;)
The Commentariat -- October 18, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Yamiche Alcindor, et al., of the New York Times: "The mother of a soldier killed in an ambush in Niger said Wednesday that President Trump disrespected her family during a call with the man's widow by saying the soldier 'knew what he signed up for.' President Trump denied he said those words to Sgt. La David T. Johnson's wife during a Tuesday phone call and escalated his dispute with Representative Frederica Wilson, Democrat of Florida, who first described the exchange on Tuesday.... When asked about Ms. Wilson's account of the call on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson's mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, backed the congresswoman's version. 'Yes, he did state that comment,' Ms. Jones-Johnson said of Mr. Trump, corresponding via Facebook.... On Tuesday, Ms. Wilson was in the car with the widow, and said she overheard the phone call from the president, who was on speakerphone."
This is amusing:
The Saboteurs. Alayna Treene of Axios: "Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) sat down with Mike Allen immediately after getting off the phone with President Trump, who called to encourage him about the bipartisan health care bill he announced yesterday with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Trump told Alexander that he supports the effort, is glad they're trying, but still needs to review the deal to 'reserve his options.'...'Trump completely engineered the plan that we announced yesterday,' by calling me repeatedly and asking Sen. Murray to be a part of it. He wanted a bipartisan bill for the short term.' Yes, but: Minutes later, Trump tweeted: 'I am supportive of Lamar as a person & also of the process, but I can never support bailing out ins co's who have made a fortune w/ O'Care.' House Speaker Paul Ryan's take: 'The speaker does not see anything that changes his view that the Senate should keep its focus on repeal and replace of Obamacare,' Doug Andres, Ryan's press secretary, told Axios."
Emily Tillett of CBS News: "A Maryland federal judge is the second to rule against the latest version of President Trump's travel ban in the space of two days, putting the brakes on the administration's plans to restrict travel by citizens from eight countries, the Washington Post first reported. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang issued the ruling early Wednesday, citing Mr. Trump's own remarks on the 2016 campaign trail, official campaign statements and his past Tweets were effectively an unconstitutional Muslim ban. 'The evidence offered by Plaintiffs includes numerous statements by President Trump expressing an intent to issue a Muslim ban or otherwise conveying anti-Muslim sentiments,' wrote Chuang."
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... inside a federal courtroom on Wednesday in Lower Manhattan, with the full force of the Justice Department defending him, Mr. Trump will be the focus, in absentia, of a remarkable legal drama: Is a sitting president -- disinclined to relinquish his gilded empire before taking office -- violating the Constitution by continuing to own and profit from his businesses? At issue is a filed this year in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by a legal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. It has argued that Mr. Trump is violating a constitutional provision that a president may not accept any economic benefit from foreign governments or the United States government beyond a salary."
Greg Sargent: "... in an interview with me this morning..., Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) ... shared some new details that will thicken this plot: She said there were other witnesses in the car and also noted that she has known the slain soldier for a long time and 'mentored' him.... When I reiterated that Trump claims to have proof [she was not truthful about the content of his 'condolence' call to Myeshia Johnson], she said, 'How about you go get that proof and call me back?'... Wilson said ... that [La David Johnson] had passed through the mentoring program for boys of color she founded in Miami in 1993."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Democrats pressed Wednesday for Rep. Trey Gowdy -- the Republican chairman of the powerful House oversight committee -- to subpoena the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn has faced questions about payments from foreign governments and business interests that he failed to disclose while he sought a security clearance.... He resigned in February.... But the White House spurned bipartisan requests for details about Flynn's background by the oversight committee in March, when the panel was chaired by then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). Now, the committee's Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), are asking Gowdy to force the issue. '[T]he White House has been openly defying this Committee's bipartisan request for documents regarding General Flynn for months without any assertion of privilege of any kind,' the Democrats wrote in a 10-page letter to Gowdy sent Wednesday morning."
John Solomon of the Hill: "The Senate Judiciary Committee has launched a probe into a Russian nuclear bribery case, demanding several federal agencies disclose whether they knew the FBI had uncovered the corruption before the Obama administration in 2010 approved a controversial uranium deal with Moscow. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee chairman, on Wednesday raised the issue in public during questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions during an oversight hearing. The senator cited a series of The Hill stories that showed the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear officials were involved in a racketeering scheme as early as 2009, well before the uranium deal was approved."
