Thursday
Jun212018
The Commentariat -- June 22, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to give up hope on Friday that the Republican-controlled Congress could succeed in passing an immigration bill this year, urging lawmakers in a Twitter post to stop 'wasting their time.' His advice is likely to kill current efforts to pass a measure that had little chance of succeeding. The president said a vote on immigration legislation should be postponed until after the midterm elections in November, when he expects Republicans to pick up more seats and create a stronger majority -- a prediction that is far from guaranteed.... But House Republicans are moving forward as planned and pushing ahead with efforts to pass immigration legislation, said Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a major statement on privacy in the digital age, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government generally needs a warrant to collect troves of location data about the customers of cellphone companies. The 5-to-4 decision has implications for all kinds of personal information held by third parties, including email and text messages, internet searches, and bank and credit card records. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the decision was limited.... The question for the justices was whether prosecutors violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches, by collecting vast amounts of data from cellphone companies showing ... movements [of the plaintiff in Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402]." Mrs. McC: The Court's more liberal justices joined in Roberts' decision.
Daniel Bates & Karen Ruiz of the Daily Mail: "The father of the Honduran girl who became the face of the family separation crisis has revealed that he still has not been in touch with his wife or daughter but was happy to learn they are safe. Denis Javier Varela Hernandez, 32, said that he had not heard from his wife Sandra, 32, who was with his two-year-old daughter Yanela Denise, for nearly three weeks until he saw the image of them being apprehended in Texas. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Hernandez, who lives in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, says that he was told on Wednesday by a Honduran official in the US that his wife and child are being detained at a family residential center in Texas but are together and are doing 'fine.' Denis said his wife and daughter were never separated by border control agents and remain together." ...
... CBS News and Reuters have backed up the Daily Mail story. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Wingers are loving this story because it "proves" the Time mag cover (posted here yesterday) "is a lie" and "fake news," etc. Um, not really. The cover says nothing about the status of the child, only "Welcome to America." But let's not let the facts get in the way.
Tracy Connor & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "... Michael Cohen retweeted a photo of himself with comedian Tom Arnold -- who happens to be working on a show with Vice that features him hunting for unflattering video of Trump. Arnold told NBC News early Friday that Cohen ― who is under investigation by federal prosecutors ― talked to him about the show, which is expected to air later this year. 'We've been on the other side of the table and now we're on the same side,' said Arnold, an outspoken Trump critic.... Vice announced in May that it had tapped Arnold to helm a show called 'The Hunt for the Trump Tapes,' and investigate whether rumored tapes from the past showing the president in a negative light actually exist.... Arnold would not say whether Cohen was planning to give him any tapes he might have of conversations with Trump. But he added, 'This dude has all the tapes -- this dude has everything.'"
*****
Incompetence, Malevolence, Indifference, Negligence, Chaos
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Border Patrol will no longer refer migrant parents who cross into the United States illegally with children to federal courthouses to face criminal charges, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told The Washington Post on Thursday. The about-face comes just one day after President Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's widely denounced practice of separating parents and children apprehended for illegally crossing the Mexico border. Trump's order said the government would maintain a 'zero tolerance' policy toward those who break the law, but the senior U.S. official, asked to explain how the government would change enforcement practices, said Border Patrol agents were instructed Wednesday evening to stop sending parents with children to federal courthouses for prosecution.... A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Sarah Isgur Flores, denied that prosecutions would be suspended." Mrs. McC: If this story doesn't make sense, that's because chaos. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated. "President's Trump's executive order to halt family separations unleashed confusion in Washington and at the Mexico border Thursday, as Customs and Border Protection said it would it stop referring such cases for prosecution and migrant parents arrived at courthouses in Texas and Arizona wearing handcuffs only to be led away without facing charges. After a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told The Washington Post that the agency would freeze criminal referrals for migrant parents who cross illegally with children, Justice Department officials insisted their 'zero tolerance' policy remained in force and that U.S. attorneys would continue to prosecute those entering the United States unlawfully. On Capitol Hill, a hard-line immigration bill failed to pass and a key vote on a more moderate version of the legislation was postponed. The Pentagon, meanwhile, agreed to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on military bases in coming months. And despite the ongoing outcry over the separation of more than 2,300 migrant children from their parents since May 5, Trump administration officials gave no assurances the families would be swiftly reunited." Mrs. McC: What a mess. ...
... Jeet Heer: "... it is clear that the Trump administration's immigration policy remains chaotic and in flux. If 'zero tolerance' was suspended, it is only as a stop-gap measure. It does nothing to address the problem of family reunification for those already separated by the policy. Further, it is a temporary measure which could be reversed once the administration has more resources in place to enact a renewed 'zero tolerance' push. But the larger story is that the White House has no real policy and different factions are making up rules willy-nilly."
