The Commentariat -- October 10, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump escalated his attack on Senator Bob Corker on Tuesday by ridiculing him for his height, even as advisers worried that the president was further fracturing his relationship with congressional Republicans just a week before a vote critical to his tax cutting plan. Mr. Trump gave Mr. Corker, a two-term Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a derogatory new nickname -- 'Liddle Bob' -- after the two exchanged barbs in recent days. He suggested Mr. Corker was somehow tricked when he told a reporter from The New York Times that the president was reckless and could stumble into a nuclear war.... 'The Failing set Liddle' Bob Corker up by recording his conversation. Was made to sound a fool, and that's what I am dealing with!'... A Times reporter interviewed Mr. Corker by telephone and recorded the call with the senator's knowledge and consent. Mr. Corker's staff also recorded the call, and he said he wanted The Times to do the same." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, Trumpelthinskin has no idea that a making stupid, grade-school attack show that he is a lot liddler than Corker. The only ways Trump is bigger than Corker all have to do with his ass, both physically & metaphorically. What an embarrassing twit. ...
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump proposed an 'IQ tests' faceoff with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after the nation's top diplomat reportedly called the president a 'moron' and disparaged his grasp of foreign policy. In an interview with Forbes magazine published Tuesday, Trump fired a shot at Tillerson over the 'moron' revelation, first reported by NBC News and confirmed by several other news organizations, including The Washington Post. 'I think it's fake news,' Trump said, 'but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.'" See today's commentary. Mrs. McC: Tillerson should accept the challenge: back in the day, there actually was a category called "moron," & I'd expect Trump to qualify. Not sure about Tillerson.
Jodi Kantor & Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "When Gwyneth Paltrow was 22 years old..., film producer Harvey Weinstein hired her for the lead in the Jane Austen adaptation 'Emma.' Before shooting began, he summoned her to his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for a work meeting.... It ended with Mr. Weinstein placing his hands on her and suggesting they head to the bedroom for massages, she said. 'I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,' she said in an interview, publicly disclosing that she was sexually harassed by the man who ignited her career and later helped her win an Academy Award. She refused his advances, she said, and confided in Brad Pitt, her boyfriend at the time. Mr. Pitt confronted Mr. Weinstein, and soon after, the producer warned her not to tell anyone else about his come-on. 'I thought he was going to fire me,' she said. Rosanna Arquette, a star of 'Pulp Fiction,' has a similar account of Mr. Weinstein's behavior, as does Judith Godrèche, a leading French actress. So unwanted advances on her in a hotel room, which she rejected." ...
... Ronan Farrow, in the New Yorker, details similar stories, and worse. "Three women ... told me that Weinstein raped them, allegations that include Weinstein forcibly performing or receiving oral sex and forcing vaginal sex.... [Some Weinstein] employees described what was, in essence, a culture of complicity at Weinstein's places of business, with numerous people throughout the companies fully aware of his behavior but either abetting it or looking the other way. Some employees said that they were enlisted in subterfuge to make the victims feel safe."
*****
"American Kakistocracy." Norm Ornstein in the Atlantic: "From cabinet officials jetting around on the public dime, to Trump's shattering of ethical norms, to disregard for congressional procedure -- there's a case to be made that the United States is governed by the least scrupulous of its citizens.... The problem is deeper and worse when ineptitude joins with venality and recklessness.... Donald Trump campaigned by promising to run government like a business. Unfortunately, that business is Trump University."
Trump Plans More Mayhem for Americans. Louis Nelson & Adam Cancryn of Politico: "... Donald Trump wrote online Tuesday morning that he plans to take unilateral steps to reform the nation's healthcare system, hinting at signing an executive order without clarifying what that order might be. 'Since Congress can't get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people -- FAST,' Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Nelson & Cancryyn hypothesize that Trump's order will authorize companies to sell insurance across state lines. If they're right, the order -- no matter how bold Trump's signature -- may prove meaningless. Before & after the implementation of ObamaCare, states tried interstate insurance schemes, & no insurance companies took them up on it. Also, too, even if such a program were implemented, it would not lower overall consumer costs, as Trump & other know-nothing Republicans claim ...