*****
Alan Fram & Erica Werner of the AP: "A bipartisan Senate deal to curb the growth of health insurance premiums is reeling after ... Donald Trump reversed course and opposed the agreement and top congressional Republicans and conservatives gave it a frosty reception.... In remarks Tuesday in the Rose Garden, Trump called the deal 'a very good solution' that would calm insurance markets, giving him time to pursue his goal of scrapping Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act.... In an evening speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, he said that 'while I commend' the work by the two senators, 'I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.' A White House official said Trump's statement was aimed at conveying opposition to the Alexander-Murray plan." Mrs. McC: Never have we had a more cowardly, two-faced flim-flamming president. ...
... ** Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Two leading senators have reached a bipartisan deal to provide funding for critical subsidies to health insurers that President Trump said last week that he would cut off, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said Tuesday. The plan agreed to by Mr. Alexander and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat, is intended to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act. As one part of the deal, the subsidies would be funded for two years, a step that would provide at least short-term certainty to insurers. The subsidies, known as cost-sharing reductions, lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers. Mr. Trump said he was aware of the deal, describing the effort as very close to a 'short term' solution.... Mr. Alexander said that in addition to funding the payments to insurers, the deal would also give states 'more flexibility in the variety of choices they can give to consumers,' which should appeal to Republican lawmakers eager to give states more say over health care."
It Would Have Been Better Had He Never Called. Steve Brusk & Leigh Munsil of CNN: "... Donald Trump told the widow of a US serviceman killed in the ambush in Niger that 'he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt,' according to Rep. Frederica Wilson.... The call from the President to [Sgt. La David] Johnson's widow came shortly before Johnson's casket arrival [in Miami, Florida], Wilson, a Florida Democrat, said on 'CNN Tonight with Don Lemon' Tuesday.... Wilson said ... that she listened to part of the call on speaker phone while in a vehicle with the family. Asked earlier if she was sure the President said that, Wilson told CNN affiliate WPLG: "Yeah, he said that. You know, ... that is something that you can say in a conversation, but you shouldn't say that to a grieving widow. Everyone knows when you go to war you could possibly not come back alive, but you don't remind a grieving widow of that. That is so insensitive." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I realize Trump's callous remark was a function of his ingrained, narcissistic cruelty, but it is also attributable to his complete lack of mastery of common social graces. Even when he tries to "sound nice," or "be presidential," he doesn't know how. I doubt he intended to be cruel to Myeshia Johnson, but like an awkward teenager caught in an adult conversation, he doesn't know what to say. Now we understand his odd claim that he has "the best words"; apparently many have told him that he does not. Of course, his lack of courtesy also is a function of his narcissism -- he sees little need to be gracious to others, yet he "fights back" when anyone even seems to diss him. Now look for him to attack both Rep. Wilson and Mrs. Johnson. ...
... Update. Toljaso. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump early Wednesday ripped Rep. Frederica Wilson, saying the Florida Democrat's claim that he made an insensitive comment about a fallen soldier's wife was 'totally fabricated.' 'Democrat Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died in action (and I have proof). Sad!' the president said in a tweet." ...
... Update of Update. "The Worst Part." Julia Manchester: "Rep. Frederica Wilson blasted President Trump on Wednesday.... 'This man is a sick man. He's cold hearted, and he feels no pity or sympathy for anyone,' Wilson told CNN's Alisyn Camerota.... 'When [Myeshia Johnson] actually hung up the phone, she looked at me and said "he didn't even know his name." Now that's the worst part,' Wilson said." ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "Wilson told the Washington Post that Johnson broke down when Trump made the remark. 'He made her cry,' Wilson said, adding that she wanted to take the phone and 'curse him out,' but the Army sergeant holding the phone wouldn't let her talk to the president. The White House has not denied the account, saying only 'The President's conversations with the families of American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice are private.'... Sergeant Johnson, 25, leaves behind two two children -- a 6-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son -- and Myeshia is six months pregnant with their third child."
Philip Rucker & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "U.S. Africa Command first disclosed late Oct. 4 that U.S. troops had come under fire in Niger. The command confirmed the following morning that three U.S. soldiers -- Staff Sgts. Bryan C. Black, 35; Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39; and [Staff Sgt. Dustin] Wright -- were killed.... On Oct. 6, the Pentagon disclosed that U.S. troops also had recovered the remains of [Sgt. La David] Johnson.... On Oct. 4, the day four U.S. Special Forces soldiers were gunned down at the border of Niger and Mali in the deadliest combat incident since President Trump took office, the commander in chief was lighting up Twitter with attacks on the 'fake news' media. The next day, when the remains of the first soldiers reached Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Trump was assailing the 'fake news' and warning the country of 'the calm before the storm.' What storm, he never did say. Over that weekend, as the identity of the fourth soldier was disclosed publicly and more details emerged about the incident, Trump was golfing and letting it rip on Twitter about Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the NFL, North Korea, Puerto Rico and, again, alleged media bias." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: On October 6, then, Trump could have issued a general statement about the loss of American soldiers. The statement would have been fine if staffers or Pentagon officials wrote it. If Trump had added to his Twitter stream, he probably would have written something crass about dead Americans in Nigeria.
