;)
The Commentariat -- March 8, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Elana Schor of the AP: "Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday rolled out a proposal to break up the biggest U.S. technology companies, saying they have too much control over the economy and Americans' lives. In her pitch to rein in the influence of tech giants, the Massachusetts senator envisions legislation targeting companies with annual worldwide revenue of $25 billion or more, limiting their ability to expand and forcing parts of Google and Amazon's current business structure to operate as separate entities. As president, Warren said she would pick regulators who would seek to break up what she called' anti-competitive mergers' such as Facebook's recent purchase of Instagram and Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods."
Gabby Orr of Politico: "... Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of his communications director, Bill Shine, a former Fox News executive who had spent just nine months on the job. Shine will join the president's re-election campaign as a 'senior adviser' -- a role that will allow him to spend 'more time with my family,' he said in a statement Friday, seeming to suggest something less than a senior leadership role in the campaign. It was not immediately clear if the president urged Shine to resign, nor the extent to which he will be directly involved if Trump's 2020 operation, which had already added several senior communications officials in the last month. Shine is the sixth White House communications director to come and go in just over two years of Trump's presidency.... A 22-year veteran of the television industry, Shine joined Trump's team just two months after he was accused of helping Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, cover up several instances of sexual harassment and misconduct that rocked the conservative network and forced Ailes's ouster.... Trump soon wound up grousing that Shine -- who was absent last week during Trump's nuclear summit in Vietnam -- hadn't managed to improve Trump's image or his fraught relationship with the White House press corps." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump wants to improve his image, he should resign. In his resignation speech, he should apologize for all his venal acts, his ignorance, his cruelty, his incompetence & his ten lies a day. And he should take mike pence down with him.
Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "The House on Friday passed legislation that would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, as Democrats have made obtaining President Trump's tax returns one of their top priorities. The tax-return disclosure requirement was included in House Democrats' wide-ranging election-reform bill, known as H.R. 1, which passed on a party-line vote of 234-193. H.R. 1 is not expected to receive a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate."
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday claimed Michael Cohen asked him directly' for a pardon, an allegation that would contradict the former Trump lawyer and fixer's congressional testimony last week.... 'Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen said under sworn testimony that he never asked for a Pardon. His lawyers totally contradicted him. He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!'... Trump tweeted." ...
... Update. Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Cohen took to Twitter minutes later to deny the accusation. 'Just another set of lies by @POTUS @realdonaldtrump. Mr. President' he wrote, before invoking the women whose hush money payments he helped facilitate. 'Let me remind you that today is #InternationalWomensDay. You may want use today to apologize for your own #lies and #DirtyDeeds to women like Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford.'"
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday seized on a portion of a federal judge's remarks during the sentencing of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a financial crimes case to again criticize the Russia investigation and falsely declare a finding of 'no collusion.'... 'Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House & Senate Intelligence & Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!'... Speaking to reporters before he left for Alabama to inspect tornado damage, Mr. Trump said that the sentencing judge, T.S. Ellis III of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., had said 'there was no collusion with Russia.' Mr. Trump added that he was 'very honored' Judge Ellis made that statement. Mr. Trump, however, twisted Judge Ellis's words. What Judge Ellis actually said Thursday was that Mr. Manafort was 'not before this court for anything having to do with collusion with the Russian government to influence this election.'... Mr. Manafort's attorneys used the same false talking point as the president on Thursday, saying in a brief statement after the hearing, 'There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved in any collusion with any government official or Russia.'" ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday said he feels 'very badly' for Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to four years in prison for financial crimes unearthed by special counsel Robert Mueller, but added he has not discussed a pardon for his former campaign chairman. 'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it's a very, very tough time for him,' he told reporters at the White House." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Will someone please tell that bigly idiot that he "feels bad" for all his criminal friends who got caught, unless he means that he can't touch them with his tiny hands.
Brian Melley of the AP: "A federal judge on Thursday tossed out porn actress Stormy Daniels' lawsuit against ... Donald Trump that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair. U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed not to penalize Daniels for violating a nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment."
