Monday
Aug062018
The Commentariat -- August 7, 2018
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times is liveblogging the Manafort trial. "On Tuesday, prosecutors began leading [Manafort's right-hand-man Rick Gates] through a clinical examination of his and Mr. Manafort's business dealings, including how he doctored invoices. Mr. Gates admitted on Monday that they committed crimes together." ...
... Update: @4:25 pm ET, here's the latest recap: "Rick Gates ... is being cross-examined by defense lawyers in Mr. Manafort's trial on bank and tax fraud charges in Alexandria, Va. As defense lawyers attacked his credibility, Mr. Gates admitted to having an affair about a decade ago, but he denied using company money for his trysts. Prosecutors led him through a clinical examination of his and Mr. Manafort's business dealings, including how he hid income to avoid taxes. It is unclear whether Mr. Manafort will take the stand in his own defense. His lawyers would not say. The prosecutors said they expect to wind up their case this week." ...
... The Washington Post's liveblog, which provides more detail on the testimony, is here. ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "For days, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis has been cracking the whip at prosecutors in the Paul Manafort fraud trial, prodding them again and again to keep the case moving forward and to drop matters he considers irrelevant. Prosecutors' frustration with those exhortations spilled out publicly Monday in a series of prickly clashes in which Ellis snapped at one of special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors, Greg Andres, and Andres sometimes lashed back at the judge -- something lawyers rarely do.... The clashes with the judge were unusual and could be risky, since some of them took place with the jury in the room."
Rick Wilson in Rolling Stone: "As these past several days prove, Trump's impenetrable belief that he's a genius surrounded by morons will be his undoing. He's tweeting himself -- to say nothing of his family and co-conspirators -- into a legal dead end. A meeting with Mueller is the big leagues, where the stakes are existential, the opposing team is merciless and the downside risks are the size of the White House. This impulsive, stubborn man can't resist trying to pull off this stunt. What could possibly go wrong?"
"Toxic Shock." Sydney Franklin of ArchNews: "One of the most dangerous construction-related carcinogens is now legally allowed back into U.S. manufacturing under a new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On June 1, the EPA authorized a 'SNUR' (Significant New Use Rule) which allows new products containing asbestos to be created on a case-by-case basis. According to environmental advocates, this new rule gives chemical companies the upper hand in creating new uses for harmful products in the United States. In May, the EPA released a report detailing its new framework for evaluating the risk of its top prioritized substances. The report states that the agency will no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments. This news comes after the EPA reviewed its first batch of 10 chemicals under the 2016 amendment to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which required the agency to continually reevaluate hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals to see whether they should face new restrictions or be removed from the market. The SNUR greenlights companies to use toxic chemicals like asbestos without consideration about how they will endanger people who are indirectly in contact with them." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: Pruitt or not, I find this unbelievable.
Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs, including Obamacare, four sources with knowledge of the plan told NBC News. The move, which would not need congressional approval, is part of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller's plan to limit the number of migrants who obtain legal status in the U.S. each year.... Immigration lawyers and advocates and public health researchers say it would be the biggest change to the legal immigration system in decades and estimate that more than 20 million immigrants could be affected." Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is senseless cruelty. Many who suffer will be the American children of these legal immigrants. One reason to vote Democratic: so Congress can haul Miller up before some committee & ask "What the fuck is the matter with you?" ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Under the forthcoming plan, any legal immigrants who have ever used (or whose household contains people who have ever used) children's health insurance (CHIP), Obamacare, supplemental nutrition assistance, or other social benefits could be denied legal status. Since the 19th century, immigration policy has discriminated against migrants who might become a 'public charge.' But Trump plans to expand the definition of the term to include basic benefits for the working class.... Almost nobody in the United States actually pays for their own insurance in a completely self-sufficient fashion. People who get insurance through their job are benefitting from a massive, costly tax deduction for employer-sponsored insurance. Those who get it through Medicare likewise enjoy a taxpayer-financed social benefit. Programs like Obamacare and CHIP simply extend the same regimen of subsidies and risk pooling to the low-income population that have already been granted to the middle class.... Trump's contribution to the party creed will be to infuse the top-down class war with a racial tinge. That this all proceeds from some fastidiousness about following the rules is a pretense nobody need bother entertaining anymore." ...
