;)
The Commentariat -- November 2, 2019
Afternoon Update:
How to Immigrate for $100. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump's border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage. The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool know as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier's steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques. After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, allowing an adult to fit through the gap. Because the bollards are so tall -- and are attached only to a panel at the very top -- their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post." Mediaite has a brief story here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: All together now: "We're shocked & nonplussed, Donnie's wall is a bust."
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Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday it's possible that controversies beyond Ukraine could be part of the impeachment case against President Trump.... Pelosi on Friday emphasized that the decision on articles of impeachment will be up to the committees handling the inquiry.... 'What we're talking about now is taking us into a whole other class of objection to what the president has done. And there may be other -- there were 11 obstruction of justice provisions in the Mueller report. Perhaps some of them will be part of this,' Pelosi said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. 'But again, that will be part of the inquiry, to see where we go.'... Pelosi also told Bloomberg News in a roundtable with editors and reporters on Friday that she expects public hearings will begin this month.... Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told PBS NewsHour on Thursday that closed-door witness testimony transcripts could be released as early as next week."
Kylie Atwood & Manu Raju of CNN: "A top White House official [-- Tim Morrison --] told lawmakers he tried to find out whether ... Donald Trump told a key US diplomat [-- Gordon Sondland --] he wanted Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, multiple sources familiar with his closed-door impeachment inquiry deposition on Capitol Hill told CNN.... Morrison, the President's top Russia adviser, had multiple conversations with American Ambassador to the European Union ... Sondland.... Morrison became concerned that Sondland was going rogue on Ukraine. Morrison told lawmakers he thought Sondland was a 'free radical.'... The term was a reference to molecules that cause cancer. To find out whether Sondland had talked to the President, Morrison went so far as asking Trump's executive secretary if the President had actually talked with Sondland. The ambassador's claims about having the conversations checked out each time, Morrison said in his testimony Thursday.... In his own opening statement, Sondland downplayed both Trump's role and his own in the effort to pressure Ukraine -- suggesting he was reluctantly working with Rudy Giuliani.... Morrison's testimony also could raise more questions about Sondland's deposition...." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The person was "going rogue," of course, was Trump. Sondland was just "following orders." Republicans, including the Senators who will sit on Trump's jury (story linked below), have chosen not to face that.
The Cover-up, Ctd. Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The senior White House lawyer who placed a record of ... Donald Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president in a top-secret system also instructed at least one official who heard the call not to tell anyone about it, according to testimony heard by House impeachment investigators this week. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman ... told lawmakers that he went to the lawyer, John Eisenberg, to register his concerns about the call, in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, according to a person in the room for Vindman's deposition on Tuesday. Eisenberg recorded Vindman's complaints in notes on a yellow legal pad, then conferred with his deputy Michael Ellis about how to handle the conversation because it was clearly 'sensitive,' Vindman testified. The lawyers then decided to move the record of the call into the NSC's top-secret codeword system -- a server normally used to store highly classified material that only a small group of officials can access. Vindman did not consider the move itself as evidence of a cover-up, according to a person familiar with his testimony. But he said he became disturbed when, a few days later, Eisenberg instructed him not to tell anyone about the call -- especially because it was Vindman's job to coordinate the interagency process with regard to Ukraine policy.... Several National Security Council officials had complained to Eisenberg in the weeks leading up to the July 25 call about the shadow Ukraine policy being run by Giuliani and U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland. Those include Vindman's then-boss Fiona Hill, who went to Eisenberg at the instruction of then-National Security Adviser John Bolton." ~~~
~~~ Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The directive from [John] Eisenberg adds to an expanding list of moves by senior White House officials to contain, if not conceal, possible evidence of Trump's attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide information that could be damaging to former vice president Joe Biden. The instruction to stay quiet came after White House officials had already discussed moving a rough transcript of the call into a highly classified computer server, and the instruction was delivered by Eisenberg, who would later be involved in the administration's battle to keep an explosive whistleblower complaint about the call from being shared with Congress. The interaction between Eisenberg and [Alexander] Vindman suggests there was a sense among some in the White House that Trump's call with Zel[e]nsky was not, as the president has repeatedly claimed, 'perfect.'" ~~~
~~~ Danny Hakim & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "After Colonel [Alexander] Vindman made his complaint [about the Trump-Zelensky phone call], but while he and his brother [Col Yevgeny Vindman] were still in the room, [lawyers John] Eisenberg and [Michael] Ellis discussed how to handle the transcript, and Mr. Eisenberg decided to place it into the White House's most secure system to avoid leaks, according to one of the people familiar with his account. Several days later, after a C.I.A. officer complained about the call to the C.I.A.'s general counsel, Mr. Eisenberg directed Colonel Vindman not to discuss the call further. The testimony only adds to House investigators' interest in Mr. Eisenberg, whom Democrats subpoenaed late Friday to appear for a deposition on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House is likely to order him not to cooperate, making his appearance uncertain....
