;)
The Commentariat -- May 23, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Contributor P.D. Pepe mentioned this earlier today:
Mel Leonor of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday said he did a 'great service to this country' by firing former FBI Director James Comey.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to crack down on states that try to circumvent a new limit on the state and local tax deduction, saying it will not allow workarounds aimed at helping individuals fully deduct those taxes. The $10,000 cap, which was included in last year's $1.5 trillion Republican tax overhaul, hit predominantly Democratic high-tax states hardest since it limits the amount of state and local sales, income and property taxes that taxpayers can deduct from their federal taxes.... The Treasury Department on Wednesday warned that such workarounds are unlikely to pass I.R.S. muster.... The notice is a precursor to a formal guidance from the I.R.S. that will need to go through a review process."
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, has been granted his permanent security clearance, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday, ending a period of uncertainty that had fueled questions about whether Mr. Kushner was in peril in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Kushner's F.B.I. background checks had dragged on for a year.... Mr. Kushner's clearances were approved by career officials after the completion of the F.B.I. background check and that the president was not involved in the process. The security clearance process had not been delayed by the special counsel's investigation, said Mr. Kushner's lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell."
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump repeated unconfirmed claims on Wednesday about federal investigators using a spy inside his presidential campaign, and said it could be one of the 'biggest political scandals in history!' The president also gave the scandal a name: 'SPYGATE.'... In a series of Twitter posts early Wednesday..., Mr. Trump departed from his previous language about the possibility that the government deployed a spy inside his presidential campaign. Instead, he stated it as fact.... 'Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!'... Mr. Trump's claims about the government spying on his campaign are part of a pattern for this president, who rails about injustice and political bias among the top officials at the Justice Department -- officials he appointed. He has described his own Justice Department as a 'deep state,' and on Wednesday appeared to accuse the department of criminal activity, calling it the 'Criminal Deep State.' The latest accusation is similar to Mr. Trump's claims in the early days of his presidency that former President Barack Obama had Mr. Trump's 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower. His unsubstantiated claims were later proven to be false after a Justice Department review." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again, the paper of record publishes a front-page story which describes the POTUS* as a lying sack o' and/or a lunatic. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Trump's ability to comprehend objective reality is characteristically cracked. But his confidence that the array of forces are shifting to his benefit, and that he may turn the tables on his enemies, has a real basis in reality. He is bringing his party, and the powers it commands, around to his warped manner of thinking.... The defense has ignored all this evidence of guilt, and instead focused on the question of why Trump was being investigated at all.... Planting evidence? Multiple spies? Obama political operatives? You might think ... Trump could not get his party to go along with this theory, to dismiss all the evidence of culpability as having been fabricated by a pro-Obama cabal in the FBI. But then you would be ignoring how far down the Trump rabbit hole the Republican Party has gone so far." ...
... Greg Sargent: "... Trump’s latest tweets show him concocting crazy conspiracy theories in the face of an investigation that is closing in on him, his family and his cronies. Why is he doing this? Because the investigation, in tandem with dogged media digging, has already produced evidence of Trump campaign collusion with a foreign power to subvert our democracy and allegations of mind-boggling levels of corruption, which include Trump corruptly going to extraordinary lengths to subvert the workings of justice, with the active help of Republicans in Congress.... Democrats should talk about this.... Even if the public may not be closely familiar with all the details involving Russian collusion, Democrats can connect the Mueller investigation to a broader case about Trump corruption and Republican efforts to help him escape accountability.... Trump's whack-job lies are not a sign that he's winning the public argument; they're a sign that he's losing it. Democrats should act accordingly." ...
... Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A trio of influential Senate Republicans, cut out of a high-stakes meeting this week on classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided an investigation into Trump campaign advisers, is asking the White House to be allowed to review the material. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (Tex.) made the request in a letter obtained by The Washington Post. In it, the senators stress their 'interest in attending such a meeting and in support of providing Congress with documents necessary to conduct oversight of these issues.'... In a separate letter sent Wednesday to Rosenstein and Wray, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged the officials to abandon plans for the meeting. If the meeting is held, the Democrats asked that it be opened up to a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers.... 'We can think of no legitimate oversight justification for the ex parte dissemination -- at the direction of the president -- of investigative information to the president's staunchest defenders in Congress and, ultimately, to the president's legal defense team.'" ...
... ** Paul Wood of the BBC: "Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 (£300,000) to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved. The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Mr Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law. The meeting at the White House was last June. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort." Read on. ...
... At 2 pm ET, CNN is reporting that prosecutors have told a court they are ready to sentence George Papadopoulos. No story up yet.
Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon disinvited China from participating in a major naval exercise on Wednesday, signaling mounting U.S. anger over Beijing's expanded military footprint in disputed areas of the South China Sea. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said the Defense Department had reversed an earlier invitation to the Chinese Navy to the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world's largest international naval exercise, over the decision to place anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, and electronic jammers in the Spratly Islands." ...
