;)
The Commentariat -- March 30, 2018
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yesterday, Akhilleus & I entered into a fake agreement to set up a fake partnership to sell paint-by-numbers kits of Donald Trump portraits. (The fake contract is in the fake mail.) I was thinking of sending Michael Cohen down to Delaware to set up a fake LLC when we acquired a new, secret super-silent partner who nonetheless has taken a hands-on approach to the business. Pretty good, huh?
... Note to Akhilleus: Better double your orange paint order. I'm ordering the printed canvases. We could work out a real business plan with projections & marketing strategies & all, but that would be so un-Trumpian.
Late Morning Update:
Mrs. McCrabbie: Just noticed that in his Ohio speech, Trump derided the "Democrat" who was trying to take away your Second Amendment. That "Democrat" would be John Paul Stevens, appointed to the Court of Appeals by Richard Nixon (Rrrrr) & to the Supreme Court by Gerald Ford, a former Republican Speaker of the House. I have no idea how Justice Stevens votes these days, but "Democrat" is not the first word that would come to mind in describing him. And remember, that Ohio speech was a taxpayer-funded road trip that was supposed to include that speech about infrastructure.
Margaret Hartmann makes the case that Trump has set up Dr. Ronny Jackson to fail as head of the VA. And here's a twist: even though Jackson himself has expressed skepticism about his own ability to run, much less fix the problems of, a vast bureacracy & healthcare delivery system, he cannot refuse the nomination because he's an active-duty flag officer. "... and Politico reports that some veterans believe he's being installed as a figurehead so lower-level staffers can move toward privatization." Mrs. McC: Over to you, Mitch. In the name of privatization, are you-all gonna confirm a guy who already knows he can't do the job? Oh, yeah, privatization is the new earmarks. So I guess so.
Michael Sykes of Axios: "A GoFundMe page that launched Thursday to help cover former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's legal fees reached $408,859 in 20 hours, according to the fund's page, quickly surpassing its $250,000 goal (which was initially set $150,000). 'The response to this effort has been remarkable and beyond our expectations,' the page says."
Ken Starr Weighs in on Stormy Daniels Allegations. Because He Would. Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "The independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky said this week the Department of Justice (DOJ) should weigh the credibility of Stormy Daniels' claim that she was paid to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Donald Trump> ahead of the 2016 election. In an interview with the Yahoo News' podcast 'Skullduggery,['] Kenneth Starr said the DOJ should decide if Daniels' claims warrant an investigation by another independent counsel. 'I do think there are difficult and serious questions that have been raised by what we know or what has been reported,' said Starr said."
*****
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Katelyn Polantz & Evan Perez of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates' help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort, but with its central mission: investigating the Trump campaign's contact with the Russians. New information disclosed in court filings and to CNN this week begin to show how they're getting it. In a court filing earlier this week, the public saw the first signs of how the Mueller team plans to use information from Gates to tie Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, directly to a Russian intelligence agency. Mueller's team alleges that Gates was in contact with a close colleague of Manafort's who worked for a Russian intelligence agency -- and that Gates knew of the spy service ties in September and October 2016, while he worked on the Trump campaign. Gates would have to talk about the communication with the man if prosecutors wanted, according to his plea deal."
Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "Investigators probing whether Donald Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russia have been questioning witnesses about events at the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to two sources familiar with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiries. Mueller's team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia's U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions..., said one source.... Another issue Mueller's team has been asking about is how and why Republican Party platform language hostile to Russia was deleted from a section of the document related to Ukraine, said another source who also requested anonymity. Mueller's interest in what happened at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, is an indication that Trump campaign contacts and actions related to Russia remain central to the special counsel's investigation.... The same source said Mueller's team also has been asking whether Sessions had private discussions with Kislyak on the sidelines of a campaign speech Trump gave at Washington's Mayflower Hotel in April 2016."
Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A controversial London-based academic with close ties to Nigel Farage has been detained by the FBI upon arrival in the US and issued a subpoena to testify before Robert Mueller.... Ted Malloch, an American touted last year as a possible candidate to serve as US ambassador to the EU [before EU officials expressed alarm & the Financial Times revealed he had grossly inflated his CV], said he was interrogated by the FBI at Boston's Logan airport on Wednesday following a flight from London and questioned about his involvement in the Trump campaign. In a statement sent to the Guardian, Malloch, who described himself as a policy wonk and defender of Trump, said the FBI also asked him about his relationship with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist, and whether he had ever visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
** The FBI Has Been onto Trump-Russia for a While. 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Dozens of uncanny coincidences or COLLUSION? You pick.
Laura Jarrett of CNN: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not naming a new special counsel to investigate Republican-driven accusations against the FBI -- at least for now. Instead, Sessions revealed Thursday that Utah's top federal prosecutor, John Huber, is looking into allegations that the FBI abused its powers in surveilling a former Trump campaign adviser, and more should have been done to investigate Hillary Clinton's ties to a Russian nuclear energy agency. Sessions' decision to stop short of formally appointing a special counsel like Robert Mueller, detailed in a lengthy written response to three Republican chairmen on Capitol Hill, will likely anger those in the GOP who have recently ramped up calls to investigate claims of political bias at the nation's top law enforcement agencies." ...
