;)
The Commentariat -- June 21, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
So here's the latest version of the evolving Trump-Changes-His-Mind story:
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Get that? These generals are so stupid & careless ("Great people, these generals," Trump says facetiously) that they have given no consideration to and have no idea of what the body count is projected to be. The "generals" (no "admirals"??) have to leave the room & phone for an answer from some functionary in the Pentagon basement. Then they come back, and for the first time, tell Trump that the strikes are likely to kill 150 people. Up till 10 minutes before missiles are to be launched, no top aides or military leaders have weighed in on "collateral damage." It's up to Our Hero Donald Trump to bring up the issue at liftoff-minus-ten. Unbelievable? Youbetcha. ...
... Deb Reichmann, et al., of the AP: "Trump's assertion that he learned only at the last minute of his military advisers' casualty estimate does not align with the usual way a president is briefed on military attack options. An assessment of the likelihood of casualties, whether civilian or military, and a broad estimate of the number, normally are a major element of each option provided to the commander in chief.... Asked how he was weighing his options, Trump said in a meeting with congressional leaders Thursday, 'My gut,' according to a person familiar with the exchange.... Although top congressional leaders met with Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss Iran, he apparently did not tell them an attack was imminent." Mrs. McC: Jonathan Lamire of the AP said on MSNBC that the AP's reporting indicated that Trump had received casualty estimated hours before the planned strike. ...
... Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump said Friday morning that the United States military had been 'cocked and loaded' for a strike against Iran on Thursday night, but that he called it off with 10 minutes to spare when a general told him that 150 people would likely die in the attack.... The president said in a series of tweets just after 9 a.m. that he was prepared to retaliate against three sites in Iran for that country's shooting down an American drone, but that he was 'in no hurry.' He indicated that the death of 150 Iranians would not be 'proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.' It was unclear why Mr. Trump would have been getting information about possible casualties so late in the process of launching military action. Such information is typically discussed early in the deliberations between a president and national security officials." ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "There's no shame in calling back the strike.... Yet the story of how it happened, by Trump's own account, is chilling. There seem to be three possibilities. One is that Trump was railroaded by advisers who are reportedly far more hawkish on Iran than he is, and only at the last minute realized what was happening, in which case he's being ill-served by his aides. A second is that Trump was given other, more proportionate options, and estimates of the casualties each would produce, and only stopped to consider these questions as the planes were in the air -- not the sign of the sort of careful, measured decision-making one wants in national-security decisions. A third is that Trump knew exactly what he was doing and it was all a big performance. That possibility is perhaps most supported by Trump's own account and by his past history of using the military as a prop. That's also what a source told Maggie Haberman[.]" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: See also my comment in the thread below. I still think the not-paying-attention explanation is possible. ...
... Wonkette's Five Dollar Feminist has some thoughts. ...
... Jack Crosbie of Splinter also is worried about the influence of the "Fox & Friends" National Security Council. ...
... Connor Mannion of Mediaite: "Trump tweeted out the phrasing ['cocked and loaded'], a deviation from the usual term 'locked and loaded,' while tweeting out an explanation about why he abruptly called off a major military strike against Iran that would have been in retaliation for a shot-down drone aircraft. Twitter quickly caught on and joked about the phrasing.... Tina Dupuy[:] '"Cocked and loaded" sounds like the porn version of a John Wayne film.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Trump plans to nominate Mark T. Esper, the secretary of the Army and former West Point classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to be the next defense secretary, administration officials said on Friday. They said that Mr. Trump would send the nomination to lawmakers on Capitol Hill in the next few days. If confirmed, Mr. Esper, an Army infantryman who fought in the gulf war before becoming a lobbyist for Raytheon would succeed Jim Mattis, who resigned in December during a dispute over pulling American troops out of Syria. Mr. Esper is set to become acting defense secretary on Sunday, following the abrupt resignation of Patrick M. Shanahan, who also was nominated by Mr. Trump to the top Pentagon job. Mr. Shanahan withdrew on Tuesday amid news reports about his 2011 divorce."
