Sunday
Aug052018
The Commentariat -- August 6, 2018
Late Morning Update:
Hope Yen & Calvin Woodward of the AP run down a series of false & delusional remarks Trump has made in the past week. "... Donald Trump is imagining steel mill openings that aren't happening and in denial about Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election."
Like Akhilleus, in yesterday's commentary, Aaron Blake of the Washington Post is unimpressed with the Trump administration's newest "explanation" that "facts develop": "... the spokespeople and advisers tasked with squaring Trump's version of reality with actual reality must often contort themselves accordingly. Early in the administration, this meant Kellyanne Conway talking about how the administration had 'alternative facts.' Later, it was Sean Spicer explaining that he didn't 'knowingly' lie to the American people. On Sunday, they tried a couple of new tacks: asserting that 'facts develop' and saying that the president 'misspoke' -- while saying something he has said dozens of times.... Facts might have 'developed' from [Trump attorney Jay] Sekulow's perspective, but the actual events never changed.... national security adviser John Bolton offered another extremely hard-to-stomach explanation for Trump's soft stance toward Vladimir Putin on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election, saying Trump merely 'misspoke.'... As the video clip [Chris] Wallace played shows, [the would-wouldn't claim] was hardly the only moment in the joint news conference with Putin in which Trump played down the idea that Russia interfered." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: "Misspeaking" means saying something you don't mean, often because you garbled what you intended to say. But politicians use "I misspoke" to explain away things they've said that they do mean but wish they hadn't admitted. Saying "would" for "wouldn't" would be a good example of misspeaking, would that it were not another Trump lie-excuse. One cannot repeatedly "misspeak" the same thing. "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" is misspeaking; making approving remarks about Putin over & over again is not.
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said it would restore sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord at midnight on Monday, ratcheting up pressure on Tehran while worsening a divide with Europe. The new sanctions are a consequence of President Trump's decision in May to withdraw from the nuclear deal with world powers. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that the goal was to get Iran to change its ways -- namely, ending its support of brutal governments or uprisings in the Middle East. European officials have said that the Iran nuclear agreement is crucial to their national security. International inspectors have concluded that Iran is complying with the accord."
But will they wear long pants?Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Sen. Rand Paul, who has supported ... Donald Trump's effort to improve relations with Russia, announced Monday that Russian lawmakers have agreed to visit the U.S. Capitol.... He is currently in Moscow meeting with Russian officials...."
Steven Chase of the (Canadian) Globe & Mail: "Saudi Arabia has expelled Canada's ambassador and frozen new trade deals with [Canada] in a growing dispute over the Canadian government's criticism of human-rights violations in the Islamic kingdom. This comes in the wake of statements by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her department last week where Ottawa called on the Saudis to release arrested civil-rights activists and signalled concern at a new crackdown in the Mideast country. In public statements on Sunday, Riyadh gave Canadian ambassador Dennis Horak 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own envoy."
Ryan Broderick of BuzzFeed News: "It's Looking Extremely Likely That QAnon Is A Leftist Prank On Trump Supporters." Broderick posts some of the circumstantial evidence for this theory.
*****
Ashley Parker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday offered his most definitive and clear public acknowledgment that his oldest son met with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign to 'get information on an opponent.'... It is ... against the law for U.S. campaigns to receive donations or items of value from foreigners, and that June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya is now a subject of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia probe.... 'Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower,' the president wrote in one of several early morning tweets Sunday, many of which took aim at the media. 'This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics -- and it went nowhere.' He concluded by further distancing himself from the meeting his son arranged, writing: 'I did not know about it!'... ... In one tweet, [Trump] declared the media the 'Enemy of the People' and accused them of sowing division and distrust. 'They can also cause War!' Trump wrote. 'They are very dangerous & sick!' In another, he expressed frustration with both the media and Mueller's probe. 'Too bad a large portion of the Media refuses to report the lies and corruption having to do with the Rigged Witch Hunt -- but that is why we call them FAKE NEWS!'... On Sunday, one of the president's attorneys [Jay Sekulow] defended the 2016 meeting as something that would not have been illegal under any federal statute.... Sekulow on Sunday also noted that he himself had given a misleading statement a year ago when, on 'This Week' and other media appearances, he said that Trump had nothing to do with the misleading statement given to the New York Times." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... OR, as Marcy Wheeler put it, "Trump tweets a confession, then Sekulow admits his client has been lying about his involvement.... Amid a series of batshit tweets just now, in an attempt to rebut reporting in this [WashPo] story, Trump admitted that his spawn took a meeting with people described as 'part of Russia and its government's support' for his father to obtain dirt on his opponent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Michael Shear & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "It is illegal for a campaign to accept help from a foreign individual or government. The president and his son have maintained that the campaign did not ultimately receive any damaging materials about Mrs. Clinton as a result of the meeting. But some legal experts contend that by simply sitting for the meeting, Donald Trump Jr. broke the law.... Mr. Trump's tweet on Sunday was one in a series in which he renewed his attacks on Mr. Mueller, saying his inquiry was riddled with 'lies and corruption.'" Mrs. McC: And here we are again, with Trump accusing of others of bad behavior that accurately characterizes is own.
