Tuesday
Sep032019
The Commentariat -- September 4, 2019
Afternoon Update:
** Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Gregory B. Craig, one of Washington's most prominent Democratic lawyers, was acquitted on Wednesday of a felony charge that he lied about work he did seven years ago for the Ukrainian government. The jury returned the verdict after just hours of deliberation. It was a blow to the Justice Department's effort to more aggressively crack down on foreign influence in Washington and a vindication of Mr. Craig's high-risk strategy of taking the case to trial." ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Craig, 74, is the only Democratic appointee to be charged in a series of cases stemming from ... Robert Mueller's investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Shortly after the verdict, Craig's defense team denounced the decision to prosecute the veteran Washington lawyer and suggested some impropriety.... 'Why, after the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York rejected this prosecution, did this Department of Justice decide it had to hound this man and his family without any evidence and without any purpose, the defense lawyer asked.... Taylor declined to say why he thinks the prosecution went forward, but Craig's allies have grumbled for months that he was targeted in an effort to even the scales politically and to push back against perceptions that Mueller's operation was solely focused on allies of ... Donald Trump."
Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson was battered again on Wednesday as lawmakers from his own party and the opposition pressed ahead to stop his plan for leaving the European Union without an agreement. Having won control of the legislative agenda on Tuesday night, lawmakers moved quickly on a bill that would rule out Mr. Johnson's plan for a withdrawal by the end of next month even if there is no deal, which many say would cause chaos. On Wednesday afternoon, by a vote of 327 to 299, they pushed the bill through a second stage in the two-step process. The bill now goes to the House of Lords, which must give its assent. After a night of extraordinary theater in Parliament, Mr. Johnson confronted on Wednesday a bleak scene scattered with the remnants of his Brexit policy, raising the possibility that the issue could destroy his premiership just as it had the two previous Conservative prim ministers, but more rapidly." ...
... The Guardian's liveblog is here. After the House of Commons voted down his Brexit "plan," Johnson called for a general election October 15 -- which requires a 2/3rds majority -- but the Commons rejected the motion. The AP report is here.
AP: "An Israeli news station has aired recordings [from 2017] of the prime minister shouting at a senior Cabinet minister and trying to intervene in regulations governing television broadcasting. The audio clips published on Monday come just two weeks before Benjamin Netanyahu seeks re-election in a do-over vote after failing to secure a parliamentary majority in April. He also faces possible indictment next month for corruption charges...."
Trump's Own Administration Finds He is Traumatizing Children. Colleen Long, et al., of the AP: "Migrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border last year suffered post-traumatic stress and other serious mental health problems, according to a government watchdog report Wednesday. The chaotic reunification process only added to their ordeal.... The children, many already distressed in their home countries or by their journey, showed more fear, feelings of abandonment and post-traumatic stress symptoms than children who were not separated, according to a report from the inspector general's office in the Department of Health and Human Services."
Brent Samuels & Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Trump defends shift of FEMA funds, citing Dorian's change in path.... The president said the shifted funds won't be an issue in responding to Dorian, citing the storm's change in path farther east. 'We're using much less here than we anticipated.... Originally this was going to be a direct hit into Miami,' Trump told reporters during an Oval Office briefing on the hurricane." Mrs. McC: So Trump's "plan" is to hope no emergencies arise & his "justification" is that Miami didn't get hit by this storm.
Miriam Lord of the Irish Times: "The hospitable hosts buttered up their important guest [mike pence] and made a big fuss of his family. And he told them they were wonderful and that he loved them. He even said a special prayer for everyone and then, just before he left, he turned around and kicked them where it hurts ... [when] he delivered a very strong endorsement of Boris Johnson and Brexit.... As Pence read from the autocue and Irish eyes definitely stopped smiling, it was clear he was channeling His Master's Voice."
The Nihilists Who Love Trump. Thomas Edsell of the New York Times: The winner of the best paper award at the American Political Science Association meeting last week "argues that a segment of the American electorate that was once peripheral is drawn to 'chaos incitement' and that this segment has gained decisive influence through the rise of social media.... The authors describe 'chaos incitement' as a 'strategy of last resort by marginalized status-seekers,' willing to adopt disruptive tactics.... [Social media allow] the transmission of a type of information that portrays 'political candidates or groups negatively' and has 'a low evidential basis.'... The intense hostility to political establishments of all kinds among what could be called 'chaos voters' helps explain what Pew Research and others have found: a growing distrust among Republican voters of higher education as well as empirically based science...."
