;)
Wednesday
May302018
The Commentariat -- May 31, 2018
Afternoon Update:
** Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reclaim control of the Russia investigation on at least four separate occasions, three times in person and once over the phone, according to sources familiar with the conversations.... Four sources with direct knowledge told me Trump has been obsessed by the Mueller investigation over the past year.... Trump takes out much of his anger on the White House Counsel Don McGahn, according to sources who've watched them interact."
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said on Thursday that it would impose tariffs on metals imported from its closest allies, a measure certain to strain diplomatic relationships and provoke retaliation against businesses and consumers in the United States. Tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, which together supply nearly half of America's imported metal, are to take effect at midnight Thursday, Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, said on a call with reporters. The move follows months of uncertainty during which the Trump administration dangled potential exemptions to the tariffs in return for concessions on other fronts, including voluntary limits on metal shipments to the United States and reduced tariffs on imports from America." ...
... David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump Thursday imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, triggering immediate retaliation from U.S. allies against American businesses and farmers. The tariffs -- 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum -- will take effect at midnight Thursday, marking a major escalation of the trade war between the U.S. and its top trading partners. In response, the E.U. said it would impose duties 'on a number of imports from the United States,' referring to a 10-page list of targets for retaliation it published in March, which included Kentucky bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. European leaders also vowed to proceed with a complaint to the World Trade Organization.... The Mexican government said it would levy import taxes on U.S. exports of pork bellies, blueberries, apples, grapes, certain cheeses, and various types of steel."
Eileen Sullivan & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that he planned to issue a pardon to Dinesh D[Souza, a conservative author, commentator and filmmaker, and was strongly considering commuting the sentence of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, a Democrat. Flexing his clemency power as he and his team face multiple criminal investigations of their own, Mr. Trump also said that he was looking at the case of Martha Stewart, the lifestyle mogul who spent five months in prison for lying to investigators about the timing of a stock sale. The pardon for Mr. D'Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to making illegal campaign contributions, represents a victory for one of the president's most vocal bases of support, the conservative media. Mr. D'Souza has argued that he was singled out for prosecution because of his conservative politics." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: See today's Comments for apt opinions on the D'Souza pardon. As for my opinion -- what they said.
Trump Tries to Dig out of an Obstruction Charge. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump again insisted Thursday that he did not fire former FBI director James B. Comey because of the Russia investigation, blaming the 'Corrupt Mainstream Media' for pushing a false storyline.... Trump made a similar assertion last month, writing that Comey 'was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation.'... The president's assertion, in a morning tweet, is at odds with comments he made in a television interview last year in which he said Comey's stewardship of the Russia inquiry was on his mind when he decided to dismiss him.... In a separate tweet Thursday, Trump continued to insist that the FBI had spied on his 2016 campaign and claimed that the media 'is working overtime' to avoid reporting about it." Mrs. McC: How do you "work overtime" by doing nothing? Of course none of this makes sense, which is what we have come to expect from the Worst President* Ever. ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday peppered his Twitter feed with falsehoods, claiming the media is ignoring a controversy he's dubbed 'spygate' and is maliciously pushing the idea that he fired FBI director James Comey because of the Russia probe -- an explanation the president himself offered in the days after the ousting. It was another example of Trump hammering the media as he tries to beat back damaging stories about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, the Trump campaign and whether the president tried to obstruct justice." ...
... Kevin Johnson of USA Today writes a more damning take than does the NYT article linked below on Andrew McCabe's memo regarding his conversation with Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein concerning Trump's firing of Jim Comey: "Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe authored a memo claiming that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said President Trump asked him to refer to the Russia investigation as a reason for recommending the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday." Mrs. McC: Congratulations, Kevin. You are now a card-carrying member of the "Corrupt Mainstream Media." And thank you. ...
... Frank Rich: "If Trump is innocent of all potential charges in the Russia probe, why would he want a loyal puppet in charge of the Mueller investigation except to obstruct it? His continued wail about Sessions, not just on Twitter but to anyone in earshot, is so patently self-incriminating that it's laughable. Not to mention over-the-top. Look at our president's priorities: He is now spending more time vilifying Sessions (and Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller) than he is on his putative summit with Kim Jong-un, in which America's national security is at stake. He now professes a far lower opinion of Sessions, his own choice for our country's chief law-enforcement officer, than he does of North Korea's murderous dictator.... Trump is so anxious about his legal exposure as Mueller closes in that he just can't help betraying his guilt in public like a bargain-basement Macbeth. Or he's batshit crazy. Or both." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "President Trump has been making the novel argument that the real flaw in the Russia scandal lies with the FBI, which allegedly failed to warn Trump that his campaign was being targeted by Russian intelligence. 'Why didn't the crooked highest levels of the FBI or "Justice" contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?,' he complained last weekend. Today, Trump approvingly quotes Rush Limbaugh repeating his argument[.]... In fact, the FBI did tell Trump. As NBC reported last December, in 'a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials' the candidate 'was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign.' At the time, of course, Trump was publicly dismissing the FBI's warnings that Russia had stolen Democratic emails, insisting it might be China or a 400-pound man, while also publicly asking Russia to expand its email theft. His campaign was also swarming with secret Russia contacts, most prominently a meeting in Trump Tower with Russian spies promising dirt on his opponent."
