;)
The Commentariat -- June 5, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Trump Still Doesn't Understand Difference between Climate & Weather. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "President Trump during an interview broadcast early Wednesday said that he appreciates Prince Charles's passion on climate change but dismissed the British royal's concerns on the topic, adding that the weather 'changes both ways.' Trump told Piers Morgan of ITV's 'Good Morning Britain' that the prince spent more than an hour trying to warn him the dangers of climate change. Prince Charles did 'most of the talking" during their interaction, Trump said." ...
... ** Adam Raymond of the New York Times lists the nine "most bonkers" moments from Trump's interview with Morgan. Kind of a must-read.
** Erik Sherman of Fortune: "When it comes to talking himself up, Trump in particular has compared himself to Barack Obama. So, how do the two presidents measure up in terms of growth in major indexes, measured between their inauguration and May 31 of their third year in office? The short answer is that Trump has quite a way to go. Under Obama, the S&P 500 grew by 56.4%. The Dow Jones Industrials Average was up 50.6% and the Nasdaq, 92.9%. The numbers under Trump were 21.4% for the S&P 500, 25.2% for the Dow, and 34.2% for Nasdaq."
Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "[T]he royal family has for years batted back stories that its members were looking into or joining Trump's properties -- stories that, according to multiple biographies of Trump, were spread by the real-estate developer himself. Between 1981 and 1995, multiple claims that members of the British Royal family were joining Trump properties filled New York tabloids and national papers according to a CNN KFile review of archival papers, audio, and books about the then-real estate developer. All of them were unequivocally shot down by Buckingham Palace." --safari: A damning review of how Trump has cynically manipulated journalists for decades for free publicity.
Anjali Tsui of ProPublica and Alice Wilder of WNYC: "In mid-March, the payday lending industry held its annual convention at the Trump National Doral hotel outside Miami. Payday lenders offer loans on the order of a few hundred dollars, typically to low-income borrowers, who have to pay them back in a matter of weeks. The industry has long been reviled by critics for charging stratospheric interest rates -- typically 400% on an annual basis -- that leave customers trapped in cycles of debt.... The mood was celebratory.... A month earlier, Kathleen Kraninger, who had just finished her second month as director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had delivered what the lenders consider an epochal victory: Kraninger announced a proposal to gut a crucial rule that had been passed under her Obama-era predecessor.... Now, the industry was taking credit for the CFPB's retreat.... The CFSA and its members have poured a total of about $1 million into the Trump Organization's coffers through ... two annual conferences.... They [also] contributed to the president's inauguration and earned face time with the president after donating to a Trump ally. But it's the payment to the president's business that is a stark reminder that the Trump administration is like none before it."
David Cay Johnson of DC Report in RawStory: "Only one of the billionaire Koch brothers supported Donald Trump's 2016 campaign: William Ingraham Koch. Bill Koch even raised money for Trump, his nearby neighbor in Palm Beach, Fla. That same year, IRS criminal agents began an investigation after receiving nearly 1,000 pages of documents detailing what were described as multiple tax frauds at Bill Koch's companies. The documents, which we call the Koch Papers, came from a deeply knowledgeable source: Charles Middleton, who had been one of the companies' top tax executives. The IRS investigation went cold after Trump assumed office, documents obtained by DCReport show.... [O]ne of Middleton's lawyers, William ... Cohan, and Middleton's Seattle lawyer, John Colvin, both say the IRS and Justice Department stopped acknowledging their calls, emails and letters after Trump became president." --s
Tim Starks of Politico: "Russia's infamous troll farm conducted a campaign on Twitter before the 2016 elections that was larger, more coordinated and more effective than previously known, research from cybersecurity firm Symantec out Wednesday concluded. The Internet Research Agency campaign may not only have had more sway -- reaching large numbers of real users -- than previously thought, it also demonstrated ample patience and might have generated income for some of the phony accounts, Symantec found. The company analyzed a massive data set Twitter released in October 2018 on nearly 3,900 accounts and 10 million tweets.... The research also found that the accounts played to both sides of the aisle more than previously believed, and that most of them were fakes pretending to be regional news outlets, while a smaller subset amplified those messages."
Cruel & Unusual. Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with caring for unaccompanied migrant children, is 'scaling back' or canceling activities at shelters, citing the need for more resources.... 'This week, ORR instructed grantees to begin scaling back or discontinuing awards for (unaccompanied minors) activities that are not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,' [a] ... spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services... said in a statement."
