;)
The Commentariat -- March 9, 2019
I've posted a few links below that safari sent me the other day & that somehow I misplaced. They're still relevant. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Alan Blinder & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "President Trump offered words of comfort on Friday for Alabama's tornado survivors, scrawling his presidential signature on some of their Bibles as they moved close to him at a church that provided shelter during the storm and was now doling out emergency aid." Mrs. McC: The age-old question gets a new angle: If Trump is God, why does he let tornadoes twist through Alabama?
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "'It was a stone-cold lie,' Mr. Trump said [to reporters] about Mr. Cohen's claims that he had never sought a pardon. 'And he's lied about a lot of things, but when he lied about the pardon, that was really a lie.'... Mr. Cohen has told associates that the signals from Mr. Trump about a pardon date back more than a year, soon after Mr. Cohen had publicly disclosed making what he said at the time were unreimbursed payments out of his own pocket in 2016 to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film star who had claimed to have had an affair with the president a decade earlier.... Mr. Cohen told the associates that he anticipated he would be given a pardon or some form of protection if he would remain silent about having been reimbursed by Mr. Trump for making the payments, according to people told of the discussions. Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump were part of a formal agreement in which their lawyers worked together to review documents that the F.B.I. had seized to determine what could be declared off limits to law enforcement officials because of attorney-client privilege. But that joint effort ended in July 2018, as Mr. Trump's aides balked at paying parts of Mr. Cohen's legal bills."
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.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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. ...
... Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The sentence [of Paul Manafort] handed down Thursday by Judge T.S. Ellis -- a sharp downward departure from guidelines that called for up to 24 years -- is being viewed by legal experts as a glaring example of unusual treatment. It highlights the disparate punishments meted out to poor defendants of color, but it's also an outlier even by the standards of similar white collar schemes, experts say.... Manafort's conduct led to several enhancements in the sentencing guidelines because it was a sophisticated scheme that he led over many years.... Manafort never accepted responsibility.... Manafort was known for representing unsavory foreign figures -- including Jonas Savimbi of Angola and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines -- long before the conduct at issue in his trial. One group dubbed him part of the 'Torturer's Lobby.'"
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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...." (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Chris Riotta of the (UK) Independent: "Jared Kushner has gone rogue. Donald Trump's senior White House adviser once again abandoned government normalities during an official state trip to Saudi Arabia, reportedly discussing US-Saudi cooperation with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a meeting that lacked representation from the US Embassy in Riyadh.... Mr Kushner's quiet undertaking of such high-profile meetings has raised national security concerns from military and intelligence officials, who said the president's son-in-law was 'undermining US authority' in the region."
Tales of the Dark Prince. Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept: Erik Prince, "the founder and former CEO of the notorious private security firm Blackwater -- and younger brother of hapless Education Secretary Betsy DeVos -- ... [has] come under increased scrutiny.... In May 2018, the New York Times reported that Prince had 'arranged' a meeting in Trump Tower in August 2016, three months before the election, attended by Donald Trump Jr...; Stephen Miller, then a senior adviser to the Trump campaign; George Nader, a convicted pedophile and an adviser to the United Arab Emirates; and Joel Zamel, an Israeli social media expert. In an ... interview with me..., Prince confirmed the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower for the first time.... He then proceeded to misrepresent his 2017 testimony to Congress -- and contradicted himself in the process.... First, he said he wasn't asked; then he said he told them about it; then he claimed that they made a mistake with the transcript; then he claimed that it was said off the record." Prince is one of the 81 entities the House Judiciary Committee has sent a request for documents & the House Intelligence Committee plans to recall him because members believe his testimony has been "discredited." Mrs. McC: Given Prince's sordid history, one would think that by now he would have become a better liar. Perhaps, like his sister, he isn't too bright.
Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post: "Elements of the 2016 British referendum campaign have long seemed familiar to Americans. There was a close, controversial election, full of rancor and anger. There were a lot of wealthy men talking about 'the people' and their 'will.' There were targeted advertising campaigns, stolen data and fake social media accounts. But now, with only a few days left until Britain is due to face the consequences of that vote, the Brexit story suddenly looks even more familiar: One of its protagonists turns out to have much deeper Russian business connections than previously suspected. He also tried to conceal them. The protagonist in question is Arron Banks...." Read on. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is hardly surprising that the Trump fiasco is a British spinoff. Trump may seem to be one-of-a-kind, but he is a derivative amalgam of TV characters: Tony Soprano, Archie Bunker. "The Apprentice" TV show -- which is what resuscitated Trump from multiple bankruptcies -- is not a spinoff, but it was conceived by a Brit with bad taste in TV. Putin & the men he made rich played to the Brits' prejudices to pull off Brexit & the Americans' similar biases to stick us with Trump.
