;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Trump Ignores Intelligence Assessment. Nicole Gaouette & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that he will not take strong action against Saudi Arabia or its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the death and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi....In an exclamation-mark laden statement subtitled 'America First!' Trump said that 'our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event -- maybe he did and maybe he didn't!' 'That being said,' Trump continued, 'we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran.' Trump is expected to receive a CIA assessment on Khashoggi's murder later on Tuesday." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Note that Trump made his announcement before he reviewed his own agencies' assessment. I guess he also has a natural instinct for spy stuff. BTW, other than the likelihood somebody ran a spellcheck on Trump's statement, it sounds very Trumpy. I can believe he wrote it himself.
Alexandra Stevenson, et al., of the New York Times: "The stock market's gains for 2018 were erased in early trading on Tuesday, as a sell-off led by giant technology stocks continued. The renewed declines in the United States came after drops in Asia and Europe. The tumble of more than 1 percent in the S&P 500 followed a sell-off in high-flying technology stocks like Google, Apple and Amazon in the United States on Monday, as investors weighed the prospects for increased regulation, trade tension and threats to the profit outlook for the large technology firms that exert a large influence on major market indexes. The pain continued for such companies on Tuesday with Apple and Amazon falling by more than 4 percent in early trading. But a new area of concern also flared up after the retailer Target reported third-quarter sales and profit that missed Wall Street expectations. Target's shares dove by more than 10 percent."
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting asylum claims from migrants no matter where or how they entered the United States, dealing at least a temporary setback to the president's attempt to clamp down on a huge wave of Central Americans crossing the border. Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the government from carrying out a new rule that denies protections to people who enter the country illegally. The order, which suspends the rule until the case is decided by the court, applies nationally."
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Senate's top Democrat has asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker's communications with the White House, over concerns that he might have shared secret information from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation with President Trump. In a letter to DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked him to open a formal probe into whether there have been any 'unlawful or improper communications' between Whitaker and the White House during his service as former attorney general Jeff Sessions's chief of staff, when he was in regular touch with Trump and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly. In particular, Schumer said he was concerned that as acting attorney general, Whitaker could share 'confidential grand jury or investigative information from the Special Counsel investigation or any criminal investigation.' Schumer also wants Horowitz to investigate whether Whitaker 'provided any assurance to the President, White House officials, or others regarding steps he or others may take with regard to the Special Counsel investigation, including any intention to interfere, obstruct, or refuse authorization of subpoenas or other investigative steps.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As you may recall, last week Trump tweeted that "The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts." How would Trump know about "the inner workings of the Mueller investigation" unless somebody with knowledge of those "inner workings" told him?
Jonathan Chait: "Interactions between the media and the White House are a form of democracy theater. The give-and-take is a tangible and living sign of the fact that in a republic, the president is not a monarch but is simply a citizen like everybody else. In authoritarian regimes, the palpably cowed news media treats leaders with a deference that communicates their inviolable status. Trump's authoritarian instincts and his bullying persona bear directly on his administration's attempts to rein in the media.... Trump is imposing on the media the social terms in which he has always demanded to operate: a culture in which he can berate and bully others, but must be treated in turn with obeisance. The most tangible sign sign of any hierarchical relationship is one in which one of the parties must be polite but the other is free to engage in abuse. A world in which Trump can brush aside cogent questions by calling reporters stupid, and in which they can't even request an answer, would be the opposite of democracy theater. It would conscript the White House press corps into a regular televised performance of Trump's monarchial fantasies."
Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "A disgraced former judge who went to prison for beating his then-wife so severely in 2014 that she required facial reconstructive surgery was taken into custody after she was found slain Saturday morning, Ohio police said. The Shaker Heights Police Department said officers responded to a 911 call at a residence in the morning, prompting them to launch an investigation into Aisha Fraser's killing. Ex-Cuyahoga County judge Lance Mason, Fraser's former husband, was taken into custody, police said. Shaker Heights Police Cmdr. John Cole said Monday morning that the department is 'anticipating charges later today' against Mason, though he was unable to offer additional information. Details about Fraser's killing were also not immediately available; however, Cleveland.com reported that she was fatally stabbed. In a 911 call obtained by NBC affiliate WKYC, a woman who identifies herself as Mason's sister tells a dispatcher that Mason admitted to stabbing his ex-wife." ...
... Marcia Fudge Will Not Be Speaker of the House. Gary Shaffer of Cleveland.com: "Dozens of people, including four sitting judges, prominent Cleveland attorneys and a congresswoman now considering a bid to become speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote gushing letters of support for former Cuyahoga County Judge Lance Mason after he brutalized his wife in front of their children so badly that her face required reconstructive surgery.... U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge ... said in her letter, which was addressed to visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove in August 2015 ... that ... 'Lance accepts full responsibility for his actions and has assured me that something like this will never happen again.... Lance Mason is a good man who made a very bad mistake. I can only hope that you see in Lance what I and others see.'"
