The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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The Commentariat -- November 26, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Andrew Desderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to enforce the panel's subpoenas seeking information about the Trump administration's failed efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.... The suit is an indication that Democrats believe their hand has been strengthened by the victory in the McGahn case as they seek documents related to other subpoenas that the Trump administration has defied. The House first voted to enforce the subpoenas in July, formally holding Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress for defying the committee's subpoenas seeking information about the administration's ultimately unsuccessful efforts to add a citizenship question to next year's census. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Barr or Ross for flouting the requests, arguing that the information Democrats were seeking was protected by executive privilege."

This Explains a Lot. Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's something I didn't know or forgot: one of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher's attorneys is Marc Mukasey, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Mike Mukasey. Mukasey ALSO is one of strong> Trump's attorneys in the Deutsche Bank/Capital One suit (lost that one yesterday). Mukasey, of course, has been working on both of these cases at the same time. But wait, there's more: Mukasey ALSO was a long-time law partner of Rudy Giuliani." Looks like we can stop blaming Fox "News" for Trump's interest in helping out war criminal Gallagher.

This is attorney client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it. -- Rudy Giuliani, to the Washington Post in response to the story that follows ~~~

~~~ Rudy Giuliani, International Man of Misery. Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "While in Spain [in August to press a top aide of Ukraine President Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, Rudy] Giuliani stayed at a historic estate belonging to Venezuelan energy executive Alejandro Betancourt López, who had hired Trump's personal attorney to help him contend with an investigation by the Justice Department into alleged money laundering and bribery, according to people familiar with the situation. A month later, Giuliani was one of several lawyers representing Betancourt in Washington. The lawyers met with the chief of the Justice Department's criminal division and other government attorneys to argue that the wealthy Venezuelan should not face criminal charges as part of a $1.2 billion money-laundering case filed in Florida last year, said the people.... Betancourt is not one of the eight men charged in the case.... But ... he is referred to in the criminal complaint as a uncharged co-conspirator, as previously reported by the Miami Herald. Giuliani's representation of Betancourt -- which has not been previously disclosed -- is a striking example of how Trump's lawyer has continued to offer his services to foreign clients with interests before the U.S. government while working on behalf of the president. And it shows how Giuliani -- who says he was serving as Trump's attorney pro bono -- has used his work for paying clients to help underwrite his efforts to find political ammunition in Ukraine to benefit the president."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "The Justice Department asked a federal judge Tuesday to put a temporary pause on her ruling that orders former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in the House impeachment probe, saying it needs the delay to pursue an appeal. While expected, the move from DOJ means that the primary congressional panel responsible for drafting articles of impeachment against ... Donald Trump likely won't hear anytime soon from McGahn, one of the star witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller's final report."

Guardian @ 9:37 ET: "A lawyer who represents [John] Bolton and his former deputy at the national security council, Charles Kupperman, said the ruling in Don McGahn's case does not apply to his clients.... The officials' attorney argued that, because the House judiciary committee was specifically not seeking information from McGahn on 'sensitive topics of national security or foreign affairs,' the ruling could not provide guidance on whether his clients should testify." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, I guess the Bolton/Kupperman lawyer didn't do a very good job of reading the ruling. As Charlie Savage of the NYT wrote (linked below), Judge Jackson "wrote that the law required not just Mr. McGahn, but 'other current and former senior-level White House officials' who receive a subpoena to appear, and that it made no difference 'whether the aides in question are privy to national security matters, or work solely on domestic issues.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Peter Baker of the New York Times talked to Bolton/Cooperman lawyer Charles Cooper. Cooper asserted that Judge Jackson made only "passing references" to national security matters, and those passing references "'are not authoritative on the validity of testimonial immunity for close White House advisers' whose 'responsibilities are focused exclusively o providing information and advice to the president on national security.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday granted President Trump's request to temporarily stay a subpoena for his financial records from the House Oversight Committee, while the court considers whether to take up his appeal in the case." ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The court's action signals that, even as Congress considers impeaching Trump, the court will undertake a more complete consideration of the legal powers of Congress and state prosecutors to investigate the president while he is in office. The court instructed Trump's lawyers to file a petition by Dec. 5 stating why the court should accept the case for full briefing and oral argument. If the petition is eventually denied, the lower-court ruling will go into effect. If accepted, the case probably will be heard this term, with a decision before the court adjourns at the end of June." An AP story is here.

