiar with the plan. The proposal, expected to be released this week, amounts to a frontal assault on one of former President Barack Obama's signature regulatory programs to curb emissions that contribute to climate change. It also sets up a high-stakes battle over California's unique ability to combat air pollution and, if finalized, is sure to set off a protracted courtroom battle. The proposed revamp would also put the brakes on federal rules to boost fuel efficiency into the next decade, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the proposals before they are public. Instead it would cap federal fuel economy requirements at the 2020 level, which under federal law must be at least a 35-mile-per-gallon fleet average, rather than letting them rise to roughly 50 mpg by 2025 as envisioned in the Obama plan, according to the people." ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "The Trump White House has moved quickly to force out a trio of staffers loyal to former scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.... According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Chief of Staff John Kelly gave the greenlight to the efforts to remove the three officials after Pruitt's resignation." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Oops! Interior Department Accidentally Releases Incriminating E-Mails. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "In a quest to shrink national monuments last year, senior Interior Department officials dismissed evidence these public lands boosted tourism and spurred archaeological discoveries, according to documents the department released this month and retracted a day later. The thousands of pages of email correspondence chart how Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his aides instead tailored their survey of protected sites to emphasize the value of logging, ranching and energy development that would be unlocked if they were not designated as national monuments. Comments the department's Freedom of Information Act officers made in the documents show they sought to keep some of the references out of public view because they were 'revealing [the] strategy' behind the review.... 'It appears that we inadvertently posted an incorrect version of the files for the most recent National Monuments production,' officials wrote July 17. 'We are requesting that if you downloaded the files already to please delete those versions.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress (July 19th): "More than 10 federal investigations have now been opened into Secretary of the Interior Department Ryan Zinke's financial and ethical decisions during his tenure with the Trump administration. The agency's internal watchdog announced an eleventh investigation on Wednesday evening ... and in this case, his connections to one of the world's most powerful oil companies [Halliburton]." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Washington Post: "The Senate easily confirmed [Robert] Wilkie, now head of military personnel at the Defense Department, to lead [the VA].... Wilkie was nominated as secretary in May to succeed [David] Shulkin, a hospital executive and holdover from the Obama administration." @6:30 pm ET Monday, this is a breaking news story & will be updated.
Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Humanity is devouring our planet's resources in increasingly destructive volumes, according to a new study that reveals we have consumed a year's worth of carbon, food, water, fibre, land and timber in a record 212 days.... As a result, the Earth Overshoot Day -- which marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate -- has moved forward two days to 1 August, the earliest date ever recorded. To maintain our current appetite for resources, we would need the equivalent of 1.7 Earths." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Congressional Races
Ed Kilgore: Don Blankenship, "the colorful ex-mine owner, ex-con (for conspiracy to violate federal safety standards in connection with a 2010 mine disaster that killed 29 of his employees) and now ex-Republican, is filing to become the U.S. Senate nominee of the far-right Constitution Party, defying [West Virginia]'s 'sore loser' law.... Blankenship is now determined to wreck his party's general-election campaign, and certainly has the finances to mount a strong legal challenge against the 'sore loser' or 'sour grapes' law.... West Virginia University constitutional lawyer Robert Bastress says the law was so poorly drafted that it might be unsustainable[.]... But no matter how you handicap the legal battle, it's bad news for Republican nominee and attorney general Patrick Morrisey, who must continue to wage a two-front war against [Sen. Joe] Manchin [D] and Blankenship...."
Amanda Arnold of New York: "Ever since 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated long-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley in New York's 14th Congressional District, establishment politicians have failed to conceal how threatened they are by the Democratic Socialist from the Bronx. According to HuffPost, the latest politician to attempt to discredit Ocasio-Cortez is Representative Ron DeSantis, a Republican from Florida, who referred to the Democratic congressional nominee as a 'girl ... or whatever she is.' In one succinct tweet in response to the representative, Ocasio-Cortez told DeSantis exactly what she is.... 'Rep DeSantis, it seems you're confused as to 'whatever I am.' I am a Puerto Rican woman. It's strange you don't know what that is, given that ~75,000 Puerto Ricans have relocated to Florida in the 10 mos since María. But I'm sure these new FL voters appreciate your comments!'"
