;)
The Commentariat -- October 17, 2017
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: On MSNBC, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, drug czar under President Obama, reminded us that Trump tried to defund the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the office the drug czar heads. As CNN reported in May, "The draft memo provided to CNN by a source details how the Office of National Drug Control Policy will receive a near 94% cut in 2018, from a $380 million budget to $24 million.... 'Throughout the campaign, Trump promised communities ravaged by opioid addiction that he would come to their aid,' said Daniel Wessel, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. 'That was a lie.'"
It's because of the fine journalists at the Washington Post and 60 Minutes that we have avoided appointing someone who could have made the opioid epidemic even worse. I am eager to make this wrong right and work with my colleagues and the President to repeal this horrible law that should have never passed in the first place. -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-ish W.Va.) ...
... Trump Caves to "Fake News Amazon Washington Post." Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that his nominee to be the nation's drug czar is withdrawing from consideration for the job. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa) was under fire in the wake of revelations in a Washington Post/'60 Minutes' investigation that the lawmaker helped steer legislation in Congress making it harder for the Drug Enforcement Administration to act against giant drug companies." ...
... UPDATE. Guardian: "Tom Marino, the Pennsylvania representative who Donald Trump nominated to be his 'drug czar', has withdrawn from consideration, the president said on Tuesday." --safari
NEW. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Most days bring another round [of insults], often at dawn, like plot points in a 24-7 miniseries. In just the past few weeks, Trump has started, without any clear provocation, fights with football players who kneel during the national anthem, department stores that declare 'happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,' and late-night television hosts for their 'unfunny and repetitive material.' Then there are the individual targets: [Hillary] Clinton, of course, but also 'Liddle' Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, North Korea's 'Little Rocket Man' Kim Jong Un, ESPN anchor Jemele Hill, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and a shifting array of reporters, newspapers and networks he labels as the 'fake news.'... In each instance, the combat allows Trump to underline for his core supporters the populist promise of his election: to challenge the power of political elites and those who have unfairly benefited from their 'politically correct' vision."
NEW. Ha Ha. Steve Benen: "For many years, various presidents in both parties have issued proclamations recognizing days, weeks, and months in recognition of worthy causes, and for the most part, these proclamations have gone largely overlooked. But there's something about Donald Trump that puts some of these presidential declarations in an unfortunate light. For example, it's now 'National Character Counts Week' in the United States. Trump's proclamation read in part: 'We celebrate National Character Counts Week because few things are more important than cultivating strong character in all our citizens, especially our young people.... Character is built slowly. Our actions -- often done first out of duty -- become habits ingrained in the way we treat others and ourselves....'... Didn't Trump just yesterday smear his presidential predecessors by lying about their interactions with the families of American soldiers killed in action?"
*****
BFFFs. (Best Fake Friends Forever.) Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "In an impromptu, 45-minute Rose Garden news conference after the men met for lunch at the White House, Mr. Trump and [Mitch] McConnell both put on a display of awkward camaraderie, as the president went on volubly, fielding question after question as the senator fidgeted and spoke only occasionally. Through it all, they tried to wave aside reports of a disintegrating relationship that had included the president's repeated use of tweets to publicly disparage Mr. McConnell's legislative leadership.... The feud peaked this weekend when Stephen K. Bannon ... delivered a blunt message to Mr. McConnell: 'They're just looking to find out who is going to be Brutus to your Julius Caesar.'... The president hinted that he would not entirely support Mr. Bannon's efforts to throw out of office Republicans who Mr. Bannon does not think are sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump's agenda." ...
** Ed O'Keefe, et al., of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats reacted sharply Monday to reports that President Trump's nominee to serve as the nation's drug czar helped steer legislation that made it harder for the government to take some enforcement actions against giant drug companies. One Democratic senator [-- Joe Manchin (W.Va.) --] called on Trump to withdraw the nomination of Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position requiring Senate confirmation. Another quickly introduced legislation to undo the law that Marino championed and that passed Congress with little opposition.... In a separate letter to Trump, Manchin said that more than 700 West Virginians died of opioid overdoses last year. 'No state in the nation has been harder hit than mine,' he wrote.... Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also said Monday that she would introduce legislation that would repeal the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016. The law, she said, 'has significantly affected the government's ability to crack down on opioid distributors that are failing to meet their obligations and endangering our communities.'... Manchin and McCaskill face reelection next year in rural states that Trump won last year." Mrs. McC: Thank you, Washington Post & "60 Minutes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... New Lede: "President Trump said Monday that he will declare a national emergency next week to address the opioid epidemic and declined to express confidence in Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), his nominee for drug czar, in the wake of revelations that the lawmaker helped steer legislation making it harder to act against giant drug companies. Trump's remarks came amid widespread reaction across the political spectrum to a Washington Post/'60 Minutes' investigation that explained how Marino helped guide the legislation, which sailed through Congress last year with virtually no opposition. Trump said 'we're going to be looking into' the investigation, while many Democrats and at least one Republican called for modification or outright repeal of the law. Democrats also urged Trump to drop Marino as his pick to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy."