Michael Shear & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The Pentagon is assessing how -- and where -- to house as many as 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on American military bases, a spokesman said on Thursday. In a Pentagon statement, Lt. Col. Michael Andrews said officials from the Department of Health and Human Services have so far visited three military bases in Texas and one in Arkansas as the Trump administration seeks to provide temporary shelter for unaccompanied children entering the United States. Colonel Andrews indicated that no decisions have been made." ...
... The story has been updated: "The United States is preparing to shelter as many as 20,000 migrant children on four American military bases, a Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday, as federal officials struggled to carry out President Trump's order to keep immigrant families together after they are apprehended at the border. The 20,000 beds at bases in Texas and Arkansas would house 'unaccompanied alien children,' said a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Michael Andrews, although other federal agencies provided conflicting explanations about how the shelters would be used and who would be housed there. There were reports of widespread confusion on the border. It was unclear whether the military housing would also house the parents of children in migrant families that have been detained, and officials at the White House, the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday that they could not provide details." ...
Seems nice. ...... Justin Glawe & Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The Trump administration's plan for immigrant families on the southern border involves holding them together on military bases for a prolonged, uncertain period of time.... With Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities already at or near capacity, [Trump's executive] order requires the Secretary of Defense to make 'any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families' and to 'construct such facilities if necessary.'... Trump's order 'provides for the possibility that children will be locked up in a family unit in a jail or prison or former military base (internment camps). It places enforcement of border laws ahead of decency and is no solution to the current situation,' said Maureen Franco, head of the federal public defender's office in El Paso, in an email to The Daily Beast.... On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions filed a motion in federal court to modify the 'Flores settlement,' a 1997 federal court case that requires facilities where child immigrants are held to meet certain standards of care and prohibits detaining them for more than 20 days."
Sarah Stillman of the New Yorker: "On Wednesday afternoon, President Trump traded one border crisis for another: instead of separating immigrant children from their parents, it appears that the U.S. government will now detain moms and dads indefinitely alongside their sons and daughters." Stillman cites the case of what's happened to Pedro, who was "among the first immigrant children to be taken from a parent under the Trump Administration, in an early round of separations that began many months ago, largely outside of public view."
CBS News: "'There is currently no system in place to reunite children with parents who are in detention,' Open Society Fellow Bob Carey said. He used to run the Office of Refugee Resettlement during the Obama administration, the federal agency responsible for caring for the separated children. Carey says ORR's shelter system was designed for minors who arrived alone at the border, typically adolescent boys, and is not equipped for the influx of infants, toddlers and young children that were separated from their parents under the president's 'zero tolerance' policy. 'This is child abuse being perpetrated by a government,' Carey said. Early Wednesday morning, girls arrived at a facility in New York City, which Mayor Bill de Blasio said housed 239 separated children and that some of them arrived with contagious health issues like chicken pox and lice. 'The youngest to come here, they told us, was nine months old,' de Blasio said on Wednesday." ...
... Ian Duncan of the Baltimore Sun: "Immigration agents have sent dozens of children to Maryland since the Trump administration announced it would separate undocumented families at the southwest border, service providers here say. Some of the children, who are mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are being placed with foster families coordinated by an organization based in Anne Arundel County. Others are being held in dormitories in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, according to people involved in the process. Many of the children have come with little information. One is 18 months old. Several are too young to speak to their new caregivers or help social workers track down relatives who could take them in. Lawyers are trying to figure out how to put together asylum claims for 6-year-olds who don't know why they fled their countries." ...
... Alexandra Schwartz of the New Yorker: "It has become clear that the Trump Administration has put no protocols in place for keeping track of children and their parents as they move through separate systems, or for facilitating their eventual reunification.... The Border Patrol's gathering of identities and contact information before family separations has been haphazard at best;... some of the youngest children she has worked with at O.R.R. shelters do not know their parents' names.... On Wednesday, an anonymous O.R.R. counsellor published an open letter decrying the moral bind that the agency workers find themselves in.... In the letter, the counsellor raises a concern shared by the officials I spoke with: that indefinite family detention, Trump's alternative proposal to family separation, will put children in an even worse position than the one that they are currently in. During the Obama Administration, immigrant mothers and children were housed together in bleak, prison-like facilities..., until a judge ruled that such detention violated the child-protection standards set by the Flores case. That model of family detention is widely considered to have been a disaster." (See also the McClatchy report linked below.) ...
... ** "They Really Don't Care." Michelle Goldberg: "Part of the reason for this failure could be Trump's indifference to expertise. He appointed E. Scott Lloyd, an anti-abortion activist, to head the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency charged with caring for children after they're separated from their parents. Lloyd had little discernible experience working with refugees, and he has spent a significant amount of time at ORR trying to prevent pregnant underage migrants from getting abortions. Nothing in his background indicates an ability to handle the sort of complex logistical and humanitarian challenge he's now presented with."