... The Washington Post story, by Matt Zapotosky, is here.
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
How the NSA Got Trump to Expel Russian Spies. John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "In conversations with European leaders, Trump said the United States was not interested in expelling spies in response to the poisoning of a Russian spy if other countries were not doing the same. But on Friday, the president's national security team presented him with three options, and Trump's final decision set in motion an exodus of 60 Russian spies -- a surprising rebuke of Moscow that even caught U.S. allies off guard.... The Monday announcement grew out of a push by U.S. allies and the intelligence community for a strong retaliatory response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain. Shortly after the attack, Fiona Hill, a National Security Council senior director, began leading policy coordination meetings that culminated in a pivotal Friday meeting that included Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, among other top officials." ...
... Putin to Trump: "My Expulsions Are Bigger than Your Expulsions." Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "Russia on Thursday escalated a confrontation with Europe and the United States over the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, saying it would expel 60 American diplomats and an unspecified number of envoys from other countries to retaliate for a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats working in the West and beyond that was ordered this week.... The Kremlin exceeded an equivalent response to the United States and ordered the closing of the American Consulate in St. Petersburg.... The consulate is bigger and far more important to relations than the Russian Consulate in Seattle, which the Trump administration ordered closed on Monday as part of its expulsion decree." ...
... Michael Wolgelenter & Iliania Magra of the New York Times: "Yulia Skripal, who was found poisoned on a park bench in a small English city this month along with her father, the former Russian spy Sergei V. Skripal, is showing improvement and is no longer in critical condition, the hospital that is treating her said on Thursday. The British authorities have blamed Russia for the poisoning, which they say was carried out with a deadly nerve agent developed by Soviet scientists and known as a Novichok." ...
... Richard Engel & Kennett Werner of NBC News: "The former Russian double agent [Boris Karpichkov] got a terrifying message on his birthday: He was on a Kremlin hit list along with Sergei Skripal, another ex-spy who weeks later was poisoned with a nerve agent in a case Britain blames on Vladimir Putin's government.... Also on the Kremlin's list, he says, were several other ex-KGB agents, as well as Christopher Steele, author of a 35-page dossier alleging collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Bill Browder, the driving force behind a set of U.S. sanctions against Russian individuals known as the Magnitsky Act, was there as well, he adds.... Karpichkov believes that the attack, if not directly approved by Putin, was at least authorized at the highest levels of the FSB. It was a 'very planned, organized and performed operation,' he said." ...
... Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's national security advisers spent months trying to convince him to sign off on a plan to supply new U.S. weapons to Ukraine to aid in the country's fight against Russian-backed separatists, according to multiple senior administration officials. Yet when the president finally authorized the major policy shift, he told his aides not to publicly tout his decision, officials said. Doing so, Trump argued, might agitate Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the officials.... Behind the scenes, however, Trump has recently taken a sharper tone on Putin, administration officials said, but the shift seems more a reaction to the Russian leader challenging the president's strength than a new belief that he's an adversary. Putin's claim earlier this month that Russia has new nuclear-capable weapons that could hit the U.S., a threat he underscored with video simulating an attack, 'really got under the president's skin,' one official said." Read on.
Governing by Whims & Lies
Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump flew [to Richfield, Ohio,] Thursday to promote his infrastructure plan, but after a week of seclusion as he has been besieged by an adult-film star's allegations of an affair and by news on the Russia probe, he delivered his thoughts on a variety of topics, from the midterm elections to his North Korea talks.... Trump's speech seemed at times like a stream-of-consciousness commentary reminiscent of his signature campaign rallies from 2016, as he zigzagged from his prepared text on infrastructure policy to his thoughts on issues of the day, such as this week's debut of the remake of 'Roseanne.'... Trump used his official, taxpayer-funded visit to warn his political supporters against complacency in the fall midterm elections." ...
... Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: "The U.S.-led coalition said Friday that two of its personnel had been killed and another five wounded in Syria by an improvised explosive device. Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the coalition, declined to identify the nationalities of the servicemen, or to specify where in Syria the attack took place Thursday night.... In a surprise announcement Thursday, President Trump appeared to signal that U.S. troops would be withdrawing from Syria in the near future. 'By the way, we're knocking the hell out of ISIS,' Trump said midway through an infrastructure speech in Ohio. 'We're coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon -- very soon we're coming out.'" Emphasis added. ...