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration is seeking to dramatically escalate federal penalties for pipeline protesters. Under newly proposed changes, pipeline protesters could face up to 20 years in prison for disrupting the construction of oil and gas infrastructure.... The administration argues that the changes are key to ensuring safety.... But environmental groups and activists will likely oppose the proposed measures and are expected to seek legal action against the Trump administration." --s
Susannah George of the AP: "Directly challenging ... Donald Trump's use of executive power, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are banding together to introduce more than a dozen resolutions aimed at blocking the Trump administration's sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia. The maneuver amounts to a remarkable display of bipartisan pushback to Trump's foreign policy and threatens to tangle the Senate in a series of floor votes this summer. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is leading the effort, but he has support from two of Trump's allies in Congress: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Anger has been mounting in Congress over the Trump administration's close ties to the Saudis, fueled by the high civilian casualties in the Saudi-led war in Yemen -- a military campaign the U.S. is assisting -- and the killing of U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Trump's decision in May to sell the weapons, in a manner intended to bypass congressional review, further inflamed the tensions."
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The Democrat-led House passed legislation on Tuesday to grant a path to citizenship to about 2.5 million immigrants whose legal protections President Trump has moved to end, advancing a measure that highlights the bitter partisan differences over immigration. The bill, which passed 237 to 187, with seven Republicans voting yes, would create a new legal pathway for young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, and for those with Temporary Protected Status, granted to immigrants whose countries are ravaged by natural disaster or violence. It is almost certain to die in the Republican-led Senate, where there is no appetite to challenge Mr. Trump on his signature issue and the majority regards it as amnesty for people who have broken the law. The White House said on Monday that Mr. Trump would veto the measure." Mrs. McC: Thought I linked a story on this earlier today. Obviously not.
Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "At least 43 of the 58 Republican House members who voted against a $19 billion bipartisan disaster relief bill Monday night have previously demanded or endorsed emergency aid funding for their own states, a ThinkProgress analysis has found." --s>
Kevin Roose & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "YouTube announced plans on Wednesday to remove thousands of videos and channels that advocate for neo-Nazism, white supremacy and other bigoted ideologies in an attempt to clean up extremism and hate speech on its popular service. The new policy will ban 'videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion,' the company said in a blog post. The prohibition will also cover videos denying that violent incidents, like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, took place." ...
... BUT. Homophobic Slurs A-Okay. Tom McKay of Gizmodo: "YouTube has chosen not to take action against right-wing video personality Steven Crowder after Vox host Carlos Maza posted clips of Crowder repeatedly harassing him with derogatory, anti-gay, and racist statements, which Maza says resulted in hordes of Crowder's fans doxxing him and subjecting him to abuse on social media.... YouTube's hate speech policy page specifically bars 'content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups' based on a number of attributes including ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation.... After claiming YouTube takes 'allegations of harassment very seriously' and that they had spent days 'conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us,' the Team YouTube Twitter wrote that while Crowder's language was 'clearly hurtful,' 'the videos as posted don't violate our policies' and will 'remain on our site.'... YouTube's stance is apparently that it is okay for a host with millions of subscribers (3,846,360 as of early Wednesday a.m.) to repeatedly engage in racist, homophobic bullying so long as it's couched as part of some kind of ambiguously defined 'debate.'" ...
... Madison Kircher of New York: "June is usually the time when tech companies deck themselves out in rainbow colors and bend over backward to demonstrate just how much they support the LGBTQ+ community. YouTube, refreshingly, has taken a different tack this year. The company has ruled that right-wing commentator Steven Crowder hasn't violated YouTube policy by continuously slinging anti-gay and anti-immigrant slurs -- including a 'gay Mexican,' a 'lispy queer,' an 'anchor baby,' and a 'token Vox gay atheist sprite' -- at Vox host Carlos Maza, leading to harassment and abuse against Maza from Crowder's fans and followers." Mrs. McC: No, no Madison. It turns out labeling someone a "lispy queer" is an essential element of "debate."
Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by the second highest annual rise in the past six decades, according to new data. Atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas were 414.8 parts per million in May.... Scientists have warned for more than a decade that concentrations of more than 450ppm risk triggering extreme weather events and temperature rises as high as 2C, beyond which the effects of global heating are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible.... As recently as the 1990s, the average annual growth rate was about 1.5ppm, but in the past decade that has accelerated to 2.2ppm, and is now even higher. This brings the threshold of 450ppm closer sooner than had been anticipated." --safari: No one can honestly claim today that we're leaving a better life for future generations.
Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining. The world's greatest rainforest -- which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration -- lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government's satellite monitoring agency." --s
~~~~~~~~~~
New York Times: "After meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Theresa May, President Trump traveled to southern England to commemorate the D-Day operation." Here is the Times' liveblog of events.
When Royals Meet. Many thanks to forrest m. for making my day. Every time I look at King Donaldo I LOL.
Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "Demonstrators inflated a 20-foot blimp depicting President Trump as a baby in a diaper outside the U.K. parliament in London Tuesday, as mass protests got underway across the U.K. while Trump met with Prime Minister Theresa May on the second day of his state visit." Lots of photos. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "Thousands of Brits took to the streets [of London] Tuesday, where they marched alongside a 16-foot farting robot of Donald Trump and held aloft huge photos of John McCain in an attempt to trigger the president. The protests — which saw thousands brave the typical British weather shielded by umbrellas emblazoned with anti-Trump slogans, EU flags, and the LGBTQ rainbow symbol -- went within meters of Downing Street, where the president must have heard creatively foul-mouthed chants, although he still insists there have been no protests against him at all. Protesters were kept away from the gates of Downing Street for Trump' arrival and departure for talks with Theresa May. However, the thousands occupied a large stretch of central London, marching from Trafalgar Square past the government buildings of Whitehall and eventually arriving outside parliament to hear a speech by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
I kept hearing that there would be 'massive' rallies against me in the UK, but it was quite the opposite. The big crowds, which the Corrupt Media hates to show, were those that gathered in support of the USA and me. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet today
There were thousands of people (Monday) on the streets cheering. And even coming over today, there were thousands of people cheering and then I heard that there were protests. I said: 'Where are the protests? I don't see any protests.' I did see a small protest today when I came, very small, so a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say. ... There was great love. ... And I didn't see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people. -- Donald Trump, news conference Tuesday ...
... Thousand of People Cheering:
... As Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's Comments, Camilla's stock went up in the U.K. after her, "Yes, we all know this is a farce" wink yesterday:
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Susan Page of USA Today: "Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who as recently as last month cautioned Democrats about the perils of pursuing President Trump's impeachment, now says the House should open an impeachment inquiry that might or might not lead to a formal effort to remove him from office. 'It's not the right thing to do nothing,' Reid said in an interview Monday with USA Today. It's not the right thing to jump into impeachment without doing an inquiry.' The most important goal, he said, would be to 'give the American people a view of what's going on.'"
Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "The White House has directed former officials Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson not to turn over any documents to the House Judiciary Committee relating to their time at the White House, according to two sources familiar with the matter. But Hicks, the former White House communications director, still could turn over documents the committee has requested related to the 2016 Trump campaign, a period that's not covered by executive privilege, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler. The White House sent letters to the committee stating that White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had directed Hicks and Donaldson, the former deputy White House counsel, not to turn over the documents. The committee had issued subpoenas to both Hicks and Donaldson for documents, setting a Tuesday deadline. The subpoenas also include requests for testimony from the former White House officials for later this month. In a statement, Nadler argued that the White House could not prevent the officials from complying with the committee's request, though he added that Hicks' agreement to provide documents related to the Trump campaign was a 'show of good faith.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
All the President*'s Men (in Jail)
Brutal. William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Paul J. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman who is serving a federal prison sentence, is expected to be transferred within the next few weeks to the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City, where he will most likely be held in isolation while facing state fraud charges, people with knowledge of the matter said.... Rikers Island has been plagued by violence and mismanagement over the years...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Pilar Melendez & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "George Nader, an emissary to the United Arab Emirates who cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller probe, was denied release on Tuesday after being arrested for possessing child pornography. Nader, 60, a Lebanese-American businessman will be handed over to federal agents for extradition to Virginia for his prosecution. He was arrested Monday at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport for allegedly possessing child pornography on a cellphone more than a year ago."
MEANWHILE. Lachlan Cartwright of the Daily Beast: "Michael Cohen is being celebrated as a celebrity inside the federal prison where he's serving time after flipping on ... Donald Trump. Prisoners have approached Inmate No. 86067-054 for advice on their legal problems, quizzed him about Trump's alleged dalliance with porn star Stormy Daniels, and tried to take photos of him on cellphones smuggled into the facility, according to people who've spoken to inmates."
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "A federal judge reversed course on Tuesday and absolved the Justice Department of a demand to make public transcripts of recorded phone calls between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian official. In a one-paragraph order, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said he accepted the argument recently made from federal prosecutors who defied his earlier request to release any recordings from December 2016 between Flynn and Sergey Kislyak, who at the time was the Russian ambassador to the U.S."