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump appears to have broken some new ground here when it comes to admitting the true purpose of the Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-aligned lawyer -- and even further contradicted the initial statement he helped draft about it.... The second issue here are the final words of the tweet. 'I did not know about it!'... If you've got no real concern about legal exposure from the meeting, why distance yourself from it?... [This suggests] he isn't as convinced as he'd like us to believe that there's nothing to see here." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Adam Davidson of the New Yorker: "August 5, 1974, was the day the Nixon Presidency ended. On that day, Nixon heeded a Supreme Court ruling and released the so-called smoking-gun tape, a recording of a meeting, held two years earlier, with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman.... On August 5, 2018, precisely forty-four years after the collapse of the Nixon Presidency, another President, Donald Trump, made his own public admission.... The President's Sunday-morning tweet should be seen as a turning point.... It ends any possibility of an alternative explanation.... What do we do when a President has openly admitted to attempted collusion, lying, and a coverup?" Mrs. McC: If you're a GOP MoC, you place your fat ass firmly on your dirty hands, turns your eyes to the heavens & whistle "Dixie." ...
... If you're Rudy, you make faces. J.M. Rieger of the Washington Post: "Over the past three months, President Trump has sent his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani on a public-relations campaign to undermine the investigations surrounding Trump before they even conclude. Part of Giuliani's rhetorical tactics ... include dramatic facial expressions, laughs, sighs and over-the-top reactions, which he employs liberally and are meant to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the questions or topics in interviews...." ...
... Jeet Heer: "... an intriguing timeline of events: 1) On June 9, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials meet with a Russian group led by Natalia Veselnitskaya to get opposition research on Hillary Clinton. 2) On July 8, 2017, the president dictates a statement giving a false account of that meeting. His lawyer Jay Sikulow subsequently make the false statement that Trump had no role in dictating that false statement. 3) On August 5, 2018, Trump admits the meeting was about collecting opposition research and Sikulow admits Trump had a role in crafting the false statement. If Robert Mueller wants to pursue an obstruction of justice charge against Trump and others in his White House, he has a lot of material to work with." Mrs. McC: Nonethless, it's not against the law to lie to the news media. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... David Lurie of Slate: "On Sunday, Donald Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow admitted that ... Trump ghostwrote, and instructed his son Donald Trump Jr. to issue, a false statement to the press about an active criminal investigation. Then, after the falsity of Trump Jr.'s statement was uncovered, the president seemingly lied to Sekulow, telling his lawyer that he had played no role in drafting it, and thereby induced Sekulow to repeat that falsehood to the nation. While Sekulow argues that there was nothing illegal about the president's conduct here, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has argued the opposite.... Kavanaugh drafted the section of the Starr Report that set out the legal theories supporting the independent counsel's claim that Bill Clinton had committed offenses that could merit impeachment. Central to that argument was a claim that Clinton had obstructed justice by attempting to encourage a witness to lie, as well as by lying to the nation himself.... The Starr Report's obstruction theory ... is far more compelling when applied to President Trump's role in the Trump Jr. statement." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've been seeing some hoohah recently -- a column by the WashPo's Mark Thiessen last week, for instance -- that "Hillary did the same thing," except that she used cutouts -- a lawyer & an oppo research team -- to get dirt on Trump from foreign national Christopher Steele. This is a false equivalency, as conservative columnist Eli Lake wrote in Bloomberg last October: "'There is a real meaningful distinction,' said [Adav] Noti, [a former FEC lawyer,].... 'The Clinton campaign based on what has been reported, paid for opposition research, which included paying people to dig up dirt in foreign countries.'... Noti said that if the Trump officials solicited the information, 'the act itself was unlawful.'" An organization Noti heads up is suing the Clinton campaign for hiding the payments, not for collecting the info in the dossier. It is not against U.S. law for foreign nationals to work for a contractor (or in this case, a subcontractor), at least as long as they're not "decision-makers." As Lake (or his headline writer) put it, "Both Campaigns Sought Russian Dirt. Clinton's Way Was Legal."
