;)
The Commentariat -- October 3, 2018
Afternoon Update:
White House Whitewash, Ctd. Leigh Ann Caldwell & Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "More than 40 people with potential information into the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh have not been contacted by the FBI, according to multiple sources that include friends of both the nominee and his accusers. The bureau is expected to wrap up its expanded background investigation as early as Wednesday into two allegations against Kavanaugh -- one from Christine Blasey Ford and the other from Deborah Ramirez.... One current and two former FBI officials confirmed to NBC News that dozens of witnesses have come forward to FBI field offices who say they have information on Brett Kavanaugh, but agents have not been permitted to talk to many of them. To the extent that any interviews have been done, the officials say, it's not clear the information will be considered as part of the FBI's limited scope inquiry." ...
... Chris Strohm & Shannon Pettypiece of Bloomberg: "The FBI hasn't interviewed ... Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford because it doesn't have clear authority from the White House to do so, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Instead, the White House has indicated to the FBI that testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford ... before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week is sufficient, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the sensitive matter. The new evidence of constraints on the FBI probe came as Republican Senator Bob Corker told reporters the FBI is likely to give senators a stack of interview reports, probably later on Wednesday. He said senators were told in a GOP meeting that a vote on cutting off debate is likely on Friday to move toward a confirmation vote on Kavanaugh." ...
... Nicholas Fandos & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Three influential Republicans, who together could decide the fate of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, condemned on Wednesday comments by President Trump that mocked one of the women who has accused his nominee of sexual assault. The president's mockery of the woman, Christine Blasey Ford, at a Mississippi campaign rally on Tuesday injected still more uncertainty into the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh and only served to heighten tensions in the Senate." ...
... But It Will Be a Secret Whitewash! Eliza Collins & David Jackson of USA Today: "Republicans are planning a careful choreography for the results of the FBI's background probe into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, including sending only a single copy to Capitol Hill that will be housed in a safe. The FBI report, which officials said will include interviews about Kavanaugh's conduct in high school, will first go to the White House and then to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers will read it in a secure location. Senate Republicans are planning the cautious approach amid a debate over how much of the FBI's investigation into Kavanaugh's past -- including allegations of sexual assault -- should be available for public view. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said only senators will be able to see the results of the FBI's work. A handful of Senate aides may view it as well." ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans are stepping up efforts to challenge Christine Blasey Ford's credibility by confronting her with a sworn statement from a former boyfriend who took issue with a number of assertions she made during testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the committee chairman, cited the former boyfriend's statement in a letter sent Tuesday night to Dr. Blasey's lawyers demanding that they turn over material that could be used to assess her veracity.... The former boyfriend told the Judiciary Committee that he witnessed Dr. Blasey helping a friend prepare for a possible polygraph examination.... Dr. Blasey ... was asked during the hearing whether she had 'ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test.' She answered, 'Never.'... [Blasey's friend Monica McLean], a former F.B.I. agent, denied the assertion on Wednesday.... Dr. Blasey's camp also rejected the account." ...
... Eric Levitz: "... the people who have the power to make or break Brett Kavanaugh's nomination like his approach to Constitutional law. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Jeff Flake are perfectly fine with Kavanaugh's jurisprudence. But they have evinced some concerns about his character. For this reason, in recent days, Democrats have focused their case against Kavanaugh on two related 'character' issues: Multiple women have accused him of sexual assault.... When Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate to respond to those allegations, he delivered an angry partisan tirade, treated several Democratic senators with abject contempt, and was evasive in response to direct questioning. He also (ostensibly) told many, many lies while under a sworn oath.... Kavanaugh's behavior last Thursday was disqualifying by long-honored -- and well-founded -- norms of judicial conduct ... [even if he] has never sexually assaulted anyone in his life -- and that he did not (definitely, clearly, unambiguously) lie under oath in any of his testimony before the Senate." ...
... Lawrence Hurley & Chris Kahn of Reuters: "Opposition among Americans to Brett Kavanaugh ... has increased in the wake of his testimony last week before a U.S. Senate committee in which he defiantly denied sexual misconduct allegations, Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed on Wednesday. In the latest seven-day average in a survey of U.S. adults, 41 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh, 33 percent supported the conservative federal appeals court judge and 26 percent said they did not know."
Brett Molina of USA Today: "On Wednesday at 2:18 p.m. ET, smartphones in the U.S. were buzzing with a test of a 'presidential alert,' managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to warn residents about national emergencies. The system was put in place due to a law passed during the tenure of former President Barack Obama but didn't get its first test until Wednesday, under the Trump administration. 'The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether improvements are needed,' read a statement from FEMA ahead of the alert test."
*****
This Is Not Okay. Brian Ries of CNN: "... Donald Trump for the first time directly mocked Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a rally in Mississippi, casting doubt on her testimony about her alleged sexual assault. Trump imitated Ford during her testimony before the crowd, mocking her for not knowing the answer to questions such as how she got to the party.... Trump then called Democrats against Kavanaugh 'evil people' who are out to 'destroy people.' Trump also reiterated his earlier claims Tuesday that nowadays you are 'guilty until proven innocent.'" ...
