;)
The Commentariat -- May 7, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: “The White House stepped in on Tuesday to stop Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel, from handing over documents subpoenaed by House investigators because President Trump may want to assert executive privilege over them. The current White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, instructed the House Judiciary Committee to redirect to the White House its requests for the records, which relate to key episodes of possible obstruction of justice identified by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. His move was certain to enrage Democrats who are increasingly at odds with the Trump administration over access to witness and records that they say they need to conduct legitimate investigations. 'The White House provided these records to Mr. McGahn in connection with its cooperation with the special counsel's investigation and with clear understanding that the records remain subject to the control of the White House for all purposes,' Mr. Cipollone wrote in a letter to the committee's chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York."
New York Times Editors: "As to whether Congress may obtain a president's tax returns, there is no ambiguity: Federal law empowers the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to submit a written request to the Treasury Department, which oversees the Internal Revenue Service, for 'any return or return information.' The Treasury secretary then 'shall furnish' the requested information to the committee so that it may conduct its legislative functions. Perhaps that statute is not clear enough for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The secretary on Monday rebuffed just such a request.... The Treasury secretary cited no authority for this stonewalling, which is consistent with the Trump administration's broad resistance to congressional oversight and the president's push to quash any investigation into his finances."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump either gambled or was assured that Mueller would not indict him for any of his bad acts, which probably figured into his decision to take his then-lawyers' advice to allow White House staff like McGahn to cooperate with Mueller. Now, as the stakes rise to impeachment, he is cutting off all, or nearly all, cooperation.
Adam Edelman of NBC News: “FBI Director Chris Wray said Tuesday that he would not describe the federal government's surveillance, such as that conducted on ... Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, as 'spying,' as Attorney General William Barr has. During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Wray was asked by committee member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., about Barr's statement last month that 'spying did occur' on the Trump campaign.... Barr had also said he was "reviewing the conduct" of the FBI's Russia probe during the summer of 2016.... 'I was very concerned by his use of the word spying, which I think is a loaded word,' Shaheen said. 'When FBI agents conduct investigations against alleged mobsters, suspected terrorists, other criminals, do you believe they're engaging in spying when they're following FBI investigative policies and procedures?' 'That's not the term I would use,' Wray replied. 'So I would say that's a no....' Asked if he had 'any evidence that any illegal surveillance' into the Trump 2016 campaign occurred, Wray said he did not." Mrs. McC: Barr is Wray's boss.
Catie Edmundson of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, called on Congress on Tuesday to move on from the Mueller report and issued his own verdict from the Senate floor: 'Case closed.'... Mr. McConnell's speech pointed up the profound gap between the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House. House Democrats are locked in an escalating fight with President Trump, who is trying to slam shut House investigations of all sort."
In short order, the entire planet could be like a crime scene with the gigantic carbon footprints of Trump and his industry donors all around the body. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
** Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Treasury Department said on Monday that it would not release President Trump's tax returns to Congress, defying a request from House Democrats and setting up a legal battle likely to be resolved by the Supreme Court. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, wrote in a letter to Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, that Mr. Neal's request for the tax returns 'lacks a legitimate legislative purpose' and that he was not authorized to disclose them. The decision came after weeks of delays as Mr. Mnuchin said that his department and the Justice Department needed to study the provision of the tax code that Democrats were using to seek six years' worth of the president's personal and business tax returns." ...
... Mrs. Mcrabbie Note to Steve, you arrogant prick: Congress, being the legislative branch and all, decides what constitutes "a legitimate legislative purpose." Plus which, there's a law that sez the IRS must turn over tax returns to the Congress upon request. Plus which, for the last half-century, every other major party presidential nominee has released his (or her!) tax returns. We all want to know what Trump is hiding. And you have to show us.
** Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "More than del>370 450 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump -- if not for the office he held. The statement -- signed by myriad former career government employees as well as high-profile political appointees -- offers a rebuttal to Attorney General William P. Barr's determination that the evidence Mueller uncovered was 'not sufficient' to establish that Trump committed a crime.... 'We emphasize that these are not matters of close professional judgment,' they [wrote].... To look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice -- the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution -- runs counter to logic and our experience.' The statement is notable for the number of people who signed it -- 375 as of Monday afternoon -- and the positions and political affiliations of some on the list.... Among the high-profile signers are Bill Weld, a former U.S. attorney and Justice Department official in the Reagan administration who is running against Trump as a Republican; Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush Administration; John S. Martin, a former U.S. attorney and federal judge appointed to his posts by two Republican presidents; Paul Rosenzweig, who served as senior counsel to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr; and Jeffrey Harris, who worked as the principal assistant to Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was at the Justice Department in the Reagan administration. The list also includes more than 20 former U.S. attorneys and more than 100 people with at least 20 years of service at the Justice Department -- most of them former career officials. The signers worked in every presidential administration since that of Dwight D. Eisenhower." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Here's the full statement, with a list of signatories which is being updated. BTW, the list is searchable, if you're looking for your favorite prosecutor. Update: Looks as if the number of signatories is up to 566 as of 5:30 am ET Tuesday. ...