*****
The Great Divide. Paul Krugman: "Over the past generation, America’s regions have experienced a profound economic divergence. Rich metropolitan areas have gotten even richer, attracting ever more of the nation's fastest growing industries. Meanwhile, small towns and rural areas have been bypassed, forming a sort of economic rump left behind by the knowledge economy. Amazon's headquarters criteria perfectly illustrate the forces behind that divergence. Businesses in the new economy want access to large pools of highly educated workers, which can be found only in big, rich metropolitan areas. And the location decisions of companies like Amazon draw even more high-skill workers to those areas. In other words, there's a cumulative, self-reinforcing process at work that is, in effect, dividing America into two economies. And this economic division is reflected in political division. In 2016, of course, the parts of America that are being left behind voted heavily for Donald Trump."
Rachel Bade, et al., of Politico: "Sixteen Democrats vowed Monday to oppose Nancy Pelosi for speaker on the House floor, throwing the California Democrat's bid to reclaim the gavel in serious jeopardy. In a highly anticipated letter that went public Monday, the Democrats praised Pelosi as 'a historic figure' but argued that it is time for change at the top.... The show of force underscores the depth of the challenge facing Pelosi, who has led the caucus for 16 years. Pelosi needs 218 votes among lawmakers present and voting to be elected speaker on Jan. 3. House Democrats have won 233 seats, meaning Pelosi can currently afford to lose only 15 votes. The letter includes 11 incumbents, four incoming freshman and one candidate, Ben McAdams f Utah, whose race has not been called. The letter does not include at least three additional Democratic lawmakers or members-elect who have confirmed to Politico that they intend to oppose Pelosi on the floor: Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Jason Crow of Colorado. That would bring Pelosi's opponents to a total of 19 members or members-elect committed to voting against her -- enough to keep her from becoming speaker should those members refuse to budge." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oddly, the reporters refute one true thing that even Donald Trump recognizes: that if Democrats nominate Pelosi, as they are nearly certain to do, Pelosi could win the speakership with help from a few Republican members. Many Republicans think Pelosi is a great foil, so such a scenario is not entirely theoretical.
Michelle Goldberg: "Donald Trump has failed at most things he's tried to do in life, with the crucial exception of selling himself as a success.... Trump's fluke election was such an astonishment that it lent him an almost magical aura, making him seem less an idiot than an idiot savant, a man who could transcend the usual rules of politics. But Democratic victories in the midterms, in addition to providing a crucial check on Trump, have highlighted what a naked emperor he really is.... The spectacle of Trump's political failure unfolded as his policy failures are starting to harm more voters' lives." At first, his victims were people who can't vote: Puerto Ricans, undocumented immigrants and their children. Now it's veterans, farmers, student borrowers.
Wesley Morgan of Politico: "The 5,800 troops who were rushed to the southwest border amid ... Donald Trump's pre-election warnings about a refugee caravan will start coming home as early as this week -- just as some of those migrants are beginning to arrive.... The returning service members include engineering and logistics units whose jobs included placing concertina wire and other barriers to limit access to ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. All the troops should be home by Christmas, as originally expected, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said in an interview Monday." Mrs. McC: Sounds like Donald Trump's version of a losing candidate eventually getting around to going through town & pulling up all his yard signs.
... Gordon Adams, Lawrence B. Wilkerson & Isaiah Wilson in a New York Times op-ed: "The president used America's military forces not against any real threat but as toy soldiers, with the intent of manipulating a domestic midterm election outcome, an unprecedented use of the military by a sitting president.... James Mattis, the secretary of defense, asserted that the Defense Department does not 'do stunts.' But this was a blatant political stunt.... The deployment ... should have led Mr. Mattis to consider resigning, instead of acceding to this blatant politicization of America's military.... The president crossed a line -- the military is supposed to stay out of domestic politics.... Electoral gain, not security, is this president's goal." ...
... MEANWHILE. Trump Too Skeert to Visit Troops. Josh Dawsey & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "President Trump has begun telling advisers that he may visit troops in a combat zone for the first time in his presidency, as he has come under increasing scrutiny for his treatment of military affairs and failure to visit service members deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. Trump has so far declined to visit those combat regions, saying he does not want to associate himself with wars he views as failures, according to current and former advisers.... In meetings about a potential visit, he has described the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as 'a total shame,' according to the advisers. He also cited the long flights and potential security risks as reasons he has avoided combat-zone visits, they said.... Trump has spoken privately about his fears over risks to his own life, according to a former senior White House official.... 'He's never been interested in going,' the official said of Trump visiting troops in a combat zone, citing conversations with the president. 'He's afraid of those situations. He's afraid people want to kill him.'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So no leading the charge up San Juan Hill.