... MEANWHILE, Chuck Grassley thought it would be a good idea to smear another (alleged) victim. Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "In an unprecedented move, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday released an explicit statement that purports to describe the sexual preferences of a woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh of misconduct. The statement, which was circulated to the hundreds of journalists on the Judiciary Committee's press list, was from Dennis Ketterer, a former Democratic congressional candidate and television meteorologist who said he was involved in a brief relationship with Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick in 1993." ...
... FBI to Complete Whitewash Wednesday. Sheryl Stolberg & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. is expected to complete its investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and deliver the results to the Senate as early as Wednesday, and Republican leaders said Tuesday that they expect to vote on the nomination this week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... New Lede: "Senate Republican leaders pressed on Tuesday to wrap up the confirmation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, seizing on word from the F.B.I. that it would complete its investigation into allegations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct as early as Wednesday."
... Nelson Cunningham in Politico Magazine: "... we shouldn't expect [FBI Director Christopher] Wray and [Deputy AG Rod] Rosenstein to stand up and push back against this political interference [in the Kavanaugh "investigation."]... First, background checks are not independent investigations. Here, the FBI is very much an organ of the White House, assisting the Senate (meaning today, the Republican majority) in what is an inherently political mission to examine a presidential nominee.... [Second, to Wray & Rosenstein], Kavanaugh is a longtime colleague, political ally and perhaps even friend. The three men have known each other for decades, working closely on the shared mission of advancing conservative judicial and policy goals. We simply cannot expect Wray and Rosenstein to block the advancement of their fellow conservative and longtime colleague to the highest court in the land." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Great! More witnesses. The FBI ought to interview Rosenstein & Wray to ask them if they had observed their friend Brett drinking heavily & acting obnoxious when drunk. ...
... Karen Yourish & Troy Griggs of the New York Times: "Democrats sent the F.B.I. a list of two dozen witnesses they said must be interviewed, just four of whom were on the Republicans' original list. On Monday, the White House authorized the F.B.I. to expand its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh -- as long as the review is finished by Friday." The article includes the lists.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to MSNBC reporters & pundits, Deborah Ramirez's lawyer says the FBI has not interviewed any of the witnesses she named, & according to Christine Blasey Ford's lawyer, the FBI has not interviewed her. In other words, the "investigation," despite protestations from Trump & the White House, is the sham we figured it would be from the get-go. And Nelson Cunningham was right: Wray & Rosenstein sat on their hands. ...
... Kate Kelly & David Enrich of the New York Times: "In a 1983 letter..., the young Judge Kavanaugh warned his friends of the danger of eviction from an Ocean City, Md., condo [the group had rented for Beach Week]. In a neatly written postscript, he added: Whoever arrived first at the condo should 'warn the neighbors that we're loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us....'... Recent interviews with more than a dozen classmates and friends from that time depict Judge Kavanaugh as a member of a small clique of football players who dominated Georgetown Prep's work-hard, play-hard culture. His circle celebrated a culture of heavy drinking, even by the standards of that era.... Four Georgetown Prep classmates said they saw Judge Kavanaugh and his friends partake in binge-drinking rituals many weekends in which other partygoers saw them inebriated, even having difficulty standing." The article reproduces the two-page note from Kavanaugh. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: During last Thursday's hearing, Kavanaugh refused to answer Pat Leahy's question as to whether or not he was the drunken "Bart O'Kavanaugh" in Mark Judge's roman à clef. "You'd have to ask [Judge]," Kavanaugh finally answered after suggesting the venerable Leahy was making "fun of some guy who has an addiction" (which Leahy definitely did not). According to the NYT reporters, Kavanaugh was "nicknamed 'Bart' after a Georgetown Prep teacher garbled 'Brett'." In the letter the Times reproduces, Kavanaugh signs off as "Bart." ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Trump said Tuesday the controversy surrounding Brett Kava[na]ugh's nomination to the Supreme Court shows it is a 'scary' time for young men.... 'You can be accused before you prove your innocence.' Asked if he had a message for young women, Trump said, 'Women are doing great.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Biggest Liar Doesn't Think Others Should Lie. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn, Trump also drew a line on lying to Congress. 'I don't think you should lie to Congress and there are a lot of people over the past year who have lied to Congress,' he said. 'For me, that would not be acceptable.'" Mrs. McC: Of course, since the FBI isn't investigating Brett's lies, Trump will be able to claim the FBI didn't turn up evidence of Brett's lying, so it's all good. More from Helaine Olen, linked below, on GOP lying. ...
