;)
The Commentariat -- June 6, 2019
Afternoon Update:
What's Wrong with This Picture? ...
... Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Just before his speech honoring military veterans at a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, President Trump gave an interview marked by insults directed toward the speaker of the House and former special counsel Robert Mueller. Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Trump called the former special counsel a 'fool' and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a 'disaster.' 'Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself,' Trump said of Mueller, speaking at a cemetery where more than 9,300 American soldiers who died in World War II are buried. Mueller is a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, in which President Trump did not serve, and which he described in an interview on British television as a 'terrible war' and 'very far away.'... 'Nancy Pelosi, I call her "Nervous Nancy," Nancy Pelosi doesn't talk about it,' the president said. 'Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? She's a disaster....' Pelosi, who was also in Normandy for the D-Day commemoration, declined to respond. 'I don't talk about the president while I'm out of the country,' she told CNN's Jim Acosta." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In the video that accompanies the Yahoo! News story, Trump says, "He [Mueller] made such a fool out of himself because what people don't report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong." What testimony? Trump seems to have made up testimony that never happened. (Why isn't "people don't report" that?) It's well-known that Mueller has resisted testifying. I couldn't figure out what "letter" Trump was talking about, but Jordan Fabian of the Hill took a stab at & guessed, "The president was referring to a joint statement later issued by the Justice Department and the special counsel's office saying that Mueller's account did not conflict with Attorney General William Barr's previous comments, in which Barr said the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction did not hinge solely on the DOJ policy." But good idea to use the graves of dead American soldiers as a backdrop for an attack on a wounded war veteran. ...
... BTW, Stableford's report is a good example of the kind of journalism I complained about below. Instead of pointing out that Trump made a statement at odds with the facts, Stableford writes, "The president took issue with Mueller's public statement on his investigation into Russian election interference." But Trump "took issue with" "testimony" Mueller never gave, not with a public statement. That is, Stableford radically "corrected" Trump's nonsensical remarks without indicating he had done so.
Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "House Democratic leaders are preparing to grant sweeping authority to committee chairs to sue the Trump administration over its refusal to comply with congressional demands for information -- from ... Donald Trump's tax returns to former special counsel Robert Mueller' underlying files. The draft resolution, which the House will consider on Tuesday, formally holds Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress for defying House Judiciary Committee subpoenas seeking Mueller's unredacted report, its underlying evidence, and additional witness testimony. But the most dramatic proposal will empower the chairs of all House committees to initiate legal action each time a witness or administration official defies a committee subpoena, a move to streamline and speed up the House's ability to respond to a mounting list of confrontations with the White House."
David Enrich of the New York Times: "A group of Democratic senators wants top officials at the Federal Reserve to examine whether Deutsche Bank complied with anti-money-laundering and other laws after bank employee flagged transactions tied to President Trump as potentially suspicious. The request, in a letter sent Thursday, was in response to a New York Times report that specialists at Deutsche Bank recommend that transactions by legal entities controlled by Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crime regulator. Managers at the bank rejected their employees' advice and did not alert the government."
Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has fired his legal team as he awaits sentencing for lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian official, according to a new filing Thursday from his long-time attorneys. The lawyers, Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, offered no explanation for their abrupt dismissal in a two-page motion delivered to the federal judge who will mete out Flynn's punishment stemming from his 2017 guilty plea to Robert Mueller’s prosecutors.... Flynn's decision to change attorneys at this late stage is unusual and has triggered speculation in legal and political circles he's considering backing out of his plea deal with the government in a play for a presidential pardon.... But the move also comes amid a yawning disconnect between the approach adopted by the well-respected legal team Flynn has used since the start of the Russia probe and the combative rhetoric from many of his friends and family members...."
Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "Democrats debating whether to impeach Donald Trump may be misreading the evidence from the last time the House tried to remove a president.... While Republicans did lose House seats in both 1998 and 2000, Democrats did not gain enough to capture control of the chamber either time. And in 2000, lingering unease about [President Bill] Clinton's behavior provided a crucial backdrop for George W. Bush's winning presidential campaign -- particularly his defining promise 'to restore honor and dignity' to the Oval Office.... Even if the Senate doesn't convict Trump..., impeachment in the House could offer Democrats a similar chance to highlight the aspects of Trump's volatile behavior that most alienate swing voters."
Samantha Grasso of Splinter: "Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions to promote partisan politics when he tweeted a photo of himself in MAGA socks last June, according to a December letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel which was leaked to the Washington Post and published on Thursday. The letter said that the Special Counsel, which investigates people for Hatch Act violations found that Zinke, in wearing these dumbass socks, had indeed broken the rules. Zinke, who resigned in December five days before the Special Counsel notified him of his violation, only received a warning. Specifically, he avoided punishment because he eleted the tweet and apologized."