... Katie Rogers & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump heralded a new trade agreement with South Korea at his first public appearance in nearly a week on Thursday, but then immediately suggested that he might delay finalizing it while negotiating with North Korea over its nuclear program." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you may recall, the other day, after a "briefing" on the subject, Trump announced in a tweet that construction of his border wall had commenced. To "prove" it, he tweeted pictures of work on a repair project start began in 2009. Charles Pierce: "Trump's strategy is to lie. He knows that, because of the echo chamber that is Fox News and talk radio and conservative digital outlets, many of his supporters will never even know his tweet was false. And even if they do, they probably won't care -- he said he was building a wall, and here are pictures of a wall being built." Pierce cites a "Fox & Friends" retweet to make his point. But it's worse than that. After BuzzFeed caught him in the lie, Trump repeated it in his Ohio speech yesterday. He boasted construction had begun: "You saw the pictures," he told the crowd. Both the WashPo & New York Times reports on the Ohio speech note that Trump spoke about the wall. Neither of the reports mentions this absurd lie about it. You & I and a few BuzzFeed readers know about it, but we're alone out here.
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: We were all joking here Wednesday 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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti takes his cues from his client's adversary:
... It Pays to Squelch Trump's Lady Friends. Jim Rutenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "In July, David J. Pecker, the chairman of the company that owns The National Enquirer, visited his old friend President Trump at the White House. The tabloid publisher took along a special guest, Kacy Grine, a French businessman who advises one of Saudi Arabia's richest men and sometimes acts as an intermediary between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Western businesses. The two men and other Pecker associates chatted with the president in the Oval Office and briefly met with Mr. Trump's son-in-law and Middle East envoy, Jared Kushner. Before moving on to dinner with the group, the president had a photographer snap pictures of the guests standing with him behind his desk. Mr. Pecker has long used his media empire to protect Mr. Trump's image. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Pecker's company, American Media Inc., suppressed the story of a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump. The night of the dinner, Mr. Pecker got something from Mr. Trump: an unofficial seal of approval from the White House. It was an opportune moment for Mr. Pecker to showcase his White House connections. He was considering expanding his media and events businesses into Saudi Arabia and also was hunting for moneyed partners in acquisitions." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump has turned the entire White House into a corrupt enterprise. ...
... Maya Salam & Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "Here are five times that [David] Pecker and his company, American Media Inc., protected, defended or championed Mr. Trump."
Federal Judge Calls out Trump's Racist Language. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Citing President Trump's 'racially charged language,' a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled on Thursday that a lawsuit seeking to preserve a program that protects hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation could continue. The order, by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, was the strongest sign so far of judicial support for the program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which has for months been the subject of a heated debate in Congress. In October, lawyers for the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the Brooklyn lawsuit, claiming that the plaintiffs in the case -- a coalition of immigration lawyers and a group of Democratic state attorneys general -- had failed to make a persuasive case that DACA was rolled back in September because of a racial animus toward Latinos."
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Governing by Twitter
** Lisa Rein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House was thrown on the defensive Thursday over President Trump's choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, forcing officials to fend off mounting skepticism that Ronny L. Jackson has the experience to run the government's second-largest agency.... Jackson is a career naval officer who was an emergency trauma doctor in Iraq before spending the past 12 years as a White House physician. But his résumé lacks the type of management experience usually expected from the leader of an agency that employs 360,000 people, has a $186 billion annual budget and is dedicated to serving the complex needs of the country's veterans.... Jackson was taken aback by his nomination, said senior White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... A senior White House official described an informal interview process, without the extensive vetting that typically accompanies a Cabinet selection.... The White House planned to announce Wednesday that Shulkin would leave the administration and be replaced on an interim basis by Robert Wilkie, undersecretary for defense personnel and readiness at the Defense Department, until a nominee was found. But Trump preempted the plan when he tweeted that he intended to nominate Jackson, administration officials said." ...
... Wimpiest President Ever. Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump telephoned VA Secretary David Shulkin Wednesday, & they chatted about policy going forward. Trump never mentioned he would be firing Shulkin, by tweet, within a few hours. Just shortly before Trump sent out his tweet, John Kelly gave Shulkin a heads-up. Shulkin made this revelation on Chris Hayes' MSNBC show. Later Hayes theorized that Kelly set up the Trump-Shulkin call, but Trump didn't have the guts to fire Shulkin. I'd say Hayes is right. ...
... Update: Here's an actual news report, by Rebecca Morin of Politico, on Hayes' interview of Shulkin.
... 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...." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... "A Coup at Veterans Affairs." New York Times Editors: "David Shulkin, whom Mr. Trump fired on Wednesday, was the highest-ranking holdover from the Obama administration and among the few Trump cabinet members with demonstrated ability at their jobs.... It seems that as secretary of veterans affairs, Dr. [Ronny] Jackson [-- who served as the White House physician & whom Trump has nominated to replace Shulkin --] would not be tending to Mr. Trump so much as to the right-wing billionaires Charles and David Koch and others who support privatization of veterans' health care and other services.... Mr. Trump gave no reason for firing Dr. Shulkin, but it's all too believable that powerful political donors lay behind it. Each administration is entitled to pursue its own goals. But once again, this one has chosen a policy that is opposed by the people it would affect and that would chiefly benefit an entitled sliver of Americans." ...