... Thank You for Your Service. Dana Milbank: "Sgt. Temo Juarez was a Trump guy. An Iraq combat veteran who served as a Marine infantryman and then an Army National Guardsman, his friends called him a 'super conservative.' With his wife, he brought up their two daughters in Central Florida. He supported Trump in 2016, eager for a change. But now, 'I am eating my words,' he told the military newspaper Stars and Stripes in an interview published last week. On Friday..., his wife, Alejandra, left the country under a deportation order. She had come to the United States from Mexico illegally as a teenager two decades ago and had until now being living undisturbed with Temo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and daughters, both natural-born Americans.... The advocacy group American Families United, extrapolating from census figures, estimates there are as many as 11,800 active-duty military service members with a spouse or family member vulnerable to deportation. And that doesn't include veterans' families."
All the Best People, Ctd. "Wilbur the Grifter" Edition. Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Over several months, in speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern: Many of those who worked directly with him claim that [Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there, huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary. At least if you consider them individually. But all told, these allegations -- which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine -- come to more than $120 million. If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.... Those who've done business with Ross generally tell a consistent story, of a man obsessed with money and untethered to facts." Plus, he steals Sweet'N Low from the local restaurant & doesn't pay his household help.
*****
Today is primary election day in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri & Washington State. There is also a special Congressional election in Ohio. More on that below. ...
... Maggie Astor of the New York Times looks at the most important races in today's primaries.
Sharon LaFraniere & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Rick Gates, Paul Manafort's right-hand man for years, began testifying against his former boss on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. He is considered the most important witness in Mr. Manafort's trial on tax and bank fraud charges. Asked by prosecutors whether he was involved in any criminal activity with Mr. Manafort, Mr. Gates responded, 'Yes.' Mr. Gates also testified that he and Mr. Manafort held 15 foreign bank accounts that were not disclosed to the federal government. Mr. Gates said the required financial filings were not submitted 'at Mr. Manafort's direction.' Mr. Gates admitted to a wide variety of crimes, including bank fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, lying to federal authorities, lying in a court deposition and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr. Manafort's accounts by falsely claiming expenses.... Mr. Gates ... remained on the campaign as a liaison to the Republican National Committee through the election. Mr. Gates was named deputy chairman of Mr. Trump's inaugural campaign, raising huge sums for the event." ...
... Rachel Weiner, et al., of the Washington Post: "In his first hour on the witness stand, Gates catalogued years of crimes, saying most of his wrongdoing was committed on behalf of his former boss, Paul Manafort, while other crimes were for his own benefit, including the theft of hundreds thousands of dollars. Gates also made clear he was testifying against Manafort in the hopes of receiving a lesser prison sentence, having pleaded guilty in February as part of a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III."
Team Trump Preparing Weenie Whiney Letter to Mueller. Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said Monday that Trump's legal team is planning to send a letter to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III this week that will largely rebuff Mueller's latest offer of a presidential interview that would include questions about possible obstruction of justice. 'We have a real reluctance about allowing any questions about obstruction,' Giuliani said in an interview with The Washington Post.... He said he and other Trump lawyers have been discussing the details of a draft version of the letter in recent days and hope to send it to Mueller 'sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.' Giuliani said he expects the letter to 'continue the negotiations' rather than formally decline Mueller's request. 'The president still hasn't made a decision, and we're not going to make a final decision just yet,' he said."
David Graham of the Atlantic: "In an attempt to defend his son Donald Trump Jr. on Sunday..., Donald Trump may instead have incriminated him -- and himself.... The president packed a great deal of potential trouble into less than 280 characters. First, he seems to proceed from the assumption that by declaring the purpose legal, that makes it so, when in fact the acknowledgement points to the ways the meeting may have broken federal laws. Second, by contradicting his earlier claims, the president again underscores his prior dishonesty.... The changing accounts ... get at accusations that the president obstructed justice. Finally, the tweet is riddled with internal contradictions. If the president is unconcerned about his son, why is he tweeting angrily about [a WashPo] story? And if what happened was entirely legal, why is he so quick to deny that he knew about the meeting?" ...
... Mike Allen of Axios: "Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel to President Obama who's now a law professor at NYU, said the new tweet weakens an argument for Trump's lawyers 'that he shouldn't have to interview with Mueller because he doesn't know anything.'" ...
... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Even though Trump's tweet isn't as new or revelatory as many are portraying it, it has revived questions about the meeting itself.... Most important of all in my view, is the question of whether there's still more to the story of what actually happened during and after the meeting. The story from the meeting's participants has been more or less consistent since last July. They claim the meeting was a bit of a mess and a disappointment, that no useful dirt was offered, and that there was no follow-up afterward. No one has yet claimed otherwise...." ...
... It's Not a Crime if Trump Does It. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Last week, President Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani argued that collusion isn't a crime. But on Monday, Trump suggested [in tweets] that Hillary Clinton should be investigated for this supposed non-crime. 'Collusion is very real with Russia,' Trump quoted conservative commentator Dan Bongino as saying on Trump's favorite Fox News morning show, 'but only with Hillary and the Democrats, and we should demand a full investigation.'... Investigations, it bears emphasizing, are generally launched to find illegal activity. Trump's call to investigate Clinton's alleged collusion with Russia -- a complex and strained theory having to do with the Steele dossier -- would seem to belie his true opinion about whether collusion is, in fact, a crime. But it's hardly the first time.... Over and over, mostly through his allegations of Democratic collusion, he's acknowledged the criminal nature of collusion in ways that would seem to make it much more difficult for his lawyers to press the case that collusion by Donald Trump Jr. or anybody else wasn't criminal." Blake provides five examples. ...
... Dana Bash of CNN: "... Donald Trump has been urged [by 'associates'? -- passive voice, Dana!] to stop tweeting about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump's top advisers and several Russians, a source familiar with discussions tells CNN. The President was advised that his tweeting only gives oxygen to the topic, even if those around Trump do not believe there is any truly new development." ...
... Like Akhilleus, in yesterday's commentary, Aaron Blake 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... 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 again & again is not. ...
... Calm Down, Breathless Pundits! Matt Ford of the New Republic: "Ultimately, the frenzied search for a single piece of evidence that proves Trump illegally colluded with Russia works in his favor. It creates a public expectation that will be difficult for Mueller to meet, thereby setting the stage for disappointment when the inquiry concludes. In doing so, it minimizes the considerable amount of evidence that's already public: Trump's supine performance at last month's Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, the constant outreach efforts between the Trump campaign and Russian intermediaries throughout the 2016 election, the sudden dismissal of FBI Director James Comey last May, the persistent efforts to discredit and shut down investigations into what really happened, and so much more.... By holding out for a smoking gun, Trump's critics may be downplaying the gunpowder residue that's already coating his hands."
Anna Schectar of NBC News: "Kristin Davis, the 'Manhattan Madam' who says she provided prostitutes to New York's rich and famous, is scheduled to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury in Washington this week, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Last week an investigator on Mueller's team questioned Davis about Russian collusion, said the source.... Davis, 41, told NBC News in July that someone in Mueller's office called her attorney to ask her to speak to investigators, and that she believed it was because of her ties to former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone."
Greg Sargent: "One of [Trump's campaign] promises, of course, was to return prosperity to what he called the 'forgotten men and women,' the victims of self-enriching economic elites who subjected them, via either stupid or corrupt trade and immigration policies, to debilitating labor competition at the hands of slave-wage labor in China and migrant invaders 'pouring' across the southern border. But the Associated Press looked at the last year's worth of employment data and made an interesting discovery. Most of its benefits are accruing to counties carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016[.]... 'Job growth in Trump's economy is still concentrated in the same general places as it was toward the end of Barack Obama's presidency -- when roughly 58.7 percent of the average annual job gains were in Democratic counties.'... If that continues, it may mean that Trump's combination of embracing GOP plutocracy and sticking only with the residual xenophobic aspects of Trumpian populist nationalism may not end up delivering huge economic gains to Trump country, after all."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. -- Donald Trump, Nevada presidential primary victory speech, February 2016 ...
... NEW. The Poor-Education President. Feliciz Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Former education secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday sharply criticized the Trump administration's policies on education and said he doubts the president wants an educated workforce because 'it doesn't play to his authoritarian tendencies.'... Duncan argued that a highly educated workforce would mean more people challenging Trump on his policies as well as his false or misleading claims. 'I'm not sure if that's in his self-interest,' he said." Mrs. McC: Arne is a tool, but he gets this right.
