The Commentariat -- January 20, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump lashed out Sunday at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over stalled negotiations to end the partial government shutdown while rejecting conservative claims that his offer of temporary deportation protections for young immigrants amounts to amnesty. In a morning tweet, Trump claimed that Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats 'turned down my offer yesterday before I even got up to speak.'... 'Nancy Pelosi has behaved so irrationally & has gone so far to the left that she has now officially become a Radical Democrat,' Trump said. 'She is so petrified of the "lefties" in her party that she has lost control ... And by the way, clean up the streets in San Francisco, they are disgusting!'... 'They don't see crime & drugs, they only see 2020 -- which they are not going to win. Best economy! They should do the right thing for the Country & allow people to go back to work,' he said.... Pelosi fired back on Twitter with a reminder to Trump that '800,000 Americans are going without pay.' 'Re-open the government, let workers get their paychecks and then we can discuss how we can come together to protect the border,' she said.... The president sought to rebut [a confederate] critique[s] on Sunday, maintaining in a tweet that 'No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer.'"

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump teased Sunday he is 'still thinking about the State of the Union speech,' tweeting that 'there are so many options' to deliver his remarks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked him to postpone the address as long as the federal government remains closed. 'Nancy, I am still thinking about the State of the Union speech, there are so many options - including doing it as per your written offer (made during the Shutdown, security is no problem), and my written acceptance,' the president wrote online. 'While a contract is a contract, I’ll get back to you soon!'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure an invitation is a contract. If I invite you to dinner, then my kitchen gets "shut down" by a coffeemaker fire, I don't think you could successfully sue me for a free meal. Even if if rescind the invitation for no apparent reason, especially if I do so weeks in advance of the dinner, I don't think you'd win that one either. P.S. Sure took Trump a long time to respond.

Rudy Still Suffering from Foot-in-Mouth Disease. No Known Cure. Alicia Cohn of the Hill: "President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, on Sunday said that it's 'possible' the president spoke to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, ahead of his congressional testimony. 'Which would be perfectly normal,' Giuliani told CNN's 'State of the Union.' 'So what?' 'As far as I know, President Trump did not have discussions with him,' he added. 'Certainly, no discussions with him in which he told him or counseled him to lie.'... 'If he had any discussions with him, they'd be about the version of the events that Michael Cohen gave them which they all believe was true,' Giuliani said.... Giuliani said during a separate appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that he is '100 percent certain' that Trump never once asked Cohen to do anything but tell the truth to Congress. 'I can tell you his counsel to Michael Cohen throughout that entire period was, "Tell the truth." We thought he was telling the truth. I still believe he may have been telling the truth when he testified before Congress,' he told host Chuck Todd." ...

... Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, said on Sunday that discussions about building a Trump Tower in Moscow lasted through the November 2016 election, months longer than previously confirmed. Mr. Giuliani said in an interview with The New York Times that Mr. Trump 'recalls a series of conversations' with his former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, about the project during the campaign. 'He can't tell you the date' that it ended, Mr. Giuliani said. 'There are no entries or phone logs' that indicated specifics, he added. 'The best he could do is, "We talked about it, I knew he was running with it, I honestly didn't pay much attention to it,"' Mr. Giuliani said, characterizing Mr. Trump's memory. He added that Mr. Trump recalled, '"It was all going from the day I announced to the day I won."' The comments further extended an already growing timeline for the discussions. Mr. Cohen had told Congress that the negotiations ended in January 2016, before the first presidential primaries, but later in a plea agreement, he said they continued as late as June 2016.... Mr. Giuliani had then indicated in an interview with ABC News last month that the talks had lasted possibly until Election Day, although he was less specific than he was on Sunday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, that doesn't quite jibe with this NYT Report from November 2018: "On at least 23 occasions since the summer of 2016, Mr. Trump has said either that he had 'nothing' to do with Russia, or that he has 'no deals,' no investments and no 'business' in Russia." You might think Trump was flagrantly lying to voters in order to win the election.

