The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Tuesday
Apr302019
The Commentariat -- May 1, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday offered pointed critiques of Robert Mueller's investigation..., suggesting he wasn't sure why the special counsel investigated numerous instances of potential obstruction of justice if he decided he couldn't charge ... Donald Trump with a crime under Justice Department restrictions. At times, Barr contradicted the language and legal framework outlined in Mueller's report, and engaged in hair-splitting arguments with Democrats who accused him of 'purposefully misleading' Congress in previous testimony. 'The other thing that was confusing to me was that the investigation carried on for a while as additional episodes [of obstruction] were looked into,' Barr said. 'The question is, or was, why were those investigated at the end of the day if you weren't going to reach a decision?'... Barr's answers directly contradict the rationale Mueller laid out in his report. Mueller indicated in a legal analysis of obstruction of justice that 'fairness' dictated he not reach a formal judgment on whether the president obstructed justice -- regardless of the evidence." Mrs. McC: Barr ended by calling Mueller's March 27 letter "snitty."
** Here's Mueller's full letter to Barr of March 27, & it's even more shocking than the WashPo story linked below lets on. At the top, Mueller writes that he has previously (March 25) sent Barr the introductions & executive summaries for both section of his report, which were marked with redactions. Mueller's purpose was to provide these sections to the public. Also, twice before Barr released his summary that wasn't a summary, Mueller touted his own summaries to Barr. ...
... As Michael Schmidt & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times lay out, "The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, twice pushed Attorney General William P. Barr to release more of his team's investigative findings in late March, citing a gap between Mr. Barr's interpretation of them and their full report.... Mr. Mueller and his investigators also pressed the Justice Department to include summaries of their work in the hours before Mr. Barr released a four-page letter of his own on March 24, the new document showed." Barr should be tarred & feathered.
** Comey Says Barr & Rosenstein, et al., Are Soulless Wimps. James Comey in a New York Times op-ed: "Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them.... Accomplished people lacking inner strength [like William Barr & Rod Rosenstein] can't resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like [former Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis's to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites."
Tom Hamburger & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The White House said Wednesday that it will not authorize any executive branch officials to disclose to Congress information about individual security clearances, a move that House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) called 'the latest example of the president's widespread and growing obstruction of Congress.' The Oversight panel has been examining the administration's handling of security clearances and allegations that officials, including ... Jared Kushner, were granted access to sensitive information over the objections of career staff.... The back-and-forth came as former White House personnel security director Carl Kline was set to testify in a closed-door deposition Wednesday morning."
Sarah Ferris & Caitlin Emma of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday asked Congress for $4.5 billion in emergency aid to address the surge of Central American immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The funding request is the first major move by the White House to respond to what it calls a' humanitarian crisis' at the Southern border and intensifies an ongoing funding battle over border security, just four months after the issue led to a paralyzing 35-day government shutdown."
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Time for Another Episode of the Mini-series "Bill Barr Lies." Hill: "Attorney General William Barr will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday [beginning at 10 am ET], the first of two back-to-back hearings he will take part in on Capitol Hill this week." The report includes a transcript of Barr's prepared opening statement. ...
... Update: New York Times reporters are liveblogging the hearing. Mrs. McC: In questioning, as Charlie Savage notes, Barr's suggested "that if Mueller felt he couldn't render a judgment (immediately), he shouldn't have investigated in the first place." IOW, according to Barr, the entire Mueller investigation was unwarranted. Anyhow, Barr is doing a great job as counsel to the President*. Here's something else: Barr keeps expressing surprise & bewilderment when Democratic senators point out some of the more damning facts related in Mueller's report. You might think Bill Barr never read the report. Update: Later, Barr admitted to Kamala Harris that he hadn't reviewed any of the underlying evidence in Mueller's report. That is, he just "made up" his own conclusions, based on his peculiar reading of Mueller's summaries.
Vive la Différence
As the report states: '[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.' -- Bill Barr, citing the Mueller Report in his infamous four-page summary that was not a summary
Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities. -- Full sentence, Mueller Report
** Mueller Called out Barr Con Job. Devlin Barrett & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump 'did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance' of Mueller's work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by The Washington Post.... 'The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusions,' Mueller wrote. 'There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.' The letter made a key request: that Barr release the 448-page report's introductions and executive summaries, and made some initial suggested redactions for doing so, according to Justice Department officials. Justice Department officials said Tuesday they were taken aback by the tone of Mueller's letter.... A day after the letter was sent, Barr and Mueller spoke by phone for about 15 minutes, according to law enforcement officials." Read on. ...