Alexi McCammond of Axios: "From a White House source, the House Oversight Committee has obtained documents related to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's security clearances that the Trump administration refused to provide, according to a senior Democratic aide involved in handling the documents.... The White House this week rejected the committee's request for documents on the process for granting security clearances to staffers.... But the House Oversight Committee in early February had already obtained the leaked documents that detail the entire process, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2018, on how both Kushner and Trump were ultimately granted their security clearances." Mrs. McC: I'm thinking the leaked docs may not contain the smoking guns the committee needs.
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Donald Trump’s inauguration received tens of thousands of dollars from shell companies that masked the involvement of a foreign contributor or others with foreign ties. The Guardian has identified the creators of three obscure firms that contributed money to Trump's inaugural committee, which collected a record $107m as he entered the White House in 2017. The three companies each gave $25,000 to Trump's inaugural fund. At least one of the contributions was made for a foreign national who appears ineligible to make political donations in the US."
Eli Honig of CNN: "... Judge Ellis's sentence is an injustice. It fails to adequately punish Manafort for committing a series of deliberate crimes over many years, and it sends terrible messages to the public about our criminal justice system.... [The] sentence sends a corrosive two-pronged message to the American public. First, Manafort openly flouted the criminal justice system at every step and still got an enormous break. Following his arrest, Manafort got caught trying to tamper with witnesses, which caused Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, DC, to revoke his bail and send him to jail to await trial. He went to trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he denied culpability but was found guilty by a jury on eight counts. He then pleaded guilty to even more crimes and purported to try to cooperate with Mueller, but instead told more lies to Mueller and the FBI. Even today at sentencing, the judge found that Manafort did not accept responsibility.... Manafort committed crimes repeatedly, deliberately, and over many years, stealing millions of dollars from the US government to support his absurdly lavish lifestyle...."
Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Department of Homeland Security and the House Homeland Security Committee are investigating whether U.S. border agents have been targeting journalists for questioning, according to a statement from Customs and Border Protection and a letter to CBP from the chair of the committee. The statement and letter were in response to an exclusive story from NBC News and San Diego's KNSD-TV story that revealed CBP officials in the San Diego sector had compiled a list of 59 reporters, lawyers and activists to be pulled aside for further screening when crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The list includes 10 journalists, seven of them U.S. citizens, a U.S.-based attorney and others labeled as organizers and 'instigators,' 31 of whom are American."
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trump Scandals, Ctd. -- "An Otherwise Blameless Life" Edition -- Plus Bonus New Sex Scandal
In case the Manafort sentence is too much of a bummer for you, here's a new Trump sex scandal to cheer you up. And no, Reality Chex is still not the Onion:
The Company He Keeps. Sarah Blaskey, et al., of the Miami Herald: "Seated at a round table littered with party favors and the paper-cutout footballs that have become tradition at his annual Super Bowl Watch Party..., Donald Trump cheered the New England Patriots and his longtime friend, team owner Robert Kraft, to victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3. Sometime during the party at Trump's West Palm Beach country club, the president turned in his chair to look over his right shoulder, smiling for a photo with two women at a table behind him. The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments -- many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas -- have gained a reputation for offering sexual services. Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, authorities would charge Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier." ...
... Flashback to February. New York Post: "President Trump ... said he was surprised' that Robert Kraft was busted for patronizing a sleazy massage parlor in Florida -- but emphasized that his billionaire buddy 'has denied it.'
Manafort Gets a Slap on the Wrist. Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Paul Manafort, who once served as President Trump's campaign chairman, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud — a spectacular fall for a once high-flying political consultant who told the judge he is now humiliated and ashamed. Manafort had faced up to 24 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis called that calculation 'excessive' and sentenced him instead to 47 months. Ellis noted that he must consider the entirety of Manafort's life when issuing a sentence, noting Manafort has been 'a good friend' and a 'generous person' but that 'can't erase the criminal activity.' Manafort's tax crimes, the judge said, were 'a theft of money from everyone who pays taxes.' But the judge expressed some sympathy for Manafort.... 'He's lived an otherwise blameless life,' Ellis said. The judged noted Manafort has no past crimina history and 'earned the admiration of a number of people' who wrote letters to the court support Manafort.... 'The last two years have been the most difficult years for my family and I,' Manafort told the judge [before sentencing]. 'To say that I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.'... Speaking from his chair, Manafort did not apologize for his crimes, but thanked the judge for how he had conducted the trial." ...
