;)
The Commentariat -- March 17, 2018
Afternoon Update:
It occurs to me that Trump is getting rid of Cabinet members who might be sane enough to vote to invoke the 25th Amendment. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
** Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times report on the Cambridge Analytica shenanigans, & in their telling, it's a doozy. First of all, Facebook didn't just suddenly come clean about (a small portion of) the breach yesterday; they did so when Times & Observer reporters began making inquiries. Second, we're not talking about 270K Americans: "... the firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission..., making it one of the largest data leaks in the social network's history.... An examination by The New York Times and The Observer of London reveals how Cambridge Analytica's drive to bring to market a potentially powerful new weapon put the firm -- and wealthy conservative investors seeking to reshape politics -- under scrutiny from investigators an lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Christopher Wylie, who helped found Cambridge and worked there until late 2014, said of its leaders: 'Rules don't matter for them. For them, this is a war, and it's all fair.'... The full scale of the data leak involving Americans has not been previously disclosed -- and Facebook, until now, has not acknowledged it." Mrs. McC: Say, did I mention that the professor who swept up the Facebook data was a Russian-American? Coincidence. And most of its data scientists in Ted Cruz's & Trump's 2016 campaigns were foreign nationals, even though the company (& Steve Bannon) had been warned by attorneys that it was illegal for foreigners to be contributing to U.S. election campaigns. AND there's this:
Under the guidance of Brad Parscale, Mr. Trump's digital director in 2016 and now the campaign manager for his 2020 re-election effort, Cambridge performed a variety of services, former campaign officials said. That included designing target audiences for digital ads and fund-raising appeals, modeling voter turnout, buying $5 million in television ads and determining where Mr. Trump should travel to best drum up support.
... Also too, Steve Bannon has scoffed at the idea that he had anything to fear from Bob Mueller because "I don't even know any Russians." Bull. He engineered Cambridge Analytica's (illegal) participation in Trump's campaign. He even came up with the name Cambridge Analytica, & he was on its board. ...
... Here's the Guardian/Observer story by Carole Cadwalladr & Emma Graham-Harrison. "Christopher Wylie, who worked with a Cambridge University academic to obtain the data, told the Observer: 'We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people's profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.'... Facebook ... failed to alert users and took only limited steps to recover and secure the private information of more than 50 million individuals.... The discovery of the unprecedented data harvesting, and the use to which it was put, raises urgent new questions about Facebook's role in targeting voters in the US presidential election.... Last month both Facebook and the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, told a parliamentary inquiry on fake news: that the company did not have or use private Facebook data.... Steve Bannon's lawyer said he had no comment because his client 'knows nothing about the claims being asserted'. He added: 'The first Mr Bannon heard of these reports was from media inquiries in the past few days.'"
On Facebook's origins of Cambridge Analytica. --safari
** Carol Leonnig & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's lawyer called on the Justice Department to immediately shut down the special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, in the wake of the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Attorney John Dowd said in a statement that the investigation, now led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, was fatally flawed early on and 'corrupted' by political bias. He called on Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees that probe, to shut it down.... Dowd told The Washington Post on Saturday he was speaking for himself and not on Trump's behalf. Earlier Saturday, Dowd told the Daily Beast that he was speaking on behalf of the president and in his capacity as the president's attorney.... [Jeff] Sessions late Friday night fired McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire -- a move that McCabe alleged was an attempt to 'slander' him and undermine the ongoing special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign.... An inspector general raised questions about McCabe's discussions with reporters about a case related to Hillary Clinton." ...
... ** Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: On Saturday, "This is a member of Trump's legal team floating a reversal of the team's long-standing policy of cooperating with Mueller's probe while suggesting it would find nothing. This is Dowd implying nothing valid could possibly come of the investigation. And it seems to lay the groundwork for either firing Mueller or a political clash over anything illegal Mueller does find." Read on.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: All this is not hardball politics. It's Mob, Inc. Trump got to the White House by using illegal methods & foreign intervention -- not just Russians but also British. Australian (Julian Assange) & Canadian (Christopher Wylie) operatives -- by lying non-stop about Hillary Clinton & himself, by shutting down potential "problems" like Stormy Daniels, with hush money & possibly with threats of bodily harm, & now he's using his lawyers & other toadies (JeffBo, Devin Nunes) to further his coup. Remember how the mistreatment of Hillary was used as a cover to fire Comey? Once again, in the McCabe firing, the Trump cabal is using the leak of info against Clinton in furtherance of its aims. Trump himself may not be smart enough to have masterminded all of the means to effect & further this coup, but he is nonetheless overseeing it.
Mrs. McCrabbie: On Friday, MSNBC legal analyst Jill Wine-Banks said that when Nixon began to threaten the Watergate special prosecutor (whom he eventually fired), members of the prosecutor's staff took home copies of documents to preserve them. I hope Mueller has a secret, huge, fireproof safe somewhere off-site where his staff is depositing copies of critical documents obtained during his investigation.
Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: Jeff "Sessions's reasoning [for firing Andy McCabe] is difficult to independently evaluate, because the underlying Inspector General's report outlining McCabe's conduct has yet to be released. But Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman under Attorney General Eric Holder, suggested that even if the cause was legitimate, Sessions's timing reflects political pressure from the president.... Michael Bromwich, McCabe's attorney, said in a statement that Trump's attacks on McCabe were 'quite clearly designed to put inappropriate pressure on the Attorney General to act accordingly.'... 'I think there's a substantial amount of evidence that this is the result of retaliation on the part of the Justice Department and the White House,' [Dave] Gomez[, a former FBI agent & cybersecurity fellow at GWU,] told me[,] 'While there might have been sufficient cause to fire him under FBI rules, the way it was done, [shortly] before retirement, smacks of a vindictive and retaliatory nature.'" ...
... Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Andrew McCabe, formerly the deputy director of the FBI, has lawyered up. Michael Bromwich of the Bromwich Group confirmed to The Daily Beast that he is representing McCabe for the purposes of the matter that led to his firing.... Bromwich, who has been representing McCabe for several weeks, was formerly the inspector general of the Justice Department." ...
... Nathalie Baptiste of Mother Jones: "Democrats are laying into Donald Trump after he had Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe late Friday night, only days before McCabe was set to retire with full benefits. While Trump considered it a victory, leaders on the other side of the aisle had harsh words for the president." Batiste cites several examples.
HUD Officials Scam the Faithful. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "One of the top officials in Donald Trump's housing department runs an opaque religious charity with a colleague who resigned from the administration when the Guardian found he was accused of fraud and exaggerated his biography. Johnson Joy, the chief information officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud), is part of a Christian not-for-profit in Texas with Naved Jafry, who quit as a Hud adviser after inquiries about his professional history. Until this week the group, GJH Global Ministries, invited donations on its website. But it was not clear what work the group did and its mission statements and other information appeared to be copied from those of major churches. GJH was formed in 2014 but Stephen Austin, one of its directors, said in a brief interview: 'We literally did nothing.' Following inquiries by the Guardian, GJH's website was locked from public view."
** Nuclear War Trump Card. Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Secretary of Defense James Mattis is implicated in one of the largest business scandals of the past decades.... Theranos, led by CEO Elizabeth Holmes and president Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani..., was founded on the promise of faster, cheaper, painless blood tests. But their technology was fake. Mattis not only served on Theranos's board ... but he earlier served as a key advocate of putting the company's [fake] technology ... to use inside the military while he was still serving as a general.... [A]ccepting six-figure checks to serve as a frontman for a con operation is the kind of thing that would normally count as a liability in American politics. But nobody wants to talk about it.... Everyone in Washington is more or less convinced that his presence in the Pentagon is the only thing standing between us and possible nuclear Armageddon. It's an absurd, intolerable situation, but that's life in America in 2018." --safari: Hangin' with Huckabee much, are we Mattis?
*****
Matt Apuzzo & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director and a frequent target of President Trump's scorn, was fired Friday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected an appeal that would have let him retire this weekend. Mr. McCabe promptly declared that his firing, and Mr. Trump's persistent needling, were intended to undermine the special counsel's investigation in which he is a potential witness. Mr. McCabe is accused in a yet-to-be-released internal report of failing to be forthcoming about a conversation he authorized between F.B.I. officials and a journalist. In a statement released late Friday, Mr. Sessions said that Mr. McCabe had shown a lack of candor under oath on multiple occasions." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: As Gloria pointed out yesterday, it is pretty rich for Sessions to fire somebody for "a lack of candor under oath," since Sessions himself is infamous for demonstrating "a lack of candor under oath." ...
... Elana Schor of Politico has much more on McCabe's remarks following his firing. ...
... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed has both Sessions' & McCabe's full public statements. Also, Trump's tweets deriding McCabe. ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... lawyers say McCabe's legal options are few because most FBI employees have little legal recourse over attempts to punish them over alleged misconduct." Mrs. McC: I still think that when the POTUS* publicly targets a federal employee for clearly political purposes -- as Trump has repeatedly done -- that removes any pretense of an unbiased investigation & subsequent firing. Any reasonable person, given the circumstances, could conclude that Sessions fired McCabe to save his own job. I think a McCabe suit has a good chance of succeeding in a jury case. ...
Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI! -- Donald Trump, just after midnight this morning ...
David Atkins in the Washington Monthly: "That tweet will almost certainly be used against Trump both in a lawsuit by McCabe, and by Robert Mueller himself in the obstruction of justice indictment against the president. So why do it? Partly because Trump has no decency or self-control. But more than that, it was the aggressive warning shot of a temperamental raging bully trying to scare off any future enemies or betrayers. It was a message to any other federal employee of what might happen to them if they cooperate with the Mueller investigation. The same motivation applies to Trump's preposterous $20 million lawsuit against adult film actress Stormy Daniels.... Bullying is the only tactic Donald Trump knows. This behavior is incredibly commonplace for high-functioning sociopaths...." Mrs. McC: The difference between Trump & Putin is that Trump hits his foes -- real & imagined -- in the pocketbook & Putin offs them.
