;)
The Commentariat -- November 28, 2017
Afternoon Update:
New York Times: "The two top Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said their party will skip a planned meeting with Mr. Trump and congressional leaders that was scheduled for this afternoon after the president posted on Twitter this morning that he was meeting with 'Chuck and Nancy' to discuss ways to avert a government shutdown and wrote 'I don't see a deal! 'Given that the President doesn't see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead,' Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi said in a statement."
George Hunter of the Detroit News: "A former staffer of U.S. Rep. John Conyers said the veteran lawmaker made unwanted sexual advances toward her, including inappropriate touching, adding to allegations by other unnamed former employees that have prompted a congressional investigation. Deanna Maher, who worked for him from 1997 to 2005, told The Detroit News that the Detroit Democrat made unwanted advances toward her three times. Maher is the second former Conyers staffer to go public with accusations about the veteran lawmaker."
Marwa Eltagouri of the Washington Post: "The Washington Post on Monday published a report about a woman who falsely claimed Roy Moore sexually assaulted her as a teenager -- and who appeared to work with Project Veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics and secretly recorded conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets. Shortly after the investigation was published, Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe tweeted a video of what he called his 'confrontation' with one of the authors of The Post investigation, Aaron C. Davis. The video was heavily edited.... In the full version of the video, O'Keefe repeatedly declined to answer questions about the woman and her affiliation with Project Veritas.... Project Veritas's edited version leaves out most of The Post's questions...."
*****
... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday transformed a White House ceremony to honor Navajo veterans of World War II into a racially charged controversy, using the event as a platform to deride Senator Elizabeth Warren as 'Pocahontas.' Standing in the Oval Office alongside three Navajo code talkers, whom he called 'very, very special people,' Mr. Trump dispensed with his prepared remarks and took aim at Ms. Warren without naming her, resurrecting a favorite nickname as the veterans stood stonefaced.... The comment drew swift rebukes from Native American leaders, including one who was present for the ceremony. Russell Begaye, the president of the Navajo Nation, called the president's mention of Pocahontas 'derogatory' and 'disrespectful to Indian nations.'" ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The most despicable president since ... Andrew Jackson: Trump "made the remarks while standing in front of a portrait of President Andrew Jackson -- a favorite of Mr. Trump's -- who ... signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which resulted in the mass displacement and deaths of Native Americans often referred to as the Trail of Tears." This isn't insensitivity or ignorance -- Trump disparages all ethnic minorities on purpose.
This was a ceremony to honor war heroes: Native Americans who had put it all on the line to protect our country and to save lives of Americans and our allies. It should have been a celebration of their incredible service, but Donald Trump couldn't make it through without tossing in a racial slur. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Monday evening ...
... AND Mrs. Huckleberry of course is good with the boss's derogatory remarks. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "'I think what most people find offensive is Senator Warren lying about her heritage to advance her career,' Sanders replied, without skipping a beat.... 'I don't know why no one is asking about that question and why that isn't constantly covered.' In fact, the questions about Warren's heritage were 'constantly covered' during her 2012 Senate campaign against Republican Scott Brown, a campaign that she ultimately won. And while she has never definitively proven that she has Cherokee blood, there is also no concrete evidence that she benefitted professionally because of those claims.... If she was aware of the irony that Trump advanced his own political career by lying about President Obama's heritage, she did not let on." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie P.S.: I haven't seen any indication yet that Mrs. Huckleberry delivered that "homemade" pie to April Ryan.
