The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Monday
Aug132018
The Commentariat -- August 14, 2018
Ella Nilsen, et al., of Vox: Connecticut, Vermont, Wisconsin & Minnesota hold primary elections today. The reporters highlight the big races.
*****
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for Paul Manafort say they'll rest their case without calling any witnesses in the former Trump campaign chairman's trial[.] The decision in the bank- and tax-fraud case comes after Judge T.S. Ellis III denied a defense motion to acquit Manafort as his lawyers argued the special counsel had failed to prove its case at the federal trial in Virginia. Such motions are routinely filed and almost never granted. After several hours of sealed discussions, open court began at about 11:45 a.m. with no explanation for the delay."
** Convergence. John Sipher of The Atlantic: "While many Americans are concerned that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, Trump's outright convergence of interests with Putin's Russia may well prove far more damaging for U.S. interests in the long run.... Both Putin and Trump seek to inject chaos into the U.S. political system. They support an assault on U.S. foreign-policy elites, encourage fringe and radical groups, and envision a United States untethered from traditional allies. They also share a willingness to utilize informal and semi-legal means to achieve their goals.... Trumpism shares a disturbing amount in common with Putinism, including promoting racist hatred of outsiders; the belief that the rich are above the law; the reflexive use of propaganda lies and denial; and the shredding of legal and political norms.... The greatest concern for Americans shouldn't be that Trump may have colluded with Russia; it’s that under his guidance, we may be converging." Read on. --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I was thinking about this just last night. For instance, what country benefits most from the FBI's firing of Peter Strzok, the agency's top counterintelligence agent on Russia? Hint: Not the U.S.
Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "'When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn't work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!' Trump tweeted Tuesday.... Referring to an African-American woman as an animal is at best a sharp departure from the language typically employed by Presidents and at worst a reference that traffics in sexual and racial imagery." ...
... Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "... Donald Trump's campaign said Tuesday it has filed for arbitration, accusing Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former campaign aide and White House official, of breaching a 2016 nondisclosure agreement with the campaign. The move is the first legal action the Trump campaign has taken since Manigault Newman published a tell-all book about her time as a Trump campaign adviser and senior White House official."
Politico: "... Donald Trump wrote online Tuesday that Jeff Sessions is not a 'real' attorney general, heaping fresh blame onto him for the Russia investigation that has served as a drag on Trump's time in the White House.... On Tuesday morning, Trump quoted Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett and added a swipe at Sessions. '"They were all in on it, clear Hillary Clinton and FRAME Donald Trump for things he didn't do." Gregg Jarrett on @foxandfriends,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'If we had a real Attorney General, this Witch Hunt would never have been started! Looking at the wrong people.' Also, see Patrick's comment below. "The Great Hillary Conspiracy" seems to be a TrumpWorld theme.
Martin Chulov of the Guardian has an piece that explains, according to his source, how Trump exacerbated the Turkish economic crisis -- which could threaten the world economy -- when he tried to make a deal with Turkish President Recep Erdogan on a prisoner swap. There were only three people in a room -- the Presidents & a translator -- and Trump didn't understand the deal he had made. Oh, and later mike pence put in his two cents & made things worse. As punishment (for his own ignorance & sloppiness, if you come right down to it), Trump doubled tariffs on Turkish steel & aluminum, further deflating confidence in Turkey's economic outlook. Mrs. McC: Are you surprised?
Emily Stewart of Vox: "The federal government's top consumer watchdog has decided it no longer needs to proactively supervise banks, credit card companies, and other lenders who deal with members of the military and their families to make sure they're not committing fraud or abuse. Critics, baffled by the decision from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, say it will put service members in the claws of predatory lenders and put their careers and livelihoods -- and potentially US national security -- at risk.... Now the agency, under interim director Mick Mulvaney, is planning to end its use of these supervisory examinations of lenders...Instead, the bureau will only be able to take action against lenders if it receives a complaint." --safari
Amanda Michelle Gomez of ThinkProgress: "The federal health department's refugee office -- an office that&'s garnered attention for blocking an undocumented teen's abortion, failing to reunite migrant families the administration has separated, and contracting with detention facilities with grave abuses -- has removed its staff directory from its website.... Email addresses and phone numbers for 22 members of the Office of Refugee Resettlement;s (ORR) leadership were taken down and not replaced.... The removal appears to have been around the same time that [ORR director] Scott Lloyd tried to stop detained migrant teens from getting abortions. In mid-October, news broke that Lloyd personally intervened to try to persuade pregnant girls in ORR custody."