Safari Translation of Mueller's Objection: Your summary has COMPLETELY fucked up [notice: 'context/nature/substance'] our report, misrepresenting EVERYTHING [notice: 'work/conclusion'] we've done since we began. (See today's Comments thread.)
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Okay, Bill Barr, you lying sack of shit, now explain that "no collusion" presser you gave weeks after your old friend Bob Mueller complained about your mischaracterization of his report. Explain it to the Senate & House Judiciary Committees, this week, in public, you gutless shill. ...
I don’t know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion [regarding Trump's obstruction of justice]. -- Bill Barr, lying to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in sworn testimony, April 10, weeks after Barr received Mueller's letter objecting to Barr's published mischaracterization of the investigation's findings
Update: Van Hollen is now calling for Barr to resign based on this "misleading" testimony & on a "pattern of untrustworthy behavior" ...
SCHIFF called for Barr to resign this AM, per his office, highest ranking lawmaker to do that so far.... 'There's no sugarcoating this. He should step down,' Schiff said on CBS. -- Kyle Cheney of Politico, in tweets this morning ...
... Mark Mazzetti & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, wrote a letter in late March to Attorney General William P. Barr objecting to his early description of the Russia investigation's conclusions that appeared to clear President Trump on possible obstruction of justice, according to the Justice Department and three people with direct knowledge of the communication.... The letter adds to the growing evidence of a rift between them and is another sign of the anger among the special counsel's investigators about Mr. Barr's characterization of their findings, which allowed Mr. Trump to wrongly claim he had been vindicated.... The four-page letter that Mr. Barr sent to Congress ... gave little detail about the special counsel's findings and created the impression that Mr. Mueller's team found no wrongdoing, allowing Mr. Trump to declare he had been exonerated. But when Mr. Mueller's report was released on April 18, it painted a far more damning picture ... and showed that Mr. Mueller believed that significant evidence existed that Mr. Trump obstructed justice." ...
... digby: "I guess we know now why Mueller wasn't there the day Barr held his notorious press conference. This is big. Mueller was the one person in the whole country who could have truly validated Trump and Barr's interpretation of the report's conclusions. He didn't." Mrs. McC: Yes, but Barr did have a poked-faced Rosenstein, standing behind him, and for balance, some guy with a beard.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chair of the House Banking Committee, speaking on MSNBC, has called for Barr to resign, and if he refuses to do so, the House should begin impeachment proceedings against him. As former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) said later, Barr should bear in mind that the last time we had an attorney general who participated in a cover-up of presidential wrongdoing, he went to jail. (That would be John Mitchell.) Holtzman was on the House Judiciary Committee at the time it recommended articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon.
Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said Attorney General William Barr 'must answer' for reports that special counsel Robert Mueller objected to Barr's summarization of the conclusions in the investigation into Russia's election interference.... 'I have demanded the letter & Barr must answer for this. Mueller must be allowed to testify," Nadler tweeted shortly after the Post published its report, which comes two days before Barr is slated to testify before Congress." ...
... Here's Nadler's full statement, via Medium.
Erin Banco & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "House Democrats tell The Daily Beast they've been told ... Robert Mueller is willing to testify before them about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election but that the Department of Justice has been unwilling to set a date for it to happen."
"Lock Him Up." Robert Reich of Newsweek: "On Sunday, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee threatened to subpoena Attorney General William P. Barr if he refuses to testify this week about the Mueller report. But a subpoena is unlikely to elicit Barr's cooperation. 'We're fighting all the subpoenas,' says the President of the United States. In other words, there is to be no congressional oversight of this administration.... Such a blanket edict fits a dictator of a banana republic.... Under [its] inherent power, the House can order its own sergeant-at-arms to arrest the offender, subject him to a trial before the full House, and, if judged to be in contempt, jail that person until he appears before the House and brings whatever documentation the House has subpoenaed. When President Richard Nixon tried to stop key aides from testifying in the Senate Watergate hearings, in 1973, Senator Sam Ervin, chairman of the Watergate select committee, threatened to jail anyone who refused to appear. Congress hasn't actually carried through on the threat since 1935 -- but it could."