Dollars to Doughtnuts. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "On Monday, Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, brought in doughnuts. Around the same time, Leandra English, the agency's other acting director, sent an all-staff email thanking employees for their service. Awkward. And so it goes in a capital city defined by its dysfunction, at an agency where two public servants are messily and publicly vying to lead a controversial agency under constant political assault by Republicans.... As confusion reigned, Ms. English headed to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers about her plans. Among those lawmakers: Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Democrat of Massachusetts who proposed the bureau and helped set it up.... The two dueling directors embody widely differing visions regarding the future of the agency.... Mr. Mulvaney sent a memo to employees, asking them to 'please disregard any instructions you receive from Ms. English in her presumed capacity as Acting Director.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... David Dayen in the Intercept: "The lawyer who wrote the Office of Legal Counsel memo supporting the Trump administration's viewpoint that the president can appoint Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau represented a payday lender in front of the CFPB last year. Steven A. Engel wrote the memo for OLC, which has been criticized by academics for seeking a conclusion and working backward to justify it. 'Let's be honest, this is an argument where you get the answer, and then you go to the other side of the equation,' said former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a lead author of the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the CFPB. Engel was confirmed as an assistant attorney general earlier this month by a voice vote in the Senate." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Margaret Hartmann cites some tweeted commentary on the legal arguments. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Greg Sargent: "In her first interview on this standoff since it erupted, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) -- the agency's creator -- predicted that if Trump installs his own director, its mission could be hollowed out, emboldening further financial elite defrauding of consumers. Warren suggested that this is part of a pattern in which Trump has embraced conventional GOP plutocracy in betrayal of his campaign posture as a kind of working-class avenger delivering tough justice to predatory financial elites.... Warren noted, if Mulvaney takes over -- or if Trump ultimately installs a permanent replacement with similar views -- it could cause a backslide into more financial fraud and scams.... 'Dodd-Frank is quite specific: It provides its own succession planning,' she told me. 'There is no vacancy for President Trump to fill.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Putin's Puppet. Michael Grynbaum of The New York Times: "President Trump attacks CNN on a regular basis. But he usually focuses on the domestic side of the network -- his least favorite cable news station -- making his post on Twitter this weekend about CNN's international arm something of a rarity.... Mr. Trump's comments came hours after President Vladimir V. Putin signed a law that requires certain American media outlets working in Russia to register with the government as foreign agents, essentially identifying them as hostile entities. Mr. Putin's allies had previously signaled that CNN International could be affected.... [CNN anchor] [Christiane] Amanpour said that Mr. Trump's anti-press rhetoric gives 'an automatic green light' to foreign authoritarians that want to crack down on journalists in their countries." --safari...
Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "... it appears that Mr. Trump and the Saudis have helped the [Iranian] government achieve what years of repression could never accomplish: widespread public support for the hard-line view that the United States and Riyadh cannot be trusted and that Iran is now a strong and capable state capable of staring down its enemies." Mrs. McC: Both Patrick & Ken W. discuss this story in today's Comments. As Patrick summed it up yesterday, our new, aggressive, thoughtless foreign policy is "Simpler. Stupider. Worser. Dangerouser. Trumpier." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jeff Horwitz of the AP: "Owners of the Trump International Hotel in Panama are working to strip ... Donald Trump's name from the 70-story building and fire the hotel management company run by Trump's family. The property once paid at least $32 million to associate with Trump.... Owners of apartments and hotel units at the Panama property have previously complained about problems with Trump's management. The AP reported in October 2015 -- when Trump was a candidate for president -- that owners of apartments in the building had revolted over alleged mismanagement, firing Trump's manager from the building's overall board of directors. Trump responded with an arbitration demand for millions of dollars in damages, but the claim was ultimately settled.... Trump's company at the time threatened to sue the AP over its coverage.... No lawsuit was ever filed, and Trump never identified or alleged factual errors in AP's coverage." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As NBC News & others reported earlier this month, the Trump Hotel Panama has ties to the Russian mafia & other organized criminals, money laundering, & drug trafficking.
Katherine Faulders & John Santucci of ABC News: "President Trump has privately questioned the authenticity of the now infamous 'Access Hollywood' recording in which he was caught in a vulgar exchange in 2005 with the show's host Billy Bush, bragging about his ability to grope women because he's 'a star,' sources confirmed for ABC News. Trump has repeated the claim to advisers in recent weeks and even a Republican senator earlier this year, sources said. The news of his comments was first reported by The New York Times." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The Times reported that Trump had made the incredible remark to two people -- an advisor & a U.S. Senator. The ABC reports that Trump spoke to more than one advisor about the authenticity of the tape. Trump has acknowledged the authenticity of the tape multiple times, repeating claiming the banter with Bush was "locker-room talk." Now, it turns out, the tape was doctored & Trump never said -- much less did -- anything offensive. What a nutjob. Experts & pundits have spilled a lot of ink over why Trump tells bald-faced lies nearly every time he opens his mouth. But I think the answer is simple: he can't handle the truth about himself. If any one of us was the massive daily fuck-up Trump is, we probably couldn't to face it, either. So Trump arises every day a new man, only to be confronted by hostile fake news media that makes up what Disappeared Trump did yesterday & the day before.
Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "The lawyer for ... Michael T. Flynn met Monday morning with members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team -- the latest indication that both sides are discussing a possible plea deal.... Sources familiar with the discussions between Flynn's legal team and Trump's attorneys told ABC News that while there was never a formal, signed joint defense agreement between Flynn's defense counsel and other targets of the Mueller probe, the lawyers had engaged in privileged discussions for months." ...
... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Former CIA Director James Woolsey dined with ... Donald Trump last weekend at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida -- where, a report said, they had a 'lengthy conversation' at the main dining table surrounded by several of Trump's friends, associates, and political allies. A tipster told Politico's Playbook about the conversation, which raised eyebrows given Woolsey's centrality to the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Michael Flynn.... Woolsey, who served on the board of Flynn's lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, was at a meeting on September 19, 2016, with Flynn and Turkish government ministers in which they discussed removing the controversial Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen from US soil, Woolsey has said. Woolsey apparently notified Vice President Joe Biden through a mutual friend about the meeting, which he thought could have been an illegal discussion, Woolsey's spokesman, Jonathan Franks, said earlier this year. Franks confirmed late last month that Mueller's team had interviewed Woolsey about the meeting. He said Woolsey and his wife had been in touch with the FBI since before Mueller began overseeing the bureau's Russia investigation in May." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I imagine Trump incriminated himself again in his dinner with Jim. ...
... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "One uncanny aspect of the investigations into Trump's Russia connections is that instead of too little evidence there's too much. It's impossible to keep it straight without the kind of chaotic wall charts that Carrie Mathison of 'Homeland' assembled during her manic episodes. Incidents that would be major scandals in a normal administration -- like the mere fact of Trump's connection to [Felix] Sater -- become minor subplots in this one. That's why 'Collusion' [by British journalist Luke Harding] is so essential, and why I wish everyone who is skeptical that Russia has leverage over Trump would read it.... Trump, the gaudy huckster who treats closing a sale as the height of human endeavor, is a quintessentially American figure. His campaign of racial and religious grievance drew on the darkest currents of American history."
All the Best People, Ctd. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Alex M. Azar II, President Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has expressed concern about the soaring cost of prescription drugs for many consumers. This week, Mr. Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive, is expected to face tough questions at a Senate confirmation hearing over why his own company raised prices. Democratic senators say that, as a top manager at Eli Lilly and Company, he was responsible for steep increases on insulin and other drugs. How he would now tackle that problem as secretary, along with the future of the Affordable Care Act, promises to dominate the hearings. Even Democrats who are unlikely to vote for Mr. Azar say that he will probably be confirmed, and that he would be more pragmatic and less ideological than the man he would succeed, Tom Price...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump wants to put a drug price gouger in charge of the agency that is supposed to protect Americans from drug price gouging, but he's not as bad as the last guy.
A Brief Return of the Mooch. John Hilliard of the Boston Globe: "Tufts University postponed a Monday event featuring Anthony Scaramucci, a former Trump White House spokesman, after he threatened to sue a student and the school newspaper for defamation following the publication of an op-ed column criticizing him. Scaramucci, a Tufts graduate, has served on an advisory board at Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy since 2016." Mrs. McC: Oh, how I miss the Mooch; definitely one of Trump's "best people ever." Scum that he is, he probably would not have lied as much as Mrs. Huckleberry does. (Also linked yesterday.)
Eric Levitz of New York: "The Senate GOP's plan to overhaul the American tax system has been around for less than two weeks. The party has not held a single hearing on the bill's macroeconomic effects (even as experts warn that these could include a health-care crisis and housing market crash). Large majorities of the public disapprove of the legislation. Even small-business owners -- ostensibly, one of the tax package's chief beneficiaries -- appear to oppose it. And Mitch McConnell plans to pass the bill out of the Senate by week's end. As of this writing, at least nine Republican senators aren't sure that that's a good idea.... Here's how [Republicans plan to win them over: "Make the bill even better for rich business owners, to win over [Ron] Johnson and [Steve] Daines.... Put in a $10,000 property tax deduction -- and scrap the state-and-local tax deduction for corporations -- to win over Susan Collins.... Give Lisa Murkowski some oil.... Let the deficit hawks eat wildly optimistic growth projections...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)...
** Paul Krugman: "The bill Republican leaders are trying to ram through this week without hearings, without time for even a basic analysis of its likely economic impact, is the biggest tax scam in history.... One way or another, the bill would hurt most Americans. The only big winners would be the wealthy -- especially those who mainly collect income from their assets rather than working for a living -- plus tax lawyers and accountants who would have a field day exploiting the many loopholes the legislation creates. The core of the bill is a huge redistribution of income from lower- and middle-income families to corporations and business owners." ...