Nearly Everything Trump Says Is a Lie. 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... To wit: Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "In his first remarks on the vast California wildfires that have killed at least seven people and forced thousands to flee, President Trump blamed the blazes on the state's environmental policies and inaccurately claimed that water that could be used to fight the fires was 'foolishly being diverted into the Pacific Ocean.' State officials and firefighting experts dismissed the president's comments, which he posted on Twitter. 'We have plenty of water to fight these wildfires, but let's be clear: It's our changing climate that is leading to more severe and destructive fires,' said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of Cal Fire, the state's fire agency.... California does not lack water to fight the Carr Fire and others burning across the state, officials said.... William Stewart, a forestry specialist at the University of California, Berkeley, said he believed Mr. Trump was referring to the battle over allocating water to irrigation versus providing river habitat for fish. That debate has no bearing on the availability of water for firefighting." ...
... OR, as Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times puts it: "In a strikingly ignorant tweet, Trump gets almost everything about California wildfires wrong. No one would mistake President Trump for an expert on climate change or water policy, but a tweet he issued late Sunday about California's wildfires deserves some sort of award for most glaring misstatements about those two issues in the smallest number of words." Hiltzik debunks Trump's politically-motivated nonsense claims. "The sole nugget of fact in Trump's tweet may be found in its final line, which states, 'Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!' This isn't exactly placed in cogent or coherent thought, so it's possible it's a truth nugget of the blind squirrel variety. If Trump means 'tree clear' to mean more logging, then he's merely putting his oar in for more commercial exploitation of the forests. If he means the construction of fire breaks to contain fires, that's correct but it's a well understood technique and is exactly the technique being applied as a matter of course."
Sad! Ryan Parker & Abid Rahman of the Hollywood Reporter: "West Hollywood City Council has voted 'unanimously' to approve a resolution urging Los Angeles City Council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to permanently remove Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star. The star, which was unveiled in 2007, has been vandalized numerous times and completely destroyed twice.... The staff report for the resolution lists numerous reasons for the matter, including the separation of children from their parents at the border, the denial of the impacts from climate change on the word, Trump's treatment of transgendered individuals and the denial of findings from the intelligence community of Russian interference in the 2016 election, among others. The approval of a resolution urging the removal of Trump's star, however, does not necessarily mean that L.A. City Council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce will follow through."
Franklin Foer, in the Atlantic, writes a long, deep piece on ICE. It's one of the worst federal agencies to work for, populated by employees who couldn't get jobs in more prestigious agencies like the FBI. Then Trump, Sessions, Miller & Co. came along & weaponized these jamokes (who endorsed Trump in the general election), who didn't have enough to do when President Obama established enforcement priorities that ICE officers viewed as "handcuffs." "Even in a time when GOP policy on immigration had swung far to the right, these staffers -- Stephen Miller, now a White House senior adviser, is the most famous of the bunch -- existed far outside the party's mainstream."
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. 'Engagement is vital to our national security and peace around the world,' Paul (R-Ky.) said in a statement. He is currently in Moscow meeting with Russian officials...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Congressional Races
Margaret Hartmann: "Republicans have held Ohio's 12th Congressional District for decades, but recent polling shows Tuesday's special election is now a toss up. Though the GOP has little room for error, that did not prevent President Trump from initially tweeting his endorsement for the wrong candidate, and then picking a fight with NBA superstar LeBron James, Ohio's favorite native son, hours before a rally in support of GOP candidate Troy Balderson. But Balderson might have found a way to outdo the president. During his final campaign stop on Monday night, Balderson told a crowd in Zanesville, Ohio that they need to get out and vote tomorrow because 'we don't want someone from Franklin County representing us.' Balderson's opponent, Democrat Danny O'Connor, is from Franklin County -- but so are about a third of the district's voters." Harry Enten tweeted, "To put Balderson's comments ... in some perspective, imagine an NYC mayoral candidate saying 'we don't want someone from Brooklyn!' Brooklyn makes up a similar share of NYC vote as Franklin does of OH-12 vote." Mrs. McC: Also, Balderson was wearing shorts when he said it. Must take his sartorial cues from Little Randy.
So Much Winning -- in GOP Primary Races. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Since the beginning of June, President Trump's been on a remarkable political run. There have been 11 contests in which he's made an endorsement, and in each of those 11 races his preferred candidate has won.... They were all Republican primary contests. In other words, Trump's batting 11-for-11 since June in races where only members of his party can vote.... The problem for Trump is that his track record in non-primaries is much worse. He has endorsed in four Democrat-vs.-Republican matchups as president -- and lost three of the four. The only one in which his endorsed candidate won was Rep. Karen Handel's special election victory in Georgia in June of last year. His endorsed candidates for Virginia governor, Alabama Senate and a special House race in Pennsylvania all lost.... before his endorsement of Roy Moore in Alabama turned into a debacle for the ages, Trump would regularly tout how well Republicans were doing in special elections."
