The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Thursday
Jul192018
The Commentariat -- July 20, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Lordy, I Hope There Are Tapes. Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, secretly recorded a conversation with Mr. Trump two months before the presidential election in which they discussed payments to a former Playboy model [Karen McDougal] who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, according to lawyers and others familiar with the recording. The F.B.I. seized the recording this year during a raid on Mr. Cohen's office. The Justice Department is investigating Mr. Cohen's involvement in paying women to tamp down embarrassing news stories about Mr. Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Prosecutors want to know whether that violated federal campaign finance laws, and any conversation with Mr. Trump about those payments would be of keen interest to them. The recording's existence further draws Mr. Trump into questions about tactics he and his associates used to keep aspects of his personal and business life a secret.... The men discussed a payment from Mr. Trump to Ms. McDougal -- separate from the Enquirer payment -- to buy her story, [Rudy] Giuliani said. Such a payment would ensure that Ms. McDougal was silenced going forward. No payment was ever made, Mr. Giuliani said...." ...
... Matt Naham of Law & Crime. Rudy "Giuliani claims that Cohen's recording of a conversation about paying off a Playboy model for silence about an affair with his client is actually great and 'powerful' news.... Giuliani confirmed that there was such a conversation between Trump and Cohen, but Giuliani says it actually shows Trump did nothing wrong. He said no payment was ever made and that the recording was under two minutes in length. 'Nothing in that conversation suggests that [Trump] had any knowledge of it in advance,' he said. 'In the big scheme of things, it’s powerful exculpatory evidence.'"
Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump accused China and the European Union of manipulating their currencies and continued to criticize the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates, saying those moves are putting the United States at a disadvantage. In a flurry of early-morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump complained that the Fed's rate increases and a 'stronger and stronger' United States dollar are 'taking away our big competitive edge.' He also said the Fed's plan to raise rates -- known as tightening because it makes borrowing more expensive -- 'hurts all that we have done.'... His comments once again break with longstanding White House norms, in which American presidents tend to talk sparingly about the United States dollar and, when they do, generally reiterate that a strong dollar is in the national interest.... While financial markets seemed to shrug off Mr. Trump's initial comments on the Federal Reserve on Thursday, his Twitter posts on Friday -- all of which seemed aimed at pushing the dollar lower -- drew a reaction. The dollar, as measured by the U.S. Dollar Index, fell sharply, by roughly 0.6 percent. Prices of 30-year United States Treasury bonds ... also dropped, pushing yields -- which move in the opposite direction -- higher. Prices for gold, a traditional hedge against inflation risk, rose.... Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, said the president's tweets displayed 'a breezy ignorance of facts and limited understanding of basic principles of economics.'"
Sad! Rosie Perper of Business Insider: "Trump-themed flags and hats made in China are reportedly being held up at US customs amid an intensifying trade war."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "A Russian company accused by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III of being part of an online operation to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign is leaning in part on a decision by Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh to argue that the charge against it should be thrown out. The 2011 decision by Kavanaugh, writing for a three-judge panel, concerned the role that foreign nationals may play in U.S. elections. It upheld a federal law that said foreigners temporarily in the country may not donate money to candidates, contribute to political parties and groups or spend money advocating for or against candidates. But it did not rule out letting foreigners spend money on independent advocacy campaigns."
Elizabeth Williamson & Emily Steel of the New York Times: "Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News hired this month as President Trump's communications chief..., was ousted from Fox News last year in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal at the network. Mr. Shine was never publicly accused of harassment, but he was accused in multiple civil lawsuits of covering up misconduct by Roger E. Ailes, the founding chairman of Fox News, and dismissing concerns from colleagues who complained.... In one previously undisclosed action, Mr. Shine was subpoenaed last year by a federal grand jury in New York as part of a criminal investigation into Fox News's handling of sexual harassment complaints.... (He is the fourth person in 18 months to hold the post under Mr. Trump, and others have filled in.) His wife, Darla, was found to have made racially charged remarks on a Twitter account that has since been deleted."
Megan Garber of the Atlantic: Sarah "Sanders, on behalf of the president she works for, ... takes for granted an assumption that ... there are things that are more important than truth.... It is ... an approach that is wholly consistent with the Trumpian worldview -- one that valorizes strength above all..., one that is populated by a collective of uses and thems, one whose sum, always, is zero.... This is a White House that subscribes to the incontrovertible realities of the world according to one man. Donaldpolitik." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.
Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "Iranian hackers have laid the groundwork to carry out extensive cyberattacks on U.S. and European infrastructure and on private companies, and the U.S. is warning allies, hardening its defenses and weighing a counterattack, say multiple senior U.S. officials. Despite Iran having positioned cyber weapons to carry out attacks, there is no suggestion an offensive operation is imminent, according to the officials...."
*****
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump plans to invite President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to visit Washington in the fall, the White House said Thursday.... The announcement came as ... uncertainty spread throughout the government about whether he had reached agreements with Mr. Putin on Syria and Ukraine, leaving his military and diplomatic corps in the dark.... In a tweet Thursday morning, Mr. Trump said he looked forward to a second meeting with Mr. Putin so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed.' He listed Ukraine, Israel's security, nuclear proliferation, trade, North Korea, and Middle East peace. At the Pentagon, Mr. Trump's reference to Ukraine alarmed officials, who have tried to reassure skittish European allies that the United States will stand with them to prevent Russia from carrying out the same predatory moves it imposed there." ...
... Ilya Arkhipov of Bloomberg: "Vladimir Putin told Russian diplomats that he made a proposal to Donald Trump at their summit this week to hold a referendum to help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but agreed not to disclose the plan publicly so the U.S. president could consider it, according to two people who attended Putin's closed-door speech on Thursday. Details of what the two leaders discussed in their summit in Helsinki, Finland, remain scarce, with much of the description so far coming from Russia.... One of the people said that Trump had requested Putin not discuss the referendum idea at the press conference after the summit in order to give the U.S. leader time to mull it.... If Putin's account of Trump's reaction is accurate, it would suggest a more flexible approach than the U.S. has shown to date on the issue." ...
... "Say That Again?... Okaaay." Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The nation's intelligence chief continued on Thursday to harden his warnings about the cyberthreat from Russia and expressed surprise at hearing that President Trump planned to invite its leader, President Vladimir V. Putin, to the White House, but promised to deliver a candid assessment to Mr. Trump about the dangers of such a visit. Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, appeared genuinely astonished during a national security conference in Aspen, Colo., when he was told that the White House announced plans to invite Mr. Putin to Washington. 'Say that again?' Mr. Coats asked Andrea Mitchell of NBC, the event moderator, before uttering an exaggerated and drawn-out 'O.K.' He added, 'That is going to be special.'... Mr. Coats also said he was not fully aware of what Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin discussed in their one-on-one meeting on Monday in Helsinki, Finland, but that he hopes to learn soon, a remarkable admission for a cabinet-level national security official.... He was not alone in his skepticism over a White House invitation for Mr. Putin. Current and former senior American intelligence officials expressed deep concern and skepticism. 'It seems this is a reward for bad behavior,' said James R. Clapper Jr., Mr. Coats's predecessor as director of national intelligence. Mr. Clapper said that bringing Mr. Putin, a former K.G.B. chief, into the White House would pose stiff intelligence risks. 'This will be a complex intelligence and counterintelligence challenge,' he said.... Mr. Coats also said ... that he had not been aware of the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office between Mr. Trump and Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, along with Sergey I. Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the United States. During their discussion, Mr. Trump revealed sensitive Israeli intelligence. That meeting, Mr. Coats said, was 'probably not the best thing." ...
Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Coats said he would have advised against Trump and Putin's private meeting in Helsinki, which worried U.S. security officials because no notes were taken and only two interpreters were present, but that he had not been consulted. Underscoring how little is known about the meeting, Coats acknowledged that he has not been told what happened in the room. Asked whether it was possible Putin had secretly recorded the more-than two-hour meeting, Coats answered, 'That risk is always there.'... Inside the White House, Trump's advisers were in an uproar over Coats's interview in Aspen, Colo. They said the optics were especially damaging, noting that at moments Coats appeared to be laughing at the president, playing to his audience of the intellectual elite in a manner that was sure to infuriate Trump. 'Coats has gone rogue,' said one senior White House official...." ...
... Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump wrote online Thursday that he is looking forward to a second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.... 'The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems...but they can ALL be solved!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Mrs. McC: The announcement blindsided many top administration officials. ...
... Katie Rogers & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump spent much of Thursday playing up his economic accomplishments and attacking his regular list of rivals, including Hillary Clinton and the news media, which he again called the enemy of the people.... Intentionally or not, Mr. Trump was set on testing the limits of his ability to move on without consequences.... Mr. Trump was deploying a familiar tactic: barreling into the next news cycle by supplying the next bit of incendiary programming." ...
... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "... The real scandal of Helsinki may be only just emerging.... We are witnessing nothing less than the breakdown of American foreign policy.... On Thursday, Putin gave a public address to Russian diplomats in which he claimed that specific 'useful agreements' were reached with Trump in their one-on-one meeting at the summit, a private meeting that Trump himself insisted on.... Unlike Putin, Trump did not brief his own diplomats on the Helsinki meeting.... 'There is no word on agreements,' a senior U.S. official told me.... 'Nothing,' [a U.S ambassador] told me. 'We are completely in the dark. Completely.'... Days after the Helsinki summit, Trump's advisers have offered no information -- literally zero -- about any such agreements. His own government apparently remains unaware of any deals that Trump made with Putin, or any plans for a second meeting.... The fragmentary evidence that has emerged, from the Russian comments and Trump's various interviews, suggests there is reason for serious concern." ...
... Adam Silverman in Balloon Juice: "... because the President is considered to be a security risk when it comes to intelligence/information by US, allied, and partnered intelligence officials, the US was going to be at a disadvantage in regard to intelligence matters. What we know from both Andrea Mitchell's interview with DNI Coats and Susan Glasser's reporting, is that the President is compounding this problem by not telling his own senior appointees what they need to know to actually do their jobs effectively." ...
Will Kane of the (U.C.) Berkeley News: "'Russia's goal is undermining the West and NATO and undermining democracy around the world,' said M. Steven Fish, a professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. 'Russian leaders have dreamed of doing this for a century and Soviet leaders weren't able to even make a nick in our alliances, or in the struggle against the United States. But in the last 18 months Russia made more progress toward that end than any time in the previous century.'... [Trump's performance in Helsinki] 'is textbook treason. This is what treason looks like. The fact that it's been so brazenly committed, and on an ongoing basis over a two-year period, is blinding.'... 'Yet most Democratic politicians continue to treat the American voter as exclusively concerned with government benefits, distribution of the tax burden, personal identity, and reproductive rights.'" Thanks to Monoloco for the link.
... Eliana Johnson of Politico: "... Donald Trump's disastrous performance since his news conference alongside Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has sent West Wing morale to its lowest level since the Charlottesville fiasco almost a year ago. As happened last August, when the president refused to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrators, Trump's attempts to tamp down outrage have backfired. Stilted statements followed by ad-libbed remarks left even his allies feeling that while the president was technically acknowledging a mistake, he actually meant what he'd said on the first go-round -- that he believed Putin&'s denials of Russian meddling in the 2016 election." Mrs. McC: Their morale is low? They took jobs working for an infamous lowlife, & they're continually surprised by his outrageous behavior? Trump makes me physically ill, as he does many of us. The Trumpies should suffer more than we. ...
... Carol Morello, et al., of the Washington Post: "What began as Trump's attempt to repair relations that had been deteriorating since the Obama administration ended up causing a bigger rift. The fact he had even considered making Americans submit to questioning by Russian authorities sowed suspicion and outrage among current and former diplomats.... Trump initially called the offer 'interesting.'... The State Department has called the request for the Americans 'absolutely absurd.'... [Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael] McFaul is one of 11 U.S. citizens a Russian prosecutor wants to question in connection with an investigation many U.S. officials say is bogus. The list is believed to include at least two other former diplomats, a congressional staffer, a CIA agent, a staffer for the National Security Council and two employees at the Department of Homeland Security.... Many of the Americans on the list were involved in some way with the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 U.S. law that has imposed stiff sanctions against Russia for human rights abuses, or have been harsh critics of human rights abuses in Russia under Putin.... [Financier Bill] Browder [-- who successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress & other governments to pass the Magnitsky Act (named for his former attorney Sergei Magnitsky)--], which imposed sanctions against certain Russians --] said he was 'aghast' by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders's remark [Wednesday] that the president was considering the Russian request." ...
... "He Was For It Before He Was Against It." -- MAG. Kevin Liptak & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "... Donald Trump now disagrees with a proposal raised by his Russian counterpart to interrogate Americans in exchange for assistance in the FBI's Russia probe, the White House said on Thursday, another reversal in a week of cleanup following a maligned summit with Vladimir Putin. 'It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it,' press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement....Sanders [had] indicated on Wednesday that no final decision had been made, but that the proposal was under consideration. 'The President's going to meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an announcement on that,' she said.... The flip was the third forced clarification following Trump's talks with Putin. On Tuesday, Trump declared he misspoke when he cast doubt on US intelligence assessments that Russia interfered in the US election. And on Wednesday, Sanders told reporters that Trump's 'no' in response to a query about Russia's continued attempts to meddle was in fact a declaration that he wouldn't answer the question." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: What a shame. Here Putin made a generous offer "in sincerity" & Trump, who thought the offer was "incredible" -- in a good way -- has had to turn down Vlad's well-meaning & sincere offer. Is Sanders stupid or just an unprincipled lackey? ...