David Enrich of the New York Times: "Lawyers for [Deutsche Bank] have spent months cooperating with investigators from two Democratic-controlled congressional committees [regarding financial documents related to Donald Trump], which issued what one lawmaker called a 'friendly subpoena' to the bank in mid-April. The bank could end up sharing decades of his personal and corporate financial records. That prospect prompted Mr. Trump to file a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan on Monday in an attempt to block Deutsche Bank and another financial company, Capital One, from sharing documents.... The rich trove of records held by Deutsche Bank includes internal corporate documents, descriptions of the value of Mr. Trump's assets, and portions of his personal and business tax returns. The subpoena, issued April 15, casts a wide net for documents related to Mr. Trump's businesses and other entities.... If the bank handed over even parts of Mr. Trump's returns, it would be a dramatic end run around the president, who broke with decades of precedent by refusing to release them during the 2016 campaign.... Bank officials have ... compiled reams of materials to hand over.... Bank officials have told The Times that they were eager to provide the materials to Congress...., [but] the bank appeared ready to leave the legal battle to House Democrats and let the courts decide what it must do." ...
... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Here's a pro tip for lawyers:... It's a bad idea to tell the court that a case that absolutely eviscerates your legal argument is the best thing you have going for you.... The case is Trump v. Deutsche Bank.... But, of course, any analysis of a lawsuit involving Donald Trump must come with a caveat. The Constitution is also pretty damn clear that the government may not single out people of a particular faith for inferior treatment, but that did not stop this Supreme Court from upholding Trump's Muslim ban.... Trump's only hope of prevailing in the Deutsche Bank case is to pray for judicial lawlessness. Even the very case Trump relies upon in his legal complaint makes it quite clear that he should lose. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The legal basis for the lawsuit, in layman's terms, is as follows: Congress is mean and only wants the information because it hates Trump.... This same argument runs nearly all of Trump's refusals to abide congressional subpoenas. 'These aren't, like, impartial people,' the president declared of Congress. 'The Democrats are trying to win 2020.' The first thing to understand about this legal theory is that it is not a legal theory.... Trump's notion that he can ignore legal obligations from anybody who isn't 'like, impartial' is especially comic. Trump has spent his presidency trampling on the the entire concept of neutral authority.... Overtly fair-minded figures like Robert Mueller, or even friendly ones like Jeff Sessions, have been the target of Trump's wrath simply for having the temerity to operate outside his personal control.... Trump's extreme litigiousness is a natural extension of his general lack of shame. Once you have forfeited any claim to seriousness, there's not much reputational cost in associating yourself with ridiculous legal assertions." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The final question may come down to whether or not John Roberts decides to be "like, impartial" and rule in Trump's favor, despite Team Trump's failure to locate a valid legal theory for blanket obstruction. ...
... Mark Stern of Slate argues that House Democrats could make their very strong case even stronger if they framed them as preludes to impeachment. "Because 'no grounds exist to establish any purpose other than a political one,' [Trump's] suit claims, the federal courts must prohibit the banks from complying with the subpoenas." However, only the House has the capacity to impeach, so no court would accept the argument that subpoenaes issued in furtherance of that unique Constitutional responsibility were frivolous or harassing or excessive. ...
... Glenn Thrush & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "... Democrats see Mr. Trump's latest string of provocations -- starting with his blanket declaration last week that he would defy all subpoenas requested by Democratic committees and culminating in this week's legal action -- as a dangerous abuse of executive authority that they must address forcefully. Allies of Ms. Pelosi are publicly floating possible countermeasures, including even pursuing a narrow path to impeachment based on Mr. Trump's refusal to respect the oversight authority of Congress, a move modeled on the third article of impeachment drafted against President Richard M. Nixon in 1974.... Sentiment [favoring impeachment] appears to have shifted significantly over the past week."
Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has hired Patrick Fallon, former chief of the FBI's Financial Crimes Section, according to two sources familiar with the move. It's a significant hire that will bring expertise to the committee's efforts to scrutinize ... Donald Trump's financial dealings.... Schiff announced earlier this year that the committee will look at Trump's finances to see if his personal interests are influencing his decisions as president. 'That pertains to any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians or the Saudis or anyone else,' he said, according to CNN."
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that his panel would make a criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding potential false testimony by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of the private military contractor Blackwater and an ally of President Trump. 'The evidence is so weighty that the Justice Department needs to consider this,' Schiff said during a Washington Post Live event.... Schiff pointed to a meeting that took place nine days before Trump took office between Prince and a Russian financier close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles islands. Prince later told congressional officials examining Russia's interference in the presidential election that the meeting happened by chance and was not taken at the behest of the incoming administration.... Prince told special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigators a version of the Seychelles meeting that is at odds in several key respects with his sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017."