Uh, Is This What You Mean by "Moderate," Joe? Jonathan Kozol in the Nation: Joe Biden has "said nothing to disown his long history as a fierce opponent of school busing and a scathing critic of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. 'We've lost our bearings since the 1954 Brown v. School Board desegregation case,' Biden said in 1975, in an interview that he gave to a newspaper in Delaware that was recently unearthed by The Washington Post. 'To "desegregate" is different than to "integrate."'... 'The real problem with busing,' he said [in the 1975 interview], 'is that you take [white] people who aren't racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children's growth by busing them to an inferior [black] school.'... As The Washington Post candidly surmised, his 'decision to stand by his views on the issue illustrates what some of his supporters think would be his advantage in the 2020 field: his ability to appeal beyond his Democratic base to some white working-class voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.'"
Ivana Hrynkiw of AL.com: "Former Senate candidate Roy Moore's attorney was arrested Wednesday night for charges of driving under the influence and for possessing drugs. Trenton Roger Garmon, 39, was booked into the Etowah County Jail around 8 p.m., according to jail records. He was arrested by Gadsden police and charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, second-degree possession of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia." Read on. This isn't Garmon's first arrest for impaired driving. It isn't clear from the story, but he may have been driving on a suspended license when stopped Wednesday. Anyhow, he's in the jailhouse now.
~~~~~~~~~~
Raf Casert & John Leicester of the AP: "With the silence of remembrance and respect, nations honored the memory of the fallen and the singular bravery of all Allied troops who sloshed through bloodied water to the landing beaches of Normandy, a tribute of thanks 75 years after the D-Day assault that doomed the Nazi occupation of France and portended the fall of Hitler's Third Reich.... Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy on D-Day. Of those 73,000 were from the United States, 83,000 from Britain and Canada. The second day of ceremonies moved to France after spirited commemorations in Portsmouth, England, the main embarkation point for the transport boats." ...
... New York Times: "President Trump spoke at a ceremony in Normandy, reflecting on the lives lost 75 years ago and honoring the dozens of World War II veterans who were present." This is a liveblog. ...
... Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "To have Donald Trump -- the bone-spur evader of the Vietnam draft, the coddler of autocrats, the would-be destroyer of the European Union, the pay-up-now denigrator of NATO, the apologist for the white supremacists of Charlottesville -- commemorate the boys from Kansas City and St. Paul who gave their lives for freedom is to understand the word impostor. You can't make a sculpture from rotten wood.... If Europe is whole and free and at peace, it's because of NATO and the European Union; it's because the United States became a European power after World War II; it's because America's word was a solemn pledge; it's because that word cemented alliances that were not zero-sum games but the foundation for stability and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. Of this, Trump understands nothing." Thanks to MAG for the link.
... this trip is really about great relationships we have with the U.K., and I really wanted to do this stop in Ireland. It was very important to me because of the relationship I have with the people and with your prime minister. -- Donald Trump, at Shannon Airport Wednesday
... apparently ... Mike Pompeo forgot to inform Trump that Ireland isn't part of the United Kingdom. -- Cristina Cabrera of TPM, Wednesday ...
... Idiotic U.S. President* Tries to Exacerbate Ireland-Northern Ireland "Troubles," Insults Taoiseach. Rory Carroll of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has started his visit to Ireland by comparing its post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland to the US border with Mexico, along which he wants to build a permanent wall. Trump, sitting next to a visibly uncomfortable taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, waded into the Brexit debate minutes after Air Force One touched down at Shannon airport on Wednesday afternoon. 'I think it will all work out very well, and also for you with your wall, your border,' he said at a joint press conference. 'I mean, we have a border situation in the United States, and you have one over here. But I hear it's going to work out very well here.' Varadkar interjected that Ireland wished to avoid a border or a wall, a keystone of Irish government policy.... In London on Tuesday Trump met the Brexiter politicians Nigel Farage, Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson, all of whom have played down the idea that the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland will be a problem after the UK leaves the EU.... The Irish government has mounted an intense, three-year diplomatic effort arguing the opposite, that Brexit threatens peace and prosperity on the island of Ireland. The US president's comments were an awkward start to what is expected to be a low-key end to his visit to Europe, with much of his time spent at his golf and hotel resort in Doonbeg, County Clare." ...
... Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "For the backdrop to his first official visit to Ireland..., Donald Trump wanted to promote his golf course on the nation's rocky west coast. The Irish government countered with the grand staging of an ancient castle. In the end, neither side got what they wanted.... The White House initially proposed that Trump meet Varadkar at the course, as part of the president's unprecedented blending of government affairs and business advertising. But the Taoiseach's office balked and proposed a more historic site before settling on Shannon.... The compromise location for Trump's meeting Wednesday with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was the VIP lounge at Shannon Airport, just down the hallway from the food court and duty-free shop. And the meeting itself was more than just a warm handshake for the cameras, as the two broke sharply on what would be best for Ireland if the United Kingdom were to leave the European Union. Varadkar has become a vociferous opponent of Brexit, a move Trump supports. Many in Ireland express worry that if the U.K. does leave, a 'hard border' will return between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K, potentially reigniting sectarian tension that lasted for decades and sometimes exploded into violence.... Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, poured pints of Guinness for locals in a Doonbeg pub Wednesday night. The Trump Organization has poured tons of millions into Doonbeg since it bought the resort in 2014 but it has yet to make a profit." ...
... Charles Pierce: "As part of his international exploration to find new problems that he invariably can make worse, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago stopped in the Motherland on Wednesday and proceeded to bungle his way into one of Ireland's most delicate and volatile issues.... The president* is bunking in at Doonbeg, his property in Clare on the west coast of the island. This is something of an irony since the resort has been lobbying the Irish government for a huge seawall to be built to protect the president*'s golf course against the erosion caused by the climate crisis in which the president* doesn't believe."
Your Taxpayer Dollars Going up in Exhaust Fumes. Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "President Trump has spent $1 million of taxpayer money on four limousines he may or may not use on his trip to Ireland this week, according to The Guardian.... The pricey limos were rented from JP Ward & Sons, a funeral home in south Dublin that seems to moonlight as a rental agency for the rich and famous. In addition to doing funerals, the company rents out Mercedes E-Class limousines.... When in [his] packed schedule will Trump and his entourage have time to drive around Ireland in limos? We don't know!" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It could be the pricey limos are indeed just idling near the front door of the Doonbeg golf club, but whaddaya bet we get to spend $1MM for limos to drive around Trump's adult children, whose travel expenses we taxpayers also generously paid. Last night, Eric & bro went out to lift Guinnesses at local pubs, and you know they won't want to drink-drive. So a quarter-million-dollar limo probably came in right handy.
CBS News: "President Trump was spending Wednesday and Thursday with other world leaders commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied northern France by Allied forces.... The president and first lady participated commemorative events in Portsmouth, England on Wednesday, the first of two days of ceremonies. Portsmouth, on the southern English coast, was one of the primary points of departure for the Allied forces as they struck out across the English Channel to invade Normandy. Mr. Trump joined British Prime Minister Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II and leaders from the other nations which took part in the Allied D-Day invasion for the events on Wednesday."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... ** Adam Raymond of the New York Times lists the nine "most bonkers" moments from Trump's interview with Morgan. Kind of a must-read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom began with him firing off tweets from Air Force One calling London Mayor Sadiq Khan 'a stone cold loser' and culminated with him posting tweets at 1:30 am London time on Wednesday denigrating actress Bette Midler as a 'Washed up psycho.' In between, the president called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer 'a creep' and urged his supporters to boycott AT&T because of his displeasure with how CNN covers him. He also did a television interview with Piers Morgan in which he demonstrated appalling ignorance about climate science and attempted to walk back a comment he'd recently made about Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle being 'nasty' -- by calling her 'nasty' again. Trump was accompanied to the UK by his adult children and their spouses, despite the fact that only two of them (Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner) actually have official government roles.... The trip is a perfect illustration of what people feared from a Trump presidency: an immature, impulsive bully leveraging his office to demean his enemies and promote his business interests.... Meanwhile, back at home, the New York Times and Washington Post covered the trip as though Trump is a normal president...." Read the 4 grafs about Trump's remarks on the Brits' National Health Service (and watch the clip where Theresa May tells Trump what NHS is). ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rupar's observation about the NYT & WashPo is well-taken. All too frequently, I have heard a snippet of Trump's saying something that was incomprehensible; I really could not figure out what he was trying to say, though I could tell there was some superficial thought in there somewhere that just couldn't traverse the journey from brain to mouth. Then mainstream reporters "interpret" what Trump seemed to be saying & report it out in normal, readable sentences. This leaves the unsuspecting reader with the false impression that Trump had a coherent opinion which he shared with reporters. ...
... Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker has some thoughts on Trump & the NHS (more thoughts than Trump had, that's for sure) -- and on Trump & Brexit.
** 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Heather Caygle of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi told senior Democrats that she'd like to see ... Donald Trump 'in prison' as she clashed with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler in a meeting on Tuesday night over whether to launch impeachment proceedings. Pelosi met with Nadler (D-N.Y.) and several other top Democrats who are aggressively pursuing investigations against the president, according to multiple sources. Nadler and other committee leaders have been embroiled in a behind-the-scenes turf battle for weeks over ownership of the Democrats' sprawling investigation into Trump. Nadler pressed Pelosi to allow his committee to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump -- the second such request he's made in recent weeks only to be rebuffed by the California Democrat and other senior leaders. Pelosi stood firm, reiterating that she isn't open to the idea of impeaching Trump at this time." ...
