;)
The Commentariat -- March 6, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Andrew Restuccia, et al., of Politico: "Since ... Donald Trump announced plans last week to hit steel and aluminum imports with new tariffs..., economic adviser Gary Cohn and other free-trade advocates inside the White House and the Treasury Department are mounting a last-ditch effort to blunt the impact of Trump's head-turning decision, even as the president insisted Monday that he wasn't going to be convinced out of it.... Trump's tariff decision was so last-minute that the White House did not alert senior aides across multiple agencies. The State Department was not prepared to send cables to embassies in an effort to explain the decision." ...
... Jennifer Jacobs & Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump has told advisers that he believes economic adviser Gary Cohn will leave his White House job if Trump decides to go forward with tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, people familiar with the matter say." ...
... Greg Sargent looks at the larger pictures & notes how this & other stunts "Trump is objectively putting other imperatives before the national interest.... And if the White House makes no serious good-faith effort to present an affirmative case for some of Trump's biggest agenda items; and if independent reporting shows that other factors are what really weighed on his decision-making -- such as his emotional state or his desire to please his base or his fear of appearing 'weak' -- at what point do we get to say that, broadly speaking, Trump is actually not operating out of any vision of what is good for the country?"
A reader recommended Olivia Nuzzi's late-night/early-morning interview of former Trump advisor & guy-gone-wild Sam Nunberg: "... close to midnight, he seemed to have a change of heart. He told New York, 'Of course, I'm going to cooperate!'"
M.J. Lee of CNN: "The US Office of Special Counsel announced Tuesday that White House aide Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act on two occasions by 'advocating for and against candidates' in last year's Alabama Senate special election. In a new report, the OSC special counsel, Henry Kerner, pointed to Conway's TV interviews conducted in her 'official capacity' in November and December of last year. The agency said Conway 'impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election.'... In a letter to ... Donald Trump, Kerner said he is referring her violations for the President's 'consideration of appropriate disciplinary action.'"
Senate Race. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "The radio show hosted by Republican Senate candidate Chris McDaniel listed a group that advocates for southern secession among a list of 'favorite websites' featured on the show's website. McDaniel, a conservative firebrand who ran a failed campaign against Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, announced last week that he would challenge incumbent Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, setting up a divisive primary race from Wicker's right flank. On Monday, Cochran announced he was retiring and vacating his Senate seat on April 1, opening up the possibility that McDaniel could run in the special election to replace Cochran instead. McDaniel co-hosted 'The Right Side Radio Show,' at the time a nationally syndicated broadcast, from the mid-2000s until he was elected to the Mississippi state Senate in 2008. He still appeared once weekly after the leaving the show as a full-time host." Mrs. McC: Not sure why someone who advocates for secession would even want to be a U.S. senator.
AP: "West Virginia lawmakers acted swiftly Tuesday after Gov. Jim Justice and Republican leaders tentatively agreed to end the state's nine-day teachers' walkout by giving 5 percent raises not just to teachers, but to all state workers.... With striking teachers cheering from the gallery, the House of Delegates subsequently passed the pay raise for teachers, school service personnel and state troopers on a 99-0 vote. It now awaits action in the state Senate. The governor, union leaders and the House had agreed to the raise for those groups last week. State teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation and haven't had a salary increase in four years."
Joey Garrison & Nate Rau of the Tennessean: "Nashville Mayor Megan Barry resigned on Tuesday amid a sex scandal involving her former head of security, a stunning fall from power for a leader who was once among Tennessee's brightest political stars. Barry, a Democrat, announced her resignation at a packed morning news conference at the mayor's office. It came after she pleaded guilty in court a half-hour earlier as part of a negotiated agreement with District Attorney Glenn Funk to felony theft over $10,000 related to her affair with her former police bodyguard. Barry's resignation, which is part of the plea agreement, takes effect at 5 p.m. Vice Mayor David Briley will then be sworn in as Metro's eighth mayor Tuesday.... As part of her plea deal, Barry was sentenced to three years of probation and has agreed to reimburse the city $11,000 in unlawful expenses."