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump falsely asserted on Monday that ... Barack Obama, and other presidents did not contact the families of American troops killed in duty, drawing a swift, angry rebuke from several of Mr. Obama's former aides. Answering a question about why he had not spoken publicly about the killing of four American Green Berets in an ambush in Niger two weeks ago, Mr. Trump said he had written personal letters to their families and planned to call them in the coming week. 'If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference in the Rose Garden with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. 'A lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate.' Mr. Trump's assertion belied a long record of meetings Mr. Obama held with the families of killed service people, as well as calls and letters. Mr. Obama regularly traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to greet the caskets of troops, a ritual that began early in his presidency before he decided to deploy 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. 'This is an outrageous and disrespectful lie even by Trump standards,' Benjamin J. Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama, posted on Twitter. 'Also,' Mr. Rhodes added, 'Obama never attacked a Gold Star family.' What made Mr. Trump's assertion all the more remarkable was that he made it to defend his silence after three American soldiers were killed while on patrol on the border between Niger and Mali this month. The body of a fourth American soldier was recovered later." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's not a lie, Ben. If there's something Trump doesn't know (which would be a lot) or something he doesn't want to know (also a lot), then it didn't happen. This is somewhat like Trump's construct "a lot of people don't know," which is followed by some commonly-known fact: that President Lincoln was a Republican or that "France is America's first and oldest ally." (P.S. "First and oldest" is a tautology.) Then, as Steve Benen noted, there are the things that "nobody knows," which is because these are not true. ...
This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this manner -- and to lie about how previous presidents responded to the deaths of soldiers -- is as low as it gets. We have a pathological liar in the White House, unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office, and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this president should be ashamed, because they know better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all. -- Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, in response to Trump's defense of not contacting families of four American troops killed in Niger...
... Phil Mudd has had enough of this shit:
Q: [by Peter Alexander of NBC News]: Earlier, you said that President Obama never called the families of fallen soldiers. How can you make that claim?
Trump: I don't know if he did. No, no, no, I was told that he didn't often. And a lot of Presidents don't; they write letters. I do... Excuse me, Peter. I do a combination of both. Sometimes -- it's a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both. President Obama I think probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn't. I don't know. That's what I was told. All I can do -- all I can do is ask my generals. Other Presidents did not call. They'd write letters. And some Presidents didn't do anything. But I like the combination of -- I like, when I can, the combination of a call and also a letter.
... Steve Benen: "Notice the shifts. First, Obama didn't call the families, then Obama didn't call them 'often.' Initially, Trump said he had the facts about what previous presidents did, then Trump said he didn't have the facts and it's the generals' fault if he claims were wrong. Regardless, this was a rare example of Trump being pressed on one of his lies at the same event in which he told the lie. And confronted with reality, the president folded almost immediately." Mrs. McC: And Coach Pop had the nerve to call Trump "a soulless coward." Also, Steve, it wasn't the generals' fault; it was "my generals'" fault. P.S. I'd be way surprised if his generals said any such thing. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post posts an annotated transcript of the press conference. ...
... Michael Shear: "President Trump convened his cabinet on Monday in the hopes of kick-starting his stalled domestic policy agenda and complained that Democrats in Congress are obstructing his efforts on tax reform, health care and the confirmation of judicial nominees. 'The Democrats have terrible policy,' Mr. Trump told reporters.... 'They are very good at, really, obstruction.' He also lashed out -- without naming them -- at 'some Republicans' in the Senate.... 'There are some Republicans, frankly, that should be ashamed of themselves,' Mr. Trump said, adding that most of the senators are 'really, really great people' but saying that 'you had a few people that really disappointed us.' Mr. Trump offered support to Stephen K. Bannon..., who has declared political war against members of the Republican establishment...." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Who the hell listens to Trump when he complains about policy? He doesn't have any idea what his "own" policy is, let alone the Democrats'. ...
... ** Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... on Monday, [Donald Trump] ... gave the Trump White House a Trump-sized dose of brand enhancement. With both the Roosevelt Room and the Rose Garden as backdrops, he mixed facts and mirage, praise and perfidy in two head-spinning, sometimes contradictory performances designed to convince supporters and detractors alike that everything's terrific, moving ahead of schedule and getting even better. His opponents were cast as misguided, deluded or even unpatriotic.... The president first convened his Cabinet for a discursive soliloquy on issues domestic and foreign. They sat stone-faced as he held forth, meandering from topic to topic.... He then abruptly canceled the daily briefing by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, instead summoning reporters already gathered in the briefing room to the Rose Garden for an impromptu 40-minute news conference.... Trump told Cabinet members and reporters that there's plenty wrong in America, and it's variously the fault of Democrats, insurance companies, NFL players, Republicans in Congress, Hillary Clinton, former presidents and drug-dealing Mexicans.... What is going well, he said, has been his doing. Much of the self-praise seemed designed to rebut or pre-empt criticisms."
The Babysitters. Ashley Parker & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "When Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described the White House as 'an adult day-care center' on Twitter last week, he gave voice to a certain Trumpian truth: The president is often impulsive, mercurial and difficult to manage, leading those around him to find creative ways to channel his energies. Some Trump aides spend a significant part of their time devising ways to rein in and control the impetuous president, angling to avoid outbursts that might work against him, according to interviews with 18 aides, confidants and outside advisers.... Trump's penchant for Twitter feuds, name-calling and temperamental outbursts presents a unique challenge. One defining feature of managing Trump is frequent praise, which can leave his team in what seems to be a state of perpetual compliments.... H.R. McMaster, the president's national security adviser, has frequently resorted to diversionary tactics to manage Trump. In the Oval Office he will often volunteer to have his staff study Trump's more unorthodox ideas.... Perhaps no Cabinet official has proven more adept at breaking ranks with Trump without drawing his ire than Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who has disagreed with his boss on a range of issues...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Burgess Everett & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... behind the scenes, Trump, his administration and even some senators are increasingly worried that taxes will go the way of Obamacare repeal in the Senate: Months of bickering ending in extreme embarrassment.... 'We look at the Senate and go: "What the hell is going on?"' White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said in an interview Friday. 'The House passed health care, the House has already passed its budget, which is the first step of tax reform. The Senate hasn't done any of that. Hell, the Senate can't pass any of our confirmations,' Mulvaney fumed in an interview, slapping a table for emphasis. 'You ask me if the Republican-controlled Senate is an impediment to the administration's agenda: All I can tell you is so far, the answer's yes.'... And House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), when asked Monday to name the biggest impediment to tax reform, replied: 'You ever heard of the United States Senate before?'" ...
... Paul Krugman: "... almost 60 percent of the American public believes that the current Republican tax plan favors the wealthy. Some people see this number as a sign that the plan is in trouble; I see it as a sign that Republican lies are working far better than they deserve to.... It's not difficult to see how the plan is tilted toward the very top. The main elements of the plan are a cut in top individual tax rates; a cut in corporate taxes; an end to the estate tax; and the creation of a big new loophole that will allow wealthy individuals to pretend that they are small businesses, and get a preferential tax rate. All of these overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy, mainly the top 1 percent.... But how can an administration that pretends to be populist, to stand up for ordinary (white) working people, sell such elitist policies? The answer is a strategy based entirely on lies. And I mean entirely: The Trump administration and its allies are lying about every aspect of their tax plan." ...
... Greg Sargent: "The Trump administration is set to roll out a new analysis on Monday that supposedly demonstrates that President Trump's proposed tax plan would ultimately boost middle-class incomes ... based on the notion that corporations will pass their tax savings ... on to workers, something that other researchers doubt.... Trump allies and Republicans are so desperate to pass this tax plan that they're also doubling down on another strange argument: If Republicans don't get this plan passed, their majority in Congress is doomed -- and with it, so is the Trump agenda.... these two lines of argument, when taken together, actually illustrate just how deep the scamming around these matters really runs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn of Mother Jones: "As Facebook, Google, and Twitter have become increasingly bigger parts of the story of Russian meddling, it's been exceedingly difficult to keep track of what's going on.... We've created a timeline tracking some of the biggest revelations since early September." --safari ...
... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "The founders of the opposition-research firm that produced the dossier alleging ties between ... Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia [-- Fusion GPS --] will invoke constitutional privileges and decline to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, their attorney ... Josh Levy wrote in response to subpoenas issued earlier this month by the committee's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes.... A former federal prosecutor, Renato Mariotti, said the First Amendment argument, while 'novel,' seemed 'unlikely to succeed.... That is probably why the attorneys have emphasized other arguments, like Nunes' apparent lack of authority to issue the subpoenas and the fact that Congress didn't authorize the investigation he's conducting on his own,' Mariotti said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Brian Beutler comes up with a new reason we should believe the "golden rain" incident in the Moscow Ritz actually happened -- because subsequently, peeing all over President Obama has been the way Trump has "governed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "... Donald Trump urged Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander to seek out an Obamacare deal with Democrats -- encouragement that might help sway Republicans who are skeptical of a bipartisan agreement. Alexander said Trump told him by phone Oct. 14 he’d like to see a bill that funds the Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies that he abruptly cut off last week. In return, he wants to see 'meaningful flexibility for the states in providing more choices,' Alexander (R-Tenn.) said." See related Politico story, published October 13, in which Mick Mulvaney suggested Trump would use his move to strip the subsidies as a bargaining chip to fund the Mexican border wall -- or whatever. Mulvaney said, "if the straight-up question is: Is the president interested in continuing what he sees as corporate welfare and bailouts for the insurance companies? No." The story's headline: "Trump opposes bipartisan Obamacare rescue plan".
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "An emotional Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) launched a thinly veiled critique of President Trump's global stewardship Monday night, using a notable award ceremony to condemn 'people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.' McCain said that 'some half-baked, spurious nationalism' should be considered 'as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.' The 2008 Republican presidential nominee spoke with Independence Hall in his line of sight, having just been awarded the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan institution...."
Esther Lee of ThinkProgress: "[I]t would ... appear that his White House's discontinuation of his predecessor's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration executive action, which has been an economic lifeline for 800,000 people, could lead to devastating economic costs.... A July 2017 CAP report already shows that taking away all DACA recipients, or an estimated 685,000 workers from the economy would lead to a $460.3 billion drop in GDP over the next ten years.... Some of the heavyweights leading the cause to end DACA and enforce hardline immigration policies include a host of influential lawmakers, but their hometowns too will be seriously impacted by the crackdowns." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh yeah? So what? Trump doesn't mind wrecking the economy, not to mention hundreds of thousands of people's lives, if what he does boosts his creds with his xenophobic, racist "base."
David Dayen of The Intercept: "Six Senate Democrats have asked the Treasury Department's inspector general to investigate whether Keith Noreika, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is illegally serving in office.... September 12 represented Noreika's 130th day in control of the OCC, one of the most critical banking regulators in the federal government. That's a key number because Noreika ... has been serving as a 'special government employee,' a designation that exempts him from certain ethics and disclosure rules for members of the executive branch.... Special government employee designations are typically reserved for temporary members of advisory committees, not the head of a federal agency."--safari
Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009, setting off a huge military manhunt and a political furor, pleaded guilty on Monday to desertion and to endangering the American troops sent to search for him. The guilty pleas by Sergeant Bergdahl, a 31-year-old Idaho native now stationed at an Army base in San Antonio, Tex., were not part of any deal with prosecutors. It will now be up to an Army judge here at Fort Bragg to decide the sergeant's punishment, following testimony at a hearing that is expected to begin as soon as next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "... Bergdahl, Trump said in several campaign speeches as a presidential candidate, was a 'traitor' who should be executed. In an on-camera interview shot last year by a British filmmaker, obtained exclusively by ABC News and airing today on 'Good Morning America,' 'World News Tonight With David Muir' and 'Nightline,' Bergdahl says the words of the man who is now his commander in chief would have made a fair trial impossible. 'We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted,' Bergdahl says. 'The people who want to hang me -- you're never going to convince those people.'... Trump ... called Bergdahl 'garbage.'... 'You know, in the old days -- bing, bong,' Trump said as he mimicked firing a rifle. 'When we were strong.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "A federal jury convicted Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a loner from New Jersey drawn to online calls to jihad, of setting the explosives in the Chelsea neighborhood that blew out windows and sent shrapnel flying into buildings, cars and people during a two-day bombing campaign in and around New York City last year. The conviction on Monday carries a mandatory life sentence; the sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 18.... Jurors also heard from those wounded that night by shrapnel from a bomb specifically designed to hurt people. No one was killed, a remarkable stroke of good fortune when the magnitude of the explosion became clearer." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Somehow, in the wake of the Weinstein revelations, the president's supporters appear to believe they hold the moral high ground.... The people now ruling this country don't share ... progressive ideals about sexual consent, workers' rights and the fundamental equality of men and women.... Yes, [Roger] Ailes had to leave Fox News after charges that he'd demanded sexual favors from women in exchange for professional opportunities. But in the aftermath, conservatives did not ostracize him. Instead, Trump defended Ailes and defamed his accusers, then brought him on as an adviser. Most Republican voters and officeholders, in turn, implicitly condone Trump's treatment of women.... The movie business is corrupt, depraved and iniquitous -- and still morally superior to the Republican Party under Trump. Betraying the principle of gender equality is bad. Rejecting it is worse."