... MEANWHILE, Ian Philbrick of the New York Times helpfully has read through actual Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon & Bill Clinton, and revised them to apply to Donald Trump. "These rewritten articles against Mr. Trump don't include other potentially impeachable offenses that lack a clear precedent in the Nixon and Clinton cases, such as hush-money payments to women or possible violations of the Constitution's emoluments clause." And it's all interactive! Fun!
Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "The only committee of the U.S. Congress running a genuinely bipartisan probe of Russian meddling in U.S. politics [the Senate Intelligence Committee] has still had no word from the Trump administration on briefing the panel about the Mueller report's counterintelligence findings, congressional sources said on Wednesday.... The committee is 'not satisfied' with the Justice Department's stonewalling and 'will press ahead with its effort to obtain' the Mueller material, one of the two sources said." --s
Laura Davison of Bloomberg News: "House Democrats clamoring for Donald Trump's tax information have eagerly awaited a newly passed New York law allowing limited access to the president's state returns. They're about to be sorely disappointed. House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal would be the only Democrat allowed by the new law to ask for the documents, but so far he has said he won't do it. Neal has said he fears that getting the state returns would bolster Trump administration arguments that Congress is on a political fishing expedition -- and not, as Neal has claimed, overseeing the Internal Revenue Service's annual audits of the president." Mrs. McC: Long on principle, short on common sense?
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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.... Middleton's lawyers ... both say the IRS and Justice Department stopped acknowledging their calls, emails and letters after Trump became president." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Election 2016. 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Central American migrants surged across the United States border with Mexico in May, officials announced on Wednesday, as American and Mexican diplomats began discussions aimed at averting the damaging economic consequences from President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports. More than 144,200 migrants were arrested and taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection along the southwestern border in May, a 32 percent increase from April and the highest monthly total in seven years. Most crossed the border illegally, while about 10 percent arrived without the proper documentation at ports of entry along the border. The announcement of the surge in border crossings was meant to put pressure on the Mexican government to meet Mr. Trump's demands that it take quick action to stop the flow of migrants." ...
... New Lede: "The United States on Wednesday barreled closer to imposing tariffs on all Mexican imports as high-stakes negotiations at the White House and the State Department failed to immediately resolve President Trump'sdemand that Mexico prevent a surge of Central American migrants from flowing across the southwestern border. Mr. Trump declared Wednesday evening on Twitter that 'not nearly enough' progress had been made and warned that 'if no agreement is reached, Tariffs at the 5% level will begin on Monday, with monthly increases as per schedule.'"
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,' Evelyn Stauffer, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Cruel & Unusual, Ctd. "Egregious" Conditions." Priscilla Alvarez: "The Department of Homeland Security inspector general found expired food and dilapidated bathrooms during unannounced visits to four immigrant detention facilities in 2018, according to a not-yet-released report obtained by CNN. The kitchen at one facility was in such poor shape -- with open packages of raw chicken leaking blood over refrigeration units -- that the kitchen manager was replaced while the IG inspection was ongoing. The report describes conditions at facilities last year, but it comes amid a worsening situation along the US-Mexico border, where the number of migrants crossing the border illegally has surpassed previous years. The dramatic increase in arrivals -- the majority of whom are families and children -- has overwhelmed the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency reviewed in the latest report.... The latest report obtained by CNN comes on the heels of a DHS IG report released Friday that found 'dangerous overcrowding' and unsanitary conditions at an El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol processing facility following an unannounced inspection last month."
Another Triumph for Stupid. Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the federal government would sharply curtail federal spending on medical research that uses tissue from aborted fetuses, mainly by ending fetal-tissue research within the National Institutes of Health. The move goes a long way toward fulfilling a top goal of anti-abortion groups that have lobbied hard for it; it is just the latest in a string of decisions that have pleased such groups. But scientists say the tissue is crucial for studies that benefit millions of patients. Besides ending N.I.H. research, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would immediately cancel a $2 million-a-year contract with the University of California, San Francisco, for research involving fetal tissue from abortions; the contract started in 2013. Other university research projects would be subject to case-by-case review."
AP: "The US government plans to reclassify some of the nation's most dangerous radioactive waste to lower its threat level [sav[ing] $40bn in cleanup costs across the nation's entire nuclear weapons complex], outraging critics who say the move would make it cheaper and easier to walk away from cleaning up nuclear weapons production sites in Washington state, Idaho and South Carolina.... The new rules would allow the energy department to eventually abandon storage tanks containing more than 100m gallons (378m liters) of radioactive waste in the three states, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is brilliant. How to eliminate hazardous waste at almost no cost: say it's not hazardous, after all.