*****
Today's "presidential" news is surreal -- and definitely not "presidential." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Fred Kaplan of Slate: "The most remarkable thing about Russia's meddling in our democracy is that President Trump has done nothing about it. There are plenty of steps that he could have taken. There are people, including some working just steps away from the Oval Office who could have -- and may have -- advised him what to do. But Trump chose inaction." Kaplan runs down some of the actions the U.S. government could take -- or could have taken. ...
... Russian Threats/Trump Silence. David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "... the United States is still uncertain how to make use of its cyberweapons after spending billions of dollars to build an arsenal. It is concerned that the Russians -- along with the Chinese, the Iranians and the North Koreans -- could easily retaliate against any attack, striking American banks, utilities, stock markets and communications networks. And in the nuclear sphere, the Trump administration has yet to offer a strategy to contain or deter Russia beyond simply matching the weapons buildup. Mr. Trump himself has largely remained silent about his vision to contain Russian power, and has not expressed hope of luring Moscow into new rounds of negotiations to prevent a recurrent arms race."
Beset, Bothered & Beleaguered Is He. Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump questioned Monday morning why the Obama-era Justice Department launched an investigation into his campaign in the midst of the 2016 election, positing that then-President Barack Obama had sought to kneecap the Trump campaign and bolster that of Democrat Hillary Clinton. 'Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November?' Trump wrote on Twitter, leveling allegations that dispute previously reported details. 'Wanted to discredit so Crooked H would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate! Plus, Obama did NOTHING about Russian meddling.'... Trump's morning accusations against his predecessor run counter to public reporting that Obama's Justice Department was in the midst of investigating the Russian connections of Trump campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos as the 2016 campaign was ongoing.... Vice President Joe Biden ... recalled that the White House sought bipartisan help in warning the American people of the Kremlin's interference campaign but were rebuffed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a charge McConnell's office has denied." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Maybe this is what made Trump accuse President Obama of election-meddling ...
... Richard Paddock of the New York Times: "A Belarusian escort with close ties to a powerful Russian oligarch said from behind bars in Bangkok on Monday that she had more than 16 hours of audio recordings that could help shed light on Russian meddling in United States elections. The escort, Anastasia Vashukevich, said she would hand over the recordings if the United States granted her asylum. She faces criminal charges and deportation to Belarus after coming under suspicion of working in Thailand without a visa at a sex-training seminar in the city of Pattaya. Ms. Vashukevich, who described herself as close to the Russian aluminum tycoon Oleg V. Deripaska, said that audio recordings she made in August 2016 included discussions he had about the United States presidential election with people she declined to identify. Mr. Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, also has business ties to Paul J. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is the kind of story you're going to get, Trumpbots, when you put a mobster in the Oval. Go ahead, call it "populism." You're making me fondly recall the "scandal" of "Queen Nancy" Reagan's buying a lot of expensive White House china -- and not on the public's dime, either. ...
... OR This:
(In August 2016) Robert Hannigan, then the head of the U.K.'s intelligence service the G.C.H.Q., had recently flown to Washington and briefed the C.I.A.'s director, John Brennan, on a stream of illicit communications between Trump's team and Moscow that had been intercepted. -- Jane Mayer, New Yorker, March 5, 2018 (Also linked here yesterday.)
This is almost certainly the single most interesting sentence published today. -- Kevin Drum, March 5, 2018
... An Onion Dome on the White House. Charles Pierce: "In the piece [on Christopher Steele, Jane] Mayer reveals the existence of a second dossier prepared by Steele in which the president* is accused, essentially, of letting Russian officials have a veto over the people he picked for his candidate [Mrs. McC: Pierce means "cabinet"; P.D. Pepe, if you're feeling bad about making a similar mistake (see yesterday's Comments) don't -- everybody makes 'em]. (Jesus, Russians, couldn't you have stepped in on Zinke or DeVos. Give a brother a break here.)... Leaving aside the fact that this story has Mitt Romney at its center as a hero..., can we all stop pretending now that the current president* isn't at least half a Russian asset? He hasn't done a single thing to prove otherwise. And the guy he picked instead of Romney, the Putin-decorated oilman Rex Tillerson, is proving to be less of an impediment to the Volga Bagmen than the usual Secretary of State would be.... Seriously, what does this administration have to do to make it clearer that its interests don’t lie in protecting this country if the adversary in question is Russia? Stick an onion dome on the White House?" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Just yesterday I wrote that it was fair to describe Trump as a Russian asset; Pierce is halfway there. ...