... Greg Sargent: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has emerged as the contorted face of right-wing rage at the very idea that Christine Blasey Ford's claims should merit a serious and thorough examination, has done it again. On Fox News on Monday night, he showcased what is emerging in some quarters as the last-ditch strategy to save Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination -- a strategy that exposes Trumpism at its ugliest. 'This good man should not be destroyed,' Graham told Sean Hannity, speaking about Kavanaugh. Graham warned that if the Senate does not confirm Kavanaugh now -- say, if two GOP senators end up opposing him -- it will 'end up legitimizing' the 'destruction of a good person' by a 'horrible process.'... But what this argument really means, inescapably, is that Ford's claims should never have gotten the examination they are now getting. Note that Graham is claiming this whole process has been deeply unfair to Kavanaugh. The ads on [Kavanaugh']s behalf claim that Democrats are trying to 'ruin' him with 'smears' -- but what they've really done is insist on a fuller inquiry than Republicans wanted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Mitch McConnell was on the Senate floor this morning advancing the same argument. The underlying premise seems to be that a good, white, conservative man can do no wrong, so whatever his behavior, whether sexual assault or perjury, it is normative for a good, white conservative man. Needless to say, this standard does not apply to people of other persuasions. ...
... Julian Zelizar of The Atlantic: "Senator Lindsey Graham is among Kavanaugh's most ardent defenders and will likely vote to confirm the judge no matter how many lies he may have told. Back in the 1990s, however ... Graham blasted those who dared to pretend that perjury didn't rise to the level of a 'high crime or misdemeanor,' and strongly suggested that lying under oath merited removal for any high-level government official, not just a president.... To make their case for impeachment [of then pres. Bill Clinton] to the House, Graham and other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee held a nine-hour meeting on December 1, 1998, about the consequences of perjury." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Tinfoil Hat Club. Nicole Lafond of TPM: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has emerged as the most ardent defender of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, accused NBC News of being a 'co-conspirator in the destruction of Kavanaugh' on Sean Hannity's show Monday night." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, yes, reporting is diabolical. ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Brett M. Kavanaugh will still probably be confirmed to the Supreme Court. But it's becoming increasingly clear that he damaged himself with last week's angry appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.... Calling Kavanaugh's display 'sharp and partisan,' [Sen. Jeff] Flake [R-Az.] said Tuesday, 'We can't have that on the court.'... Perhaps the most symbolic pullback, though, came from conservative legal scholar Benjamin Wittes. Although he doesn't have a vote, as Flake does, he does count Kavanaugh as a longtime ally and has defended him. Yet he said Tuesday that he no longer thinks Kavanaugh should be confirmed. And while he said the allegations are troubling, he said Kavanaugh's testimony left him 'nonviable' to serve on the Supreme Court[.]" ...
... Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare, in The Atlantic: "If I were a senator, I would not vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.... I am also keenly aware that rejecting Kavanaugh on the record currently before the Senate will set a dangerous precedent.... We are on a dangerous road, and the judicial confirmation wars are going to get a lot worse for our traveling down it.... I would do it both because of Ford's testimony and because of Kavanaugh's.... I find her account more believable than his. I would also do it because whatever the truth of what happened in the summer of 1982, Thursday's hearing left Kavanaugh nonviable as a justice.... His performance was wholly inconsistent with the conduct we should expect from a member of the judiciary." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: We might want to thank Matt Damon & late-nite comedians in general for fixing Kavanaugh's image. Of course a conspiracy-theory spouting, shouting, spitting judge is unacceptable in any courtroom, but he is also eminently mockable. The boys' laughter especially haunts Christine Blasey Ford; Trump uses mockery as a tool against her & others. Why? Because ridicule works. Once one gets over the shock of seeing the antics of an out-of-control judge, it's kind of healing to view him not as a dangerous maniac but as a figure of fun. Mocking Kavanaugh makes him "safer"; he becomes less a powerful madman & more a silly little grotesque. ...
... Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Two former law school classmates of Brett Kavanaugh's who previously vouched for him wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to say they are withdrawing their support for him because of 'the nature' of his recent testimony. 'Under the current circumstances, we fear that partisanship has injected itself into Judge Kavanaugh's candidacy'" Michael J. Proctor and Mark Osler say in a letter to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).... 'That, and the lack of judicial temperament displayed on September 27 hearing, cause us to withdraw our support.' Proctor and Osler were among 23 classmates of Kavanaugh's at Yale Law School who signed a letter in August pledging their support for his confirmation. At the time, they cited his 'exemplary judicial temperament' as a reason for their support." ...
... About that time Brettsky got in a bar fight after attending a UB40 concert, Colbert's team mixes him into "UB40's biggest (and only) hit, 'Red, Red Wine.'":
... Sarah Nechamkin of New York: "On Monday, three women approached Republican senator David Perdue of Georgia at the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., asking whether he would vote to approve Kavanaugh. One informed him she was a sexual-assault survivor; another asked him about the millions of women who have come out about their own experiences[.]... The three women -- sexual-assault survivors Patti Serrano and Jennifer Epps-Addison, of the Center for Popular Democracy advocacy group, along with Arizona State Representative Isela Blanc -- also asked Perdue whether he supports a full FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh. Perdue ignored the women, even pushing one -- she can be heard saying 'Don't push me' on the escalator -- before literally dodging them to hide in the men's bathroom. When the survivors tried to introduce themselves and shake his hand, Perdue said, 'Don't touch me.'" ...