Ali Dukakis, et al., of ABC News: "Roger Stone, the longtime adviser to ... Donald Trump, appeared in a federal courthouse on Tuesday for the first time since a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report ... was made public.... Stone's legal team sought access to the Mueller report in its entirety, which Attorney General William Barr made public with redactions earlier this month. In court on Tuesday, U.S. Judge Amy Berman Jackson considered Stone's argument to see the report but did not rule from the bench.... Jonathan Kravis, an assistant U.S. attorney who has taken over the special counsel's case against Stone, said the government has no intention to willingly grant Stone and his legal team access to a less-redacted version of the Mueller report."
Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats in Congress can move ahead with their lawsuit against President Trump alleging that his private business violates the Constitution's ban on gifts or payments from foreign governments, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The decision in Washington from U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan adopted a broad definition of the anti-corruption law and could set the stage for Democratic lawmakers to begin seeking information from the Trump Organization. The Justice Department can try to delay or block the process by asking an appeals court to intervene. In a 48-page opinion, the judge refused the request of the president's legal team to dismiss the case and rejected Trump's narrow definition of emoluments, finding it 'unpersuasive and inconsistent.'"
Mar-a-Lago, Trump Cash Cow, Rips off Taxpayers. Derek Kravatz of ProPublica details how taxpayers pay Donald Trump top dollar for his staff's expenses at Mar-a-Lago, including a thousand-dollar bill for a one-night drinking party & $546/night for hotel rooms (when much cheaper rooms are available nearby AND Mar-a-Lago management rejected a less costly flat-fee arrangement). "Six government contracting experts said Mar-a-Lago may be violating rules requiring competitive bids. They argue that Mar-a-Lago's practice of invoicing meeting spaces, hotel stays and meals separately is a way to get around federal spending rules.... Several experts contend the State Department is exploiting loopholes in government spending rules to facilitate official gatherings at Mar-a-Lago.... 'It's a worst-case scenario when it comes to conflicts of interest, with the president and his children putting themselves and profits ahead of the public...,' said Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project On Government Oversight."
Donald Trump, Indentured Servant Master. Joshua Partlow & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "... at Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y...., undocumented employees said they were sometimes told to work extra hours without pay.... Allegations that workers were routinely shortchanged on their pay at President Trump's suburban country club are now the subject of an inquiry by the New York attorney general, whose investigators have interviewed more than two dozen former employees.... In interviews, six former Trump workers told The Washington Post that they felt systematically cheated because they were undocumented. Some told The Post about being denied promotions, vacation days and health insurance, which were offered to legal employees. The same pattern of unpaid labor was also described by a former manager. Others recounted practices that could violate labor laws. Two told The Post that they had been required to perform unpaid side work. Two others said managers made them work 60-hour weeks without paying them overtime."
Iliana Magra of the New York Times: "A British court sentenced Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, to 50 weeks in prison on Wednesday for jumping bail when he took refuge in Ecuador's Embassy in London seven years ago.... The United States is seeking Mr. Assange's extradition for prosecution there, and an initial hearing on that request is expected on Thursday. Officials in Sweden have left open the possibility that he could face criminal charges in that country, as well. Mr. Assange faces a charge of conspiracy to hack into a Pentagon computer network; a federal indictment accuses him of helping an Army private to illegally download classified information in 2010, much of it about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which WikiLeaks then made public. He has denied the charge."
Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: "Democratic congressional leaders emerged from a meeting at the White House on Tuesday and announced that President Trump had agreed to pursue a $2 trillion infrastructure plan to upgrade the nation's highways, railroads, bridges and broadband. Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said that there had been 'good will' in the meeting and that it was 'different than some of the other meetings that we've had.' Standing alongside Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said the group planned to meet again in three weeks, when Mr. Trump was expected to tell them how he planned to actually pay for the ambitious project." Mrs. McC: I'll believe it at the signing ceremony. ...
... Jim Newell of Slate looks at the political calculations behind the latest Infrastructure Week.