... Time for a New Clinton-Russia "Scandal." John Solomon & Alison Spann of the Hill: "The Australian diplomat whose tip in 2016 prompted the Russia-Trump investigation previously arranged one of the largest foreign donations to Bill and Hillary Clinton's charitable efforts, documents show. Former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's role in securing $25 million in aid from his country to help the Clinton Foundation fight AIDS is chronicled in decade-old government memos archived on the Australian foreign ministry's website.... Downer, now Australia's ambassador to London, provided the account of a conversation with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos at a London bar in 2016 that became the official reason the FBI opened the Russia counterintelligence probe. But lawmakers say the FBI didn't tell Congress about Downer's prior connection to the Clinton Foundation. Republicans say they are concerned the new information means nearly all of the early evidence the FBI used to justify its election-year probe of Trump came from sources supportive of the Clintons, including the controversial Steele dossier." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This story is irrelevant for too many reasons to enumerate, but I won't be surprised to see Republicans & their TV apparatchiks tearing their hair out over this "proof" that "This Russia Thing" is all a "Democrat plot."
... So it turns out former Trump campaign advisor Sam Nunberg was the guy who, as we learned in Sunday's weird news, was passing around copies of his special counsel subpoena to the press. Then all this happened Monday:
... Sam Nunberg's 15 Minutes
Josh Dawsey & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg publicly defied the Justice Department special counsel on Monday, announcing in an extraordinary series of media interviews that he had been subpoenaed to appear in front of a federal grand jury investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election but that he will refuse to go. 'Let him arrest me,' Nunberg told The Washington Post in his first stop on a media blitz, saying he does not plan to comply with a subpoena from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to hand over emails and other documents related to President Trump and nine other current and former Trump advisers.... Refusing to comply with a subpoena from the special counsel could have real consequences. Susan McDougal, a former business partner of Bill Clinton, spent 18 months behind bars for civil contempt after she refused to testify before a grand jury investigating the Whitewater real estate controversy.... At the White House, officials quickly sought to distance the administration from Nunberg, who has not been in Trump's good graces since his firing in August 2015 over racially insensitive Facebook posts." ...
... Here's an example:
... Video of Katy Tur's interview of Nunberg is here. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nunberg's main objection to the subpoena -- which he expressed to both Tur & Tapper (update: and others) -- seems to be that it's too haaaard to go through all those e-mails. Update: Then he said he thought Mueller was setting him up to turn on his very sweet mentor Roger Stone & he refused to do that. ...
... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Sam Nunberg, a former political adviser to Donald Trump, said during a defiant live television interview that he'd risk arrest by refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller -- and also admitted that he thinks Mueller might have something on Trump." ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Sam Nunberg, an early political adviser to Donald Trump, had a very public meltdown on Monday afternoon, repeatedly daring special counsel Robert Mueller to greenlight his arrest and insinuating that his old boss, the president, did indeed do 'something' wrong during the campaign. 'You know [Trump] knew about it,' Nunberg said at one point during an interview with CNN, of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between campaign associates and Russian officials. 'He was talking about it a week before.... I don't know why he went around trying to hide it.'... Several of his friends told The Daily Beast they were concerned that he was putting himself in severe legal jeopardy by going on multiple live cable-news programs Monday afternoon. They also said that they were worried Nunberg had been drinking prior to dialing in to MSNBC and CNN." ...
... Chris Cillizza of CNN does us the favor of identifying "the 42 craziest quotes from Sam Nunberg's absolutely bonkers CNN interviews." ...
... Stephen Colbert explains everything. Thanks to MAG for the lead:
... Then again, maybe all these histrionics are just show. Maggie Haberman & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "There was no way to authenticate the subpoena.... Part of the subpoena document, which Mr. Nunberg provided to The New York Times, is dated Feb. 27 and makes no mention of requiring him to appear before the grand jury. It calls only for him to preserve documents from Nov. 1, 2015, through the present related to several people connected to the Trump campaign.... Mr. Nunberg added that the president often sounded 'like a moron, but this whole thing is a witch hunt.'" ...
