;)
Tuesday
May292018
The Commentariat -- May 30, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Trump Complains ABC Is Nicer to Valerie Jarrett than to Him. Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that 'ABC does not tolerate comments like those' made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn't get the call? -- Donald Trump, in a tweet
Fox Foils Loon. Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "... three voices on Fox News pushed back against the president's most recent conspiracy theory. A Fox News guest, commentator and anchor all rebuked claims from the president and his allies that the FBI planted a 'spy' in his campaign in an effort to undercut his candidacy. Outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the House Oversight Committee chairman and a Trump supporter, said in an interview on Fox that the FBI was justified in using a secret informant to assist in the Russia investigation. Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, attended a classified Justice Department briefing last week on the FBI's use of the confidential source, identified as Stefan A. Halper.... Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano (better known and often quoted by Trump as Judge Napolitano) said claims that the FBI placed an undercover spy on Trump's campaign 'seem to be baseless.'... Napolitano's reluctance to back Trump's claims was surprising in part because of Napolitano's previous tendency to peddle conspiracy theories with no evidence.... Also on Fox News on Tuesday, anchor Shepard Smith ripped apart the president's 'conspiracy theories' that Mueller and his team are meddling in the midterms, calling the allegations 'unfounded, not based in fact or reason, with no evidence to support them.'" Fortunately for Trump, Hannity is still solidly in Trump Conspiracy World.
Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast on White House feuds: "Leaks ... have decimated morale. But factionalism was the real poison, with aides growing more and more convinced that enemies within are spreading gossip and innuendo to enhance their own standing.... sources close to the president suggested that firings would come sometime soon and that they would be targeting members of the communications team."
Ivanka Got Her Fee-Fees Hurt. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Ivanka Trump abruptly left a conference call on Tuesday about a coming fitness event after receiving questions about her company's trademarks in China and her father's exercise regimen. White House officials insisted that she had always been scheduled to leave."
Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "The Senate intelligence committee has asked to interview Roger Stone, Donald Trump's longtime political adviser and self-described dirty trickster. Stone's lawyer, Grant Smith, told The Daily Beast that the committee last week sent them an email with a list of search terms for communications to use to determine which electronic communications to turn over to the Senate Intelligence Committee. At the same time, according to Smith, the committee said its members would like to question Stone after receiving the documents. Smith said the process has been amicable and that the interview date has not yet been set."
John DiStaso of WMUR (Manchester, NH): "An exhaustive review by state election officials, including a first-time comparison of voter information shared with 27 other states, has turned up virtually no evidence of possible voter fraud in New Hampshire, those officials said Tuesday.... In February 2017, less than a month after taking office, President Trump, in a private meeting with officials, including former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, claimed without evidence that he and Ayotte lost in New Hampshire in the 2016 general election because thousands of people were 'brought in on buses' from Massachusetts to 'illegally' vote in New Hampshire.... Gov. Chris Sununu, as a candidate in October 2016, charged in an interview with Boston radio talk show host Howie Carr that Democrats 'gamed the system to their advantage' because, he charged, 'when Massachusetts elections are not very close, they're busing them in all over the place' to the Granite State. Sununu, after being elected, later walked back the claim and said there was no voter fraud in the 2016 election.... [Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said] that in fact there were buses from out-of-state in the 2014 midterm election, but the people they carried were legitimate New Hampshire voters."
Amie Ferris-Rotman of the Washington Post: "A fierce Kremlin critic and prominent Russian war correspondent, Arkady Babchenko, showed up alive at a press conference on Wednesday in Kiev, one day after he was reportedly shot and killed in the same city. Ukraine's chief of security services, Vasyl Gritsak, said Babchenko had faked his own death as a ruse to foil a real plot against his life. Babchenko, 41, fled his native Russia for Ukraine last year after receiving death threats for criticizing Russian military involvement in Syria. He told reporters Wednesday that his fake death was part of an operation with the security services in Ukraine that took two months to prepare. Russia had demanded on Tuesday that Ukraine conduct a full investigation into his death, though many suspected that Moscow was behind the attack." Mrs. McC: Nothing in the story indicates whether or not the ruse worked. ...
... Here's the Answer. Dmytro Vlasov & Nataliya Vasilyeva of the AP: "The movie-like twist came as Gritsak convened the news conference to announce that the security agency and the police had solved Babchenko' reported slaying.... Before ushering Babchenko into the room, Gritsak said investigators had identified a Ukrainian citizen who allegedly was paid $40,000 by the Russian security service to organize and carry out the hit. The unidentified Ukrainian man in turn allegedly hired an acquaintance to be the gunman, Gritsak said. The man allegedly paid to organize Banchenko's killing was detained Wednesday, he said, showing a video of the arrest."
William Cummings of USA Today: "Jesse Duplantis, a televangelist with viewers across the globe, says God told him he needs a new jet. Specifically, God told Duplantis he needs a Dassault Falcon 7X, a three-engine private jet capable of carrying 12 to 16 passengers at speeds up to 700 miles per hour. The Falcon 7X, which would be the fourth plane owned by Jesse Duplantis Ministries, has a range of almost 6,000 miles and costs about $54 million new, according to SherpaReport (although used ones are listed online for as little as $20 million).... He showed off a photo of the three planes currently owned by his ministry, bearing the caption, 'It's not about possessions, it's about priorities.'" Cummings reports Duplantis's conversations with God.
