;)
The Commentariat -- March 29, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We were all joking here yesterday when we suggested a Go Fund Me-type campaign to pay for Trump's useless border WALL. Well, President* Dimwit's friends didn't get the joke:
... AP: "Some people close to the president have also suggested creating a GoFundMe campaign that Trump could use to raise money from the public to fund construction [of the Wall]. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the idea, and it's unclear whether it has gained any serious traction."
Jenna McLaughlin of CNN: There are long-established procedures for shepherding proposed presidential pardons through the Justice Department, but a series of intradepartmental e-mails reveals that "if Trump decided one day to tweet out a presidential pardon, the Department of Justice would probably 'have very little if any involvement.'..." Mrs. McC: This is DOJ officials throwing up their own hands & leaving all the pardoning stuff to Twitterfingers.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The White House and Michael Cohen have spent weeks declining to answer a basic question: Was President Trump involved in the $130,000 hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels? Well, we& finally have a denial. But while it might insulate Trump from the scandal, experts say it could also undermine the nondisclosure agreement that Daniels signed preventing her from disclosing the alleged affair.... On CNN Wednesday night, [David] Schwartz [-- Cohen's attorney --] seemed to categorically deny that Trump was involved -- or at least that he had knowledge of the payment on the front end.... Schwartz extended the denial further Thursday morning on NBC News, adding that Trump '100 percent' did not reimburse Cohen."
Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti takes his cues from his client's adversary:
** The FBI Has Been onto Trump-Russia Since at Least 2010. Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "In 2010, a small group of businessmen including a wealthy Russian supporter of Vladimir Putin began working on plans to build a glitzy hotel and entertainment complex with Donald Trump in Riga, the capital of Latvia. A senior Trump executive visited the city to scout for locations. Trump and his daughter Ivanka spent hours at Trump Tower with the Russian, Igor Krutoy.... Then the Latvian government's anti-corruption bureau began asking questions.... Talks with Trump's company were abandoned after Krutoy and another of the businessmen were questioned by Latvian authorities as part of a major criminal inquiry there -- and that the FBI later looked into Trump's interactions with them at Latvia's request.... This means the FBI looked into Trump's efforts to do business deals in the former Soviet Union earlier than was widely known.... Krutoy, a well-known composer in Russia, has written music for Emin Agalarov, the Russian singer whose father hosted Trump's 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow. Krutoy attended the contest, where he was photographed with Trump.... He was born in Ukraine and is also a close friend of Rinat Akhmetov -- a Ukrainian steel tycoon who in 2005 hired Paul Manafort ... as a adviser." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Dozens of uncanny coincidences or COLLUSION? You pick.
Adam Raymond of New York: David "Shulkin's ouster [as VA Secretary] ... appeared inevitable a few weeks back when an inspector general's report dinged him for blowing taxpayer money on a European vacation with his wife. Shulkin told NPR Thursday that the incident, which also includes an allegation of doctored emails and a lie about a nonexistent award, was 'completely mischaracterized.' He said he wanted to respond to the IG's report, but the White House muzzled him...."
Dan Merica of CNN: "Six House Democrats are calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate whether ... Jared Kushner leaked classified information to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, according to a letter obtained by CNN. The call comes after The Intercept, citing three sources, reported that the Saudi prince -- known casually by his initials, MBS -- told confidantes after their meeting last year that Kushner had discussed Saudi leaders who are disloyal to the crown prince."
*****
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "After weeks of uncertainty atop the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Trump said on Wednesday he plans to replace its secretary, David J. Shulkin, with Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, the White House physician and a rear admiral in the Navy. The announcement punctuated what has been a sharp fall from favor for Dr. Shulkin, a politically moderate former hospital executive, who delivered Mr. Trump a string of bipartisan legislative victories at a time when he was struggling to find them. And it adds to a significant shake-up of Mr. Trump's senior staff, which has already included the secretary of state, director of the C.I.A. and the president’s national security adviser. Mr. Trump called Dr. Jackson 'highly respected' and thanked Dr. Shulkin for 'service to our country and to our great veterans.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Jackson's main qualification is that he can look at a fair-to-poor battery of test results & tell you you're in fabulous health. Running a huge federal agency? Not so much. ...