"... investigators said they had scheduled additional new voluntary depositions for next week. They called Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who was deeply involved in American outreach to Ukraine, to answer questions on Wednesday, but a spokeswoman for the Energy Department said Mr. Perry had no intention of taking part in a 'secret star chamber inquisition.' Investigators also set appearances for Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget; David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs; and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, counselor to the secretary of state. It was unclear if any of them would comply. Investigators also subpoenaed Brian McCormack, Mr. Perry's chief of staff, to testify on Monday." ~~~
~~~ Ben Lefebvre of Politico: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry won't testify before House investigators' impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump, according to the DOE. 'The Secretary will not partake in a secret star chamber inquisition where agency counsel is forbidden to be present,' DOE spokesperson Shaylyn Hynes said in an email, adding that Perry would consider a request from lawmakers to testify in an open hearing." Mrs. McC: Perry may not have thought through this. He is not all that bright, and a "star-chamber inquisition" might have served as a sort a rehearsal, allowing him to "amend and extend" his testimony in an open hearing. If he appears at all, now it seems it will be without practicing. Break a leg, Rick! ~~~
~~~ Deb Riechmann of the AP: "The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting ... Donald Trump's phone call with the leader of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system normally reserved for documents about covert action. Deepening their reach into the West Wing, impeachment investigators have summoned former national security adviser John Bolton to testify next week. But they also are seeking testimony of two other political appointees -- John Eisenberg, the lead lawyer for the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to the president.... The lawyers' role is critical because two witnesses have suggested the NSC legal counsel -- when told that Trump asked a foreign leader for domestic political help -- took the extraordinary step of shielding access to the transcript not because of its covert nature but rather its potential damage to the Republican president. The ... effort to lock down the rough transcript suggests some people in the White House viewed the president's conversation as problematic." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Continuing Misadventures of 
Aaron Katersky & Soo Rin Kim of ABC News: "... prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are looking into whether the former congressman [Robert Livingston (R-La.)] had contact with [Rudy] Giuliani related to the push for the removal of then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yavonovitch ... after his name was floated during testimony from a former White House official [Catherine Croft] earlier this week.... During her deposition before House impeachment investigators [Wednesday, Croft] said that she 'received multiple calls' from Livingston while she was at the White House, telling her that then-Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch be fired, according to her opening statement.... Through his lobbying firm Livingston Group, [Livingston] has been actively lobbying on behalf of at least a couple of Ukrainian clients since last year, records filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act show.... It's unclear what connection, if any, exists between Livingston's lobbing on behalf of his Ukrainian clients and his push to oust the ambassador." ~~~
~~~ Sam Stein & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "In late 2018, as he was just starting to look for dirt on the origins of the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling..., Rudy Giuliani held a meeting with a top Ukrainian politician many in the administration believed would be the country's next president. The meeting with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko took place on Dec. 5, 2018 in the U.S. and was set up with the help of two former Republican members of Congress. And it suggests that Giuliani's involvement in Ukraine policy was more extensive than previously understood and involved more individuals than previously appreciated.... Several sources said that among the topics discussed were U.S. military aid and future U.S.-Ukraine relations. And a source familiar with the arrangement told The Daily Beast the Tymoshenko meeting was brief, came at Giuliani's request, that the attorney was 'trolling for business,' and that Tymoshenko wanted to share 'her substantive vision of Ukraine.'... That U.S. aid to Ukraine was a discussion topic raises additional questions about how involved Giuliani was in actually crafting American foreign policy despite playing no official role in State Department channels."
