;)
The Commentariat -- May 6, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Little more than fifteen months into his Presidency, the attention-seeking President has the rest of the world right where he wants it: hanging on his every word.... He is the indispensable man. Soon he will meet Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, in an unprecedented nuclear summit. Next week, in advance of a May 12th deadline, he may single-handedly decide whether to blow up the Iran nuclear deal.... The smart betting is that he will, but he may not. Nobody knows, and that's the point: all roads now lead through Trump.... L'état, c'est Trump.... There is one nation conspicuously missing from Trump's long list of upcoming deadlines and deals...: Russia.... Several former U.S. officials who follow Russia closely told me they believed that the President remained committed to [inviting Putin to the White House], despite little enthusiasm on his team."
Rudy Continues to Be Very Helpful. Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said while he has no knowledge of President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, paying any women in addition to Stormy Daniels, he believes Cohen would have done so if he deemed it 'necessary.' 'I have no knowledge of that. But I would think if it was necessary, yes.' Giuliani, who recently joined Trump's team of lawyers, told ABC's 'This Week' when asked about Cohen making payments to other women." ...
... Mallory Shelbourne: "Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that a potential pardon for President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is not a possibility at this point. 'Jay and I have made it clear, and -- and -- and Michael's lawyers all know that that obviously is not on the table,' Giuliani told ABC's 'This Week,' referring to Trump attorney Jay Sekulow and Cohen. 'That's not a decision to be made now, there's no reason to pardon anybody now.'" Mrs. McC: Apparently it's possible to reset the table.
*****
** How Low Can He Go? Mark Townsend & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Aides to Donald Trump ... hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a 'dirty ops' campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to 'get dirt' on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama's top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal. The extraordinary revelations come days before Trump's 12 May deadline to either scrap or continue to abide by the international deal limiting Iran's nuclear programme.... Sources said that officials linked to Trump's team contacted investigators days after Trump visited Tel Aviv a year ago.... A source with details of the 'dirty tricks campaign' said: 'The idea was that people acting for Trump would discredit those who were pivotal in selling the deal, making it easier to pull out of it.'" ...
... Yastreblyansky.: "This is pretty clearly Nixon-level skullduggery, reminiscent of the original Plumbers burglary when they attacked Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, with the added weirdness of using a foreig agency, and similar to what the Trump people are alleged to have done with Russian agents and a British firm trying to 'get dirt' on Hillary Clinton in the campaign period. It's also similar in the tie-in of allowing foreign leaders to dictate US policy -- Netanyahu for the Iran deal, Putin for the Ukrainian and Syrian issues, not to mention old Flynn offering US cooperation to the Turkish authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.... There's something especially Nixonian about this particular episode, too, in its narrow focus, in its concern with 'enemies' -- we all understand Trump's personal stake in abrogating the JCPOA is to wound Obama and undo his accomplishment, and we see how this project goes after the reputations of people who are loyal to Obama as well." P.S. As commenter emjayay asks, "Isn't this kinda big, like really big? Are we going to see it get to US media, or is it more complicated than lying about paying off a porn star so it will be ignored?" Good question.
Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work -- Covering Trump's Campaign Expenses. Afi Scruggs & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump used a roundtable on taxes [in Cleveland, Ohio,] Saturday to campaign for a Republican Senate candidate and to assail undocumented immigrants for taking advantage of U.S. laws he derided as weak. Though billed as an official White House event, and therefore funded with taxpayer money, Trump was overtly political in his remarks ahead of Tuesday's primary election. He celebrated his own poll numbers, repeatedly attacked Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and urged Ohioans to elect Rep. James B. Renacci (R-Ohio), who is running against Brown. 'We need your vote, we need your help, so go out and help Jim,' Trump said, with Renacci seated by his side. 'Get it done.'... Reporters traveling with Trump requested access to hear the president's remarks to donors at the fundraiser, but were denied by White House officials."
Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the nine years before he ran for president, Donald Trump's company spent more than $400 million in cash on new properties -- including 14 transactions paid for in full, without borrowing from banks -- during a buying binge that defied real estate industry practices -- and Trump's own history as the self-described 'King of Debt.' Trump's vast outlay of cash, tracked through public records and totaled publicly here for the first time, provides a new window into the president's private company, which discloses few details about its finances. It shows that Trump had access to far more cash than previously known, despite his string of commercial bankruptcies and the Great Recession's hammering of the real estate industry." ...
... Also Too Emoluments! Jason Linkins of ThinkProgress: "Call it impeccable timing: A federal judge in January tossed a lawsuit claiming Donald Trump was in violation of a constitutional ban against using the presidency for financial gain from foreign governments. Less than a month later, Qatar shelled out a cool $6.5 million for new digs in the Trump World Tower in Manhattan. The January 17 real estate transaction focuses new attention on what the aforementioned lawsuit sought to prevent: violations of the constitution's emoluments clause.... ... Trump World Tower is mere steps away from the United Nations' Manhattan headquarters."
More Re-enactment than Parody:
William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times delve into the diverse business interests of Michael Cohen. "Before he joined the Trump Organization and became Mr. Trump's lawyer and do-it-all fixer, Michael D. Cohen was a hard-edge personal-injury attorney and businessman. Now a significant portion of his quarter-century business record is under the microscope of federal prosecutors -- posing a potential threat not just to Mr. Cohen but also to the president.... A New York Times review of thousands of pages of public records, and interviews with bankers, lawyers and businessmen who have interacted with Mr. Cohen, reveal the degree to which he has often operated in the backwaters of the financial and legal worlds. While he has not been charged with a crime, many of his associates have faced either criminal charges or stiff regulatory penalties." Terms like "Lucchese family," "forgery," & "pleaded guilty" -- dot the story.
Tom LoBianco, et al., of the AP: "Investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller have interviewed one of ... Donald Trump's closest friends and confidants, California real estate investor Tom Barrack.... Barrack was interviewed as part of the federal investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, according to three people familiar with the matter.... Barrack played an integral role in the 2016 campaign as a top fundraiser at a time when many other Republicans were shunning the upstart candidate. Barrack later directed Trump's inauguration."
Actual Rudy & Donald:
... Annie Karni of Politico: "In private, according to a Republican close to the White House, [Rudy] Giuliani has ... blamed the negative view of him in the media, including the whispers about his mental health, on [Jared] Kushner and Ivanka Trump.... His mention of the president's son-in-law [as 'disposable']... was one of the comments he made on television that had White House aides watching his appearance on Hannity with mouths agape.... Some point to Giuliani's main ally in the White House as an explanation: Giuliani, according to people in the building, has aligned himself with Don McGahn, the White House counsel who has clashed repeatedly with Kushner." ...
... Maureen Dowd: "Trump distanced himself from his good friend [Rudy Giuliani], as he is wont to do, promising that Rudy will 'get his facts straight.' This prompted Vanity Fair to write the headline: 'Trump Assures Reporters He'll Make Giuliani a Better Liar.'... The gruesome twosome, whose reputations have grown darker since the days when they swanned around New York as larger-than-life figuras, didn't consult any top White House officials, even the counsel." ...
... Brent Griffiths of Politico: "Rudy Giuliani pushed for regime change in Iran on Saturday, saying ... Donald Trump is 'as committed to regime change as we are.' It's 'the only way to peace in the Middle East' and 'more important than an Israeli-Palestinian deal,' Trump's newest attorney in the ongoing Russia probe and former mayor of New York City told reporters after giving a speech to the Iran Freedom Convention for Democracy and Human Rights in Washington." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You might think this is Rudy pretending to be secretary of state again & casually releasing secret intel about delicate international negotiations, right after he promised to cut that out, except Griffiths also reports, "As a congressman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a Fox News op-ed '... Congress must act to change Iranian behavior, and, ultimately, the Iranian regime.' His predecessor Rex Tillerson also voiced explicit support for regime change telling CNN 'we always support a peaceful transition of power.'" On the other hand, "A top State Department official later said that the administration was not pursuing regime change."