... Begins about 1:05 min. in:
... Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "President Trump is removing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin from his post after a rocky couple of months that started with a scathing report accusing him of misusing taxpayer dollars.... 'I am pleased to announce that I intend to nominate highly respected Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD, as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs....'... '....In the interim, Hon. Robert Wilkie of DOD will serve as Acting Secretary. I am thankful for Dr. David Shulkin’s service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS!' [Trump tweeted]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... MEANWHILE, David Shulkin was ready with a response, which magically got posted right after Trump's You're Fired tweet on the New York Times' op-ed page. After touting the VA's successes under his administration, Shulkin writes, "It seems that these successes within the department have intensified the ambitions of people who want to put V.A. health care in the hands of the private sector.... The advocates within the administration for privatizing V.A. health services ... saw me as an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed. That is because I am convinced that privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans.... Unfortunately, the department has become entangled in a brutal power struggle, with some political appointees choosing to promote their agendas instead of what's best for veterans."
... Anyhow, bad news for Fox "News" host Pete Hegseth.
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation.... [Robert] Mueller' team could investigate the prospect that Mr. Dowd made pardon offers to thwart the inquiry, although legal experts are divided about whether such offers might constitute obstruction of justice.... It is unclear whether Mr. Dowd, who resigned last week as the head of the president's legal team, discussed the pardons with Mr. Trump before bringing them up with the other lawyers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps you were thinking, as I was, that Dowd quit his day job either because he could not take another minute of Trump and/or because he was flabbergasted Trump had hired more nutty teevee lawyers. Well, it looks more as if Dowd quit -- or got pushed out -- because he himself could be indicted on obstruction-of-justice charges. The Trump White House is where a person goes to ruin his reputation, career and/or life, & that's even if s/he's a successful lawyer or a flag officer or a young woman who runs errands for Ivanka.
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post wonders how these little chats came about: "Here are a few options: 1. Trump knew of the pardon discussions and was trying to prevent Flynn's and Manafort's cooperation. This is perhaps the most troubling scenario for Trump, in terms of appearance, but it's also the most logical one. After all, would Dowd really float pardons for Flynn and Manafort if he didn't think Trump would follow through?... 2. Trump knew about the discussions, but truly just thinks Manafort and Flynn are innocent and/or good people.... 3. Dowd was freelancing[.]" ...
... Sean Illing of Vox: "I reached out to 10 legal experts and asked ... what it would mean for the investigation if Trump pardoned key players in the scandal like Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, or Jared Kushner before any of them could be convicted.... Nearly all the experts I spoke to agree on one thing: If Trump does use his pardoning powers to thwart the Russia investigation, it's very likely to backfire.... If someone has been pardoned, they no longer face the threat of prosecution, and so they can't use [the Fifth Amendment] as an excuse not to answer a question.... [The attorneys'] full responses, edited for clarity and style, are below." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Would you do anything based on a promise -- delivered second-hand, no less -- that if you did it, Trump at some time in the future would help you out? I didn't think so. The only reason Manafort hasn't flipped, IMO, is that Mueller has such a wide-ranging, air-tight case against him that a full pardon is his only hope of avoiding serious jail time.
Aaron Blake: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation just drew what appears to be its most direct line to date between President Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. That line is drawn in a new court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan. Van der Zwaan has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with deputy Trump campaign manager Rick Gates and a person identified in the document only as 'Person A.' Person A appears to be a former Ukraine-based aide to Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort named Konstantin Kilimnik.... [From the filing:] '... Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016.... Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel's Office assess that Person A has ties to Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.... Van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU....'"