Andrew Desiderio & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The House Intelligence Committee will issue a subpoena to Felix Sater, a former business associate of ... Donald Trump who was the chief negotiator for the failed Trump Tower Moscow project, after he failed to show up for a voluntary interview Friday morning. 'The committee had scheduled a voluntary staff-level interview with Mr. Sater, but he did not show up this morning as agreed,' said Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). 'As a result, the committee is issuing a subpoena to compel his testimony.' Sater told Politico that the interview is 'being rescheduled.' His attorney, Robert Wolff, said in a statement that Sater couldn't attend Friday's interview 'due to health reasons' but looks forward to voluntarily appearing once it's rescheduled." Mrs. McC: Right.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A white Mississippi prosecutor violated the Constitution by excluding black jurors from the sixth trial of Curtis Flowers, a black man who was convicted of murdering four people in 1996 in a furniture store, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, writing for a seven-justice majority, said the prosecutor, Doug Evans, had run afoul of the court's 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky. 'Equal justice under law requires a criminal trial free of racial discrimination in the jury selection process,' Justice Kavanaugh wrote. 'Enforcing that constitutional principle, Batson ended the widespread practice in which prosecutors could (and often would) routinely strike all black prospective jurors in cases involving black defendants. Chief Justice John G. Roberts's decision to assign the majority opinion in a high-profile case to the court's newest member may have been prompted by Justice Kavanaugh's longstanding interest in race discrimination in jury selection. When he was a law student at Yale, Justice Kavanaugh wrote an article in Yale Law Journal calling for vigorous enforcement of the Batson decision.... Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.... Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined most of Justice Thomas's dissent. In a passage in which Justice Thomas spoke only for himself, he wrote that he had profound doubts about whether the Batson decision had been correctly decided in the first place." Mrs. McC: Yeah, Neil, that figures.
Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "It is going to cost the United States at least $400 billion over the next 20 years to protect the nation's public infrastructure -- everything from roads and rail lines to bridges, airports, and sewage treatment systems -- to withstand the impacts of sea level rise.... The price tag is almost as much as it took to build the original interstate highway system, which cost $114 billion at the time ($521 billion when accounting for inflation) over 36 years and now spans over 48,000 miles.... All of this vital work would need to be done in half the amount of time it took to build the nation's highway system." --safari: You think D.C. is up to the task?
Alaska. Owen Daugherty of The Hill: "Several attendees at a government meeting open to the public in Alaska walked out in protest after an opening prayer praised Satan. The Associated Press reports the prayer, where a woman declared 'Hail Satan,' was given by Satanic Temple member Iris Fontana, who won the right to open the meeting with an invocation of her choice." --s
Georgia. Elham Katami of ThinkProgress: "Georgia state officials said Tuesday that 30,000 residents will lose their Medicaid coverage for failing to respond to renewal notices. But lawyers of many of the recipients affected say their clients were dropped from coverage without ever having received those notices.... According to the [Atlanta Journal Constitution], the [Department of Community Health] admitted that some beneficiaries did not receive renewal notices, but added that the number is small, approximately 70 people. Lawyers, however, claim that the number is in the thousands." --s
North Carolina. Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "[On election day in 2016]..., the electronic poll books -- records of who's eligible to vote, to be manned by workers with laptops -- had crashed, and Durham County [a democratic stronghold in North Carolina] soon took the whole system off-line. The hasty switch to printed poll books ... was a comedy of errors.... In the end ... Trump won [the state] by 173,000 votes.... Just days before the 2016 voting ... [Susan Greenhalgh, the executive director of an alliance called the National Election Defense Coalition] first reports that Russian operatives had tried to hack into an election technology company called VR Systems. She wondered that day if VR Systems was Durham's vendor. It was. Incredibly, it is just now -- 32 long months after ... that officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have finally launched a serious probe into the possibility that Russian hackers crashed the computers or altered data that caused those crushing lines.... North Carolina's problems have experts worried that the real interference could come from crashing the poll books or altering addresses or voting histories to cause mass chaos on Election Day." --s
Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld lame-duck laws Friday that limit the power of the state's new Democratic governor, handing Republicans a victory in one of several legal fights over the laws. Two other lawsuits over the lame-duck laws are ongoing. The state Supreme Court is considering one and a federal judge the other. In Friday's 4-3 decision, conservatives on the state's high court found lawmakers were allowed to bring themselves into session in December to trim the authority of Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul just before they took office."
