The Commentariat -- August 1, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trump Gone Wild! Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday to end the special counsel investigation, an extraordinary appeal to the nation's top law enforcement official to end an inquiry directly into the president.... '..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'... Mr. Trump's lawyers quickly elaborated on the president's message, saying it was not an order to a member of his cabinet, but merely an opinion.... Mr. Trump gave the directive in a series of Twitter posts hitting familiar notes in his objections to the investigation and accusing an investigator of being 'out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP.' Some of his messages contained quotations the president attributed to a staunch supporter, the lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Mr. Trump also tweeted on Wednesday that Mr. Manafort did not work for his campaign long, a defense he has used repeatedly to distance himself from his former campaign chairman.... The special counsel is also looking into some of Mr. Trump's tweets about Mr. Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and whether the messages were intended to obstruct the inquiry." ...

... AND Al Capone Is Back. Jeet Heer: "Trump makes bad Al Capone analogy while trying to obstruct justice. On Wednesday, the president returned to tweeting on a familiar theme that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a witch hunt. But Trump did so with a new urgency:... 'Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and "Public Enemy Number One," or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement - although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?'... The Capone tweet is remarkable for a number of reasons. First of all, the president misspelled 'Alphonse.'... More substantially..., [the analogy] cuts against the argument Trump is making. Capone was a gangster but the government couldn't prove it, so they used the charge of income tax evasion to put him behind bars. This clearly parallels the way that Mueller is using money laundering charges to put the squeeze on Paul Manafort.... Bringing up Capone cuts against Trump's claim that Mueller is conducting a witch hunt because it reminds us that federal prosecutors often use the broad sweep of the law against offenders." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The stupidest part: even most Trumpbots don't see Capone as a sympathetic figure picked on by a bunch of overzealous G-men. There's no upside to comparing your own campaign manager to Al Capone.

Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post are live-updating the Paul Manafort trial: The entry at 12:28 p.m. ET: The prosecutor told the judge it may not call Rick Gates, after all. Here's part of the 12:01 pm ET entry: "FBI Special Agent Matthew Mikuska has retaken the stand, but his testimony may not be as colorful as prosecutors may have hoped. Judge T.S. Ellis III expressed continued displeasure with the prosecution's desire to enter detailed evidence about the items Paul Manafort purchased with money routed from offshore bank accounts. Ellis deferred on ruling whether prosecutors may enter photos of luxury suits found in Manafort's condo until later in the trial, indicating he wants to better understand whether the pictures are necessary to prove they were purchased with income hidden in foreign bank accounts. But he denied prosecutor Uzo Asonye's request to show the jury pictures of the suits and their high-end labels, which means the pictures were also not shown to the public."

Greg Sargent: "On Tuesday, CNN's Jim Acosta -- one of President Trump&'s favorite human targets -- and other members of the media were abused and heckled by Trump supporters at a rally in Florida. Videos of the event ... show the crowd at one point loudly chanting 'CNN sucks,' with many angrily brandishing middle fingers in the direction of the living, breathing members of the press corps.... Eric Trump tweeted out video of the 'CNN sucks' chant, with the hashtag #Truth, while directly singling out Acosta. And the president himself retweeted his son. The president's son is actively encouraging Trump supporters to direct rage and abuse toward working journalists, and the president is joining in, helping to spread the word.... Jay Rosen calls all of this a 'hate movement against journalists' that is essential to Trump's political style, and urges them to recognize it as such.... The deliberate goal, as [Steve] Bannon has put it, is 'to throw gasoline on the resistance.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm with Sargent & Rosen. Time for the Southern Poverty Law Center to add "Trump administration" to its list of hate groups.

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

Kavanaugh Double-Speak. Manu Raju of CNN: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has privately told senators he views the appointment of a special counsel by the Justice Department as appropriate, a comment that could shed new light about his views of Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's presidential campaign, according to sources.... But Kavanaugh has also stood by his stated views that question whether a sitting US president can be indicted on criminal charges, instead saying Congress should play the lead role in impeaching and removing a president -- and also enact a law ensuring a president can be indicted after leaving office."

*****

Breaking News! Trump Doesn't Grocery-Shop. Ashley Hoffman of Time: "... Donald Trump's latest head-scratching comment has lit up the internet. 'You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture,' Trump said at Tuesday night's Tampa, Fla., rally to drum up support for GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis'gubernatorial bid. He was -- in the moment -- throwing his support behind tougher ID requirements for voters. 'Only American citizens should vote in American elections. The time has come for voter ID like everything else,' Trump said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Of course this isn't true. People under the age of 40 do need IDs to prove they're old enough to make certain age-restricted purchases in grocery stories: liquor & cigarettes, for instance. But that's it. All major grocery stores -- as far as I know -- accept credit cards that don't sport the holders' pictures. None, in my experience, ever asks to see a picture ID. Decades ago, before credit cards became nearly universal, people often paid for groceries with checks, & stores usually required some kind of ID before accepting checks. However, back then, the usual forms of ID -- drivers licenses -- didn't all have the holders' pictures on them, either. So pretty much at no time in history have major grocery chains required picture IDs to buy hamburger & Cap'n Crunch. And cash is always good, sans ID.

