Thursday
Aug092018
The Commentariat -- August 10, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Trump No Longer Able to Get Along with Dictators. Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump announced on Friday that he is doubling tariffs on Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked citizens to convert foreign currencies, including U.S. dollars, into local lira -- leading to a dramatic drop in the Turkish currency. 'I have just authorized a doubling of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum with respect to Turkey as their currency, the Turkish Lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong Dollar! Aluminum will now be 20% and Steel 50%. Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!' Trump tweeted."
Omarosa's Brilliant Literary Career, Ctd. David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump is a 'racist' who has used the 'N-word' repeatedly, Omarosa Manigault Newman, once the most prominent African American in the White House, claims in a searing memoir. The future US president was caught on mic uttering the taboo racial slur 'multiple times' during the making of his reality TV show The Apprentice and there is a tape to prove it, according to Manigault Newman, citing three unnamed sources.... She also claims that she personally witnessed Trump use racial epithets about the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway's husband George Conway, who is half Filipino. 'Would you look at this George Conway article?' she quotes the president as saying. 'F**ing FLIP! Disloyal! Fucking Goo-goo.' Both flip and goo-goo are terms of racial abuse for Filipinos. Critics have previously questioned Manigault Newman's credibility...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps I should give Trump more credit that I have done. If Omarosa's story is true -- and I would be one to "question Manigault Newman's credibility" -- Trump knows at least two more racial slurs than I did. P.S. Omarosa's "tell-all" sounds like a Trump set-up to me. He would much rather we talk about his racism -- as it gives him creds with his base -- than with his tax cuts for himself or "this Rusher thing" or Wilbur the Walking Thief or or or.
Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has found a witness in contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the ruling Friday after a sealed hearing to discuss Andrew Miller's refusal to appear before the grand jury Miller is a former aide to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. Miller's lawyer Paul Kamenar said after the hearing that Miller was 'held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge's decision to the court of appeals.' Howell stayed her order while Miller's legal team appeals the judge's decision."
Meet Your Democratic Congressional Candidates
Andrew Seidman of philly.com: "Michael Soliman is a longtime aide and confidant to Sen. Bob Menendez [D].... Since 2015, Soliman has also lobbied Menendez and other members of Congress on behalf of the government of Qatar, arranging meetings for the country's ambassador to the U.S. and raising issues important to Qatar's relationship with Washington. Should Menendez defeat Republican Bob Hugin in November and Democrats take control of the Senate, the senator would be poised to chair the Foreign Relations Committee -- potentially boosting Soliman's value as a lobbyist, government watchdogs say." Mrs. McC: Hey, it's not a revolving door if you can stand in the threshold with one foot on one side and one foot on the other. Bob Menendez is what you would call a "New Jersey politician." That would be a pejorative.
Congressional Race. Greg Bluestone of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A Democratic candidate for Congress in a conservative north Georgia district who was convicted this week of drunken driving challenged the officers who stopped him to a fight and repeatedly insulted the county he was running to represent.... Steven Lamar Foster boasted about how many times he's been arrested and called the officers who arrested him 'Barneys' in dash-cam footage of the September arrest obtained by The Dalton Daily Citizen-News. 'Eleven years I served this county,' Foster told police in the dash-cam video. 'I hate this county. I prayed to God that he would curse it. And guess what? He did. Man, I saw it hit and cursed, and I saw people laid off right and left -- white people. I hate this county...'" Mrs. McC: Seems like an excellent candidate. ...
... But, hey, Foster seems better than this former Georgia Democratic Congressional candidate:
... Noah Feit of the (South Carolina) State: "A woman who recently ran for a congressional seat was arrested for murder among other charges Wednesday, according to the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. Curt Cain, the man that Kellie Lynn Collins is charged with shooting to death, worked on her failed congressional campaign in Georgia, the Augusta Chronicle reported. He also might have been her husband, according to Captain Eric Abdullah.... Collins was previously a Democratic congressional candidate in Georgia&'s 10th district..., but she dropped out of the race before the primary, 'for personal reasons.'"
Carl Campanile of the New York Post: "Actor Richard Gere's name is being floated as a potential [Democratic] candidate for Congress in the northern suburbs [of New York City], The Post has learned." Mrs. McC: Well, that's nice. I can tell you from second-hand gossip that Gere is not the candidate for the #MeToo era.