Roey Hadar of ABC News: "A member of President Trump's legal team said that if special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify in the Russia investigation, it would spark a legal battle that would go to the Supreme Court. Lawyer Jay Sekulow told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week' Sunday that the president's legal team's inclination at this point is not to have the president meet with Mueller. If Mueller were to try to compel the president's testimony, there would be a legal fight over the constitutionality of requiring such an act of a sitting president, Sekulow said."
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "... President Trump likes to watch replays of his debate and rally performances. But instead of looking for weaknesses in technique or for places to improve, Trump luxuriates in the moments he believes are evidence of his brilliance.... >Trump commentates as he watches, according to sources who've sat with him and viewed replays on his TiVo, which is pre-loaded with his favorites on the large TV in the private dining room adjoining the Oval Office. When watching replays, Trump will interject commentary, reveling in his most controversial lines. 'Wait for it. ... See what I did there?' he'll say."
Melanie Resists. Sort of. Jonathan Lemire & Darlene Superville of the AP: "First lady Melania Trump's move to distance herself from ... Donald Trump's criticism of NBA superstar LeBron James was the latest instance of her quiet but seemingly concerted effort to subtly create space between herself and her husband, careful not to criticize him directly while making clear she does not agree with him." ...
... BUT Melanie Was Following an Old GOP Playbook. Christina Cauterucci of Slate: "In the past week, both Melania and Ivanka Trump have burnished their reputations as the smarter, better Trumps by contradicting the president's views in public.... These statements from the women closest to Donald Trump are deliberate decoys meant to soften the president's image, conferring him humanity by association.... By making public statements that gently criticize her father, and by leaking through anonymous sources that she disagrees with him, all while continuing to stand by him in every way that matters, Ivanka has helped clear the way for her father's agenda.... Melania's statement in support of LeBron James on Saturday ... feign[ed] ignorance of the reason why anyone was talking about James' intelligence in the first place.... The strategy of dispatching a female family member to stage a public disagreement has historically been popular with Republican politicians.... A Trump family member who publicly criticizes the president does far more to ease the consciences of people who will always support Donald Trump than to nudge voters or the GOP toward any policy change." ...
... Racist-in-Chief. Annie Karni of Politico: "The content of ... Donald Trump's dig at basketball superstar LeBron James might have been standard Trump fare -- questioning the intelligence of a prominent African-American who has been critical of him -- but the timing of the tweet made it stand out on Friday night. The post landed almost exactly a year after the deadly clash between white nationalists and Black Lives Matter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, when the president refused to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis outright.... Trump ... is less constrained than he was after Charlottesville.... The advisers who tried to serve as a check on his rash impulses have since left the administration and have been replaced with people more likely to let Trump set his own agenda. And, as he did on Friday, the president has continued to inflame racial tensions -- something Democrats and Republicans alike see as fundamental to his power.... The experience of Charlottesville, as well as his ability to recover from any short-term crisis, has been empowering for Trump and his allies." ...
... Plus Misogynist-in-Chief. Charles Blow: "A review of the many insults Trump has spouted since he declared his candidacy finds that although he has called many people dumb, or dummies or low I.Q., the targeting of that particular insult at women, including minority women, occurs with curious frequency and is often a singular line of attack against them, rather than one of many.... I read in these comments an overt misogyny that has long existed in this country and the world, one that seeks to undercut the seriousness and cerebral capacity of women, to render them as emotionally unsuitable for deep deliberative analysis. It would be laughable, if so many people didn't vehemently insist that the myth has meaning."
How the Kleptocracy Works. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Two of America's biggest steel manufacturers -- both with deep ties to administration officials -- have successfully objected to hundreds of requests by American companies that buy foreign steel to exempt themselves from President Trump's stiff metal tariffs.... Charlotte-based Nucor, which financed a documentary film made by a top trade adviser to Mr. Trump, and Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, which has previously employed several top administration officials, have objected to 1,600 exemption requests filed with the Commerce Department over the past several months. To date, their efforts have never failed, resulting in denials for companies that are based in the United States but rely on imported pipes, screws, wire and other foreign steel products for their supply chains." Mrs. McC: Trump's trade war isn't as stupid as it is opportunistic.
"The Trump Slump." David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "For most Americans, [the economy] is downright mediocre, and it has deteriorated somewhat since President Trump took office, despite the healthy G.D.P. and unemployment statistics.... Hourly wages are suffering through a Trump slump.... [Trump] hourly wages are suffering through a Trump slump.... [Combine two factors] -- faster inflation plus mediocre nominal-wage growth -- and you get a stagnation in real wages. Welcome to the Trump wage slump." ...