Infernal Environmentalists Cause Infernos. Elliot Hannon of Slate: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a card-carrying member of climate change skeptic Trump administration, told a local TV station Sunday that climate change has nothing to do with the dozens of wildfires currently ravaging the west, and particularly the state of California, where blazes have churned through 1,000 square miles so far in what has already been the most destructive fire season on record. Instead, Zinke placed blame on 'extreme environmentalists' for the conditions that led to the state's historic fires this year. 'America is better than letting these radical groups control the dialogue about climate change,' Zinke said in an interview with KCRA. 'This has nothing to do with climate change. This has to do with active forest management.'"
Erik Ortiz of NBC News: "Attorneys for the family of the Florida father who died last month following an argument over a handicap parking space thanked state prosecutors Monday for filing a manslaughter charge against the gunman, Michael Drejka -- less than a month after the killing. 'We are very appreciative that the state moved fast in this case,' Kelly McCabe, an attorney for the family of Markeis McGlockton, said at a news conference in which they supported the charge -- a felony that carries up to 30 years in prison. But while attorneys for the family of McGlockton have also decried his fatal shooting as a 'cold-blooded murder,' Pinellas County State Attorney Bernie McCabe told NBC News that he went with manslaughter after investigators and lawyers interviewed witnesses and studied the surveillance footage from the deadly July 19 dispute. 'I went through it all and made the legal decision that that is the charge that we could prove,' McCabe added. Legal experts agree...."
*****
It's all a scam. Everything. -- Akhilleus, on the Trump presidency*
Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday signed a sprawling $716 billion defense bill named for John McCain at a ceremony [at Fort Drum, N.Y.], but he made no public mention of the ailing senator who has been among his harshest Republican critics.... Trump frequently disparages McCain in public, although usually not by name.... In a 25-minute address to troops, Trump praised the U.S. military as the world's most powerful war-fighting force and took credit for the legislation, which represents a $16 billion increase in authorized funding for the Pentagon over the current year.... Trump name-checked four members of Congress who joined him at the event, including Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who represents the district where the base is located.... McCain's friends and supporters reacted angrily to Trump's snub of the senator." ...
Last year, we secured a historic $700 billion to rebuild our military. And now the National Defense Authorization Act paves the way for 1,700 -- listen to this now. So we';ve been trying to get money. They never gave us money for the military for years and years. And it was depleted. We got $700 billion. And next year, already approved, we have $716 billion to give you the finest planes and ships and tanks and missiles anywhere on earth. -- Donald Trump, to soldiers at Fort Drum, yesterday
False. Mr. Trump's claim is wrong on two fronts: that the approved funding levels are 'historic' and that the military 'never' had money 'for years and years.' It's also not clear what he was referring to when he said the act 'paves the way for 1,700.'... That's not the largest military budget in recent history, let alone all of American history. Even if inflation is not taken into account, President Barack Obama signed a $726 billion National Defense Authorization Act for the 2011 fiscal year. Adjusted for inflation, Congress authorized more money for the Pentagon every fiscal year between 2007 and 2012, during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. -- Linda Qiu of the New York Times
Qiu goes on to debunk numerous other false statements Trump made yesterday.
... Later That Same Day. Shane Goldmacher & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: "President Trump returned to his home state of New York on Monday intent on settling old scores with leading Democratic politicians here, mocking Senator Kirsten Gillibrand as 'just a puppet' of Senator Chuck Schumer, and saying 'it' very sad to see what's happening with New York' under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.... The president's remarks came at a fund-raiser in Utica for Representative Claudia Tenney.... Outside the hotel, about 100 Trump supporters stood across the street from roughly 400 protesters, several of whom spoke out against the president's policies on immigrants and refugees because of Utica's large refugee population. The United Nations named Utica 'the town that loves refugees,' as it has resettled more than 16,000 refugees over the past three decades. Utica has a population of just over 60,000."
Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Several times in the first year of his administration..., Donald Trump wanted to call Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the afternoon. But there was a problem. Midafternoon in Washington is the middle of the night in Tokyo.... Trump's aides had to explain the issue, which one diplomatic source said came up on 'a constant basis,' but it wasn't easy.... Trump's desire to call world leaders at awkward hours is just one of many previously unreported diplomatic faux pas Trump has made since assuming the presidency, which go beyond telephone etiquette to include misconceptions, mispronunciations and awkward meetings." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Jonathan Chait has a more amusing take on Lippman's reporting: "Running an effective foreign policy for a global hyperpower is always tricky when the president happens to be a personally corrupt authoritarian bigot who is concealing shady ties to a strategic adversary. The problem gets even harder when the president is unable to grasp some of the basic facts and principles of diplomacy.... It's like having Homer Simpson as president, but dumber:" (Also linked yesterday.)