... The Party of Liars. Helaine Olen of the Washington Post: "Brett M. Kavanaugh is a liar. He has fudged the truth (either provably or almost certainly) on everything ranging from slang in his high school yearbook to documents stolen from Senate Democrats during the George W. Bush years.... Kavanaugh's tall tales are part of a larger ecosystem. The Republican Party, as part of its quest for power, has been waging a battle with the truth for decades.... Ronald Reagan ... once claimed trees cause more pollution than cars.... Kavanaugh spent nearly three years attempting to prove a right-wing conspiracy theory that Clinton White House staffer Vincent Foster did not die by suicide. Kavanaugh did this despite the fact he personally believed those theories about Foster's death were bogus. This is cynicism taken to an almost mind-boggling degree.... Republicans have not considered Trump's trouble with the truth, apparent to anyone even before the campaign, to be disqualifying. His successful campaign depended on a cavalcade of falsehoods, ranging from a crazed obsession with Hillary Clinton's emails, to fake news pushed on Facebook and Twitter feeds in a Russian-sponsored misinformation campaign."
Trump Got Rich Because of (1) Gifts (& Bailouts) from His Father & (2) Cheating You & Me. David Barstow, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help. But The Times's investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father's real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day.... He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents.... Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents' real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings. These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue Service...." ...
... David Barstow, et al.: "Here are ... ways that Fred Trump made his children rich.... Fred Trump made his son not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, consultant and banker.... Fred Trump provided money for Donald Trump's car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings. He also gave him trust funds that were used to transfer a majority of Fred Trump's empire to Donald Trump and his living siblings.... The biggest payday Donald Trump ever got from his father came long after Fred Trump's death. It happened quietly, without the usual Trumpian news conference, on May 4, 2004, when Donald Trump and his siblings sold off the empire their father had spent 70 years assembling with the dream that it would never leave his family. Donald Trump's cut: $177.3 million, or $236.2 million in today's dollars." The article includes several videos. ...
... ** Russ Beuttner, et al., of the New York Times: "Here are some key takeaways [from the New York Times' investigation]. The Trumps' tax maneuvers show a pattern of deception, tax experts say.... Donald Trump began reaping wealth from his father's real estate empire as a toddler.... That "small loan" of $1 million was actually at least $60.7 million -- much of it never repaid.... Fred Trump wove a safety net that rescued his son from one bad bet after another.... The Trumps turned an $11 million loan debt into a legally questionable tax write-off.... Father and son set out to create the myth of a self-made billionaire.... Donald Trump tried to change his ailing father's will, setting off a family reckoning.... The Trumps created a company that siphoned cash from the empire.... The Trump parents dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by grossly undervaluing the assets they would pass on.... After Fred Trump's death, his empire's most valuable asset was an I.O.U. from Donald Trump.... Donald Trump got a windfall when the empire was sold. But he may have left money on the table." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Though we haven't known the details before this, we've known the outline since early in the 2016 presidential campaign. Our fellow Americans are so damned dumb that put a complete, unadulterated fraud in the White House. ...
... Phil Helsel & Adam Reiss of NBC News: "The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance says it is reviewing allegations made in a New York Times article about questionable tax schemes used by now-... Donald Trump in the 1990s.... A lawyer for Trump, Charles Harder, in a statement said 'The New York Times' allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100% false, and highly defamatory' and that 'There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone.' He said 'the facts upon which the Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.'" Mrs. McC: Is there such a thing as an "inaccurate fact"? ...
... Jonathan Chait: "That the Times presents these conclusions so baldly — accusing him of 'outright fraud' in the first sentence -- in the face of Trump's famous litigiousness, is a testament to the power and clarity of its findings.... Trump was in the money-inheriting business. And that business was essentially, and not just incidentally, illegal.... The English language has terms for people who make large sources of money from illegal activity: criminals.... Trump's presidency will enable more Trumps. His career as white-collar criminal who ran for president as an alleged business genius is a metaphor for the exact thing he is doing as president. He is the crook who got away with it." ...