Adam Forrest of the Independent: "The mother of a boy filmed harassing a Native American man along with his friends at a rally in Washington DC has blamed 'black Muslims' for the confrontation, without providing any evidence for the claim. The teenager was among a group of students wearing Make America Great Again (Maga) hats who were criticised for taunting the musician Nathan Phillips, surrounding him and jeering and chanting 'build the wall, build the wall'. But his mother claimed 'black Muslims' had been harassing the group of Donald Trump supporters from the private, all-male Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's just assume Mom there is right & some "black Muslims" picked on her darling boy. So exactly why would said darling boy bully another person, of another race, for something the supposed "black Muslims" did? Mom's claims are not only likely untrue, they're racist on racism. What a lovely family unit.

*****

The Trump Shutdown, Ctd.

Diabolical Donald's "Deal" DOA. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Saturday that he would extend deportation protections for some undocumented immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the border with Mexico.... The president, delivering a 13-minute address from the White House, said he would extend the legal status of those facing deportation and support bipartisan legislation that would allow some immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to keep their work permits and be protected from deportation for three more years if they are revoked.... But he reiterated his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border barrier, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of his remarks that she considered his proposal a 'nonstarter,' in part because it offered no permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers." ...

... Here's Pelosi's full statement on Trump's proposal, via her office. ...

... Katie Zezima, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Saturday offered Democrats three years of deportation protections for some immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, a proposal immediately rejected by Democrats and derided by conservatives as amnesty." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nice try, Trump. Yours is the kind of "deal" that gets "negotiated" when you only "negotiate" with actors on your side of the aisle. Really stupid. OR, as New York's Daily Intelligencer put it, "Trump's big announcement: repeat his prime time address and add a D.O.A. proposal extending the limbo of DACA/TPS recipients." (No link.) ...

     ... Also from the WashPo report: "On Friday Pelosi accused Trump of putting herself and fellow lawmakers in danger by publicizing their plans to travel to Afghanistan, forcing them to abandon the trip.... The White House has forcefully denied Pelosi's claims. A person close to the White House called The Washington Post on Friday morning to alert a reporter to Pelosi's travel plans, speaking on the condition of anonymity[.]" ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Some commentators have noted that in his 13-minute address, Trump did not once mention the hardships his shutdown imposed on unpaid federal employees. (The transcript is here.) I would say this isn't because Trump lacks empathy -- which of course he does -- but because he's actually enjoying the needless pain & suffering he has brought upon these workers, workers whom he believes are mostly Democrats. Trump is not entirely self-centered; he's also sadistic, IMO.

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "What President Trump billed on Saturday as a compromise to end the country's longest government shutdown pleased neither the Democratic congressional leaders whose buy-in he needs to strike a deal nor the core supporters whose backing has always been at the heart of his insistence on a border wall.... In seeking to inch toward the center, Mr. Trump alienated portions of his hard-right base, the core supporters he most depends on and the group he and his closest aides have most feared losing. That raised the possibility that, in his zeal to get out of an intractable situation, he may have landed himself in the worst of all worlds.... 'Trump proposes amnesty,' the conservative commentator Ann Coulter said on Twitter. 'We voted for Trump and got Jeb!'... On Saturday night, Breitbart panned Mr. Trump's latest idea with the headline 'Three-Year Amnesty, Most of Border Remains Open.'... The tensions and anger over the policy have been quietly playing out in the West Wing as well, as Jared Kushner ... fended off Stephen Miller, the architect of much of Mr. Trump's immigration agenda. In recent days, as White House officials had been working out the details of the compromise, Mr. Miller intervened to narrow the universe of immigrants who would receive protection...."