Michelle Goldberg: "Everywhere you look lately, centrist [Democrats] are panicking about the emboldened left.... In the midterms, passion is likely to matter more than appeals to an ever-shrinking pool of swing voters, who at any rate tend to be idiosyncratic economic populists rather than the judicious centrists of Beltway imagination.... Hillary Clinton's defeat has overshadowed [George] McGovern's as the Democratic Party's paradigmatic trauma.... It's clear that in a polarized electorate, grass-roots fervor and a candidate's charisma matter a lot, and an agenda that seems too modest can be as risky as one that appears overly ambitious. After all, the economic demands that animate the left are generally quite popular.... Democrats will not defeat Trump and his increasingly fanatical, revanchist party by promising the restoration of what came before him; the country is desperate for a vision of something better. Whether or not you share that vision, if you truly believe that Trump is a threat to democracy, you should welcome politics that inspire people to come to democracy's rescue."
Lawmakers Meet the Media
Today's Best Headline: "Ga. lawmaker urged to resign after using racial slurs, dropping pants in TV show. Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "On the eve of a testy runoff vote, Georgia political leaders and candidates united Monday to condemn a Republican state lawmaker who exposed himself and yelled racial slurs during an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime series. House Speaker David Ralston urged the legislator, state Rep. Jason Spencer, to resign shortly after the episode of 'Who is America?' aired Sunday night, and he was soon echoed by leaders and rank-and-file members from both sides of the aisle.... Spencer on Monday apologized for the 'ridiculously ugly episode,' but he refused to step down. Although he lost the GOP primary in May, he remains in public office through the November general election." ...
... Watch at your own risk (Mrs. McC: I skipped most of it, & this is a shorter clip than the "official" one):
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. This time the joke's on Fox "News." Nik DeCosta-Klipa of the Boston Globe: "Fox & Friends First, the network's early morning show, thought they had booked former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.... Instead, they got Massachusetts state Sen. Barbara L'Italien, who gave them a earful, speaking "directly" to Donald Trump about his separation of immigrant families. The show's hosts cut her off, so L'Italien finished her monologue & posted it on Twitter. L'Italien is running for a Massachusetts Congressional seat. "According to L'Italien's campaign, Fox News reached out to them Sunday afternoon believing that they were contacting Kirkpatrick's office 'due to their own failure of due diligence.' They decided not to pass up the opportunity.... Fox News says they were deliberately duped by L'Italien's campaign."
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in a New York Times op-ed: "... unlike most of his predecessors, Judge [Brett] Kavanaugh spent much of his career engaged in some of the most partisan fights in our nation's recent history -- including Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Bill Clinton, the Bush v. Gore case and five contentious years in President George W. Bush's administration. Judge Kavanaugh thus has quite a paper trail -- over one million pages -- which the White House was well aware of when he was nominated. In the coming days Senate Republicans will decide if they support reviewing Judge Kavanaugh's entire record. Some are already hedging. And Senator Mitch McConnell is warning that Democrats will pay a political cost if they insist on obtaining Judge Kavanaugh's full record.... Senator McConnell's complaints about possible delays for a Supreme Court nomination ring hollow after he stonewalled Merrick Garland's nomination to the court in 2016.... The need to vet Judge Kavanaugh's full record is all the more urgent because the last time he testified before the Senate, he appeared to provide a misleading account of his work in the White House.... I urge Senate Republicans to live up to the bipartisan standard of transparency we set for Justice [Elena] Kagan and demand his full record." ...
... Matt Ford of the New Republic: The Supreme Court's 1974 8-0 decision that rejected President Nixon's efforts to quash a subpoena. 'came to symbolize the triumph of the rule of law and the principle that no man is above it. Nixon resigned two weeks later." Brett Kavanaugh said the case "may have been 'wrongly decided' due to the 'tension of the time.'... From the White House’s ability to fire federal officials to whether its occupant can face lawsuits while in office, Kavanaugh has articulated an extraordinarily deferential stance on presidential powers and privileges. His ability to put those views into practice as a Supreme Court justice would be a boon to future presidents — and to the man who nominated him for the post.... Excusing the current president from the 'burdens of ordinary citizenship' [as Kavanaugh has advocated] would likely grind the Russia investigation to a halt.... Temporary immunity would also likely let Trump escape political embarrassment from multiple lawsuits brought by women who have accused him of sexual assault.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
Kate Lamb of the Guardian: "In Indonesia -- which ranks among the top five users of Twitter and Facebook globally -- they are what are known as a 'buzzer teams' -- groups which amplify messages and creates a 'buzz' on social networks. While not all buzzer teams use fake accounts, some do.... The Jakarta election [in 2017]...churned up ugly religious and racial divisions.... Based on its study of the buzzer industry in Indonesia, researchers from the Center for Innovation and Policy Research (CIPG) say all candidates in the 2017 Jakarta election used buzzer teams." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
New York Times: "Hundreds of people were missing on Tuesday after a billion-dollar hydropower dam that was under construction in Laos collapsed, killing several people and displacing more than 6,600 others, a state news agency said."
