;)
The Commentariat -- May 25, 2019
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
** "The Guardrails Have Failed." Brian Beutler of Crooked: "... the institutional guardrails surrounding the rule of law are faltering all at once, and more aggressively than at any time since Trump won the presidency.... By not acting more aggressively, House Democrats created an incentive for Trump and others to run roughshod over them.... The most alarming news came in an announcement from the White House press secretary that Trump had granted Attorney General William Barr the unilateral authority to declassify any information about the Russia investigators that he wants -- including, reportedly, their sources in Russia.... The national media has thus far proven to be an easy mark for Barr, and has shown little indication that it will treat his pronouncements with the extreme skepticism they deserve.... Nothing Democrats have done since Trump came to power suggests they have the fortitude to do something [to check Barr], and they will likely bind themselves to norms Trump and Barr have gleefully jettisoned." ...
... ** "Trump's Public Enemies List Is an Impeachable Offense." David Lurie of The Daily Beast: "Long before becoming president, Donald Trump called for the jailing of his adversaries. Aided by Attorney General William Barr, he may now actually be training the full force of federal law enforcement against his enemies, real or perceived.... Trump is corrupting the justice system openly and publicly.... The seriousness of such a presidential abuse of power, and its potential for undermining the constitutional order, could well surpass any of the crimes detailed in the Mueller Report.... In fact, Trump's effort to undermine the legitimacy of the now-completed Russia investigation is part-and-parcel of Trump's earlier efforts to limit and even terminate the investigation while it was ongoing[.]" --s ...
... Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump's order allowing Attorney General William P. Barr to declassify any intelligence that led to the Russia investigation sets up a potential confrontation with the C.I.A. It effectively strips the agency of its most critical power: choosing which secrets it shares and which ones remain hidden.... Officials said Mr. Barr wanted to learn more about sources in Russia, including a key informant who helped the C.I.A. conclude that President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the intrusion on the 2016 election. Mr. Trump also ... wanted the attorney general to examine [the] roles [of Australia & Britain, presumably in regard to the FBI's investigation of George Papadopoulos].... The declassification order served as Mr. Trump's counterpunch to the special counsel's investigation. Since the release of the Mueller report, the president has been trying to focus attention on his accusations that the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies spied on his campaign.... Though the ultimate power to declassify documents rests with the president, Mr. Trump's delegation of that power to Mr. Barr effectively stripped [Director of National Intelligence Dan] Coats and the C.I.A. of control of their secrets.... The intelligence agencies signaled on Friday that they would not easily give up their secrets." ...
... Barnes & Sanger: "John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director under Mr. Obama, would bring reports from the source [who provided key information in the Russia investigation] directly to the White House, keeping them out of the president's daily intelligence briefing for fear that the briefing document was too widely disseminated, according to the officials. Instead, he would place them in an envelope for Mr. Obama and a tiny circle of aides to read." Mrs. McCrabbie: Good grief! Giving up this informant to Trump is tantamount to turning the person in to Putin. I suspect Trump might do so, not because he's a careless blabbermouth, but because he wants to aid the Kremlin. ...
... Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "Barr justified this new authority by telling Fox News that 'no one has really looked at' the surveillance of Trump's 2016 campaign, a statement which is clearly false.” ...
... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "With House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), saying the exposure could dry up sources and inhibit agents in the field who fear exposure, a former chief of the CIA's Russia mission said it to would be inevitable that names would be exposed. 'If the president of the United States asks for a name, it would be hard not to provide a name,' warned John Sipher, a former C.I.A. official who oversaw Russia operations." ...
... Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "... Donald Trump's declassification order Thursday night has set up a showdown between his own Justice Department and the intelligence community that could trigger resignations and threaten the CIA's ability to conduct its core business -- managing secret intelligence and sources.... Numerous former intelligence officials called the move 'unprecedented,' saying it grants the attorney general sweeping powers over the nation's secrets, subverts the intelligence community and raises troubling legal questions. Trump on Friday defended his decision as a pro-transparency move that will give the public insight into nefarious government activity. And he praised Barr as the ideal person to judge what should be released. Barr is 'a great gentleman and a highly respected man, so everything that they need is declassified and they'll able to see how the hoax or witch hunt started and why it started,' Trump told reporters before leaving for a trip to Japan. 'It was an attempted coup, an attempted takedown of the president of the United States.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Just in case you thought maybe Trump's intentions were not 100 percent self-serving political hackery of the highest order. ...
