The Commentariat -- May 18, 2019

Ana Swanson & Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday said he would delay a decision on whether to impose tariffs on automobiles imported from Europe, Japan and other countries for six months, setting a tight deadline for the United States to reach trade agreements that have so far proved elusive." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... The story has been updated. New Lede: "President Trump agreed on Friday to lift tariffs on metal imports from Mexico and Canada, removing a major irritant for two important allies that in exchange agreed to stop punishing American farmers with their own taxes on pork, cheese and milk. At the same time, Mr. Trump postponed a decision on whether to impose tariffs on automobiles...."

The Trump Scandals, Ctd.

Alan Rappeport & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday refused to comply with a congressional subpoena to hand over President Trump's tax returns, a move that is likely to be the final step before the matter heads to the courts.... [Rep. Richard] Neal [(D-Mass), chair of the Ways & Meand Committee,] told reporters that he saw little value in trying to hold Mr. Mnuchin or Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, in contempt of Congress. Instead, he said, he would go straight to the courts to try to enforce his subpoena, potentially as soon as next week. The case could take months or years to resolve.... That did not sit well among Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, who have consistently pushed a more aggressive approach toward getting Mr. Trump's returns." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night, this is the most brazen of all of TrumpCo's refusals to comply with Congressional requests in that it breaks a specific, clearly-written law that no previous administrations have defied. That the refusal comes with the imprimatur of Bill Barr's Justice* Department makes it all the worse.

Barr Goes All in on Trump's FBI Conspiracy Theory. Kate Riga of TPM: "Attorney General William Barr is loyally carrying out ... Donald Trump's pet project, leaning hard into the President's tweeted screams to 'investigate the investigators' who he believes launched the Russia probe to undermine his candidacy. In a clip of an interview with Fox News, Barr said he was probing if 'government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr said his review into the origins of the Russia investigation could result in rule changes for the FBI's counterintelligence investigations of political campaigns. 'Government power was used to spy on American citizens,' Barr told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. 'I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly.' The attorney general also told Fox News that 'people have to find out what the government was doing during that period.'... Barr indicated he's interested in the underlying intelligence that led to the FBI's decision to launch the investigation, along with the steps officials took based off of the intelligence, the Journal reported. He cited the surveillance of anti-Vietnam War protesters in the '60s and early '70s as a reason for concern, according to the newspaper, which is something he also brought up at a recent congressional hearing.... 'I've been trying to get answers to questions and I've found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and I've also found that some of the explanations I've gotten don't hang together, in a sense I have more questions today than I did when I first started,' Barr told Fox News." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Former FBI Director James Comey said Attorney General William Barr is 'sliming his own department' by questioning the inception of the Justice Department's probe into Russian election interference and if the Trump campaign conspired with Moscow. 'The AG should stop sliming his own Department. If there are bad facts, show us, or search for them professionally and then tell us what you found. An AG must act like the leader of the Department of Justice, an organization based on truth. Donald Trump has enough spokespeople,' Comey tweeted Friday." ...

... Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Reacting to a Fox News interview with Attorney General William Barr that included Barr essentially threatening Democrats who criticize him and justifying the president calling the Mueller probe a 'witch hunt,' Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that Trump now has a new fixer. In the interview that was aired Friday, Barr told Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer that House Democrats who have accused him of contempt of Congress are discrediting him because they're likely 'concerned about the outcome of a review of what happened during the election.' Furthermore, the attorney general said he wants to see if FBI officials 'put their thumb on the scale' during the Russia investigation.... [Wallace said,] '... he [Barr] clearly is protecting this president and advocating his point of view on a lot of these issues.... I suspect that as President Trump, who probably has watched some of this interview himself, is saying: "Finally no Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr instead."'" ...