... Calvin Woodward & Russ Bynum of the AP: "Like presidents before him, Trump has made personal contact with some families of the fallen, not all. What's different is that Trump, alone among them, has picked a political fight over who's done better to honor the war dead and their families.... He placed himself at the top of this pantheon, boasting Tuesday that 'I think I've called every family of someone who's died' while past presidents didn't place such calls. But The Associated Press found relatives of two soldiers who died overseas during Trump's presidency who said they never received a call or a letter from him, as well as relatives of a third who did not get a call. And proof is plentiful that Barack Obama and George W. Bush -- saddled with far more combat casualties than the roughly two dozen so far under Trump, took painstaking steps to write, call or meet bereaved military families.... Gold Star families, which have lost members in wartime, told AP of acts of intimate kindness from Obama and Bush when those commanders in chief consoled them.... Despite the much heavier toll on his watch -- more than 800 dead each year from 2004 through 2007 -- Bush wrote to all bereaved military families and met or spoke with hundreds if not thousands, said his spokesman, Freddy Ford." ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawan Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On Tuesday morning, the White House, not just ... Donald Trump, went out of its way to turn Chief of Staff John Kelly's dead son into a political football for the purpose of attacking Barack Obama's character. Trump falsely claimed during a Rose Garden press conference on Monday that his predecessors had not called the families of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action. The next day, Trump turned Kelly and his late son, who was killed by a landmine in Afghanistan in 2010, into political pawns.... Trump told Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday morning. '... I don't know, I mean you could ask Gen. Kelly, did he get a call from Obama'... The Daily Beast confirmed that senior White House officials signed off on this specific line of attack as legitimate communications strategy." ...
... Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "While the White House didn't disclose exactly which official was smearing Obama, Steven Perlberg of BuzzFeed later reported that Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was one of the officials confirming on background that Obama hadn't called Kelly." ...
... Dan Merica of CNN: "... Donald Trump, in defense of his claim that President Barack Obama didn't call the loved ones of fallen soldiers, floated the idea Tuesday that reporters ask ... John Kelly whether Obama called him after his son died in Afghanistan. The comment came during an interview on Fox News Radio.... Multiple White House officials have told CNN that Obama did not call Kelly when his son was killed.... [Oh, wait.] Kelly and his wife, Karen Hernest Kelly, attended a 2011 Memorial Day breakfast for Gold Star families, those men and women whose children were killed in action, according to an [Obama??] aide, speaking on background. The aide said the Kellys were seated at then-first lady Michelle Obama's table." ...
Pete Souza: 'I photographed [President Obama] meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and family members of those killed in action.' pic.twitter.com/01pICn3YVo
-- Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 16, 2017
... Yochi Dreazen of Vox: "... retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tweeting that both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had worked to comfort the families of dead troops.... It isn't simply another reminder that Trump is a liar of almost unfathomable proportions (the Washington Post recently reported that he'd made 1,318 false or misleading claims in his first 263 days in office, an average of five per day). It also shows that Trump remains inexplicably willing to tell lies that alienate the leadership of the armed forces he commands and that he may one day order into war with North Korea." Dreazen details how Trump has shown disrespect for the military." ...
... Evan Hurst of Wonkette: "... there's one thing nobody seems to be paying attention to about this story, and it's that Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly was MARRIED, and his wife's name was HEATHER, so if Obama did pick up his Obamaphone and make a phone call upon his death, it would have been to his WIFE and not his DAD, Donald Trump, you FUCKING IDIOT." Mrs. McC: Hurst goes on graf after graf berating the FUCKING IDIOT, & he's damned good at it. Don't know if Hurst's rant will cheer you or rile you, but he may well reflect your own opinion. ...
... Margaret Hartmann: "It seems mostly likely that Trump was basing his assertion on reports about Obama amplified in conservative media. But to make matters worse, rather than just admitting that he didn't have all the facts, Trump pinned his inaccurate comments on top members of the military. 'That's what I was told,' he said. 'All I can do -- all I can do is ask my generals.'" ...