... Elana Schor of Politico: "The Senate overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday stating that the United States should refuse to make any current or former official available for questioning by Vladimir Putin's government. The 98-0 vote amounts to a bipartisan slap at ... Donald Trump, whose White House on Thursday reversed its previous openness to giving Moscow access to former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and other longtime Putin critics. But beyond the lopsided vote to pass the symbolic resolution, proposed earlier in the day by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), it remained unclear if the Senate would move ahead on any substantive action in response to ... Trump's widely criticized appearance with ... Putin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after a meeting with Banking Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) that he had asked their two committees to hold hearings on the implementation of last year's bipartisan Russia sanctions bill 'and to recommend to the Senate additional measures that could respond to or deter Russian malign behavior.'" ...
... Elana Schor: "Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) are stepping up a push for action on their bipartisan proposal to hit Russia with automatic new sanctions if it interferes in future U.S. elections.... Introduced in January, the Rubio-Van Hollen bill picked up eight new cosponsors on Thursday, evenly divided between both parties. The bill's momentum has grown steadily since Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) mentioned it on Tuesday as one option on the table for the Senate to respond to ... Donald Trump's warm posture toward Vladimir Putin's government...." ...
... Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), in a New York Times op-ed: "Over the course of my career as an undercover officer in the C.I.A., I saw Russian intelligence manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them.... By playing into Vladimir Putin's hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States.... As a member of Congress, a coequal branch of government designed by our founders to provide checks and balances on the executive branch, I believe that lawmakers must fulfill our oversight duty as well as keep the American people informed of the current danger.... If necessary, Congress should take the lead on European security issues as it has in recent years.... Congress must act to give the men and women of our intelligence agencies the tools they need to confront Moscow and prevent this from happening in the future." ...
... Ellen Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department plans to alert the public to foreign operations targeting U.S. democracy under a new policy designed to counter hacking and disinformation campaigns such as the one Russia undertook in 2016 to disrupt the presidential election. The government will inform American companies, private organizations and individuals that they are being covertly attacked by foreign actors attempting to affect elections or the political process. 'Exposing schemes to the public is an important way to neutralize them,' said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who announced the policy at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. Rosenstein, who has drawn President Trump's ire for appointing a special counsel to probe Russian election interference, got a standing ovation.... Rosenstein said the Russian effort to influence the 2016 election 'is just one tree in a growing forest. Focusing merely on a single election misses the point.'" ...
... John Parkinson of ABC News: "Republicans blocked an attempt Thursday morning to subpoena the interpreter who sat in on ... Donald Trump's one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland on Monday. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, joined with fellow California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to make a motion to subpoena Marina Gross, a State Department official." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Republicans on Thursday approved a spending bill that excludes new money for election security grants to states, provoking a furious reaction from Democrats amid a national controversy over Russian election interference. The spending bill passed 217-199. Democrats' bid to add hundreds of millions more in election spending was rejected 182-232 -- as Republicans were unmoved by Democrats floor speeches decrying the funding changes and chanting 'USA! USA!'" This is an update of a story linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Terry Gross of NPR: "Carole Cadwalladr's investigation into Cambridge Analytica's role in Brexit led her to Russian connections and the Trump campaign. She says British investigators are working 'closely with the FBI.'" Gross interviews Cadwalladr for "Fresh Air." Cadwalladr: "... the through-link who I keep coming back to is this character called Nigel Farage.... [Steve] Bannon actually opened a branch of Breitbart in London in 2012, specifically to support Nigel Farage's mission to take Britain out of the EU.... Wherever Steve Bannon was, Robert Mercer's money was. And when Robert Mercer started funding Donald Trump's presidential election, that was when Bannon was brought in as his campaign manager." Farange was the connection between Trump & Julian Assange. Cadwalladr gave all of her stuff to the New York Times, partly because the U.S. has less stringent libel laws. Cadwalladr (and apparently Mueller) also has made the connections among "strange" financial Arron Banks & the Russian ambassador to Great Britain Alexander Yakovenko, Farange & the Trump campaign. "And Ambassador Yakovenko is described by Mueller [in an indictment] as a high-level contact between the Trump campaign in the Kremlin.... It comes back to, time and time again, the role of Silicon Valley in these elections is the really, really key thing. And Russia exposed that weakness. And, as I say, it happened in darkness. And Mark Zuckerberg is sort of absolutely responsible, still now, for not giving us the answers that we need to sort of understand that more fully." ...
