The Commentariat -- July 22, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Katie Rogers & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump claimed without evidence on Sunday that his administration’s release of top-secret documents related to the surveillance of a former campaign aide had confirmed that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. 'misled the courts' in the early stages of the Russia investigation. 'Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the Democratic National Committee. In a series of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump left unmentioned how the documents laid out in stark detail why the F.B.I. was interested in the former campaign adviser, Carter Page[.]... In his tweets, Mr. Trump focused in part on the many redactions in the documents, seeming to take those as further proof that his campaign had been illegally surveilled.... The materials revealed that the judges who signed off on the wiretapping of Mr. Page were all appointed by Republican presidents.... The president also praised Judicial Watch, the conservative advocacy group known for its relentless legal pursuit of the Clintons, for obtaining the documents. But Mr. Trump disregarded the fact that the news organizations, including The Times, had sought release of the documents under several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I wouldn't say "without evidence"; I'd say "contra evidence." ...

... Martin Longman of Booman Tribune: "One thing that is clear from the [released] applications is that the FBI suspected Trump himself of changing his policies towards Russia during the campaign and was willing to suggest that the influence of advisers and campaign workers with Russian connections (including Carter Page) might be the explanation. Pretty much anyone who saw what just happened in Helsinki would have to agree that the FBI was certainly hot on the trail of something real." ...

... Sad! Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: Carter Page "said Sunday that a top-secret application to surveil him in 2016 was a 'complete joke,' even as most observers, including many Republicans, have called the surveillance justified.... This is so ridiculous, it’s just beyond words,' Page said on CNN’s State of the Union. 'It’s literally a complete joke. And it only continues. It’s just really sad.' Page denied that he was an 'agent of a foreign power' or that he ever advised the Kremlin, claiming instead that he only 'sat in on some meetings.' He also denied, as was stated in the FISA application, that he 'has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government.'”

Eli Okun of Politico: "Former Secretary of State John Kerry excoriated ... Donald Trump for his conciliatory news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, calling it 'one of the most disgraceful, remarkable moments of kowtowing to a foreign leader by an American president that anyone has ever witnessed.' 'Here’s why it's dangerous: because it sends a message to President Putin and to the rest of the world that the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, really doesn't have a handle on what he's doing,' Kerry added in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ 'Face the Nation.' He also said of Trump: 'I don't buy his walkback one second.'” ...

... Will Parsons & Quinn Scanlon of ABC News: "Responding to the way ... Donald Trump conducted himself during a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Trump 'acts like he's compromised' by the Kremlin. In an interview on 'This Week,'... [Adam Schiff said,] '... it may very well be that he is compromised or it may very well be that he believes that he’s compromised, that the Russians have information on him,' Schiff said. 'I think there's no ignoring the fact that, for whatever reason, this president acts like he's compromised. There is simply no other way to explain why he would side with this Kremlin, a former KGB officer, rather than his own intelligence agencies.'" ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "This summer..., Donald Trump has upended the basis of American security — opening a trade war with China, chastising U.S. allies in Europe, and, at a press conference in Helsinki, following a two-hour private meeting with President Vladimir Putin, accepting his claim that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election. The Times r"eported that U.S. intelligence officials had presented Trump with evidence that Putin himself had ordered cyberattacks in an attempt to affect the electoral outcome.... No one resigned from the Cabinet. No Republican senators took concrete steps to restrain or contain or censure the President.... The pattern is already visible for the historians of tomorrow. When Trump hailed neo-Nazis in Charlottesville as 'very fine people,' when he endorsed an accused child molester for the Senate, when he separated children from their parents at the Mexican border, the Republican Party, by and large, accepted it." ...

... Well, There's Trey Gowdy, Who Is Retiring. Eli Okun: "House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy [R-SC] chastised Donald Trump for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington, saying Sunday that some members of the president's administration should consider quitting if Trump won't listen to their advice. 'The fact that we have to talk to you about Syria or other matters is very different from issuing an invitation,' Gowdy said on 'Fox News Sunday' of the Putin invitation, which the White House confirmed last week would be extended for the fall. 'Those should be reserved for, I think, our allies.'... 'It can be proven beyond any evidentiary burden that Russia is not our friend and they tried to attack us in 2016,; Gowdy told host Bret Baier. 'So the president either needs to rely on the people that he has chosen to advise him, or those advisers need to reevaluate whether or not they can serve in this administration. But the disconnect cannot continue.'”

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Maria Butina, the Russian woman charged in federal court last week with acting as an unregistered agent of her government, received financial support from Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian billionaire with investments in U.S. energy and technology companies, according to a person familiar with testimony she gave Senate investigators. Butina told the Senate Intelligence Committee in April that Nikolaev provided funding for a gun rights group she represented, according to the person.... Nikolaev ... also sits on the board of American Ethane, a Houston ethane company that was showcased by President Trump at an event in China last year.... Nikolaev’s son Andrey, who is studying in the United States, volunteered in the 2016 campaign in support of Trump’s candidacy, according a person familiar with his activities. Nikolaev was spotted at the Trump International Hotel in Washington during Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, according to two people aware of his presence." Mrs. McC: These are just coincidences! But another name to link to Trump in the massive TrumPutin connections diagram. ...

... Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "Accused Russian agent Maria Butina had wider high-level contacts in Washington than previously known, taking part in 2015 meetings between a visiting Russian official and two senior officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department. The meetings, revealed by several people familiar with the sessions and a report from a Washington think tank that arranged them, involved Stanley Fischer, Fed vice chairman at the time, and Nathan Sheets, then Treasury undersecretary for international affairs. Butina travelled to the United States in April 2015 with Alexander Torshin, then the Russian Central Bank deputy governor, and they took part in separate meetings with Fischer and Sheets to discuss U.S.-Russian economic relations during Democratic former President Barack Obama’s administration. The two meetings, which have not been previously reported, reveal a wider circle of high-powered connections that Butina sought to cultivate with American political leaders and special interest groups."

Loose-Lips Kavanaugh. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump has waged war on leakers — but in nominating Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, the president has picked someone well-versed in the swampy art of off-the-record briefings and anonymous quotes. Kavanaugh spent nearly four years working for Kenneth Starr’s independent counsel probe of President Bill Clinton two decades ago. A sampling of the Starr office’s internal files available at the National Archives indicate Kavanaugh helped craft aspects of Starr’s communications strategy and interacted directly with the news media himself.... Writer and businessman Steven Brill, who set off a firestorm in 1998 with a cover story in his magazine, Brill’s Content, on Starr’s alleged leaks to the press, said Kavanaugh needs to offer a more detailed account of his interactions with reporters during the Whitewater probe. 'If what he did was not improper, why didn’t he do it on the record? The point is they all knew it violated rule 6(e),' Brill said, referring to a federal court rule protecting grand jury secrets. 'Brett was involved.'”

*****

Carter Page, Secret Agent. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has disclosed a previously top-secret set of documents related to the wiretapping of Carter Page, the onetime Trump campaign adviser who was at the center of highly contentious accusations by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee that the F.B.I. had abused its surveillance powers.... The documents were heavily redacted in places, and some of the substance of the applications had become public in February, via the Republican and Democratic Intelligence Committee memos. Still, the spectacle of the release was itself noteworthy, given that wiretapping under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is normally one of the government’s closest-guarded secrets." ...

... Here's more from Dell Cameron & Jack Mirkinson of Splinter, including reproduction of the documents. ...

... David Kris in Lawfare: "... the controversy about these FISA applications first arose in February when House intelligence committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes released a memo claiming that the FBI misled the FISA Court about Christopher Steele.... The main complaint in the Nunes memo was that FBI whitewashed Steele — that the FISA applications did not 'disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.' In response to the Nunes memo, the Democrats on the committee released their own memo. That memo quoted from parts of the FISA applications, including a footnote in which the FBI explained that Steele was hired to 'conduct research regarding Candidate #1,' Donald Trump, and Trump’s 'ties to Russia,' and that the man who hired him was 'likely looking for information that could be used to discredit [Trump’s] campaign.'... Now ... the Nunes memo looks even worse.... The footnote disclosing Steele’s possible bias takes up more than a full page in the applications, so there is literally no way the FISA Court could have missed it.” ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I surmise Trump ordered these docs released because he has no fucking idea they bolster the evidence that he & Nunes are lying, treasonous asses.

Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "Russia’s foreign minister told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday that charges against a woman accused of infiltrating American political organizations as a covert Russian agent were 'fabricated' and she should be released. The appeal by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, was made in a phone call, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Department of Justice has charged the woman, Maria Butina, with acting as an unregistered agent of Russia while attending conventions of the National Rifle Association and gaining access to conservative circles in an effort to influence powerful Republicans. Moscow has mounted a vigorous effort on behalf of Ms. Butina. On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry began a social media campaign on its Twitter account, declaring that it was mobilizing a digital 'flash mob' to demand her release. The State Department had no immediate comment on Saturday’s exchange, though it’s unlikely that the United States would suddenly release Ms. Butina." Mrs. McC: Whaddaya bet Vlad gave Donald a 24-K gold pardon pen during their secret meeting?

