Saturday
Feb152020
The Commentariat -- February 16, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Russia, Russia, Russia. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Seven months after [Robert] Mueller's marathon testimony brought finality to the Russia investigation, Trump is actively seeking to rewrite the narrative that had been meticulously documented by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials, both for immediate political gain and for history. Turbocharged by his acquittal in the Senate's impeachment trial and confident that he has acquired the fealty of nearly every Republican in Congress, Trump is claiming vindication and exoneration not only over his conduct with Ukraine -- for which the House voted to impeach him -- but also from the other investigations that have dogged his presidency.... Last week alone, Trump called the Russia investigation 'tainted' 'dirty,' 'rotten,' 'illegal,' 'phony,' a 'disgrace,' a 'shakedown,' a 'scam,' 'a fixed hoax' and 'the biggest political crime in American History, by far.'"
Get Out! Justin Wise of the Hill: "More than 1,100 former Justice Department (DOJ) officials are calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign in the wake of the DOJ's decision to ask for a shorter prison sentence for Roger Stone .... 'Barr's actions in doing the President's personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words,' the group of ex-officials wrote in a letter shared on Sunday by Protect Democracy, a nonprofit advocacy group. 'Those actions, and the damage they have done to the Department of Justice's reputation for integrity and the rule of law, require Mr. Barr to resign.'"
Evan Semones of Politico: "White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday slammed sexist remarks Michael Bloomberg reportedly made to women who worked for him, saying they are 'far worse' than what ... Donald Trump said on the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tapes." Mrs. McC: For more on the Conway family's opinion of Trump, see what George has to say in the linked op-ed below.
Tom Cotton Pushes Chinese Conspiracy Theory. David Edwards of RawStory: "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested on Sunday the coronavirus, which has killed over 1,000 Chinese citizens, is a biological weapon developed by the Chinese military.... Cotton admitted that he has no evidence that the disease originated [in a] laboratory.... 'We have such laboratories ourselves in the United States, run by our military,' Cotton explained. 'The burden of proof is on the Chinese Communist Party ... we do want to err on the side of caution.'" --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Cotton has been pushing this "lab-produced" coronavirus conspiracy theory for a couple of weeks, including during a Senate committee hearing. I hope the committee is looking into how Hunter Biden is behind the coronavirus pandemic plot. Cotton has two degrees from Harvard. I wonder if the Harvard poobahs are figuring out that wrapping wingers in sheepskins is hurting the university's reputation as a serious educational institution.
Devan Cole of CNN: "... Pete Buttigieg responded Sunday to Rush Limbaugh's recent homophobic remarks, saying he doesn't take 'lectures on family values' from the conservative radio host...." Mrs. McC: Limbaugh has been married four times and divorced three times.
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"Turning Paranoia into Policy." Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has always been convinced that he is surrounded by people who cannot be trusted. But in the 10 days since he was acquitted by the Senate, he has grown more vocal about it and turned paranoia into policy, purging his White House of more career officials, bringing back loyalists and tightening the circle around him to a smaller and more faithful coterie of confidants.... In the last week and a half, Mr. Trump has pushed out two witnesses who testified in the House inquiry, stripped a nomination from an official he blamed for being insufficiently loyal and assailed prosecutors, a judge and even the jury forewoman in the case of his friend Roger J. Stone Jr. His national security adviser has just finished transferring more than 50 career professionals out of the White House and back to their home agencies. The president has brought back two of his earliest and most trusted aides, Hope Hicks and Johnny McEntee, as he retreats into a cocoon of his original 2016 campaign team. And more personnel moves are likely in the days to come.... His decision to turn the Office of Presidential Personnel over to Mr. McEntee, a 29-year-old aide who was once ordered marched out of the White House by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff at the time, was born out of concern about who is surrounding him, people familiar with the move said."
George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "Anticipating Trump's narcissistic whims and desires ... remains the key to survival in his administration, and outside the White House proper, no one does it better than [Bill] Barr.... So when it came to [Roger] Stone's sentence, Barr likely knew what to do, without ever being told. And he has known what to do, whenever feasible, to keep Trump happy all along.... The most important thing Barr did for Trump, though, involved the arms-for-dirt-on-Biden Ukraine scandal -- which should have prompted a full-blown criminal investigation with a special counsel.... But instead of investigating the Ukraine shakedown, Barr's Justice Department immediately gave the president a clean bill of health. Saving Trump from that criminal investigation was more than what Roy Cohn ever did for any of his clients.... [Trump] now brags, as he tweeted on Saturday, that he is '"the King"' who was targeted but not taken down. And, drawing on a story in the New York Times that suggested he is stained but unshackled, Trump boasted that he has indeed survived '"triumphant"' and '"emboldened"' and '"focused"' more than ever on prosecuting '"his case of grievance, persecution, and resentment."'"”
Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department in the Trump era has repeatedly tasked U.S. attorneys from far-flung offices to parachute into politically explosive cases in Washington, raising concerns among current and former officials that agency leaders are trying to please the president by reviewing and reinvestigating cases in which he is personally or politically invested. After a tumultuous week for federal law enforcement..., several current and former officials expressed alarm at what they characterized as a troubling pattern.... Trump has been asking for advice on who he should fire.... On Saturday morning, Trump fired off a tweet summarizing the Justice Department inspector general's findings that McCabe misled investigators on four separate occasions about authorizing a media disclosure and stating, incorrectly, that the 'IG RECOMMENDED MCCABE'S FIRING.'... Current and former officials said the move to add new prosecutors to the Flynn case seemed to be part of a new pattern of Justice Department political leadership spinning up inquiries that might help Trump and his friends and hurt their perceived foes." ~~~
~~~ Katie Benner, et al., of the New York Times: "In more than three dozen interviews in recent days, lawyers across the federal government's legal establishment wondered aloud whether Mr. Trump was undermining the Justice Department's treasured reputation for upholding the law without favor or political bias -- and whether Attorney General William P. Barr was able or willing to protect it.... Their worries are compounded by the fact that people in Mr. Trump's circle have been mired in so many criminal or ethical scandals that practically any legal action on those cases could be seen through a political lens." When Jessie Liu, whom Trump had appointed U.S. attorney in the D.C. office decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Andrew McCabe, Trump rescinded her nomination to a Treasury post, and Steve Mnuchin "delivered the news" to her.
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In his big ABC interview, this is the best Barr could come up with to defend the 10,000 lawyers who work for him: "I hope there are no more resignations. We, we like our prosecutors and hope they stay." Thanks, Bill. ~~~
~~~ Erica Orden & Kara Scannell of CNN: "... the Stone situation has reverberated across the country in the past few days, with prosecutors incensed over the apparent intervention by Attorney General William Barr to lighten the sentencing recommendation for Trump's ally, along with fear of what some perceive as a growing political directive coming from Washington. On the West Coast, one federal prosecutor said there was an overwhelming sense of 'outrage' felt in his office.... The fears over potential political interference are particularly acute in New York, where prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Manhattan handle high-profile cases.... Some concerns arose even before the Stone situation. In the past two weeks, the Justice Department has twice ordered US attorney's offices around the country to participate in what some of them perceive as politically charged actions, according to people familiar with the matter. First, the department ordered prosecutors to hold news conferences, make statements and use social media to promote Barr's initiative to crack down on 'sanctuary cities.'... the Justice Department later retracted the demand, the person said.... The department also instructed federal prosecutors to write op-eds to push for passage of pending legislation on fentanyl."
Nimble Bill Often Asks, "How High?" When Trump Says "Jump." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Bill Barr's intervention in the Mike Flynn case "bears striking similarities to the case of Roger Stone, whose sentence recommendation Barr intervened to reduce this week, triggering upheaval within the Justice Department. In each case, Trump criticized the department's treatment of a Trump ally; in both cases, Barr has inserted himself in an unorthodox manner that invites accusations of politicization. Those also invite comparison to U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation. Trump practically begged the Justice Department to probe the origins of the Russia investigation. After former attorney general Jeff Sessions begged off such theories, Barr took over and appointed Durham to look into it. The New York Times reported this week that Durham appears to be 'hunting for a basis to accuse Obama-era intelligence officials of hiding evidence or manipulating analysis.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Blake cites Andy McCabe as the prime example of one who got away. But that's not quite true. Somebody at Justice held up a decision on McCabe's case for two years and likely gave up only at the judge's insistence & the department's failure to make a case to a grand jury as convincing as those against the proverbial ham sandwich. Moreover, Barr is still going after McCabe in appointing a Trump-friendly U.S. attorney to "review" prosecutors' handling of the McCabe matter. It's unlikely McCabe will be indicted, but he's still under a lumpy Trumpy cloud. AND he still got fired & lost his pension some of his pension benefits because of a dubious 11th-hour order signed by Jeff Sessions.