... E.J. Dionne: "Republicans are lying coming and going. They hold down the sticker price of the bill and minimize its impact on the deficit by having the middle-class tax cuts (but not the corporate reductions) expire. But they insist that future Congresses would keep the middle-class tax cuts in place.... [Paul] Ryan has already burnished his standing as a deficit hypocrite by pushing a comparable tax cut through the House. But don't you worry. As soon as Republicans shovel every dollar they can to the people who pay their party's bills, he'll dust off those old the-sky-is-falling quotes and warn about the deficits he helped to bloat. He'll tell us how urgent it is to slash Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and programs for the needy (although he'll try to bamboozle us again by claiming to be only 'reforming' them)." Also see Akhilleus's commentary on this in today's thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Al Franken, back at the Capitol for the first time since groping accusations emerged nearly two weeks ago, gave no indication on Monday that his political career was in peril, telling reporters that he would work to try to regain the trust of women, voters and his colleagues. 'I know there are no magic words that I can say to regain your trust,' Mr. Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, said during a brief and contrite news conference outside his Senate office. 'I know that it's going to take time.' Mr. Franken, 66, has been fighting for his political life in the face of accusations of improprieties from four women. Capitol Hill has been dominated in recent weeks by allegations of sexual impropriety and how to address them, but so far, Mr. Franken is the only senator under scrutiny."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Maryland law banning the sale of semiautomatic guns with certain military-style features. The justices in the past have passed up the chance to hear challenges to similar laws in a handful of other states. But attorneys generals in 21 states had asked the court to step in. Maryland's ban on so-called assault weapons was passed after the 2012 mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. A district judge had cast doubt on the constitutionality of the law. But the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond upheld the ban in a 10-4 vote. The ruling went further than other appellate courts that have reviewed similar laws in stating that 'assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are not protected by the Second Amendment.'... The Supreme Court made no comment in declining to review the 4th Circuit ruling." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... AP: "The justices also declined an appeal asserting a constitutional right to carry firearms openly in public." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Senate Race
Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "A retired Marine colonel who once served as a top aide to White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly plans to launch a long-shot write-in campaign Monday afternoon to become Alabama's next senator, with just 15 days left in the campaign. Lee Busby, 60, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., said he thinks that the allegations of sexual impropriety against Republican nominee Roy Moore have created an opportunity for a centrist candidate.... Busby, who was lacking any formal campaign structure or even a working website as of Monday morning, said he is counting on social media to spread the word about his campaign. He said he plans to run as an independent on his record as an investment banker, military leader and defense contractor and entrepreneur. He spent the weekend working on a logo and said he is just starting to explore the legal requirements for raising money for a campaign." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Great! Two weeks to go & he's almost got a logo already! Maybe it has a buzzy bee on it. ...
... Matthew Chapman of Shareblue: "According to Alabama-based investigative reporter Connor Sheets, a member of [Roy] Moore's campaign physically accosted a cameraman who was attempting to film Moore's arrival at a rally in Henagar, Alabama. The man was later identified as Tony Goolsby, a county coordinator for the GOP candidate's campaign.... Ever since Donald Trump glorified violence against the press, Republicans around the country have been emboldened to intimidate and even assault journalists."
Annals of Journalism & "Journalism," Ctd.
Shawn Boburg, et al., of the Washington Post: "A woman [named Jaime T. Phillips] who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with [Project Veritas,] an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.... During ... interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore's candidacy if she went public.... When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an Internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists. But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups.... James O'Keefe, the Project Veritas founder..., declined to answer questions about the woman.... A spokesman for Moore’s campaign did not respond to a message seeking comment." ...
... Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "On Monday evening..., [James O'Keefe ]insisted that it was the Post, not him and his agents, who were revealed as duplicitous dupes.... In a fundraising email to Project Veritas supporters, O'Keefe told potential donors that [Jaime] Phillips, an 'investigative journalist embedded within [the Post],' had her cover blown.... O'Keefe's attempts to spin the blown operation targeting the Washington Post's credibility -- which instead showed how the newspaper's reporters were able to detect a false accuser -- was far from the first time he and his organization have attempted to declare victory after being publicly clowned.... A tax filing shows that, for the political equivalent of tripping over dozens of rakes, O'Keefe was paid more than $317,000 for his work at Project Veritas in 2016." ...
... Steve M.: Phillips "tells a completely phony story about her past -- and assumes that one of the top newspapers in America won't even do a minimal amount of fact-checking to try to verify it. She also seems to assume that in the course of her conversations with Post reporters, one of them is going to blurt out something on the order of 'Oh yeah, once we run this story, Roy Moore is going down. Woo-hoo! Win one for the resistance, baby!' That's not just what O'Keefe et al. want -- it's what they think is reasonable to expect: that the Post will run any story that hurts a Republican, phony or not, because its reporters are nakedly biased, and that the reporters will openly display that bias in response to the slightest prodding.... These folks expect the mainstream press to be the cartoon villain everybody in their bubble says it is." ...