... Gordon Chang in the Daily Beast: "Two China crises -- one on North Korea and the other on trade -- are intersecting, and feeding off each other. They both could escalate fast.... In addition to openly violating U.N. sanctions in recent months, Xi has undoubtedly been schooling Kim in the art of defiance of the international community, especially the United States. That second Xi-Kim meeting -- held May 7 and 8 in the Chinese city of Dalian -- preceded North Korea's return to bad behavior. It took some time for Trump to recognize what was going on, but he evidently lost patience with the Chinese at the beginning of this week. On Monday morning, Trump took to Twitter to criticize Beijing." ...
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump opened the door on Tuesday to a phased dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, backing away from his demand that the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, completely abandon his arsenal without any reciprocal American concessions. The president's hint of flexibility came after North Korea declared last week that it would never agree to unilaterally surrender its weapons, even threatening to cancel the much-anticipated summit meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump scheduled for next month in Singapore." This is an update of a story linked below.
AP: "The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens.... Under the proposed changes, hunters would also be allowed to hunt black bears with dogs, kill wolves and pups in their dens, and use motor boats to shoot swimming caribou. These and other hunting methods -- condemned as cruel by wildlife protection advocates -- were outlawed on federal lands in 2015.... Expanding hunting rights on federal lands has been a priority for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke" --safari: Fuck you Zinke!
Gubernatorial Race. Maegan Vazquez of CNN: Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez won her runoff and became the Democratic nominee for Texas governor Tuesday night, making her the first openly lesbian and Latina nominee to win a major party gubernatorial nomination in the state. Valdez won 53.1% of the vote while her competitor, Andrew White, obtained 46.9%, according to unofficial election results."
Thanks, China! Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a truly remarkable feat of innovation, scientists have figured out how to create 'hybrid' solar cells that generate power not just from sunlight but also from raindrops. This means we may soon see all-weather solar panels that work when it is cloudy and even at night, if it's raining.... Much of this innovation is now coming from China, the world leader in both manufacturing and deployment of solar energy.... For instance, China has developed 'double-sided' solar panels that can generate power from light that hits their underside. That can enable a 10 percent boost in output.... Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects these panels could capture a remarkable 40 percent share of the market by 2025." --safari
Weird News. Chris Buckley of the New York Times: "An American government employee posted in southern China has signs of possible brain injury after reporting disturbing sounds and sensations, the State Department said on Wednesday, in events that seemed to draw parallels with mysterious ailments that struck American diplomats in Cuba. The State Department warning, issued through the United States Consulate in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, advised American citizens in China to seek medical help if they felt similar symptoms. But it said that no other cases had been reported."
Will Fitzgibbon of ICIJ: "West African countries are plundered by companies and individuals, while governments do little to stem the flow. West Africa accounts for more than one-third of an estimated $50 billion that leaves the continent untraced or untaxed each year.... Overall, a combination of corruption, drug, human and weapons trafficking and other furtive import and export activities strip Africa of three to 10 times as much as it receives in foreign aid.... ICIJ partnered with 13 journalists on West Africa Leaks to investigate high-profile individuals and powerful corporations in the region. The investigation included journalists from six countries where reporters hadn't before examined files pertaining to the individuals and businesses." --safari: This article leads to several others on the same subject.
*****
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Michael Schmidt & others of the New York Times on ways This Russia Thing might play out.
Trump's Latest Conspiracy Theory. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump claimed on Tuesday that a 'spy' was embedded in his presidential campaign in 2016 as a means of aiding Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race. 'If the person placed very early into my campaign wasn't a SPY put there by the previous Administration for political purposes, how come such a seemingly massive amount of money was paid for services rendered - many times higher than normal,' he tweeted Tuesday night. 'Follow the money! The spy was there early in the campaign and yet never reported Collusion with Russia, because there was no Collusion. He was only there to spy for political reasons and to help Crooked Hillary win - just like they did to Bernie Sanders, who got duped!'" ...
... Mrs. McC: Okay, then. The proof of "no collusion" is that the well-paid spy President Obama placed in Trump's campaign to help Clinton didn't report (to someone) any collusion between Trump, et al., & Russia. I'm convinced now that the Mueller probe is indeed a witch hunt. ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: "'A lot of people are saying they had spies in my campaign. If they had spies in my campaign, that would be a disgrace to this country,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. 'That would be one of the biggest insults that anyone's ever seen and it would be very illegal, aside from everything else. It would make probably every political event ever look like small potatoes.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Conspiracy Theory, Longer-Form. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "According to people familiar with Trump's thinking, his team is attempting to build the case that anti-Trump forces in the F.B.I. entrapped his advisers using informants to plant evidence about Russian collusion. The theory goes that the F.B.I. later used these contacts with the Russians to delegitimize his presidency. Trump's advisers say the intelligence community believed Hillary Clinton would win the presidency, but in case she didn't, they concocted this elaborate plot to remove Trump from office. 'Just when you think it can't get stranger, it does,' a Trump adviser told me. Stone claims the anti-Trump conspiracy includes senior intelligence officials from the Barack Obama administration. 'The guy who will end up burning in all this is [former C.I.A. director] John Brennan,' [Roger] Stone told me. 'If I were him I'd break the capsule and swallow it now. That psychopath is going down.'" ...