~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post traces the Ukraine scandal back to mid-2017, when Rudy Giuliani traveled to Ukraine. "While Giuliani was [in Ukraine to give a speech], he also met with [then-President Petro] Poroshenko and his prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, according a news release issued by the foundation." Two weeks later, Trump met with Poroshenko, who had been lobbying for the meeting for months. "Just after Giuliani's visit, Ukraine's investigation of the so-called black ledger that listed alleged illicit payments to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was transferred from an anti-corruption bureau, known as NABU, to [Lutsenko], according to a June 15, 2017, report in the Kyiv Post. The paper quoted Viktor Trepak, former deputy head of the country's security service, saying: 'It is clear for me that somebody gave an order to bury the black ledger.'... Was there any implicit understanding that Poroshenko's government would curb its cooperation with the U.S. Justice Department's investigation of Manafort...?" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
"The Best-Paid Interpreter in the World." Vicki Ward & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Earlier this year, Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, received a sudden windfall of money from a prominent Ukrainian oligarch who is fighting extradition to the United States and is suspected of having ties to the Russian mob, according to four sources who spoke with Parnas. This summer, Parnas told potential business associates that his company began receiving payments from the oligarch, Dmytro Firtash, who is living in Austria while fighting bribery charges in the US, the sources told CNN. Parnas also told these people he met with Firtash several times over the summer while in Vienna. In June, according to one of these sources, Parnas vouched to Firtash for two well-known Washington lawyers [-- Fox 'News" fixtures Joe diGenova & Victoria Toensing --] who later brought up Firtash's plight in a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General William Barr. These new details appear to reveal a much more substantial relationship than previously known between Parnas and Firtash, and how Firtash's years-long extradition battle suddenly collided with Giuliani's push to dig up dirt on ... Donald Trump's political opponents. They could also raise the stakes for Giuliani, whose financial ties are being examined by federal investigators. A company owned by Parnas paid Giuliani $500,000 for consulting in the fall of 2018. Giuliani maintains that the money did not originate overseas." ~~~
~~~ diGenova & Toensing "have downplayed the relationship between [Firtash] and Parnas. In statements, they describe Parnas as merely an interpreter hired to communicate with Firtash, who does not speak English.... 'I'm the best-paid interpreter in the world,' Parnas joked to [CNN's] sources." ~~~
~~~ Ema O'Connor of BuzzFeed News: "A lawyer for Igor Fruman, one of the men who had been working with Rudy Guiliani in his Ukraine campaign, tried to argue Friday [at a hearing he requested before a U.S. District judge] that his client was not a flight risk and didn't need to be under house arrest, despite the fact that he had been arrested just before boarding a flight overseas on a one-way ticket last month.... [Defense attorney Todd] Blanche's mission in Friday's hearing was to convince Judge [Paul] Oetken that Fruman was not a flight risk, that the $1 million bond, which Fruman's son, brother, and sister-in-law are guarantors for, was enough to keep him in the country, and that he was never going to, and never did, attempt to flee the country." It did not go well. "... the lawyer for the government, Nicolas Roos..., went on to detail Fruman's many financial and political connections to Europe, attempting to demonstrate that Fruman could live a very pleasant life abroad if he were able to flee. 'He operates a bar called Buddha Bar' abroad, Roos said. He held up a printout of a glossy hotel brochure for the court to see, saying it listed Fruman as the president and CEO of a 'luxury group' that owns a hotel, 'restaurants, a beach club, and retail stores,' Roos told the court.... The judge denied the petition." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: At least Blanche has a sense of humor. O'Connor: "When BuzzFeed News asked him for his card in order to get the spelling of his name correct, he responded, 'I wish you wouldn't spell my name right. I wish I had one of my colleague's cards to give you instead. Lord.'" ~~~
~~~ Rachel Maddow noted that Fruman may lose his bail altogether as the $1MM bond was provided in part by his brother Steven Fruman, & the source of that bond money is under scrutiny. Kevin McCoy of USA Today: "Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told a judge that Steven Fruman, the younger sibling of Giuliani business client Igor Fruman, could have been involved in the alleged scheme to buy influence by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to U.S. politicians and campaign committees. Roos said the younger sibling lied about his bank accounts and his businesses when questioned by government paralegals who were examining his suitability to serve as a co-signer on Igor Fruman's $1 million bond package. Saying that Steven Fruman 'could be involved' in some of the actions alleged in the criminal case, Roos said, 'it seems he was trying to conceal something.' The prosecutor did not elaborate.... Saying that someone who may be involved in the case 'may not be suitable as a co-signer,' U.S. District Court Judge Paul Oetken said he would not immediately intervene with the examination of the younger Fruman's finances." ~~~
~~~ Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: Photos of Lev & Igor sitting in the good seats at 2018 Trump rallies keep emerging. "In photos posted on Twitter, Parnas and Fruman can be seen accompanying Giuliani to events in Michigan, New Hampshire, Florida, Indiana and again in Nevada." Mrs. McC: You might think the Three Stooges were Trump groupies, except you know they're doing it for the money.