... First, It Was "His Generals'" Fault. Now It's Pentagon Bureaucrats' Fault. Eric Boehlert of Shareblue: "Donald Trump had time to go golfing five times since four U.S. troops were killed by an ISIS ambush in Niger on Oct., 4. But Trump didn't have time to reach out to the mourning military families because the White House had to wait on Pentagon 'paperwork,' according to the latest administration spin. In a man-made crisis of leadership that continues to metastasize, Trump and his team struggle to offer up any rationale reason for his shocking silence about the killed Special Forces troops. This, at a time when Trump seems obsessed with trolling the NFL about the proper way to honor U.S. troops during the pre-game national anthem.... On Monday, Trump confirmed he still hadn't offered up condolences to the families. Trump also hasn't used his prolific Twitter account to honor the men, let alone acknowledge their deaths.... From The New York Times: 'A senior official said Mr. Trump had planned to speak sooner to the families, but the White House had to wait until the Pentagon's paperwork was completed.'... Really? Trump's team is claiming it took the Pentagon 12 days to identify the families of the killed? That's absurd because the Department of Defense released information about the men soon after they were killed. Some of the troops have already been buried, and their funerals were covered in the local media...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Yochi Dreazen pointed out, Trump often shows disrespect for the military. To cover this one failure, Trump has dissed the military three times. (1) He blamed 'my generals' for misinforming him about former presidents' practices re: contacting the families of fallen troops. But Margaret Hartmann asserts -- with evidence -- that Trump got his disinformation from Sean Hannity, et al. (2) He blamed lower-ranking military for slow-walking the paperwork. That's ridiculous. Trump certainly received information on the deaths of the Special Forces troops almost immediately. So more than a week ago, could have directed staff to draft letters or comments for him to make in phone calls. (3) He put former Gen. John Kelly on the spot. The White House reportedly didn't make Kelly available for comment, but some day, some reporter will get the opportunity to ask Kelly about any contacts he had with President Obama regarding his son's death. Kelly will have to dream up a way to couch his answer in some way that does not make Trump look like a lying sack of shit. Good luck with that, General. ...
... Poison. Josh Marshall of TPM: "To get out of an awkward situation, Trump triggered a partisan fight about one of the most painful, horrible, hallowed part of our national life. People use the word too casually. I've used it too casually. But it's a genuine disgrace. It's a disgrace.... We shouldn't be having this conversation at all.... But now we are. And that's the thing: Donald Trump poisons everything. It's like an abuser with a captive family; he poisons everything, inflames everything, destroys and degrades anything in his path for his own ends. No one gets out in one piece. He's poison. He's just poison." --safari ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "... a president who promised to pull the United States back from its engagements around the globe hasn't made any statement to the American people about why Special Forces soldiers were in Niger, why they were out on patrol despite their advisory role, who was responsible for their deaths, or why it's important for U.S. troops to be in West Africa. Trump is eager to talk about the troops when he is accusing NFL players of disrespecting them by kneeling during the National Anthem.... It's much easier to snipe about which president's consolations were most patriotic than to actually talk about the troops as anything more than a signifier." Graham elaborates on how Trump turned a question about how & why fallen soldiers met their fate into a feeding frenzy -- and reporters' trap -- about Barack Obama's supposed disrespect for the military. ...
... Barbara Starr of CNN: "The Defense Department is conducting an initial review of the mission in Niger and the ambush by 50 ISIS-affiliated fighters that left four US soldiers dead and two wounded. Multiple US officials have described to CNN a scene of confusion on the ground during the unexpected firefight.... The review will aim to determine precisely what happened -- something that is still not clear nearly two weeks after the incident occurred, according to the official."
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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 (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... 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.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Ken Thomas of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday warned Sen. John McCain that 'I fight back' after McCain questioned 'half-baked, spurious nationalism' in America's foreign policy. McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent 5½ years in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp and is battling brain cancer, offered a simple response to Trump: 'I have faced tougher adversaries.' Trump said in a radio interview with WMAL in Washington, 'I'm being very, very nice but at some point I fight back and it won't be pretty.' He bemoaned McCain's decisive vote this past summer in opposition to a GOP bill to dismantle Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, a move that caused the failure of GOP efforts to repeal and replace 'Obamacare.'"
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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?" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update: See MAG's commentary in today's thread. MAG has hit on the "real reason" for Trump's enthusiasm for "Character Counts."
Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "White House officials working on trade policy were alarmed last month when a top adviser to President Trump circulated a two-page document that alleged a weakened manufacturing sector leads to an increase in abortion, spousal abuse, divorce and infertility, two people familiar with the matter said. The documents, which were obtained by The Washington Post, were prepared and distributed by Peter Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. They were presented without any data or information to back up the assertions, and reveal some of the materials the Trump administration reviewed as it was crafting its trade policy." ...
... Kevin Drum: "Navarro is wrong about nearly everything. However, opioid use is up and single-parent households have increased. I guess two out of twelve isn't bad. Oh, and one other thing: manufacturing employment has been dropping in every rich country. This is hardly unique to the United States.... And it's worth noting one other thing: In the entire OECD, manufacturing employment is down 2 percent since the end of the Great Recession, but in the United States it grew 6 percent during Obama's presidency.... So none of this makes any sense. But I don't suppose anyone in the White House actually cares. I expect Navarro's slide to become a favorite over at Fox News."
Josh Dawsey & Bryan Bender of Politico: "National Archives officials have periodically warned White House lawyers that the Trump administration needs to follow document preservation laws, according to people familiar with the conversations and emails.... The exchanges with the National Archives staff come amid concerns that the White House has been haphazard about its handling of government materials. Politico previously reported that numerous White House officials used personal devices and email accounts for work, raising questions from watchdogs and congressional investigators about document preservation and internal security in Trump's administration."
Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that former FBI Director James Comey 'lied and leaked' information and ultimately protected Hillary Clinton, while also questioning the credibility of the FBI's probe into her email. Trump's early morning tweets come in the wake of news that the bureau's former director had drafted a statement exonerating Clinton before the investigation was over. 'Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete. Many people not interviewed, including Clinton herself,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Comey stated under oath that he didn't do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?' 'As it has turned out, James Comey lied and leaked and totally protected Hillary Clinton. He was the best thing that ever happened to her! the president added later. Newsweek reported Monday on documents released by the FBI that included an email sent on May 2, 2016, by Comey to other FBI officials that included a file titled 'Drafts of Director Comeys July 5, 2016 Statement Regarding Email Server Investigation Part 01 of 01.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you thought this sounded like old "news," as I did, you were right:
... Max Kutner of Newsweek: "The release confirms information that Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of that committee, disclosed in a letter to new FBI Director Christopher Wray in August."
Annie Karni & Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer met with special counsel Robert Mueller's team on Monday for an interview that lasted much of the day, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting. During his sitdown, Spicer was grilled about the firing of former FBI director James Comey and his statements regarding the firing, as well as about Trump's meetings with Russians officials including one with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office, one person familiar with the meeting said."
Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "A cybersecurity researcher who described being recruited to vet hacked Hillary Clinton emails last year by a GOP operative tied to ... Donald Trump's campaign team has been interviewed by the FBI's special counsel, Robert Mueller, Business Insider has learned. Mueller interviewed Matt Tait, a former information-security specialist at Britain's Government Communications Headquarters who tweets as @pwnallthethings, several weeks ago, said a source familiar with the matter. The interview was part of a broader effort by Mueller to examine the relationship between the longtime GOP operative, Peter Smith, and the former national security adviser Michael Flynn and whether Flynn played any role in seeking out the stolen emails during the election. Smith killed himself in May after talking to The Wall Street Journal about his experience. The House Intelligence Committee has also interviewed Tait..., CNN reported."
Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "President Trump[s attempts to block travelers from a handful of countries -- most of them predominantly Muslim -- from coming to the United States hit another legal snag on Tuesday, when a federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order freezing most of Mr. Trump's third travel ban the day before it was to take effect. At least for now, the judge's order will prevent the Trump administration from stopping almost all travel to the United States indefinitely from most of the countries named in the ban.... Mr. Trump initially ordered an immediate suspension of travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, a move that plunged airports across the country into confusion and protest in January. That order was eventually blocked by a federal judge in Seattle. Mr. Trump's second attempt narrowed the scope of the ban, but still struggled to survive judicial scrutiny; it was blocked in March by the same Hawaii judge who issued Tuesday's order, Derrick K. Watson of Federal District Court in Honolulu."
Jonathan Allen of Reuters: "National Football League officials weighed the fervor of players protesting racism against ... Donald Trump's anger at their autumn meeting on Tuesday with supporters of the players kneeling outside in solidarity. The NFL did not seek commitments from its players to stop kneeling during pregame renditions of the U.S. national anthem but rather focused on helping them in their political activism. 'We spent today talking about the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to. About issues in our communities to make our communities better,' NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters. Trump's repeated denunciation of the players as unpatriotic for kneeling during the national anthem, which he reiterated as recently as Monday, has only made the practice more widespread." ...