... Matt Ford of the New Republic provides an example of how the Trumpies come up with conspiracy theories, in this case the notion that Jim Comey privately forewarned Trump about the existence of the Steele dossier so CNN could report on it. The Dumbest Guy in the Senate figures in. Mrs. McC: To be fair, I'm liking the Trump-Broidy abortion/hush-money conspiracy theory, so I might not want to cast too many stones.
... Mel Leonor of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to say whether he has confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the Justice Department kicks off a review into the FBI's interactions with the Trump campaign. 'Excuse me, I have the president of South Korea here,' Trump said when asked about the deputy attorney general during a joint media appearance with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is visiting Washington. 'He doesn't want to hear these questions, if you don't mind,' Trump added." ...
... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "In the latest of the complex machinations in the Russia investigation, and in the investigations of the investigation, it's easy to lose the most important thread: that ... Donald Trump is still scheming to rid himself of the meddlesome special counsel, Robert Mueller.... This demand for an investigation of the F.B.I.'s behavior, which was promptly joined by a number of congressional Republicans, is without precedent in modern American history.... Trump's demand is so obviously improper that it's possible to see it in a different way -- not as a bona-fide attempt to gain information about the investigation but, rather, a dare to Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, to resign in protest.... [Instead,] Rosenstein devised what was, under the circumstances, an artful finesse.... But no one should think that Rosenstein -- or Mueller -- is safe.... At the same time that Rosenstein..., the President directed his chief of staff to accommodate a request from House Republicans to view certain secret documents from the Russia investigation. Likewise, under modern ethical traditions, the House members should have been immediately refused.... The final showdown between Trump and Rosenstein -- and, thus, Mueller -- hasn't taken place; it's just been postponed." ...
... Stephen Colbert explains the investigation of the investigators:
Gloria Borger, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team is trying to narrow the scope of the President's potential interview with special counsel Robert Mueller to questions on Russia-related matters that occurred before Trump's election, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump's lawyers ... are looking for a way to get him to agree to limit -- or eliminate -- questions regarding Trump's conduct after he won the presidency, especially those related to whether he might have obstructed justice while in office. Their goal is to move past a standoff that threatens to drag out Mueller's investigation, and appears to be part of a larger strategy to negotiate with the special counsel through the media." ...
Disallowed Question: "When you fired Jim Comey, was it because of this Russia thing?
Allowed Question: What is your favorite color?
"It Was Sort of Like a Gift." S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "His client insists there was 'NO COLLUSION' with Russia to win the presidency, but Donald Trump's lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has a new theory of the case: What's the big deal if he did?In a recent interview with HuffPost, Giuliani initially disputed the notion that Trump's daily citing, in the final month of his campaign, of Russian-aligned WikiLeaks and its release of Russian-stolen emails constituted 'colluding' with Russia. 'It is not,' Giuliani said. Then he switched tacks. 'OK, and if it is, it isn't illegal... It was sort of like a gift,' he said. 'And you're not involved in the illegality of getting it.'"
Danny Hakim, et al., of the New York Times: "A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Under the agreement, the partner, Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant who is known as the Taxi King, will avoid jail time, and will assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations, according to a person briefed on the matter.... Mr. Freidman, who was disbarred earlier this month, had been accused of failing to pay more than $5 million in taxes and faced four counts of criminal tax fraud and one of grand larceny -- all B felonies. Each carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 25 years in prison. Instead, he appeared in court in Albany on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a single count of evading only $50,000 worth of taxes; he faces five years of probation if he fulfills the terms of his agreement, the judge, Patrick Lynch of Albany County court, said during the roughly 20-minute proceeding." ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "It seems reasonable to assume that the threshold for securing five-years probation -- for allegedly committing more than 100-prison-years-worth of felonies -- is also rather high; and thus, that Evgeny Freidman has substantial evidence that Michael Cohen was involved in crimes. Donald Trump surrounds himself with people who have serious legal liabilities -- and those people, apparently, surround themselves with other people who have serious legal liabilities."
Paul Campos in New York lays out more evidence that it is likely that the $1.6MM GOP fundraiser & lobbyist Elliott Broidy paid to "Shera Bechard, a Playboy model with whom Broidy now claims to have had an affair," was instead "a favor to Donald Trump, who actually impregnated Bechard, and then needed to hush her up about their affair and her subsequent abortion." Mrs. McC: But what will the evangelical abortion foes say? ...
... Shorter Paul Campos in LG&$: "What really happened is: Trump had an affair with Bechard, and impregnated her. Bechard contacted Keith Davidson and demanded money. Davidson called Michael Cohen. Cohen called Broidy, and asked him to come up with $1.6 million. Broidy demanded a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, that Broidy could use to convince his Gulf State clients that he had Trump's ear about shifting US policy in the region. Broidy made his first payment on November 30th. Trump met with Broidy two days later. A few days after that, the U.A.E. gave Broidy's private company a $600 million contract." ...
... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... today, we turn our attention to one Elliott Broidy, who may well be moving into the first tier of Trump scandal players. His is a tale of government influence, foreign machinations, piles of money, and even a Playboy model mistress." Waldman hits both the Shera Bechard question & the larger one -- the fabulous multi-million-dollar "consulting contracts [Broidy cut with] Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in exchange for which they would use Broidy's connections to the new president to help the Saudis and the UAE in their conflict with Qatar, a U.S. ally that houses a critical American military base.... Once we learn everything there is to learn, the Trump scandals may not wrap up into a neat and easily understandable package. But all the Trump scandals all lead back to one story -- a story about incredibly corrupt people, including the president himself, trampling over the law and the interests of the country in order to stuff their own pockets. And it just keeps getting bigger." Mrs. McC: Both Campos & Waldman connect the Bechard "favor" to Broidy's securing the Middle East contracts. These are just "theories" now, but the evidence is compelling. ...
Michael Riley & Lauren Etter of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked about flows of money into the Cyprus bank account of a company that specialized in social-media manipulation and whose founder reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The inquiry is drawing attention to PSY Group, an Israeli firm that pitched its services to super-PACs and other entities during the 2016 election. Those services included infiltrating target audiences with elaborately crafted social-media personas and spreading misleading information through websites meant to mimic news portals, according to interviews and PSY Group documents.... The person doesn't believe any of those pitches was successful.... Following Trump's victory, PSY Group formed an alliance with Cambridge Analytica, the Trump campaign's primary social-media consultants, to try to win U.S. government work, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News."
Squeaky Wheel Rule to Apply. Karoun Demirjian & Matt Zopotosky of the Washington Post: "Just two Republican lawmakers will be allowed to review classified information about a confidential FBI source who aided the investigation into the Trump campaign at a meeting Thursday with Justice Department and intelligence officials, a White House spokeswoman said Tuesday.... [Sarah Sanders] said Democrats were cut out because they had not requested the same materials that their Republican colleagues had.... The dispute comes as Trump and conservative lawmakers continue to rail against the FBI, the Justice Department and Mueller's probe. Conservative House Republicans unveiled a resolution Tuesday insisting on the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate their growing list of grievances." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Justin Sink of Bloomberg: "Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview outside the House chamber, that he believed [Devin] Nunes had requested that Democrats not be invited to the meeting. 'What we were informed by DOJ and FBI is that Chairman Nunes refuses to do it on a bipartisan basis,' Schiff added. Nunes declined to address Schiff's claims, telling reporters they could get information from him by watching when he is interviewed on the Sunday morning news shows." Mrs. McC: Because everything Devin Nunes says is true & accurate.
Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times: "A law firm of Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti was hit with a $10-million judgment Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after he broke his promise to pay $2 million to a former colleague. Judge Catherine Bauer of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana ordered the Eagan Avenatti law firm to pay the $10 million to Jason Frank, a lawyer who used to work at the Newport Beach firm.... To settle his law firm's bankruptcy, Avenatti had personally guaranteed that the $2 million would be paid to Frank last week, but both he and his firm failed to turn over the money. At the hearing, the U.S. Justice Department revealed that Avenatti has also defaulted on just over $440,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest that he had personally promised to pay the Internal Revenue Service under another bankruptcy settlement for his law firm. Assistant U.S. Atty. Najah Shariff told the judge that the federal government would soon file a motion demanding payment."
Rudy's Contribution to the Opioid Crisis. Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "The US government missed the opportunity to curb sales of the drug that kickstarted the opioid epidemic when it secured the only criminal conviction against the maker of OxyContin a decade ago. Purdue Pharma hired Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor and now Donald Trump's lawyer, to head off a federal investigation in the mid-2000s into the company's marketing of the powerful prescription painkiller at the centre of an epidemic estimated to have claimed at least 300,000 lives. While Giuliani was not able to prevent the criminal conviction over Purdue's fraudulent claims for OxyContin's safety and effectiveness, he was able to reach a deal to avoid a bar on Purdue doing business with the federal government which would have killed a large part of the multibillion-dollar market for the drug. The former New York mayor also secured an agreement that greatly restricted further prosecution of the pharmaceutical company and kept its senior executives out of prison."
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Tuesday that his planned summit meeting next month with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, might be delayed. 'There's a very substantial chance that it won't work out,' Mr. Trump told reporters before a meeting in the Oval Office with South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in. 'It may not work out for June 12.' Mr. Trump expressed continued enthusiasm for the diplomatic encounter, saying he believed it could usher in a period of prosperity for North Korea. But he acknowledged that recent statements by North Korea had cast a pall of uncertainty over the timing of the meeting, which is set for Singapore. He appeared as baffled as anyone else about what might come next." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the White House on Tuesday to remove an image of Kim Jong Un from a coin meant to commemorate the planned summit next month between the North Korean dictator and President Trump. Schumer's call, made via Twitter, came a day after media reports surfaced about the design of the 'challenge coin,' which features likenesses of both Trump and Kim, who is described on the coin as his nation's 'Supreme Leader.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Chait: "While serving as secretary of State, Hillary Clinton disregarded an instruction from the Foreign Affairs Manual directing her to use State Department equipment for day-to-day operations. Clinton almost certainly did this for convenience ... but the issue somehow became a first-tier national scandal. The bizarre prominence this story took on is worth revisiting given Monday night's revelation that Donald Trump is doing essentially the same thing.... Notably, Politico's solid report [linked below] landed as a second-tier revelation, at best a distant second-place contender for most-damaging Trump news story of the day. Clinton's sloppy info-sec story blossomed into a narrative that overwhelmed every other aspect of her campaign.... We need to think more critically about the structural disparities that produce this double standard." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Steve M. is wondering why Lock-Her-Up Trump is still using at least one phone that doesn't have even the blocked-number low-tech security feature. ...