Karen Freifeld of Reuters: "A little-known former prosecutor with a doctorate in medieval history will play a central role on ... Donald Trump's legal team, as many top-tier lawyers shy away from representing him in a probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Andrew Ekonomou, 69, is one of a handful of lawyers assisting Jay Sekulow, the main attorney representing Trump in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Sekulow told Reuters on Tuesday that after the departure of Washington attorney John Dowd from Trump's personal legal team last week, Ekonomou will assume a more prominent role. Ekonomou said he has been working with Sekulow on the Mueller probe since June." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This will go very well for Trump when Mueller brings up all those questions about Byzantine Greek popes, because that Ekonomou's area of expertise.
... AND Karen Pence spends afternoons in the attic at Number One Observatory Circle hooking a large oval rug to be rimmed with the text of the Ten Commandments. ...
... MEANWHILE, Before Karen Gets to the First "Thou Shalt"... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "When ... Donald Trump lashed out against Robert Mueller by name earlier this month, the president's supporters sprang into action -- treating the chief Russia investigator to political campaign-style opposition research. Within hours, the Drudge Report featured a story blaming Mueller, the special counsel leading the Justice Department's Russia probe, for the FBI's clumsy investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks when Mueller ran the bureau. The independent pro-Trump journalist Sara Carter posted a story charging that Mueller, as a federal prosecutor in Boston in the mid-1980s, had covered up the FBI's dealings with the Mafia informant Whitey Bulger. Carter was soon discussing her findings in prime time with Fox News host Sean Hannity.... 'It looks like the beginnings of a campaign,' a source familiar with Trump's legal strategy said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nicholas Fandos & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's inspector general, facing increasing political pressure from Republicans in Congress and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said on Wednesday that his office would investigate the surveillance of a former Trump campaign official. The announcement came amid a stream of attacks in recent months from the White House and Republican lawmakers seeking to undermine the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election. The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, said he would examine whether law enforcement officials complied with the law and departmental policies in seeking permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap the former campaign adviser, Carter Page. Law enforcement officials had long had concerns that Mr. Page, a former investment banker based in Moscow, was acting as a Russian agent." But Congressional Republicans aren't satisfied; they say Horowitz's investigation is no substitute for a special counsel.
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "A lawsuit accusing President Trump of violating the Constitution by refusing to divorce himself from his businesses cleared a critical hurdle Wednesday when a federal judge in Maryland refused the Justice Department's plea to dismiss it. In a 47-page opinion, Judge Peter J. Messitte rejected the federal government's claims that the plaintiffs had not shown that they had suffered injuries that a court could address. The suit, filed by Washington, D.C., and the State of Maryland, accuses Mr. Trump of violating constitutional anticorruption clauses intended to limit his receipt of government-bestowed benefits, or emoluments."
Aubree Weaver of Politico: "After more than a year in limbo, the Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act was signed into law by ... Donald Trump on Tuesday. The law bars the use of federal funds to pay for federal officers and employees' official oil portraits.... The legislation specifically targets those heading up executive agencies and legislative offices, as well as the president, vice president and members of Congress. The official portraits of the president and first lady, along with key lawmakers, are typically commissioned with private funding -- but the House has, in the past, allowed federal funds to be used for portraits of House speakers." Mrs. McC: BUT the feds are sure to pay for Trump's mug shot. He's such a winner. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... The Fake Wall of Trump, Ctd. Salvador Hernandez of BuzzFeed: "President Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he had been briefed about 'the start of our Southern Border WALL' and included pictures depicting construction for the project.... The images tweeted by the president were not of his long-promised wall, but a months-long project to replace existing portions of a wall along Calexico, California.... The project, which started in 2009, will replace a 2.25-mile section in the California-Mexico border wall, according to a statement last month from US Customs and Border Protection. The original wall in that section, built in the 1990s, had been built from recycled metal scraps and old landing mat materials, the agency said." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump didn't just pull this photo array off a Fox "News" screenshot. No, he tweeted these photos of a nearly-decade-old project after a briefing, or so he claims. Are his handlers trying to mitigate a Trumpertantrum by distracting him with pretty pictures, or is he making up this stuff on his own? Either way, thanks, Roseanne & all you other Trumpbots!