Emoluments! Ben Weidner & Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "At least 125 Republican campaigns and conservative political groups spent more than $3.5 million at ... Donald Trump's resorts, hotels and restaurants since January 2017, the month he was sworn in, according to an analysis by McClatchy.... By comparison, candidates and political groups spent less than $35,000 at Trump properties for the entire two-year 2014 election cycle, according to FEC records.... Since 2017, the biggest spenders have been Republican party committees -- including the Republican National Committee, the Republican Governors Association and the National Republican Senate Committee -- and Trump himself."
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to acknowledge on Monday ... that his White House had aides sign nondisclosure agreements. The president made the statement in a post on Twitter about Omarosa Manigault Newman.... 'Wacky Omarosa already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement!' Mr. Trump tweeted, using the type of moniker he often deploys against people who say disparaging things about him.... White House officials have not explained why Ms. Manigault Newman was hired, if there were such concerns about her or why she was offered a campaign contract after being fired.... For months, officials in the West Wing have refused to confirm reports by The New York Times and other news outlets that aides were ordered to sign nondisclosure agreements, which legal experts say are essentially unenforceable for government employees.... Former West Wing officials have said that while they were enacted, members of the White House counsel's office signaled that they could not be enforced, and that they were being executed to reassure Mr. Trump." Mrs. McC: Read on. Haberman's report may force Trump to act "not presidential" again (see next link). ...
... President* Paranoid Von Leakypants. Josh Dawsey & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump’s bitter fight with a former top White House aide has highlighted his aggressive and unconventional use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent current and former government employees from revealing secrets or disparaging him or his family.... Copies of Trump NDAs ... lay out breathtakingly broad prohibitions on behavior and appear to be drawn heavily from similar contracts used in the past by the Trump Organization, the president's family firm. Under one agreement from the 2016 campaign, signers promised not to 'demean or disparage publicly' Trump, his company or any member of his family -- and also not to assist any other politician exploring a federal or state office. An agreement circulated in the White House last year barred signers from sharing any information they had learned in the building.... The rampant use of such nondisclosure agreements underscores a culture -- fostered by Trump himself -- of paranoia, leaks, audio recordings and infighting that has pervaded his dealings for decades and continues into his presidency, according to current and former aides."
... Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... said Monday that she believes Trump was lying when he claimed in a phone call in December that he knew nothing about her dismissal by White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.... Trump fired back at Manigault Newman with a Monday morning tweet in which he attacked his former aide as 'vicious, but not smart' and claimed that 'people in the White House hated her.' 'Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time,' Trump said. 'She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok.' Trump said he would 'rarely see' Manigault Newman in the White House, a claim that contradicts reports that she enjoyed a close relationship with the president. In two follow-up tweets, Trump continued to disparage his former aide, saying he had 'heard really bad things' about her and claiming that she 'would constantly miss meetings & work.'... He added that while it was 'not presidential' to attack her, he was doing so because he believes the media will be trying to make her 'look as legitimate as possible.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yeah, it's the media who force Trump to act "not presidential." ...
... "Welcome to the Resistance, Omarosa." Michelle Goldberg: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... is an amoral, dishonest, mercenary grifter. This makes her just like most people in Trump's orbit. What separates her from them is that she might be capable of a sliver of shame.... She chose to speak out against the man who made her a star, and repent for her complicity in electing him. She may be a manipulative narcissist, but she's behaving more honorably than any other former Trump appointee.... Perhaps the most interesting thing about 'Unhinged' is its insights into how Manigault Newman, a former Democrat who'd worked in Bill Clinton's White House, rationalized being part of Trump's white nationalist campaign.... No matter how little credibility Manigault Newman has, the man who gave her a top-ranking job in his administration has less."
Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. senior counterintelligence agent who disparaged President Trump in inflammatory text messages and helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email and Russia investigations, has been fired for violating bureau policies, Mr. Strzok's lawyer said Monday. Mr. Trump and his allies seized on the text messages -- exchanged during the 2016 campaign with a former F.B.I. lawyer, Lisa Page -- in assailing the Russia investigation as an illegitimate 'witch hunt.' Mr. Strzok, who rose over 20 years at the F.B.I. to become one of its most experienced counterintelligence agents, was a key figure in the early months of the inquiry. Along with sending the text messages, Mr. Strzok was accused of sending a highly sensitive search warrant to his personal email account. It is not clear why Mr. Strzok, who was formally fired on Friday, was dismissed at this time.... Aitan Goelman, his lawyer, said that the deputy director of the F.B.I., David Bowdich, had overruled the bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility, which said Mr. Strzok should be suspended for 60 days and demoted." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI - finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer. Based on the fact that Strzok was in charge of the Witch Hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total Hoax. No Collusion, No Obstruction - I just fight back! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Monday morning
Yasha Mounk of Slate: "... there is considerable evidence that [Peter Strzok] at times fell short of the FBI's exacting professional standards.... However, there is also strong evidence that Strzok's personal views did not affect his professional conduct and even more compelling evidence that they did not sway the actions of the bureau as a whole.... 'Did he get fired because of his failings -- or did the FBI buckle under the enormous pressure exerted by Donald Trump?'... By caving to a massive campaign of vilification by the president, and publicly violating [FBI Director Christopher] Wray's promise that the investigation into Strzok would be done by the book, the bureau's leadership has undermined that trust in a much more public, deliberate, and grievous manner than the man they scapegoated ever did.... Strzok's firing is only the latest in a series of cases in which high-ranking civil servants have been personally attacked by the president and then been forced to leave office under highly unusual circumstances: At this point, Trump has managed to dispatch the FBI's director, its deputy director, its general counsel, and the head agent of its investigating agency."
