;)
The Commentariat -- September 17, 2017
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Because of an access problem (see Note to Super-Contributors above), I'm getting a very late start this morning.
NEW. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump is calling Kim Jong Un names -- the 'Rocket Man.' The president stuck the moniker on the North Korea dictator in a Sunday morning tweet ahead of Trump's scheduled arrival [in New York City] in the evening for the U.N. General Assembly, the annual gathering of more than 120 world leaders. Trump, who has spent two nights at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., also revealed that he spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who will join Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a trilateral dinner this week in New York to collaborate on addressing North Korea's growing nuclear and ballistic missile threats." Mrs. McC: No matter how horrible the named subject, I'm not sure juvenile name-calling is an effective diplomatic technique.
Flip Flop, Flippity Flip Flop. Ben Dreyfuss of Mother Jones: "The Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump administration has told European officials that it won't leave the Paris agreement.... Update [Sunday] 5:35 p.m. ET: White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters pushed back on the Wall Street Journal report in a statement, 'There has been no change in the United States' position on the Paris agreement. As the President has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country.'"
Mueller Hires DOJ Lawyer to Lean on Manafort. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "An attorney working on the Justice Department's highest-profile money laundering case recently transferred off that assignment in order to join the staff of the special prosecutor investigating the Trump ampaign's potential ties to Russia.... Attorney Kyle Freeny was among the prosecutors on hand Friday as a spokesman for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jason Maloni, testified before a grand jury at federal court in Washington. Freeny ... is the 16th lawyer known to be working with the former FBI chief on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... Freeny's work on the [DOJ] case and the Manafort aspect of the Trump-Russia probe appear to have some commonalities[.]" ...
... Dylan Byers of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are now in possession of Russian-linked ads run on Facebook during the presidential election, after they obtained a search warrant for the information. Facebook gave Mueller and his team copies of ads and related information it discovered on its site linked to a Russian troll farm, as well as detailed information about the accounts that bought the ads and the way the ads were targeted at American Facebook users, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN.... Facebook did not give copies of the ads to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees when it met with them last week on the grounds that doing so would violate their privacy policy, sources with knowledge of the briefings said." ...
... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "Legal experts say the revelation has enormous implications for the trajectory of Mueller's investigation into Russia's election interference, and whether Moscow had any help from ... Donald Trump's campaign team. 'This is big news -- and potentially bad news for the Russian election interference "deniers,'" said Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent.... 'The key here, though, is that Mueller clearly already has enough information on these accounts -- and their link to a potential crime to justify forcing [Facebook] to give up the info,' she said. 'That means that he has uncovered a great deal of evidence through other avenues of Russian election interference.'... Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti... [wrote that the warrant] "means that Mueller has concluded that specific foreign individuals committed a crime by making a "contribution" in connection with an election[.]'"
GOP Plan to Stick It to Blue State Taxpayers in "Reform." Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "As long as there has been a federal income tax, taxpayers have been able to deduct most of the state and local taxes they pay from earnings subject to Uncle Sam's grasp. But that deduction -- especially popular in states rich in Democratic voters -- could disappear as soon as next year if President Trump and congressional Republicans succeed in their promised rewrite of the tax code.... Republican leaders have made clear the SALT deduction is on the table, and it has shaken up a number of blue-state GOP legislators who are warning that it could derail the ambitious tax plan Trump is now pushing. 'I intend to fight it with everything I know how,' said Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), who represents a district where 43 percent of tax filers claim SALT deductions and signed a bipartisan letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urging him to preserve the break. 'It's a big deal for states like ours.'” ...
... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "More former classmates of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are calling on him to resign from his post in the Trump administration over the president's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va. Nearly 200 alumni of the private Riverdale Country School in New York signed a letter pushing him to resign from the Trump administration, calling Mnuchin's own response to Trump's comments on the violent white supremacist rally 'deeply troubling.'... [A few weeks ago,] nearly 300 Yale alumni from his graduating year signed a letter similarly saying he should resign in the wake of Charlottesville."
Jacqueline Thomsen: "Organizers of a triathlon set to take place at a Trump property in North Carolina have cancelled the event days after the name was changed to distance itself from President Trump. The event, scheduled to be held at Trump National Golf Club, Charlotte, was originally named 'Tri at the Trump.' But organizer Chuck McAllister cancelled the race Saturday days after he changed the name to 'Tri for Good' following complaints about the name, The Charlotte Observer reported Saturday. Proceeds from the triathlon were to go to children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses."
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee has joined an effort to challenge President Trump's announced ban on transgender troops, a sign that open resistance to the order is growing. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a military hawk and one of the GOP's most outspoken critics of Trump, said in a statement Friday that he was backing the measure because 'we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country.'... The announcement from McCain came as he joined Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, and committee members Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) in introducing a bill to thwart the president's plan."
Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "In what appeared to be an act of defiance against President Trump and to the dismay of many in law enforcement, California lawmakers took a significant step toward making the state a so-called 'sanctuary state.' The California Senate on Saturday passed Senate Bill 54, controversial legislation that would protect undocumented immigrants from possible deportation by prohibiting local law enforcement agencies, including school police and security departments, from cooperating with federal immigration officials. It also forbids law enforcement from inquiring about a person's immigration status. The California Values Act provides an expansive protection to the state's undocumented population, estimated to be about 2.7 million, at a time when the Trump administration continues an aggressive crackdown on those who are in the country illegally and on so-called sanctuary cities -- communities that limit local law enforcement's cooperation with immigration agents. The strictly party-line vote sends the bill to California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who is expected to sign it in to law." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not sure why law enforcement is so "dismayed." ...
... Trump Whacks Idaho's "Local Milk People."* Susan Ferriss in Politico Magazine: Idaho's "Magic Valley's dairy boom is a contemporary rural American success story -- the kind that ... Donald Trump railed as a candidate is too often missing across the country. Unemployment here was less than 3 percent this summer.... Dairy farmers lean heavily Republican.... But in the age of Donald Trump even the farmers who supported the new president ... [are] frightened that Trump's aggressive deportation policies will soon start to pick off or push away the mostly Hispanic immigrants who do the gritty work that Americans aren't interested in doing. Many of these workers are probably undocumented, farmers acknowledge, yet they're the sturdy backbone of a surging industry. Here in the Magic Valley, the farmers' perspective is starkly different from the president's claim that undocumented workers 'compete directly against vulnerable American workers.'" ...
... * Mrs. McCrabbie: Here is what Trump said to Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull in January when he was complaining about a refugee immigration pact President Obama had made with Australia : "I hate taking these people.... I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people." Reporters have assumed that Trump meant "dairy farmers" when he said "local milk people." However, "Post reporter Greg Miller, who wrote the story [about the transcript of the Trump-Turnbull call], posited that it could be an allusion to yogurt company Chobani, which has been criticized for hiring refugees. Guess where Chobani is? Twin Falls, Idaho. According to Ferriss, it's the world's largest yogurt factor. AND, according to Ferriss's report, Trump's underlying assumption was wrong: Idaho's "local milk people" describe immigrants as "the sturdy backbone" of their businesses. Contra Trump, immigrants are in fact, "wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people." P.S. Looks as if Idaho should follow California's lead & become a sanctuary state.
NEW. Rod Nordland of the New York Times: "... the boundaries of the Green Zone [in Kabul, Afghanistan] will be [expanded].... The zone is separated from the rest of the city by a network of police, military and private security checkpoints. The expansion is part of a huge public works project that over the next two years will reshape the center of this city of five million to bring nearly all Western embassies, major government ministries, and NATO and American military headquarters within the protected area. After 16 years of American presence in Kabul, it is a stark acknowledgment that even the city's central districts have become too difficult to defend from Taliban bombings."
NEW. Your Tax Dollars at Work. Michael Sisak & Emily Schmall of the AP: "The federal government auctioned off disaster-response trailers at fire-sale prices just before Harvey devastated southeast Texas, reducing an already diminished supply of mobile homes ahead of what could become the nation's largest-ever housing mission. More than 100 2017-model Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers were sold over the two days before the Category 4 hurricane landed in the Gulf Coast.... Harvey was already projected to be a monster storm that would inflict unprecedented damage. The trailers were designated to be sold through Aug. 28, after floodwaters sent thousands of Texans onto rooftops and into shelters."
Few Show up for Pro-Trump "Mother of All Rallies." Deirdre Shesgreen of USA Today: "Followers of the hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse -- known as Juggalos -- held a march Saturday on the National Mall, alleging discrimination after the FBI labeled the group a gang in a 2011 report. 'We're different. We're not dangerous,' Kevin Gill, who is an announcer for a Juggalo wrestling league, said from the rally stage. 'Music is not a crime.'... In a video on the their website, the hip-hop artists claim their fans have lost jobs, custody of their children and been denied access to the military for their Juggalo affiliation.... Earlier Saturday in a separate gathering, hundreds of pro-Trump activists rallied on the National Mall in what they said was a show of American patriotism and celebration. 'We're here to support our president and this country,' said Sue Babinec, who traveled to Washington from Cincinnati for what organizers dubbed the 'Mother of All Rallies.'... U.S. Park Police braced for a crowd of as many as 3,000 people. As the event opened, there were perhaps only 1,000 people gathered just north of the Washington Monument."