... the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings. -- Judge Ketanji Brown, in a ruling that Don McGahn must comply with a Congressional subpoena ~~~

~~~ ** John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal judge on Monday ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a subpoena and testify to Congress, delivering a significant win to House Democrats amid their impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee, means that McGahn is obligated to comply with a House Judiciary Committee subpoena from April seeking to compel his testimony.... Jackson's decision is likely to be appealed.... Democrats have held open the possibility of pursuing issues investigated by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including Trump's possible obstruction of justice. If House Democrats pursue that course, McGahn's testimony could prove critical given the central role he played in that particular phase of the probe, which examined 10 "episodes" of possible obstruction. The Mueller report found 'substantial evidence' that Trump leaned on McGahn to fire Mueller." ~~~

     ~~~ Spencer Hsu & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn must comply with a House subpoena, a federal court ruled Monday, finding that top presidential advisers cannot ignore congressional demands for information and raising the possibility that McGahn could be forced to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry.... '[T]he Court holds only that [McGahn] (and other senior presidentia advisors) do not have absolute immunity from compelled congressional process in the context of this particular subpoena dispute,' Jackson wrote, quoting a similar ruling by a Republican appointed judge in 2008 in a case involving former George W. Bush counsel Harriet Miers. Like Miers, Jackson wrote, 'Donald McGahn must appear before the Committee to provide testimony, and invoke executive privilege where appropriate.'... William A. Burck, McGahn's attorney, said, 'Don McGahn will comply with Judge Jackson's decision unless it is stayed pending appeal. DOJ is handling this case, so you will need to ask them whether they intend to seek a stay.'... Jonathan Shaub, a former attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, said a ruling against McGahn will 'provide cover for other witnesses, especially former employees who are inclined to testify but feel compelled by the White House's direction not to.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times report by Charlie Savage is here. "wrote that the law required not just Mr. McGahn, but 'other current and former senior-level White House officials' who receive a subpoena to appear, and that it made no difference 'whether the aides in question are privy to national security matters, or work solely on domestic issues.'" Mrs. McC: Yo, John Bolton. That means you.

~~~ The decision, via Politico, is here.

~~~ CNN is reporting that the White House will appeal the ruling. Mrs. McC: McGahn & others, of course, could just go ahead & honor the subpoenas beginning tomorrow. At the same time, since Judge Jackson's ruling allows that McGahn may invoke executive privilege "where appropriate," McGahn could apply that privilege quite liberally, and if the House isn't satisfied that those invocations are "appropriate," that could wind up back in court.

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: “Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to deliver a report soon after Thanksgiving making the case for impeaching President Trump, the chairman said on Monday, moving quickly to escalate what he called 'urgent' evidence of wrongdoing by the president. Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, wrote in a letter to colleagues that after two months of inquiry amid consistent stonewalling by Mr. Trump, his panel has uncovered 'massive amounts of evidence' pointing to misconduct and 'corrupt intent' by the president. The evidence will be detailed in a report being drafted for public release and transmittal to the House Judiciary Committee shortly after lawmaker return from their holiday break, Mr. Schiff wrote. The Judiciary panel is expected to promptly draft and debate articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump based on its findings."

There's obviously a concerted effort to spread as many lies about me as possible, to destroy my reputation so that I'm not credible when I continue to reveal all of the massive evidence of criminality by the Bidens. -- Rudy Giuliani, Monday, responding to news that subpoenas have been issued related to his international forays ~~~

~~~ A Noun, a Verb, and a Boatload of Crimes. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Prosecutors have issued subpoenas to figures with ties to Rudy Giuliani... seeking information on his consulting firm Giuliani Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. The subpoenas also seek information on a company co-founded by Lev Parnas, a recently-arrested associate of Giuliani's, that paid Giuliani for legal and business advice, the Journal reported on Monday. The subpoenas, as described by the newspaper, listed numerous potential charges under consideration including obstruction of justice, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements to the federal government and money laundering. They also seek materials relating to pro-Trump groups America First Action and America First Policies. Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for the groups, said they have reached out to the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office and offered their cooperation, and said neither was issued a subpoena. Giuliani told the Journal he had not been contacted by federal investigators." Mrs. McC: That's because you're the target, Rudy. You remember how that works, don't you? ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The list of possible crimes under investigation does not mean those charges will be filed. They do, however, indicate prosecutors are casting a wide net for wrongdoing as they examine the business and legal dealings of the president's personal lawyer and two Soviet emigres business executives who have been assisting Giuliani in the efforts to dig up damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on the president's behalf."