Emily Shugerman of the Daily Beast: "President Trump's latest rant about babies being executed after birth is riling up neonatal nurses, who say he's twisted the palliative care they provide for the sickest of infants into an anti-abortion rallying cry that could endanger health providers. Anna Schmidt, who has worked in a neonatal intensive care unit for five years, told the Daily Beast she was livid when she heard about Trump's comments at a political rally in Wisconsin on Saturday. 'The families that I've worked with, where I've handed them their babies for the first and last time, they don't deserve this kind of thing,' she told The Daily Beast.... Trump's remark was a continuation of his attacks on later abortions, which he describes as 'ripp[ing] babies from their mothers' wombs right up until the moment of birth.'... The nurses claim what they do is sensitive, personal, and has absolutely nothing to do with abortion." Mrs. McC: Trump is not attacking abortion rights; he is attacking grieving families & the neonates who never had a chance. See also Michelle Goldberg's column on Trump's remarks, linked below.
Emily Cochrane & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The conservative commentator Stephen Moore's chance at confirmation to the Federal Reserve Board teetered on Tuesday after one Republican senator said it was unlikely she would support him and multiple Republican senators began to publicly question whether the problematic favorite of President Trump would have enough votes if nominated. Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, said on Tuesday that she had told the White House she was unlikely to support Mr. Moore, becoming the first senator in her party to be nearing an explicit disavowal of his nomination even before Mr. Trump makes it official.... Asked if she believed Mr. Moore could garner the necessary votes, Ms. Ernst said, 'at this point, no I don't.'... Several White House officials privately acknowledged on Tuesday that Mr. Moore would most likely not be nominated -- just over a week after Herman Cain, Mr. Trump's other top pick for the board's second open seat, withdrew from consideration after accusations of sexual harassment that had stopped his 2012 presidential campaign resurfaced." ...
... Stephen Moore Has Been a Women-Hater for at Least a Quarter Century. Paul LeBlanc & Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Stephen Moore ... once dismissed the Violence Against Women Act as the 'most objectionable pork' in the 1994 crime bill, saying the money would better spent if Americans were forced to write checks to 'radical feminist' groups. More recently, he's wondered aloud whether women would concern themselves about gender parity once they start out-earning men and suggested that women shouldn't curse in public. It's part of a 25-year track record of dismissing women and criticizing gender equality in print and in interviews with conservative outlets. Moore's commentary covers everything from single mothers to the limited earning power of black men relative to black women -- a problem, he's argued, because it made black families weaker. On Tuesday, Moore said the 'biggest problem' in the US economy is a relative decline in male earnings for both black and white men." ...
... Yes, BUT, Moore Also Thinks Racist Jokes Are Hilarious: "By the way, did you see, there's that great cartoon going along? A New York Times headline: 'First Thing Donald Trump Does As President Is Kick a Black Family Out of Public Housing,' and it has Obama leaving the White House. I mean, I just love that one. Just a great one." -- Stephen Moore, 2016
Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "The US Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions since the Vietnam war, as part of its marine mammal program.... America's naval animals -- specifically about 70 bottlenose dolphins and 30 California sea lions at a naval base in San Diego, California -- search for objects and patrol restricted waters.... In addition to an ability to dive incredibly deep, dolphins have 'echolocation' capabilities, which allow them to detect mines that are buried underwater. Sea lions, the dolphins' comrades, have excellent eyesight, and have helped the military find lost equipment." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So it's the Dolphins & Sea Lions versus the Whales. John Ismay of the New York Times has more on naval employment (deployment?) of marine mammals to carry out military ops.
Presidential Race 2020
Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Former Vice President Joe Biden's announcement of a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination earned him an 11-point polling bounce, leaving him head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic candidates. A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after Biden's announcement on Thursday shows 39% of voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents saying he is their top choice for the nomination, up from 28% who said the same in March. That puts Biden more than 20 points ahead of his nearest competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- who holds 15% support in the poll -- and roughly 30 points ahead of the next strongest candidate, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (8%). Warren ranks about evenly with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (7%), former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke (6%) and Sen. Kamala Harris of California (5%), who round out the list of those earning 5% or more in the poll. The remaining 17 candidates tested all held the support of 2% or less."
Let's Go to ... Romania! Michael Birnbaum & Ioana Burtea of the Washington Post: "The day before special counsel Robert S. Mueller III submitted his report to the Justice Department last month..., Brad Parscale, was ... delivering a paid speech to a room full of Romanian politicians and policy elites.... 'It appears the Trump political organization has learned nothing from 2016 about the dangers of senior campaign personnel's entanglement with foreign money,' said Trevor Potter, president of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.... I didn't know much' about Romania before, Parscale told the country's Antena 3 broadcaster during the visit. 'Romania seems to be a very pro-Trump country and a pro-America country, and that's why it's a great honor to come visit,' Parscale said.... Romania ... has been criticized for attempts to weaken judicial independence and labeled by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.... Parscale [told the Washington Post its story was] '... yet another effort by the biased fake news media to systematically target another person in President Trump's orbit.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Parscale also said, "We did not grow up with the opportunity to travel internationally," so he was making up for that by travelling now. Yeah, well, growing up, I didn't have much of an opportunity to travel internationally, either, and I can tell you that I did not choose Romania as one of the first foreign places to visit when at long last I decided to see more of the world.