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "... the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who've discussed it with him. 'He's obsessed with Amazon,' a source said. 'Obsessed.'... Trump's wealthy friends tell him Amazon is destroying their businesses. His real estate buddies tell him -- and he agrees -- that Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers. Trump tells people Amazon has gotten a free ride from taxpayers and cushy treatment from the U.S. Postal Service. 'The whole post office thing, that's very much a perception he has,' another source said. 'It's been explained to him in multiple meetings that his perception is inaccurate and that the post office actually makes a ton of money from Amazon.'... Trump also pays close attention to the Amazon founder's ownership of The Washington Post, which the president views as [Jeff] Bezos' political weapon. ... Trump never talks about Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook: He isn't tuned in to the debate over how they handle people's data, and thinks the Russia story is a hoax...." ...
... SO THEN, the day after Swan's report... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump spoke out against Amazon on Thursday, saying that the online behemoth does not pay enough taxes and uses the United States postal system 'as their Delivery Boy.' The president's commentary, made in a Twitter post, comes amid reports that Mr. Trump has expressed an interest in reining in the e-commerce business."
Trump Gets Another Day in Court. And Loses. David Adams of Univision: "An international arbitration court ruled late Tuesday against the Trump Organization's effort to win back control of a landmark luxury hotel in Panama after it was evicted by the owners earlier this month over allegations of 'horrific' mismanagement. The arbitrator's decision effectively upheld the firing of Trump's hotel staff, the takeover of its bank accounts and physical removal of the Trump name from the hotel, which made headlines on March 5. It appears to leave the Trump Organization with no other legal recourse except to seek damages for loss of income over the 12 years left on its management contract in Panama, according to the 32-page ruling, details of which were viewed by Univision. Trump's hotel management company was seeking an emergency court order to restore the status quo at the former Trump International Tower & Hotel in Panama, allowing it to return to running the 70-story mixed use condo hotel...."
Gail Collins figures "the best explanation" for Trump's erratic behavior "is that our president is occasionally taken over by a benevolent alien entity who changes his entire personality." Collins, begin so fact-obsessive, backs up her theory.
Margaret Hartmann: "Michael Cohen's Attorney [David Schwartz] May Be an Even Worse Lawyer Than He Is." Hartmann, with the help of multiple lawyers, explains. One attorney, Susan Simpson, explains one of Schwartz's arguments like so: "There are just so many problems with this that it feels a bit silly to single any one of them out. Like arguing that someone's imaginary friend can't be elected president because he's not 35 years old yet, and also a Canadian." Mrs. McC: But, hey, if he's sinking Cohen, at least Schwartz is helping out Trump & Stormy Daniels.
Future Inmates Square off on Prison Reform. Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "In the final months of the Obama administration, the Justice Department ... created a prison school system, pledged money for technology training and promised to help prevent former inmates from returning to prison. Almost immediately after taking office, Trump administration officials began undoing their work. Budgets were slashed, the school system was scrapped and studies were shelved as Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought to bear his tough-on-crime philosophy and deep skepticism of Obama-era crime-fighting policies. Now, nearly a year and a half later, the White House has declared that reducing recidivism and improving prisoner education is a top priority -- echoing some of the very policies it helped dismantle. This whiplash approach to federal prison policy reflects the tension between Jared Kushner ... and Mr. Sessions, a hard-liner whose views on criminal justice were forged at the height of the drug war. It has left both Democratic and Republican lawmakers confused and has contributed to skepticism that the Trump administration is serious about its own proposals." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Let's see if the prison system can come up with a way to retrain Kushner & Sessions.
MEANWHILE, Some Departments Keep on Truckin'
Brady Dennis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency staffers received a list of 'talking points' this week instructing them to underscore the uncertainties about how human activity contributes to climate change.... Employees crafted the email, first disclosed Wednesday by HuffPost, based on controversial -- and scientifically unsound -- statements that ... Scott Pruitt has made about the current state of climate research.... The list echoes pronouncements by [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt..., along with other Trump administration officials...."