... David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement in the Raw Story: "The Director of National Intelligence has just issued a thinly-veiled warning to Attorney General Bill Barr to not overstep now that President Trump has created unprecedented, sweeping powers for the head of the Dept. of Justice.... Dan Coats ... warned Barr in a public memo to work 'in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information,' and not 'put our national security at risk.' Those are strong words that indicate President Trump did not consul with Coats, and likely did not consult with FBI Director Chris Wray or CIA Director Gina Haspel before tweeting our Barr's new powers, then heading to Japan barely 12 hours later. Coats added that the Intelligence Community 'will continue to faithfully execute its mission of providing timely, apolitical intelligence to the President and policymakers,' again, clearly suggesting that Trump's actions, and possibly Barr's, are entirely partisan.... Trump's decision to hand Barr the keys to the Intelligence Community's kingdom is seen as just the latest in a long line of actions -- albeit possibly the most dangerous to date -- of Trump using the presidency to attack the Intel community -- and to 'investigate the investigators.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, if this wasn't Coats' or Haspel's or Wray's idea, whose was it? I wrote some time back that a smart, devious, corrupt, self-serving & unpatriotic toady like Barr was a greater danger to the nation than Trump, who is devious, corrupt, self-serving & unpatriotic but lacks the knowledge & discipline to totally wreck the country. Barr has made himself No. 1 Prince, our own Mohammed bin Salman, & yes, he is going to dismember -- figuratively if not literally -- anyone who displeases himself or the king. Everyone who serves in the federal government is on notice. Barr has brought a bone saw to "Justice." ...
... Josh Marshall: "For everyone who's been worried about Attorney General Bill Barr's lawless reign at the Department of Justice [Thursday] night was the big moment.... President Trump gave Barr blanket authority to access and declassify any and all classified information from the country's dozen and a half intelligence agencies.... There's hardly any way to overstate just how big a deal this is or how dangerous it is in the hands of a corrupt official like Bill Barr.... Barr has a proven record of selectively disclosing information with the aim of deceiving the public.... If you can choose only the facts you want and sheer them of their context you can create almost any story you want. And that's what Barr is about to do.... This level of power basically gives Barr a whip hand over the entire Intelligence Community." ...
... digby: "The man who issued a misleading political press release of the Mueller Report in order to spin it more positively for the president has been given carte blanche to access and selectively release classified documents. Knowing what he is --- a political hack on a crusade to turn the presidency into a monarchy, punish Trump's enemies and save his presidency --- this is a very, very dangerous development. This man has zero integrity. None. Barr has been given maximum authority to override the heads of all the Intelligence services and other agencies in this process.... Much of this is designed to take the heat off of Trump going into 2020. The word has gone forth that if anyone in the Intelligence agencies and the FBI see something untoward about Trump's dealings, regardless of the seriousness, they are to look the other way if they care about their careers.... Trump has free rein. Or should I say, 'free reign.'" ...
... Paul Waldman of the Washington Post (clip borrowed from an LG&$ post): "We can be pretty sure of what's going to happen. Barr will scour every record he can to learn as much as possible about the Russia investigation. Whenever he comes across something that can be spun to make the FBI or anyone Trump has decided is his enemy look bad, he'll put it in the 'Declassify' pile. Then he'll release it all to the public and hold a news conference where he suggests that there was a conspiracy to take down Trump. The president will then take to Twitter to proclaim that he was indeed the victim of a vile witch hunt that has at last been exposed. The news media, in possession of only the materials Barr has chosen to give them, will struggle to avoid amplifying and reinforcing Barr's claims. In case you were wondering what happens when an infinitely corrupt president decides to use the powers of the federal government for his own self-interest with the help of lackeys he has installed to protect him, this is it. Now just wait until he tells Barr to go after the Democratic nominee for president." ...
... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "One of the many tests the media will face in this campaign is whether they will apply an appropriate amount of skepticism to any information provided by the Fixer General. The initial reaction to Barr's summary of the Mueller Report was ... not encouraging." ...
... Mrs McCrabbie BTW: I don't think the average voter (a) knows about Trump's order, or (b), if s/he does know, sees anything wrong with it. It just is not immediately obvious that there is anything wrong with "America's lawyer" reviewing America's secrets to help us understand how those secrets protect us -- and to let us know some operatives are bad apples. Anybody who's read a le Carré novel or seen a spy movie knows about rogue spies. Luckily, we have the Justice Department to expose them.
Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "Manipulated videos of Speaker Nancy Pelosi that made it seem as if she were stumbling over and slurring her words continued to spread across social media on Friday, fueled by President Trump's feud with the Democratic leader.... The [fake 'slurred-speech'] video has been viewed millions of times on Facebook and was amplified by the president's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, who shared the video Thursday night on Twitter. 'What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi?' Mr. Giuliani said in a tweet that has since been deleted. 'Her speech pattern is bizarre.'... '"How could I have figured out that it was inaccurate?' [Giuliani asked.]... Dr. Siwei Lyu [of SUNY-Albany], who has studied deepfakes, a kind of ultrarealistic fake video made with artificial intelligence software, said that many false videos can be detected if people slow down, watch again and think critically.... YouTube said the video violated its standards and had been removed. Facebook said that a third-party fact checker had rated the video 'false,' but posts remained on the site and the company said it was trying to limit how widely the video was shared. That video continued to be shared and viewed on Twitter, but the company declined to comment." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There is a critical difference between a parody video, where it is obvious a speaker's voice has been manipulated -- see, for instance, Randy Rainbow's video below -- and one like the Pelosi deepfake that pretends to accurately reflect a speaker's delivery, and is so opaque that a genius like Rudy can't possibly know it's fake. ...
... Rudy Writes His Own Covfefe. Quint Forgey of Politico: Rudy Giuliani "on Thursday evening amplified on Twitter a manipulated version of [Nancy] Pelosi's remarks at a conference earlier in the week. The clip, which has disseminated across social media ... subtly slows Pelosi's speech in a manner that suggests she is physically impaired. 'What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi? Her speech pattern is bizarre,' Giuliani tweeted Thursday when he posted the footage. He later deleted the message. Earlier Friday morning, Giuliani appeared to offer Pelosi an apology, tweeting a GIF of professional basketball players and a message that read:' ivesssapology for a video which is allegedly is a caricature of an otherwise halting speech pattern, she should first stop, and apologize for, saying the President needs an "intervention. Are.' Drew Hammill, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, mocked Giuliani's incoherent tweet, reposting it and writing online: 'No further comment needed.'" But, perhaps with some assistance, Giuliani on Friday appeared to defend tweeting the doctored video: "Nancy Pelosi wants an apology for a caricature exaggerating her already halting speech pattern. First she should withdraw her charge which hurts our entire nation when she says the President needs an 'intervention. "People who live in a glass house shouldn't throw stones,"' Giuliani wrote. (Also linked yesterday.)
... Pelosi's Puppet. Paul Krugman: "I gotta say, it was very clever of Nancy Pelosi to steal Donald Trump's strawberries, pushing him over the edge into self-evident lunacy.... You see, a major infrastructure push is a very good idea, one that Democrats would find it hard to oppose in good conscience. Yet it would also be politically good for Trump, helping the economy, giving the public a sense of progress, and also making him seem more like a normal president.... So if I were Pelosi and [Chuck] Schumer, I would be quietly expressing thanks t Trump for throwing a tantrum, and extricating them from a potential political trap.
... Thanks to unwashed for the link.
Jordan Fabian & Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday announced that the U.S. will send roughly 1,500 troops to the Middle East in order to counter Iran's influence in the region. Trump emphasized that the new deployment will provide force protection for existing troops in the area amid heightened tensions with Tehran." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Adam Rawnsley & Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "The Trump administration announced Friday that it is sending 1,500 new troops to the Persian Gulf and authorizing new arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in order to counter a rising Iranian threat in the region. But satellite images provided exclusively to The Daily Beast by the company Planet Labs show that a component of the administration's description of Iran's aggressive behavior -- an apparent positioning of Iranian missiles onto boats -- may not be as clear in commercial imagery as anonymous administration officials claimed it to be in statements to other publications.... Intelligence officials have offered conflicting accounts of what kinds of missiles Iran may have loaded onto the boats, further muddying the waters about the intelligence." --s ...
... Dan De Luce of NBC News: "The Trump administration on Friday cited a national security 'emergency' allegedly caused by Iran to bypass Congress and rush through arms sales worth billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East allies, in a move that drew condemnation from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Citing a rarely used provision of arms control law, the administration informed lawmakers it was declaring a national security emergency, allowing it to go ahead with the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan without congressional approval.... The move came despite growing bipartisan opposition to any arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid outrage over the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi..., as well as over Riyadh's air war in Yemen that has caused high numbers of civilian casualties. A bipartisan majority in Congress has voted to halt U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen but ... Donald Trump vetoed the legislation last month."