Trump endorses Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) in his primary race against ex-con & ex-Rep. Michael Grimm (and a guy who threatened -- on camera -- to throw a reporter over a balcony to his death). In a tweet, Trump promoted Donovan because he "voted for Tax Cuts and is helping me to Make America Great Again." Anna Palmer of Politico:" THERE'S ONLY ONE PROBLEM. Donovan voted against the tax-cut bill. He voted against it three times. He voted against it in every incarnation. The only material reason Trump gave to support Donovan was incorrect. Not only did Donovan vote against it, he was vocally opposed to it. He called it a 'tax hike on the people I represent.'... What is going on in the White House? It's tough to think of a mistake easier to avoid than whether a lawmaker voted for the largest legislative achievement of the past two years."
"Trump Turns to Victimhood Politics." Brian Stelter of CNN: "For a second straight day, President Trump has found a way to talk about the 'Roseanne' controversy without condemning Roseanne Barr's racist remark. He is targeting ABC and its parent company Disney, whose chief executive is Bob Iger. He is expressing resentment that ABC took swift action when Barr attacked former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, but didn't take equivalent action when other ABC stars assailed Trump.... But Trump is tapping into a potent strain of grievance politics. It's the same thing that drives countless segments on his favorite Fox News talk shows: the notion of a double standard that hurts conservatives.... 'Iger, where is my call of apology? You and ABC have offended millions of people, and they demand a response,' Trump tweeted [Thursday]. Then he added: 'How is Brian Ross doing? He tanked the market with an ABC lie, yet no apology. Double Standard!'... Brian Ross, the ABC News correspondent who made a serious reporting error on the day that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI. Ross was suspended and later reassigned.... ABC may not have apologized directly to Trump, but the network did issue a full apology for the faulty reporting."
Carol Morello & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a senior North Korean official abruptly ended two days of talks Thursday with no immediate announcement of progress toward reinstating a potential summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump. The State Department said Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, the right-hand man to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, concluded their meetings before noon, roughly 90 minutes earlier than expected. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did not immediately explain why the schedule changed, and it was not clear whether the two men had hit an impasse in efforts to set the agenda for a leader summit in Singapore next month. Pompeo gave no indication of trouble with a short tweet after the talks broke up."
Washington Post: "The American Federation of Government Employees on Thursday took the Trump administration to court to block a new executive order that severely restricts the time employees can spend on union activity, claiming it violates the First Amendment guarantee of the right to freedom of association and oversteps the president's constitutional authority." This is a developing story.
*****
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Another Smoking Gun? Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "The former acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, wrote a confidential memo last spring recounting a conversation that offered significant behind-the-scenes details on the firing of Mr. McCabe's predecessor, James B. Comey, according to several people familiar with the discussion.... In the document, whose contents have not been previously reported, Mr. McCabe described a conversation at the Justice Department with the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, in the chaotic days last May after Mr. Comey's abrupt firing. Mr. Rosenstein played a key role in the dismissal, writing a memo that rebuked Mr. Comey over his handling of an investigation into Hillary Clinton. But in the meeting at the Justice Department, Mr. Rosenstein added a new detail: He said the president had originally asked him to reference Russia in his memo, the people familiar with the conversation said. Mr. Rosenstein did not elaborate on what Mr. Trump had wanted him to say. To Mr. McCabe, that seemed like possible evidence that Mr. Comey's firing was actually related to the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and that Mr. Rosenstein helped provide a cover story by writing about the Clinton investigation. One person who was briefed on Mr. Rosenstein's conversation with the president said Mr. Trump had simply wanted Mr. Rosenstein to mention that he was not personally under investigation in the Russia inquiry. Mr. Rosenstein said it was unnecessary and did not include such a reference. Mr. Trump ultimately said it himself when announcing the firing." ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "Some have suggested that the Trump camp leaked the details of McCabe's memos in an attempt to further discredit Rosenstein, and the FBI in general. If true, Trump is scraping the bottom of the barrel. There are ways to justify the deputy AG's recusal from the Russia probe, or even his firing, that don't involve Trump accusing Rosenstein of covering up his own attempt to obstruct justice." ...