Stephanie Murray of Politico: "'The Fake News Media is going CRAZY! They are totally unhinged and in many ways, after witnessing first hand the damage they do to so many innocent and decent people, I enjoy watching,' [Donald] Trump said in a tweet [Tuesday morning]. 'In 7 years, when I am no longer in office, their ratings will dry up and they will be gone!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: Trump spent a good deal of the morning Tuesday tweeting "news" he heard on Fox "News." Mrs. McC: And cynics call Fox "state media." How unfair! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Sharon LaFraniere & Emily Baumgaertner of the New York Times: "Before a packed federal courtroom, jury selection began Tuesday in the bank and tax fraud trial of Paul Manafort, President Trump' former campaign chairman.... The court began choosing 16 jurors -- 12 to be seated and four alternates. The trial is expected to last at least three weeks.... Mr. Manafort, 69, is the first American charged in the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to maintain his innocence and to force the prosecutors to prove their case at trial.... The trial is being carefully watched because of Mr. Manafort's role as the chairman of the Trump campaign and his longstanding ties with pro-Russia businessmen and politicians, which he developed over a decade of political consulting work in Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... This story has been updated to include these developments: "... The bank and tax fraud trial of Paul Manafort ... got off to a quick start on Tuesday as the judge seated a jury and prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered opening statements. Uzo Asonye, an assistant United States attorney on the team of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, told the jury that Mr. Manafort had engaged in an elaborate, multi-year scheme to evade $15 million in taxes and obtain fraudulent loans. Setting out Mr. Manafort's defense for the first time, one of his lawyers ... blamed associates of Mr. Manafort for mishandling his finances, saying Mr. Manafort had placed his trust in the wrong people. He singled out Rick Gates, Mr. Manafort's former business partner. Mr. Gates has pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with Mr. Mueller's inquiry.... Dressed in a black suit with a silver tie, he consulted frequently with his five defense lawyers during the jury selection process, donning glasses to pore over his notes...." ...

... Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Prosecutors accused ... Paul Manafort of being a 'shrewd' liar who orchestrated a global scheme to avoid paying taxes on millions of dollars, in opening statements that kicked off Manafort's trial on Tuesday. Manafort lived an 'extravagant lifestyle' fueled by 'secret income' that he earned from his lobbying in Ukraine, said Uzo Asonye, a prosecutor working on the case with special counsel Robert Mueller's team. Manafort became wealthy from the 'cash spigot' that came from working for his "golden goose in Ukraine," former President Viktor Yanukovych, Asonye said. The opening statement indicated that prosecutors plan to put Manafort's wealth on trial as a key element of their case, arguing he funded his lavish spending habits by breaking the law." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York has a good synopsis of Day 1 of the Manafort trial. ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Trump and some of his defenders contend that Mueller's prosecution of Manafort on charges unrelated to collaboration with Russia during the 2016 election means such evidence does not exist. But that is a flawed assumption. The special counsel has constructed cases that offer the best chance of convicting Manafort.... If Manafort is convicted, prosecutors may hope to use what could essentially amount to a life sentence to push him to cooperate with their broader investigation.... Yet as they lay out a case against Manafort, prosecutors have released tidbits that seem to hint at Manafort coordinating with Russia.... Prosecutors have alleged in court filings that Manafort's longtime business associate in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik, has ties to Russian intelligence that were active in 2016.... Federal filings connected to a search of Manafort's property last year have also revealed that he may have had a major motive to help Russia: He allegedly owed millions to [Russian aluminum magnate Oleg] Deripaska." ...

... Matthew Rosenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, has referred three investigations into possible illicit foreign lobbying by Washington insiders to federal prosecutors in New York who are already handling the case against [Michael Cohen]..., according to multiple people familiar with the cases. The cases cut across party lines, focusing on both powerful Democratic and Republican players in Washington.... They also tie into the special counsel investigation of Mr. Trump: All three cases are linked to Paul Manafort.... The cases involve Gregory B. Craig, who served as the White House counsel under President Barack Obama before leaving to work for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; former Representative Vin Weber, Republican of Minnesota, who joined Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying firm, after leaving Congress; and Tony Podesta, a high-powered Washington lobbyist whose brother, John D. Podesta, was the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The three men have not been charged with any crimes, those familiar with the cases said." ...

     ... The CNN story by Erica Orden, which broke the news, is here.