... The New York Times story, by Sharon LaFraniere, is here. ...
For context on Manafort's 47 months in prison, my client yesterday was offered 36-72 months in prison for stealing $100 worth of quarters from a residential laundry room. -- Public Defender Scott Hechinger, in a tweet ...
... Dennis Romero of NBC News: "Legal observers were surprised by the relatively light, 47-month sentence received Thursday by ... Paul Manafort.... With time served, Thursday's sentence means Manafort could spend a little more than three years behind bars for this case.... Many ... observers highlighted the disparity between punishments for white-collar crime like Manafort's and street crime, and between the sentences for wealthy people and everyone else. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said, 'In our current broken system, '"justice" isn't blind, it's bought.' Rob Flaherty, who has worked for progressive advocacy organizations, tweeted a link to an article about a black man getting sentenced to 12 years in Mississippi for medical marijuana he bought legally in another state.... 'Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines,' Harvard Law School professor and Trump critic Laurence Tribe tweeted." ...
... ** Franlin Foer of the Atlantic: "In an otherwise blameless life, he acted with impunity, as if the laws never applied to him. When presented with a chance to show remorse to the court, he couldn't find that sentiment within his being. And with Ellis's featherweight punishment, which deviated sharply downward from the sentencing guidelines, Manafort managed to bring his life's project to a strange completion. He had devoted his career to normalizing corruption in Washington. By the time he was caught, his extraordinary avarice had become so commonplace, that not even a federal judge could blame him for it." Read the whole post. Foer reprises a number of things Manafort has done "in an otherwise blameless life." Mrs. McC: One suspects that Judge Ellis is either senile or sequestered.
Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday doubled down on his assertion he did not break the law when he involved himself in a scheme to pay two women who alleged in the lead-up to the 2016 election that they had extramarital affairs with him. 'It was not a campaign contribution, and there were no violations of the campaign finance laws by me. Fake News!' Trump tweeted." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for President Trump, sued the Trump Organization on Thursday. He accused the company of breaking a contract when it refused to pay about $1.9 million in legal costs after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said that the Trump Organization had failed to live up to an agreement to pay for any legal fees or related costs Mr. Cohen incurred in his work with the Trump Organization. Mr. Cohen is also seeking reimbursement for an additional $1.9 million he was ordered to pay in fines, forfeiture and restitution after he pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, evading taxes and lying to Congress, the lawsuit said.... The lawsuit said Mr. Cohen and the Trump Organization had entered an agreement under which the company would pay for Mr. Cohen's legal fees and costs arising from investigations being conducted by Congress and by Robert S. Mueller III...."
The Last Parse (Maybe). Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Michael Cohen ... asked one of his attorneys last summer to inquire with an attorney representing the president about receiving a pardon, Cohen's spokesman Lanny Davis told ABC News Thursday.... Cohen, at the time, was part of a joint defense agreement with the president and many of his advisers. 'Prior to Michael Cohen's decision to leave the "Joint Defense Group" and tell the truth on July 2, 2018, Michael was open to the ongoing "dangling" of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media,' Davis said. 'During that time period, he directed his attorney to explore possibilities of a pardon at one point with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as other lawyers advising President Trump. But after July 2, 2018, Mr. Cohen authorized me as a new lawyer to say publicly Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from President Trump even if offered,' Davis said, adding, 'That continues to be the case.' Davis' revelation appears to contradict testimony Cohen provided to the House Oversight Committee last week. 'I have never asked for it, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump,' Cohen told the panel in his opening statement. Davis pointed to nuances in Cohen's testimony.... 'But the sentence was also literally true,' Davis argued. '[Cohen] never asked President Trump for a pardon. His lawyer explored the disingenuous "dangle" repeatedly floated by Rudy and Trump in one meeting and never followed up.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course that's not the last parse. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) was on the teevee Thursday night and said that when the transcript of Cohen's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee is released (which it will be), readers will understand why Cohen's sworn testimony is consistent with the pardon "exploration" story.