Taige Jensen, et al., of the New York Times: "A U.S. government film from 1943 justifying the detention of Japanese-Americans in internment camps has new relevance in light of the president's immigration policies":
Thomas Kaplan & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The House rejected a hard-line immigration bill on Thursday and Republican leaders delayed a vote on a compromise measure that seemed destined to fail, then delayed it again, in the latest show of their party's disarray over immigration. The compromise, a broad immigration overhaul negotiated by moderate and conservative Republicans, was supposed to be voted on early Thursday evening. It would provide a path to citizenship for young unauthorized immigrants while keeping migrant families together at the border, in addition to funding President Trump's border wall. But with its prospects seeming dim, Republican leaders pushed the vote to Friday and huddled with their members in a last-ditch effort to stave off what would have been an embarrassing defeat. Then they delayed the vote again, to next week, as lawmakers discussed making changes to the legislation." ...
... Tara Golshan of Vox: "Just hours before the House [was] scheduled to vote on two sweeping Republican-led immigration bills..., Donald Trump managed to undermine Republicans' entire legislative process with a simple question:... 'What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms). Republicans must get rid of the stupid Filibuster Rule-it is killing you!'"
Oh, for Pete's Sake. Kate Bennett of CNN: "... Melania Trump touched down in McAllen, Texas, Thursday making a publicly unannounced and hastily planned trip to get a first-hand look at the crisis affecting immigrant families at the US border." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times: "When the first lady, Melania Trump, on a surprise humanitarian visit to a children's shelter in Texas, strode onto her airplane in an olive green Zara army jacket with those words scrawled in faux white graffiti on the back, it sent the watching world into what might be called, with some understatement, a meltdown. 'Insensitive,' 'heartless' and 'unthinking' were some of the words hurled through the digisphere about the choice. 'It's a jacket,' her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement to reporters. 'There was no hidden message.' She's right, of course. It wasn't hidden. It was literally written on the first lady's back. The question is: Who was the intended audience?... To accept the idea she just threw the Zara jacket on in practically the same situation because -- hey, it was close at hand and she was maybe a little bit cool (or something like that) is simply unbelievable.... The jacket, after all, which is reportedly sold out and is not from the current season, retailed for $39. It may be the least expensive garment the first lady has worn while representing the administration." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I don't think Melanie gets a pass on this. She's an immigrant (who possibly worked illegally in the U.S.), she got hers, & now she's saying -- like her husband -- she really doesn't care about the immigrants trying to follow her here. The fact that she wore the offensive anorak coming and going (on a hot summer day), to bookend her "humanitarian mission" to an immigrant child-internment center, tells us this was a statement about her view of those she visited. How the hell did she even get such a jacket? They certainly don't sell them at the shops she usually frequents.
Aris Folley of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was dropped from his speakers bureau after he refused to apologize for mocking a story about a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was separated from her family at the U.S.-Mexico border. Leading Authorities Inc. cut ties with Lewandowski on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told CNN." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nikki Schwab of the New York Post (June 20): "White House adviser Stephen Miller was accosted at a Mexican restaurant by a patron calling him a 'fascist' -- two nights before Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was hounded out of another south-of-the-border eatery, sources told The Post." Mrs. McC: Miller & Nielsen went to Mexican restaurants for one reason, & it wasn't the chiles rellenos: they wanted to send a "fuck-you" message to the immigrants they are terrorizing. ...
... Lisa Belkin of Yahoo! News: "A photo of Nison (aka Max) Miller stares out from the screen, sullen and stern, in faded black and white. 'Order of Court Denying Petition' is the title of the government form dated '14th November 1932,' to which it is attached, the one in which Miller is applying for naturalization as an American citizen. And beneath the photo, the reason given for his denial: Ignorance. Nison Miller is the great-grandfather of White House adviser Stephen Miller, who has taken credit for being one of the chief architects of the administration's family separation policy.... Renee Stern Steinig, a former president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Long Island..., [said] Miller's great-grandfather being labeled 'Ignorant' on that application was probably because he slipped up on a few questions on his citizenship test... -- an example of the same harsh, presumptive judgment that she believes is being used against today's immigrants. Eventually he retook the test and became a citizen." Read on.
Paul Krugman: "The speed of America's moral descent under Donald Trump is breathtaking. In a matter of months we've gone from a nation that stood for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a nation that tears children from their parents and puts them in cages. What's almost equally remarkable about this plunge into barbarism is that it's not a response to any actual problem. The mass influx of murderers and rapists that Trump talks about, the wave of crime committed by immigrants here (and, in his mind, refugees in Germany), are things that simply aren't happening. They're just sick fantasies being used to justify real atrocities. And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism, a tale of prejudice fueled by myths and hoaxes that ended in genocide."