Beyond the Beltway
Dying for Water. Arelis Hernández & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "Every 10 minutes or so, a truck or a van pulled up to the exposed spigot of an overgrown well.... Fencing around the area had been torn open, and a red and white 'Peligro' sign, warning of danger, lay hidden beneath debris and dense vegetation. One after another, people attached a hose to draw water for bathing, washing dishes and, in some cases, drinking. They filled buckets, jugs, soda bottles. What many didn't realize is that the well is one of nearly a dozen that are part of the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Superfund site -- designated last year by the Environmental Protection Agency as among the nation's most toxic sites. Past testing here has shown the presence of tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, solvents commonly used in industrial processes, which can cause health problems including liver damage and increased risk of cancer.... In the late morning, EPA officials arrived on the scene ... armed with kits, gloves and other materials to conduct tests, hastily reassembled the broken chain-link fence near the spigot and restored the 'Danger' sign.... Residents unwittingly drawing water from a Superfund site is merely one example of Puerto Rico's dire lack of clean, reliable water. Government officials have said it could be months before power is fully restored across the island, which means that it could take nearly as long to get water flowing to all residents in need."
Steve Bouquet of the Miami Herald-Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau: Florida "Gov. Rick Scott on Monday declared a state of emergency in Alachua County three days ahead of a scheduled speech at the University of Florida campus in Gainesville by the white nationalist Richard Spencer. 'I find that the threat of a potential emergency is imminent,' Scott said in a seven-page executive order." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Think about that. Donald Trump has had at least two high-level administration officials with ties to Richard Spencer -- Steve Bannon & Stepher Miller. Miller is apparently still writing Trump's speeches, the texts of which include Miller's alt-right views. Meanwhile, Rick Scott -- a strong ally of Trump's -- finds Bannon & Miller's friend Spencer so dangerous that he triggers a state of emergency. We are living in interesting times.
Way Beyond
** Martyrs to the Truth. Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist and blogger from Malta who was known for her reporting on governmental corruption, was killed in a bomb explosion near her home on Monday, officials say.... In 2017, 27 journalists have been killed for their work so far, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.... Galizia spent much of her work in recent years reporting on the Panama Papers, the cache of records from a law firm in that country that detailed offshoring activities of powerful officials and companies around the world." She was highly critical of Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscats, his wife & his cronies.
David Zucchino of the New York Times: "After weeks of threats and posturing, the Iraqi government began a military assault on Monday to blunt the independence drive by the nation's Kurdish minority, wresting oil fields and a contested city from separatists pushing to break away from Iraq. In clashes that pit two crucial American allies against each other, government troops seized the vital city of Kirkuk and surrounding oil fields, ousting the Kurdish forces who had controlled the region for three years in their effort to build an independent nation in the northern third of Iraq. The Kurds voted overwhelmingly in a referendum three weeks ago for independence from Iraq. The United States, Baghdad and most countries in the region condemned the vote, fearing it would fuel ethnic divisions across the region, lead to the break up of Iraq and hobble the fight against the Islamic State." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dom Phillips of the Guardian: "If Brazil's recent decline could be plotted in the falling popularity of its presidents, Michel Temer represents the bottom of the curve.... Last month, the government of Temer, [deposed Brazilian President Dilma] Rousseff's former vice-president, plunged to 3% in one poll.... Temer has been charged with corruption, racketeering and obstruction of justice. Yet there have been none of the huge, anti-corruption street protests that helped drive Rousseff's impeachment on charges of breaking budget rules.... [T]rust in Brazil's political leaders has been drastically undermined. That lack of trust is feeding support for an authoritarian solution to the crisis -- which could have serious consequences in next year's presidential elections." --safari
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Reader Comments (19)
Here's a book I believe every 16-20 year old in the US should be forced to read:
"On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," by Timothy Snyder.