Jack Guy & Nada Bashir of CNN: "In a CNN interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday strongly rejected ... Donald Trump's claim Ukraine is corrupt. He also said he is ready for another phone call with Trump and open to visiting the White House.... '... When I had a meeting with President Trump and he said that in previous years (Ukraine) was such a corrupt country, I told him very honestly and I was very open with him. I told him that we fight with corruption. We fight each day," Zelensky told Christiane Amanpour during [a] town hall interview [in Munich, Germany]. 'Please, please stop saying that Ukraine is a corrupt country, because from now, it's not true. We want to change this image,' he added."
Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "When the CIA gave Trump a list of major terror leaders to kill, he said he'd never heard of them. Instead..., 'He would say, "I've never heard of any of these people. What about Hamza bin Laden?"' one former official said, [naming the youngest son of Osama bin Laden]. 'That was the only name he knew,' a Pentagon official added.... An examination of the process that led to the strike against Hamza bin Laden puts a spotlight on how Trump has approached what is among the most weighty responsibilities of the U.S. president in the post 9/11 era: deciding which of America's enemies should be marked for death.... Former CIA official Douglas London, who led an agency unit targeting senior terrorists in 2018, says that what he called Trump's 'obsession' with bin Laden's son 'is one example of the president's preference for a "celebrity" targeted killing versus prioritizing options that could prove better for U.S. security.'" Mrs. McC: Significant factor: "Fox News ... devoted significant airtime to the release of ... CIA documents and [a]the video of the younger bin Laden."
Presidential Race
AP: "Democrats are starting to cast votes in Nevada's presidential caucuses as the still-crowded field of candidates is fanning out across Las Vegas. Early voting started Saturday morning at more than 80 locations across the state. Nevada Democrats are holding four days of early voting for their caucuses, the first test of a candidate's appeal to a diverse population with strong labor unions. Early votes cast on paper ballots will be added to in-person caucus votes made on Feb. 22, when Democrats will attend about 2,000 precinct meetings around the state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michelle Price & Steve Peoples of the AP post a roundup of yesterday's campaign events in Nevada. Biden attacked Sanders & Sanders attacked Bloomberg, an attack that would make more sense if Bloomberg were actually running in Nevada.
Sarah Burnette & Michelle Price of the AP: "... Amy Klobuchar says she no longer believes English should be the national language of the U.S., disavowing a vote she took more than a decade ago as she tries to build support in a state where Hispanics make up a critical constituency.... The senator also faced questions about comments she made about border security during a 2006 campaign debate, and her 2007 vote for an immigration bill that would have beefed up fencing and enforcement among the U.S.-Mexico border.... [Pete] Buttigieg ... knocked Klobuchar without naming her for supporting the confirmation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan."
Sahil Kapur & Ali Vitali of NBC News: "... Elizabeth Warren is pitching herself as the Democratic candidate who can unify the party's progressive and moderate wings, a play that could lead her down [a] bridge to nowhere, unless her message can quickly find some resonance. At the same time, Warren's also feeling pressure from outside allies to return to her old 'fighter' persona.... 'The problem that Warren has is all of the Bernie people think she's a neoliberal shill and all of the centrists think she's a raging Maoist,' said Sean McElwee, a left-wing organizer.... 'The people who want Medicare for All don't believe she wants it, and the people who don't want Medicare for All do believe she wants it.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I don't see a contradiction here: Warren is saying she can (1) unify the party (2) to fight for ordinary Americans. It makes sense to me. However, I agree that it's hard to discern the actual policy positions of the candidate who has the most detailed policy positions. Nonetheless, for the most part, the candidates' position papers don't matter as much as their ability to get something through Congress, and that can happen only if Mitch McConnell is not majority leader. That's an argument for a "unifier" and against a hardliner or neophyte.