... Oh, Wait. Wait. Wait. Axios (Monday at 9:45 pm ET): "Sam Nunberg, the former Trump campaign aide involved in a series of bizarre interviews today, now tells the Associated Press he's probably 'going to end up cooperating' with the Mueller probe."
*** UNFIT FOR OFFICE ***
Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the lede in a Politico story I skipped Sunday: "President Donald Trump said late Saturday during a speech at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington that 'we will be meeting' with North Korea, indicating that negotiations about a potential dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea continue to advance." Conducting international relations over Twitter is bad enough, but during a comedy routine? I decided not to take it seriously. Just as well:
Update. Jonathan Chait: "Saturday night, in the middle of a comic speech at the Gridiron Club, President Trump wandered into a completely serious riff about North Korea. 'It was headed for disaster and now we're talking,' he announced. 'They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago; they said, "We would like to talk,"' Trump said. 'And I said, "So would we, but you have to denuke."' [As it turns out,] "Trump was describing a conversation with South Korea. An official from the National Security Council tells Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean publication, that Trump 'was referring to his March 1 phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.'" ...
... That's right. The President of the United States, who has threatened to start World War III by bombing Some Korea, does not know the difference between North & South Korea. He was talking to the President of South Korea, but apparently thought -- based on his Gridiron remarks -- that he was talking to the leader of North Korea. I don't think one can understate the seriousness of this "mistake." ...
... Update Update. Wait. Wait. Wait. Derangement Works. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has told South Korean envoys that his country is willing to begin negotiations with the United States on abandoning its nuclear weapons and that it would suspend all nuclear and missile tests while it is engaged in such talks, South Korean officials said on Tuesday. During the envoys' two-day visit to Pyongyang, the North's capital, which ended on Tuesday, the two Koreas also agreed to hold a summit meeting between Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea on the countries' border in late April, Mr. Moon's office said in a statement."
International Crime, Inc. Confab. Ruth Eglash & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ... arrived at the White House early Monday afternoon, just hours after reports from Israel said a former media adviser and confidant has turned state's witness in a far-reaching bribery case. In what appeared to be a sign of the political importance of the session to Netanyahu, the White House changed plans Monday morning and announced that reporters and cameras would be allowed into what had been an Oval Office meeting closed to the press. Jared Kushner ... was expected to attend the session despite losing his top-level security clearance. Kushner is also under scrutiny for mixing his business and government interests, and faces possible legal peril in the special counsel investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kevin Liptak of CNN: "The traditional joint press conference that foreign leaders convene when visiting the White House was left off the schedule.... Trump offered no hint of concern at appearing alongside the scandal-plagued Netanyahu. Instead he offered an enthusiastic assessment of their ties." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Petty Crime. Katherine Sullivan for ProPublica: "In recent weeks, the Trump Organization has ordered the manufacture of new tee markers for golf courses that are emblazoned with the seal of the President of the United States. Under federal law, the seal's use is permitted only for official government business. Misuse can be a crime.... Versions of the seal have occasionally been put to personal use by past presidents.... In this case, the difference is that a private company is using the seal, said Richard Painter, vice chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington...." Thanks to MAG for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ana Cerrud & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "A worker with a crowbar on Monday pried the word 'Trump' from the sign in front of the only Trump-branded hotel in Latin America, after the building's owner said he'd won a legal fight to take control of it. The removal of the Trump name from the Trump International Hotel Panama came after a days-long standoff between the majority owner, Cypriot businessman Orestes Fintiklis, and the president's company. But the building's future remained uncertain: The Trump Organization said it could still retake control of the hotel.... On Monday, a Panamanian legal official visited the hotel with an escort of 15 police officers. After a long session in a back room, the legal official left without comment. The Washington Post sought unsuccessfully to determine what, exactly, she had decided."
Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "A $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star by ... Donald Trump's lawyer was flagged as suspicious and reported to the Treasury Department, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing a source familiar with the matter. Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime lawyer, sent the money through an account he created at First Republic Bank, the report says. Stephanie Clifford, known in her films as Stormy Daniels, received the money under the pseudonym Peggy Peterson, according to previous reports. The payment, which Cohen said he paid out of his own pocket, was given to Clifford as part of an agreement not to discuss an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. According to the Journal, people familiar with the matter in the report said that Cohen later complained to friends that he had not been reimbursed for the money he sent Clifford." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "It appears President Trump may have dodged the consequences of one shady habit, conducting extramarital affairs, by indulging in another unscrupulous habit: refusing to pay his employees." Hartmann also notes that one of the banks involved in the $130K transaction began its investigation about a year after the money transfer took place, suggesting the investigation could have been triggered by a subpoena or a regulator's inquiry.
Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump, facing an angry chorus of protests from leaders of his own party, including the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, insisted on Monday that he would not back down from his plan to impose across-the-board tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. But the White House was devising ways to potentially soften the impact of the measures on major trading partners. The intense maneuvering, which began before Mr. Trump's unexpected announcement of the tariffs last Thursday, is likely to delay any formal rollout of the measures until next week, according to several officials who have been briefed on the deliberations.... But a person close to the White House said that the president was itching to impose tariffs, and that Monday's stock market rebound had reassured Mr. Trump that he was in the right." ...
... Paul Krugman: "In the first place, the alleged legal justification for [Trump's] move was that the tariffs were needed to protect national security. After all, we can't be dependent for our aluminum on unstable, hostile foreign powers like ... Canada, our principal foreign supplier. (Canada is also our biggest foreign supplier of steel.)... The rationale for this policy was obviously fraudulent.... Meanwhile, in the days since Trump's announcement, he's tweeted out one falsehood after another.... He has, for example, declared that we have large trade deficits with Canada; actually, according to U.S. numbers, we run a small surplus. The Europeans, he says, impose 'massive tariffs' on U.S. products; the U.S. government guide to exporters tells us that 'U.S. exports to the European Union enjoy an average tariff of just three percent.'" ...
... Aaron Gregg & Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: Because national security is the only legal rationale Trump can use for imposing tariffs, he says that importing steel & aluminum is a threat to national security. Know who disagrees? U.S. defense contractors. ...
... Ana Swanson: "Paul D. Ryan, the Republican House speaker, criticized President Trump's proposed steel and aluminum tariffs on Monday, saying they could lead to a damaging trade war.... Mr. Trump has shown no sign that he plans to retreat from the trade action. On Monday, he used the tariffs to threaten two of the United States' closest trading partners, saying in a tweet that the tariffs would only 'come off' of Canada and Mexico if a new and 'fair' multilateral trade pact was signed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In case you're thinking all of a sudden it's Pauly Two Balls, think again: This from the Hill on Trump's steel & aluminum tariffs (March 1): "'The problem with any kind of tariff or tax hike on imports is that it doesn't make America more competitive or punish high-tax countries, it only hurts American industries by driving up manufacturing costs and, ultimately, costing jobs,' said Nathan Nascimento, executive vice president of Freedom Partners, a right-leaning group partly funded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch." AND this from NBC News today: "... the Club for Growth, an organization with close ties to the billionaire Koch Brothers, slammed Trump's plan as both a philosophical and economic failure." Pauly is just having trouble serving two masters.
Miranda Green of the Hill: "The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced last week that it will now consider all permits for importing elephant trophies from African nations on a 'case-by-case basis,' breaking from President Trump's earlier promises to maintain an Obama-era ban on the practice. In a formal memorandum issued on Thursday, FWS said it will withdraw its 2017 Endangered Species Act (ESA) findings for trophies of African elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia, 'effective immediately.'" Mrs. McC: I'd say Papa Trump has decided to let Baby Trump & Eric Trump go on another safari.