McCabe learned of firing from press release. -- Paula Reid, in a tweet (via Scott Lemieux)
Someone should remind the Trump administration and their enablers in the House GOP that Deep Throat was basically a pissed-off senior official at the FBI. -- Kevin Kruse, in a tweet (also via Lemieux)
Today in White House Job Opportunities
** AND the Leaker Is ... Donald Trump. Jonathan Swan of Axios: John "Kelly acknowledged to the reporters it's likely that Trump is talking to people outside the White House and that reporters are then talking to those people. Kelly cast Trump's own conversations as a significant contributing factor to stories about the staff changes. (Kelly was making the point that he's not around for a lot of Trump's conversations so can't be sure what he's telling people over the phone.)" Read the whole post. It's short, but scooplet-heavy. To reporters in an off-the-record session, Kelly defended everybody from Ben the Furniture Guy to Rod Rosenstein. ...
... Fer instance, "Kelly said $31,000 sounds like a lot of money [for a dining room set], but to put it in context he asked a reporter how much they think the chair they're sitting on costs. Kelly said it's probably worth hundreds of dollars but it will last a long time. He rationalized Carson's $31,000 outlay by saying the table could last for 80 or 100 years." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Trump's administration isn't always big on long-term planning when it comes to things like climate change, where the 100-year picture is not exactly foremost on anybody's mind. But at least they're thinking long term about the executive dining needs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Our grandchildren may lose some coastal cities we currently enjoy, but they can rest assured they will never need to fund another dining set for the HUD secretary." ...
... AND Other Things You Didn't Need to Read. Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: During the same off-the-record meeting with reporters, "Tillerson, Kelly told the room, was suffering from a stomach bug during a diplomatic swing through Africa, and was using a toilet when Kelly broke the news to him. Sources were stunned that, even in an off-record setting, Kelly would say this -- to a room filled with White House officials and political reporters -- about Tillerson, who does not officially leave the State Department until the end of the month. Kelly is routinely touted as one of the more mature members of Trump's top brass and has often been branded as one of the 'adults' in charge. The comment was especially bizarre given Kelly's reported past cover for Tillerson." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Strangely, this was Kelly covering his own diarrheaic ass. Numerous outlets have reported that Tillerson found out by Trumpentweet that he had been fired. Kelly made up the unforgettable toilet story to assert otherwise. Kelly is a more skilled liar than his boss. ...
... Eliana Johnson & Matthew Nussbaum of Politico: "... Donald Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster isn't getting fired, he's getting Tillersoned -- kept in a state of perpetual limbo about his future in the administration, aware that his unpredictable boss could keep him around indefinitely or terminate him at a moment's notice.... What's changed in recent days, according to a half-dozen White House aides and outside advisers familiar with the situation, is that White House chief-of-staff John Kelly has put increasing pressure on Trump to get rid of McMaster -- and that's made the president, who likes to be contrary and doesn't mind frustrating his advisers, increasingly resistant to making a change.... Kelly was upset, according to two senior administration officials, by Trump's decision to remove Tillerson this week, and has in turn resumed his efforts to sour Trump on McMaster."
Sam Stein, et al., of the Daily Beast: "This is the current state of: a presidency conducted like a reality show with no one quite certain of the script.... For embattled agency officials in particular, the unfolding drama has fed a sense that, when controversy flares, the West Wing is unhelpful at best and adversarial at worst.... Not everyone is convinced that the president is playing a game of three-dimensional chess as he lets his top aides and cabinet members wonder if they'll have a job in the coming day. 'To say what he is doing is mind games would be like calling a monkey throwing his feces art,' said [Dan] Pfeiffer], a former Obama aide]. 'I don't think he knows what he is doing.'" ...
... "Trump & Friends," the New Fox "News" Slapstick Series. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Trump ... is actively discussing Fox News contributor John Bolton as a potential successor [to H.R. McMaster]. A leading contender to replace Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is Pete Hegseth, the co-host of 'Fox and Friends Weekend.' The president named CNBC analyst and former host Larry Kudlow ... as his chief economic adviser on Wednesday. Heather Nauert, a former co-host of 'Fox and Friends,' got promoted on Monday from being a spokeswoman for the State Department to acting undersecretary of state.... Trump's plot to poach from green rooms is an additional proof point that validates two important themes I've written about: Trump has debased the value of expertise and supercharged the celebrification of American politics.... Foreign policy pros were aghast when Trump named K.T. McFarland [-- a former Fox 'News" host --] as his deputy national security adviser, [who was a disaster who also got caught up the Russia scandal].... Trump initially named another Fox talking head, Monica Crowley as the senior director of strategic communications for the NSC... [but she had to withdraw after CNN provided evidence of her proclivity for plagiarizing everything]." And so forth. See also Marvin S.'s & Akhilleus' commentary in yesterday's thread on this low-rated show. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: When everyone thought Trump would lose the White House, there was much speculation & some supporting reports that Trump would launch a teevee cable channel this year in lieu of the presidency. In fact, some surmised that Trump's entire candidacy was one painful promo for his new teevee network. As things turned out, we're getting TrumpTV anyway ... with consequences.