Nicholas Fandos & Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity around divisive social issues ahead of November's midterm elections. In a series of briefings on Capitol Hill this week and a public post on Tuesday, the company told lawmakers that it had detected and removed 32 pages and accounts connected to the influence campaign on Facebook and Instagram as part of its investigations into election interference. It publicly said it had been unable to tie the accounts to Russia, whose Internet Research Agency was at the center of an indictment earlier this year for interfering in the 2016 election, but company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved, according to two officials briefed on the matter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Ian Bogost of the Atlantic: Facebook "found, and removed, possible election interference on its platforms. But the government, and the world, is too reliant on the company to protect democracy.... [But] Facebook's assurances [that it had caught entities engaging in 'coordinated inauthentic behavior'] also offer some reason for greater worry. Today's announcement doesn't detail everything that led the company to identify and ban these particular accounts, pages, events, and posts, but it does suggest that a few missteps by those in charge of these campaigns contributed to their unmasking.... Intelligence and security has become an arms race, a new kind of cold war made from memes instead of warheads. And yet, the U.S. government hasn't established a sufficient approach to the threat. ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "On Monday..., Virginia Senator Mark Warner’s office [released a blueprint] featuring 20 'potential policy proposals' for regulating tech companies, on issues ranging from national security to fair competition to consumer protection. It's a crucial and belated first step for Democratic lawmakers..., but it also shows just how far Congress is from taking legislative action -- and how complicated and politically fraught passing any regulation ... will be. The policy paper is, in many ways, the inverse of [Mark] Zuckerberg's appearance before the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees in April. That hearing ... was something of a charade. When the Facebook founder wasn't being interrogated about unrelated matters..., he came across like a grandson patiently explaining the internet to his confused grandparents.... Warner's paper, by contrast..., is careful.... The proposed regulations are sensible and, for the most part, not particularly radical. But they would go a long way to simultaneously protect consumers from exploitation and protect American democracy from foreign interference. The paper considers how to hold tech companies accountable for policing their platforms and for ensuring that hostile actors are swiftly removed."

Duncan Campbell of Computer Weekly: "A British IT manager and former hacker launched and ran an international disinformation campaign that has provided ... Donald Trump with fake evidence and false arguments to deny that Russia interfered to help him win the election. The campaign is being run from the UK by 39-year-old programmer Tim Leonard, who lives in Darlington, [England,] using the false name 'Adam Carter'. Starting after the 2016 presidential election, Leonard worked with a group of mainly American right-wing activists to spread claims on social media that Democratic 'insiders' and non-Russian agents were responsible for hacking the Democratic Party.... The claims led to Trump asking then CIA director Mike Pompeo to investigate allegations circulated from Britain that the Russian government was not responsible for the cyber attacks, and that they could be proved to be an 'inside job', in the form of leaks by a [Democratic] party employee. This was the opposite of the CIA's official intelligence findings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Digby, in Salon, does a good job of summarizing the weird Giuliani media blitz of the past couple of days. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Follow the $. Jason Leopold & Anthony Cormier of Buzzfeed: "[B]ank transactions totaling nearly $300,000, none of which have been made public, offer the first detailed look at how an accused foreign agent [Maria Butina] and a Republican operative financed what prosecutors say was a Russian campaign to influence American politics.... Now counterintelligence officers say the duo's banking activity could provide a road map of back channels to powerful American entities such as the National Rifle Association, and information about the Kremlin's attempt to sway the 2016 US presidential election.... Bank officials found that he paid her rent, her tuition at American University, and even a monthly furniture bill...But bankers also saw that [Paul] Erickson was often in dire financial straits. His personal and business accounts were overdrawn by a total of $2,300. He was hit with 77 overdraft fees. He took out payday loans of about $3,000 and had a balance of just $9 in one of his accounts." --safari ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: See related story by Betsy Woodruff, linked below. And the following story about the Useful Idiot Junior Falwell is tangentially related to both. ...

... More Useful Idiots. Noor Al-Sabai of RawStory: "Liberty University president and televangelist spawn Jerry Falwell Jr. admitted that he asked President Donald Trump to thaw relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and cited the alliance of the former Soviet Union with the Allied powers during World War II as his justification." --safari

Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare: "It isn't every day that the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledges formally that the President of the United States lied in a speech to Congress. But that's how I read a letter I received a few days ago from the department's Office of Information Policy in connection with one of my Freedom of Information Act suits against the department.... In [his] first address to Congress in February 2017..., [Trump claimed,] 'According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.'... In April of last year, I filed two FOIA requests. I asked for any records supporting the president's claim before Congress, along with any records 'relating to the nationality or country of origin of individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses.'" In a letter to Wittes dated July 24, 2018, the DOJ wrote, "... [N]o responsive records were located."

Matt Shuham of TPM: "White House chief of staff John Kelly announced to staff Monday that he'd agreed to stay in that position through the 2020 election, the Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday. Citing unnamed White House officials, the Journal said Kelly was responding to Trump's request that he stay through 2020." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "The White House is considering a second sharp reduction in the number of refugees who can be resettled in the United States, picking up where President Trump left off in 2017 in scaling back a program intended to offer protection to the world's most vulnerable people, according to two former government officials and another person familiar with the talks. This time, the effort is meeting with less resistance from inside the Trump administration because of the success that Stephen Miller, the president's senior policy adviser and an architect of his anti-immigration agenda, has had in installing allies in key positions who are ready to sign off on deep cuts. Last year, after a fierce internal battle that pitted Mr. Miller, who advocated a limit as low as 15,000, against officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Pentagon, Mr. Trump set the cap at 45,000, a historic low. Under one plan currently being discussed, no more than 25,000 refugees could be resettled in the United States next year, a cut of more than 40 percent from this year's limit.... The program's fate could hinge on Mike Pompeo..... His department has traditionally been a strong advocate for the refugee program, but Mr. Pompeo is now being advised by two senior aides who are close to Mr. Miller and share his hard-line approach...."