"Nothing Ever Happened." Noah Bierman & Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: "The president's legal team has prepared a roughly 80-page counter-report that could be released in whole or in part depending on what Mueller alleges [in his anticipated report], according to Rudolph W. Giuliani.... For example, Giuliani said, if Mueller mentions the notorious June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York involving three top Trump aides -- his son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- and a Kremlin-linked lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, 'we would point out that nothing ever happened and it never went anywhere.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Officials and staffers in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said they were not read in on the details of Jared Kushner's trip to Saudi Arabia or the meetings he held with members of the country's royal court last week, according to three sources with knowledge of the trip. And that's causing concern not only in the embassy but also among members of Congress.... Kushner ... met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman.... But no one from the embassy in Riyadh was in the meetings, according to those same sources. The State Department did have a senior official in attendance, but he was not part of the State Department team in Saudi.... The embassy was largely left in the dark on the details of Kushner's schedule and his conversations with Saudi officials, according to two individuals with knowledge of the trip...."
Opheli Lawler of New York: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen "Nielsen's responses seemed to indicate that the secretary was either not aware of the severity of the treatment of migrants in the United States -- particularly children -- or she was intentionally giving misleading answers to obfuscate the endless reports of abuse against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol.... 'There was no parent who has been deported to my knowledge without multiple opportunities to take their children with them,' Nielsen said. Nielsen's statement directly contradicts multiple news reports detailing traumatic deportations of parents who were separated from their children at the border and may never be reunited. Later, when being questioned by Representative Lauren Underwood, about the research showing that family separation can be traumatizing for children, Nielsen again claimed to be unaware of the specific effects of Trump's zero-tolerance policies." (Also linked yesterday.)
Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "The State Department rescinded a prestigious award to a Finnish investigative journalist after U.S. officials combed through her social media posts and found she frequently criticized ... Donald Trump. Journalist Jessikka Aro has faced death threats and harassment after exposing Russia's propaganda machine well before the 2016 presidential election, and the U.S. State Department decided to present her with the International Women of Courage Award, reported Foreign Policy. Aro was told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would present her with the award in Washington, D.C., but weeks later the offer was rescinded due to what a department spokesman called a 'regrettable error.' However, Aro and U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations say the offer was over the reporter's social media criticism of the president. 'It created a shitstorm of getting her unceremoniously kicked off the list,' said one U.S. diplomatic source. 'I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels (and) had nothing to do with her work.' It's not clear whether the decision to revoke the award came from Pompeo or the White House."
The Remarkable Rewards for Posing as a Trump-Loving Prop. Ray Sanchez & Rene Marsh of CNN: "Lynne Patton, a longtime Trump family associate who made a controversial appearance at last week's House hearing with Michael Cohen, says she has the President's blessing to follow in his footsteps as a reality TV star, even as she serves as a high-ranking federal housing official. Patton's appearance on a still-developing show about black Republicans would come during her tenure as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's regional director for New York and New Jersey, which provides rental assistance to more than 800,000 vulnerable households and homeless services to more than 80,000 people. Asked if she has Trump's approval, Patton said, 'Yes.'"
Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a far-reaching resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry, which Democratic leaders brought to a vote in hopes of quelling the uproar that erupted after one of their own, Representative Ilhan Omar, insinuated that backers of Israel exhibit dual loyalty. 'I see everything as an opportunity,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday before the House voted, 407-23, for her resolution. 'This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements,' and 'white supremacist attitudes.' All 'no' votes were Republican. Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican who was stripped of his committee assignments this year after years of bigoted comments, voted present."
Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the next Democratic president should seriously' consider adding additional seats to the United States Supreme Court should they be elected alongside a Democratic majority in the Senate. The comments came during a discussion Holder held with the Yale Law National Security Group.... The one 2020 Democratic candidate who has said that court packing should be a consideration is South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course this would work only with a Democratic-controlled Senate as Republicans would never seat additional justices. I'm not sure about packing the Supreme Court, but I feel strongly that the next Democratic president should add more lower court judges. We keep hearing about how the courts are overworked, causing long delays. So let's add judges & staff to take up the slack.
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Florida jury on Thursday found a former police officer, Nouman K. Raja, guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a black man who had been waiting for help on a highway after his car broke down, lawyers for the man's family said. One of the lawyers, Benjamin L. Crump, announced on Twitter that Mr. Raja had been found guilty of both counts against him: manslaughter by culpable negligence and attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. The 2015 killing of the man, Corey Jones, a 31-year-old musician and housing inspector, drew national attention as one in a series of killings of black men by the police. The encounter also highlighted Florida's so-called Stand You Ground law, which Mr. Raja's lawyer had cited in his defense."
News Lede
Bloomberg News: "U.S. hiring was the weakest in more than a year while wage gains were the fastest of the expansion and the unemployment rate fell, a possible sign that America's jobs engine is starting to slow down. Treasuries rose while the dollar and stock futures fell. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 20,000 after an upwardly revised 311,000 gain the prior month, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for an increase of 180,000. Average hourly earnings rose a better-than- projected 3.4 percent from a year earlier, while the jobless rate declined to 3.8 percent, near a five-decade low."
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Reader Comments (17)
Florida's "Stand your ground law" should be called the "Shoot it out you ninneyhammers law". The gun carrying riff raff are shooting people over parking places and in
road rage. Most citizens do not carry arms and are probably surprised or dead when one of the armed nuts shoots them. The shooter can claim he was threatened and law requires the prosecutor to prove otherwise.
Western movies be damned in the 1860s and 70s, guns were carried by lawmen, people protecting assets and thieves and nuts. After all these years nothing has changed.
I wonder if Great Leader Putin had a hand in torpedoing the Finnish writer's award for journalism? I think it goes beyond her "criticizing" our thin-skinned Grape of Wrath, which was clearly the central argument that she couldn't be awarded. But beyond that, recognizing her reporting also shines the light on Putin's serial election meddling AND highlights his ongoing number one achievement: giving Agent Orange a leg up in his own horse race, and keeping that winning horse tamed and on track to providing Mother Russia future victories.
All of those sorded truths are better left mestastisizing beneath the click bait distractions of pornstar shade, a topic secretly reveled by the obese asshole in the White House and all his deplorable supporters wishing they could pull off the same scandals behind their wives' backs.
A true man of the people, holding steady at nearly 50% approval rating, ready to rip holes in Democrats for the next few years to the thrill of his motivated-by-hate audience of barbarians, Neanderthals, degenerates, and, I assume, a few fine people, on his way to a nail-biting election in which he likely won't cede defeat.
@safari: And I wonder, since Trump finds being president much too taxing and is only really, really happy when he's addressing (lying to) large crowds of sycophants why would he want another four years? He's had his day in the sun, proven that he's the bestest ever and that he's made America, perhaps not great, but darn near up there in the ten quality. The only reason I can come up with that makes any sense is that he knows he's gonna get it! knows sooner or later the jig is up and he won't be able to fudge the facts any longer. He figures as long as he's president they can't touch him––a soft blanket of protection comes with the job––-so he thinks as he sallies forth undeterred.
And someone like Judge Ellis––another bloke who is too long at the fair–- would give him a slap on the wrist, give him a light sentence at a posh prison and praise him for "living an otherwise blameless life."
You want to see inequality at work? What went down yesterday in Judge Ellis's court room brings it front and center.
'we would point out that nothing ever happened and it never went anywhere.'”
I attempted to rob a bank once, but I misplaced my holdup note and left instead. So, technically, I'm an innocent man.