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "President Trump turned aside the advice of party officials and intervened in the Kansas Republican primary for governor Monday, throwing his support behind the polarizing secretary of state, Kris Kobach, one day before voters go to the polls there. In a tweet that Republican governors and some of his own aides had sought to avert, Mr. Trump called Mr. Kobach 'a fantastic guy' and offered his 'full & total endorsement.' Mr. Kobach is running against Gov. Jeff Colyer, who succeeded Sam Brownback, and a handful of other Republicans in a contest that had been highly competitive. But Mr. Trump's blessing is now likely to lift Mr. Kobach, who is best known for his hard-line views on immigration and voting rights. The Republican Governors Association and a number of high-level party operatives counseled Mr. Trump against siding with Mr. Kobach, because polls show he is unpopular with the general electorate.... But Mr. Trump has grown fond of his king-making abilities.... Further, Mr. Kobach was an early and loyal supporter of Mr. Trump...."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Brian Feldman of New York: "On Sunday, dedicated conspiracy theorists with iPhones searching for podcasts from ... Alex Jones and his media empire Infowars were stymied: Apple had removed five Infowars podcasts from iTunes and its Podcasts app. Within hours..., Facebook and YouTube both removed the official Infowars pages from their platforms.... Facebook and YouTube have acted as megaphones for Infowars (and reaped the benefits in the process) -- choosing to cut ties with the site and the millions of subscribers those accounts held, after months of pressure from consumers, employees, and victims of Jones's conspiracy-mongering.... The reason that every other platform booted Jones is because Apple did it first.... What the Infowars decisions represent is a capitulation -- not to censors, not to the public, not to the deep state, but to the only entity left that has any real power over Facebook and YouTube: Apple." ...
... Elijah Cone of Crooked: "Facebook has become a media outlet -- and, through the manipulative efforts of conservative activists, a grossly irresponsible, right-wing media outlet.... Facebook's efforts to appease right-wing critics have distorted the outlet's political influence in many obvious ways.... Facebook has the capacity to distinguish between fact and falsehood, journalism and disinformation, reason and incitement, peace and violence, and turn down the volume on the latter. It can distinguish between people who use the word 'fuck,' and people who engage in slander. It chooses not to because those distinctions ... would disfavor a right-wing media culture that embraces conspiracy theories and lies. The result is an output that places content creators who care about truth at a disadvantage, and makes Facebook a useful tool for propagandists." ...
... Tribe GOP. Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "These men, named James T. Alicie and Richard M. Birchfield, are a perfect encapsulation of the way Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party in his image -- abandoning its traditional positions on issues ranging from Russia to trade in favor of Trump's positions on these issues. The photo is also an extremely clear way of understanding how deep hatred of Democrats is warping the Republican Party, part of a phenomenon political scientists call 'negative partisanship.'... The crucial feature about negative partisanship is that it isn't really about policy; it's about identity.... Hence why, over the course of four years, you go from Republican voters enthusiastically backing Mitt Romney -- who called Russia America's 'No. 1 geopolitical enemy' -- to the vast majority of them supporting Donald Trump through the Russia scandal.... The partisan stars have aligned such that Republicans are dismissing what's shaping up to be the biggest political scandal since Watergate -- and embracing Vladimir Putin even as he's already begun to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections." ...
... 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Way Beyond the Beltway
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
Los Angeles Times: "Firefighters in Northern California were beginning to gain ground Tuesday against a record-breaking wildfire in Lake County, as firefighters across the state continued their battles with 18 blazes that have scorched nearly 600,000 acres. The Mendocino Complex fire, which became the largest wildfire in California history on Monday night, had burned more than 290,000 acres as of Tuesday morning, officials said. The sprawling blaze, which is actually a combination of the Ranch and River fires in Lake County, has frustrated firefighters as it continues to leap natural and man-made barriers. The Thomas fire, which scorched 281,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties last year, had been the largest wildfire in state history before Monday night -- a dubious distinction it held for just eight months. Prolonged drought and extreme heat have made California ripe for dangerous fire conditions in recent months and years. Of the five largest wildfires in state history, four have occurred since 2012."