NEW. Jonathan Cohn of the Huffington Post: "Repeal of the Affordable Care Act is back on the agenda, with Republicans suddenly talking about a bill that, until recently, few people in either party had taken all that seriously. The prospects for the new legislation are murky. The proposal has generated a ton of conversation in political and health policy circles in just the past week, with multiple outlets reporting that leadership is now thinking about floor action before Sept. 30. That's the magic date when, because of parliamentary rules, Republicans lose their ability to pass repeal with just 50 votes. But much of the chatter is hype from supporters and it's hard to know how much enthusiasm for the proposal actually exists. Still, even if the bill's political fortunes are difficult to pin down, the impact it would have as a law is crystal clear. By dramatically scaling back what the federal government spends on health care and undermining rules designed to guarantee insurance for people with pre-existing conditions, this new proposal would leave millions of Americans struggling to pay their medical bills and to get coverage."
Nicole Perlroth & Cade Metz of the New York Times: "Equifax, the credit reporting agency, said Friday that its chief information officer and chief security officer were retiring 'effective immediately.' The announcement came one week after the company revealed that a cyberattack potentially compromised confidential information of 143 million Americans. On Friday, the company also provided further details about when it had discovered the breach and which part of its website had been targeted by hackers. But many details about the breach, who was behind it and the computer security defenses at Equifax are still unclear." ...
... Octavio Blanco of Consumer Reports: "Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization arm of Consumer Reports, sent a letter to Equifax CEO Richard Smith on Thursday, expressing deep concern over the immediate and lasting effects for the 143 million consumers potentially compromised by the data breach the company announced last week. In the letter, the consumer advocacy organization called Equifax's response 'wholly inadequate' and outlined seven steps it believes Equifax must take to remediate the situation, including paying for credit freezes, processing disputes promptly, and setting aside funds to compensate consumers."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Carlos Lozado of the Washington Post reviews Katy Tur's campaign memoir Unbelievable.
Beyond the Beltway
NEW. Sheri Fink & Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "Gov. Rick Scott of Florida announced new rules on Saturday requiring nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in the state to have generators capable of maintaining comfortable temperatures for at least 96 hours in the event of a power loss. The governor's announcement came three days after eight residents of a nursing home in Hollywood, Fla., the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, died when the home lost power to its cooling system in the wake of Hurricane Irma. The public outcry over the episode has intensified after the home said that its staff, or people calling on their behalf, had contacted the governor himself, as well as the power utility and several county and state agencies, to get the problem resolved, to little avail."
NEW. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "For the second consecutive night, peaceful daytime protests descended into late-night violence with broken windows and thrown rocks, water bottles and garbage can lids following Friday's acquittal of a white former police officer in the shooting death of a black suspect. Shortly before 11 p.m. at Leland and Delmar, a small group of protesters threw chunks of concrete at police and broke windows at numerous Delmar Loop businesses. A chair was thrown through the window of a Starbucks. One protester was seen hitting a police SUV with a hammer. Police made more than a half-dozen arrests witnessed by reporters, including a protester who was carried away by officers by his arms and legs." ...
... Axios: "U2 canceled their concert scheduled for St. Louis [Sunday night] because of inadequate police available for the event, per AP. Local police are attending to the protests over the acquittal of a police officer who shot and killed Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man, in 2011. The band released a statement this morning saying 'we cannot in good conscience risk our fans' safety by proceeding with tonight's concert....'" ...
... John Bowden of the Hill: "Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in St. Louis for a second night in a row after the acquittal of a white former police officer in the shooting death of a black motorist. Protests remained mostly peaceful Saturday, with live stream video on Periscope showing demonstrators marching down the streets chanting 'black lives matter' nd'"united we stand/divided we fall.'" ...
... Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: "In the wake of heated protests in St. Louis following the acquittal of the cop who killed Anthony Lamar Smith, a self-described Christian lawmaker from Pennsylvania endorsed running over protesters who block roads. While sharing a news story about the St. Louis protests, Pennsylvania Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R) tweeted that '[i]f anyone EVER tries to stop my car on a highway with negative intentions.... I will not stop under any conditions.'... In subsequent tweets, Bernstine called protesters 'thugs' and 'snowflakes' and vowed he 'won't be assaulted in the name of "free speech."'... Saturday morning wasn't the first time Bernstine -- a Trump supporter who's serving his first term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives -- has endorsed running over protesters with vehicles." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Excuse me, Aaron. Who's a thug? P.S. Remember when you swore that oath in the name of your god to defend the Constitution? The Constitution includes the Amendments, you dimwitted pissant. ...
... Jeremy Stahl of Slate analyzes the "mental gymnastics" Judge Timothy J. Wilson "went into acquitting a man who said to his partner of Smith, 'we're killing this motherfucker, don't you know,' minutes before killing him." Mrs. McC: Stockley's statement of intention to kill, by the way, was not a characterization by bystanders or his partner: rather, prosecutors had an audio recording of it." Stahl's assessment will make you sick all over again. ...