*****
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
A Bad Day for Trumpkin
Michael Schmidt & Julie Davis of the New York Times: In March 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions flew to Mar-a-Lago to talk to President Trump "about a pressing decision on his travel ban.... Mr. Trump [would not talk] ... about the travel ban.... Mr. Trump, who had told aides that he needed a loyalist overseeing the [Russia] inquiry, berated Mr. Sessions [for recusing himself] and told him he should reverse his decision, an unusual and potentially inappropriate request. Mr. Sessions refused. The confrontation, which has not been previously reported, is being investigated by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, as are the president's public and private attacks on Mr. Sessions and efforts to get him to resign. Mr. Trump dwelled on the recusal for months, according to confidants and current and former administration officials who described his behavior toward the attorney general. The special counsel's interest ... suggests that the obstruction investigation is broader than it is widely understood to be -- encompassing not only the president's interactions with and firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, but also his relationship with Mr. Sessions.... Before the recusal, the president and his attorney general were friends, often sharing meals and talking on the phone. Today, they rarely speak...." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Whatever the legal consequences, his demands that Sessions take the extraordinary step of reversing a recusal that was obviously needed show how deeply Trump believes the law does not apply to him." ...
... NEW. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Wednesday that he wished he had picked someone other than Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, renewing a slight of the former senator who recused himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump is tweeting this morning, citing Trey Gowdy to berate Jeff Sessions once again: (1) "Rep.Trey Gowdy, 'I don't think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country's.... (2) ...chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, 'oh by the way I'm not going to be able to participate in the most important case i the office, I would be frustrated too...and that's how I read that - Senator Sessions, why didn't you tell me before I picked you..... (3) ....There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!' And I wish I did!"
David Boucher of the Tennessean: "Despite a Twitter pledge Tuesday morning from ... Donald Trump 'to start focusing my energy' on policy, Trump lambasted the ongoing federal investigation into his campaign during a rally Tuesday evening in Nashville. Trump repeated an incorrect claim the FBI tried to infiltrate his campaign -- something he calls 'spygate' -- in an attempt to undermine the investigation of U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller. 'So how do you like the fact they had people infiltrating our campaign? Can you imagine? Can you imagine people infiltrating our campaign?' Trump said to cheers from several thousand people at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Nashville.... The comments came moments after The New York Times reported U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a focal point of the obstruction investigation by Mueller."
Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "... Donald Trump alleged Tuesday -- without providing any evidence -- tha special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation will meddle in the midterm elections to benefit Democrats. Trump's claim is his latest attack on the credibility of the Russia investigation as being politically motivated, though it's a significant new step in his attacks on what is intended to be an independent probe working to get to the bottom of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. 'The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls'" Trump tweeted. 'There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Asawin Suebsaeng & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump spent his long Memorial Day weekend ... lob[bing] innuendo and unfounded accusations at the man who occupied the office before him. Barack Obama, Trump declared over the course of several days, 'did NOTHING' on trade, let the sanctioned Chinese phone company ZTE 'flourish with no security checks,' employed various lawyers on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, ignored Russian election meddling, and, above all, authorized 'spying' on the Trump 2016 campaign. What stood out about the weekend's salvo was the vitriol, perhaps panic, behind it.... According to two White House officials, Trump has been privately wondering whether Obama is actively working behind the scenes to undermine or undercut his presidency.... The most senior members of successive administrations usually adopt a muted approach to one another out of a sense of professional courtesy." ...
... Byron Wolf of CNN: Trump's witch-hunt charges are working. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: Trump has defined (and redefined) the word "collusion" & what is legal & illegal as it relates to "collusion." "Trump has insisted on dozens of occasions that he has been cleared of all charges of collusion and that the Mueller investigation is thus a 'witch hunt' that persists despite his proven innocence.... Now it has recently emerged that Mueller is refining what he sees as collusion, and that the scope of his investigation has sprawled beyond collusion into other areas.... Even so, some journalists -- left and right -- continue to follow Trump's cues, arguing that collusion is some pre-defined thing.... It's important to recall that this sort of claim accepts Trump's legal framing, and Trump has been wrong on that framing for more than a year."
Josh Dawsey & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani said Tuesday that Trump will not agree to an interview with the special counsel until prosecutors allow the president's legal team to review documents related to the FBI's use of a source to interact with members of Trump's 2016 campaign. 'We need all the documents before we can decide whether we are going to do an interview,' Giuliani said in an interview with The Washington Post, using Trump's term 'spygate' to refer to the FBI actions, which former officials have said were well within bounds. Giuliani's latest demand further ratcheted up the pressure that Trump and his lawyers are trying to place on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team as his investigation into alleged coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia reaches a key juncture."