... Josephine Wolff in Slate: "In this administration, cybersecurity ... is something to tout loudly each and every time it can be used to justify a controversial or foolish or anti-competitive decision. Cybersecurity concerns are the perfect foil for attacking the Chinese tech industry.... The sheer hypocrisy of arguing that Huawei phones sold in the U.S. pose a risk to the cybersecurity of government employees or military personnel while the commander in chief himself openly walks around with an unsecured iPhone -- one that may well have been assembled in China itself -- is breathtaking. It's a reminder that while cybersecurity risks are important and require serious attention and consideration, they can also be wielded as a weapon to excuse any number of policy decisions made for other reasons."
Everything Is Running Very Smoothly. Eliana Johnson, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump has demanded changes to his communications team -- long seen as one of the most internally divided offices in his White House -- in an effort to crack down on the leaks that have plagued his presidency since Day One. White House chief of staff John Kelly signed off on a plan that would flush out some of the department's mid-level and junior aides, according to three people familiar with the situation. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other key senior officials are expected to remain, these people said." ...
... Gregory Korte of USA Today: "President Trump signed a bill Tuesday aimed at reducing the backlog of security clearance investigations -- but later reserved the right not to comply with it on constitutional grounds. In a signing statement Tuesday night, Trump said provisions of the bill -- the Securely Expediting Clearances Through Reporting Transparency Act of 2018, or SECRET Act -- encroach on his authority as commander-in-chief. Among the provisions Trump objected to: A section requiring the White House Office of Administration to report on its process for conducting security clearance investigations for White House officials. That process came under scrutiny in January when it was revealed that Staff Secretary Rob Porter -- the official responsible for the entire paper flow in and out of the Oval Office -- had been working without a permanent security clearance for more than a year. His clearance had been held up because of allegations of domestic violence from two ex-wives."
Trump Team Claims It Purposely Writes Stupid Tweets in Trump's "Voice." Annie Linskey of the Boston Globe: "West Wing employees who draft proposed tweets intentionally employ suspect grammar and staccato syntax in order to mimic the president's style, according to two people familiar with the process. They overuse the exclamation point! They Capitalize random words for emphasis. Fragments. Loosely connected ideas. All part of a process that is not as spontaneous as Trump's Twitter feed often appears.... Those familiar with the process wouldn't fess up to which tweets were staff-written. But an algorithm crafted by a writer at The Atlantic to determine real versus staff-written tweets suggested several were not written by the president, despite the unusual use of the language." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you can't open the Globe story, here's a New York Daily News report on the report.
Sideshow. Trump's Temporary Home Sinking into Swamp. Heather Timmons of Quartz: "... as of this past weekend, a sinkhole has been growing on the north lawn [of the White House grounds], Voice of America reporter Steve Herman observed, just near the press briefing room. 'It was noticeably bigger between Sunday and Monday,' Herman said. 'It's more than a foot long right now,' he said. A second sinkhole has opened up right next to it, he said.... Often described as a 'swamp' of corruption, parts of the city of Washington, DC, are also literally built on a swamp. The city's geological issues also include 'forebulge collapse,' a post-Ice Age condition that means the city could sink as much as six inches this century. Sinkholes have opened up across the city in recent years. They forced two residents to abandon their homes in March, and swallowed up a school bus last year."
Sideshow. Rachel Dicker of Mediaite: Members of Harvard's Class of 2003 are using traditional "Red Book" alumni notes to diss classmate Jared Kushner.
AP: "The Environmental Protection Agency is barring The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E from a national summit on harmful water contaminants.The EPA blocked the news organizations from attending Tuesday's Washington meeting, convened by EPA chief Scott Pruitt.... Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Miranda Green of the Hill: "When asked about the reporter's removal, an EPA spokesperson at first cited space constraints.... However, a handful of assigned reporter seats remained vacant by the time Pruitt began speaking, including one for a Wall Street Journal reporter who decided to watch the event via th livestream instead. A seat marked for Hearst Media was left open. Another publication was invited to the event but declined to send a reporter after learning that Pruitt would not be taking questions. CBS was the only major news outlet recording the event on video from the back of the room.... Reporters who were allowed to come to the event in the morning were also originally limited to only an hour of attendance. The entire summit spans two days. Journalists were at first not invited to stay through panel presentations, discussions and closing remarks regarding better regulating PFAS exposure and development of a cohesive federal standard." ...