Some GOP Senators Ready to Admit the Obvious, Then Pretend It's Okay. Rachel Bade & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo. In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president's action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe. But the shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival.... The pivot was the main topic during a private Senate GOP lunch on Wednesday, according to multiple people...." The new pretense is that Trump had no "corrupt intent." Mrs. McC: Good luck with that. Trump is the personification of corrupt intent. It's the only intent he has.
~~~ The Raw Story has a summary report here. Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "I see the inevitable retreat from 'Trump is innocent' to 'using extortion to ratfuck elections is great, frankly he should be doing more of it' has already started[.]"
** Kim Sengupta of the U.K. Independent: "... overshadowed by the publicity around the impeachment, is the ever-broadening investigation by William Barr..., which the White House sees as a game-changer.... It may also seem odd that Trump, having repeatedly claimed that the Mueller report was a 'complete and total exoneration' of him over Russiagate, is now going to such lengths to try and discredit it.... The information being requested [of foreign governments] has left allies astonished. One British official with knowledge of Barr's wish list presented to London commented that 'it is like nothing we have come across before, they are basically asking, in quite robust terms, for help in doing a hatchet job on their own intelligence services.'" Mrs. McC: Besides giving us a picture of how our government is viewed abroad, Sengupta's report is a good summary of the vast Trumpist conspiracy theory. The real Three Stooges are not Rudy, Lev & Igor, but the over-the-hill gang, Donnie, Bill & Rudy.
Polina Ivanova & Ilya Zhegulev of Reuters: "Sweeping changes to Ukraine's top law enforcement agency ordered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy are set to derail a series of long-running criminal investigations, including two related to ... Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, three current and former Ukrainian prosecutors told Reuters.... Zelenskiy ... has said the makeover is essential because the office is widely distrusted by Ukrainians and has been seen as a political tool for the well-connected to punish their enemies. Plans to shake up the General Prosecutor's Office played a role in a July 25 phone call between Zelenskiy and Trump that is now at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into the U.S. president. On that call, Zelenskiy told Trump he was installing a new head at the agency who would be '100% my person, my candidate' and who 'will look into the situation' regarding the Bidens.... Among those who have been fired are 13 prosecutors from the Special Investigations Unit, which was overseeing corruption cases from the period of former President Viktor Yanukovich. Manafort, who worked as a political consultant in Ukraine for years, was implicated in two of those probes...." ~~~
Florida Man, Traveling to Mississippi, Tweets He's Going to Louisiana.* David Jackson of USA Today: A Florida man, "Donald Trump, tweeted early Friday he was looking forward to visiting Louisiana later in the evening, but there was one big problem: He's going to Mississippi. 'Louisiana, I'll see you tonight,' Trump said in a tweet that was later deleted. 'Big Rally for Eddie R. He will be a GREAT GOVERNOR. Early voting starts! @EddieRispone.' Instead, Trump has a political rally in Tupelo, Miss., on Friday evening.... In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is in a tight race with Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood for the right to move into the governor's mansion. Trump's rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, is designed to bolster Reeves' chances." Mrs. McC: Eddie Rispone is the GOP candidate for governor of Louisiana. Charles Pierce has more on what a "GREAT GOVERNOR" Eddie would be. (Also linked yesterday.)
* This is one of two stories linked today that requires your reading yesterday's Commentariat. In this case, reading yesterday's Comments, especially the first comment, by Bobby Lee, is a big help.