Juan Cole: "US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt has stated that next week's Bahrain economic workshop is the first part of the United State's peace plan known as 'Deal of the Century.' Greenblatt has also emphasized to the Israeli news agency 'i24NEWS' that the workshop will be concidsered [sic] as 'apolitical' due to the Palestinian Authority's decision to boycott the conference. Subsequently, no Israeli government officials would be invited nor any other foreign leaders or ministers.... [T]he current focus is on attracting investors and looking for donors to build up the Palestinian economy while garnering feedback." --s
~~~~~~~~~~
** Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions. As late as 7 p.m. Thursday, military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president's top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations. Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries. The operation was underway in its early stages when it was called off, a senior administration official said. Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down, the official said.... Senior administration officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; John R. Bolton, the national security adviser; and Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director, had favored a military response. But top Pentagon officials cautioned that such an action could result in a spiraling escalation with risks for American forces in the region." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Ben Rhodes said on MSNBC Thursday night, "We have no foreign policy."
... Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "Democrats told President Trump in a situation room meeting Thursday he needs to get congressional authorization before taking military action against Iran, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. 'I told the president that these conflicts have a way of escalating. The president may not intend to go to war here, but we're worried that -- and the administration may bumble into a war,' Schumer told reporters at Capitol Hill after the meeting. 'We told the room that the Democratic position is that congressional approval must be required before funding any conflict in Iran,' he continued. 'One of the best ways to avoid bumbling into a war, a war that nobody wants, is to have a robust open debate and for Congress to have a real say. We learned that lesson in the run-up to Iraq.' Trump invited congressional leaders from both parties and chambers to the White House situation room to discuss Iran after Tehran shot down a U.S. drone."
Kristen Welker, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Thursday said the public will 'find out' about a U.S. response to Iran shooting down an American military drone in the Persian Gulf that the president insisted was in international territory.... 'Iran made a very bad mistake,' the president continued. 'The drone was in international waters clearly. We have it documented.'... 'I have a feeling that someone under the command of that country made a big mistake,' he said. 'I find it hard to believe it was intentional. It could have been someone who was loose and stupid who did it.'... Trump has invited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to a briefing at the White House at 3:00 p.m. Thursday...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Luis Martinez of ABC News: "In a major provocation, Iran shot down an unarmed and unmanned U.S. RQ-4A Global Hawk drone while it was flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement.... Donald Trump tweeted Thursday morning that 'Iran made a very big mistake' after a top Iranian commander warned Iran was 'ready for war.'... A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that the U.S. Navy was were working to recover the drone in a debris field the official said was located in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz." (Also linked yesterday.) More on this linked yesterday. ...
... David Axe of the Daily Beast: “The U.S. military drone Iran shot down over the Persian Gulf on Thursday was a high-flying prototype model belonging to the Navy. The Navy for years has deployed the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator, or BAMS-D, drones on an emergency basis, stationing the 737-size unmanned aerial vehicles to watch over Syria and Iran. The unarmed BAMS-D drone 'was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile system while operating in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz,' Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson, told The Daily Beast via email. 'Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false,' Urban added.... A single Global Hawk sells for more than $200 million, counting the cost of its sensors. Operators control the drone from work stations on the ground, beaming commands via satellite to the pilotless aircraft." ...
... Juan Cole: "... this crisis is of Trump's making. His conviction that he could stiff Iran without consequences, all for the sake of looking tough with his MAGA base, was a serious miscalculation. It is the problem with having an ignorant and yet opinionated man at the helm of the US government. He is guaranteed to make basic mistakes that put the US on a war footing even though that appears to be the last thing Trump wants. Unfortunately, Iran will provoke again, and next time the US warmongers may win the argument." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Almost all of the experts & pundits I heard on the teevee Thursday were jumping up & down in their chairs crying, "But Trump has no idea what he's doing! This is insane! Trump caused this problem in the first place! This has been a Bolton wetdream for decades! It turns out Dr. Strangelove has a walrus mustache." Or something like that.