Wendy Siegelman of the Guardian: "The announcement that Cambridge Analytica is shutting has a certain inevitability to it.... But ... already there are some suggestions that those associated with Cambridge Analytica may re-emerge in another form.... Cambridge Analytica and [its parent company] SCL have at least 18 active companies, branches,and affiliates with similar names, based in the UK and the US.... The complex relationship among these companies makes it very difficult to understand how revenues, employment, and data are shared. It almost seems as though the business structure was created to make it impossible to track decision-making and funding." ...
... Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian: "Cambridge Analytica has been ordered to hand over all the data and personal information it has on an American voter, including details of where it got the data and what it did with it, or face a criminal prosecution. The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) served the enforcement notice to the company on Friday in a landmark legal decision that opens the way for up to 240 million other American voters to request their data back from the firm under British data protection laws. The test case was taken to the ICO by David Carroll, an associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York. As a US citizen, he had no means of obtaining this information under US law, but in January 2016 he discovered Cambridge Analytica had processed US voter data in the UK and that this gave him rights under British laws.... The ICO ... has now told SCL Elections, which acted as the data controller for Cambridge Analytica, that it has 30 days to comply or appeal."
Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "... despite the outward appearance of warm ties with Britain and France, traditionally two of America's strongest European allies, Trump managed to stoke outrage and anger in both London and Paris this weekend -- and he did so with a single speech. Speaking to the National Rifle Association convention in Dallas on Friday, the president had used the rising number of knife attacks in Britain while speaking in support of gun rights in the United States.... Trump's comments immediately drew a backlash from Londoners on social media.... In the same speech, Trump also took aim at France's strict gun laws -- describing them as the 'toughest gun laws in the world.' Trump then told the NRA audience said that as 'nobody has guns in Paris' and that terrorists were able to take their time to kill civilians 'one by one' in a November 2015 terrorist attack that left 130 dead.... The French Foreign Ministry released a statement on Saturday that expressed its 'firm disapproval' for Trump's remark about the attack and called 'for respect for the memory of the victims.'"
Caroline Orr of Shareblue: "As Trump and Pence took the stage at the NRA's annual convention Friday, a Kremlin-linked ammunition company with ties to sanctioned Russian entities set up an exhibit just down the hallway. The company, TulAmmo USA, is based in Texas, but the ammunition it sells is manufactured by the Tula Arms Plant (also known as Tula Cartridge Works) in Tula, Russia. TulAmmo is listed as an exhibitor at the NRA's Annual Meetings in Dallas, Texas, this weekend. TulAmmo USA and its Russian counterpart TulAmmo are part of a tangled web of corporations, subsidiaries, and holdings with close ties to the Kremlin and to other Russian entities -- many of which have been sanctioned for their role in producing munitions used by Russia against Ukraine and other eastern European countries."
Robert Costa & Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for a 'prompt' House ethics investigation into Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) on Saturday, following reports of allegations that he sexually abused a 16-year-old girl in 2006. Cárdenas has vehemently denied the allegations through his attorney."
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: John McCain receives friends like Joe Biden at his Arizona ranch. "... the senator participated in a nearly two-hour HBO documentary and co-wrote what he acknowledges will be his last book, 'The Restless Wave,' both of which are set to be released this month.... His intimates have informed the White House that their current plan for his funeral is for Vice President Mike Pence to attend the service to be held in Washington's National Cathedral but not President Trump...."