Trump Admin Extends "Be Cruel" Policy. Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "A new proposal from the Trump administration would roll back health care protections for transgender people. The proposed regulation, announced Friday, scraps ObamaCare's definition of 'sex discrimination' to remove protections for gender identity. That provision said patients cannot be turned away because they are transgender, nor can they be denied coverage if they need a service that's related to their transgender status. The announcement follows a series of moves that bolster efforts by religious conservatives to narrowly define gender and gender protections. Earlier this month, the administration finalized rules making it easier for health workers and institutions to deny treatment to people if it would violate their religious or moral beliefs." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... "Be Cruel" Plan, Ctd. Sam Baker & Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The Trump administration will soon make it easier for adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples, senior administration officials told Axios.... President Trump is steadily rolling back Obama-era nondiscrimination policies across the entire federal government -- including health care, housing and the military. Former President Obama banned adoption and foster-care agencies from receiving federal funding if they refused to work with same-sex couples. Religious organizations have consistently bristled at that policy, arguing that they're being forced to contradict their beliefs. Administration officials said the White House is weighing two options: either rescinding those rules altogether, or adding an explicit exemption for religious organizations. The debate is mainly about which approach would hold up better in court, the officials said. A religious exemption seems to have the upper hand for now, but that could change. Trump alluded to this issue at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this year, but did not announce a formal policy. The process is now far enough along that an announcement could happen by early July...."
Jose del Real of the New York Times: "President Trumps efforts to build a wall along the southwest border hit a roadblock on Friday night when a federal judge in California granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the administration from redirecting funds under the national emergency declaration issued in February. The judge, Haywood Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who is overseeing a pair of lawsuits over border wall financing, ruled that the administration's efforts likely overstep the president's statutory authority. The injunction applies specifically to some of the money the administration intended to allocate from other agencies, and it limits wall construction projects in El Paso, Tex., and Yuma, Ariz. The ruling quoted from a Fox News interview with Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, in which he said that the wall 'is going to get built, with or without Congress.' The idea that the president can act 'without Congress' when lawmakers refuse a funding request from the White House 'does not square with fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic,' Judge Gilliam wrote." President Obama appointed Judge Gilliam. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems Judge Gilliam is more interested in the Constitution than in Bill Barr's theory of the imperial GOP executive. ...
... Maggie Haberman & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the immigration hard-liner who was expected to be President Trump's pick to coordinate immigration policy, will instead be chosen to take over for the embattled official who has overseen the legal immigration system, according to two people briefed on the situation. The official, L. Francis Cissna, whose role as the head of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has included overseeing a visa system that many White House aides view as broken, has submitted to pressure to step down, the two people said. Mr. Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general, is expected to be tapped to replace Mr. Cissna, the two people said. Mr. Trump had asked Mr. Cuccinelli in recent days to help coordinate policy across agencies, akin to the 'immigration czar' job that the president has considered creating for months. The move startled officials at the White House and at the Department of Homeland Security, where one West Wing official said Mr. Cuccinelli would work. For now, he will be used to move out Mr. Cissna, the people familiar with the move said. But ... people close to ... Mitch McConnell, who has been a target of Mr. Cuccinelli's in the past, said that [Cuccinelli's] chances of being confirmed were close to zero, creating immediate questions about the next steps in the process." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Still, maybe this means there's still room for Czar Kris Kobach & his wonderful flying machine. Two dickheads are better than one. I'm surprised Trump didn't make them wrestle for the job (or maybe he did, & Kris pinned Little Kenny).
Travelling with Trump. Kaitlan Collins & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Not always an eager traveler, Trump has complained in the past about the pace of his foreign travel or the accommodations arranged for him abroad. It's his aides, however, who sometimes dread boarding Air Force One for a lengthy flight overseas, knowing full well the boss will make little use of the bed wedged into the nose of the plane. 'It's like being held captive,"'one official said of traveling with the President on Air Force One. Current and former officials have described White House trips as grueling endeavors accompanied by long hours, but several privately said the flights overseas are easily the worst. The duration can stretch nearly 20 hours. Sleeping space is limited. The televisions are streaming Fox News constantly. And if the headlines flashing across the bottom of the screen are unfavorable to their boss, aides know it's time to buckle up for a turbulent ride. The President boarded Air Force One Friday for the 14-hour flight to Tokyo, and his staff were gearing up for a particularly hellish ride.... During international flights, Trump typically remains in the front cabin. He does four things, the current and former aides said: eats, watches television or reads newspapers, talks with staff and calls friends and allies back home...." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The experience of overseas travel with Trump is almost exactly like traveling overseas with a poorly behaved toddler: Trump won't stop watching television.... Like at home, Trump's method of governing is to see things on television that anger him and order his staffers to make them go away....Trump won't go to sleep.... Trump does not like the TV in other countries.... Trump also does not like the food in foreign countries. Trump does not like it when people are talking about non-Trump subjects."
