Saturday
Sep262020
The Commentariat -- Sept. 27, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Your Sunday Evening News Bombshell:
** The Biggest Tax Cheat. Russ Buettner, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750. He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years -- largely because he reported losing much more money than he made. As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million. The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ David Leonhardt of the New York Times outlines key findings from the Times' report. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: By way of comparison, I am a middle-middle-class taxpayer, definitely nowhere near upper-middle class. I have some tax writeoffs, too. I just checked my return for one of the years Donald Trump paid $750; I paid almost $36,000 in federal income tax. You think I don't resent carrying Donald Trump? You can bet the millions of lower- and middle-class taxpayers who paid far more than $750 (or nothing, as Trump paid in previous years) also resent carrying a fat tax cheat who lives in a grotesque gold-and-marble NYC penthouse and the Mar-a-Lago mansion. What American voters need to get straight in their wee, bitty brains is that Donald Trump is a crime boss, and he has been shaking them down for decades.
Joe Biden responded Sunday afternoon to Donald Trump's nomination of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court: ~~~
Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "A clear majority of voters believes the winner of the presidential election should fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to a national poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, a sign of the political peril President Trump and Senate Republicans are courting by attempting to rush through an appointment before the end of the campaign.... [Fifty-six] percent said they preferred to have the election act as a sort of referendum on the vacancy. Only 41 percent said they wanted Mr. Trump to choose a justice before November." Mrs. McC: This poll is consistent with several others conducted last week.
Michael Shear & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump sought again on Saturday night to cast doubt on the integrity of the presidential election, telling supporters that the only way Democrats can win in Pennsylvania is to 'cheat on the ballots' and raising the prospect that a disputed election could be decided by Congress. Pressing his baseless case that the election in November will be a 'disaster,' Mr. Trump said at a rally just outside a hangar at the Harrisburg airport that he would have 'an advantage' if Congress were to decide.... Shortly after announcing Judge Barrett's nomination in a Rose Garden event on Saturday at the White House, Mr. Trump flew to the Harrisburg airport to speak to an outdoor crowd of perhaps a few thousand -- far fewer than the 'tens of thousands' he claimed from onstage. It was the latest of several rallies he has held in which his supporters packed together, mostly without face masks."
Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump was facing financial disaster in 1990 when he came up with an audacious plan to exert control of his father's estate. His creditors threatened to force him into personal bankruptcy, and his first wife, Ivana, wanted 'a billion dollars' in a divorce settlement, Donald Trump said in a deposition. So he sent an accountant and a lawyer to see his father, Fred Trump Sr., who was told he needed to immediately sign a document changing the will according to his son's wishes, according to depositions from family members. It was a fragile moment for the senior Trump, who was 85 years old and ... would soon be diagnosed with cognitive problems, such as being unable to recall things he was told 30 minutes earlier or remember his birth date, according to his medical records, which were included in a related court case. Now, those records and other sources of information about the episode obtained by The Washington Post reveal the extent of Fred Trump Sr.'s cognitive impairment and how Donald's effort to change his father's will tore apart the Trump family, which continues to reverberate today." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You've read or heard much of this story before, but Kranish does a good job of putting it together & demonstrating anew what a greedy bastard is the man the Electoral College gave us. Do you think the guy who worked so hard to cheat his own family won't work just as hard to cheat all of us in the upcoming election? ~~~
~~~ Ah, Here's the Answer: It's Been the Plan All Along. Anita Kumar of Politico: "A year before ... Donald Trump alarmed Americans with talk of disputing elections last week, his team started building a massive legal network to do just that. Dozens of lawyers from three major law firms have been hired. Thousands of volunteer attorneys and poll watchers across the country have been recruited. Republicans are preparing pre-written legal pleadings that can be hurried to the courthouse the day after the election, as wrangling begins over close results and a crush of mail-in ballots. Attorneys from non-battleground states, including California, New York and Illinois, are being dispatched to more competitive areas and trained on local election laws. A 20-person team of lawyers oversees the strategy, which is mainly focused on the election process in the 17 key states the Trump campaign is targeting, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. In total, it means the Republican Party will have thousands of people on hand to shape every element of voting -- both on Election Day and in the days after. It's a massive undertaking -- one the RNC calls its largest election-year legal effort ever."
