;)
The Commentariat -- July 28, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Sunday that Dan Coats will step down as director of national intelligence after a tenure in which the two were often at odds over Russia, North Korea an the president's own attacks on the intelligence community. 'I am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence,' Mr. Trump tweeted. 'A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves. Dan Coats, the current Director, will be leaving office on August 15th. I would like to thank Dan for his great service to our Country....'... In a meeting last week, Mr. Coats told Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that he was ready to move on."
"No Human Being Would Want to Live" in Kushnerville. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Jared Kushner's many Baltimore area housing projects -- which he continues to own even as he works as a senior White House adviser -- racked up hundreds of building-code violations creating the kind of conditions that Trump hints at [in his tweets knocking Baltimore & Rep. Elijah Cummings].... A scathing investigation in 2017 by ProPublica and co-published by The New York Times -- headlined 'The Beleaguered Tenants of Kushnerville' -- slammed the multiple projects purchased by Kushner Cos. when it was helmed by Jared Kushner and managed by a subsidiary.... None of the housing complexes are in Cummings' district but several are close enough to share a ZIP code, Bloomberg reports, and many house African-Americans.... One court case described a leaking bedroom ceiling, maggots in the living room carpet and raw sewage spewing [from] the kitchen sink.... Though Trump is bashing Cummings over his complaints about treatment of immigrants, he may be trying to undermine the congressman as he seeks records from Kushner."
Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) declined to explicitly say on ABC's 'This Week' whether Democrats are pursuing an official impeachment inquiry, but repeated to George Stephanopoulos what he wrote in a court filing last week: 'We have impeachment resolutions before the committee.'"
Ewww! Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "In July 1980, [Jeffrey] Epstein was featured as [Cosmopolitan] magazine's 'Bachelor of the Month,' a tiny section advertising successful single men across the country. At the time, the future sex-offender was a Bear Stearns trader and asked potential dates to write him at the investment bank's former headquarters in Lower Manhattan.... The personals ad, which included a photo of Epstein in a suit, portrayed him as a 'New York dynamo' seeking 'a cute Texas girl.'"
Warner Takes on Moscow Mitch & Putin's Puppet. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that 'common-sense' election security measures would get a supermajority on the Senate floor if a vote was allowed. 'I think there's come common sense things that would get 75 votes if they could get to the floor of the Senate,' Warner said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' They included an 'obligation ... to tell the FBI' about offers of dirt on political opponents by foreign governments and paper ballot backups for all polling stations, as well as 'some rules of the road for Facebook, Twitter, social media,' he told CBS' Margaret Brennan. However, he said, 'this administration has stopped every election security legislation coming to the floor and they've been supported in that effort by the Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.'"
David Cohen of Politico: "Having spent Saturday lashing out against Rep. Elijah Cummings and other Democratic opponents..., Donald Trump began Sunday by attacking the Maryland Democrat again. The president opened Sunday by tweeting: 'Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party, that there is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore.' He added: 'Just take... ....a look, the facts speak far louder than words! The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation's great African American people. Now, lowest unemployment in U.S. history, and only getting better. Elijah Cummings has failed badly!'... [In the wake of Pelosi's defense of Cummings Saturday,] Trump followed ... with some vitriol aimed at Pelosi: 'Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco,' he tweeted Sunday. 'It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!'"
Ian Swanson of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney defended President Trump's remarks calling a black congressman's district a 'disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,' stating during an interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace that there was nothing racist about the president's comments.... Wallace said there was a 'clear pattern here,' stating that before Trump's inauguration, he had said that another black congressman, Rep. John Lewis (R-Ga.), should spend time in his 'crime-infested district.' He then noted the president's recent criticisms of four Democratic congresswomen, who are all members of minority groups. Trump also used the word 'infested' in criticizing those four lawmakers, stating that they should 'go back to the crime-infested countries' they came from.... 'Infested. It sounds like vermin, it sounds sub-human. And theses are all six members of Congress who are people of color,' Wallace said. Mulvaney responded by saying he thought Wallace was spending way too much time 'reading between the lines.' 'I'm not reading between the lines, I'm reading the lines,' Wallace interjected."
Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't know if Elijah Cummings ever hoped to be famous, but he is now, thanks to President Racist. Since a third of Americans can't ID Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, it's a safe bet that a majority never heard of Elijah Cummings before now. But today, even the Drumpfendopes know who the Congressman from Maryland is.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Not Normal." David Nather of Axios "looked through all of [Trump's] public comments and tweets for this week, and found an avalanche of personal attacks, complaints, and statements at odds with reality. One came close to setting off a diplomatic crisis.... The sheer volume of incidents -- and the distance they've created from a normal presidency -- are definitely worth your attention." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)
... Nathan's list doesn't include Saturday's entry: ...
... Nicholas Wu of USA Today: "On Saturday morning..., Donald Trump vented on Twitter about a political adversary, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and assailed an American city, Baltimore. 'Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,' Trump wrote. Trump continued by saying conditions on the border were 'clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded,' whereas Cummings' district was 'a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.' Trump did not present evidence for this claim about the district.... Trump made similar comments in January 2017 when attacking another black congressman, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Trump had called the civil rights icon's district 'in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)' after Lewis said he would be skipping Trump's inauguration." Cummings' district includes part of Balto & part of the burbs. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... In a later tweet, Trump wrote of Baltimore, "No human being would want to live there." Mrs. McC No doubt Trump is assuming that everyone who lives in Balto is black (which of course isn't true: Baltimore city is 30% white & Cummings' district is 35% white). Thus, he is implying that black people are not human beings. He means that. ...
... Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Trump finished his attack by appearing to accuse Cummings of corruption. 'Where is all this money going?' he tweeted. 'How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!' The president did not offer any evidence to support the incendiary accusation." ...
... Trump's Rats. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Trump has had his own problems with rodents. For example, in February, the Trump Tower Grille in the president's signature Manhattan property was reported for 'live mice' and other health code violations. New York City health inspectors visited the restaurant on 11 July 2018 and found 'evidence of mice or live mice' in and around the kitchen, a violation of sanitary standards that was deemed to be 'critical'... The New York Daily News reported that the Trump Tower restaurant has been cited for health code violations in each of the past five years, including sightings of 'live roaches' in 2016 and 'filth flies' in 2017." --s ...
... CNN's Victor Blackwell responds to Trump's attack. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link:
... David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun: "You cannot remain silent in the face of such hatred and racism coming from the White House, even as you know you are letting the president force you to focus on him, him, him.... Trump's Twitter blast at Cummings and Baltimore started during the 7 o’clock hour Saturday morning after a Republican strategist, Kimberly Klacik, on the Fox News show 'Fox & Friends,' called Cummings' district the 'most dangerous' in America.... Cummings' district, which includes a large part of Baltimore is not the 'most dangerous in America,' according to the FBI, which ranks the city as a whole as the third most dangerous in the nation. [Elijah] Cummings' district, which like the city is majority black, has more college graduates than the country overall and a median income above $50,000. But the claim of 'worst' is exactly the kind of disinformation Trump traffics in on a daily basis." ...
... Baltimore Sun Editors: "... Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don't to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are 'clean, efficient & well run,' which, of course, they are not -- unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security's own inspector-general recently called 'a ticking time bomb.'... If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much [Trump's] responsibility as anyone's, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land.... Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one." ...
... "Why Trump Spent His Summer Vacation Sending Racist Tweets." Jonathan Chait: "Trump's professional career began in his father's and his systematically discriminatory housing empire.... Trump's association of African-Americans with crime and filth, and the assumption they must be cordoned off from other Americans, is a conviction so deep it cannot be uprooted.... One of the many oddities of his term in office is that he never observed the traditional break between campaigning and governing, and as a result never adopted even the pose of representing the entire country.... This is surely unique in American history. American presidents simply do not call American cities filthy and dangerous. George W. Bush may not have enjoyed much support in places like Baltimore, but he wouldn't go around calling Democratic neighborhoods disgusting hellholes. It does not occur to Trump that the patriotic requirements of his office require representing the whole of it. It is not merely that Trump is unfit for his job. He refuses, almost literally, to be president of the United States." ...
... ** Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "... I cannot forget Trump's recent treatment of Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her campaign to end mass rape in war. The Islamic State, or ISIS, forced Murad into sexual slavery when it overran Yazidi villages in northern Iraq in 2014. Murad lost her mother and six brothers, slaughtered by ISIS.... Trump sits there at his desk, an uncomprehending, unsympathetic, uninterested cardboard dummy. He looks straight ahead for much of the time, not at her, his chin jutting in his best effort at a Mussolini pose.... He cannot look at her.... When Murad says, 'They killed my mom, my six brothers,' Trump responds: 'Where are they now?'... 'They are in the mass graves in Sinjar,' Murad says.... Murad is a woman, and she is brown, and he is incapable of empathy, and the Trump administration recently watered down a United Nations Security Council resolution on protecting victim of sexual violence in conflict.... [There's more, and it doesn't get better.] This president is inhuman. Something is missing. In his boundless self-absorption, he is capable of anything." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
On June 10, Laurence Tribe said that the House could both impeach Trump & effectively try him without sending an impeachment referral to the corrupt Senate:
... Tribe also wrote an op-ed on this in the WashPo, dated June 5, titled "Impeach Trump. But don't necessarily try him in the Senate." If you have access to the WashPo, as I don't, you can Google it.
Jordan Weissmann of Slate: “This week, much of the story that the White House likes to tell about its economic record fell apart.... On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that the country's gross domestic product expanded at a middling 2. percent annual rate during the the second quarter.... This was only a preliminary estimate, a guesstimate really; the government will gather more data and revise that number in the coming months. But it was clearly worrisome to Donald Trump, who tried in vain to put a glass-half-full spin on the news while also placing blame for any weakness on his nemeses at the Federal Reserve.* Previously, the government believed that the economy grew by more than 3 percent in 2018, a mark it hadn't hit in more than a decade. This milestone led Trump ... to boast that he had 'accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions.' He was particularly jazzed that growth hit 4.1 percent for one quarter that year. It turns out we didn't reach 3 percent growth after all. In its annual data revisions, which also dropped Friday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy grew by just 2.5 percent or 2.9 percent in 2018...."
... * Mrs. McCrabbie: Actually, what Trump tweeted was this: "Q2 GDP Up 2.1% Not bad considering we have the very heavy weight of the Federal Reserve anchor wrapped around our neck. Almost no inflation. USA is set to Zoom!" There is a punctuational sleight-of-hand here: "GDP Up 2.1%" implies the GDP rose 2.1 percent, not that it was at 2.1 percent. First of all, the GDP is not "up" at all; the Commerce Department's Q1 estimate was 3.1 percent, so a normal person who can count to 4 would know the GDP fell. Second, in Trump's telling, a reader who knew the previous quarter's GDP was an estimated 3.1 percent, would assume GDP was now at an astounding 5.2 percent. Wowza! Even Trump's punctuation -- or the blank spaces where there is supposed to be punctuation -- are lies. Now that's astounding.
"We Are All Executioners Now." Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Attorney General Bill Barr announced that he will order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule execution dates for five federal death-row prisoners, ending a 16-year de facto moratorium at the federal level. 'Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people's representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the President,' Barr said in a statement.... Barr's decision to frame the move in democratic terms is appropriate.... Federal and state laws are still written by elected legislators and enforced on the people's behalf. As a result, Americans continue to bear a certain responsibility for whatever the government does in their name.... The federal courts have long acted as a check on capital punishment's worst excesses, but that role is fading fast. The Supreme Court made it virtually impossible to challenge the constitutionality of execution methods when it heard the midazolam case in 2015.... While a majority of Americans still favor capital punishment..., Donald Trump seems to relish it."
There's nobody that has more respect for women than I do. -- Donald Trump, October 2016 ...
... Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "... new Trump administration regulations, part of the administration's broader war on family planning and women's health, curb access to birth control and are causing chaos in family planning clinics across America.... The Trump regulations limit Title X, a landmark federal program meant to support women's health for low-income Americans. The regulations bar Title X money from going to clinics that refer women to places to get abortions.... A Pap test to check for cervical cancer previously was free for low-income patients at the [only Planned Parenthood] clinic [in West Virginia]; after the Trump regulations, it's $264. A clinical breast exam went from zero to $160. A contraceptive arm implant or I.U.D. soared from zero to more than $1,000 in some cases.... Title X is an odd target because it is the gold standard of cost-effectiveness. In 2010, one study found, publicly funded family planning averted 2.2 million unintended pregnancies, 99,100 cases of chlamydia and 3,680 cases of cervical cancer." Thanks to Hattie for the link.