... AND as Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, Trump has managed to dispatch all but one -- David Bowdich -- of the direct or indirect witnesses to Trump's attempt to obstruct the FBI's investigation of Michael Flynn. How conveeenient!
Greg Sargent: As part of a Washington Post piece on Donald Trump Jr.'s popularity among Trump voters, President Trump told the Post, "'Don has received notoriety for a brief meeting, that many politicians would have taken, but most importantly, and to the best of my knowledge, nothing happened after the [Trump Tower] meeting concluded.' [Emphasis Sargent's] 'This statement was clearly lawyered,' Bob Bauer, former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, told me.... What happened after this meeting? As one legal expert told Natasha Bertrand, the big unknown is whether it bore some kind of relation to Russia';s subsequent cybertheft of Democratic emails and other possible evidence of collusion..., making the meeting part of 'the same criminal conspiracy.'... Trump's claim that nothing untoward subsequently happened 'to the best of my knowledge' is revealing. 'He's trying to put as much of a cloak of ignorance around himself as he possibly can,' Bauer told me. 'What this does is abandon Trump&'s year-and-a-half explanation that there was absolutely "no collusion." After that meeting, there could have been ongoing coordination. And now he's not denying that could have happened. He's saying he doesn't know."... The bottom line on all this, Bauer concluded, is that Trump almost certainly knows more than he has 'publicly admitted to or acknowledged,' and Mueller probably 'already knows it.'... If so, Trump can't lie to [Robert] Mueller about it or tell the truth about it, either." ...
... Steve M. looks at the same WashPo story about Junior (it's here; I purposely didn't link it yesterday), and he found it less compelling than Sargent did. He calls the report "a GOP press release.... As we all know, Junior is an ignoramus[.]... But that doesn't matter in the GOP -- in fact, it's beneficial. Here we are in the Democratic Party, asking ourselves whether Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is really ready for prime time ... -- but Republicans don't care about any of that. Anyone who turns their voters into spittle-flecked rage monsters is declared to be a superstar.... Even if Junior does time, I think he has a bright future in Republican politics -- maybe especially if he does time. If he does, he'll be a Trump and a martyr. He hates liberals in the most simple-minded way. He likes guns and hunting. He has no self-doubt. Therefore, he's a natural. I think he's the Republican presidential frontrunner in 2024, especially if he's on parole." ...
... He Was Right the First Time. This Is Now: Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it! -- Donald Trump, August 5, 2018. ...
... That Was Then, Public Statement: My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency. -- Donald Trump, in a statement July 11, 2017
... That Was Then, Private Remark: He is such a f[uc]kup. He screwed up again, but this time, he's screwing us all, big-time! -- Donald Trump, ca. July 11, 2017, according to Omarosa Manigault Newman
Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors rested their case against Paul Manafort on Monday afternoon after calling more than two dozen witnesses in their tax- and bank-fraud case against the former Trump campaign chairman. The final round of testimony from Treasury Department senior special agent Paula Liss lasted only five questions. It essentially boiled down to Liss stating that she had not found any evidence that Manafort's international political consulting firms had filed reports with the U.S. government acknowledging they had foreign bank accounts.... A Chicago bank CEO who was seeking a top job in the Trump administration overrode the objections of the bank's president in order to green light a $9.5 million loan for Paul Manafort in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign, a bank executive testified Monday.... The CEO of the Chicago-based Federal Savings Bank, Stephen Calk, interceded after the president of the bank, Javier Ubarri, decided it was too risky to allow Manafort to draw the $9.5 million in funds out of equity in his Bridgehampton, N.Y. home, bank vice president James Brennan said." ...
... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post on today's developments in the Manafort trial: "Paul Manafort or his agents neglected to mention mortgages on two New York properties when he sought $16 million in loans... A vice president of Federal Savings Bank said he wouldn't have approved the $16 million loans, but the bank CEO pushed them through... The prosecution rested its case in chief, and the defense will argue its motion to acquit on Tuesday[.]" ...
... David Voreacos & Neil Weinberg of Bloomberg: "Paul Manafort turned to Jared Kushner for help in an attempt to secure a Trump administration job for a Chicago banker at the center of Manafort's fraud trial.... 'On it!' Kushner replied on Nov. 30, 2016, according to an email submitted by prosecutors into evidence Monday at Manafort's trial on bank and tax-fraud charges. The email shows how, months after Manafort was deposed as campaign manager, he reached into Trump's inner circle for help, without success. It also provides a window into how a disorganized, inexperienced campaign team was inundated with requests from supporters seeking coveted posts in the new administration. The banker who sought the job in Trump's administration was Stephen Calk, chief executive officer of the Federal Savings Bank, which loaned $16 million to Manafort. Prosecutors say those loans, made after the election, were part of a corrupt scheme to help Manafort pull cash out of his properties." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Not sure what a Trump administration roll is, but I'm thinking along the lines of a white-bread Wonder Bread bun. Definitely white-bread.
... Cristian Farias of New York: "... for all the flashy testimony to come out of the [Manafort] trial..., jurors have already seen reams of documentary evidence -- emails, invoices, and business records that paint a picture of the scheme Manafort is accused of orchestrating. In significant ways, the oral testimony simply corroborates or adds to the foundation prosecutors have already laid with the documents entered into evidence. As for [Judge T.S.] Ellis, whose ornery treatment of prosecutors has gotten him undue attention for all the wrong reasons, it's best to not read too much into it.... Because the defense is likely to catch fire from him too but also because benchslapping is something that trial lawyers have to live with -- and it's not a good barometer of how jurors will ultimately decide a case.... Ellis, more than just about anyone else in America, knows a wealth of extremely sensitive details about the Russia investigation, and his apparent drive to cut no slack for the prosecution also indicates that he wants their side to have a solid trial record in the event of an appeal." (Also linked yesterday.)
Morgan Chalfont of the Hill: "A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected an effort by a Russian company to get charges brought by special counsel >Robert Mueller dismissed. U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was appointed by President Trump, on Monday denied a motion by Concord Management and Consulting LLC to dismiss an indictment on the grounds that Mueller was appointed unlawfully by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Russia investigation. The company -- which allegedly has ties to Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a Russian businessman better known as 'Putin's chef' because of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- is accused of funding a Russian troll farm that used social media to sow discord among the American public in a broader plot to interfere in the election. Emphasis added." ...
... "Disloyal! Sad!" digby: "Trump should have gotten that loyalty oath up front.... They are looking for a judge in one of these cases to rule that the Mueller investigation is illegal so they can get it into the appellate pipeline. So far, no dice."
Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "As special counsel Robert Mueller zeroes in on Roger Stone, prosecutors are looking into seemingly threatening emails the longtime Trump adviser sent to a former radio host, sources say. The existence of some of those emails was first reported by Mother Jones in May. A lawyer for Randy Credico, the radio host, confirmed Friday that he received a subpoena from Mueller's office requesting that Credico testify before a grand jury in Washington on September 7.... According to two people familiar with the matter, investigators ... want to question Credico about a series of emails Stone sent him earlier this year, after Credico publicly disputed Stone’s claims about their interactions.... The investigators are interested in the extent to which Credico perceived Stone's statements as threats.... 'I am so ready. Let's get it on. Prepare to die cock sucker,' Stone emailed Credico on April 9 in response to Credico indicating he would publicly challenge Stone's description of their 2016 contacts."
JeffBo Is All-in with Voter Suppression. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "During the Obama administration, the Justice Department would often go to court to stop states from [imposing voter-suppression laws]. But 18 months into President Trump's term, there are signs of change: The department has launched no new efforts to roll back state restrictions on the ability to vote, and instead often sides with them. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the department has filed legal briefs in support of states that are resisting court orders to rein in voter ID requirements, stop aggressive purges of voter rolls and redraw political boundaries that have unfairly diluted minority voting power -- all practices that were opposed under President Obama's attorneys general. The Sessions department's most prominent voting-rights lawsuit so far forced Kentucky state officials last month to step up the culling from registration rolls of voters who have moved."