McConnell, who has said repeatedly only bills with support of Trump and Dems can end shutdown, says he will hold vote on Trump proposal - even though Dems are rejecting it. 'Everyone has made their point -- now it's time to make a law. I intend to move to this legislation this week' -- Manu Raju of CNN, in a tweet

In case you never wanted to strangle Mitch before. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Trump's 'asylum reforms' riff is code for denying due process for unaccompanied minors and eviscerating Flores Settlement. Means that kids who now get protection will get sent back to face death and kids will be detained for as long as Trump wants. -- Frank Sharry, immigration reform activist, in a tweet

In case you never wanted to strangle Trump before. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Isn't this a kind of hostage-taking squared? First end the programs. Then shut the government. Then promise to temporarily restore the programs you've ended & reopen the govt you have closed, in return for the ransom of $ for a wall that 55-60% of country consistent opposes? -- Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic, in a tweet

Tweets via New York mag 

Here's another reason Trump's deal is no deal: ...

... Pete Williams of NBC News (Jan. 18): "The U.S. Supreme Court took no action on Friday on the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It now appears likely that the court will not take up the issue during its current term, which would require the government to keep the program going for at least ten more months. The Trump administration urged the justices to hear appeals of lower court rulings that prevent the government from shutting DACA down, but Friday was the last day for adding cases to the current term's docket, barring unusual circumstances. Any cases accepted in subsequent weeks won't be heard until the next term, which begins October 1, and it would take a few months more for the court to issue a decision."

David Rohde of the New Yorker: "As the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown enters its fifth week, [Tom] O'Connor[, the head of the F.B.I. Agents Association,] says that the majority of the Bureau's thirteen thousand agents are working, all without pay, and morale is plummeting.... The long-term fear is that, given that the private sector pays more than the Bureau, the F.B.I. and other federal law-enforcement organizations will both lose experienced agents and be unable to recruit new ones.... The shutdown comes as the Bureau struggles to defend itself from unprecedented allegations of political bias from a sitting President.... As news reports have continued to focus on the Mueller investigation, the President has continued to make false or misleading claims about the Bureau and its former director, James Comey.... Trump's attacks, meanwhile, are eroding public faith in the F.B.I., particularly among Republicans."

It's All About Trump. Sam Berger in a Washington Post op-ed: "Tens of thousands of previously furloughed federal employees returned to work this week -- without pay -- so the government could process tax refunds, oversee airplane safety, and inspect food and drugs. It was the Trump administration's latest set of major changes to how agencies without funding operate, moves that it claims are simply an effort to make things 'as painless as possible.'... But that's not really Trump's goal. If it were, he would not be threatening to continue this one for months or years. Instead, he is changing precedents in a one-off manner to paper over problems and help favored constituencies, all to create political space to prolong the standoff. Trump is not concerned about making the shutdown painless for the American people — he's concerned with making it painless for himself.... The law limits what activities can continue during a shutdown: those necessary to protect life or property, to carry out the president's core constitutional responsibilities, and to operate programs that Congress has said should continue in the absence of funding. But Trump has shunted aside legal and programmatic considerations in favor of two imperatives: keeping bad press to a minimum and keeping influential supporters happy."

Conservative David Frum of The Atlantic: "President Donald Trump ... shut the government to impose his will on the incoming Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. That plan has miserably failed. Instead, Trump has found himself caught in the trap he supposed he had set for his opponents.... In the 10 days since the [Oval Office] speech, Trump's approval ratings have dipped to about the lowest point in his presidency. The supposedly solid Trump base has measurably softened.... Trump is now trying Exit Two. This idea is even more harebrained than the last.... Why on earth would any appreciable number of Democrats break away from their leadership to do business as individuals with a president none of them trusts about an issue none of them thinks should be negotiable, reopening the government?... The shutdown was a demand for unconditional surrender. Unfortunately for him, the president lacks the political realism to recognize that he doesn't have the clout to impose that surrender." --s

Our Lord & Master Vindictive Little Turd Decrees. Jennifer Scholtes of Politico: "The White House put top department officials on notice today that they are not allowed to spend money or use planes to help lawmakers travel on congressional delegation trips.... Federal officials can still provide logistical and security support for those delegations, acting OMB Director Russell Vought wrote. The guidance comes after Trump made a public show Thursday of stopping House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats from using military aircraft to fly to Afghanistan." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Congress should pass a law disallowing administration officials to travel on government transports without specific authorization from the Congressional Office of Beg Us for a Ticket, MoFo.gov

