;)
The Commentariat -- March 22, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Mike DeBonis & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The House on Thursday passed a sweeping $1.3 trillion spending bill that makes good on President Trump's promises to increase military funding while blocking most of his proposed cuts to domestic programs and placing obstacles to his immigration agenda. The 2,232-page bill, which was released just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, would keep government agencies operating through September. Congressional leaders muscled the bill through the chamber, tossing aside rules to ensure careful deliberation of legislation to meet a Friday night government shutdown deadline. The bill includes dozens of miscellaneous provisions, ranging from crucial fixes to the recent GOP tax bill to a measure on employee tips to language codifying that minor-league baseball players are exempt from federal labor laws.... The bill passed on a 256-to-167 vote after leaders of both parties hailed the compromise. At the White House, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Trump would sign the bill."
Mark Landler & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump said he would impose about $60 billion worth of annual tariffs on Chinese imports on Thursday as the White House moved to punish China for what it says is a pattern of co-opting American technology and trade secrets and robbing companies of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. The measures come as the White House grants a long list of exemptions to American allies from steel and aluminum tariffs that go into effect on Friday, including the European Union, which has lobbied aggressively and publicly for relief from the trade action."
Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The president's lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the matter, days after the president called for an end to the inquiry. Mr. Dowd, who took over the president's legal team last summer, had considered leaving several times in recent months and ultimately concluded that Mr. Trump was increasingly ignoring his advice, one of the people said. Under Mr. Dowd's leadership, Mr. Trump's lawyers had advised him to cooperate with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.... The president was said to be pleased with Mr. Dowd's resignation, as he had grown frustrated with him.... Despite claiming otherwise on Twitter, the president has expressed displeasure with his legal team for weeks." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, but Trump's got Joe diGenova now, who will set Bob Mueller to cowered in a corner when Joe excoriates him for operating a cabal to frame our Dear Leader. ...
... Paul Waldman: John Dowd's "departure is yet more evidence that the president will continue to approach the Mueller investigation not as a legal problem but as a PR problem. Which may not be quite as stupid as it seems.... One can't help but assume that Trump hired people such as Dowd and [Ty] Cobb, established Washington lawyers, on the recommendation of the more reasonable people around him.... On the other hand, Trump has also filled out his legal team with people like such as Jay Sekulow and his latest hire, Joe diGenova, who were almost certainly Trump's idea, since they have the distinction of appearing often on Fox News.... No matter what he does, the odds that Trump will be criminally indicted are very small.... Trump's personal culpability will be judged by the political system -- in congressional hearings, in the 2020 election and possibly through impeachment. If that's the case, the greatest protection Trump has is not smart lawyers who can keep him out of trouble but a Republican Party that sees its own self-interest in staying unified behind him. So far, the party has...."
Bernard Condon of the AP: "New York City's buildings regulator launched investigations at more than a dozen Kushner Cos. properties Wednesday following an Associated Press report that the real estate developer routinely filed false paperwork claiming it had zero rent-regulated tenants in its buildings across the city. The Department of Buildings is investigating possible 'illegal activity' involving applications that sought permission to begin construction work at 13 of the developer's buildings, according to public records maintained by the regulator. The AP reported Sunday that Kushner Cos. stated in more than 80 permit applications that it had zero rent-regulated tenants in its buildings when it, in fact, had hundreds."
... Nunes Gang Votes to Release "Report." Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to approve a GOP-authored report stating there is no evidence President Trump or his affiliates colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 U.S. election.... While the vote ends the Russia probe for the panel's GOP majority, it only stoked the fury of Democrats, who have denounced their colleagues' findings. The document -- whose public release is probably weeks away -- also criticizes the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia sought to help Trump win the presidency. The panel voted in secret session to adopt the report, which will have to be sent to the intelligence community to have classified information redacted before it can be released."
** Sue Halpern of the New Yorker has a terrific piece on the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, much of which, she points out, has been reported beginning in December 2015. "For more than a year, [Carole] Cadwalladr [of the Guardian] has done yeoman work, reporting on the nihilism of Bannon and the Mercers, the cravenness of Nix, and connecting the dots between them and Trump and Facebook. But those millions of Facebook profiles do not in fact constitute a breach: they were obtained legally. Nobody hacked Facebook -- nor would they have had to -- because the business model of Facebook is predicated on mining the personal details of its two billion users." Mrs. McC: If you happened to catch Mark Zuckerberg tearing up about how he went home every day hoping to be able to tell his daughters he had done good work that day, you'll want to punch the him in the face.
... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: If you don't think the MSM is an essential part of democracy, bear in mind that it was "fake news" reporters who revealed Facebook's perfidy, and -- as far as we know now -- did the reporting that undergirds Bob Mueller's entire investigation (not to mention Kushner Co. shenanigans). ...