... Gene Robinson: "President Trump has announced he will nominate a medical doctor who has no discernible management experience to run the second-largest agency in the federal government.... The man Trump has named to become secretary of veterans affairs, Ronny L. Jackson, happens to be the president's personal doctor. More to the point, given Trump's perpetual hunger for sycophancy, is the fact that Jackson showered the president with hyperbolic Dear-Leader-style praise during a widely viewed television appearance in January.... I can't say I'm surprised. Trump put neurosurgeon Ben Carson in charge of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, despite Carson having zero experience in housing policy. He put Betsy DeVos in charge of the Department of Education, despite her apparent unfamiliarity with actual schools. He put politician Rick Perry in charge of the Department of Energy, which Perry wanted to eliminate until he learned what the agency does. Perry actually said that during his confirmation hearing. One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry."
USA Today Editors: "This year already, 263 people have been fatally shot by police nationally. That's about three per day and on track to repeat the death toll -- nearly 1,000 annually -- in recent years, according to a Washington Post database, which does not attempt to distinguish between justified and unjustified shootings. Even for those viewed as unjustified, few police officers are ever held accountable. Since 2005, just 85 officers have been charged with a crime. Less than 40% have been convicted, some on lesser charges.... Despite community and national outrage, President Trump's spokeswoman made his stance clear Wednesday: Such shootings are a 'local matter.' They are anything but. Such shootings taint all honorable, hard-working police officers and put them in more danger. More broadly, civil rights -- including the right to live -- are a national matter. If minorities are being killed disproportionately, the federal government has a duty to help hold those responsible to account and to end this scourge."
Paul Krugman: "Once you start looking at the Trump administration as an exercise in publicity, not policy, you see signs of it everywhere."
Coral Davenport & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is expected to launch an effort in coming days to weaken greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for automobiles, handing a victory to car manufacturers and giving them ammunition to potentially roll back industry standards worldwide. The move -- which undercuts one of President Barack Obama's signature efforts to fight climate change -- would also propel the Trump administration toward a courtroom clash with California, which has vowed to stick with the stricter rules even if Washington rolls back federal standards.... Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to frame the initiative as eliminating a regulatory burden on automakers that will result in more affordable trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles for buyers, according to people familiar with the plan." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: No surprise there. Turns out Scott Pruitt is even sleeping with Earth's enemy. Really:
... ** Most Corrupt Corporate Shill Award. ABC News: "For much of his first year in Washington, President Trump's EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt occupied prime real estate in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by the wife of a top energy lobbyist.... Neither the EPA nor the lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, would say how much Pruitt paid to live at the prime Capitol Hill address.... The price tag on Pruitt's rental arrangement is one key question when determining if it constitutes an improper gift, ethics experts told ABC News.... In 2010, the newspaper Roll Call referred to the Harts as a 'lobbyist power couple.'... Hart's firm specifically lobbied on 'issues related to the export of liquefied natural gas.'... Liquid natural gas exports was on the agenda for discussion during Pruitt's December 2017 trip to Morocco.... [T]he jurisdiction over natural gas exports typically falls to the Department of Energy - not the EPA." --safari ...
... Jennifer Dlouhy & Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's lease at a Washington apartment owned by a lobbyist friend allowed him to pay $50 a night for a single bedroom -- but only on the nights when he actually slept there. White House officials are growing dismayed about the questions surrounding Pruitt's living arrangement, including his initial inability to produce any documentation about his lease or his actual payments, according to three officials.... After ABC News reported the living arrangement on Thursday, EPA aides had to seek documentation from the building's owners to prove he had paid rent, raising concerns at the White House.... The owner is a health care lobbyist, Vicki Hart. Her husband J. Steven Hart, is also a lobbyist and his firm represents clients in industries regulated by the EPA."
... Natasha Geiling of ThinkProgress: "On Thursday, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) officially began soliciting comments from the oil and gas industry for areas of the Beaufort Sea that might be open to lease late next year, following the release of the administration's finalized offshore plan. But environmental and conservation groups warn that the call for potential lease areas is premature, since the administration hasn't even released its final five-year proposal. Soliciting industry advice on what areas are of interest, they contend, proves that the administration has a pre-determined outcome for the Arctic Ocean, something that could open up the administration to legal challenges should they offer these areas for lease sale down the road." --safari ...
... Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "Prices for solar, wind, and battery storage are dropping so rapidly that renewables are increasingly squeezing out all forms of fossil fuel power, including natural gas. The cost of new solar plants dropped 20 percent over the past 12 months, while onshore wind prices dropped 12 percent, according to the latest Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) report. Since 2010, the prices for lithium-ion batteries -- crucial to energy storage -- have plummeted a stunning 79 percent. 'The economic case for building new coal and gas capacity is crumbling,' as BNEF's chief of energy economics, Elena Giannakopoulou, told Bloomberg." --safari
Ice-Cold "Heart". Matt Shuham of TPM: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged a new policy, implemented late last year, that allows for the increased detainment of pregnant women.... It reverses ICE's previous policy of releasing of pregnant women from custody 'absent extraordinary circumstances.'... 'To better align with the President's Executive Order, ICE has ended the presumption of release for all pregnant detainees,' ICE spokesperson Danielle Bennet told TPM.... In 2016, Thomas Homan, now the director of ICE and then the executive associate director, issued in a memo for agency staff that said 'absent extraordinary circumstances or the requirement of mandatory detention, pregnant women will generally not be detained by ICE.'" --safari
Fox, Meet Hen. Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration announced Thursday that it was appointing a former corporate executive to lead the Department of Health and Human Service's efforts to lower the price of prescription drugs. Daniel M. Best, who spent 12 years working at Phizer Pharmaceuticals and also recently helped fashion CVSHealt's prescription drug plans, will be a senior adviser to the secretary for drug pricing reform." --safari
Judy Kurtz of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton is striking back at critics telling her to 'shut up' following her 2016 loss, saying, 'They never said that to any man who was not elected.'... 'And I had one of the young people who works for me go back and do a bit of research. They never said that to any man who was not elected. I was kind of struck by that,' Clinton said." Mrs. McC: Clinton goes on to cite numerous male nominees who didn't "shut up." But if you look at her examples, I'll bet you can figure out the difference between what these fellows were saying & doing & what Clinton has been saying & writing -- and it has nothing to do with gender. There is so much real sex discrimination -- subtle & not -- that I hate it when women falsely play the gender card.
** Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Even if People Die. Ryan Mac, et al., of BuzzFeed: "On June 18, 2016, one of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted lieutenants circulated an extraordinary memo weighing the costs of the company's relentless quest for growth. 'We connect people. Period. That'';s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends...,' VP Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth wrote. 'So we connect more people,' he wrote.... 'That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.' The explosive internal memo is titled 'The Ugly,' and has not been previously circulated outside [Facebook].... The Bosworth memo reveals the extent to which Facebook's leadership understood the physical and social risks the platform's products carried -- even as the company downplayed those risks in public. It suggests that senior executives had deep qualms about conduct that they are now seeking to defend." Zuckerberg wrote in response that he didn't believe the ends justified the means. But since Boz wrote that memo, Zuck has promoted him.
Ingraham So Sorry ... She's Losing Ad Revenue. Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "Laura Ingraham, a Fox News host, apologized under pressure on Thursday for taunting a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., as at least seven companies confirmed they would pull advertising from her show. The dispute began Wednesday when Ms. Ingraham shared an article about the student, David Hogg, 17, getting rejected from colleges and accused him of whining about it.... In response, Mr. Hogg, who has rapidly become a prominent advocate for gun-control policies, called on Ms. Ingraham's advertisers to boycott her show. Seven of the companies, TripAdvisor, Wayfair, Hulu, Nutrish, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle and Stitch Fix, said they were removing their ads. An eighth, Expedia, said it had recently pulled its advertising but declined to say when.... 'The decision of an adult to personally criticize a high school student who has lost his classmates in an unspeakable tragedy is not consistent with our values,' [Wayfair] said."
Beyond the Beltway
Unhinged Wingers. Paul Specht of the News & Observer [N.C.]: State "Rep. Beverly Boswell [R- Low I.Q.] boasted on Facebook Friday that she called the leader of a charter school north of Durham about what the school did on March 14, when [they held an assembly in the gym to avoid a walk-out] to protest gun violence.... Boswell, upon hearing the explanation, said she then asked ... 'So the students that were eating tide pods last week run your school this week?'... Boswell ... criticiz[ed] the school on Facebook. 'The students ARE in harge of this school,' she posted. 'This school will not support conservative values.'" --safari ...
... Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "[Rep. Beverly Boswell [R-N.C.] claimed this week that speakers at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. on March 24 -- many of them shooting Parkland shooting survivors -- wanted to 'murder' gun owners. She provided no evidence to support her outlandish accusation. 'They're out to take your guns, and our freedoms,' [she] wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.... Responding to a follower in the comments below, who called Boswell's post a 'scare tactic,' the 6th District representative added, 'Actually many of the speakers at these rallies were calling for gun registration, confiscation, Second Amendment repeal and even the murder of those who would not turn over their guns to the government." --safari ...
... Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Less than two years ago, Cooper Caffrey was sitting in his [Madison Township, Ohio,] school's cafeteria eating chicken nuggets. Then he was shot. So, it seems fitting he would want to participate in the protests demanding school safety and a stop to school shootings.... His principal made an announcement that morning that many were wearing the colors of MSD in solidarity, however, he warned all students that if they walked out, they'd be sent to detention. Caffrey was furious. When the time came, Caffrey, along with 42 other students, walked past the cafeteria in which he was shot, and out their school's doors. They were all given detention." --safari
News Lede
Washington Post: "Frank C. Gaylord, a Vermont sculptor who created the 19 statues in a column tableau of battle-tested soldiers for the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, died March 21 at the home of a daughter in Northfield, Vt. He was 93.... Mr. Gaylord, a World War II Army paratrooper who received the Bronze Star Medal for valor during the Battle of the Bulge, said he intended his sculptures to 'confront visitors with the reality of actual war' while complying with the design committee's instructions not to glorify it. His memory of the faces of the men he served with became models for many of the soldiers in the memorial."
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Holy moly! Infrastructure Week again? The last one weakened the nation by at least 50%. So what’s the big buzz this time? What’s that? The little dictator’s Wall is being built? Yeah. You mean pictures taken ten years ago of a 200 ft long wall in California? Nope, that’s not His Wall. That’s another lie. What else? Roseanne? A snarky comedian who voted for Trump? That’s the big news in Infrastructure Week, part 12?
So, a lie and a TV show.
Too much winning...so tired of all this winning...
@Akhilleus: From here, let's go to Photoshopped Wall. Why spend billions on a ridiculous project when Brad Parscale's crew could just dummy up some "photos" of progress on the Wall? If Trump is careful not to indicate just where each supposed portion of the Glorious Wall is being "built," that should get him past the 2020 election cycle. The U.S.-Mexican border is almost 2,000 miles long. Who's to know? Trump could put his de facto ambassador to Mexico & junior real-estate mogul Jared Kushner in charge of construction. They could do that Go Fund Me site idea & make millions! Hey, overhead costs. Since the entire White House operation is a grand scam, why not do it in style? Watch out, Putin; the Potemkin village is about to become the Trump Wall.
MONEY TALKS
Fox folks can be as obnoxious as they are until they step into sacred territory like making stupid remarks about a survivor of a school shooting or in the case of O"Reilly, getting his dick into places he shouldn't have ventured. When advertisers pull out, these foxes are out on their ear. The recent case of Laura Ingraham and David Hogg show once again that there's a limit and in this case it showed the power of one person, this time a teenager, who might very well bring down that angle that Laura thought was so nifty.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/laura-ingraham-advertisers-david-hogg_us_5abcff01e4b03e2a5c7a2cf6
Given what we are witnessing back at the ranch, looks more and more like a dictatorship is in the offing––our experiment in democracy might just have met its match. And when Twitterfingers (a zinger, Marie) cannot fire people except on a T.V. show the question of any profile in courage is in the dustbin of history. One could say, and I imagine some will, that Trump can't directly fire people because he has such a big heart; we say what Frank says in "House of Cards"––"you can very well say that, I can't possibly," which is a much nicer way of saying this president* is null and void, not only of heart but of that thing that's covered by his thinning locks.
Ambassador Chas Freeman explains what diplomacy is and why we need coherent policies and diplomatic execution.
As delivered, a 45-minute lecture. You can make it shorter by skipping the illustrative examples of linkage in Africa, and Taiwan policy, in the middle. They are interesting stories, but only illustrative.
You know Freeman is pretty good when you understand that he has angered critics left, right and center over the course of his careers. He is one of the folks who understands how professional diplomacy works and what you can do with it.
Group of articles on Google News: EPA chief Pruitt lived in DC townhouse owned by lobbyist family for $50 per night.
Isn't that called a bribe?
@Marvin Schwalb: According to the Bloomberg story, linked above, "Justina Fugh, who has been ethics counsel at the EPA for a dozen years, said the arrangement wasn’t an ethics issue because Pruitt paid rent. An aide said the agency had not reviewed the arrangement in advance."
One person suggested to Bloomberg that Pruitt's arrangement could be compared to an Airbnb rental. I took a look at a couple of Airbnb-related sites & it looks as if a single room in DC can go for as little as $20, tho most seem to start at about $60 (I did not make an extensive review). But I don't think you can compare Pruitt's deal to Airbnb. If you're renting out a room in your home via Airbnb, you don't keep it available for one renter every day of the month, which these lobbyists seem to be doing for Pruitt. If the lobbyists kept the room open for rent, they could theoretically make $1,500/month in rents with continuous occupancy, or $9,000 for six months. According to the Bloomberg story, "Pruitt paid $6,100 to use the room for roughly six months, according to copies of the checks reviewed by Bloomberg. Those checks show varying amounts paid on sporadic dates -- not a traditional monthly 'rent payment' of the same amount each month."
Would I make a deal like this if I were a disinterested condo-owner (i.e., not a lobbyist)? Maybe. Having only one approved "renter" probably saves the owners in maid service, & they don't have to worry about security. --
Say, where are Pruitt's 24/7 security detail staying doing Pruitt's overnights in Lobbyland? The Bloomberg story says, "Someone else rented the other bedroom. According to the lease agreement, Pruitt’s bedroom could not be locked." Was that "someone else" a government-paid security guard? Are we taxpayers picking up the tab for his/her room rental? Inquiring minds want to know.