... Update. Benjamin Hart of New York: "In the afternoon, after multiple outlets picked up on the AP’s report, the EPA reversed course and allowed [Ellen] Knickmeyer [-- the AP reporter whom the guards grabbed & shoved --] and the E&E News reporter into the meeting.... Earlier this month, Politico reported that the White House and EPA had blocked publication of a federal-health study on water contamination that the agency feared would be a 'public-relations nightmare.' Punishing news outlets for publishing unflattering information seems in character for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt.... Pruitt, after all, prefers not to be asked any unexpected questions, and runs an agency that has taken a sneering, Trumpian tone toward the media." ...
... Emily Atkin of the New Republic: "Tuesday's altercation may be the most high-profile security incident Pruitt has faced in his 15 months as EPA administrator. That's saying something, considering that Pruitt insists on having a 24-hour security detail composed of 19 agents and at least 19 vehicles, costing taxpayers at least $3 million. Pruitt has repeatedly said this expense -- as well as his frequent first-class travel -- are necessary because he faces unprecedented security threats."
Is She Dumber than a Post or Just Pretending to Be? Jill Colvin & Colleen Long of the AP: "Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday she was unaware of intelligence assessments concluding that Russia favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The U.S. intelligence community said in a January 2017 assessment that Russia had tried to influence the election to benefit Trump. 'I do not believe I've seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I'm not aware of that,' Nielsen told reporters after briefing members of the House on election security efforts. Homeland Security is the agency that oversees election security." Mrs. McC: Are you feeling safer now?
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The FBI has repeatedly provided grossly inflated statistics to Congress and the public about the extent of problems posed by encrypted cellphones, claiming investigators were locked out of nearly 7,800 devices connected to crimes last year when the correct number was much smaller, probably between 1,000 and 2,000.... Over a period of seven months, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray cited the inflated figure as the most compelling evidence for the need to address what the FBI calls 'Going Dark' -- the spread of encrypted software that can block investigators' access to digital data even with a court order. The FBI ... still does not have an accurate count of how many encrypted phones they received as part of criminal investigations last year, officials said. Last week, one internal estimate put the correct number of locked phones at 1,200, though officials expect that number to change as they launch a new audit...."
Alan Rappeport & Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "A decade after the global financial crisis tipped the United States into a recession, Congress agreed on Tuesday to free thousands of small and medium-sized banks from strict rules enacted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to prevent another meltdown. In a rare demonstration of bipartisanship, the House voted 258-159 to approve a regulatory rollback that passed the Senate earlier this year, handing a significant victory to President Trump, who has promised to 'do a big number on Dodd-Frank.' The bill stops far short of unwinding the toughened regulatory regime put in place to prevent the nation's biggest banks from engaging in risky behavior but represents a substantial watering down of Obama-era rules governing a large swath of the banking system." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Congressional Races, Etc.
The New York Times live-posted yesterday's primary election results for Georgia, Kentucky Arkansas & Texas.
Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Former House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams won the Democratic nomination for Georgia's top office on Tuesday, defeating ex-state Rep. Stacey Evans and advancing her quest to become the nation's first black female governor. She will face one of five Republicans in November in the race to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal, a competition that will test whether the state is truly competitive after more than a decade of GOP rule."
Kentucky House Republican incumbents have all won their primaries; three of the five were uncontested. Democrat Paul Walker prevailed in House District 1. Democrat Seth Hall in House District 4, Kenneth Stepp in District 5, & Amy McGrath in District 6. ...
... Eric Bradner of CNN: "A political newcomer knocked off Lexington Mayor Jim Gray -- a prized Democratic recruit and major figure in Kentucky politics -- in a primary for a US House seat Tuesday. Amy McGrath, a retired Marine fighter pilot, won the Lexington-area 6th District contest and is now poised to take on Republican Rep. Andy Barr in a red-leaning district that Democrats hope will shift in their favor in November's midterm elections. Gray conceded the race Tuesday night.... The win for McGrath is the latest evidence of a political climate in which voters are eager to cast out those they see as figures of the political establishment. It also showed the strength of female candidates amid the 'Me Too' movement." ...
... Jack Brammer & Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader: "As upset teachers across Kentucky Tuesday tried to flex their political muscle, Rockcastle County High School math teacher R. Travis Brenda narrowly defeated House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell of Garrard County in one of the most-watched races for the state House, according to unofficial results. Brenda tried in the Republican primary election for the 71st House District seat to capitalize on teacher anger against legislators who backed a controversial pension bill in this year's law-making session. It was Brenda's first bid for public office. Shell, a farmer who has occupied the seat since 2012 and had the backing of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as a potential rising star in the GOP, played a prominent role in handling the pension bill in the legislature."
Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Virginia sided Tuesday with a transgender teenager who spent most of his high school years fighting to use the boys' bathroom in a case that stood at the center of the national fight for transgender student rights. The judge said the school board that passed bathroom restrictions violated the teen's constitutional rights. Gavin Grimm, 19, sued the Gloucester County School Board after it passed a policy requiring students to use bathrooms that aligned with their 'biological gender.' Grimm, who was assigned the gender female at birth, told his classmates he was transgender his sophomore year and began using the boys' bathroom. When parents learned of it, they protested to the school board, which passed the restrictions."