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Reader Comments (23)
Chris Hayes had so much fun (watch video) last night introducing the terrible twosome running in the Kansas primary. Ron Estes faces off against another dude named Ron Estes and here we could actually cite this as "Thing One and Thing Two."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zg80YSVfx0
Canada: The Newly Crowned Leader of the Free World.
And the Pretender, who fawns over MBS and his billions, doesn't even know it.
A story that caught my eye this morning over on the side bar under the NYT's feed: It was about the kerfuffle over a poem that was printed in "The Nation." I did some rummaging and found a good run-down in "Quillette" by Heather MacDonald:
The Nation "issued a groveling apology" for a poem by Anderson Carlson Wee, "How-To" which was an ironic critique of social hierarchies, couched as a manual for successful panhandling." (you can read the poem cited in this piece). This is an interesting turn for a magazine that prides itself in "free speech"––also interesting that so many people had a meltdown over it. I found this to be an important subject to discuss.
https://quillette.com/2018/08/02/the-death-of-the-author-and-the-end-of-empathy/
On negative partisanship:
I'd note these two jamokes aren't black, Latino, Asian and not likely Muslim either.*
What we have here is identity politics, boiled down to its essence.
White or non-white.
Can't say the Pretender hasn't done anything for American politics. He's the catalyst that bumbled onto the scene, attracted its poisons to himself and crystalized them for all to see.
*Not human either.
I like to see every republican hounded incessantly about Jim Jordan and the message these two "jamokes" are delivering. It doesn't take much of an imagination to hear the outrage if the parties were reversed.
For some well deserved ridicule go to Kate Wagner's blog Mcmansionhell.com for the link to her first person essay posted August 6 11:40 on Vox.com titled "Betsy DeVos's summer home deserves a special place in McMansion Hell" a fun read.
Here's a link to Wagner's publication in Vox.
Shame on the architect and/or builder who did the tasteful DeVos 'cottage'.
Rats! It was meant to say: Shame on the architect and/or builder who did the tasteless DeVos 'cottage'.
Brett Kavanaugh Turns Around and Touches the Ground
"It's not a crime if the president does it" is an opinion held not only by our quisling president*'s mouthpieces such as Rudy (Is the Camera On?) Giuliani. Future Nuremberg Trials Defendant Brett Kavanaugh feels the same way. Oh, but only if you're a Republican.
Yup. If you're Bill Clinton (or Barack Obama, or any other Democrat), it's off to the hoosegow with ye. But not if you're a Confederate.
"Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2013 asserted that it's a 'traditional exercise' of presidential power to ignore laws the White House views as unconstitutional..."
Got that? Traditional exercise, since when? Oh, glad you asked. Since the Decider decided that laws were not for him (Dubya is one lucky son of a bitch because prior to the current criminal in the White House, he was the worst occupant in so many ways, including, and especially, ignoring settled law and the will of Congress if it suited his need for power and control).
The Decider frequently used signing statements to completely gut laws. So, a law stating that it was illegal to cross the street when the lights are against you would be mangled by a signing statement that said something like "Oh, unless you're a white Republican", or "I do not recognize that lights of any kind have any power over the president".
However, prior to that, Kavanaugh was gung ho to put presidents in jail for crossing the street the wrong way.
"Twenty years ago Kavanaugh was ultra-active in Kenneth Starr’s prurient pursuit of Bill Clinton — and instrumental in framing an impeachment ”referral” based on Clinton’s fibs about his sex life." Not only that, he even spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars chasing down bullshit he KNEW was a lie, just to see if he could find some way to stick it to a sitting president:
" In early 1995, however, Kavanaugh offered his boss, independent counsel Kenneth Starr, the legal rationale for expanding his investigation of the Arkansas financial dealings of President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, to include the Foster death, according to a memo he wrote on March 24, 1995. [This is what Fox now calls a "fishing expedition" when applied to any investigation of Trump.]
Kavanaugh, then 30, argued that unsupported allegations that Foster may have been murdered gave Starr the right to probe the matter more deeply. Foster's death had already been the focus of two investigations, both concluding that Foster committed suicide.
'We are currently investigating Vincent Foster's death to determine, among other things, whether he was murdered in violation of federal criminal law.'" (Can you be murdered without violating federal criminal law?)
But whadaya know? It was all bullshit.