Marie,
Good job on our Paint by the Number Dictator Picture. I'll expect my fake royalty checks to be sent to my non-existent bank. I'll use the forged bank records when I make out my fake tax returns which will go to fund the fake wall. Hey, there's no end to this sort of thing. Maybe we can take our phony idea global.
We'll offer Paint by the Number pictures of Russian oligarchs that can be used as identification by Trump administration humps when they decide to impose some fake sanctions on Putin's pals. Then the profits we make can be used to shore up some phony potentate in a fictitious country which we'll use to declare a fake war on ISIS. Confederates will send us a few hundred million in aid which we'll promptly not spend on crack invisible troops. When the Trumpists ask where those troops are, we'll tell them "Shhhh...they're invisible. AND it's a secret."
In the same way, Trump, our fraud of a president* can steal that idea and, after declaring that his fake wall has finally been fraudulently built by invented construction workers, he can say, when reporters and Democrats ask where the hell it is, that it's a secret. If he told where it was, rapists and murderers coming from Mexico would know and they'd avoid it, so hiding the fake wall would be essential to its pseudo success.
Well then, some pain in the ass wag might ask, "If they can avoid a fake wall, why couldn't they find some way around a real one costing $900 billion?"
"It's a secret".
NEXT: Fake Paint by the Number pictures of the fake wall! We'll make a fake fortune.
P.S. The (not fake) sad thing is that what I've described above is almost exactly how the Trump administration works. A wall? Sure. Look here's a picture. That's it right there. Bring back the steel industry? We've already done that. See? Here's a picture of me with smiling steel workers. Done. Obama couldn't do that. Billions for infrastructure? "Hey, did you watch Roseanne last night? She loves me!"
Great ideas! I'm already spending my millions.
I don't want to take credit for creating the product, tho. That was provided by our secret, super-silent partner, who is in fact, a real person. I'm not even telling Michael Cohen who s/he is, even tho I know I can count on Cohen to make up several inconsistent but completely opaque stories about his/her identity.
Just so's you guys will see that I wasn't kidding about how Trumpy invents shit on the fly by showing "pictures" of the real thing...here's a perfect example.
Trump's show starts :20 seconds in. And don't miss the red tie and orange hair.
More detail for inquiring minds who want to know more on the Pruitt in the bedroom story.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pruitt-arranged-condo-deal-energy-lobbyist-source/story?id=54121795
Must be nice to have friends in low places.
Round and Round We Go
A few of the more thoughtful sentinels of contemporary realpolitik have noted the unfortunate and extremely unhelpful tendency on the part of the vast majority of the MSM to hop to when presented with some piddling lagniappe from the Trumpy tray, which involves little more than scraping the surface of the Trump well of crimes and capers.
So the little dictator announces: TARIFFS!
The merry-go-round kicks into gear, the music plays, horses go up and down, the kids squeal, the adults smile, supporting hands touching the backs making sure the little tykes don't tumble off in their excitement.
Then the ride stops.
Next day: RUSSIANS EXPELLED!
Whoa, Nellie, here goes that merry-go-round again, the kids pile on "I want the tiger!" shouts one syndicated columnist, and off we go again.
But now and then, some light escapes all the heat.
A Financial Times writer, normally hidden behind the FT paywall, Ed Luce, has a deeper appreciation of what sort of sanctions might really work and why Theresa May and even Trumpskyev like the idea of kicking out spies rather than doing something that could really hurt Vlad the Poisoner ("Impaler" was already taken).
Money.
"In contrast to most western democracies, the US and UK permit anonymous ownership. Most democracies legally require the beneficial owner of an asset, such a company or property, to be made known. Not so in the largest English-speaking democracies. Roughly $300bn is laundered in the US every year, according to the US Treasury. Britain and its offshore financial centres take in about $125bn. Most of it goes undetected. The largest foreign share of it is Russian, according to Anders Aslund, a leading specialist on Russia’s economy. Estimates of Mr Putin’s personal wealth range from $50bn to $200bn [which would make him the richest person in the world. AKH]. Even the lower figure would exceed the gross domestic product of most UN member states. Yet we have taken few steps to disrupt it."
If we really wanted to blacken the Putin eye, we would make it much more difficult to launder money through shady real estate investments.
In fact, Luce points out, Russian meddling in the 2016 election might have had as much to do with Putin's hatred of disclosure as his desire to put his puppet in the White House:
"It is often forgotten that Mr Putin blamed Hillary Clinton for the 2015 leak of the Panama Papers, which exposed the network of shell companies, associates and methods by which he and his friends salted away their money...Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 US election were partly payback for the Panama Papers."
But nothing will be done about trying to rectify this situation, because in Britain, with Brexit on the horizon (courtesy of Steve Bannon and the Mercers), May probably needs all the foreign investment she can find. Here in the US, there's someone else who would be severely hurt (likely fatally so) if shady real estate money laundering was hit with the antiseptic light of day.