Juliet Eilperin & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "... Joe Balash -- who oversaw oil and gas drilling on federal lands before resigning from Interior on Friday -- is joining a foreign oil company that is expanding operations on Alaska's North Slope. Balash, who had served as the Interior Department's assistant secretary for land and minerals management for nearly two years, confirmed in a phone interview Tuesday night that he will begin working for the Papua New Guinea-based Oil Search, which is developing one of Alaska's largest oil prospects in years.... Balash declined to disclose his specific role and said that while he would oversee employees who would work with the federal government on energy policy, he would abide by the Trump ethics pledge [Mrs. McC: hahahahaha] barring appointees from lobbying their former agencies for five years." ...
... Paul Blest of Splinter: "If you want a good example of the 'swamp' in action..., you needn't look any further than Joe Balash.... This is what normal, everyday corruption looks like: a game of musical chairs in which everyone gets a seat, so long as you're willing to do the bidding of industry. Congrats to Joe Balash!"
Canada Acts While U.S. Dawdles. Alexander Panetta & Mark Scott of Politico: "Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election rattled America's next-door neighbor so badly that Canada spent the last three years developing the most detailed plan anywhere in the Western world to combat foreign meddling in its upcoming election."
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Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The president canceled a trip to Poland for the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, allowing him to give his undivided attention to Hurricane Dorian play rounds of golf both Saturday and Monday at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. In his place, he sent the vice president to Europe to renew the enduring transatlantic bond stay at the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland. The president also delivered a somber message chipper greeting to Poles on the anniversary of the Nazi invasion, recalling the death and suffering of millions of Poles saying: 'I just want to congratulate Poland.'... Three other Category 5 storms had already occurred during his presidency, which meant that he was well-prepared to respond to such a storm didn't stop him on Sunday from declaring, again, that 'I'm not sure I've ever even heard of a Category 5.'... He expressed confidence that Florida Mar-a-Lago could withstand the storm. After learning during an intelligence briefing Friday that Iran had an unsuccessful rocket launch, the president coordinated a response with allies trolled Iran by including in a tweet an image that may have revealed covert U.S. activities.... Following a FEMA briefing on the now 'catastrophic' and intensifying Dorian, the president reinforced official warnings unilaterally declared that Alabama, where no storm damage was forecast, would also 'most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.'" All strikeouts original. ...
... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker reviews Trump's wacky month. "Today there are few things too extreme not to have plausibly come out of the mouth, or the Twitter feed, of the forty-fifth President.... If it seems as if Trump is wackier, angrier, more willing to lash out, and more desperately seeking attention, that is because he is...: the thirty-one days of August, 2019, turn out to be an extraordinary catalogue of Trump's in-our-faces meltdown.... Today's Trump is not just more prone to misspeaking and stumbling, he is also more overtly confrontational more of the time, more immersed in a daily cycle of Presidential punditry, and more casually incendiary with his words and sentiments."
Zachary Cohen & Ryan Browne of CNN: "Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has authorized the diverting of $3.6 billion in military construction funds for 11 wall projects on the southern border with Mexico, according to defense officials and a letter from Esper to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has been obtained by CNN. In his letter, Esper told Congress he has 'determined that 11 military construction projects along the international border with Mexico, with an estimated total cost of $3.6 billion, are necessary to support the use of the armed forces in connection with the national emergency. 'The letter does not include the word 'wall,' as is typical in Defense Department announcements of this kind, but details how the funds will be used for new fencing projects at various border locations.... On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the decision 'a slap in the face' to service members.... Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also condemned the move. 'President Trump's immigration efforts have failed since day one. Today, he made it clear he is willing to take funds from our troops and disaster victims and divert them to try to protect his political right flank. And ultimately, that could put Americans at risk,' he said in a statement. 'This isn't just an attempt to shift funding, it's a bid to shift power away from Congress to the president.'" ...