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Reader Comments (21)
Hmm...”hypocritical holy men, guilty of looting their country to enrich themselves” sounds like the motto of the Party of Traitors, just as “politicizing and monetizing public service” sounds like the Trump family raison d’etre since 2015. Isn’t that, whatchamacallit, a kinda projection thing?
And speaking of the Party of Hypocritical Holy Men, I give you Li’l Randy, who runs to Daddy Trumpy demanding that he stick it to those he claims are “monetizing public service”, the same Li’l Randy who “...has used political donations to spend more than $11,000 at restaurants in Italy and Malta and thousands more for European hotels and limousine services in connection with fundraising and other political events.”
Such purity of heart! At least he’s consistent. Denying the first amendment rights of those whose opinions he finds inimical is all of a piece with his claim that being able to turn away customers he finds objectionable (i.e., black people) is perfectly okay because only white, Christianist wingers have rights in Trump’s Amerika.
Turtle Man McConnell wags a flabby finger at Senate Democrats and warns them not to look too carefully at Brett Kavanaugh’s full record or there will be a political price to pay. First, isn’t looking carefully at a Supreme Court nominee their job? Second, a political price to pay? Are you kidding? You mean greater than Gorsuch? More onerous than Trump? What’s worse than Trump? Do your worst, asshole. You’ve already cemented a position of dishonor in the American Political Hall of Shame, you scheming, traitorous fuck; might as well go for broke.
While watching Rachel last night I hopped over during commercials to watch the hearing (I understand there will be more) on Tariffs and their impact on agriculture. All the guest speakers, ranchers, farmers, etc. spoke vehemently about the dire impact Trump's tariff war is having on them. Jared Bernstein was included in this group and he, of course, spoke on the negative effects all this is having (and will get worse) on the economy. What was heartening were the four Republicans that I heard speak to this who were sympathetic and on the same page saying how these tariffs are hurting their constituents. There was one Republican, Jason (last name starts with S but can't read my own writing) who was a cheerleader for everything Trump has done re: the tariffs:
"Trump is the only one who cares about how China is cheating us re: trade."
During Obama, the proper venue was applied against China and that is through the WTO. Today Congress needs to apply assertive methods and not let their president go off half cocked trade wise.
So while we deal with tapes, Russia, threatening tweets in large caps, hypocritical holy men, the trial of a traitor, wild fires, wild recriminations, sleaze, ...we have farmers and ranchers who say they cannot sustain their ranches or farms if the tariffs continue.
Did they vote for Trump? Have they changed their minds?
No. They will support him forever. As they go into bankruptcy, as they starve their children, as they get ejected from their properties. If you read that piece about the Baptists, those people are stupider than dirt.
PD,
The Wall Street Journal reports that 2.5 billion pounds of meat is being stored, frozen, in warehouses across the country. The customer base for that meat has been lost because of Trump's tariffs.
Too much winning.
And yes, I can't imagine a farmer or rancher (especially) not voting for the manly Trumpado and against crooked Hillary. And yes they'll vote for him again. I think it's as much hatred as it is stupidity with most Trump voters. They would rather go down with the ship as long as those they hate, immigrants, minorities, uppity women, liberals, environmentalists, advocates for health care for all, NRA opponents, etc., get theirs.
PUTIN'S WAR ON AMERICA IS NOTHING COMPARED WITH AMERICA'S WAR ON DEMOCRACY: Paul Street
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/putins-war-on-america-is-nothing-compared-to-americas-war-on-democracy/
Street begins his piece by reiterating Kim Jong Un's description of Trump last year: "Donald Trump is a mentally deranged dotard," and continues to illustrate Trump's bizarre performance in Helsinki. But soon he shifts to to what he claims is a ridiculous statement said by Mark Warner:
"It is the role of the U.S. intelligence community to speak truth to power."
From there he spells out the FBI's long record of domestic police-state repression and the CIA's long-standing central role in crushing and subversion of national independence and social justice movements, etc. He strongly criticizes CNN and MSNBC, puts down Bill Browser (valid reasons why). In short––Street breaks down the record of imperial U.S. aggression and provocations (the list is long).