** Cedar Attanasio, et al., of the AP: "A traumatic and dangerous situation is unfolding for some 250 infants, children and teens locked up for up to 27 days without adequate food, water and sanitation, according to a legal team that interviewed dozens of children at a Border Patrol station in Texas. The attorneys who recently visited the facility near El Paso told The Associated Press that three girls, ages 10 to 15, said they had been taking turns watching over a sick 2-year-old boy because there was no one else to look after him. When the lawyers saw the boy, he wasn't wearing a diaper and had wet his pants, and his shirt was smeared in mucus. They said at least 15 children at the facility had the flu, and some were kept in medical quarantine. The children told lawyers that they were fed uncooked frozen food or rice and had gone weeks without bathing or a clean change of clothes at the facility in Clint, in the desert scrubland some 25 miles southeast of El Paso. 'In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention I have never heard of this level of inhumanity,' said Holly Cooper, an attorney who represents detained youth." ...
... Nicole Goodkind of Newsweek: "The Trump administration went to court this week to argue that migrant children detained at the United States-Mexico border do not require basic hygiene products like soap and toothbrushes in order to be in held in 'safe and sanitary' conditions. Trump's team also argued that requiring minors to sleep on cold concrete floors in crowded cells with low temperatures similarly fulfilled that requirement." Mrs. McC: If the government loses -- and it's a good guess it will based on the judges' outraged responses to the government's assertions -- the Trump administration lawyer said it would appeal. ...
... A Very Unhappy Anniversary. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Exactly one year ago on Thursday, after a national uproar, Donald Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents. Six days later, a federal judge ordered the reunification of thousands of parents and children whom the American government had torn apart.... It seemed that one of the ugliest chapters of this vicious administration had ended. But if there's one thing this administration rarely backs down on, it's cruelty. Family separation, it turns out, never really stopped.... There are kids in this country being systematically brutalized by the American government, and it's hard to keep that in the forefront of your mind all the time without going mad.... People can just shut down.... I think Trump understands this as well."
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
You might want to send these videos to your Trumpbot brother-in-law. Rob Reiner directed:
Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Hope Hicks refused to answer 155 questions from House Democrats on Wednesday about her tenure as communications director in the Trump White House, according to a transcript of her closed-door testimony released Thursday.... Two White House lawyers, Michael Purpura and Patrick Philbin, objected to lawmakers' and committee staffers' questions every time the inquiry touched on Hicks' service in the White House and during the presidential transition period, which pre-dates Trump's presidency.... Hicks' attorney, Robert Trout, said his client was 'simply following the guidance of the White House.'" ...
... Rachel Maddow read some of the more interesting parts of the Hicks interview. (Sadly, no sock puppets.):
... Andrew Desiderio: “Hope Hicks broke with ... Donald Trump during her interview with the House Judiciary Committee this week, telling lawmakers that offers of foreign assistance in U.S. elections should be 'rejected and reported to the FBI,' Chairman Jerry Nadler said on Thursday.... Nadler indicated during a Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday that Hicks was also asked about Trump's recent comments to ABC News in which he suggested that he would accept a foreign adversary's offer of damaging information about a political opponent. According to Nadler, Hicks 'knew that the president's statement was troubling' and 'understood the president to be serious.' Nadler did not quote Hicks directly, but the transcript of her testimony is set to be released later this week." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Here's Jerry Nadler's Rationale on How Great the Hicks "Testimony" Was. Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney: "House Democrats are planning to file a lawsuit within days to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify on Capitol Hill -- and they say Hope Hicks' reluctant testimony Wednesday will help deliver them a crucial win in court. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said Hicks' blanket refusal to tell lawmakers about her tenure in the West Wing is the real-life illustration Democrats needed to show a judge just how extreme the White House's blockade on witness testimony has become. 'It very much played into our hands,' Nadler said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office Thursday." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Also too, weren't House Democrats "planning to file a lawsuit within days against Don McGahn" a couple of weeks ago? There are 29,434 days between now and January 1, 2100. So one could say the new century is coming "within days."