Regulations Save Lives. Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "In the days after the first crash of Boeing's 737 Max, engineers at the Federal Aviation Administration came to a troubling realization: They didn't fully understand the automated system that helped send the plane into a nose-dive, killing everyone on board.... More than a dozen current and former employees at the F.A.A. and Boeing who spoke with The New York Times described a broken regulatory process that effectively neutered the oversight authority of the agency. The regulator had been passing off routine tasks to manufacturers for years, with the goal of freeing up specialists to focus on the most important safety concerns. But on the Max, the regulator handed nearly complete control to Boeing, leaving some key agency officials in the dark about important systems like MCAS, according to the current and former employees." Mrs. McC: What are the chances the Trump administration got right on it & beefed up the FAA's regulatory rules?
Jeremy Stahl of Slate (July 26): "One of the country's top border officers ... Chief of Law Enforcement Operations for Customs and Border Protection Brian S. Hastings ... cannot say whether a 3-year-old child might pose a 'criminal or national security threat.' This was one of a number of astonishing takeaways from Thursday's latest hearing into family separation.... During a lightning round of opening questions from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, the CBP official confessed what many had long suspected but that the administration has repeatedly denied against all evidence: The Trump administration intended for family separation to be permanent.... The denouement came when Hastings confessed ... that there was no intent ever to reunite the families when the policy was first implemented.... This is the exact opposite of what ... [now Acting HHS Secretary Kevin] McAleenan told NBC's Lester Holt in April. 'They were always intended to be reunited.... Rep. Jamie Raskin asked [Hastings] if families were being separated because a parent is HIV-positive, as was reported earlier this month in Quartz.... [Hastings said yes:] 'It's a communicable disease under the guidance.' This is the exact opposite of what McAleenan said during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week in response to the same question from Raskin.... Update: On Friday, Hastings issued a statement changing his previous testimony that HIV is considered a communicable disease under the guidance." Mrs. McC: But it seems obvious Hastings' CBP is not following that guidance.
Paola Rosa-Aquino of Grist: "On Tuesday, a team of two dozen scientists co-signed an open letter to international lawmakers urging them to adopt a new addition to the Geneva Conventions.... The proposed new convention would add certain types of environmental destruction -- like the extinction of megafauna and poisoning of water sources -- to the list of unacceptable acts.... The idea dates back to the Vietnam War. In order to flush out guerilla fighters, Americans stripped the leafy jungle greens with defoliants including the infamous Agent Orange -- a forest-clearing herbicide that has been linked to severe birth defects decades after exposure.... Environmental war casualties are clearly nothing new, but the scientists' open letter to lawmakers is purposefully timed. The argument comes just ahead of a meeting of the United Nations' International La Commission, which will occur ... later this month." Thanks to Hattie for the link.
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Unprecedented wildfires are currently raging across the Arctic Circle, with some the size of 100,000 football fields -- so big they can be seen from space. Arctic sea ice is moreover already running at a record low this year; scientists worry [the incoming] heat wave will only further exacerbate the area's problems." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Ohio. Ryan Grim & Akela Lacy of The Intercept: "On Tuesday, a dark-money effort linked primarily to the Ohio nuclear industry delivered an audacious payoff, as a newly elected state legislature overcame years of opposition to shower a $1.1 billion bailout on two state nuclear plants [owned by FirstEnergy, after spending only $30 million on campaigns].... Several dark-money groups spent millions to replace key Republican state legislators in the spring of 2018, followed by a furious lobbying campaign to make sure those new lawmakers elected a new House speaker -- one who was amenable to the subsidy.... [P]revious legislatures had objected to a bailout[.]... According to the Environmental Working Group..., five cash-strapped states across the country have foisted more than $15 billion in subsidies on failing nuclear power plants since 2016[.]" --s...
... David Roberts of Vox: "It is the most counterproductive and corrupt piece of state energy legislation I can recall in all my time covering this stuff -- the details must really be seen to be believed.... To summarize: the bill would subsidize four uncompetitive power plants, remove all incentive to build more renewable energy projects, and cancel efforts to help customers use less energy.... As bad as the bill looks on the surface, once you understand the context and details, you realize ... it's actually much worse than that." --s
Way Beyond
Russia. Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "Lines of riot police officers in body armor and helmets blocked the streets of central Moscow on Saturday, arresting more than 1,300 demonstrators -- chasing some of them down alleys -- to blunt a protest over the fairness of coming city elections.... The spark for Saturday's protest was a decision by election authorities to bar several opposition candidates from running for Moscow's City Council, asserting that they had falsified signatures on petitions to run -- a charge the candidates denied. An independent monitoring group said more than 1,300 people were arrested near City Hall, the intended site of the rally, although many never made it there. As in past protests, the authorities began making arrests blocks away so a large crowd could not form. The protest, which not authorized by the government, was the latest in a series of street demonstrations staged as President Vladimir V. Putin's approval ratings have dipped amid economic hardship."