Nick Miroff & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Trump administration officials mounted a fierce defense Tuesday of the controversial family separation policy at the border, defending sites as 'more like a summer camp' than holding facilities, and arguing that the detention system simply was not set up to facilitate court-ordered reunions easily. 'I'm very comfortable with the level of service and protection that is being provided,' top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Matthew Albence told the Senate Judiciary Committee about the conditions at the 'family residential centers,' which he likened to summer camps. He and other administration officials told senators that the government had mechanisms in place to return children to their parents after they were separated, but they had to improvise a new reunification system under orders from a federal judge. 'This is a novel situation,' said Cmdr. Jonathan D. White, a public health coordinating official for the reunification effort. 'The systems were not set up to have referrals include parent information.'... The defensive comments from Trump officials dumbfounded Democratic members of the committee, such as Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who charged that the Trump administration had created a situation at the border that was like a Kafka novel, suggesting that ... Chuck E. Cheese had a better system for preventing children from being separated from their parents than the U.S. government." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... No More Drugging the Kiddies at Summer Camp. Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday found that U.S. governmentofficials have been giving psychotropic medication to migrant children at a Texas facility without first seeking the consent of their parents or guardians, in violation of state child welfare laws. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ordered the Trump administration to obtain consent or a court order before adm inistering any psychotropic medications to migrant children, except in cases of dire emergencies. She also ordered that the government move all children out of a Texas facility, Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Manvel, except for children deemed by a licensed professional to pose a 'risk of harm' to themselves or others. Staff members at Shiloh admitted to signing off on medications in lieu of a parent, relative or legal guardian, according to Gee's ruling.... The facility also has a history of troubling practices, including allegations of child abuse, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pressured the Justice Department to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 decennial census, months prior to the department's formal request, a recent court disclosure reveals.... [E]mails contradict Ross' previous version of events, which he relayed to the House Ways and Means Committee in March. At the time, the secretary claimed the Justice Department had 'initiated the request for inclusion of the citizenship question' on its own in December 2017.... Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have leapt to condemn Ross over that inconsistency." --safari: Despite obvious inconsistencies and mounting evidence of political ratfking, the GOP will run roughshod right over the flailing Democrats. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Michael Wines of the New York Times covered the e-mail evidence of Ross's false claim this last week. Last week Chris Hayes also found three separate hearings where Ross lied to Congress about the DOJ's supposedly initiating the citizenship question, but I was never able to find an isolated video of the segment (and I still can't). Two days ago, Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post gave Ross 4 Pinocchios -- the max -- for his false testimony. The issue is an important one, because, as Emily Badger of the New York Times writes (July 31), "The primary effect would be to dilute the power of the most populous states and, within states, the cities where immigrants are densely clustered. Other American political institutions like the Senate and Electoral College systematically disadvantage large urban areas relative to rural ones. Political maps redefined to count only citizens, or voting-age citizens, would push that dynamic further." In the meantime, as Michael Wines wrote (July 26), "A federal judge on Thursday gave the green light to a lawsuit seeking to block the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, saying plaintiffs had made a plausible case that the move was a deliberate attempt by the White House to discriminate against immigrants. The ruling, by United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan, set the stage for a trial this fall that is expected to delve into how and why the Trump administration decided in March to add a question to the next census about citizenship status."

"Trump's Crony Capitalists Plot a New Heist." New York Times Editors: "It seems that last year's $1.5 trillion tax-cut package, despite heavily favoring affluent investors and corporate titans over workers of modest means, was insufficiently generous to the wealthy to satisfy certain members of the Trump administration. So now Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offers an exciting plan to award an additional $100 billion tax cut to the richest Americans. Specifically, Mr. Mnuchin has directed his department to explore allowing investors to take inflation into account when calculating their capital gains tax bill.... Independent analyses say that a whopping 97 percent of the savings from Mr. Mnuchin's plan would go to the highest 10 percent of income earners. So ... the administration is looking to hand $66 billion-plus to the ultrarich like -- just to name a few -- Mr. Mnuchin..., Wilbur Ross..., Betsy DeVos..., and, of course, the extended Trump-Kushner clan.... Thus die the final vestiges of this president's pretty little narrative about being a populist hero." ...