... Julia Manchester of the Hill: "President Trump in an early morning tweet on Wednesday ripped the NFL for its decision to allow players to kneel during the national anthem... 'The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country!' the president said in a tweet." Mrs McC: To the extent the protests are about you, Donnie, what they show is total disrespect for you. And that's a patriotic thing.
Molly Ringwald in the New Yorker on rampant sexual abuse -- mostly against women -- in the film industry: "... I have had plenty of Harveys of my own over the years, enough to feel a sickening shock of recognition.... I never talked about these things publicly because, as a woman, it has always felt like I may as well have been talking about the weather. Stories like these have never been taken seriously. Women are shamed, told they are uptight, nasty, bitter, can't take a joke, are too sensitive. And the men? Well, if they're lucky, they might get elected President. My hope is that Hollywood ... decides to enact real change, change that would allow women of all ages and ethnicities the freedom to tell their stories -- to write them and direct them and trust that people care.... It's time. Women have resounded their cri de coeur. Listen."
News Lede:
New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the second in a radically new class of treatments that genetically reboot a patient's own immune cells to kill cancer. The new therapy, Yescarta, made by Kite Pharma, was approved for adults with aggressive forms of a blood cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, who have undergone two regimens of chemotherapy that failed."
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Reader Comments (15)
it's now 'National Character Counts Week' ?
Have a feeling that Trump misunderstood the whole 'Character Counts' message when he made the announcement with someone else' words...he most likely believes that character counts means that when one is tweeting..."oops, I'm up to 140 characters, gotta go "dot, dot, dot, dot" on to my second Tweet.
Another day, another enormous expenditure of time and effort on the part of the media and in individual conversations all over the country addressing the latest Trump lies. If one didn’t know better, one might be tempted to conclude that all the lying was a strategic tactic designed to draw attention away from the radical and vicious unmaking of America by Trump and his band of crooks and ideologues.
Welcome to Ruby Tuesday when we are sure to encounter another day when another rotten dish of dirt will be served to the American public by the bloke at the helm who fancies himself a president. Here's Jeet Heer (guy whips) on another one of these bad dishes:
Art Laffer & the Intellectual Rot of the Republican Party:
The godfather of supply-side economics and the author of the"Laffer Curve" ( or as we like to call it, the"laughing con) is largely discredited by his peers but––––––Surprise! it's revered by Trump and the GOP die hards.
https://newrepublic.com/article/145331/art-laffer-intellectual-rot-republican-party
Can't Even Fake It
It's hard to describe any Trump dicta or action as stunning anymore, but his insulting, degrading, and unconscionably cold-hearted call to Myeshia Johnson, Sgt. La David T. Johnson's widow, takes the cake.
As Marie suggests, it's a failure of basic social graces, but more than that, more fundamental, it's a total lack of human decency.
Just imagine you're a big city mayor. A police officer has been gunned down in the line of duty. You show up at the funeral (a lot more than Trump did), approach the widow and say something like "Hey, he knew this could happen. Well, I gotta run." The guy would be lucky to get his mom's vote next time around. Trump, unfortunately, won't lose a single vote from his brain dead base. They pass it all through the Trumpy Filter in their heads and it comes out clean. Just imagine the outrage had Obama said such a thing to the widow of a fallen serviceman. The gun knobbers would be cleaning their weapons. But Trump? Meh. They don't even go so far as to admit that "Well, he might be an asshole, but he's our asshole." To them he's still a decent Christian man. In fact, he's none of those things.
There's a reason philosophers routinely include the fundamental importance of decency when discussing moral behavior. Montaigne goes a bit further, reminding readers that often "a bad man [who is] a fool to boot" often uses the outward appearance of decency to "palliate his vice" (from his essay "Upon Some Verses of Virgil"). Trump can't even do that. He can't even pretend to be decent. This is not just a character flaw, this is a primum mobile of his personality. The inability to even mimic decency reveals a perverted, stunted temperament that is essentially beyond repair. It's like sociopaths and psychopaths who lack some crucial element of humanity.
Still, saying it's not his fault (because he's a congenital asshole) doesn't let him off the hook. Many high functioning autistic individuals who realize they aren't picking up social signals, recognize this and try to accommodate this problem. Patricia Highsmith wrote a series of novels about a character named Ripley, a sociopathic con man (much like Trump) who feels that anything he does is okay as long as he benefits somehow (again, like Trump). But this character is also good at hiding his sociopathic tendencies and pretending to be a decent, engaged, person. Christ, even a real psychopath like Ted Bundy could come across as charming, interested, even charismatic. Trump couldn't care less. Serial killers beat him in the human look-a-like contest.