All the Best People, Ctd. Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "America First Policies, the nonprofit that works to promote Trump's agenda, announced Thursday that Carl Higbie would be joining the group to head advocacy.... Higbie, a former Navy SEAL, resigned from the Trump administration in January after a CNN KFile investigation found he made racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-gay remarks on the radio. Higbie later apologized for his remarks on the radio." Mrs. McC: Maybe I should mention that Higbie regularly appears as a surrogate for Trump on Fox "News." Also, too, that Higbee's honorable discharge was reduced to "general," & he lost his top-secret clearance after he self-published a book about his SEAL experiences.
The Stormy Affair
Emma Brown & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney, claims he has the right to seek at least $20 million in damages from porn star Stormy Daniels for allegedly violating a nondisclosure agreement 20 times. A lawyer for Cohen's limited liability corporation, Essential Consultants, made the claim in papers filed in federal court Friday. Cohen also intends to force the dispute with Daniels, who alleges she was secretly paid to keep quiet about her affair with the president, out of the public eye and back into private arbitration, according to the court filing." ...
... Edvard Pettersson of Bloomberg: Cohen's "company moved the lawsuit, filed by Daniels last week in California state court against Trump, to federal court, saying that neither Daniels, Trump nor the LLC are California residents and the amount of damages exceeds the $75,000 limit for a case to proceed in state court. Trump supports the transfer of the case between courts, according to Essential Consultants' filing." (Open in private windows.) ...
... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "... Donald Trump has joined the legal fight over whether a woman is bound by an agreement she signed in 2016 to keep quiet about their alleged affair.... Charles Harder, an attorney best known for representing Hulk Hogan in his legal fight against Gawker, filed a notice on behalf of Trump joining in the removal. 'Mr. Trump intends to join in EC's anticipated Petition to Compel Arbitration under the Arbitration Agreement,' he announced." ...
... Adam Rawnsley & Kate Briquelet of The Daily Beast: "Charles Harder, the attorney who destroyed Gawker, has joined President Trump's legal battle with Stormy Daniels. And, according to court papers, Trump wants at least $20 million in damages from the porn star and erotic dancer for breaking their deal and talking about their relationship." --safari
Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing porn actress Stephanie Clifford in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, told TPM's 'Josh Marshall Podcast' on Friday that both he and Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, fear for their physical safety.... Avenatti would not go into detail on the nature of the threats.... However, Avenatti said that the intimidation Clifford has faced should be addressed in her upcoming '60 Minutes' interview, set to air March 25, and he indicated that he believes viewers will find the threats serious." --safari ...
... Adam Raymond of New York: "A lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she was paid $130,000 to stay quiet about an affair with Donald Trump, said on Morning Joe Friday that his client has been 'physically threatened' as a part of the effort to cover up her relationship with Trump. It was the second major revelation Friday morning by Michael Avenatti, who previously told CNN that six other women have approached him with stories about Trump similar to his client's." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "President Trump has long avoided blaming -- or even naming -- Russia for meddling in the 2016 election that put him in office. But his administration has been far tougher on Moscow for cyberattacks that officials this week said not only sought to sway political opinions, but also wormed into power plants, aviation systems and other critical infrastructure in the United States and Europe. On Thursday, Mr. Trump was studiously silent as his administration imposed sanctions on Russia for interfering in the 2016 presidential campaign and what officials called other 'malicious cyberattacks.'... The Treasury Department said the sanctions were to punish 'Russia's continuing destabilizing activities.'... Last week, by contrast, Mr. Trump said that 'the Russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever.' 'But, certainly, there was meddling and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals,' the president said at a March 6 news conference. This pattern of diversion has steadily increased since Mr. Trump took office. Here is a look back at how the president and his own administration have parted ways on Russia."
** David Edwards of RawStory: ""Felix Sater, one of Donald Trump's shadiest former business partners, is reportedly preparing for prison time -- and he says the president will be joining him behind bars. Sources told The Spectator's Paul Wood last year that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's deep dive into Trump's business practices may be yielding results. Trump recently made remarks that could point to a money laundering scheme, Wood reported. 'I mean it's possible there's a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?' the president said. Sater, who has a long history of legal troubles and is cooperating with law enforcement, was one of the major player responsible for selling Trump's condos to the Russians. And according to Wood's sources, Sater may have already flipped and given prosecutors the evidence they need to make a case against Trump." --safari: The Spectator link is firewalled.
Kevin Johnson of USA Today: "The government is considering an unprecedented disclosure of parts of a controversial secret surveillance order that justified the monitoring of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Responding to a legal challenge brought by USA Today and the James Madison Project, Justice Department lawyers Friday cast the ongoing review as 'novel, complex and time-consuming.' 'The government has never, in any litigation civil or criminal, processed FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) applications for release to the public,' Justice lawyers wrote in a five-page filing. The government's action comes in wake of a bitter political dispute in which a divided House Intelligence Committee, while conducting a review of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, seized on a 2016 order authorizing the surveillance of Page."
Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Cambridge Analytica, the company who led data mining and analysis for the Trump campaign, has been suspended from using the Facebook social media platform for the misuse of personal information involving 270,000 people. 'We are suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), including their political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, from Facebook,' Paul Grewal, the company's vice president and deputy general counsel, stated Friday. The statement said the action followed reports that all information was not deleted, following earlier revelations that 'a research app used by psychologists' had legitimately collected the data, a transfer of the data to SCL/Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica's work for the Trump campaign was overseen by Jared Kushner...." ...
... As Sean Illing of Vox explained late last month, Cambridge Analytica also is "intimately tied" to Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager. Besides Trump, Kushner & Parscale, the names Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn also pop up in this tangled web. Cambridge Analytica "has become a major focus of both the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election and special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.... Last December, Mueller requested that Cambridge Analytica turn over internal documents as part of his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia" Mrs. McC: We can forget the House Intel Committee, unless Democrats prevail. Cambridge Analytica is partly owned by the righty-right-wing Mercer family. Anyway, I'm all surprised these companies would lie to Facebook.
Ryan Grim & Sam Biddle of The Intercept: "On Wednesday, House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee released a memo laying out the steps they would have taken had they been in charge of the Trump-Russia investigation -- and steps they may take if and when they gain subpoena power by taking over the House of Representatives in November.... Down on Page 20 of the memo is a pair of ideas that could put Congress on a collision course with privacy advocates in Silicon Valley.... The committee said that it would also seek to find out 'all messaging applications that [Jared] Kushner used during the campaign as well as the presidential transition....' The committee may also consider adding ProtonMail, the encrypted email service, to that list. One White House staffer, Ryan P. McAvoy, jotted his ProtonMail passwords and his address on a piece of White House stationary and left it at a bus stop near the White House." --safari
Cleta Got Her Guns. Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "A former lawyer for the National Rifle Association says she's 'totally outraged' over a report that she expressed concerns about the gun group's ties to Russia and possible use of Russian money to help Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. In a Friday email to TPM, Cleta Mitchell, a longtime conservative lawyer and former NRA board member, came out swinging against McClatchy's report that congressional investigators have learned she was worried about the Russian links.... Mitchell, a veteran conservative election lawyer who played a key role in stoking the IRS 'scandal' under the Obama administration, blamed 'scumbags' on 'the left,' namely the House Intelligence Committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and the press for raising questions about reported ties between the NRA and Russia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
This Is the Week that Was:
Ryan Koronowski of Think Progress: "[In Puerto Rico] people are still dying, in 2018, from causes that are directly related to the storm's impacts -- largely a lack of access to electricity. Many lack access to permanent shelter and potable water. Almost 10 percent of the island, according to the official status page, remains unpowered as of March 15. The island's population is about 3.3 million, which translates to about 300,000 people still without power.... It's by far the longest blackout in U.S. history.... Trump gave himself a 10 out of 10 on storm response." --safari
First, Shoot All the Elephants. Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "A new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some members with direct ties to ... Donald Trump and his family. A review by The Associated Press of the backgrounds and social media posts of the 16 board members appointed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke indicates they will agree with his position that the best way to protect critically threatened or endangered species is by encouraging wealthy Americans to shoot some of them.... Appointees include celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers, and wealthy sportspeople who boast of bagging the coveted 'Big Five' — elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sean Lahman, et al., of the (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle: "Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat who represented the Rochester area in Congress since 1987, died Friday morning in a Washington, DC, hospital. She was 88.... Slaughter fell at her Washington residence last week and was taken to George Washington University Hospital to receive treatment and monitoring for a concussion. Slaughter was recognized as a fierce legislator who blazed trails for other women to enter politics." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Slaughter's Washington Post obituary is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Republicans and Democrats praised Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) as a trailblazer and a dynamic leader after she died early Friday of injuries from a fall at her home last week. The 88-year old was the oldest member of Congress, dean of New York's House delegation and the first woman to chair the powerful Rules Committee, which determines which bills are considered by the full House. She remained the panel's top Democrat until her death.... House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) ordered flags above the Capitol to be lowered to half-staff in memory of Slaughter."
Tatyana Bellamy-Walker of The Daily Beast: "Three students in a rural part of Arkansas have allegedly been smacked [i.e. paddled] for participating in Wednesday's national walkout protesting against gun violence. Despite that drastic punishment, one student's mother, Jerusalem J. Greer, applauded her son and the other students at Greenbrier Public School for their defiant protest.... 'My kid and two other students walked out of their rural, very conservative, public school for 17 minutes today,' Greer wrote on Twitter. 'They were given two punishment options. They chose corporal punishment. This generation is not playing around.'... While 31 states across the U.S. have banned corporal punishment, four years ago The Washington Post reported that 19 states still allow administrators to hit students." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "An engineer reported cracks on a newly installed pedestrian bridge two days before it collapsed on a busy roadway here, killing at least six people, state officials said on Friday. The report, by the lead engineer with the company in charge of the bridge's design, was made in a voice mail message for a Florida Department of Transportation employee. That employee was out of the office, however, and did not receive it until Friday, a day after the collapse. The cracking was on the north end of the span, according to the message, but the company did not consider it a safety concern, according to a transcript released by the transportation department."