Matt Stieb of New York: "On Sunday, Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who plays a frequent defender of President Trump on TV, responded to a question from Fox News' Chris Wallace -- Was it Russia or Ukraine that hacked the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election? -- with a conspiratorial and wildly inaccurate answer. 'I don't know,' said Kennedy. 'Nor do you. Nor do any of us.' Aware of the total falsehood in his statement -- before Trump took office, the intelligence committee determined that Russia had meddled in the election to the benefit of the Republican candidate -- Johnson [Kennedy] promptly walked back his claim. Speaking with Chris Cuomo on Monday, Johnson [Kennedy] admitted that 'he was wrong' about the conspiracy that Ukraine hacked DNC emails and pinned the job on Russia."; Thanks to PD Pepe for the correction. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When Wallace countered him by noting that the entire intelligence community fingered Russia, Kennedy devolved into a story about how maybe it was Ukraine, too, blah-blah. No doubt the real reason Kennedy walked back his claim is that it made him a teevee laughing stock. More than half-a-dozen times on MSNBC & CNN (sometimes accompanied by the exclamation, "And he went to Oxford!"), I heard the clip of Kennedy's false claim being held up as an example of Republicans' complete capitulation to Trumpian delusion.

Andrew Sheeler of the Sacramento Bee: "Leading Democrats are calling for an investigation into a trip to Europe that Rep. Devin Nunes took last year with three aides after attorneys for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani told news outlets the Republican congressman sought dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. House travel records show Nunes traveled to Europe from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Three congressional aides who have worked for Nunes have matching travel receipts for the same dates, House records show. The trip cost $63,525.... While in Europe, Parnas' attorney Joseph A. Bondy said Nunes met with ousted Ukrainian top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who lost his job after Biden and other world leaders called for his dismissal. Nunes reportedly told Shokin of 'the urgent need' to investigate the company Burisma, which employed Biden's son Hunter as a member of its board of directors, and former Vice President Biden.... Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, on Monday called for Nunes to be investigated. She sits on the House Intelligence Committee with Nunes.... That investigation is 'quite likely' to happen, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, a senior-ranking Democrat who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday...."

Kara Scannell & Mark Morales of CNN: "David Pecker, the head of the company that publishes the National Enquirer, has spoken with prosecutors with the New York district attorney's office as part of its investigation into the Trump Organization's handling of hush money payments to women who alleged affairs with .... Donald Trump, sources with knowledge of the meeting tell CNN. The America Media Inc. chairman's late October meeting with prosecutors from the major economic crimes bureau could provide key details on discussions that took place involving Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who allegedly had an affair with Trump, and agreements that were made with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the sources said. Cohen is cooperating with the investigation.... The meeting between Pecker and the local prosecutors shows that investigators are still trying to connect the dots between Trump and the hush money payments."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Because Republicans have been so successful in shrouding the origins of the Russia investigation in a miasma of misinformation, I hope some talented filmmaker makes a movie out of the new book by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, 'Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump.' Simpson and Fritsch are the co-founders of Fusion GPS, the research firm that investigated Trump during the 2016 campaign, first for the conservative Washington Free Beacon, and then for a lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was Fusion GPS that hired the British ex-spy Christopher Steele to look into Trump's Russia connections, and it sits at the center of countless pro-Trump conspiracy theories.... 'Crime in Progress' is the best procedural yet written about the discovery of Trump's Russia ties. It demolishes a number of right-wing talking points, including the claim that the Steele dossier formed the basis of the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence inquiry into Trump.... For years, Trump was financially entangled with organized crime as well as with Kremlin-friendly oligarchs, and by keeping those entanglements secret, he gave Putin leverage over him from the moment he took office."