Laura Bradley of Vanity Fair: "As the government shutdown drags on, Stephen Colbert has joined the effort to help furloughed workers.... On The Late Show, the comedian announced that he would be selling mugs with a cheesy catchphrase on them -- 'Don't Even Talk to Me Until I've Had My Paycheck' -- to benefit celebrity chef José Andrés's World Central Kitchen. World Central Kitchen is a disaster-relief group founded by Andrés, who last year was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the organization in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. On Monday, the group announced it would begin feeding furloughed federal workers free of charge from a kitchen-cafe located on Washington, D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

We won’t stop until everyone has a hot meal. #ChefsForFeds pic.twitter.com/VRciB8kPRK

— WorldCentralKitchen (@WCKitchen) January 17, 2019

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "American businesses are losing hundreds of millions of dollars every day President Donald Trump's partial government shutdown -- now the longest on record -- rages on. But few industry leaders say they are pressuring Republican members of Congress they bankrolled to end the shutdown.... Business organizations have vigorously objected to shutdowns before, particularly when they occurred under Democratic presidents." --s

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

When "No Comment" Looks Like Confirmation. Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "When a BuzzFeed reporter first sought comment on the news outlet's explosive report that President Trump had directed his lawyer to lie to Congress, the spokesman for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III treated the request as he would almost any other story.... Peter Carr [declined to comment].... When BuzzFeed published the story hours later, it far exceeded Carr's initial impression, people familiar with the matter said.... And with Democrats raising the specter of investigation and impeachment, Mueller's team started discussing a step they had never before taken: publicly disputing reporting on evidence in their ongoing investigation.... People familiar with the matter said Carr told others in the government that he would have more vigorously discouraged the reporters from proceeding with the story had he known it would allege [Michael] Cohen had told the special counsel Trump directed him to lie -- or that the special counsel was said to have learned this through interviews with Trump Organization witnesses, as well as internal company emails and text messages.... People familiar with the matter said after BuzzFeed published its story -- which was attributed to 'two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter' -- the special counsel's office reviewed evidence to determine if there were any documents or witness interviews like those described.... They found none, these people said. That, the people said, is in part why it took Mueller's office nearly a day to dispute the story publicly." Emphasis added. ...

... BuzzFeed News is still sticking by its story that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Its spokesman says the outlet has "re-confirmed" its reporting. ...

... Marcy Wheeler: "... the [WashPo] story reveals that [Rod] Rosenstein's office did call to check whether [Robert] Mueller was going to release a statement debunking the BuzzFeed story. '... , the deputy attorney general's office called to inquire if the special counsel planned any kind of response, and was informed a statement was being prepared, the people said.' That seems to be a violation of Special Counsel regulations, which say that Mueller's office shall not be subject to day-to-day supervision of any official, whether DAG or Acting Attorney General.... It should set off all sorts of alarm bells that as soon as a media report states what has long been clear -- that Trump suborned perjury -- Mueller's office is getting calls about how to respond to the press.... Whichever side is correct (again, I believe WaPo has just one part of this story), that Rosenstein (or Whitaker) got involved seems to be far more important."

John Cook & Mike Spies of Mother Jones: "Two Senate committees investigating Russian efforts to influence US politics through the National Rifle Association are led by GOP senators [Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina] who have long received campaign support and donations from the gun group and its leaders. While that might raise questions about the integrity of the investigations, Democrats close to the probes tell the Trace and Mother Jones that they are proceeding without impediment -- indicating that the NRA's influence in Congress may not help it avoid scrutiny amid the wider Trump-Russia investigation.... Senate rules do not explicitly bar senators from overseeing or participating in investigations into donors, and experts we consulted with said Burr is under no obligation to recuse himself." --s

Bruce Henderson of McClatchy DC: "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, is facing accusations over his role in a failed real estate deal near Charlotte[, North Carolina,] that could cost an investor $2.5 million. A civil case raises questions about whether a company tied to Mulvaney, who's also director of the Office of Management and Budget, used a legal maneuver to put his interests ahead of a lender." --s ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: What? Mulvaney stiffed a lender in a failed real estate deal? Now let me think -- that reminds of -- whom?