He's a miserable prick for whom decency is as foreign as respect for truth. Still, he recognizes, based on the furious response to his monstrous behavior, that he fucked up. AND he realizes, once again, that someone else HAS to be at fault. The fact that, once again, he understands that his sociopathic urges have gotten him into trouble means that this is something he COULD address (he didn't even bother finding out the guy's name) if he gave a shit.
He doesn't.
Thanks PD for bringing the laughable curve back into the conversation.
Have long thought Laffer's napkin sketch perfectly congruent with the Repugnant mind.
First, it's elementary-school simple.
Second, it arrives at its appealing simplicity by ignoring multi-variant economic realities that might cause untutored minds discomfort.
Third and maybe most important, for a political party held together by monied folks who would prefer to pay no taxes at all it is perfectly self-serving.
Finally, the curve carries with it the implication that the economic laws issued by the Creator himself is one more proof that God is on the side of the rich.
Problem is the Gaffer Curve, laughable as it it, ain't funny.
You may, as I have, be wondering what in the holy hell US troops are doing in Niger. Apparently, we've been there for years. It's the freaking never ending War on Terror. If you already knew that, you're way ahead of me.
And we ain't leaving anytime soon it seems. The drones are coming. Not only that, we're building an airbase "projected to be the biggest military labor troop project in US Air Force history."
Geez, Louise.
And here's where it get dicey (okay, MORE dicey). Trump's stupid, stupid, stupid decertification of the Iran deal gives the green light to Iran to say "Fuck this for a game of soldiers" and go full speed ahead with whatever plans they had put on hold concerning their ideas for turning that country into THE biggest badass in town in the Middle East (outside of Israel, of course). They're taking advantage of sectarian strife in the uneasy Iraqi-Kurdish alignment to insinuate themselves as prime negotiators.
This is why it's important for us to stay engaged. Trump thinks he can dive into his hidey hole, pull the covers over his head and everything will be peachy in the outside world. Not so. I'm not suggesting we return to the bad old days of
Allen Dulles-Wild Bill Casey style clusterfucking of other sovereign states, but there has to be a middle ground between killing heads of state and hiding under the bed.
So now, after Kirkuk, ISIS is on the run, militarily, that is. Look for Trump to take complete credit for this, by the way. But now is where things get even crazier. Instead promoting that whacko Caliphate idea, ISIS will now go back underground and get back to more standard terror plots. And this is where we need smart, committed, engaged leadership. Think Trump is up to that?
But hey, who knew international relations, foreign wars, terrorism, and military interventions could be so complicated? Oh well, time for another stupid tweet. Maybe about how unfair everyone is being to that nice Harvey Weinstein.
He's baaaaackkk....
Could there be a more appropriate name for the basis of Confederate tax fraud con games than the "Laffer Curve"? Letterman's writers couldn't have beaten that one.
I had the misfortune of listening to this idiot on an NPR interview show the other day, I think it was "The Takeaway". He was his usual smug, lying, condescending self. When asked why he thought supply side would work now when it hasn't worked in, like, forever, he sounds like Peter Pan cajoling kids at home watching on TV to clap hard if they want Tinkerbell to get better. "C'mon kids, you're not clapping hard enough. If you do, we'll have no taxes, trillions in the federal coffers, and NO deficits! It's easy! C'mon, ya lazy little bastards. CLAP!"
Jesus, these people.
In the real world, good con artists have their shit together. They plan it out, they try to check all the boxes, see where it can go wrong and when and how they might need to fold the con if things go south. Not Confederate con men. They just walk into the room, scribble some bullshit on a napkin, hold it up and say "Believe!" and people throw money at them. Well, not just any people. Morons. Like every Republican member of congress.
The DO believe in fairies! They do!
@Akhilleus: Good point about con artists. I would call Paul Ryan a fairly good con artist. He pretties up his scams with fancy presentations & book-length "proofs" of the rectitude of his policies. He peppers his multi-billion-dollar cons with $10 words. When called on some of the phony crap in his plans, he smiles & answers with more fancy, abstruse "explanations" of what the well-meaning interrogator doesn't understand. For a couple of decades, people who should know better have bought his cons.