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) isn't just super-smart; she's funny, too: ~~~
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court on Saturday, calling her 'one of our nation's most brilliant and gifted legal minds' as he ignited a partisan and ideological battle in the middle of an already volatile presidential campaign. In a ceremony in the Rose Garden with Judge Barrett at his side and her husband and seven children in the audience, Mr. Trump presented Judge Barrett as a champion of the same sort of conservative judicial philosophy as her onetime mentor Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked and who died four years ago." Mrs. McC: One does pity the children. An ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I feel like just posting videos of doo-wop classics, but here are a few analyses, which I don't care to read, of Barrett's, uh, legal philosophy, which apparently she copied off of Scalia's:
~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Judge Amy Coney Barrett ... has compiled an almost uniformly conservative voting record in cases touching on abortion, gun rights, discrimination and immigration. If she is confirmed, she would move the court slightly but firmly to the right, making compromise less likely and putting at risk the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade. Judge Barrett's judicial opinions, based on a substantial sample of the hundreds of cases that she has considered in her three years on the federal appeals court in Chicago, are marked by care, clarity and a commitment to the interpretive methods used by Justice Antonin Scalia...." ~~~
~~~ Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker traces Barrett's judicial philsophy back to Lewis Powell's infamous 1971 memo to the Chamber of Commerce, through the establishment & rise of the Federalist Society: "Barrett is not only a member of a conservative organization within the Catholic Church; her legal writings, and the views of some who know her, suggest that she would overturn Roe. Still, it's worth remembering the real priorities of Trump and Mitch McConnell ... in this nomination. They're happy to accommodate the anti-abortion base of the Republican Party, but an animating passion of McConnell's career has been the deregulation of political campaigns..., so that he can protect his Senate majority and the causes for which it stands. The corporate interests funding the growth of the Federalist Society probably weren't especially interested in abortion, but they were almost certainly committed to crippling the regulatory state. Barrett is a product of this movement.... Her writings and early rulings reflect it.... The nomination and the expected confirmation of Barrett ... represent a paramount act of hypocrisy for McConnell and the other Republicans who denied even a hearing to Merrick Garland.... But the fact that these Republicans are willing to risk that charge shows how important the Supreme Court is to them. Far more than a senator, a Supreme Court Justice can deliver on the agenda. The war on abortion is just the start." Subscriber-firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Leah Litman & Melissa Murray in the Washington Post: "A relative 5-4 balance [on the Supreme Court] has meant that neither bloc could dominate, because a move by one conservative justice to the liberal side in a given case could swing the outcome. That sometimes led the justices to broker compromise positions on thorny issues, or to avoid taking up certain matters altogether if they weren't sure whether all of their colleagues would vote along ideological lines. If the president's nominee is confirmed to fill Ginsburg's seat, however, the court's conservative bloc will be able to afford to lose a vote and still prevail, reducing the need for narrower decisions, compromise and forbearance." The writers highlight some of the issues the Barrett Court will decide. Mrs. McC: Unless Democrats embrace measures that curb or realign the power of the judiciary, this country is slowly but surely about to become a throwback a time when social injustice was the norm. ~~~
~~~ Joe Biden: "Today, President Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the successor to Justice Ginsburg's seat. She has a written track record of disagreeing with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Affordable Care Act. She critiqued Chief Justice John Roberts' majority opinion upholding the law in 2012.... President Trump has been trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act for four years. Republicans have been trying to end it for a decade. Twice, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional. But even now, in the midst of a global health pandemic, the Trump Administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the entire law, including its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. If President Trump has his way, complications from COVID-19, like lung scarring and heart damage, could become the next deniable pre-existing condition." ~~~
~~~ Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Democrats on Saturday night launched their case against federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett..., saying support for her confirmation was equivalent to a vote to end the Affordable Care Act. In a rush of statements following Barrett's Rose Garden introduction, top Democrats put the fate of the law -- and its popular protections for patients with pre-existing conditions -- front and center. They also made frequent reference to the coronavirus pandemic, and the chaos that could arise from stripping health insurance options from millions of Americans in its midst. From the Democratic presidential ticket on down, criticism of Barrett repeatedly circled back to what has been a political winner for the party: health care -- and the backlash to Republican efforts to dismantle the ACA, former President Barack Obama's signature policy achievement."
~~~ "A Power Grab Without Principle." Washington Post Editors: "No matter whom President Trump had picked to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat, it would be the wrong choice -- because it is the wrong time. Mr. Trump is asking Senate Republicans to perpetrate a damaging injustice by ramming through a nominee on the eve of a presidential election. This move threatens to sully the court and aggravate suspicions over the coming election. Senate Republicans should be disgusted at playing the role they are being asked to play. But so far they seem shameless in their hypocrisy and wanton in their willingness to poison the workings of our democracy. In 2016, Senate Republicans united to block President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the court, because the election was only eight months away. This year, people in some states already are voting as the nomination is put forward. Some Republicans pretend to see some distinction; others don't even bother to pretend. The country will see it for what it is: a power grab without principle." ~~~
White People Pack National Mall, Pence Brings Greetings from the Dear Leader. AP: "Thousands of people packed the National Mall in downtown Washington on Saturday to pray and show their support for ... Donald Trump. The march, which stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol, was held just hours before Trump was set to announce he was nominating a conservative judge for the Supreme Court. Few in the crowd wore masks. Some sported red caps with the words 'Let's Make America Godly Again.'... Vice President Mike Pence, speaking from the steps of the memorial, said he came to extend Trump's 'greetings and gratitude' and asked them to pray for the new Supreme Court nominee." Mrs. McC: Isn't pence getting even more creepy?
