The Commentariat -- November 2, 2017
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Binyamin Appelbaum & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump nominated Jerome H. Powell to chair the Federal Reserve on Thursday afternoon, bypassing Janet L. Yellen for a second term but turning to a replacement who is expected to stay the course on monetary policy if the economy continues its steady growth.... Mr. Powell, a member of the Fed's board of governors since 2012, has consistently voted with Ms. Yellen, and colleagues consider him a centrist and pragmatist. But his tenure as a central banker has been relatively brief, and he has expressed skepticism in the past about the unconventional measures that the Fed has taken in the wake of the severe recession of 2008 and 2009. Mr. Powell could also depart from the Fed's current trajectory when it comes to regulating banks and other financial institutions -- rules Mr. Trump has said should be loosened."
Juliet Eilperin & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientist nominee, Sam Clovis withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday amid revelations that he was among top officials on the Trump campaign who was aware of efforts by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials.... In a letter to the president Wednesday, Clovis explained that he did not think he could get a fair consideration from the Senate, which was slated to hold a hearing on his appointment on Nov. 9. 'The political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to receive balanced and fair consideration for this position,' wrote Clovis, who currently serves as USDA's senior White House adviser. 'The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases with intensity each day.'" Thanks to MAG for the link. See also Dana Milbank's column on Clovis, et al., linked below. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So unfair that meanies are picking on completely unqualified Trump nominees who also may be under suspicion of collaborating with the Kremlin.
Fossil Fuels & Sex Crimes. Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault. Speaking during an energy policy discussion about energy policy..., Perry discussed his recent trip to Africa. He said a young girl told him that energy is important to her because she often reads by the light of a fire with toxic fumes. 'But also from the standpoint of sexual assault,' Perry said. 'When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Sunshine may be the best disinfectant, but apparently solar energy doesn't have the policing power as good ole fossil fuels.
Greg Sargent: "When Trump dismisses discussion of Russian interference in the 2016 election as a hoax, he isn't merely saying the charge of collusion with that meddling is a hoax. He's also saying that the alleged Russian sabotage itself, irrespective of whether his campaign colluded with it, definitively never happened at all and, by extension, doesn't merit any inquiry or discussion. Some new reporting out this morning underscores in a fresh way just how reckless, irresponsible and potentially dangerous to our democracy this stance has become."
Donna Brazile writes a startling confessional in Politico Magazine. The title of the piece is, "Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC." Brazile fingers both Clinton & Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, from whom Brazile took over as DNC chair after the party forced out Wasserman-Schultz.
Jim Tankersley & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Republican lawmakers are unveiling the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades, outlining a plan to cut taxes for corporations, reduce them for middle-class families and tilt the United States closer, but not entirely, toward the kind of tax system long championed by businesses, according to talking points circulated on Thursday. The House plan, released after weeks of internal debate, conflict and delay, is far from final and will ignite a legislative and lobbying fight as Democrats, business groups and other special interests tear into the text ahead of a Republican sprint to get the legislation passed and to President Trump's desk by Christmas. The bill keeps a top rate of 39.6 percent for the highest-earners and roughly doubles the standard deduction for middle class families. It expands the child tax credit to $1,600 from $1,000 and will not make any changes to the 401(k) plans. It does propose changes to the popular mortgage interest deduction. Under the Republican plan, existing homeowners can keep their mortgage interest deduction but future purchases will be capped at $500,000. The bill cuts the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, from 35 percent.... One of the biggest flash points will be how the bill treats the state and local tax deduction, which lawmakers are proposing to cap at $10,000. That will not be enough for Republicans in some high-tax states, where middle-class families make heavy use of the deduction." No word yet on the estate tax proposal.
*****
I'm in the office early and leave late; it's very smooth. Honestly, I'm really enjoying it. -- Donald Trump, in a call-in to the failing New York Times, yesterday ...