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "US arms sales to Saudi Arabia give Washington extensive leverage on Riyadh, while accounting for fewer than 20,000 US jobs a year -- less than a twentieth of the employment boost Donald Trump has claimed -- according to a new report.... The president has frequently estimated the total extent of defence sales to the Saudi regime at $110 bn, and variously said they would generate 450,000, 500,000 or 600,000 jobs... The report ... argues that Saudi Arabia needs the US far more than the other way round, and the administration is underplaying its hand, if it wants to rein in Riyadh in Yemen -- or punish the monarchy for Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.... The actual value of US arms sales to Riyadh since Trump took office is $14.5bn.... Even that figure refers to 'letters of offer and acceptance' ... which ... does not represent actual signed contracts. All of the major sales in the pipeline were initiated by the Obama administration[.]" --safari: One of MSNBC's analysts (can't recall who) mentioned recently that Trump is playing the Michael Cohen water-carrier role for MBS. Quite apt.
Brian Stelter of CNN: "The White House has issued a new warning to CNN's Jim Acosta, saying his press pass could be revoked again at the end of the month. In response, CNN is asking the U.S. District Court for another emergency hearing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Trump Blinks. Brian Stelter & David Shortell of CNN: "The White House on Monday backed down from its threats to revoke Jim Acosta's press pass. 'Having received a formal reply from your counsel to our letter of November 16, we have made a final determination in this process: your hard pass is restored,' the White House said in a new letter to Acosta. 'Should you refuse to follow these rules in the future, we will take action in accordance with the rules set forth above. The President is aware of this decision and concurs.' The letter detailed several new rules for reporter conduct at presidential press conferences, including 'a single question' from each journalist. Follow-ups will only be permitted 'at the discretion of the President or other White House officials.' The decision reverses a Friday letter by the White House that said Acosta's press pass could be revoked again right after a temporary restraining order granted by a federal judge expires. That letter -- signed by two of the defendants in the suit, press secretary Sarah Sanders and deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine -- cited Acosta's conduct at President Trump's November 7 press conference, where he asked multiple follow-up questions and didn't give up the microphone right away." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
A Big Hint about Obstruction. Jonathan Chait: "For all the obstruction that [Trump has laid out] in plain sight, there may be more to be revealed by Robert Mueller.... The latest reminder comes in the form of an analysis in the legal blog Lawfare co-authored by James Baker, who until late 2017 served as general counsel of the FBI. The putative subject of the piece is the Watergate 'road map,' which detailed Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski's grounds for impeaching Nixon. But the real subject of the analysis is Trump, whose offenses appear strikingly similar. Baker plumbs the road map for details of how Nixon interfered with the Department of Justice's investigation into the Watergate burglary (which, of course, led to the Oval Office). Nixon had repeated contact with Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen in order 'to gather intelligence about an ongoing criminal investigation in which he was personally implicated.' Nixon also appeared to dangle possible jo promotions before Petersen while he was wheedling information out of him. Baker (along with his co-author, Harvard Law student Sarah Grant) notes that this pattern of behavior amounted to an impeachable offense." Chait notes that this all will sound very familiar to Trump observers. ...
... You can read the compelling piece by James Baker & Sarah Grant of Lawfare here. --s
Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Former top members of the intelligence community rebuked ... Donald Trump on Monday for deriding the retired Navy SEAL who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden as a 'Hillary Clinton backer' and suggesting that he should have caught the al Qaeda leader sooner. Responses to Trump's comments about retired Adm. Bill McRaven, who has criticized the president's attacks on the press, poured in Monday from former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who said Trump should apologize.... In a public statement..., Panetta said Trump's ... 'demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of how our military and intelligence agencies operate.'"
Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's something I missed. ...
... Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "Asked how he would grade his presidency during a Sunday morning interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, President Trump ... said, 'Look, I hate to do it, but I will do it, I would give myself an A-plus.... Is that enough? Can I go higher than that?'... This weekend, Trump managed to insult a venerated military veteran, mangled the name of a wildfire-scarred town that he had just left, confused the president of Finland by making strange comments about leaf raking and, like a grade-schooler, attempted to taunt a critic in Congress with a naughty play on his name. All in just 48 hours.... Trump twice referred to Paradise, Calif., which has seen some of the worst devastation from the fires, as 'Pleasure' during a Saturday news conference. '... And what we saw at Pleasure, what a name right now. But we just saw, we just left Pleasure --' 'Paradise,' interjected a slew of officials. 'Paradise,' Trump confirmed, then moved on." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The attacks on McRaven & Schiff are manifestations of Trump's petty nastiness, but the raking in Pleasure are primarily signs of his disengagement. He can't understand anything as complex as forest management so he reduces it in his little mind to "raking the forest floor." Even though the name of the devastated town Paradise was in the news hundreds of times since the fire began, he doesn't read much, so he couldn't nail it down to anything closer than "word beginning with 'P' that has a positive connotation." Trump is an old guy who can't/won't learn new things. He does not have the mental capacity to be president. Maybe he could master a job where all he had to do was rake America great again. ...
