;)
The Commentariat -- November 1, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Wednesday that he would consider sending the suspect arrested after the terrorist attack in New York to the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and called on Congress to cancel a longstanding immigration program that he blamed for allowing the man into the country. The president's comments came at the beginning of a cabinet meeting a day after an immigrant from Uzbekistan plowed a pickup truck along a crowded bicycle path in Manhattan, killing eight people.... No one arrested on American soil has ever been sent to Guantánamo Bay, and no one captured on foreign soil has been sent there since 2008. Transferring the suspect from New York would raise a host of constitutional and legal issues, and it was not clear that Mr. Trump actually would follow through on the idea since his comment was in reaction to a question rather than part of his prepared remarks.... Mr. Trump's comments came hours after he blamed the attack on Senator Chuck Schumer ... because he supported the diversity visa program enacted 27 years ago." Both Schumer & New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo chided Trump for dividing the country. Cuomo also said that Trump's comments were "not even accurate." "Mr. Schumer supported getting rid of the program as part of a comprehensive plan to overhaul the nation's immigration laws crafted by eight lawmakers and passed by the Senate in 2013." House Republicans blocked the bill. ...
... Benjamin Mueller & Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "The driver who sped down a crowded bike path in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people, had been planning the attack for weeks and appeared to have connections to people who were the subjects of terrorism investigations, police officials said on Wednesday. As counterterrorism investigators drilled into whether the attacker, identified by officials as Sayfullo Saipov, had meaningful ties to terrorist organizations, it also became clear that some of those close to the attacker had feared for years that he was heading down the path of extremism."
Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday said congressional Republicans should make a major change to their upcoming tax cut bill by including changes to the Affordable Care Act, an idea that has divided the GOP for months. The idea had already been rejected one day earlier by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), who had said it risked bogging down the process. But Trump, in two Twitter posts Wednesday, pushed the idea, which has gained currency with some Senate Republicans. The biggest proponent of the idea is Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's fine, Donaldo. Keep mucking up the process. Get your nutty friends to help. As long as your so-called party can't agree on just how to screw the American people, we're good.
Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The top newsroom executive at NPR resigned on Wednesday, a day after he was placed on leave by the broadcast news organization following reports that he had harassed at least three women. Michael Oreskes quit as senior vice president and editorial director at Washington-based NPR, the organization announced."
*****
Benjamin Mueller, et al., of the New York Times: "Eight people were killed when a man drove 20 blocks down a bike path beside the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon before he crashed his pickup truck, jumped out with fake guns and was shot by a police officer, the authorities said. Federal authorities were treating the incident as a terrorist attack and were taking the lead in the investigation, a senior law enforcement official said. Two law enforcement officials said that after the attacker got out of the truck, he was heard yelling, 'Allahu Akbar,' Arabic for 'God is great.'" ...
... New Lede: "A driver plowed a pickup truck down a crowded bike path along the Hudson River in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 before being shot by a police officer in what officials are calling the deadliest terrorist attack on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. The rampage ended when the motorist -- whom the police identified as Sayfullo Saipov, 29 -- smashed into a school bus, jumped out of his truck and ran up and down the highway waving a pellet gun and paintball gun and shouting 'Allahu akbar,' Arabic for 'God is great,' before he was shot in the abdomen by the officer. He remained in critical condition on Tuesday evening." ...
... As P.D. Pepe notes in today's thread, the attack did not deter New Yorkers from enjoying Hallowe'en events, like the fabulous Sixth Avenue parade. The New York Daily News has a slide show, suggesting a bigger-than-usual police presence, about a mile from the site of the attack. ...
... Derek Hawkins & Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "President Trump and some of his allies on the extreme right have found a new culprit in Tuesday's deadly terrorist attack in Manhattan: Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). As details emerged about the incident, prominent right-wing commentators and news outlets seized on an ABC7 story reporting that alleged attacker Sayfullo Saipov had come to the United States from Uzbekistan under a State Department program known as the Diversity Visa Lottery. That story is unconfirmed. Schumer, they claimed, was the brains behind the program and therefore, of course, bears responsibility for the attack. In a flurry of news interviews, blog posts and overnight tweets, critics tried to pin blame on the New York Democrat, saying he was 'responsible' for allowing the 29-year-old suspect's entry into the country. Trump joined the criticism with a series of tweets early Wednesday morning.... Schumer responded by saying: 'I guess it's not too soon to politicize a tragedy.'... The New York Democrat was part of the Senate's Gang of Eight, which in 2013 came up with a sweeping bipartisan proposal to revamp U.S. immigration laws. Among other things, that proposal called for eliminating the diversity lottery. The bill passed the Senate but died in the House. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), another member of the Gang of Eight, defended Schumer on Wednesday[:] 'Actually, the Gang of 8, including @SenSchumer, did away with the Diversity Visa Program as part of broader reforms. I know, I was there https://t.co/QQFJzPyRzC'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I swore I would no link to Trump's predictably off-the-wall reaction to the New York mass murder unless that reaction was remarkably crazy. It is. You can read the tweets in the linked WashPo report.
Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Debate intensified in President Trump's political circle Tuesday over how aggressively to confront special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, dividing some of the president's advisers and loyalists.... Despite his growing frustration with a federal probe he has roundly dismissed, Trump has been cooperating with Mueller and lately has resisted attacking him directly, at the urging of his attorneys inside and outside the White House ... are clamoring for a more combative approach to Mueller that would damage his credibility and effectively kneecap his operation by cutting its funding. Still, Bannon and others are not advising Trump to fire Mueller, a rash move that the president's lawyers and political advisers oppose and insist is not under consideration." ...
... The Best People, Ctd. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Former Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis is facing renewed opposition to his nomination to serve as the Agriculture Department's chief scientist amid revelations that he encouraged a campaign adviser to foster ties with Russian officials. On Tuesday, several thousand scientists and researchers affiliated with two national organizations that have rallied against Clovis's nomination signed letters urging the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry not to confirm him, calling him unfit for the post.... Clovis, who is not a trained scientist, is a climate change skeptic who has said protecting gay rights could lead to the legalization of pedophilia.... Mike Lavender, senior Washington representative for the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement that 'emerging evidence of Clovis' potential involvement with the Trump campaign's Russian connections should be the final nail in the coffin for his confirmation.' The Center for Science in the Public Interest sent the committee a similar letter Tuesday." ...
... TBD. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: Senate Agriculture "Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) on Tuesday would not say if Clovis' confirmation hearing will go ahead as planned. 'To be determined,' Roberts told Mother Jones when asked if the nomination would be withdrawn. Roberts had previously criticized Clovis' statements about crop insurance but had suggested that the nominee should be given an opportunity to explain his views." ...
... Catherine Boudreau & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "Sam Clovis ... has been 'a fully cooperative witness' in the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts told Politico.... Victoria Toensing, a lawyer representing Clovis, said in an e-mailed statement that after an initial meeting of the advisory panel, all of [George] Papadopoulos' communications with the campaign were 'self-generated,' and that Clovis did not believe an improved relationship with Russia should be a foreign policy focus of the campaign. 'Dr. Clovis always vigorously opposed any Russian trip for Donald Trump or staff,' Toensing said. 'However, if a volunteer made any suggestions on any foreign policy matter, Dr. Clovis, a polite gentleman from Iowa, would have expressed courtesy and appreciation.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I could buy Toensing's claim that a comment like "Great work!" might be nothing more than a courtesy -- or even a jibe, as in "Thanks, Donaldo!" -- if not for the fact that Clovis later told Papadopoulos, 'Make the trip, if it is feasible.' ("Make the trip" uses the command form of the verb.) As Aaron Blake of the Washington Post writes, "Er, okay. So basically, Clovis told someone to do something he opposed and was against campaign rules because he was only being a polite Midwesterner and he couldn't technically prevent him from doing it. (As a Minnesotan, I'll gladly try to use this excuse going forward.)"
... Ken Dilanian & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Sam Clovis, the former top Trump campaign official who supervised [George Papadopoulos]..., was questioned last week by special counsel Robert Mueller's team and testified before the investigating grand jury, a person with first-hand knowledge of the matter told NBC News.... The court documents unsealed Monday describe emails between Papadopoulos and an unnamed 'campaign supervisor.' The supervisor responded 'Great work' after Papadopoulos discussed his interactions with Russians who wanted to arrange a meeting with Trump and Russian leaders.... [Clovis] is currently serving as an unpaid White House adviser to the Agriculture Department, awaiting Senate confirmation before the Agriculture Committee for the scientist job. He is not a scientist. [His attorney, Victoria] Toensing confirmed that Clovis was the campaign supervisor in the emails." ...
Collusion is what Papadopoulos did. Collusion is what Trump Jr. and others in that meeting did. It's meeting and discussing and seeing what common interests they can advance for each other. -- John Q. Barrett, an independent counsel in the Iran-Contra case ...
... Greg Farrell, et al., of Bloomberg: "... George Papadopoulos [claimed] ... in an email [that] top Trump campaign officials agreed to a pre-election meeting with representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The message, if true, would bolster claims that Trump's campaign attempted to collude with Russian interests. But it's unclear whether Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was merely boasting when he sent the July 14, 2016, email to a Kremlin-linked contact. There's also no indication such a meeting ever occurred. The email is cited in an FBI agent's affidavit supporting criminal charges against Papadopoulos.... But it's not included in court documents that detailed his secret guilty plea and his cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.... Writing to the Russian contact a week before the Republican National Convention, Papadopoulos proposed a meeting for August or September in the U.K. that would include 'my national chairman and maybe one other foreign policy adviser' and members of Putin's office and Russia's foreign ministry. 'It has been approved by our side,' Papadopoulos wrote." ...