Trump is at 33 percent in Gallup. You can't go any lower. He's fucked. -- Sam Nunberg, former aide to Trump, to Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair ...
... Maggie Haberman & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump ... insist[ed] to The New York Times that he was not 'angry at anybody' and that investigations into his campaign's links to Russia had not come near him personally. 'I'm not under investigation, as you know,' Mr. Trump said in a brief telephone call late Wednesday afternoon. Pointing to the indictment of his former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, the president said, 'And even if you look at that, there's not even a mention of Trump in there.' 'It has nothing to do with us,' Mr. Trump said. He also pushed back against a report published Monday night by The Washington Post, which the president said described him as 'angry at everybody.'" ...
... Oh Yeah? Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "The first charges in the Mueller probe have kindled talk of what the endgame for Trump looks like, according to conversations with a half-dozen advisers and friends of the president. For the first time since the investigation began, the prospect of impeachment is being considered as a realistic outcome and not just a liberal fever dream.... Trump, meanwhile, has reacted to the deteriorating situation by lashing out on Twitter and venting in private to friends.... Speaking to Steve Bannon on Tuesday, Trump blamed Jared Kushner for his role in decisions, specifically the firings of Mike Flynn and James Comey, that led to Mueller's appointment, according to a source briefed on the call. When Roger Stone recently told Trump that Kushner was giving him bad political advice, Trump agreed, according to someone familiar with the conversation. 'Jared is the worst political adviser in the White House in modern history,' [Trump campaign aide Sam] Nunberg said. 'I'm only saying publicly what everyone says behind the scenes at Fox News, in conservative media, and the Senate and Congress.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
"Name Those Goons." Can you ID these three business partners? Hints: They owned a lobbying firm in 1985, when the photo was taken. They're all despicable weasels. (No fair if you've seen the photo before.):
Update: We have a winner! See today's Comments.
... Cecilia Kang, et al., of the New York Times: "Lawmakers released scores of political ads on Wednesday purchased by Russian agents on Facebook and Twitter that showed the extent of the Kremlin's attempts to polarize the American voting public on issues like race, police abuse and religion.... The sampling of ads, some of which had been made public earlier, came during a second day of hearings with the top lawyers for Facebook, Twitter and Google and were intended to show the executives how pervasively Russia used their platforms to further its campaign of misinformation. Lawmakers of both parties expressed frustration with answers that fell short of what they had hoped and insisted that the companies, long the darlings of American technology, do better.... The tech companies also provided new numbers on the reach of Russia's influence campaign. Facebook said an estimated 150 million users of its main site and its subsidiary, Instagram, were exposed to the posts, a larger figure than it provided even as recently as Monday." ...
... Here are some of the Russia-generated ads. ...
... Ben Collins & Kevin Poulsen of the Daily Beast: "Former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn followed five Twitter accounts based out of the Russian-backed 'troll factory' in St. Petersburg -- and pushed their messages at least three times in the month before the 2016 election.... The Daily Beast had previously discovered Flynn, Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, and Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale retweeted Ten_GOP [-- a Russia-generated account --] several times in the month before the election.
** Raphael Satter, et al. of the AP: "The hackers who upended the U.S. presidential election had ambitions well beyond Hillary Clinton's campaign, targeting the emails of Ukrainian officers, Russian opposition figures, U.S. defense contractors and thousands of others of interest to the Kremlin, according to a previously unpublished digital hit list obtained by The Associated Press.... Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovcalled the notion that Russia interfered 'unfounded.' But the list examined by AP provides powerful evidence that the Kremlin did just that." --safari ...
... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Federal prosecutors have identified more than six Russian government officials involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee emails that were dumped online during the 2016 presidential election. The Justice Department has assembled enough evidence to bring charges against the officials, likely next year, according to sources familiar with the investigation, reported the Wall Street Journal. The case would provide the clearest picture yet of how the DNC computers were hacked, and attack that U.S. intelligence services have blamed on their Russian counterparts.... [The] investigation is being conducted separately from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia..." ...