... Kevin Drum: "It's not even a close call. This is the mirror opposite of what happened to Hillary Clinton. In his press conference, James Comey said that case also wasn't a close call. Clinton might have made some mistakes, but it was clear that she didn't knowingly violate any laws. But that made no difference to Republicans. The chanted 'Lock her up' regardless, just as they'll refuse to do anything about Trump even though he is guilty. Hell, Trump is straight-up retweeting white nationalists these days and Republicans won't even suggest that maybe he should stop. Still, if DOJ won't prosecute, Congress can still initiate impeachment proceedings. What else should be done in the case of a president who, unquestionably and deliberately, has serially violated the law and shows no signs of stopping?" ...
... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "If Pelosi stands in the way, she'll be putting 'our whole system of justice at risk.' At least, that's what these ... former prosecutors are saying." ...
Nicholas Fandos & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee will vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress, after the Justice Department appeared to miss a Monday deadline to negotiate the delivery of Robert S. Mueller III's full report, along with key evidence collected by the special counsel. Democrats said the vote could still be avoided if the Justice Department changes course, but Monday's announcement sets up another dramatic escalation in a growing dispute between the legislative and executive branches. If the full House follows suit and votes to hold Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress, it would be only the second time in American history that a sitting member of a president's cabinet has been sanctioned by lawmakers that way. The Judiciary Committee's chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, said the vote would occur at 10 a.m. A 27-page report accompanying the vote notice on Monday recommends that Mr. Barr 'shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.'" The report includes a good summary of the Republican House's holding former AG Eric Holder in contempt. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The Justice Department on Monday tried to head off a contempt of Congress proceeding against Attorney General William Barr, offering House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) the chance to negotiate about the committee's subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller' unredacted report. In a letter to Nadler, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd invited the chairman to a negotiation session on Wednesday to discuss an' acceptable accommodation' that would potentially give more lawmakers access to a less-redacted version of the report, in addition to 'possible disclosure of certain materials' cited in Mueller's report.... Nadler said he would put the contempt proceedings on hold if the Justice Department engages in a 'good-faith' effort to give Democrats access to the requested information."
Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "In an interview published in the New York Times over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused President Trump of something remarkable: She feared he would not be willing to give up power peacefully in 2020 if the election were close.... Like clockwork, Trump showed the world the very next day why Pelosi had reason to be privately worried about this for years.... Trump tweeted Sunday that his first two years were 'stolen' (actually, he originally said they were 'stollen' before he fixed his tweet) by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation.... I guess we need to say this: Giving a president extra time to be president because there was a legitimate investigation related to his conduct is a remarkably undemocratic idea." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What is really remarkable is that Trump is laying the groundwork not to leave office under any circumstance other than over his cold, dead body. He had previously said he would enlist his buddies on the Supreme Court to intervene if Congress tried to impeach him, even tho the Court has no authority to rule on impeachment. He has already claimed the 2016 vote count was rigged, & he really won the popular vote. If by some nearly-impossible chance the Senate were to convict & remove him from office or if he should lose the Electoral College in 2020, I think it's highly likely he would look for ways to combat either result. Even if he manages to serve a full two terms, I think he'd ask for the stollen & try to stay on after January 2025. And perhaps he could. By then, he would certainly own the Supreme Court. I'm not crazy; I'm looking at leading indicators. ...
... Chris Cillizza of CNN: "... Trump has a long record of making wholly unsubstantiated claims about election results. And that includes doing so in an election -- 2016 -- in which he won! It's not much of a stretch then to imagine that Trump, if he does come up short in the 2020 election, wouldn't be willing to simply go quietly into that good night.... If you think that's overstating things, it's worth noting that Trump has repeatedly 'joked' about changing the Constitution to allow him to serve more than two terms as president." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND there's this, which I'd been thinking about as well. Steve M.: "... Trump is a lifelong resident of New York City -- a place where the two mayors who preceded the current mayor [Giuliani & Bloomberg ]both sought to sidestep the law and have their terms extended. One [Bloomberg] succeeded." ...
... ** Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "... the notion that Democrats should somehow circumvent a president who evinces no respect for the law by persuading him that this time he lost for realz strikes me as demented. Donald Trump won't accept a 2020 presidential election loss, whether it's by a large margin or a small one, for the same reason he never accepted his 2016 popular vote loss -- None of this is news to Nancy Pelosi, but unfortunately, putting one's faith in the elections system makes even less sense today than it did in 2016. As Jamelle Bouie observes, we are now in the epicenter of an all-out vote suppression crisis that has become an all-out democracy crisis.he doesn't like it, and so he won't let it be true.... Time and time again, people who had access to both information and power opted to take the less draconian path because they believed that there would still be a free and fair election and that Trump would not win it. We know how that turned out.... The Rule of Law still matters, and we shouldn't abandon it because this small problem of Donald Trump might go away in 2020." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lithwick seems to be seeing reality a lot more clearly than is Pelosi.
