The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click on photo to enlarge.

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

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

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

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

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

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The Commentariat -- October 4, 2019

Afternoon Update:

Barr, DOJ Ignored CIA Referral. Ken Dilanian of Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Weeks before the whistleblower's complaint became public, the CIA's top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower's allegations that ... Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The move by the CIA's general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more questions about why the Justice Department later declined to open an investigation.... Elwood ... participated in a conference call with the top national security lawyer at the White House and the chief of the Justice Department's National Security Division. On that call, Elwood and John Eisenberg, the top legal adviser to the White House National Security Council, told the top Justice Department national security lawyer, John Demers, that the allegations merited examination by the DOJ, officials said.... A DOJ official said Attorney General William Barr was made aware of the conversation with Elwood and Eisenberg, and their concerns about the president's behavior, in the days that followed.... A separate criminal referral came later from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was based solely on the whistleblower's official written complaint."

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The chairmen of three House committees on Friday requested documents from Vice President Mike Pence for the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, asking him to turn over a wide-ranging batch of material that could shed light on Mr. Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine, and any role that Mr. Pence played in it. In a letter to Mr. Pence, the chairmen asked for a lengthy list of documents detailing the administration's dealings with Ukraine, to be produced by Oct. 15. It came as House Democratic leaders were readying a subpoena for the White House for a vast trove of documents in the inquiry, which is investigating attempts by Mr. Trump and his administration to pressure Ukraine's president to help dig up dirt on his political rivals." The Guardian's story is here.

Brian Faler of Politico: "An independent watchdog at the Treasury Department is looking into how the agency handled House Democrats' demands for ... Donald Trump's tax returns. Acting Inspector General Rich Delmar said he will investigate who was consulted on the issue and how the department came to reject Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal's demand for the records, a decision the Massachusetts Democrat is now fighting into court."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday defended his brazen call for foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 election by launching investigations into the Bidens, repeatedly claiming he is duty-bound to encourage such probes and insisting his motivations are apolitical. 'This is not about politics. This is about corruption,' Trump told reporters outside the White House. 'And if you look and you read our Constitution and many other things, I have an obligation to look at corruption. I have an actual obligation and a duty.'" ~~~

~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump denied he would seek to tie a potential investigation into the Biden family to any trade deal with China, however he again pressed Beijing to investigate unfounded claims against his political rival. Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House Friday, Trump reiterated that he believes he has the authority as president to ask a foreign government to open investigations into anyone he suspects of being corrupt.... His comments come a day after he openly called for President Xi jinping to look into possible corruption by the Bidens, continuing to spread claims that no evidence has supported. Trump first appeared to link the two prospects speaking to reporters Thursday. The president asserted then that he and the U.S. would have the upper hand on China when high-stakes trade talks resume in Washington next week, saying he has 'a lot of options on China' and 'if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power.'... On Friday, Trump appeared to adopt a new line of defense as he spoke with reporters, repeatedly telling them that his main motivator was rooting out corruption, rather than damaging the electoral prospects of any singular political opponent. Asked by one reporter, however, if he could name any corruption investigations he was pursuing that did not involve a political opponent, the president responded that he 'would have to look.' Moments later, unprompted, he issued his invitation for China to examine whether there was wrongdoing by the Bidens." ~~~

~~~ From the Washington Post's liveblog @11:45 am ET: "Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said he didn't know if he had ever asked a foreign leader to investigate a person who wasn't his political opponent, though he said he had a right to do so.... Reporters asked him several times if that included enlisting Russian President Vladimir Putin's help, but Trump ignored the question." @10:30 am ET: "In the midst of several midmorning tweets, Trump identified the purported employer of the whistleblower as the CIA. In the tweet, Trump quoted longtime Republican operative Ed Rollins from an appearance on Fox News. 'I think it's outrages that a Whistleblower is a CIA Agent,' Trump quoted Rollins as saying, misspelling 'outrageous.'" @10 am ET: "Beginning this weekend, the Trump campaign is airing more than $1 million worth of TV ads in early primary states that accuse Joe Biden and his son Hunter of corruption in Ukraine, according to Brad Parscale, Trump's campaign manager. The commercials will air in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, Parscale tweeted."

Trump Was Only Kidding. Connor Mannion of Mediaite: When a reporter asked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) what he thought of Donald Trump's asking China to investigate Joe Biden, Rubio said, "I don't think it's a real request, I think he did it to get you guys. I think he did it to provoke you to ask me and others and get outraged by it. Like I said, he plays it like a violin and everyone falls right into it. I don't think it's a real request." Mrs. McC: Sure, it's a great argument, but I can't quite picture people falling into violins.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Friday broke sharply with President Trump's call for China and Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, calling it 'wrong and appalling.' 'When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,' Romney said in a statement, which he also tweeted out."

Jonathan Chait: "Trump is claiming the absolute right to demand investigations of any American by any country. The president exerts unilateral control over the most powerful government on Earth. He is announcing to every foreign state that American relations with his government -- and, should he prevail, every future government -- can and will be influenced by their willingness to put their judicial or quasi-judicial systems at the disposal of his reelection campaign.... The pretext that somehow Trump is advancing the cause of good government by demanding international anti-corruption probes is a morbid joke.... He is pressing notoriously corrupt states to deliver a predetermined outcome.... The favor he is bartering for is the insinuation of guilt. And Trump himself is obviously indulging in corruption on a scale unprecedented in presidential history.... His demands are not intended to clamp down on corruption, but to cheapen the currency of the language, so that he can more easily dismiss his own gross behavior as standard procedure.... The brutally simple choice...[:] Either ... hand the president the absolute right, now and forever, to use American foreign policy as a lever to discredit their political rivals, or ... vote to impeach."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The former State Department special envoy for Ukraine told congressional investigators that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, insisted that Ukraine specifically commit to investigate involvement in the 2016 election and a firm tied to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. During testimony behind closed doors on Thursday, Kurt D. Volker, the special envoy, said Mr. Giuliani rejected a generic draft statement that Ukraine's government had agreed to issue committing to fighting corruption generally. While Mr. Giuliani's efforts to pressure Ukraine have been known, Mr. Volker's account provides new details about how the president's personal lawyer inserted himself into foreign policy to benefit Mr. Trump politically. Mr. Giuliani 'said that in his view, the statement should include specific reference to "Burisma" and "2016,"' Mr. Volker told the investigators, according to a person who has seen the testimony.... Mr. Volker sought in his testimony to distance himself from the pressure campaign by the president and Mr. Giuliani. 'At no time was I aware of or took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden,' he told investigators." ~~~

~~~ Christopher Miller, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "In his prepared testimony Thursday, [Kurt] Volker said he wanted to make five key points clear: His 'efforts were entirely focused on advancing U.S. foreign policy goals with respect to Ukraine.' 'Second, in May of this year, I became concerned that a negative narrative about Ukraine, fueled by assertions made by Ukraine's departing Prosecutor General, was reaching the President of the United States, and impeding our ability to support the new Ukrainian government as robustly as I believed we should. 'Third, at no time was I aware of or took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden.' Volker said that in the text messages he shared with Congress, 'Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion.' However, the texts do explicitly mention Burisma, the Ukraine gas company where the presidential candidate's son Hunter Biden served on the board. 'Fourth, while executing my duties, I kept my colleagues at the State Department and National Security Council informed, and also briefed Congress, about my actions.' Fifth and finally, I strongly supported the provision of U.S. security assistance, including lethal defensive weapons, to Ukraine throughout my tenure." The reporters elaborate on those points. The report includes a copy of Volker's opening remarks.