Among other things, it clarifies the mental mechanisms that all individuals have which allow tyranny to come into being, that all of these are in effect now, and what an individual can do to counteract them. Specifically, he calls for people to get out of the internet and into print, and explains why this is necessary.
I don't know if this has been discussed here before, but I see it as directly relevant to politics now.
Thanks Victoria for bringing Snyder to our attention. I have read pieces he wrote on this subject but have not read the book. Here is a good review from Wash-Po:
"To abandon facts is to abandon freedom–-if nothing is true, then all is spectacle. Trump thrives on spectacles–-his rise has been based on it."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2017/02/24/20-ways-to-recognize-tyranny-and-fight-it/?utm_term=.97e99deb1dce
Here's another excellent piece by Jeet Heer on "The Power of Negative Thinking."
Trump's dark portrayal of the country offers important lessons for his political opponents.
https://newrepublic.com/article/145311/power-negative-thinking-trump-lessons-democrats
A couple of things...
First, the upcoming mid-term elections which Mr. “I’ll have another, make it a double” Steve Bannon threatens to turn into the Battle of Pellenor Fields in order to elect good little goose steppers to support Der Führer, and his regressive, nationalist, racist agenda, has very little to do with President* Stupid and everything to do with Bannon showing everyone that even though he was unfairly booted from the White House, undermined by lesser beings jealous of his genius, he still calls the shots. Not McConnell, not Ryan, not the RNC, not Fox, not even Trump. This is another outburst of vanity and power grabbing in the most self-centered administration in history. This is the outsider who, after being kicked out of the tony private school his dad forced him into, stands outside throwing rocks through the windows and plots a metaphorical Columbine to “get” those who dissed him.
Second, I had a grand old chuckle reading about how Lyin’ Ryan, the so-called speaker, whose inert properties surpass sand and concrete, and who ostensibly “runs” a similarly inert, dysfunctional, startlingly incompetent, incoherent body of intransigent poltroons known as the House of Representatives, is calling the Senate obstructionist. Someone get this fool a dictionary and a mirror. He’s just glad that it’s McConnell’s face on the piñata for a change.
Truly, if you wanted to invent four fantastical, evil characters Stephen King could only hope to dream up, and let the loose to try to destroy the country, you couldn’t do much better than Ryan, McConnell, Bannon, and Trump.
AK-- ya gotta include Pence, who is just as choked with bile as the others-- he just hides it better, plus he has ambitions of his own. He was a failed House rat, a failed governor, and now he is slurping up the poison continually created by the others, and appears to have turned into an evil robot.
Jeanne,
I'm right with you there. And, if the Jane Mayer article is close to the target, pence, in lieu of all the others who have either left or been booted from the holy presence, has become the Trump Whisperer. As Mayer points out, he can't be fired, and he is the closest thing Trump has to an inside man (and he certainly is a creature of the Confederate Establishment, as well as a creature of the Kochs). According to Mayer, it's pence's presence in the Trumpyfenokee Swamp that has mollified the enmity of the Kochs who expected, by now, to be calling all the shots. Trump needs pence to talk to the animals--on both side--traitors in the White House and Confederates in the congress.
But we must never forget that he is a self-serving Christianist above all and believes, like most of them, that is their duty and their right to force their belief system on the rest of us and make us abide by their rules. A president pence would be perhaps worse even than the current fool.
@Akhilleus: "Trumpyfenokee Swamp" -- excellent!
Another loss....are you tired of losing yet, Trumpies?
So Tom Marino, erstwhile candidate for the role of Big Pharma Enabler and Protector, is gone. Boo-hoo.
Trump loses another one. I'm sure in his warped brain pan, this comes out as a win, in the same way, I suppose, that a giant turd could be considered a win after two weeks of constipation.
Good going, Donnie! Another turd ejected.
One more thing about Marino.
Trump was really going to appoint this guy his "drug czar"? Wouldn't that be a bit like hiring Pablo Escobar as the director of an addiction recovery facility?