... ... Jonathan Chait: "James O'Keefe is a celebrated right-wing pseudo-journalist whose job consists largely of attempting to prove various conservative conspiracy theories but, instead, accidentally disproving them. O'Keefe's most recent fail is an attempt to help alleged child molester Roy Moore by tarnishing the Washington Post.... The people who are dumb enough to believe these conspiracy theories are not generally smart enough to carry out a competent entrapment scheme." Mrs. McC: Chait's column reads as if he could not stop laughing. And no wonder: the column is pretty funny.
The Gray Lady Regrets. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "'We regret the degree to which the piece offended so many readers,' New York Times national editor Marc Lacey wrote in a carefully drafted response to the social-media backlash against [its profile of an Ohio Nazi].... 'Our reporter and his editors agonized over the tone and content of the article,' he writes. Such agony wasn't reflected in the piece." More on this story below under Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Machinations of Fake News. Lloyd Grove & Clive Irving of the The Daily Beast: "The owner of the National Enquirer [David Pecker, an avid Trumpist] was among the suitors for Time, Inc. before the company was sold to the Meredith Corporation this week and he may now get a second chance to buy a slice of the company that includes em>Time magazine.... Pecker himself told The New Yorker in July he wanted to buy Time, Inc. and was, as the magazine put it, looking for a 'deep-pocketed partner' to do it. Enter the Koch brothers.... Meredith is at pains to point out that, in theory, the Kochs are passive investors.... But the brothers don't need to be the news whisperers behind Time if this deal is really only part one of the plan: Meredith buys Time, Inc., keeps what it wants, and sells the rest.... John Huey, the former editor in chief of Time Inc., told The Daily Beast: 'It's logical to assume that Meredith will dump Time and Fortune, which they never wanted. Perhaps the Kochs have already bought them, or arranged to sell them to suitable proprietors.'" --safari ...
... Lucia Graves of the Guardian on the Koch brothers' financial backing of the Time, Inc. buyout. The boys are effecting a pretense now that they'll have nothing to do with editorial content, but several observers note that the Koch boys play the long game, so it might not be long before the "Person of the Year" becomes nothing more than the Kochs' favorite guy. Thanks to CaptRuss for the link. Mrs. McC: Graves' observers are looking at mike pence; I'm seeing Scott Pruitt! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Daily Beast: "Wells Fargo bankers overcharged hundreds of corporate clients in order to meet their sales goals, the Wall Street Journal reports. Those bankers, most of whom performed international transactions for corporations, allegedly inflated clients' fees, tacking on millions of dollars in extra charges. The bankers were allegedly driven by Wells Fargo's employee rewards system, which gave sizable bonuses to bankers who exceeded their sales goals. Of approximately 300 corporate clients, only 35 were charged the correct fees, according to an internal Wells Fargo investigation obtained by the Journal." --safari: How absurd to want to regulate banks. They're clearly regulating themselves just fine. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What was it about Trump, Mulvaney, Wells Fargo & the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Oh yeah, the CFPB extracted millions of dollars from Wells Fargo for ripping off customers & Trump/Mulvaney want to shut it down. This is a new charge, & the CFPB could potentially fine Wells Fargo many more millions for rampant exploitation of its customers.
Sandra Laville of the Guardian: "Clothes must be designed differently, worn for longer and recycled as much as possible to stop the global fashion industry consuming a quarter of the world’s annual carbon budget by 2050.... In a report published on Tuesday, [Dame Ella] McCartney's foundation exposes the scale of the waste, and how the throwaway nature of fashion has created a business which creates greenhouse emissions of 1.2bn tonnes a year -- larger than that of international flights and shipping combined." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "The Democratic majority whip of the California State Assembly on Monday announced that he will immediately resign following allegations of sexual harassment. In a statement obtained by a reporter with The Los Angeles Times, Raul Bocanegra said he has decided to resign right away, as opposed to waiting until September of 2018, as he had originally announced." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Shaikh Azizur Rahman of the Guardian: "Reporters working inside Myanmar's Rakhine state to document atrocities against Rohingya have gone missing, raising fears that they have been deliberately targeted by the military. Young Rohingya volunteers had been secretly reporting on persecution of the Muslim minority in Myanmar since 2012, sending photos, videos and audio clips out of the country using smartphones. Human rights groups claim the Myanmar military have killed and abducted many of the reporters to 'sabotage' the networks and that there is now very little reporting on what is happening in the closed state of Rakhine. Rohingya refugee Mohammad Rafique, who edits the Rohingya community news portal The Stateless, said that 'over 95%' of Rakhine's mobile reporters had gone missing since the crackdown began." --safari: Normally an American president would have the moral authority to denounce such atrocities. Our current president* tacitly supports them.