"Kavanaugh pursued the Foster inquiry at Starr's request, even though he and others in the office soon came to believe that Foster killed himself, according to two people who worked with him at the time. Ultimately, Kavanaugh's report in October 1997 affirmed earlier findings of suicide. The Foster component of Starr's investigation cost about $2 million and lasted three years."
But now he's seen the light. "Praise Jesus! I can see! The president* can do whatever the holy hell he wants!" Because not only does Kavanaugh think it's no longer a good idea (because Republican president*) to investigate a sitting president, he doesn't think he (sorry kids, no possibility of a she in TrumpLand) should be bound by any laws. Oh, wait. There's a catch. You have to say the magic words, like in a Harry Potter movie: Expeliarmus Legalitium.
You see, in what seems to be Kavanaugh's increasingly febrile brain, you can't just say "Fuck it. I don't like that law and I'm not gonna do what it says." You have to say "Well, ya know, I'm kinda thinking that law is unconstitutional, so I'm not gonna do what it says".
Presto-Chango! Unconstitutional-O.
When we were kids, in certain situations, you had to follow up some command or statement with the requisite magic words. So, if you said that you didn't want to do something or you were tired of some other kid's bullshit, you could say "Blah, blah, blah, turn around and touch the ground, black and white magic!" and it was all good. You couldn't forget the black and white magic part though. You'd be screwed.
So this is the great legal mind that Trump wants to foist on the country for the next, oh, thirty years or so. The guy who thinks magic words make it all okay.
Can't wait for the outrageous opinions that lay out Kavanaugh's rationale for why black people shouldn't be allowed to vote anymore, with a finishing flourish of "turn around and touch the ground, black and white magic".
Or in this case, just "white magic".
Betsy sent her architect to Newport, R.I., with instructions: "Take one element from every cottage, double it or ramp it up & incorporate it into my cottage." The architect did her best to oblige. So Betsy got her gables & her gambrels, her rusticated first storey, her shingles, her eyebrow windows, her "nautical" portholes, her arched windows, her turrets, her grand staircase, her Greek columns, her eaves corbels, her balconies.
She really should have added a beaux arts wing, but maybe that's in the planning stages.
@Akhilleus: Clarence Thomas must be very upset at the prospect of Kavanaugh joining the Court. Thomas sees the Constitution as if it were 1789, & Kavanaugh thinks it changes every time he gets a bright idea he figures he can plug into it someplace. Maybe Clarence will challenge Brett to a duel.
That architect perfectly captured the living DeVos. That pile is the biggest skiamorph I have ever seen!
Laboratory proof that wealth does not convey taste or judgment. And apparently can't even buy them.
Marie,
An encounter devoutly to be wished. My choice of weapons for that duel would be two very long red woolen socks filled with elephant dung. The RNC must have plenty of it. Gorsuch and Alito can be their seconds, an especially good idea if there's any dung left after the shit-à-tête. Or should that be crapo a mano?
In Wagner's publication in Vox, if you go to the 3rd photo in the
article, you will see my van going around the corner on the way to
the Holland farmer's market. I wave at her as I go past every week.
If you Google Maps South Shore Drive at Goldenrod Ave, Holland
Mi you will see a stream running through her two "cottages". The
cottage on the right is for the staff (slaves).
They were allowed by the Dept of Natural Resources to completely
line that little stream with rocks, and put a barricade at the mouth of
it, I suppose to keep out sharks.
I was unable to buy rocks in W. Michigan for quit a while during
that time.
Seems like she's following me around Michigan and getting closer
all the time. When I lived in Grand Rapids, she was about 20 miles
away. Now she's 12 miles away and rumor has it here in town
that they bought a house the next street over from me on the water
to keep one of their yachts.
If she stops by for a garden tour, I plan to sell her some of my rocks.
Forrest,
Forget the rocks. See if you can find any dried turds and tell her this is the latest thing in eco-decoration. My dog will send some good ones. As a sales pitch you can tell her that the Glorious Leader has surrounded Trump Tower with specially designed dried turds in the shape of his head.
@forrest morris: Actually, I thought that was you (not Steve Jobs) in the main picture, out deadheading the flowers or trimming the trees. Not-Steve-Jobs is carrying something -- could be loppers but looks more like a chain saw. I figured the dog was there because dogs are pretty smart & he likes you a lot better than Betsy.