... But There Must Be an Explanation! Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyers should be asked about possible discrepancies between his private testimony to the committee and press reports, but he didn't endorse a Democratic proposal to bring him in for a public hearing. 'I would suggest Mr. Trump Jr.'s attorneys be asked about these press accounts,' Grassley said Tuesday in a letter to Senator Chris Coons.... 'While it is possible there could be contradictions, there are potentially innocuous explanations.'... The Democrat who serves on the committee had urged Grassley to investigate whether the president's son had lied to the panel -- a crime -- when he denied knowledge of any offers of help to his father's 2016 campaign from foreign governments or foreign nationals other than Russia. Coons cited a May 19 story in the New York Times saying that Trump Jr. met with emissaries who told him that princes who led Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were eager to help the campaign."
Why Devin Nunes Has Disappeared. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said last week's [classified] briefing, convened by the Justice Department under pressure from Trump, convinced him even further that the FBI's information-gathering steps were appropriate. 'I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got,' he said in an interview on Fox News. He added that the information also suggested that the effort had 'nothing to do with Donald Trump.'... He noted that the current top officials at the agencies, including FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, 'now are all Trump appointees.'... Moments after Gowdy's interview, Trump took the stage at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, and insisted that his campaign had been 'infiltrated' by political opponents...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gowdy, the valiant knight who led the most prominent Benghaaazi! probe, is retiring, and his retirement plans seem to have begun with his taking a small dose of truth serum. His Fox "News" interview blows the lid off "Spygate." Trump is evidently ignoring Gowdy's inconvenient brush with the truth, but Nunes -- who, alongside Gowdy, attended the Extra-Special DOJ Briefing -- is laying way low.
Joe Schneider of Bloomberg: "U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan will get a vast array of data seized from three phones belonging to ... Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen by Wednesday, according to a filing from a retired judge reviewing materials taken by the FBI."
Andrew Harris of Bloomberg: "Paul Manafort’s defense team can't review an unredacted affidavit that supported warrants used to search his Alexandria residence, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington denied a request by Manafort's lawyers to review documents that could help them challenge the legal basis for the warrant. The ruling allows Special Counsel Robert Mueller to shield the names of confidential sources." Open in private window.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Robert Mueller's prosecutors indicated Tuesday that they're ready to move toward sentencing of another defendant who pleaded guilty in the ongoing probe of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors asked a federal judge to order a pre-sentencing report for Richard Pinedo, a Santa Paula, California, man who admitted in February to a felony identity fraud charge relating to the sale of bank account numbers that apparently helped Russian internet trolls pay for social media ads related to the U.S. presidential race."
Leaker-in-Chief. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "The White House has tried to avoid discussing a February skirmish between U.S. troops and Russian mercenaries in Syria, but that didn't stop ... Donald Trump from bragging about the Pentagon's performance at a recent closed-door fundraiser. The details of the battle remain classified, but speaking to donors in midtown Manhattan last Wednesday, Trump said he was amazed by the performance of American F-18 pilots. He suggested that the strikes may have been as brief as '10 minutes; and taken out 100 to 300 Russians, according to a person briefed on the president's remarks, which have not previously been reported.... According to The New York Times, which last week provided the first detailed description of the battle, the confrontation lasted four hours and left between 200 and 300 pro-Assad forces dead." Mrs. McC: The price of getting classified information? -- $50,000. Unless you're a top Russian diplomat. Then it's free.
Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump went after former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) at a campaign rally Tuesday night, calling him a 'total tool' of Democratic leaders while attempting to boost his Republican challenger Rep. Marsha Blackburn. 'So [Rep.] Marsha [Blackburn]'s [R-Tenn.] very liberal Democrat opponent, Phil Bredesen, I never heard of this guy, who is he?' Trump said at a rally in Nashville, Tenn. 'He's an absolute total tool of Chuck Schumer ... and of course the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi. She loves MS-13, can you imagine,' the president continued. ...
... NEW. Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump accused Democrats on Tuesday of siding with brutal immigrant gang members over American citizens and implored Republican voters to turn out in November's midterm elections or risk the safety of their country. During a raucous rally in Nashville, Mr. Trump invoked fears of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, particularly by the transnational gang MS-13, to argue for stricter border policies, including his long-promised wall, and charged that Democrats were standing in the way.... He worked his audience of about 1,000 into a frenzy by recalling the term he used this month during a discussion of how difficult it was to target suspected undocumented immigrants, including criminal gang members, for deportation. 'What was the name?' Mr. Trump asked. 'Animals!' his cheering supporters screamed back." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The whole idea here is to equate all Central American immigrants with inhuman/animal gang members. It's beyond disgusting. ...