Chris McGreal of the Guardian: "The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) said in a new report that about 13 million American children are living in homes with incomes below the poverty line, depriving many of a decent education and proper nutrition, and putting them at risk of homelessness and violence. Two-thirds of those living in poverty are children of colour." --s
NRA Cements Its Whitey-White Identity. Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: “Carolyn Meadows, who is succeeding Oliver North as president of the National Rifle Association, is also the chairperson of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, an organization that maintains the largest memorial to the Confederacy in the United States.... Stone Mountain, GA, features an enormous relief carving that depicts Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis on horseback. A 2017 article in Smithsonian magazine notes that 'the monument in question is carved 42 feet deep and 400 feet above ground into a granite mountain' and 'is a testament to the enduring legacy of white supremacy.'" Mrs. McC: AND of course all three are traitors to the United States. National Rifle Association? What nation is that, Carolyn dear?
Way Beyond the Beltway
Venezuela. Scott Smith & Christopher Torchia of the AP: "Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó took to the streets with activist Leopoldo Lopez and a small contingent of heavily armed troops early Tuesday in a bold and risky call for the military to rise up and oust socialist leader Nicolas Maduro.... Lopez said he has been freed from house arrest by members of the security forces responding to an order by Guaidó, whom the U.S. and dozens of other governments recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader. As he spoke on a highway overpass, troops loyal to Maduro sporadically fired tear gas from inside the adjacent Carlota air base as the crowd of a few hundred civilians, some of them brandishing Venezuelan flags, scurried for cover. The crowd swelled to a few thousand as people sensed what could be their strongest opportunity yet to overthrow the government after months of turmoil that has seen Maduro withstand an onslaught of protests and international pressure with the support of his top military command and allies such as Russia and Cuba." ...
... Update. Nicholas Casey of the New York Times: "... at the end of the day, Mr. Guaidó fell short of the prize he sought: the toppling of President Nicolás Maduro, who has relied on force, intimidation and widely discredited elections to remain in power. The events [of the day] also cast a harsh new light into the division within the armed forces, which puts Venezuela in a precarious position as the country's political crisis deepens. While the highest ranks of the military dig into their support for Mr. Maduro's government, many rank-and-file soldiers appear willing to defy their commanders and come to the aid of the opposition.... The Trump administration immediately came out in support of the opposition, with the president, vice president and others publicly stating their approval on Twitter." ...
... Update 2. Mariana Zuñiga, et al., of the Washington Post: "Violent clashes erupted across Venezuela on Tuesday after opposition leader Juan Guaidó launched what he described as a military-backed challenge to President Nicolás Maduro, summoning thousands of people to the streets to demonstrate against the socialist leader. A 25-year-old man died and dozens of people were injured by rubber bullets, tear gas and live ammunition in melees across Venezuela, according to local observers and hospital officials.... An armored vehicle ran into a cluster of Guaidó supporters. A group of hooded men in a pro-government militia -- the feared colectivos -- fired live ammunition into a crowd of protesters, witnesses said. And a colonel loyal to Maduro was shot in the neck, the defense minister said..... President Trump accused Cuban 'Troops and Militia' of conducting military operations in Venezuela to cause 'death and destruction to the Constitution of Venezuela.' If the alleged activities didn't immediately stop, Trump tweeted, his administration would impose a 'full and complete embargo, together with the highest-level sanctions,' on Cuba." ...
... Julian Borger & Joe Parkin Daniels of the Guardian: "The Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, 'had an airplane on the tarmac' and was ready to leave for exile in Cuba when he was persuaded not to step down by Moscow, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has claimed.... While Pompeo put the blame on Moscow for stalling the transfer of power, Donald Trump made no mention of Russia when he tweeted on Tuesday evening, threatening Cuba." --s ...
... The Guardian has a liveblog of developments in Venezuela. ...