*****
Best Buy's Geek Squad gave me a temporary, if cumbersome, fix to my major technical problem, but they say, and I concur, that the problem is with my host Squarespace's platform. Squarespace has not yet responded to a HELP! ticket I sent them 24 hours ago nor to the follow-ups I sent. Please don't try to log into Reality Chex if you have the access codes. I will send safari & Akhilleus the temporary fix some time on the 10th, but I have to figure out how to do that. Thanks to everyone for your patience. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
*****
** Mr. Mustache Does End-run around Insane Trump to Save NATO. Helene Cooper & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Senior American national security officials, seeking to prevent President Trump from upending a formal policy agreement at last month's NATO meeting, pushed the military alliance's ambassadors to complete it before the forum even began. The work to preserve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreement ... came just weeks after Mr. Trump refused to sign off on a communiqué from the June meeting of the Group of 7 in Canada. The rushed machinations to get the policy done, as demanded by John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, have not been previously reported. Described by European diplomats and American officials, the efforts are a sign of the lengths to which the president's top advisers will go to protect a key and longstanding international alliance from Mr. Trump's unpredictable antipathy. Allied ambassadors said the American officials' plan worked -- to a degree. Mr. Trump did almost blow up the two-day meeting in Brussels that began on July 11.... But the approval of the communiqué -- renamed for the meeting as a declaration -- was critical for the alliance. It ensured that, despite Mr. Trump's rhetorical fireworks, NATO diplomats could push through initiatives, including critical Pentagon priorities to improve allied defenses against Russia." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I hope you realize how extraordinary this is. Even Bolton, who is pretty goofy, has a lot more sense than Trump. Thank goodness Bolton was willing to use what sense he has to manipulate President Nutjob to acquiesce to our most vital alliance.
** Annie Correal & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump has repeatedly and vehemently denounced what he calls 'chain migration,' in which adult American citizens can obtain residency for their relatives. On Thursday, his Slovenian in-laws, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, became United States citizens in a private ceremony in Manhattan by taking advantage of that same family-based immigration program. Asked if the Knavses had obtained citizenship through 'chain migration,' their lawyer, Michael Wildes, said, 'I suppose.' He said chain migration is a 'dirtier' way of characterizing what he called 'a bedrock of our immigration process when it comes to family reunification.'... Even as his in-laws were going through the process, Mr. Trump was denouncing it. In November, he tweeted, 'CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!'" ...
... Addy Baird of ThinkProgress: "CNN was able to confirm Thursday that the first lady sponsored her parents in order for them to get a green card, which set them on the path to citizenship, the exact type of family-based migration President Trump has repeatedly called to eliminate."
Hee Haw! Goat Fleeces the Sheeples. Pat Ralph of Business Insider: "... Donald Trump is able to pay tens of thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey golf courses because of a goat herd, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing public records, The Journal reported in 2016 that Trump had been able to save thousands of dollars in property taxes on his two properties in Bedminster — where he is this week for a 'working vacation' -- and Colts Neck. Because the properties have a goat herd, as well as hay farming and woodcutting, New Jersey law permits them to receive a farmland tax break.... The Journal estimated that Trump paid less than $1,000 a year in property taxes on land that would typically require roughly $80,000." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "The federal judge overseeing the Paul Manafort trial took another shot at special counsel Robert Mueller's team Thursday afternoon, even after conceding earlier in the day that a criticism he leveled at prosecutors on Wednesday was erroneous. The prosecution spent about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon questioning a bank employee about Manafort's unsuccessful effort to get a $5.5 million construction loan on a Brooklyn brownstone, only to have Judge T.S. Ellis III suggest that the issue was unworthy of such extensive discussion at the trial. Notably, Ellis made the remark with the jury present.... [A] tense exchange [between Ellis & prosecutor Uzo Asonye] was the latest example of Ellis making comments that could lead jurors to question the prosecution's case or its tactics in the tax- and bank-fraud trial that opened last week." ...
... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The judge overseeing Paul Manafort's trial, who has berated prosecutors daily for perceived missteps and slights, told the jury Thursday to ignore one of his outbursts, saying he was 'probably wrong.' U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III, a 78-year-old jurist with a reputation for being tough on lawyers in his courtroom, showed none of the temper he has flashed throughout the trial, now in its second week in Alexandria, Va., and instead instructed the jury to disregard his remarks made the day before excoriating prosecutors for allowing an expert government witness to sit in the courtroom before he testified." Mrs. McC: According to the Politico report, the prosecution team had to file a motion to get Ellis to recant. ...
... Sharon LaFraniere & Emily Baumgaertner of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing the trial of Paul Manafort sealed a transcript on Thursday of a private discussion in front of his bench after prosecutors from the special counsel's office argued that they needed to protect an 'ongoing investigation.' The conversation concerned whether investigators had questioned Rick Gates, the government's star witness and Mr. Manafort's longtime deputy, about the Trump campaign. Prosecutors argued that they needed to protect the secrecy of their inquiry -- though they did not specify the Russia investigation -- and limit the 'disclosure of new information.' The judge, T. S. Ellis III, ruled in their favor.... Prosecutors have avoided any mention of the broader inquiry [into Russian interference in the 2016 election] since the trial began nine days ago in Alexandria, Va. But Mr. Manafort's lawyers have tried to edge in that direction, possibly in the hope that jurors will see their client as a victim of a politically inspired vendetta." ...