... John Hendel of Politico: "The House Energy and Commerce Committee will summon Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, following recent revelations that Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained information on some 50 million Facebook users."
Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Citigroup is setting restrictions on the sale of firearms by its business customers, making it the first Wall Street bank to take a stance in the divisive nationwide gun control debate. The new policy, announced Thursday, prohibits the sale of firearms to customers who have not passed a background check or who are younger than 21. It also bars the sale of bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. It would apply to clients who offer credit cards backed by Citigroup or borrow money, use banking services or raise capital through the company."
Alex Horton & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "Police say they saw an object in Stephon Clark's hand before they fired 20 bullets that killed him in his back yard Sunday night in Sacramento, [California,] a disturbing moment that was made public through body camera footage released Wednesday night. The two officers were responding to a 911 call about a man breaking vehicle windows when they encountered, then killed, Clark, an unarmed black man.... The gun officers thought Clark had in his hand was actually a white iPhone."
*****
Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Congressional leaders have clinched an agreement on a massive $1.3 trillion spending bill that ... Donald Trump, for now, appears grudgingly willing to support. Washington has until Friday to act before the government shuts down. Negotiators finally reached an accord to fund the government through September after abandoning many of the most controversial provisions lawmakers were trying to include in the must-pass bill, which has yet to be formally unveiled.... The bill will, however, fix a snafu in the GOP's tax law -- the so-called 'grain glitch' -- that farm state lawmakers were seeking. It also includes a narrow gun safety measure and a compromise on a New York infrastructure project that had become a lightning-rod issue with the president. But the deal wasn't without its detractors -- including Donald Trump himself. The president was unhappy that GOP leaders didn't win more money for his border wall with Mexico or any new detention beds for undocumented immigrants and new deportation agents...." ...
Susan Collins "Extremely Disappointed" Mitch Punked Her. Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Wednesday it is 'extremely disappointing' that a bill she backed to stabilize ObamaCare markets was left out of a must-pass government funding bill.... Collins voted for the tax reform legislation in December after securing a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to support the ObamaCare fix. Collins had worried about the repeal of ObamaCare's individual mandate in the tax bill, and the resulting premium increases. She wanted the stability measures to try to make up for that. But now the fix is being left out of a funding measure that is likely the last chance for the health legislation to pass this year." Mrs. McC: Collins has to be the only person on the planet who thought the Turtle would keep his promise.
Mark Landler & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday plans to announce at least $50 billion worth of annual tariffs and other penalties on China for its theft of technology and trade secrets, which administration officials say has robbed American companies of billions of dollars in revenue and killed thousands of jobs. The measures would mark Mr. Trump's most aggressive move yet against a fast-rising economic rival that he has accused of preying on the United States. The measures will be targeted at imported Chinese goods in as many as 100 categories -- hitting everything from shoes and clothing to consumer electronics -- and will impose restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States, people briefed on the measures said.... The effect of the China tariffs would be larger and more concentrated than the steel and aluminum measures [Trump imposed a few weeks ago] and would have a bigger impact o United States consumers, who are heavy purchasers of electronics, clothing and other Chinese imports."
The Lone Ranger in the White House, Ctd. Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's senior advisers were thrown when he told Russian PresidentVladimir Putin on Tuesday that he expected to meet with him soon, as briefings before the call to Moscow included no mention of a possible meeting, and aides have not been instructed to prepare for one, senior administration officials said. Although Trump told reporters that 'probably we'll be seeing President Putin in the not-too-distant future,' several officials said there are no plans for the two even to be in the same country until November, when both are expected to attend a Group of 20 summit in Argentina." ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday defended his congratulatory call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on his reelection, saying that getting along with one of the United States' biggest geopolitical rivals is a 'good thing, not a bad thing.' In a series of tweets, Trump criticized his predecessors for failing to establish a better relationship with Russia, asserting that the last president from his party, George W. Bush, lacked the 'smarts' to get along. Much of the criticism of the call placed by Trump on Tuesday -- including from fellow Republicans -- has focused not on the call itself but the fact that Trump chose not to heed talking points from aides. Those notes instructed him not to congratulate Putin on his victory in what is not considered a free election and to condemn the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow. Aides have also said that Trump did not mention Russian interference in the 2016 election in the United States during the congratulatory call.... In his tweets, Trump suggested the criticism of his call was being generated by the 'Fake News Media,' which he called 'crazed.'..." ...
... Yes, But the Kremlin Knows How to Say "Thank You"! Frederik Pleitgen of CNN: Just a day after President Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his re-election victory, the Kremlin suggested that the US was responsible for the poisoning of a former spy in Britain." (Video only.) ...
... Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "John O. Brennan, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said Wednesday that he thought Russia may have some kind of compromising information on President Trump, setting off furious speculation about whether the former spy chief was basing that assertion on inside information.... But later in the day on Wednesday, Mr. Brennan explained that his comments were speculation based on Mr. Trump's words and deeds, as well as how Mr. Putin's government has operated at home and abroad -- but not on any inside knowledge.... Mr. Brennan was running the C.I.A. when a salacious dossier surfaced in 2016 that claimed the Russians had compromising information on Mr. Trump. If there were any current or former American officials who might know if there was truth behind the allegations in the dossier, Mr. Brennan would most likely be one of them.... As C.I.A. director, Mr. Brennan was never known as particularly chatty around the news media or in public." ...
... Kaitlan Collins & Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "... Donald Trump was infuriated after it quickly leaked that he had been directly instructed by his national security advisers in briefing materials not to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on his recent election victory during their call Tuesday morning, a source familiar with the President's thinking said. Trump was fuming Tuesday night, asking his allies and outside advisers who they thought had leaked the information, noting that only a small group of staffers have access to those materials and would have known what guidance was included for the Putin call, the source said. White House chief of staff John Kelly also is furious that a confidential presidential briefing became public knowledge, a White House official said, and intends to address the matter Wednesday as aides try to figure out who disclosed the warning. 'If this story is accurate, that means someone leaked the President's briefing papers. Leaking such information is a fireable offense and likely illegal, another senior White House official told CNN Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "What if the leakers are trying to help rather than embarrass Trump?... Ignoring or disregarding key talking points while on a call with an antagonistic foreign leader like Putin has got to be cause for concern. We forget how bonkers that is because everything about this presidency has been so bonkers and unprecedented. But aides have to be worried Trump might repeat this behavior in more fraught situations -- like, say, a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... The line between trying to save America from Trump and trying to save Trump from himself is a very thin one -- as is the line between leaker and whistleblower. In this case, as in these others, it's worth Trump asking whether he's created an environment in which his advisers feel they have no choice but to leak their cries for help to the media." ...
... Digby in Salon: "As always, the question when it comes to Trump's stubborn unwillingness to speak to or about Putin in anything but obsequious, sycophantic terms is: Why? This bizarre and uncharacteristic behavior remains the most compelling and convincing piece of evidence that Putin must be holding something over his head. Not even the narcissistic Trump would take on this much blatant risk or be willing to look this bad simply because a man once flattered him." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Margaret Hartmann comes up with eight reasons Trump may have ignored his advisors' warnings about what-all to say to Putin. Mrs. McC: But she doesn't include my theory that he may kowtow to Putin to shore up his Putin-lovin' base, elaborated yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
The president is, as you know -- you've seen his numbers among the Republican base -- it's very strong. It’s more than strong, it's tribal in nature. People who tell me, who are out on trail, say, look, people don't ask about issues anymore. They don't care about issues. They want to know if you're with Trump or not. -- Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn) on why Congressional Republicans don't protect the Mueller investigation
... ** Eric Levitz: "Donald Trump has never been more dangerous than he is now. 1) The 'adults' in the West Wing have never had less influence over the president.... 2) Trump's path to a war with North Korea has never been easier to envision.... 3) Trump has never had a stronger incentive to undermine rule of law in the United States.... 4) It's never been clearer that Congressional Republicans are unwilling to act as a check on Trump's worst impulses." Read the details, where Levitz makes his case. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Super TrumperScam. Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The Republican National Committee spent more than $424,000 at properties owned by ... Donald Trump and his family during the first two months of 2018, according to new campaign finance data released Tuesday evening. The amount is more than 100 times what the RNC spent at Trump's properties during the same two-month period in 2017.... During the past year, the president's properties have become go-to venues for RNC fundraising events.... Trump's hotels and resorts comprised 80 percent of the RNC's total event expenses in January. The following month, this figure jumped to 86 percent.... Before the 2016 election, the GOP spent barely any money at Trump-owned hotels and golf clubs."
Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has so far discussed with ... Donald Trump's lawyers four main topics they want to talk about with the President. According to two sources, the areas that the special counsel investigators have indicated they want to pursue with Trump are the President's role in crafting a statement aboard Air Force One that miscast Donald Trump Jr.'s campaign June 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, the circumstances surrounding that Trump Tower meeting as well as the firings of FBI Director James Comey and national security adviser Michael Flynn." ...
... David Kirkpatrick & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "A cooperating witness in the special counsel investigation worked for more than a year to turn a top Trump fund-raiser into an instrument of influence at the White House for the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to interviews and previously undisclosed documents. Hundreds of pages of correspondence between the two men reveal an active effort to cultivate President Trump on behalf of the two oil-rich Arab monarchies, both close American allies. High on the agenda of the two men -- George Nader, a political adviser to the de facto ruler of the U.A.E., and Elliott Broidy, the deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee -- was pushing the White House to remove Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, backing confrontational approaches to Iran and Qatar and repeatedly pressing the president to meet privately outside the White House with the leader of U.A.E. Mr. Tillerson was fired last week, and the president has adopted tough approaches toward both Iran and Qatar.... The documents contain evidence not previously reported that Mr. Nader also held himself out as intermediary for Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who met with Mr. Trump on Tuesday in the Oval Office...." ...