Remember when Republicans complained long and loudly about 'activist judges'? Now, one gets the sense that they're feeling quite smug about finding one of their own!
C'mon down, Judge T.S. Ellis III (I'm thinking the T.S. has an alternative meaning for other than Thomas Selby!)
PD,
The frenzy over the poem "How-To" is the sort of thing that Foxbots love to point to as proof of how crazy out of touch are the denizens of academia, and how hopelessly mired they are in identity politics scandal mongering.
The Nation's response and the responses to its response by various commentators do a disservice both to the groups, to poetry, and to art in general.
We need to calm down and take a deep breath. I read the poem and I got its intentions right away. I didn't need a three hour semiotic, historical/psychological/structuralist reading to figure out that it's a send-up, in fact, a pretty clever critique of what has become a cultural disconnect for members of different economic groups (with a concentration on the skewed views of those the "panhandler" might be pandering to).
I am not at all unfamiliar with the battles in academia over various ways that cultural paradigms have been viewed and explored (and exploited), but demanding that all white editors everywhere resign immediately because their mere existence in those jobs is a massive fuck-up is way beyond the pale. Get a grip.
I could go on (throw in some big academic-sounding words, always a good way to confuse and obfuscate) but I won't. This is not to say that some academics have not done a good job in identifying the problems with modes of communication within the society and the way information--and art--can be used to either support, attack, or critique those modes (this poem is one!). Such explorations can be useful and valuable. But when it comes down to saying ALL (fill in the group) MUST GO, I have to say "Sorry, pal. Ya lost me".
This is the sort of fake scandal that further isolates these groups and buries their good works in with piles of eye-rolling nonsense. And no, I'm not looking down on anyone who points out genuine racial or discriminatory texts. But Jesus, people. It's a fucking poem. If you go the route of demanding absolute obeisance to the cultural nannies, then you might as well close up shop. Artists get to say things you wouldn't put in an academic paper. It's a different thing entirely.
Take a breath and go have a beer. A little common sense please.
Should I be viewing this skeptically? I ask because the last months have taught me to see only the worst in "those people."
It's by Sam Stein (journalist or provocateur?)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-poll-43-of-republicans-want-to-give-trump-the-power-to-shut-down-media
@Ken Winkes: Ipsos has a good rep, & this was an online poll, which Ipsos' CEO said had proved to be more reliable than their phone-polling. I'm not surprised by this poll's findings. Many American schools don't teach civics any more, & even if they did, it used to be a 9th-grade class, and you know 9th-graders. They probably think "freedom of the press" means the local paper should print whatever crap they write in a letter-to-the-editor.
Actually, the main question leaves a lot to interpretation. What "bad behavior" is to you might not be what it is to me. And who knows what it means to the colossally ignorant? Sure, any ignoramus should know that a politician must not be allowed to shut down the press, but you know who did? The guy who usually gets rated the Best President Evah -- Abe Lincoln. The "bad behavior"? In one case, it was publishing forged documents, but in hundreds of other cases it was just strongly disagreeing with him about the conduct of the Civil War. If only Lincoln were as brilliant as Trump & had used the term "fake news."
@Bea
I, too, thought the question left too much to the imagination. Hence, my niggling sense that it was inviting (or provoking) the troubling response it got from the group (ignorant, angry? yes) being polled.
Not so sure about the civics implication. Granted, the country as a whole is woefully ignorant about its own history and governance, and I suspect that the only Amendment that matters to many of these people and perhaps the only one they may be aware of at all is the current (and wrong) interpretation of the 2nd.
I'd posit the sources, other than the too broad question itself, of the high negative response to press freedom are two-other-fold:
The Right's sense that the media is too liberal, meaning it doesn't reflect their views of the way the world should be--they don't like the "is" of the real world much at all--and the large store of anger a generation of media bashing has birthed in that group.
Added together, I'm not all that sure what the numbers really mean. Would guess, though, RC wouldn't rate high on their list of favorite aggregators.
And the infamous--or used to be, infamous--Sedition Act also comes to mind.
Another take on the Pretender's tariff tiff from Stan Sorscher.
http://www.thestand.org/2018/08/trumps-tariffs-are-really-not-the-point
My quick summary: China's nationalism makes sense. The really high IQ Pretender's doesn't.
Oh, Capitalism!
https://fashionista.com/2018/07/burberry-burning-clothes-thredup-resale
Makes a guy proud, don't it?