... That Sidebar May Be Bad News for Donzo. Katelyn Polantz & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "A court filing from special counsel Robert Mueller signals that Rick Gates may be assisting the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election beyond the case against Paul Manafort."
Nancy Cook of Politico: "Hope Hicks had no intention of traveling on Air Force One when she arrived at ... Donald Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club to hang out with White House friends including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. But ... once Hicks was back on the president's turf, she got sucked in, with a handful of staffers successfully prodding her to join them on Saturday's trip to Ohio for a campaign-style rally. Hicks' surprise appearance at the airport prompted one former campaign official to joke that she was returning for 'Season Two' of the Trump reality show." Mrs. McC: AND this has nuh-THING to do with the fact that Trump was simultaneously confess-tweeting about the "real reason" for that Trump Tower meeting -- you know, the one where Hicks helped him write out that phony "adoption reason" for the meeting conspiracy-planning session. Just another a-mazing coincidence. (Also linked yesterday.)
The House Runs Its Own Witch Hunt, Ctd. Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is readying subpoenas for people connected to the controversial 'Steele' dossier, sources tell The Hill. Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is preparing subpoenas for Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, his wife Nellie Ohr and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, according to two congressional sources familiar with the matter. The subpoenas will also go after other current and former FBI and DOJ officials including Jim Baker, Sally Moyer, Jonathan Moffa and George Toscas, the sources said. Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told The Hill that Goodlatte has been in touch with the DOJ about seeking testimonies from these officials.... Bruce Ohr has come under Republican scrutiny for his contacts with Simpson and former British spy Christopher Steele during the presidential campaign, a revelation that sparked demands from Trump allies for a special counsel investigation into the DOJ and the FBI last December." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Rep. Devin Nunes explained to donors, the House has to keep running interference for Der Trumpster to save Trump -- and themselves.
"Space Force All the Way!" Erin Durkin of the Guardian: "Mike Pence has announced plans for a new, separate US Space Force as a sixth military service by 2020. The US vice-president said the development is needed to ensure America's dominance in space amid heightened competition and threats from China and Russia. In a speech at the Pentagon in Washington DC, Pence said that while space was once peaceful and uncontested, it is now crowded and adversarial.... In a tweet Thursday, the president cheered on his number two's speech. 'Space Force all the way!' he wrote." ... Mrs. McC: Yeah, in a tweet that again reveals the POTUS* to be as knowledgeable & articulate as a 10-year-old. The Pentagon must have given Trumpie a "Space Force" patch or maybe even a shiny aluminum "Space Force" jacket. Akhilleus's commentary in yesterday's thread on Mikey's rationale, as delivered, for the "Space Force" is kind of a must-read. ...
... Thanks to safari for the link.
AND, in "Walk of Fame News"... Paul Bond & Bryan White of the Hollywood Reporter: "Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- destroyed on several occasions by detractors who sometimes wield a pick-ax -- mysteriously multiplied over night so that on Thursday morning there were several dozen stars. The effort comes from a conservative street artist who wishes to remain anonymous.... The artist and his cohorts ... are allies of prolific conservative artist Sabo, spent $1,000 on the stars, which they printed on sheets of floor vinyl with adhesive backing, and their mission was partially financed by 'a young and anonymous entrepreneur.' The crew laminated the vinyl stars and placed them on blank squares on the Walk of Fame...." Mrs. McC: I can't figure out why Trump had a Hollywood star in the first place. He was never a Hollywood star.
AP: "Puerto Rico is now estimating that Hurricane Maria killed more than 1,400 people, far more than the official death toll of 64, in a report to Congress seeking billions to help the island recover from the devastating storm.... In a report to Congress detailing a $139 billion reconstruction plan, the territory's government said that the additional deaths resulted from the effects of a storm that led to a 'cascading failures' in infrastructure across the island of 3.3 million people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trumpies' Bad Day in Court
"Turn the Plane Around." -- Judge. Arelis R. Hernández of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Washington halted a deportation in progress Thursday and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after learning that the Trump administration started to remove a woman and her daughter while a court hearing appealing their deportations was underway. 'This is pretty outrageous,' U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said after being told about the removal. 'That someone seeking justice in U.S. court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her?... 'This is not acceptable.'... During a brief recess, [the lead ACLU lawyer] told her colleagues the pair had been taken from a family detention center in Dilley, Tex., to the airport in San Antonio for a morning flight. After being informed of the situation, Sullivan granted the ACLU's request to delay deportations for Carmen and the other plaintiffs until the lawsuit is decided, and ordered the government to 'turn the plane around.'" ...
... Suzanne Gamboa & Jonathan Soboroff of NBC News: "The plane was not able to turn around en route, but a Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News that the mother and daughter did not disembark in El Salvador Thursday evening and were being brought to the United States.... [Judge Emmet Sullivan] ordered the government to stop removing plaintiffs in the case from the country who are seeking protection from gang and domestic violence."