... BTW, I'm a little slow-witted, so I just figured out another reason Trump is so hot to get rid of/undermine ObamaCare. According to this 2013 Kaiser Foundation report, "Reflecting their limited incomes and lack of access to employer-sponsored health insurance, people of color are more likely to be uninsured compared to Whites." Because of its requirements that force insurers to cover certain health needs, ObamaCare affects every type of coverage. But it has had a greater impact on people of color because, as Kaiser found, they were less likely to have any kind of coverage. Trump doesn't know much, but I'll bet he knows this. Also see Krugman, linked below, on this Kaiser finding: "People of color have particularly high stakes in state decisions to implement the ACA Medicaid expansion." AND as we all know, & as Money (& many others) reported, repeal of the ACA would "also limit coverage for millions of American women, particularly the poorest." BUT of course GOP "replace" bills did give big tax breaks to the rich.
Lisa Friedman & Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "The Trump administration announced Monday that it would take formal steps to repeal President Barack Obama's signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, setting up a bitter fight over the future of America's efforts to tackle global warming. At an event in eastern Kentucky, Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that his predecessors had departed from regulatory norms in crafting the Clean Power Plan, which was finalized in 2015 and would have pushed states to move away from coal in favor of sources of electricity that produce fewer carbon emissions. It will also limit coverage for millions of American women, particularly the poorest...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In case you were wondering why Trump didn't do the announcing of this horrible policy -- the better to flourish his executive order pen -- it was because he was busy golfing. And he played fantastically well! Emphasis on fantastic. BTW, since Pruitt made the announcement while Nero fiddled Trump golfed, it's possible the presidunce knows nothing about it. Even if he does, it wouldn't matter because he doesn't care.
Peter Baker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "President Trump's latest rupture with a Republican senator has widened the schism with his own party on Capitol Hill, potentially jeopardizing the future of his legislative agenda even as he presses lawmakers to approve deep tax cuts, according to veteran Republicans and independent analysts.... White House officials seethed on Monday, privately accusing [Sen. Bob] Corker of intentionally picking a fight with the president to draw attention to his new crusade against raising the deficit in any tax overhaul. But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky ... and his allies were incredulous that the president would anger a senator just a week before a budget vote that is critical to tax cuts when the party's 52-vote majority can be thwarted by just three defections.... Few other incumbent Republicans rushed to the microphones to echo [Corker's] comments on Monday, but several made little attempt to hide their irritation at Mr. Trump for attacking Mr. Corker." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Bob Corker thought that Scott Pruitt was just the man for the job. Bob Corker also voted in favor of making a discreet racist the Attorney General, for putting a grifter at the head of Health and Human Services, and for putting unqualified buffoons at the head of the Departments of Education and Housing And Urban Development. Bob Corker was altogether fine with stiffing Merrick Garland for a year in order to hijack a Supreme Court seat for Neil Gorsuch who, apparently, even John Roberts can't stand. It was cool with Bob Corker, several times, if millions of Americans lost their healthcare and if even the surviving restrictions on Wall Street brigandage and campaign finance went up in smoke. Bob Corker voted with the administration 88 percent of the time. And as Alec MacGillis pointed out on the electric Twitter machine, Bob Corker stepped in and monkeywrenched a union drive at an automobile plant in Tennessee.... So, no. I don't have to 'give credit' to Bob Corker for anything. He owes his career to the same unreason and extremism of which this president* is a perfect end product." ...
... Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "Frustrated by his Cabinet and angry that he has not received enough credit for his handling of three successive hurricanes, President Trump is now lashing out, rupturing alliances and imperiling his legislative agenda, numerous White House officials and outside advisers said Monday. In a matter of days, Trump has torched bridges all around him, nearly imploded an informal deal with Democrats to protect young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, and plunged himself into the culture wars on issues ranging from birth control to the national anthem. In doing so, Trump is laboring to solidify his standing with his populist base and return to the comforts of his campaign -- especially after the embarrassing defeat of Sen. Luther Strange (R) in last month's Alabama special election, despite the president's trip there to campaign with the senator.... Trump in recent days has shown flashes of fury and left his aides, including ... John F. Kelly, scrambling to manage his outbursts." ...