Senate Race. Because "China Person"?? Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "There is growing concern among Republicans that Don Blankenship, a bombastic coal baron who has spent time in prison, is surging ahead of Tuesday's West Virginia Senate primary -- and a last-minute campaign is underway to stop him. As the tight contest hurtles to a close, four Republicans said they'd reviewed polling conducted in recent days showing Blankenship, who spent a year in jail following the 2010 explosion at his Upper Big Branch Mine that killed 29 workers, moving narrowly ahead of his more mainstream GOP rivals, Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey." Mrs. McC: I'm guessing in West Virginia, it helps a GOP candidate to insist you can't be racist if you don't even say "nee-gro."
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From the "Guardian" story on Cambridge Analytica ".... The complex relationship among these companies makes it very difficult to understand how revenues, employment, and data are shared. It almost seems as though the business structure was created to make it impossible to track decision-making and funding."
I'm thinking that's what all those Bannon yahoo types must mean by all their talk of the "deep state."
Sometimes I read MoDo, most times not. But, happy that
I clicked on her commentary for the Times, wherein she writes one of her best lines evah!
"The most intense, toxic cat-and-mouse game in President Trump’s life is not with Robert Mueller. It’s with the press. (Besides, it’s not a cat-and-mouse game with Mueller; it’s just cat.)"
Meow!
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/04/mueller-russia-interference-election-case-delay-570627
Mueller-equested delay refused by Pretender nominated judge.
Another (added to Nunes' antics and the Freedom Caucus' threat of Rosenstein's impeachment unless the Dept of Justice release telling details of the investigation)) arm of the coordinated pincher movement putting the squeeze on the Special Counsel?
Game on!
SNL cold open
Paraphrasing the Eagles, another war, its gonna be a long one. We are headed for “regime change”, war, with Iran.
On the morning after the 2016 election Carol Greenwald, national chairwoman of JewsChooseTrump applauded the organization for playing a significant, if not pivotal, role in the election of Donald Trump. According to Ms. Greenwald, JewsChooseTrump effectively siphoned off traditional Jewish support for the liberal/Democrat candidate and garnered Jewish votes for Trump.
JewsChooseTrump had a very specific four item agenda: (1) relocation of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; (2) getting rid of the Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between the Obama administration and Israel regarding military assistance; (3) Federal aid to religious schools; and (4) abrogating the jointly negotiated agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump won by an aggregate vote of under 200,000 votes in four states: Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If 1 in 5 Florida Jews voted for Trump or a third party candidate, that alone would account for Trump’s plurality in Florida. If 1 in four Pennsylvania Jews did the same that would account for Trump’s win there. If 1 in 7 of Michigan’s Jews — same thing. If Florida and Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania or, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan had gone the other way, Trump would have lost in the electoral college.
The eight years of the Obama administration in which Clinton served as Secretary of State gave some American Jews with a strong allegiance to the Jewish State of Israel serious concerns. Obama’s failure to move the embassy was a tacit if not explicit endorsement of the Two State Solution with Jerusalem, the Biblical capital of the Jews, as a shared city.
The Memorandum of Understanding guaranteed Israel $38 billion in military assistance over ten years, an increase, but put restrictions on its use. Israel could no longer come to Congress for emergency supplemental appropriations. Twenty six percent of the assistance could no longer be invested in Israel’s internal defense industry. They would have to buy from the US. Our money could no longer be used to buy fuel for their tanks and planes. There is some question as to Israel’s continuing to receive a lump sum payment at the beginning of each fiscal year, unlike every other recipient of US aid.
Federal aid to religious schools is a shared agenda item among Orthodox Jews and Evangelical Christians. Can you say Betsy DeVoss.
The US vote in the UN to condemn Israel for its occupation of the occupied territories was perhaps the last straw. “Treason” in the word of one strong Jewish supporter of Israel I know.