Michael Biesecker of the AP: "A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping a widely used pesticide on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies' brains. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to remove chlorpyrifos from sale in the United States within 60 days. A coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued las year after then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an Obama-era effort to ban chlorpyrifos, which is widely sprayed on citrus fruit, apples and other crops. The attorneys general for several states joined the case against EPA, including California, New York and Massachusetts. In a split decision, the court said Thursday that Pruitt ... violated federal law by ignoring the conclusions of agency scientists that chlorpyrifos is harmful."
CIA AND Torture Director. Julian Barnes & Scott Shane of the New York Times: Newly-released cables contain evidence that now-CIA director Gina Haspel oversaw waterboarding torture at a prison in Thailand. "As the chief of the base, Ms. Haspel would have written or authorized the cables, according to Tom Blanton, the director of the National Security Archive ... at George Washington University." The cables " provide at times graphic detail on the techniques the agency used to brutally interrogate Qaeda captives." ...
... While we're on the subject of torture missives ...
... Eliana Johnson of Politico: "A 2001 email from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is likely to reignite a debate over his involvement in making the legal case for the Bush administration's treatment of terrorist suspects -- and whether he misled Congress about it. The email, part of a tranche of documents that the White House turned over to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the run-up to Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, indicates that Kavanaugh, then a White House lawyer, helped to prepare then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to testify before Congress on the federal government's monitoring of communications between terrorists in federal custody and their attorneys. Democrats are likely to seize on the communication to argue that he misled them during his 2006 confirmation to the D.C. Circuit when, pressed about whether he had helped to make the legal case for torture, he denied any involvement in discussions about the treatment of enemy combatants." At his confirmation hearings, "Kavanaugh denied any contemporaneous knowledge that the Bush administration was secretly waterboarding terrorist suspects."
Sam Baker of Axios: "One Australian drug company -- with only one (failed) product in one (failed) clinical trial -- just keeps tripping up current and former House Republicans.... Federal prosecutors in New York indicted Rep. Chris Collins yesterday on charges of insider trading, stemming from the sale of shares in a company called Innate Immunotherapeutics. It's the same company you may remember from Tom Price's confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary. He tripled his investment when divesting of the stock to become secretary, according to the Wall Street Journal. Collins had been an investor in the company for 15 years, the WSJ reports, and was a member of its board. Price bought almost 500,000 shares in the company, most of them in 2016, at a discounted rate only offered to a few Americans. At least four other GOP lawmakers also bought shares of Innate a few months later, according to the watchdog group CREW. Of those six lawmakers, four -- Collins, Price, and Reps. Billy Long and Markwayne Mullin -- sat on committees with direct health care jurisdiction." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Gubernatorial Race. John Hanna of the AP: "Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday that he will remove himself from the further counting of votes while his Republican primary battle with Gov. Jeff Colyer hangs in the balance.... The governor publicly accused Kobach, the state's top elections official, of giving county election officials information about the handling of yet-uncounted ballots 'inconsistent with Kansas law.' He demanded in a letter to Kobach that Kobach stop advising county officials and have the state's attorney general do it instead. The close contest between the embattled governor and a conservative lightning rod took another acrimonious turn as Kobach's already tiny lead shrunk from 191 votes to just 121 out of 311,000 ballots cast, after two counties reported discrepancies in their initial tallies. Kobach needled Colyer in a Fox Business network appearance Thursday evening, saying it would be 'pointless' to remove himself from the process ... but he might do so just to make Colyer 'feel good.' But a little more than an hour later, questioned on CNN, Kobach said: 'I said, "Of course, if he wants me to, I would," and he has said, "OK, I do want you to," so I will.'" ...
... Update: Hunter Woodall & Bryan Lowry of the Kansas City Star: "Gov. Jeff Colyer's campaign spokesman said Thursday that 100 votes for Colyer have been found in a western Kansas county, meaning Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is now only 91 votes ahead in the GOP race for governor. Thomas County Clerk Shelly Harms confirmed in an email that Colyer received 522 votes on election day. The vote total reported for the county was initially 422."
Senate Race. So Far Things Not Going Well for White Supremacist Candidate. Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch: "Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., led GOP rival Corey Stewart by 23 percentage points in a July poll of likely voters released Wednesday. Kaine had 49 percent to 26 percent for Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, with 5 percent for Libertarian Matt Waters and 20 percent undecided, according to the survey...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Election 2020. Everybody Figures He'd Be a Better President than Trump. Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "'I'm exploring a run for the presidency of the United States, and I wanted to come to Iowa and listen to people and learn about some issues that are facing the citizens of Iowa and do my homework,' [attorney Michael] Avenatti told the Des Moines Register in an interview Thursday. Avenatti, who rose to prominence as an outspoken critic of the president, toured the Iowa State Fair Thursday posing for selfies with fans. He is scheduled to speak at the Democratic Wing Ding fundraiser Friday night in Clear Lake." Mrs. McC: You & I should be practicing our stump speeches, too.
Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "... the premise of the [mass] killings [in Las Vegas last October] was one that no other civilized country would have tolerated for a moment. [The killer Stephen] Paddock bought fifty-five guns, mostly rifles, in the space of a year -- most of them the kind of lethal weapons properly called assault rifles or military-style weapons, several augmented with an accessory known as a bump stock, which allowed for even more rapid firing. There is no reason on earth why any citizen of a democracy would ever need even one of these weapons, let alone fifty-five. Not to mention that the simple act of buying that many weapons of murder might be a sign that murder was being planned -- an alert missed.... his intention appears to have been purely nihilistic.... his intention appears to have been purely nihilistic.... Given the new state of the Supreme Court, and the nature of the Trump White House, Second Amendment nihilism may be the reigning position in the American gun debate for all the future we can see." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Suggesting that the U.S. is a "civilized country," as Gopnik does, is a stretch IMO. We have large pockets of civilization & large pockets of uncivilized tribes of know-nothings, and -- as Gopnik observes -- nihilists & absurdists. Because we're a big, mobile, borderless country, civilized & uncivilized individuals are often neighbors. The NRA & like organizations, as well as their Congressional lackeys are good examples of how nihilism pays. Supporting the NRA's extremist policies is "rational" in the same way being a hitman is rational. Yes, the hitman kills people, but he does it for the money. ...
... Update. Coincidentally, Justice Sotomayor agrees with me, albeit in a different context. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Justice Sonia Sotomayor concludes her dissent in Irick v. Tennessee with the kind of rhetorical flourish that is rarely seen in judicial opinions. 'If the law permits this execution to go forward in spite of the horrific final minutes that' the inmate at the heart of this case is likely to experience, 'then we have stopped being a civilized nation and accepted barbarism.' The justice reaches this conclusion after her Court effectively ruled on Thursday that Billy Ray Irick, a death row inmate, could be tortured to death. This result is not surprising -- the issue at stake in Irick largely tracks the issues presented in Glossip v. Gross, a 2015 decision upholding Oklahoma's use of a drug cocktail that almost certainly subjects death row inmates to excruciating pain as their paralyzed body slowly dies." ...
... Dave Boucher of the Tennessean: "Death row inmate Billy Ray Irick died at 7:48 p.m. CDT Thursday after Tennessee prison officials administered a lethal dose of toxic chemicals. He was 59. His execution, the first in Tennessee since 2009, comes after his 1986 conviction in Knox County for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha
Brian Fung & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Tribune Media said Thursday that it would terminate its proposed merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group, while announcing a $1 billion lawsuit against the conservative television giant on grounds that it engaged in 'misconduct' and precluded the U.S. government from approving the deal. In the lawsuit, Tribune accused Sinclair of engaging in 'belligerent and unnecessarily protracted negotiations' with the FCC as well as the Justice Department, which had reviewed the merger for its effects on competition. By failing to divest television stations as regulators recommended, Tribune said Sinclair had 'breached' the companies' merger agreement, which required them to make their best efforts to secure federal approval.... The merger began to stumble last month after Federal communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai highlighted 'serious concerns' about the deal, which originally would have reached roughly 70 percent of U.S. households. The FCC raised questions about Sinclair's plan to sell some key stations in order to adhere to federal media ownership laws, and voted to send the matter to an administrative law judge, which is often interpreted as a signal a transaction may be blocked." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kelly Weill & Tim Burke of the Daily Beast: "Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham's Wednesday night monologue about immigrants destroying America was so racist it got the endorsement of David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. During the opening to her primetime show The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham complained that 'the America we know and love doesn't exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people,' she said, in the form of documented and undocumented immigrants." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "This is a fresh example of a very old phenomenon: right-wing super-patriots who don't much seem to love, or even like, the America that actually exists. This is the same Laura Ingraham who just last month was deploring the doubts being expressed about America's goodness and righteousness by U.S. college students[.]..." Read on.
Beyond the Beltway
Gintautas Dumcius of MassLive: "Massachusetts residents will be automatically registered to vote when they make transactions at the state's Registry of Motor Vehicles or with MassHealth, under a new law signed by Gov. Charlie Baker. The transactions include a change of address, for example. Both the RMV and MassHealth, the Medicaid program funded by both the state and federal government, are able to verify whether people registering to vote are citizens, according to the office of Bill Galvin, the state's elections chief." ...
... Baker signed a boatload of liberal-ish bills yesterday. Mrs. McC: Did I mention Baker is running for re-election this year?