... Babysitting Trump. Josh Dawsey of Politico: "... interviews with ten current and former administration officials, advisers, longtime business associates and others close to Trump describe a process where they try to install guardrails for a president who goes on gut feeling -- and many days are spent managing the president, just as Corker said.... [Strategies to manage Trump don't always work.] Trump wanted to fire FBI Director James Comey for at least a week before it happened. Aides, including [Reince] Priebus, [Steve] Bannon and White House chief counsel Don McGahn continually told him what a perilous threat it could be to his presidency. Outside advisers called Trump and warned him against it. Eventually, Trump went away to Bedminster ... and decided to fire Comey anyway." ...
... Karen DeYoung & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "After nearly nine months of the Trump administration, many of America's closest allies have concluded that a hoped-for 'learning curve' they thought would make President Trump a reliable partner is not going to happen.... Instead, they see an administration in which lines of authority and decision-making are unclear, where tweets become policy and hard-won international accords on trade and climate are discarded. The result has been a special kind of challenge for those whose jobs are to advocate for their countries and explain the president and his unconventional ways at home. Senior diplomats and officials from nearly a dozen countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia expressed a remarkable coincidence of views in interviews over the past several weeks. Asked to describe their thoughts about and relations with the president and his team..., many described a whirlwind journey beginning with tentative optimism, followed by alarm and finally reaching acceptance that the situation is unlikely to improve."
New York Times Editors: "On Sunday, the White House announced a list of hard-line demands that it said Congress must include in any legislation to help the roughly 800,000 undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought to this country as children. It was the latest flip-flop for the administration and a demoralizing turn for what seemed like a possible bipartisan deal on an emotional issue.... So what can Republicans do? Start by working across the aisle on sensible immigration legislation. That would begin with what got this entire discussion started: a deal to protect the Dreamers.... No matter what the final package looks like, it needs to get to the floor and be put to a vote -- which depends on Paul Ryan and ... Mitch McConnell embracing higher principles than fear of their Tea Party rebels."
Silly "News." Helena Andrews-Dyer & Emily Heil of the Washington Post: "Things are getting a little 'Real Housewives' around the White House.... President Trump's first and third wives, Ivana and Melania, respectively, on Monday had a very public war of words -- and his second wife, Marla Maples, is getting some shade out of the spat, to boot.... To promote her new book, 'Raising Trump,' about parenting Trump's three eldest children, Ivana Trump gave a Monday interview to 'Good Morning America' in which she ... [said] 'I'm basically first Trump wife. Okay?' Ivana Trump said. 'I'm first lady.' She offered faux sympathy for Melania Trump, saying 'I think for her to be in Washington must be terrible.' (She had less subtle insults for her ex's second wife, Marla Maples. 'A showgirl' was her epithet of choice.)... Melania Trump took a page out of her husband's playbook, the one that famously decrees he hit back harder at anyone who takes a swing. Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, dispatched a crisp response dismissing Ivana's remarks as 'attention seeking' from someone who just wants to sell books and making clear that Melania Trump does not, in fact, hate her Washington life."
Nicholas Confessore & Daisuke Wakabayashi of the New York Times: Incendiary YouTube videos "ended up becoming grist for a network of Facebook pages linked to a shadowy Russian company that has carried out propaganda campaigns for the Kremlin, and which is now believed to be at the center of a far-reaching Russian program to influence the 2016 presidential election. A New York Times examination of hundreds of those posts shows that one of the most powerful weapons that Russian agents used to reshape American politics was the anger, passion and misinformation that real Americans were broadcasting across social media platforms.... The Russians also paid Facebook to promote their posts in the feeds of American Facebook users, helping them test what content would circulate most widely, and among which audiences.... Boosted by Russian accounts, the material was quickly picked up by other American users of Facebook, spreading the posts to an even bigger audience." ...