As I said yesterday, pick a department, agency, or institution. Now think of their mission statements. In every single case, Trump will hire someone 100% antithetical to the mission. Not just opposed, but someone whose very presence is anathema to the mission of each group. I've heard this "strategy" described as "creative destruction", the idea being that Trump is actually a genius who sees that the only way out of the current morass is to tear down and rebuild with a better plan in mind. This is hogwash like you read about. Trump's destruction is no different than that of a three year old who knocks over a tower of blocks just to see it tumble. This sort of tripe is covering fire to give one more Trump fuck up the patina of intelligence. There's no fucking plan. If there is, it's a scam to fleece the rubes.
Creative destruction, my ass.
Has the Orange Pie Hole opened to spill out swill about Gregg Popovich yet? It will. I'm sure there'll be the usual tired slop about Popovich being a "loser", blah, blah, blah.
If you're not a basketball fan, don't believe it. Popovich is a loser the same way Trump is smart:
"[Popvich] is currently tied with Phil Jackson with a record 20 consecutive winning seasons. He has won five NBA championships as a head coach, all with the Spurs, a feat achieved only by four others in NBA history—Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Pat Riley, and John Kundla. He is also one of nine coaches to have won 1,000 NBA games."
per Wikipedia.
He was also a graduate of the Air Force Academy and trained in intelligence gathering.
And unlike the Confederates who are criticizing Trump, he doesn't have brain cancer and is not imminently retiring.
But don't worry. Instead of shutting his mouth, or simply apologizing for his most recent insult to American troops and their families, he'll double down on his lies and lash out to attack Popovich, the media, and maybe Mickey Mouse while he's at it.
Why Mickey Mouse? Why not?
"Trump needs pence to talk to the animals--on both side--traitors in the White House and Confederates in the congress."
Ok. instead of Stephen King let's do a reverse "The Three Little Pigs" tale by uncurling their little pink tails, adding two more making it five–-Mike, Mitch, Stevie, Paulie and the head of the swines, Donny T. The wolf in this story is not of Wall street, is not a Harvey Weinstein, but the average guy of main street whose very existence is in jeopardy. The five "liddle" piggies are doing everything they can to destroy the very foundations of our government and way of life. They huff and they puff and they blow our houses down–-little by little we find ourselves out in the cold. This tale has no ending but asks questions instead: Who and what is going to stop these mud soaked Trumpfenokee swamp piggies from carrying on their huffy-puffies?
Someone please finish the damn tale and give us a happy ending.
NYT: 'Trump Falsely Claims Obama Didn’t Contact Families of Fallen Troops'. Reader comments: Times should say 'lie'. Readers are wrong.
The POTUS whose finger is on the atomic button has no problem making a public statement without a clue what the facts are. Worse comes to worse, you simply blame someone else.
Again and again. We would be far better off if Trump were a liar.
The Great Talent Judge
Trump has always promoted himself as a great judge of talent. He was going to get the best of everything, best words, best people, best pussy grabbers, everything.
So why is it that so many of his choices have been so horrifically stupid?
I won't bore you with the litany, but here's a f'rinstance, that loudmouth idiot Scaramucci.
You all remember the Mooch, right? White House communications director for, oh, about half an hour? Now that's talent, right there, baby. Hired and fired before the moon goes from crescent to quarter.
So, okay, we knew he was another Goldman Sachs pocket picker, but this jamoke was more. He couldn't shut his mouth. So now he's gone. But not forgotten. After his ignominious departure, he made a lot blustery promises about "fixing" things in Washington. Okay. And who are you again? The Wizard of Oz? Okay. Well, anyway, so the Mooch dreams up this website idea. He's gonna inhabit the "center lane" of American politics and show everyone how it's done. He's gonna be a centrist, a breath of fresh air from all the partisan bickering.
Great idea. So how to do it? How to make a splash and convince everyone of your good intentions?
I know! Let's take a poll about the Holocaust. How many Jews do you think REALLY died in the Holocaust? Wait...I thought he said center lane. This isn't center lane, this is the fucking third rail.
How many Jews really died in the Holocaust? That's your idea of a good "centrist" question?
Of course he comes out after the fact and whines that he was only trying to be helpful, but his poll attracted just the slugs and bottom feeders you'd expect would gravitate to a chance to deny the Holocaust. 20% of respondents chose the lowest option (under a million), rather than the correct one (over 5 million).
Okay numbnuts, listen up. No one needs your help in "figuring out" how many Jews were killed by the people whose memory is now enshrined in the brains of your former boss's biggest supporters. We're pretty sure we know the number. Maybe not down to one or two, but pretty fucking close. And raising that question sounds like you're not someone who believes ANY Jews died in the Holocaust.