News from the Mind of a Madman. Peter Baker & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "It was a vivid scene worthy of the ending of a Hollywood thriller, the image of a ruthless terrorist mastermind finally brought to justice 'whimpering and crying and screaming all the way' to his death. But it may be no more true than a movie script. In the days since President Trump gave the world a graphic account of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's last minutes, no evidence has emerged to confirm it. The secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the regional commander who oversaw the operation that killed the leader of the Islamic State all say they have no idea what the president was talking about. Four other Defense Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity..., said they had seen no ... communications that support Mr. Trump's claim. Nor did they have any indication that Mr. Trump spoke with any of the Delta Force commandos or ground commanders in the hours between the Saturday night raid and his Sunday morning televised announcement. One American official ... deeply familiar with the operation dismissed the president's version of events as mere grandstanding. Another senior official briefed extensively on the mission said, 'I don't know how he would know that. It sounds like something he made up.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This might have been Trump's best moment. Instead, it was an extended lie.
** Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York Times examined [Donald] Trump's interactions with Twitter since he took office, reviewing each of his more than 11,000 tweets and the hundreds of accounts he has retweeted, tracking the ways he is exposed to information and replicating what he is likely to see on the platform. The result, including new data analysis and previously unreported details, offers the most comprehensive view yet of a virtual world in which the president spends significant time mingling with extremists, impostors and spies. Fake accounts tied to intelligence services in China, Iran and Russia had directed thousands of tweets at Mr. Trump, according to a Times analysis of propaganda accounts suspended by Twitter. Iranian operatives tweeted anti-Semitic tropes, saying that Mr. Trump was 'being controlled' by global Zionists, and that pulling out of the Iran nuclear treaty would benefit North Korea. Russian accounts tagged the president more than 30,000 times, including in supportive tweets about the Mexican border wall and his hectoring of black football players.... Mr. Trump has retweeted at least 145 unverified accounts that have pushed conspiracy or fringe content, including more than two dozen that have since been suspended by Twitter. Tinfoil-hat types and racists celebrate when Mr. Trump shares something they promote." ~~~
~~~ The Times has related stories here and here. Mrs. McC: Trump's Twitter activity is grounds for invoking the 25th Amendment.
No One Knows WTF Is Going on. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Trump told reporters Friday evening that Chad Wolf is the new acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, but it was unclear whether a formal appointment had occurred, extending confusion about who would step in to fill one of the country's most crucial national security posts. After reporters asked Trump about rumors he was planning to place Wolf in charge of DHS, Trump said, 'Well he's right now acting and we'll see what happens.' But no transition has taken place yet, according to two senior administration officials. Kevin McAleenan, the current acting DHS secretary, remains on the job, they said. McAleenan is scheduled to stay in the role at least through early next week, according to one of the senior administration officials, who was baffled by Trump's statement.... Wolf would be the fifth person to occupy the secretary job at DHS under Trump, an unusually high degree of leadership turnover for a department whose founding goal was to project stability and safeguard the country from another 9/11-style terrorist attack." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Jeh Johnson said on MSNBC, Wolf is technically the sixth DHS secretary under Trump. Johnson himself, as the "designated survivor" during Trump's inauguration, was the Secretary of Homeland Security until he resigned 7-1/2 hours into Trump's tenure. ~~~
~~~ Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley attempts to clear up the confusion.
>Rob Crilly & David M. Drucker of the Washington Examiner: "President Trump declined to defend embattled acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, an indication he is considering a change. Asked during an Oval Office interview with the Washington Examiner if he is happy with the job Mulvaney is doing for him, Trump demurred. 'Happy?' he said, mulling the question. 'I don't want to comment on it.' Instead, Trump offered a general defense of his senior team and said some West Wing 'bedlam' was the inevitable result of an administration that had been besieged by federal investigations and congressional subpoenas from Day One. 'I could see that,' Trump said when asked about Republican senators expressing unhappiness with Mulvaney." Mrs. McC: For Pete's sake, Mick, walk out.
"Not Wholly Unexpected." Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has abandoned the idea of releasing proposals to combat gun violence that his White House debated for months following mass shootings in August, according to White House officials and lawmakers, a reversal from the summer when the president insisted he would offer policies to curb firearm deaths. Trump has been counseled by political advisers, including campaign manager Brad Parscale and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, that gun legislation could splinter his political coalition, which he needs to stick together for his reelection bid, particularly amid an impeachment battle. The president no longer asks about the issue, and aides from the Domestic Policy Council, once& working on a plan with eight to 12 tenets, have moved on to other topics, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... The White House's position is a marked, if not wholly unexpected, change from when the president vowed he would make a push to pass more restrictive laws after two gunmen killed scores of people in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso in early August, creating national outrage." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Laura Clawson has the Daily Kos story: "Who could possibly have predicted?" (Also linked yesterday.)