"Congratulations, Mr. President." Ryan Mac & Charlie Warzel of BuzzFeed: "In the days following Donald Trump's election victory over Hillary Clinton, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg placed a secret, previously unreported call to the president-elect during which, sources told BuzzFeed News, he congratulated the Trump team on its victory and successful campaign, which spent millions of dollars on advertising with Facebook. The private call between Zuckerberg and Trump, which was confirmed by three people familiar with the conversation, is just one in a series of private endorsements from Facebook employees of the Trump campaign's ad efforts on the platform.... While Facebook has been reluctant to publicly acknowledge how well Trump used its social network to reach voters, it has celebrated the Republican presidential candidate's campaign internally as one of the most imaginative uses of the company's powerful advertising platform.... People familiar with the Trump campaign described a close working relationship with Facebook throughout the campaign."
The Latest Trumposphere Talking Points. Mackay Coppins of the Atlantic: "Skimming #MAGA Twitter, it's easy to see the outlines of the pro-Russian-meddling argument emerging: America interferes in other countries' elections, so it can't be that bad; exposing Democrats' hacked emails was a victory for transparency; keeping Clinton out of office was so urgent and important that it warranted some foreign intervention.... When the term 'collusion' first entered the political conversation in the wake of the 2016 election, the initial response was to dismiss the idea outright.... But as evidence of communication with Russia mounted in the months that followed, Trump's allies were forced to pivot repeatedly.... Given this pattern of deflection and rationalization, is it really so implausible that a significant segment of Trump-backers might complete the journey from denying Russian meddling to celebrating it?"
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Instead of seeing 1930s Germany as a cautionary tale, contemporary events here are teaching me how ordinary Germans could have fallen into line with Naziism. Stories like Coppins' convince me that Bacevich (linked next) is wrong. ...
... Andrew Bacevich in the Boston Globe: "... I am increasingly persuaded that Trump's election has induced a paranoid response, one that, unless curbed, may well pose a greater danger to the country than Trump himself. This paranoid response finds expression in obsessive attention given to just about anything Trump says, along with equally obsessive speculation about what he might do next -- this despite the fact that most of what he says is nonsense and much of what he does is reversed, contradicted, or watered down within the span of a single news cycle.... He is not a precursor of fascism. He does not endanger our democracy. Nor does he pose a threat to the rights enumerated in the Constitution.... The likelihood of Trump himself addressing any of [the nation's] problems is nil. But unless we get on with the process of identifying solutions, there will likely be more Trumps in our future." Thanks to Keith H. for the link.
Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "President Trump in an interview that aired Friday said that he's 'ready to go' with $500 billion in tariffs on China after already slapping the country with a series of tariffs.... Bloomberg reported that about $500 billion worth of Chinese goods were imported into the U.S. last year."
Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Trump criticized the Federal Reserve on Thursday for raising interest rates, a rare rebuke by a sitting president that upends longstanding White House protocol to avoid commenting on monetary policy.Mr. Trump, in an interview with CNBC set to air on Friday morning, said that he was 'not thrilled' about the Fed's decision to raise interest rates twice so far this year, to a current range of 1.75 to 2 percent. He implied that the moves, which are aimed at getting interest rates back to historically normal levels, could derail his administration's efforts to bolster the economy and put the United States at a disadvantage. 'I don't like all of this work that we're putting into the economy and then I see rates going up,' Mr. Trump said, according to excerpts released by CNBC. 'I am not happy about it.'... Mr. Trump said that he understood he was breaking with that protocol, but that he did not care.... During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump accused the Fed of getting political, saying that the bank's chairwoman at the time, Janet L. Yellen, should be 'ashamed' for keeping interest rates low -- a move he said was meant to help President Barack Obama." ...
Now I'm just saying the same thing that I would have said as a private citizen. So somebody would say, 'Oh, maybe you shouldn't say that as president.' I couldn't care less what they say, because my views haven't changed. -- Donald Trump, to CNBC
... Ed Kilgore: Trump "went back and forth on [interest rates] during the 2016 presidential campaign. In May he called himself a 'low-interest rate person' but by September [he was criticizing Yellin for shamefully propping up the Obama economy.]... As president, of course, he ... perceives Fed policies predictably aimed at keeping the economy on an even keel as subversive.... Trump's ambivalent expressions about interest rates over time ... are highly disruptive to markets for whom monetary policy is extremely important.... It's alarming that the president doesn't understand his wandering opinions on this sensitive topic matter more than they did when he was a mere real estate mogul and reality-show host." ** See also MAG's comment in today's thread.