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in a new court filing Thursday allege that longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone has violated his gag order in his criminal case with recent social media posts. 'In the past several days, Stone posted statements on social media about this case and the special counsel's investigation and appears to have specifically targeted those posts at major media outlets,' prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday. 'On or about June 18 and 19, 2019, the defendant posted to Instagram and Facebook, commenting about this case and inviting news organizations to cover the issue,' prosecutors wrote. 'This is a violation of the current conditions of release.' Stone was barred by Judge Amy Berman Jackson from making public statements about his case in February...." ...
... Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Government investigators independently verified that Russian operatives hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and did not rely on a private cyber firm's findings, federal prosecutors in the Roger Stone case in a court filing on Thursday. The prosecutors were rebutting a claim made in a prior court filing by Stone ... that the government relied only on 'an inconclusive and unsubstantiated report' written by cyber research firm CrowdStrike and did not 'collect any evidence of the DNC breach directly.'"
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate is voting Thursday to block President Trump's Saudi arms deal, paving the way for a veto clash with the White House. Senators voted 53-45 in favor of a resolution of disapproval to block one of the 22 arms sales the administration noticed to Congress, though the vote is ongoing. The Senate is expected to block the entire arms deal on Thursday with two additional back-to-back subsequent votes.... House Democrats have pledged they will also pass resolutions blocking the sale. Neither chamber is expected to be able to muster the two-thirds votes necessary to override all-but-guaranteed vetoes from Trump in response." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Senate voted to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, rebuking ... Donald Trump's foreign policy in the aftermath of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump, whose administration signaled it would bypass congressional opposition to the sale of arms, is expected to veto the Senate's resolutions."
Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., on Wednesday called for ... Donald Trump to be subject to an impeachment inquiry, notable since she is part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership team, and the speaker has counseled restraint. 'This is a personal decision on my part,' Schakowsky said in a video." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... NPR has a handy "impeachment tracker" here. "Currently, 69 Democrats and one Republican in the House of Representatives support beginning an impeachment inquiry into Trump for potential obstruction of justice." The tracker has not been updated to include Schakowsky's announcement, so that would be at least 71 House members. (Also linked yesterday.)
Matt Stieb of New York: "On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to a lifetime federal seat, overriding the objections of all the body's voting Democrats and one Republican, Maine senator Susan Collins. With a 52-46 vote, the 42-year-old Kacsmaryk will head to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, bringing an alarming history of opinions questioning the rights of LGBTQ Americans and the legitimacy of Roe v. Wade." Read on. Mrs. McC: This horrible bigot is not qualified to judge a dog show, much less you & me. Shame on Senate Republicans. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race 2020. Lisa Lerer & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A few hours [after Joe Biden said Cory Booker should apologize to him for criticizing Biden's invocation of segregationists, and] after Mr. Booker responded angrily on CNN to the former vice president, Mr. Biden called him in an effort to decrease tensions.... The tone between the men was conciliatory; still, the former vice president and his allies have stood by his remarks. For decades, Mr. Biden's garrulous political style has led to the kind of gaffes that contributed to the demise of his previous presidential aspirations. Yet Donald J. Trump's refusal to admit any misstep during his winning presidential campaign may have shifted the gaffe gauge in American politics -- as well as some Democrats' expectations about their own candidates.
Senate Race 2020. James Arkin of Politico: "Roy Moore, the controversial Republican judge who lost a 2017 Senate race in deep-red Alabama amid allegations of sexual misconduct with young girls decades ago, is defying GOP opposition and running again in 2020, he announced Thursday.... Republicans fear Moore's candidacy could be a major roadblock in the GOP's path to retaking a critical Senate seat. Figures at every level of the party, including ... Donald Trump, had urged Moore to forgo another run, fearing that he would be the only candidate who would lose to Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. But Moore was defiant on Thursday, calling out by name leadership and staff at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as well as top advisers and allies of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell."