... The Campaign to Save JeffBo. Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "Days after ... Donald Trump deemed Jeff Sessions 'beleaguered' and threatened to fire him last July, members of the president's inner circle made a desperate case to save the attorney general's job. The White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and the president's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, pleaded with Trump during a heated Oval Office meeting to keep Sessions, warning that his dismissal would only pour gasoline on the Russia investigation. And, they said, it could alienate those in Trump's conservative base, supporters enamored with the attorney general's tough stances on law enforcement and immigration. Priebus and Bannon both lost their jobs within the month. But Sessions survived, his reprieve delivered by John Kelly as one of his first acts as chief of staff. Ten months later, the Republican campaign to save Sessions has continued and -- at least for now -- succeeded.... The effort is one of the few effective Republican attempts to install guardrails around a president who delights in defying advice and breaking the rules." ...
... S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that he can fully understand why Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from investigations related to Russia and the presidential election and that he might have done the same, had he accepted that job, as Trump wanted. Giuliani said he would have had the same conflict of interest as Sessions because they were both major players in Trump's campaign, although, unlike Sessions, he never met with the Russian ambassador."
Alan Feuer & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday ordered lawyers for Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's longtime fixer, to complete within just over two weeks their review of a huge trove of documents and data that the F.B.I. seized from Mr. Cohen last month and that prosecutors are eager to use in their continuing investigation of him. The judge, Kimba M. Wood, said that if the lawyers did not meet her June 15 deadline, she would allow the government to take control of the review, which is seeking to determine whether any of the seized paperwork or electronic files should be protected under the lawyer-client privilege. A court-appointed special master has been overseeing scrutiny of the materials with Mr. Cohen's lawyers, but Judge Wood suggested in a hearing in United States District Court that the process was moving too slowly." ...
... Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "Cohen's lawyers also clashed in the courtroom with Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the actor and producer of pornographic films, who alleges she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago and was paid $130,000 in hush money by Cohen, which was later reimbursed to Cohen by Trump. Avenatti is an active thorn in the side of the White House and had come to court to press for his inclusion in the proceedings. Judge Kimba Wood warned Avenatti, who has frequently discussed the Cohen case on TV and social media, that if he joined the proceedings he would have to shrink his media profile. Public discussion of the case by participants could 'potentially deprive him [Cohen] of a fair trial by potentially tainting a jury pool', Wood said, calling the proceedings a 'potential precursor to a criminal proceeding if charges are filed'. Avenatti withdrew his request for inclusion after the hearing had ended." ...
... Tom Winter, et al., of NBC News: "Federal prosecutors sorting through materials seized from Michael Cohen ... said Wednesday they needed more time to piece together the contents of a shredder taken in an FBI raid. At a court hearing in New York, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood that they'd turned over most of the materials seized during the April 9 raids of Cohen's office and Park Avenue hotel room to Cohen's legal team, with the exception of two BlackBerry devices and the shredded documents. Prosecutors [also] explained ... that they were still trying to access the BlackBerrys."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Dana Milbank: Trey Gowdy "has been one of the most partisan, vitriolic and conspiracy-minded legislators in his eight years here. As recently as January, he was demanding answers about a bogus 'secret society' within the FBI and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe. But since then, Gowdy has contracted a case of late-onset honesty.... [Why?] He announced at the end of January that he was leaving Congress, which freed him to speak his mind without fear of a political price.... Better late than never, he's speaking up on his way out. If only incumbent Republicans were courageous enough to do the same." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "There "are three pretty high-profile rebukes from fellow Republicans -- Trey Gowdy, Lindsey Graham & Marco Rubio -- of the entire basis for Trump's ['Spygate'] claim, and we really haven't seen the inverse: Republicans lending credence to Trump's theory.... Even House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ... has been quiet since receiving the briefing alongside Gowdy. That, perhaps more than anything, speaks volumes. But ... the lack of any real backup for Trump's claims hasn't stopped the GOP base from buying into them. Few top Republican members of Congress are calling the Russia investigation a 'witch hunt,' as Trump has, yet 82 percent of Republican voters and 44 percent of all Americans believe it is." ...
... Kyle Cheney of Politico: With all the pushback from influential Trumpies, "Spygate" is fizzling. BUT "The White House declined to directly rebut Gowdy on Wednesday, but made clear the president hasn't backed off his concern. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that 'clearly, there's still cause for concern' about the president's 'spy allegations.'"
AND Jonathan Chait: "Roger Stone, a longtime confidante to Donald Trump, appeared on the Alex Jones show to ask listeners to fund his legal defense. Stone's associates have been questioned by Robert Mueller's investigators, and Stone has casually mentioned he might be indicted for what he called 'extraneous crimes.' But, Stone promises, he 'will never roll on Donald Trump.'... Of course, rolling on Trump would not be a choice he had to disavow if Trump and Stone had not committed any crimes."
David Lynch & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump plans to announce as soon as Thursday the imposition of sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, three people familiar with the plan said. Frustrated over the failure of those U.S. trading partners to agree to a range of demands, the president chose to sharply escalate his global trade war rather than grant further tariff waivers. The import taxes could take effect as soon as Friday. The move is likely to have an immediate impact on global trade in steel and aluminum, particularly between the United States and Canada, the nation's largest source of imported steel. The decision also invites retaliation from each of the trading partners, which have vowed to erect new barriers to a range of U.S. products."