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is attempting to scale back federal efforts to enforce fair housing laws, freezing enforcement actions against local governments and businesses, including Facebook, while sidelining officials who have aggressively pursued civil rights cases. The policy shift, detailed in interviews with 20 current and former Department of Housing and Urban Development officials and in internal agency emails, is meant to roll back the Obama administration's attempts to reverse decades of racial, ethnic and income segregation in federally subsidized housing and development projects. The move coincides with the decision this month by Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, to strike the words 'inclusive' and 'free from discrimination' from HUD's mission statement. But Mr. Carson dismissed the idea he was abandoning the agency's fair housing mission as 'nonsense' in a memo to the department's staff earlier this year...."
Steve Benen: "The Trump administration touched off another ugly and avoidable fight this week, announcing that for the first time in 70 years, the decennial census will include a question about citizenship status. It didn't take long before opponents of the policy filed lawsuits. But it also didn't take long for the White House to start lying about the move.... Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters [Tuesday], for example, 'This is a question that's been included in every census since 1965.' An NPR fact-check soon followed, and not surprisingly, Sanders' claim isn't even close to being true. (The first hint something was amiss: there was no decennial census in 1965.) Perhaps the press secretary would've been better able to answer questions about the administration's approach to the census if she'd consulted with experts -- though in this case, Team Trump clearly doesn't have any use for expertise. [Commerce Secretary] Wilbur Ross could've listened to the career officials and former directors from both parties [who explained to him why they oppose addition of the question], but knowledge and institutional history stood in the way of Donald Trump's political plans -- and so the experts' guidance was ignored." ...
... A Disaster Waiting to Happen. Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "Of all the ways democracy is threatened under ... Donald Trump -- a blind eye to Russian meddling in elections, a rollback of voting rights, a disregard for checks and balances -- an unfair and inaccurate census could have the most dramatic long-term impact.... A 'perfect storm' is threatening the 2020 census, says Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former staff director for the House Subcommittee on Census and Population. Budget cuts enacted by the Trump administration and the Republican Congress forced the bureau to cancel crucial field tests in 2017 and 2018. The bureau's director resigned last June, and the administration has yet to name a full-time director or deputy director. The next census will also be the first to rely on the internet.... The Census Bureau has half as many regional centers and field offices today as it did in 2010."
Jeffrey Lewis, in a Daily Beast opinion piece, provides a fine example of John Bolton's SOP for international "diplomacy."
MEANWHILE, House Republicans Thought They too Should Make Some Risible News. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "House Republicans are considering a vote on a 'balanced-budget amendment,' a move that would proclaim their desire to eliminate the federal deficit even as they control a Congress that has added more than $1 trillion to it. The plan is expected to have virtually no chance of passing, as it would require votes from Democrats in the Senate and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Republican lawmakers have pushed for the vote as a way to signal to constituents ahead of the midterm elections that they have tried to reduce the nation's deficit."
** Mark Sherman of the AP: "Dealing with an issue that could affect elections across the country, Supreme Court justices wrestled Wednesday with how far states may go to craft electoral districts that give the majority party a huge political advantage. But even as they heard their second case on partisan redistricting in six months, the justices expressed uncertainty about the best way to deal with a problem that several said would get worse without the court's intervention. The arguments the court heard Wednesday were over an appeal by Republican voters in Maryland who object to a congressional district that Democrats drew to elect a candidate of their own. The Maryland case is a companion to one from Wisconsin in which Democrats complain about a Republican-drawn map of legislative districts. That case was argued in October and remains undecided." ...
... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "At the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, in a strangely desultory argument, the Justices, for the second time in a year, took up the subject [of gerrymandering] -- this time, in Maryland -- but they appeared further from a consensus, or even a majority, than they did during the argument of the Wisconsin case. It's always dangerous to infer too much from Justices' statements and questions during oral arguments, but the hints in today's proceedings suggested that the Court, as a whole, may not be ready to put an end to gerrymandering.... And, as the Justices dawdle, the problem is growing worse. With the advent of ever more powerful computer technology, politicians can draw legislative districts with chilling precision; they can guarantee victory or defeat before a single vote is cast. The 2020 census is drawing near, and the district lines for every legislative seat in the country will soon be redrawn. The time for the Supreme Court to address the problem is now."