... Melissa Matthews of Newsweek: "Many critics are pointing to a key sentence from Wilson's ruling. 'The Court observes, based on its nearly 30 years on the bench, that an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly,' he wrote, referring to a gun found in Smith's car that had Stockley's, not Smith's, DNA on it." Mrs. McC: So, it must have been the victim's gun because all drug dealers are carrying all the time. That's why Wilson was not convinced Stockley planted the gun even though "Stockley's DNA was found under a screw in the revolver's handle." How the hell do you get your DNA under a screw of somebody else's gun? Have I mentioned that Judge Wilson is as white as the driven snow?
Way Beyond
Caroline Davies, et al., of the Guardian: "Police are searching a residential property in Stanwell, Surrey, in connection with a second man arrested in connection with the terrorist attack that injured 30 people on a London Underground train on Friday. The 21-year-old man was arrested in Hounslow, west London, at about 11.50pm on Saturday..., the Metropolitan police said." ...
... Vikram Dodd of the Guardian: "Police hunting the London tube bomber have arrested an 18-year-old man in Dover and raided an address in Surrey as investigators raced to thwart a second attack. Police and the home secretary, Amber Rudd, hailed the arrest under section 41 of the Terrorism Act as very significant. Investigators believe the suspect may have been in the port area of Dover to try to board a ferry to leave Britain. There was confidence among counter-terrorism officials that finding and detaining the suspect at 7.50am on Saturday represented a major breakthrough in the investigation. It led to the decision to raid an address in Sunbury at 1.40pm. Residents were evacuated as armed police and their colleagues searched a home. The UK remained at its highest state of terrorism alert with investigators still unable to rule out more than one person being involved in the attack or its preparation."
Share Article
Reader Comments (6)
Some good news. Last year a bomb when off that cancelled a Jersey shore 5k charity race. This year, yesterday, there was a record number of runners.
I bet that no one in London will not take the subway to work tomorrow. I am sure that the boardwalk in Nice is fully back in business. So what is the purpose of terrorist attacks? My guess is just an attempt by losers to make themselves feel important.
On a similar matter, yesterday I posted this on FB. I can't post the painting on RC but it's the comment that really counts.
"I felt obligated to do this painting. A true American hero, who gave her life. A life that defines what the word America really means. My dream is that someday there will be a full size statue of Heather Heyer in the Charlottesville park to replace the one that represents everything that is not America."
And on the list of things pissing me off, the fact that the great majority of media mentions of the Charlottesville attack, mention 'victim' etc. but no name.
One minute you're told one thing by the president* and within another minute you're told the opposite. So many things these days seem out of sync, including a judge's unbelievable ruling in the Smith/Stockley case. Puts one in mind of Pumpkin saying to Honey bunny:
"One minute your having a Denver omelette–-next thing you know you gotta gun in your face."
The organizers of that triathlon in NC were smart to call it off, mostly because of the Trump facility connection. First, the Trumpy Grifter Family gouges anyone using their facilities (including, and especially, those paying for that usage, e.g. Taxpayers), and a good portion of the money collected for children with life threatening diseases would mysteriously end up in their pockets.
Case in point, one of the Lurches, either Junior or Little Dracula, run a scam, er, "charity" benefit for cancer research and the Little King makes sure that everyone pays through the nose just to walk onto his property. I'll bet he then writes off the whole thing as a tax deduction. So any charitable organization dumb enough to tie their hopes for a successful fund raiser to anything with the name "Trump" attached to it, should understand that they'll be dealing with Fagin, Bill Sikes, and the Artful Dodger.
I'd wish them good luck, but the Trump Crime Family has outlawed good luck for any but themselves.
PD,
Well, unfortunately, we're not living a fiction, pulp or otherwise. It's all too real. I guess you could call it demented, surrealistic non-fiction. Non-fictional noir? I was tempted to call it an apologue because that involves a story with animals (plenty of them present), but it's also a moral fable. This story isn't a fable and it definitely isn't moral.
I guess I'll go with depraved, demented, surrealistic, noirish non-fiction.
Oh, and can you believe it's almost a quarter century since "Pulp Fiction" came out? Sheesh. Since then we've had one extremist party try to impeach a president over a blow job, start a war--that's still going on--over a lie, crash the world economy, spend eight years obstructing every thing the first black president tried to do, then elected a brainless, amoral bigot who says nuclear war is just fine and Nazis are nice people.
I'll have a Denver omelette with a Glock on the side, please.
Just a note to Mrs. McC: Thanks for the chuckle on the nostril breathing!