David Smith, et al. of the Guardian: "New analysis suggests Trump struggles to express populist ideas unless he's reading remarks prepared by his scriptwriters. The research by Team Populism, a network of political scientists, analysed Trump's speeches -- both scripted, and off-the-cuff -- looking for three core elements of populist discourse [Manichean world view, People-centrism, Anti-elitism].... Kirk Hawkins, an associate professor at Brigham Young University, said there was a 'dramatic difference' in the language in Trump's speeches, depending on whether or not they were scripted. 'Trump's speeches with teleprompters all have longer words, longer sentences, and less frequent use of his pet words. And they have much higher levels of populism,' he said. 'This is powerful evidence that Trump's populism is not entirely his own.'... Others may suggest Trump's reliance on an automated script for his populism warrants the creation of a new label: telepopulist." --s
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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. ...
... Maggie Haberman & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Mr. Shine's abrupt departure came as a surprise to many in the White House and was revealed, as such personnel moves often are in this administration, as the president was on Air Force One leaving Washington.... The White House sought to present Mr. Shine's resignation as amicable and issued statements in the name of the president and other officials praising him. But people close to the White House described the campaign job as a way to save face." ...
... Jonathan Chait suggests that "instead of [getting] a new press chief, Trump could try committing fewer crimes.... Trump has had consistently abysmal coverage in the non-party-controlled media. Trump has analyzed the pattern and identified the one constant: His many communications directors keep somehow failing to get the media to show what an honest, well-informed, compassionate president he truly is.... It's also possible that Trump's communications directors aren't the problem. It's presumably difficult to generate a lot of positive press attention when you're the subject of so many different criminal and ethical investigations that your best single communications asset is the media's inability to keep track of them all."
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Ted Hesson of Politico: "A federal judge on Friday expanded the pool of migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border who may require reunification under an existing court order. The decision could pose considerable difficulty for the administration in locating and reconnecting children and parents split apart before and after the launch of ... Donald Trump's 'zero tolerance' border strategy.... The order issued Friday by San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw will keep the administration on the defensive over the separations, a controversial practice that experts argue can result in lifelong damage to a child's health. The judge temporarily stayed the decision to allow further debate in court about how families could be reunited."
Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: At "a hearing on the threat seismic testing poses to North Atlantic right whales..., a Trump administration official testif[ied], over and over, that firing commercial air guns under water every 10 seconds in search of oil and gas deposits over a period of months would have next to no effect on the endangered animals.... It's why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave five companies permission to conduct tests that could harm the whales last year, said the official, Chris Oliver, an assistant administrator for fisheries.... [Rep. Joe] Cunningham [D-S.C.] reached for [an] air horn, put his finger on the button and turned to Oliver.... An earsplitting sound filled the small committee room. An audience of about 50 gasped and murmured. 'Was that disruptive?' Cunningham asked. 'It was irritating, but I didn't find it too disruptive,' Oliver said.... What if it happened every 10 seconds for days, weeks and months, [Cunningham said] said. He ... told [Oliver] the sound from air guns is 16,000 times that of his air horn." Includes video worth watching.
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... The McConnell Scandals, Ctd. New York Times Editors: "The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has been openly hostile to the anticorruption package since its inception. This week he made clear that he would refuse even to bring it up for a vote. Think of H.R. 1 as the Merrick Garland of reform legislation.... If the Republican leader really thought the package was a loser, he would absolutely bring it to the floor to force Democratic lawmakers to own it -- which is, notably, the path he has pledged to pursue with the Green New Deal, which is supported by many Democrats.... Asked this week why the two measures were being handled so differently, the Republican leader didn't bother making up excuses. He said simply, 'Because I get to decide what we vote on.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nancy Pelosi should make a formal, written appeal to Mitch McConnell to bring up H.R.1 for a vote. When he rejects her appeal, House Democrats should march on the Senate to demand a vote. What part of "reform" are you afraid of, Mitch? The right of citizens to vote? Ethics? Campaign finance? Absent some noisy stunts, 98 percent of the public will never know that Mitch killed the bill. By election day, 100 percent of the two percent will have forgotten it. Remember, this is a real bill with real solutions (nearly 700 pages), no matter how imperfect; not a fake repeal-Obamacare one-sheet.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
The Tarring of Ilhan Omar, Ctd. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yesterday, I saw a few headlines that read something like, "Omar: Obama's a "Pretty Face" who "Got Away with Murder." That was a NY Post headline, but some in the MSM weren't much better. The fake "quote" comes from a Politico Magazine story by Tim Alberta. Alberta wrote: "Omar says the 'hope and change' offered by Barack Obama was a mirage. Recalling the 'caging of kids' at the U.S.-Mexico border and the 'droning of countries around the world' on Obama's watch, she argues that the Democratic president operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor. 'We can't be only upset with Trump.... His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,' Omar says. 'And that's not what we should be looking for anymore. We don't want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.'" ...