When Henry Met Jared. Caleb Melby, et al., of Bloomberg: Jared Kushner introduced himself to Henry Kissinger at a National Interest luncheon in March 2016, where Kissinger was the guest speaker. At the luncheon, Kushner "also met Dimitri Simes, the Russian-born president of the center.... Questions have recently been raised about the center for its ties to Russia, including its interactions with Maria Butina, a woman accused of conspiring to set up a back channel by infiltrating the National Rifle Organization and the National Prayer Breakfast.... In the weeks following [the luncheon, Kushner & Simes arranged] ... an event hosted by the center to give Trump a chance to lay out a cohesive foreign policy speech.... In his speech at the Mayflower, Trump called for easing tensions with Russia.... It was at [Trump's] Mayflower [event] that Kushner first met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, an encounter he left off disclosure forms when he initially joined the government." Via safari (Also linked yesterday.)
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The National Archives is doubling down on its refusal to respond to Democratic' requests for documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's White House tenure. Archivist David Ferriero wrote in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, that it is the agency's policy to only respond to requests from a committee chairman, who are all Republicans." Mrs. McC: Sounds to me like an unamerican, um, "rigged" policy. (Also linked yesterday.) Also, see safari's comment on this in yesterday's thread.
Congressional Races
WGRZ-TV: "Carl Paladino announced Saturday that he was putting his name in the mix for the 27th Congressional District. This comes after the incumbent, Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, Erie County, was arrested on federal charges Wednesday and halted his re-election campaign Saturday morning.... In 2017, Paladino was removed from the Buffalo school board, which accused him of willfully sharing confidential information about negotiations with the city's teachers union and a pending lawsuit that was discussed during a closed-door meeting. He had faced a barrage of criticism during his time on the board for racist and controversial remarks." The story lists other people who have expressed interest in running. Thanks to PD Pepe for the heads-up.
Stephanie Murray of Politico: "A high-ranking Republican lawmaker's son donated the 'maximum amount' to a Democrat running to replace his father. Bobby Goodlatte, son of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), made the surprise announcement on Twitter Sunday night. Goodlatte is retiring after 13 terms in Congress. 'I just gave the maximum allowed donation to Jennifer Lewis, a democrat running for my father's congressional seat. I've also gotten 5 other folks to commit to donate the max. 2018 is the year to flip districts -- let's do this!' Bobby Goodlatte wrote on Twitter.... Donald Trump carried the central Virginia district with nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2016, and Mitt Romney did the same in the 2012 presidential election. Goodlatte received two-thirds of the vote that year." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update: Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "The son of a prominent House Republican blasted his father's role in the saga leading up to FBI agent Peter Strzok's ouster, less than a day after he announced that he was supporting the Democratic candidate to succeed his father. 'I'm deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok's career was ruined by my father's political grandstanding. That committee hearing was a low point for Congress,' Bobby Goodlatte, the son of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, tweeted Monday. 'Thank you for your service sir. You are a patriot.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "The West Virginia House of Delegates voted late Monday night to impeach all of the justices on the Supreme Court, a decision prompted initially by reports of extravagant spending on office renovations. In a series of votes that frequently fell along rough party lines, lawmakers approved 11 articles of impeachment against the four sitting justices, sending the process on to the State Senate. Most of the articles involved the chief justice, Allen Loughry, a Republican, who has been suspended since June and is facing a 23-count federal indictment on charges of fraud and false statements. He is accused of using state property for personal use and of deceiving lawmakers, in addition to the charge of 'unnecessary and lavish spending,' most emblematically on a $32,000 office sofa.... Democrats have described the whole process as a partisan power grab; the Legislature and the governor's office are in Republican control, while a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court of Appeals, as the state's highest court is officially known, were elected as Democrats." ...
... Here's a November 2017 WCHS report on the lovely furnishings & renovations:
News Ledes
New York Times: "A bridge in the heart of Genoa collapsed on Tuesday killing 26 people as dozens of vehicles and tons of concrete and steel plunged onto city streets below in a disaster that prompted an emergency review of Italy's aging infrastructure."
Guardian: "A man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences after a car crashed into a number of cyclists and pedestrians before hitting security barriers outside the Houses of Parliament in London, police have said. Armed police swooped on the scene in marked cars moments after the silver Ford Fiesta collided with the barriers at about 7.40am on Tuesday, pointing their weapons at the vehicle before a driver emerged and was placed in handcuffs. The man, in his late 20s, was arrested at the scene and taken to a police station in south London where he remains in police custody. He was the only person in the vehicle, which remains at the scene and is being searched. No weapons were recovered, according to police."
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Reader Comments (13)
Another creature has crawled out of the swamp and has announced his intention of running for Senator Chris Collin's seat. This slime is the dumb, vile creature Carl Paladino who during Obama's reign sent out racist, porn-like pictures ( Obama featured as a gorilla; Michelle having sex with a horse) via email. So yesterday there he was standing in his district in N.Y. with a baseball bat saying:
"Make no mistake–-you haven't heard the last of Carl Paladino."