... Jennifer Scholtes, et al., of Politico: "The Trump administration is carrying out plans to raid $3.6 billion in military construction projects to build the border wall, further inflaming lawmakers who have accused President Donald Trump of illegally overriding Congress' spending decisions.... Tuesday's announcement comes on top of $2.5 billion the Pentagon already diverted from its budget toward the border barrier this spring over objections from leaders on the House and Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees.... The American Civil Liberties Union said after the announcement that it plans to file a motion to block the transfer of the money. The ACLU is representing the Sierra Club and border advocates in a related federal lawsuit in California."
Kayla Tausche & Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "The president was outraged after he learned Aug. 23 that China had formalized plans to slap duties on $75 billion in U.S. products in response to new tariffs from Washington on Sept. 1. His initial reaction, communicated to aides on a White House trade call held that day, was to suggest doubling existing tariffs, according to three people briefed on the matter. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer then enlisted multiple CEOs to call the president and warn him about the impact such a move would have on the stock market and the economy. He settled on a 5% hike in tariff rates on about $550 billion in Chinese products, which he announced in an Aug. 23 tweet after the market close." --s
But I just want to congratulate Poland. It's a great country with great people. We also have many Polish people in our country; it could be 8 million. We love our Polish friends. And I will be there soon. -- Donald Trump, to reporters Sunday ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump was asked Sunday about the trip to Poland he canceled to monitor Hurricane Dorian. Asked if he had a message for that country, which was commemorating the anniversary of the start of World War II, Trump decided to ... congratulate it?... Sunday was the anniversary of the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland, which led France and Great Britain to declare war two days later (i.e. 80 years ago Tuesday). Poland would wind up losing nearly one-fifth of its population in the war, according to estimates. As such, it was more of a day for somber remembrance than a day of triumph. The German president asked for Poland's forgiveness, for instance." Read on for Trump's response to a question about FARC, the revolutionary group whose leader has called for a renewal of hostilities. Spoiler: Trump doesn't seem to know what FARC is. ...
... Ed Kilgore of New York: Trump's "comments this weekend congratulating Poland on the 80th anniversary of that long-suffering country's greatest catastrophe is breathtaking.... Perhaps it did not occur to his staff that he needed to be reminded of what happened to Poland in the years following the German invasion that began on September 1, 1939. You know, the dismemberment of the country by the Nazis in conjunction with the USSR; the systematic murder of the Polish educated classes, a sort of warm-up act for the effort to exterminate European Jewry during the Holocaust, much of which took place on Polish soil; the incredible military and civic violence involving the Germans, the Russians, and assorted partisans that led historian Timothy Snyder to describe the area of Europe centered in Poland 'the bloodlands'; and the postwar imposition of communism on Poland, along with the violent relocation of millions of the war's survivors. Trump was congratulating Poland on the anniversary of an event that led to the deaths of an estimated one-fifth of the nation's prewar population, and marked the beginning of a World War in which at least 60 million people perished, including over 400,000 Americans."
Rafi Schwartz of Splinter: "It's been a busy long weekend for Donald Trump-owned properties. While the president hit the links and tweeted away the weekend at his Virginia golf resort, Vice President Mike Pence flew halfway around the world and stayed at Trump's Doonbeg estate on the West coast of Ireland -- despite it being some three hours away from his scheduled meetings in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister [Leo] Varadkar.... Presidential property grift aside, Pence's Ireland visit also marked a bizarre opportunity for the Veep's team to emphatically defend their boss in the face of his long, well-documented history of homophobia -- a fact Pence spokesman Judd Deere insisted couldn't possibly be true because he met with the Irish prime minister, who happens to be gay[:] 'For all of you who still think our @VP is anti-gay, I point you to his and the @SecondLady's schedule tomorrow where they will join Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar and his partner Dr. Matthew Barrett for lunch in Ireland.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Mike Pence is staying three hours outside of Dublin so Trump can make money.... In distance terms, this is like staying at a hotel in Baltimore for your business trip to New York.... Trump has been stealing public funds out in the open from the beginning of his presidency.... But public officials are not stepping up. Any other official at any other level of government would be fired if not prosecuted. It's so obviously worthy of impeachment -- the president can't just grab public money and stuff it into his pockets -- that there's barely anything to investigate.... What's striking is the total sense of apathy Democrats have displayed regarding this issue.... Letting a form of gross -- albeit petty -- corruption go nearly unremarked seems like a dangerous precedent for the future." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: What's basically happening here is that Congress -- and this of course includes Congressional Republicans -- has extended the meaning of "executive privilege" to include "open and notorious self-dealing & other corrupt acts." One response Yglesias suggested was adding an "appropriations rider to bar the expenditure of public funds at Trump properties." What a hoot if Trump had to pay back all the millions he & his entourage billed the government for expenditures at Trump properties. ...