The Oval Office as Set for Ridiculous Spectacle. Marisa Schultz & Nikki Schwab of "Page Six" of the New York Post: "It was the commander and cheeks! Kim Kardashian strutted into the Oval Office on Wednesday for a sit-down with ... Donald Trump to discuss criminal justice issues -- including an imprisoned drug offender she discovered on Twitter. The reality queen donned high heels and an all-black ensemble for the highly anticipated White House meeting.... She spoke with both Trump and Jared Kushner, whom she met through Ivanka Trump...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: My original plan was to link to a sensible story on this topic by German Lopez of Vox, but somehow a "Page Six" take -- commander and cheeks! -- seemed more appropriate. When this is all over, we need Mozart to score a Lorenzo da Ponte libretto for this opera buffa. Gold damask curtains & lots of laughs. There's not a single character in this real-life Trumpian farce whom I cannot picture in costume, belting out a comic aria bemoaning some personal grievance or misunderstanding. Or in duets, singing over each other:
Trump Complains ABC Is Nicer to Valerie Jarrett than to Trump. 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 ...
... Katie Rogers & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Later in the day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... followed up on the president's tweet by furnishing a list of expanded gripes that members of the Trump administration have against those in the news media who have slighted the president or his supporters. Ms. Sanders ticked off notable names who she said had not apologized. That included several media personalities who work or have worked under the Disney umbrella, like Jemele Hill, the former ESPN host who called Mr. Trump a white supremacist; Keith Olbermann, the liberal commentator recently hired by ESPN, who has described the president as a 'Nazi' on Twitter; and [Joy] Behar of 'The View,' for suggesting that Vice President Mike Pence's Christian beliefs were a sign of mental illness. (She later apologized to Mr. Pence, who called the exchange 'sincere.') Kathy Griffin, the comedian who posed for a photo shoot with a model of a severed head that resembled the president's, was also a target of Ms. Sanders's ire.... 'This is a double standard that the president is speaking about,' Ms. Sanders said. 'No one is defending her comments.' But neither she nor Mr. Trump condemned them either." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I imagine Bob Iger would have apologized if a major ABC star had called a previous president a Nazi or a white supremacist. (Although I would not call Trump a Nazi per se, I would say that his attacks on Muslims, Mexicans & people from "shithole countries" show strong Nazi tendencies, & he has praised neo-Nazis. Trump's "final solution" is not mass murder but mass incarceration & deportation.) Iger has not apologized to Trump because the shoe fits. ...
... ** Greg Sargent: "Only hours after ABC abruptly dumped Roseanne Barr's TV series in the wake of her disgustingly racist tweet, President Trump went before a large rally crowd and put on a show similar to the one Roseanne stages regularly -- full of bigotry, lies and conspiracy theories, topped off with Trump's usual crowd-pleasing dehumanization of others combined with seething resentment over invented levels of victimization." Read on. ...
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! -- Patrick, in yesterday's Comments ...
... No Surprises. Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post: "White Americans are increasingly critical of the country's social safety net, a new study suggests, thanks in part to a rising tide of racial resentment. White Americans are more likely to favor welfare cuts when they believe that their status is threatened and that minorities are the main beneficiaries of safety net programs, the study says. The findings suggest that political efforts to cut welfare programs are driven less by conservative principles than by racial anxiety, the authors conclude. That also hurts white Americans who make up the largest share of Medicaid and food-stamp recipients.... Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have proposed deep cuts to both programs.... [Other] researchers have also shown that white Americans' racial prejudice affects their views on everything from healthcare policy to the death penalty to dogs. On the same day [this] paper [was] published, a separate study in the journal Environmental Politics found that people with high levels of 'racial resentment' are more likely to believe that the scientific consensus on climate change is false." ...
... Tyler McCarthy of Fox "News": "Roseanne Barr made it clear on Wednesday she's considering fighting ABC's move to cancel her revival after her racist tweet -- and the comic even pushed an accusation that former first lady Michelle Obama was behind her ouster. Despite initially saying she would be quitting Twitter after posting a negative and racially charged comment about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, the star returned Tuesday and let loose on social media." Mrs. McC: You knew it would be Obama's fault; it's just a different Obama's fault. Nice to see Barr is an equal-opportunity accuser.
Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "President Trump is still hoping he can meet with Kim Jong Un and convince him to give up his nukes. But new satellite imagery of North Korea's nuclear test site suggests that the North's may not be game for the 'complete, verifiable and irreversible' dismantling of their nuclear program Washington has called for. North Korea destroyed its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Friday in front of an audience of reporters after unilaterally offering to destroy the site in mid-May. North Korean state media hailed the move as 'an important process for global nuclear disarmament' carried out with 'high-level transparency,' and President Trump praised it as 'a very smart and gracious gesture.' But some experts suspect the site may have been sanitized by the North Koreans before reporters arrived. Well before the dismantlement ceremony, satellite imagery of the south entrance obtained by the Middlebury Institute for International Studies show activity at the site as the North began to remove guard structures."