@Dan Lowery: Good to see Rudy is helping you understand the American system of justice.
And if you're a white guy, T.S. Ellis has a backup get-out-of-jail card for you: should a pesky jury not find you "technically innocent," you've led "an otherwise blameless life." No apologies necessary.
"It's all about the Benjamins, Baby! " Who knew Puff Daddy would come up with such a winner.
I am seething about this "Show Vote" on anti–Semitism and Hate resolution passed in the House. I just learned that The resolution was originated by two New York Democrats who are among Congress’s most longstanding pro-Israel diehards: Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey. Both endorsed George W. Bush’s Iraq invasion. Both opposed Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. Both supported Donald Trump’s move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
And we thought if the Dems took over the House wees were gonna have a real tea party with cakes and stuff. Turns out there are some deep divisions and this Israel business cuts down into the depths. For some, like Eliot and Nita, it don't matter none that for 40 years Israel has been ruled by a series of right-wing governments and more and more openly racist and abusive of Palestinian rights. The fact that there are those in Congress unable to criticize Israel and APAC for its funding influences and demonize someone like Omar for speaking out is not only undemocratic but dangerous.
Good to see progressive Jews rushing to her defense.
Don't know much about this Ellis fellow but it's obvious he ain't a stellar Solomon. There were hints of that before during the trial, but this "otherwise blameless" bit, this out-of-the-blue, just-made-up element reminds me of something else. There a whole lot of this just make it up stuff going around.
Beyond the obvious fact that Manafort's entire public and economic life was a hustle and a sham and that he defrauded banks' depositors while he deliberately stole millions of dollars from the taxpayers (you, me and da judge), how does the judge know how otherwise blameless he was?
Did he order an investigation and act on the results? Does he have pictures of the haloes?
Seems this decision was as fact-based as most of of the current administration's policies, just as authoritarian, as arbitrary, and as off-the-mark.
It's an outbreak worse than the measles.
@Ken Winkes: Ellis is a Reagan appointee. You remember Reagan. He freed Jews from concentration camps & taught us trees cause more pollution that cars do.
Line of the day award, so far (well, after "Otherwise blameless life"), goes to Carlyle for "Shoot it out, you ninnyhammers".
And ninnyhammers abound. In Kentucky now, they don't even need permits to carry concealed weapons. Not only that, but there is no requirement for training either.
Step 1: buy gun.
Step 2: forget about training.
Step 3: hide it on your person.
Step 4: pull it out anywhere and blast away at some other ninnyhammer.
No training, no permit, conceal, carry, and shoot.
Who could argue with that logic?
Marie,
And don't forget: ketchup is a vegetable.
Return of the 400 lb. Guy
While we all commiserate with that nice Paul Manafort for having to spend a single day behind bars for helping dictators murder innocent men, women, and children, and making a bundle off it, leave us not forget that Trump's BFF Vladmir Putin--and his hackers--is hard at work getting ready to diddle the 2020 election. It's in the bag, Donald.
But more importantly, we should consider what happened at a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2017. Plant operations were disrupted in an odd way one day. Then it happened again. They called in some cybersecurity investigators. And then they found Triton.
Triton (so named because of the sophisticated, supposedly secure system hackers infiltrated, called Triconex) is an intricately constructed malware bug designed to infiltrate critical "safety instrumented systems", such as those found at reactor sites, in refineries, and in industrial chemical plants like the Union Carbide operation in Bhopal, India, where thousands were killed by a poison gas leak in 1984.
Triton gives an extremely well funded, mature hacking operation the ability to wrest complete control of such systems away from plant operators and do things like release chemicals, blow up refineries, and start unstoppable reactions. This is hacking weaponized at an industrial level with the capability of killing thousands, maybe millions without a single boot on the ground or fighter jet in the sky.
And guess who's doing it?
Investigators, after drilling down into the bug, found traces of files remaining in the system. The code was in Cyrillic. They also found an IP address. "That address was registered to the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics in Moscow, a government-owned organization with divisions that focus on critical infrastructure and industrial safety."