... AP, 8:10 pm Tuesday: "The head of Venezuela's secret police is admonishing President Nicolas Maduro, in the biggest break so far by a senior member of the security forces. SEBIN leader Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera wrote a letter to the Venezuelan people Tuesday saying it is time to 'rebuild the country.' A senior U.S. official confirmed the authenticity of the note circulating on social media."
News Lede
WBTV Charlotte, NC: "Two people were killed and four others injured in a shooting on the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC) campus Tuesday evening. The suspected shooter was taken into custody, according to police sources. CMPD identified the suspected shooter as 22-year-old Trystan Terrell. The shooting happened around 5:40 p.m. An alert sent by UNCC Emergency Management said shots were reported near the Kennedy Hall building. The alert told students to 'Run, Hide, Fight. Secure yourself immediately. Monitor email and emergency.uncc.edu.'"
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Reader Comments (13)
Mueller wrote that Barr: "...did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions."
I'm no lawyer, but the last two years have been a crash course in forensic reading of legalese, and this sentence sounds damning.
Let me try a "Joe Six-Pack" translation: "Your summary has COMPLETELY fucked up [notice: 'context/nature/substance'] our report, misrepresenting EVERYTHING [notice: 'work/conclusion'] we've done since we began."
On another note, I see Drumpf is blustering and threatening Cuba for keeping Maduro in power in Venezuela. Can someone let him know it's actually his best bud Vladdy boy?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/30/us-declares-support-for-venezuela-coup-attempt
“There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”, wrote Bob Mueller in a scathing letter to Trump boot licking, running dog lackey Bill Barr, currently playing the role of Attorney General in the (too) long-running unreality TV show “Don Fucks the Country”.
But naturally Barr undermined public confidence in your report, Bob. That’s why he was hired to play AG by executive producer Trumpy. That was the goal.
Look for plenty of snide, mealy-mouthed answers in today’s spin off, “Bob Lies Some More”.
Back in the good ole days when Poppy Bush was president and Billy Barr was A.G., William Safire, that conservative man of letters and acerbic comments, called Barr in one his NYT's columns –--
"The Cover-up Judge"
No wonder our King of Kings plucked this Bill from the nest of possibilities although it probably was that letter sent to the W.H. by Barr advertising his way with those cover-ups.
As I said the other day I am intrigued and puzzled as to the reason Barr would deliberately put himself in this position. The possibility that he has lost some of his marbles doesn't seem to be on the table but maybe those marbles are too tiny to be seen clearly?
Now it's on to the hearing today which should be better than "Game of Thrones," a series I have not watched since I experience the real deal in the real world every bloody day.
@PD Pepe: According to Thom Hartmann, in a piece published in Salon, "New York Times writer William Safire referred to [Barr] not as 'Attorney General' but, instead, as 'Coverup-General,' noting that in another scandal — having to do with [George H.W.] Bush selling weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein — Barr was already covering up for Bush, [Casper] Weinberger, and others from the Reagan administration."
Hartmann's whole article, dated March 26, 2019, is well-worth a read. Hartmann documents how Barr really knocked himself out covering up massive Reagan-Bush wrongdoing.
This is hardly a secret, of course; the rolling cover-up was a big scandal back in the day. And no doubt Trump's advisors gave Trump -- the self-proclaimed student of history -- a history lesson very much to his liking.
Watching MSNBC this morning, a clip of Pompeo telling NBC yesterday that we haven't seen Maduro, but "we've seen his plane is at the airport."
Not said ... his boat is on the water
... his car is on the driveway
... his hat is on his head
etc
That Mike sure has his words together.
This Stephen Moore episode points up one of the singularly repulsive elements of TrumpWorld. Trump doesn't just hire hacks, or people who maybe aren't the best, but could be serviceable in a very minor way. He goes after the most disgusting assholes, incompetent, unqualified, absolute bottom of the barrel worst.
But this has been a trend in R presidential administrations since, well, since Nixon. Clearly Nixon had a prize bunch (most of them ended up in prison), but because of Bill (I'll Save You, Republicans!) Barr, Reagan's clown car full of law-breaking apparatchiks (including the Secretary of Defense!) was turned around before it got to the prison gates. There were still plenty of Reagan Administration crooks (138!) who were either investigated, indicted, or convicted of crimes, the most in US history.
Poppy Bush himself eluded the cops by pretending not to know anything about Iran-Contra. Instead, he pardoned a whole shitload of his Reagan era criminal pals. Fast forward to Bush II, another collection of brigands who lied the nation into an unnecessary war.