Michael Tackett & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Two people close to Mr. Trump said he had been moving toward an objection to Mr. Mueller testifying over the last few days as a counter to the call from some Democrats to impeach Mr. Barr for how he handled his own testimony last week to Congress." ...
... Michael Balsamo & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Special counsel Robert Mueller was expected to step down days after concluding his investigation in March. Yet he remains a Justice Department employee -- and the department won't say why. That's just one of the complications at play in the high-stakes, secret negotiations over whether Mueller will testify before Congress. Whatever role Mueller now has, keeping him on the Justice Department payroll offers one clear advantage to ... Donald Trump's administration: It makes it easier for Attorney General William Barr to block Mueller from testifying before Congress.... As a private citizen, Mueller could decide whether to accept an invitation to appear or, if he declines, whether to attempt to resist any effort to subpoena him.... The president stewed for days about the prospect of the media coverage that would be given to Mueller, a man Trump believes has been unfairly lionized across cable news and the front pages of the nation's leading newspapers for two years, according to three White House officials and Republicans close to the White House. Trump feared a repeat -- but bigger -- of the February testimony of his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, which dominated news coverage and even overshadowed a nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam." ...
... Update. Staff Says Trump Doesn't Know What He's Doing. Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "When ... Donald Trump contradicted his own attorney general and declared on Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller 'should not testify' before Congress, he caught his inner circle by surprise. A day later, more than a dozen people from Trump's close orbit downplayed in interviews the prospect that the president's weekend tweet about Mueller should be taken as an official warning. Trump does not actually intend to assert executive privilege and block the special counsel from testifying as soon as next week, they said, before the one House committee with the power to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. Like so many other controversies ignited by Trump's social media feed, this one may be more bluster than a live-wire legal showdown."
Jordyn Hermani of Politico: "Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen said Monday that 'there still remains much to be told' about the president, as his feud with his ex-boss continues. Cohen ... did not elaborate. He heads to federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., Monday to begin a three-year sentence for a series of tax fraud and lying charges." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Michael Cohen is in jail now, & the guy who directed Cohen to commit some of the illegal acts that landed him there is sitting in the Oval Office.
Jason Leopold & Anthony Cormier of BuzzFeed News: "The Department of Justice on Monday released a new version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report..., shedding light on why significant portions of the 448-page document were redacted.... The new version was released by the Department of Justice in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and a subsequent lawsuit filed by BuzzFeed News and separately by the Electronic Privacy and Information Center.... This new version of the report clearly states which information was withheld because it would interfere with ongoing law enforcement proceedings, which 'would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions,' and which was withheld on national security grounds.... BuzzFeed News and EPIC will now have the opportunity to challenge the legitimacy of the redactions and argue ... that overwhelming public interest compels the disclosure of additional information in the report."
Josh Marshall: "I need to return to the fact that the country's biggest paper reported this week that the President's personal lawyer [Rudy Giuliani] is conducting unofficial diplomacy abroad, apparently mixed with his own private business and investments, in which he offers friendly treatment from the President of the United States in exchange for those governments targeting the President's political enemies. This was reported and it wasn't the biggest story of the week.... The stakes are much higher, the danger much greater, when the colluding candidate is also the President of the United States [who] ... is already on to entirely new kinds of corruption and bad acting made possible by holding the presidential bundle of powers.... In this particular case it's Rudy Giuliani with the now-outgoing government of Ukraine and Joe Biden and his son....[T]his effort to get the government of Ukraine to whip up investigations into Biden ... is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg. This requires tons more attention." -s
Kevin Freking of the AP: "... Donald Trump has pardoned a former U.S. soldier convicted in 2009 of killing an Iraqi prisoner, the White House announced Monday. Trump signed an executive grant of clemency, a full pardon, for former Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, of Oklahoma, press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Behenna was convicted of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone after killing a suspected al-Qaida terrorist in Iraq. He was paroled in 2014 and had been scheduled to remain on parole until 2024. A military court had sentenced Behenna to 25 years in prison. However, the Army's highest appellate court noted concern about how the trial court had handled Behenna's claim of self-defense, Sanders said. The Army Clemency and Parole Board also reduced his sentence to 15 years and paroled him as soon as he was eligible."