S. V. Date of the Huffington Post: “With commercial tenants fleeing his Trump Tower..., Donald Trump continues to spend $37,500 a month of campaign money for office space there -- with some of that cash destined for his own wallet ― even as thousands of square feet go unused at a newly opened office in northern Virginia. No more than 'four or five' campaign staffers work at Trump's Manhattan base, according to an informal adviser close to the White House, where the campaign rents a few thousand square feet as its 'headquarters.' The per-square-foot cost is likely at least triple what the Republican National Committee pays for the much larger space it shares with the campaign in Arlington, according to a HuffPost analysis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Jonathan Chait explains why right-wing grifters -- including the Biggest Grifter of Them All -- are so good at their cons. Thanks to Schlub for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair reports on Trump's cheesy prenuptial agreement with Marla Maples: "Maples reportedly wanted $25 million, but Trump agreed to pay her only $1 million if they separated within five years, plus another $1 million to buy a house. Trump also would stop making $100,000 child support payments for Tiffany when she turned 21. The agreement states that Trump's payments would cease earlier if Tiffany got a full-time job, enlisted in the military, or joined the Peace Corps.... According to the prenup, Maples surrendered any claim to Trump's future income and inheritances. The $1 million award Trump would pay her was it. (There would be no alimony.)" Also, the agreement contained rigid confidentiality terms that prevented Maples from mentioning from revealing any details of the marriage. Trump married Maples, according to Gabriel, mostly because marriage would encourage lenders to believe he was a more stable risk, & Trump was in desperate straits.
Radio Free Europe: "Russia has denied it informed ... Donald Trump that it is pulling defense personnel out of Venezuela, contradicting a comment by the U.S. leader. 'I was surprised when I read this. We did not notify anyone. He apparently read an article in The Wall Street Journal,' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 4 referring to a June 3 tweet by Trump. Trump in March said Russia 'has to get out' of the South American nation after it landed planes carrying supplies and technical advisers to help President Nicolas Maduro amid an uprising. The United States is seeking the ouster of Maduro, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as thousands of Venezuelan citizens take to the streets to protest his regime. Trump on June 3 tweeted that Russia had informed the United States 'that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela.'... His tweet came a day after The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed source close to the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Moscow had pulled out many defense advisers from the country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that Russia had not informed the United States of any such withdrawal, adding that Russian specialists continue to work in the South American country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since both sides lie, it's impossible to know what's going on.
Nahal Toosi of Politico: "Jared Kushner's Middle East peace plan isn't even out yet, but there are already intensifying calls to scrap the rollout -- including from some Trump allies. Prominent conservative and pro-Israel voices close to the White House are increasingly sharing their fears, which range from the possibility that the peace proposal could trigger violence to worries that its offerings could forever kill efforts to craft a two-state solution.... For their part, Kushner and other aides to Trump appear intent on going full speed ahead." --s ...
... Muhammad Shehada of Haaretz: "The most disturbing aspect of ... [U.S. President Trump's 'Deal of the Century,' developed by ... Jared Kushner] is its disastrous effect on the overall peace process paradigm. In simple terms: Palestinians are losing faith fast with the foundational idea of peace through negotiations.... Forcing what U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo himself calls an 'inexecutable' deal on Palestinians - through bribery, coercion and punitive measures - and framing it as Palestinians' last chance to get anything, undermines moderate Palestinian voices and amplifies immensely violent rejectionism.... Most prominent among these is the new Islamic Jihad leader and Iran's loyal man, Ziad Nakhalah.... As the biases of Kushner's peace plan will continue to sow feelings of defeat, humiliation and isolation amongst Palestinians, Nakhalah's ascendance to a gruesome kind of stardom is inevitable." --s
"Bone Saw Bonus." Matt Shuham of TPM: "The Trump administration approved the transfer of nuclear expertise to Saudi Arabia just two weeks after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) revealed Tuesday.... [T]he administration ... [made] ... seven such approvals. Notably, two occurred after Khashoggi's death: One on October 18, 2018, '16 days after Khashoggi's murder,' Kaine noted, and another on Feb. 18, 2019." --s
Speaking Truth to Trumpy Is Creepy. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "President Trump called Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) "a creep" on Tuesday after the Democratic leader predicted the president would back down from slapping new tariffs on Mexico. 'Can you imagine Cryin' Chuck Schumer saying out loud, for all to hear, that I am bluffing with respect to putting Tariffs on Mexico. What a Creep,' Trump wrote in a tweet. He asserted that Schumer 'would rather have our Country fail with drugs & Immigration than give Republicans a win. But he gave Mexico bad advice, no bluff!'... Schumer, speaking from the Senate floor, characterized the new tariffs as another example of Trump's 'whimsical and erratic proposals.' 'President Trump has a habit of proposing asinine and dangerous policies before backing off. And President Trump has a habit of pretending that the very act of not following through on a misguided policy is somehow a victory. So, I wouldn't be surprised at all if President Trump doesn't follow through on these tariffs either,' Schumer said." ...