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Thursday that the Senate will vote Monday on the confirmation of top Pentagon official Robert Wilkie as veterans affairs secretary.... The move follows a report in The Washington Post on Wednesday that VA officials who are supportive of President Trump have been taking aggressive steps to sideline or reassign employees who are perceived to be disloyal.... Democratic lawmakers and the reassigned employees have accused [Peter] O'Rourke..., a former Trump campaign staff member who has been serving as VA's acting secretary..., of carrying out a loyalty purge based on the perceived political leanings of civil servants, whose jobs are supposed to be nonpartisan.... Also Thursday, nine Democrats led by Rep. Tim Walz (Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, called for an investigation of whether O'Rourke violated a federal law that prohibits on-duty political activity during his tenure as acting secretary."
Elana Schor & Burgess Everett of Politico: Mitch McConnell "privately told senior Republicans on Wednesday that if Democrats keep pushing for access to upwards of a million pages in records from ... Donald Trump's high court pick, he’s prepared to let Kavanaugh's confirmation vote slip until just before November's midterm elections, according to multiple sources. Delaying the vote past September would serve a dual purpose for McConnell, keeping vulnerable red-state Democrats off the campaign trail while potentially forcing anti-Kavanaugh liberals to swallow a demoralizing defeat just ahead of the midterms." ... Mrs. McC: Mitch is a canny guy, but I'm not sure his thinking on this is right. Maybe he can get Mark Zuckerberg & Cambridge Analytica (whatever it calls itself now) to help him decide on the best strategy.
Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "... a nominee for a key federal appeals court was pulled [by the White House] to avoid an embarrassing defeat on the Senate floor. The nomination of Ryan W. Bounds to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit faced opposition over his writings in college, which included a column in which he railed against 'race-focused groups' on campus and 'race-think.' The Senate's only black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, had concerns about ... Mr. Bounds's inability to clarify how his thinking had changed since then.... 'After talking with the nominee..., I had unanswered questions that led to me being unable to support him,' Mr. Scott said in a statement.... Adding conservative judges to the Ninth Circuit ... has been a longtime priority of Republicans. But Mr. Bounds, a federal prosecutor in Oregon, had faced strenuous opposition from Oregon's senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats. Senate Republicans moved ahead with the nomination over their objections, generating howls of protest from Democrats, who accused the majority party of running roughshod over the Senate's tradition of deference to home-state senators."
Lisa Friedman, et al., of the New York Times: "The Interior Department on Thursday proposed the most sweeping set of changes in decades to the Endangered Species Act, the law that brought the bald eagle and the Yellowstone grizzly bear back from the edge of extinction but which Republicans say is cumbersome and restricts economic development. The proposed revisions have far-reaching implications, potentially making it easier for roads, pipelines and other construction projects to gain approvals than under current rules."
Kate Irby of McClatchy News: "Rep. Devin Nunes used political donations to pay for nearly $15,000 in tickets to Boston Celtics basketball games as well as winery tours and lavish trips to Las Vegas, according to reports from the Federal Election Commission and two nonpartisan watchdog groups.... His PAC also spent about $42,741 since 2013 on catering, site rentals, hotels and meals in Las Vegas. The most recent instance was March 9, when the PAC spent $7,229 at seven different restaurants and hotels in Las Vegas.... Leadership PACs such as the one Nunes runs are supposed to be used to allow members of Congress to donate money to other political campaigns, but using them for other expenses in connection with fundraising is common among members of Congress." Mrs. McC: All this should make Nunes a top contender for a key Cabinet appointment. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Election 2020. Look, Joe Biden ran three times. He never got more than 1 percent and President Obama took him out of the garbage heap, and everybody was shocked that he did. I'd love to have it be Biden. -- Donald Trump, on who his 2020 opponent might be
** Report from Wichita. Sarah Shmarsh in a New York Times op-ed: "Most struggling whites I know live lives of quiet desperation mad at their white bosses, not resentment of their co-workers or neighbors of color.... Like many Midwestern workers I know, my dad has more in common ideologically with New York's Democratic Socialist congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than with the white Republicans who run our state.... Media coverage suggests that economically distressed whiteness elected Mr. Trump, when in fact it was just plain whiteness.... The greatest con of 2016 was not persuading a white laborer to vote for a nasty billionaire with soft hands. Rather, it was persuading a watchdog press to cast every working-class American in the same mold." Thanks to Patrick for the link. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: My hope is that those "roving reporters" & their editors at the NYT all read their paper's opinion page. My impression of New York Times reporting on "real America" (and that includes the "reporting" by opinion writers -- here's looking at you, David Brooks) is that editors send young reporters out to the hinterlands in search of chatty racist rubes in shabby diners. "These men are smart; they know not to say 'the coloreds' and 'bra-burners,' but they blame liberal Democrats like Mr. Obama & Mrs. Clinton for the closed widget factory here in Nowheresville."