Ana Swanson & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "President Trump's top economic advisers on Monday accused China of reneging on previous commitments to resolve a monthslong trade war and said Mr. Trump was prepared to prolong the standoff to force more significant concessions from Beijing. Mr. Trump, angry that China is retreating from its commitments just as the sides appeared to be nearing a deal and confident the American economy can handle a continuation of the trade war, will increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on Friday morning, his top advisers said.... Mr. Trump's decision to potentially upend an agreement that many expected to be finalized this week in Washington appears to be a political calculation that staying tough on China will be a better proposition in the 2020 campaign." ...
... CNBC: "Stocks fell on Monday after ... Donald Trump said that the U.S. will hike tariffs on goods imported from China, but managed to recover a good chunk of those losses around late-morning trading. At 11:13 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 235 points while the S&P 500 traded 0.9% lower. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1%. The Dow was down as much as 471 points, while the S&P 500 traded down 1.2% at its lows. The Nasdaq was briefly down 2.2%." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... CNBC Update: "Stocks recovered the bulk of their earlier losses on Monday as investors bet China and the U.S. will still strike a trade deal despite ... Donald Trump's threat to hike tariffs on Chinese imports over the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down just 66.47 points at 26,438.48, while the S&P 500 closed 0.4% lower at 2,932.47. Th Nasdaq Composite was down 0.5% at 8,123.29."
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs and Financial Services Committees are accusing the Trump administration of violating a law requiring a report on human rights abuses in Russia. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs panel, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the Financial Services chairwoman, on Monday said the Trump administration is four months late to a deadline requiring a report on the U.S. government's efforts to impose sanctions on human rights abusers in Russia." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So surprising. In their long conversation last Friday, Don should have asked Vlad if there were any human rights abuses in Russia; then he could tweet the answer to Engel & Waters. Job well-done.
Steve Holland of Reuters: "At a ceremony in the sun-splashed White House Rose Garden, Trump made the 43-year-old [Tiger] Woods the fourth, and youngest, professional golfer to receive the nation's highest civilian honor, [the Presidential Medal of Freedom,] after Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Charlie Sifford." See yesterday's Commentariat for context.
Climate Change May Alarm You, But Pompeo Sees Opportunities! Davis Richardson of the (New York) Observer: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Finland to discuss the United States' commitment to the Arctic region. While much of the secretary's speech addressed the growing threats of Russia and China in the region, he also called the Arctic's melting ice caps 'new opportunities for trade' -- despite warnings from scientists that the shrinkage is caused by climate change and could become irreversible. 'Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,' Pompeo told the room. 'This could potentially slash the time it takes to travel between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days. Arctic sea lanes could come before -- could come [sic] the 21s century Suez and Panama Canals.'"
Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress: "Mortgage lenders will find it easier to discriminate against prospective borrowers under the latest quiet sabotage of financial industry rules proposed by the Trump administration. The new rollbacks take a two-pronged approach to undermining a relatively new system that's helped journalists and watchdogs identify prejudicial lending practices they characterize as modern-day redlining. During the Obama administration, the CFPB played an instrumental role in earning settlements against banks accused of racial discrimination. These changes would do harm to the agency's continued ability to be a cop on this particular beat." --s
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Eight former top lawyers for the House of Representatives are backing a House lawsuit seeking to block ... Donald Trump from spending billions of dollars of federal funds on a border wall without any specific authorization from Congress. Attorneys who served a bipartisan set of speakers over the past four decades filed a brief Monday urging U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden to rule that the House has standing to pursue the border wall suit and that the dispute is a proper one for the courts despite the reluctance of many judges to weigh in on fights between Congress and the president."
Lee Fang of The Intercept: "Rep. Ed Royce, a senior Republican who, at the time, chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee, gave a speech on the House floor in November 2017 imploring his fellow lawmakers to maintain support for the Saudi Arabian-led war in Yemen.... Royce had received talking points earlier that day from a lobbyist retained by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to federal disclosure forms, in order to undermine congressional opposition to the Yemen war.... On Thursday, the Senate is scheduled to attempt to override President Donald Trump's veto of the War Powers Act resolution calling for an end to U.S. support for the war in Yemen.... The talking points provided to Royce are among the many hidden ways in which Saudi money has quietly influenced the debate." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Royce, facing strong opposition in his Orange-LA counties California district, announced his retirement in 2018.
Presidential Race 2020
Enthusiasm, Curbed. Chuck Todd, et al., of NBC News: "Democrats had two advantages that fueled their midterm victories in November 2018 -- an edge in enthusiasm and success with independent voters. Six months later, just one of those advantages remains. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 75 percent of Republican registered voters say they have high interest in the 2020 presidential election -- registering a '9' or '10' on a 10-point scale -- versus 73 percent of Democratic voters who say the same thing. That's quite a change from the 2018 cycle, when Democrats held a double-digit lead on this question until the last two months before the election, when the GOP closed the gap but still trailed the Dems in enthusiasm." ...