... Daisuke Wakabayashi: "Google has found evidence that Russian agents bought ads on its wide-ranging networks in an effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential campaign. The findings from an internal inquiry draw Google further into the growing investigation of how social networks and technology services were manipulated by the Russian government to spread misinformation and sow division during the 2016 election. Using accounts believed to be connected to the Russian government, the agents purchased $4,700 worth of search ads and more traditional display ads, according to a person familiar with the company's inquiry who was not allowed to speak about it publicly.... Google found a separate $53,000 worth of ads with political material that were purchased from Russian internet addresses, building addresses or with Russian currency.... It is not clear whether any of those were connected to the Russian government, and they may have been purchased by Russian citizens.... The messages of those ads spanned the political spectrum."
Beacon of Liberty: Torture Edition. Larry Seims of the Guardian: "274 documents the CIA and Pentagon were forced to declassify and release during pre-trial discovery...These documents, many of them scheduled to be entered as exhibits at trial, provide the fullest picture yet of what the three men suffered in that secret CIA dungeon -- and of how fatefully their lives intersected with the rise and fall of James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the men who designed the torture regime." Read on if you've got a strong stomach --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Senate & Gubernatorial Races:
He's Breaking up That Old Gang of Theirs. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Steve Bannon and his allies are planning a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. And only one Senator running in 2018 will get a free pass: Ted Cruz. Breitbart's Washington Editor Matt Boyle writes [Monday] that conservatives are 'running or actively seeking out' serious primary challengers for every incumbent Republican senator running in 2018 except the Texan. Bannon once said he successfully weaponized a human being in Matt Boyle. So Boyle's stories are a useful guide for what Bannon and his outside groups -- funded by billionaires like the Mercers -- are planning. Here are the races and candidates Boyle teases as part of Bannon's push to support 'America First' candidates in congressional and gubernatorial races nationwide[.]" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's tempting to be grateful to Steverino, but as we all know, some of his deplorable candidates will win both their primaries & general elections. Also, too, the primaried senators & governors will move even further to the right, so they may take their new oaths with a promise to deport anyone who can't prove s/he's among the Descendants of the Bastard Kings of England. BTW, there used to be such an organization, & I would qualify. It's the only one of those Look-at-Me-I'm-Whitey-White-White organizations I once considered joining -- because I loved the name.
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced on Monday morning that she will run for reelection in 2018. 'I am running for reelection to the Senate. Lots more to do: ending gun violence, combating climate change, access to healthcare. I'm all in!' Feinstein said...."
Erik Schelzig of the AP: "Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn's Senate campaign announcement ad has been blocked by Twitter over a statement the abortion rights opponent makes about the sale of fetal tissue for medical research. Blackburn, who is running for the seat being opened by the retirement of Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, boasts in the ad that she 'stopped the sale of baby body parts.' A Twitter representative told the candidate's vendors on Monday that the statement was 'deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction[']: Twitter said the Blackburn campaign would be allowed to run the rest of the video if the flagged statement is omitted. While the decision keeps Blackburn from paying to promote the video on Twitter, it doesn't keep it from being linked from YouTube and other platforms. Blackburn took to Twitter to urge supporters to re-post her video and join her in 'standing up to Silicon Valley.'"
Funny how people who accuse their rivals of being unpatriotic worship men who engaged in armed rebellion against the United States. -- Paul Krugman ...
... Where the Confederacy Rules. Paul Krugman: "If you want to understand why policies toward the poor are so different at the state level, why some states offer so much less support to troubled families with children, one predictor stands out: the African-American share of the population. The more blacks, the less compassion white voters feel. The story gets even clearer if you look at the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.... Until recently, Virginia seemed to be emerging from some of the darker shadows of its history. The state is becoming more ethnically diverse, more culturally open; it is, you might say, becoming more like America.... Ed Gillespie, the G.O.P. candidate, is trying to pull off an upset by going full-on Trumpist, doing all he can -- with assistance from the tweeter in chief -- to mobilize the white nationalist vote.... Virginia is now the most important place on the U.S. political landscape -- and what happens there could decide the fate of the nation."