... Update. Steve M. gets to the heart of the GOP rationale: "the belief that corporate chieftains should be able to run roughshod over the law, doing whatever they please without facing regulation or scrutiny. Trump may be the highest-ranking officeholder to test the limits of this principle (and to reach the conclusion that there are, in fact, no limits), but recall, for instance, that Republican Rick Scott has now won three statewide elections in Florida after his company was fined $1.7 billion for what was the worst Medicare fraud in history. His voters didn't care.... I even see a link between the belief system of right-wing evangelicals and the high tolerance for unethical business practices. It's clear that the moral code of the evangelical right is Certain people are good, and we'll tell you who they are, and whatever they do is therefore moral and godly." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "President Trump had a suggestion for Mike Pence: Rather than stay in Dublin during his meetings there with European officials, why not bring his entire family and security entourage to the Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg, on the other side of the country? Pence, of course, agreed.... As an ethical violation, what's notable about Pence going (literally) out of his way to stay at a Trump property is the meagerness of the stakes and the black-and-white clarity of the offense.... Pence is establishing the principle that Trump is entitled to profit from his office, and -- far more importantly -- his participation signals his culpability in the scheme.... One of the key tools used by organized crime bosses is to implicate their underlings.... The point of asking Mike Pence to violate government ethics on Trump's behalf is not to put a few more dollars in Trump's pocket, but to put Mike Pence in his pocket." Read on for more of "the grift that keeps on grifting." Mrs. McC: Impeach 'em both.
... Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast: "Pence has never needed orders to steer money to his boss's businesses. Since 2017, Pence's political group, the Great America Committee, has dropped about $224,000 at Trump properties, chiefly the Trump International Hotel in Washington and its on-site steakhouse, according to Federal Election Commission records maintained by ProPublica.... Pence's brother, freshman Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN), has also dropped considerable sums [$45,000] at the Trump hotel. In fact, Rep. Pence's campaign amended a number of FEC filings this year after USA Today noted that the campaign appeared to be illegally paying for the congressman to live at the Trump hotel. The Pence campaign said those expenses were reported incorrectly, and amended FEC filings accordingly.... Only the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have spent more at Trump businesses than [mike] Pence's PAC during the 2020 election cycle." --s
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Britain, the US and France may be complicit in war crimes in Yemen by arming and providing support to a Saudi-led coalition that starves civilians as a war tactic, a United Nations report has said." --s
On the day we read that Friends of Trump are amassing a war chest to smear reporters, there's this from Bloomberg Law: "A recently appointed Trump Labor Department official with a history of advancing controversial conservative and faith-based causes in court has resigned after revelations that he wrote a 2016 Facebook post suggesting the Jewish-controlled media 'protects their own.' Four hours after Bloomberg Law requested comment from the White House and DOL about Leif Olson's social media post, the department said he has resigned, without elaboration." Olson's Facebook posts "referenc[ed] two anti-Semitic tropes: that Jews control the media and that they look out for members of their own faith." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. Nicole Lafond of TPM: "... it appears that the screenshot that Bloomberg took of the Facebook posts cut off the thread prematurely. According to a screenshot of the 2016 post shared with Tablet, Olson goes on to directly admit to being sarcastic and calls out Breitbart's coverage of the race.... Journalists and lawyers on Twitter have lashed out at [Ben] Penn, [the author of the Bloomberg article,] arguing that while the Facebook post does repeat anti-Semitic tropes, as Bloomberg notes in the piece, the tropes are clearly a sarcastic attempt to condemn the alt-right...."...
