Thursday
May172018
The Commentariat -- May 18, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Surprise! Come on Down, Bob, You Just Won a Place in the Rotating Cabinet Sweepstakes! Eileen Sullivan & Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Friday that he intended to nominate Robert Wilkie, the acting secretary of veterans affairs, to take over the sprawling agency, a move that the president said would surprise Mr. Wilkie because he was learning about it only as it was being revealed. The president made the announcement ahead of a public event about prison reform as he praised members of his cabinet who have worked on the issue. The president said, 'Acting Secretary Wilkie, who, by the way, has done an incredible job at the V.A. and I'll be informing him in a little while -- he doesn't know this yet -- but, we're going to be putting his name up.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As usual, Trump is taking great care in the process of nominating Cabinet members. ...
... In discussing Trump's exhaustive Cabinet personnel vetting & selection process, Akhilleus referred (in today's Comments) to Carnac. For those of you unfamiliar with Carnac, here is a brief introduction in which Carnac practices his usual magnificent methods to divine answers to questions he has not seen:
POTUS* Tries to Use Office to Punish Perceived Enemies. Damian Paletta & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms to ship packages, according to three people familiar with their conversations, a dramatic move that probably would cost these companies billions of dollars. Brennan has so far resisted Trump's demand, explaining in multiple conversations occurring this year and last that these arrangements are bound by contracts and must be reviewed by a regulatory commission, the three people said. She has told the president that the Amazon relationship is beneficial for the Postal Service and gave him a set of slides that showed the variety of companies, in addition to Amazon, that also partner for deliveries. Despite these presentations, Trump has continued to level criticism at Amazon. And last month, his critiques culminated in the signing of an executive order mandating a government review of the financially strapped Postal Service that could lead to major changes in the way it charges Amazon and others for package delivery."
Andrew Desiderio of the Daily Beast: "Three top senators on Friday requested rare multi-agency inspector-general investigations into the Trump administration's failure to fully implement congressionally mandated sanctions against Russia. In a letter addressed to the inspectors general of the State Department, Treasury Department and Intelligence Community, the Democratic lawmakers ... Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) ... said the administration has not complied with the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was passed overwhelmingly and signed into law last year in part to punish Russia for its election-meddling and its incursions into eastern Europe."
Digby in Salon: "Trump's defenders are prepared to argue that if a presidential candidate conspires with a foreign adversary to sabotage a rival's campaign -- and secretly offer favors for the benefit of that adversary -- it's not a crime. That's the way the game is played. Richard Nixon famously said, 'If the president does it, it's not illegal.' It appears that Trump is taking that concept to a whole other level, especially when you consider he wasn't president when this stuff was happening: 'If the right presidential candidate does it, it is positively virtuous.'" ...
... Rudy Is Saying Stuff
Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "... Rudolph W. Giuliani said Friday that he has been told 'off the record' that there was at least one informant for the FBI or Justice Department embedded in Trump's presidential campaign, but he admitted that he and the president do not know whether that's true. Trump alleged in a Thursday morning tweet that during the Obama administration, the FBI placed 'an embedded informant' inside his presidential campaign to improperly spy on him.... On Friday morning, the president tweeted this quote that he attributed to Fox Business Network anchor David Asman: 'Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. This has never been done before and by any means necessary, they are out to frame Donald Trump for crimes he didn't commit.' Trump then added his own commentary: 'Really bad stuff!' Later Friday morning, Trump repeated his allegation that the FBI 'implanted' someone in his campaign. But this time he added a caveat, 'If true.'" ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Rudy Giuliani just made a big two-word concession: 'He can.' That's what Giuliani said Friday morning when asked by CNN's Chris Cuomo about whether a president can obstruct justice. And it contradicts the case that President Trump's now-former lawyer John Dowd had made. Dowd told Axios in December: 'The president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer under [the Constitution's Article II] and has every right to express his view of any case.' And there is some legitimate debate on that point. But apparently Giuliani disagrees. Trump's own lawyer said Friday that his client is not immune from charges of obstructing justice -- which is clearly the most troubling part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation for Trump personally." ...