Ivanka Got Her Fee-Fees Hurt & Walked out in a Huff. 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The White House Communications Staff Is Remarkably Incompetent. Annie Karni of Politico: "An unusual peek at the White House list of [foreign-policy] 'influencers' came courtesy of communications aide Kelly Sadler, who failed to blind-copy recipients in a May 22 email blast highlighting the administration's new Iran strategy. The email, reviewed by Politico, suggested to its recipients ways to amplify the White House's message and show support. But many who received the email said they were left deeply confused about what the White House expected them to do with the information.... Some recipients said it wasn't the first time they've been included in Trump administration blasts.... Along with Democrats and liberals the list includes members of the foreign policy establishment who are deeply associated with the George W. Bush administration that Trump purports to revile.... Sadler told the [recipients]: 'We encourage you to tweet, and write op-eds on this new strategy. If you need any assistance or more information, please let me know. Also send me your stuff so we can amplify!' Some of the unlikely recipients said ... it was the paper-thin level of content [of the e-mail] that was [most] troubling...."
Another Dangerous Lunatic Gets a Top White House Job. Eric Levitz of New York: "While less flamboyant in fear and loathing of Muslims than [Michael] Flynn was, [John] Bolton is one of many fringe neoconservatives who's taken up residence in the alt-right-wing foreign-policy think tanks erected by the Islamophobia industry: Since 2013, Bolton has served as chairman of the Gatestone Institute, an organization that claims Muslims have established hundreds of 'microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law' (a.k.a. 'no-go zones') throughout France; that Muslim refugees have brought 'a rape epidemic' and 'exotic diseases' with them to Germany; and that the United Kingdom is on the cusp of becoming an 'Islamist colony..' And now, Bolton is remaking the National Security Council in his image. On Tuesday, Trump's latest national security adviser named former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz as his chief of staff. Here are a few things worth knowing about the man who will now play a lead role in coordinating America's national security policy[.]" ...
... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "To get a sense of what it means that Fred Fleitz has been chosen as the National Security Council's chief of staff, you need to understand both the role of Frank Gaffney and his Center for Security Policy in the international neo-Nazi movement and the way that movement is seamlessly connected to and promoted by Vladimir Putin." Mrs. McC: To appreciate Longman's argument, it's helpful to picture something I learned in International Relations 101 50 years ago: the left-right continuum is not a straight line but a circle, with extremists of left & right meeting.
Emily Flitter & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Big banks are getting a big reprieve from a postcrisis rule aimed at curbing risky behavior on Wall Street. Federal bank regulators on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping proposal to soften the Volcker Rule, a cornerstone of the 2010 law that was enacted after the financial crisis to rein in risky trading. The change would give Wall Street banks more freedom to make their own complex bets -- activities that can highly profitable but also leave them more vulnerable to losses. The rule, part of the broader Dodd-Frank law, was put in place to prevent banks from making unsafe bets with depositors' money. It took five agencies three years to write it and has been criticized by Wall Street as too onerous and harmful to the proper functioning of financial markets. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve proposed easing several parts of the rule, and four other regulators are expected to soon follow suit, kicking off a public comment period that is expected to last 60 days."
Peter Baker of the New York Times gets an advance copy of a memoir by Ben Rhodes, President Obama's long-time advisor. Baker concentrates on Rhodes' account of Obama's reactions to Trump's election. "Mr. Obama and his team were confident that Mrs. Clinton would win and, like much of the country, were shocked when she did not. 'I couldn't shake the feeling that I should have seen it coming,' Mr. Rhodes writes. 'Because when you distilled it, stripped out the racism and misogyny, we'd run against Hillary eight years ago with the same message Trump had used: She's part of a corrupt establishment that can't be trusted to bring change.'" An interesting read.
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Joy Reid Was Nuts Before She Wasn't. Joseph Bernstein & Charlie Warzel of BuzzFeed: "MSNBC host Joy Reid encouraged readers of her now-defunct blog to watch an infamous 9/11 conspiracy documentary, according to recently discovered posts shared with BuzzFeed News. A March 22, 2006, post to her weblog, Reidblog, archived by the Wayback Machine and titled 'The official story,' links to Loose Change 9/11, a viral 80-minute web video originally released in 2005. Loose Change, which was produced in part by Infowars' Alex Jones, alleged that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were in fact planned by the US government. The central claims in Loose Change have been widely debunked.... The Loose Change post isn't the only skepticism on her blog about the attacks that killed 3,000 people."