... ** Frank Rich: "The mood in America is arguably as dark as it has ever been in the modern era. The birthrate is at a record low, and the suicide rate is at a 30-year high; mass shootings and opioid overdoses are ubiquitous.... Today's America is ... marked by fear and despair more akin to what followed the crash of 1929, when unprecedented millions of Americans lost their jobs and homes after the implosion of businesses ranging in scale from big banks to family farms.... The one conviction that still unites all Americans: Everything in the country is broken. Not just Washington, which failed to prevent the financial catastrophe and has done little to protect us from the next, but also race relations, health care, education, institutional religion, law enforcement, the physical infrastructure, the news media, the bedrock virtues of civility and community.... Perhaps the sole upside to the 2008 crash was that it discredited the Establishment of both parties by exposing its decades-long collusion with a kleptocratic economic order." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rich is as tough on President Obama as he is on Trump, & IMO Rich's critique is right on. I recall then-Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-ND) plaint to Obama, who was then choosing his DINO insider Cabinet: "You've picked the wrong people. I don't understand how you could do this. You've picked the wrong people!" ...
... Michael Tomasky in the New York Times: "... the kind of capitalism that has been practiced in this country over the last few decades has made socialism look far more appealing, especially to young people." Thanks to Patrick for the link.
"The Trump Slump," Ctd. Elizabeth Drew in the Daily Beast: "Despite a world-wide boom in travel, ever since our forty-fift president was elected, tourism to the United States from foreign countries has steadily dropped.... Trump's rhetoric and new policies and rules and regulations regarding travel have combined to blot America's long-standing image as a welcoming nation. And of course his travel ban.... While some attribute the recent drop in tourism to the U.S. to a strong dollar, in fact, the dollar was strong in 2015, when our tourism growth was at its apex, and it was strong in 2016. Yet when it declined in 2017, which should have helped tourism, foreign tourism to the U.S. dropped steeply that year.... The Pew Research Center Reserve found earlier this year that a survey of ten nations showed that a favorable opinion of the US occurred in only one country: Russia...." (Also linked yesterday.)
I Always Figured Steve Seagal Was Dumb as a Rock. Melissa Gomez of the New York Times: "On Saturday, Russian officials tapped ... action-movie star Steven Seagal ... [as] special representative to improve relations between the United States and Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the appointment on Facebook, saying his mission will include promoting 'relations between Russia and the United States in the humanitarian field, including cooperation in culture, arts, public and youth exchanges.'... 'I've always had a very strong desire to do all I can to help improve Russian-American relations,' he told the Kremlin-backed television station RT.... Mr. Seagal's grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, according to a biography on IMDB." Mrs. McC: I'm sure -- after escaping Russian persecution -- they're rolling over in their graves. Anyway, I'll bet Steve is looking forward to his White House tour.
Elana Schor of Politico: "Senate Democrats are gearing up to press Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on his decades-long relationship with former Judge Alex Kozinski, who was forced into retirement last year by a mounting sexual harassment scandal. It’s not just what, if anything, Kavanaugh saw during his time as a Kozinski clerk in the early 1990s that's on Democratic minds. They also want to know how ... Donald Trump's high court pick would address the judiciary's ongoing internal reckoning with sexual misconduct that was sparked by Kozinski -- one of Kavanaugh's early mentors who introduced the younger appellate court judge at his Senate confirmation hearing in 2006.... Whether Kavanaugh should have known about Kozinski's behavior and was indirectly 'complicit' has been much discussed in prominent legal circles. No evidence has come out to disprove the broad denial on behalf of Kavanaugh...."
Congressional Race. Margaret Hartmann: "An August special election for a congressional seat Republicans have held for decades isn't the kind of thing that would usually draw any interest from GOP leaders.... But with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence, and even President Trump showing up in Ohio's 12th Congressional District in recent days, it's obvious that Republicans are very concerned about losing Tuesday's special election, the last before voters head to the polls in November.... President Trump won the district in the Columbus suburbs by 11 points in 2016, but Tuesday's election is a toss up. A month ago, a Monmouth University poll had Troy Balderson, a 56-year-old Republican state senator, leading his opponent by 10 points. But a Monmouth poll released Wednesday showed Danny O'Connor, the 31-year-old Democratic candidate, trailing Balderson by only one point."
Senate Races
Virginia. The White Supremacists' Party. Danny Hakim & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: Corey Stewart, Virginia's Republican nominee for Democrat Tim Kaine's Senate seat, "has styled himself as a champion of the Confederacy and its statues, and, as he puts it, 'taking back our heritage' [which is odd, since like Kaine, Stewart is from Minnesota.] This has made him a popular figure with white nationalists, much to the horror of many Virginia Republicans. While Mr. Stewart has disavowed some on the extreme right, interviews with dozens of his friends, colleagues, supporters and fellow Republicans yielded a portrait of a political opportunist eager to engage the coarsest racial fringes of his party to advance his Trumpian appeal. Some white nationalists volunteer for Mr. Stewart's campaign, and several of his aides and advisers have used racist or anti-Muslim language, or maintained links to outspoken racists like Jason Kessler, the organizer of last year's violent rally in Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Stewart has not distanced himself from those aides."
Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Faced with a formidable challenge by the wealthy governor [Rick Scott (R)], [Sen. Bill] Nelson, a three-term incumbent, has been pushed into the unexpected position of underdog in one of the most closely watched Senate races of the midterms. After 18 years in office, Mr. Nelson remains less known than his opponent, and he is at risk of losing his seat in a battleground state where Democrats, fueled by anti-Trump energy, have notched four recent bellwether election victories.... Panicked Democrats started appealing to Mr. Nelson's team earlier in the summer to ratchet up the campaign.... Mr. Nelson is a low-key, gentlemanly product of an earlier Florida and a different Democratic Party." Mrs. McC: I was so alarmed by the race I sent Nelson money last week, & I'm a cheapskate.
State Races. Julie Turkewitz & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Almost a year into an antiharassment movement that has prompted a coast-to-coast cultural reckoning..., more than a dozen politicians who have been accused of misconduct ... are running for state legislatures again anyway.... Some candidates hope that voters will accept their apologies. Others believe constituents will dismiss the allegations as untrue -- or deem them unimportant.... [For example,] investigators [into allegations about Arizona State Rep. Don Shooter (R)] found many of the allegations to be credible, and in February, Mr. Shooter's colleagues voted by 56-3 to expel him. Mr. Shooter, who had apologized for any demeaning comments, then dropped his microphone in a defiant clatter. Security guards escorted him off the Capitol grounds. 'I've been thrown out of better places than this,' he told a reporter. Now Mr. Shooter is running for office again, hoping to jump from the State House to the State Senate...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Shooter thinks himself quite the wag. "... the publisher of The Arizona Republic, Mi-Ai Parrish, who is Korean-American, met with Mr. Shooter to discuss a bill affecting newspapers. In the meeting, Mr. Shooter ... [said he] had done most everything on his bucket list. When Ms. Parrish asked what he had not done, he responded: 'Those Asian twins in Mexico.'"
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Apple has wiped iTunes and its podcasting app virtually clean of content by Alex Jones, in one of the most aggressive moves by technology companies and streaming services against the conspiracy theorist and owner of the right-wing media platform Infowars. As of early Monday, just one of the six Infowars programs once listed by Apple remained, RealNews with David Knight. The decision to completel pull the other shows, including 'The Alex Jones Show' and 'War Room,' represents a broader effort than those made by other companies in recent days to stop disseminating material associated with Jones, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center calls 'the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America.'... 'Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users,' a spokesperson [for Apple] said."
AND Andy Borowitz is back: "Asserting that 'heroic measures' were needed to save the National Rifle Association from financial catastrophe, the N.R.A.'s president, Oliver North, announced plans to sell arms to Iran." (Satire.)
Beyond the Beltway
Hannah Leone, et al., of the Chicago Tribune: "Starting about midnight Saturday, at least 40 people were shot citywide [in Chicago], four fatally, in a period of less than seven hours as gunmen targeted groups at a block party, after a funeral, on a front porch and in other gatherings, according to authorities."
Two Views of the Same Parade
... Corey Pein of the Daily Beast: "Hundreds of armed supporters of ... Donald Trump, led by a fringe Republican congressional candidate, marched on [Portland, Oregon] Saturday, leaving blood from scattered street fights in their wake. Ostensibly a campaign event for long-shot U.S. Senate hopeful Joey Gibson, members of his group Patriot Prayer urged the president to lock up his political opponents, including Hillary Clinton, and promised violent retribution for anyone who threatened their right to 'free speech' or armed self-defense. Groups of Trump supporters swarmed through the streets, singling out people of color to fight, some of whom appeared to belong to small vigilante squads of local anti-fascists, as well as others who appeared to be mere passersby. Police announced four arrests, but gave no estimate of injuries." ...
... Kale Williams of the Oregonian: "The concussive crack of stun grenades echoed through the streets of downtown Portland Saturday as groups on opposing sides of the political spectrum took to the streets. But despite weeks of heated rhetoric, the protest -- which was organized by right-wing Patriot Prayer and countered by groups on the left -- resulted in little violence between the two groups. Past clashes have quickly devolved to open fistfights and mayhem. The protest, billed ostensibly as a rally for free speech and campaign event for Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer and Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate from Vancouver, saw hundreds of his supporters, many of whom came from out of state, bussed in from across the border decked out in helmets, crash pads and shields festooned with the Confederate battle flag.... The biggest dust-up came when police in riot gear ordered a group of counter-protesters to disperse around 2 p.m. The group, which was tightly clustered near the intersection of Southwest Naito Parkway and Southwest Columbia Street, did not immediately leave and officers quickly began firing dozens of flash-bang grenades and rushing toward the crowd, shoving some protesters out of the street." ...