Christian Nation, Ctd. Nina Totenberg & Domenico Montanaro of NPR: "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a 40-foot World War I memorial cross can stay on public land at a Maryland intersection. The cross 'has become a prominent community landmark, and its removal or radical alteration at this date would be seen by many not as a neutral act but as the manifestation of a hostility toward religion that has no place in our Establishment Clause traditions,' the court wrote. Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion for the court.... The decision was 7-to-2, but had multiple parts and not all of the seven agreeing on every aspect. The decision reverses a lower-court ruling that said the memorial is unconstitutional because it is on public land and maintained at taxpayer expense. The high court's ruling is a major victory for religious groups and the American Legion, which warned that if this cross had to be moved, so too would other crosses that serve as war memorials.... Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in dissent, disagreed with Alito...." According to CNN, Justice Ginsberg read her dissent from the bench. The opinions are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alice Ollstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court this morning said the Trump administration's family planning rules can take effect nationwide while several lawsuits play out, delivering a major blow to Planned Parenthood and states challenging the overhaul. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration's request to lift national injunctions ordered by lower federal courts in Oregon and Washington state, as well as a statewide injunction in California. A panel of three judges, all appointed by previous Republican presidents, said the administration will likely prevail in the legal battle over the Title X family planning program since the Supreme Court held up similar Reagan-era rules almost 30 years ago, though they were reversed by the Clinton administration before taking effect."
Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "In stunning testimony that may upend the war crimes trial of Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, a SEAL medic told the court on Thursday that he -- not the chief -- had killed a wounded captive in Iraq. The medic, Special Operator First Class Corey Scott, testified that he watched Chief Gallagher stab the prisoner, a teenage ISIS fighter, in the neck but that the stab wound did not appear to be life-threatening. After the chief walked away, Special Operator Scott told the court, he pressed his thumb over the captive's breathing tube until he died. 'I knew he was going to die anyway, and wanted to save him from waking up to whatever would have happened to him,' Special Operator Scott said, adding that he had seen other captives tortured and killed by Iraqi forces. He testified after being granted immunity from criminal prosecution for the events and actions that he would discuss on the stand.... Prosecutors said on Thursday that they would not drop the premeditated murder charge against the chief, despite the medic's testimony."
Capitalism Is Totally Awesome, Ctd. Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "For more than a decade, Walmart used middlemen to make dubious payments to governments around the globe in order to open new locations, United States prosecutors and securities regulators said in a settlement agreement on Thursday. But even as employees frequently raised alarm, the company's top leaders did little to prevent Walmart from being involved in bribery and corruption schemes. That lack of internal control led to a seven-year inquiry that culminated on Thursday with Walmart's Brazilian subsidiary pleading guilty to a federal crime. The guilty plea, and the $282 million in fines that Walmart has agreed to pay, capped one of the biggest investigations ever under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for American corporations to bribe overseas officials.... The investigation, which was conducted by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, came after The New York Times revealed in 2012 that Walmart had made suspicious payments to officials in Mexico and then tried to conceal them from top executives at the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.... Walmart was able to negotiate a lower fine after President Trump, who had previously criticized the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, took office." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Adam Davidson of the New Yorker wrote in March 2017, the Trump Organization almost certainly violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act during the construction of the Trump Tower Baku in Azerbaijan by looking the other way as "The Corleones of the Caspian," with whom Trump had partnered, bribed & colluded with local officials.
Couldn't Happen to More Deserving People. Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The palace intrigue at the National Rifle Association deepened on Thursday as the gun group suspended its second-in-command and top lobbyist, accusing him of complicity in the recent failed coup against its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre. The accusation came in a lawsuit filed Wednesday night in New York State Supreme Court against Oliver North, the N.R.A.'s former president, who led the attempt to oust Mr. LaPierre shortly before the group's annual convention in April. The complaint provides fresh detail about the effort against Mr. LaPierre, but it is the involvement of the organization's No. 2 official, Christopher, W. Cox, that will reverberate."