David Nakamura & Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post: "The Washington Nationals have accepted an invitation to visit President Trump at the White House on Monday for the traditional champions celebration, less than a week after winning their first World Series. The quick turnaround is unusual, but most of the players are in town for a parade Saturday in downtown Washington, and White House officials said the timing worked well for the team and the president. The ceremony will take place at 1:15 p.m. on the South Lawn, a White House official said." The ESPN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
More Adventures of the Middle-Class Boys from Pottstown
When my father became commander in chief of this country, we got out of all international business. -- Eric Trump, in an interview on Fox News's "The Ingraham Angle," October 15
We've been international businesspeople for decades, but we can't even do those kinds of deals anymore. We can't even continue, and because we chose not to, because we didn't think it was appropriate. So that's the double standard. The media said, "Oh, you're enriching yourselves." We're like, "We literally stopped." -- Donald Trump Jr., in an interview on "Fox and Friends," Oct. 30
Pinocchios courtesy of Savador Rizzo of the Washington Post
Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) came up with a novel way to avoid a question about ... Donald Trump on Thursday. Instead of ignoring the activists from the progressive group MoveOn.org who were asking it, he head-butted their camera.... He never answered the question, asked several times: 'Do you think it's OK for the president to pressure foreign governments to interfere in our elections?'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race 2020
Sydney Ember & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Displaying a new assertiveness toward her Democratic opponents, Elizabeth Warren laced into her chief political rivals, warning on Friday night that the country was in a 'time of crisis' and arguing that Democrats would lose in 2020 if they nominated 'anyone who comes on this stage and tells you they can make change without a fight.' Speaking to thunderous applause during the party's biggest Iowa political event of the year, Ms. Warren denounced candidates in the presidential race who opposed bold ideas in favor of more moderate solutions, in veiled attacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Pete Buttigieg.... Befitting her front-runner status, Ms. Warren was the target of heated attacks from three of the first five speakers on the stage: Mr. Biden, Mr. Buttigieg and Kamala Harris."
Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Joe Biden dropped to fourth place in Iowa, according to a new poll released Friday, his worst showing to date in the pivotal early state. A few hours later, at the largest gathering to date for any 2020 event, it was clear why. While Biden delivered a solid performance on stage before a crowd of 13,500 Democrats at the state party's Liberty & Justice dinner, he was overshadowed and outshined by the candidate who just passed him in the polls -- Pete Buttigieg. At the massive state party event known for its catalytic effect on campaigns -- it's widely remembered as a turning point for Barack Obama's Iowa fortunes in 2007 -- Buttigieg captured the audience's imagination, articulating a case for generational change.... Through his spending and organizing efforts, Buttigieg has managed to reshape the top tier into a 4-way contest that also includes Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Biden's campaign, meanwhile, has been forced to scale down expectations of his performance here. He has already seen Warren overtake him in the polls and is also battling the grassroots energy behind Sanders."
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Former Representative Beto O'Rourke of Texas is dropping out of the presidential race, ending a campaign in which he struggled for months to recapture the energy of his insurgent 2018 Senate candidacy on a national stage full of other big personalities and liberal champions. Mr. O'Rourke made the decision to quit the race in the middle of this week, on the eve of a gathering Friday of Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa, according to people familiar with his thinking. He is not expected to run for any other office in 2020, despite persistent efforts by party leaders and political donors to coax him into another bid for the Senate." Politico's story is here.
Jasmine Wright, et al., of CNN: "Sen. Kamala Harris is closing three of her four presidential campaign offices in New Hampshire and has fired all her field organizers in the state as she homes in on her struggling campaign in Iowa, an aide tells CNN. The California Democrat is closing her offices in Nashua, Portsmouth and Keene. Her Manchester headquarters will remain open, but the staff will be scaled back significantly, with only volunteers left to knock on doors and pass out literature."