Laurence Tribe in a Washington Post op-ed: "... retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens handed the gun lobby a rhetorical howitzer.... The kids have been savvy enough to know better.... Repealing the Second Amendment would eliminate that source of reassurance -- without even achieving the Parkland, Fla., students' aims. It would not take the most lethal, military-grade weapons out of dangerous hands. Indeed, it wouldn't eliminate a single gun or enact a single gun regulation."
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim of Minnesota Public Radio: "A Minneapolis FBI agent [-- Terry James Albury --] who started his career with the agency as an intern in 2000 has been charged with leaking classified information to the news website The Intercept.... [Albury is] the only African-American FBI field agent in Minnesota.... In January 2017, The Intercept published a series titled 'The FBI's Secret Rules,' based on Albury's leaked documents, which show the depth and broad powers of the FBI expansion since 9/11 and its recruitment efforts.... Albury is the second person charged with leaking secret documents to The Intercept. In June 2017, an intelligence contractor was charged with leaking a classified report about Russia's interference in the 2016 election to The Intercept, the first criminal leak under President Trump." ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Maybe the Intercept should quit outting sources with their FOIA requests & clue-riddled reports. Leading the feds to your sources is a pretty good way to shut up anyone thinking of blowing some whistles. Just saying.
Alex Hern of the Guardian: "Facebook is shutting down a feature that allowed 'data brokers' such as Experian and Oracle to use their own reams of consumer information to target social network users, the company has announced. The feature, known as 'Partner Categories', will be 'winding down over the next six months', Facebook announced in a terse blogpost. The company says the move 'will help improve people's privacy on Facebook.'... Facebook is also closing down a data flow in the opposite direction, preventing the same data brokers from receiving anonymised information about how their ad campaigns have been received.... Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group, described the move as 'an attempt to generate positive press on the privacy front without directly causing a meaningful negative revenue impact.'" ...
... Alex Hern: "Facebook is launching a range of new tools in an effort to 'put people in more control over their privacy' in the buildup to new EU regulations that tighten up data protection.... On mobile devices, Facebook users will now be able to find all their settings in a single place, rather than spread across 'nearly 20 different screens' as they were before. They will also be able to find separate item, the 'privacy shortcuts' menu, which provides a clearing house for options about data protection, ad personalisation and on-platform privacy. The site is also complying with [EU] rules about access to stored personal data with a new 'access your information' tool, that allows people to find, download and delete Facebook data. But Facebook is not committing to making it any easier for users to delete their accounts wholesale. The option to permanently delete an account is currently buried in a help menu...." ...
... Matt Novak of Gizmodo: "Playboy has become the latest brand to delete its Facebook pages, claiming that Facebook is both 'sexually repressive' and contradicts Playboy's values. Playboy's decision follows other companies that have recently left the social media platform like Tesla and SpaceX, and even mentioned Facebook's 'recent meddling' in the American electoral process. 'There are more than 25 million fans who engage with Playboy via our various Facebook pages, and we do not want to be complicit in exposing them to the reported practices,' Playboy said in a statement issued overnight." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ben Westcott & Yoonjung Seo of CNN: "The leaders of North and South Korea will meet on April 27 for the first time since 2007, the two countries announced Thursday after high-level talks. The landmark meeting between President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un will be held a Freedom House on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), according to the joint statement issued after the talks." ...
... Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "With a dose of mystery and the flair of a showman, North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-un, used his debut as an international statesman on Wednesday to present himself as confident, reasonable -- and willing to bargain. Mr. Kim's surprise two-day visit to Beijing, his first known trip abroad since taking power, was effectively a reminder of how much he has set the agenda in the crisis over his nation's nuclear arsenal -- and of what a strong hand he has going into talks, first with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea next month and later with President Trump. Mr. Kim has yet to say what concessions he is willing to make, or what he may demand from the United States in return. But he continued to dominate the diplomatic process, reaffirming his willingness to meet with Mr. Trump and repeating his vague commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in talks with President Xi Jinping of China, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency." ...
... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "Whatever the precise parameters of Kim’s motivation, his China play has made it more difficult for Trump, who would have preferred that Beijing remain at odds with Pyongyang. Kim and Xi have re-scrambled the perceived loyalties and suspicions that will shape any potential encounter between North Korea and the United States -- at the negotiating table or on the battlefield."
The Houseguest from Hell. William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Julian Assange, the controversial founder of WikiLeaks, has been barred from using the Internet at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for nearly six years, the Ecuadoran government announced Wednesday. In a statement, Ecuador said it has suspended Assange's ability to communicate with the outside world because he violated an agreement he signed with his hosts at the end of 2017 not to use his communiques to interfere in the affairs of other states. It was not immediately clear whether visitors would also be stopped."
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Reader Comments (10)
Wait, there’s an Eliminating Government Funded Oil-Painting Act? Why not an Eliminating Government Funded Egg Tempera on Gessoed Hardwood Panels Act?
If we’re going to disallow taxpayer money going to pay for a likeness of the Orange Baboon, we’ll have to have an act that prohibits use of crayons and finger paints as well, since he’ll be sure to tell the artist that he can do it better and will try to prove it,
@Akhilleus: Hey, let's go in on a paint-by-numbers enterprise based on a "portrait" of Our Glorious Leader. First order of business: buy up the world's supply of orange acrylic paint to fill the kits. We can do some of that Cambridge Analytica/Facebook targeted marketing. (Or just advertise in, say, Alabama & Kentucky.)
We'll get rich quick. Trump & I promise.
Worried about emptying out your bank account on that orange paint? We could get investors!
Back in the day, every Roman Catholic home had a photo of JFK hung high on the living-room wall. How much better to have a "real," hand-painted portrait of Trumpty-Dumpty?
Marie,
Ha! Love the paint by number idea. In fact, we could do one for all those Confederate jabronis in Congress and have them paint their own likeness. It will keep them busy for weeks. Keep ‘em out of trouble. Some might be confused (they confuse easily) when the image starts to take shape. Blake Farentholt will wonder why his looks like a fat blob and not Cary Grant. Louie Gohmert will wonder why his looks like a giant turd. But Jim Inhofe may not get the joke when he sees himself standing in a burnt out field in Oklahoma next to a thermometer reading 135 degrees. Fun for the whole Confederate family!
Trumpado will probably insist that his paint by number portrait use the picture he attaches to his tweetie-tweet account. The one where he’s glaring and trying to look tough when actually he looks constipated.
Speaking of pictures, we had one of those photos of JFK on our wall for years. And it wasn’t just in this country. Irish singer Christy Moore has a song about getting the DT’s, coming home and collapsing on the couch only to wake up and see that “...the pope and John F. Kennedy were starin’ me in the face.”
I think if I woke up and saw that picture of President* Constipation, I’d WISH I had the DT’s.
And amidst the spy stories––person (A) met with whosit and his companion whatsit down at the Red bull and person (A) slipped a mickey into whatsit's bourbon (neat) resulting in whatsit's demise therefore rendering whosit's escape to places unknown leaving person (A) holding the bag but we don't know who he is–––we have the latest police shooting of a black man who had been identified incorrectly as some kind of thief when in actuality he was on his way home cutting through his grandmother's backyard carrying his cell phone that police thought was a gun. No, "Stop right now and drop your gun!"–-the police just went ahead and shot this young man –––what was it? 20 times? 40? As though one time wouldn't be enough. No taser? No sense at all. There have been so many many deaths of blacks by police and have any one of them been prosecuted? Will the fuckers that killed this last case be held responsible instead of putting them on leave for a short time? The fury now in the black community over this latest shooting will result in what?
The "beloved" doctor Ronny who has been tapped on the shoulder with the King's wand to take over the VA should, if he has any sense at all, reject this job straightaway. He should realize this monumental project is way above his expertise––treating presidents is not the same as running an agency as huge and complicated as the VA. Of course maybe the King knows that, doesn't care if it will ruin Ronny's reputation, he just wants to prove how unwieldy the job will be, therefore––we gots to privatize it–-simple as that. Yowsa!