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at his longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Saturday, suggesting that there could be legal consequences for Mr. Cohen’s decision to record a discussion they had two months before the 2016 election about paying a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. 'Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) — almost unheard of,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client — totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!' With his tweet, Mr. Trump signaled open warfare on Mr. Cohen, a longtime fixer he had until now tried to keep by his side as the Justice Department investigates Mr. Cohen’s involvement in paying women to quash potentially damaging news coverage about Mr. Trump during the campaign.... New York law allows one party to a conversation to tape it without the other knowing.... Mr. Trump himself also has a history of recording phone calls and conversations.... When The Wall Street Journal reported on A.M.I.’s payments to [model Karen] McDougal days before the election, the Trump campaign denied knowing about them. Hope Hicks, the campaign spokeswoman, said at the time that Ms. McDougal’s claim of an affair was 'totally untrue.'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's fake outrage might seem a little less fake & outrageous if it hadn't been his own lawyers who likely released news of the tape, likely at his own direction in hopes of changing the subject from Helsinki to sex. ...

... Erik Pedersen of Deadline: "Federal law-enforcement and/or investigative agencies ... must go through a rigorous process through the proper channels to secure a search warrant. Did they in this case? Fully conceivable. But hey, perhaps they could have shown some consideration and barged in a little later in the day." ...

... Colin Kalbacher of Law & Crime fingers Trump for his "obvious attempt to channel Wallace Shawn":

... Update. Gloria Borger of CNN: "... Donald Trump's lawyers have waived attorney-client privilege on his behalf regarding a secretly recorded conversation he had in September 2016 with ... Michael Cohen in which they discussed payments to an ex-Playboy model who says she had an affair with the President.... [The move] ... effectively gives prosecutors the ability to use the recording if they find it relevant to their criminal investigation of Cohen.... The special master had designated the recording as privileged.... After The New York Times first revealed the existence of the tape -- and [Rudy] Giuliani claimed the tape was exculpatory evidence that did no harm to Trump — his legal team decided to remove any protection relating to the attorney-client relationship on this specific matter.... Team Cohen remains surprised that Trump's lawyers removed the protective claim of privilege, given their view that the tape is harmful to the President....What's more, they see Giuliani's public comments as a way to change the subject from the President's near-universally panned performance in Helsinki, Finland...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now it's looking more like somebody other than Trump's lawyers released the tape, but Giuliani, by opening his yap, forced the Trump team to waive the privilege. Matt Apuzzo -- the lead reporter on the story, said on MSNBC Friday night that the NYT had been working on the story for some time & decided to run with it only after they got Giuliani on the record about the tape. Anyhow, congrats, Rudy, especially if your rosy interpretation of the content is dead wrong.

Jim Rutenberg & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Federal authorities examining the work President Trump’s former lawyer did to squelch embarrassing stories before the 2016 election have come to believe that an important ally in that effort, the tabloid company American Media Inc., at times acted more as a political supporter than as a news organization, according to people briefed on the investigation. That determination has kept the publisher in the middle of an inquiry that could create legal and political challenges for the president as prosecutors investigate whether the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, violated campaign finance law. It could also spell trouble for the company, which publishes The National Enquirer, raising thorny questions about when coverage that is favorable to a candidate strays into overt political activity, and when First Amendment protections should apply.... The authorities believe that the company was not always operating in what campaign finance law calls a 'legitimate press function.'... Cameron Stracher, an A.M.I. lawyer, indicated that the company was cooperating with the investigation.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post: "Nearly a year ago, I speculated that the Trump campaign might have shared data with the Russian Internet Research Agency, the team that created fake personas and put up fake Facebook pages with the goal of spreading false stories about Hillary Clinton.... The latest indictment produced by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, together with President Trump’s strange performance in Helsinki, suggests a different hypothesis: that Russia shared data with the Trump campaign, and not vice versa." Applebaum goes on to theorize in a way that supports Rachel Maddow's ruminations in the video linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Appelbaum ends her column with, "Shared data could also explain why Trump appeared to feel so indebted to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, why he wanted to speak to him with no aides present, why he is so reluctant to acknowledge Russian interference. It could even explain why he talks so obsessively and inaccurately about the size of his great electoral victory: because he himself believes that the Russians helped him win. He fears that this would make his presidency illegitimate. Which it would." This is what I've thought for a long time -- that all of Trump's nutty conspiracy theories (400-pound NJ hacker in basement, busloads of Massachusetts residents voting in New Hampshire [AND Massachusetts]) & denials about the 2016 election are cover-ups for the fact that Trump knowingly & perhaps aggressively colluded with foreign operatives. He knows (or at least knew) what he did & he's dancing as fast as he can to hide it. He'll grasp any straw (and repeat it incessantly) to that end.