And there will be those that will vote for this asshole, you can bet on it.
I'm off to vote in the CT. primary–-am not voting for assholes as far as I know.
Here's a real eye-opener. Investors Business Daily says the Russia investigation of DiJiT was set up by HRC and her dogrobbers in DOJ and the intelligence community!
I saw this because the Chrome homepage on my tablet offers up news articles, and this was near the top of today's offering. Sort of like when your dog brings home a dead skunk, I guess.
It is a fairly long piece, but if you read it you can see how people who have difficulty analyzing facts (i.e. readers) can be persuaded that up is down and in is out, if the writers can get them to make just a few assumptions. Here the key assumption is that HRC's campaign, GPS Solutions, and key senior people in the DOJ and intelligence communities all conspired to entrap the DiJiT campaign.
Unaddressed is the "business decision" question: if everybody thought that DiJiT was a loser, why would they take great risk and cost to put such a conspiracy afoot?
I will not be taking IBD's investment advice, but thought RC readers might enjoy a look at a pretty slick RWNJ conspiracy monger.
@Patrick: You're right about the key-assumptions stunt. I think there's a meta-key assumption that works first: Trump good/Clinton bad. Ergo, Trump backers good/Clinton apologists bad. I suffer from the opposite set of key assumptions: I'm willing to read & consider something that seems counterintuitive if the writer or publication is one I recognize as at least "reasonably liberal."
But I must admit I've also been suckered by faulty logic. I once let David Brooks suck me in with a false either/or "choice." It was a long time ago, so I don't remember what the topic was, but let's say it was, (a) "It isn't right that unskilled union workers in low-risk jobs make more money than high-school teachers with master's degrees." So (b) "We have to find a way to pay union workers less." Brooks presented the false solution (b) more skillfully (that is, more cunningly), leaving the reader to conclude, along with him, that only (b) was a possible alternative to "overpaying" union workers. Obviously, there are other choices, like (c) "Pay teachers more."
Even a relatively intelligent reader can be manipulated by a cleverly-presented, but flawed, argument. We always have to be on the lookout.
Marie,
Be on the lookout, indeed. The difficulty lies in the demise of critical thought in America today. I'm not suggesting that it was significantly better in the 19th century or any other period one could name (except perhaps among certain groups here and there along the way such as the Founders, the Abolitionists, the Metaphysical Club, or the New Dealers, e.g.).
Subjectivity is often a stumbling block to clear thinking as are the panoply of personal prejudices that hang about like cobwebs. The Age of Trump, however (actually it should be more properly named the Age of Gingrich-Bush-Trump) evinces a decidedly vigorous hatred for critical thought, that operation being particularly toxic to almost all modern right-wing ideas and policies.
Gingrich, although he can still be seen on the TV spreading his usual noxious mixture of mendacity, revanchism, and invented facts, should get a lot of the credit for the right's obsession with bald-faced lies, uncritical thought, and character assassination as modes of political discourse. His thesaurus of nastiness, developed to help wingers (especially those frighteningly unqualified) on the campaign trail reach for better and more vituperative expressions of disdain and hatred for their opponents, can still be recognized as it informs the uninformed drivel spewing out of Confederate pie holes. Liarbee Sanders is obviously a fan.
Most of the practitioners of right-wing blather don't bother, as Our Miss Brooks does, with pretending to fashion a serious argument anymore. Lyin' Ryan tried it for a while but gave up. He sucked at it. Getting up at a microphone and saying up is down is not an argument. It doesn't even rise to the level of decent polemics. It's just mere gainsaying.
At this point, they just make shit up, spout it and expect that the mouthbreathers will go along. This is what Giuliani and Trump do. Just make it up out of hole cloth (pun intended). Prêt-à-Porter arguments with pre-made holes. Brilliant.
All of which is to say that remaining on the lookout is still the best bet to stay sane, and properly critical, in an increasingly shallow, slipshod, truth-free country.
Talk about a lack of critical thinking...
The little king is making the same sort of mistake that so many chicken-hawks seem to make, thinking that a pile of money and expensive weapons systems automatically win wars and make us "safer". Nothing could be further from the truth.
A few years ago 19 guys with box cutters took out the two tallest buildings in New York City, killed thousands of people, crashed a plane into the Pentagon, and could have flown another one into the Capitol Building or the White House except for the actions of a group of ballsy, pissed off Americans. Of course it helped that our president* was asleep at the switch, then later blamed everyone else, but it shows what committed foes can do in spite of cool weapons systems and mountains of money.