... Speaking of MBS, he is very tight with freelancing international man of mystery Jared Kushner. Ryan Grim, et al., of the Intercept: "In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. 'The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,' the Washington Post's David Ignatius reported at the time.... What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince.... One of the people MBS told about the discussion with Kushner was UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.... MBS bragged to the Emirati crown prince and others that Kushner was 'in his pocket,' [a] source told The Intercept."
Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "As questions have mounted about data firm Cambridge Analytica's alleged misuse of Facebook data from up to 50 million user profiles, it has not only caught the eye of Congressional investigators but also the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.... Robert Mueller's team for the last several weeks has had a growing interest to better understand the relationship between the campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Cambridge Analytica, sources tell ABC News.... Sources tell ABC News several digital experts who worked in support of Trump's bid in 2016 have met with Mueller's team for closed-door interviews. The staffers, most of whom were employed by the RNC, served as key members of the 2016 operation working closely with the campaign and the data firm, the sources said. The company worked closely with the Republican candidate's political team.... Jared Kushner ... and [Brad] Parscale [whom Trump has named his 2020 campaign chair] are among those who credited the use of targeted Facebook advertising -- a strategy developed by Cambridge Analytica." ...
I ran the Obama 2008 data-driven microtargeting team. How dare you! We didn't steal private Facebook profile data from voters under false pretenses. OFA voluntarily solicited opinions of hundreds of thousands of voters. We didn't commit theft to do our groundbreaking work. https://t.co/CyVIFDB2Tz -- Michael Simon ...
... No, Obama Didn't Do It, Too. Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Following reports that Cambridge Analytica harvested the data of millions of people on Facebook, the company signaled to right-wing media what their response should be. They took to Twitter with a lie that mirrors much of what we've heard from Trump over the last couple of years:... 'Obama's 2008 campaign was famously data-driven, pioneeredmicrotargeting in 2012, talking to people specifically based on the issues they care about.' That is a fairly accurate description of data-driven microtargeting, which doesn't have a lot to do with the kind of psychological profiling done by Cambridge Analytica.... The Obama campaign used Facebook as a community organizing tool, which is pretty much the opposite of stealing data in order to engage in psychological warfare. But the nuance of that will be lost on the consumers of right-wing media, which is the story of how we got here in the first place." LeTourneau goes into detail on the radical difference between Obama's legitimate & Trump's illegitimate use of Facebook data.
Judd Legum of ThinkProgress: "[F]ormer Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, whose story has attracted significantly less attention [than Stormy Daniels], may end up being a bigger problem for Trump.... [T]he nature of the agreements signed by Daniels and McDougal are quite different. From a legal perspective, the structure of McDougal's contract appears to be worse for Trump and his associates.... McDougal ... was paid by a corporation. She was paid $150,000 in August 2016 by American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer. Direct corporate donations to a campaign are illegal whether they are reported or not...McDougal's contract ... was purportedly to give her a platform to speak." --safari
Athena Jones & Sonia Moghe of CNN: "... Donald Trump's attorney plans to appeal a New York Supreme Court judge's decision to allow a defamation lawsuit against the President to go forward. The suit was filed by former 'Apprentice' contestant Summer Zervos in January 2017 and alleges Trump defamed her after she accused him in an October 2016 news conference of sexually assaulting her in 2007. 'We disagree with this decision, which is wrong as a matter of constitutional law,' said Marc Kasowitz, who is representing Trump in the case. 'We intend to immediately appeal and will seek a stay of the case until this issue is finally determined.'"
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump boasted during the campaign that he has the 'best words.' If the past 14 months in the White House are an indication, he and his team also have the worst spelling. Among the many casualties of Washington's protocols in the Trump era has been a lack of rigor to the accuracy of the printed word -- whether it's the president's typo-filled tweets or the White House&'s error-prone news releases. 'Special Council is told to find crimes, wether crimes exist or not,' Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning to start off a posting in which he misspelled 'counsel' three times and had five errors in the span of 280 characters. As journalists and others poked fun at the mistakes, the president quickly deleted the tweet and posted an edited version. He successfully changed 'wether' to 'whether' and eliminated an inadvertent repeat of the word 'the' -- but he failed to correct the three inaccurate references to the title of his nemesis, Robert S. Mueller III." ...
Nomi Prins of TomDispatch.com, relives all the scandals of Jared Kushner, in the form of his political obituary. --safari
** Mike Levine of ABC News: "Nearly a year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired senior FBI official Andrew McCabe for what Sessions called a 'lack of candor,' McCabe oversaw a federal criminal investigation into whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. One source told ABC News that Sessions was not aware of the investigation when he decided to fire McCabe last Friday less than 48 hours before McCabe, a former FBI deputy director, was due to retire from government and obtain a full pension, but an attorney representing Sessions declined to confirm that." ...
... Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "Even before ABC's report, there were serious questions about whether Sessions should have avoided involvement in the decision to fire McCabe. The former FBI official played significant roles in both the Russia probe and investigations into Hillary Clinton -- matters that Sessions had promised to recuse himself from. Moreover..., Donald Trump had spent months publicly pressuring Sessions to remove McCabe."
Oh, JeffBo Knew. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Sessions's lawyer, Chuck Cooper, said no investigation is being conducted now. 'The special counsel's office has informed me that after interviewing the attorney general and conducting additional investigation, the attorney general is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress,' Mr. Cooper said in a statement.... Perjury investigations based on congressional referrals are common, and the F.B.I. frequently investigates but seldom charges.... The investigation also adds a new layer to Mr. McCabe's firing. Mr. McCabe's lawyers have said that he did not lie and acted quickly to fix any inaccuracies or misunderstandings. Mr. Sessions has offered a similar defense, saying he never intended to mislead Congress."
Nicholas Fandos & Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee pressured Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, on Wednesday to speed up key election security measures, even as she trumpeted the adoption of important improvements ahead of November's midterm elections. Ms. Nielsen told the senators, who are investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, that the department made significant strides in recent months working with state and local election officials to improve communication about threats and share cybersecurity resources. Those efforts include comprehensive risk assessments and cyberscans meant to identify vulnerabilities in election systems.... 'When I listen to your testimony, I hear no sense of urgency to really get on top of this issue,' said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. Wednesday's session was the secretive committee's first public hearing designed to scrutinize findings from its year-old investigation into Russia's interference campaign."
** Inconvenient Truths. Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "A Trump administration policy that could cheat food service workers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in income was knowingly misrepresented by White House leaders over the objections of career staffers.... Staff in the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) ... wanted the rule to include an official estimate of how much worker pay could end up diverted to managers under the proposal: $640 million, a much lower figure than the 'billions' ... reportedly found in their earliest calculations.... Mick Mulvaney ... simply erased the problem and moved forward as though it didn't exist." --safari
Ben Lefevbre of Politico: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his wife took security detail on their vacation to Greece and Turkey last year, official documents show, in what one watchdog group said could be a 'questionable' use of taxpayer resources. Unlike Pruitt, Zinke was not conducting government business during his two-week vacation, which included stops in Istanbul and the Greek Isles. The documents do not reveal exactly how many security personnel accompanied the couple, who paid for them, how much they cost or whether they traveled with Zinke and his wife, Lola, for the entire trip.... Lola Zinke shared photos of their vacation on her Twitter page and wrote that the couple was celebrating 25 years of marriage. At the time of the trip, Interior would say only that Zinke was out of the country and provided no indication of when he left or would return." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: These people really don't give a flying fuck. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets, I guess, including taxpayer-funded vacations.
Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lifted its key interest rate from 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent, the highest level since 2008. The move, the central bank's first major decision under new Chairman Jerome H. Powell, was widely expected as the U.S. economy continues to strengthen and stock markets remain near record highs. The Fed also significantly boosted its forecast for U.S. growth this year and next. The U.S. economy is on track to expand 2.7 percent this year and 2.4 percent in 2019, Fed officials now say, a jump from their previous projection done before the Republican tax cuts were finalized."
Julia Arciga of The Daily Beast: "The Federal Election Commission on Wednesday sent a letter to [Devin] Nunes' campaign committee, raising red flags about some particular contributions received in 2017. The letter, sent to Nunes' campaign treasurer and mother Toni Dian Nunes, requested 'information essential to full public disclosure' about three potentially illegal contributions." --safari
Senate Race
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "White House officials this week told Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant that ... Donald Trump did not plan to campaign for or endorse Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith if she was appointed to the state's open Senate seat, saying they were worried that the former Democrat would lose. Bryant responded that he intended to go ahead and pick Hyde-Smith for the post, anyway. He's expected to formally announce the selection of the state agriculture commissioner on Wednesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Sean Sullivan & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant appointed state Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday -- a decision that has already drawn concerns from fellow Republicans, including some inside the White House.... Hyde-Smith will succeed Republican Thad Cochran, 80, who has battled health problems and will step down from his Senate seat April 1.... There are concerns that Hyde-Smith will not be able to defeat Chris McDaniel, a hard-right state senator who also is running in the Nov. 6 special election.... There will be no party primaries ahead of the Nov. 6 election. If no one wins a majority, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff. Some worry that if it comes down to McDaniel and a Democrat, his hard-right views could swing centrist Republican voters toward the Democrat." Mrs. McC: And wouldn't that be a shame?