Lying to the Old Folks on Our Dime. Annie Karni & Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday delivered a campaign-style speech to an audience of elderly voters, pitching a new executive order that aims to improve private Medicare plans as the responsible alternative to the 'Medicare for all' policies supported by some of his Democratic political opponents. 'Standing in solidarity with our nation's seniors, I declare once again that America will never be a socialist country,' Mr. Trump told a crowd at the Villages in Florida, the country's largest retirement community, where the population is overwhelmingly white and conservative and where many residents are veterans.... But while Mr. Trump's speech suggested that the Democratic proposals for expanding coverage put retirees' access to health care in grave danger, the plans would not actually diminish their benefits.... Mr. Trump's speech, delivered from behind a lectern with a presidential seal, was billed as an official White House event and his travel was not paid for by his campaign. But it was almost indistinguishable in much of its content from the remarks Mr. Trump delivers at his 'Make America Great Again' rallies."

Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Iranian hackers have been targeting the email accounts of at least one presidential campaign, as well as those of American journalists and current and former United States government officials, according to Microsoft. In a report released on Friday, Microsoft said the hackers, with apparent backing from Iran's government, made more than 2,700 attempts to identify the email accounts of current and former government officials, journalists covering political campaigns and accounts associated with one major presidential campaign. Microsoft would not name the campaign." Mrs. McC: Iran, if you're listening, I hope it's Trump's campaign you're set on hacking.

The Oranges of Trump's Ukraine Conspiracy Theory. Ben Collins of NBC News: "An anonymous post from March 2017 on the far-right 4chan message board teased a conspiracy theory that would eventually make its way to the White House. 'Russia could not have been the source of leaked Democrat emails released by Wikileaks,' the post teased, not citing any evidence for the assertion. The post baselessly insinuated that CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that worked with the Democratic National Committee and had been contracted to investigate a hack of its servers, fabricated a forensics report to frame Russia for election interference.... In the years that followed the original 4chan post, at least three different but related conspiracy theories would warp and combine on the fringes of the internet, eventually coalescing around Ukraine's supposed role in helping Trump's 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. Ukraine wasn't originally part of the theory, but in July, Trump floated CrowdStrike's name during a call with the president of Ukraine as just one piece of a convoluted conspiracy accusation.... To even people who have followed these theories closely, Trump's call felt detached from any sense of logic.... This omnibus conspiracy theory has been frequently referred to on far-right blogs, Fox News and recently by the president as the Democrats' 'insurance policy,' a reference to the supposed setup as a way to impeach the president if Trump were to win the election."

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has raised $24.6 million during the past three months, her campaign said Friday, beating her last quarter haul of $19.1 million and quadrupling her $6 million total from the first quarter of the year. The announcement comes as Warren, who has eschewed high-dollar events in favor of targeting small-dollar donations -- continues to solidify her place at or near the top of the Democratic presidential field in both polling and fundraising. She was outpaced only by fellow progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders -- who leads the pack with $25.3 million raised in the third quarter -- and dwarfed the fundraising totals announced Thursday by former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign. Biden raised $15.2 million in the third quarter." ~~~

~~~ Ed Kilgore of New York: "At the moment, you could say the Democratic race remains dominated by the Big Three of Warren, Biden, and Sanders (in whatever order you choose to rank them), with fundraising dominating by a Big Four (those three plus Pete Buttigieg, who raised $24 million in the third quarter and $19 million in the fourth). Everyone trailing these candidates in either metric needs to make a move soon as voters prepare to vote."

~~~~~~~~~~

From "No Collusion!!!" to Pro-Collusion

The Alliterative Actuality. We're way past parody. Irony is irreclaimable. Farce is fucked. Burlesque is buried, and caricature has been kicked off the train.... We're in the midst of tragedy and travesty. Truly. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments

As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet last night ~~~

 

~~~ But I swear by the Constitution I shall only exercise my absolute right when I see it will help me, Donald Trump. And if I force those other Countries to produce fake charges against my opponents, then like always I made a Great Deal. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Ukraine Case Proved. China Case Opened. I would think that if they were honest about it, they'd start a major investigation into the Bidens. It's a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens ... and by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened to China is just about as [bad as] what happened with Ukraine. -- Donald Trump, to reporters Thursday ~~~

~~~ Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday publicly called on China to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in an extraordinary presidential request to a foreign country for help that could benefit him in the 2020 election. 'China should start an investigation into the Bidens,' Mr. Trump said Thursday as he left the White House to travel to Florida where he was expected to announce an executive order on Medicare.... Mr. Trump made the comments about China ahead of the latest round of trade talks, which are set to take place next week. 'We're going to have a meeting with them, we'll see,' Mr. Trump said of the talks. 'I have a lot of options on China. But if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power.'... Mr. Trump on Thursday said he had not personally asked President Xi for assistance. 'But it's certainly something we can start thinking about because I'm sure that President Xi does not like being under that kind of scrutiny.'" Sullivan includes background on the right-wing theory that Joe Biden helped his son in an investment involving the state-owned Bank of China. The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Kylie Atwood, et al., of CNN: "When ... Donald Trump suggested -- without prompting -- that China should investigate Joe Biden and his son..., the move startled Chinese officials, who say they have little interest in becoming embroiled in a US political controversy. And it amounted to the latest extraordinary effort by Trump to openly request political assistance from foreign governments. Thursday's comments weren't the first time Trump has injected Biden into his relationship with China.... During a phone call with [President] Xi [Jinping] on June 18, Trump raised Biden's political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed. The White House record of that call was later stored in the highly secured electronic system used to house a now-infamous phone call with Ukraine's President.... After this story published, Warren ... [tweeted], 'Trump can say what he wants about me, but it's outrageous that any president would sell out the people of Hong Kong behind closed doors. The public must see the transcript of Trump's call with Xi. And we need a leader who will stand up for our values.'"

Washington Post Editors: "It's hard to know where to begin in describing the gross impropriety of Mr. Trump's behavior. But we'll start with facts: The allegations that the president is suggesting Ukraine and China should investigate are manifestly false.... Mr. Trump is seeking to call attention to Hunter Biden's business involvement with foreign partners who were probably hoping to trade on his family name. That's unseemly -- but no more so than the business favors obtained by Mr. Trump's own children from China and other countries.... That a request for a foreign investigation of a U.S. citizen would come directly from the president, in the absence of any legitimate U.S. probe, is a blatant violation of that citizen's rights and of the U.S. rule of law." ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: "Mr. Trump seems to be operating on the assumption that the more shameless his assault on democratic norms and laws, the more he can get away with. This is not how the system works, no matter how fervently Mr. Trump's Republican defenders may wish it so." ~~~

     ~~~ Got the Memo. Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson [R-Wis.] said Thursday there's nothing improper about ... Donald Trump's call on Chinese officials to investigate his top political rival in his 2020 re-election bid.... Johnson reiterated Thursday the Democrats' characterization of a phone call Trump made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky misrepresents its significance. 'I look at that transcript and I go, it's Trump being Trump,' Johnson said." Mrs. McC: "Trump being Trump" is the GOP's go-to answer to many of Trump's illegal or inappropriate acts. It's similar to shrugging off a mob hit with, "It's Gotti being Gotti." More on Johnson linked below.