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 (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ellie Kaufman of CNN: "The Interior Department has released five different versions of Secretary David Bernhardt's schedule for the first five months of 2019.... But many of these ... give conflicting information when compared side by side on any given day. With none of the five sources apparently being the definitive record, it raises questions about what the secretary is actually using to schedule his days and why the public doesn't have access to it." --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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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: Sorry, thought I linked a story on this earlier Wednesday. Obviously not. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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 (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race 2020
Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times: "Elizabeth Warren is running the most impressive presidential campaign in ages, certainly the most impressive campaign within my lifetime.... Warren actually has ideas. She has grand, detailed and daring ideas, and through these ideas she is single-handedly elevating the already endless slog of the 2020 presidential campaign into something weightier and more interesting than what it might otherwise have been: a frivolous contest about who hates Donald Trump most.... The only way to liberate ourselves from Trumpism is through politics that rise above Trumpian silliness. For that, for now, we have Elizabeth Warren to thank."
Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "As vice president, Joe Biden repeatedly sought to undermine the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, working in alliance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to push for a broad exemption that would have left millions of women without coverage. Biden's battle over contraception is a window into his approach to the politics of reproductive freedom, a function of an electoral worldview that centers working-class Catholic men over the interests of women.... According to contemporaneous reporting and to sources involved with the internal debate, Biden had argued that if the regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act were going to mandate coverage, it would anger white, male Catholic voters, and threaten President Obama's reelection in 2012. Biden's main ally in the internal fight over contraception was Chief of Staff William Daly; both men are Catholic." ...
... Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has shunned today's Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues from crime to compromising with Republicans, again broke with his party's base and many of his campaign rivals on Wednesday when his campaign confirmed that he still backs the Hyde Amendment, a measure that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion with exceptions for cases involving rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. The backlash to Mr. Biden, who despite leading early presidential polls faces skepticism from his party's progressive wing, came swiftly from lawmakers and activists who support abortion rights, with many noting that the Hyde Amendment disproportionately affects economically disadvantaged women and women of color." ...
... Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Bernie Sanders backed abortion rights and ridiculed male-dominated legislatures governing women's bodies in a 1972 article [which!] surfaced Wednesday. The commentary reveals another stark, decades-long contrast between he [him!] and former Vice President Joe Biden's progressive stances. Sanders told Vermont's Bennington Banner newspaper in September 1972 -- months before the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Roe v. Wade -- that abortion procedures should only be a concern between a woman and her physician. The article sits aside several letters the then-Liberty Union candidate for governor wrote to local newspapers calling for the abolition of 'all laws dealing with abortion, drugs, sexual behavior.'" Mrs. McC: Newsweek must have fired all its copy editors.
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..., took place." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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. Thi 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
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 (Also linked yesterday.)
Hannah Ellis-Peterson of the Guardian: "African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. China is home to almost half of the world's pigs and the news sent the global price of pork soaring [by almost 40%]. There is no vaccination for African swine fever, which causes pigs to internally haemorrhage until they die, so the only option to contain the disease is to kill any contaminated animals. Some estimates say that in China up to 200m animals may eventually be slaughtered...It has spread like wildfire across Asia.... Currently the battle to contain the disease is being lost." --s
News Ledes
New York Times: "Mac Rebennack, the pianist, singer, songwriter, and producer better known as Dr. John, who embodied the New Orleans sound for generations of music fans, died on Thursday. He was 77."
New York Times: "One West Point cadet was killed, and 20 cadets and two soldier trainers were injured, on Thursday after a military vehicle overturned en route to a training exercise near the academy, a West Point spokesman said."
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Reader Comments (18)
If Biden gets the nomination then I'll hold my nose & vote for the better grandpa. That said, what sticks in my craw the most about him is his enduring fantasy of, à la Obama, "reaching across the aisle" in good faith. If Trump were to lose, Republicans' dream alternative is Joe Biden. And the GOP will gladly hold his hand and take him down so many dead end roads that any "progressive" agenda will have McConnell's slug track shine on each page of watered down legislation. And now we find out he's the backwards center-right candidate on women's health issues, at the crescendo of the #MeToo movement. Way to depress the energy.
It's still early, but just as a temp. gauge, my "millennial" social media network, most fairly active in civic duties, are overall a very dull, lukewarm on a Biden presidency. We want new blood.
Once again, Roger Cohen pver on the New York Times delivers a devastating take on " ...D-Day isn't about Donald " and as one commenter wrote, "...captures the Presidency laid low."
Cohen writes, "Of this, Trump understands nothing. Therefore he cannot comprehend the sacrifice at Omaha Beach 75 years ago. He cannot see that the postwar trans-Atlantic achievement — undergirded by the institutions and alliances he tramples upon with such crass truculence — was in fact the vindication of those young men who gave everything."