... Josh Marshall: "A former federal prosecutor with highly relevant experience weighs in on what we learned from yesterday. Upshot: Manafort's strategy is a pardon. '... given the apparent strength of the case against Manafort, he's really only got two options to avoid spending a significant amount of time in jail: cooperate or get a pardon/sentence commutation. His lawyer's statements yesterday sucking up to Trump suggest strongly to me that he is playing for a pardon or commuted sentence. The very real possibility of Trump going that direction is a real problem for Mueller and potentially saps his leverage,' [said the former prosecutor]. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: BUT remember that Trump cannot pardon Manafort for charges the New York State Attorney General may bring against him. Per Politico's Josh Dawsey (August 30): "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on its investigation into Paul Manafort and his financial transactions, according to several people familiar with the matter." ...
Yes, there is a [foreign policy] team. There's not a team. I'm going to be forming a team. -- Donald Trump, on 'Morning Joe,' March 8, 2016 ...
Positive proof that Trump can make two mutually exclusive declarative statements in immediate succession. The Times reporters (below) describe Trump's "Morning Joe" statement as "confusing." No, it's flat-out nuts. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
... The Best People, Ctd. Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's solution [to his lack of foreign policy expertise] was to cobble together a list of men who were almost immediately written off as a collection of fringe thinkers and has-beens and unknowns in Washington foreign policy circles. Some from that group have now created far deeper problems for Mr. Trump, providing federal and congressional investigators with evidence of suspicious interactions with Russian officials and their emissaries.... The fact that so many of Mr. Trump's foreign policy aides from that period have now acknowledged contacts with Russian officials or their intermediaries hints at Moscow’s eagerness to establish links to his campaign." ...
... Then There's This. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Former Donald Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo on Tuesday blamed simple youthful indiscretion for efforts by former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and Donald Trump Jr. to meet with Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. 'He was the coffee boy,' Caputo told CNN's Chris Cuomo, referring to Papadopoulos." Mrs. McC: So the man formerly known as "Excellent Guy" was "Coffee Boy" in disguise. Thanks for recommending the Russian coffee, George, but before noon I prefer hazelnut black. ...
... Sameera Chan of ProRepublica has a rundown of some of the best reporting of Paul Manafort, Rick Gatesand George Papadopoulos. --safari
... Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times profiles Andrew Weissman, "Robert Mueller's top lieutenant." ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha.
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "We all watched last week as the right wing attempted to weaponize stories that would undermine Robert Mueller, the FBI, and the investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump. Specifically, it came on two fronts: 1. A story from John Solomon that revived the debunked lies about Clinton, Russia, and uranium by pointing to an FBI investigation into Russians involved in uranium transport. 2. The news that the DNC and the Clinton campaign paid for the Steele dossier.... [Eli] Lake's argument [in Bloomberg] ... is premised on the idea that Russians tried to help the Democrats. To the extent that some individual Russians were willing to talk to sources [Christopher] Steele had developed in that country based on his time as a British spy, it would be like claiming that the Nixon administration helped Woodward and Bernstein based on the information passed on to them via 'Deep Throat' (hat tip to Jay Bookman for that one)." ...
... Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "As the country grapples with a still more serious affront to American democracy, the agreement on the basic facts in the mainstream news media does not extend to Rupert Murdoch's media empire and other important parts of the conservative media.... As [Robert] Mueller and his team home in on people connected to President Trump..., the president and his allies in the conservative media sphere are pointing at the Democrats and Hillary Clinton.... The counternarrative was particularly pronounced in the outlets controlled by Mr. Murdoch.... Adding to the problem is the recent behavior of the tech companies...." ...
... Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Some employees at Fox News were left embarrassed and humiliated by their network's coverage of the latest revelations in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, according to conversations CNN had with several individuals placed throughout the network. 'I'm watching now and screaming,' one Fox News personality said in a text message to CNN.... 'I want to quit.' 'It is another blow to journalists at Fox who come in every day wanting to cover the news in a fair and objective way,' one senior Fox News employee told CNN of their outlet's coverage, adding that there were 'many eye rolls' in the newsroom over how the news was covered. The person said, 'Fox feels like an extension of the Trump White House.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently these Fox "News" have never watched the network before today. Could someone tell them about Hannity? Could someone tell them that Fox hired Laura Ingraham to more-or-less replace the $32-million sex abuser & general in the War on Christmas? Could someone introduce them to Steve Doucy & Brian Kilmeade? ...
... Alvin Chang of Vox: "To put it bluntly: As Mueller brings charges against top Trump officials, Fox News is trying to plant doubt in its viewers' minds. We analyzed the past week of Fox News transcripts, measuring them against those of Fox's cable news rivals CNN and MSNBC.... Fox News was unable to talk about the Mueller investigation without bringing up Hillary Clinton, even as federal indictments were being brought against top Trump campaign officials. Fox also talked significantly less about George Papadopoulos ... whose plea deal with Mueller provides the most explicit evidence thus far that the campaign knew of the Russian government's efforts to help Trump -- than its competitors. Fox News repeatedly called Mueller's credibility into question, while shying away from talking about the possibility that Trump might fire Mueller." ...