... Franklin Foer of the Atlantic: "On the eve of the Paul Manafort trial, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin casually announced that the Trump administration was considering a fresh $100 billion tax cut for the wealthy. The two events -- the trial and the tax cut -- should be considered plot points in the very same narrative. Manafort had grown very rich by looting public monies, and Mnuchin was proposing an arguably legal version of the same.... This proposed cut would be implemented by executive fiat, without a congressional vote -- a highly unusual and highly undemocratic act of plunder that would redirect money from the state to further enrich the American elite, not to mention Mnuchin himself. The trial of Paul Manafort ... is an occasion for the United States to awaken from its collective slumber about the creeping dangers of kleptocracy.... Over the past three decades..., America has become the sanctuary of choice for laundered money, a bastion of shell companies and anonymously purchased real estate.... Manafort is one of the architects of this new world order." Read on. ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: When I read Foer's essay, I immediately thought of Henry Kissinger, even though Foer doesn't mention Kissinger & his international shenanigans. But Kissinger has long seemed to me to be a master facilitator of corrupt money schemes benefitting the world's most brutal characters. So as luck would have it, the next story I read was this one by Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast, ostensibly about Mariia Butina. The gist of the story is that Butina pushed creepy American financier [Maurice "Hank"] Greenberg (think AIG) to invest heavily in a particularly crooked -- and failing -- Russian bank called Investtorgbank. "Butina's efforts ... did not succeed. In April 2015.... Butina and [her mentor] Alexander Torshin ... attended a private discussion of Russia';s financial situation at the Center for the National Interest.... Greenberg ... [who] is a main source of funding for the Center -- participated in the meeting. The Center's honorary chairman -- former secretary of state and accused war criminal Henry Kissinger -- is one of Vladimir Putin's closest international confidants; the two have met 17 times over the years. Kissinger also advised Donald Trump to move closer to Russia.... People close to the Center have risen to prominence in the Trump administration.... Trump himself gave the first major foreign policy speech of his presidential campaign at an event the Center hosted, on April 27, 2016...." Here again, you have to read the whole story to get a glimpse of the corrupt entanglements Foer describes. Trump played only in the margins of this gang; thanks to his new job, he's moving closer to its center now. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As MAG points out in today's comments (here I'm citing a July 30 WashPo story), "'With Paul Manafort, who really is a nice man, you look at what's going on, it's like Al Capone,' the president said in a recent Fox News interview, comparing the prosecution strategy to the one used to take down the murderous gangster on tax evasion charges." Yeah but. The "murderous gangster" Capone confined most of his dirty ops to the U.S.; efforts by Manafort & his cronies extend world-wide; they aid & abet quite a few "murderous gangsters." "A nice man"?

Contributer forrest m. has been doing original research for us re: the DOJ's new so-called "religious liberty task force" (related stories linked below.) forrest "tried Googling how many Baptist churches have been attacked by the LGBTQ community and guess what---it's less than zero." Also in today's thread, Jeanne doesn't seem all that sure we need a taxpayer-funded "Christian freedom" enforcement squad: "Why do we have to have an entire subcabinet outfit to ballyhoo and whine and complain that one can't practice one's Christian religion anymore when we have that font of virtue, Sam Brownback? Wasn't he supposed to be the gatekeeper so none of the 'wrong' religions get consideration ever?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Deanna Paul, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has blocked the public availability of blueprints that provide instructions for making guns using 3-D printers, just hours before the documents were expected to be published online. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik granted a temporary restraining order on Tuesday night barring a trove of downloadable information about creating the do-it-yourself weapons. Eight attorneys general and the District of Columbia argued that the instructions posed a national security threat. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) on Tuesday also issued a cease-and-desist order against the man who was scheduled to post them online.... The Pennsylvania attorney general also sued Defense Distributed on Sunday, and the company agreed to temporarily block Pennsylvania users from its website. Democrats in the House and Senate also filed legislation that would in effect ban guns constructed from 3-D-printed material. But despite the efforts, some of the plans went online on Friday, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro." ...

... Michael Shear & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "State officials, Democratic lawmakers and gun control groups waged a frantic legal fight on Tuesday to block the online distribution of blueprints for 3-D printed 'ghost guns,' even as President Trump said he is 'looking into' his administration's decision last month to allow the posting of instructions for making the untraceable, plastic firearms. Cody Wilson, a champion of gun-rights and anarchism from Texas who has waged a yearslong legal battle for the right to post the schematics for making homemade guns, has said he will begin making the plans available following a settlement with the State Department ending the government' effort to stop him. But with just hours before an August 1 deadline when Mr. Wilson has said he will upload many more schematics -- including instructions for making AR-15-style rifles -- alarmed public officials accelerated their efforts to get courts to prevent Mr. Wilson from moving forward with his plans."