Bobby Ross, et al., of the Washington Post: "Prominent Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson was removed from his job as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary amid an evangelical #MeToo moment: a massive backlash from women upset over comments he made in the past that are being newly perceived as sexist and demeaning. According to a brief statement early Wednesday, the seminary's board of trustees made him president emeritus, 'for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary,' and he will receive compensation." Mrs. McC: Meanwhile, of course, these same faithful are good with Trump.
Beyond the Beltway
Sidebar. Lost in Translation. Amber Ferguson of the Washington Post: A proud South Carolina mother went to her local Publix grocery store & ordered a cake to celebrate a family landmark: her son was graduated with top honors. Mom carefully typed out the wording for the cake: "Congrats Jacob! Summa Cum Laude class of 2018." When Mom opened the cake for the party, "In place of cum, three hyphens appeared, as they do for some other profanities in family newspapers: Summa ––– Laude. The Post replicated her experience and got the same result because, according to Publix, Mom used a "profane/special characters not allowed." See commentary at the end of yesterday's Comments thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Nicholas Casey & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "One day after President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela declared re-election victory, the Trump administration on Monday placed new sanctions on the crisis-ridden country, and nations across the region refused to recognize the election result. President Trump signed an executive order on Monday afternoon imposing the new penalties, which would bar United States companies or citizens from buying debt or accounts receivable from the Venezuelan government. The order extends to Petróleos de Venezuela, the government-owned oil company that is the parent of Citgo Petroleum Corporation. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
New York Times: "Philip Roth, the prolific, protean, and often blackly comic novelist who was a pre-eminent figure in 20th century literature, died on Tuesday night at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 85."
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Reader Comments (13)
I find the Elliot Broidy story bizarre and totally intriguing. What kind of man would be a shill for this kind of thing––was his wife in on it? I imagine so since the reward was substantial to say the least. If true, and it looks like it is, evidently knocking up some honey and paying for her abortion is not something that would ruin your reputation or even scratch the surface of impropriety. "Hey, (said to his lawyer) I just poisoned that somabitch who was a fly in my ointment, find someone to take the heat for it and then reward him royally."
That ole sinkhole in yonder yard in getting mighty deep and smelly.
Trump has a litany of phrases that he repeats over and over, like "believe me" and "We'll see what happens"...but his "A lot of people are saying" pertains to pure applesauce. Even if only one person has said whatever, he will make it "a lot of"––when his foxy friends voice their flapdoodle it's a greater number of... Early on when he was accusing Obama of not being a citizen he'd repeatedly tell us he had a lot of people in Hawaii investigating. Why did no one ask who were all these people? Another example of never holding his feet to the fire and now we are fucking burning in it.
Lesley Stahl (with video) reveals Trump's chilling reason for slamming the press:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/60-minutes-reporter-trump-chilling-reason-for-slamming-press_us_5b048109e4b07c4ea102c8ca
And one more: One of my favorite authors has just died––Philip Roth–- here he is in an exchange with David Remnick:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/philip-roth-dead-novelist_us_5b04e2ace4b07c4ea1030497
Zuckerman Finally Unbound
RIP the great Philip Roth.
Among his many wonderful novels we must now recognize "The Plot Against America", Roth's examination of an America beset by a fascist president who is much enamored of a foreign dictator and injects additional hatreds into the American society.
Just 14 years ago it was fiction. Today?....the plot against America is well underway.
Anyway, thanks for all the stories, Philip. We owe you.
Never laughed so hard as when I read Portnoy's Complaint!
We're losing our greats! Just this week Robert Indiana, Richard Goodwin, and now Philip Roth. It seemed we were once all forever young...and now we are realizing how close we are to
having our own obits published.
Times-they-are-a-changing! Hang in there Bob Dylan!
@PD: When the story first broke about Elliot Broidy's alleged transgression with a Playboy model...I looked at him, I looked at her...and thought, what? She settled for a mere $1.6-million!
Some coupling are beyond my imagination!
With all of this projection going on, Trump projecting all of his sins onto any and all he considers an enemy, he reminds me of an old girlfriend. She was constantly accusing me of cheating on her. It was a mystery I couldn't figure. That was never my thing. Come to find out, after we broke up, that she herself was a serial cheater and just assumed, I suppose, that if she was finding it so easy, and did it with such avidity, I must have been doing it too.
So it is that we have a crook, traitor, liar, and swindler accusing everyone else of criminal actions, treason, mendacity, and deception.
The deeper and darker the fantasies, the more muddied and foul the water, the more likely we are seeing the Real Donald Trump.
I wonder if he often suspects Melanie (Melania? Whatever) of cheating on him with porn stars.
-- and Tom Wolfe
@PD Pepe & MAG: Let's assume that the Broidys, who have been married to each other for decades, have a kind of normal, stable relationship & are fond of each other.