Helene Cooper & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "President Trump ordered the Pentagon not to remove a Navy SEAL at the center of a high-profile war crimes case from the elite commando unit, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Monday. Mr. Esper's confirmation of the order from Mr. Trump is the latest turn in an extraordinary series of events that pitted the president against his senior military leadership over the fate of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, the SEAL who was convicted of posing for photographs with the body of a teenage Islamic State captive in American custody." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Stefan Becket & Anna Gunther of CBS News: "Richard Spencer, the former secretary of the Navy, said he was fired before he could resign over the president's decision to intervene in an internal review of a Navy SEAL convicted of posing with [a] corpse, and downplayed a supposed backchannel offer to the White House that served as the justification for his ouster.... [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper told reporters Monday that he fired Spencer after 'losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor.' He accused Spencer of secretly proposing a deal to the White House that would allow Gallagher to retire and retain his Trident pin..., a move Esper said was 'completely contrary' to what the two had discussed. In an interview Monday, Spencer told CBS News he spoke with White House counsel Pat Cipollone on November 15 and proposed an arrangement in which Gallagher would be allowed to retire as a SEAL if the president agreed not to intervene in the case and 'let the Navy do its administrative work.' Spencer said Cipollone called back the same day to decline the offer, saying the president would be involved.... Spencer acknowledged not telling Esper about the proposal. 'I will take the bad on me, for not letting him know I did that,' Spencer said. 'But as far as I was concerned, at that point, the president understood the deal.... He said, "I'm going to be involved." He sent a signed letter to me, an order with his signature on it, saying, "Promote Edward Gallagher to E7,'" the rank of chief petty officer. Esper acknowledged Monday that when confronted about his secret negotiations with the White House, Spencer 'was completely forthright in admitting what had been going on.'" ~~~

~~~ Chris Riotta of the (U.K.) Independent: "US veterans decried Donald Trump's orders to restore an accused war criminal's rank in the Navy.... 'Ever since Donald Trump became president he's been tearing the military apart, putting troops in the difficult position of needing to choose between obedience to his unhinged orders, and staying true to our code of honour,' said Alexander McCoy, a former Marine and political director of the veteran group Common Defence. 'By pardoning war criminals because Fox News told him to, Trump showed he sees our military as a tool for massacres, not as the professional, honourable force we aspire to be.'... The president's demands could cause 'significant long-term damage to the Naval Special Warfare community,' according to James Waters, a former Navy SEAL platoon commander and White House staff member in the Bush administration, who told The Independent: 'The only people who weigh in on whether a Navy SEAL deserves to keep his Trident are people who have their Trident.'" ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "'Get back to business!' With this tweet, President Trump directed his secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, to stop the naval officers charged with oversight of the SEALs from disciplining one of their own.... It is very much the Navy's business -- and every military’s business -- to maintain, as the military so often recites and Mr. Spencer put it in his final letter to the president, 'good order and discipline.'... The military is not an extension of his White House.... Contamination from the president's approach is amplified when his judgment is largely shaped by television commentators and his decision announced by tweet.... Our president's endorsement of the perpetrator will be taken as a representation of our values. Our own troops, many of them teenagers, will be misled by the president's sense, or lack of sense, of honor." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah but. Undermining the military justice system, firing the Navy secretary, and giving clemency to alleged & convicted depraved murderers is okay if it's all just a campaign stunt. Think Ukraine scandal, but worse. ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "If Donald Trump gets his wish, he'll soon take the three convicted or accused war criminals he spared from consequence on the road as special guests in his re-election campaign, according to two sources who have heard Trump discuss their potential roles for the 2020 effort. Despite military and international backlash to Trump's Nov. 15 clemency ... Trump believes he has rectified major injustices. Two people tell The Daily Beast they've heard Trump talk about how he'd like to have the now-cleared Clint Lorance, Matthew Golsteyn, or Edward Gallagher show up at his 2020 rallies, or even have a moment on stage at his renomination convention in Charlotte next year. Right-wing media have portrayed all three as martyrs brought down by 'political correctness' within the military." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to a NYT report, "Since 2011, the Navy has revoked more than 150 Trident pins." I think it's fair to assume that the bad acts of the vast majority of former SEALs were far less egregious than the acts of which Gallagher was accused. Will Trump override the SEALs tribunals & restore all of these pins? Why not? As it stands, it's as if I get 10 years in the pen for driving 5 mph over the speed limit, but you get off scot-free for vehicular homicide. ~~~

~~~ John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump announced Sunday that Kenneth Braithwaite, the current ambassador to Norway, would replace Richard Spencer as the secretary of the Navy shortly after Spencer's ouster earlier in the day.... '... Admiral and now Ambassador to Norway Ken Braithwaite will be nominated by me to be the new Secretary of the Navy. A man of great achievement and success, I know Ken will do an outstanding job!' [Trump tweeted.] Mrs. McC: Did Braithwaite take the Trump loyalty oath? (Also linked yesterday.)