States' Rights! (Exceptions). Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Senate Republicans introduced legislation on Tuesday that would take regulatory power away from states in order to expedite the approval of energy infrastructure projects that are facing stiff resistance from the public. The bill, dubbed the Water Quality Certification Improvement Act of 2018, is part of an effort by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to reduce the ability of states to use their authority under section 401 of the Clean Water Act to prevent the construction of projects such as pipelines or coal export terminals." --safari

Spectrum News: "North Carolina's largest health insurer ... Blue Cross and Blue Shield ... said Tuesday it proposed prices to state insurance regulators that could lower rates for next year's Affordable Care Act policies by 4.1 percent on average, which is the first rate decrease in more than 25 years.... About 85 percent of the savings comes from last year's federal income tax cut and Congress suspending a tax on insurers for 2019. Blue Cross says it could have lowered average rates by another 18 percent if Congress and the Trump Administration hadn't eliminated the penalty for people who don't buy health." [Emphasis added] --safari

Laura Litvan & Katherine Scott of Bloomberg: "Senator Susan Collins of Maine told reporters Tuesday that she has no objection to a decision late Friday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, to leave out of a federal document request all the paperwork and emails from [Supreme Court nominee Brett] Kavanaugh's time as staff secretary to President George W. Bush.... 'I met with Senator Grassley yesterday about the document request and, as he described it to me, it seems eminently reasonable,' Collins said. Mrs. McC: Still wondering where Collins will come down on the confirmation vote? ...

... BUT Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker, argues that Democrats should keep on fighting anyway. "... the current Republican margin in the Senate (owing to John McCain's absence) is just a single vote, and Kavanaugh's long paper trail, both as a judge and as a Republican political appointee, gives Democrats a great deal of material to exploit. Most of all, they need to remember that fighting Supreme Court nominees, even against formidable odds, can succeed -- and produce a better Court than anyone might have expected."

"Everyone Talked." Writing a Book about the Trumpies for Fun & Profit. Annie Karni of Politico: Bob Woodward is writing a book pre-titled "Fear: Trump in the White House," which is scheduled to be released Sept. 11. "The cover is a striking red wash over an uncomfortably close close-up of Trump's face.... According to half a dozen former administration officials and people close to the administration, Woodward was never officially granted access to the White House or to the president, and the communications department did nothing to help him in researching or writing his book.... [BUT] Senior officials, acting as lone wolves concerned with preserving their own reputations, spoke to Woodward on their own -- with some granting him hours of their time out of a fear of being the last person in the room to offer his or her viewpoint. As one former administration official put it... : 'It's gonna be killer. Everyone talked with Woodward.'" In yesterday Comments thread, PD Pepe linked to a similar HuffPost story by Nick Visser.

"The Stephen King of the Horror Story We Live in":

... In another segment, Colbert goes on to discuss the #MeToo movement, and elaborates on his gutsy opening about his boss Les Moonves:

... Anna Silman of New York: "Last night on CBS's Late Show, Stephen Colbert did something that many people in the #MeToo movement have not: He took his boss to task.... Colbert's response stands out compared to others at CBS who have gone on the record about the allegations faced by their shared boss. After Farrow's report broke on Friday, many top female executives and personalities came out in support of Moonves, including Sharon Osbourne, Lynda Carter, president and chief advertising revenue officer Jo Ann Ross, and executive vice-president of daytime programs Angelica McDaniel. Moonves's wife, Julie Chen, expressed full-throated support on The Talk, the CBS show she co-hosts. The company's board said that while they would investigate the claims against him, Moonves would remain CEO."

Beyond the Beltway

** Jonathan Oosting of the Detroit News: "A proposal to create an independent redistricting commission will appear on the November ballot, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday in a closely watched case. The 4-3 decision is rife with political implications in Michigan, where Republicans have maintained or grown congressional and legislative advantages since last drawing the state's political boundaries in 2011.... The proposal would create a 13-member redistricting commission that would be composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independent members who vow they are not affiliated with any major political party. The secretary of state would select the commission members. The committee would be tasked with redrawing political boundaries every 10 years, a power currently reserved for whichever political party controls Lansing at the time.... Republicans who drew the current boundaries have publicly denied an overt bias and say existing laws already limit manipulation. But recently revealed emails between map makers that were disclosed as part of a separate federal lawsuit point to political calculus." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Especially if this ballot measure passes, it could become a blueprint for reform in other states. You can bet opponents will mount an extremely vigorous campaign against the measure.

Way Beyond

Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, in Tehran, Mr. Trump’s open invitation [to meet with Iran's president Hassan Rouhani] seemed to be on everybody's mind. Increasingly desperate, many [Iranian citizens] say they would >welcome any option that could ease Iran's economic quagmire.... But if anything, Iran's leaders seem paralyzed by Mr. Trump's offer. Direct talks with the United States go against their ideology. And in their minds, sitting down publicly with Mr. Trump, whom they have called particularly ignorant, capricious, arrogant and rude, would be an especially humiliating submission to imperialism and pressure. When dealing with the United States over the past decades, Iranian leaders have often preferred to do it through secret talks, far away from ordinary Iranians, who are bombarded daily with organized anti-Americanism from their schoolbooks to state television."

Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "The suicide bombing and hostage-taking at a government building in Jalalabad is the latest in a series of attacks, attributed to Islamic State terrorists, that have killed or wounded hundreds of people in eastern Afghanistan since mid-June.... But the terrorists' lethal escalation including Tuesday's assault has also coincided, probably deliberately, with signs of progress in renewed efforts to halt the 17-year-old, US-orchestrated war between the Afghan government and the Taliban." --safari

Juan Cole: "After the passage last week of the 'nationality' law, Israel is no longer multicultural. It is a country where national sovereignty solely lies in the hands of its Jewish citizens. Among the Palestinian-Israelis with Israeli citizenship, only about 130,000 are Druze ... a medieval offshoot of the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam.... Alone among the Palestinian-Israelis, the Druze serve in the military. And therein lies the rub.... They say they were fighting for their 'nationality' but that now it isn't theirs anymore.... They say they will do whatever they can to ensure that their grandchildren don't serve in the Israeli army. Druze elders are petrified of this sentiment ... which threatens to turn their community into ordinary Palestinians, and they have commanded the Druze rank and file to stay out of politics and do their military service.... They are not stateless the way the latter are, but they aren't full citizens either. The statelessness of the refugees and the Occupied has finally rubbed off on them." --safari

Comments

[MAG]

Wow! A lot sure has been happening! Am trying my best to catch up with all the news and comments (my modem died at 10 pm on Friday night and I was without any access to Internet, tv, and e-mail. Four days without knowing what is going on...can be quite unsettling. On the other hand, somewhat freeing!

What's someone to do? Read? What? Yes! Read!

And so I did. I read David Cay Johnston's "It's Even Worst Than You Think"...and reminded in a timeline composite of all the outrageous Trump lies and events made me angry all over again. Then I dived into Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" (Verry interesting in view of the twitmeister taking on the Kochs in today's news!) I'm no Koch fan, but can't wait to see how they'll deal with it. And Trump's "...I don't need their money" is definitely poking the tiger.

But, truer words never came out of Trump's mouth but for these few Tweeted revelations on Manafort "...it's like Al Capone."

True, dat!

Taxes, that's how the Feds nailed Capone. They apparently never got him on colusion charges! Sad. Bootlegging, murders...small stuff went by the wayside!

[PD Pepe]

I watched some of the hearing on the Reunification of Migrant Families last night and was struck by a Matthew Albence, the director for ERO. He presented as cold, angry, and defensive and when he compared the children's experience in these facilities to a summer camp experience I almost choked on my own spittle. There was something about this guy that hit a cord with me and later Amon Goeth popped up in my sight. This was the SS officer played by Ralph Fiennes in "Schindler's List" who was in charge of setting up the concentration camps. He had a good reputation as a top manager which meant he could round up Jews and kill them very efficiently. Now I'm pretty sure Mr. Albence wouldn't ever stand on his balcony, half naked, and shoot randomly as Goeth did, but his demeanor was eerily similar to Fienne's portrayal except for those demonic smiles–-Matthew's mouth was in a perpetual grimace.

The public health official, retired months ago, J.White, I think his name was–-told the senators that he had warned the administration that their policy for separation of children from their parents was a bad idea. He also went on at length about the harmful effects (long term) this separation has on children. He was the only one on the panel that spoke negatively about the program.

And last night PBS' Frontline zeroed in on the particulars of this immigration situation and showed some harrowing scenes of what these refugees go through. It breaks your heart but at the same time rives up your hatred for Sessions and Miller and their callous boss; bastards all.

On a lighter note: I long for good exchanges between people with differing views and rarely encounter them. Yesterday–-finally–-I watched such an exchange re: arguments for and against powerful local government. Recently David Brooks wrote a column arguing that it's time for a resurgence of localism... which Sherrilyn Ifill (Gwen's sister), of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued against.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-arguments-for-and-against-more-powerful-local-government

[Akhilleus]

The little dictator thinks you need a picture ID to buy a loaf of bread? When's the last time his fat ass stood in a line at a grocery store to buy anything? How about never?

Let's give him that same test that Poppy Bush flunked years ago. How much is a gallon of milk, donnie? He wouldn't have a clue. Reality is just there for him and the Party of Traitors to mold in any way that benefits their latest nefarious scheme.

Can't wait for the rationale behind why he and the Munchkins and DeVos and the other billionaires need additional freeeeedom from taxes. Or will they just recycle the old bullshit about how they're all "job creators". Takers. That's all they are.

[forrest morris]

Picture ID. It's required locally whenever Betsy DeV shops here.
The clerks get a kick out of being asked "don't you know who I am?".
She drops sometimes ten grand for baubles for the little ones and
jewelry for her beautiful self.

[MAG]

@Ak: It is plain and simple: GREED is the driving force for the billionaire class. Charles Koch is a smart guy (I think) but somehow, somewhere along the line the synapses in his brain disengaged whereby compassion got deleted. His projectionistic stance on the 'evils' of taxation and heaven forbid, helping those far less fortunate via Social Security, Medicare, et al is aided and abetted by so many other corporate masters.

How f**king much money to do you and your heirs need?

Do they see a coming apocalypse when rising sea waters (nothing to do with climate change) drive populations toward other countries as they seek higher ground? Are these overlords living in fear of a global Bastille-like uprising when enough of the distressed people seek relief asking for food, shelter, healthcare?