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Representatives for ... Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have hammered out the final details for Tuesday's debate, a showdown that will be heavily shaped by the coronavirus pandemic. The two sides have decided to forego the traditional pre-debate handshake in light of the virus, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.... Neither Trump nor Biden nor the debate moderator, Fox News host Chris Wallace, will wear masks. And unlike past presidential debates, there will be a limited audience of only 75 to 80 people, all of whom will be tested prior to attending the debate, which will be held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University.... After a coin flip, it was determined that the first question of the 90-minute showdown will go to Trump."
North Carolina. AP: "... Donald Trump's campaign committee and the Republican National Committee sued Saturday to block North Carolina election officials from enforcing rule changes that could boost the number of ballots counted in the presidential battleground state."
Anne Marimow of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in Washington sided with House Democrats on Friday in their effort to block the Trump administration's diversion of billions of dollars to build the president's signature southern border wall. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously backed Congress's power of the purse and said House lawmakers could proceed with their lawsuit alleging it was illegal for President Trump to transfer the money for the wall. The Constitution gives Congress spending authority, the court said, and it 'requires two keys to unlock the Treasury, and the House holds one of those keys. The Executive Branch has, in a word, snatched the House's key out of its hands,' according to the opinion from Judge David B. Sentelle, who was joined by Judges Patricia A. Millett and Robert L. Wilkins."
California. CBS News Los Angeles: “A vehicle struck at least two people in Yorba Linda on Saturday during a Black Lives Matter protest and counter-protest, marking the second incident in three days involving vehicles careening through protesting crowds in the Southland.... Just before 3 p.m., a white sedan was caught on camera crashing through the crowd, hitting and injuring at least two people, according to the sheriff's department.... After the crash, some attendees chased the car and officials surrounded it before the driver, identified as 40-year-old Tatiana Turner of Long Beach, was detained.... Turner was charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was booked into Orange County Jail. The Orange County Sheriff's Department identified Turner as a member of the 'Caravan for Justice' event.... This incident involving a car driving into protesters is the second incident of this kind in the Southland over the past three days. On Thursday, a vehicle also drove through a group of people gathered in Hollywood to protest the outcome of the Taylor case, striking two people as well." Mrs. McC: The people Turner injured were BLM protesters, and supposed, so was Turner.
Oregon. Daniella Silva of NBC News: "A rally by the far-right Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon, in support of ... Donald Trump and police drew about 200 protesters Saturday afternoon, far fewer than the expected thousands that led the city to brace for potential violence. Among the rallygoers who gathered at a city park were dozens wearing militarized body armor, including helmets and protective vests. Many flew American flags or black flags bearing the logo of the Three Percenters, another far-right group, and some wore Make America Great Again hats. Some had long guns.... Organizers of the rally had said they expected to draw 20,000 people.... The Proud Boys, a group of self-declared Western chauvinists, were denied a permit for the planned gathering due to coronavirus social-distancing concerns, but rallied anyway in what they had said would be a free speech event to support Trump and the police and condemn anti-fascists." Mrs. McC: The photos that accompany the story suggests that what infuriates the Proud Boys & their ilk is being so butt-ugly and/or having to wear frumpy outfits. You can sorta appreciate why Trump is glad he doesn't have to shake hands with "these disgusting people."
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Reader Comments (16)
Re: the announcement that ever Trumper celebrities like Dennis Quaid and Garth Brooks are doing propaganda commercials for Trump. Best Twitter rip I’ve seen so far: “Ask anyone in Hollywood. Dennis Quaid would eat a porcupine on TV for money.”
But Trump is a notorious cheapskate. Wonder what ol’ Dennis is getting? Trump apparently is ready with $300 mill to spread his lies. Quail should stick with the porcupine.
Better than chewing the fatty for white supremacy and chump change, I’d suggest. But that’s just me. As the Shadow used to ask, “Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men?
@Akhilleus: Trump is paying Dennis & Garth with your money. And he knows you're good for it. The porcupine-eater & America's least-talented popular singer (okay, tied for first with Mariah Carey) don't have to worry. Quaid, BTW, claims he's not getting paid, and Brooks may not have actually signed on, according to some Twitter users. If Garth declines, maybe Trump can get brother Randy Quaid to play a Trumpbot, reprising Lennie, his "Of Mice & Men" character.
To remind us that Covid is still very much with us, yesterday's R rate summary had 35 states back up to 1.0 or above.
It had been in the high 20's or low 30's for a while.
I guess you could say we have "rounded a corner."