... Update: Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Portland police were accused Sunday of being heavy-handed against people protesting a rally by extreme-right demonstrators, reportedly injuring some counter-protesters and prompting the city's new police chief to order a review of officers' use of force. Police in riot gear tried to keep the two groups apart, many of whom had come on Saturday dressed for battle in helmets and protective clothing. Dozens of the extreme-right protesters were bussed to Portland, one of America's most liberal cities, from nearby Vancouver, Washington.... But on Saturday, some said police seemed to act mostly against those protesting the presence of the extreme-right demonstrators, using stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets against them.... Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, who assumed command less than a year ago as Portland's first African-American female police chief, said in a statement Sunday she [had] ...directed the professional standards division to begin gathering evidence to determine if the force used was within policy and training guidelines."
Way Beyond
Kit Gillet of the New York Times: "The graffiti in a northwestern town in Romania -- ugly, obscene and anti-Semitic -- was clearly meant to shock. It was scrawled late Friday evening on the outside wall of the childhood home of a man who had been imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp an spent the rest of his life preaching against hate: the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. The building in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania, is now a protected historical monument and museum. The graffiti read in part, 'Nazi Jew lying in hell with Hitler' and 'Public toilet, anti-Semite pedophile.'"
News Ledes
NBC News: "The death toll from an earthquake that struck the Indonesian resort islands of Lombok and Bali was expected to rise above 91 on Monday as new information came in from areas where thousands of buildings collapsed or were badly damaged, authorities said. Rescue workers found chaos and destruction across Lombok on Monday and the quake prompted an exodus of tourists rattled by the second powerful temblor in a week. The tremor was so powerful it was felt on neighboring Bali, where two people died."
USA Today: "Charlotte Rae, the redheaded comedian beloved as the good-natured housemother Mrs. Garrett on TV's 'Facts of Life' and 'Diff'rent Strokes,' has died at 92."
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I had an interesting experience today. We are working in southern California and stopped for breakfast at a popular diner in an agricultural area. Most of the staff was Hispanic, much of the clientele was Hispanic, and FoxNews was on half of the TVs. I asked the manager if the one in front of us could be changed to something different, like the soccer game I could see across the room. He changed the channel, but also started spouting crazy shit, like "You can't trust any news from anywhere" and "You have to watch out for people who just want a paycheck for doing nothing." I didn't see Kool-Aid on the menu, but he had clearly been drinking it in the back room.
I am glad the sound wasn't on. I saw Sekulow's mouth a'yammerin' away but didn't read the subtitles thoroughly to observe the "facts develop over time" statement. Manager and I would have had a more lively discussion.
@NiskyGuy: Funny. I read your post assuming that in a place in SoCal where the workers & clientele were Hispanic, so was the manager. I hope not. Of course he would soon have pissed in my soup because after he told me, "you can't trust the news," I would immediately have said, while giving him that you're-an-idiot, dismissive look, "Of course not if you watch Fox." There are times I abide the idiots, but those times are coming up much less often.
Once in awhile, I'll say something anti-Trump to a stranger -- if it fits into the small talk -- on the surmise that the person is also anti-Trump. That surmise is a ruse, because where I live, most of the voters are white & half of them picked Trump. But I like to leave the impression that the resistance is so strong that everyone belongs now -- and they're out of it if they don't join. I think one problem liberals have -- and it's not one I share -- is that we're preternaturally polite, so we go out of our ways not to offend people with differing views. I don't yell at anybody, or show any anger, but I'm not above implicitly belittling the opposition to their faces. Here's hoping they get it.
Michael Tomaskey has a very good article in today's NYT, addressing the attraction of "socialism" in the current political environment.
The comments are particularly good, indicating readers who are familiar with the terms and issues involved.
We will be hearing a lot about "socialism" in the next few months, as R's seek to tar all D's as radical communards seeking to tear down the castles of benevolent capitalists.
It's going to take a while, but it may be that in our lifetimes voters understand how they are being screwed by corporate capitalism, and that they can ameliorate that by intelligent social (not "socialist") policies, if they vote for it.