... MEANWHILE. Alejandra Reyes-Velarde & Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times: "U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blamed [California's] fires on 'radical environmentalists' who he said have prevented forest management. His comments come days after he and President Trump toured the devastation from Paradise to Malibu, with both vowing to help California recover from the disaster. In an interview with Breitbart News, Zinke said he agrees with Trump's comments about the fires being a result of poor forest management, and repeatedly said radical environmentalists were responsible for the destruction caused by the fires. 'It's not time for finger-pointing,' Zinke said. 'We know the problem. It's been years of neglect, and in many cases it's been these radical environmentalists that want nature to take its course.... You know what? This is on them.'... Trump had threatened to withdraw federal funding from California, erroneously blaming poor forest management for the fires."...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Neither the LA Times reporters nor Zinke mentioned that "nearly 60 percent of California forests are under federal management, and two-thirds of the balance under private control." That is to say, Zinke himself, as Secretary of the Interior, "manages" 60 percent of California's forests.
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Attorneys for immigrant advocacy groups on Monday are asking a federal judge in San Francisco to block the Trump administration from automatically denying asylum protections to migrants who illegally cross the border into the United States. The hearing underway before U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar in the Northern District of California comes as thousands of Central Americans are waiting in Tijuana to apply for permission to enter lawfully. But they are facing longer wait times and an increasingly inhospitable environment in Mexico that could compel them to sneak over the border instead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Crooked Ivanka. Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up! Carol Leonnig & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence. White House ethics officials learned of Trump's repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.... Some aides were startled by the volume of Ivanka Trump's personal emails -- and taken aback by her response when questioned about the practice. She said she was not familiar with some details of the rules.... Trump used her personal account to discuss government policies and official business fewer than 100 times..., according to people familiar with the review. Another category of less-substantive emails may have also violated the records law: hundreds of messages related to her official work schedule and travel details that she sent herself and personal assistants who cared for her children and house.... Austin Evers..., of the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, whose record requests sparked the White House discovery, said it strained credulity that Trump's daughter did not know that government officials should not use private emails for official business." ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... the personal email use of Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner..., has been expected to be among the topics the new [Congressional Democratic] leaders will address.... Current and former White House officials have said it was characteristic of a repeated blurring of the lines between her government work and other aspects of her life, which used to include her namesake licensing and apparel businesses." ...
... digby: "... the fact is that when [Ivanka Trump] was alerted to this she had her lawyers forward only what the determined were government emails to the White House server for record retention. Just like Clinton. With her, however, there is every reason to wonder if she did that to hide the fact that she was doing Trump organization business while in the White House. After all, she didn't resign from the company right away. She's cute so it probably won't matter. Still, you couldn't make this up. After all that bullshit in the campaign she didn't know that she shouldn't use her personal email? Please." ...
... Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump called Clinton's use of a private email server 'bigger than Watergate.' In a normal world, this massive hypocrisy would be a problem for the President. But we don't live in a normal world. It's hard to imagine this story sticking around the news more than 24 hours. In all likelihood, the Trumps, yet again, will get away with it." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Ivanka's Hillary-esque private e-mail usage is of a piece with Daddy's continued use of insecure phones to hold conversations the Chinese are monitoring. The rap on Hillary's e-mail practices was that she was (1) breaking the law (a la Ivanka) & (2) endangering national security (a la Donald). But It's Okay If You're A Trump.
Derek Thompson in the Atlantic on how the media could handle Trump's lies: "Is it hopeless to smother the president's lies? In the biggest picture, yes. The news media cannot kill the virus. But by refusing to host it, they can at least limit the spread. That is, even as they acknowledge their inability to reform the tens of millions of people predisposed to believe and share the president's nonsense, they can protect their audiences with a combination of selective abstinence (being cautious about giving over headlines, tweets, and news segments to the president's rhetoric, particularly when he's spreading fictitious hate speech) and aggressive contextualization (consistently bracketing his direct quotes with the relevant truth). Call it an epistemic quarantine." Thompson points out that half the American public believes Trump's lies, & this: "... the top-performing stories on Facebook in the run-up to the midterms were shared by highly partisan websites such as Fox News and rushlimbaugh.com, not traditional, reporting-based outlets." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Betsy Woodruff & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "A group of Senate Democrats is suing to block Matt Whitaker from serving as acting attorney general on grounds that his placement in the post was unconstitutional. The suit, which is being filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the latest and most aggressive salvo against the Whitaker appointment. Last week, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel defended Whitaker's promotion in a memo that drew immediate criticism for its expansive understanding of the president's power. That view is in hot dispute, including from the state of Maryland, which petitioned a federal judge to stop him from serving on constitutional grounds." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Election 2018
Texas. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones conceded Monday in her challenge to U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, ensuring a third term for Hurd in his perennial battleground district."
Utah. Lisa Roche of the Deseret News: "Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams claimed victory over Republican Rep. Mia Love Monday night after new Salt Lake County results showed her trailing by 739 votes in the 4th Congressional District race.... He said he has not yet tried to contact the two-term congresswoman. Love issued a statement more than an hour after McAdams' news conference that did not mention conceding.... Scott Hogensen, Utah County chief deputy clerk auditor, said Monday's release was the last before counties certify election results on Tuesday. He said 'not much' remains to be counted other than any ballots that show up in the mail."