John Schwartz of the New York Times: "A federal judge has rejected New York City's lawsuit to make fossil fuel companies help pay the costs of dealing with climate change. Judge John F. Keenan of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote that climate change must be addressed by the executive branch and Congress, not by the courts. While climate change 'is a fact of life,' Judge Keenan wrote, 'the serious problems caused thereby are not for the judiciary to ameliorate. Global warming and solutions thereto must be addressed by the two other branches of government.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
Guy Faulconbridge of Reuters: "British police have identified several Russians who they believe were behind the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, the British news agency, Press Association, said on Thursday, citing a source close to the investigation." Officials have not confirmed the report. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
New York Times: "At least eight people were killed Thursday night when a tourist boat capsized in a southern Missouri lake as powerful thunderstorms passed through the Midwest, the authorities said. The amphibious boat, or duck boat, overturned in Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo., around 7 p.m. as winds exceeded 60 m.p.h. Sheriff Doug Rader of Stone County said the duck boat sank to the bottom of the lake, and that seven passengers were taken to a hospital. Two people were in critical condition at Cox Medical Center Branson late Thursday." ...
... The story has been updated. At least 11 people died. ...
... The story has been updated again. Seventeen people died, including nine in one family.
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Continuing my bootless effort to point out that the way to deal with DT is the way Herakles dealt with Antaeus, I'll enlist the estimable Andrew Bacevich, as follows:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/07/17/curb-paranoia-anti-trumpers/YoTT6wfNNHIYStlIg41YWP/story.html
But, sir, there's a trail of what you said!
Back on March 12, 2017 The Guardian wrote that: Donald Trump "pushed the Federal Reserve to raise rates", but the policy could backfire on president’s economic plan.
Donald Trump spent much of his campaign for the White House attacking the Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen. Shouting at the camera in the first presidential debate, he even went as far as to accuse the head of the central bank of “being political”, spurring her to deny she was anything but impartial.
(Saw Bea McCrab came across similar report).
Never mind. That was then, this is later...
Then on November 2, 2017 Bloomberg headlined with "Trump Hated Low Interest Rates. Then He Became President" "Trump wearies us all" with his non-stop reversals and extreme do-overs.
Donald Trump the presidential candidate denounced the Federal Reserve’s promotion of low interest rates as feeding a risky economic bubble. Now in the White House, regularly celebrating the stock market’s advances, he’s had a change of heart....
What? He has a heart?
Today per Matthew Yglesias VOX Trump says he’s ""not thrilled " by Federal Reserve interest rate hikes...
Too bad Trump feels that way. Sad.
@MAG: Poor Mitt. His days as the Flip-Flop King are long gone.
I think I'll start calling them flop-flips.
From the visual of Dan Coats as he hears that his asshole boss* (name not provided) is inviting Putin to the US, I believe that all this asshole boss* wanted to do was to humiliate and disempower Coats, just like he did to Comey. The asshole boss* must have been watching, and decided that this would be the cruelest thing he could do. I'm absolutely sure there was nothing deeper than that.
@Victoria: Interesting & highly plausible theory. Trump is a nasty SOB, & this would be his best effort ever of putting at least a tad of passive in passive-aggressive.
I have the highest regard for Andrew Bacevich but his recent piece (see above) which I have read twice because I wanted to make sure I understood his points, I find I must disagree with. The coinage of the "paranoid style" by Hofstadter is a state of mind characterized by heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspirational fantasy, which of course describes Trump in a nutshell. Those of us who are reacting strongly to what this man and his minions have done to our country––(do we need to list once again the damage––I think not) feel very strongly that we pounce every day at the works and ways of this president* and if it appears extreme as Bacevich seems to think, so be it! To sit back, ho humming about it, would be like becoming sanguine about many of our agencies being taken over by people who are ruining our environment, and educational system, to mention only these two along with a moribund congress and a possible right leaning S.C.