By the way––I'm finding that I'm having trouble laughing at the comedic renditions of all this mishmash––don't know if any of you have had the same feelings––SNL manages to do it the best, but as someone said to me the other day––"this has stopped being a laughing matter."
Rather than a painting to memorialize 45, I think it would be more
fitting to have something like a Henry Moore sculpture for the
White House lawn. Something huuuuge and bulbous a la Moore.
But not in bronze or marble, more like in chalk or sawdust. Just
not to last any longer than 45 does.
Forrest,
I like the Henry Moore idea, but without Moore's elegant shapes and visual rhythms. Maybe take a sledge hammer to a Moore-like piece then pile dumpster refuse around it. But not to forget a ratty orange wig on top of the whole mess and a fountain right next to it spitting out, what else, a golden shower.
Although I'm not sure we could do better than one of those Naked Trump statues that popped up around the country last year.
PD,
I've had the same feeling about the Trump Debacle. There's not much funny about it at all. It must be ferociously difficult to parody something that is itself so parodic, so farcical. One can attempt to mimic something too well and in doing so, strip it of interest (there being too much reflexivity required).
Although it pains me to link Shakespeare with the baseness of the Trump train wreck, I'm tempted to call up "Love's Labour's Lost" in which Will attempts to satirize a certain form of too, too clever word play. There's plenty of it. Too much. It begins to wear you down after a couple of acts. It's one of those plays I haven't re-read in decades. It's just too much effort.
Would that we could close the book so easily on the Trump disaster. Despite the superfluity of stupidity, ineptitude, and boorishness, it gets less funny by the hour. It's not just a crass douchebag stumbling across the stage, it's a dangerous, damaged, and misanthropic personality who believes his ignorance is a special form of genius. To return to Shakespeare, it's a combination of Bottom, Dogberry, and Richard III.
David Shulkin might be a moocher but it looks as if he's on to Trump's scheme of privatizing the VA in order to enrich his pals (likely the only truly consistent element in the Trump presidency) and improve his own standing with the billionaire class (of which he may or may not be a member). Trump's view of government is one giant piggy bank there for the taking. This has, of course, been a constant in the Confederacy as well where the notion of privatizing everything has been job one since Reagan started the "I Hate Government" craze.
There's no question that things can be done more efficiently by a number of government agencies, but privatization is not the answer. The bottom line for government agencies is to help citizens. The bottom line for private companies is, well, the bottom line. This is another of those Capitalism is Great canards. Business can do it better!
Sure they can. Just ask Lehman Brothers. Or Facebook. Or Trump Inc.
I agree that it is hard to find anything funny about all this, but I do welcome ANYONE lampooning the horrendous people who work at the WH or are in the so-called cabinet... The part that I find the very least amusing is the despicable base. The crowds screeching away at his every rally, and make no mistake, they are brainwashed and one rally away from a lynch mob, make me sick to my stomach. I think they all know he is nothing but a charleton, but they are so stupid and sick that they want the successful, the "elites," punished with boiling oil, so they allow all of this circus delusion. I don't feel sorry for any of them-- they are braindead. And I reserve a large share of hatred for the party of vandals in Congress. All of them deserve some horrible fate I can't even envision. THEY are worse than the infidel prez, because they all know what and who he is.
I've read it twice. Though I must have misread it the first time, but there it was, right there in bold print in the estimable NYTimes. "In Attack, Trump Says Amazon Doesn’t Pay Enough Taxes."
The Pretender said that? When he won't release his own returns? When he signed a tax bill that sent over eighty percent of its largesse to the very wealthy, himself among them?
I've finally found something the Pretender and I can agree on. I'm all for criticizing those who don't pay enough taxes...
And it looks like another fine nugget for a Fall campaign ad. "The President attacked Amazon for not paying enough taxes. He finally got something right. They don't, and he the Republican Congress made sure that he, his corporate cronies and the billionaires that support him don't either...."