Frank Rich: "... this crisis is far from resolved.... It can never be forgotten that Trump is no outlier in his own party: While roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose his Draconian immigration measures, nearly 60 per cent of Republicans approve of them and expect their representatives in the Capitol to obey their Dear Leader.... If anything remotely good came out of this debacle, it's that for the first time Trump was forced to recognize that he cannot always refute or suppress visual evidence of his duplicity as easily as Fox News can.... Another small but useful side effect of this crisis has been to expose just how deeply the psychosis of compulsive lying has spread through the administration's ranks. The Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen destroyed her reputation this week as her mentor John Kelly had before her with her ludicrous purported ignorance of both the origins of the separation policy and its horrendous human fallout on the border. As Aaron Blake of the Washington Post pointed out, Nielsen was already a serial liar, having previously publicly claimed that she didn't know Norway was a white-majority country when Trump said he preferred Norwegian immigrants to those from 'shithole countries' and having testified before Congress she was unaware of the American intelligence finding that Russia had tried to boost Trump in the 2016 election." ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The hoax is the premise that President Trump's administration has invented to rationalize ... crimes against humanity: his narrative that America has been 'infest[ed]' with hordes of crime-committing, culture-diluting, job-stealing, tax-shirking, benefits-draining 'aliens.' No part of that description is remotely true.... Unauthorized border crossings have been falling over time.... immigrants in general, and undocumented immigrants in particular, commit crimes at far lower rates than native-born Americans. That includes violent crime.... Recent waves of immigrants have actually proved themselves reasonably adept at assimilating into American culture. Particularly those given the opportunity to escape the shadows.... Recent studies suggest that immigration (both authorized and unauthorized) actually boosts labor force participation rates, productivity and wages and reduces unemployment rates for native-born American workers.... An internal government report commissioned by Trump found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in tax revenue over the past decade than they cost the government.... With virtually no facts on his side, [Trump] has managed to fabricate a multipart border emergency, and convince a majority of his own party that this imagined emergency necessitates state-sanctioned child abuse."
Franco Ordoñez & Anita Kumar of McClatchy News: "President Barack Obama separated parents from their children at the border. Obama prosecuted mothers for coming to the United States illegally. He fast tracked deportations. And yes, he housed unaccompanied children in tent cities.... One of the most controversial measures that Obama took was to resurrect the almost-abandoned practice of detaining mothers and children to deter future illegal immigration.... Obama took other controversial steps as well, including fighting to block efforts to require unaccompanied children to have legal representation and barring detained mothers with their children from being released on bond.... For much of the country -- and ... Donald Trump -- the prevailing belief is that Obama was the president who went easier on immigrants. Neither Obama nor Democrats created Trump's zero-tolerance policy, which calls for every illegal border crosser to be prosecuted and leads to their children being detained in separate facilities before being shipped to a shelter and eventually a sponsor family. But Obama's policy helped create the road map of enforcement that Trump has been following -- and building on.... While Obama downplayed his enforcement, Trump has embraced and made it a signature issue of his presidency."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Rachel Dicker of Mediaite: "In the latest chapter of 'Sinclair Spews Conservative Propaganda on Hundreds of Television Channels,' the media conglomerate forced its networks to air a segment claiming that the outcry over the Trump administration's practice of separating children from their families and placing them in detention centers was largely just liberal histrionics. The 'must-run' segment, anchored by Sinclair Chief Political Analyst and former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, is slated to air on more than 100 Sinclair-owned or operated news stations across the U.S., Media Matters reports. Many of these are local news stations."
In case you were thinking the Trumpenskeeves were so filled with hatred for Central Americans that they didn't have time to dream up ways to ruin the lives of U.S. citizens, have another think:
... Glenn Thrush & Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Trump, spurred on by conservatives who want him to slash safety net programs, unveiled on Thursday a plan to overhaul the federal government that could have a profound effect on millions of poor and working-class Americans. Produced over the last year by Mr. Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney, it would reshuffle social welfare programs in a way that would make them easier to cut, scale back or restructure, according to several administration officials involved in the planning. Among the most consequential ideas is a proposal to shift the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a subsistence benefit that provides aid to 42 million poor and working Americans, from the Agriculture Department to a new mega-agency that would have 'welfare' in its title -- a term Mr. Trump uses as a pejorative catchall for most government benefit programs."
"Trade Wars Are Easy to Win." Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "The European Union fought back on Friday against the Trump administration's tariffs, slapping penalties on an array of American products that target the president's political base, like bourbon, motorcycles and orange juice. The European counterattack on $3.2 billion of goods, a response to the administration's measures on steel and aluminum imports, adds another front to a trade war that has engulfed allies and adversaries around the world. China and Mexico have already retaliated with their own tariffs, and Canada, Japan and Turkey are readying similar offensives. The risk of escalation is high since Mr. Trump has promised even more tariffs. Taking aim at German car manufacturers, the president has started an investigation into automobile imports to determine whether they pose a national security concern, the same justification used for his metal tariffs." ...