AND Ben Carson finds out that running a federal agency is harder than brain surgery. Mrs. McC: It isn't harder, Dr. Ben, it just takes a different skill set & different professional experience. You probably couldn't win Wimbledon, either. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brent Griffiths of Politico: "A federal judge in Maryland on Monday struck down a a challenge to ... Donald Trump's decision to end protections for undocumented immigrants, stating that while he does not agree with Trump's move, it is not his job to set immigration policy.... [Judge Roger] Titus' ruling strikes down a challenge from a number of individuals, known as Dreamers, along with a number of immigrant rights groups.... The Department of Justice praised the ruling and said it shines a light on similar actions others have taken to try to delay Trump's policies."
Senate Races. Sheryl Stolberg & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Thad Cochran, an octogenarian Republican from Mississippi who chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that he is resigning from the Senate on April 1 because of ill health -- a decision that will create two Senate races in his home state this November.... Senator Roger Wicker, the junior Republican senator from Mississippi, is already running for re-election this November and has drawn a primary challenge from the same firebrand state senator, Chris McDaniel, who nearly unseated Mr. Cochran in 2014. Mr. Cochran's retirement means that Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, will have 10 days to appoint an interim senator. A special election would then be held on Election Day in November to fill the rest of Mr. Cochran's term, which expires in 2020."
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Reader Comments (15)
Greatly regret I don't have time to pore through, even wallow in today's news.
Just this one thought.
Any think the Pretender will be granting Ms. Anastasia Vashukevich asylum any time soon?
"contain Russian power ". What does this really mean? What would we do to "contain Russian power"? What would Russia do to "contain American power"? We obviously can't contain any power by war or bombs, or even cyber attacks. We'll all be better off when the US recognizes that other nations have spheres of influence, which are caused mainly by needs for defense ... not War, but Defense.
Late last night Bea McCrab had posted quite a lot of updates for today and I took the time to watch the Jake Tapper video (worth putting off bedtime)...but, then minutes ago over my first morning coffee I caught Stephen Colbert's monologue. Great companion videos!
Like Sam, I too wonder if he still has a lawyer? And who hates Trump more than Nunberg? Colbert knows that answer! hahahahahaha! Whew!
Wowsa! Nunberg appears completely unhinged.
(Wonder if this behavior is what folks in the White House are experiencing from the inhabitant of the Oval Office???)
@Jack Fuller: Maybe you have to read Savage & Broad's whole article to understand what they mean here, tho I think it's fairly evident from the excerpt above. In any case, the writers are not exploring Russia's self-defense, as you suggest, but rather its offensive actions & postures toward the U.S.
@MAG: Exactly what I was thinking about Nunberg's performance: that it was a form of Trump flattery -- imitation. The difference of course is that the anchors questioned & disagreed with Nunberg & could throw him off the air if he got too wild, while the White House staff has to cower in their offices, of if they get caught in the maelstrom, repeatedly say, "Yes sir." And sometimes Trump is yelling AT them, not just yelling about Mueller or Session(s) or Hillary.
I don't feel sorry for anyone who chooses to go to work for Donald Trump, but I have to admit that every one who lasted longer than a week (and I think all of them have, including Scaramucci), has more fortitude than I have.
From above: "North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has told South Korean envoys that his country is willing to begin negotiations with the United States ..."
... now that anybody in the USG who knows anything about Korea and non-proliferation has left the building. Kim will probably insist that negotiations must be directly with DiJiT, a known idiot and patsy.
The display by Nunberg who obviously had a bit of the bubbly or one too many G.&T's was frankly pretty funny. Considering the people that Trump chose to surround him during his campaign (and afterwards) it would be no exaggeration to say they have the stink of three day old fish.
"I choose the best people, believe me, I choose the best!"
Jane Mayer's piece on Steele is such excellent reportage––once again she proves one of the best. The harm that this man has had to put up with because of the republican idiots––Grassley and Graham should be ashamed––and because of the right-wing media is so egregious and so unfair and is–– so totally NUTS!
If Trump was serious about nominating Mittens for Sec. of State but that decision was thwarted (read encouraged?) by Putin that's a biggie! Hard to prove, I would think. We do know that Tillerson's reckless defunding of the State Department has precipitated a drastic drop in morale, an attrition of invaluable career officials, and a steep decline in the U.S.'s diplomatic capacity and performance. All something Putin would want in order to dismantle our nation's equilibrium –-such as it is.