... SO THEN Caroline Kelly of CNN wrote in defense ??? of Omar a piece titled, "Rep. Omar appears to criticize Obama in latest swipe at Dem establishment": "Omar and her office later disputed the reporting. In a response to CNN, Omar's spokesman Jeremy Slevin argued that the paragraphs in question were not about Obama, but did not specify who Omar was referring to in particular. 'I'm an Obama fan! I was saying how Trump is different from Obama, and why we should focus on policy not politics,' Omar tweeted.... She also tweeted an audio file that included fuller comments..., including her differentiating between the ways in which Obama and Trump implemented them. '... many of the ways that our Democratic leaders have conducted themselves within the system is not one that we're all proud of," she said in the clip. I will talk about the family separation or caging of kids and people will point out that this was Trump, I mean, this was Obama,' Omar added. 'And I will say something about the droning of countries around the world and people will say, that was Obama. And all of that is very true. What is happening now is very different -- it's happening with secrecy, it's happening with the feel good, polished way of talking about it.'"
Presidential Race 2020
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Josh Marshall of TPM: "Hosting a debate is not access. It's an institutional collaboration between a political organization and a news organization. Fox News has a number of journalists who are good journalists on their own. But as an organization Fox exists as and is run to damage Democrats.... Why not choose ... American Crossroads, the GOP SuperPac founded by Karl Rove. The analogy isn't as off as you might think. Fox isn't even just an ideological news organization. A news organization can have a strong editorial line and still follow basic journalistic principles in its coverage, the first of which being fundamental honestly with its viewers. Fox News does not do that.... The idea that Fox would get to host one of the Democrats debates isn't just a bad idea or dangerous. It's a bizarre idea. The bigger question is why they were even considering it in the first place." --s
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 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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who provided archives of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, was taken into custody on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating the antisecrecy group. Judge Claude H. Hilton of Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Ms. Manning must stay in civil detention until testifies. Ms. Manning had vowed not to cooperate in the investigation even though prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia granted immunity for her testimony. In a statement posted on Twitter after she was arrested, Ms. Manning said she had ethical objections to the secrecy of the grand-jury system and 'will not comply' with the subpoena. The case is part of a long-running criminal inquiry into WikiLeaks and its leader, Julian Assange, that dates to the Obama administration and which the Trump administration revived. Ms. Manning said on Thursday that prosecutors on Wednesday had asked her a series of questions about WikiLeaks before the grand jury, but she had responded to every question by saying violated her constitutional rights."
Andrew Das of the New York Times: "Twenty-eight members of the world champion United States women's soccer team significantly escalated their long-running fight with the country's soccer federation over pay equity and working conditions, filing a gender discrimination lawsuit on Friday. The suit, in United States District Court in Los Angeles, comes only three months before the team will begin defense of its Women's World Cup title at this summer's tournament in France. In their filing and a statement released by the team, the 28 players described 'institutionalized gender discrimination' that they say has existed for years."
Bill Kirkos, et al., of CNN: "'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who authorities say filed false reports of a crime, has been indicted on 16 felony counts by a Cook County grand jury. The indictment charges Smollett with 16 counts of disorderly conduct. Smollett's attorneys said they have no statement at this time. He remains out on bail pending an arraignment Thursday. Smollett reported to police in January that he had been attacked in Chicago in an incident that ended with a noose around his neck. Police initially investigated the case as a possible hate crime."
Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Microplastic pollution spans the world, according to new studies showing contamination in the UK's lake and rivers, in groundwater in the US and along the Yangtze river in China and the coast of Spain. Humans are known to consume the tiny plastic particles via food and water, but the possible health effects on people and ecosystems have yet to be determined.... [M]icroplastics have also been found underground in limestone aquifers in Illinois, US, at a level of 15 particles per litre. This type of groundwater source provides about a quarter of the world's drinking water." --s
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Reader Comments (6)
Yesterday Bret Stephen's NYTime column was headed something like "Ilhan Omar Knows What She is Doing," which after I read it I took to be Stephen's or some editor's snarky way to jump on the Omar is anti-Semitic bandwagon from the get-go.