... Matthew Nussbaum & Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "... Donald Trump spreads misinformation. A lot of it. Really, a lot. But every once in a while he will come out guns blazing in defense of the truth, demanding corrections and consequences for spreading falsehoods told by others, and using incorrect news reports to undercut the media as a whole. He executed the well-practiced maneuver once again on Tuesday, seizing on images of detained migrant children in bare-bones holding areas that had been spread on Twitter to attack his immigration policies but turned out to have been taken in 2014 while President Barack Obama was still in office.... In recent months Trump has called for the firing of a Washington Post reporter over an inaccurate tweet, slammed the media for mischaracterizing his characterization of some immigrants as 'animals' and called for ABC to fire Brian Ross over an incorrect report concerning the Russia investigation. This kind of rhetoric is emerging as a central element of his 2018 and 2020 campaign strategies.... But whereas mainstream media outlets correct false reports, Trump and his White House refuse to back down from exaggerations, falsehoods and outright lies." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: House Democrats should collect some of Trump's most egregious lies -- like where he claims Nancy Pelosi "loves" Mexican gangs -- and demand that Trump be censured for lying to the American public & defaming the intelligence community & members of Congress with false accusations. A censure resolution would never pass, of course, but it would create some "official noise." Remember when the Senate censured Moveon.org for an ad in which the liberal group described David Petraeus as "General Betray Us"? Ironically, a few years later it came out that Petraeus had in fact betrayed us by giving classified documents to his girlfriend.
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it would proceed with plans to impose a series of punitive trade-related measures on China in the next month, intensifying pressure on Beijing as trade talks between the countries continue. The White House said in a statement that the United States would move ahead with its plan to levy 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of imported Chinese goods, despite recent remarks by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and other administration officials that the tariffs would be suspended while the countries continued their negotiations.... The White House said it would detail the final list of goods that will be subject to the tariffs by June 15, and the duties would be imposed shortly after that...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Denuclearization, No. McDonald's, Yes. Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "A new U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded that North Korea does not intend to give up its nuclear weapons any time soon, three U.S. officials told NBC News -- a finding that conflicts with recent statements by ... Donald Trump that Pyongyang intends to do so in the future.... In an odd twist, a list of potential concessions by North Korea in the CIA analysis included the possibility that Kim Jong Un may consider offering to open a Western hamburger franchise in Pyongyang as a show of goodwill, according to three national security officials.... The CIA report came as a top nuclear expert argued in a new paper that the nuclear disarmament process in North Korea could take as a long as 15 years. Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford professor who once directed the federal government's Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico -- and who has toured North Korean nuclear facilities four times -- argued that the sprawling nature of the North Korean program means it will take a long time to dismantle."
Greg Sargent: "What's notable about [Trump's] new spin [on immigration policy] -- that Democrats are to blame for the policy change -- isn't just that it's flatly false on its face. It's also that, by making this claim, Trump and the White House are basically admitting that their own policy is a moral abomination.... What is actually driving the change is that Trump and administration officials don't want high numbers of people to be crossing the border to apply for asylum at all, no matter what they are fleeing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dana Milbank: "Even by President Trump's standards, this Memorial Day weekend was memorable for the sheer volume of balderdash, bunk, poppycock and patent nonsense flowing from the White House.... Calling him a liar lets him off easy. A liar, by definition, knows he's not telling the truth. Trump's behavior is worse: With each day it becomes more obvious he can't distinguish between fact and fantasy. It's an illness, and it's spreading.... (The White House held a briefing Tuesday to support Trump's attempt to blame Democrats for immigrant family separation.) Trump may not be able to separate fact from fiction, but those who knowingly back up his falsehoods are liars." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The person who held that White House briefing was Stephen Miller. Ted Hesson of Politico: "White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller bashed Democrats on Tuesday for not repealing laws and overriding court rulings that he said encourage Central American migrants to seek refuge in the United States.... But the new policy to prosecute all suspected border-crossers -- and therefore separate more families -- came directly from Trump's own administration.... During the briefing, Miller argued that Democrats 'have tried to starve the government of detention space, as part of their crusade for open borders.' But although many Democrats oppose expanding detention, funding for detention beds has risen significantly during the Trump administration." Gosh, Hesson's report makes it sound as if Miller was just lying.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear a challenge to an Arkansas law that could force two of the state's three abortion clinics to close. As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for turning away the appeal. The case will continue to be litigated in the lower courts. The law concerns medication abortions, which use pills to induce abortions in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The law, enacted in 2015, requires providers of the procedure to have contracts with doctors who have admitting privileges at a hospital in the state. Abortion clinics in Arkansas said they were unable to find any doctors willing to sign such contracts. After the Supreme Court's action, Planned Parenthood said it would for now stop providing medication abortions in the state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
"That Was Quick." Daily Beast: "ABC on Tuesday afternoon announced it has canceled its popular Roseanne reboot after its eponymous star, Roseanne Barr, went on a racist Twitter tirade. 'Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,' ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... David Bauder of the AP: "ABC canceled its hit reboot of 'Roseanne' on Tuesday following star Roseanne Barr's racist tweet that referred to former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett as a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the "Planet of the Apes." ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said the comment "is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values." Barr apologized and deleted her Monday-night tweet, calling it a 'bad joke,' but the damage had already been done. Late Tuesday, Barr tweeted a second apology to the writers and co-stars of the show and urging people not to feel sorry for her. She also highlighted supporters' tweets that criticized ABC and two of its personalities, Joy Behar and Keith Olbermann. She also retweeted a meme that juxtaposed shots of ... Donald Trump next to orangutans, and an image of Jarrett next to a picture of a 'Planet of the Apes' actress."