Washington. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The National Rifle Association sued earlier this year to stop Washington state voters from considering a package of gun control measures known as Initiative 1639, but the state Supreme Court rejected their legal arguments. On Election Day, nearly 60 percent of the state's voters rejected the gun group's political arguments that the initiative would 'criminalize self-defense.' Now one of the organization's local activist leaders in Washington state [Jim Lydigsen] wants to take his bullets and go home -- by having the more-conservative eastern part of the state secede and form a pro-gun state of its own." --s ...
Lawless Enforcement. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Loren Culp, the police chief in the small town of Republic, Washington, has pledged not to enforce a ballot measure approved by voters statewide earlier this month.... 'I cannot and will not enforce this law,' Culp said on 'Fox & Friends Sunday.' Initiative 1639, which passed with 59 percent support, raises the age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21 and enacts a list of other restrictions and penalties." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is similar to what worries me about Florida voters' decision to enfranchise most ex-felons. With a Republican administration & legislature, will the voters' wishes be implemented in time for the 2020 election? Or will Tallahassee drag its collective feet?
Wisconsin. Gerrymandered Wisc. Dylan Brogan of Isthmus (Madison, Wi.): "Wisconsin is a purple state. Yet, the state Assembly is a sea of red. That's what voters want, according to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. 'There's no doubt about it that the voters across Wisconsin affirmed our record, the record of our party, and the agenda that we have put forward over the past eight years,' Vos (R-Rochester) told the Assembly Republican Caucus on Nov. 12.... Despite Democrats winning every statewide office on the ballot and receiving 200,000 more total votes, Republicans lost just one seat in Wisconsin's lower house this cycle. And that victory was by a razor-thin 153 votes. Democrats netted 1.3 million votes for Assembly, 54 percent statewide. Even so, Vos will return to the Capitol in 2019 with Republicans holding 63 of 99 seats in the Assembly, a nearly two-thirds majority.... Democratic minority leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) ... says his party is 'competing on the most uneven playing field in the United States' because Republicans have 'disenfranchised thousands of Democrats.'" --s ...
... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Wisconsin, in other words, did not have a democratic election for the state assembly. Something resembling an election took place and voters cast their ballots in earnest, but the entire state assembly race was rigged. This is not a new state of affairs for Wisconsin.... [A] federal court decision [struck] down Wisconsin's gerrymandered state assembly maps ... in 2016.... But ... last June, in one of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy's final acts on the Supreme Court, the Court punted this case back down to the lower court and left Wisconsin's rigged maps in place.... Just nine days after the Court's non-decision in Gill, Justice Kennedy retired -- and that retirement likely destroyed any meaningful hope that the Supreme Court would stop partisans from rigging legislative maps." --s
Matt Shuham of TPM: "Departing with years of tradition, this year's White House Correspondents Association dinner will feature a historian, Ron Chernow, in place of a comedian." (Also linked yesterday.)
Sophie Weiner: "The woman who filed a domestic violence restraining order against lawyer candidate Michael Avenatti was actress Mareli Miniutti, The Blast reports. The revelation apparently came from court documents obtained by the website. Avenatti was arrested in Los Angeles last week on domestic violence charges. The woman who called the police, at first named by TMZ as Avenatti's ex-wife, was later listed by the website as simply 'a woman.' Miniutti is an Estonian actress who has appeared in movies including Oceans Eight."
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Chickenpox has taken hold of a school in [Asheville,] North Carolina where many families claim religious exemption from vaccines.... The outbreak ranks as the state's worst since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than 20 years ago. Since then, the two-dose course has succeeded in limiting the highly contagious disease that once affected 90 percent of Americans -- a public health breakthrough. The school is a symbol of the small but strong movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old who haven't received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like the Disneyland measles outbreak in 2015, the flare-up demonstrates the real-life consequences of a shadowy debate fueled by junk science and fomented by the same sort of Twitter bots and trolls that spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
AP: "A dead whale that washed ashore in eastern Indonesia had a large lump of plastic waste in its stomach.... [R]esearchers from wildlife conservation group WWF and the park's conservation academy found about 5.9kg (13lbs) of plastic waste in the animal's stomach containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, two flip-flops, a nylon sack and more than 1,000 other assorted pieces of plastic.... Indonesia, an archipelago of 260 million people, is the world's second-largest plastic polluter after China, accordin to a study published in the journal Science in January. It produces 3.2 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste a year, of which 1.29m tons ends up in the ocean, the study said." --s
Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "The Nissan chairman, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested on Monday after an internal company investigation found that he had underreported his compensation to the Japanese financial authorities for several years. Nissan said it was cooperating with Japanese prosecutors. It also said that it had opened its inquiry after a whistle-blower alleged that Mr. Ghosn had been misrepresenting his salary as well as using company assets for personal use. Both he and a director, Greg Kelly, who was also accused of misconduct, were taken in by authorities, the company said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Benjamin Haas of the Guardian: "The Chinese-language version of the Oscars, the Golden Horse Awards, have become the latest flashpoint in tense relations between China and Taiwan after a film director questioned the island's political status. Documentary filmmaker Fu Yue called for Taiwan to be recognised as an 'independent entity' during her acceptance speech, fighting back tears as she said, 'this is my biggest wish as a Taiwanese'. Her speech was quickly censored on Chinese television and streams, with the coverage going black." --s
News Lede
Chicago Tribune: "Chicago police officer and two other people were killed in an attack at a South Side hospital Monday afternoon that sent medical personnel and police scrambling through halls, stairwells and even the nursery in search of victims and the shooter before he was found dead."