Laura Kelly of the Hill: "President Trump asked multiple federal agencies to address Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's 'concerns' that Turkey's state-owned bank would be under threat of U.S. sanctions, according to a response from the Treasury Department to a senior Democratic senator [Ron Wyden (Oregon)].... The response by Treasury confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg that in April Trump directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr to intervene in the case against Halkbank following a phone call between the two world leaders.... It is the first public U.S. admission of Trump directing Cabinet officials, in this case in Treasury and the Department of Justice, to involve themselves with Erdoğan's concerns around Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank indicted last month by federal prosecutors for allegedly funneling billions of dollars to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It also raises questions about how Trump's personal relationships and business dealings influence his foreign policy decisions...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "United States troops have resumed large-scale counterterrorism missions against the Islamic State in northern Syria, military officials say, nearly two months after President Trump's abrupt order to withdraw American troops opened the way for a bloody Turkish cross-border offensive American-backed operations against ISIS fighters in the area effectively ground to a halt for weeks despite warnings from intelligence analysts that Islamic State militants were beginning to make a comeback from Syrian desert redoubts even though their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed during an American raid on Oct. 26. On Friday, American soldiers and hundreds of Syrian Kurdish fighters -- the same local allies the Trump administration abandoned to fend for themselves against the Turkish advance last month ==; reunited to conduct what the Pentagon said was a large-scale mission to kill and capture ISIS fighters in Deir al-Zour province, about 120 miles south of the Turkish border."

Paul Krugman: "... Trump is quietly applying a Ukraine-type extortion-and-bribery strategy to U.S. corporations. Many businesses are being threatened with policies that would hurt their bottom lines -- especially, but not only, tariffs on imported goods crucial to their operations. But they are also being offered the possibility of exemptions from these policies. And the implicit quid pro quo for such exemptions is that corporations support Donald Trump, or at least refrain from criticizing his actions.... The trouble with Trump's selective doling out of punishment isn't the harm it inflicts on corporations, it's the incentives this regime creates for political sycophancy." Krugman cites the examples of "Tim Apple"'s willingness to let Trump get away with gross falsehoods during a plant visit last week & the Pentagon's awarding a $10BB contract to Microsoft over the expected recipient, Jeff Bezos' Amazon Washington Post.

"The Chosen One." William Cummings of USA Today: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in an interview that he told ... Donald Trump that he was God's 'chosen one' to lead the United States, just as he chose the kings to lead Israel in the Old Testament.... 'Barack Obama didn't get to be the president of the United States without being ordained by God. Neither did Donald Trump,' he said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, adding that God has used 'individuals who aren't perfect all through history.'" Mrs. McC: My, my, the Lord moves in mysterious ways. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Dawsey & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Trump has made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the de facto project manager for constructing his border wall, frustrated with a lack of progress over one of his top priorities as he heads into a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials. Kushner convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent. He also shares and explains the president's wishes with the group, according to the officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. The president&'s son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump's goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid." The Hill has a summary report here.

Michael E. Hayden of the Southern Poverty Law Center: "Stephen Miller linked immigration to violence in emails to Breitbart News.... 'It has never been easier in American history for illegal aliens to commit crimes of violence against Americans,' Miller, now White House senior policy adviser, argued in a Jan. 5, 2016, email.... Miller read an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that debunked a connection between immigration and crime, the emails show, but he chose to ignore it. Jason L. Riley, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, noted in the op-ed that 'numerous studies going back more than a century have shown that immigrants -- regardless of nationality or legal status -- are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or to be incarcerated.' In a July 15, 2015, email to Breitbart, Miller dismissed Riley's writing as being 'more lies about new [A]merica,' borrowing language found in white nationalist writing about evolving demographics." Mrs. McC: Wingers almost always dismiss inconvenient facts and usually disparage the fact-tellers.