Thomas Kaplan, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed $20.5 trillion in new spending through huge tax increases on businesses and wealthy Americans to pay for 'Medicare for all,' laying out details for a landmark government expansion that will pose political risks for her presidential candidacy while also allowing her to say she is not raising taxes on the middle class to pay for her health care plan. Ms. Warren, who has risen steadily in the polls with strong support from liberals excited about her ambitious policy plans, has been under pressure from top rivals like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to release details about paying for her biggest plan, 'Medicare for all.'" The Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Holy Rolling in Money. Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Paula White, a televangelist based in Florida and personal pastor to President Trump whom he has known since 2002, has joined the Trump administration in an official capacity, according to a White House official. Ms. White will work in the Office of Public Liaison, the official said, which is the division of the White House overseeing outreach to groups and coalitions organizing key parts of the president's base. Her role will be to advise the administration's Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which Mr. Trump established last year by executive order and which aims to give religious groups more of a voice in government programs devoted to issues like defending religious liberty and fighting poverty. As Mr. Trump campaigns for a second term, he cannot afford to lose support from the religious conservatives who voted for him in 2016 in significant numbers. Without their backing, his path to re-election would be significantly narrower.... Ms. White cannot be easily categorized as either a political asset or a liability. She has a large following among Christians who believe in the 'prosperity gospel,' which teaches that God blesses people he deems to be of strong faith.... But many other Christians consider these beliefs to be heresy. And Ms. White's presence in the top tier of Mr. Trump's coterie of informal religious advisers has long been a source of contention with many evangelical Christians." A Hill story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Church of Donald. Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner: "According to his longtime personal pastor, Paula White-Cain, Trump in 2006 was taking steps to build a glass cathedral. 'He wanted to build a house of God,' she told us. 'He said, "Let's do this, let's build this before we're too old,"' said White-Cain [said]. Trump had an architect in place and was eager to have her take charge of the church, but White-Cain said the timing wasn't right for her. At the time, her ministry was on nine TV networks, and she was heading to a divorce from her second husband in 2007."
General Election 2020. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Democratic organizations filed lawsuits in Georgia, Arizona and Texas on Friday saying Republicans are given an unfair advantage by being listed first on those states' general election ballots. The traditionally red states Democrats hope to make competitive in 2020 have slightly different rules about ballot placement, but in each case, because Republicans control the governorships, every other race from president on down is listed with the Republican candidate first.... Ahead of 2020, Democrats are looking at a slew of election laws they believe could tip the scale in Republicans' favor, filing lawsuits all over the country over matters like voting access for college students and ballot order.... The DNC and other party-affiliated groups filed a similar lawsuit in Florida in July decrying ballot order bias they contend would give President Trump the edge in a crucial battleground state he won in 2016 by only 1.2 percentage points. The 2018 Democratic candidates in Florida for governor and U.S. Senate lost by razor-thin margins to GOP opponents whose names were listed first...." There was a similar effect in the 2018 races for governor of Georgia & the U.S. Senate in Texas. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And Democrats are just thinking of this now, less than a year before absentee ballots go out?
Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "The Keystone pipeline system, an addition to which has been the subject of environmental protests for years, leaked about 383,000 gallons of crude oil in North Dakota, covering an estimated half-acre of wetland, state environmental regulators said. The spill, which has been contained, occurred in a low-gradient drainage area near the small town of Edinburg in northeast North Dakota, less than 50 miles from the Canadian border, according to Karl Rockeman, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality's division of water quality. 'It is one of the larger spills in the state,' he said in an email on Thursday. There are no residences near the site and the wetland is not a source of drinking water, he said." A Hill summary of the story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Deadspin Nears Death. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "The last meeting for many of Deadspin's journalists took place on Wednesday in a conference room adorned with fake black cobwebs, a large spider and bloody handprints beside the words: 'HELP US.' The plea, it seemed, went unanswered. By Thursday, almost the entire staff -- nearly 20 writers and editors -- had resigned. The journalists at the site, founded as a sports blog in 2005, had chafed against an instruction handed down Monday in the form of a memo from management to confine themselves to sports-related posts. While largely focused on sports, Deadspin for years had delved into a broad range of topics in a voice that was sometimes rude, often funny and always conversational. On Tuesday, the site's top editor, Barry Petchesky, was fired after refusing to go along with the order.... The stick-to-sports memo ... was signed by Paul Maidment, the editorial director of G/O Media, the company that became the owner of Deadspin and sibling sites like Jezebel and Gizmodo six months ago." A Business Insider story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Sports news:
I liked the underdog Nationals in the World Series, but now that they have accepted a White House invite, my admiration for them has definitely cooled. Still wonder what their fans will think.