... digby: "Basically, Barr is signaling that his 'review' is going to be favorable to Trump and that former FBI officials (and the rest of us, for that matter) should be looking over our shoulders. This new sheriff in town is is a banana republican. Bigly.... It's obvious that if anyone is counting on the FBI and the Intelligence agencies to stop any foreign interference on behalf of Trump in the next election they had better get over it. Barr is sending a clear message to the troops to lay off Trump no matter what they see." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "During his confirmation hearings..., [one] of [William Barr's] curious arguments got short-shrifted. It was the time he suggested there was less evidence to support a Russia-collusion investigation than there was to support some other investigations. Except some of the potential investigations he cited were largely regarded as conspiracy theories.... That William Barr is beginning to rear his head.... In a couple of new interviews, Barr leans in on the idea that ... 'various "national security" activities' were nefarious -- pretty hard.... So here we have a guy who emailed a reporter [-- Peter Baker of the NYT --] in 2017 raising questions about 'various "national security" activities.' (Note the quotation marks he himself used there, suggesting skepticism.) And He did this even before the Nunes memo came out and at a time when many in the GOP weren't embracing this kind of rhetoric. He then adopts President Trump's 'spying' rhetoric while announcing the Justice Department would look into such allegations.... And now he's calling the use of the Steele dossier both 'strange' and 'unusual,' and saying the answers he's getting aren't adding up. It sounds a lot like the guy who believed in the plausibility of this conspiracy theory even before many in his own party adopted it. And it sounds like he's gradually becoming more comfortable saying so." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe, to be charitable, we should consider Barr just another crazy old uncle, albeit one who is the chief law enforcement official in the country. MEANWHILE, of course, Barr's toadying to Trump is only encouraging & agitating that other crazy old uncle, the one who has an even more powerful job than Barr's:

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump warned Friday of the possibility of 'long jail sentences' for law-enforcement and intelligence officials involved in the early stages of the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and members of his 2016 campaign. 'My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,' Trump claimed in a morning tweet. 'Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!'... At a Senate hearing earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray -- also a Trump appointee -- said he had not seen any evidence that illegal surveillance was conducted on individuals associated with Trump's campaign. He also said 'spying' was not a term he would use. Trump subsequently called Wray's testimony 'ridiculous.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "While he was cooperating with ... Robert Mueller's investigation, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn contacted at least one member of Congress who was publicly criticizing the special counsel probe, according to messages obtained by CNN. Flynn sent Twitter direct messages to Rep. Matt Gaetz, encouraging the Florida Republican to 'keep the pressure on'" It's not clear if Flynn sent additional messages to other lawmakers. 'You stay on top of what you're doing. Your leadership is so vital for our country now. Keep the pressure on,' Flynn wrote in an April 2018 message to Gaetz.... On the evening Flynn sent the message to Gaetz, the lawmaker had appeared on Fox Business' 'Lou Dobbs Tonight,' where he criticized the Mueller investigation.... Gaetz did not have a prior relationship with Flynn, [Gaetz] said. The messages raise fresh questions about Flynn's contact with politically powerful people following his guilty plea in the Mueller probe. They add to a perception that has played out in Flynn's courtroom proceedings that he has modulated between helping the special counsel and stoking Mueller's critics...."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "Hundreds of migrants are being flown from South Texas to holding cells in California by the Department of Homeland Security, in a move that officials said on Friday could be expanded by sending asylum seekers to processing centers throughout the United States, including the border with Canada. Customs and Border Protection officials said they began flying migrant families from overcrowded facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to San Diego on Tuesday. It is expected that as many as three flights, each carrying up to 135 migrants, will be scheduled each week. The agency also recently started flying migrants five times each week from the Rio Grande Valley to Del Rio, Tex. Nearly all of the migrants are traveling as families, including some with young children." ..

... Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Florida officials are raising alarm and pressing for details about the purported intention of the Trump administration to send hundreds of immigrants a week to two heavily Democratic counties in South Florida. Customs and Border Protection has not publicly disclosed its plans. But a partial picture of a new approach to managing a record influx of immigrants at the southern border came into view on Thursday based on the accounts of local leaders in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Even allies of the president were nonplussed. The state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, joined federal lawmakers from Florida -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- in questioning the apparent effort to foist the immigration and asylum burden on two local jurisdictions without equipping them with the resources to house, feed, educate and protect new arrivals." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I am totally in with Broward County Mayor Mark Bogen: "Citing the president's threat to 'send people who illegally cross the border to communities that are considered immigrant friendly,' the mayor called the plans 'inhumane.' And he issued a threat of his own, saying that the county should bring those who couldn't find shelter 'to the Trump hotels and ask the President to open his heart and home as well.' Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is located in Palm Beach County."

Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "A split federal appeals court on Friday ruled that President Trump's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful because 'it was not adequately explained.' The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia found that the administration's termination of the program was 'arbitrary and capricious,' in line with a prior ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "An attempt by President Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller to engineer a new shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security was blocked this week by Kevin McAleenan, the department' acting secretary, who said he might leave his post unless the situation improved and he was given more control over his agency, administration officials said. The closed-door clash flared over the fate of Mark Morgan, the former FBI official the president has picked to be the new director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. With Morgan eager to move into the top job at ICE, Miller on Wednesday urged the president to have Morgan installed as the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) instead. McAleenan the next day told senior White House officials that he -- not Miller -- was in charge of the department, said three Trump administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal tensions one Trump aide likened to an 'immigration knife fight.' McAleenan also argued that he should make personnel decisions at his agency, or at least be involved in them, these people said, and that communication needed to improve. McAleenan met with Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, among others, the officials said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Morgan is the guy who thinks he has super-powers to look into immigrant children's eyes & determine they will become gangsters. They're all a bunch of dangerous, racist reprobates.

Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm a day late with linking the story below, but it is both funny & revealing of Trump's horrible character, so possibly worth a look. At any rate, you may remember that about a week ago, a one-time Trump ghostwriter, Charles Leerhsen, claimed that back in the day, "flipping through fabric swatches seemed at times to be [Trump's] main occupation." He did this, Leerhsen inferred, because he couldn't understand more complex business matters. So ...

Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey report that Trump is obsessed with the appearance of the border wall/fence: "The bollards, or 'slats,' as he prefers to call them, should be painted 'flat black,' a dark hue that would absorb heat in the summer, making the metal too hot for climbers to scale, Trump has recently told White House aides, Homeland Security officials and military engineers. And the tips of the bollards should be pointed, not round, the president insists, describing in graphic terms the potential injuries that border crossers might receive. Trump has said the wall's current blueprints include too many gates -- placed at periodic intervals to allow vehicles and people through -- and he wants the openings to be smaller. At a moment when the White House is diverting billions of dollars in military funds to fast-track construction, the president is micromanaging the project down to the smallest design details. But Trump's frequently shifting instructions and suggestions have left engineers and aides confused, according to current and former administration officials. Trump has demanded Department of Homeland Security officials come to the White House on short notice to discuss wall construction and on several occasions woke former secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to discuss the project in the early morning, officials said. Trump also has repeatedly summoned the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, to impart his views on the barrier's properties, demanding that the structure be physically imposing but also aesthetically pleasing." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So not only is Trump micromanaging the design of the wall -- and repeatedly changing his mind about elements of that design -- he wants to make sure it physically harms desperate immigrants. What a nasty bastard.

A Very Trumpy Presidential* Address. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday railed against the use of anonymous sources in news reports about his administration, calling it 'bullshit.' The president went on a tangent during remarks to the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C., complaining about news coverage of his administration's approach to Iran. He disputed that he is at odds with some of his top advisers on the subject, before mocking the way some of the reports use unnamed administration officials. 'Do you ever notice they never write the names of people anymore?' Trump said. 'Everything is "a source says." There is no source. The person doesn't exist. The person's not alive. It's bullshit, OK? It's bullshit.'... While Trump claimed the media reporting has led to confusion over his plans for addressing the conflict with Iran, lawmakers in both parties have voiced frustration over the lack of information coming from the White House."