Yepoka Yeebo of the Guardian: "On Friday 2 December 2016, a curious story appeared on the website GhanaBusinessNews.com. 'Ghana security authorities shut down fake US Embassy in Accra,' the headline declared. For a decade, the story went, there had been a fake US embassy in the Ghanaian capital.... The story ... swiftly became an international sensation.... The fake embassy became a sensation largely because the story was so predictably familiar. The Africans were scammers. The victims were desperate and credulous. The local police officers were bumbling idiots. Countless officials were paid off. And at the end, the Americans swooped in and saved the day. There was only one problem with the story: it wasn't true."--safari
Resource Curse. Hannah Summers of the Guardian: "Amnesty International is calling for a criminal investigation into the oil giant Shell regarding allegations it was complicit in human rights abuses carried out by the Nigerian military. A review of thousands of internal company documents and witness statements published on Tuesday points to the Anglo-Dutch organisation's alleged involvement in the brutal campaign to silence protesters in the oil-producing Ogoniland region in the 1990s. Amnesty is urging the UK, Nigeria and the Netherlands to consider a criminal case against Shell in light of evidence it claims amounts to 'complicity in murder, rape and torture' -- allegations Shell strongly denies." --safari
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Reader Comments (14)
Last night I was furious. I'm calmer this AM, a little.
No wet eyes, but I don't doubt some degree of outrage will be with me as long as the Pretender and his pack of sub-humans are in office.
The picture of the Pretender and his Navajo betters this AM, with the Andrew Jackson portrait looming ironically behind, sets yet another new low mark, merely the latest on the descent to the abyss. I say one day it can't get any worse, and then inevitably it seems, yes, the next day or the day ofter that, it does. Tasteless taunts directed at other politicians, incessant claims that truth is fake, the lies...oh, the constant lies. I'm almost used to it by now. But the meanness, the insensitivity, the outright stupidity of yesterday's performance....
We all try to make sense of it. It's all a distraction, an appeal to a base I cannot comprehend, some kind of black performance art....Bull. He's an ignorant, evil man. Period.
Should have copied the Pretender on this sent to the local paper a week or so back. But just as well I didn't. Why waste the electrons?
"Mr. Trump, who knows little history (washingtonpost.com), often speaks in front of an Andrew Jackson portrait, a tableau suggested to him by Trump-whisperer, Steve Bannon.
Since his knowledge of history is only vague, it’s likely Mr. Trump doesn’t appreciate all he shares with our seventh President—and all he does not.
Both Trump and Jackson ran on race and trade issues. Jackson’s 1827 coalition included southern and then-western states like Kentucky and Tennessee, areas troubled by pesky Native Americans and by a recently enacted tariff, the equivalent of today’s trade agreements.
Jackson promised to end the Indian problem, which he did by forcing thousands of Native Americans to Oklahoma via what became The Trail of Tears. Trump has promised to build a wall to keep brown people out.
But Jackson is perhaps most famous for instituting what we now know as the “spoils system.” Like his admirer Trump, Jackson drained the swamp of his time by appointing supporters, regardless of qualification, to government positions.
In the Trump (“I will hire all the best people”) administration, party loyalty or family connections qualify anyone for anything. A wedding planner to head a Federal Housing agency (CNN.com); campaign workers with no agricultural expertise to head USDA farm programs (politico.com); a Republican Congressman nominated to head NASA whose only qualification appears to that he’s a climate change denier; a Federal Appeals Court judge who has never tried a case (post-gazette.com); and a new head of the Dept. of Energy’s Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis who just happens to be Eric Trump’s brother-in-law.
Yes, Trump does have some things in common with Andrew Jackson. But what of the marked exceptions?
Jackson was an acknowledged and experienced politician and leader of men, a genuine war hero—and he won the popular vote."
@Mrs. McC., I doubt that April Ryan is holding her breath over that FAKE pie. At best all she should expect is a FAKE photo from Sarah Liarbee. Via AM Joy.
Gee, remember when Confederates were trying to run Bill Clinton out of town for lying about a blow job? “Character matters!” they all sniffed, noses in the air. And ‘member when Confederates used to scream bloody murder about “free stuff” to moochers because we’d be saddling “our grandchildren” with massive debt? And it doesn’t seem all that long ago when they screamed about Obama trying to pack the courts and threw up barriers to most of his nominees to the federal bench including an unconstitutional denial of an eminently qualified Supreme Court nominee.
Now?
Now we have the Omnibuffoon throwing the full weight of his ill gotten office, achieved through collusion with a foreign power, behind a serial child molester and insulting, as Ken says, his betters with racial epithets...in the OVAL OFFICE!! And we have Confederate leaders, who blanched at allowing poor children—who need them—to get food stamps because they’re such horrible budget busters, ready to explode the deficit by trillions to give wealthy moochers millions they don’t need.