P.S. Admissions, Emissions, always the two combine. Thanks MAG for picking that up and glad it gave you a chuckle––we need as many as we can get these days.
Patrick wrote: "Kim will probably insist that negotiations must be directly with DiJiT, a known idiot and patsy."
And at the meeting, Trump will likely have to ask "Are you the north guy or the south guy? I get confused."
Also, imagine the reaction of Moon Jae In talking on the phone with Trump, who had no idea who he was, demanding that he "denuke" (is that the official term?) before they meet. He must have thought he was talking to a crazy person.
Oh wait, he was!
And now that Kim has agreed to the possibility of giving up his nuclear weapons program, look for Trump and his lackeys to spin his enormous error as a wily move that paid off.
Day after day, there is a deluge of news coming out of this administration, or because of it, that ranges back and forth, drunkenly, from stupid to scary and back to stupid again, with many detours into the criminal and the treasonous. And not to beat a dead horse, but a single one of these events or statements, had it been connected to Obama, would have Confederates, Fox, and the entire winger blogosphere and media apparatus screaming for impeachment and criminal investigations. Imagine a news item that Obama had let the Russians pick his secretary of state (well, okay, they certainly wouldn't have picked Clinton, that's for sure), or had no idea which world leader he was talking to when he asked him to "denuke". OR, much worse, if he stuck his fingers in his ears and sang "Lalalalala, I can't hear you..." when told Russia was hacking American elections.
They'd get a rope.
But Trump? They all shrug and say, "Oh, that's just Donald being Donald." Or worse, "Yeah, ain't he great?"
So I have a question about this tariff kerfuffle.
The little dictator, flying off the handle and declaring the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum, is now waving around a national security provision in a 1962 law as authority for this move. So, okay, national security.
Then someone tells him that his big idea will hurt our closest trading partners, Canada and Mexico much more than China, his original target. So then he decides he can blackmail those countries into agreeing to any and all changes he decides he wants to NAFTA, by dangling the possibility of some kind of waiver.
If it's all about national security, how does that square with allowing an out for a simple trade agreement with neighboring countries? It's either a national security issue or it's not. Can he really get away with a "Oh, never mind"?
This idiot thinks he's so smart and cagey ("best dealmaker evah!"), but he's stupid--on a galactic level. Nothing is thought through. Policy decisions are made on the fly based on pique and resentment, and in the complete absence of fact, law, precedence, and history. Trump has set the bar for "Worst President Ever" so high, I can't imagine anyone coming close. He makes an incurious piece of shit asshole like The Decider look positively Jeffersonian.
It seems likely that most of Trump's "expert" opinions on business and trade come not from actually being a smart, successful person in those fields, but from sitting on the sideline watching others and griping and complaining that he could do it much better. But many of his forays into business have been total flops. Others have ended in bankruptcy and legal battles. Of course, the long list of failures is not his fault.
He touts himself as a real estate titan, but do a search for most important real estate developers in New York and he never shows up (we won't mention that real estate owners in other parts of the world are now busy prying his name off their properties). In a list of the top 100, the Observer lists Mr. Tiny Hands at 87 out of 100. He inherited a successful, if racist, operation from his dad and started out on third base, demanding that everyone acknowledge that he hit a triple. Along the way, he picked up a raft of half baked ideas about economics, trade, and business that his own narcissism translates as genius level concepts. In fact, most of them are crackpot bullshit ideas.
He's like that guy at the end of the bar who yells at the TV when his baseball team is playing, complaining about every managerial move, every trade, every strategy, drunkenly declaring that he could manage that team to the World Series. Then you listen to some of his ideas and you realize that parents would petition for his removal from a Little League team after a single game.
This is Trump. He's been sitting on the sidelines yelling at the TV. But now, unlike Mr. Baseball Expert, he actually IS in charge.
And what a fucking mess.
There really should be some kind of test of basic knowledge for presidential candidates. You have to take a test to get into college, why not the White House? Or just give them the same test given to candidates for US citizenship. Trump would be asked to board the next boat out of the country. In addition, candidates should be given a general knowledge test. They don't have to know the exact terms of the Peace of Westphalia but they should know what century the Thirty Years War took place in, the difference between circumference and diameter, and be able to identify an adverb in a sentence.