West Wing Walk-Back Week. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "For Trump and his White House, the days that followed the Helsinki summit amounted to an unofficial Walk Back Week — a daily scramble of corrections and clarifications from the West Wing. Each announcement, intended to blunt the global fallout of the president’s Russophilic performance in Helsinki, was followed by another mishap that only fueled more consternation." A fun read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Zeke Miller & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "Facing condemnation from allies and foes alike on Capitol Hill..., Donald Trump was outnumbered even in the Oval Office. Top aides gathered to convince the president to issue a rare walk-back of the comments he’d made raising doubts about U.S. intelligence conclusions of Russian election interference as he stood alongside Vladimir Putin.... As each White House effort to clean up the situation failed to stem the growing bipartisan backlash, Trump’s mood worsened, according to confidants. He groused about his staff for not better managing the fallout. He was angry at the two American reporters, including one from The Associated Press, who asked questions at the Helsinki news conference. And he seethed at the lack of support he believed he received from congressional Republicans. Also a target of the president’s ire was Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who issued a rare statement rebutting the president’s Monday comments. But it was Coats’ televised interview Thursday at a security conference in Aspen, Colo., that set off the president anew...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Chas Danner of New York: "Trump’s anger over having to answer [AP reporter Jonathan] Lemire’s question — not his failure in attempting to do so — lingered on. Speaking with CNBC, Trump later characterized (and distorted) the exchange as 'fools from the media saying, "Why didn’t you stand there, look him in the face, walk over to him, and start shouting at him?" I said, "Are these people crazy? I want to make a deal.’” After a week that arguably illustrates Trump’s inability to handle reality better than any other during his fantastical presidency, he should be careful who he calls 'crazy.'” ...

... Olivia Nuzzi of New York: “'The White House' being separate from 'the president' in this administration as they’ve never been separate before, with contradictory statements emerging at a machine-gun pace from these two entities that are supposed to be in sync, if nothing else at least spinning the story (i.e. bullshitting) in the same way.... Over the last five days, the White House has attempted to manufacture a permanent state of uncertainty, in which when Trump says or does anything — even with the world as witness — we can be talked into believing the most harmless interpretation of the facts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... digby: "The Giant Toddler had a tantrum after watching TV and decided to show everybody by inviting the foreign leader who sabotaged Hillary Clinton's election campaign for him to a big summit at the White House.... I have no doubt that he made some deal with or is under the influence of Vladimir Putin. There's just no way to avoid that reality anymore. But he's also a psychologically and intellectually unfit cretin." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Back in the (Former) U.S.S.R. Matthew Bodner in the New Republic: "Russian celebration ... of Putin’s performance in Helsinki seems split between outright jubilation, and those who worry the victory dance may be premature — too focused on short-term gains and Trump’s pro-Russian rhetoric. We’ve seen it all before. On November 09, 2016, Moscow celebrated Trump’s victory with champagne on the floor of the national legislature and election night parties. But when radical pro-Russia change failed to materialize, the lack of follow-through was blamed on the anti-Russian policy establishment in Washington — entrenching the notion that Russia was under assault from a committed U.S.-led international conspiracy against Putin and the people. Once the euphoria of Putin’s optical triumph over Trump in Helsinki fades, and the reality of the situation again sinks in, it will be this American establishment that Russians blame. None of it will fall on Putin’s lap. However short lived, he brought them victory in Helsinki." ...

     ... Dominic Tierney of The Atlantic: "This is the paradox of Russian power -- Moscow is influential precisely because it’s weak.... [M]ore capabilities doesn’t always mean getting your way, because they inspire resistance from other countries. Sometimes David has more sway than Goliath.... [O]ftentimes, Soviet strength didn’t mean influence — it meant resistance. Soviet power was the glue that bound the Western alliance together.... In the United States, Democrats and Republicans joined together to back a global effort to contain communism.... When the U.S.S.R. disintegrated, Moscow lost half its population, while nato and EU expansion brought the West directly into the Russian sphere.... The collapse of the Soviet Union was an existential crisis for the Western alliance...And so, compared with the Soviet premiers of old, Putin faces a trade-off. He has a weaker hand to play, but his opponents are more quarrelsome and divided. His strategy is to make a virtue of incapacity." --safari

... MEANWHILE. John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: Trump is pissed off that his hapless State Department can't deliver on his pie-in-the-sky lies on how his half-hour meeting with Kim Jong-un turned North Korea into a popular beach-vacation destination. Or something like that.

Trump Can't Find Any Supporters among Outstanding Artists, Humanitarians, Scientists. Peter Libbey of the New York Times (July 15): "Since 1985, arts figures including Georgia O’Keeffe, Frank Capra and Ella Fitzgerald have received the National Medal of Arts while similar cultural achievement has been recognized by the National Humanities Medal, which presidents have awarded to the likes of Steven Spielberg, Anna Deavere Smith and Louise Glück. But neither of those medals has been awarded since President Trump took office, the longest gap ever and one that again draws attention to the president’s often awkward relationship with the arts. The deadline for nominations for the 2016 arts medals, which have yet to be awarded, was in February 2017. The National Medal of Science, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation have also not been awarded since 2016."

Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Protests against President Trump carried into day six with a crowd gathering outside of the White House Saturday despite heavy rain. Former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser Adam Parkhomenko has been organizing protests on Pennsylvania Avenue since Trump returned on Monday from his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Crowds still turned up to 'Occupy Lafayette Park' on Saturday night despite pouring rain and the fact that Trump is not actually at the White House this weekend."

Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post: "Most people seem to think that the proprietors of the Red Hen restaurant were wrong last month to refuse to serve dinner to presidential press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The question remains: Given their antipathy to the Trump administration, what should they have done? With a little help from my friends, I present some suggestions. Serve Sanders a plate that has only a sprig of parsley, a pea and a chicken beak, and when she complains about the portion size, insist it’s the largest amount of food ever served anywhere to anyone." And so on. I laughed out loud. Many thanks to Patrick for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rude Pundit: "In another of its ongoing series 'Do the Editors of the New York Times Really Think the Yokels Will Ever Love Them?' reporters interviewed an assortment of the aforementioned yokels, along with a scattering of rubes and yahoos, all who voted for Donald Trump, to find out what they think of the president in the wake of his bowing down to Vladimir Putin. And, surprise, surprise, the yokels, rubes, and yahoos are almost all still on board. One dumbass in Indiana said, 'It is strictly a witch hunt' against Trump, while a shit-for-brains in Louisiana proclaimed, 'They’re just trying to make Trump’s election look fraudulent' and some fucking moron in Arizona said that Trump is a strategic master because 'No one really thinks it’s a true friendship' with Putin." And so forth. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Reports like this (the Rude Pundit lists six of them) run counter to the experience of Sarah Smarsh, a Wichita writer, who finds that the yokels are yearning to be free of Trump & Co. Smarsh doesn't seem like any sort of dimwit, so I got to wondering about these polls that announce, you know, 68 percent of Republicans think Trump cleaned Putin's clock at Helsinki. I'm not going to bother to look at the internals of all these reports, but I did look at Gallup's poll on the percentage of Americans who identify as Republicans, & the latest survey, which is not an outlier (but the numbers do bounce around quite a bit), puts the number at 27 percent. SO, if you do the math, in general, it's fair to say that in June 2018, about 18-1/2 percent of Americans think Trump is a stable genius. That is, the NYT, et al., are taking field trips to Fly-over Country in search of the 18-percenters. Their anecdotal evidence is significant but in general not an insurmountable cliff for Democrats. It's true that in the Helsinki poll I linked, 32 percent of Americans thought Trump did a bang-up job, which means -- to me -- that 14 percent of responders were not paying attention or just too patriotic to think that their own POTUS* is in the bag for a ruthless dictator. Which we know he is.

** Edgar Walters of The Texas Tribune: "While the federal government says it has reunited hundreds of children who were separated from their parents at the southern border, new documents show the number of immigrant children held at Texas shelters has grown in recent weeks — and private groups hope to build as many as four new facilities to meet the demand.... As of July 13, Texas shelters housed 5,024 'unaccompanied' children, up from 4,919 on June 21.... Texas regulators do not differentiate between children who arrived at the border without adult supervision and those separated from their families under a new Trump administration policy of 'zero tolerance.'” --safari

Et tu, Randulus? Darcy Costello of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Sen. Rand Paul spent hundreds of donor dollars on shopping trips and thousands on meals, travel and other expenses abroad, according to a report from nonpartisan watchdog groups released this week. The spending was funneled through a political leadership committee, which are meant to enable lawmakers to donate to other political campaigns.... Paul, Kentucky's junior senator, spent $11,043 at restaurants in Italy and Malta last year through his leadership PAC, Reinventing a New Direction, according to the report. In the same year, he spent $4,492 on limousine services in Rome and $1,904 on a hotel in Athens that boasts 'breathtaking panoramic views.' His PAC, known as RAND PAC, also spent $337 on apparel at a Nebraska Men's Wearhouse, $438 on apparel at a shoe store on Madison Avenue in New York City, $201 at TJ Maxx and $1,575 at a restaurant in the Trump Hotel.... Paul is also highlighted in the report for his lower-than-average contributions to other candidates or committees." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In Li'l Randy's defense, isn't it preferable for him to spend donor money on limos & fancy hotels than on helping to elect horrible Republicans?

Kavanaugh 1999: Supremes Should Keep Their Mitts off the President. Mark Sherman of the AP: "Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh suggested several years ago that the unanimous high court ruling in 1974 that forced President Richard Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes, leading to the end of his presidency, may have been wrongly decided.... '[The decision] took away the power of the president to control information ... by holding that the courts had power and jurisdiction to order the president to disclose information in response to a subpoena sought by a subordinate executive branch official.... Maybe the tension of the time led to an erroneous decision,' Kavanaugh said.... The 1999 article was among a pile of material released in response to the committee’s questionnaire. Kavanaugh was asked to provide information about his career as an attorney and jurist, his service in the executive branch, education, society memberships and more. It’s an opening look at a long paper trail that lawmakers will consider as they decide whether to confirm him." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The implication here is that neither the Congress nor the public has a right to know the president has committed secret criminal and/or impeachable acts. Kavanaugh is not only arguing that the president is above the law; he's suggesting that a president can act with impunity throughout his term in office. I guess he still could be impeached if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue.