This is not some pimply faced kid in his mom's basement. This is state funded terrorism.
Russia has already demonstrated its ability and inclination to mess with sovereign states. It interfered with our elections on behalf of Donald Trump and it created havoc in Ukraine by taking down its power grid. And our president still believes all of this is the doings of a 400 lb. guy sitting on his bed somewhere.
As with any bad situation, you can't do much about it until you admit there's a problem. Our problems could get much worse. Investigators have determined that the creators of Triton are likely looking at targets in North America. Reasonable people--experts in the field--have, for years, been sounding the alarm for the United States to take these threats seriously. We have been. Up until now of course. We need to be concerned about "the rise of nation-state hackers with the time, money, and motivation to target critical infrastructure..."
As long as the president refuses to believe that his BFF is building cyber weapons that can do much worse than screw with elections, we're stuck.
And worse? One of the reasons the investigators were able to uncover Triton was a glitch in the software. The really scary thing is that had it been a different kind of glitch, shit could have gotten real very quickly. Had the glitch triggered a release valve, toxic chemicals could have been shot into the atmosphere surrounding the plant. Or had it been a reactor, coolant systems around the core could have been shut down. These guys make mistakes too, and the wrong kind of mistake could mean a catastrophe that wasn't planned.
A different sort of catastrophe is believing this is all the work of that 400 lb guy.
What PD Pepe said.
It's clearer than ever that the viral Trump cancer is Making America Grate Again.
A few editorials lately have been pointing out Drumpf's losing streak as of late, ie Exploding deficit, failed NK summit, more families clamoring at the border, never ending trade wars, bungled tax cut, close confidants going to jail, exposing his criminalities....
It shouldn't be forgotten that even liberals don't want to see their president fail, especially the step on the rake style stupidity that brings a black eye to the whole country.
Yet all these accumulating black eyes are keeping the Confederate Party on edge and further on the attack, blowing fumes to misdirect attention at ever faster intervals, facts and truth be damned.
Drumpf's abject failures also kick his asswipe foot soldiers into gear, for revealing his incompetence exposes their ignorance for following a con man to the cliff. So they, too, spread hate speech and sow division on social media at every 5 minute break they get at work, denigrating their common (wo)man for simply wanting to restore decency in public life.
This endless stream of hateful rhetoric and hateful policies throw the few citizens interested in improving our country as a whole into downward spirals of doubt and even depression-like symptoms.
So we put our faith in Mueller who drags his feet and remains mute while our democracy is under attack, its institutions under daily assault from the aforementioned hate-mongers. And the first significant con man to fall in Mueller's dominos gets a recommendation letter rather than a rebuke by a federal judge, further lowering the low expectations we have in our system of "blind justice" where wealthy white men can run amok while we all look on with pride-filled hearts singing the praise of "God Bless America", unsure of which America we're really singing to.
Whenever I see the name T.S. Ellis, something in my brain says "Oh, T.S. Eliot!". That, of course, is far off the mark, but thoughts of the Wasteland are not. April might be the cruelest month, but for Manafort, March certainly is not.
There's been a lot of talk about swamps, fetid, foul places and the need for draining them. Places beloved by such as Manafort and Stone, et. al. Ellis found time to feed the swamp yesterday.
Makes me want to say "HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME!"
I guess we could all use a little shantih.
Long Atlantic Article about the Origins of Paul "Blameless" Manafort
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/paul-manafort-american-hustler/550925/
Taibi is on his game:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-new-blacklist-202612/
Distractions abound, not just Russagate. My pet peeve is climate change, certainly a grave threat but only a part of a perfect storm: reef and fisheries collapse, catastrophic plastic pollution, rainforest deforestation, insect, bird, reptile, and amphibian population collapse, and on and on and most of all: relentless human population growth. And yet all the MSM highlights, almost always on interior pages, is the climate change *debate* or, on page 1, the Russiagate smokescreen obscuring the mountain of White House and Capitol Hill corruption and hypocricy.
Thanks, Whyte.
Fascinating piece.