In reaction, I almost submitted a comment to the Times in her defense because so far I mostly agreed with what I thought she was saying. Israel does have an outsized influence on our internal politics and our foreign policy. I would even go this far: While I would not blame our incredibly stupid Iraq adventure entirely on Israel itself, I believe that some of its architects who planned and most eagerly urged the invasion thought they were acting on Israel's behalf, that the new, capitalist, liberal, democratic utopia that would automatically emerge in Saddam's wake would lead to peace in the Middle East and hence strengthen Israel's position.
And I do think that previous Democratic administrations should be questioned. They were hardly blameless. Clinton and NAFTA and the repeal of Glass-Steagall, surely. Obama and his kid glove treatment of those masters of the universe who brought the nations to the brink of the Great Depression II. Both were factors that hindsight could--I would-- say led to the Pretender's elevation, and that's a heavy load of blame to bear.
But with her latest utterance, which intentionally or not sets up a plague on both your houses equivalence between the two parties and their very different leaders, I'm thinking that while Ms. Omar and I may agree on much, I wish she'd just shut up for a while.
As my spokesperson, I've concluded she's inept. I'm very impatient with her inability to criticize without giving unnecessary offense.
Though it may seem embarrassingly imitative of the Pretender, this morning I'm thinking I might have to fire her.
@ Ken: you may want to read this piece by Ben Ehrenreich: "The Shameful Campaign to Silence IIhan Omar" who starts out by giving us the old history lesson of what happened to Alfred Dreyfus.
https://newrepublic.com/article/153228/shameful-campaign-silence-ilhan-omar
I understand your frustration but from what I have observed this new crop of female house members are not willing to serve by being servants without a voice. They are shaking up the status quo and yes, if they rattle some of those cozy cages we have lived with forever, they will cause problems. I like to think this is a good thing, and I know you agree. If Omar was not a black, Muslim woman but a white male of long standing and pointed out that yeah, we have been cowtailing with Israel forever what kind of response would that elicit.
All attention went to just five words:
"Allegiance to a foreign country."
Never mind that Omar was talking about politicians and not about Jews at all.
The hypocrisy around this issue is beyond understanding.
@Ken Winkes: I'm with PD Pepe. If you read carefully what Omar actually said about Obama, I don't think she's wrong. At the time Obama was drone-attacking innocent people, I made comments similar to Omar's. I don't recall that I knew about the kids in cages, but had I known, I'd have said the same. I did know that the Obama administration was detaining & deporting many more border crosses than his predecessors did, and it troubled me.
As Omar says, the critical difference between Obama & Trump is that Obama appeared to be quite conflicted about the drone strikes; I recall reading that Trump was furious with the military at one point because they refused to strike a target when it was clear there would be a lot of "collateral damage." Obama, on the other hand, would have insisted that they wait until there was a lesser chance that innocents would be killed. And I know for a fact that the Obama administration tried to minimize family separations at the border; Trump didn't give a flying fuck till he saw the uproar against his & Sessions' policy was bipartisan. And now he's trying to keep secret, thru executive order, the number of people the CIA has killed in drone attacks. That's what Omar is saying, & Politico misrepresented her remarks. CNN -- particularly because of the headline writer -- didn't do a lot better.
PD and Bea,
Mostly agreement here, I think.
Maybe it's the tweet/instagram/text things that don't allow room for reasoned statements about complexities, but I still think too much of what Omar has said and how she has said it invites criticism, especially from her (and our) political enemies, all of whom on the Right and what passes for the center are champing at the bit looking for any opening at all to attack the person and bury the message.
Which leads to my answer to PD' concluding question:
The hypocrisy (as is the poor reporting) is not beyond understanding. Considering the sources, it's perfectly predictable, which is why I would wish Omar, no matter how much I might agree with her-- especially because I agree with her--wouldn't make herself (and indirectly, me) such an easy target.
With apology and your indulgence, made the Westcoaster's mistake of posting late p.m., but in light of the piece on microplastics thought I'd reprint it today:
Taibi is on his game:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-new-blacklist-202612/
Distractions abound, not just Russiagate. 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 highlight, 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.
On Omar: I had a career supported by many grants from the NIH. When budgets tightened, I objected to calls from colleagues and journal editors to write their representatives, senators and executives to loosen funds. Why, because we have no credibility, blowing our own horns with our hands out. Likewise Omar. While nothing she has said can be ascribed to antisemitism, there is little difference between a Jew advocating for Israel and a Muslim advocating for Palestine. Neither is inappropriate in and of itself, but credibility suffers. Her comments might have been better advised if she had framed them as a question: Aren't Muslims' objections to Israel's posture as legitimate as those of the Jews to the Palestinians? The media, as usual, have had an avoidable heyday, and a bright light in congress has been dimmed jus a little.