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Reader Comments (22)
NO COUNTRY FOR THIS OLD MAN:
Trump: Well we just came back from Pleasure and it was bad––very bad--nothings left––sad, very sad, I think..
Aide: Paradise, sir.
T: You bet, it once was a paradise but Pleasure is now completely destroyed––you people have got to have better forest management–-tell your people to rake more–-rake the forest floor every day–-like the people in Finland–-no fires in Finland!
A: Paradise, sir.
T: Yeah, we all wish for paradise–-but the devastation in Pleasure was bad–-very bad. I bet those people never raked their leaves. You got to push people to do the right thing. I do that every time I gather my flock together–-We went to Mississippi, we went to Missouri, we went to Nevada, we went to — every place, and we have crowds, we have tens of thousands of people outside of every arena. They have to start building larger arenas in this country, right? Something is happening. And I tell people to take care of their leaves.
Jerry Brown: (sotto voce) what a fucking idiot!
Aide: If you say so, sir.
@Ken: If you'd like another voice to your "Swerve" go to NYRB's archives and find what I found to be a most fair and balanced assessment of Greenblatt's book.
"The Most Charming Pagan" by Anthony Grafton–-Dec. 8, 2011
@PD Pepe: I really wanted to read Grafton's review, but it's subscriber-firewalled. I did read other reviews, all of which tended to concur with the thesis that Greenblatt's either/or worldview is flawed. One only has to look at the news or read Krugman today to realize that "the swerve" didn't really happen. The Internet has given us a giant picture window into the sad truth of that: nearly half of its contributors fairly scream (with CAPITAL LETTERS & emojis) their foolishness & ignorance. They have not swerved.
Most of the criticism of "The Swerve" runs along these lines; that is, that the Dark Ages were not so dark as Greenblatt portrays them and the Renaissance not such a dramatic break from the darkness of religious mysticism.
I have come to believe, certainly since the election of Trump, but with many intimations well before, that mysticism and rationalism are probably genetically hardwired. They exist across societies, and while one or the other can become dominant in any particular culture (particularly because of how each set of traits is rewarded in that culture), those on "the other side" will still make up a huge percentage of that culture.
Greenblatt was a long-time friend & colleague of my husband's, and I read "The Swerve" aloud to my husband on his deathbed. I bought him the book because I read the first chapter online & I felt a connection to Greenblatt because he had "discovered" Lucretius much as I had: by accident, and his response to the poem "De rerum natura" was, like mine, wide-eyed with amazement.
All that said, I think Greenblatt tells a compelling story, and he makes no secret of the fact that, by necessity, he had to fictionalize the interactions among Poggio Bracciolini & his friends. That Poggio was a papal factotum is a delicious irony that makes the discovery & discussion of De rerum all the more dramatic.
@Ken Winkes: You should feel good about enjoying "The Swerve." It's a fine -- if (IMO) uneven -- read. Moreover, seeing Greenblatt's "swerve" not as a radical departure from the norm but as one of thousands of subversive "swerves" makes it rather easy to sweep his critics' objections under the rug. The Church really did suck & Renaissance scholars & scientists really did advance critical thinking (see Galileo v. the Church about two centuries after Poggio).
@Marie: Thank you for that and your mention of reading aloud to your husband warmed my heart––surely one of the best things to do in all circumstances. Here is a short video of Kate DiCamillo on the magic of reading aloud–-you'll like this.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/kate-dicamillo-on-the-magic-of-reading-aloud
A bit of whimsy on the art of reading aloud to two of my grandchildren:
Memorial Day Weekend: 2010 Sitting in the enormous green chair, Lina on my right, head on my shoulder, Diego curled up on my left with his head grazing my thigh, and me reading "Charlotte’s Web."
Lina: After she [Charlotte] dies she comes back to life.
Diego: No, she doesn’t, Lina, she’s dead.
L: Mommy says when people die they come back as something else.
P: Well, that’s what many people believe.
D: That’s not what you believe, Grandma, right?
P: No, that’s not what I believe.
D: Some people think there is a heaven.
P: Yes, some people do believe that.
D: My Daddy and me don’t believe that.
L: (Getting a little upset) When people die they come back to life!
D: Lina! No they don’t! When Grandma dies, you’ll see, she isn’t coming back.
P: (putting arm around Lina) You know, in some ways people that you love very, very much never really die as long as we who loved them remember them. Just like Charlotte had a life, now her life has ended, but Wilbur and the rest will always remember her.
L: Grandma, (looking at me straight on with conviction) you are wrong!