... Steve M.: "Politico notes that Rupert Murdoch's media properties -- even the ones that have sometimes criticized President Trump -- are now unified in their demand for an end to Robert Mueller's investigation[.]... With Fox, I get it -- Fox's core audience has been primed by twenty years of Fox propaganda to believe that every Republican officeholder is the victim of an evil liberal juggernaut. But you'd think some of the New York Post's readers would be moderate or even liberal, and that many of the Journal's readers would at least prefer a textbook conservative like Mike Pence to Trump. But I guess Murdoch sees his competition now as Breitbart and InfoWars, not CNN and The New York Times, so his media properties have to toe the crazy party line." ...
... The Politico story, by Jason Schwartz, is here. ...
... Cecilia Kang, et al., of the New York Times: "Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter appeared on Capitol Hill for the first time on Tuesday to publicly acknowledge their role in Russia's influence on the presidential campaign, but offered little more than promises to do better. Their reluctance frustrated lawmakers who sought stronger evidence that American elections will be protected from foreign powers. The hearing, the first of three in two days for company executives, served as an initial public reckoning for the internet giants. They had emphasized their role as public squares for political discourse but are being forced to confront how they were used as tools for a broad Russian misinformation campaign." ...
... ** Stephen Marche, in the New Yorker, asks & answers why Americans are so susceptible to media distortion. "Marshall McLuhan predicted that the Third World War would be 'a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation,' and that's exactly what it has turned out to be. America seems more vulnerable than other developed countries to the kind of distortion that Facebook and Twitter bring to news and politics.... Self-determination is the source of America's oldest political commitments and its deepest clichés -- 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,' the cowboy, the astronaut, Thoreau at Walden, Emerson on 'Self-Reliance.' In America, everyone is entitled to his or her own vision of the universe.... The Trump-Putin breed of celebrity authoritarianism operates on a crude double strategy -- control the media you can, muddy the rest. The Russian disinformation campaigns are based not just on promoting the viewpoints that it wants promoted but by destabilizing entire systems of meaning.... The latest technology has revealed an ancient crisis. The most glorious feature of American life is also a great weakness -- a glamorous flaw. Nobody is going to tell Americans what to think. They have to work it out for themselves."
Molly Roberts of the Washington Post: "John Kelly's comments about the Civil War, according to historians, were 'strange,' 'sad' and 'wrong.' One thing they shouldn't be, however, is surprising.... [Kelly & other administration officials serve at the pleasure of Trump.] Last week, while many Democrats still were fawning over Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) for calling on conservatives to condemn Trump, Flake was back on the Senate floor voting to make it harder for consumers to sue the financial industry. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another unlikely 'resistance' hero, was doing the same thing. So were Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). These senators are also all likely to back a tax bill that, however it comes out, will help rich Americans and drag down the rest of the economy.... The disaster of Trump has led to a widespread lowering of standards. Kelly, in the end, has proved unable to reach a bar that now rests close to the ground. But even those [Republicans] who meet that diminished mark don't deserve wholesale approval from liberals who, independent of Trump, wouldn't agree with most of the things they stand for. If we fall into that trap, we're in for many more unpleasant 'surprises.'" ...
... NEW. Charles Pierce: "Being the first guest on the debut of Laura Ingraham's new electric teevee show should be a black-enough mark on your professional history for anyone, but White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, fresh off slandering a sitting congresswoman and lecturing the nation on the demise of chivalry, decided to blow up what was left of his reputation by opining on how tragic was the American Civil War.... [Compromise is] a tool. It can be constructive or destructive, and, in the long view of history, one has to conclude that the compromises leading to the Civil War were little more than the foundation for the destruction to follow. 'Compromise' as an airy goal to be pursued without an appreciation of the consequences has embedded a terrible ambivalence in our history -- and an awful kind of amnesia into the bargain." ...