AP: "The US military said it carried out an airstrike in Somalia that killed 52 al-Shabaab extremists, in response to an attack on Somali forces.... The group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday. A US Africa Command statement said the airstrike occurred on Saturday near Jilib in Middle Juba region. The US said Somali forces had come under attack by a 'large group' of the al-Qaida-linked extremists.... The US has dramatically stepped up airstrikes against al-Shabaab in Somalia since Donald Trump took office, carrying out at least 47 such strikes last year." --s

Sarah Okeson of DCReport (Jan 15): "Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has proposed cuts in water pollution regulation that would increase the 5,772-square-mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the area where fish and other living things must swim away or die. Andrew Wheeler, Trump's nominee to lead the EPA, wants to remove thousands of streams, swamps and other bodies of water from regulations approved under former President Barack Obama to curb water pollution. Scientists think a 45% reduction in nitrate and phosphorus, much of it from fertilizer, running into the Mississippi River is needed to shrink the dead zone, which was the size of Delaware last summer." --s

Stuart Leavenworth of McClatchy DC: "A federal judge in South Carolina [Richard Gergel] on Friday blocked the Trump administration from processing seismic testing permits for offshore oil drilling, a setback for the administration's efforts to assist energy companies during the partial government shutdown.... Gergel's injunction came after South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson learned that the Interior Department had ordered employees of its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to come back to work and process permits for five companies that want to use airgun blasts to search for oil." --s

Kate Aronoff of The Intercept: "Examining projections developed by Rystad Energy, an independent oil and gas consultancy, [a] new report [from Oil Change International] looks at projected oil and gas development in the United States over the next several decades, and what consequences it holds for the planet. The authors find that, if allowed to continue with projected new fossil fuel projects, U.S. oil and gas production could account for 60 percent of all new oil and gas production through 2030, making the U.S. the world's largest new source of oil and gas and outpacing expected growth in the next largest producer, Canada, 4 to 1.... The report's main takeaway isn't complicated: The United States can either stop digging up new troves of fossil fuels, or take a sledgehammer to the world's chances at a livable future." --s

Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "In the past week, it appeared the long overdue backlash to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and his white nationalism had finally arrived.... But now, that backlash has prompted its own backlash. Members of the Religious Right, white supremacists, and others on the far-right have joined forces to rally around the racist congressman. Rather than stepping down, as some of his colleagues suggested, King seems emboldened by the support and is trying to use the fallout to raise money for his re-election campaign." --s

Antonio Olivo, et al., of the Washington Post: "The images in a series of videos that went viral on social media Saturday showed a tense scene near the Lincoln Memorial. In them, a Native American man steadily beats his drum at the tail end of Friday's Indigenous Peoples March while singing a song of unity for indigenous people to 'be strong' in the face of the ravages of colonialism that now include police brutality, poor access to health care and the ill effects of climate change on reservations. Surrounding him are a throng of young, mostly white teenage boys, several wearing Make America Great Again caps, with one standing about a foot from the drummer's face also wearing a relentless smirk.... Nathan Phillips, a veteran in the indigenous rights movement ..., [said] tensions [began] to escalate when the teens and other apparent participants from the nearby March for Life rally began taunting the dispersing indigenous crowd. A few people in the March for Life crowd began to chant 'Build that wall, build that wall,' he said.... Some of the teens in the video wore sweatshirts from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Ky...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, Trumpbots are so stupid they want to wall out people who got here first. ...

... ** Juan Cole: "Nathan Phillips gave a chilling interview about the incident to CNN, in which he expressed fear about where the United States is going. Remember, Phillips risked his life for a country that had treated his people like crap, stealing their land, putting them on reservations, forbidding them to practice their religion, and occasionally massacring them. The teen's smug look no doubt was worn by those thugs who ordered the Trail of Tears, when Native Americans were expelled from the Southeast.... How stupid do you have to be to chant 'build the wall' at a Native American whose people were here at least 13,000 years ago before the European undocumented migrants showed up in their lands? How stupid do you have to be to chant 'build the wall' at African-Americans whom white slavers kidnapped from their homes in Senegal and Nigeria and Angola and transported here against their will?... How stupid do you have to be to think that 'Make America Great Again' could possibly mean anything when chanted by chickenhawk young men at a Vet who risked his life for this country? How stupid do you have to be not to realize that the people Trump wants to keep out of the United States by building his idiotic, cruel and ineffective wall are for the most part Catholics?" --s ...