Dennis Jett in the Atlantic: "As the rich get richer, the ambassadors get worse.... As the cost of American presidential campaigns skyrockets, as wealthy Americans flex their muscles within the American political system, and as the selling of ambassadorships for cold, hard cash becomes more and more overt.... No other developed democratic country -- and perhaps no other country in the world -- would entrust any part of its foreign policy to someone like Gordon Sondland.... Sondland is an egregious case, but Trump's predecessors made similar appointments for similar reasons. The three-week 'charm school' that new ambassadors attend is not enough to turn donors into diplomats. Four ambassadors appointed by Barack Obama performed so badly that, once the State Department inspector general issued reports on how poorly their embassies were run, they all resigned immediately." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Kusnet, in the New Republic, suggests that Anonymous, the author of a New York Times op-ed & a book about Trump's reckless presidency is likely Guy Snodgrass, "an apolitical retired Navy commander who became chief speechwriter for former Defense Secretary James Mattis. If so, he behaved ethically when he wrote an unsigned op-ed and contracted to expand it into a book."

Presidential Race 2020, Sort of

Julia Craven of Slate reminds us that John Delaney, who hasn't made the Democratic presidential debate cut since July, is still in the race. And he can do something that Trump can't do (and neither can I):


Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The world has squandered so much time mustering the action necessary to combat climate change that rapid, unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas emissions offer the only hope of averting an ever-intensifying cascade of consequences, according to new findings from the United Nations. Already, the past year has brought devastating hurricanes, relentless wildfires and crippling heat waves, prompting millions of protesters to take to the streets to demand more attention to a problem that seems increasingly urgent. Amid that growing pressure to act, Tuesday's U.N. report offers a grim assessment of how off-track the world remains. Global temperatures are on pace to rise as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, according to the United Nations' annual 'emissions gap' report, which assesses the difference between the world's current path and the changes needed to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord." The Guardian's report is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Joe Sonka of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Gov. Matt Bevin has pardoned a man serving a life sentence for sexually abusing and sodomizing his 6-year-old stepdaughter 20 years ago. In his pardon and commutation order on Friday, Bevin wrote that Paul Donel Hurt had been wrongly convicted in Jefferson County in 2001 of three counts of sodomy in the first degree and two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree.... In 2015, Hurt's accuser recanted her testimony in an evidentiary hearing. However, the trial court did not set aside the conviction, with Jefferson Circuit Judge Audra Jean Eckerle ruling that her recantation was an inconsistent, 'shifting account' that was 'no more likely to be true than false.' The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in August 2018, noting that after the retirement of Jefferson Circuit Judge Stephen Mershon -- the judge in the original conviction -- he began corresponding with Hurt in prison and contacted the victim, after which time she recanted.... Bevin issued 15 other pardons on Friday, including one for Justin Derrick Wibbels, who was convicted of wanton murder in Laurel County in 2015. Jerry Thompson was killed in 2014 when his vehicle was struck by a car driven by Wibbels. The governor wrote that Wibbles 'was involved in a tragic accident and has been incarcerated as a result of his conviction for wanton murder. This was not a murder.'"

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Reader Comments (12)

“There’s obviously a concerted effort to spread as many lies about me as possible, to destroy my reputation so that I’m not credible...” sez Rudy, aka Moe Howard, the biggest of the Stooges. Well, this stooge oughta know. A concerted effort to spread lies, destroying reputations and attacking credibility is just his meat. He might not be that good at it, but he sure tries hard. A for effort, Rude. Also for asshole.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

The Matt Stieb insert above is confusing: It's about the Chris Wallace back and forth with John Kennedy but then it becomes "Johnson" further down.