Congressional Races
Eric Bradner of CNN: "Democrat Conor Lamb announced Wednesday that his Republican opponent, Rick Saccone, has conceded in the close special election last week for Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District. 'Just got off the phone with my opponent, @RickSaccone4PA, who congratulated me & graciously conceded last Tuesday's election'" Lamb tweeted Wednesday. 'I congratulate Mr. Saccone for a close, hard-fought race & wish him the best. Ready to be sworn in & get to work for the people of #PA18.' Former Saccone campaign spokesman Patrick McCann said ... 'The tweet is accurate.'... Lamb and Saccone will be on the ballot again this year, but not against each other. Lamb is running for re-election against Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus in the suburbs west of Pittsburgh in what'll become the 17th District, while Saccone is running for rural southwestern Pennsylvania's new 14th District."
Meet the GOP. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The former head of the American Nazi Party ran for the Republican nomination of Congress in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. No Republican stepped up to oppose him. On Tuesday, despite his vocal Holocaust denial, his anti-Semitic rhetoric, and his white supremacist views, 20,339 Illinois Republicans, according to preliminary totals, cast their ballots for Arthur Jones." --safari
Good News for Illinois Democrats. Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Democratic primary turnout [Tuesday] was up across the state -- overall, it was triple what it was in 2014, according to the Democratic Governors Association. And turnout was 30 percent higher on Tuesday than in 2010, a more comparable primary election since there was a competitive Democratic primary that year. In an ominous sign, Republicans saw an estimated drop of 30 percent in turnout over 2014, a highly competitive primary in which Rauner edged out three other top contenders."
Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian: "The data analytics firm that worked on the Donald Trump election campaign was offered material from Israeli hackers who had accessed the private emails of two politicians who are now heads of state, witnesses have told the Guardian. Multiple sources have described how senior directors of Cambridge Analytica -- including its chief executive, Alexander Nix -- gave staff instructions to handle material provided by computer hackers in election campaigns i Nigeria and St Kitts and Nevis.... Sources said Nix, who was suspended on Tuesday, and other senior directors told staff to search for incriminating material that could be used to damage opposition candidates." --safari
Sheera Frenkel & Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "Confronted with a ballooning crisis over his company's commitment to being a steward of people's personal information, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said on Wednesday that the social network had made mistakes and that it was taking action to prevent users' data from being improperly harvested. While Mr. Zuckerberg stopped short of a full-throated apology and was at times defensive, his Facebook post said that the Silicon Valley company must step up and do more to protect the information of its users." ...
... Frenkel & Roose interview Zuckerberg. ...
... MEANWHILE. Facebook Plans Zucktown. David Streitfeld of the New York Times: "John Tenanes, Facebook's vice president for real estate, is showing off the company’s plans for expansion. It will have offices for thousands of programmers to extend Facebook’s fearsome reach.... Now the social network is building a real community.... Willow Village will be wedged between the Menlo Park neighborhood of Belle Haven and the city of East Palo Alto, both heavily Hispanic communities that are among Silicon Valley's poorest. Facebook is planning 1,500 apartments, and has agreed with Menlo Park to offer 225 of them at below-market rates. The most likely tenants of the full-price units are Facebook employees, who already receive a five-figure bonus if they live near the office."
Emma Baccelleri of Dead Spin: "A group of former NFL players who have made medical claims through their class-action lawsuit on concussions say that the league has rigged the settlement program and is not paying up as promised, according to their latest court filing. The bulk of the ex-players' claims -- 1,113 of 1,712 -- made in the first year of the settlement agreement cited dementia. Of those, just six have been paid out. The league's original forecasts predicted that 430 such claims would have been paid out by this time." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Elham Khatami of ThinkProgress: "Idaho Gov. C.L. 'Butch' Otter (R) on Tuesday signed into law a bill that requires the state to provide information about reversing a medication-induced abortion to patients who have already taken the abortion pill, despite glaring evidence that the 'abortion-reversal' procedure is unscientific and based on shoddy research." --safari
Matt Dixon of Politico: In Florida, "The Scott administration quickly worked to distance itself from the collapse of a Florida International University pedestrian bridge that left six dead, but documents from the state's transportation department and the university paint a different picture. From the selection of the politically powerful firm that led the project to the days leading up to the collapse, the Florida Department of Transportation, overseen by Gov. Rick Scott, had direct involvement in a project whose collapse has rocked South Florida and sparked a federal investigation.... FDOT has oversight responsibility." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Oregon Closes the "Boyfriend Loophole." Melanie Sevcenko of the Guardian: "While Washington[, D.C.,] stalls over gun reform even as thousands prepare for the March for Our Lives rally for gun control, Oregon just passed [its] first gun control law since the attack in Parkland, Florida. The new measure makes it more difficult for people with domestic violence convictions to purchase or even possess a firearm.... Since 1996, federal law has largely prohibited people with domestic abuse misdemeanors from accessing guns. But what Oregon did was close a gap in the federal statute, by expanding the definition of domestic partner to 'intimate partner'. Under the new state law, someone who is convicted of a domestic abuse misdemeanor -- who only dated their victim, never lived with them, and never had children together -- cannot buy or own a gun." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Dan Collyns of the Guardian: "Peru’s president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has offered his resignation after secret video recordings entangled him in a new corruption scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote, plunging one of Latin America's steadiest economies into a political crisis.... Just 19 months into his five-year mandate Kuczynski is the first sitting president in Latin America to be forced out due to links to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has been at the centre of continent's biggest corruption scandal." --safari
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Reader Comments (12)
I'm giving the link to the Andrew Bacevich's letter to A.G. Sulzberger (NYT) that Ken posted in yesterday's comments. I think its messages as crucial for our attention than all the other daily onslaughts.