Dominic Patten of Deadline: "Hours after Harvey Weinstein's lawyer said the producer would not testify before a grand jury, the same panel has now indicted the disgraced Oscar winner on two sets of rape charges and a sex crime charge. 'A Grand Jury has voted to indict Harvey Weinstein on charges of Rape in the First and Third Degrees, and Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree,' Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said [Wednesday] afternoon. (Read the two-page indictment here, but be warned there are graphic descriptions of sex acts in it.)"
Michelle Boorstein & Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "A major Southern Baptist seminary has fired one of the movement's giants of the last quarter-century, Paige Patterson, after new information came to light regarding how Patterson handled a sexual abuse allegation while he led another institution, the school said in a statement Wednesday night. Patterson was demoted one week ago from his position as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary following the publication of a flurry of statements he made starting in 2000 about the Bibl's view of women and his beliefs about spousal abuse and why it's not grounds for divorce. The school's trustees moved him from being president to president emeritus, framin it as a desire for change and fresh blood."
Beyond the Beltway
Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Virginia's Republican-controlled Senate voted Wednesday to open Medicaid to an additional 400,000 low-income adults next year, making it all but certain that the state will join 32 others that have already expanded the public health insurance program under the Affordable Care Act. Republican lawmakers in the state had blocked Medicaid expansion for four straight years, but a number of them dropped their opposition after their party almost lost the House of Delegates in elections last fall and voters named health care as a top issue. The vote, on a budget bill that included the Medicaid expansion, came almost three months after the House approved a similar plan. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat also elected last fall, has been a vocal proponent of the expansion and can now claim a victory that his predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, desperately wanted but never got."
Lindsay Wise & Joseph Bustos of the Kansas City Star: "Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens offered to resign as part of an agreement to dismiss a felony computer-tampering charge against him, according to the St. Louis prosecutor's office. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner announced Wednesday that she would dismiss the charge.... The agreement settles a felony charge brought by Gardner based on evidence uncovered by the office of Missouri's Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, who essentially accused Greitens of electronic theft for his use of a donor list belonging to a veterans charity he founded.... Although the agreement between Gardner and Greitens resolves the tampering charge, a separate investigation will continue into allegations of wrongdoing by Greitens during his affair with his hairdresser in 2015. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker is leading that probe.... Gardner dropped [an] invasion-of-privacy charge earlier this month after the judge in the case ruled that he would allow Greitens' attorneys to depose Gardner about whether she had knowledge of perjury committed by a private investigator hired by her office.... Legal experts interviewed by The Star characterized the agreement reached between Gardner and Greitens as unusual. It reads a bit more like a civil settlement than what is typically seen in a criminal case, with both the governor and the circuit attorney seeking mutual releases...."
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "European leaders thought they had broken free from doubts about the future of the European Union that plagued them after Britain voted to leave two years ago. Instead, a fast-moving political crisis in Italy this week has come as a gut punch, reviving fears of a fresh assault on unity. The worries came after Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Sunday blocked an academic who once called Italy's adoption of the euro a 'historic error' from becoming finance minister. That appeared to blow up a coalition deal between two populist parties that have been seeking to form a government since Italy's March elections."
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... 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's 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (19)
PD Pepe and Akhilleus, thank you for your encouraging words.
Bea, thank you for the reminder of the circle of extremism. I wonder if there isn't often a similar circle of "celebrity" - which effectively goes nowhere in the sense of real accomplishment. (I have to admit that I had to look up Ms Kardashian as I was not certain who she was.) O tempora, o mores.....
After reading the NYT article highlighted on your website, I asked myself to whom would a leader interested in results turn if the leader really wanted to move forward with prison reform.
In a country the size of the United States, there are probably thousands of unsung, low paid, capable and experienced professional laboring in the trenches to remedy what has properly been called a national disgrace.
Here's one such individual recognized by the Atlantic ten years ago. While he drew a Senator's handsome salary, and was a highly successful writer, earlier in his career, he had spent real, and dangerous, time in real trenches as a poorly paid junior officer in the Marine Corps. (I want to disclose that I worked briefly on this Senator's campaign in 2006 in what turned out to be a thrilling experience in grass roots activism. Also, while I voted for Mrs. Clinton, my dream national ticket in 2016 was Sanders/Webb who likely would have won.)
Here's the quote from the November, 2009 Atlantic article:
"After squeaking into his seat in 2006, [Jim] Webb became an activist for prison reform—an issue almost universally unpopular among voters, especially in a tough-on-crime state like Virginia. He introduced a bill in March that would establish a commission to review the nation’s prison system. A small step, certainly. But he’s taking on public apathy and a thriving privatized-prison industry that houses nearly 10 percent of federal and state prisoners and lobbies politicians with vigor. Webb has called our prison system a “national disgrace,” and he’s right: the U.S. incarcerates 2.3 million people (25 percent of the planet’s prisoners), and monitors another 5 million on probation or parole (more than 60 percent of whom will end up back in the clink). Huge numbers of inmates are mentally ill and more than 20 percent have been sexually abused while locked up; meanwhile the number of drug offenders behind bars (where they take up scarce space and resources) has increased by 1,200 percent since 1980. By tackling prison reform as a freshman senator, Webb has shown he possesses two things vanishingly rare in Congress: a conscience and a spine."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/11/brave-thinkers/307692/
Rude but funny take on KK meets KKK to talk about gaol.