"The Kiddie Tax." Erica Green of the New York Times: "A little-noticed provision in President Trump's sprawling new tax law is treating middle- and low-income college students as if they are trust-fund babies, taxing sizable financial aid packages at a rate first established 33 years ago to prevent wealthy parents from funneling money to their children to lower their tax burdens. Higher-education leaders are calling on Congress to fix the provision, which drastically raised the tax rate on so-called unearned income for children with assets and young adults in school. Students with large financial aid packages are finding their nontuition assistance for items such as room and board taxed by as much as 37 percent, even if their family income tax rates are much lower.... [The provision also is] hitting tribal funds dispensed to Native American children and young adults, and the families of service members who died in combat, some of whom saw hefty tax bills for their children's survivor benefits this past spring.... Republicans now say they did not anticipate that it would raise taxes on low-income scholarship winners.... After unanimously opposing the law..., [Democrats] are likely to demand a price for getting Republicans out of a political jam. Any fix would need to roll back some provisions of the law, Democrats say."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "A major investigation into sexual abuse at Ohio State University found no hard evidence that coaches like Jim Jordan, now a prominent Republican in Congress, knew of a team doctor's rampant sexual misconduct. But the 182-page report released on Friday said dozens of other coaches acknowledged that rumors of the doctor's predatory behavior were rife. Mr. Jordan, a former assistant wrestling coach who has denied knowing of the abuse or hearing any locker-room talk about it, claimed complete vindication on Friday.... The actual findings, however, were more ambiguous than that. The report said that the university physician, Richard H. Strauss, was 'infatuated' with the wrestling team and timed his workouts so he could shower with the wrestlers.... '... the Investigation Team received allegations from numerous student-athletes indicating that they talked about Strauss's inappropriate genital exams and complained about Strauss&'s locker-room voyeurism directly to -- or in front of -- O.S.U. coaching staff.' Wrestlers who worked with Mr. Jordan in the late 1980s and early 1990s continue to say that he did know of Dr. Strauss's predatory behavior, and his claims of exoneration rankled some wrestlers. 'How can he be vindicated? What he's doing now is throwing salt in the wound,' said Dunyasha Yetts, a wrestler at the university in 1992 and 1993, who was one of the first and most outspoken victims to come forward." Related story linked below.

Presidential Race 2020

Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday unveiled a series of steps to defend abortion rights and reproductive health care, citing strict new curbs on abortion recently imposed in states including Alabama. The plan relies heavily on Congress to pass laws that protect access to reproductive health services, including policies blocking states from interfering a health provider's ability to give care. Warren would call on Congress to pass laws enshrining the right to an abortion that would preempt any state attempt to ban the procedure or impose onerous regulations on abortion providers. She would also push for the repeal of the Hyde amendment, a long-time prohibition on federal funding for abortion and sign executive orders rolling back recent Trump administration moves aimed at cutting Planned Parenthood out of the Title X family planning program."

Lachlan Markay & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is being underwritten by some of the nation's leading Russophiles.... Gabbard is one of her party's more Russia-friendly voices in an era of deep Democratic suspicion of the country over its efforts to tip the 2016 election in favor of ... Donald Trump. Her financial support from prominent pro-Russian voices in the U.S. is a small portion of the total she's raised. But it still illustrates the degree to which she deviates from her party's mainstream on such a contentious and high-profile issue."

Anyone But Trump. Daniel Strauss & Stephanie Murray of Politico: "Vermont Gov. Phil Scott [R] signaled support for former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld over ... Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary. Scott, during his weekly news conference Thursday, was asked whether he would prefer Weld, the only declared Republican primary challenger to Trump, over the incumbent president. 'Oh sure,' Scott said. But the Vermont governor said he wasn't ready to formally endorse any Republican and that he hoped Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan or Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker would consider jumping into the primary."

Beyond the Beltway

The March of the States to Subjugate Women Continues. ...