... Catie Edmondson & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “Republican senators sent the White House a sharp message on Tuesday, warning that they were opposed to President Trump's plans to impose tariffs on Mexican imports, just hours after the president said lawmakers would be 'foolish' to try to stop him. Mr. Trump's latest threat -- 5 percent tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico, rising to as high as 25 percent until the Mexican government stems the flow of migrants -- has riled Republican senators who fear its impact on the economy and their home states. They emerged from a closed-door lunch in the Capitol angered by the briefing they received from a deputy White House counsel, Patrick F. Philbin, and Assistant Attorney General Steven A. Engel on the legal basis for imposing new tariffs by declaring a nationa emergency. 'I want you to take a message back' to the White House, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, told the attorneys, according to people familiar with the meeting. 'You didn't hear a single yes' from the Republican conference. He called the proposed tariffs a $30 billion tax hike on Texans."
Burgess Everett & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "strong>Ken Cuccinelli has spent years attacking Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans. Now, [there is little chance those Senate Republicans will confirm Cuccinelli] ... to be director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But there may be nobody in Washington whom McConnell and his allies would take more pleasure in defeating, and the bottom line is Cuccinelli has little chance of getting approved for the job, Republican senators said.... 'It's unlikely he's going to be confirmed if he is nominated,' [Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) said].... Some senators are still hoping to persuade Trump not to formally nominate or appoint Cuccinelli, but if the president goes through with it, the former Virginia attorney general likely will be either rejected or blocked from a floor vote entirely."
Presidential Race 2020
Here We Go Again. Zack Colman & Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign came under fire on Tuesday for putting out a $1.7 trillion climate change plan that appeared to copy a handful of passages from previously published documents. The incident recalled the plagiarism incident that helped drive Biden from the 1988 presidential race, though Biden's campaign team called the latest episode an error that was corrected.... Biden rolled out his climate policy on Tuesday after facing weeks of criticism from the Democratic Party's left flank for reportedly considering a plan to strike a 'middle ground' on the issue. It won praise from environmental groups who welcomed its call to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and ban oil and gas drilling on public lands. Biden also said he would reject campaign contributions from fossil fuel executives and corporations."
Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "Documents unearthed last week showed that the Republican Party's top gerrymandering expert, Tom Hofeller, was behind the decision to add a controversial question about US citizenship to the 2020 census.... But the [Supreme Court] justices are unlikely to be swayed by the bombshell new evidence. In fact, they may not even be able to consider it.... First, there's little time for the court to consider the new evidence. The justices typically make up their minds following oral arguments, and they have already started writing their opinions.... Second, the Supreme Court is only supposed to examine evidence that is part of the record in the case.... Though the justices sometimes do their own research or cite outside sources, deviation from the legal record is frowned upon.... Any consideration of Hofeller's memos, which have not been vetted by a federal court, would be an exception to the rule[.]" --s
Helen Lock of the Guardian: "When it comes to trying to stop fake medicines getting into the hands of sick patients, experts describe a difficult task where they are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters.... Th need for any solution being developed to have a global reach is clear. In 2011, Interpol seized 2.4m fake and illicit pills, and that number jumped to 20.7m seized in 2015. A large quantity is produced in China, but India, Pakistan, Paraguay and the UK are also among the top sources for fakes.... Counterfeited medicine, thought to be the most lucrative of illegally copied goods trades, ends up all over the world. But developing countries, where spending on medicine means being out of pocket for the majority of people, are the most vulnerable to conterfeits. Most of the cases (42%) reported by the WHO between 2013 and 2017 were found in subSaharan Africa." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. David Ovalle, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Scot Peterson, the former Broward Sheriff's deputy responsible for protecting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, has been criminally charged for failing to confront a gunman who methodically shot and killed 17 students and staffers, state authorities said Tuesday. In a highly unusual case, the retired 56-year-old deputy was arrested Tuesday on 11 charges -- including child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury -- for his role in the massacre that shocked the United States, galvanized gun-control activism and led to changes in Florida's law. Peterson, who has long insisted he acted properly and was not sure Nikolas Cruz was inside the 1200 building, faces nearly 100 years in prison if convicted. As a school resource officer trained to engage an active shooter immediately, Peterson 'was responsible for the welfare and safety' of the students and 'failed to make a reasonable effort' to protect them, according to an arrest warrant. The criminal charges against Peterson stemmed from an investigation by the Florida Department of Law of Enforcement, tasked by former Gov. Rick Scott to examine the response of law enforcement to the worst school shooting in state history." ...