I try to insert something about Trumpism whenever I encounter a situation where it would be appropriate: On a walk, for instance, during a friendly exchange with another walker when asked, "So––how are you?" "Well, I'm fine, I say, but our country is going to hell." and then I wait to see if they agree and if so I continue with "That buffoon in the White House..." and I shake my head. To date I have been delighted to have said walkers and others start to rant about the state of affairs. But like Nisky, it would have been disconcerting to experience those almost surreal diner moments––and let's hope, as Marie said, that the manager was not Hispanic.
Have finally been able to watch "The Handmaid's Tale"–-have finished Season 1 and 2. I am haunted by this extraordinary series and its timing for this time in our lives is perfect. Charles Blow's comments (see above) fit right in with it.
On a personal note: A few days ago I sent my brother –-you know, the conservative one in Wisconsin––the article about the problem a Wisconsin bean company was having due to Trump's tariffs. I asked him whether he knew about this. His response:
"I thought we had agreed that you wouldn't send me any of your democratic bullshit."
That he would ascertain the facts about a bean company's problems with democrats–-never mind the B.S.–-is astounding to me but then I'm back in the diner with Nisky, the hispanic cliental, watching Fox News. Surreal!!!!!
Can anyone explain to me why Joey Gibson, Patriot Prayer altar boy and senate candidate in Washington state, would hold an armored-up rally in Portland, Oregon, other than to maximize the provocation of "lefties" in that iconic crunchy city? Don't they have foils in Vancouver, WA, across the Columbia, that they cold taunt?
The truth is that Americans like the "socialist" programs we already have -- at least the ones from which they benefit, particularly Medicare & Social Security. Republicans hate these programs because they're progressive -- the poor & lower-middle-class get more out of them than they've contributed, while the rich & near-rich pay in more than they get back. Even the young & middle-aged can see this: not as many youngish and middle-aged workers are having to take in their parents as was more common before "socialist" programs helped them out. Another "socialist" program that was extremely popular but has now nearly disappeared: free or very low-cost tuition at land-grant & other state colleges & universities.
But there's no doubt the squeeze is on. There's an article in today's NYT about how "The rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991...." Middle-aged breadwinners now find themselves having to take in both the kids who can't afford to live on campus or can't get decent jobs AND their parents who can't make ends meet as their pensions & other savings have dried up. One big happy family? Not so much.
Now Trump has pulled stunts like taking away a good chunk of the tax credit the breadwinners got for the mortgages & taxes they paid on those big ole houses they had to maintain to accommodate their extended families.
So it's hardly surprising that even "conservative" families would like to see free tuition & a guaranteed income for the kids & "free" health insurance for themselves -- you know, the kind people used to get from their employers. The idea that working Americans can "get by" & have a little left over for fun & retirement got baked into the American reality for a couple of generations, & to see that reality slipping into an impossible dream is the nightmare of the day.
If the late-1900's "social compact" among labor, corporations & the government is dead (and it is when corporations insist their first fiduciary obligation is to their shareholders, not their employees), then "socialism" is a kind of quick fix that Americans can vote into effect.
As a dipstick measure of interest in socialism, here a few numbers tracking the circulation of "In These Times," a Chicago-based socialist monthly.
In the 1980's---roughly 40 thousand
2012---22 thousand or so
2017--50 thousand
and tho' I can't find them this AM, I've seen numbers of over 60,000 for the current year.
The mystery for me is that we hear some kind of socialist (or at least anti-capitalist) economic arrangement is particularly attractive to the young--and we also hear that the young don't read.
So why the circulation jump? Who are these secret socialists?
I fear one might live just down the street.
@BeaMcC: Yes, the manager was also Hispanic. And yes, I tend towards the polite end of the spectrum.
If I remember correctly, he ranted that it was hard to find motivated employees, and that businesses all wanted pre-trained workers, and thathe trains his workers. I was able to agree with him on that front and said that we train people from the ground up on our work. He backed off and I had a very nice spicy beef omelet.
@NiskyGuy: Oh crap. Well, at least write a Yelp review where you say the spicy beef omelet was tasty but they had Fox "News" on the teevee.
Sooo the littlest Friend of Putin wants to help Comrade Trumpskyev’s Be Nice to Russians program. Here’s a question. Will he be wearing his most important fashion accessory to those meetings with the Bear? And no, I don’t mean pants (though that might be nice). I mean his patented Li’l Randy Flip Flops ™. Those Rooskies should be forewarned. The left side of the Randy mouth giveth, the right side taketh away.
Patrick, because you get more attention causing trouble in liberal Portland.
Bea, to sum it up.
Liberal, socialist: I love government programs.
Conservative: I love government programs for me!
About Li'l Randy:
He often flip-flops, yes, in mouth if seldom in deed, as you say, Akhilleus, but on one issue, he's consistent. He, like his father and the large majority of the purified Republican Party, is a racist.