... Max Londberg & Sarah Brookbank of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "About 4 p.m., the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High issued a joint statement that read, in part: 'We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general.... We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behavior is opposed to the Church's teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person. The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, and it would be nice if the diocese & the school issued a joint apology to young women everywhere for sending those nasty little brats from their no-girls-allowed school to Washington, D.C., to protest the rights of women to control their own bodies. Fucking misogynists.

Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Right-wing provocateur Ben Shapiro thought a speech at the March for Life was the right time to address a philosophical question about Hitler. Hours later, multiple advertisers announced they had dropped Shapiro's podcast after his bizarre comments were viewed millions of times. Shapiro explained during his speech before the pro-life crowd on Friday why anti-abortion advocates wouldn't have killed the genocidal German leader when he was a baby.... Shapiro -- 'the cool kid's philosopher,' according to the New York Times -- faced criticism in November for claiming 'left-wing anti-Semitism' is a more dangerous threat than violent white supremacists." --s

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. AP: "A federal judge has found four women guilty of entering a national wildlife refuge without a permit as they sought to place food and water in the Arizona desert for migrants. US magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco's ruling on Friday marked the first conviction against humanitarian aid volunteers in a decade. The four found guilty of misdemeanours in the recent case were volunteers for No More Deaths, which said in a statement the group had been providing life-saving aid to migrants. The volunteers include Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick." Mrs. McC: Thank you, each and every one of you.

Presidential Election 2020. Jared McDonald, et al., in a Politico Magazine opinion piece, make a compelling case, based on statistical analysis, that most American voters think Trump is a self-made billionaire, & when some -- especially Republicans -- find out otherwise, their favorable impression of him drops. Ergo, it would be a damned good idea for Democrats to hammer home what a massive failure he was as a businessman. The writers also point, BTW, to the news media's failure to report on his real business career: "A LexisNexis search of leading newspapers from January 1, 2016, until Election Day 2016 found more than six times as many articles referring to Trump's divorces than those mentioning his father."

Beyond the Beltway

Illinois. AP: "The white Chicago police officer who gunned down a black teenager in 2014 was sentenced Friday to nearly seven years in prison, bringing an end to a historic case that centered on a shocking dashcam video and fueled the national debate over race and law enforcement. Jason Van Dyke was convicted last year of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery -- one for each bullet he fired." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michigan. Fed Up with ICE. Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "The Michigan county sheriff who held and transferred a US-born Marine to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody late last year will no longer detain individuals for the agency without a judicial warrant, authorities announced Friday. The policy, effective immediately, fundamentally changes the way the Kent County Sheriff’s Office interacts with ICE and copies a model taken up by many 'sanctuary' jurisdictions across the country."

News Ledes

Hill: "A fire Sunday morning in Northeast Washington, D.C., damaged studios for Fox News, C-SPAN and MSNBC, and forced 'Fox News Sunday' to relocate its broadcast to a local affiliate's studio. Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS tweeted that an electrical fire broke out in the 8th floor television studio, but that nobody was injured. Steve Scully, the political editor for C-SPAN, tweeted shortly after 7 a.m. that the Fox News and C-SPAN studios sustained 'extensive damage,' and MSNBC's studio took on 'extensive smoke and water damage.'"