... Tony Maglio of the Wrap: "Viacom is pulling 'Roseanne' reruns from its Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT channels, a person with knowledge of the decision told TheWrap on Tuesday.... Additionally, Laff, a digital network that programs reruns of sitcoms spanning the past few decades, has made the same call.... Later Tuesday, Hulu confirmed it would be dropping episodes of the 'Roseanne' revival." ...
... Rebecca Sun of the Hollywood Reporter: "ICM Partners [-- a top talent agency --] has dropped Roseanne Barr following her racist tweet about former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett." ...
... Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The racist tweet that cost Roseanne Barr her hit ABC sitcom was not the only hateful message that the actress and outspoken conservative shared on Tuesday. In a flurry of tweets and retweets, Ms. Barr dabbled in far-right conspiracy theories old and new that included falsehoods about a frequent bogeyman, George Soros, the billionaire and progressive philanthropist. In an exchange with Chelsea Clinton, Ms. Barr falsely accused Mr. Soros, 87, of being a Nazi 'who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth.' In another tweet, Ms. Barr accused Mr. Soros of wanting to 'overthrow' the United States by backing candidates for district attorney 'who will ignore U.S. law & favor "feelings."' Ms. Barr also retweeted a user who asserted that Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist activists are Soros-sponsored front groups. The user referred to Mr. Soros as the 'terrorist in chief.' The assertions about Mr. Soros that appeared throughout Ms. Barr's timeline are baseless." ...
... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post criticizes reports that call Barr's tweet "racially charged" or have written "what some call racist." Mrs. McC: I'm certain reporters do that because they think naming a racist remark "racist" lacks "objectivity." ...
... Sally Persons of the Washington Times: "Roseanne Barr announced Tuesday she's leaving Twitter after comparing a former Obama adviser to an ape." ...
... Anne Clark of Vulture: Roseanne Barr "never deleted her account, and as soon as it was obvious the promise to leave Twitter wouldn't get her out of this one, she was back at it the same day retweeting every conspiracy theory and double-standard argument she could find to avoid taking responsibility for her show's demise." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In one of the tweets-after-she-quit-Twitter which Clark cites, Barr said she thought Jarrett was Saudi. An easy mistake to make: Jarrett was born in Iran to African-American parents while her father ran a hospital there. ...
... Big Pharma Made Her Do It. Now Barr has tweeted that Ambien was responsible for her racist tweet. John Berman of CNN tweeted that he didn't recall that racism was a side-effect of Ambien. Mrs. McC: So I checked out an Ambien ad, and though it does not specifically cite racism as a side-effect, its disclaimer does say, "abnormal behavior, such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal..., agitation ... may occur." ...
... James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "Credit where due: ABC canceled its highest-rated show, a linchpin of its fall schedule, as a stand against its star's racism. That decision will probably cut into the network's advertising profits.... But it is not a step you can take for granted. Take Donald Trump.... He began peddling the birther slur -- that Mr. Obama, the first black president, was not born in the United States -- while the fourth 'Celebrity Apprentice' was on NBC. The network kept him as host for three more seasons, and aired one more on which he was executive producer. In 2013, the 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson gave an interview likening 'homosexual behavior' to bestiality and suggesting that black people in the South were more content before the civil rights movement. The A&E network suspended him for nine days before reversing its decision, less a slap than a tap on the wrist.... Even if the president, who praised 'Roseanne' to his supporters as being 'about us,' doesn't weigh in, even if Ms. Barr herself stays off Twitter, recent history tells us people will seize on the opportunity to say that the p.c. thought police are repressing us, because a rich woman lost her job for calling a black woman an ape." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Neither Mrs. Huckleberry nor her boss would say anything about Roseanne yesterday. But Valerie Jarrett was Barack Obama's closest advisor. Sooner or later, Trump will blow. ...
... Casey Michel of ThinkProgress: "With reactions ranging from claims of ignorance -- including questions about how commentary about 'apes' could ever be construed as racist -- to pledges of support for whatever Barr's next venture may be, some of the most prominent voices among the conspiratorial right offered their full-throated support for Barr's racist commentary, as well as their opposition to ABC’s decision." Michel provides numerous examples, including a retweet from Donnie Jr., in which Barr pegged George Soros as a Nazi who turned Jews over to the Germans, then stole the victims' money. ...
... MEANWHILE, Megyn Kelly Is Outraged She & Her Kids Might See a Homeless Person. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "NBC host Megyn Kelly on Tuesday lashed out at Starbucks over a policy that allows anyone to sit in the store or use the bathrooms -- even if they are not paying customers.... 'For the paying customers who go in with their kids, do you really want to deal with a mass of homeless people or whoever is in there -- could be drug addicted, you don't know when you're there with your kids paying for the services of the place.'” Mrs. McC: Megyn may have left Fox "News," but Fox has not left Megyn. If you can't pop for a $5 Peppermint Mocha, you don't belong in a restroom where Megyn sets her Skinny Vanilla Latte ass. No word NBC News is upset with that. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I find Kelly's performance worse than Barr's. Roseanne was making another of her signature tasteless "jokes," & she was doing it on her own time. Kelly was voicing her insensitive opinion on air on what is ostensibly an NBC News show. Roseanne apologized. Kelly did not. P.S. Let's ask Kelly if Jesus & Santa are still white.