... Jim Tankersley & Cade Metz of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the Trump administration [released] ... a 35-page report entitled 'How China's Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World.' It exhaustively details the steps Chinese officials take to protect and promote their domestic industries and disadvantage foreign competitors.... [The administration] has yet to detail how it plans to build America's dominance in industries that will power economic and job growth in the future, or cultivate what the administration officials call the 'crown jewels of American technology and intellectual property.'... Many economists say [the] steps [the administration is taking] are insufficient -- and possibly counterproductive -- to position American companies to compete in emerging, high-tech, globalized industries.... Instead of targeting innovation, the administration's policy efforts to date have focused largely on supporting legacy industries like coal mining and steel production.... China, meanwhile, targets support to companies that demonstrate a winning strategy for growth."
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "In a column for the British magazine Spectator, BBC correspondent Paul Wood revealed that Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct company which was in charge of microtargeting voters for the Trump campaign, was in possession of Clinton's emails at least a month before WikiLeaks was known to have them.... Wood said that he had information from an 'American lawyer' who knew that Cambridge Analytica was in possession of the emails, which U.S. intelligence agencies later determined were stolen by Russian hackers." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Paul Wood's story in the Spectator has a lot more, including speculation that the British government has been attempting to appease Trump by slow-walking intelligence which Robert Mueller has requested. Wood has done some fine investigative reporting on the Trump-Russia scandal, so I wouldn't discount the allegations in this piece.
Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid's articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump's attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with knowledge of the matter -- an unusual practice that speaks to the close relationship between Trump and David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., the Enquirer's parent company. Although the company strongly denies ever sharing such material before publication, these three individuals say the sharing of material continued after Trump took office.... The Enquirer's alleged sharing of material pre-publication ... intersects with a subject that federal prosecutors have been investigating since earlier this year: Cohen's efforts to quash negative stories about Trump during the campaign." ...
... Jeet Heer: "Donald Trump deserves to be listed as Editorial Consultant on [the] National Enquirer.... Trump and his cronies would, it appears, often tweak The Enquirer's coverage, in ways small (suggesting alternative photos) and big (advocating story ideas). In particular, Trump encouraged the tabloid in 2016 to cover the health of his opponent Hillary Clinton. In September 2015, the Enquirer ran a story saying Hillary Clinton had six months to live."
Doug Baldwin, et al., in a New York Times op-ed: "President Trump recently made an offer to National Football League players like us who are committed to protesting injustice. Instead of protesting, he suggested, we should give him names of people we believe were 'unfairly treated by the justice system.' If he agrees they were treated unfairly, he said, he will pardon them.... If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn't been listening to us. As Americans, it is our constitutional right to question injustices when they occur, and we see them daily: police brutality, unnecessary incarceration, excessive criminal sentencing, residential segregation and educational inequality.... We must challenge these norms, investigate the reasons for their pervasiveness and fight with all we have to change them. That is what \ we, as football players, are trying to do with our activism." The writers have some suggestions.
Caitlin Dewey & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "A deeply polarizing farm bill narrowly passed the House Thursday, a month after the legislation went down to stunning defeat after getting ensnared in the toxic politics of immigration. The legislation, which passed 213-211 with 20 Republicans joining Democrats in their unanimous opposition, includes new work rules for most adult food-stamp recipients -- provisions that are dead on arrival in the Senate. The massive legislative package overseeing more than $430 billion of food and agriculture programs over five years contains a host of measures aimed at strengthening farm subsidies, expanding foreign trade and bolstering rural development.... The most divisive element of the legislation passed Thursday are new, stricter work rules for most able-bodied adults in the food stamp program...."
Adam Liptak, et al., of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday ... [ruled] that internet retailers can be required to collect sales taxes even in states where they have no physical presence. The decision, in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., was a victory for brick-and-mortar businesses that have long complained they are put at a disadvantage by having to charge sales taxes while many online competitors do not. And it was also a victory for states that have said that they are missing out on tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.... In Thursday's ruling, the court effectively overturned a system that it created. In 1992, the court ruled in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota that the Constitution bars states from requiring businesses to collect sales tax unless they have a substantial connection to the state. The Quill decision helped pave the way for the growth of online retail by letting companies sell nationwide without navigating the complex patchwork of state and local tax codes.... Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority opinion by Anthony Kennedy."
Sylvan Lane of the Hill: "A federal district judge ruled Thursday that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) violates the Constitution, countering a January ruling from a federal appeals court. Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York ruled that the CFPB's creation as an independent agency with a director that could only be dismissed for wrongdoing was unconstitutional.... Thursday's ruling raises the likelihood that the Supreme Court will take up the issue of the CFPB's constitutionality in an upcoming term. The appeals courts for the 5th and 9th Circuits will also hear challenges to the CFPB's constitutionality, and a ruling against the bureau could force the high court to reconcile the conflicting opinions." Preska also ruled that a case initiated by the CFPB could go forward under the leadership of New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D).
Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post: "Charles Krauthammer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and intellectual provocateur who championed the muscular foreign policy of neoconservatism that helped lay the ideological groundwork for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, died June 21 at 68. The cause was cancer of the small intestine, said his son, Daniel Krauthammer."
News Lede
New York Times: "A ferry that sank Monday in a lake in Indonesia, leaving as many as 192 people missing and presumed dead, was badly overloaded beyond its capacity of about 40, officials said. Emergency responders continued to search Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra, but as the possibility of rescuing survivors has faded, they have shifted their focus to finding the boat and the bodies believed to be inside."
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Reader Comments (17)
MAG: was interested in your comment from Thursday about Janet Mills. We lived in Houlton in the 70s-- my husband was in administration of Ricker College there. It was remote and snowy, and we young folks loved it. I ran around playing flute with a harpist from Ft. Kent. Had no interest then in state politics. Since then, of course, have listened to what CP calls Paul LeP-- "the human bowling jacket--" and have often wondered about Maine politics. We actually knew a guy who became an official in a national party, and we knew Samantha Smith, who became a symbol of peace with Russia before dying with her father in a plane crash, but we have had no contact with Maine politics since. If Paul LePew (haha) is not there, I have hopes it can become again the lovely, wild place it was for us back then.
I'm half surprised that no one in the Administration has suggested Guantanamo as a place to house those unwanted immigrants and their children.
David!
Geez...don’t give them any ideas. If Trump and his crew of horribles thought it would be cruel enough, they’d do it in a flash. Maybe they’ve already thought of that but Miller put it on hold until thousands of toddler-sized water boards could be built.
Would you be surprised?
" And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism, a tale of prejudice fueled by myths and hoaxes that ended in genocide." Krugman
Early in the Hitler regime, a new code of law was issued: It will be a crime for a gentile man or woman to marry a Jew. Paramount in the code was the stress on PROTECTION of the FAMILY and thus outlawed abortion except––and let this sink in––if it was a fetus of mixed race. The plan to establish a pure German race had begun.
Back then in this country anti-Semitism was showing its dirty claws as well. The presidency of FDR was coined "the Rosenberg administration" because of the many Jews in his cabinet, and our ambassador in Germany was concerned about the many Jews in the embassy that could prove problematic.
Soon Germany's newspapers were almost wholly under the control of Goebbels and his Ministry of Public Enlightenment–-an oxymoron if there ever was one. My German daughter-in-law tells the story about her mother witnessing the secret police striking down a man who refused to salute during a parade; he lay in the street, bloody, and no one dared come to his aid.
"Here was an entire nation...infested with the contagion of an ever present fear. It was the kind of creeping paralysis which twisted and blighted all human conditions." Thomas Wolfe
And last night Jon Meecham on Hayes reminded us that ALL recent presidents has messages of hope in some form or another; Trump's message, he said, was fear and the hell with those "Others"––America First––that chilling slogan from the thirties.
They really DON"T care, do they?
On the long list of things I don't get, this one is now number one.
ICE finds a person with no proof of right to be in US. How about give them a day and then send them back home. No, we put them up for months and months and give them a trial they never win.
My guess, it's all about the money.
Incompetence, hatred, AND stupidity. The Trump Way.
The other day I heard a Trumpy shill accost a reporter who had the gall-danged temerity to ask how long children would be separated from their parents. In other words, how long before the families torn apart under the Trump Torture of Children and Families Policy could be reunited. The answer?
Five to ten days.
Then yesterday, I heard John Sandweg, a former head of ICE state that such expressions were a demonstration of woeful ignorance of how things work once adults and children are in the system.
Five to ten days? Try two to four years, if they're really lucky. And for many, it will be never.
"Sandweg said that once separated, migrant children and their parents are put on divergent legal tracks that move at significantly different paces. While a parent could be deported very quickly from the U.S., a child’s case could take much longer to resolve.
'So now you have the parent back in Honduras or Guatemala, and the child could be in a childcare facility somewhere in the United States, thousands of miles from the border,' Sandweg said. 'It gets very hard for the federal government to coordinate and track the location of both people.'"
Trumpers barely know which way is up. Yesterday Marie posted a video of four different "leaders" of the Trump Disaster and they had four different stories. Does anyone outside of Kool-Aid guzzling trumpbots believe this administration is capable of completing a game of checkers without A. losing the pieces, B. cheating, C. upending the board if they're losing, or D. all of the above?
But now they're going to reunite families whose names they don't even know with the parents in Texas and the babies in Maryland? In five days?
It gets worse. A big part of the problem, as it is for just about everything, is the Confederate congress. Currently, Sandweg says, we have 300 immigration judges handling a backlog of 20,000 cases. And there could soon be another 10,000 cases tacked on. Congress has declined to fund anymore than that. Why? Brown people. That's why.
And because kids are put on separate tracks from parents, they may never be reunited. Sandweg says that in many instances parents may not see their kids again until they're adults, if at all.