A few years back the Golden State Warriors, leading by example, had the good sense and taste to say no.
@Ken Winkes: Yeah, I'm wondering who-all will show up for Taco Bell as the White House.
Susan Gamboa of NBC News: "A team managed by a Latino, with several Latino players and that openly celebrates Latino culture brought baseball’s ultimate prize back to the nation’s capital....
"But for Nationals fans like journalist and author Ray Suarez, the team's strong Latino presence made the victory even sweeter.
“.I guess you can look at the World Series and decide whether or not the rest of the hemisphere is sending its best,' said Suarez...."
Sean Doolittle, a relief pitcher, has already said he'll be a no-show. "My wife and I stand for inclusion and acceptance, and we’ve done work with refugees, people that come from, you know, the ‘shithole countries,'” Doolittle said.
finally brought to justice 'whimpering and crying and screaming all the way' to his death.'
I'm surprised no one has yet pointed out that this is probably just more projection.
Good (because I like the numbers?) of recent Pretender polling:
https://www.vox.com/2019/11/1/20943460/trump-impeachment-polling
Expect that shortly GOP Talking Points will include assertions that the USG often uses the grant/withholding of Foreign Military Assistance (foreign aid funds) as carrot and stick to elicit desired actions from other countries. See this piece re Cameroon, Lebanon, Israel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/11/02/us-uses-aid-lean-foreign-states-not-always-with-same-intentions-or-results/
So GOP and WH will assert that holding back $ for Ukraine was business as usual, we do it all the time.
The difference here is that the Uk $ was already in the pipe because Uk was doing what the US wanted with respect to governance and Uk's opposition to Russia's invasion. The $ was part of a global interagency process to use foreign assistance to implement US goals. DiJiT's block was contrary to US policy and agreed goals.
The current WH block on Lebanon appears, to me, to be an attempt by the WH to create an example of " we do this all the time so what's the big deal about Ukraine?"
Squid ink to provide cover for GOP senators.
The OMB ( which is part of the WH ) has this year put its grip on ALL foreign assistance to ALL countries, because DijiT realizes that those funds can be used directly by him to punish and reward foreign governments -- and the "action" generates income potential for countries' (and providers') lobbyists and, by extension, campaign contributions. So this is potential corruption on a huge scale ... which the WH will try to portray as business as usual, even though it contravenes the authorization and appropriations process. As with the Defense $ being reprogrammed to the border wall, this type of activity is OMB making the discretionary budget into a huge slush fund for the president to mete and dole. This is total corruption. This is where the impeachment process needs to lead, shining a light on this dead mackerel.
@Patrick: If you read the WashPo story by Rachel Bade & SMK, that's exactly what GOP senators are now arguing re: Ukraine: that attaching conditions to foreign aid is normal & proper. Somehow they elide right over that part where Trump/OMB use the money for Trump's personal & political purposes.
Bea: yep, and it's like saying it is OK to knock over a bank because you're knocking over all banks.
It's been rumored that a Florida man bought up millions of $ in
stock of Dewalt, Black & Decker and Makita corporations,
manufacturers of reciprocating saws. He must have saw something
others didn't.
I suffer from CRS. So these articles may have been previously linked as they published in late Sept/19. I think they are worth a reminder.
"European countries have contributed an estimated two-thirds of all of the aid to Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched a conflict in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine..."
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/09/trump-wrong-on-european-aid-to-ukraine/
The 2nd article provides an accounting of the amounts of aid and its purposes from EU, US, Germany, UK, Canada. Of note:
"Canada alone disbursed close to $573 million (CAD 760 million) between 2014 and 2016."
https://www.csis.org/analysis/not-contributing-enough-summary-european-military-and-development-assistance-ukraine-2014
Its been clear to people who care to make a cursory Google search that Trump is full off shit when he claims other countries have not contributed to supporting Ukraine in both anti-corruption and the war to remain independent from Russia.
Reports said that Trump wanted Zelensky to give an interview to CNN about Ukraine reopening an investigation into Biden. Has CNN ever confirmed if anyone actually reached out to CNN or any of their reporters about a possible TV interview with Zelensky during that time? That could be more evidence of their corrupt intent if they took actions to make it happen.