     ~~~ Ignored the Memo. Joseph Morton of the Omaha World-Herald: "Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., took issue Thursday with ... Donald Trump urging China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son's business dealings there. 'Hold up: Americans don't look to Chinese commies for the truth,' Sasse said in a written statement to The World-Herald. 'If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that's a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps.'"

~~~ ** Adam Edelman of NBC News: "When asked ... whether he had asked China to investigate the Bidens, Trump replied, 'I haven't. But it's certainly something we could start thinking about,' he said. 'The guy got kicked out of the Navy and all of the sudden he's getting billions of dollars. You know what they call that? A pay-off,' he added.... Trump, seeking to expand his corruption accusations against the Bidens beyond Ukraine, has in recent days repeatedly accused Hunter Biden of using a 2013 trip on Air Force Two with his father, then the vice president, to procure $1.5 billion from China for a private equity fund he had started. Prior to Thursday, Trump had not called for investigation of the matter. Despite Trump's accusations, there has been no evidence of corruption on the part of the former vice president or his son.... Hunter Biden's spokesman ... told NBC News previously that Hunter Biden wasn't initially an 'owner' of the company and has never gotten paid for serving on the board. He said Hunter Biden didn't acquire an equity interest in the fund until 2017, after his father had left office. And when he did, he put in only about $420,000 -- a 10 percent interest. That puts the total capitalization of the fund at the time at about $4.2 million -- a far cry from the $1.5 billion that Trump has alleged. Trump also said Thursday that he still wants Ukraine to conduct 'a major investigation' into Joe and Hunter Biden." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "The Ukraine stuff alone here is terrible for Trump. The White House has claimed that the call to Ukraine was about expressing concerns about corruption there; now Trump seems to be openly admitting that his call was really just about his desire for the Ukrainians to go after Biden. But the China thing takes it to a whole new level.... The core of the argument for impeachment is that Trump is inappropriately wielding the power of the presidency to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election. That is literally what he did Thursday, with not one but two different foreign leaders, on camera and in front of reporters. The president's theory seems to be that he can get away with this if he's brazen enough because it won't generate the same level of outrage as if it's done in secret and covered up." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump is being impeached for using his office to pressure foreign countries to investigate his political rivals. It is not clear Trump understands that, because he simply continues committing this offense in broad daylight.... Of course, Trump has started a trade war with China, and has personal control over the tariffs he imposes, which gives China a strong financial incentive to placate him. Trump was not shy about reminding the Chinese of this juxtaposition[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "On Thursday morning, Trump appeared to dispense with excuses altogether, no longer even bothering to contest the charge that he leaned on Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter. How do we know this? Because Trump did it again, live on camera, from the White House lawn.... You could practically hear the collective gasp in Washington. Republicans had spent days denying what Trump had more or less just admitted to.... Twitter wags immediately began wondering if the President had just committed the nation's first act of self-impeachment. On CNN, a chyron read 'TRUMP ADMITS TO VERY OFFENSE DEMS LOOKING TO IMPEACH OVER.'... Hillary Clinton tweeted, 'Someone should inform the president that impeachable offenses committed on national television still count.'" ~~~

~~~ The Threat to China Proves the Threat to Ukraine. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "This might be Trump's most problematic request of this sort, for a number of reasons.... This one has the potential for a really corrupt appearance. The chief reason for that: Trump is currently engaged in a trade war with China.... China could very logically now believe that further escalations [of Trump's trade war] might be tied to whether it takes the actions Trump wants. Any future decisions could be colored accordingly.... Even if you set aside the trade war, this is still a U.S. president suggesting that a foreign country do something that is transparently geared toward his own reelection bid.... Trump has intermittently argued -- however implausibly -- that his effort to get Ukraine to launch investigations is about rooting out corruption in that country; his now-public request of another investigation involving the Bidens makes clear what this is really about." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Ukraine May Do Trump a Favor, After All.* Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Ukraine's top prosecutor said on Friday that he would review several important cases previously handled by his predecessors, including a criminal case involving the owner of a natural gas company that employed a son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.... It raises questions of whether Ukraine was, in effect, bowing to public and private pressure from the president of the United States, on which it has depended on for millions of dollars in aid. The prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, said he intended to review 15 cases in all, and mentioned several high-profile investigations of wealthy Ukrainians, including the owner of the natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, where Mr. Biden's son Hunter served on the board until earlier this year.... Mr. Ryaboshapka told journalists at a briefing in Kiev on Friday: 'The prosecution service is beyond politics. We are conducting an audit of all cases, including those which were investigated by the previous leadership of the prosecutor's office.'" ~~~

     ~~~ * Mrs. McCrabbie: It is possible this is a stall tactic. Ryaboshapka could either slow-walk the investigation into Burisma by burying it among 14 other investigations that just take forever to review. Or he could investigate Burisma's owner & ignore Hunter Biden's role altogether.

** White House Promotes Trump's/Barr's Abuse of Power. Meagan Vasquez of CNN: "The White House removed a section of its daily public newsletter on Thursday that suggested ... Donald Trump had instructed the Justice Department to launch an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his family. The newsletter language, which was first reported by the Daily Beast, [Mrs. McC: DB story is firewalled] had said on Wednesday: 'This year President Trump has asked Ukraine to fully cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation into the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine. According to the Daily Beast, the paragraph was altered by early Thursday to say the President 'has asked Ukraine to fully cooperate with any Justice Department's investigation into the actions of former Vice President Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine.' And later Thursday, the paragraph was deleted from the October 2 newsletter page before the entire webpage was updated with the next day's newsletter issue." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Tuesday night, I posited that maybe mike pence missed the import of Trump's ask of Zelensky "because Trump's solicitation was just one more commonplace corruption transaction too routine to notice." That seems more likely now. Everyone left in the regime -- from the veep on down to the people who put out the daily newsletter -- is so warped by Trump's bad behavior that his corrupt or unconstitutional misdeeds are either okay or so great they should be advertised.

Rebecca Ballhaus, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "President Trump ordered the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after months of complaints from allies outside the administration, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, that she was undermining him abroad and obstructing efforts to persuade Kyiv to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the matter.... State Department officials were told this spring that [Marie] Yovanovitch's removal was a priority for the president, a person familiar with the matter said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supported the move, an administration official said. Ms. Yovanovitch was told by State Department officials that they couldn't shield her from attacks by the president and his allies.... In an interview, Mr. Giuliani told The Wall Street Journal that in the lead-up to Ms. Yovanovitch's removal, he reminded the president of complaints percolating among Trump supporters that she had displayed an anti-Trump bias in private conversations.... She was recalled at least three months before the end of the customary three-year diplomatic tenure. Mr. Giuliani told the Journal that when he mentioned the ambassador to the president this spring, Mr. Trump 'remembered he had a problem with her earlier and thought she had been dismissed.' Mr. Giuliani said he subsequently received a call from a White House official -- whom he declined to identify -- asking him to list his concerns about the ambassador again. Mr. Giuliani said he gave Mr. Pompeo a nine-page document dated March 28 that included a detailed timeline of the Bidens' dealings in Ukraine and allegations of impropriety against Ms. Yovanovitch, including that she was 'very close' to Mr. Biden." Mrs. McC: Again, I don't know why I was able to link to this firewalled article. TPM has a story summary here.