Scotland. Juan Cole: "As The Independent put it in its headline, for the first six months of this year, Scotland generated enough electricity with wind turbines to power two Scotlands (with regard to household energy requirements). Of course, households are not the only consumers of electricity -- industry and retail are big in that regard, as well. But we are still at the beginning of Scotland's green energy revolution. Scottish Power, the major utility, has dropped gas and coal entirely, and will invest $5.79 billion in order to double its renewables capacity." Also notes progress of other countries. --s
News Lede
NBC News: "At least three people were killed in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California, authorities said Sunday night. There was no immediate indication that a suspect was in custody. Multiple law enforcement sources said at least 11 people were shot at one of the largest food festivals in the United States. Gilroy City Council member Dion Bracco and a a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told NBC News that three people had been pronounced dead. Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for Santa Clara County Medical Center, said the hospital was treating five patients, 'generally' with gunshot wounds. No conditions of the victims were immediately made public."
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Reader Comments (6)
New (Imperial) Rules
“Medications that had been bought with Title X money are now unused at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Vienna, W.Va.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/opinion/sunday/women-health-trump.html
“Nobody has more respect for women than I do," Trump said. "Nobody. Nobody has more respect." October 2016
Scientists urge the U.N. to make environmental destruction a war crime | Grist
“From the U.S. dropping . . . agent orange on jungles in Vietnam to Saddam Hussein’s damming marshes in Iraq, human conflict has often involved the intentional infliction of wounds on both ecosystems and populations. . . . And while it’s natural to focus on a war’s immediate cost to human life, environmental acts of destruction can lead to long-term pain and suffering that lasts many years beyond the conflict.”
https://grist.org/article/scientists-urge-the-u-n-to-make-environmental-destruction-a-war-crime/
So Trump offered no proof for his accusation of corruption in Baltimore. When does he ever offer evidence to back up his claims? Yet all the MAGA hat wearing ranks nod their heads as if his word were the voice of god, saying "uh-huh".
Turned off Mulvaney as he warmed up to excuse t's vile tweets. They are all monsters.
Will not write much as I tripped on a bad curb and now have two cracked bones and 7 stitches and only one working hand--the wrong one...and too much time to listen and read horrible stories, so carry on!
@Jeanne: Sorry to read about your fall & injuries. Sounds awful. Maybe you can do what I did when I was in a recovery room Friday: read the Mueller report! More seriously, take it easy & read something you want to read -- maybe the complete works of Alice Munro -- or watch a whole TV series on Netflix, Prime or whatever.
Jeanne,
I’m sorry to learn of your injuries. How totally unfortunate, frustrating and - I should imagine - painful. Perhaps the following “reveals” might cheer you:
While a “modern dancer”, I sustained many such injuries. And, following tradition, just recently took a surprise, gravity-defying, aerial dive over one of the many neglected “Sidewalks of New York”. (Somehow, by-the-grace-of-whatevuh, I managed to not further pulverize the remaining cartilage of my knees. Although my pride was a tad fractured when a teenager asked if she could help me up. LOL) While it’s said that “once a dancer, always a dancer”, I align with this: Those who pursue disciplines in movement do so because they are inherently klutzes! And I’m living proof of that.
In addition to Mrs. McBea’s recommendations, might I offer the following?
There are many interesting (ie: injury-distracting) and laugh-inducing podcasts. NPR’s Terry Gross of “Fresh Air” has an archive of interviews that are *not* examinations of our nation’s / world’s turmoil and decay.
There are also (healing) meditation tapes online if your cuppa tea. (Often, they have helped me.). But if not, here’s a listening-alternative: I recall, following surgical excavation, listening to such material and talking back (cursing!) to the disembodied voice, useless and annoying to me and at that juncture. And THAT, I tell you, was extremely healing. (again, LOL)
You will heal, Jeanne.
(perfect timing, at my subway stop)