Louisiana. Melinda Deslatte of the AP: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat "who has repeatedly bucked national party leaders on abortion rights, is about to do it again. He's ready to sign legislation tha would ban the procedure as early as six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant, when the bill reaches his desk. Louisiana's proposal, awaiting one final vote in the state House, would prohibit abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, similar to laws passed in Kentucky Mississippi, Georgia and Ohio that aim to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Alabama has gone even further, enacting a law that makes performing abortions a felony at any stage of pregnancy with almost no exceptions." ...

... Missouri, Etc.  Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News & the AP: "Missouri's Republican-led House passed a bill banning abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy with an exception for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest. Republican Gov. Mike Parson is likely to sign the bill, following the governors of Alabama, Georgia and several other states who have also recently signed stringent abortion legislation. 'Until the day that we no longer have abortions in this country, I will never waiver in the fight for life,' Parson said during a rally Wednesday. Under the bill, which passed in the House by 110 to 44, doctors who perform an abortion after the eight-week cutoff could face five to 15 years in prison. Women who receive abortions would not be criminally penalized. Missouri's Republican-led Senate passed that state's bill, called Missouri Stands With the Unborn, by a vote of 24-10 on Thursday morning." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ohio. Victor Mather of the New York Times: "Ohio State said Friday that an investigation had confirmed -- in voluminous details gleaned from hundreds of interviews -- that a team doctor had sexually abused at least 177 men, including many varsity athletes, while working for the university in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. The university also revealed that dozens of Ohio State officials, including more than 50 athletic department staff members, were aware of the doctor's actions during his nearly two-decade tenure yet did not act to stop them. In a 182-page report issued on Friday, Ohio State detailed how the doctor, Richard H. Strauss, had groped students, required them to strip unnecessarily during examinations, and asked intimate questions about sexual practices under the guise of providing medical treatment."

News Lede

New York Times: "Herman Wouk, whose taut shipboard drama 'The Caine Mutiny' lifted him to the top of the best-seller lists, where he remained for most of a career that extended past his 100th year thanks to page-turners like 'Marjorie Morningstar,' 'Youngblood Hawke' and the World War II epics 'The Winds of War' and 'War and Remembrance,' died early Friday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 103."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

Trump’s AmeriKKKa.

Roe may not be the only long-standing decision in Trump’s crosshairs.

A slew of his judicial nominees, including many already shoved through by McTerrapin and the R traitors in the Senate, and the new Deputy Attorney General, Jeffrey Rosen, do not believe that Brown v Board of Education was properly decided. It appears the White House has been coaching these future (and many current) far-right federal judges not to acknowledge the correctness of desegregation.

There can only be one reason for this stunning rejection: a return to legal segregation, possibly achieved by more and more federal cases in which racial discrimination and the importance of racial equality are no longer recognized by Trump appointed judges..

Trump is now going after bedrock legal doctrine in his effort to prepare the way for a state based not on equality, but on the supremacy of the white race.

The United States we all grew up in could already be gone.

Meanwhile, Democrats are all doing their best Hamlets. What will it take for them to act? When Trump succeeds in pissing on the Fourteenth Amendment and “separate but equal” is restored as the law of the land, will they plead “How could we have known?”

https://www.newsweek.com/brown-board-ed-segregation-trump-judges-1429128

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: In fairness to wingnut judicial nominees (the only kind there are now), they may be refusing to answer any questions re: previous Supreme Court decisions. If they answer a question about Brown v. Board of Education, they'll have to answer questions about Roe, etc. (Of course, an appropriate answer could be something like, "Of course Brown was decided correctly. However, I'm not going down the path of answering questions about any of the Court's other past decisions.")

On the other hand, in fairness to you, it's probably always a mistake to give Trumpies the benefit of the doubt.

[Akhilleus]

Marie,

Trump and his authoritarian racist horde deserve no benefit of the doubt. They have proven time and again that their goals are exactly what they seem: hateful, pernicious, and lawless. Trump has been let off the hook far too many times. That’s why we’re in this mess right now.

