The Commentariat -- October 13, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "President Trump is expected to name conservative Catholic activist and longtime Washington commercial lawyer Pat Cipollone as his next White House Counsel to replace Donald McGahn, according to a person directly involved in the decision. Cipollone, who practices commercial litigation..., is a well liked and respected among Trump's personal lawyers and had been informally advising them on the special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 elections since at least June. Cipollone is expected to take over the premier legal office in the next week, pending a security clearance review." ...

     ... New Lede: "President Trump has chosen conservative Catholic activist and longtime Washington commercial lawyer Pat Cipollone as his next White House counsel to replace Donald McGahn, according to two people familiar with Trump's decision. Trump told Cipollone of his selection last week."

Time for a Paper Towel Toss. Rebecca Morin of Politico: "... Donald Trump next week will visit Florida and Georgia, two states facing massive recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael."

Jesse Drucker & Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "Over the past decade, Jared Kushner's family company has spent billions of dollars buying real estate. His personal stock investments have soared. His net worth has quintupled to almost $324 million. And yet, for several years running, Mr. Kushner ... appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes, according to confidential financial documents reviewed by The New York Times. His low tax bills are the result of a common tax-minimizing maneuver that, year after year, generated millions of dollars in losses for Mr. Kushner, according to the documents. But the losses were only on paper -- Mr. Kushner and his company did not appear to actually lose any money. The losses were driven by depreciation, a tax benefit that lets real estate investors deduct a portion of the cost of their buildings from their taxable income every year. In 2015, for example, Mr. Kushner took home $1.7 million in salary and investment gains. But those earnings were swamped by $8.3 million of losses, largely because of 'significant depreciation' that Mr. Kushner and his company took on their real estate...." ...

... Jesse Drucker & Emily Flitter: "Jared Kushner has a net worth of almost $324 million, and his company has been profitable. But Mr. Kushner ... appears to have paid almost no federal income taxes for several years running, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times." Here's a step-by-step instruction sheet on how you too can avoid paying a fair share of (or perhaps any) federal taxes.

*****

CBS News: For a "60 Minutes" segment to air Sunday, Lesley "Stahl interviewed Mr. Trump at the White House on Thursday. The wide-ranging talk touched on ... the disappearance of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. In a clip broadcast on 'CBS This Morning,' the president says the Saudis could be behind the disappearance of Khashoggi and, if so, the U.S. would inflict 'severe punishment.' He also said the matter is especially serious because, 'this man was a reporter.'" Mrs. McC: Huh. Was he reading off freshly-drawn cue cards?

... In case you're wondering how hard the Trump & the Gang plan to come down on Saudi Arabia for the (alleged) brutal assassination of a resident U.S. journalist:

     ... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Friday that he plans to call Saudi Arabia’s king ['at some point'] to discuss the disappearance and alleged killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.... Asked whether Saudi Arabia's history of authoritarian rule and restrictions on human rights had been overlooked for too long, Trump defended ... [Saudi Arabia]. 'I think a lot of records are overlooked,' Trump said. 'If you look at Iran, if you look at some of the other countries, if you take a look at Syria, if you take a look at a lot of countries, a lot of countries' records have been overlooked. But this is a very serious thing and we're looking at it in a very serious manner.'" Mrs. McC: So "When I get around to it" and "Look over there!" At least he's no longer claiming to "look at it very strongly." I just don't know what that means.

     ... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that he still plans to attend a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia this month despite mounting evidence that Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.... A growing number of media companies, including CNN, have announced that they will no longer participate in the event scheduled to start Oct. 23 in Riyadh. Several business leaders ... are also backing out.... Mnuchin said Saudi Arabia has been 'a very good partner' to the United States in several respects." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Jonah Shepp of New York: "The notion that the Saudi crown prince would have a citizen tortured, killed, and dismembered in a diplomatic outpost abroad may be shocking to the credulous members of the U.S. media and political establishment who have praised him as a modernizing reformer..., but it is entirely consistent with his past patterns of behavior.... At the center of the administration's reaction to this crisis has been ... Jared Kushner, who is known to be a close friend and kindred spirit of Mohammed bin Salman.... If the Saudi regime believes it has carte blanche to commit atrocities on account of these princelings' bromance, well, that's what you get when you conduct foreign policy on the basis of personal affinities rather than rules and institutions.... But failing to punish Saudi Arabia for this outrage, or offering only a cosmetic response, would signal to MBS and every other brutal dictator around the world that as long as they buy American tanks and flatter our president's ego, they need not fear diplomatic repercussions from the U.S. when they disappear, torture, and murder their citizens." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Donald Trump Jr. on Friday promoted a smear tying Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi to Osama bin Laden, retweeting a series of tweets meant to imply that the Saudi commentator ... supported Islamic terrorism. With President Trump apparently reluctant to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's alleged murder after he entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, conservative pundits have been straining to provide excuses for U.S. inaction. Much of that effort has focused on claiming Khashoggi was a terrorist sympathizer, based on his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and career covering terrorist groups and leaders, including Bin Laden." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Why is Trump so willing to let the Saudis slide? Is Trump getting paid by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS, and the Saudis? Is his son-in-law, Jared Kushner? Normally, these would be absurd questions to raise about a president. But they are serious. Trump has commented before on his business ties to Saudi Arabia, bragging at a campaign rally in Alabama about how much business he did with Saudi interests. And he’s never fully aired the extent of his vast business and financial ties.... The United States has no ambassador accredited in Riyadh. Instead, the relationship is in the hands of Kushner, an unqualified nobody whose personal finances are shot through with conflicts of interest." Trump's financial ties to the Saudis is a national security issue, & Congress must find out just what those ties are.

Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "A Turkish court on Friday ordered the release of the American pastor Andrew Brunson from house arrest, a move that will end his 24-month imprisonment and allow him to fly home, and that signaled a truce of sorts in a heated diplomatic dispute between Turkey and the United States. Mr. Brunson was sentenced to three years, one month and 15 days in prison, but the judge lifted all judicial controls -- including a ban on travel -- making him free to leave the country immediately, because of a reduction for good behavior and in view of time served."(Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: According to Richard Engel of NBC News, Brunson's release would have happened sooner if Trump had not repeatedly insulted Erdogan. Gall concentrates on the economic sticking points, which were sanctions the U.S. placed on Turkey & tariffs Trump imposed on Turkish aluminum & steel, just as the Turkish lira was going into free-fall. ...

Juan Cole (Oct. 10) on the global consequences of the GOP's Islamophobic: "The Trump administration has made Muslims our enemy of the first order and, in its Islamophobia, is reinforced by an ugly resurgence of fascism in Germany, Italy, Hungary, and other European countries.... While the president oscillates between abusing and fawning over the elites of the Muslim world, his true opprobrium is reserved for the poor and helpless.... In this no-longer-so-new century, the Republican Party, like the Trump presidency, did ... find the bogeyman it needed and it looks remarkably like a modernized version of the rabidly anti-Communist McCarthyism of the 1950s." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Brent Griffiths: "... Donald Trump praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee at a rally in Ohio Friday night during a soliloquy in which he also praised a number of Ohioans, including Union General Ulysses S. Grant." Lee was not from Ohio. ...

... Gabriel Pogrund of the Washington Post: "Minutes earlier, Trump had hailed African American unemployment numbers and asked black voters to 'honor us' by voting Republican in November. ...

... According to Griffiths' report, linked above, during the rally Trump "called Ohio State Football coach Urban Meyer a 'great' man," though he didn't mention Meyer by name. Mrs. McC: OSU suspended Meyer without pay for the first three games of this season for "mishandl[ing] domestic assault accusations made against former assistant coach." You might say Meyer "mishandled domestic assault accusations" in much the same way Trump mishandled sexual assault allegations against Bart O'Kavanaugh. It is okay for privileged white men to assault women.