... Eli Yockley of the Morning Consult: "Joe Biden's stock continues to rise among the Democratic primary electorate. Morning Consult's latest 2020 tracking data measured an increase of 4 percentage points from the previous week in the share of voters who picked him as their first choice for the party's presidential nomination. It gives the former vice president a 10-point bump in the two polls conducted since he launched his bid for the presidency last month, an upward swing unmatched by any other candidate in the race. Four in 10 likely Democratic primary voters ranked Biden as their first choice in the primary, up from 36 percent in the prior week, cementing his early status as the front-runner amid attacks on his progressive bona fides from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Therein, IMO, lies both cause & effect of Democratic voters' drop in enthusiasm. If Biden is the Democrats' candidate, it will be 2016 all over again. Hillary Clinton & her pals like then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz put their thumbs on the scale in 2016; now it looks as if the rank-and-file may be doing that job for Biden, even as the field this time around is filled with interesting, competent candidates. Odd. Of course, it's early days.
The Party of Deplorables. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "For people who really believed President Donald Trump could be toppled by a significant primary challenge in the 2020 election, a new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal should set them straight: 90 percent of Republicans polled think Trump is doing a great job as president... [N]early 70 percent of Democrats think the [Mueller] report failed to clear the president of wrongdoing, while only 11 percent of Republicans see it that way.... Trump's signature domestic achievement, his massive tax cut bill, remains highly unpopular ... even less popular with voters than Obamacare[.]" --s
Congressional Race 2020. The White People's Rifle Association. Kate Riga of TPM: "Carolyn Meadows, the new president of the National Rifle Association who harkens from Georgia, was dismissive of freshman Rep. Lucy McBath's (D-GA) victory in her 2018 race, saying McBath only won due to her status as a 'minority female.' 'There will be more than one person in the race, but we'll get that seat back,' Meadows said of the sixth district seat, per the Marietta Daily Journal. 'But it is wrong to say like McBath said, that the reason she won was because of her anti-gun stance. That didn't have anything to do with it -- it had to do with being a minority female. And the Democrats really turned out, and that's the problem we have with conservatives we don't turn out as well.'" ...
... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "... McBath responded with a series of tweets about her campaign's focus on gun control.... McBath noted that she was pushed to run for Congress after her son was murdered and that it was central to her campaign, pushing back on Meadows' argument that McBath didn't win due to her push for gun control."
Congressional Race 2018. Matt Shuham of TPM: "A staffer [Lauren Creekmore] for former Rep. Scott Taylor's (R-VA) 2018 re-election campaign has been indicted on election fraud charges, though the special prosecutor investigating the scandal said in a press release Monday that his ongoing probe has been hampered by 'the lack of cooperation of key individuals.'... Taylor's campaign had engaged in signature forgery ... to get former Democratic congressional contender on the ballot as an independent.... TPM broke the news in August that Taylor had personally tried to bury the signature forgery story." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Taylor lost his re-election bid in 2018 to Democrat Elaine Luria.
Juan Cole: "Avery Thompson [of] Popular Mechanics reports that in the month of April for the first time in US history, the country produced more electricity with renewables than with coal.... Back in 2010, burning coal provided the world 45 % of its power generation. In 2018, that figure had drooped to 27 percent. At the same time, the share of renewables in power generation in the US has grown to 18% (including hydro)." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's progress in spite of Trump, his EPA, his Energy Department, his Interior Department, & the rest of his irresponsible, antediluvian administrative apparatus.
Joshua Specht, in the Guardian, has a long read on how: "Exploitation and predatory pricing drove the transformation of the US beef industry -- and created the model for modern agribusiness." --s
Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "Around the world, nature is in decline at an unprecedented rate and many of Earth's ecosystems face a catastrophic level of risk, according to a new report summary released Monday by the United Nations. This 'ominous' trend is due entirely to human activities.... While the risk of one million species going extinct has already grabbed headlines around the world, the report summary contains a slew of other stunning facts. Here are some of the numbers you may have missed." --s
"Annals of Journalism," Womp Womp Edition. Josh Kovensky of TPM: "Infamous alt-right troll Chuck Johnson's website GotNews filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month, according to a California federal court filing from the closed-down site.... The troll site must supply the list of creditors by Wednesday, and that list will offer a peek into who thought it was a good idea to finance Johnson." --s ...
... Anna Merlan of Splinter: "Recently referred to as a 'race-baiting troll' by the Boston Globe, Johnson's GotNews was a hive of misinformation, and outlandish, often provably false claims. Over time, both the site and Johnson's personal Facebook page -- now also deleted -- were increasingly filled with addled racist propaganda and Holocaust denialism; among other things, Johnson questioned whether six million Jews really died during the Holocaust and said on Reddit that he agreed 'about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real.') Johnson was also the first person banned for life from Twitter after he tried to raise funds to 'take out' black civil rights activist DeRay McKesson, comments which both the site and McKesson took as a threat.... What was more outlandish than any of Johnson's claims, however, was his increasingly less-fringe place in Washington D.C. political circles." Mrs. McC: Read on. The Trump administration is filled with wackos, starting at the tippy-top, of course.