And packing the courts? As long as the little king’s Nominees don’t fall over when they stand up, salute the Confederate flag, and promise to stick it to women, immigrants, minorities, and liberals, they’re in like Flynn.
Character? It’s a handy cudgel to be laid aside when it becomes an inconvenience. It’s just a word.
Like “evil” (thanks, Ken).
The media missed a piece of 'Pocahontas'. The reason Trump said the word has nothing to do with Native Americans. He was in a tough spot. He was representing the USA in honoring some Native Americans, but he can not say anything that does not include Trump. And since the only trumpism in that area is the racist word, he had no choice. Remember he isn't the POTUS, he is the POTUSOT.
@Ken––well, my trail of tears haven't ceased although they have a close relationship with pure hatred and frustration that has caused loss of appetite and a desperate need for comfort foods. I'm trying to find the "bright side of life" here and I'm lucky to have lots of love in my personal life but the measure of things politically drives me crazy.
" So Trump arises every day a new man, only to be confronted by hostile fake news media that makes up what Disappeared Trump did yesterday & the day before."
It's as though he lives in one of those etch and sketch boards that he can erase at whim––history for him doesn't exist except when it suits him at the moment. Andrew Jackson beaming down during the ceremony yesterday was incredulous!
And I do hope that this morning Leandra English got to work early sans doughnuts and sat in her rightful chair at her rightful desk. Oh, please make this work!! A Wells Fargo logo pasted on the door of her office might be a reminder of why this agency was erected in the first place.
@unwashed: Thanks. Reid sure captures the essence of Mrs. Huckleberry:
"While we at AM Joy cannot verify whether or not Sanders baked that pie, I think the clear moral here is that when you spend every day lying to the press and to the American people on behalf of your boss, the President, after a while people don’t believe you, not even regarding the authenticity of your holiday pie."
I'd say Sarah & Donald missed the lesson of "The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf.'"
BTW, the PBS pie thing is not true. PBS did post a picture of the "home-baked" pie, but they got it from Sanders' tweet, not from a stock image found on the Internets.
One thing I haven't mentioned, & neither have most pundits, is a central reason for the tax "reform" bills -- most Congressional Republicans hold the general public in the low esteem the public holds them. At best, we're a bunch of unruly, lazy dumbclucks. Republicans in positions of power & influence -- and many independents & Democrats -- see democracy as a problem rather than a solution.
Democrats tend to deal with it by trying to make the "problem" less problematic -- by providing for better education, better economic conditions, etc. Republicans have dealt with the "problem" by lying to them -- keeping them in line with pandering to shibboleths -- racial dogwhistles, abortion, respect for the flag, minimum sentencing, etc.
Nothing could have reinforced Republicans' disdain for the people more than the nomination & election of Donald Trump. (The nomination of Roy Moore comes close, though.) Back in the day, the party elite would have picked Jeb! or Mitt -- someone who knew how to behave in public while screwing said public. But the primary system -- where people vote or caucus -- put an end to that. Now our leaders are more "democratically" elected. And that, particularly for Republicans, is a bad thing.
So their so-called tax "reform" is going to give ordinary people less economic power -- and tangentially -- less political power. Hell, the unwashed may not even have time to vote, much less give any money to candidates like Trump & Moore.
While it's true that Republican elites created the conditions that make the likes of Trump & Moore viable candidates, they're not going to take responsibility for that any more than Trump takes responsibility for any of his remarks & actions. Instead, they will double down on oppressing the people who actually pull the lever for this kind of candidate. They're doing it for their country.
Elizabeth Warren mentions that Trump's appointment of his boot licking hackey (hack + lackey), Mulvaney of the Mick, "could hollow out" the CFPB.
Could? How about WILL. Hollowing out the CFPB IS the goal.
And not for nothin' but how does a guy who is a "budget director", in the middle of an "overhaul" of the tax code, find time to do that job AND run the CFPB? Could it be that, in actuality, one of those two jobs is not very important in Trump World? In fact, now that I think of it, neither is very important in Trump World. As the little king declared when asked--by a friendly winger "journalist"--whether his decimation of the State Department, currently being accomplished (Hey! Another accomplishment!) by Mr. Double Secret Inside Handshake Tillerson, would, ya know, fuck up our foreign policy, such as it is, he is the only one who matters. "I am the only one who matters", insisted Prez L'etat C'est Moi.