Anne Gearan & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "For more than 10 minutes Thursday, President Trump was struck nearly speechless as rapper, activist, entrepreneur and MAGA-hat wearing, Trump-loving, dragon-energy-exuding Kanye West held forth in an Oval Office soliloquy that included an f-bomb, references to male genitalia and a presidential hug that looked more like a mauling. West, slouched in a chair facing the president, called himself a 'crazy mother- (expletive)' and rued the 'bull- (expletive)' the president endures. He called the 72-year-old president 'bro.' He wore no tie and he kept the red hat on throughout.... Republicans have long groused that former Democratic president Bill Clinton disrespected the Oval Office with pizza parties and his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky, and complained that former Democratic president Barack Obama was photographed with his feet up on the desk and didn't always wear a coat and tie like his predecessor, George W. Bush." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I suspect Trump invited West to the Oval not so much to garner support from black voters as to try to convince white voters that black people are trashy -- even compared to Trump himself. Of course neither West nor Trump is a person you would invite to Sunday dinner, but Trump would wear a nice suit while misbehaving.

"Binary Choice"? Closer to Sophie's Choice. Nick Miroff, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is actively considering plans that could again separate parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to reverse soaring numbers of families attempting to cross illegally into the United States, according to several administration officials with direct knowledge of the effort. One option under consideration is for the government to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days, then give parents a choice -- stay in family detention with their child for months or years as their immigration case proceeds, or allow children to be taken to a government shelter so other relatives or guardians can seek custody. That option -- called 'binary choice' -- is one of several under consideration amid the president's frustration over border security.... Officials say senior White House adviser Stephen Miller is advocating for tougher measures because he believes the springtime separations worked as an effective deterrent to illegal crossings." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Actually, no they did not. As Dara Lind of Vox notes, "there is no evidence that harsh treatment -- either separation or detention -- actually works as a deterrent." Lind backs up her assertion by showing that the implementation of similar harsh policies did not have a a deterrent effect on border crossings. I don't think it's just that Miller & his ilk are averse to evidence-based strategies. Rather, I suspect the purpose of the plan is cruelty for cruelty's sake. ...

... Daily Beast: "The teacher who claimed this week that controversial White House aide Stephen Miller ate glue as a kid has been suspended from her job." (See yesterday's Commentariat.) Mrs. McC: I knew it was bad to pick on 8-year-olds. (Also linked yesterday.)

Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recalled talking with former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, according to a document filed Thursday by the Justice Department, though he testified to Congress that he had not done so. The document, part of a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration over the question, said Ross recalls Bannon calling him in the spring of 2017 to ask whether Ross would speak to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach about ideas for a possible citizenship question on the census.... When asked at a hearing on March 20 by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y) whether the president or anyone in the White House had discussed the citizenship question with him, Ross said, 'I am not aware of any such.'... The document was released as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether Ross can be deposed in the case." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "... White House Chief of Staff John Kelly described Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) [as 'an impolite arrogant woman'] in the days following the Trump administration’s 2017 travel ban, according to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News under the Freedom of Information Act.... 'Impolite arrogant woman' may be poised to join other insults and attacks that were quickly transformed into badges of honor for the other side." Mrs. McC: I've already received a campaign e-mail from Warren touting her new title. I'm thinking of buying an "Impolite Arrogant Woman" T-shirt, and yes, they're available online.

Rebecca Morin of Politico: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security clearance has been revoked at her request, the State Department told lawmakers, according to a letter made public Friday. Clinton's clearance was withdrawn on Aug. 30, according to a letter from the State Department to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which he released. Five others associated with Clinton, including longtime aide Cheryl Mills, also had their clearances revoked on Sept. 20, according to the letter." Mrs. McC: Aw, Chuck, Hillary is so mean. Now you can't "investigate" her & her aides yet again.