News Lede
BBC News: "The last member of an immigrant group who fought the Nazis for the French Resistance has died aged 101. Arsène Tchakarian escaped a Nazi crackdown in which 22 of the group's fighters were shot by the German occupation forces in Paris in 1944. He was awarded France's highest honour. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that Tchakarian, an ethnic Armenian, was 'a hero of the Resistance and tireless witness whose voice resonated strongly to the very end'. Tchakarian only became a French citizen in 1958. He was granted several medals for gallantry, including the prestigious Legion of Honour in 2012.... Tchakarian carried out attacks alongside Jews and other immigrant guerrillas against the Nazis."
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Reader Comments (22)
Listening to a report about how Melanie’s mom and dad completed their chain migration by becoming citizens, I heard some Trump butthead (I didn’t catch which one) sniffed that they did it “the right way”. Oh yeah? What’s that? Having your kid marry a raging bigot who colluded with a foreign power to sneak into the White House? Guess that doesn’t allow for many more immigrants to do it “the right way”. Them that gots gets.
@Akhilleus: This was one of the many ways Melanie got back at the husband who can't even spell her name (or -- just as bad -- left it to a semi-literate underling to send Melanie birthday wishes). Not only are Mom & Dad there the beneficiaries of "chain migration," they are poster people for the type of legal immigrants whom the U.S. has traditionally NOT allowed to become citizens -- older people with no income who could end up becoming "public charges." (I assume Melanie & Donald Duck-Responsibilities have the parents on some kind of stipend, but I doubt it's in writing, so there's no guarantee the payments will last as long as they do.)
Melanie didn't just recently figure out her husband is an ass; she knew it well before she married him. And she's trapped -- not in the White House, as most presidential spouses feel -- but in a loveless marriage to a colossal dickhead. He treats her well only in public (and not always then -- there's nothing more public than a presidential inauguration & apparently he lashed out at her within minutes of taking the oath). The rest of the time, he's just a colossal dickhead. And her way of fighting back is to undermine him, right up to the limit, but never quite over it.
Having her parents shine a bright light on Donnie's hypocrisy (& racism) was one of those stunts. I'm sure she's known for months about Stephen Miller's plan to limit citizenship status for legal immigrants, so the best way she could expose the cruelty of the plan was to give her "undesirable" parents the opportunity to swear allegiance to the good ole USA. This was no coincidence. When Melanie learned her parents would be granted citizenship, & it turned out to be before the Miller plan became public, somebody leaked the plan to NBC. I wouldn't put money on it, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the leaker were Melanie's spokesperson Stephanie Grisham.
You have just witnessed the caged bird perform an aria.
Update: Oops! It wasn't happy-birthday wishes where Trump misspelled Melanie's name. It was a welcome home from the hospital, Melanie, tweet.
Marie,
Interesting idea. I wondered why she wasn’t at the ceremony. Maybe dickhead wouldn’t let her go, but maybe, if your theory is correct, she wanted to be around to listen to his little tantrum once the press began chanting “Chain Migration! Chain Migration!”
Then again, since he doesn’t read and only watches state-run TV, he might hear nothing but the usual white supremacist claptrap and praise for his unmatched greatness. Which doesn’t make him any less hypocritical, it just makes him igmorant and hypocritical.
Leader of the Free World, my ass.
Seth Myers nails it in the week that was: Trump crime network edition
Highly recommended. And as you know, this was only last week's revelations. Lock 'em all up.
https://youtu.be/BkaYjdV6wCg
It is MelaniA with an a... not MelaniE with an e on the end, right? Typo on purpose? (or I'm missing the point of the joke).
@MAG: You are so missing the joke. Screaming Clue: "This was one of the many ways Melanie got back at the husband who can't even spell her name (or -- just as bad -- left it to a semi-literate underling to send Melanie birthday wishes)." In the referenced tweet, Donald or whoever, wished MelaniE a
happy birthdayget-well after her 5-day hospital stay.I am so sorry, Marie, about the problems you are having–-sounds like Squarespace needs some serious prodding or something. I can well imagine your frustration––and anger.
Here is a PBS News discussion (with video and transcript) with Daniel Fried, a 40 yr, old veteran in the Foreign Service, who gives us the rundown and specifics on sanctions on Russia. It's quite informative. He ends, however, with mention of "that notorious press conference in Helsinki."
"[Trump] blamed America first. I have never seen a president do that–-ever!"
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-new-u-s-sanctions-for-skripal-attack-say-to-russia
Last night on MSNBC they showed about seven or more clips of Trump shouting "Chain Migration––very bad–-has to stop"–--and of course he doesn't say this in a normal tone of voice, but yells it, his ugly red face getting uglier and redder.
Loved how we are witnessing "the caged bird perform an aria."