Yes, kudos to Judge Jackson: "A president is not a King." For a long time here I referred to Trump as "the King if he could" or something to that effect. It was clear from the beginning he thought he could just sail in and run the ship the way HE wanted , those tiny hands spread wide into whatever filled his fancy. And we let him. What does this say about a country such as ours that allows this pretender to cause this much damage? It took two anonymous persons to open the floodgates––even Mueller wasn't enough. OR––has Fatty just revealed how corrupt this country really is?

The Bush/Cheney black holes opened eyes wide. Let's ask all those innocent prisoners that were locked up and tortured on that little Cuban island and were there because the Bush administration paid for them––$30,000 a head, I read––round up anyone you can, butchers, bakers and the guy who sweeps the sidewalks. See? we catch the bad guys––optics! always the optics! Just one of many.

In a couple days we celebrate the most American of the holidays which, like Christmas and Easter is based on a myth. How I wish we could count our realities while we count our blessings. We have come this far––build a wall or take a stand.

"When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back." Nietzsche

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The Supreme Court coming to the aid of Trump is no surprise. Simply deciding that his attempt to keep his tax returns secret, something other presidents have not done, need further, um, consideration, will drag out any possible conclusion for months, exactly what Fatty and the Party of Traitors are hoping for.

Anything to help a traitor.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@PD Pepe: Thanks for the correction. I just checked, and the Stieb post has not been corrected. Obviously, I didn't even notice the error -- I just read "Johnson" as "Kennedy." I doubt LBJ would have appreciated that!

November 26, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Wingnut History Class

Let's consider two guys, both from Tennessee.

First, Cordell Hull. Ever heard of him? Of course you have. He won a Nobel Prize for helping to establish the United Nations. He was an instrumental Secretary of State for eleven years in the Roosevelt administration, a term longer than any other SoS. He served in the House and Senate and fought in the Spanish-American War.

The Tennessee state's legislative office building is named for Cordell Hull.

Okay, next guy.

Winfield Dunn. Ever heard of him? Of course you haven't (unless maybe you lived in TN in the 70's).

He didn't win any Nobel prizes, but he did change the highway signs to read "Now Entering the Great State of Tennessee" (Surely there's a road sign Nobel, no?).

But there's something Dunn has that Hull doesn't. He was a Republican. Cordell Hull was a Democrat. A Democrat who worked with wingnut boogeyman Franklin Roosevelt. Hull was also instrumental in establishing the federal income tax. All horrible things for wingers.

So now a state rep (R, natch) wants to have Hull's name removed from the legislative office building and replaced with Dunn's.

Another way for wingers to write out the history they don't like. Just another day in the confederacy.

Don't know if anyone ever wrote any songs about Dunn's wonderful career (single term governor), but Cordell Hull's name shows up in the excellent "FDR in Trinidad", a big hit for Jamaican singer Attila the Hun (and later Ry Cooder):

Now we understand that the president has just been
On a visit to Brazil and the Argentine
Mr. Cordell Hull in attendance
They took part in a peace conference
To stop war and atrocity
And make the world safe for democracy
The greatest event in the century
In the interest of suffering humanity


Soooo...let's see. Peace conference? Ixnay. FDR? Yikes! Democracy? Verboten, so sez Fatty! Interest in suffering humanity? Meh. Who gives a shit? Prob'ly darkies or mooslims or losers from shithole countries.

But here's the thing. This is yet another of the thousand little cuts that R's have imposed on this country for the last 30 years or so. Every time they're allowed to rewrite history, a little bit of our heritage is lost and/or disparaged in favor of a storyline more acceptable to racists and haters and the anti-democratic forces of authoritarianism.

Some people might say, "So what? It's just a name", and maybe if Hull's name were being replaced by a Republican of equal stature it might be harder to complain. But he's being replaced because he's not Of The Body. He was a Roosevelt Democrat, not a Trump Republican, and he has to go.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

W.H. was briefly on lockdown after aircraft (could have been geese) entered restricted airspace,
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/26/politics/white-house-lockdown-airspace/index.html

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Woof. Don't know about you kids but I'm feeling better knowing that construction of The Wall (™) is being overseen by Young Jared.

This thing will never get built.

Kushner is a lifelong moocher and inept hanger-on. He couldn't draw a smiley face without making it look like a demented clown.