So -- as the theory goes -- Cohen approaches Broidy to pay off Trump's girlfriend, & Broidy has reason to think -- over & above whatever bull Cohen tells him -- that he can parlay the "favor" to Trump into a billion-dollar deal.
Broidy decides this is a good business investment, and he goes home & tells his wife about it. Remember that Broidy is not implicated in the original scheme: the hush-money payor is a John Doe called "David Dennison," um, except to the extent that his bank records show $16MM in installment payouts.
Mrs. Broidy believes her husband -- because he's telling the truth about the affair that didn't happen -- and they're both fairly sure none of it will become public anyway. Broidy does tell his wife that if, by some small chance, the media does get wind of the story, he'll have to pretend he had an affair with the Playboy model. But it's so unlikely!
So if I were Mrs. Broidy & was accustomed to my husband's making gobs of money on shady deals & cutting corners & I was okay with that, would I go along with the potential billion-dollar scheme? I think so.
Mrs. Broidy still has reason to laugh on her way to the bank. A problem I see for Trump: Mrs. Broidy certainly has confidantes, & this is the type of story you have to tell somebody, especially if that somebody is feeling all sorry for you on account of your husband's cheating with the Playboy girlfriend. And confidantes sworn to secrecy sometimes just can't help repeating those secrets.
@Mrs. McCrab: Yeah, I think Mrs. Broidy understands the game quite well. She has an MBA, is a former exec. with 20th Century Fox, lives in LA...quite unlikely anything would surprise her. Laughing all the way to the bank...is a good way to put it. After all, it's always about the bottom line, isn't it?
Thanks, NJC: Yes!, and Tom Wolfe!
Marie (and MAG and PD),
Not to get all Watergatey (although the opportunities are positively legion these days), but wives with secrets can cause big problems for lying douchebags in power. Remember Martha Mitchell? If I were Mrs. Broidy, I'd beware of thuggish looking assholes knocking on the door saying they were sent by the president* to....um....to....er...check the phone line. Yeah. That's it. The phone. Or maybe the toilet's running. Can't have that. Next thing you know, Mrs. Broidy's got a black bag on her head on her way to god knows where courtesy of Gina (Torture? Who, me?) Haspel as a favor to little donnie.
Don't forget. Nixon once told David Frost that without Martha Mitchell there'd have been no Watergate.
Poor Martha.
Watch your ass, Mrs. Broidy. The Globolinks might be coming for you.
SPYGATE!
Oh yes, it's happening. We're now turning up to fully charged "derp" mode. And the low I.Q. Fox generation absolutely loves this new chapter. With such an intriguing plot, it has everything conservatives need to touch that happy place deep within their cold hearts: Anti-America Obama (colored folks breaking laws to undermine the Great White Hope), Deep State spies (no good guvmint trickery!), Crooked Hillary (women not knowing their place), libural mockery (eggheaded media covering up the sabotage), ultimate victimization (can't trust anyone but old white men with MAGA hats).
We got a good first taste with PizzaGate. Now that Donny's in charge, Faux News' shrill narratives and the conservative media fever swamps have taken their messages to the upper echelons of our country's political power structure. Their staying power now depends on how many other shifty bean counters will buy into the insanity and turn up the noise dial even further.
Now that SPYGATE has been embraced by the president*, only more crazy can keep the rock rolling, lest he be seen as the emperor in a shit-filled diaper.
This administration breaks governing norms like an icebreaker in the warming arctic waters, but its assault on previously acceptable political discourse is reaching fever pitch. Donald is feeling the heat, throwing down obstacles everywhere to get Mueller off his scent, and demanding the loyalists come to heel and share in the buffonnery.
Dumb it down, Bob
An "if this, then that" piece in the Times runs down different possible outcomes to the Russia-Trump-Collusion investigation. Although they don't say so in as many words, the writers don't appear bursting with sanguinity regarding the fate of the Orange Headed Baboon.
Yes, impeachment is a possible outcome. So also is half of Washington waking up in Brigadoon, spying strange people dressed in antique Scottish costumes dancing around the Mall singing "Almost like being in love".
The trigger is, as it's always been, a Congress controlled by the Party of Traitors.
With piles of evidence staring them in the face, they turn away as Perseus avoiding the face of the Gorgon. What miracle will persuade the likes of a Devin Nunes to all of a sudden decide to move forward with impeachment proceedings?
Nothing will happen. UNLESS...the midterms bring that Blue Wave we've been hearing about. (Wait...do I hear someone singing "Almost like being in love"?)
And another problem is that the story line is so dense at this point, so rife with crooks and liars and con men and chiselers, so many shady characters doing so many shady things in an effort to put a shady baboon in the White House. Trump's trail of criminality and crookedness is Byzantine by any standard. The public's eyes will glaze over after the third Russian contact with Junior. The story needs to be dumbed down, simplified. "Trump is a traitorous crook who stole the election" should do the trick.
I was headed to Wisconsin this weekend for a little fishing. It'll be a lot easier now with that case of dynamite I just picked up. Thanks Zinke!