... Sad! Dan Alexander & Chase Peterson-Withorn of Forbes: "By refusing to divest, Trump raised an unprecedented question: How would the most divisive presidency in modern American history affect a company built on the president's persona? Forbes has been working to answer that question since the moment Trump got elected.... The early results are in. Much as he's trying ... Donald Trump is not getting richer off the presidency. Just the opposite. His net worth, by our calculation, has dropped from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $3.1 billion the last two years.... Trump's mixture of politics and business has proved to be a net loser for him so far. In further polarizing the country, he has also further polarized his business.... Understanding how that has happened offers a fresh window into the state of Trump Inc. -- and Trump's America." --s
Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "... a Wall Street Journal report out Tuesday sheds new light on how [Donald] Trump personally managed damage control over the revelation of the payouts to ... [Stormy Daniels] -- well into the second year of his presidency. Per the Journal, Trump used his own private real estate company and his own son [Eric] to do so. The report provides the latest evidence that Trump Organization officials, acting on order of their boss-turned-U.S. president, were intimately involved in making and covering up hush money payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. Federal and New York state authorities are currently investigating the structure and approval of those payments. 'I'll take care of everything,']Trump said in February 2018, according to the Journal. That reassurance to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, came a month after the newspaper first revealed that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016. Contrast that to what Trump said in April, shortly after Cohen's premises were raided by federal agents who seized documents related to the hush money payouts. 'This has nothing to do with me,' Trump told the 'Fox & Friends' cast. 'I'm not involved and I've been told I'm not involved.'" The WSJ report, which is firewalled, is here.
Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Federal law enforcement officials have referred a 2-year-old email hacking investigation to special counsel Robert Mueller, according to the Republican operative who was the target of the hack. The referral adds yet another dimension to the special counsel's sprawling probe, even as some of ... Donald Trump's allies portray Mueller's work as nearing its conclusion. The operative and Trump critic, Cheri Jacobus, told Politico that FBI agents in the bureau's cyber division informed her in September that they had forwarded their investigation to Mueller because the matter came to exceed the bounds of computer intrusion, the crime that had been the initial focus of the investigation."
Krishnadev Calamur of The Atlantic: "[A] new survey from the Pew Research Center released Monday shows not just how unpopular Trump himself is.... Seven in 10 people around the world have no confidence in Trump.... 43 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of the U.S.; 50 percent said they had a favorable view.... Trump is viewed with less confidence than German Chancellor Angela Merkel (52 percent confidence), French President Emmanuel Macron (46 percent), Chinese President Xi Jinping (34 percent), and Russian President Vladimir Putin (30 percent).... Still, the world's views about the U.S., or indeed its president, don't mean that the alternatives to U.S. power are particularly attractive.... Or to put it another way: The world may not like Trump or the direction the U.S. is headed in, but the alternatives look worse." --s
Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "The EPA is pursuing rule changes that experts say would weaken the way radiation exposure is regulated, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you -- like a little bit of sunlight. The government's current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release."
When Government Works. Patrick Caldwell of Mother Jones: "The Affordable Care Act has led to a massive drop in the amount of money women have to spend on birth control. The law required that plans sold to individuals and insurance offered by employers had to cover a range of contraception options at zero out-of-pocket cost for the subscriber.... A 2015 study published in Health Affairs estimated that women saved $1.4 billion on co-payments for birth control pills during the first year of the ACA's implementation, an average of $255 per user. And it's popular, with 68 percent of people supporting the contraception requirement in a poll last year -- even a majority of Republicans in favor." Check out the chart, it's impressive. --s
David Dayen of The Intercept (Sept. 28): "Comments submitted to a top banking regulator supporting a 2015 merger between OneWest Bank and CIT Bank were attributed to people who never sent them, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.... The fake comments appear to be tied directly to Joseph Otting, the head of the regulatory agency himself. The documents reviewed by The Intercept show that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the main bank regulator for nationally chartered banks, knew about the fake comments at the time, before it approved the merger. But the OCC appears to have done no meaningful investigation of the matter, and even cited public support for the merger when approving it." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "The Republican-controlled Congress allowed the country's most popular parks program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to expire Sunday. The lapse threatens access to public lands and water and leaves many potential projects in limbo.... The Land and Water Conservation Fund provides funding to protect parks, forests, cultural heritage sites, and water resources, at zero expense to taxpayers. The fund, which is paid for through revenues from offshore drilling, was passed in 1964 and has financed projects in all 50 states." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
2018 Election
Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City who is considering a 2020 presidential campaign, will give $20 million to the main Democratic Senate super PAC this week -- jolting the national battle for control of the chamber just five weeks away from the midterm elections. Bloomberg's intervention bolsters the Democrats' Senate chances by infusing significant late-season capital into the Senate Majority PAC, a group that had $29 million on hand at the end of August and has been purchasing advertising in expensive media markets. Bloomberg -- a former Republican and declared political independent -- says the emotional national debate over sexual-assault allegations against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh has energized Democratic voters and provides an opening for the party to be more competitive in rallying women and swing voters, his advisers said Tuesday, adding that he sees last week's contentious hearings as a tipping point."