New York Times: "Heavy snowfall, high winds and a dangerous mix of rain and sleet were expected to hit swaths of the Northeast on Sunday, prompting officials to warn of icy roadways and power outages from a vast winter storm that had been pummeling the Great Plains and the Great Lakes. The storm, which complicated travel on Saturday and busted plans for the three-day weekend across much of the country, had already caused problems from Kansas, where the governor declared an emergency, to Chicago, where a United Airlines plane slid off a concrete surface. Flights have been canceled by the thousands, and rapidly dropping temperatures on Sunday in parts of the Northeast would freeze anything wet, creating 'extremely dangerous' conditions on the roadways."

USA Today: "John Coughlin, a two-time U.S. pairs champion who was suspended Thursday evening by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and U.S. Figure Skating, died Friday, according to ... his sister.... Kansas City police confirmed Coughlin's suicide.... Coughlin, 33, was a fixture at skating competitions and rinks around the country as a coach, TV commentator and a rising star within both USFS and the International Skating Union, the sport's worldwide federation."

Comments

[Gloria]

The Covington HS boys are supposed to have enough agency to attend a political march opposing women's rights, but not enough to understand intimidation, harassment and racism. I see. Black children younger than these teens can be tried as adults in many states, and even sentenced to life in prison for their crimes. Where is the advocacy for their redemption amongst the advocates for the CHS boys? The deplorable school in the deplorable Diocese is a poster child for their nasty misogynistic movement. Hate doesn't quarantine itself only to women, and spreads easily to race. I can't abide the mealy-mouthed posts about "this doesn't represent who we really are", oh yes it does. They only regret that the world is pointing and seeing them for what they are. Would they not view Mr.Phillips as a "true American"? He is a US born military veteran. To where should he "go back"?

The marchers want to strip the rights of women and families to access healthcare. These rights involve more than "just" women, who are daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and people who live and work in communities. Terminations are medical procedures that often save the lives of loved ones. Contraceptives are hormone therapies that encompass a lot more than birth control. The Catholic Church and its' adherents have the right to these views but actions have consequences, and if you can't take the heat of the limelights, get off the stage, boys.

[safari]

I'm all for charity and volunteer work. It helps build communities and shows to those in need that there are still good people looking out for the common good in our society.

That said, I'm also cognizant of the potential abuse and exploitation of good-willed Americans to step in wherever the government won't. It's long been a mission of the far right wing, especially the Grover Norquist clan, to lock down the public purse on spending for social programs and one of the solutions they point to is that "charity will step in when the government pulls out".

While it's nearly impossible to disagree with feeding the hungry furloughed workers or cleaning up the national parks' trashed trails voluntarily, it's important to see the other side of the coin of these actions, too. Through providing services out of pocket that should fall under the government's purview, these good actors are relieving the building pressures on the bad actors' actions that created the clusterfuck in the first place, and even strengthening the Norquist argument that "See? All the public spending isn't necessary. Privatize, volunteer, charity, whatever...just cut the programs and send that money to the rich."

Since living in France I've been surprised at how little the culture of volunteerism is anchored here. It exists, for sure. But when I explain how important it is in the US they just respond with "Yeah, that's why we pay taxes. So we don't have to organize charities and volunteer to provide such services."

The line is gray, for sure. But when our government falls short and our first reflexive action is to jumpstart out-of-pocket charity work, instead of political organizing and banging pots and pans, I'm afraid Confederates sees this as a giant green light to pillage budgets, knowing that good-willed Americans will both pick up the slack (on their own dime) and soften the political blow they rightfully deserve.

[Marie Burns]

@safari: Excellent point.

This is similar to the "comfort zone" Trump's "adults in the room" provided Republicans who were sure H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, John Kelly & Co. could save the U.S. from Trump. Unfortunately, now that they're gone & have been replaced by sniveling sycophants, we certainly don't see Mitch McConnell running around with his hair on fire trying to mitigate Trump's disastrous mismanagement. Rather, McConnell has taken the path of further enabling Trump even as Trump's actions become more bizarre & dangerous.

[PD Pepe]

@safari: I, too, have the same thoughts about the largesse of charity when we have the situation we have now. In saner times charitable deeds are necessary in a country such as ours in which taking care of those in need keep sliding down from government priorities.I like the answer given to you by a French citizen–-"That's why we pay taxes." Gosh–-who woulda thunk!