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Vivian Wang of the New York Times: "... on Wednesday, [state] lawmakers passed sweeping anti-harassment legislation that supporters said would make New York's laws among the most robust in the nation. The package was the result of more than a year of lobbying by women across the state ... whose years of anger were given voice by the #MeToo movement. It was also directly tied to a
Oregon. Hillary Borrud & Chris Lehman of the Oregonian: "Oregon Republican senators have left the Capitol and scattered in various directions outside the state in order to avoid being rounded up by troopers for a high-profile climate bill vote scheduled today. 'Protesting cap-and-trade by walking out today represents our constituency and exactly how we should be doing our job,' Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr., of Grants Pass, said in a written statement Thursday morning. 'We have endured threats of arrest, fines, and pulling community project funds from the governor, Senate president and majority leader. We will not stand by and be bullied by the majority party any longer.'... In response to the walkout, Senate President Peter Courtney formally requested Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to dispatch Oregon State Police troopers to round up the missing Republican Senators. Brown quickly granted that request. Democrats also announced they would fine the missing lawmakers $500 per day if they don't show up at the Capitol by 11 a.m. Friday. The money would be deducted from their salary and per diem." ...
Hillary Borrud: State “Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas ... suggest[ed] he would shoot and potentially kill any state trooper sent to haul him unwillingly back to the Capitol. After Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. said Tuesday that his caucus was 'prepared to take actions' to prevent passage of a major climate change bill, Gov. Brown announced on Wednesday that she was ready to answer Republican stonewalling by calling lawmakers back for a special session. Brown hinted that she would be willing to send state troopers to round up Republicans if they walk out in the final days of the regular legislative session.... 'This is what I told the superintendent,' Boquist said, referring to OSP Superintendent Travis Hampton. 'Send bachelors and come heavily armed. I'm not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It's just that simple.'... As Willamette Week has reported, Boquist is a U.S. Army veteran whose businesses include military training and an international operation that journalists described in the 1990s as a paramilitary force of armed American and Russian ex-military officers."
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Reader Comments (10)
While reading Michelle Goldberg's column this morning, I was horrified to find myself thinking that the most practical way to get parents and child migrants back together would be to tattoo parent and child with the same number, due to the fact that parents may not speak english and children may not speak at all.
See? efficient and practical, and easily placed on computer.
(this is a partial link - I hope it works)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/opinion/family-separation-trump-migration
I do not trust the New York Times to report accurately. Is there any confirmation that President* Trump actually ordered the attack? Or was the attack ordered by somebody at the National Security Council claiming that the President* had ordered it? Does everybody at the Pentagon now understand that the National Security Council is not in the chain of command and does not have authority to give orders? Maybe that needs to be emphasized in stories in the civilian press. This is a very strange and frightening story. Trump ordering an attack and then calling it off seems inconsistent. We need a lot more information about what went on and who was doing what to whom when.
@Procopius: Skepticism is a good thing, especially in light of the NYT's history of parroting the administration's talking points & the White House's propensity to lie, lie and lie again. I'm not quite as skeptical as you are, however. According to the Times report, their sources were "multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.... It was not clear whether Mr. Trump simply changed his mind on the strikes or whether the administration altered course because of logistics or strategy. It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward.... Asked about the plans for a strike and the decision to hold back, the White House declined to comment, as did Pentagon officials. No government officials asked The New York Times to withhold the article."
I don't doubt these unnamed officials might have lied through their teeth, but the report makes Trump look indecisive and, well, all atwitter. Speaking of Twitter, Trump more-or-less confirmed the story in tweets this morning, claiming "We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it...." According to the NYT report, "The strike was set to take place just before dawn Friday in Iran to minimize risk to the Iranian military and civilians." I don't know if the government thinks 150 Iranian casualtiess is "minimal."
I don't see any indication this was an NSC "order," even if John Bolton was the No. 1 War Hawk. I have some confidence (perhaps misplaced, but I don't think so) that military officers know how the chain-of-command works for lethal strikes, so it just seems implausible to me that the planned strikes were a rogue operation run by Bolton or someone else at the NSC.
P.S. Trump's claim that he heroically saved 150 Iranian lives at the last minute is probably either a bald-faced lie or he just wasn't paying attention when officials gave him a casualty assessment. As Times reporters note in a breaking report linked above, "It was unclear why Mr. Trump would have been getting information about possible casualties so late in the process of launching military action. Such information is typically discussed early in the deliberations between a president and national security officials.”