Charles Pierce of Esquire: "There is some reason for optimism out in the states that voters are beginning to take the attacks on the franchise seriously as a reason to go to the polls and revenge themselves in the proper democratic fashion against the vandals who have been running wild over the past decade [in Kansas, Michigan & Florida]." --s
Karen Weise of the New York Times: Amazon "on Tuesday said it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for all of its United States workers. It said the pay increase would include part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company said it would also lobby Washington to raise the federal minimum wage. Amazon said the new wages would apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it will hire for the holiday season. It goes into effect on Nov. 1." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Suzanne Moore in the Guardian: "Watching [Kellyanne] Conway is always horribly fascinating.... She is anti-abortion, and though a survivor of sexual assault, works for a man accused of multiple sexual assaults.... The #MeToo movement hits a block when it gets reduced to party politics, as we are witnessing, and feminism hits a block as long as there are women, like Conway, complicit in upholding male power.... One cannot ignore or wish away female complicity in the patriarchal structure Trump presides over. He is in power, it is said, not because of poor rural voters, but middle-class white women. All over the world some of the staunchest defenders of systems that limit women are other women. This is a reckoning, then, foranyone who wants to change things.... The venal semi-circle of stony-faced men who confronted Blasey Ford is one face of male power, but every time I see Conway, I am reminded of that great but uncomfortable truth bell hooks told us: 'Patriarchy has no gender'." --s ...
... Sherry Amatenstein in Vox: "I'm a therapist who treats many victims of sexual abuse, and since the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations have exploded, I know each new story will lead to a call or text begging for an emergency session by a re-traumatized patient.....Studies conducted by the National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center Medical University show that nearly one-third of all rape victims develop PTSD at some point and that it does not recede for more than one in 10.... Not every survivor of sexual assault responds to triggers in the exact same way. Still, I am not the only trauma therapist who has noticed an uptick in his or her patients' agony post-Kavanaugh -- more than after Harvey Weinstein was outed last fall. This time around, many women are tapping into their feelings of helplessness and fear rather than releasing their long-suppressed rage.... Since victims of abuse cannot live in a bubble, it is vital to know how to best armor yourself against the daily reminders of misogyny and abuse that come with the news cycle. These guidelines are good to keep in mind...." --s
Sarah Boseley of the Guardian: "One in two women will develop dementia or Parkinson’s disease, or have a stroke, in their lifetime, new research suggests. About a third of men aged 45 and half of women of the same age are likely to go on to be diagnosed with one of the conditions, according to a study of more than 12,000 people. The researchers, from the University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said preventive measures could 'substantially' reduce the burden of the illnesses. The findings have been published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Steve Vockrodt, et al., of the Kansas City Star: "Jason Kander, citing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, is dropping out of the Kansas City mayor's race. Kander posted a message on his campaign website and Facebook page saying that in the 11 years since leaving Afghanistan as an Army intelligence officer, he has experienced depression, nightmares and suicidal thoughts. He said needed to abandon the mayoral race, in which he was seen as a front-runner to win the 2019 contest, to focus on his mental health."
News Lede
New York Times: "Since 1901, when the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was first awarded, 177 people have captured the honor. On Wednesday, Frances H. Arnold became only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize. Dr. Arnold, 62, an American professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, earned the award for her work with the directed evolution of enzymes."
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I was invited to a party this past weekend where there probably would have been quite a few privileged white men. I had looked forward to the party, but in the end I begged off. I really could not stand to be in the same room with those guys. Besides, I probably would have committed felony assault & battery if I'd heard some smug bastard say, "Well, you really can't blame a guy for something he did 35 years ago." Avoidance really works for me.
Wait...did I read this correctly? Donald J. (Lying Liar, first degree) Trumpy sez it’s not nice to lie? What’s that lie total up to now? Five, six, seven thousand lies he’s told, in just two years? And those are just the ones we heard about. If only Mitch McConnell would come out and say that senators should do their constitutional duty, I’d be sure that we’d find Rod Serling around the next corner. Maybe we’ll hear Lindsey Graham remind us that it’s not nice to be a flaming asshole. Ted Cruz would admit to being a slimy douchebag and Chuck Grassley would retire, because whenever he sees a hole in the ground he’s says he’s not sure whether or not it’s his ass.
Donald Trump is very familiar with "dangerous times for young men". This time though bone spurs aren't the answer.
The NYT column by Bonnie Mann, "Misogyny Rules," shows why avoidance of the current misogynistic social structure is most times very wise. But I was shocked at the implications. I look back at some of my life choices which would have been different if I had not been being careful to choose places of work, for instance, that were "safer" in terms of obvious misogyny. This was not obvious to me at the time.
I find the dueling narrative chaos around the scope of the FBI investigation into Kavanugh to be extremely disturbing.
It appears to show an active case study between the truth and Trump's "alternative fact" messaging machine. Reality check: they're winning the twisted truth battle.
It appears that nearly all the pundits with sources near the FBI agree that the bureau has been effectively handcuffed in their investigatory breadth, ie a travesty for seeking the truth.
But many newspapers, citing "White House officials" or "sources" close to the White House claim the opposite, that they want a full, but limited, investigation.
Why would the FBI leak that they're being constrained if that wasn't the case? And who should we believe, the House of Alternative Facts or the FBI?
Either way the FBI comes out of this with Trump Taint on its face. I hope all of those Hillary hatin' conservative agents spilling beans to Nunes et Co. are extactic that they helped elect a man who denigrates their institution daily.