Silvia Borrelli of Politico: "A top Catholic Cardinal objected to Steve Bannon's plans to create a training school for nationalists in a former Carthusian monastery.... [Bannon] wants to set up the alt-right academy at Trisulti Charterhouse in Collepardo, around 70 kilometers southeast of Rome. But according to a letter obtained by Politico, Cardinal Renato Maria Martino raised objections to using the monastery for political purposes. He wrote to Benjamin Harnwell, Bannon's close associate in Italy who is spearheading the project, on January 29, 2019 demanding that there be no 'distortions or modifications' to the original plan. The original idea was to create an apolitical Catholic study and training center.... Locals in Collepardo, the closest town to the Trisulti abbey, marched in protest at Harnwell's and Bannon's plans in March. The scheme was also challenged last month by Italy's Democratic Party leader, Nicola Zingaretti, who is also the governor of the Lazio region, where the monastery is located." ...
... Matt Stieb of New York: "... Cardinal Martino isn't the only authority to contest Bannon's pivot to create a 'gladiator school for culture warriors.' The Italian culture ministry has reportedly told lawyers to determine if there are grounds to cancel the authorizations given to [Bannon's lovely project], with possible irregularities in the paperwork." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: In Italy, there are many ways to skin a cat: if the locals don't like you -- and they don't -- good luck with getting building permits for even the most insignificant repairs. This is an historic site, & you'll need permits to replace a broken roof tile or do minor electrical upgrades. Under the circumstances, crossing palms just might not work out for you. You & your crazy buddies could find yourselves plotting in the dark while raindrops keep falling on your heads.
Beyond the Beltway
Tennessee. Joel Ebert & Natalie Allison of the Tennessean: Tennessee "House Speaker Glen Casada's top aide has a history of sending sexually explicit text messages and making inappropriate advances toward former interns, lobbyists and campaign staffers, according to documents obtained by the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. Copies of text messages sent from a cellphone number associated with Cade Cothren, 32, show Casada was included on some of the staff member's derogatory comments toward women. The texts also show Casada, R-Franklin, participated in some of the sexually charged messages objectifying women.... Revelations about Cothren's inappropriate sexual advances and text messages come after Casada's chief of staff admitted to using cocaine in the legislature's office building. Cothren is also facing scrutiny over racist text messages.... In recent days, Casada repeatedly has vouched for Cothren, including Monday.... Update: Cade Cothren announced his resignation Monday night, following the publication of this story."
Way Beyond
China. Lily Quo of the Guardian: "[M]ore than two dozen Islamic religious sites that have been partly or completely demolished in Xinjiang since 2016, according to an investigation by the Guardian and open-source journalism site Bellingcat that offers new evidence of large-scale mosque razing in the Chinese territory where rights groups say Muslim minorities suffer severe religious repression.... In the name of containing religious extremism, China has overseen an intensifying state campaign of mass surveillance and policing of Muslim minorities.... Researchers say as many as 1.5 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been involuntarily sent to internment or re-education camps, claims that Beijing rejects." --s
Israel-Palestine. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "A tentative cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza appeared to have taken hold Monday morning, bringing a short but deadly bout of cross-border fighting to an end as abruptly as it had started. At least 22 Palestinians, including militants and children, were killed in Gaza over the weekend, and four Israeli civilians died in the fighting." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Dov Waxman in Informed Comment: "Dead on arrival. That's what almost every expert predicts will be the fate of the Trump administration's long-awaited peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the author of the new book, 'The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know,' I share this view.... About the only thing the Trump administration's peace plan has going for it is the fact that nobody expects it to succeed. With expectations so low, there's less risk that the likely failure of the plan will trigger another round of Israeli-Palestinian violence." --s
Myanmar. Simon Lewis & Shoon Naing of Reuters: "Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars. The two reporters, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, had been convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail.... They were released under a presidential amnesty for 6,520 prisoners on Tuesday. President Win Myint has pardoned thousands of other prisoners in mass amnesties since last month."
Russia. Henry Meyer & Ilya Arkhipov of Bloomberg: "[P]ockets of disquiet rarely seen in the Vladimir Putin era are now putting ... depressed towns in the Russian hinterland on the political radar. The catalyst ... is health care. Doctors and other hospital staff in the region have been leading protests over the president's broken promises of better pay and the threat of clinics closing.... Nationwide support for Putin is stable [above 60 percent] after falling dramatically last year.... Concern, though, that traditionally loyal sections of the population are turning against the authorities raised an alarm in the government.... Protests used to be confined to the big cities. Now they're in the Putin heartlands.... Federal statistics released in March showed that more than a third of Russians can't afford to buy two pairs of shoes a year." --s
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Munchkin may think he’s playing the imperious, high-handed villain in a Bond movie, but the arrogance of this guy who is little more than a cheap chiseler who made his fortune off other people’s misery is beyond the thinking of the cheesiest hack writers. This asshole has been “in government”—and that, only on the most nominal terms, he has spent more time flying around the world on the taxpayers’ dime—and yet he thinks he can lecture serious people who’ve been doing real work for decades about what is and is not a “legitimate legislative purpose”. Time for James Bond to show up and drop a building on this creep.