But the greatest perceived existential threat to Israel and, by extension, to American Jews of strong allegiance to Israel, is Iran’s potential nuclear capability. We Jews know a little something about existential threats. The seriousness with which the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and, here come the words, Zionist American Jews took this threat was first made manifest in the election of Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. William Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel funneled at least $1 million dollars into Cotton’s campaign. No sooner was Cotton sworn in than he advocated using B-52’s to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Where are we today? John Bolton, a long time advocate for “regime” change and an architect of the Iraq War, was made National Security Advisor to the President. Mike Pompeo, another war hawk, has been made Secretary of State. On May 12th, the American Embassy will move to Jerusalem. Yesterday, Netanyahu exhibited thousands of documents which he says prove Iran has violated the nuclear agreement, all credible evidence to the contrary. On May 12th Trump will decide to abrogate the nuclear agreement with Iran or insist on substantive changes.
With the Agreement abrogated or suspended pretexts will be created that Iran has resumed its production of fissile material. Do you remember Hussein’s no-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction, the equally non-existent Yellow Cake, Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby? At this point I suggest Googling Jewish Neoconservatives and the Iraq War.
On the trumped up pretext that Iran has resumed its nuclear program and increased its support for terrorism, the Memorandum of Understanding will be thrown out so Israel can apply for supplemental emergency aid.
A 9/11 type event somewhere among the signatories of the Joint Agreement with Iran or an uncovered plot against the US will be the spark. I live in a port city where millions of cargo containers arrive from everywhere.
Is Iran a nuclear threat to the US? Not unless they feel themselves existentially threatened. Is Iran an existential threat to Israel. Yes. Is the best way to contain that threat the existing agreement? Yes. Is that good enough for Israel? No. “Never Again” means “Never Again” even if the Middle East is aflame from Teheran to Damascus for the next hundred years.
Looks to me we are now in a reality TeeVee trickle down dirge. When Stormy plays Stormy we gots some weird stuff going on. Reminds me of when Sarah Palin watched Tina Fay play Palin and decided she'd play herself playing Tina Fay. When Michelle Wolf told the truth about the media's rise, money wise, in their coverage of Trump she hit that old nail right on its head. When John Stewart decided to leave "The Daily Show" many lamented this decision: "Christ, John, you got the best material you've ever had with this guy [Trump] and you're leaving?" So––here we are in comedy central land on a daily basis. And I'm wondering if Trump is thriving on all this in some perverted way. Most presidents would be outraged at the negative coverage (we ARE told Trump has his daily hissy fits and we read his tweets tapped out with his cloven hoof, but....).
Mel Brooks once said his "Producers"––his "Spring Time for Hitler" piece in particular–-was the only good way to bring down an evil villain like Hitler––make fun of him. So this is what we are witnessing now except what troubles me is the "making fun of" was after Hitler was dead; we got a LIVE wire here and the damage that is being done to this country while we all laugh and clap is not a laughing matter.
Well, just a few thoughts on this rainy Sunday. Our springtime brings such lovely blooms and earthy scents––something to cherish these days.
@Crashdavid: Your incisive rendering of our problem with Iran or to be more precise, Iran's problem with us and Israel is a powder keg for certain. Your specifics regarding the Jewish impact on the election was interesting. George Mitchell who worked so hard with Israel and Palestine voiced his concern over and over about those in high places––presidents, rulers, leaders being in a bubble; they fail to hear other sides, fail to have others argue vehemently with them–-the necessity to know the other side's rational. The bubble is now bigger and those who need to hear are stone deaf.
Thanks for this, David.
I think most people believe that having the POTUS attend a funeral is America's greatest form of honor. So demanding that the POTUS not attend your funeral is America's greatest form of insult. So it helps clarify the definition of 'hero'. McCain qualifies.
Please let me add my thanks to Crashdavid. It does appear that we are living in consequential times. It is obvious that the US global strategic position is already greatly weakened, like a building some of whose fundamental structural members have been compromised by termites or rust. Russia and Iran, probably with the cooperation of China and North Korea, are inviting the US to destroy itself. The price of gasoline is the only economic statistic most Americans take note of, so the next conflict in the ME may well occasion a change of personnel in DC. I don't anticipate any change in the basic power arrangements, however. The extractive economy and the MIC are too lucrative to touch.