THE NORMALIZATION OF WAR
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/on-seeing-americas-wars-whole/
What's up with Susan Collins? She's not stupid. She can't possibly be naive, being a Republican in the Age of Trump. And she knows how things work in Washington, especially in the Senate. She's been there since '96. Almost a geologic era in politics. There's no way she could have believed Mitch McConnell. He lies with every breath, both in and out. Some people only lie on the out, he does both. Can't miss half the chances to screw people, now can we?
So I'm guessing her ACA ploy was just that. A ploy. If it worked, great. If it didn't, well, we just saw what she'd do. My assumption is that, when the rest of her team were throwing the poor and the middle class overboard and dumping in chum to attract the sharks, she decided she'd rather not look like the rest of the Simon Legrees. Maybe her hope for health care was genuine. At this point, it doesn't matter. But please, don't insult our intelligence or make yourself look jejune.
Trust McConnell? I'd rather trust Putin.
My take on Sen. Susan Collins? For years she was the less popular girl, the last one asked to the dance...because now retired Sen. Olympia Snowe was the one everyone liked best.
Ever since Collins has been trying to prove she's just as good or better. Note uptick in teevee appearances and availability for interviews. Does she really believe in anything? First she's for something (that seems opposite her party's line) then she waffles....and in the end votes against it (because Promises!!). Time after time. No wonder McConnell played her.
Knowledge isn't power if you can't get to it.
The Facebook fracas illustrates an important, often overlooked, or under appreciated aspect of social media, the power of those who hold the keys to all that data. Or in this case, the power they handed over to unscrupulous scumbags intent on helping to shove an astonishingly unqualified bigot into the White House.
Whether or not the purloined data sets helped Cambridge Analytica help Trump in a big way, the question remains as to what a more accomplished, more sophisticated, less inept group could do with all that information. And leave us not forget that Facebook itself is making money by selling eyeballs to the highest bidder. Now, on one hand, it must be mentioned that if you digitize your life and load it up into the Facebook maw, you should understand that someone is paying for that service. If it ain't you (at least directly), it's someone else. Mark Zuckerberg ain't doin' it out of the goodness of his heart. And what if it was Zuckerberg and his pals who decided to play footsie with your information in a way much different than simply selling ads?
Here's another example. The largest search engine in the world is Google. Know what the second largest search engine is? YouTube. I didn't know that either. But I do know who owns YouTube. Google.
You may recall that after Herr Drumpf was "elected" (*cough-cough*), a video popped up of Nazis doing a Heil Trump salute. Remember that beauty? Yeah, well, someone at YouTube decided that enough was enough and they took it down.
It's back up now, but only after a stink was made. The idea, so they say, is that someone interpreted this thing as hate speech. But there's a distinction between videos made by Nazis and videos demonstrating the danger these people pose to our society, and the kind of politician they love and who loves them back.
Maybe it was an honest mistake. They did, after all, return it. But they also disabled certain standard features, like being able to comment on the video. Not being able to read the comments, good and bad, disallows a public review of the various political positions out there. Not being able to read the abominable hatred directed at those who aren't for Trump means that this bit of data is lost to someone trying to provide due diligence before voting for this asshole again (or for the first time).
My point here is that the enormous power to control the flow and spread of information and the collection and dissemination of data for many different purposes, has already changed the way people think about things. What if, in the future, the people in charge of Google woke up and said, "You know what? We really like that Trump is helping us out. We're gonna make it tougher for people to find out all the bad shit this guy has been up to."
I'm not saying it will happen, just that it could. And who could stop it? Algorithms could be designed to seriously hamper a standard search, meaning you'd have to have your internet kung-fu chops up to snuff if you wanted your inquiry to be fruitful. China has always done this sort of thing, and you know how much Trump loves him those authoritarian ideas.
Plus, as the politicization of data becomes a more palpable reality, it takes on real value. Who will pay for control, then, becomes an issue of who controls information and access to knowledge.