The president* is no doubt thinking that he'll be awarded a
knighthood since he's the smartest and greatest, evah.
Would that replace his white hood?
Biden has adequately revealed himself to be a fossil of another age: the Hyde amendment? Really?
On the other hand, Elizabeth Warren is alert, on time, in tune, and up to date.
Are we really going to stand for another elderly white man? Even as an alternative? I actually disagree with his politics entirely, and don't see how I could vote for him at all.
It's past time for a woman - any one of the hopefuls is better than Biden.
@Victoria: Biden comes from an era when it was acceptable for men, especially Roman Catholic men, to be squeamish about abortion & to assume that panels of male judges should decide what women should "pay" for getting pregnant. That era has passed. Almost everyone knows someone or is someone who has had an abortion (even if "everybody" is unaware of it). We are built to make passionate mistakes, but there is no need for would-be parents & unanticipated children to suffer because of those brief throes of passion. Biden seems to look at affairs of the heart (or body) through the lens of 19th-century romantic tragedies, and these 19th-century ideas just don't make sense in the 21st-century. Like you, I would like to have a 21st-century president, please.
Last night watched Elizabeth Warren do her stuff at an Indiana Town Hall. She's very effective–-even managed to get a dour faced man that clearly was not buying what she was selling to come round and begin to melt a little. Manjoo's piece above and I agree, praises her messages that are not only innovative and necessary but she tells you how she'll pay for it. But in the end when Chris Hayes asked how did she think she could get all this done if McConnell stays put Warren went on a soaring riff about bringing the people along––that all the big changes happened because of the people rallying round in great numbers––Civil Rights, Viet Nam protests, Gay rights, etc.
@safari: I agree–-I do think Biden will fade some as the debates get started––it's still early and "everybody knows his name" which means lots of people find a comfort in that.
And damn, if I didn't have to be reminded of those good Catholic males who are against contraception and against abortion. Women––to be used like breed mares–-my fury over this is substantial and a wish to do something pretty substantial to men of that ilk is front and a tad below center.
Learning that the administration will sharply curtail federal spending on medical research that uses fetal tissue from aborted fetuses but will escalate federal penalties for pipeline protesters is infuriating. The former could result in saving lives while the latter has the potential to pollute the air even more than it has been polluted.
Meanwhile the man who would be King if he could continues to embarrass us on his forays into other countries showing over and over what a dumb cluck he is. You would think SOMEONE in that crazy cabinet of his would instruct him––oh, wait––if the kitchen cabinet cabal continually burns the buns, why would we hope for more?
This morning's dream:
If we could only get the politics out of politics...
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/05/dnc-opts-against-climate-change-debate-inslee-says
I wonder who Agent Orange convinced to write his D-Day speech? Doubt Neo-Nazi Stephen Miller could've done it without some talk of "carnage" or "disease". Dotard struggled with his reading lesson today, but it wasn't half bad, especially given the bar he's judged on is laying broken on the floor. He looked really proud of himself afterwards. So Presiduntial*! Too bad he'll learn exactly nothing from meeting and greeting all of the real American heroes. I wonder what those veterans really think about our Asshole in Chief? My great uncle passed away a year ago, got sent to France right after D-Day and nearly drown fording rivers trying to get to Germany because he could hardly swim. He didn't talk about the war much, but man did he hate Trump to his core for degrading the office of the Presidency.
Drumpf's speech actually scared me afterwards thinking to myself, "wow, this POS could be so easily reelected if he would just 'play' Presidunt* on teevee, like today, even while staying true to his nasty self in all other realms." Ironically, if we want him gone in 2020 then we need to trigger his nastiest instincts as the election approaches; shouldn't be too hard.
Speaking of 19th century attitudes toward women...(and there's nothing romantic about it.)
Now that Trump is leaving Europe, the stain he leaves everywhere he goes can be dealt with, but never completely wiped clean.
The Roger Cohen piece places this lurid excuse for a human being in historical context. He is a small, small man who sees everything only through the greedy, narcissistic filter of "What's In It for Me?"
He's not the only one who views the world through these filters. The entire Republican Party has their own brand of WIIFM glasses. The idea that organizations like NATO, the EU, the UN, for example, are invalid in Trump's highly refined opinion, has to do with the fact that he is unable to see any value in entities that do not put money in his pocket. If he's not being greased, if they don't somehow contribute to him personally, or glorify him, they are defined as groups that "take advantage of the United States", meaning Trump.