... ** Kashana Cauley in a New York Times op-ed: "... our country's tortured attempt to find some kind of balance on whether it was right to enslave African-Americans wasn't limited to the Three-Fifths Compromise. To argue that the Civil War came about because Americans couldn't compromise ... would require us to ignore at least six other major compromises on slavery, from the first fugitive slave law in 1793, which said that escaped slaves in any state could be caught, tried and returned to their masters, to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed residents of the two territories to vote on whether to allow slavery. Slaveowners and abolitionists compromised on slavery over and over again, throwing black people's rights onto the bargaining table like betting chips in a casino.... Someone should tell John Kelly that our history is based on too much compromise concerning slavery and black lives, not too little." Read it all. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The bit about Nixon is prelude to all that has followed in the GOP. In fact, the "Southern Strategy" itself was another Great Compromise, this one made entirely by Republicans. Nixon was a racist, but there were many Republicans back in the day who were not, or at least not virulently so. Still, these Republicans were willing to bend their own moral values right to the point of breaking in order to blindly follow their party. They made up lots of fake excuses for ideologies and policies -- that were obviously racist in effect. Lyndon Johnson is supposed to have said, "We [Democrats] have lost the South for a generation," when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the real devastation to our two-party system came not to the Democratic party but to the Republicans. The Republican party lost its soul. It moved from being the Party of Lincoln to becoming the Party of Haters & Hypocrites, first by gobbling up the South & then by spreading Southern-style racism around the country, particularly to western states.
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Two collisions between Navy destroyers and commercial vessels in the Western Pacific earlier this year were 'avoidable' and the result of a string of crew and basic navigational errors, the Navy's top officer said in a report to be made public on Wednesday. Seven sailors were killed in June when the destroyer Fitzgerald collided with a container ship near Japan. The collision in August of the John S. McCain -- another destroyer, named after Senator McCain's father and grandfather -- and an oil tanker while approaching Singapore left 10 sailors dead. In the case of the Fitzgerald, the Navy determined in its latest reports that the crew and leadership on board failed to plan for safety, to adhere to sound navigation practices, to carry out basic watch practices, to properly use available navigation tools, and to respond effectively in a crisis.... In the case of the John S. McCain, the investigation concluded that the collision resulted from 'a loss of situational awareness' while responding to mistakes in the operation of the ship's steering and propulsion system while in highly trafficked waters."
Zachary Fryer-Biggs of Newsweek: "Defense Secretary James Mattis, testifying on Monday evening before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was asked repeatedly about a preemptive strike against North Korea, and specifically about the use of nuclear weapons. 'I will just tell you that we have not been discussing this sort of thing in any kind of an actionable way,' Mattis said.... A separate senior Pentagon official confirmed to Newsweek that there has been 'no meaningful conversation on the matter,' adding that efforts and plans thus far remain diplomatic.'" --safari...
... The Costs of War. Jay Cassano of International Business Times, via RawStory: "The Department of Defense periodically releases a 'cost of war' report.... American taxpayers have spent $1.46 trillion on wars abroad since September 11, 2001. The Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2014 and Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 account for the bulk of expenses: more than $1.3 trillion. The continuing presence in Afghanistan and aerial anti-ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria since 2014 have cost a combined $120 billion.... [The report] most notably does not include the expense of veteran's benefits for troops who serve in these wars or the intelligence community's expenses related to Global War on Terror. A 2011 paper from Harvard Kennedy School professor Linda Bilmes estimated the cost of veterans' benefits as $600 billion to $1 trillion over the next 40 years." --safari...
... Fletcher of RawStory: "Modernizing and maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years will cost more than $1.2 trillion, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office." --safari
Jesus Loves Greed and Pollution. Rebecca Leber of Mother Jones: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday used the Bible to explain his major changes to the composition of the agency's independent science advisory committees, which play an important role in guiding and advising the EPA's regulatory work.... What the 'Joshua Principle' means for the EPA is that scientists who receive agency grants for their research are now barred from serving on any of its independent advisory boards.... Well-known climate change deniers [Lamar] Smith and Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) joined a parade of white men who gave speeches at the EPA headquarters heralding the new era of its scientific review." --safari...
... Umair Irfan of Vox: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules Tuesday that will force out science advisers who have received grants from the agency and pave the way to replace them with researchers from industry.... By changing the makeup of EPA's science advisory boards this way, Pruitt will be able to change how the government builds the foundation for environmental regulations." --safari...
Ed Kilgore: "[A]fter having all year to prepare for 2017's big barbecue of tax cuts, and on the very eve of the House GOP's unveiling of its version of 'tax reform,' the process has apparently devolved into sweaty madness, with a strong possibility the whole show will have to be delayed." --safari
... "Capitalism if Awesome", Ctd. Michael Slezak of the Guardian: "Global negotiations seeking to implement the Paris agreement have been captured by corporate interests and are being undermined by powerful forces that benefit from exacerbating climate change, according to a report released ahead of the second meeting of parties to the Paris agreement -- COP23 -- next week. The report, co-authored by Corporate Accountability, uncovers a litany of ways in which fossil fuel companies have gained high-level access to negotiations and manipulated outcomes." --safari
Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "NPR is investigating allegations by two women who said the head of its news department made unwanted physical contact with them while he was employed by [the New York Times] nearly two decades ago. The women, both journalists at the time of the alleged incidents, made the accusations in recent weeks against Michael Oreskes, senior vice president of news and editorial director at the Washington-based public broadcasting organization. In response to the allegations, NPR said Tuesday that it has placed Oreskes on indefinite leave.... In a memo to employees on Wednesday, NPR chief executive Jarl Mohn said he asked Oreskes to resign because of 'inappropriate behavior.'... NPR reported late Tuesday that an NPR employee, Rebecca Hersher, had registered a complaint about Oreskes in October 2015, a few months after Oreskes was hired by NPR from a senior management position at the Associated Press. Hersher characterized Oreskes's behavior as an inappropriate conversation."