... Only Democratic Presidents Have to Comply with Subpoenas. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Rudy Giuliani went on an angry tirade against Chris Cuomo on Friday after the CNN host played an old clip of him saying that presidents must comply with subpoenas to testify. During the CNN interview, Giuliani claimed that back in the 1990s, he simply argued that former President Bill Clinton couldn't ignore subpoenas to hand over documents as part of the Whitewater probe. The former New York mayor then said [to Cuomo] that he would never have argued that a sitting president must comply with a subpoena asking him to testify. Cuomo then rolled the clip of Giuliani being interviewed by Charlie Rose in which Rose directly asked him about whether a president must obey a subpoena to testify -- and Giuliani said he did. Giuliani at this point began ranting at Cuomo and accused him of being 'unfair' to him...."
Erica Werner & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "A sweeping farm bill failed in the House on Friday in a blow to GOP leaders who were unable to placate conservative lawmakers demanding commitments on immigration. The House leadership put the bill on the floor gambling it would pass despite unanimous Democratic opposition. They negotiated with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus up to the last minutes. But their gamble failed. The vote was 213 to 198, with 30 Republicans joined 183 Democrats in defeating bill. The outcome exposed what is becoming an all-out war within the House GOP over immigration, a divisive fight the Republicans did not want to have heading into midterm elections in November that will decide control of Congress."
*****
You can view the Trump candidacy & presidency as One Big Grift or as several smaller but significant grifts, but whether grift is singular or plural, it defines this presidency. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
** No, This Is Not "Normal." Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's allies are waging an increasingly aggressive campaign to undercut the Russia investigation by exposing the role of a top-secret FBI source. The effort reached new heights Thursday as Trump alleged that an informant had improperly spied on his 2016 campaign and predicted that the ensuing scandal would be 'bigger than Watergate!' The extraordinary push begun by a cadre of Trump boosters on Capitol Hill now has champions across the GOP and throughout conservative media -- and, as of Thursday, the first anniversary of Robert S. Mueller III's appointment as special counsel, bears the imprimatur of the president. The dispute pits Trump and the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee against the Justice Department and intelligence agencies, whose leaders warn that publicly identifying the confidential source would put lives in danger and imperil other operations.... The source is a U.S. citizen who has provided information over the years to both the FBI and the CIA, as The Post previously reported, and aided the Russia investigation both before and after Mueller's appointment in May 2017, according to people familiar with his activities." ...
Trying to wrap my head around the claim that it somehow reflects badly on Obama that Trump's campaign was so riddled with agents of foreign powers that FBI felt compelled to investigate. -- David Frum, in a tweet ...
... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "... it looks like the FBI did not go looking into the Trump campaign's Russian connections until after they were tipped off by the Australians that there was a problem. Specifically, the Australians told the FBI that George Papadopoulos knew the Russians had thousands of hacked emails that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign long before any of those emails were released to the public. That caused them to investigate. And when they started to investigate, they noticed Russian connections everywhere they looked.... Yes, this is bigger than Watergate. But not because there was an informant inside Trump's campaign." ...
... As Adam Raymond of New York & others point out, the Obama-FBI-spied-on-me meme is the latest popular Trumpy conspiracy theory. ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In seeking to undercut the legitimacy of the current investigation, Mr. Trump seized on the first anniversary of Mr. Mueller's appointment on Thursday to denounce it as a politically inspired waste of time and resources, in some ways echoing Mr. Nixon who at a similar point declared that 'one year of Watergate is enough.' Mr. Trump has made a point of saying again and again that there was 'no collusion,' but as documents released this week make clear, there was at the very least attempted collusion. His son Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, met with Russian visitors during the campaign after being promised incriminating information about Mrs. Clinton as 'part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.'"
Despite the disgusting, illegal and unwarranted Witch Hunt, we have had the most successful first 17 month Administration in U.S. history - by far! Sorry to the Fake News Media and 'Haters,' but that's the way it is! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning
Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History...and there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction. The only Collusion was that done by Democrats who were unable to win an Election despite the spending of far more money! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning
Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI 'SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.' Andrew McCarthy says, 'There's probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.' If so, this is bigger than Watergate! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet this morning ...
... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "In some sense, many analysts have said, [Trump] is right: Efforts by a hostile foreign power to influence an American presidential election -- with or without the assistance or knowledge of the winning candidate -- may well be a scandal 'bigger than Watergate!'... Mr. Trump marked the Mueller anniversary with a series of Twitter posts on Thursday morning, reminding his 52 million followers that the investigation is a witch hunt.... At least one government informant met several times with two of Mr. Trump's former campaign aides, officials have said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Anthony Cormier & Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed write "the crazy true story of Trump Moscow." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "Simply by announcing his candidacy for president and getting a lot of news coverage, Trump was upping his chances of making licensing deals. There was a limited window on how long this opportunity would last [since no one thought Trump would win the presidency or even the GOP nomination], so there was a certain urgency to cashing in while the irons were hot. [Michael] Cohen and [Felix] Sater[, who were spearheading the Russia tower deal,] certainly acted like they needed to move with haste, and they kept Trump apprised of their progress throughout.... On October 28, 2015, Donald J. Trump Sr. signed on the dotted line a letter of intent to build a tower in Moscow. They immediately decided that this agreement should be kept secret. Had the public known about the project, they would have had a much different impression of Trump's [remarkably favorable] commentary on Vladimir Putin.... For me the degree to which Trump concealed and lied about this information is impeachable on its own before we even get to possible coordination in the general election. Trump's primary interest in running for president was ... auditioning for Vladimir Putin in the hope that he'd be able to put his name on the tallest tower in Europe. And he did not tell the truth about this and still hasn't."
Alison Frankel of Reuters: "In a media blitz Wednesday night and Thursday..., Donald Trump's lawyer Rudolph Giuliani told Fox and CNN he had received assurances that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will not indict the president while he is in office. Whether a sitting president can be subjected to prosecution has never been tested at the U.S. Supreme Court, but Giuliani said Mueller's team agrees it is bound by a U.S. Justice Department memo from October 2000. That memo concluded U.S. presidents cannot be indicted because the prosecution would interfere with their ability to execute their constitutional duties.... I talked Thursday to eight lawyers who've been involved in previous probes of U.S. presidents. Every one of them said Giuliani's theory is incorrect. Some of them had quite strong words. George Conway [Mrs. McC: Kellyanne's husband!] wrote the Supreme Court briefs for Bill Clinton accuser Paula Jones in the case that led to a unanimous ruling from the justices that the Constitution does not shield presidents from testifying in certain civil suits. He said Giuliani's assertion that President Trump cannot be subpoenaed is 'drivel.'"
The Ever-Helpful Rudy. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani hit the airwaves of Fox News on Wednesday night to again raise the bar for what might constitute collusion. On the same day that 2,500 pages of testimony about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting were released, Giuliani declared that collusion would require using information that was provided by the Russians. 'And even if it comes from a Russian, or a German, or an American, it doesn't matter,' he said of the opposition research that was offered. 'And they never used it is the main thing. They never used it. They rejected it. If there was collusion with the Russians, they would have used it.'... The new argument allows for the Trump team to have received information from foreign sources, as long as it wasn't utilized. We will see whether that's a distinction he's drawing for a reason. It's possible that Giuliani was just speaking loosely while trying to restate the previous company line.... But ... this is the latest episode in what has been a steady narrowing of the Trump team's denials of collusion." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beth Reinhard & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "The Treasury Department's inspector general is expanding a probe into leaks of confidential reports about suspicious banking activity by Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal attorney, to include an uncorroborated allegation that some of those reports were mysteriously absent from a government database. The investigation began last week after Michael Avenatti, an attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels, detailed transactions in which large firms with business interests before the U.S. government transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to Essential Consultants, a company controlled by Cohen.... Late Wednesday, the New Yorker published a story about an unnamed law enforcement official it said had leaked the report. The official told the magazine that the report contained references to two earlier reports about Cohen's financial activity -- reports the official said were missing from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) database.... On Thursday, Treasury officials sought to tamp down concerns, saying in a statement that since 2009, FinCEN has had the ability restrict access to sensitive SARs. Richard Delmar, counsel to the inspector general, said investigators will now explore questions raised by the New Yorker after receiving a request from Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee." ...
... Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed: "Records pertaining to the financial activities of ... Michael Cohen are not missing from a government database; rather Treasury Department officials have taken the highly unusual step of restricting access to them even from certain law enforcement agencies, according to three sources familiar with the matter.... Three sources ... said that access to Cohen's SARs has merely been limited, not removed. They added that limiting access is rare and must have come from the top of the Treasury Department." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The funny thing is that whoever these "top Treasury Department" officials may be (Steve Mnuchin), they must be pretty incompetent since they apparently restricted access to only two of the three Cohen SARs.