Being granted the benefit of the doubt is exactly what he and Barr and and McTerrapin and Nunes and Graham count on. “Oh! We’re not doing A! How dare you criticize us for that. We are just trying to be good Americans!” When in fact their goal is exactly A. And AA, a, aaa, A prime, and A up our collective asses. They are liars and schemers and traitors. And they’ve proven it dozens of times. They demand comity and fairness but have no idea what those words mean.

They’re doing this stuff right out in the open. And Barr is no crazy old uncle. He is a rat bastard treasonous Trump flunky who would send you to the gallows faster than Trump could pick your pockets if looked sideways at either of them.

This is way past Constitutional crisis. This is existential now. This is a fight for our existence as the United States. And Democrats still have their noses stuck in the rule book. Both Trump and Barr have said “Rules and laws don’t apply to us. Fuck off.” And Jerry Nadler says “But look. Here’s a federal statute...”

Insanity. Benefit of the doubt is for those who deserve it. Trump hasn’t deserved since he was 12.

[Akhilleus]

Marie,

I fairness to you, you could be right about Trump’s Nazi nominees, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out to shiv Brown. As I say, we are in an existential battle for the soul of America, for what the founders put on the table, for the American Experiment which came out of thousands of years of hardship and struggle for a system built on the idea of equality and justice rather than jungle law. Trump and the R’s are trying to turn back the clock on all of that. We are close to endgame and too many Americans are more worried about who will win American Idol, not caring that Trump and his army are turning him into the anti-American idol.

[Akhilleus]

And one more thing...

Just consider how bad this would be if we were dealing with a lawless demagogue who wasn’t as stupid and flighty as Trump. Someone who could hold more than one thought in his scheming head at one time. Someone who was as smart as Trump pretends to be.

[PD Pepe]

Jed Purdy came out with his book last summer, "Dissent", in which he thought the left was not in a historic rupture but a continuity. He finds Trump "not an anomalous departure but rather a return to the baseline–-to the historical norm." He looks at how Trump exposes starkly what the civility of Obama and his administration obscured––the subordination of American democracy to capitalism, patriarchy, and the the iniquitous racial order descended from slavery.

Candidates like Warren and Sanders( not so much on the racial problem) have long been singing this song, been dismissive of the Democratic centrists ( as are the House's new whipper snappers). One of their messages has been "we now have an opening"––an insurgency in the Democratic Party to make drastic changes––if not now, then when and when might be too late. So we could look at this moment not as a democratic crisis but an opportunity the likes of which the American left has not seen in many decades.

If this brings a little light in our Akhilleus' eyes then I'll be glad. Things are so bad these days it's easy to throw in the towel and say "fuck it!" but–––BUT–-it ain't over till it's over and it's not the fat lady who will call it quits but those in Congress and those in the streets and all the rest who have their souls intact and don't wear their hearts on their sleeves.

In a perspicacious –-love that word–- in a NYT's Op-Ed Larry Summers recently asked:

"Can the U.S. imagine a global system in 2050 in which its economy is half the size of the world's largest? even if we can imagine it, could a political leader acknowledge that reality in a way that permits negotiation over what such a world would look like?"

Years ago someone ––probably a foreign policy wonk–-said China would be out greatest concern, not Russia. That has stuck in my craw, and especially now when we see Trump deal with that country in his characteristic belligerent and petulant manner, launching an ill-conceieved trade war. However––if we don't deal with Global Warming the planet in time will be un-inhabitable and the only survivors will be the insects and even they will be miserable.

TICK TOCK

[Elizabeth]

A belated comment on a "Way Beyond" news items from a couple of weeks ago, about unrest in "Russia's hinterlands" about poor health care. In late April, I went to a talk by a Boston author, Elisabeth Elo, about her latest book, set in Siberia. She traveled to the Sakha Republic, the largest republic in all of Russia, to do research. The young woman who was her translator told her about some of her health-care experiences. Such as sitting in a doctor's waiting room from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and never seeing the doctor. Or when she was seen by a doctor, being told that there was nothing wrong with her and she should just go home.