P.P.S. And if you read Trump's full morning tweet-excuse, you'll find out he had to save these lucky Iranians because Obama.
Victoria,
Don’t let that idea get around. It’s horrific in more than just the obvious ways.
Given the pro-Nazi proclivities of the Trumpy assassination (administration is far too misleading a word; it implies organization, ability, and intentionality based on ideas more developed than foundational hatred and innate inhumanity), they would cozy up quickly to this solution. But not for the reason you suggest.
They might push the plan as an example of their abiding sense of decency, claiming that this would solve the problem (which they intended) of exploding families and casting them into the clutches of fear, desperation, and hatred. But under the pro-cruelty and ruthless barbarism of such as Stephen (Mass Deportation Man) Miller, the plan would actually work this way: tattoo parents and children, including babes in arms (especially wonderful to hear those horrible little brown infants scream when ink is injected through a needle into their tiny arms!) but give them all DIFFERENT NUMBERS so as to ensure endless chaos and misery.
Not only mark them life, but guarantee that reunion will never be possible.
Then blame it all on Obama and Hillary once it’s clear the ensuing avalanche of lies has melted into the standard Trumpian impotence.
Anyone who thinks such a plan is too extreme even for these malicious pricks has not been paying attention.
Hope Hicks admits to lying.
Whoa. Stop the presses! Wire Congress! A Trump assassination flunky lies. That’s not news. That’s a job requirement for being handed a taxpayer financed sinecure by a president mendacity.
Good lord. These whack job middle-aged white Rambo wanna-bes in Oregon are the most cartoonish example of the amoral, selfish, overt stupidity of the average American Conservative Man. They concoct a plan to all go run and hide in their tree stands and forts with their big gunz and lots of ammo because they refuse to be taken "hostage" by showing up to a job they themselves sought, to vote on an issue that demands immediate attention and is mostly setting a foundation to act for a better build for their kids and future generations, meaning they'll be good and dead before any of the major plans really get going. But these low IQ wise guys are alive today, and they'll be damned before they have to kneel to the liburals and feign interest in their kids' well-being.
Trigger the entitled white man temper tantrums: "NO! You'll have to waste tax-payer money and send the guvmint to come find me in my bunker and drag my crybaby ass kicking and screaming before I go back, sit in a chair, and vote no."
All these hillbilly dumbfucks should be ashamed of themselves, and anyone who voted for them should be cast from the voting rolls. This sort of bullshit cannot be tolerated any more.
I have a plan whereby all of us here on RC can get rich as long as
the treasonweasel is running (ruining?) the show, or 3 ring circus.
Here's the plan: he says something horrible, like we're bombing
Canada tomorrow. The stock market tumbles. We bring some of
our cash back from the Caymans and buy low. Two days later he
says that's not what I meant. I meant we have a wonderful new trade
agreement with Canada and Mexico.
The market goes up 500 points. We sell and wait for the next gaff,
probably the next day.
We're all rich now and can buy one of those condos in a trump
development for 50 million $ and 40 million of that can be laundered
thru the Douche Bank with no taxes involved.
(Carbon copy to the IRS).
Thanks, Forrest
Had a similar thought the other day, but mine was less imaginative. I was thinking only of the Pretender's messing with the Fed.
Then I thought those Wall Street vultures much smarter than I am are probably already playing that game, and now that you mention the more general and frequent stupid stuff he says, I'm guessing the same people who control the real money (don't mean to leave you out of that group) are on top of that game, too.
Wouldn't be surprised to find out some day that the Pretender's money managers are among them.
What good is a presidency if you can't monetize it?
"Cocked and loaded," Donnie?
See in reports others have noted the malapropism, and many have speculated on what it might meant beyond the Pretender's congenital idiocy.
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/twitter-has-field-day-with-trumps-cocked-and-loaded-tweet-pls-delete-or-rephrase/
Whadda clown!
Make that "might HAVE meant."
An idiocy of mine own....