... The Best People, Ctd. Dana Milbank: "Robert Mueller brought to light a huge scandal this week, and it has nothing to do with Russia. He has introduced the world to Sam Clovis. Clovis, we now know, was the Trump campaign official who oversaw George Papadopoulos and encouraged his efforts to meet with Russian officials.... He has been nominated to be the chief scientist at the Agriculture Department, a position that by law must go to 'distinguished scientists,' even though he is, well, not a scientist. He is a talk-radio host, economics professor (though not actually an economist, either) and, most importantly, a Trump campaign adviser.... Among his scientific breakthroughs: being 'extremely skeptical' of climate change, calling homosexuality 'a choice,' suggesting gay rights would lead to legalized pedophilia, pushing the Obama birther allegation, and calling Eric Holder a 'racist bigot' and Tom Perez a 'racist Latino.'" Milbank runs down a short list of "the best people," including "a 'cabana attendant' at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. According to his résumé, he 'identified and addressed customer's needs in a timely and orderly manner.' This is important, because you never know when somebody at the USDA is going to need a towel." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It is impossible not to suspect that Trump is purposely making the federal government a running joke. It's not a reality show; it's a comedy series, parodying the presidency. Trump is the producer & star of the series, & Steve Bannon -- one a would-be Hollywood impresario -- is head writer of the spoof. BUT ...
... E. J. Dionne: "It’s essential to recognize that Trump is faithfully following the autocrat's playbook. He's trying to undermine a lawful inquiry that endangers his hold on power. He has suggested that his opponent in the last election deserves to be jailed. He's inventing stories about dark coverups by his enemies to sow confusion about the proven facts of his own team's skulduggery. And now he is blaming his foes for violence and disorder. Even more alarming is the extent to which Republicans in Congress and Trump's media allies are falling into line behind their leader's efforts to obstruct and divert. What's going on cannot be written off as normal partisanship. The push to discredit and derail Mueller risks becoming an existential threat to our democratic values and republican practices. The interference by a foreign adversary in our electoral process is not a routine event. Resistance to uncovering what happened should not be seen as part of the everyday give-and-take of politics."
Peter Baker: "With a Twitter message just before midnight, President Trump introduced a surprise complication that may come to haunt prosecutors in a trial against the suspect charged with mowing down passers-by in New York's deadliest terrorist attack since the World Trade Center was destroyed. 'NYC terrorist was happy as he asked to hang ISIS flag in his hospital room,' Mr. Trump wrote late Wednesday, referring to a report from the F.B.I. about the suspect's expressed admiration for the Islamic State extremist group. 'He killed 8 people, badly injured 12. SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!' Presidents are typically advised never to publicly weigh in on pending criminal cases. Such comments can be used by defense attorneys to argue that their clients cannot get a fair trial -- especially when the head of the executive branch that will prosecute a case advocates the ultimate punishment before a judge has heard a single shred of evidence at trial. But Mr. Trump is not one for cautious detachment, and he has disregarded such advice before. Just this week, a military judge said he would consider similar comments by Mr. Trump as evidence in favor of a lighter sentence for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who pleaded guilty to desertion and endangering fellow troops by walking away from his post in Afghanistan, where he was later captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for five years." ...
... New Lede: "President Trump on Thursday backed off his threat to send the suspect in this week's New York terrorist attack to the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but once again called for the man to be executed, a public intervention in the case that could come back to haunt prosecutors in any future trial."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: For Trump justice is when he gets what he wants. You can see why he admires extra-judicial thugs like Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines & Vladimir Putin. ...