During the question and answer period, an audience member asked the author if she got any sense of revolution in the republic. No, she answered, but we had to remember the size of Sakha, its distance from the centers of political power, and its sense that it really wasn't part of Mother Russia. It is its own region. She added that the people she spoke with were keen to know what is happening in the US. They look to our country as an example that democracy can work. I'm sure I wasn't the only one shifting uneasily in my chair at that point, thinking that we are currently failing those who have hope in our democratic system.

So, on the same note, Elo mentioned the books she had read as part of her research, most especially "Gulag: A History" by Anne Applebaum. She quoted some shocking figures (that I believe I have remembered correctly): between 1939 and 1953, when Stalin died, 25 million people were sent to the gulags. Of those, 18 million died. Stalin's reign is a cautionary tale of how a nondemocratic government led by a brutal authoritarian can ravage a country (and its neighbors) and millions of people. How many of those sent to the gulags, I wonder, initially supported the communist government and Stalin, and yet then found themselves on the wrong side of a leader and a government that could snap its fingers and simply get rid of you. Those in this country who apparently support our uneasy drift to an authoritarian government and leader might want to think about that. As should those who seek absolute power. Stalin might have been murdered, or his courtiers may have delayed getting medical help for him when he suffered a stroke. He lingered for four days, no doubt an unpleasant death.

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus wrote, "Just consider how bad this would be if we were dealing with a lawless demagogue who wasn’t as stupid and flighty as Trump."

The trouble is, the lawless demagogue now has a loyal sidekick who isn't as stupid & flighty as he is: Bill Barr. Trump was bad enough when he had John Kelly, Rex Tillerson & H. R. McMaster, Jim Mattis & JeffBo working for him. Now he's got Mulvaney, Pompeo, Bolton & Barr on board. Mulvaney, Pompeo, Bolton & Barr are pretty smart guys & that makes them way more dangerous than your average ideologue. And the callus on my left elbow has more moral rectitude than the lot of them.

[Keith Howard]

A very thoughtful analysis of present US relations with China, and of their likely future trajectory, from a seasoned diplomat, former Ambassador Chas. Freeman:
https://chasfreeman.net/on-hostile-coexistence-with-china/
Highly recommended

[Marie Burns]

@Elizabeth: Thank you. Another reminder of how we are failing not just ourselves, but the world -- and in very personal ways.

[Jeanne]

I'm not so sure about Pompeo or Mulvaney as "smart" but maybe wily? Every one of these horrible people occupy some sort of niche that is needed for the Shithead to get up in the morning. He's their raison d'être also. How biological...symbiotic, for sure. And what are we? Throwaways. Those people didn't all wake up and decide to be ugly-- it was decided for them many years ago. They were simply biding their time. We are lucky Obama even survived for eight years. I'm sure that was off the pattern, out of the norm. I keep thinking about my mother, the feminist. She would be so regretful to see all the hard work done on behalf of minorities-- women too-- going down the tubes faster than I would have believed possible. I guess it is lucky she is no longer with us, but maybe she is in Unitarian heaven (ha!) somewhere experiencing what we are losing...

I am having a real hard time not wanting to burn down the Democratic establishment. I did not watch Chris Matthews (the commenters on Esquire call him Tweety--)schmoozing with the good people of Luzerne County, the votes of which contributed to PA's turncoatery. Surprisingly, my spouse watched and said it was NOT all trumpists and godbotherers, as I had presumed. I am, however, afraid to hope there are enough people enraged by the crime family and his merry men and women to right the listing ship of state. With Barr in the bow behind the figurehead from hell, what chance has it got? And what's in it for Jowlyface? Will we ever know??

Okay, back to the library book on the front porch...