I can see it now. By the time Fatty is taken out in handcuffs (can't be too soon for me), Young Jared will have the thing well in hand, looking like something Spanky and Our Gang cooked up in their spare time.

You go, Jared! Maybe you and Ivanka can take the kids rafting on the Rio Grande on one of their seventeen yearly vacations. But watch out for all those immigrants swimming across so they can hop over your crappy wall.

The Trump Crime Family: Incompetence is our middle name.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: C'mon. The kid needed another little project after he finished up bringing peace to the Middle East for a thousand years.

November 26, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

SAR: Special Administrative Region, or

Hong Kong, that place on the map that Britain took from China and then (kinda) gave it back or.....

....another illustration that those things we call nations, countries, states or regions, all with their arbitrarily assigned borders, are more often than not the direct enemies of democracy.

As all these parts of the world are "won," "lost," or "traded" it's seldom that the people who reside there are consulted or play any part in the decision.

And some wonder why there is constant unrest in-- oh, just about everywhere around the globe.

And it is that ubiquitous unrest that, among other factors, fuels the rise of nationalism, tribalism writ large, which instead of solving the problems only exacerbates them.

The way we have structured our geopolitical arrangements, democracy will always be an afterthought. A nice idea, maybe, but not often in the cards we deal and are dealt.

And as the Pretender--no lover of democracy-- proves every day, not even here in the land of the free.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@AK: Love this group––the better Spanky and our Gang" ––but we are certainly getting to know Fatty and HIS gang along with the pulchritudinous Prince who oversees the vast territories of this Kingdom while knowing little about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWXVgDewwdI

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Ak re: tax returns... Jésus cristo, I can't believe we still can't get access. Such malarkey. I'm fully convinced the tax returns will have all his oligarch money laundering out of the loop ( that's what accountants are for), but it will expose him and his family as indebted charlatans with black holes connecting their lavish spending to their meager (official) earnings. And all the indebted #MAGA fucks will celebrate bc "fuck the tax man!"

I'm getting reallly interested in ol' Giuliani. The man is headed for prison. He's Michael Cohen 2.0. What happens when he spends a full week behind bars? Imagine his reflections stepping into his orange jumpsuit each morning. He'll flip. He's weak, wanted the warmth of the bright lights, and got burned. He wants to finish life sleeping with comfy pillows. He'll flip.

I've been trying to game out the next few years of America (fool's errand, I know) if Americans send this living cancer back for a second term...His current strategy has been win the day, and leave tomorrow's problem for tomorrow. This has been fantastically successful so far. But all the court logjams withholding all his dirty laundry would spectacularly break right as he retakes the office. So much scandal, so many documents, so much anger and retribution to start his 2nd round. And the GOP will be all in, defending every open attempt at the sabotage of the American experiment, and no low is too low. The Confederacy 2.0, but this time driving the car through minority control. That's way dangerous. The right exaggerates "antifa" now. I think they'd have a legit concern on their hands...

The primal scream emanating from the old white population, in total lockstep with this monster, is morbidly fascinating. Ready to throw away their entire heritage, all the benefits they've lived and thrived under, all for a last ride in the rusty Corvette. It's the privileged whites deep-sixing expanded local social services for fear of assisting "them", but now on a national scale, preferring to burn the bridge and live out their days eating fish than approve the inner city development project.

Terrifying and fascinating, and all too real as the GOP reveals themselves ready to be Russian collaborators just to perpetuate the Orange Myth.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Safari,

Derived much food from your thinking (as well as pleasure from some nice turns of phrase). Like you, have been doing a little crystal-balling too, but will save any fruits of that for later.

For now, only this. Next to Guiliani, Cohen is a piker. Running interference for the same soulless bully, yes, but Cohen's bully didn't park his fat ass in the White House. Now, while G. occupies much the same role, his don has a much wider reach and more power at his disposal, so the bullying, grifting and corruption he's able to indulge in would have to make him at least a 20.0, don't you think?

And if one were to measure the damage G. is doing to the country.....?

I didn't used to take either G. or the Pretender seriously. They were just a part of the vast New York scene I knew and cared little about . To this Left Coaster, a mostly comic part.

Now I have to pay attention to them, and I blame them for that, too.

November 26, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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