This is a long and difficult piece to read but I encourage you all to give it a shot. Toward the end he quotes Justice Louis Brandeis who said in 1941:
"We may have democracy in the country, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both."
And I learned what the word "Jones, used as a verb. means: having an attraction for something or someone. "He's been Jonesin on Putin for years."
Here's the flip. The flop comes later.
The littlest flip-flopper, Li'l Randy, is back at it. Self promotion being just about the only thing he's really good at, Senator Flip-Flop is trying to worm his way back into the spotlight by saying laughable things like "I'm really not sure about Brett Kavanaugh. No. Seriously!"
Puh-leeeese.
Let's see...will he get yet another 15 minutes of stupid media attention? Probably. They fall for his bullshit every time. If they were the people in the story about the boy who cried wolf, they'd come running every time. And every time they'd be screwed by that little shit.
So he really, really, really, wicked seriously is worried about Kavanaugh? Hmm...just like he was worried about Mike Pompeo (flip) but voted for him anyway (flop). He beat his chest and loudly proclaimed that he was not gonna vote for King Trumpy's tax cut for the wealthy (flip) but did anyway (flop).
What else has the littlest flipper flopped on? Let me count the ways.
Civil Rights:
It's perfectly fine to refuse to serve blah people. (flip)
But then he goes to Howard University and claims he has always been a staunch advocate of civil rights (flop--well, really, more like a bald-faced lie).
Immigration:
Immigrants need a path to citizenship (flip)
Path to citizenship? Fuck no! National security...blah, blah, blah (flop).
Vaccines:
Vaccines cause all kinds of disease and horrible stuff! (flip)
What? I never said any such thing! (flop--another lie)
Support for Israel:
Why are we giving military support to Israel? Terrible! (flip)
Military support for Israel? Why, of course! Double it! (flop)
Iran Deal
Iran is not a threat (he really said that.) (flip)
I'm all in with my pal Tom Cotton. Iran is a huge threat! (flop)
Most, if not all of his flip-flops have been opportunistically determined. Like many Confederates, he's a liar and a coward. But he loooooves to shove his way into the limelight posing as the Indispensable Man, the Man of Principle who will stand bravely against the mongrel horde. Until they catch up to him, that is. Then it's "Where do I sign?"
Little weasel.
Mrs. X is Coughing
An article in the NYRB by Jerry Groopman, of Harvard Medical School, reviews a book about the rise of superbugs, deadly bacteria highly resistant to antibiotics.
Groopman refers to Alexander Fleming, the guy who serendipitously discovered mold spores in an open petri dish full of bacteria in his lab in 1928. The mold spores were kicking the living shit out of the bacteria (literally). He was looking at the actions of penicillin.
But Fleming himself predicted the rise of superbugs:
"In his speech accepting the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine he said:
'The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant. Here is a hypothetical illustration. Mr. X has a sore throat. He buys some penicillin and gives himself, not enough to kill the streptococci but enough to educate them to resist penicillin. He then infects his wife. Mrs. X gets pneumonia and is treated with penicillin. As the streptococci are now resistant to penicillin the treatment fails. Mrs. X dies. Who is primarily responsible for Mrs. X’s death? Why Mr. X, whose negligent use of penicillin changed the nature of the microbe. Moral: If you use penicillin, use enough.'"
So what does this have to do with the state of TrumpLand?
I've been reading a lot about how worried moderate Democrats are about the upcoming elections, both the mids and 2020. Plenty of pearl clutching over those "wild eyed" types who want to go waaaay out on a limb and go for crazy things like universal healthcare, real immigration reform, and begin addressing the obscene income inequality that will shortly evaporate any real semblance of the sort of upwardly mobile middle class that rose out of the ashes of WWII.
These crazies are not content with taking things slowly, step at a time, not being too pushy.
Why the hell not? What has the "taking it slow" crowd done for us? Sat back and watched quietly while the bugs took over, that's what. And now, the bugs are winning.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's not more of that. More of that and we'll be all be wearing sackcloth and begging for scraps from Trump and his gangster oligarch class. More Joe Manchins and Heidi Heitkamps will guarantee that we will be destroyed by deadly winger bacteria.
If we're going to defeat the bugs, we need to take Fleming's advice. We need "lethal quantities" of penicillin. Sub-optimal doses (step at a time style) is the road to the evolution of Superbugs that will become highly resistant to any attempt to kill them.
We're almost there now. I can hear Mrs. X coughing.