Is this all just liberal crazy talk? Soitanly not. Want an example?
When Reagan disemboweled the Communications Act, and later changes made it possible for single entities to control vast swaths of the communications landscape, the ground was laid for groups like Sinclair Broadcasting, the single biggest owner of television licenses in the country. And Sinclair is now ordering all its local news directors to run hard core right-wing packages designed to push the Confederate agenda and damage anyone who says different. This is real power. Anchors at these stations are being ordered by their owner to push their viewers to the hard right, to disseminate fake news on a scale that may soon make Fox look insignificant by comparison.
And Trump's FCC mook, Ajit Pai, is fixing to do the same to the internet, selling access to the highest bidder.
We're all frogs in the pot. And the water's boiling.
Interesting comparison of results from Google vs duckduckgo:
"Communications Act, Reagan"
@Akhilleus: I think Google already is doing something similar to helping out Trump. Since I don't frequent the actual fake news sites, I can't be sure.
One morning late last year, a friend came over to help me with packing a POD with furniture & stuff. By the time he showed up, I had already perused the morning news for hours, so I was up-to-date on at least the big stories. "Say," he said, "did you hear Queen Elizabeth died?"
Well, no, I hadn't. "That's impossible," I said. "It would be all over the news."
"Look," says he. "It is." He Googled "Queen Elizabeth" on his phone, & the top six stories that showed up "reported" she was dead. Then I looked at what outlets were "reporting" the story, & of course they were not any sites I had ever heard of. I don't know if this guy regularly reads conspiracy sites (but I'm going to guess he does), but I do see how it's possible for the wing-nuts to believe bull. They hear something, they check the "news," & there it is, right there at the top of Google's page 1. Must be true.
When I Google "President Trump," the top stories that come up are ones in the NYT, the WashPo & CNN. I don't think that's what happens when a Trumpbot Googles "President Trump." It isn't just Facebook that knows who I am. The Googles know where I've been, too.
This is what makes duckduckgo.com an interesting alternative; it doesn't track your keystrokes.
And no ads.
@Whyte Owen: Just tried "President Trump" using duckduckgo.com, & got three ABC News stories about Trump. I think I'll give it a few more tries in the future. Thank you.
Perhaps someone might volunteer to surf Fox and other wingnut sites for a few of days and then determine whether the hit list changes. Maybe do it on a fixed ip laptop with fake account id.
Probably already been done, I'll look around.
While wingers and the Glorious Leader look the other way as more and more Americans are killed or injured by guns, some factual information might be useful (I know, facts are Fake News in Right Wing World, but nevertheless...).
First, a list of states with the toughest gun laws:
California
New Jersey
New York
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Hawaii
Okay, now a list of states with the least restrictive gun laws:
Louisiana
Arizona
Kentucky
Wyoming
Missouri
Alaska
Now a list of states with the highest incidence of gun violence:
Alaska
Alabama
Lousiana
Mississippi
Missouri
And now the states with the least gun violence:
Massachusetts
New York
Rhode Island
Hawaii
Connecticut
New Jersey
California
Any questions?
Thanks, Akhilleus.
Your last post arrived just in time. Gave me a better conclusion to this letter to the editor. Had been playing with gun death statistics by country. The numbers by state worked better.
Other than that you are not in any way responsible for what follows.
Dear Editor,
My sons have told me fathers are not always right, and they have a point.
I picture my own father at the dinner table railing against a government he thought too intrusive.
A man who placed a high value on his own sense of what was right, my father resented anyone telling him what to do. I can still hear him saying “You can’t legislate morality,” as if the proposition were as obvious and inarguable as gravity.
A recent letter that suggested laws can do little to treat America’s addiction to guns reminded me just how wrong my father was. Contrary to his belief about the power of law to affect behavior, laws do affect and even transform the way we act.
Anyone who lived through the Civil Rights Era knows this. Before the 1960’s, racial segregation in schools and businesses was often the norm. Now it is not. The same is true of gender discrimination. Once common, such discrimination is no longer acceptable, and the lives of millions of women have changed for the better.
We hardly notice the laws that encode norms we’re all comfortable with. Don’t murder. Don’t steal. Don’t speed. It is when there’s disagreement about how we should act that laws establishing acceptable behavior meet opposition.
Racial resentment did not end with the Civil Right Act, Prohibition did not eliminate alcohol abuse, and many still crave their addictions to drugs and guns, but opposition to laws that discourage socially destructive behavior does not mean those laws don’t nudge social norms in new and better directions.
Evidence does not support the writer’s assertion the Brady Bill had no effect on gun purchases (bradycampaign.org), and states that discourage gun access have fewer gun deaths per thousand (cbsnews.com). Period.
Turns out, father doesn’t always know best.
Ken,
Glad to be of assistance. Good letter, by the way, nicely done.