Trump & Co. Plan to Assert There's No Impeachment Inquiry. Alayna Treene & Margaret Talev of Axios: "The White House is planning to send Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter as soon as Friday arguing that President Trump and his team can ignore lawmakers' demands until she holds a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry, 2 sources familiar with the letter tell Axios.... Trump wants to force House Democrats in vulnerable races to be on the record if they favor pursuing impeachment, these sources tell us.... Several White House lawyers spent a good chunk of their Thursday reviewing the language in the letter, expecting that it could find its way before a judge. Meanwhile, Pelosi maintains that there 'is no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry,' as she stated in a Thursday letter to the House's Republican Leader, Kevin McCarthy."

U.S. "Diplomats" Tried to Coerce Ukraine to Help Trump's Re-election Campaign

     ~~~ ** Update. Josh Lederman of NBC News: "Text messages given to Congress show U.S. ambassadors working to persuade Ukraine to publicly commit to investigating ... Donald Trump's political opponents and explicitly linking the inquiry to whether Ukraine's president would be granted an official White House visit.... [The text messages [U.S. envoy Kurt] Volker provided to House investigators yesterday] ... offer the fullest picture to date of how top diplomats and [Rudy] Giuliani sought to advance Trump's goal of getting the Ukrainians to investigate both meddling in the 2016 election and Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.... Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland -- both political appointees -- repeatedly stressed the need to get the Ukrainians to agree to the exact language that [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy would use in announcing an investigation, the texts indicate.... The whistleblower complaint said multiple U.S. officials had been 'deeply concerned' about Giuliani's interference in U.S.-Ukraine relations. The whistleblower reported that the officials had said both Volker and Sondland 'had spoken with Mr. Giuliani in an attempt to "contain the damage" to U.S. national security.' But the text messages show Volker and Sondland playing an active role in advancing Trump's goal of forcing a Ukrainian investigation [of the Bidens & supposed Ukraine interference in the 2016 presidential election].... In fact, the only U.S. official included in the text messages who pushes back is a career diplomat, William Taylor, who became the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine after Trump pulled Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch out of her post earlier this year."

** Here's a readout of the text messages, provided to ABC News by a House committee.

The Shakedown Letter. Ken Vogel & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Two of President Trump's top envoys to Ukraine drafted a statement for the country's new president in August that would have committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations sought by Mr. Trump into his political rivals, three people briefed on the effort said. The drafting of the statement marks new evidence of how Mr. Trump's fixation with Ukraine began driving senior diplomats to bend American foreign policy to the president's political agenda in the weeks after the July 25 call between the two leaders. The statement was drafted by Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt D. Volker, then the State Department's envoy to Ukraine, according to the three people who have been briefed on it.... The statement was written with the awareness of a top aide to the Ukrainian president, as well as Rudolph W. Giuliani.... It is unclear if the statement was delivered to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, but no statement was released publicly under his name.... The statement would have committed Ukraine to investigating the energy company Burisma, which had employed Hunter Biden.... And it would have called for the Ukrainian government to look into what Mr. Trump and his allies believe was interference by Ukrainians in the 2016 election in the United States to benefit Hillary Clinton.... Mr. Sondland and Mr. Volker believed that Mr. Giuliani was 'poisoning' Mr. Trump's mind about Ukraine and that eliciting a public commitment from Mr. Zelensky to pursue the investigations would induce Mr. Trump to more fully support the new Ukrainian government...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One might take with a grain of salt Volker's & Sondland's reported motives for drafting the statement.

John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "The former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told House investigators on Thursday that he warned ... Rudolph W. Giuliani, that Giuliani was receiving untrustworthy information from Ukrainian political figures about former vice president Joe Biden and his son, according to two people familiar with his testimony.... [Kurt] Volker's testimony offers the first inside account of the Trump administration's efforts to press for a Ukrainian investigation into Trump's political rival.... Volker also said that he and other State Department officials cautioned the Ukrainians to steer clear of U.S. politics. Getting involved, he said he told them, would open the nation up to allegations that they were interfering in an election and could be detrimental to Ukraine long-term, according to these two individuals.... Volker faced hours of questioning Thursday from members of the House committees leading an impeachment inquiry into Trump, the first of five former and current State Department officials to testify as part of the probe." (Also linked yesterday.)

Here are earlier stories, based on a portion of the text messages Volker turned over to Congress yesterday:

     ~~~ Crazy Quid Pro Quo. Katherine Faulders & Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "In newly disclosed text messages shared with Congress, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine writes to a group of other American diplomats that 'I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.' The exchange, provided by former U.S Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker as part of his closed-door deposition before multiple House committees Thursday, shows what appears to be encrypted text messages he exchanged with two other American diplomats in September ... just days before the White House released the military assistance to Ukraine..... In the exchange..., the concerns are expressed by Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine. Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, responds to Taylor..., 'Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo's of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign,' Sondland says. Sondland then suggests to the group take the conversations off line, typing, 'I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.'... In a separate thread between Sondland and Volker directly, the two diplomats discussed contacts with Ukrainian officials and requests for them to open an investigation. They appear to be drafting language for Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into 'the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States, especially with the alleged involvement of some Ukrainian politicians.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "It appears that discussion happened as the new of Trump blackmailing Ukraine was dribbling out. I presume that Trump's factotum Sondland also knew this was bubbling up when he made that very obvious CYA comment." Mrs. McC: digby's supposition, written before publication of the full set of text messages, is backed up by later reporting. Worth noting: Sondland's main job qualification was a $1MM+ donation to Trump's inaugural committee. Andrea Mitchell has questioned how he got in the loop in the first place: Sondland is ambassador to the European Union, and Ukraine is not an E.U. member. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Call Me. Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "The texts ... come from a series of early September exchanges. The texts among Mr. Volker, Mr. Sondland and Mr. Taylor portray Mr. Taylor as a diplomat deeply skeptical of the Trump administration's approach to Ukraine, flabbergasted that the military assistance had been cut off -- and firmly believing that the White House was asking for Ukraine to begin political investigations in return for the aid being released -- a charge at the heart of the impeachment investigation.... 'As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,' Mr. Taylor wrote on Sept. 9 to Mr. Volker and [Mr.] Sondland.... [Here's where Sondland gave his CYA response & said to quit texting.]... Roughly a week earlier, on Sept. 1, Mr. Taylor had asked Mr. Sondland, 'Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?' Mr. Sondland replied simply, 'Call me.'"

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "It's generally not a good sign when a government official sends a written message questioning the propriety of an action and another official replies by suggesting they talk on the phone.... While the released text messages aren't comprehensive (representing' only a subset of the full body of the materials,' according to the letter accompanying the messages) and don't directly implicate Trump..., [they contain,] in two suggestive moments, specifically the sort of don't-document-this responses that imply an awareness of lines being crossed. 1. There's an explicitly stated quid pro quo.... 'Heard from White House,' [Kurt Volker] wrote [to Andrey Yermak, an adviser to President Zelensky], 'assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / "get to the bottom of what happened" in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.'... 2. The U.S. helped shape a statement from Ukraine mentioning the Biden probe.... 3. There's a strong suggestion that military aid was used as leverage -- and hints at an attempt to hide that. By the end of August, the Ukrainians had learned that the United States is withholding military aid, a decision made by Trump before the July 25 call.... 'Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?' [Bill] Taylor asked [on Sept 1]. 'Call me,' [Gordon] Sondland replied. And their conversation on that central point was not recorded."