But here's another interesting bit of unintended consequences for evil Confederates.
The idea has been threefold. Inflict as much pain as possible on brown people, keep them from ever becoming citizens, and throw a monkey wrench into the plans of conniving Democrats who are trying to sucker as many browns as possible to come here to vote for them.
Okay, geniuses. So now we have thousands of kids and more will be coming. Many of those in the system now will end up being adopted. By American families. And soon thereafter, they'll become American citizens.
And get to vote.
Think they'll be lining up to vote for the party that made sure they never got to see their mommas again?
Here's how much it costs to detain an immigrant in the US:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/cost-us-immigrant-detention-trump-zero-tolerance-tents-cages.html
This Melanie jacket thing is truly bizarre. Her communications director says "Chill, people, it's just a jacket". Where did they hire that idiot? Maybe at the White House job fair last week. Previous employment, McDonalds. But hey, at least she was the night manager. And it was a Republican McDonalds.
Sorry, lady, where the White House is concerned, nothing is just "just". Everything has, or will be seen as having, meaning. And if you're the head First Lady mucky muck in charge of COMMUNICATIONS (duh), you didn't just drop the ball, you deflated it, set it on fire, and dropped it into a vat of toxic industrial waste products.
If Melanie took too many pain pills for her recent plastic surgery, maybe you could excuse her dressing like a walking billboard for criminal callousness and indifference. But aren't there, like, a dozen worker bees hovering around whenever the First Lady decides to venture out onto the front lines of one of the biggest disasters of the most disaster prone administration in American history? Isn't this a giant "Kick Me" sign taped to her back? There wasn't one person who could have said, "Er, pardon me, Mrs. Trump. But you might want to rethink the wardrobe"?
There are only two other rational explanations. One, she really DOESN'T care. After all, she's got hers. To hell with everyone else. OR she's making a different kind of statement. To all you who care about families and babies and booooring crap like that: "Go fuck yourselves. Do it today."
She was better off in New York where all she had to worry about was which diamond brooch to wear and which servant to yell at about the vichyssoise not being hot enough.
Oh, wait. There IS another explanation. I just remembered.
They are, all of them, morons.
PD,
I think they do care. Oh, not about immigrants or decency or ethics or moral action. Or laws or the Constitution.
They care about a white America. They care about closed borders, closed minds, goosestepping trumpbots who snap to when the Glorious Leader speaks. They care about the rich. They care about making sure Democrats don't get to vote. They care about money, power, and self-glorification. And they care about instilling fear and a sense of submission to their greatness.
They care, alright. Just not about you.
(Oh, and they also care about tactical pants. Almost forgot.)
Can anyone recall a past administration when so many Cabinet officials have been called out for inappropriate actions and activities? Among the still remaining: Zinke! Pruitt! Sessions? Pruitt? Oh, Pruitt again! Pruitt ditto!
Watching that 'enthusiastic' crowd behind Trump in the video
makes one realize there are too many deplorables out there.
@Jeanne: Looks like you and I made a state exchange at some point in time. Have fun with Pennsylvania and its politics! You might want to check out the history of The Pennsylvania Society, which meets annually in NEW YORK CITY. Playtime and deal time for politicians away from prying eyes back 'home.'
And in case you haven't kept up with Houlton happenings...here's more in border news according to the Portland Press Herald At I-95 checkpoint, Border Patrol agents question drivers and passengers about citizenship
Agents based in Houlton arrest a Haitian national and make nine drug seizures during the 11 hours they stop southbound traffic on the interstate in Penobscot County. "More walls needed. Un huh! " Surely Trump will insist on this.
Temps in DC when Melanie left for Texas were near 80 degrees! Brrrr, must put on an anorak. No way was this an accidental wardrobe pick!
Man, you gotta love this Allen Loughry dude, the chief justice (!) of the West Virginia Supreme Court. One more poster boy for venal, lawless Confederates in the Age of Trump.
But my favorite part of the story of this moocher who has been grifting off the public while handing down wingnut justice is his book. Oh yeah, he wrote a book a few years ago.
It's all about...well, I'll give you the title and you'll see:
"Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won't Pay for a Landslide: The Sordid And Continuing History of Political Corruption in West Virginia"
The topic of the book? Democratic political corruption. The title comes from a joke made by JFK. Kennedy joked that he had received a telegram from his dad Joe telling him not to buy any more votes than necessary with his money.
The subtitle (or one of them) to "Age of Trump" just has to be "Can't make this shit up".
So what. Do we really need to feel scandalized by headlined stories that the National Enquirer had Trump's
lawyerfixer check stories pre-publication? Like right, the Enquirer is about serious journalism! Garbage in, Garbage out prevails.Some people never learn.
Someone else who doesn't care, at least this morning, was David Greene who "interviewed" Confederate blowhard and Trumpy apologist Chris Buskirk on NPR.