Nathan Layne of Reuters: "The former son-in-law of Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign, has cut a plea deal with the Justice Department that requires him to cooperate with other criminal probes, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The guilty plea agreement, which is under seal and has not been previously reported, could add to the legal pressure on Manafort, who is facing two indictments brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort has been indicted in federal courts in Washington and Virginia with charges ranging from tax evasion to bank fraud and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Jeffrey Yohai, a former business partner of Manafort, was divorced from Manafort's daughter last August. Yohai has not been specifically told how he will be called on to cooperate as part of his plea agreement, but the two people familiar with the matter say they consider it a possibility that he will be asked to assist with Mueller's prosecution of Manafort." ...
... Sarah Lynch of Reuters: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office notified a federal court in Virginia on Thursday it had filed under seal an unredacted memorandum that is expected to shed light on the scope of his wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The filing, made as part of Mueller's criminal case against ... Paul Manafort, was requested by the judge...." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Plot Thickens. Erin Banco of NJ.com: "A Russian plane linked to the country's government flew into the Seychelles the day prior to a 2017 meeting [which included Blackwater founder Erik Prince] now under review by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to the airport flight data obtained by NJ Advance Media. Mueller's team is examining a series of meetings that took place in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, as part of its broader investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.... New details about [the] Russian aircraft ... has raised questions about the scope of the meetings that week and whether sanctions were a topic of conversation among participants." The owner of the plane is Russian billionaire Andrei Skoch, whom the U.S. has sanctioned. The U.S. also has sanctioned the fund of Kirill Dmitriev, who was at the Seychelles meeting. "It is unclear if Skoch was on the aircraft.... But if Skoch participated in the Seychelles meetings that week in January 2017, it would raise the possibility state business, including sanctions, was discussed."
It's Always Someone Else's Fault. Maggie Haberman & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "... in recent months, Mr. Trump, who has never been convinced that his aides have his best interests at heart, has felt increasingly aggrieved. He blames his staff for not delivering better headlines on key initiatives, like tax cuts or a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea. And he sees leaks as a cause of the distractions that have helped deprive him of those headlines, according to interviews with several current and former White House officials...." The reporters examine Trump's paranoia. ...
... Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "The White House is considering shrinking its communications team in the coming weeks, two officials with knowledge of the expected changes tell CNN, with one objective being reducing the number of leaks and the overall goal being restructuring the entire press shop.... Staffers are not expected to be fired outright, but pushed out slowly or shifted to other departments in the administration outside of the West Wing, the officials said. It will also likely affect junior aides without clearly defined responsibilities. The reason staffers aren't expected to be fired directly is because, although the White House has taken several steps to combat leaks including canceling the daily communications meeting, senior officials aren't confident about who it is exactly that is doing the leaking, one official noted."
Mark Berman & Frances Sellers of the Washington Post: "A New York appeals court on Thursday rejected a request from President Trump to stay proceedings in a defamation suit filed by a former contestant on 'The Apprentice' [Summer Zervos] who has claimed that he sexually harassed her. The ruling on Thursday is a legal setback for Trump, who is facing multiple lawsuits focused on allegations women have made against him as well as his public comments about those women. It could open him up to discovery in the case, although he could also file further appeals to try to delay proceedings." (Also linked yesterday.)
Isn't This Special? Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "The company controlled by the family of the White House adviser Jared Kushner is close to receiving a bailout of its financially troubled flagship building by a company with ties to the government of Qatar, according to executives briefed on the deal. Charles Kushner, head of the Kushner Companies, is in advanced talks with Brookfield Properties over a partnership to take control of the 41-story aluminum-clad tower 666 Fifth Avenue in Midtown, according to two real estate executives who have been briefed on the pending deal but are not authorized to discuss it. Brookfield is a publicly traded company, headquartered in Canada, one of whose major investors is the Qatar Investment Authority.... The deal with Brookfield is likely to raise further concerns about Jared Kushner's dual role as a White House point person on the Middle East and a continuing stake holder in the family's company." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
MEANWHILE, Paul Krugman makes the case that China successfully bribed Trump to undermine U.S. security. Krugman blames the entire GOP establishment: "... Trump's corruption is only a symptom of a bigger problem: a G.O.P. that will do anything, even betray the nation, in its pursuit of partisan advantage." Mrs. McC: I would add that the China bribe is the principal purpose of the Emoluments Clause. ...