... Peter Baker: "President Trump said on Wednesday that he would consider sending the suspect arrested after the terrorist attack in New York to the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and called on Congress to cancel a longstanding immigration program that he blamed for allowing the man into the country. The president's comments came at the beginning of a cabinet meeting a day after an immigrant from Uzbekistan plowed a pickup truck along a crowded bicycle path in Manhattan, killing eight people.... No one arrested on American soil has ever been sent to Guantánamo Bay, and no one captured on foreign soil has been sent there since 2008. Transferring the suspect from New York would raise a host of constitutional and legal issues, and it was not clear that Mr. Trump actually would follow through on the idea since his comment was in reaction to a question rather than part of his prepared remarks.... Mr. Trump's comments came hours after he blamed the attack on Senator Chuck Schumer ... because he supported the diversity visa program enacted 27 years ago." Both Schumer & New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo chided Trump for dividing the country. Cuomo also said that Trump's comments were "not even accurate." "Mr. Schumer supported getting rid of the program as part of a comprehensive plan to overhaul the nation's immigration laws crafted by eight lawmakers and passed by the Senate in 2013." House Republicans blocked the bill. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Benjamin Mueller & Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "The driver who sped down a crowded bike path in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people, had been planning the attack for weeks and appeared to have connections to people who were the subjects of terrorism investigations, police officials said on Wednesday. As counterterrorism investigators drilled into whether the attacker, identified by officials as Sayfullo Saipov, had meaningful ties to terrorist organizations, it also became clear that some of those close to the attacker had feared for years that he was heading down the path of extremism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Benjamin Mueller, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges accusing the driver in the Manhattan truck attack of carrying out a long-planned plot, spurred by Islamic State propaganda videos, to kill people celebrating Halloween. The charges, filed just over 24 hours after the deadliest terror attack on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001, placed the case in the civilian courts even as President Trump denounced the American criminal justice system as 'a joke' and 'a laughingstock.'" ...
... Why, Trump said no such thing. Just ask Mrs. Huckleberry ...
... To Trumpistas, Caught-on-Tape Is No Deterrent. Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The White House [in the person of Sarah Sanders] on Wednesday flatly denied that ... Donald Trump had ever called the American criminal justice system 'a joke and a laughingstock,' just hours after Trump said precisely that during a televised Cabinet meeting." Mrs. McC: All press secretaries spin -- that's the job. "Bald-faced lie" does not equal "spin." Every word Sanders says is a lie, including "and" and "the." H/T Mary McCarthy
The Audacity of Thugs. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump slipped something cryptic into his remarks to reporters on Wednesday: It was about his upcoming trip to the Philippines. 'You remember the Philippines -- the last trip made by a president that turned out to be not so good,' Trump said. 'Never quite got to land.' It was, in fact, the second day in a row that Trump mentioned the last administration's failure to 'land' in the Philippines. On Tuesday, he said, 'We're going to the Philippines, which is a strategically important location where the previous administration was not exactly welcome, as you probably remember.'... These asides -- in which he seems to be bragging about his ability to woo Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in a way Obama didn't -- are exceedingly strange. The first reason is that Obama actually called off his meeting with Duterte -- not the Philippines. So it's unclear what Trump means when he says the Obama administration 'was not exactly welcome.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, Trump is way better than Obama at making friends with mass murderers. Congratulations, Donaldo. ...
... Andrew Restuccia, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump has been holed up in a series of rapid-fire briefing sessions on his upcoming 12-day, five-country tour through Asia -- an effort the White House hopes will help avoid the kind of diplomatic snafus that have dogged his presidency.... Top aides have sought to keep the briefings short to avoid overloading the president with details but have scheduled dozens of them to plan public remarks and outline what he should say about North Korea on defense and China on trade.... The upcoming trip -- which includes stops in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines as well as China -- will put pressure on Trump's divided advisers to better define what some experts say is a muddled Asia strategy. And it will force the president to navigate a nuanced set of policy issues that have long divided U.S. allies in the region.... The president's advisers acknowledge privately that Trump's unpredictable behavior could complicate the trip in ways big and small, from potentially escalating the crisis on the Korean Peninsula to flouting complicated rules of procedure." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As we all know, nobody does "nuance" better than President Ham Hand. I'm confident everything will go smoothly. ...