Are you fucking daft?
But this is an example of the "talent" Trump brings to the table.
You wanna build something, you don't hire a guy who asks where the left handed monkey wrench is hiding.
Jesus.
I, too, enjoyed the Trumpyfenokee Swamp. Except the critters Walt Kelly dreamed up (Pogo, Albert et al) were sweet, for the most part... sweetness sadly absent in the Trumpyfenokee.
Between the presidunce and the "cabinet," I sometimes feel we are sitting on a superfund site 24/7...
Jeanne,
I did think about Pogo. Unfortunately, under the little king and Environmental Destruction Agency head, Scott Pruitt, Pogo and all his pals would gleefully be allowed to perish in technicolor pools of poison dumped by Pruitt’s pals into formerly protected watersheds and wetlands. In fact, since you mentioned Superfund sites, I doubt there will be any such designations as long as Planet Haters like Pruitt call the shots.
Some billionaire polluters want to dump carcinogenic swill into the water table near a drinking water reservoir? No problem! A hundred thousand or so into ol’ Scott’s bank account and you too can turn a local water supply into a repository of toxic sludge. And the little king will give you a medal for being a “job creator”, even if most potential employees will be battling cancer or already pushing up mutated daisies.
Walt Kelly, in his worst nightmare could not have predicted any swamp monsters more evil than Trump and Pruitt.
@Jeanne: The Okefenokee Swamp is a real place. I've been there. It's not insulting to Walt Kelly or his little swamp friends to borrow the name, just as Kelly used it to keep us amused & thoughtful.
I know it is-- I'm not insulted. I loved Pogo-- still have the old books that I bought in the bookshop in Chapel Hill whenever I had the money from babysitting. They were quite philosophical, those creatures of the swamp. And I like the name, both original and derivative... I can't imagine that any of the present residents of Trumpyfenokee have the whimsey and love to have appreciated Kelly's inventions. Also, I think they were political ("I Go Pogo") but I don't remember specifically what elections they were in reference to... I will have to get out the musty, pages-loose books again... Anyhow, go AK-- appreciate your views, as well as Ms. McC's--
Jeanne,
It's interesting that you mention whimsy.
Whimsy was an essential virtue of the Pogo strip. And, as you remind us, it was one of the more philosophical strips of its day. There have been a number of strips that handled philosophical concepts in very direct ways. Just think of Popeye's ubiquitous declaration: "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam." Could there be a more clear cut, pure expression of existentialism? Pogo is a character at once simple, humble, and wise. His famous expression "We have met the enemy and he is us" is an idea no one could attribute to "I'm Not to Blame, Ever" Trump.
"Calvin and Hobbes", "Peanuts", and even early strips like Windsor McKay's "Little Nemo" were prescient and thoughtful beyond even many of their contemporary op-ed pieces.
I've always thought that the cropped format of the comic strip narrative style lent itself to a kind of Nietzschean or Platonic aphoristic approach. And strips like "Peanuts" and "Pogo" line up very closely to that style, which can be see clearly in comments such as Charlie Brown's "I've developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time."
I remember being equally entranced and energized by Linus's silent walk-off reminders that it was only 14 days 'til Beethoven's birthday. Why would the birthday of a guy dead for over a hundred and forty years merit such an important place in a comic strip? Whimsy is one answer. An appreciation of the essence of humanity is another. Neither, however, mean a thing in Trump World.
For Trump, "whimsy" is slithering into a the dressing room of underage girls to ogle them in the altogether and fantasize about P Grabbing.
He is a Piece of Shit, bereft of all whimsy, intelligence, and most importantly, decency. The dog in Charles Schultz' strip is more decent, by far, than Trump.
A fucking dog is more virtuous than our president*. How bad is that?
How many Jews do you think were killed in the Holocaust is a question of opinion much like how many chromosomes do you think you have? Those of us who are literate and numerate sentient beings know the answers.
I feel sorry for the creationistas. They are not able to share in the wonderment of the recent detection of the 130 million light year away merging of two neutron stars. There is the amazing science involved in the detection via gravitational waves and an array of the electromagnetic spectrum (IR, visible, UV, gamma, etc). But, you know, just the spine tingling thrill of imaging that little piece of gold jewellery you almost don't notice on a daily basis was built, atom by fusing atom in the far reaches of the universe in such a spectacular manner. Much more amazing than just some god in his garden shed six thousand years ago. We participate in a truly fabulous universe, whether or not we realise.