The news of the bus bombing in Yemen killing all those children, and injuring others, makes me sick. Those bombs are OUR bombs, those nifty weapons we sell to the Saudi's who are responsible for one of the worst humanitarian crisis'––people, especially children, are dying daily from starvation. Under normal circumstances this might be getting much more press, but given that we are drowning in the putrid waters of the swamp and their creatures within, this doesn't seem a priority. I'm grateful, however, that many are keeping the immigration situation alive–––good for that judge to demand that plane turn around.
I'm getting a feeling here of what we could almost call the real shadow government–-those that can carry on responsibly despite the ignorant, incompetent head of state. When someone like Bolton can sound prudent, then...
@BeaMcCrab: Kinda thought that might be your game with the name, but at least you usually clue in dolts like me! (Tend to be sensitive to misplaced a's and e's because my own first name is similar and over the years it has gotten mispronounced/misspelled so often that I now just answer to whatever someone calls me!)
Oh Noes! I take back my optimism about competent people in the shadow overturning or halting Trump's insanities. Just viewed the Seth Myers's video and there was Mattis seemingly approving THE GREAT SPACE IDIOT ODDESSEY. Good grief!
@PD
I sometimes take comfort from telling myself this little story:
Some of those protecting the country and us from the Pretender's worst impulses and greatest stupidities do so by seeming to agree with him as often as possible.
Since Space Patrol will never happen, seems like a good place to nod one's head in goofy agreement. Nothing lost but dignity...and just by hanging around the boob that was shredded long ago, the price these heroes pay.
As I said, it's a story.
Ken, it's not just a story. In the guvmint its called a "slow roll."
MAG: Your query to Marie re: the Melania business reminded me of the Liza Minelli song about Liza with a Z...which then reminded me of a ditty I wrote to one of my sons who as a young lad played with a girl named Liza and was quite smitten with her; then in high school dated for years a girl named Lisa; then much later married a young woman named Liz whose last name was Fernandaz while Lisa married a woman whose last name is Hernandaz, while Liza grew fat and lived in a house with a purple door.
what's in a name, indeed!
PD,
And then there's this Liza
...(all the clouds will roll away).
Ak: When I played Liza on YouTube, in the side bar was Benny
Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing" and I thought how appropriate,
the trumpeters friends are singing and the whole mess of them
should be in SingSing.
Forrest,
Appropriate indeed. In fact, these guys are so horrible just regular Sing Sing isn't bad enough for them. They need to go to Sing Sing Sing.
Years ago when I was living with my brother, he was sleeping late and, like a good brother, I put "Sing, Sing, Sing" (the Carnegie Hall Concert version) on the stereo and cranked it. He didn't budge, but when he finally woke up he said "Man, I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that Gene Krupa was in the living room" I said "He was."
I'm wondering if they still make license plates in prison. Then I wonder what job Trump should get at Sing Sing Sing. I'm guessing washing dishes, given his wonderful experience as a hotelier. Or maybe he can be the food-scraper-offer guy.
I have an "a" & "e" switcheroo issue, too, tho mine is the opposite of Melanie's. About half the people I meet & who see my name in writing call me "Maria." Unless there's some good reason to correct them, I don't.
Marie (also answers to Maria -- and Bea)
You know you've arrived at a very weird place when John (Bomb's Away) Bolton is the sensible guy in the room.
Wouldn't you like to know what a crazy man like Bolton has to say about a total 'round the bend loonie like Trump, when he goes home to his wife or his pet pit bull?
Is anyone else able to figure out what's going down at the NRA right now? Ever since the feds made it known that they've started looking into their Russian bank accounts they've gone dark, except for one garbled cry of "helllllp!" by Mr. Wayne "baby butcher" LaPierre.
How can it be conceivable that America's #1 Patriot Organization, the one that everyone supposedly loves and cherishes and lavishes with their dollars and stands behind steadfastly at every legislative turn, THAT organization is somehow on the brink of failing if the feds don't lay off after a few months of investigation? Could it be that they're really not nearly as powerful as they claim, that they've funneled their economic clout to a few grifters à la Wilbur Ross, that it's actually just a fantastic racket full of psychopaths that get off upon hearing of mass shootings and immediately whip out their smartphones and crack their twisted smiles in tandem with the rise of their stock prices?
Not even ol' Olly North, the emergency manager of Iran-Contra fame, has any words of encouragement for his befuddled members, now in existential crisis as their NRA membership card loses a little luster? Will they be providing their extremist wing with counseling as they try to split their brains in two keeping to their "America's militia" discourse while simultaneously tree-hugging Russians?
And all those self-proud American Patriots, where have they gone hiding to on this existential issue? Are they cool with conspiring with a foreign government who BANS GUNS! in his own country? If the NRA ceased to exist, would the die-hards just piss and moan to their coworkers and move on with life unchanged?
The NRA sells itself as the heart of the American spirit, turns out it's more like an appendix: traffics in shit, or one to inflammation, and ruptures easily if pressured.