Meet Your GOP. Steve Collins of the (Lewiston, Maine,) Sun Journal: "Controversial Republican candidate Leslie Gibson [R-Maine] is abandoning his effort to win a state House seat this year. 'I am not walking away with my head hung low. I am walking away with my head held high,' Gibson said Friday.... Gibson has been under fire this week for comments he made online about teens in Florida who survived a school shooting in Parkland." --safari: This lowlife shit stain called Emma Gonzalez a "skinhead lesbian", but the Sun Journal could[n't] bring itself to mention that.
Congressioal Elections. Running Scared. Kira Lerner of Think Progress: "Georgia Republicans are advancing a bill through the state legislature that would suppress African-American turnout by eliminating Sunday voting and cutting the hours that polls are open in Atlanta. The bill, SB 363, would force polls in the majority African American city of Atlanta to close an hour earlier -- 7 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. -- and would eliminate early voting on the Sunday before Election Day. That Sunday is often a high-turnout day for African American voters because of Souls to the Polls events that encourage people to cast ballots early after attending church." --safari
Ian Shapira of the Washington Post: "A black man brutally beaten at last year’s 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville — and who was later charged with assaulting a white nationalist -- was acquitted Friday. DeAndre Harris, 20, a former special education instructional assistant, was found not guilty by Charlottesville General District Court Judge Robert Downer Jr. on a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery against Harold Crews, a North Carolina lawyer and state chairman of the self-described white nationalist group League of the South.... Harris ... was beaten inside a parking garage next to the city's police department on Aug. 12, 2017. He suffered a spinal injury and head lacerations that required 10 stitches."
Way Beyond
David Herszenhorn of Politico: "Russia hit back at the U.K. on Saturday, ejecting 23 British diplomats and ordering the closure of the British consulate in St. Petersburg. Moscow was retaliating against punitive measures taken by Prime Minister Theresa May and her accusations that Russia used a nerve agent to try to kill a former spy in England.... May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats who she said were actually intelligence operatives on Wednesday...."
Robert Booth, et al., of the Guardian: "Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of the Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov after a pathologist concluded he died from compression to the neck, suggesting he may have been strangled by hand or ligature. The Met police's counter-terrorism command is retaining its lead role in the investigation 'because of the associations Mr Glushkov is believed to have had' but has cautioned that there is no suggestion of a link with the attempted murders of the Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia in Salisbury almost two weeks ago. At the time of his death, Glushkov was about to defend a claim against him by the Russian airline Aeroflot at the commercial court in London, where he was accused of fraud." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (15)
I've been thinking about not just how stupid it is for Trump to hire Fox "News" personalities for jobs that require some kind of expertise, but also how nuts it is. The people Trump is considering for jobs are his imaginary friends. Trump spends so much time watching TrumpTV that he can't tell the difference between the crap on Fox & reality.
It's as if I watched Anderson Cooper every night & liked what he said so much that I decided he liked me, too. Why, the only reason we're not having lunch together & generally hanging out is that we live in different cities. Or scheduling conflicts or something. We should get together. Soon! Obviously, that's nuts. Not quite as nuts maybe as the people who stalk movie & teevee stars, but nuts.
And that's Donald. He wants to hire his imaginary friends so they can hang out. He thinks these people would be more "fun" & would be more "loyal" (i.e., more sycophantic) than "the best people" who are milling around the West Wing now. Past presidents often hired friends as advisors or aides; President Obama put Valerie Jarrett & Reggie Love in the White House, for instance. But Jarrett & Love were Obama's real friends -- people he had developed bonds with over the years. But Donald's "friends" are at best situational & more often people he sees only on his flat-screen teevees. Nuts.
Bea,
Good point about the Fox cabinet, (Faux News, Faux Cabinet) but I guess you gotta take your friends where you can get 'em.
Am thinking that being well paid for saying nice things about the Pretender into a camera is a lot easier than actually hanging around the guy. I've read he can charm but just don't see it. Whatever passes for charm in such a lunkhead has to be so oleaginous it turns rapidly rancid.
Yeah, the whole thing is nuts.
And compliments also for your take on Kelly's defense of the 31,000 dollar table that placed the purchase in the long-term planning rather than the immediate gratification category. Those criminals do think ahead... maybe a week into the future or at a stretch, squinting as far as the next quarterly balance sheet, and always about only themselves.
And this is what our exchange some days ago about democracy's difficulties turned into....
(Regrettably, for the newspaper I have to use the Pretender's name. They set such unreasonable limits.)
"It was all going to be so simple, he said. He’d solve the immigration problem by building a wall that Mexico would pay for, we’d have affordable healthcare for everyone and our manufacturing jobs would come flooding back. He alone knew how to fix things.