The "interview" (it was really a five minute piece dedicated to allowing this Buskirk person to lie through his teeth about the Trump Torture of Children Policy) was set up, ostensibly, to get the skinny on how the deplorables were taking the Trumpy flip flop on his family separation scheme. It didn't go very well, largely because Greene simply allowed this asshole to drone on unchallenged about the greatness of the Glorious Leader.
Trump, in case you didn't know it, is a compassionate humanitarian. He saw a terrible situation in which families were being torn apart by Democrats and he stepped in, stupendous leader that he is, to FIX everything.
Greene sat by, probably wondering whether he should challenge this astounding assertion and finally decided "Nah..." According to Buskirk the trumpbots love this move because it demonstrates that they (the knuckledraggers) can be "pragmatic" even though Democrats and the unethical media were trying to make something out of nothing by whining about pictures of babies crying. Tsk, tsk.
You can listen to it if you want, I almost drove off the road this morning, but forced myself to continue to see if Greene could find it in himself to toss this guy something besides softballs. They weren't even softballs, they were like those balls you put on a stand for little kids to hit in Tee Ball.
This shit is why so many people still think Trump is a great and holy man.
Disgusting.
Buskirk, by the way, was given space in the NY Times op-ed page to spread more poison last Sunday. Here's what he's trying to sell:
"Most Republicans accept [Trump’s] transgressive personality and his intentional tweaking of social and political norms because they see it as in service of those larger ideas."
So let's unpack that. By Trump's transgressive personality, he means the insults, attacks, lies, and vicious assaults that routinely pass for presidential among the mouthbreathers. That bullshit serves larger ideas? What ideas? Hatred? White supremacy? Destruction of democracy?
But this guy is allowed to run off unchecked and unchallenged on NPR. And, he's a REGULAR GUEST!
Some people never learn. It's not like this guy is offering reasoned and reasonable positions or defenses for the indefensible. It's more lies in the service of lies. He should be challenged after every lie and those lies made clear to the readers/listeners.
Jesus. No wonder we're so screwed.
I believe Melania Trump was making a statement, but most folks are missing it: she is 'trolling' the government and her husband. She nor Ivanka can make strong statements but both have indicated 'displeasure' with the policy. Melania made the trip to the border and pressed officials for information and received falsehoods, like the answer to the question of children contacting their parents - the kids get two 10 minute phone calls per week.
They don't even know who the parents are in many cases. She prominently displayed the 'I don't care ... ' jacket/coat when leaving Texas and when getting off the plane in DC. It was a purposeful protest.
Rachel M. showed a map where baby jails are now known to be. Shockingly, none is shown in OK--now how could Scott Pruitt with his Cone of Silence phonebooth not have set something up there yet? I bet he knows people, you know? Immigration advocates were finding kids arriving by airline in NYC, Houston, and other cities. I don't know whom to call to look in at Tulsa and OKC airports to see if we have kids destined for baby jails here, but what are the odds that Pruitt et al haven't arranged a little for-profit kid detention? This story ain't over,
MAG: I can remember seeing newspaper pieces about that little NYC sojourn enjoyed by our lege-- I assume they still go-- Mostly the news is about our almost-the-largest lege in the country, and they barely work, can't come up with a budget on time, raise their own salaries and per diems regularly, gerrymander with abandon (although they have been caught--) and can't seem to do a thing about anything important except make abortions and health care harder to get, as their thing is to have any project languish in committee for years. Our governor is Democratic this round, and of course that means no one in the lege plans to work, ever. Oh, and one of 'em has been sued by two R women for sexual abuse and the lege just tolerates it. Yeah, they're useless and akin to those in NC and others.
Brownieps,
I would hope that Melania would protest her husband's inhuman tactics (yes, I did leave the "e" off) but I'm not at all sure her chosen method does the trick. Meaning I don't actually believe that she is serious about anything other than, as Marie suggested the other day, getting her piggy toes a tiny bit damp in the fetid swamp waters pumped in by her sugar daddy.
Had she worn a "Family First" jacket or "WTF" emblazoned on her anorak, I would be more inclined to agree with your assessment. And you could still be absolutely right, in which case it appears that she is not all that bright.
I dunno. Trying to make sense of this family and this administration requires tarot cards, magic 8 balls, dozens of Ouija boards, mob histories, tea leaves from dozens of different trees, the annotated Devil's Dictionary of Ambrose Bierce, and the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, held up to a mirror and translated by an Irish speaking vizier exalted by the Four Courts.
Myself, I don't bother with any of that. For the most part, the Trumpies are pretty easy to figure. They're mendacious rat bastard, evil, sucker punching assholes. If Melania finds her husband's actions and those of his devil worshiping pals dishonorable and repulsive, there's a better way to protest his actions than wearing an "I don't give a shit" jacket on your way to see children targeted by his malicious, racist policies.
It's called divorce.