Finally got around to reading Jon Lee Anderson's piece in the New Yorker featuring John Feely, the U.S. diplomat that resigned in protest:
Feely reports that sixty per cent of the State Department's highest-ranking diplomats have left. (maybe Pompeo will lure then back?). Feely, however, broke with his peers and in an op-ed in the Wash-Po he said that "Trump has warped and betrayed" what he regarded as "the traditional core values of the United States."
His warning that he fears this country is embracing an attitude that is profoundly inimical to diplomacy: "the strong do what they will and the weak do what they must." If we do that, he said, "we will become weaker and less prosperous."
It was not only Trump's polices that troubled him, but his values were not Trump's values–-obviously.
Read this piece for learning what a mess our diplomatic state is in; you will not be surprised, or shocked but furious that it is worse than we thought.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/28/the-diplomat-who-quit-the-trump-administration
@ Islander: Always good to remind us of the good guys–-the ones with a "conscience and a spine" ––thanks.
Don't know whether the thought struck me before or after my front bicycle tire hit the piece of broken concrete and I hit the pavement, but sometime yesterday on my interrupted bicycle ride it occurred to me the actors on the political scene and their followers might be divided, like navels, into two kinds, innies or outies.
Given that the United States has its problems, most of which present themselves as some form of inequality or injustice, real or perceived. These are problems that beg for solutions. Where to find or pretend to find them?
The innies would look into themselves or close to home, into what they or the country has or hasn't done to create the present situation, whether it be economic injustice or opioid addiction. Then make the changes such rational analyses called for.
The outies would look somewhere else, as far as possible away from their own action or inaction, always assigning responsibility for where we are now to something or someone else. China or brown immigrants, maybe?
For the outies, all the bad things, all the evil, from murderous impulse to playground unfairness can always be conveniently located somewhere else.
Because nothing is ever their fault, outie leaders don't have to fix anything, just exercise a little finger-pointing from time to time, mix it with a dash of sound and fury, while they do nothing fundamental to fix the problems they rail about.
And their followers lap it up, because they are outies, too. While they complain about the changes that have caused them discomfort, fundamentally they like things the way they are--or were.
Republicans are the outies. Today's conservatives are the outies.
And among the Democrats, while there are a few, the innies remain in short supply.
Story over on CNBC.com is headlined: "Trump will pardon conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza, who was convicted for campaign finance violation" "Arpaio, was just the beginning "
Tweet from Twit: Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!
and then he continues with...
Trump the Disruptor reportedly said he wants to stop German luxury car imports in the US "'cause he loves him his Caddy "
Translation: I do mean things just because I wanna.
Yesterday there was mention of the book "Black Like Me" that many of us read when in our teens and like other eye openers by black authors these were pivotal books for us. I just came across a piece about Claire Dennis, the film director, who lived in different countries in Africa while growing up since her father was a French colonial administrator. Her pivotal book was Franz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth" written in the middle of the Algerian war, argues that "colonial subjects suffer not just from material indignities and humiliations but also, more painfully and perversely, from an internalized inferiority," which only, Fanon believed, violence could dismantle.
And Denis said: "When you are fourteen or fifteen and you read "Les Damnés de la Terre," and you've been raised in the midst of the African colonies, it shocks you. Really, that experience will stray with me for the rest of my life."
Here we go again. Trump pardons another despicable human being–-Dinesh dishes out pure nastiness time and again plus he's a crook. I reckon the Trumpster is doing one of his diverting tactics–-getting people all riled up about this act so we take our eyes off the other news that is piling up –-the ones that are getting closer and closer to crunch time for this Game of Scam.
Entries from the Trump Glossary:
Treated Very Unfairly by Our Government:
Right-winger caught doing something illegal, indicted and found guilty by a court of law for his or her wrongdoing.
Today this entry has the smirking puss of adulterer and convicted felon (and disgraceful scumbag who recently made fun of the Parkland High School survivors) Dinesh D'Souza next to it. It replaces Joe Arpaio's. Next week, who knows?
Presidential Pardon:
Way for the little king to reward convicted felons, crooks, scofflaws, adulterers, and disgraceful scumbags.
Soooo...Kim Kardashian discusses "prison reform" with Trump? First, what in the holy hell does president* lock 'em up care about prison reform? I guess if he gets to ogle a Kardashian for an hour or so, it's all good. She could have told him she wanted to talk about scrunchies and she'd get on the schedule.
My guess is he wanted to compare reality TV show ratings.