... Mark Landler & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "Chinese negotiators are preparing to offer the administration a deal to buy up to $200 billion worth of American goods, which would allow Mr. Trump to claim victory in his campaign to reduce the trade deficit with China and rebalance America's trade relationship with its biggest economic rival, according to people briefed on the deliberations. But the Chinese promises would be largely illusory, economists cautioned, given the structural hurdles in China to buying more American exports and the sheer amount of goods the United States would have to produce to meet Beijing's demand. Under the deal being discussed, China would pledge to buy substantially more American agricultural products, including soybeans, as well as semiconductors and natural gas. That could theoretically reduce its trade surplus with the United States.... In return, China is asking the United States to set aside tariffs and investment restrictions it has threatened against Chinese companies. That includes lifting sanctions on the telecommunications giant ZTE...."
Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday chided media outlets who reported earlier in the week that he had referred to undocumented immigrants as 'animals,' a remark that came in response to questions about members of the brutal MS-13 gang with roots in El Salvador. 'Fake News Media had me calling Immigrants, or Illegal Immigrants, "Animals." Wrong! They were begrudgingly forced to withdraw their stories,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'I referred to MS 13 Gang Members as 'Animals,' a big difference - and so true. Fake News got it purposely wrong, as usual!'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Trump is fully aware, the real problem is that he himself conflates gang members with ordinary immigrants in an attempt to paint all immigrants as machete-wielding villains. This is not the media's fault; it's a Trumpian strategy to mislead the public.
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on Thursday to be the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, elevating a career clandestine officer to the directorship despite bipartisan misgivings about her role in the agency's brutal detention and interrogation programs in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.... She was confirmed 54 to 45.... Two Republican no votes [Mrs. McC: Jeff Flake & Rand Paul] -- and opposition from Senator John McCain of Arizona, the victim of torture in Vietnam who was not present for the vote -- were more than offset by six Democrats, most of whom represent states that Mr. Trump won in 2016. Ms. Haspel also won over Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had led the interrogation of her record." (Also linked yesterday.)
Brian Fung of the Washington Post: "The Senate approved a resolution Wednesday that aims to undo a sweeping act of deregulation undertaken last year by the Federal Communications Commission, issuing a rebuke to the Trump administration, which supported the FCC's move. The resolution targets the FCC's vote in December to repeal its net neutrality rules for Internet providers. If successful, the legislative gambit could restore the agency's regulations and hand a victory to tech companies, activists and consumer advocacy groups. The congressional effort comes less than a month before the rules are officially expected to expire, on June 11. And the high-profile vote could shine a spotlight on lawmakers running for reelection during a tough midterm season.... Senate supporters of the FCC rules put forward the legislation under the Congressional Review Act, a law that permits Congress to revisit -- and reject -- decisions by administrative agencies within a certain window of their approval. The resolution, or CRA for short, passed with the backing of all 49 Democratic senators and three Republicans: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John N. Kennedy of Louisiana and Lisa A. Murkowski of Alaska.... Still, it is unclear what fate may await the measure in the House." (Also linked yesterday.)
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Leave it to Congress to take food away from 2 million poor people and somehow save no money in the process. The House farm bill, scheduled for a vote Friday, contains a major overhaul to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as food stamps).... [The bill] was written entirely by Republicans.... The bill House Republicans wrote would ratchet up [work] requirements, for every state.... The net consequence of ... ill-thought-out provisions: Millions will see their food assistance cut or eliminated, or never even apply for it. Billions will be spent getting that outcome. All of which is to say: Republicans aren't really opposed to Big Government; they just want their Big Government to help fewer people."
Every time you have that soil or rock or whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise, because now you have less space in those oceans, because the bottom is moving up. -- Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), explaining rising sea levels to a climate scientist during a House hearing ...
Lesson: Do not skip rocks while at the beach. You will cause sea levels to rise. Oops, never mind; I guess that would be a man-made cause, and there's no such thing. ...
... Scott Waldman in Science: "Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee yesterday ... at times embraced research that questions mainstream climate science during a hearing on how technology can be used to address global warming. A leading climate scientist testifying before the panel spent much of the two hours correcting misstatements.... Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the committee, entered into the record an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal yesterday that claimed sea levels are not rising because of climate change, a view that rejects thousands of scientific studies. The piece was written by Fred Singer, who is affiliated with the Heartland Institute in Chicago, Illinois, which promotes the rejection of mainstream climate science." (Also linked yesterday.)