Huh. Ben Lefebvre & Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry is expected to announce his resignation from the administration by the end of November, according to three people familiar with his plans. Perry, who had been Texas' longest serving governor before joining ... Donald Trump's Cabinet in 2017, has largely avoided the controversies that felled others in the administration. But his travels to Ukraine have lately embroiled him in the impeachment inquiry engulfing Trump and his inner circle, even though two of the people called the scandal unrelated to Perry's departure, which they said he has been planning for several months.... Perry has drawn scrutiny because he led the U.S. delegation to Ukrainia President Volodymyr Zelensky's inauguration in May, a visit that came as the administration was trying to determine whether the new leader would be amenable to Trump's demands.... No evidence has emerged that Perry was directly involved with Trump's attempt to drum up an investigation of his political opponent, but Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J) earlier this week sent a letter to Perry requesting information about his activities and interactions there.... Perry, a frequent traveler to Eastern Europe as pitchman for U.S. energy exports, was also a subject in the subpoena that House Democrats served to ... Rudy Giuliani earlier this week. The subpoena includes a demand for documents and other communications involving Perry and [Giuliani.]... A second subpoena expected to be issued this week will seek details of conversations between acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Perry...."

Thanks to MAG for the artwork. BTW, the " Wah! Wah! Wah!" script here is called Kremlin.MEANWHILE, in Finland. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "Wednesday's roller coaster news conference with President Trump and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto elicited ridicule and some concern in Finland, where many celebrated their leader on Thursday for enduring with dignity what they largely described as a Trump monologue. Coming from a nation that ranks second on the World Press Freedom Index -- compared with the United States, which ranks 48th -- stunned Finnish reporters described to their readers back home a 'circus' and parallel reality in the White House. Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet offered a blunt summary of the meeting: 'Niinistö's visit was overshadowed by Circus Trump - President Niinisto asked Trump to safeguard US democracy.'... [At the press events], Niinisto largely looked on in silence. Photos of his bewildered face quickly circulated online. But when Trump began responding to a question addressed to Niinisto, he interrupted: 'I think the question is for me.' In what Finnish commentators suggested was a subtle dig at Trump, Niinisto at one point also said: 'Mr. President, you have here a great democracy. Keep it going on.' (Trump appeared to interpret that remark as praise.)" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm surprised the Finns had time to focus on the bilateral meetings. It's autumn, the leaves are falling, and they should all be out raking & vacuuming the forest floors.

Dumbest Senator Forgot He Agreed with Joe Biden in 2016. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "A newly unearthed letter from 2016 shows that Republican senators pushed for reforms to Ukraine's prosecutor general's office and judiciary, echoing calls then-Vice President Joe Biden made at the time. CNN's KFile found a February 2016 bipartisan letter signed by several Republican senators that urged then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to 'press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor General's office and judiciary.' The letter ... further undercuts a baseless attack made by ... Donald Trump and his allies that Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to fire then Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to stop investigations into a Ukrainian natural gas company that his son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of.... The 2016 letter ... was signed by Republican Sens. Rob Portman, Mark Kirk and Ron Johnson, as well as Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Murphy, Sherrod Brown, and Richard Blumenthal and focused on longstanding issues of corruption in Ukraine and urged reforms of the government.... Johnson signed onto a letter with Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley last week to Attorney General Bill Barr asking him to investigate, in part, allegations surrounding Biden and Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Sure enough, the Milwaukee Journal reports (linked above), "Johnson said ... [Thursday] he didn't remember the letter."

Donnie, Rudy & Other Shady Characters. Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: In May, "months before an intelligence community whistleblower accused President Trump's lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani of digging for dirt on former vice president Joe Biden in Ukraine, many in that country knew what he was up to and some were talking about it publicly. One Ukrainian oligarch in particular, a figure close to President Volodymyr Zelensky, [-- he owned the TV station that distributed Zelensky's comedy show --] claims to have first-hand knowledge of Giuliani's activities because, he says, Giuliani's business associates [Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman] tried to rope him into the scheme. When this Ukrainian business tycoon, Ihor Kolomoisky, rejected Giuliani's request for help, Giuliani attacked him on Twitter and called for him to be investigated. Kolomoisky then gave an on-the-record interview on Ukrainian television in which he predicted that Giuliani was soon going to be the center of a 'big scandal' in the United States.... Kolomoisky is no innocent. In addition to being accused of extensive financial crimes, the Ukrainian-Jewish billionaire also stands accused of using quasi-military forces on behalf of his PrivatBank to corruptly take over other companies." ~~~

     ~~~ Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly has more on Giuliani's clients (or something) Parnas & Fruman. After citing part of a July BuzzFeed News profile of these guys, LeTourneau writes, "Given that these two men are not only fraudsters, but bad fraudsters, it might seem surprising that last year they began pumping big dollars into the coffers of Trump super PACs and Republican campaigns. For example, in May 2018, a company owned by Parnas and Fruman, Global Energy Producers, made a $325,000 donation to America First Action, a political action committee supporting Trump's re-election. ABC News reported that 'the company has no listed office address or phone number, no announced deals or contracts, and a bare bones one-page website that features only a countdown clock that long ago ticked down to zeros.'" Despite this, some unknown entity dropped $1.26MM in an account of a company Parnas owned. A few days later, Parnas made a $325K donation to America Trump Action, a U.S. PAC supporting Trump's re-election. And a few days after that, Donnie Junior posed for a photo with Parnas & Fruman at the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge. ~~~

~~~ Speaking of Junior.... Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... if anyone should sit out trying to exploit the [Hunter Biden] situation it is the Trump children.... The hypocrisy and irony of [Donald Junior & Eric Trump speaking out against Hunter's "conflict of interest"] -- pushed by an arm of the Trump campaign despite Eric and Don Jr.'s (broken) promise to stay out of politics so conflicts of interest could be avoided between their father and the family business they now manage on his behalf -- is truly staggering.... They themselves are guilty of everything they're accusing the Bidens of -- and then some.... Just hours before [Junior & Eric appeared on Fox 'News' to criticize Hunter Biden], Forbes reported that Eric and Don Jr. have sold more than $100 million of the family's real estate since the January 2017 inauguration -- including a $3.2 million deal in the Dominican Republic last year that is 'the clearest violation of their father's pledge to do no new foreign deals while in office.'"

Joshua Green of Bloomberg: "To understand how Trump wound up the target of a House impeachment inquiry, it's first necessary to understand why he was so obsessed with finding dirt on Biden.... The notion ... was first aired in a 2018 book, Secret Empires ... by conservative author Peter Schweizer.... Schweizer, [same author of Clinton Cash] an editor at Breitbart News, is the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) [with Steve Bannon being GAI founding chairman], a nonprofit group whose board chairwoman and major donor is Rebekah Mercer, a prominent Trump supporter and benefactor of right-wing causes.... [T]he impact of Secret Empires [after publication] landed almost exclusively in conservative media.... The information needs to be legitimized -- or 'weaponized,' to use Bannon's term -- through the mainstream press. This requires patience, restraint, and ... sophistication.... Impatient to advance a story he believed would damage Biden, Trump tapped Giuliani, who told the New York Times in May that he was going to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, to push the new government to investigate the Bidens." --s

Twitter Finally Polices Trump -- A Little (or Liddle). Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "In a tweet on Wednesday, President Trump addressed his social media followers with four words, all caps: 'LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH!' Under that was a video showing Chad Kroeger, the lead singer of the Canadian postgrunge rock band Nickelback, holding a framed picture of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., his son Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian businessman. The video, which Twitter had removed by Thursday morning, is from the music video for 'Photograph,' a 2005 Nickelback single. In the song's original video, Mr. Kroeger holds up an old picture of himself and a friend as he sings: 'Look at this photograph/Every time I do it makes me laugh....'... Mr. Trump used an altered version of that footage, and he was far from the first to do so. The Nickelback meme is more than a decade old, and you can find multiple versions online...." ~~~