Beyond the Beltway

"Band of Assaulters." Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Failed Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore was endorsed by Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin despite numerous accusations of Moore’s inappropriate sexual behavior with minors. Now Entrekin has also been accused of having sex with underage girls. AL.com ... reports Entrekin is under investigation after being accused of sexual misconduct at 'drug-fueled parties he hosted for fellow law enforcement officers and other adult men in the early nineties.'" --safari

Florida Is Not a Safe State to Live. Enjoli Francis of ABC News: "A man who was captured on surveillance video fatally shooting another man in Clearwater, Florida, during a parking-spot spat as his young son watched nearby will not be arrested or charged by police, according to Pinellas County Sheriff. 'I don't make the law. I enforce the law,' Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference today. 'The law in the state of Florida today is that people have a right to stand their ground and have a right to defend themselves when they believe that they are in harm.' The sheriff announced the case will be sent to the state attorney's office for review." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) 

Voter Suppression Comes to New Hampshire. Jane Timm of NBC News: "New Hampshire Democrats are hoping to turn the November midterm elections into a referendum on a new law barring part-time residents from voting in the state. Last week, Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, signed into law House Bill 1264, requiring students and other part-time residents to become permanent residents of the state if they want to vote. Currently, students must show they are 'domiciled' in the state when they register to vote. The new law will force permanent residents to comply with laws such as state motor vehicle registration. Students with cars, for example, would have to pay for a new, in-state driver's license and register their cars in the state, a cost critics argue could deter the historically Democratic voting bloc from the ballot box."

Hog Heaven Shuts Down. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "...  it has come as a shock that Smithfield Foods is shuttering the last smokehouse that produces the area’s signature product, the genuine Smithfield ham. 'Really? You’re going to do this?' was the reaction of local historian and former Smithfield Foods executive Herb De Groft, 77. 'Country meats are what brought this area to the fore in the 1800s. Word was, the Queen of England used to get one Smithfield ham a year.'... The smokehouse is said to be more than 50 years old, but whether the company will build a new one, seek a change in state law or simply abandon the “genuine Smithfield” moniker is a matter of local speculation. Smokehouses once sat cheek by jowl, so to speak, in the little town, but local ham producers have been consolidating for years. Names like Gwaltney, Luter and Todd — a roll call that can make an old Virginian’s mouth start to water — were absorbed into the giant Smithfield Foods, which itself was purchased five years ago by the Chinese conglomerate Shuanghui Group, now known as WH Group.” 

GA waitress Emelia Holden is seen on camera being sexually violated by 31 yr old Ryan Cherwinksi. Holden slammed him into a chair She told said “I just did what I felt was best, I took the guy down and had my co-workers call the police.”
Cherwinksi was charged w/ sexual battery. pic.twitter.com/szGx25zgXr

— Atlanta Black Star (@ATLBlackStar) July 19, 2018

     ... Via Stephanie Griffith of ThinkProgress: “'I looked at him and I said, "You don’t touch me, motherf__!’” [Emelia] Holden told People magazine. 'I didn’t even think, I just reacted.... I’ve never done that before.'” Holden weighs 115 pounds.

Way Beyond

Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept: "Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disabilities Summit (Moreno has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot in a 1998 robbery attempt). The concealed, actual purpose of the President’s trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012, eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities. Moreno’s itinerary also notably includes a trip to Madrid, where he will meet with Spanish officials still seething over Assange’s denunciation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Spain’s central government against protesters marching for Catalonia independence. Almost three months ago, Ecuador blocked Assange from accessing the internet, and Assange has not been able to communicate with the outside world ever since. The primary factor in Ecuador’s decision to silence him was Spanish anger over Assange’s tweets about Catalonia." Mrs. McC: Take everything Greenwald writes with a grain of salt, but I'm going to assume -- he has the basic facts right here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emma Green of The Atlantic: "Israel passed a law this week that has been floating around the Knesset for a half-dozen years. Branded the 'nation-state bill,' the legislation declares that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, and that 'the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.'... The law also asserts that Jewish settlement — without specifying where — is a national value, and promises to encourage and advance settlement efforts." --safari ...