Rick Hampson, in a long USA Today essay, looks at the U.S.'s second Gilded Age: "In this Gilded Age, like the one at the end of the 19th Century, the gap between rich and poor is widening; monopolies have more power over business, business has more power over politics and politics are close-fought and hyper-partisan. The pace of change -- technological, cultural, social -- is dizzying.... The most striking feature shared by the two Gilded Ages is growing economic inequality. In the 19th Century, the juxtaposition of squalor and splendor shocked a rural nation that was moving to the city; today, it haunts a nation that can remember the relative equality of the Depression, World War II and the long post-war period. Nowhere is this inequality more apparent than Los Angeles, where hundreds of encampments have sprung up on beaches, in riverbeds and in canyons as the homeless population has exploded and expanded beyond its old boundaries." ...
... Tami Luhby of CNN: "Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. That's 43% of households in the United States. The figure includes the 16.1 million households living in poverty, as well as the 34.7 million families that the United Way has dubbed ALICE -- Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. This group makes less than what's needed 'to survive in the modern economy.'"
News Ledes
New York Times: "A Cuban airliner carrying more than 100 people crashed and burned shortly after takeoff from Havana on Friday, killing all but three people aboard, Cuba's official media reported.... The plane, a Boeing 737 leased by Cubana de Aviación, a state-run Cuban airline, was nearly 39 years old, according to the United Nations aviation agency, making it one of the older 737s still in commercial operation."
New York Times: "A male student was taken into custody on Friday morning after a shooting spree inside a high school in southeast Texas left at least eight people dead, the majority believed to be students, the authorities said. In what has become a national rite, the authorities arrived en masse at a campus, this time at Santa Fe High School, 35 miles from Houston, as students fled in tears. In addition to the suspect, the authorities said another student was detained as a person of interest." ...
... The Houston Chronicle has live updates & links to related stories here. The paper reports at least 9 people are dead.
Miami Herald: "A gunman ranting about ... Donald Trump walked into the lobby of Trump National Doral Miami resort, draped an American flag on the counter and began firing in the air -- leading cops to shoot him in the legs in a bizarre firefight early Friday that drew a massive law-enforcement response. The man, Jonathan Oddi, a 42-year-old fitness enthusiast..., was hospitalized and is expected to face an array of criminal charges, including attempted murder of law-enforcement officers. No one at the resort was wounded, although a Doral police officer broke his wrist during the confrontation."
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Reader Comments (17)
As a yellow dog Democrat it pains me to say that the party and BHO was asleep at the switch before during and after the 2016 election. They/it should have challenged the candidacy of Mr. Trump in loud and uncertain terms. He is unqualified -- and should have been disqualified early. He wasn't. We live with the disastrous results. Lock him up!
@NJC: If one has to find a single person most responsible for Donald Trump's election, it occurs to me that the person is Debbie Wasserman Schultz. As DNC chair, it was her primary job to make sure Democrats had a good slate of presidential candidates in 2015-16. But Debbie favored Hillary, so she did just the opposite.
It doesn't take a genius to foresee that Hillary would be a crappy candidate. She had amply proved that in 2008, losing to a neophyte whose singular political accomplishment was a well-received (yet not necessarily extraordinary) speech at the 2004 convention. Eight years was not going to improve Hillary's chances; in fact, I think she was a less attractive candidate in 2016 than in 2008.
It was Debbie's job to recruit a group of viable candidates in 2015. She chose to do the opposite. She discouraged other qualified candidates from running. Democratic voters were left with odd alternatives to Hillary: an aged socialist, Martin O'Malley (who looked okay on paper) & a few misfits -- people who at least had the guts to defy Debbie.
The Democrats' mistake came way before Trump became a leading candidate. It was their decision to let Debbie & other party "leaders" preordain Hillary. They overwhelmingly chose Hillary in 2008 before a single primary vote was cast; voters had a different idea. The "leaders" chose her again in 2016, again before voters had a chance to weigh in. But in this cycle, the "leaders" also made sure Hillary didn't have any viable challengers.
Are they going to make the same mistake in the next round? I would not rule it out. It's what party "bosses" do.