~~~ Alex Hern of the Guardian: "A video posted by Donald Trump has been removed from Twitter after a copyright claim by the rock band Nickelback."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "The story of the most profound betrayal a president can commit has vanished from the national discourse.... Last Friday night, the Washington Post published a stunning article reporting that during an Oval Office meeting in May 2017, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak that Trump was unconcerned about Moscow's attack on the 2016 presidential election.... Trump telling the Russians he did not care about the attack ... would mark a dereliction of his primary duty as president: to protect the nation.... On Wednesday, when asked if Moscow would target the coming US election, Russian leader Vladimir Putin joked, 'I'll tell you a secret: Yes, we';ll definitely do it.' And he added in a stage whisper, 'Just don't tell anyone.'" --s

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "An Internal Revenue Service official has filed a whistleblower complaint reporting that he was told at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president or vice president's tax returns, according to multiple people familiar with the document. Trump administration officials dismissed the whistleblower's complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials. But congressional Democrats were alarmed by the complaint, now circulating on Capitol Hill, and flagged it to a federal judge. They are also discussing whether to make it public.... The whistleblower is a career IRS official.... Key parts of the complaint remain under wraps in part because of strict privacy laws that prevent the disclosure of any details related to the filing of tax returns." (Also linked yesterday.) The Week has a summary of the WashPo report.

Most normal, well adjusted people, even under great stress are able to hold it together in public for something important, even if they go into their office and start throwing stuff afterward. Not Trump. He can't even walk down the hall without screaming at the walls. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's Comments

Trump is Constitutionally and constitutionally unfit. George Conway in the Atlantic: "... you don't need to be a mental-health professional to see that something's very seriously off with Trump -- particularly after nearly three years of watching his erratic and abnormal behavior in the White House.... He's also incapable of consistently telling the truth.... Simply put, Trump's ingrained and extreme behavioral characteristics make it impossible for him to carry out the duties of the presidency in the way the Constitution requires.... [The Framers intended that], while carrying out his official duties, a president has to put the country, not himself, first; he must faithfully follow and enforce the law; and he must act with the utmost care in doing all that." Conway goes into a long riff on Trump's narcissism, sociopathy and more briefly, cognitive decline. "When you line up what the Framers expected of a president with all that we know about Donald Trump, his unfitness becomes obvious.... Now that the House of Representatives has embarked on an impeachment inquiry, one of the most important judgments it must make is whether any identified breaches of duty are likely to be repeated. And if a Senate trial comes to pass, that issue would become central as well to the decision to remove the president from office. That's when Trump' behavioral and psychological characteristics should -- must -- come into play. From the evidence, it appears that he simply can't stop himself from putting his own interests above the nation's." Thanks to Anonymous for the link. This is quite a long piece and worth reading. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: You can bet Conway knows more about Trump's "erratic & abnormal behavior" than the rest of us do: his wife Kellyanne must have told him a basketful of doozies. However, he sticks to the public record. And there is a massive amount of there there to back up Conway's assertions.

Martyn Mclaughlin of The Scotsman: "The Trump Organisation's plans for a major expansion of its flagship Scottish resort by building swaths of housing and luxury villas have been thwarted, further jeopardising efforts by the US president's company to stem multimillion pound losses at its most prestigious overseas property.... Since he acquired it in 2014, Turnberry's parent firm has run up four consecutive years of losses, amounting to nearly £33m. It is also reliant on £107m in interest free loans provided by the 73-year-old." --s


Hamed Aleaziz of Buzzfeed: "The Trump administration is planning to enable immigration officers to begin collecting DNA samples from undocumented immigrants who are being detained, officials said Wednesday. The move will likely anger civil liberties and immigrant advocates who argue the government should not draw sensitive personal information from people without being tied to a specific crime.... Proposed regulations are not immediately enacted and require a 60-day public comment period." --s The New York Times story is here.

Garance Burke & Martha Mendoza of the AP: "Sheltering migrant children has become a growing business for the Florida-based government contractor [Comprehensive Health Services Inc.], as the number of minors in government custody has swollen to record levels over the past two years.... The children, many in matching black pants and gray sweatshirts, are officially under the custody of the federal government. But a joint investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE has found that the Trump administration has started shifting some of the caretaking of migrant children toward the private sector and contractors instead of the largely religious-based nonprofit grantees that have long cared for the kids." --s

David Shepardson & David Lawder of Reuters: "The Trump administration slapped 25% tariffs on French wine, Italian cheese and single-malt Scotch whisky — but spared Italian wine, pasta and olive oil -- in retaliation for European Union subsidies on large aircraft. The U.S. Trade Representative's Office released a list of hundreds of European products that will get new tariffs, including cookies, salami, butter and yogurt - but in many cases applied to only some EU countries, including German camera parts and blankets produced in the United Kingdom. The list includes UK-made sweaters, pullovers, cashmere items and wool clothing, as well as olives from France and Spain, EU-produced pork sausage and other pork products other than ham, and German coffee. The new tariffs are to take effect as early as Oct. 18.... The main target of the U.S. tariffs is Airbus aircraft made in the EU, which face 10% levy that could hurt U.S. airlines such as Delta (DAL.N) that have billions of dollars of Airbus orders waiting to be filled." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Reuters doesn't say so, but Jen Kirby of Vox explains why: "The United States is imposing $7.5 billion in tariffs on imports from the European Union starting October 18 basically because the World Trade Organization said it could. These taxes against the EU stem from a 15-year battle over aviation subsidies that long predates the tariff-happy Trump." Mrs. McC: Sorry I forgot to link these stories earlier. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2020