Congressional Elections
Dana Milbank: "I called some of my favorite strategists, both Republican (who were happy to be named) and Democrat (who were not), for this column, to see how they thought the Party of [Will] Rogers would, as one Democratic operative put it, 'seize defeat from the jaws of victory.' Bernie backers and 'establishment' types will chop each other to pieces in primaries even if their ideology is much the same. Democrats will overplay the Russia scandal rather than simply letting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III do his job. Underfunded party committees won’t vet the flood of new candidates, some of whom will turn out to have played guitar in nudist colonies. And Democrats will struggle, as out-of-power parties do, with the absence of a leader."
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Reader Comments (21)
Playing "La Bamba" is the perfect and very clever response to a white supremacist rally. This Mexican folk song says, "chill, baby, don't hate - dance!" Even the nazis can't resist the message, and it should be the sound track to all subsequent rallies!
Silly Fox employee: It's "fair and balanced", not 'fair and objective.' It helps if you use air quotes.
So who are these delicate souls at Fox who are so distraught to learn that they work for Trump TV? Are they in the in the break room doing readings of Aeschylus and Sophocles when Hannity is broadcasting from Planet X in the Sixth Dimension? At their desks reading the Times Literary Supplement while Doocy and Kilmeade are shooting spitballs around the studio and wondering why no one has ever seen Obama’s 8th grade graduation certificate? Or maybe they’re all trading favorite bon mots from Proust, in French, of course, when Trump is on being asked when would be the best time to go full Napoleon and declare himself emperor for life?
The poor dears. It must be such a shock, not unlike the sudden realization that your fellow employees, all those guys wearing big fedoras and packing heat are actually gangsters and not the cultivators of exotic Ecuadorian rose bushes they’d always assumed them to be. Heavens! Which way to the fainting couch?
It appears that not only is COS Kelly a racist but also that he is ignorant of his home state's history.
In 1780 a woman named Mumbet heard the reading of the newly ratified Massachusetts Constitution at a public meeting in Sheffield, MA. She was "owned" by Col. John Ashley (namesake of Ashley Falls in the SW corner of MA that borders on CT.) He was a wealthy lawyer whose house "was the site of many political discussions and the probable location of the signing of the Sheffield Resolves, which predated the Declaration of Independence.
Anyway, she liked the part in the MA Constitution that said "All men are born free and equal..." and sued for her freedom in 1781. She won, winning damages and compensation for her labor, which was then the beginning of the end of slavery in the state.
She changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman, and moved from the Ashley household to work at her lawyer's residence in Great Barrington, MA (later home to W.E.B DuBois.)
I guess Mumbet didn't like to compromise either.
Note too that the final battle of Shays' Rebellion was fought in February 1787 in Sheffield, MA, about halfway between Ashley Falls and Great Barrington. The fight against the rebels was led by Brigadier John Ashley.
THE OBTUSE DE´BUT OF THE INGRAHAM ANGLE:
Before Laura came on Fox viewers would have spent sixty minutes thrilling to Hannity's invective on the topic Uranium One. Her soft ball questions to Kelly (Laura is close to Jesus and always displays that cross around her neck) and her silence after Kelly's confederate disgusting rambling makes me wonder how she connects her belief system with her politics. Her theme here was "What is America" which she erroneously thought was the title of the Sinatra song. I still remember how she once spent ten minutes on a tirade because of Obama's use of mustard instead of ketsup on his burgers––"That just isn't American!" she said.
https://www.newyorker.com/sections/culture/the-obtuse-debut-of-the-ingraham-angle
I love the fact that New Yorkers continued with their Halloween parades and frivolity despite the awful terror attack on the bike trail. It's exactly what is needed and required.
In 2010, the US let in about 20,000 Muslim immigrants. One turns out to be a terrorist. Never mind the more than 3 million Muslims in America. And he came from a country not on the Trump list. But the key piece is for the moron-in-chief to blame some Democrat. Never mind he got the story all wrong.
Yes, it was a terrible thing, but how about just a little reality. In all humans there are some really bad people. Just visit Las Vegas.
@Marvin Schwalb: Or Trump Tower. If Trump had his way, many more Americans (and others) would die of preventable illnesses or in frivolous wars than those who unnecessarily lost their lives in yesterday's despicable attack in NYC.
A friend who was recently at Mayo Clinic brought back this
pamphlet. She wondered if I knew who specifically it was written
about. I did.
It reads: Many experts use the criteria in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American
Psychiatric Association diagnose mental conditions. This manual
is also used by insurance companies to reimburse for treatment.