So, how long til little Donny has a personal sit down with his new CIA director and he orders her to start tortur... uh, enhancing the interrogations of all the "animals" we've got locked up? Think she'd say "no"? I wouldn't bet on it.
"Leader of the free world"...just keep telling ourselves that.
Apropos of NJC's and Marie's comments, here is a piece––How the Left Can Gain Footing in White America–- by Paul Street (Truthdig) that addresses these issues (he is as tough on Hillary as Marie is).
"Here, for what it's worth are 12 recommendations for how my fellow leftist progressives might understand and communicate with "flyover zone" whites in ways that further our goals without sacrificing our commitment to racial, ethnic, and gender equality and environmental sanity and without pushing middle American and non-college educated white folks to the right."
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-the-left-can-gain-footing-in-white-america/
Bea,
I agree with your assessment of the DNC and its failure to discern HRC's weakness as a candidate. Though considerations of fairness always matter to me, whether her weaknesses were innate or created by twenty years of unrelenting and unfair (Bengazi!) vilification (most likely both) wasn't going to matter after all the votes were counted. And that Bernie gathered as much support as he did, should have been seen much earlier in the prolonged campaign as a sign that HRC (and the country) was in trouble.
But the emotional and intellectual humps I cannot get over, no matter how often I replay 2016 in my belly and mind, is how obviously awful this Trump thing was, in person and policy both, and yet millions voted for him.
Clearly, he had and has the ability to call up the worst within us, but as the campaign went on I never took seriously the thought that there were enough voters animated by racism, misogyny or so thoroughly mired in ignorance to give him a win. I thought the electorate too nice and too smart.
I was naive, as I suspect many idealistic Democrats are, and despite the experience of the last year which sure should have cured me, the disease lingers.
The Bill Gates' bit is so funny. Reminds me of my youngest son's query when in 1st grade about why his teacher referred to herself all the time: "Mrs. Keller wants you all to line up in a row"––Mrs. Keller says open your books to page three"... Doesn't she know who she is? he asked.
We might very well ask that same question today about that someone who, I suspect, is playing at a role where he forgets his lines so makes up shit and has what may be called an identity crisis.
"So I said to myself, I said, this *Russier stuff, ..." Yup––myself is me but sometimes three (in one) and sometimes I'm not there at all."
According to an NPR report this morning, the little dictator has already accounted for 1/8th of all appeals court judges. One-eighth! In a little over a year. This means two things. First, Turtle Man and the other anti-democratic schemers in the Party of Traitors denied as many Obama appointments as they could get away with, and they got away with a lot (including a Supreme Court appointment). Second, as soon as the Orange Headed Baboon slithered into the White House, they began approving wingnut goons at a startling rate.
One other thing Nina Totenberg points out in the report: Trumpy nominees have been coached not to say anything about anything to anybody. When asked about certain Supreme Court decisions (Brown v Board of Education, for instance), they basically claim that they know nothing about it. They refuse to answer questions of precedence or even basic law.
And they get approved. Lifetime appointments. The only thing missing is the twirling mustaches and the snarling smirks.
Just imagine going for a job interview to teach high school physics and refusing to answer a question about whether or not Newtonian Mechanics has made an impact on science, or pretending to never have heard about the effects of friction. Think you'd get the job? But here's the difference. Confederates like Mitchy know that if Trump nominated these guys, they are goosestepping far-right zealots, so no need to ask them anything. They know why they are there. And why don't they care if they know anything about law? They're not there for the law and certainly not for justice. They are there to act as another arm of the far right war on America. They are there to support whatever nefarious, anti-democratic schemes come along and to stick it to those who are not part of their tribe.
Whatever happens to Monkey Boy, impeachment, indictment, banishment, official congressional wedgie, head shorn, the effects of this truly awful election will be felt for the next generation at least, as unqualified extremists decide who and what will be taken care of by the courts and who and what will be royally screwed.
Ken,
The appeal of the Trump Monster is pretty basic. It's as old as warring tribes. "Your enemies are my enemies. The people you hate, I hate even more. Elect me and I will screw them to the wall."
There was probably some Australopithecus goon several million years ago, waving a jawbone around in front of hooting and clawing hominids, promising to brain that other tribe over the hill and make Hominid Land great again.
And Trump Monster voters were primed by a generation of hate speak, fear, racism, and lies from the right. Everything was in place, everything ready for just this moment. Then along comes a malevolent, bigoted boob wearing his hate on his sleeve and his ignorance on his face, and the tribe said, "Here's our guy".