G: You know what, my sweetheart, you believe what you want. Now, let’s resume the reading.
D: What does that mean?
P: what?
D: that word–-resuume
P: It means continue and I’ll spell it for you later.
John Oliver at his best! In this video (above) he refrains from some of his silly stuff and goes for the jugular. Having a wanna-be-dictator running this country is the test of our lifetime.
PD,
Reading to my little man is one of the great pleasures of my life. It's a time to connect and talk about stories and characters and words, to pore over the pictures and then talk about stories we'd like to write and illustrate ourselves (Catgirl is the most recent idea).
Reading chapter books in installments has become another tradition in our house. I'm looking forward to reading "A Christmas Carol" this year as our little guy is, I think, old enough to both appreciate it and to not be put off by the ghosts (I've got a couple of old recordings of radio dramatizations of the book featuring Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge--some parts scare even me!).
And since we're on the subject of reading, I thought I'd share with all of you RC denizens a link to a segment of last week's Science Friday, an NPR program hosted by Ira Flatow. It's a discussion with neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf on how the brain is changed by what and how we read, specifically that reading online, which often encourages skimming and multitasking, can cause a slight rewiring of how we process printed information. Her contention, and it sounds eminently plausible, is that reading from a book allows for deeper, more critical reading.
Of course, reading stuff on sites like Breitbart automatically rewires the brain to reject facts, but that's a different issue.
Anyway, seeing as we have so many readers out here, I thought it might be interesting. One reason (of many) that Trump and his legion of mouthbreathers disdain books. Book hard. No read. Look at screen. See Trump. He great. Much better. Libtards read books. Bad.
PD: that was so sweet. I hope my little grands (aged 3 and almost a year--) will sit long enough to read to them. I love to read aloud and no one else in the family will tolerate me when I read something from the paper or a blog post aloud; maybe I have a terrible voice!
I read an explanation that makes sense to me: T said that stupid thing about forest "floor" management because the Norwegian said something about taking care of forest "flora", which makes sense, and he doesn't know the word and is somewhat deaf.
Bea,
Thanks for your thoughts on "The Swerve." A touching illustration of how the academic, literary, political and the personal conjoin, and maybe more to the point of RC, an exemplar of how comparatively limited must be the lives of those who haven't read widely enough to have learned that one life, their own, does not the world make.
Yes, I enjoyed "The Swerve" and do not regret my time with it. I did not think it a great history so much as a fine story well told. I understood as I read it that it was not and could not be the whole story of even that small part of the past, in part because its narrative arc demanded simplification that scholars could (and apparently did) object to. I took it for what it was.
I also liked it because it reminded me of two other books from my dimming youth, "The Scholar Adventurers" and "Uses of the Past," both published in the 1950's I believe, each of which took the young me on gentle forays into academic territory I did not yet know existed.
Both books opened doors, and even if I did not ever make their subjects entirely my own, having read them I then knew they existed and believe I was the better for it.
I would say the same of "The Swerve."
Now I'll call the NYRB, because subscriber that I am, I still can't break down their firewall...then maybe I can read PD's recommended review too.
Marie,
Your idea about the innate qualities or proclivities of certain members of various population groups for mysticism versus rationalism could be (probably has been) the basis of a far-reaching historical/social/psychological examination.
On the mysticism side, Trump benefits immensely from the fact that so many of his supporters are evangelicals or at least heavily influenced by conservative Christianity, groups which are already primed to accept the mystical "wisdom" of authority and who are strenuously opposed to any hint of rational arguments to the contrary. In fact, rational thinking is right out since if it in any way contradicts the teachings of the authority figure(s), followers could be subject to a form of excommunication, or tribal exposure and expulsion.
On the rational side, as Lakoff suggests in the piece linked the other day, those who believe that a presentation of factual information should be eminently persuasive are destined to be discouraged no end by the implacable power of tribal belief systems.
The one thing we have going for us that many past societies did not was that the mystics no longer have the power to imprison, torture, and kill rationalists who challenge their world view. At least not yet in this country. The fact that the Glorious Leader has no problem with such goings-on in societies ruled by ruthless despots he admires surely has to concern everyone, however.
And most curious (although not at all an historical anomaly), the "leader", is in neither camp. He is certainly no friend to rationalism, but neither does he seem to care much for mysticism, except insofar as its adherents support him. He's certainly not religious. He is what he's always been, a narcissistic opportunist who believes in himself, his prestige (such as it is), and money, both his own and whatever he can scrounge, chisel, or steal from others.
The article about that police chief in a small Washington town who swears not to uphold a law passed by voters provides more evidence of a trend toward lawlessness on the right that has been in effect in a big way since Dubya was in power.
Ignoring inconvenient precedence and facts on the ground has also changed the way the Confederate Supreme Court judges cases as well. Look for Little Johnny's court to continue to stare down stare decisis, except where it benefits their party, of course.
There are examples both big and small. Recently, we had St. Kim of Redneckia (recently defeated at the ballot box--heh-heh; no wonder these people hate democracy) who refused to abide by the oath of office she took when she decided that she could ignore the rights of American citizens whose lifestyle she found abhorrent.