Election 2018

Pennsylvania. Kate Riga of TPM: "In a disjointed Facebook address, Scott Wagner, the Republican challenging Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), warned the governor to put on a 'catcher's mask' because he is going to 'sto[m]p all over' Wolf's face with 'golf spikes.'"

Georgia. Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Following intense scrutiny over his policy that blocked 53,000 Georgia residents from registering to vote, Georgia secretary of state and GOP candidate for governor Brian Kemp went after 'outside agitators' in a Wednesday statement. As Yahoo News' Jon Ward points out, the term 'outside agitators' has a racially tinged history and was used by segregationists in the South. Though Kemp was perhaps referring to the national media and his gubernatorial opponent's out-of-state supporters, he used a racially charged term to defend a policy viewed as an attempt to keep low-income and minority residents from voting." Mrs. McC: Did we mention that Kemp's opponent is black? ...

... Outside Agitator Michelle Goldberg: Democrat Stacey Abrams' ability to win the gubernatorial contest "would depend on Abrams's supporters being permitted to vote. Kemp knows this as well as anyone; four years ago, he warned a meeting of Republicans about the New Georgia Project, a voter-registration initiative that Abrams founded.... 'Democrats are working hard, and all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November,' he said.... He appears to be using his position [as secretary of state] to try shape Georgia's electorate to his advantage.... [Besides allowing 8 percent of the state's polling places to close,] Kemp's office has canceled more than 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012, and nearly 670,000 registrations in 2017 alone, ostensibly to guard against voter fraud. Further, 53,000 new voter registration applications are 'on hold' at Kemp"s office." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Goldberg argues that "Kemp's apparent attempt to rig the Georgia election shows in microcosm how democracy in America is failing." Wow! Isn't that blowing things out of proportion? Isn't that such an outside-agitator-type thing?

Jason Horowitz, et al., of the New York Times: "Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, a moment many victims of clerical sexual abuse had hoped would demonstrate his commitment to holding accountable bishops who have mismanaged cases of sexual misconduct. But instead of making an example of Cardinal Wuerl, who was named in a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report that accused church leaders of covering up abuse, Francis held him up as a model for the future unity of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope cited Cardinal Wuerl's 'nobility' and announced that the 77-year-old prelate would stay on as the archdiocese's caretaker until the appointment of his successor." (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments

[safari]

The moral musings of an amoral monster, aka our country's leader*.

"I think a lot of records are overlooked..."
-On excusing Saudi Arabian human rights abuses.

"There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?"
--On excusing murderous KGB mini tyrant, Mr. Putin, and lowering American democracy to the Russia's current oligarchy sham of "democracy", and, notably, the actions Drumpf deems appropriate to hold on to power.

"You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides,”
--On throwing his open support to one of our country's vilest, shameful groups, the KKK/Neo-Nazis.

[unwashed]

About the teacher on "home assignment" because she talked to a reporter relaying stories about how Stephen Miller liked glue. Why is that some kind of offense?

I recalled reading a similar story awhile ago. Ms. Google provided the backup.

In June, a desk-mate of Miller wrote about his experience in third grade with the same teacher, Ms. Fiske. He described sitting next to Miller, and how Miller would play weirdly with his glue AND tape.

Now she's being punished for verifying the statement by a classmate about events that took place 25 years ago and that was openly published months ago?

Yet, Bart is on the bench because of "uncorroborated" claims.

[Marie Burns]

@unwashed: I do see a moral dilemma here. It's all right, IMO, for a classmate of a public figure to describe her recollections of what a jerk the public figure was in grade school. But it's certainly against policy, if not the law, for an authority figure like a teacher to literally tell tales out of school about a student in her charge.

Still, is there a statute of limitations on that? And does the fact that the child grew up to treat today's children with immense cruelty a mitigating factor? Obviously, I decided "yes" on that, but that's an admission that I think cruelty is sometimes justified, as I would not normally reveal a child's odd behavior.