Capitalism is Deadly. Barry Meier of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller’s growing abuse until years after it went on the market. But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about 'significant' abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug's introduction in 1996 and concealed that information. Company officials had received reports that the pills were being crushed and snorted; stolen from pharmacies; and that some doctors were being charged with selling prescriptions.... Prosecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, that could have sent the men to prison if convicted. But top Justice Department officials in the George W. Bush administration did not support the move.... Instead, the government settled the case in 2007.... That decision followed meetings with a Purdue Pharma defense team whose advisers included Rudolph W. Giuliani...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
** Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri announced on Tuesday that he will resign, bowing to months of pressure as he faced a felony charge, a scandal tied to an extramarital relationship and the threat of impeachment. Mr. Greitens, a newcomer to politics and former member of the Navy SEALs whose political fortunes rose and fell with remarkable speed, remains under indictment in St. Louis on a charge of tampering with computer data. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Greitens, a Republican, illegally obtained a donor list from a veterans' charity he founded and used it for his 2016 campaign. A separate felony invasion-of-privacy charge against Mr. Greitens was dropped just before trial in May.... Lt. Gov. Michael L. Parson, a Republican from rural southwestern Missouri who previously served as a sheriff and state senator, is next in line for the governorship." ...
... Jason Hancock & Bryan Lowry of the Kansas City Star: "Eric Greitens ... resigned Tuesday -- effective at 5 p.m. Friday -- just as abruptly as he had arrived on Missouri's political scene, his career buried under an avalanche of scandal and felony charges. Even as he announced his historic decision to step down, Greitens asserted his innocence and argued that he was the victim of a political conspiracy.... A Rhodes scholar and former Navy SEAL, Greitens was once considered one of the brightest stars in the Republican Party -- a rock star who traveled the country campaigning for his fellow GOP governors, all while building his national profile and donor base for an almost inevitable run at the White House.... His political persona was based on a pledge to rid state government of 'corrupt career politicians.'... His first year in office was dominated by a steady stream of corruption allegations, most stemming from his reliance on anonymous campaign contributions routed through secretive nonprofits."
** Sheri Fink of the New York Times: "As hurricane season begins this week, experts are still trying to count the number of deaths caused by last year's devastating Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The latest estimate: roughly 4,600, many of them from delayed medical care. Residents of Puerto Rico died at a significantly higher rate during the three months after the hurricane than they did in the previous year, according to the results of a new study by a group of independent researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other institutions. The researchers say their estimate, published Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, remains imprecise, with more definitive studies still to come.... The findings, which used methods that have not been previously applied to this disaster, are important amid widespread concerns that the government's tally of the dead, 64, was a dramatic undercount."
Way Beyond
Andrew Roth of the Guardian: "A dissident Russian journalist has been shot at his apartment in Kiev in a high-profile murder that police said may have been tied to his reporting. Arkady Babchenko, a veteran Russian war correspondent, was shot three times in the back as he left his apartment to buy bread. He was found bleeding by his wife. Babchenko, 41, died in the ambulance to the hospital, a government official said. The killing appeared to be targeted. The gunman had apparently lain in wait for him outside his apartment. The head of Ukraine's police force said that two motives were being considered: his 'professional work and civil position'. Police on Wednesday evening had not named a suspect, but did post a sketch of a bearded man in a baseball hat."
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Reader Comments (16)
Interesting how wingers who are now screaming that poor Roseanne Barr is a victim of the snowflake liberal thought police for comparing a black woman to a Muslim ape, were the first to demand that NFL players (mostly black) who protested treatment of black Americans by the police should be fired. I guess the First Amendment, in their estimation, is only for certain white people.
Also, whining that liberals (and ABC) should grow up and learn to recognize a joke when they hear one, they had a much different take on things when the person telling the jokes was a liberal TV writer.
Hypocrisy isn’t the sole property of Confederates, it just seems that way.
We've long known that the physical damage to Puerto Rico was far in excess of the government estimates. Now with the actual death toll coming into focus I wonder if Trump can be prodded into a second visit to the island, perhaps with band aids instead of paper towels.
Mixed feelings. Barr was punished along with a load of totally innocent actors and staff. ABC could have been more 'creative'.
On the TV last night saw the ABC president of entertainment, Channing Dungey, was black. That fact alone has to be explosive right wing fodder, already shivering the internet timbers, and I can't imagine that some version of that shocking fact will forever be eschewed by the Pretender's itchy twitter finger.
@Marvin
Had the same thought about the collateral damage of the new "Roseanne"'s cancellation.
What is it about liberals like us? No matter where we turn, we keep tripping over that silly fairness thing. As I said, I did too.
Who knew it would all be so hard? It's almost as tough as democracy.