... Meet your local GOP, Ctd. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Florida state Rep. Mike Hill (R) refuses to apologize for his reaction [of laughing] to a suggestion that he pass legislation to allow the execution of gay men. On Friday, the Pensacola News Journal published an audio recording of Hill holding a meeting at Pensacola City Hall, during which a man asked the GOP lawmaker about imposing the death penalty onto gay men." --s
Texas. Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) pushed officials at the state's Department of Public Safety to scour driver's license records for noncitizens and forward that information to the Texas secretary of state, a fellow Republican, in advance of the state's botched voter purge, according to emails made public Tuesday. Texas officials would go on to falsely claim that they had found nearly 100,000 noncitizens registered to vote. They later admitted that number was based on deeply flawed data. But some Texas officials knew all along that they could access more information in order to determine whether the people whose driver's licenses said they were noncitizens were actually noncitizens, the emails suggest -- and pushed ahead regardless.... A spokesman for the governor denied Abbott had any role in the botched January effort.... The state has refused to comply with a congressional request to turn over communications and documents related to the January incident."
Virginia. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "Citing the shooting in Virginia Beach in which 12 people were killed, 'as well as the tragedies that happen every day across Virginia,' Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday called for a special session of the General Assembly to vote on gun control bills. He listed a number of measures he intended to propose, including universal background checks and a requirement that people report lost or stolen firearms. Those ideas were floated in the past but died in committee before reaching the floor of the Legislature. This time, the governor said, he was demanding that the measures be 'put to a vote by the entire General Assembly.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Brazil. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining. The world's greatest rainforest -- which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration -- lost 739sq km during the 31 days, equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government's satellite monitoring agency." --s
Israel. Ha Ha! Donald's Best People didn't think up this one: Bibi Netanyahu, who is about to be indicted for fraud, bribery & breach of trust appointed himself justice minister. Not that Bill Barr isn't doing a great job at Justice, but think how much better Trump would be: in his first week, he would indict Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden & John Brennan for something or other; in his second week, he'd lock up Jim Comey, Jeff Sessions & Andy McCabe on charges of treason & being "horrible people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Why am I getting this?
It’s Bill Barr. He’s after you, PD!
@PD Pepe: My somewhat limited experience (because I usually post when I'm logged in) is that the Reality Chex program sometimes "forgets" you, & you have to re-enter an Author name in what has become a blank box for that function. If that doesn't work, please let me know. We all rely on your comments & don't want to miss any because of "technical difficulties."
Or because Bill Barr.
Well, people, I thank you for your input but I found it queer that my name WAS posted so couldn't figure out why my comments couldn't go through. But perhaps Bill Barr WAS lurking so early in the morning and tried to shut up this contrarian who has called him all sorts of names so he shut MY name down.
What I did write about was Chait's information about Trump's scam university which we certainly knew about but the additional info about the double scam of using the customer's financial information for their own grift was ––I can't use the word "shocking" since we've all been shocked to death––but was this not known at the time of the debates? I don't recall Hillary or any of the Republican candidates citing this addition. And yet I feel foolish even thinking that this would have stopped this buffoon from winning. Perhaps his voters would have looked at this as just another smooth operation––"guy knows how to get what he wants" kind of message.
Trump's "fake" take on the Brits welcoming populace was hilarious; will someone SHOW him the footage? I can hear him singing that Cabaret song––"if you could see [them] through my eyes, [they] wouldn't look [nasty] at all.
@PD: experienced same log in problem a week ago and had to reenter Author and Author Email every time. Then one day it decided to 'work.' Bea McCrab's answer was right on.
Re scammy Trump, just starting to read Michael Woff's "Siege"
and think I learn even more. Why do I feel like needing to take a shower as I type this?
The crowd size thing, which seems to be a recurring these of this presidency, should tell us how comfortable we should be with the Pretender in charge of the nation's economy.
Simply put, the man can't count.
Also find the huffing and puffing about imposing tariffs on Mexico if they don't detain would be immigrants within their own borders another stark illustration of how off the mark the current version of "nationalism," predicated as it is on a belief that lines drawn on a map really mean something, is in 2019.
For thousands of years, people have recognized that perception is not founded in fact. In fact, that recognition pre-dates the rise of "nations" as we know them for more thousands of years. Consider the trading routes laid down tens of thousands of years ago within and between geographic regions, the migration of what we would now call Asians across the Bering land bridge to North America 40-50 thousands years ago and thence into South America, or more recently the mass movement of humans into present day Europe from the east.
Nor is the natural world of animals, plants, disease, oceans, rivers and air any respecter of those same silly lines.
Any realistic "immigration" policy has to admit that any movement of peoples isolated from economic and environmental considerations will not work because it is running against powerful tides that will overwhelm it.
That kind of "nationalism," applied to people, is just more flat-eartherism brought to us by the GOP.