His name starts with T and ends with P. P for prison.
Instead, we get the merry-go-round. Think I'll go for the blue pony with the gold saddle this time.
Akhilleus,
Democracy faces many problems in the Age of the Pretender but perhaps foremost among them is the creation of extremely powerful corporate citizens that have been granted legal citizenship status but have successfully shed all the customary responsibilities of citizenship, a situation the Pretender inherited (like his wealth) and has rushed to take full advantage of.
If we look at the behavior of his government, the unmusical chairs of his cabinet and agency appointments and re-appointments, his secretaries and assistant secretaries, and his lower-level appointments in Interior, Energy, HUD, Education, the EPA, and now Veterans Affairs we need look no further for explanation.
This government is not for the people.
To the contrary, it's the common people who are fast becoming something less than citizens, losing their right to a fair trial via onerous bail requirements and their inability to access legal representation, in some cases their right to vote, and in many others, due to gerrymandering, the opportunity to have their vote count if they can vote at all. In this Devil's bargain, all they get is guns.
Feel free to add to the list.
According to the link posted above, "The independent counsel who investigated Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky said this week the Department of Justice (DOJ) should weigh the credibility of Stormy Daniels' claim that she was paid to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election."
Oh yeah? Well Ken Starr has already had his credibility weighed and it was determined to be less than an con man convicted of multiple counts of fraud and perjury.
And not for nothin' but since when does Mr. Rape Is Okay have the fucking gall to comment on a case involving the credibility of a woman who may have been (and likely was) screwed over by powerful, connected men?
In fact, Starr, who was in charge at Baylor University during a horrible scandal involving serial sexual abuse, harassment, and rape, refused to back the women who came to him with complaints of such attacks, asking for his help. Instead, he sided with the perpetrators of the abuse. In interviews, he refused to even say the word "rape", preferring to refer to it as an "unpleasantness". Yet he spent tens of millions chasing Bill Clinton after a blow job. And now he questions the validity of claims made by another woman???
After the dust settled at Baylor and Starr was booted, he went on record to declare that the "real victim" in the rape and sexual abuse scandals was....
the Baylor football coach.
I am not even kidding.
And his advice to the women? Don't go to places where you might get raped. You're just asking for it.
This asshole deserves a snake-filled shithole to himself. Just him and the shit and the snakes. No wonder Trumpy considered giving this scumbag a job.
I'd love to invest in the new paint-by-numbers venture, but sadly
won't have any extra cash after April 15 income tax payment.
However, I have a new Maytag washer and would be willing to
launder any amount of cash you wish to send to my fake P.O.
box in an undisclosed city, after which I will be taking a very long
vacation in Italy.
There's stupid, and then there's Trump World.
I know we've been saying that this shit ain't funny no more (when was it, really?), but sometimes you just have to shake your head.
A friend of mine who works at the US Geological Survey has been telling me how bad things are there because the knuckleheads and science haters and climate change deniers from Trump World are constantly on their asses making ridiculous and stupid demands.
Now, it's been my experience that the Survey is an excellent use of taxpayer money. They do serious research on hydrology, earthquakes, changing ecosystems, and a variety of essential earth science projects. If you've ever been out hiking on unfamiliar terrain with a Survey topo map in your backpack, you've been glad these people are doing this kind of work. They are whip smart, committed, and passionate about uncovering better ways of understanding and protecting the environment. In other words, the polar opposites of the Trumpies. And they're being ground down by the stupidity.
Today, I ran across an anecdote Charlie Pierce passes on about a USGS administrator named Larry Meinert. Meinert has been pestered by Trump idiots to let them know if any real science they might not like is coming around the corner to challenge their business-centric and medieval understanding of the natural world.
"Administration officials asked his department to supply the topics of each scientific paper it planned to put up for publication up to five years in the future. 'From their point of view, they didn’t want to be surprised by finding out that we were looking at subject 'X,'' he said. 'When I pushed back and said we can’t do that, we don’t know what we’ll be publishing three years from now because we haven’t done the science yet, they’d say, 'Well what are you hiding?'' Meinert says he spent much of his time putting together lists of topics that were so general that they were largely meaningless. 'My job was to run interference,' he said. 'Make the lists as general as they could be. So we’d say, 'We’re doing a paper about rocks.' For anyone who knows what’s going on, it’d be insulting, but these guys were like, 'Great, a paper about rocks. Thanks.'"
"...a paper about rocks. Great."
These imbeciles are in charge, don't forget.
I'm sorry, Ms. Bea, but that image at the top of the page is not an image of a person: it is definitely an image of the pacific ocean demonstrating the huge plastic blob of garbage that has developed there - especially referring to the dark circle in the lower right of the image.
@Victoria: Excellent observation about the garbage blob! Wouldn't be surprised if that was the creator's intention!