... Juan Cole: "Israel has for decades been running the occupied territories of Palestine–Gaza and the West Bank– with Apartheid tactics.... It has become abundantly clear ... that the Occupation is forever...But now the Israeli parliament or Knesset has passed a law openly declaring Palestinians to be second-class citizens. Building squatter settlements on Palestinian land is made the official policy of the state (well, it has been for decades de facto, but now it is de jure). Arabic is demoted from being an official language.... Sovereignty is vested solely in the 80% majority of Jewish Israelis. Israel is no more a democracy now than Turkey is. Both have regular elections and in both the Right routinely wins, and probably fairly so.... The implications are enormous." --safari

Usual Suspects to Re-up with Russian Hackers & Convert Europe into One Big Fascist Dystopia. Nico Hines of the Daily Beast: "Steve Bannon plans to go toe-to-toe with George Soros and spark a right-wing revolution in Europe. Trump’s former White House chief advisor told The Daily Beast that he is setting up a foundation in Europe called The Movement which he hopes will lead a right-wing populist revolt across the continent starting with the European Parliament elections next spring. The non-profit will be a central source of polling, advice on messaging, data targeting, and think-tank research for a ragtag band of right-wingers who are surging all over Europe, in many cases without professional political structures or significant budgets.... Over the past year, Bannon has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National (recently renamed Rassemblement National) in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East."

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

For fear of elevating the discourse into the stratosphere, here's The Rude Pundit on the Pretender's base, keeping it real.

Had a wonderful teacher once who called naturalism "realism on all fours." Funny how that memory came to mind.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2018/07/republicans-wont-save-us-because-their.html

[safari]

How quaint that Lavrov threatens to erupt a Twitter "flash mob" to denounce the government detainment of their "alleged" Russian agent. The "flash mob" seems to be already organized and rehearsed, waiting on marching orders.

PD asked yesterday how the Trumpenkinders deal with a sleazy dad who openly brags about sexual assault and drags his private sexual laundry into the public to shamelessly cover for his other myriad deficiencies. I'm guessing the Trump mini-mes Junior and Vampire just high five and guffaw together, Melanie relentlessly checks her bank account and the Ivanka the Witch creeps ever closer to daddy, ensuring her place as the Quenn of Thrones once Donny loses all his marbles and the kids start sharpening their knives.

[Marie Burns]

@safari: I suspect you nailed Trump Family Values.

But all presidents are useful, even Trump. When I was young & had to do some unpleasant task -- cleaning the grout between the kitchen tiles, painting under the eaves -- I used to say to myself, "Well, at least Jackie Kennedy never got to do this." Now when I screw something up, I say, "Well, at least I'm better than the President*." I'm so looking forward to the day when, once again, that's not true.

[Ken Winkes]

Bless the timing. Managed to deliver today's Sunday Sermon in the local Sunday paper. Here 'tis:

"The men who created the Constitution that became the legal, political and moral backbone of our nation had an unimaginably tough job. Still a geopolitical baby in 1787, we had already developed sectional and cultural differences that made compromise very difficult.

We had northern and southern sections, a division so great it eventually erupted in a horrific Civil War. The largely aristocratic, agricultural south, worried that more populous states would overwhelm them in the national Congress, insisted that their non-voting slaves should also count. Counting each as three-fifths of a person was the awkward compromise. Similar small-state fears gave rise to the anti-democratic Electoral College that recently trumped the popular vote.

The Founders had more to work out than rivalries between sections and large and small states. Some with monarchical tendencies wanted to model the new government closely on that of the country from which they had just separated. Others, committed proponents of individual freedom, brought us the Constitutional afterthought we know as the Bill of Rights.

We rightly revere our remarkable Founders. But far-seeing as they were, they hardly resolved all the issues that would emerge as the centuries passed.

It’s a long list. The rights of corporations, entities not mentioned in the Constitution. Voting rights not defined. Implications of the internet and DNA testing. Health insurance and patient rights. Automatic weapons. Birth control and abortion….

Because the Constitution doesn’t answer all the questions that come before them, SCOTUS judges must actively judge, making new law in the process.

Ideally, as they explore and map new legal territory, the Supreme Court’s decisions will conserve, protect and advance the American Dream of a society that does not favor one race, religion, economic class or gender over another.

Only the Supreme Court judges who pursue that dream deserve the title 'Justice.'”

All a long-winded way of saying: those who think judges who pose as strict constructionists on the SCOTUS are anything but nuts are crazy themselves, and these narrow-mined Catholic men appointed to the SCOTUS to make laws for the rest of us annoy the hell out of me. And, oh yeah, they scare me, too

[PD Pepe]

Trevor Noah explains colonialism to France:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trevor-noah-colonialism-france_us_5b51fc52e4b0fd5c73c4c560

This is good–-and good for Noah to speak out.

@safari: thanks for your explanation of the Trump familia's dealings with their scandalous head––and here I thought shame might have been in the picture––silly me.

Joshua Matz and Lawrence Tribe have written a book: "To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment."

They cite the difficulties therein and the history of such and so forth; bottom line: you have to be extremely careful with impeachment–-and right now there isn't the republican political movement for it which then could backfire. Nixon, they remind us, was threatened by members of his own party (Goldwater being one ) who told Nixon he had to resign or else. We have no such moral equivalency at this time from the republicans in congress. What we can continue to do is encourage the protest movements, support the press and the journalists that speak that truth to power thing.