[PD Pepe]

THE SHAMELESS OPPORTUNITIES OF NIKI HALEY: by Jacob Bacherach who begins his tirade by evoking the 2008 film, "Burn after Reading" which at the time was considered a minor Coen feature but one dissenting voice was Jeet Heer's who judged the film an extraordinary prescient take on the future Trump era:

"More than just a satire on espionage, the movie is a scathing critique of modern America as a superficial, post-political society where cheating of all sorts comes all too easily. Unlike movies such as Citizen Kane, Burn After Reading doesn’t offer any easy one-to-one character analogies to Trump and his cronies. Rather, it captures the amorality that leads people to become entangled in mercenary treason."

and so Bacharach comes back to Niki and hits us with large and small grenades.

I just went back to Truthdig to put on the link but it's no longer there. Will find it forthwith––I hope since it's quite a read.

[PD Pepe]

Here's the link: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-shameless-opportunism-of-nikki-haley/

[Patrick]

"But it's certainly against policy, if not the law, for an authority figure like a teacher to literally tell tales out of school about a student in her charge ..."

Maybe, but I have recollections of many "teachers' recollections" of their star pupils, and the teachers' appreciation for the high qualities of their students. Maybe my images came from Capra-like movies, but I'm pretty sure I saw/read some real-life accounts of how "you could just tell that so-and-so was going to be somebody."

While I agree that it is unprofessional to tell tales out of school, it seems that historically it's been OK as long as those tales are good news.

[PD Pepe]

Sometime in the 1970's Steve Allen, that marvelous entertainer and entrepreneur, had a marvelous series called "Meeting of Minds" in which he'd have actors play notables from the past engage in round table discussions. I loved this ––think it's a cracker jack way of introducing thinkers and voices from the past and bring them into the present. At one point I wanted to start something like this in the history dept. in the school in which I was teaching but I was told it would be too time consuming and difficult. I had written skits/plays for the science and geography classes that were quite successful and I was convinced having students taking on roles made an impact.

So yesterday my husband and I were discussing these old shows and later I discovered they are now available. Here is Season 1, episode 1 featuring Teddy Roosevelt, Cleopatra ( played by the wonderful Jayne Meadows, Allen's wife), Thomas Paine and Thomas Aquineas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKRxZSOqAYw

[Ken Winkes]

PD,

Allen put together one or more books (these are memories from high school so pardon the imprecision) of those "interviews." I had at least one of them and still remember a staged conversation that (might have) featured Attila and Socrates as two of the participants...

Patrick,

Good point. Professional standards aside, the nature of the memories expressed does make a difference in the way we judge their appropriateness.

Too bad we have a Pretender president the nation doesn't hold to the standard of "if you have nothing good to say..." that most children were once raised with and expected to follow.

[RAS]

Heard a MSNBC commentator this morning say that some Saudi press, in private, refer to MBS as "little Saddam." He might get a mildly worded tweet if the apple watch audio from the embassy gets released. As Trump and Haley say, we are respected around the world again!

[Jeanne]

Frankly, if that teacher of horrible little Miller were NOT a teacher but a neighbor or a neighborhood character who knew him when he was little, this would not be an issue. And she wasn't dumping on a child, but on a former student who is no longer a child, so I do not see that this is something reprehensible. This former child is not just a bit eccentric, he is a full-blown white supremecist who deserves any background shared about him, as he is on the government payroll and doing an untold amount of damage to people. I get so tired of the right cranks who think people not of the winger persuasion should be polite and submissive so they, the wingers, can run over them wholesale. It's a new day. Impolite and arrogant sound like excellent qualities to have in dealing with crooks and firebreathers on the right. Just thinking about being kind and nonjudgemental about that nasty thumb-looking pervert makes me want to kick people like that teacher's stupid employers.

[Whyte Owen]

Looking forward to Meeting of Minds, thanks, PD.

Last year our Sea Ranch (CA) Thespians produced David Davalos’s “Wittenberg,” a debate between and among Martin Luther, Faustus and Hamlet. Brilliant.