Here is Trump from his 2007 book "THINK BIG":
"The world is a vicious and brutal place. We think we're civilized. In truth, it's a cruel world and people are ruthless. They act nice to your face, but underneath they're out to kill you...even your freinds are out to get you."
This is the paranoid state of mind that Hofstadter was describing. This is our president.*
P.S. Hats off to republican Will Hurd for speaking out.
And it occurred to me as I was brushing my teeth, that I didn't even mention Russia––the looming cloud overhead that we should take with a grain of salt?
PD.
Interesting point about who's the real paranoid here.
Paranoia is usually defined as a psychological condition that sees danger where it doesn't exist and consequently generates unfounded fears in the individual.
If that rough definition is accurate, I'd submit that on the political front there may be no such thing as genuine paranoia in 2018, because we all have plenty to be worried about.
As Bea says, the sane (us) should be worried about our neighbors slipping further into Pretender's Fantasyland, step by step normalizing the abnormal, the outrageous and the downright wrong right there in in the fuzzy country of their minds.
As for the Pretender and his band of deplorables, they rightly sense that more than half the country doesn't like them because, at heart and in action, they know they aren't very likable.
Hence, if they feel people are out to get them, they're correct and not paranoid at all.
And that leaves us with no room for paranoia anywhere.
Everyone should be scared to death.
Paranoia...continued...
Made a brief foray into the internet yesterday to find out how well the Russian sanctions are being implemented by the current administration. Came up with zilch, so my fears that the Pretender and his lackeys are not to be trusted in this quarter either were nowhere near assuaged.
So...would very much welcome Congressional hearings on the matter.
I might actually get my question answered, and I suspect such a hearing, watching Pretender officials squirm, would be much more fun than Benghazi re-re-redux or a search for the missing server that's not missing.
Megan Garber (Atlantic) has written an excellent piece on how Sarah Sanders has set a new precedent: Partisanship over patriotism–-Victory over truth.
She also cites a psychological experiment done in the summer of 1954 called "The Robber's Cave" (this is new to me) with 22 sixth grade boys at a summer camp in Oklahoma. It has the scent of "Lord of the Flies" but was conducted with precision and REAL persons. Read for yourself––I doubt you'll be too surprised by the outcome. Megan ties it together with her points about what Huckleberry is fomenting.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/07/sarah-sanders-russia-and-the-absolution-of-chaos/565610/
I am hoping this news item is fake, though it appears legit:
https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1982791/trump-leaves-obama-out-in-the-cold-in-sa
The Mandela 100 commemoration became a mini battlefield in the ongoing US political war this week, as the Trump administration ordered that Barack Obama not be given any assistance other than security arrangements by the American embassy in South Africa.
The high-profile visit by the former president was mainly arranged and coordinated by the Nelson Mandela and Obama foundations, with no assistance from the US embassy in Pretoria – a break from the diplomatic tradition of offering support to any visiting American leader.
None of the US embassy staff had to play any role due to “instructions by Washington” that Obama should not be provided any assistance, according to a highly placed source.
In the past, the US embassy has always provided full support to any visiting American leader regardless of party affiliation....
And this on Kavanugh's get out of jail free opinion (from CNBC):
"Judge Brett Kavanaugh warned the government in a 2011 court decision that if it wants to charge foreigners with violating laws about political contributions, then it must prove that those foreign nationals were aware of the laws being broken."
So...ignorance of the law IS an excuse....for some. That ignorance thing oughta cover the Pretender and his entire administration. Something else to recommend K. to the Pretender.
@Monoloco
Thanks.
What intrigued me most about the report you linked was not the pettiness. Expected, so not that at all.
And since the Pretender's whims and his bad case of Putin tropism are our only foreign policy, who needs diplomats?
But he report of serious understaffing in the embassy now 18 months into the Pretender's reign is an embarrassment repeated around the world, it leads me to wonder what delays and inefficiences Americans abroad are experiencing.
A topic for the NYTimes or WA PO reporters?
@Ken Winkes: I sent the story along to the NYT.
Marie
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/opinion/republican-party-national-rifle-association-trump-russia.html?
I had no idea the NRA spent 100 million on the 2016 campaign.
If only a part of Goldberg's NYTimes op-ed about the emerging ties among Russia, the NRA and much of the Republican Party is true, I'd call it, er.....explosive. (I see one commenter, unable to resist, already called it a smoking gun.)
Maybe the Congressional Republicans could short-circuit the financial charade they are participating in and just take their seats in the Duma.