According to them, private charities should take care of those needy bastids. And the money to support those charities is coming from where? Is it GoFund.com or GoFu**Yourself.com?

Taxes are bad, bad, bad. Guess these guys don't drive the roads, bridges, and failing overpasses the way the rest of us do. Who needs to fund infrastructure? Must fall on those poor sods who live way out of town because they can't afford housing close to where they work. Toll roads for everyone, yeah! Automatically charged to your smartphone in order to rebuild our highways.

[Patrick]

"... arguments for and against powerful local government. ..."

I think that over the years Charlie Pierce has done a good job of answering that question: local governments are much less expensive to buy.

The idea that your neighbors can determine your government better than professionals is attractive. And why not hire non-professionals to do your neurosurgery, fly your 737 to your vacation destination, argue your case in court, replace the pipes in your house, etc? Those would be attractive ideas, too, if they seemed likely to work.

Conclusion: most people don't think governance requires professionalism.

And that's what they get: amateur governance.

[Akhilleus]

It is an absolute rejection of their constitutional responsibilities for senators voting on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court to blow off a close reading of the nominee's work in support of a demonstrably criminal organization like the Bush-Cheney administration.

Kavanaugh's opinions on things like secret surveillance and torture, developed as he was honing his legal philosophy, are of signal importance to understanding how he approaches the law and the ways in which he has, and will, use legal arguments to frame an extremely conservative world view that has all the hallmarks that a Trump-like authoritarian billionaire could want: fealty to the rich and powerful, to corporations against people, and a look the other way attitude if the president does something illegal.

Susan Collins is a disgrace. The neglect of her duty is especially noticeable (and galling) when you recall that her party demanded everything back to high school term papers and third grade report cards from Obama nominees. But now that they want to ram through one of their own, his writings and opinions on things like torture and presidential exceptionalism are off limits?

Disgraceful. And once again, treasonous.

Mitch McConnell should go down in as one of the most repulsive and traitorous figures in American political history.

[Akhilleus]

And one more thing about the way McConnell and his fellow traitors are trying to keep a lid on Kavanaugh's past work, remember when it came out that Bush was secretly spying on Americans, an action supported by Kavanaugh? Remember all the finger wagging they did when brought up by decent Americans who believed that the Constitution did not condone such illegal intrusions?

"Well" they sniffed, "You shouldn't be worried as long as you have nothing to hide."

Clearly they're worried now. And just as clearly, they have something to hide.

[Akhilleus]

Here's what Trumpbots voted for. And all of this is just in the last few days.

Threatening and drugging small children.

Newer and bigger tax cuts for the ultra rich, handed over without a single vote being cast by congress, not even debated.

NRA (and administration) support for guns made of plastic that are nearly undetectable and completely untraceable.

The ever widening gyre of corruption and treason of Trump and his cronies.

The establishment of a Christian task force to curtail the rights of Americans they don't happen to like.

New revelations that Russia is acting again to sway an election to help Trump, something that was supposedly a hoax.

The attempt, after denying the previous president his right to nominate his choice for the Supreme Court, by the president*'s party, to sneak through his second nomination by denying senators the right to examine his complete record.

The further demolition of decent healthcare for average Americans.

The list of horrible stuff is starting to resemble the Domesday Book in length and breadth. Unqualified, incompetent, self-dealing hustlers inflicting damage on the American public through deception and fraud on a daily basis.

[Ken Winkes]

This morning's WOW.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/us/politics/trump-sessions-russia-investigation.html?

[Akhilleus]

According to Lit Hub Daily, today is the anniversary of the publication of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken", in the August 1915 edition of the Atlantic Monthly.

You Frosties out here will recall how it ends:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

We, as a people, took a road less traveled. At least less traveled by decent, honest, honorable people, people who deserve the efforts of the founders and Americans who came after trying to fulfill and extend the great promise of the American Experiment.

Now we're on a much different road.

The Road to Mordor. Where the shadows lie. It is making all the difference.

[Bobby Lee]

@AK A line from a poem I read long ago also says it well: "It's a long, long way from here to there with a strange tomorrow showing. And I know when I get to the end of the trail I'll be where I wasn't going",

[Fleeting Expletive]

Bobby Lee, that is beautiful. I just wrote it down in my journal (this time of year, back to school sales, I buy a dozen or so spiral notebooks to take notes all year). Do you know who wrote it?

[Ken Winkes]

Intrigued by the growing rightwing conspiracy theory argot, clicked on this NYTimes story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/us/politics/what-is-qanon.html?

...and learned more than it may be healthy to know about the insane machinations of what passes for the rightwing mind.

Think I've seen it all before, though. Nonsense of this stripe is religion's first cousin: another easy way to feel superior, one of the elected who, unlike the pitiful masses, is really in the know, all this without doing any work.

Much prefer Bea's conspiracy theory above about the Center for the National Interest and the aging criminal Henry Kissinger, both of which really exist. It's nice when there are real dots to connect.