Okay, fine. So what I want to know is this: will the "only one who matters" step up and take responsibility when some international scandal precipitated by the complete absence of the US in any of dozens of places around the world blows up in his face?
We all know the answer to that, right?
"It's Obama's fault!"
Meanwhile, since Mulvaney of the Mick isn't doing very much right now what with Trump's opinion on consumer protection, the tax giveaway, and foreign policy around the world being the only one that matters, maybe he could do some sideline work with James (moron) O'Keefe and try to inveigle some other reporters into looking as stupid as they are.
Just a thought.
Marie, writing about the Confederates' Save the Rich Tax Giveaway(™), concludes that the jabronis are "doing it for their country". And she's right on the money. "Their" country. Not the United States of America, not the country the rest of us inhabit. Their country. The Land of Trump. A land of racial hatred, greed, hypocrisy on a galactic scale, misogyny, underhandedness, regressive, recidivist reactionary scheming and infernal immorality that would have blinded Milton if he wasn't already sightless.
Their country.
The old saw goes, in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king. How is it, then, that in a country where most people can see, the blind and the criminally crooked are in charge?
Is Mr. Kushner in?
According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (a real deal tech think tank--not a Heritage style ideological gas station), federal government websites are in bad shape. Really bad shape, security wise.
"In this report, ITIF reviews almost 500 of the most popular federal websites and finds that approximately 91 percent failed to perform well on at least one of the metrics analyzed in this report. For comparison, in the initial report 92 percent of the websites reviewed failed to perform well on at least one of these four benchmarks. It is incumbent on the Trump administration to address these failures and ensure the federal government can provide all Americans with secure and convenient access to online government services and information."
So you don't have to read the report, here's a highlight.
Only about 36% of the 469 government websites looked at by the ITIF passed tests for both Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). DNSSEC is a set of protocols that improve the security of DNS, while SSL certificates are essential to secure HTTPS connections. DNS and SSL security are prime bulwarks against hackers. They won't keep out the best hackers, but they will prevent a lot of annoying hacks.
And I know the ITIF report recommends that the Trumpies "address these failures", but you know how that works. If there's nothing in it for them, fuck that.
And not for nothin' but wasn't this one of those things Young Jared was supposed be doing, you know, along with discovering the cure for cancer and planting a money tree in Trump's penthouse, to "fix" the guvmint?
If not, add it to his list. When he has time, after being fitted for designer prison jumpsuits, maybe he can take care of it.
This is just one of the plethora of things being totally ignored by the little king and his court.
Who would have thought so much damage could be done so quickly by a band of incompetents and moronic nincompoops?
This is all just so surreal, isn't it. It occurs to me to amend my giving of thanks these days: we have journalists, actual investigative and reporting people like so many that you bring to your daily gathering (Thank you)! I don't mean the big shots at the big joints, but all those whom I may not have heard of.
I hope we get through this. If this malignant force prevails we will be barely a shadow of the country we think we are/were. Most folks too stressed with immediate life issues to spend time on big stuff.
I'm going to send $ to support Wikipedia, because I do think it helps to know the background and biases of people we read or read about. this Trumpian era is producing O'Keefes and Scaramouches and Huckabucks like Mickey Mouse produced little sweeping brooms (Fantasia).
Fleeting Expletive,
If you recall, Mickey Mouse, as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, gained power illegitimately by swiping the sorcerer’s hat. The hat conferred upon him power he had no idea how to handle or control, like someone else I could mention. He revels in the power but has little taste for responsibility. His goal is to use the power to make his own life that much more easy (ordering the broom to do his work so he can he take a nap). Things get quickly out of hand until the real sorcerer returns and puts things to right. Mickey is contrite and goes back to work.
In our world, Mickey is not contrite, and the sorcerer (Obama) will not be coming back to put the errant mouse in his place.
So we’re stuck with a mouse brain wielding power he has stolen.
Can’t wait for the mouse’s response to the NK missile launch today. He’ll put the sorcerer’s hat back on and try to evade responsibility as he always does while attempting some new magic tricks.
@Akhilleus: So you think Trump reads Goethe (in the original German, of course) in his spare time & named his teevee show after "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"? I hope not, because, if so, poor old Goethe must be all tuckered out from spinning in his grave. Mickey Mouse, ja; Trump nein, nein, nein.
One thing I notice about this current WH is how miserable everyone looks. Two Scoops doesn't know how to smile, Melania does it occasionally but it always looks as though she is just reminding herself that she must smile, must smile. Poor Barron always looks completely wretched. I pulled up a few previous WH Thanksgiving and other pics, going back over three administrations. They all looked genuinely happy, as if they even liked each other, and were enjoying themselves. This lot all look like they ought to be on suicide watch.