The Road to Meh
The Party of Traitors has been the source of three of the biggest scandals in the last 40 years or so. Forget Bill-Monica. That was bad but it wasn't treason.
There have been a lot of parallels drawn between the Trump collusion case and Watergate but I've contested that, largely because in the case of Watergate there was a huge Gotcha moment. It doesn't seem as if we'll see anything like that in the current scandal. There are just too many threads, all bad, and taken together, appalling in the breadth and depth of Trump's depravity and treason. But the sheer amount of wrongdoing can be off-putting if one is looking for a neatly wrapped media-ready package.
An article in Foreign Policy makes the case (and a very good one) that the better analogy is Iran-Contra, for the reason that it offers a textbook example of how to turn what could have (should have) been a hydrogen bomb dropped in Reagan's lap but which, through various cover up techniques and some nicely timed pardons, turned into a sputtering dud.
All of the principles effectively walked. Ollie North went on to become a hero of the right, made himself a millionaire and is now hawking guns to everyone, even criminals, terrorists, and insane people.
Ed (Wedtech) Meese is considered a grand old man of the party. Reagan pretended to be asleep the entire time and Poppy pardoned the lot.
Nothing to see here, folks, a stupid witch trial that went nowhere, move along.
But going back and looking at Iran-Contra, one is struck by the similarities:
"Congressional Republicans attacked [Independent Counsel Lawrence] Walsh’s team for its purported partisan bias, clamoring for the resignation of key investigators, and railed against the probe’s purported waste and corruption. They even demanded that an investigation be opened into Walsh’s (spurious) improprieties.
Walsh’s team was “a hotbed of Democratic activist lawyers,” thundered Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, repeatedly, during the yearslong probe. In Walsh’s own account, Dole was a key figure in undermining public trust in the special counsel’s office and in thwarting its activities. Today, Trump cronies such as Reps. Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan play a similar role.
Iran-Contra investigators were nothing more than 'highly paid assassins,' Dole said. It was 'the biggest witch hunt since Salem,' read placards at the 1992 Republican National Convention..."
Sound familiar?
The playbook is there for today's crooks and criminals on the right to repurpose in order to get Trump and his cronies and family members off the hook completely.
It's a disheartening but entirely possible outcome. The Road to Meh has already been prepared by everyone on the Trumpy payroll, by the right-wing media and by a case so tangled with corruption and bad actors that a fair share of the public is ready to move on and let the historians sort it out.
Here's how Lawrence Walsh framed it after it was all over.
"On the evening of George H.W. Bush’s 1992 Christmas Eve pardons, Walsh held a hastily convened press conference in his hometown of Oklahoma City. Bush’s action, Walsh said at time, 'demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office—deliberately abusing the public trust—without consequences.'
As Walsh recalled, 'near the end [of the press conference] one reporter asked, ‘Is the message here if you work for the government, you’re above the law?''
'That,' he replied, 'depends on the president you work for.'"
Yeah. What he said.
@AK: Several years ago I put a link on by someone, can't recall whom, who said exactly what the current Foreign Policy piece is positing–-that this Trump phenomenon is closer to Iran-Contra than Watergate. So thanks for bringing this front and center once again. And–––
"As Walsh recalled, 'near the end [of the press conference] one reporter asked, ‘Is the message here if you work for the government, you’re above the law?''
'That,' he replied, 'depends on the president you work for.'"
and here WE are, smack dab in the middle of the muddle.
Want to thank you also for the Benny G. (Liza) I actually got out of my seat and danced!
PD,
Hard not to boogie down with Benny, the King of Swing.
I was torn between that version and a cover by Nat King Cole when he played piano with his trio, prior to his singing fame, but I thought that his approach was much more the way I play the song, which makes it one more appreciated if you know the standard Gershwin version. I did see a recording by the great Art Tatum (just amazing) but decided against it for anyone who didn't already know the tune. Tatum's cover is crazy wild. If you want the true Tatum Experience, go to about 1:35 on the file and be prepared to have your eyebrows hit the ceiling. Tatum is a wild man.
One difference between Goodman and Tatum is that you just can't dance to the Tatum recording. You'd be dead after about 16 bars.
Anyhoo, glad you got to swing a bit. Too little of that these days. Got to find it where we can. You can be sure Trump's white supremacists won't be swinging their hips. They'll be swinging truncheons. And if someone like Nat King Cole or Art Tatum showed up, they'd beat them senseless.
Trump Fans.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/california-fires-and-the-states-war-with-trump.html
Let's see if the Bully can cow CA.
He's working on Turkey I see, led by a bully of its own, but one who has God on his side. Don't think he'll fare much better with the Satan State, and his distemper certainly won't help the R's running for re-election in less than three months. I'm guessing that by then the smoke may not have entirely cleared from the CA air and likely not from the voters' minds.
What a nasty little man. JeffBo writ large.