Rashaan Ayesh of Axios: "The Trump administration announced it will cut 1,100 federal jobs by eliminating a Forest Service program which trains disadvantaged young people in rural communities jobs including fire fighting, reports the Washington Post. This is believed to be the largest layoff of civil servants in nearly 10 years, expected to effect Arkansas, Montana, Virginia, Washington state and Wisconsin. Members of both political parties were opposed to the plan, per the Post. Nine locations are expected to shut down while 16 are to be taken over by private operators and state governments." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Job Corps programs primarily serve young people of color & a Democratic President (Lyndon Johnson) initiated the Corps, I guess eliminating part of the program was a no-brainer for Trump & Co., especially at a time when the number & severity of forest fires are increasing, not because of fake climate change, but because of Americans' failure to vacuum the forest floors.
Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "The Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to raise the threshold for a chemical found in rocket fuel [perchlorate -- which is linked to thyroid problems] to triple the previous limit allowed in drinking water supplies. This is the first new drinking water rule introduced by the agency since the George W. Bush administration.... This is three times higher than what the EPA previously recommended as a safe level for drinking water (15 micrograms per liter).... In addition to this change, the EPA is seeking comment on three other alternate options: setting the level to 18 micrograms per liter, to 90 micrograms per liter, or simply abolishing the rule regulating perchlorate in drinking water." --s
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. John Haltiwanger of Business Insider: "... Sarah Huckabee Sanders has not held a press briefing in 72 days, during which she's appeared on Fox News at least 12 times. Sanders is setting records. The length of time between briefings in the Sanders era is longer than that of any of the preceding 13 press secretaries, according to the American Presidency Project." --s
Ella Nilsen of Vox: "President Donald Trump is angry at House Democrats for 'getting nothing done in Congress.'... rump is objectively wrong; House Democrats haven't been squandering time. In addition to their investigations, they've been passing legislation at a rapid clip. In all, the House has taken up 51 bills, resolutions, and suspensions since January -- 49 of which they've passed.... They recently passed a bill to lower prescription drug prices, and another one to protect preexisting conditions. The House also passed nine bills on veterans issues this week alone, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted at her weekly press conference. On Thursday, Democrats tried to present Trump their infrastructure plan before he walked out of their meeting." --s
... Then there's this: ...
... Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, blocked a disaster relief bill in the House on Friday by objecting to a unanimous consent vote. The Texas Republican who previously worked for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) argued the House should not have recessed before debating the legislation and holding a vote.... The $19.1 billion disaster aid package, which did not include the $4.5 billion in border funding requested by President Trump, passed the Senate in an 85-8 vote on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... MEANWHILE, Mitch McConnell is sitting on most of those 49 bills the House has passed, even ones that already have bipartisan support. Pelosi would do well to try exercising some of her manipulative skills on McTurtle. At least he's a match for her.
Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "A federal judge blocked a Mississippi law on Friday that forbids abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. In issuing a preliminary injunction, Judge Carlton Reeves said the law 'threatens immediate harm to women's rights, especially considering most women do not seek abortions services until after six weeks.' 'Allowing the law to take effect would force the clinic to stop providing most abortion care,' wrote Reeves, adding that 'by banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, the law prevents a woman's free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy.' The law was set to take effect in July."
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "The bus wars are over and electricity has won -- thanks to a big boost from China. In fact, when it comes to electric bus purchases, China is outpacing the United States by an astounding 421,000 to 300 as of the end of 2018. Thanks to China's massive investment in and support for electric buses, electrics are now racing past a 50% share of new bus sales worldwide.... [I]t has become overwhelmingly clear that nothing can compete with electricity for the highest efficiency and performance along with lowest emissions and lifetime cost, including fuel and maintenance." --s
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