Saturday was Bloomberg Day at the Times & WashPo: ~~~
~~~ The New York Times story, by Alexander Burns & Nicholas Kulish, begins with an anecdote about Michael Bloomberg's expressed doubts about the #MeToo movement & sex abuse allegations against TV personality Charlie Rose and ending with his $100MM contributions to mostly female 2018 Congressional candidates. "A Times examination of Mr. Bloomberg's philanthropic and political spending in the years leading up to his presidential bid illustrates how he developed a national infrastructure of influence, image-making and unspoken suasion that has helped transform a former Republican mayor of New York City into a plausible contender for the Democratic nomination.... In all, Mr. Bloomberg has spent at least $10 billion on his charitable and political pursuits. The vast majority has gone to philanthropy, for causes that reflect his personal interests and passions, including $3.3 billion to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post story, by Michael Kranish, centers on Bloomberg's treatment of women: "Several lawsuits have been filed over the years alleging that women were discriminated against at Bloomberg's business-information company, including a case brought by a federal agency and one filed by a former employee, who blamed Bloomberg for creating a culture of sexual harassment and degradation. The most high-profile case was from a former saleswoman. She sued Bloomberg personally as well as his company, alleging workplace discrimination. She alleged Bloomberg told her to 'kill it' when he learned she was pregnant. Bloomberg has denied her allegation under oath, and he reached a confidential settlement with the saleswoman.... While allegations about Bloomberg's comments and treatment of women have received notice over the years, a review by The Post of thousands of pages of court documents, depositions obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with witnesses underscores how Bloomberg and his company, Bloomberg LP, have fought the claims...." Includes a link to The Compleat Book of Profane & Sexist Remarks by Mike Bloomberg. Mrs. McC: On the upside, we can be sure he's pro-choice! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Eric Levitz of New York on why Democrats should not sell their souls to a billionaire: "Mike Bloomberg has offered blue America a Faustian bargain: Forfeit all credibility on the issues of money in politics and democratic reform, and he will spend whatever it takes to make the bad man in the White House go away.... But Democrats would be fools to accept Bloomberg's indecent proposal.... As a political matter, allowing a Wall Street tycoon to win the Democratic nomination by leveraging his personal fortune to outbid all of his rivals (and many state and local Democratic Party organizations) for top-shelf campaign staff, and inundate the airwaves with an unprecedentedly exorbitant blitzkrieg of paid messaging, would deprive Democrats of what has long been their chief electoral asset: the perception that their party is less beholden to the rich than the GOP... Hillary Clinton's mere perceived coziness with such fat cats ... was (ostensibly) sufficient to undermine the Democrats' populist edge four years ago...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "... a detailed review by The Post found that the chaotic [Iowa caucus counts] were years in the making, and that the responsibility extends beyond the local party leaders who have borne the brunt of the criticism."
Evan Semones of Politico: "Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Saturday said he'll back Bill Weld for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, an endorsement the Weld campaign touted as the first sitting Republican governor to publicly oppose ... Donald Trump's reelection. In a press conference, first reported by Vermont's WPTZ, Scott announced his decision to back the fellow Republican and former Massachusetts governor."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Amy Qin of the New York Times: "Under fire for its response to the coronavirus epidemic, China's authoritarian government appears to be pushing a new account of events that presents President Xi Jinping as taking early action to fight the outbreak that has convulsed the country. But in doing so, the authorities have acknowledged for the first time that Mr. Xi was aware of the epidemic and involved in the response nearly two weeks before he first spoke publicly about it -- and while officials at its epicenter in the city of Wuhan were still playing down its dangers. That new account risks drawing the president, China's most powerful leader in decades, directly into questions about whether top officials did too little, too late." ~~~
~~~ Raymond Zhong & Paul Mozur of the New York Times: China "is battling the coronavirus outbreak with a grass-roots mobilization reminiscent of Mao-style mass crusades not seen in China in decades, essentially entrusting front line epidemic prevention to a supercharged version of a neighborhood watch.... Residential lockdowns of varying strictness -- from checkpoints at building entrances to hard limits on going outdoors -- now cover at least 760 million people in China, or more than half the country's population, according to a New York Times analysis of government announcements in provinces and major cities."
News Lede
Washington Post: "The status of passengers on two cruise ships -- the Diamond Princess in Japan and the Westerdam in Cambodia -- are posing logistical and public health challenges for governments as they try to contain the spread of covid-19 and to repatriate citizens. In China, meanwhile, the rate of growth for new cases appears to be slowing. Forty-four Americans who were traveling on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan have been infected. They will stay at hospitals in Japan to recover. Hundreds of Americans who've been quarantined on the Diamond Princess since Feb. 5 have been evacuated from the ship and will be flown to the U.S. on chartered planes -- then quarantined again for 14 more days. Several governments are scrambling after an 83-year-old American woman on board the Westerdam cruise liner docked in Cambodia tested positive twice for the coronavirus infection after traveling to Malaysia."
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Reader Comments (6)
This is not quite true. McCabe did lose some additional benefits he would have been eligible for if he had been retained just one more week, but he's got connections and I have no doubt he will be taken on as a partner in a highly reompensed firm, and will have a very large pension from that, which will more than make up for the lower government pension. If Jeffrey Beauregard Session III (or any other Trump minion) was somehow able to cancel his vested pension rights I would be very surprised.
Elizabeth Warren was instrumental in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That still sounds like fighting for ordinary Americans to me. With Republicans crippling the agency (not to mention the ACA) at very turn, I cannot fathom how ordinary people can vote for a Republican.