If you want big, just look at the White House. Fatty ignores not just laws, but the Constitution itself. But maybe not for long. Perhaps the takeover of the House from the control of the Party of Traitors will force Fatty to realize that some laws DO, in fact, apply to him.
Nonetheless, wingers have found that even if they lose at the ballot box, they can still break laws or refuse to enforce them if that's what's required to get their way.
Look for a lot more of this.
Bea writes, " How would Trump know about "the inner workings of the Mueller investigation" unless somebody with knowledge of those "inner workings" told him?"
And Ken is thinking that if that voice in his ear is Whitaker's, the Pretender is hearing exactly what he wants to hear, a message tailored by an oleaginous suck-up.
For the information of All: Just learned a NYReview print subscription allows archive access for only the last five years, so I'll put "The Swerve" to bed for now.
Thanks to all who helped me sort out my thinking about it.
So Princess Ivanka now says she had no idea she couldn't use her personal email for sensitive government communications (most of which no doubt involved ways she and Young Jared could use their positions to enrich themselves further)?
Aren't these people always squawking about how smart and competent they are? The best evah?
So how come she had no idea that a famously proscribed activity that got her, her con artist old man, and her entire grasping, clutching brood into power in the first place was something she knew nothing about?
Another lie.
They're all grifters and cheaters of the first order.
Will Fox report on this? Sure. And I'll be Emperor of Mars by the end of the week.
@Your Imperial Majesty, the Lord High Akhilleus: Better get your emperor outfit together unless you're planning to wear no clothes. Bill Hemmer (I think it was) interviewed Alan Dershowitz & Dershowitz said the Ivanka's e-mails were no big deal AND Hillary's e-mails were no big deal either. Just as Patrick noted a few weeks ago, Dershowitz said everybody in government uses personal e-mail accounts.
Trolley Problem Solved. Sort of.
Leaders are constantly required to make decisions (as are voters, just not as frequently) with momentous consequences. Resources can be directed to the rich, or the poor, but not, R's are always telling us, to both. So what to do? Do you screw millions so that a few hundred can live in the lap of luxury?
We know what Trump thinks. And Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and....well, all of them.
It's a version of something we've talked about out here in the past, the philosopher Philippa Foot's famous Trolley Problem, which tests our sense of moral decision making. Do we let five people get hit by a trolley, and all die, or do we divert the train at the last second ensuring the death of only one person?
If you're staunchly against causing the death of anyone, you've got a problem. Of course, if your critical thinking skills are not up to snuff, your ability to solve difficult problems might trigger the famous unintended consequences.
So, today I found the answer to the Trolley Problem. Well, okay, maybe not THE answer, but AN answer. From a two year old.
Watch this
and then tell me that this kid wouldn't go far in the Trump Administration. Hey, he could use the Ivanka Excuse. "I didn't know it was wrong!"
Marie,
Ha. I'm ready!
Yeah, I can see where it (using unsecured email servers) definitely would be something that gives security types the heebie-jeebies, but I'm sure loads of people do it. Nonetheless, Fatty (and then Comey) made it THE outrage of the campaign and for Ivanka now to claim that she had no idea that this was a problem....well, you get the point.
I'm betting the Nespots have been looking more tired than usual as they spent the last few weeks frantically deleting emails tying in their business dealings in with their public "service" positions.
I'm imaging Ivanka slurring her words drunk on some rosé cursing at the spinning hourglass while her laptop sticks and Jared frantically smashing hard drives and USB keys with a metal baseball bat before throwing them into their beautiful marble fire place to melt and stick to the cement floor.
There will be thousands of "missing" emails in the investigation, and Javanka will disappear further into the walls of the White House.
Which reminds me BTW of a brilliant foreshadowing of the coming of the Fucking Moron. Remember Trump's first White House interview when the reporter told him Dubya once stated that the Oval Office has no corners so there's nowhere to hide. The logical leaps Trump needed to make the connection so far out of his league.
What a fucking dumbass.
Safari,
Simple. Fatty will issue an executive order, which he no doubt will have thunk up during Egg-Zecutive Time, proclaiming that certain spots he marks with crayon on the perimeter of the oval office are now officially corners. So there, smarties. He does, after all, have a very, very large brain.
Does anyone else see a resemblance between the anti-Pelosi crew and Paul Ryan's party with its "repeal and replace" with no replacement?
So as long as the Saudis keep spending money at Trump properties, make vague promises of purchasing billions in armaments, and stroke Trumps ego, we'll stand with MBS.
Let's make it official and swap out "The Star Spangled Banner" for Randy Newman's "It's Money That Matters".
Trump's afraid of visiting all those failures in their desert camo because he is scared of going to a war zone. This is the same guy who was telling everyone that he would be the first person running into a hail of gunfire to stop the next school shooter. Trump's every action screams how pathetically weak he is. He should ask some of his gun nut fanatics to come along to keep him really safe. Though his followers would probably chicken out also at the last minute with some lame excuse like bone spurs.