Michael Grynbaum & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "CNN rejected a pair of provocative ads from President Trump's re-election campaign on Thursday, saying the 30-second spots deriding the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry -- one deeming the effort 'nothing short of a coup' -- contained inaccuracies and unfairly attacked the network's journalists.... The Trump ads were recently posted online as part of what the campaign said was a multimillion-dollar advertising buy on national cable stations and digital platforms. One, 'Biden Corruption,' repeats unsubstantiated allegations about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s activities in Ukraine.... CNN said it had also rejected another Trump ad, 'Coup,' which presents the impeachment inquiry as an effort 'to undo the election, regardless of facts,' and accuses House Democrats of 'fabricating evidence.'... CNN said it had agreed to carry a third commercial submitted by the Trump campaign, which focuses on the president's accomplishments in office." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Ali Breland of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump is taking advantage of a Facebook exemption that allows politicians to lie in advertisements to spread disinformation about former Vice President Joe Biden's 2015 diplomatic trip to Ukraine. Even though the ads contain misinformation, a Facebook spokesperson says they did not violate their company's advertising policy because of carveout for politicians. The ads, which both include the false claim that Biden's son Hunter was under investigation during the vice president's Ukrainian trip, are accompanied by a video with a narrator voicing each ad's text over a backdrop of ominous music and grainy footage." ~~~

~~~ Michael Calderone of Politico: "Joe Biden's presidential campaign is urging Fox News not to run a Trump 2020 campaign advertisement it claims 'spreads false, definitively debunked conspiracy theories.' In a letter to Fox News and Fox Business general counsel Lily Claffee, Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz wrote that the ad 'falsely states' that 'Biden offered Ukraine $1 billion to fire the prosecutor investigating a company affiliated with his son.' There is no evidence to support the claim that the former vice president intervened in Ukraine to benefit his son, who was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.... 'We are not in the business of censoring ads from candidates on either side of the aisle,' a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to Politico."


David Badash of Alternet: "Donald Trump's top religion advisor Dr. Robert Jeffress has some news for the millions of Democratic voters who happen to be Christians: You are not. Dr. Jeffress, who sits on President Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board and even led a private pre-inauguration sermon for the Trump and Pence families hours before the president was sworn in..., on Monday ... declared that the god Democrats actually 'worship is the pagan god of the Old Testament, Moloch.'... Jeffress has condemned Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, and various forms of Christianity including Mormonism as not 'true' religions." --s

Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "MGM Resorts International has agreed t pay up to $800 million to settle lawsuits from victims of the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and hundreds of others injured. The killer, Stephen Paddock, holed up inside his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, which MGM owns, and then fired into the crowd at a country music festival below. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. One of the lawyers for the victims, Robert Eglet, said on Thursday the settlement would be in the range of $735 million to $800 million and would resolve 'substantially all' of the lawsuits and claims against MGM related to the massacre." The CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "European policymakers said Thursday that a new Brexit proposal from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was unworkable, heightening the prospects of a chaotic British departure from the European Union within weeks. Although leaders, politicians and negotiators did not dismiss Johnson's plan out of hand, they made clear the current offer would not win support from the 27 countries that need to sign off on any withdrawal deal, and they were downbeat about it serving as the basis for serious negotiations. British negotiators plan to visit Brussels again Friday. The Guardian's liveblog, which covers this development, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

CNBC: "Unemployment hit a fresh 50-year low in September even though nonfarm payrolls rose by just 136,000 as the economy nears full employment, the Labor Department reported Friday. The jobless rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 3.5%, matching a level it last saw in December 1969. A more encompassing measure that includes discouraged workers and the underemployed also fell, declining 0.3 percent points to 6.9%, matching its lowest in nearly 19 years and just off the all-time low of 6.8%."

New York Times: "Diahann Carroll, who more than half a century ago transcended racial barriers as the star of 'Julia,' the first American television series to chronicle the life of a black professional woman, died on Friday at her home in West Hollywood, Calif. She was 84."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (20)

I'm aghast to wake this morning and find the Pretender and I have something in common: I'm against corruption, too.

Maybe the London Mayor, or Angela Merkel, both subject to frequent Pretender attacks, will investigate and publicize the Pretender's corruption. It shouldn't take much work.

I'm a little confused by what's going on, but I'm thinking I could be liking this new international nationalism. Seems like it could turn out to be fun.

More seriously, would recommend Sarah Chayes' "Thieves of State."

Its subtitle, "Why Corruption Threatens Global Society," has wide, say global, application.

While here account is mostly about her experience with Afghanistan's extensive corruption and its corrosive effect on any attempt to create a democratic government in the wake of our invasion of that country, you don't have to squint too hard to see that it also offers an effective lens through which to assess the Pretend government we're living under.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Oh noes! Rick Perry, the guy who was going to eliminate the Department of Energy (and a couple of others, but he forgot what those were) and is now running it, sort of, is quitting.

He really worked on that energy thing. Really, he did. Even got some spiffy new glasses. But it just didn't work out. Energy was getting low, he couldn't find replacement batteries and hamster wheels just don't put out all that much juice. He tried. He did hear something about "ergs" and "joules" (aren't they things the ladies like?) and other foreign sounding things from those stupid sciencey people (what do they know?). It's just not for him. He's ready go back to shooting invisible coyotes or wolves or velociraptors or whatever on his daily jogs back down in good ol' Texas.

A cushy, high paying sinecure awaits good ol' Rick, playing golf, shooting stuff at his racist-named ranch place, shilling for some fossil fuel company helping to destroy the planet.

Ahh...that's the life. Wingnut welfare at its finest.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Ken,

You and me both, brother. Trump against corruption? Isn't that like vampires being against blood? Maybe he's pissed because the corruption he imagines the Bidens pursuing is not his kind of corruption. He might be upset at what he sees as amateurs trying to horn in on the professionally corrupt.

Hey, maybe he can open a school, or a university or something. Trump's School of Corruption. Just think of the faculty. Moochers, con artists, oligarchs, sleazy bankers, grifters galore. All FrODs: Friends Of Donald.

Step right this way, kiddies, git yer certificate of criminality, right here. Why, by this time next week, you too can be scamming your way to a life of....impeachment?

Those Bidens really need to step up their game if they want to play in little donnie's sandbox of extortion, bribery, malfeasance, venality, and debauchery. Republicans do corruption right, dammit.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Just finished––and it has taken me an hour or more––to read and digest George Conway's extraordinary piece on Trump. This coupled with the confusing soap opera of the Ukraine debacle where suddenly we have old characters like Rebecca Mercer and Maniford appearing once again to muddy up the waters even more. Talk about wading through those waters whose swamp creatures grab your legs and pull you down.

And I wonder––once again––since George gives us such a splendid book on a demented man how does he analyze his own wife's fealty to this same demented man? I mean–-wow!–-if that don't curl your hair!
A super spy in the house of love?

Conway ends with this:

"... if Congress does its job and presents the evidence, those who are in denial won’t be able to ignore the problem any longer. Not only because of the evidence itself, but because Donald Trump will respond in pathological ways—and in doing so, he’ll prove the points against him in ways almost no one will be able to ignore."

And that he has already done.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

Well, kids, what can we say. Fatty, who is being impeached for importuning a foreign government to make up shit against an American to help him get reelected, is doubling down. Now he's got China on the horn "Listen, Xi? About that trade war. Yeah. Right. Now listen, you heard about this guy Biden?...."

(Just as an aside, I sincerely doubt that Xi wants to look like Trump's lapdog. The Chinese are all about kicking ass and taking names. They don't do lapdog very well. Just look at what's going on in Hong Kong. They might have a good laugh about it at a party meeting though...join the crowd, guys, everyone's laughing at Fatty.)

So, at this point, I just don't know what to say anymore. We're way past parody. Irony is irreclaimable. Farce is fucked. Burlesque is buried, and caricature has been kicked off the train.