But it seems leading a democracy is a lot harder than Mr. Trump thought it would be.
After only a few months in office, he said he thought being president would be easier (reuters.com). Since then the chaos and contradictions of his presidency have continued.
The chaos is evident. White House staff has turned over at an unprecedented rate, already eclipsing the previous high-water mark President Clinton set in his first two years. Mr. Trump broke that record in only a year (npr.org).
The many contradictions began with healthcare. Better and cheaper healthcare for everyone was the promise. Now three and a half million fewer people are already uninsured (cnbc.com) with 13 million more to come, and the newly unveiled low-cost alternative plans for the young and healthy will drive up the price of insurance for the vast majority of Americans (thebalance.com).
Months ago, Mr. Trump asked, “Who knew healthcare could be so complicated?”
More recently Mr. Trump said wanted bi-partisan legislation to fix the DACA problem he himself created. Then the White House lobbied to kill the bipartisan plan he said he wanted. The same thing happened to the gun legislation he said he’d support. Raise the age for purchasing guns? Sure, he’d go for that—until the NRA spoke, and then he didn’t.
It seems immigration, gun control and trade are complicated, too.
Maybe that explains Mr. Trump’s admiration for autocracies where what the Dear Leader says, goes (foreignpolicy.com).
For Mr. Trump, who likes things simple, democracy is just too hard."
I remember as Obama was leaving office he mentioned the possibility of a retaliatory measure against Russian meddling in the form of a potential covert cyber attack on strategically important sectors of Russia's infrastructure and economy. It was a vaguely-worded threat, but intended as a direct message to infer we've compromised your systems and could cause great pain. Obviously this turned out to be just posturing but perhaps the bugs remain in place.
That veiled threat is important to remember with the new concrete evidence we're finding out about Russian' s burrowing into our strategic infrastructure, mainly energy. Hopefully it will be reported out, but it'd be very interesting to know whether Obama's threat was because we found out the Russian's had already compromised our systems, or if Obama's threat of internal sabotage of Russian system led the Kremlin to order a comparative measure that has taken place under the Trump administration as he continues to throw smoke bombs for Putin and refuses to protect our systems. If they've burrowed in under Trump's watch while everyone was blowing the whistle about strengthening our system, that would be a monumental dereliction of duty and would represent a huge debt paid back to his Russian paymasters.
Either way, it now appears clear that we both have cyber measures in place to assure mutual self destruction of critical infrastructure, which renders both doomsday strategies moot.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-obama-s-threat-of-retaliation-against-russia-lead-to-cyberwar/
@Ken: When using the president's* name, it should be followed
by (aka: David Dennison), which is the name he goes by when
doing dirty deeds, like suing porn stars for $20 mil.
I don’t believe Trump has any friends. Not the way most of us think of friends, especially best friends. I am not up enough on NPD to say if this lack stems from that disorder or whether Trump is just that much of an asshole (maybe Marvin can help with that one). He has people who have worked for him, like Cohen, but I’m sure he’s one of the few whom the little dictator actually pays.
It was clear that Obama had friends. Besides being a smart, funny guy, he seems quite a decent chap, someone you could imagine being friends with. Not so Trump. Just seeing how he uses those around him, insults and berates them should give anyone pause. It’s more likely that people around him are there for what they can get out of him. Then look at the small, vindictive, spiteful way he treated Andrew McCabe and ask yourself if you would ever consider being friends with such a malignant pus cavity.
This might be one reason, as Marie suggests, that he has imaginary friends. Someone with a propensity for, and the emotional and altruistic equipment and basic humanity necessary to be a good friend does not meet someone, then five minutes later not know who they are, seeing them only as a potentially available piece of ass.
Normally I might feel bad for someone who was so emotionally crippled as to have no real friends, to the point where they had to make imaginary ones, but not this pig. He deserves whatever thorns and misery life has to offer. I’d have added heartbreak but there’s no heart there to break.
Suggested epitaph (I might be able to come up with a better one later—add your own ideas): Here lies a heartless, friendless piece of shit who sold out his country to help himself.
THE LITTLE FOXES
We need another Lillian Hellman to write another play about a corrupt, devious, despicable rich family–-this time one that takes over the government of a nation by duplicitous maneuvers putting the head of this family in the presidential seat. By the second act the administration of this head honcho is in chaos because this fool has had no experience–– and he lacks a brain and a heart–-"I am NOT a politician"–-he often told his fawning crowds. One by one all the head honcho's appointed people get fired or leave on their own which opens up the window into what this guy wanted in the first place–––ENTERTAINMENT! He appoints all the little foxes he sees on T.V. to help him run this new show of shows.
The last act is up for grabs––our imaginary playwright has sleepless nights wondering how to end it. We, the audience, hold our breaths, what will we be handed when the curtain comes down.
"Take us the foxes, that spoil the vines,
for our vines have tender grapes."
Trump's lawyers are making a huge mistake. They are proving the StormyTrump story is true. They should have let her tell anything, Trump would call it a lie and America's family value politicians and evangelicals would totally ignore it.