So not only do we have a president* who lies, who cheats (not only on his financial operations but on wives), who is ignorant and extremely limited and is an embarrassment to this country, we now have him discrediting victims of sexual harassment and saying it's tough going for males these days cuz those womens are out to accuse us of stuff we are innocent of. And lo and behold the twitter feed is awash in solidarity––as one bloke said he didn't know anyone who was NOT in a bar fight at one time or another. As Jeet Heer proclaims it's like an "I am Spartacus" moment.
Interesting to speculate if this circling the wagon of "poor us" will morph into even more hatred of women instead of solidarity for their speaking out and demanding a place at the table.
And this bombshell report in the Times this morning re: Donald's Daddy's inherited scams will do what? Change what? Meanwhile news like this–-
"Jenny Rowland of ThinkProgress: "The Republican-controlled Congress allowed the country’s most popular parks program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to expire Sunday."
will be relegated to the back of the bus.
P.S. @Marie: Good for you to decline that party invite––you might have hauled off and smacked some dude in the face ––-and it wouldn't even be in a bar!
PPS: @AK: My god, your stories of coach's behaving badly are terrible but loved that you stood up for your brother–-good man!
Here is the core issue. Not climate, not trade, but the idea that sexually abusing women is not allowed. We are simply destroying the core of Trumps life.
PD,
That guy who claimed he doesn't know anyone who wasn't in a bar fight is being disingenuous, to say the least. There's a difference between being in a bar fight and starting one. Things happen in places where people, especially young men, are drinking and it can get out of hand, usually because some asshole starts something. This then cascades until what started with one or two people expands to three, four, five, or more. But it still takes that one asshole to start it off.
An asshole like Bart O'Kavanaugh.
One Day in Trump World
So what have we got today? Let's see...
President* Lying Pussy Grabber is not as rich as he claims. According to Forbes he's been trying like hell to make money off his latest reality TV role as president but it appears the Trump brand is in the toilet. Of course Little Dracula is whining that this shows the kind of sacrifices the Trump Crime Family has made to the good ol' US of A. Someone needs to tell Eric that trying very hard to do X but failing at it because of A,B, or C, does not qualify as a sacrifice.
What else? Oh yeah, more on the Trump Crime Family. It appears Daddy (aka Grand Dragon Fred Trump) and his scheming scion, little donnie, worked multiple tax fraud scams to hide profits from that mean ol' Uncle Sam, illegal plots that donnie and his sibs carried on with and added to in the form of a sham corporation. He's been a crook from the very beginning. Also, Trumpy's tales about bootstrapping and self-made blah, blah, blah, are nothing but blah, blah baloney. He started off with hundreds of millions. If that's bootstrapping, pass me that same pair boots.
Then....oh yeah. Time to make fun of the victims of sexual assault. Something I'm sure Trump has done for decades. "You should'a seen her when I grabbed her pussy. Ha! She looked like she was gonna cry. Wah, wah, wah. I said 'Shut up, bitch, I'm the Donald!'"
And to round off news items in just the last 24 hours, Trumpy's Supreme Court nominee was caught prepping witnesses BEFORE the release of yet another sexual assault charge which he claims never happened and heard nothing about until it was published in the New Yorker, which makes his frantic phone calls to Yale classmates to join his cover-up weeks before that date most unusual. Hmmm...could he be.....LYING?
Oh, and Lindsey Graham is still a flaming asshole.
Now let's see what the next 24 hours in Trump World dump on us.
Have turned off the teevee. Last night Lawrence reported that tRump's MS rally was completely vile, and he was making an executive decision to not show it, and never watch it again himself. I guess I will be following his lead, having muted my NPR phone when I was out walking and they played a clip, and doing the same for early morning teevee before I turned it off. For the MAGAt to out-vile himself is extraordinary. I have, however, heard numerous times his self-pitying whining about how young men are victims of unscrupulous women who lie about being set upon, and it makes me retch. I have not yet heard him whine about the "failing" New York Times piece on his rabid family, but I'm sure it is out there. Time to turn it ALL off-- except RC and Charlie, of course--
Rachel Mitchell is still a prosecutor in Arizona, right? What sexual assault survivor would wish for Mitchell to be their advocate? I guess anybody who has been sexually assaulted in Maricopa County better where a MAGA hat when they go to report their assault.
The excellent reporting in the New York Times about the failing Trump Crime Family is must read material.
No wonder he holds on to his tax returns as if they provide him with a cloak of invisibility because, well, they do. At least as long as he keeps them hidden.
The documentary evidence of Trump, his siblings, and his dad (aka Grand Dragon Fred) reveal a stunning level of criminality and sleaziness. It's clear that Fred taught the dauphin all the tricks of the trade, most of which involved fraud. But they didn't only defraud the government.