LOOK, MA, I'M IN THE PITCH-ERS
James Poniewozik (a name that begs for literary uses) reviews Showtime's new political drama, "The Comey Rule" in the Times. Comey is played by Jeff Daniels (sterling performer always) and Trump is played by that brilliant actor, Brendan Gleeson. Comey, of course, gets more screen time than anyone else but the real lead is Trump
"In the sense that, regardless of its minutes on camera, the true lead of "Jaws" is the shark."
Poniewozik ends his mixed review with this:
"It [the film] says that anyone, like [Comey] who complacently assumed in 2015-2016 that everyone would be fine, who thought that propriety and rules could constrain forces that care about neither, who worried more about appearances than consequences, was a fool...
Then it leaves you to sit with the question: what does that make anyone who still believes that today?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/arts/television/review-comey-rule.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
We hear the Dobie Brothers song in the background.
And to piggy back on the question of belief: concerning the new pick of the litter for a seat on what is called the "highest court in the land." Are we to believe, that Ms Barrett, if confronted with oh, let's say, a case to dissolve Roe into a simpering puddle, would she recuse herself as she once claimed she would do, a few years ago? She didn't, at that time, specify abortion rights; she meant, I assume, a broad claim. So––let's assume she actually would stick to that– for-how many cases would she have to recuse herself? The Roman Catholic Church has a litany of no-noes since they are an entity unto themselves. Ken's mention yesterday of Kennedy's need to assure us that he could separate his Catholicism with his presidential leadership was certainly taken by faith which wasn't hard knowing Kennedy, although some still had problems with it. But our replacement––and I accentuate that word with fury––has a big gold cross across her heart and my bet is she doesn't remove it even when she showers.
@AK: For days I have been searching my memory for that story about the mixed race couple who were selling their house. Was it from some internet article –-was it from my reading material here at home? I found that story compelling and emblematic of that thing we call racism that, according to Fatty, has gone by the wayside–-at least for him cuz he be real cozy with all them Nee-groes and they jest love him. So––today I thought perhaps I read it on R.C. so I checked the history and sure nuff kiddo, youse is the one! So I copied it down and sent it to a friend whose family is selling their house in a district where only white faces peer out of their large windows and this party who is selling would love to change the color of the neighborhood.
PD,
And this story is a stark reminder that no matter how much R’s in their White, Whitey-White ivory tower believe that racism is a thing of the distant past, and therefore unworthy of their attention or legal concern, it is alive and well and being fed gigantic helpings of fuel everyday by Fatty and his White House and congressional KKK brigade.
And we know that the latest R rubber stamp headed for the court on a Trump/McConnell built rocket sled, is a religious nut job, but as a lifelong confederate, I’m gonna go waaaay our on a limb and guess that she is no fan of black lives mattering.
@Akhilleus: Your raise an interesting issue. Two of Barrett's children are black, so I do wonder what she thinks of the Blake Lives Matter movement. Does she, like Chief Johnnie, think that it's best not to talk about: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race"? Or does realism ever intrude on her reputedly-brilliant mind? And what about Johnnie himself? Do Trump's racist remarks, the ugly faces of his white supremacist supporters & the police's cavalier, state-sponsored murders of black people give him pause lo these many years after his naive (or faux naive) pronouncement? We may find out.
The afternon update story about DiJiT lawyering up the election starting a year ago is truly scary, but underlines why he thinks filling the seat on the SC is important.
We should not live in a country where courts decide elections. And I don't plan to move out.
Stalin said*: ... "I regard it as completely unimportant who in the party will vote and how, but it is extremely important who will count the votes and how." (Politifact)
*Maybe. The source is a tell-all by his defected secretary, 1928. Plus ca change, tovarishchi ...
I placed my ballot in the collection box at the courthouse Friday less than an hour after receiving it. The box is between the Courthouse and the sheriffs office and under 24 hr CCTV. Tomorrow I'm still going to use the tracking tool to make sure it was entered as received.
Yet still: Patrick, I've seen that attributed to many, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin among them, but the central thought remains the same. "Those who vote, decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." We are seeing a big push to validate that.
I’ve come to the notion that, considering the quality of past trump nominations, I am forced to doubt the good judgement of anybody who would accept a trump nomination for any position in our government, and that includes a nomination to the Supreme Court.
It's a well used path, the Pretender's way.
Use the courts to delay, delay.
So with no clear winner on Election Day,
The Pretender says, "Guess I'll have to stay."
Lamont Cranston knows all about evil. The Shadow knows that Barrett will be the third person nominated to the court that has no knowledge of the life of working Americans.
Law school, clerk for a prominent judge, big firm lawyer, lower court conservative, Federalist list as certain to protect wealth from he rabble, nominated.
The Times has tax returns. Nothing surprising at all. Everything you expected.
Looks like Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto with unorthodox attire.
I wonder - Does the NYT report provide more grist for Eric's upcoming deposition?