Kim Kardashian (by the way, Islander, you made my day when you wrote that you had to Google her--she'd be appalled, I'm sure) is now interested in prison reform? Great. We all need to be interested in something. But we don't all get to go talk to that weird fat racist in the Oval Office.
I suppose it helps that Kim's husband, Kanye West, has decided that he's cool with white supremacists now and that slavery is a "choice". Trump must love that.
Couldn't make this shit up.
@Ak: Let's not forget Scooter Libby! And, I just saw that Martha Stewart is under consideration by Trump.
Who else might make the list? Say how about James "Whitey" Bulger? Maybe the Menendez brothers? Or say...Paul Manafort?
or Rick Gates? or Roger Stone? ...you know where I'm going with this riff.
Like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, Trey Gowdy is making the trek back from the Land of the Walking Winger (brain)Dead.
All at once, he is regaining his ability to think and to act with reason. So I suppose I'm happy about that, but you know what? Fuck him.
I'm tired of these people deciding that upon reentry into the real world they can jettison the bullshit that caused them to act in the interest of a group of traitors and against the best interests of the United States as a whole.
They get no medals from me for suddenly acting like decent, rational people when for years they served scum from hell.
MAG,
And such a good riff it is...
The Menendez brothers? Hey, they killed out of greed. Something the little dictator can appreciate. Why not OJ? Oh wait...I know why. Never mind. But I'm betting a guy with a name like "Whitey" would be a shoo-in for president* KKK. Plus he'd lock up the Irish gangster South Boston vote. Oh, maybe he wouldn't now that everyone knows that Whitey was a rat. Such a complicated thing wondering which evil piece of shit to pardon next! Who knew presidenting could be so hard?
The Return of Tariff Man
We screw our friends and reward our enemies. Life in Trump World. The EU, Canada, Mexico...all get the shaft. China and Russia? Top of the world. Yes, there was that head fake tariff thing with China (who must be getting terribly tired of the "Yes, No, Maybe" "unpredictability" of dealing with a small brain fat-ass). That unpredictability thing is great cover for "I don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing here". And speaking of not having a clue, I give you the Trumpy Trade Czar: Wilbur Ross! Wilbur? Wilbur? Can you hear me? What's that? Wilbur's asleep? What, again? At a trade negotiation meeting? Jesus.
Typical Trump.
Don't know, don't care, and don't wake me til it's time for my medication.
Are we great again yet?
Pardon me! Trump considering pardon for Martha Stewart, (and) commutation for Rod Blagojevich "the list (worst people) just keeps on growing " Donald Trump, Jr. c'mon down!
Makes the kind of twisted sense we have come to expect. These pardons are symbolic acts. The Pretender is just pardoning by proxy himself and all the disdain for law and the sheer nastiness he himself practices. There will be more, each time closer and closer to the suppurating Id center of the of the Pretender swamp's widening circle.
Very insightful Lawfare article by Ben Wittes on New York Times and journalism.
https://lawfareblog.com/okay-lets-go-watching-new-york-times-trump
Mae,
Intriguing stuff. The process of journalism, which seeks, in the best instances, to develop a view of the world or of specific events informed by accounts that have been fact-checked, as opposed to perpetually invented, reinvented, and manipulated fantasies promulgated by Trump and his many supporters and enablers is an important one to understand.
Unfortunately Americans whose ignorance of such processes overwhelms any attempt to right their often willful obtuseness have little to no interest in a map illuminating such contours, they having been instructed by those for whom critical thought is an Ultima Thule on that map.
The caesura of missing sources mentioned in the article does not pose an insurmountable difficulty. We would not expect that sources should be unveiled. We do expect that stories making use of protected sources be both scrutable and at least believable, certainly as compared to the typical fanciful phooey promulgated by Trump and his press of perjurors.
Democracy is not for the faint of heart, nor the instruments of democracy of which a fair and honest press is of vital importance, an instrument that is assaulted daily by the demagogue and would be dictator Trump and his anti-democratic, treasonous minions both within and without the government, those who are feint of heart.
Thanks for the tip.
So after numerous studies, we can confirm that racists are not just abhorrent people, but also just plain fucking idiots that rather see the world born than allow another human being with a slightly darker skin color improve their life in any way, regardless if their improvement would somehow negatively affect themselves.
Absolute white trash.
Conclusions backed by science.
Remember that repeal and replace thing about the ACA? We heard it for years, but in the end, nothing.
Turns out one out of two wouldn't have been bad; it's batting .500, but the R's couldn't manage even that. Some niggling repeals here and there, screwing it up where they could, but replace? Nada.
How about the world of finance? No surprise there: The same. Little repeals--no replacement. No building anywhere, just tearing it all down bit by bit, hoping maybe no one will notice--by November.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/31/17411924/trump-volcker-rule-republicans-big-banks
And as for the environment? That's up to Mother Nature.