But this is Trump we're talking about. Mountains of money and shiny objects are what he lives for, they define him, so it's no surprise that he believes that's all that matters. His little member must get all twitchy-like when he says things like "$700 BILLION!", as if it's his to give (if it was his, he sure as shit wouldn't be giving it to anyone, but he's happy to hand out your money and take credit for it).
And I'm not expecting anyone in this administration to fix the Pentagon or to come up with the innovations and paradigm shifts necessary to keep the military competitive (that's what it is, in truth, a competition) in the digital age when wars will be waged online rather than on the front. Dominant? Sure, I suppose so, but if a handful of guys with sharp objects can bypass all your defenses, what good is your dominance? True dominance is being smarter than the other guys, understanding that we've got to be smarter in war and smarter in peace.
And none of that comes within a parsec or three of describing Team Trump.
Vietnam was an embarrassment. Iraq? We were supposed be in and out in a month. Fifteen years later, we're still there. Dominance? We need to drastically reassess what military power and dominance mean and how best to use it. Shiny objects and lots of money will not accomplish those things.
But anyway, Mars Awaits! Blast off, Cap'n Trumpy! $700 billion? Pshaw, plenty more where that came from. At least until your tax cuts empty the coffers. Your pals in the military industrial complex salute you, until the money runs out.
What kind of rolls?
Parker. Because they'd make Constant Weader frow up.
Correction: Chris Collins is/was a representative, not a senator.
After voting today we went for haircuts and found our usual laid back hair stylist/ barber raging over Trump's corruptions––"What the hell is happening to this country," he yells. When I asked if he still had customers that were "For" Trump he made a face and said, "a few, but I never get into discussions with them about politics for fear I might just accidentally cut off their ears instead of their hair."
Trump's neglect of mentioning John McCain during his faulty Defense Budget talk is beyond cruel, it's about as petty as you can get but not surprising from a man who IS as petty as you can get.
Omarosa was all over the networks yesterday with interviews here, interviews there. I came away thinking this woman could be Trump's clone, but much smarter and perhaps more devious. She knows the art of entertainment even better than he does. She's gotta get him and she has the tapes to prove it. Ho hum, the fun begins.
@Patrick: I needed an LOL moment. Thank you for providing it.
Formerly,
The Constant Weader
Comment from a Rube:
So this Russher thing is all a Hillary conspiracy?
Gotta admire that Hillary. Sure is one strong woman.*
Not strong enough to get elected, maybe, but still powerful enough to make Donald, Jr. take that Trump Tower meeting that led to nothing, force the Donald himself to ask publicly for Russian help with those "missing" emails, and inspire dozens of White House denials of Russian contacts that turned out to be misleading, contradictions of previous statements, or provable lies.
Then in addition to the many Pretender announcements that a closer relationship with Putin and Russia would be a "good thing" and the obvious bromance between the two, there are all those Pretender policies and practices (outlined by Sipher above) that both play directly into Putin's hands or emulate his divisive, autocratic governance.
Guess I'm to take all this as proof of HRC's continuing influence.
The sum of the Pretender's defense seems to be: It's not me. Whatever relationship I have with Russia, Hillary made me do it.
Don't know if I should say this in our new, enlightened age, but it almost seems the tough guy Pretender is hiding behind a woman's skirts.
*See Krugman today on Pelosi. The Repugs sure don't like those strong women. They hate 'em.
You guys are on a role today.
At brunch today were some younger (everyone seems to be nowadays)
couples who are staying at the B & B across the street. Some of us
locals were invited to join them, since half of their guests had left
before brunch. The younger couples mentioned that they had biked
up to the enclave where a lot of the 1% have their multi-million
dollar "cottages". I asked if they checked out Betsy DeVos's little
place. They said that there was one huge stone and shingle place,
but who is Betsy DeVos?
I was tempted to ask if they knew who Donald Trump is. These
were all college educated people with good jobs.
I'm hoping they are in the minority come election time.
I know I shouldn't be laughing because it's no laughing matter, but
headline reads Why Did Genoa Bride Collapse. I was going to
comment something about climate change---too hot for wedding
gowns, etc. but it turns out it was a typo. Should have been bridge.
Lots of people killed. Old infrastructure bridge.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/why-did-genoa-bride-collapse-
154700028.html
The Brooks story on union workers vs degreed teachers pay disparity reminds me of one of the changes in labor attitudes. It used to be that if a business gave a benefit to it's workers that workers in other businesses would think "Cool, how do we get that?" Today the attitude is more "I don't have that, why should they?"
Learned something. Had no idea one could compose a real argument on Twitter.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/13/17683416/trump-republican-party-conservatives-seth-cotlar
Doesn't take long to read, but one warning: it's disappointingly short on the fun name-calling I thought Twitter use required.