But then there's that thing about choices and hitching your wagon to a falling star. Having not seen the show, I won't judge, but I wonder if the cast, crew, the entire ensemble was proud of their product.
@Marvin: I, too, was thinking along those lines, but since the show was centered on Roseanne it would have been mighty tough to continue on without her even if you wrote a script where she had been eaten by a black bear while hiking in the woods. But yes, I think of all the many people who work on a show from the script writers to the person in charge of lighting––they have lost their jobs. I applaud loudly ABC's decision but wonder how Trump's vitriol and lies during his Apprentice sojourn was ignored. If he had been stopped early on––cancellation of that show––then maybe...
Last night MSNBC held a symposium on RACE (Valerie Jarret was included in the panel); the stories of racism encountered by blacks (those in the audience) and those that have been in the news previously were jarring. Walk in my skin, they say, and experience things you never have because you're white.
Lots of immigration coverage on the TeeVee finally–-snatching babies from mothers evidently got their attention. Will someone–-like a reporter–-ask Huckleberry why Trump is lying, blaming the democrats when its his own damn policy? Will she say, ah shucks, ya'all, you know the president* don't cotton to truths–-but if she doesn't will someone–-like a reporter explain the truth about the immigration policy and press her on why Trump is lying? Come on, people–-be brave here!
Yesterday Forest Morris wrote about the weather–- he's in Michigan –-usually somewhat still chilly at this time of year but he claimed it was a whopping 95–-a sister of his lives in Georgia where it's always almost hot by this time of year and she reported it was 75. Well–-I just want to report that here in Ct. two days ago it was 85; next day it was cold, rainy and down to 50. Yesterday it rose again to 85–- today sunny but cool–-58. Real weather reports with real concern about our planet and how I fervently hope those climate deniers will eventually experience some kind of cancellation of their own shitty show of shows.
Enjoyed the spin on Prufrock (see side panel). I once did a paper on that poem –-at the time was so "into" Eliot; my, how one changes with time.
Here's the Daily Show's take on Starbuck's racial bias training video:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/daily-show-leaks-starbucks-video_us_5b0dfe9ce4b0568a880f94be
In 1961 I read the book, "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin. I was 13 and just beginning high school in a 99.999% white city and state. Yes, I was a child of the 60s, having my consciousness raised without realizing it until I was in college interacting with people who were not white. An article in The Guardian, on the 50th anniversary of the book, highlights the impact on Griffin ~ as well as the author of the article ~ and why a rereading would be beneficial: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/black-like-me-john-howard-griffin
Marvin,
I'm not sure what else ABC could have done. I am sure that they at least walked through other possible forms of censure, none of which apparently passed the smell test.
Plus, this is not the first time Barr has unleashed her inner KKK goon. She once tweeted that Susan Rice (again, black) had "big hairy ape balls". She's called George Soros a Nazi. I don't know her, but I'm guessing, like most performers, she loves notoriety and she especially loves getting attention for doing edgy things (remember her screeching her way through the national anthem then grabbing her crotch? Funny how Trump never thought she should be deported for that...). But when people like Barr, who make their names doing such things then want to blame it on a pill or try to say it was just a joke...well...one simply has to look askance at such lame excuses.
As for the other people on the show, yeah, it sucks for them. I'm not too worried about John Goodman or Sara Gilbert who have more money in the bank than I could even count, but there are a lot of other people hurt by Barr's racism (in addition to the millions of black Americans, that is). The crews on these shows depend on regular employment if they're to make it in that industry. They're all looking for new jobs now, just as the next season was going into production.
Much farther down the totem pole, sales people at local stations are also taking it on the chin. These are not people making millions of dollars, they're selling 30 second ads to car dealerships and law firms, and show like "Roseanne", with great numbers, can command a slightly higher fee for sponsors. That's all gone now.
But what's the alternative? Look the other way? Tiny wrist slap like what that bigoted Duck Dynasty douchbag got? Trump has made rampant racism cool for the haters. It's up to the rest of us to make it uncool, and to make the employment of racial hatred hurt for its practitioners.
ABC did the right thing. And if Roseanne truly were repentant and sorry for her remark, she doesn't make a very good case in her defense. Instead she's been pointing to stories in right-wing media that rip ABC for canceling a show that supports the Glorious Leader. She can tell her story walking.
Racism is still an enormous problem and sadly, it's getting worse in the Age of Trump. By isolating the most vocal proponents of white supremacy, we try to convince ourselves that no one else is to blame, or worse, that it's no one else's problem.
Mushiba,
I remember reading "Black Like Me" when I was about 14. It was an eye-opener. I grew up in the city in a mostly white neighborhood directly adjacent to a mostly black neighborhood. We were friends with some of those kids, but our encounters were predominantly on the basketball court in a concrete and scrub grass park that sat in the middle, so it's not like I had no exposure to black Americans. But my sense of what it was like to BE black in America was dramatically upended by Griffin's book.