Even at that, he should have lost, but then the right had not one, not two, but three or four Deus ex Machinas. They had the Russians, Wikileaks, a compliant press, they had Mr. Self Righteous, Jim Comey, and, of course, the right wing echo chamber going full bore after Clinton. All they needed was a couple hundred thousand votes in the right places (places, by the way that Clinton ignored), and presto, Wingnut Wonderland. All their dirty dreams come true.
PD,
The Gates story is at turns both creepy and scary. The abysmal ignorance of this guy is still startling. That any adult, one who is supposedly "like, really smart" has no idea of the difference between HIV and HPV is beyond jaw dropping. His ogling of Gates' daughter is right in line with his standard creepiness toward women in general. Also predictable is his need for making a grand entrance by descending from the heavens in a helicopter when, in fact, he was already there (I will refrain from connecting this to Hitler's descent from the heavens in "Triumph of the Will"...oops, I guess I didn't refrain after all...).
Whatever. Trump is a weird, damaged, not very bright, fucked up creep. But a weird damaged not very bright fucked up creep who was handed a fortune and given all the breaks in the world. None of which would matter much except for the fact that now this fucked up creep is the president*.
Correction...in an earlier post I wrote that Trump was responsible for 1/8th of all appeals court judges. The quote referred to circuit court judges. Just want to be accurate.
I'm right up there with Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) when it comes to
climate change. That's why I'm eating as much sea food as possible,
'cause every fish or clam that comes out of the oceans or lakes will
lower the water levels of the oceans and lakes. Florida will have
beaches 10 miles out if we all just eat fish. And drink lots of water.
@ Forrest
Thanks. A very good laugh...
It's hard to further reduce the absurd, but you done it!
Forrest,
I'm a big fan of scallops. Wonder how many I'd have to eat to give the east coast another five feet of shoreline? Maybe we should eat more whales.
"As usual, Trump is taking great care in the process of nominating Cabinet members."
What might that entail? Tarot cards? Magic 8 Ball? Carnac the Magnificent?
Or the old standby: pulling a name out of his ass.
I suppose it's better than picking the guy who drives his golf cart and gives him health tips he picks up online while scanning Infowars. Hey, maybe this Wilkie guy knows the difference between HIV and HPV!
So internal daily briefings are out in tbe White House because the Best People can't get through a whole meeting without making shitty remarks about other people.
Maybe they could call up Pruitt and see how his world's most expensive soundproof phone booth is working, and maybe build a few more scattered about the White House. When people want to scheme they can plan meetings in separate booths with protected lines in radio silence.
Or maybe they could do the loyal buddy system, where the True Loyalists, designated by their signature to the Oath to Trump treatise, get handcuffed to a suspicious "partner" and they therefore know everything that goes in or out of that person's mouth. This would be a 24/7 operation of course, and bisexual bathrooms would unfortunately have to be accepted as the gender ratio isn't 50/50. Mike Pence would be handcuffed to his Mother as a special religious exemption, with specially designed stalls so they don't accidentally see any genitalia if the purpose isn't reproduction.
If handcuffs look a little too "criminally" given the ambiance of the current White House, three-legged race wraps could be another option. This would cause even worse bathroom breaks, but it would have the advantage of slowing down the White House staff and thus reducing possibilities of accumulating multiple scandals.
Daily lie detector tests could be advantageous, with the Trump family members obviously exempt.
Or maybe they could just quit being lying assholes every day of their wretched lives.
@Ak: I don't know if I could do my part to eat whales. Didn't realize whales were edible. Tho' I suppose in the spirit of MAGA we could also go back to heating blubber for our oil lamps! Oh, just checked the Googles and learned this about whale meat:
"It's similar to reindeer or moose. Whale tastes much more like its hairy cousins on land than its gilled neighbors in the sea. In places where gamey meats are common—like Norway, Iceland, and among the indigenous people of Alaska—whale is served straight up with little or no seasoning." Hmmm, think I'd want a whole lot of seasoning with my portion!
Filet de muktuk, anyone?
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/05/18/stunning-nasa-study-shows-humans-are-responsible-for-major-changes-to-earths-water-availability.html
More research revelations, but who among us is surprised?
Under new see no evil management as it is, could this be the next NASA program to get the axe?