The big difference between these prior criminal administrations and the current band of thugs and incompetents is that the earlier appointees had at least some semblance of proper credentials. Under Trump, the only credentials needed are a willingness to break the law and obey Trump at all costs. And because Trump is a Grade A asshole, he hires similarly dubious, stunningly unqualified, incompetent liars and con artists.
Stephen Moore is just the latest example of how debauched and degraded our government has become. Moore's name should have been yanked weeks ago, as soon as all this background information started pouring out. But no. Trump will keep him on on the chance that he'll somehow pass muster. The fact that the obsequious R mob in congress is starting to make mewling noises about Moore is proof of just how fucking bad a choice this guy is. And he won't be the last one.
Moore is like a joke candidate, the kind of character you would see in a comedy sketch who is so ridiculously unqualified that it becomes hysterically funny, kinda like Dick Shawn's Hitler in Mel Brooks' "The Producers"--"I liebes ya baby, I liebes ya". (remember the Nazi author sitting in the audience wearing his German army helmet shouting "Vhat is dis 'baby'? Der Fuhrer has never said 'baby'!" It really is THAT STUPID.
It gets worse by the day.
There's been a lot of concern lately for Venezuelans and to a lesser extent Cubans in the media. This is being fanned by Senators Rubio and Scott, both R-Fla among others.
Not much attention is given to another Latino group in Florida, namely Puerto Ricans. And yet these people are U.S. citizens
"The chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence revealed on Tuesday that the Department of Justice has not briefed his committee in almost two years on the counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump."
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/the-justice-department-is-breaking-the-law-not-briefing-congress-on-counterintelligence-probe-into-trump-intel-chair/
Related to the Stephen Moore potential job at the Fed, trump apparently tweeted that he wants the Fed to cut interest rates by a full percentage point (!!) and engage in more Quantitative Easing. For a guy who claims to be sober, he sure seems like he knows how to pile on WAAAAYYY too much of a good thing, especially because neither action is called for in the current economy. Kai Ryssdal on Marketplace pointed out that this tweet is stupid and ignorant, though the "M" word (moron) did not escape his lips on air.
This is some wonderful winger logic:
If you can't draw an immediate conclusion, then the investigation should never have been started.
HOWEVER...
Who can tell what kind of conclusion is possible without an investigation in the first place?
And oh, by the way, Mueller did draw an immediate conclusion, after the investigation was completed. His conclusion was that exoneration is impossible and while you're at it, here are a raft of examples of obstruction.
Queen Isabella Barr: Well, young man, can you tell us immediately what you'll find at the end of your journey?
Columbus Mueller: No, your majesty, not until the end of the journey.
Queen Isabella Barr: Well then, you shouldn't even go.
I'm not sure what exact sort of logical fallacy this is. It's a new one on me. We'll call it the Low Barr Fallacy.
Chances of Low Barr stepping down are slim and none. Trump has finally found the Attorney General of his dreams, one who will protect him against the law and the Constitution, who breaks laws, defies subpoenas, spits on constitutional rules, and insults congressional Democrats, doing whatever is necessary to allow Trump to continue his lawless escapades unhindered by consequences and free from ethical, moral, and legal requirements.
It strikes me that the absurd distance between Robert Mueller and William Barr as agents of justice demands that commentators, at least those with even a pretense of fairness (justice?), adopt a similar appreciation of the immense difference between a man who seeks the truth and is indefatigable in its pursuit but is unwilling to overstep his mandate, and one who has no interest in truth and is perfectly willing to invent a fanciful, (trumped up?) mandate on the fly in order to protect the clearly guilty subject of said investigation from any and all charges.
If we were to consider both positions on a scale of authenticity, skill, and faithfulness to the cause of justice, it would be like comparing a fly-by-night, slipshod copier of masterworks, who defaces the works of giants in order to satisfy some dreary personal grudge, with Vincent van Gogh.
Barr doesn't even rise to the level of "hack". He is a shoveler of Trump shit who now and then licks the shovel and finds it tasty enough to keep eating.
Time will tell, but I still feel like Barr thought he could waltz in and obstruct the Meulker investigation like it was the 80s à la Iran Contra. He didn't realize the media has grown up, social media chews up narratives like cranking out sausages, and covering for GOP operatives selling arms abroad is not at all the same rodeo as covering up a plot of potential treason and threats to American democracy itself.
Barr tries to save face in public but the Toad is clearly behind the tide and struggling to keep his head above water.