@PD Pepe:
Barr's spokesperson just released his morning schedule:
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
(Breakfast)
Mess with Andy McCabe
(Snack)
Mess with PD Pepe
Mess with Jim Comey
(Second breakfast)
Mess with Peter Strzok
Marie!
How did you get Barr's schedule? Are you a Russian troll?
Well, anyway, it proves one thing: Barr is a Hobbit.
Only Hobbits have second breakfast.
A Hobbit. And not one of the good ones, either.
SLAM goes the cell door!
So I see where Mickey (the Dunce) Cohen is now a celebrity.
In prison.
Can't you just picture it? 2006, Cohen goes to work for the Trump Crime Family and hopes for money, glory, babes, and the high life. And what does he get? What everyone gets who becomes involved with Trump. A one way ticket to Palookaville. Or in this case, federal prison.
I'm pretty sure, back in the halcyon days of yesteryear, when Cohen was threatening to "fuck up" anyone Trump saw as an enemy, he wasn't thinking that one day he'd be a BMOC (big man on the cell block). Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. But here again, tell me how the guy who carried out the boss's orders goes to the slammer and the boss goes to England to do photo ops in a monkey suit with the queen.
Poor Mickey. Well, at least he's got himself in with the right guys. Guys sneaking cell phones in to take selfies standing next to his illustrious person, an infraction of prison rules that will add a year onto the sentence of anyone caught.
One interesting thing in that Daily Beast story (besides news of Cohen being a big man in stir), is that there's a company called Wall Street Prison Consultants. Why, you'd almost get the idea that there are crooks on Wall Street! Imagine that!
No, seriously, this is a real company. I looked it up. The owner, to prove how good he is at navigating the ins and outs of the prison system spent 10 years of his life behind bars. Reminds me of a scene in a Bogart movie ("Dark Passage") where a chiseling former inmate chides the Bogie character for not getting around in San Quentin. "Oh, you shoulda mixed. There are a lot of smart guys in Quentin!"
Yeah. Just like the White House.
Anyway, this Wall Street Prison thingy offers special packages for convicted brokers, fraudsters, creeps and crooks on their way up the river.
Hey, maybe Trump will need their services one day. I'm sure he'll order the Gold Package.
And then stiff the guy.
But hey, just to show that I'm not really a hardened soul, I've constructed a little playlist for Mickey while he's doing the Jailhouse Rock:
Riot in Cell Block No. 9 "Scarface Joe says it's too late to quit. Pass the dynamite, 'cause the fuse is lit!"
I Fought the Law (and the Law Won) "A-breakin' rocks in the hot sun..."
Chain Gang "Hoo...Haa...Hoo...Haa..." Never a bad day when you can listen to Sam Cooke.
Indiana Wants Me "This is the police, give yourself up..."
The Midnight Special "Yonder come Miss Rosie, piece 'a paper in her hand. She come to see the guv'nor, want to free her man."
I could go on, but every minute that passes, the crook in the White House commits another high crime and/or misdemeanor.
But, hey, Mickey, good goin'. Way to be a success.
In prison.
The perfidy, lies, and jaw-dropping chutzpah of the world-wide right-wing conspiracy to destroy democracy is in full swing in the US and Israel. Bibi one-ups the little king, however, by making himself justice minister, overseeing the corruption case of....BIBI!
Trump must be green with envy. Green and orange...does that work? Kinda summery, I suppose. Except, as anyone with an elementary grasp of the color wheel knows, mixing green and orange gets you a very muddy (swampy?) brown. Yuck.
Anyway, next for Bibi is surely to appoint himself the sole justice on the Supreme Court with galactic powers. Trump would try that here, but I doubt he could dislodge Bart O'Kavanaugh with a pry bar and stick of dynamite. He'd bar the door and lock himself in his chambers with a few cases of beer and some revenge porn. Besides, there's Roe to kill and plenty of other women to abuse. Who'd give that up?
Right Wing World. It's not just a swamp, it's a moral and ethical catastrophe of the first order.
Talk about chutzpah...
Here Donaldo is in London and he decides, because like the good little whacko winger he is, to stick his nose into domestic politics, and not just with an opinion either.
Telling the Brits to bust out of the EU without an exit strategy or a plan for the future is bad enough, but then to promise (he loves promising shit he A) doesn't know anything about, and B) has no intention of delivering on) that HE the Great Donaldo, will replace the entirety of Britain's trade agreement with the EU with the "biggest, the best ever, stupendous" trade deal with the US.
First, he can't promise any such thing. Second, even if it was in his power to unilaterally create trade deals without any input or authorization from Congress, he has no clue how to structure so massive a deal. His métier is stiffing plumbers. Look at how horribly he whiffed on healthcare. But then it gets worse. (It always gets worse with Trump, don't it?)