People, organizations, even ideas are only considered useful if they add to the Donald's personal aggrandizement or his bank account. This is why ideas like international cooperation, and basic human impulses like kindness and generosity are alien to him. They don't do a thing for the Donald, as he sees it. Therefore, they must be eviscerated, extirpated. It doesn't matter if they help millions of others, as NATO has done. If they aren't lining Trump's pocket or bowing before his greatness, he has no use for them.
He views other humans, likewise, as mere ornaments for his image of himself. Back some years ago, Trump went on Howard Stern's show (a guy who, whatever you think of him personally, could play Trump like a Steinway) to announce that he could have "nailed" Princess Di. Oh, but first, he'd have her checked out by a doctor to make sure she didn't infect the Great Donald with some icky STD. You really couldn't invent someone as nauseating as this.
And he apparently went after Diana with a vengeance, to the point where she considered him a creepy stalker. To him, she was the perfect trophy wife. She found him repulsive. But that too, to Trump, must seem impossible. He is, after all, the Greatest Man in History. This is why everything he does has to be described in the most flamboyant and garish superlatives.
During his interview with Stern (during which he conveys the most appalling sense of misogyny along with the usual overdose of overbearing pomposity), he let on that Diana was incredibly grateful to him for some yuuuge favor he performed. Of course he wouldn't say what that was (read: it never happened), but he wanted everyone to know that she "owed him, bigly". The bragging never stops. He wants what he wants, and if he doesn't get it, he make up shit to keep questions about his magisterial power at bay.
Of course the other side of this brand of greed, unearned personal self-regard, and overweening conceit shows up in the bullying, the insults, the personal attacks and vendettas against any who call him out. They can't be allowed to live (figuratively, at least) if they threaten the Great Donald's sense of self worth, ie, tell the truth about him.
And both sides of this twisted personality are rampant across the entire right-wing spectrum. Why should we help anyone else? What's in it for us? They're all takers and they're taking from us. Immigrants, minorities, liberals, uppity women, all of them. If they don't contribute to the right-wing way, they have no value and must be not just disparaged, but wiped off the slate. Thus, their right to vote, the possibility that they are allowed to govern in a democratic system must be destroyed through voter suppression, gerrymandering, or simple election fraud.
It's not just Trump, but in this moment of time he has become the avatar for all that's wrong with a certain strain of political, personal, and social systems in America, and by extension, the world. He is a dangerous pathogen.
And once again, I cannot, for the life of me, understand how Democrats can stand by and watch him tear down everything sacrifices such as what was done at D-Day, made possible. They're treating cancer with low dose aspirin.
@Akhilleus: Trump probably comped Diana a suite at the Plaza. I seem to recall that's pretty standard practice for royals & other major celebrities -- the hotels "discreetly" advertise that "Princess Diana slept here.) An aide to Diana probably sent Trump a thank-you note.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Michelle Heller recounts the story of her dad, a Czech native who escaped the Nazis, came to America, then enlisted to go back and fight. Her point is well taken in light of the current vogue for a self-described nationalist president on the part of not just white supremacists, but xenophobes, garden variety haters, and those who yearn for the yoke of authoritarianism.
"His tale of fleeing repression, immigrating to the United States and establishing himself here is certainly not unique. Nor is his service as a foreign-born U.S. soldier. In the 1840s, half of all U.S. military recruits were immigrants. Today, 40 percent of active-duty personnel are racial or ethnic minorities, and 13 percent of U.S. veterans are foreign-born or children of immigrants.
Why am I telling the story my dad had buried so deeply? Because relaying his experience is a way to illustrate the personal ramifications of anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, racist sentiment. Nationalist fervor, economic crisis and other factors resulted in the Nazis’ ascendance, their anti-Jewish laws and eventually the war that upended my dad’s youth and took the lives of many of his compatriots, friends and family, both on the battlefields and in the concentration camps.
He experienced what can happen when leaders spawn hatred rather than condemn it...[he] went to war because of what happened when xenophobia and demagoguery supplanted real leadership."
And here's something else to consider, something an ignoramus like Trump who knows next to nothing about the history of the nation he now bestrides like a giant dog taking a crap, has any inclination to understand. Turning that nation into a preserve for white nationalists like himself, is a guaranteed road to irrelevance. The allies won the war and the axis powers lost for many reasons. But here's a big one: the human element, smarts, ideas, competence, and inventiveness. As Nazi Germany emptied itself of Jews and others they considered undesirable, most of those immigrants came to America.
Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, James Franck, Edward Teller, Rudolf Peierls, and Klaus Fuchs, were just some of the talent pool of immigrants who came to America ahead of the nationalist, racist wave in Europe, as well as people like Ms. Heller's dad, who joined up to fight. Enrico Fermi came over as well, even though he could have stayed. His wife was Jewish and he wasn't having it. These people helped win the war. They were all heavily involved in the Manhattan Project, others were on the front lines. We had them. Germany didn't. We won, they lost.