... BUT Martin Longman of the Booman Tribune Does Not Share My Confidence: "We all know this is pointless. They can have a thousand two-minute meetings, each one devoted to avoiding just one potential land mine, and the president is still going to screw up and screw up massively and repeatedly.... This trip is supposed to serve as a distraction from the Russian probe at home, but it's only going to intensify the sentiment in favor of impeachment."
Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday said congressional Republicans should make a major change to their upcoming tax cut bill by including changes to the Affordable Care Act, an idea that has divided the GOP for months. The idea had already been rejected one day earlier by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), who had said it risked bogging down the process. But Trump, in two Twitter posts Wednesday, pushed the idea, which has gained currency with some Senate Republicans. The biggest proponent of the idea is Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: That's fine, Donaldo. Keep mucking up the process. Get your nutty friends to help. As long as your so-called party can't agree on just how to screw the American people, we're good. ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Some Senate Republicans are pushing for changes to the party's tax-reform bill, fearing it will be portrayed as a handout to the rich that hurts the poor. A group of GOP lawmakers want to leave the lowest tax bracket where it is, rather than raising it from 10 percent to 12 percent. Some senators also support creating a fourth tax bracket to limit the size of the tax cut for millionaires.... Republican senators fear it will be difficult to explain to voters why they're raising the tax rate for low- and middle-income Americans while cutting the tax rate for the wealthiest.... [BUT] 'I never thought anybody should pay over 25 percent,' said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). 'People with money save money, create jobs, create risk. People with no money -- I've been there -- create nothing....'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how these senators don't really care about sticking it to the poor & middle class for the benefit of the wealthy; their concern is the perception or the appearance -- which happens to be accurate -- that they're sticking it to the poor & middle class for the benefit of the wealthy. How lucky we are to have honest senators like Shelby who just say outright that rich people deserve tax breaks & the rest of us don't. ...
... Gail Collins talks about taxes -- with her usual twists. "Don Jr. tweeted that he was going to take half of his daughter Chloe's candy and give it to 'some kid who sat at home. It's never to early to teach her about socialism.' The most important thing about that tweet is that Junior misspelled 'too.' His dad does that a lot." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: No, the most important thing is that some people, including kids, know how to share. They don't need to "learn about socialism" to give away half their candy to a hapless child. Besides, if they're as wealthy as Chloe's parents, they know that there are more goodies at home for them when they run out of the posh bon-bons they got from their rich neighbors. These kids already are generous to those who have less. I do not believe for a minute that Junior is capable of sharing with "some kid who sat home." More likely, he would steal his daughter's candy & eat it himself. In no circumstance, short of threats of physical or financial harm, would Junior give the stolen candy to a needy kid. For one thing, he probably doesn't want them to find out about delicious pumpkin-shaped Ghirardelli chocolate truffles. The pathetic little tykes might get wild ideas about better fare than the Dickensian gruel they deserve.
The Foxification of the American Mind. Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "If you are inside the 'alt-right' information bubble, you might be preparing yourself for a civil war to commence this Saturday. Since late September, the idea has been circulating on Facebook groups, subreddit message boards, Twitter, and leading conspiracy media outlets that on 4 November, anti-fascist groups will begin a violent insurrection...Some websites are telling their readers that antifa groups are 'planning to kill every single Trump voter, Conservative and gun owner' this weekend... Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "The top newsroom executive at NPR resigned on Wednesday, a day after he was placed on leave by the broadcast news organization following reports that he had harassed at least three women. Michael Oreskes quit as senior vice president and editorial director at Washington-based NPR, the organization announced." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) News Lede Houston Chronicle: The Houston Astros won baseball's World Series in their seventh game of the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Share Article