Remember when the Repugnants were fond of telling socialists that if they liked Godless socialism so much, they should move to the Soviet Union?
I'm thinking that instead of inviting Putin's cronies here, the racists ought to move to Russia. Randy could lead the way.
Want to know a tell tale publication I am looking forward to?
I'm hoping there's a group of concerned, careful, cautious researchers out there who have been "secretly" (so far) compiling detailed documentation for every single member of Congress - the House and Senate - that will show how Representative X or Senator X came to Congress with a minimal/ordinary net worth and then explain how those incomes/net worth amazingly and rapidly accelerated during their terms in office.
Impressive investing tactics?
Or Insider trading knowledge?
Or did they marry up like Mitch McConnell?
Yeah! let me hear again how you ran for office because of, or your concern for and how you cared about helping the people in your state! Blah! (...by helping yourself to a most generous piece of the pie). Public servants, indeed.
@Bea McCrab: when I really want to irritate myself I will read a Marc Thiessen piece. Actually to take pleasure in reading the comments to his nonsense which get blistering take-downs. Ditto that other WaPo contributor Gary Abernathy from Ohio who is another total jerk. Yeah, the Wapo has these two while the NYTimes has Bret Stephen and Douthat.
Ken,
The recent rise of affections of the religious right for Putin's Russia stems from racism as well. And more than a soupçon of misogyny, with a large order of LGBTQ hatred thrown in on the side. Or maybe that's part of the main course. It's hard to tell in that murky soup of shifting allegiances.
Putin has played up old style religiosity in Russia, meaning the kind of Old Time Religion so beloved by Evangelicals: gays and lesbians are headed to hell, women should know their place, and filthy Mooslims? They're headed to hell to, just as soon as we can kill them.
The phrase "one nation under God" wasn't an idea of the Founders. It wasn't even the brainchild of Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist (!) from Boston (!) who wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance. Wonder how many nativist, heartland Trumpbots know that.
The "one nation under God" bit was added in the 50's as a rebuke to the dirty godless commies from...let's see, where did those people live? Oh, yeah....RUSSIA!
But now that gays and Muslims and women are being considered full fledged human beings by American secularists (all going to hell, by the way), there is a need to gravitate to a powerful source of Old Time Fuck Everyone We Hate thinking. And where can they find that? Oh, sure. RUSSIA!
The guns thing is a plus. And truth be known, the idea that Putin helped put his puppet (and their darling), the Trump Monster in the White House only increases their new found love of all things Russian.
If one didn't know any better, one might think that the idea of loyalty and patriotism are fungible in the Age of Trump, at least to Confederates. Just as Marvin suggests, wingers love social programs as long as they are the ones who benefit. In the case of the We Heart Russia movement, it's a case of loyalty to country is second (or third) place to whatever we imagine will move the needle on our most fervent desire: To fuck those who don't agree with us.
The long litany of Trump Horrors surely has already overtaken the worst of any national politician in American history. That he needs to be impeached, voted out, indicted, and jailed is no longer the sole domain of liberal daydreaming. But here's the thing. None of this matters if Democrats don't show up to vote. Are you pissed that Trump calls black people stupid? Go vote. Are you outraged at his abductions of babies at the border and his willful, malicious destruction of lives? Vote. Do you think collusion is legal and perfectly okay? How about treason? How about self-dealing and enriching yourself, your family and your buddies at the taxpayers' expense? What about his detonation of trade agreements, treaties, and his evisceration of healthcare? Get off your ass and vote.
Cranky old white people (Confederates) vote in droves. Even in off-year elections. They know what's at stake. If they don't vote, some black lady with ten kids, all drug addicts and criminals will get their money. Some Mooslim will come into the country and chain-migrate his entire family, fifty or sixty strong. And they'll all be terrorists. Some dirty Mexican will shove his way into the Land of the Free with all his little babies and rapist, drug dealer friends.
As Democrats begin their obligatory pre-vote in-fighting and the old "both sides are to blame" starts to creep back into the national conversation, it is not at all clear that, for all of those millions unhappy with having a cheating, lying, treasonous piece of shit in the White House, those things are enough to get them to the polls. Will college kids vote? What about African-American and Hispanic voting blocs? I sure hope so. And the other thing is that even when they do show up, they'll be facing hours in line, or have to endure having their legitimacy challenged and their basic rights to vote. It won't be easy. Wingers make sure of that.
The creeps will be out in force.
Will we?
Even if the Russians didn't leave their Hillary dirt for the Trump campaign to look over, which they may have, telling the Trump campaign where they might look for dirt is not "nothing"