Re: the March for Life whose title should have been March for Madness: Caught a bit from CSpan where many of these people were being briefly interviewed:
" Women who abort should be hanged."
"These women should be shot"
" You kill little babies, you should be killed with them."

And then we have those nice Catholic young men from that nice Catholic school spew their evil on American Indians. I am not shocked–- I am not even surprised. What I feel is a terrible sadness mixed in with a fury that somehow these "MAGA" wearing hatters are such haters at such a tender age. Good Catholic schooling for sure.

And on this snowy, icy Sunday I was so hoping Dodgy Donald would have made a sensible speech and opened the government. It was not to be. We are back where we started which is stuck in limbo with a real mindless stick in the mud.

And Jesus wept.

[PD Pepe]

ART SPEAKS TO THE PENCES':
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephen-colbert-taunts-karen-pence_us_5c43ecbfe4b027c3bbc2663a

[Victoria]

Pitching in and helping neighbors in need is a definite part of US rural culture. In my area, I've seen barn raisings, cooked endless meals, and been part of the crew of volunteers who raised enough money so that one woman could fly back and forth to Chicago, so she would be with her severely burned child, etc. Government has nothing to do with this.
My position is that the government is there to provide for the common good. Therefore I pay my taxes and I expect to see adequate provision for the less fortunate, as part of my social contract with my government. The government is not off the hook if I choose to do unpaid volunteer work. I do not support the Trump shutdown; but if my neighbor were furloughed, I'd be bringing over one of my casseroles.
I've lived and traveled in several countries. France and Germany absolutely were not oriented toward volunteerism, in my experience. But in New Zealand, which still is mostly rural, I saw people volunteer to do lots of things. Neighborly giving may have to do with survival in rural, or sparsely populated, areas rather than any sort of moral virtue.

[unwashed]

The Redneck Liberal has an amusing take on the made-up wall/shutdown crisis. His solution is pretty clever, get Obama to endorse the wall.

[Ken Winkes]

This charity talk brings to mind the irony I've noted about one of the main factors that has allowed the R's attacks on the common weal, everything from workers' rights to social security, to be as effective as they have been.

If people were not minimally comfortable, they would rush to the streets throwing epithets, if not rocks, at every silly-ass right wing politician who thumped his chest and claimed he had done it all himself, or they would long ago have drowned Grover Norquist in his own bathtub.

That they have not is testament to the success of the safety net the Right decries and says we don't need. In effect, by making things at least minimally OK for most people that net provides cover for the selfishness and stupidity of those who want to get rid of it.

[Ken Winkes]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-warns-nancy-pelosi-be-careful-after-democrats-signal-they-n960686

So the Pretender has not just taken DACA recipients hostage, he's extended his threats to include all undocumented people within our borders, all 11 million of them*, and has hinted he will "execute" them too.

Indeed a rabid terrorist bent on his own brand of ethnic cleansing here in the land of the free.

*but probably not the white ones....

[NiskyGuy]

@Ken: *and not the ones that work at his resorts.

[Patrick]

DiJiT is trying to imply that if "Nancy" doesn't allow him SOTU venue next week, she will violate a "contract" because he has "accepted" her "offer" and blah blah.

Never mind that she has not agreed to his offered "consideration" -- the bigger flaw in his claim is with respect to "capacity". He ain't got none.

From the top page of the googles:

"Capacity to contract means the legal competence of a person to enter into a valid contract. Usually the capacity to contract refers to the capacity to enter into a legal agreement and the competence to perform some act. The basic element to enter into a valid contract is that s/he (must) have a sound mind."

Never mind that branches of gov can't bind themselves in contract. The head of the exec branch needs a sound mind. Oops.

[AuntHattie]

“ . . . honoring the civil rights icon with a wreath on the federal holiday bearing his name.. . . “

Initially I’d read this as - and believed it had meant -
bearing *his* name. An error, certainly, but a horrifyingly
believable one.

Memories today of meeting - and shaking hands with - Dr. King
as a young, young gal.

Belated New Year’s greetings to one & all.