Criteria for narcissistic personality disorder include these features:
1.Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
2.Expecting to be recognized as superior even without
achievements that warrant it
3.Exaggerating your achievements and talents
4.Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power,
brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
5.Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by
or associate with equally special people
6.Requiring constant admiration
7.Having a sense of entitlement
8.Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with
your expectations
9.Taking advantage of others to get what you want
10.Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs
and feelings of others
11.Being envious of others and believing others envy you
12.Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner
Although some features of NPD may seem like having confidence,
it's not the same. NPD crosses the border of healthy confidence
into thinking so highly of yourself that you put yourself on a
pedestal and value yourself more than you value others.
Can anyone out there think of someone this describes perfectly?
So right, Marvin.
Also lost (deliberately one assumes on the Right because not all of them can be that stupid) is the likelihood that Mr. Saipov was not a committed terrorist when he arrived on these blessed shores. Biographies of others who have mounted internal attacks on US soil tell us that most were second generation immigrants or radicalized long after their arrival. In other words, they were created here in the test tube of the great experiment we call America.
Many have noted that America itself is the great radicalizer, an observation as true about the current state of the Republican Party, now waging total war against reality itself, as it is of any ISIS sympathizers in our midst.
Bea, good point! We always talk about deaths from violence but never about the environment, drugs, infection and legal poison (nicotine).
The cigarette industry kills more Americans every three days than the terrorists did on 9/11.
Ken,
Your point about radicalization is an important one. If I belonged to a group which was constantly demonized to the point of being told that no one else from my group would be allowed into the country because we're all murderers and savages and can't be trusted, I'd probably be pretty pissed. I wouldn't, of course, rent a truck and run over innocents, but there may be a certain number of slightly unhinged, psychically malleable people out there who could be turned by a group who could point to undeniable evidence of the low regard in which the entire group is held by the most powerful person in the country.
I am not conversant with the pathology of radicalization but I am pretty familiar with human beings. The constant pressure applied by bigotry, to certain groups on the outs with the mainstream, can most assuredly engender some bad outcomes. This is something too many whites don't seem to understand. Even funnier (and not the ha-ha kind of funny) is the burgeoning movement of whites (mostly men) who feel that it is THEY who are the targets of discrimination and unfair treatment. I heard an interview with one of these guys last week. At one point, the interviewer asked him if, because he deems himself a hunted, spat upon "minority" he could then empathize with other (actual) minorities. No, he said. Because they have it easy and he doesn't. Also, he deserves better.
It never came out but I'm guessing this was a Trump voter. The kind of person Trump's weird combination of superiority and victimhood appeals to.
Being unable to even consider, if not empathize, with the consequences of unrelenting bigotry and discrimination guarantees that a vicious circle will be maintained. Pointing a finger at Trump and declaring the latest terror attack "all his fault" would be as irresponsible as Trump's blaming Chuck Schumer. But there's no doubt that the conditions for radicalization, the milieu, the tenor of the times, are all affected dramatically by the little king's chest thumping threats toward Muslims and his institutionalization of racism as a primum mobile in Trump's America.
Caught again!
Following PD's link to the New Yorker piece on Laura Ingraham's latest foray into other worldliness (what a loser--loved the bit about her foregrounding, in a typically dimwitted Confederate manner, a song written by a liberal about anti-Semitism), my eye was caught by a blurb announcing that "Trump Accuses Clinton of Deliberately Losing the Election..."
For the tiniest fraction of a second I thought "Jesus, what'll that asshole think of next?" until I saw the a n d y b o r o w.... at the end of the tag.
Borowitz gets me again. But more than that? It's the daily diet of completely outrageous and insufferably stupid bullshit from the White House that prompts one to entertain, even for a second, something so ridiculous.
In addition to his debasement of democracy and the concept of public discourse (although Confederates have been blackjacking both for decades), his vandalism of logic and decency have measurably altered my conception of what's real and what's not.
Oh, and speaking of Confederates and music, I loved the story Gloria references to Nazis being overwhelmed by Chicano rock pioneer Ritchie Valens. Una poca de gracia, indeed. Ha!
Even funnier is hearing the leader of a vicious group of racist assholes who advocate violence and whose followers think murder is a necessary element of their dominance talking about how it was people like him who "civilized this land". Hmmm...like General Kelly, this Michael Hill douchebag needs a little history lesson in things like genocide and slavery in North America. Very civilized. But I'm guessing "La Bamba" is just as infuriating to scumbags like this.
Akhilleus,
I'm no psychologist either, but it seems to me that radicalization of all sorts is related to the kind of bunker mentality people develop when they feel they are under attack and their lives don't offer easy escape routes.
Your description of how an immigrant of another faith might be radicalized is to the point. But a larger view of the matter would suggest that successive radicalization of various elements of our population IS the great American story.