"The most overt fraud was All County Building Supply & Maintenance, a company formed by the Trump family in 1992. All County’s ostensible purpose was to be the purchasing agent for Fred Trump’s buildings, buying everything from boilers to cleaning supplies. It did no such thing, records and interviews show. Instead All County siphoned millions of dollars from Fred Trump’s empire by simply marking up purchases already made by his employees. Those millions, effectively untaxed gifts, then flowed to All County’s owners — Donald Trump, his siblings and a cousin. Fred Trump then used the padded All County receipts to justify bigger rent increases for thousands of tenants."
So in addition to defrauding the government by sidestepping the tax code, the scheme developed to transfer millions into Donald's pockets also allowed the Trump Crime Family to then defraud their tenants as well, vacuuming up even more money from the have-nots and handing it to the haves.
Most revealing is the evidence that Fred Trump didn't trust Donald. He understood that his kid was a con man but also something of an irresponsible, egotistical loser. He was forced to shovel millions upon millions to the family princeling in order to save little donnie from his multitude of failed enterprises. And to show what a sniveling, ungrateful little shithead he was (is), the article outlines in detail the Donald's plan to have his dad's will changed, giving him complete control of Fred's entire real estate empire, so that he could sell it off to pay for his increasingly expensive flights of ego. The old man nixed that plan, but to no avail. As soon as he was dead, little donnie went to work selling off whatever he could and pocketing the profits.
It's one thing to be a cheap, crooked, lying con artist, but to try to stiff your own dad on his deathbed to pad your own bank account, a dad who gave you hundreds of millions already? This guy is even more reprehensible than I thought, and my thinking already ran to World Class Reprehensibility.
But this is not much different from how he treated his mentor, Roy Cohn. Cohn taught him even more sleazy tricks and techniques and when he was on his deathbed, Trump wouldn't even return his calls. King of the Assholes.
It's a long piece but worth the time. And don't miss the video segments. As Fat Boy is bragging on himself and lying about how he did it all with next to no help from anyone, how his dad's gigantic real estate empire was just a tiny operation out in little old Brooklyn, the video shows exactly how "small" this business was and tallies up how much this lying sack of shit made off dad's (often illegal) largesse.
The Gambinos could have learned a thing or two from the Trumps.
Still can.
And now this con man, this snake, this ungrateful little shit, this pussy grabbing liar is....president.
Jesus, what a country.
Oh! Jeanne...I, too, am waiting for the reaction to the NYT piece on L'affaire de* Trump Family -- expect it to be much more than a whine!
(*should that be de or du or d' or doh!)?
Poor, Beto O'Rourke appears to be taking a lot of heat for his college days review of a Broadway show. What he said, "...Keith Carradine in the lead role is surrounded by perma-smile actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks.”
Such pesky adjectives and naughty words!
Seems more of us could get into the same picklement for let's say describing some Kentucky senator with varying forms of turtle epithets? Or is Senator Huckleberry or Ms. Pittypat too politically-incorrect for another Senate figure from South Carolina?
We already have Stormy Daniel's vivid description of the *presidential member!! Hard to get that picture out of one's mind! Alas, mushrooms are usually so benign! It'll be a while before a few champignons top my next slice of pizza!
And, of course, what we all remember about Jayne Mansfield was her great smile! Ditto, Monroe!
Trump can whine all he wants about the Times report (my favorite part is that fact that daddy Fred put little donnie on the payroll while he was still in diapers. He was a millionaire by the time he was eight. When I was eight I got my first real baseball glove. I felt like a millionaire, but all I could do was catch pop ups, I couldn't go out and buy an apartment building.) and talk about "inaccurate facts".
But here's my hope. In November, the Democrats take control of Congress back from Trump's Party of Traitors. Then the first thing they do is subpoena his tax returns.
Then he can whine some more, but he'll have to turn them over.
Oh, wait. Unless he takes his case to the Supreme Court and "Justice" Bart sez (between swigs) he don't have to do no such thing.
Here’s a Flakey thought. I hear Senator Jeff talking about how a candidate who demonstrated, as Bart O’Kavanaugh did, the lack of control, the intemperate whining, the personal insults to senators, and who indulges in wild-ass, evidence free conspiracy theories has no business on the Supreme Court.
Okay. Does that mean he’s going to vote against him?
I doubt it, but let’s see.
Flake has one more chance to show that he’s more substantial and reliable than his name might suggest. We shall
see.
@MAG, since you brought it up you might enjoy Stormy's interview with Jimmy Kimmel where she selects a representative sample of the president*'s toadstool.
Let's be fair. While it looks like daddy stole half a billion in taxes, in order for Trump to be criminally involved, he would have to understand the game. It was way too complicated for Trump.
@Marvin: thought a very telling tale about Trump in the Times piece was how he tried to pull a fast one on old Fred with a multi-page codicil to his father's will. Aah, but Old Fred, though suffering some level of dementia, was plenty sharp enough to catch the connivance. Of course, 'twas the lawyers who did the complicated stuff!
Interestingly, the other Trump siblings are keeping a low profile, these days. Only brother Robert has commented so far.
@unwashed. Uh! no! No visuals. I can't go there!
@MAG, sorry. Good thing she didn't say that it looked like a stinkhorn.