Found myself yelling the "b word" at supercilious Sarah, who was actually saying how unprecedented it was that the Democrats were refusing to meet with/vote for the latest SC candidate. WHAT???? After a year of the congress refusing to even address the candidate, Merrick Garland?? None of them know there is always video/tape of their misdeeds. Talk about willful ignorance/belief that WE are ignorant...
Correction (of a sort)
Li'l Randy's stance on the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy wasn't a true Rand Paul Flip-Flop©. He voted for it even though he said it "had problems" (not so's you'd notice, though). A bigger flip-flop was his stance on the ACA.
It's just so hard to keep up with all his flips and flops.
From above:
Trump wrote. "Remember, we are the ‘piggy bank’ that’s being robbed. All will be great!'”
The Pretender quoting Bears Ears, the other National Monuments, the oceans, our lakes and streams, the atmosphere, the soon to be no-longer endangered species, and (re: the 12 billion dollar ag bailout) the national treasury, I'd guess.
It is to cry.
Ken,
Is it me, or doesn't robbing taxpayers for $12 billion (for starters) to fund your poorly thought through private trade war constitute "piggy bank" status as well? I must not be a stable genius because I can't see the difference there. And most of all, I'm not seeing the "all will be great" part. I'm sure SHS will explain it all in her characteristically caustic, contemptuous, perjurious schoolmarm from hell manner.
Too much winning with all the best people.
Yes! Ak: I made that exact argument this morning with a friend. $12-billion is robbing the taxpayer to cover his butt for a stoopid policy...Trump presents his shit like it was chocolate syrup.
Southern California home sales crash, a warning sign to the nation "this is how, where, & when the 2008 recession started" Look out!
Donaldavich Trumpskyev say Russia not help him. Nyet! But Russia help Democrats! Da!
Do tell. So this is a very interesting development. As of 48 hours ago, Trump and his minions and media sycophants and enablers were screaming that Russian interference is a myth, a hoax, humbug, balderdash. Not only that, there is no attempt at this point by Russia to try to influence the midterms. They're not even going to try to rig the Trump cabinet's weekly Parcheesi game.
But lo and behold, all of a sudden, Russia is going gangbusters to interfere in the upcoming elections. For the Democrats, natch. Wow. Stop the presses. Wire congress. Pull your pants up. So Trumpskyev now admits that there IS a campaign to interfere with an American election.
Great.
So what's he gonna do about it?
Moreover, how does he know? Did Putin whisper sweet election stealing somethings in his cauliflower ears in Helsinki? What's his evidence that Putin is pulling for the Democrats?
And again, what's his plan?
The lying never stops. It just gets lying-er, and more bizarre.
The most bizarre being his claim that no American president has been tougher on Russia than he's been. Yeah, that back rub he gave Putin in Helsinki must have been something. And maybe those enthusiastic tugs on the Putin pecker were just a little too energetic. He's a tough one alright.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-senators-trumps-farmer-welfare-wont-work
Again, you can't make sense of the Pretender's policies if you don't see they're not about trade, foreign affairs, or about national security. Not a single Pretender policy is ordered by hard facts or rationality. It is only when you look at them through the prism of the Pretender's tortured ego* that any of it makes any sense at all.
The P. is not an R or D. He's a P.
*I think we all remember that infamous Charlie Wilson remark about what good for GM being good for the country.
At least GM was a giant corporation whose fortunes affected millions, some argued in a good way. The contemporary version playing in the Pretender's small mind is "What's good for me is good...." and as usual the Pretender is flat wrong.
Re: 12Bn ag subsidy
It's not just the tariffs. I am probably an extreme Canadian but I feel that the US has declared war on me. I refuse to buy American ag products which flood our supermarkets preferring to substitute or go without. Never expected to be buying Chinese carrots! Once my diet has adjusted to new food products I would not be surprised if I never return to buying some American brands.
@Cowichan: I don't blame you in the least. President Trump is attacking your country and your government. A boycott of American products makes sense. Were I living in Canada, American citizen or not, I would probably do the same. I would probably encourage others to start victory gardens, and I'd do the same. I'm so ashamed of the U.S. right now. O Canada! BTW, in the U.S., the supermarkets seem to get a lot of produce from Chile.
@Cowichan
Will be in your territory next week somewhere along the Sunshine Coast and will happily spend money there instead of on this side of the border.
Think of us as comrades.
Maybe there is a plan.
Have heard the Pretender claim he's tougher on Russia than any previous American president has been.
Wily guy.
He's trying to kill Putin with kindness. The weapon? Repeated paroxysms of unbridled joy.