Medlar's Sports Report:
Kevin Draper & Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Jemele Hill, the 'SportsCenter' host on ESPN whose tweets last month calling President Trump a white supremacist caused the White House to call for her firing, was suspended on Monday for once again running afoul of the company's social media policy. After the Dallas Cowboys' owner, Jerry Jones, said Sunday that he would bench any players who 'disrespect the flag,' Hill suggested on Twitter that fans who disagreed with Jones's stance should boycott Cowboys advertisers." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So it's okay if a rich white guy makes a political statement, but not okay if a black woman responds with a political statement. Seems fair. ...
... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "ESPN doesn’t deserve to retain the services of Jemele Hill.... Proof? On Monday, the Disney-owned sports-broadcasting colossus suspended Hill for issuing an insightful tweet about the NFL, a league that ESPN supposedly covers.... With his own autocratic announcements about the consequences of kneeling, [Cowboys owner Jerry] Jones is sounding a lot like an NFL stand-in for Trump, a position that'll harden some attitudes around the league."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet srespond to Sharon Waxman's allegations, linked here yesterday, that Times editors killed her 2004 story on Harvey Weinstein. Baquet said, in part, "... if you read her own description, she did not have anything near what was revealed in our story. Mainly, she had an off-the-record account from one woman." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to Waxman's account, that's not true: "As head of Miramax Italy in 2003 and 2004, Fabrizio Lombardo was paid $400,000 for less than a year of employment. He was on the payroll of Miramax and thus the Walt Disney Company, which had bought the indie studio in 1993.... According to multiple accounts, he had no film experience and his real job was to take care of Weinstein's women needs, among other things.... I had people on the record telling me Lombardo knew nothing about film, and others citing evenings he organized with Russian escorts." As I recall, Baquet is a consistent defender of questionable NYT editorial decisions, including crap the Times had to amend four times its initial story about Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server. Waxman's reporting may or may not have required more sourcing to meet NYT standards, but accurately claiming that her report wasn't as deep or as broad as last week's NYT report on Weinstein is a phony excuse for squelching a narrower report. ...
... Bonnie Malkin of the Guardian: "Fashion designer Donna Karan has come to the defence of film producer Harvey Weinstein by praising the movie mogul and saying women who dress sensually are asking for trouble.... On Sunday, Karan, who is also a friend of Weinstein's, told the Daily Mail that he was 'wonderful'. Karan said women must consider if the way they dress suggests they are 'asking for it'. 'I think we have to look at ourselves,' she said on the red carpet at the CinéFashion film awards in Los Angeles.... Weinstein's alleged conduct has been condemned by his friends Meryl Streep and Judi Dench, who called the claims 'horrifying' and 'inexcusable'."
"Capitalism is Awesome", Ctd. Joseph Cox of The Daily Beast: "Danny Manupassa sells everything the paranoid might need. As the director of PI-Products, he offers infra-red cameras, reinforced, security-focused doors to stop burglars armed with electric drills and saws, and even professional bug-sweeping services to find hidden microphones in cars. But this thirtysomething entrepreneur's main business -- the one that has led to him being the center of a cross-border investigation into organized crime -- is selling privacy-focused mobile phones...A Daily Beast investigation shows the widespread use of these devices by serious criminals, connections between crooks and some of the people that sell the phones, and the intense rivalry playing out across the industry." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)
News Ledes
Washington Post: "The massive, fast-moving California wildfires that have killed at least 15 people came with hardly any warning, spreading into neighborhoods when residents had gone to bed, unaware that they would have to flee for safety. Many of them ... have nothing left to come back to." ...
... Los Angeles Times: "The death toll from the Northern California fires continued to rise Tuesday, reaching a confirmed total of 15 as multiple fires scorched upward of 100,000 acres. Sonoma County alone has received about 200 reports of missing people since Sunday night, and sheriff's officials have located 45 of those people, said county spokeswoman Maggie Fleming. The majority of the fatalities are from Sonoma County, where huge swaths of the city of Santa Rosa were leveled by the Tubbs fire. Nine people have died in Sonoma County as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Fleming said. Two people have died in Napa County, three in Mendocino County and one in Yuba County, Cal Fire officials said."