Akhilleus, excellent point on Trumpfriends. People with NPD can attract 'friends' but they only stay a short time. It's hard to stay friends with someone who gives you the impression that the only friend they have is themselves. Or as you pointed out, people realize that there is no heart to share.
I’m binge watching “Madam Secretary” and the president has just made Moscow go dark. Not our *president* though.
I agree with the above people re the presidunce's "friends." There are none. It's hard to even believe he is capable of being a friend, much less receive friendship in any sort of vaguely graceful way. He is so much more virulent than any of us knew. We hated him when he was running, and the viper he is now is incredibly more deeply detested by most of us. In that respect, the silly repug Conor Lamb beat is correct: we DO hate this nasty reptile in the people's house. Apologies to reptiles everywhere.
Re: Cyber attacks: I'm wondering how long we will look at this threat and do nothing - deer in headlights fashion. About a third of us have living memory of what life was life before everything went digital. Things worked then. It wasn't so bad. Compared to being vaporized by nuclear bombs or dying a slow death of radiation poisoning while eking out a violent subsistence in the rubble, cyber warfare seems more 'recoverable' - albeit many would perish from indirect effects.
Where are the NSA directives to the public and appropriations for essential infrastructure providers to develop ways to rapidly switch into 'manual mode' when a cyber attack occurs? It seems there could a system of protocols developed that would minimize the damage. It seems like this should be very high on the priority list now, but no, there are tax breaks to give away, Muslims and brown people to deport, WH staff to fire, and porn star leaks to squelch.
Maybe if von Clownstick's Fox friends suggest that he could lose his TV feed in a cyber attack he might call a special cabinet session to address the problem. Like coaching teenage children to do their chores, the work of responsible government employees (those that remain) is now reduced to figuring out ever more clever and duplicitous ways to get a high-functioning nut job president to do work for the people.
Over the year, other than news or magazine articles that I happened upon I never sought out books on or by Trump. The first one I read was the recently published "Fire & Fury." That led me to read Tim O'Brien's "Trump Nation: The Art of Being The Donald" — originally published back in 2005.
The book's been mentioned frequently in numerous articles, and I was Curious Orange. Mentioned mostly for the lawsuit by Trump against the author, court records which have been sealed and have left many questions unanswered. The lawsuit came about because Trump became extremely upset that his net worth was questioned. What is his true net worth? Probably, as Trump has said, "...whatever (he)I feel."
Interestingly, the book shows that Trump's behavior, actions were the same back then as they are now. Probably amplified today because of his exposed position —but he is taking these behaviors to even more extreme levels. Contradictory statements, embellishments, lies are nothing new for him. He's gotten away with it in the past from the MSM because he was "amusing."
Whether tweeting or pretending to be a PR person named John Somebody Else, he's played this game of distraction all his life. Just when one scandal after another hits the headlines, he manages to slither away from culpability by changing the subject. The blame always goes elsewhere. It's all about the game.
There's the question ...is he really a billionaire? Is he worth $10-billion as he likes to suggest or merely a lesser billionaire? Or, perhaps not even that. It's so insulting to be considered a mere millionaire...as 'poor' Wilbur Ross has turned out to be! Aside from the distraction of a billion here or a billion there, the book reveals his antics, the bankruptcies, and Trump's P.T. Barnum-like methods of razzmatazz. Ladies and gents, step right up for worst show on earth.
Next book on my list, Mike Isikoff & David Corn's Russian Roulette. It should fill in a lot of blanks! Though actually, I'd like nothing better than never having to read anything about Donald J. Trump ever again.
Do you think Sessions has a "don't make eye contact with me" policy, too, like Tillerson? Or does he just have no shame like Drumpf? I wonder how the political hack job he just pulled off is affecting morale for all the cadres toiling under his "leadership".
Fully knowing your boss, head of the "independent" Justice Dept., licks the president's* putrid nutsack on command has got to be hard to come to terms to.
Sessions' legacy won't be torn down by pointy-headed academics and historians knit-picking his egregious past abuses. Instead he's hopping head-first into any dog shit he happens upon, rolling over and giving it the arching back itch to make the stink cling.
Ball lickin', low I.Q., malodorous son of a bitch.
MAG, here is my answer. If you own a billion in property and have mortgages and loans totaling $1,000,000,001, are you a billionaire?
I believe Trump is not a for real millionaire.
And is it just me? When someone wants to stop an investigation I assume that is admission of guilt.
@Marvin Schwalb: Not sure. As I think you yourself have noted, Trump thinks he can do no wrong. So, by definition, anyone who endeavors in an attempt to determine whether or not Trump has done something wrong, is engaging in a hoax & that person's motivations for perpetrating the hoax are diabolical.
However, I will concede that Trump probably is not completely untethered from reality, so he may indeed realize that Mueller & team can hang their hats on some dangling corners Trump has "necessarily" cut in pursuit of his interests. Ergo, he must go on the offensive to discredit Mueller before the fact. And any & ally means justify the ends.