Someone asked the little king if, in a trade deal with America, he (Trump), would mess with Britain's healthcare system.
"Everything's on the table", he sniffed, the message being, I own your asses and I tell you what you can and can't do. You want a trade deal with me, the king? Then you bow down before me. Plus, if he couldn't fuck up the ACA, the least he can do is screw the Brits' plan. I'm gonna send him a t-shirt that says "Kneel before Zod". He'd love it.
He is a lying asshole. Anyone who believes a word he says is doomed to abject abjectness. Or something worse. He's not only a liar and an asshole, he's a stupid liar and an asshole. Abjectificent abject abjectness.
And please tell me WHAT in the holy perm is the deal with Donnie's new 'do.
Is he trying out for Grease, or what?
A little more Dippity Do and he could be a fat (and not very good looking) Gordon Gecko. He's got the greed part down, anyway.
Fun with new words: This word was used to describe our current prezdet in a comment to a WaPo article. I thought RC people might find it a useful word. I had never heard it before.
bellend
NOUN
British
vulgar slang
1The glans of the penis.
1.1 An annoying or contemptible man.
‘he is a total bellend and should step down as soon as possible’
@Ak: I just had to click on your link to Donnie's New Do.
You're now responsible for the nightmares I'm sure to have tonight.
I might now stay up all night and watch The Wizard of Oz again!
Could Trump have taken Barron's tuxedo to London in error?
Scapegoat Time!
Well, kids, it's that time again. Time to play "Who Can We Blame Now?"
Today's contestant, already in shackles, is former Broward County Sheriff's Deputy and School Resource Officer at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, Scot Peterson.
And HE'S TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING!!
In'at right, Wayne-O and congressional confederates and Foxbots?
Peterson is being accused of having "...done 'absolutely nothing to mitigate' the carnage." The warrant also accuses Peterson of neglect of children and "culpable negligence". Basically, standing by doing nothing while children and staff members were shot to death.
But here's the thing...
You can say exactly the same thing about every single Republican in congress. They are all guilty of the very same things: they have done absolutely nothing to mitigate the carnage (in fact, they make it worse), they are guilty of rank negligence and neglect of children in fear of losing their lives, and the many, many, many other Americans who have already lost theirs.
But you won't ever see Mitch McConnell's name on the docket, will you?
So let's scapegoat the shit out of this cowardly schmuck.
Don't get me wrong, Peterson flat-out abandoned those kids. But, I suppose, in his defense, he was scared shitless. He didn't want to get shot. Not very honorable, I admit. And if I was a dad of one of those kids who was murdered with one of the GOP's favorite deadly weapons, I'd want to strangle the fucking guy. But he was afraid for his life. Republicans do nothing to mitigate the carnage because they're afraid of not getting re-elected.
Big fucking difference.
Granted, plenty of cops and firefighters and soldiers in combat run into dangerous, life threatening situations every day of the week and think nothing of it, or if they do, they say to themselves, this is the job. Fuck it. Let's go. They're special people. Not everyone is like that, and this was clearly not the job for Peterson.
But anyway, hang this guy out to dry. That'll shut up those pesky libs. See? We did something after all. We blamed someone else. Now about those bump stocks...they're not so bad, right?
Patrick,
"Bellend" Good one. Just got added to the insult lexicon.
Forrest,
Jeez...sorry, dude. But just imagine Trump melting, whining about all his beautiful wickedness as he goes down the drain.
Bobby Lee,
Hahahahahahaha....I was thinking how weird he looked in that tux. I can just picture him asking some clothing consultant (Melanie?) if it looked okay, being assured (*snicker-snicker*) that it was the latest in monkey suit haute couture.
Ak: When I read the story about the school security guard in yesterday's Wapo, as I read the word 'scapegoat' keep coming up in my mind. And later when I read some of the Comments section that appeared to be pretty much what others thought.
A building such as a school with its numerous rooms and hallways—how does anyone rush in with guns blazing when you don't know how many shooters or where they are? Someone has watched too many movies...I cringe at some of the obviously choreographed moves in many tv series. ..every 'cop' or hero enters with drawn gun raised at arms length, does a sharp pivot right and then sharp pivot left, gun right, gun left, then wash, rinse repeat....of course when all the bullets are flying rarely does our 'hero' get hit and his shot always drops his moving target.
Surely Mr. Peterson could've done that. And after all, remember it's one good guy with a gun that'll save the NRA. We all know Trump would have rushed right in, he said so.
MAG,
He did say so, didn't he? Lying coward. But cowards like Trump need scapegoats. If something terrible happens, it can't possibly be their fault. It has to be someone else who goes to prison. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to sip margaritas on the golf course with cronies as they divvy up the country.