Where we're headed, no Americans have been before. A strange planet full of empty-headed sycophants, liars, traitors, and thugs. But I'm at least a teensy bit comforted that Fatty continues to demonstrate that he's an irredeemable traitor. Idiots who say there's nothing wrong with him going to Red China to screw an American are themselves far beyond cartoonish.

We're in the midst of tragedy and travesty. Truly.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

PD,

Ha...I saw what you did there. "Spy in the house of love"? Anaïs Nin would be pleased. Then again, desire and deceit are constants outside of the world of fiction as well. Just ask Fatty.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Can I just say one more thing about Rick Perry?

Recall if you will, who served as secretaries of Energy under the last real president. Ernest Moniz, a highly respected nuclear physicist, and Steve Chu, a Nobel Prize winning physicist.

And Trump replaced these guys with...Rick fucking Perry. Who wanted to eliminate the department altogether, and probably still thinks "physicist" is spelled with an "f". It's classic Trump transactional bullshit, something to benefit himself and his donors overriding the needs of the nation, and in a field like energy, fer crissakes. If there's any time for a country, any country, to have its shit together in an age where the needs for new, alternative energy sources and innovative technology for creating inexpensive, renewable energy that won't damage the planet or break the bank are paramount, it's now.

But where does Fatty go? Rick Perry. Friend of Carbon Kings.

You can't make this shit up.

The Trump Debacle in a nut(ty) shell.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Loved MAG's picture. By the way, don't miss the look on Niinistö’s face. He looks like he's thinking, "Holy shit, this fucking guy is NUTS!"

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Akhilleus,

Didn't fix the nation's problems, but it did lighten my mood. I laughed at it and then read your wonderful riff to my wife, a tougher audience, who you should be pleased to hear laughed too.

"So, at this point, I just don't know what to say anymore. We're way past parody. Irony is irreclaimable. Farce is fucked. Burlesque is buried, and caricature has been kicked off the train."

Thanks.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ken,

At your service, my friend. We all need to find ways to maintain our equilibrium.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I see the White House won't cooperate until the House votes on impeachment.

Don't see that the Constitution limits the House to one impeachment vote per session.

So how about this? Take a vote today on the Ukraine matter and continue taking votes down the road, maybe one per week, adding more grist to a previous article or new article each time, with each iteration assuming, expecting and demanding the cooperation the White House has now promised.

Keep the charges in the news, highlighting more Pretender corruption each time, some old, some new, effectively dominating the news cycle, making the Pretender's rants and tweets irrelevant. while keeping McConnell's and White House lawyers' heads spinning.

We're afflicted with a presidunce behaving out of the box. Say what you will, he is original (like the sin?).

Dems need to summon a little originality too.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Last night, former Ambassador Michael McFaul (to Russia) appeared during the Maddow hour prior to the release of the text messages between Volker, Sondland and Taylor. He was cautious but had a wait and see attitude. By the Brian William's hour, he had seen that the Volker rehab tour was in ashes and had an entirely different view. This morning he has a thread on twitter with analysis. This is one of the tweets toward the end of the thread;

"Bottom line: overwhelming confirming evidence about Trump AND TEAM'S use of public office & US taxpayer money for private electoral gains. /11"
@McFaul

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

When I read what Bea McCrab said above: "Trump being Trump" is the GOP's go-to answer to many of Trump's illegal or inappropriate acts. It's similar to shrugging off a mob hit with, "It's Gotti being Gotti." The mob comparative is apt. Tho’ Trump’s noisy portrayal must alarm the real gangsters with his indiscretions.

Intrigued by promos for “The Irishman” starring DeNiro and Pacino, I came across two books in one NYT write-up. “The Quiet Don” and “I Heard You Paint Houses” — the latter being the basis for the movie. When I realized it was also about the mob boss who ruled from the Pittston, PA area (not far from where I lived for many years). Russ was kind of the Godfather of the Godfathers.

Unlike Trump, Russ Bufalino was a man who mostly knew how to be discreet. He was the one who set up that infamous 1957 Apalachin NY meeting at his place (I was in college at the time but remember it rather well). The story of how the mobsters jumped out of windows, ran into the woods when the state troopers arrived is a visual that has lived on in countless mob films that followed “The Godfather.” It’s become a must include scene for filmmakers. How the Mafia operated, the procedures they took to protect themselves is hardly the way big-mouth Trump operates.

Am envisioning Mnunchin, Barr, and Pence diving out the White House windows as the impeachment inquiry closes in?

Spoiler alert: information that author Charles Brandt includes is Who (really) killed Hoffa. Who killed Crazy Joey Gallo and how it went down…and why. More on the Kennedy assassination and who was really behind it. Brandt writes how various hits went down along with updates in the back of the book which he finally felt safe to disclose in the more recent printing — since many of the people are now deceased. The Irishman had a lot of hits to confess before he died and how things were resolved.

Side note: Back in the mid-1980’s, the “Commission” held a close vote “not to kill then-U.S. attorney Rudy Giuliani in the mid-1980’s. (Page 360).

How long will his ‘personal’ lawyer be useful to the Don?
It was all Pence/Barr/et al who did it to the Don?
I’m a perfect, stable genius said the Don?

hahahaha, the Don, get it?
More of connection than one can imagine.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Conway: "... if Congress does its job and presents the evidence, those who are in denial won’t be able to ignore the problem any longer. Not only because of the evidence itself, but because Donald Trump will respond in pathological ways—and in doing so, he’ll prove the points against him in ways almost no one will be able to ignore."

That's just, like, Conway's opinion, man. (in a GREAT article)

On the other side is Adam Smith (one of many over the centuries):

" ... Rather than see our own behaviour under so disagreeable an aspect, we too often, foolishly and weakly, endeavour to exasperate anew those unjust passions which had formerly misled us; we endeavour by artifice to awaken our old hatreds, and irritate afresh our almost forgotten resentments: we even exert ourselves for this miserable purpose, and thus persevere in injustice, merely because we once were unjust, and because we are ashamed and afraid to see that we were so. …
"This self-deceit, this fatal weakness of mankind, is the source of half the disorders of human life. If we saw ourselves in the light in which others see us, or in which they would see us if they knew all, a reformation would generally be unavoidable. We could not otherwise endure the sight."
http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2016/07/adam-smith-on-human-capacity-for-self.html

Those who remain invested in DiJiT as "their president" will remain so, no matter the torrent of facts about to be unleashed. Humans' capacity for self-delusion in protection of their prior acts is infinite.

DiJiT will be gone soon (like, within our lifetimes), but his defenders will nurse their grudge forever and pass it on to their progeny. They need their hatred and resentment to justify their stupidity.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

The Rutland, Vermont Herald's graphic editorialist, Jeff Danziger, has a good barb for the orange whale. https://www.gocomics.com/jeffdanziger/2019/10/04

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Rat Watch

Here’s a possible index of the relative degree of increasing impeachment surety within the Beltway: listen to the Rat. That’s right, Mittens made a few mewling noises a week or so ago about treason being, ya know, not cool. Nothing dramatic or even definitive. Just a slight nod in the direction opposite the Dark Side. Now he’s come out with another statement about how running to foreign nations to help Fatty ratfuck an American, a former Vice President, running for office, is definitely not something he’s (too) down with.

As these declarations increase in volume and more explicitly opportunistic content, and as one or two other confederates make tiny mouse (or rat) noises about the little king’s possible defenestration, it will be a clear indication that the zeitgeist is on the move.

The Rat Watch is on!

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

How far will Ukraine go with its 'audit' probe of the company that recruited Hunter Biden? With a potential US regime change in the offing, one would think an investigation would proceed slow as molasses.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Heard on the radio that the Pretender is already planning a soft landing when he falls out of the White House.

The Biden thing isn't about politics. It's about corruption.

With lines like that, he may make it as a comic.

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

The updated Iran hacking story suggests you got your wish, Bea.

What goes around....

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/technology/iranian-campaign-hackers-microsoft.html?

October 4, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken Winkes: Oooh, thanks. I wonder if Bill Barr will order the FBI to open up an inquiry on me.

October 4, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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