One black kid we played with, Robbie, always seemed to be angry. I asked his brother about it once and he just looked at me. It seemed like he was thinking about telling me, trying to explain something, but at some point decided it either made no difference or that I just wouldn't understand. His brother grew angrier as we all got older. By that time it was the mid to late 60s and things in the black communities had heated up.
We got into a fight once on the court over a hard foul, but a few seconds into what should have been a quick knock-around with a couple of punches from both sides, then broken up by the other guys, I realized that Robbie was out for blood; he was fighting a different sort of battle. After reading "Black Like Me", I had a better idea of what that might be.
A landmark of creative reportage. Thanks for reminding me of its importance.
What Really Matters
This morning I heard an interview on NPR with a member of the little king's trade policy team, Peter Navarro. The discussion was largely centered on the trade talks with China, tariffs, and trade deficits. At one point, Steve Inskeep, the interviewer, brought up the Ivanka Trump problem. The question had to do with whether one could believe that Trump had the best interests of the country in mind as opposed to the best interests of his family. Navarro immediately reined it in. It was unfortunate, he said, that such a good exchange of ideas had been interrupted by such a piddling detail as Ivanka Trump's cozy deals with China.
Sorry, Peter. It's not piddling. It's immensely important. In fact, the answer to the question puts front and center the ability of Americans to trust that the president* EVER has their best interests at heart, or whether he's mostly (completely?) out to enrich himself and his family at our expense.
The answer can be found in another interview session in which the queen herself, the Lady Ivanka, when asked on a conference call about China's gifts to her company, got up and ran away.
So much for an open exchange of ideas and a reassurance that her successful business dealings with China--a notoriously difficult customer when it comes to such things--were not just about a quid pro quo between Daddy and Xi.
The details of trade negotiations do matter, but what really matters is whether, at bottom, we can trust that Trump and his team are in it to protect Americans or whether they would sell us all out in a heartbeat for a new pair of alligator loafers, some gold plated ceremonial chop sticks, and a thumbs up from Chinese officials for company trademarks worth tens of millions in exchange for American technology and security.
That's what really matters.
The Guardian is reporting that the Russian journalist actually faked his death to entrap potential hitmen. Pretty wild.
CNN has an intriguing bit of news about Michael Cohen's FBI raid and it's link to his buddy the "Taxi King". Apparently he served up some juicy info. AND apparently the FBI has been reconstructing shredded documents that they've been putting back together after the raid.
The pressure mounts and Trump rages louder.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/taxi-king-gene-freidman-plea-deal-michael-cohen/index.html
Fat Boy Bellies up to (the) Barr.
The little king has finally decided to weigh in (oops...might need a new scale!) on pal Roseanne's racist tweet and subsequent firing.
Here's what he said
:
"Hey! What about Me Me ME MEEEEE????"
Did you expect something different?
He completely ignores Barr's comparison of Valerie Jarrett to an ape. Instead, he's incensed that Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, which owns ABC, called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that he was killing "Roseanne" before the official announcement came out.
"Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that 'ABC does not tolerate comments like those' made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn't get the call?"
Not sure which HORRIBLE statements he refers to. Perhaps the ones that call him a liar. They might be horrible, but they're true.
Nonetheless, the little king, as always, is more concerned about himself and his widdow feewings than he is about the way racism affects the entire country, particularly the way his approach to racism (spreading it like rancid butter over a bagel) has demeaned the entire nation.
Yup, same ol' Donnie.
Arkady Babchenko fakes his death in Kiev.
Some US president* is going to hear that on Fox "news" and think
"what a great idea, and I can blame it on Obama and all those
liberals and hide out at Maralago until they're all in jail, then appear
to cheers and raves from all my followers and friends (both of them).
Bea wrote above: "The whole idea here, of course, is to equate all Central American immigrants with inhuman/animal gang members. It's beyond disgusting. ..."
This in reference to DiJiT doing call and response at yesterday's Tennessee revival meeting.
But it's not "the whole idea." Part of what Rev. DiJiT is doing is getting his flock to repeat his hate-words, ("animals") as part of a crowd, in a hate-cheer. After which they incorporate that into their drill (a la "lock her up"), and the stupid hate-thought becomes part of their belief frame. And they bond when they do that as a group -- if you hate who I hate, you're my broder, we're in the same bund. Look around, see how happy we all are ...
More like real Nazis every day. Goebbels vud be zo proud!
Forrest,
I'm happy that this Babchenko guy is still alive but the spate of publicity surrounding his faked demise (casting Trump BFF Putin as Bad Guy Number One and Primo Rat Bastard Murderer) was likely not received very well in the Kremlin.
If I was Babchenko, I'd think about calling Dick Cheney, toot sweet, to inquire about undisclosed hidey holes. Once things die down (oooh, bad choice of metaphor), Vlad might come calling.
Remember those ads back in the 70's, the ones touting how close a margarine brand was to real butter, followed by a furious outburst (animals charging, thunder crashing, etc) from Mother Nature about how it wasn't nice to fool her?
I'm betting Vlad is thinking the same thing (plus, I think he'd look cute in one of those hippie chick dresses).
@Patrick: You're right. Trump is investing his cult in his various hate doctrines.