We began as radicals. The nation's formation was certainly radical in its time. See Gordon Wood, among others. The Civil War, begun by increasingly radicalized slave holders who saw no other way out for the "way of life" than war. The eventually successful labor movement, seen as radical by its corporate enemies, that culminated in the mid 1900's, and its equally radical corporate counterattack, still being carried out by the current corporate administration. And how could I fail to mention the radicalization of the uneducated white folks who brought us to our current pass.
If I were to identify the group that today is by far the most radical in the sense of dangerous, that would be the group that lashes out violently without thought of consequence at perceived enemies because they see their own way of life threatened, it would be the contemporary radical Republicans.
Oddly that's how the party of Lincoln began, as radical Republicans of a far different and more praiseworthy stripe.
Trump Debases Everything
I meant to link this the other day but it slipped through the cracks what with the laden cornucopia of Trumpish delights on offer.
Last week the little king issued a proclamation, via yet another self-aggrandizing video, that the whole world was watching and anxiously awaiting his royal fatness's decision on the identity of the next chairperson of the Federal Reserve. Will it be (drum roll)....door number one? Door number two? Or door number THREE!! We don't know, but tune in again next week and see who will be voted off Fed Island. And hey, Bob, what do we have for the losers? Oh, a lifetime supply of Trump Steaks! Hey...such a deal.
Turning the choice of someone to head the Federal Reserve into a gauche game show is one of Trumpy's specialties, debasing and diminishing so important a job. Pure Trump. Everyone down into the mud right alongside him.
Bloomberg offers a closer look (if you can stomach it) of how the selection of the Fed chair is all about Trump. Who else? And once the choice is made and the happy winner is announced to world and has a chance to publicly kiss the hand of the Great Man, what then?
"When Trump wants something from the Fed, maybe he won’t sit down with the Fed chair and issue dictates. That isn’t his style anyway, in part because he doesn’t have the expertise to figure out the preferred manipulation, and in part because he doesn’t have the patience for the required monitoring and follow-up.
Instead, he’ll let social media and the public debate do his dirty work of politicization for him, with perhaps a jab of his own thrown in from Twitter. Because the Fed will no longer be above the fray."
Another vital entity brought low by the fat, sleazy carny barker living in the White House.
Ken,
Excellent reminder that radicalization, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. Copernicus radically changed the way we see the universe. A lot of people were very unhappy with his idea, but very few still see our little blue dot in the heavens as the center of all things in the universe.
The difference between the sort of radicalization that moves us forward (child labor laws, universal suffrage, the beginnings of health insurance for all) and the type on display now at the very small hands of the little king is that Trump's radicalizing of American politics is all about destruction, knocking things down, kicking over precedence, pissing on logic and decency. He's a radical without a cause other than embroidering his own dominance and inventing a reputation for competence and success he doesn't deserve.
So...the West Side Highway terrorist has contacts to known terrorists but Trump’s people had no idea what he was up to. Ohhhh... but it’s all Chuck Schumer’s fault. Of course. Because Trump, who blames Obama for everything from an uptick in the measles in Austria to a jump in the number of early morning jaywalkers in Kenosha, isn’t himself responsible for anything.
Presidential history for Wingnuts:
There were:
Two Adamses
Two Harrisons
Two Roosevelts
Two Bushes, and
Two Kennedys (President Kennedy and President JFK)
This is Sarah Liarby Sanders' take on American history.
Any wonder why she works for Trump?
Worse? She was reading this from prepared, printed remarks and doing this in the service of attempting to rescue racist asshole, Trump COS, General Robert E. Lee Kelly. During this attempt, she listed presidents who have had "problems", whatever the fuck that means (and a list of presidents with problems that doesn't include Trump is like listing things that smell and leaving out shit) including President Kennedy and President JFK.
Is she the Ron Burgundy of press secretaries, or just a moron?
@Ak: I'll go with f**king moron!
(Or make that f**king maroon for color coordination w. Ron).
Andy Borowitz, not satire anymore ....
Poor guy is probably banging his head thinking what can he write that is beyond this maladministration.
As I've been saying, Democrats need to get their act together. And fast.
This is bad.
While Democrats are hitting each other over the head, Trump and the Confederates could steam to another four years of Armageddon. You see what he's been able to do in 10 months. Just imagine what the place will look like after 8 years. It will be fucking unrecognizable, a Confederate nightmare zone.
While we're pointing fingers and trying to figure it all out, Trump is raking in millions. And polls show that even if Mueller proves he colluded with Russia, his base will still vote for him.
If we have two or three 70 and 80 year old candidates and a bunch of no names, what does that leave us? Congressional Democrats are already giving him the benefit of the doubt on the Russia scandal, networks (the real ones) are still loath to go at him head on, even though, technically, collusion, or at least the will to collude, has been proven. One or two more terrorist attacks and Trump will wrap himself in the flag and nuke anyone who tries to challenge him.