I look at the policy papers as demonstrations that she and her team have thought through the complications of various policies. I am married to someone who has worked on salary and benefits structures for reasonably smart people and faced pushback because the plans aren't "simple" enough. But to be truly fair, even policies for relatively small institutions are going to have complications, and the people who cant be bothered to read past page 5 will complain that it's rigged against them.
This is a good over-view on the "Medicare for all litmus test."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medicare-for-all-sanders-aoc-warren_n_5e470bc7c5b64433c616474a
Got a laugh from " Mrs. McC: On the upside, we can be sure he's pro-choice!" re: Bloomberg.
@Procopius: Thanks for the correction on the pension. I've noted it above.
I'm not sure what-all McCabe is doing now, but he's a (presumably paid) CNN contributor, and he wrote a book, which became an instant best-seller. Anyhow, he'll need a high-paying job as his legal bills must be astronomical.
It's fair to hold McCabe responsible for a portion of the legal bills, assuming the IG's conclusion that McCabe "lacked candor" during investigative interviews is true. But Trump & Sessions made it obvious that McCabe's firing was political, and I'd venture to say that many of his legal expenses stem from that. Besides costs for his defense, McCabe is suing the government for, among other things, his extended pension benefits, but I don't think it's likely the court would order the government to pay those bills even if he wins or gets a partial win. It is possible a jury would award substantial damages that would, in effect, cover the legal costs.
The upside for McCabe is that besides the suppositions you mention, the fame Trump has bestowed upon him has been responsible for his CNN gig & book sales.
@Nisky Guy: I did not find the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to be particularly helpful to an individual consumer, namely me, even in its original form. Rather than serve as some sort of ombudsman, the CFPB merely collects complaints and, if I recall correctly, also sends a copy of a complainant's complaint to the financial institution. It appears that what the CFPB did -- when it was operating as intended -- was collect complaints against institutions, and if the agency assembled enough credible and similar complaints against an institution, it might investigate & possibly fine the institution, as it did in fining Wells Fargo $100MM for its egregious shenanigans.
I took out a small mortgage with Bank of America several years ago, and the bank, even though I had plenty of money sitting in it & had been a long-time customer, treated me shabbily. They did a few shady things, but the one I complained to the CFPB about was this: after taking months to approve my loan (and there was no reason for them not to approve it quickly), the bank finally approved it hours before the scheduled closing. BUT in their closing papers, I discovered BoA had raised my interest rate. Their excuse: they "believed" I was going to rent out the house even though I signed a true statement that I would not do so. (And I have not rented the house.) At that point, it was too late for me even to get a cashier's check from the financial institution that was holding the cash I would have needed to forego a mortgage loan altogether (something I didn't do in the first place because I was earning a higher interest rate than I would have to pay on the bank loan). Obviously, it would have been too late to procure another loan. If I hadn't agreed to BoA's new terms, the seller could have cashed my deposit check and left me with nothing.
BoA put me into a box, and I think that was the plan all along. I suspect this is a trick they commonly pull on loan applicants: come raise the interest rate moments before closing, leaving the customer with no choice but to accept the higher rate.
And it isn't just BoA. A friend of mine who banks at a local bank had the same thing happen to him at about the same time: without offering even a lame excuse, that bank raised his mortgage interest rate right at closing. Nothing about his circumstances changed from the time he applied for the loan till the closing; the bank -- where he also had been a long-time customer -- just screwed him.
When I complained to the CFPB, they directed me to an online form to fill out, which I did. The CFPB person I spoke to was very nice, but the effect was nil. I think maybe BoA HQ subsequently sent me a screw-you letter.
I would still recommend people complain to the CFPB, because it's possible that it will start working again some day as it was meant to and it's also possible that others will lodge the same complaint you did & eventually the CFPB will nail the institution. But it's a long shot.
Marie: Boy, oh, boy, your nom de plume fits you to a T. I'd be more than crabby after what you went through with BoA. Thank you very much for this information (also about CFBP). This experience and others like you show once again that you have to be so precise in your dealings with those banks that are "too big to fail." Their "screw you" policy is many times tucked away in their back pocket and only brought out at the last moment.
Just this morning Joe had to call Comcast once again for screwing up our bills; this time it was a $40 charge on an "house call" to fix our T.V. which turned out to be THEIR problem (inefficient) wiring. "Oh, we are so sorry, the operator said––we'll fix that problem." And as he always does, Joe asked for confirmation via email and name of the operator.