Just think of all the wasted time we'd save by instantly eliminating the real morons in a race (these tests would later have to be passed by vice presidential candidates as well, so adios, Sarah Palin and her "Paul Revere warned the British!" proclamation about American history).
Just imagine if that test was handled by Alex Trebek. He'd have to give Palin one of his patented "Ohhh...noo..Paul Revere warned the Americans."
Ready, candidates? (Cue "Jeopardy" music.)
Given the gravity of our current predicament, brought about in part by federal employees trying to avoid violating the Hatch Act (Comey by omission, Lynch), and those who brazenly violate it with impunity (Comey, Nikki Haley, Kellyanne), it seems this rule has no teeth. Does the OSC have the authority to enforce it? Apparently only through the approval of the president. If so, what are the consequences? Apparently it amounts to a wrist slap and being sent to one's room without desert.
Kudos to Wikipedia editors who are quick to add todays violation to the list.
@AK: A test for prospective presidents and vice presidents––what a novel idea. Seems to me this was batted about in regards to voters in the good old days–-then to prevent certain dark skinned people from voting–-now to test if someone is actually capable of voting. We have a system --the longest than any other country–-that candidates for that presidency campaign forever and a day and in that time we, the voters, should learn everything we can about those candidates. Did we, in this instance, know that Trump was a doofus of the first order? YES! So even if prospective wanabees have been sussed out before hand there are those that like-em that way–- dumb, mean and ornery and will vote for them. Of course there is that spiffy electoral college––how bout tests for for them?
Here's something that gets lost in the duplicity of our day to days:
Will and Jaden Smith’s eco-friendly water company, JUST, is vowing to donate water each month to Flint, Michigan, schools until the city’s water is drinkable again.
Will and Jaden Smith founded JUST in 2015 to provide a green alternative to plastic bottles and to invest in communities. JUST’s bottles are 82 percent plant-based, and the company has initiated long-term investments in Glen Falls, New York, the city where the water is sourced.
The company has already donated 9,200 bottles to Flint. After reading about how the city’s water crisis affected its public schools, JUST’s CEO, Ira Laufer, decided the donations were simply necessary.
“This just makes sense for us to do,” Laufer told MLive. “After reading more about [Flint’s] challenges and the mayor objecting to pulling bottled water from the schools, we thought, ‘Let’s help these kids.’”
Yeah–-why not. Amazing how so many issues go by the wayside because we are hit with political bombs every day.
Regarding the avowed candidacy of wingnut white supremacist, secessionist Chris McDaniel for the Mississippi Senate seat soon to be vacated by the retiring Thad Cochran, Marie wrote "Not sure why someone who advocates for secession would even want to be a U.S. senator."
Me neither. That is, if they were serious and honest about their beliefs. But here's an idea. Secession is whined about by the most virulent, dangerous, anti-democratic, anti-American white supremacist thugs. Politicians who have dangled their tiny peenies in that water to show the KKK'ers and haters that they are one of them are all about play-acting. Anyone with a sliver of brain matter knows that a state like Mississippi, already one of the biggest moochers on the backs of productive blue state Americans who pay most of their bills, would fold faster than a bent strut camp chair if it seceded. Secession means states in the deep south would have a GDP far south of Eritrea, South Sudan, or Burundi.
No sentient being in the deep south, no matter how much they hate black people, liberals, immigrants, or Barack Obama want to try to go it alone without the billions of dollars in handouts from New York, California, Massachusetts, or Illinois.
"Secession" is a hard-core Confederate shibboleth that indicates to the droolers, idiots, and whacko militia douchebags that you are one of them. The fact that Chris McDaniel has, in the past, punched his bus ticket for secession but now says that never happened is the clearest indication possible that he is nothing but a lying, cheating, con man, out to gull the rubes and fill his pockets with their money while trying to slither his way into a seat in the United States Senate.
Another asshole. One of many.
Bye, bye Gary Cohen. To be replaced by Peter "The Last Mercantilist" Navarro? We are doomed.