Then there are characters like Trump & Bill Cassidy, who attack those who point out the content & most likely (or definite) results of their plans. Their only tactics are to lie & to defame the truth-tellers as fake or bought or ignorant, as when Cassidy suggested Jimmy Kimmel was too dumb to understand the magnifitude of the Graham Cassidy uninsurance bill. This type of politician is not a con artist; he's just a crude scammer & bully.
(Trump does have one other move -- deflection, as when he turns a question about one thing into an attack on something or somebody else. But he's so obvious about it that the majority of people see the feint for what it is.)
Bea,
Excellent point about Lyin' Ryan. He's been lying and scamming and scheming for so long he might even buy his own bullshit. You know it's bad when a drug dealer starts using his own stuff. And the fact that he's been able to get away with his lies and confidence games for so long is the result of lazy journalists who don't bother to either ask tough follow ups, or aren't conversant enough in the subject matter to dig more deeply, or find some neutral expert who can help them pry out the pyrite.
Confederates have prospered through flim-flam, ignorance, and the personal penchant for greed in other people. A sure sign of con artists.
I'm reading an edited version of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" with my little guy. He loves it. He especially loves Jim. He's still not quite sure about the slavery thing though. Like most decent people, he thinks it's pretty inhuman stuff. (Too bad most Confederates don't feel that way). Anyway, we just got to the part where the con men, the Duke and the King, are discovered for the slimy rapscallions they are. They're tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail (I had to explain all of that. He was amazed).
Man, I would sell my house (almost) to see Ryan, McConnell, and half a dozen other Confederate con men, horse thieves, and bush whackers tarred and feathered and given the bum's rush to the Potomac where they'd be unceremoniously dumped into the drink.
Ah....fantasy. 'Tis a great thing.
Whoa...this is good.
The ignorant little king gets schooled about "what he signed up for" by a former US Army infantry officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
See I typed Laffer with an initial "G" in my concluding line above.
Spastic fingers? Likely.
Or maybe a subconscious urge to combine Laffer with Grifter...? Would surely have fit.
A WaPo reader's comment re Trump's reversal on ACA subsidies:
Trump is right. Obamacare is dead. Unless Congress does something (fat chance) to reverse the president's sabotage and return the law to working order, what we have now is the Republican Party's Trumpcare.
If I were a heartless jerk, I could say that the Trump voters who are being screwed over by this knew what they signed up for. But I guess it still hurts.
Monoloco,
"Obamacare is dead" joining the stinking effluence gushing from the mouth of the little king is right in line with the declaration "Sic semper tyrannis" coming from the pie hole of John Wilkes Booth seconds after shooting Abraham Lincoln in the head.
But I think you're a bit off center when you affirm that Trump voters are getting what they signed up for. I don't think they ever thought that THEY'D be the ones taking it in the neck. They thought they signed up to have Trump shiv black people and liberals, not white supremacist, poor and middle class Confederates.
Just listened to little Jeffy Sessions try to hermetically seal himself in self-righteous outrage at being asked questions by Senator Al Franken. Has there ever been a more truculent, muculent, prevaricating quisling than this weasel inhabiting the office of Attorney General? Maybe John Mitchell, but even Mitchell never struck me as weenie, whiny, and churlish a crybaby as Sessions, who begged the chairman to please save him from having to answer any more questions, pretty please with arsenic on top.
Another of Trump's Great Talents. Sessions would be lucky to serve as an office gopher in any milieu but the Trump Confederacy, which rewards obnoxious, sycophantic, invertebrate lackeys who are intimately familiar with Trump's tiny testicles.
"Oh Jeffy" cries the Donald, "You missed a spot! Get that tongue out. There ya go...good boy."
Mr. Law and Order. Oh, Jeffy....I think you DID miss a spot. Clean that up, right now. Good boy, Jeffy, good boy.
Picking up on MAG's explanation of Trump's understanding of "character counts", meaning the number of characters that he must count in one of his attack tweets, I'm realizing that his understanding of "consolation", as in "consolation of families of fallen service members" may be just a tad off the mark as well.
Just a tad, mind you.
It's pretty clear that for Trump, the consolation, is not for them. It's for him, as in "consolation prize". They may have hit the jackpot with a dead family member which they can, in Trump's mind, hold over the heads of a truly important person like himself, but not to worry, his consolation prize is that he gets to look "presidential" by picking up the phone and giving these blah losers a few seconds of his precious time. In return, everyone should be bowing down in honor of what a Great Leader he is.
If he's not gonna get that consolation prize, then fuck it. He's not gonna call anyone anymore. Just like Obama. Fuck 'em.