Love the video of the waitress taking down the guy that thought he could fondle her buttocks willy nilly; very cheeky of him, to say the least.

[Patrick]

This article is above the fold in today's Sunday WaPo. It tells how a congregation of Southern Baptists deals with reconciling the Bible with the nature of Trump.

The piece is longish, but I thought worthwhile. The author (Stephanie McCrummen) allows the individuals in the congregation to express themselves, and she lets their words stand without judging those words. Yet, the reader fully gets the point that these people are wrestling with a contradiction that cannot be resolved with facts or logic, but only by faith. The primary contradiction is that they KNOW Trump is a dissolute lying asshole, but they believe that he is God's agent to execute the Christian fundamentalist political agenda.

It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction this article receives, because the author is just writing an expository piece, but the elements of the story themselves carry tremendous judgmental weight. In short, journalistic accuracy alone (not editorial judgment) indicates these folks have subordinated their duties as citizens to their hopes as Christians, and the impression one gets is that they are delusional. But the writer doesn't say that, just lets them speak.

Among other things, we learn that one of these folks can describe the dimensions of heaven, but isn't sure whether on judgment day she'll be able to walk right in at ground level (when heaven comes down) or whether she'll have to take a stairway. But she knows there will be birds there, because she likes birds.

[PD Pepe]

TRUMP'S TRADE WARS CAUSES DIRE STRAITS IN MIKE PENCE'S HOMETOWN:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dependent-on-trade-mike-pences-hometown-takes-a-hit-due-to-trumps-tariffs/2018/07/21/25fd2bda-8c2e-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html?utm_term=.7f6bbd20c73e

Note to Andrew Bacevich: Here's just one of the changes you seem not to be concerned about:

"It's damaging in so many ways," a construction company head said, "Tariffs have put blood in the water."

[Marie Burns]

@Patrick: Just this morning I was telling someone I planned to renovate my kitchen in such a way you couldn't see the appliances. Now I find out heaven is full of Frigidaires & Jenn-Airs right out there where you can see them & maybe have to cook your own supper. It's a good thing I've misbehaved AND failed to repent. Heaven apparently is not worth the trouble of an exemplary life. Especially if you have to take the stairs.

[Ken Winkes]

Bea,

You last comment brings to mind one of my favorite Mark Twain lines, when he said he'd take Heaven for the climate, but Hell for the company.

See you there.

Had some fun of my own with "Jim's" comment on the Sykes piece in yesterday NYTimes. I seldom indulge, but what else can you do when you don't want to think any more about inverted yield curves and the recession they may foretell, and you have no desire to mow the lawn?

Jim
TXJuly 21
If the majority of people who vote in the USA vote to become New Russia America, then isn't that democracy in action? If that's what they want, then why should we stop them?

@Jim
Interesting point--but your premise is wrong.

We are not a democracy. In fact, we have a minority government. One doesn't have to look too far behind the glaring fact that we have another president who lost the popular vote to see how anti-democratic we are, and we are becoming even more so.

Because each state has two senators, Wyoming and Dakota citizens are real heavyweights compared to those of NY and CA. Another undemocratic instance, this one, like the Electoral College, built into the system.

Then there is the extensive anti-democratic Republican agenda, which includes voter suppression measures, now backed by the "conservative" SCOTUS, and rampant gerrymandering, another anti-democratic practice the SCOTUS has recently blessed.

If we were a democratic country, we would have universal health care, polluters would not go unpunished, and inequality wouldn't be the preferred economic arrangement.

When we become another Russian state, it won't be the majority of our citizens who have made the choice.

[Patrick]

Bea, you'd probably like Catholic Heaven more than Baptist Heaven. We were taught by the Dominican nuns (i.e. an order of St. Dominic, not nuns from Hispaniola. These were from Indiana on a teaching mission to ... Washington, D.C.!!) that in heaven we'd be incorporeal (hence, no need for cooking dinner, relevant appliances, or bathrooms), share in God's omniscience (sort of like Google without the need for wifi or 4G), able to travel from any point A to any point B, instantaneously (Star Trek transporter, but with infinite range), and other gifts. Best of all, we'd be always in the direct countenance of God, which alone would bestow infinite and perpetual happiness.

Also ... even though we would be incorporeal, we'd have our resurrected bodies back, perfect. It was always unclear whether we could choose young bodies if we died old, or mature bodies if we died in infancy. But in grade school we assumed that you got the body you died in, but "perfected." We didn't imagine what it would be like to spend eternity as, say, a hundred year old.

And we all really liked the idea of all those super powers. And since we didn't get to question the nuns (impertinent), we never asked them the question we asked of ourselves at recess on the playground: "If being in heaven with God is infinite and eternal happiness, why would we want those other abilities." Mike Bielaski had the answer: "Because you'll be better than Superman, dummy!"

[Whyte Owen]

A fascinating, if chilling, followup to Tim Egan's latest post.