As Trump and his little Nazi bulldog Stephen Miller and the rest of their racist, nationalist thugs who "spawn hatred" and attempt to keep America white pursue their goals, who knows how many inventive minds, great spirits, wonderful people who could contribute much to this country, are being diminished, kicked out, imprisoned, or not allowed in.
Comparisons between Trump and the Nazis are harder and harder to ignore. What's impossible to ignore is the stench of authoritarianism being sprayed across the country and promoted by the party that touts itself as the descendants of the founders, the keepers of the flame of freedom, the lovers of Constitutional democracy.
They are jackals. Amoral, unethical, lawless jackals. And they follow a crapping dog whose only goals are to find more to devour, other dogs to bite, and a good place to lick his balls.
"Making America Great Again" may be his biggest scam of all.
@Akhilleus: These 19th-century stories are "romantic" in the original meaning of "romance"; i.e., imaginative prose narratives based on some ideal: a woman is "ruined"; a man marries a woman because he has got her pregnant. These are "tragedies" in that the bad outcomes are caused by the heroines & heroes, rather than by some outside force.
Redefining pollution risks from coal mining and coal-fired power plants as non-existent, and now setting a new, low bar for the dangers of radioactive waste may seem no more than another cynical Pretender scam, but I'm thinking such ploys might point the way to solving many bigger even more intractable geo-political problems.
All the Pretender would have to do is redefine brown as white and Islam as Christian, and voila! bonhomie would break out across the country, maybe the world, and everyone would suddenly get along.
After all, he is the Great Pretender, and his hordes of supporters already well-practiced at pretending along with him, have proven that they will swallow anything he says.
Marie,
Yeah, I get all that about the concept of romance and tragedy. I was being overly broad with a typically blanket condemnation of Trump and his ways, something that is surely a tragedy according to a similarly broad definition of that word.
Trump is not nearly interesting enough of a character to be considered a tragic figure in the literary sense (Tragic flaws? How about almost everything), but he's also too dangerous and toxic to be considered comedic.
I guess he's just a dic.
Ken,
Your idea is a good one. It's just missing one ingredient in order for Trump to trigger the much desired bonhomie of which you speak:
Decency.
Oh well, it was a good thought...
Uday and Qusay pulling pints in an Irish pub? I'd like to see that. Oh, I wouldn't drink one, but I'd like to watch. Given the Trumpy propensity for doing things "The Trump Way" (ie, the Wrong Way), there would be none of the appreciation for the proper way to pull a pint of Guinness, never mind having it done with anything resembling flair. And I'm sure the patrons learned quickly that unless you tipped this pair of crooks well, your next pint would arrive no more quickly than either of them could spell Cú Chulainn, and be flatter than daddy's head.
Sláinte, lads.
Read Dana Milbank and the fashion editor of WashPo this morning and the comments were almost universal condemnation of the family criminals, for neither grace nor dignity nor senses of protocol or tradition, nor historical perspective nor...I could go on and on. This was a spectacle that did not need that ramshackle gang to enrich it. I felt sorry for Macron and the royals, who had to pretend to enjoy interacting with the bum and his horrible family. With his every word, posture, state of dress and inference he humiliated us all. Then I read RC and each report of the crimes/changes of "policy" of the administration that will improve the lives of no one makes me want to throw up. It's too much. Everything is too much. Maybe ignorance IS bliss. Maybe the yahoos who know nothing about what is going on are onto something.
On a positive note, I appreciated EW on the town hall circuit last night. She has energy and brains. And clearly likes being out there with "the people."
As for me, Dinosaur Biden ONLY if he ends up being the last candidate standing. And he will lose.
"But good idea to use the graves of dead American soldiers as a backdrop for an attack on a wounded war veteran. ..."
An attack by a coward who lied about a physical problem to avoid serving, and who for years has attacked those who DID serve. There has never been as despicable and craven a character on the American political scene as this debauched and depraved liar.
Here again, it's all about Trump. Dead war heroes are just decorations for his wonderfulness. Who cares if he weaseled out of service and demeans and insults those who did serve? He is The Donald and no one gets to criticize his greatness.
Just IMAGINE if a Democrat behaved this way (unthinkable, really, because pretty much anyone who chooses the Democratic Party in this day and age would be appalled at such hubris and mendacity, so this sort of thing is the sole demesne of confederates). The walls of the Capitol would shake with their thunderous outrage. But if one of their own does it? Why, lets attack anyone who calls them on their perfidy.
It's like having a biker gang in charge of the government. Actually, no. I misspoke. A biker gang would have a better sense of honor. These losers have none. Zero.
Just look at the leaders. Mitch and Trump. Both schemers, liars, traitors, and smirking pocket-liners.
What a disaster for America!