@Akhilleus: Yes, that's the problem with most of the Trump crew: they're too one-dimensional to be models for characters in any but the worst of the films Mnuchin "produced" -- i.e., provided some financial backing for from money he ripped off in foreclosures of underwater loans & reverse mortgages -- and he produced some bad ones.
ARE YOU IN GOOD HANDS?
The Allstate Insurance Co. has had an ad running for quite awhile touting their type of car insurance always ending with the actor, Dennis Haysbert, in a close-up asking in a most seductive way: "Are you in good hands?" I was thinking how effective that is–-it implies you would indeed be in good hands with Allstate and at the same time makes you question whether you aren't at the present time.
And because I think this question is so provocative it may just be something our Dems running for that leader of the world seat might want to copy. You could do a lot with the introduction of that five word question.
Lots going on this week centering around political intrigue (and yes, Ak, that punk Munchkin needs to be cut off at the knees) but I keep thinking of the real crisis of our planet and decades from now will look back and see this as small potatoes.
So, the UN report indicates that one million species are being threatened. And they are talking about the wide range of species.
We have known for a while that, for instance, large vertebrates like lions and elephants, have been threatened. We all have heard about the bears. We recently have information of how insects are declining.
Patricia Balvanera, one of the UN authors of the report says this:
"And I remember, when I was a kid, every time we had a trip in the car, the windshield was full of insects. But this is not true anymore. Why should I care about not having insects?...
Well, a large fraction of our agriculture production depends on these tiny insects that pollinate the flowers and then that produce the fruit. So, almonds, apples, some important contribution to tomatoes depends on these pollinators...
And we are really not aware of how this is having a huge impact in agriculture productivity, for example."
If I believed in a deity I might conclude that he ( of course of masculine gender) is closing up shop–-is slowly letting the world self-destruct––"I gave you humans great bounty and look what you've done with it! " On the other hand, believers might just blame their god for lying about being in good hands.
...not to mention that there is nothing in the law that says anything about “legitimate legislative purposes”. The purpose is entirely understood. But now we have to wait for a court to smack these people back in line. And even then they’ll appeal to another court (probably their rubber stamps on the Supreme one) to please, pretty please let us break the law and do whatever we want, because we work for the king. And that’s how all these subpoenas will go as well which is why impeachment proceedings need to start toot sweet.
And here’s one more thing, if such were needed, if Democrats don’t start the impeachment process, they are effectively saying “We give. You ARE the king”.
@Akhilleus: Absolutely. Impeachment proceedings would further weaken Mnuchin's case as well as that of other administration obstructionists who are withholding documents &/or refusing to testify. I don't think even Neil Gorsuch could claim tax returns & other documents weren't necessary to investigate violations of the Emoluments Clause, as well as bad acts posing dangers to national security because of conflicts of interest.
And another "one more thing" to piggy back on Ak's "We give–-you ARE the King"
"The climate crisis, more than anything, has highlighted the inadequacy of the liberal orthodoxy’s self-congratulatory moderation and celebration of glacial incrementalism. It poses, in stark terms, the need for dramatic action and the inescapability of confronting the powerful interests behind the deadly carbon economy. The rapid degradation of the planet has made radicalism rational and incrementalism a kind of civilizational death drive.”––David Sessions
"Trump’s appeal to the past to "make America great again" is now being echoed in Biden’s call to “restore and rebuild”. I don’t think that’s enough and I believe it will take someone with a radical and pressing 21st century agenda to beat Trump in 2020. We’re not just on the wrong track, we’re in the wrong train."–––son David in Germany.
Can sometime tell Nadler to grow a ball sack, or should we replace him with a real bulldog that will tear a hole in Barr's scalp?
Barr's stringing along the petty Dems by their noses, throwing them toys whenever they start to concentrate on a real strategy.
Either Barr hands over exactly what they asked for, or hold him in contempt. It will throw more shit on his shoddy reputation. It's worth it. Who gives two fucks if Republicans won't go along. If that's the measurement we're using, they're prepared to go full theocracy authoritarian conservative monarchy.
What safari said... I am fed to the teeth with people who are supposedly playing a "long game" or who play "umpteenth dimensional chess." People used to say that about Obama at first-- it was used to excuse timidity and "reaching across the aisle." It never worked. It doesn't work, and it shouldn't. Now is the time for fire. That is NOT Biden. Or Nadler. Grrrrr.
Renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians? More bombs and bodies? But gee, doesn't Young Jared have a secret plan for peace over there? I thought Trump promised it would be all over by now with peace, love, dove on both sides because of his personal wonderfulness and the adroit and immensely knowledgeable (natch) diplomatic chops of Young Jared.
These Trumpies. They just want to keep everyone on pins and needles I suppose, waiting to bask in their glorious excellence.
Meanwhile....POW, BAM, BANG!
...any day now...then it's on to world peace, the cure for cancer, and the answer to why leftovers in the fridge seem to gravitate to the back where they slowly become science projects.
Inquiring minds want to know. Trump has all the answers. And he'll tell us everything. Right after he gets re-elected, just like all those other secret plans he was going to reveal right after the 2016 stolen election.
On a more serious note, Bibi is too busy trying to avoid prison time to make nice with Hamas.
He has far right-wingers barking up his tree begging him to nuke the West Bank and Gaza and he has never cared about any sort of peace plan in the first place, so even if Trump and Kushner were actually knowledgeable, first-rate diplomats with a serious and eminently workable plan, and had done all the necessary legwork to garner structural support on both sides, instead of hopelessly useless tyros in the field of international relations with some stupid ideas scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin that sez "OUR PECE PLANN", it wouldn't matter.
Bibi is no more likely to approve a peace plan than he is to plead guilty to charges of corruption (which sound amazingly valid). So Trump and Kushner can stick whatever phantom, phony plan they're touting in the dumpster back of the White House (the same dumpster where they deposited the Constitution).
Lithwick and Bouie are both correct, as is anyone else who realizes that Trump is an unstable megalomaniac and inveterate liar. If he were to be beaten like a rented mule in 2020, he would try to declare martial law and have the results overturned, per request of Hannity and Piro.
We are not dealing with anything close to normal here. Democrats still seem to think they can shame Trump or any of his band of crooks into acting like a normal person. They can't.
Democrats need a very quick reality check (maybe this one right here would suffice, if they cared to read it). They're like doctors treating a patient for what they assume are stomach cramps when what she's really suffering from is bubonic plague.
Will they still be prescribing milk of magnesia when the patient goes into septic (Trumpic) shock and starts leaking blood?
"Dr. Nadler! Over here. Another patient with 'stomach cramps'." "Okay! Hold on. I'll be there on Wednesday!"
Comparisons of Hitler with Trump may sound overblown, but in this respect, they are not.
Hitler grabbed immense, unchallenged power while most "reasonable" Germans kept assuring each other that it couldn't possibly be that bad. Next thing you know, the Four Horsemen of the fucking Apocalypse are galloping down the strasse.
I'm not suggesting that there are any things that horrible in our future (Jesus, I hope not), but we still have people running around thinking this is still something that can be handled in a normal way.
Trump is rabid vermin and should be treated with the immediacy dangerous and life threatening situations demand. This waiting around bullshit is fucking nuts. So are crafty, clever, legislative chess moves. He needs to be stomped. Good. And right now.
Otherwise it will be way too late and we'll all be talking about the good old days back in Weimar.
PD,
The "glacial incrementalism" (great term, by the way) you mention in your post about the sorry state of the environment has been replaced, by Trump, with "express train regression" as he and his pals in the coal, oil, and gas industries go to work tearing down environmental protections. In short order, the entire planet could be like a crime scene with the gigantic carbon footprints of Trump and his industry donors all around the body.
Good ol' Mike Pompeo, ever the sharp-eyed winger opportunist. Global warming? No problem! Look at all the new opportunities!
1. Buy up land ten miles inland. It'll be beachfront property soon.
2. Whiny ads about world hunger? All gone. Those people will all be dead from starvation, 100 year storms, and in other places, years-long drought.
3. Biology students won't have to memorize as many species once half of them are extinct.
4. Lower heating bills in the winter with temperatures in upstate New York hovering around 60 degrees in January.
5. Jobs for meteorologists will be through the roof what with the need to keep up with insane weather events. More jobs!
6. Insurance companies can devise new ways to keep from paying damages after all the ravaging storms. They'll all be called "acts of god" and they won't have to pay a penny. Better for the economy!
7. Cruise companies can steam straight across the North Pole. No more ice. Royal Caribbean can add a new line: Royal Former Arctic.
8. Housing shortages will disappear as previous owners of coveted properties die off from damaging health effects of global warming.
9. Smart collectors can corner the market on polar bear Beanie Babies since the real things'll be as dead as the Dodo.
There are just so many opportunities for greedy, opportunistic, amoral teabaggers like Pompeo. Turn up the heat, boys!
@Ak, Sen. Professor Warren must have been reading your posts.