... Dylan Matthews of Vox: "On Tuesday, a bizarre thing happened in Washington: The Trump administration accepted the resignation of an executive branch official after a charge of bigotry that was both unfair and misleading.... If you read the posts -- which [Leif] Olson himself has posted screenshots of in a Facebook album titled, 'Welcome Bloomberg Readers'; he says he deleted the original post to prevent harassment of commenters -- it's clear that Olson is mocking, not defending anti-Semitism."
Brett Samuels & Brandon Conradis of the Hill: "A U.S. district judge on Tuesday ordered the White House to restore Playboy correspondent Brian Karem's press credentials after the administration said last month it was revoking his hard pass. Judge Rudolph Contreras said in a court order that he was granting Karem's motion for a preliminary injunction to block the White House's move. Karem sued the Trump administration after White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham announced in August that his pass would be suspended through Sept. 14. Contreras wrote in a 24-page opinion that the White House did not provide the required guidance as to what would warrant the suspension of a hard pass outside a press conference setting and that Karem was likely to succeed on the grounds of his due process claim." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bless the founders for the Bill of Rights (well, okay, not that Second Amendment mess). But for the First & Fourth Amendments, we might not get to hear Karem on the White House lawn shouting questions at Trump about the Playboy/porn star hearings the House proposes to hold this fall.
Kyle Cheney & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "House Democrats return to Capitol Hill next week with an impeachment mess on their hands and just weeks to make a choice that could define the rest of Donald Trump's presidency. Lawmakers faced frequently contentious town halls during their six-week August recess as activists pressured Democratic holdouts to support impeachment proceedings. A steady trickle of new endorsements for action followed, and a majority of the House's 235 Democrats now backs an impeachment inquiry. Senior Democrats, however, are sending mixed messages on the prospect of trying to oust Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)
Waiting for Trumpo. Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated Tuesday that he is willing to bring to the floor gun control legislation that ... Donald Trump supports and could become law. The Kentucky Republican told conservative talk show radio host Hugh Hewitt that the White House is reviewing different proposals in the wake of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, and that he expects to hear back next week about what Trump is willing to back." ...
... Washington Post Editors, in a full-page editorial: "What if there was a mass shooting in the United States not once or twice or four or six times monthly, but every single day, a big one, the kind that electrifies social media and squats for days on Page 1 -- would that be enough to move Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from his insistent inertia on gun safety? Would any volume of bloodshed convince the Kentucky Republican that Congress faces a moral imperative to act? Thirty-eight people were slain in three such shootings in August -- in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, as well as West Texas -- and still Senate Republicans and President Trump refuse to act. The list [of gun violence victims] below, far from comprehensive, is tragic, in part, because it is so far from inevitable. No, no single law would end gun violence. But there are reasonable, obvious measures that would help. For example: Ban the sale of military-grade assault weapons. Unneeded by civilians, they are a blight on the nation, their ready availability a national disgrace. Eliminating them would slow the growth of this list. It would save lives."
Justin Wise of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday vehemently denounced political opponents who have dubbed him 'Moscow Mitch,' calling the nickname an 'over-the-top' effort to 'smear' him. 'It's modern-day McCarthyism,' McConnell said during a radio interview on ... [the] 'Hugh Hewitt Show.'" Mrs. McC: So, Moscow Mitch it is.
Paul Krugman: "A few days ago The Times reported on widespread abuse of a provision in the 2017 Trump tax cut that was supposed to help struggling urban workers.... In reality the tax break has been used to support high-end hotels and apartment buildings, warehouses that employ hardly any people and so on. And it has made a handful of wealthy, well-connected investors -- including the family of Jared Kushner ... -- even wealthier.... it should be seen ... as a symptom of the Republican Party's unwillingness to perform the basic functions of government.... Republicans are no longer willing to spend public money in the public interest.... [The multitrillion-dollar tax bill was] ram[med] ... through Congress without a single hearing.... The bill was drafted by lobbyists on behalf of their clients.... The point, again, is that you shouldn't think of the opportunity-zone fiasco as an isolated mistake. Things like this are inevitable when one of our two major political parties has basically turned its back on the very idea of productive public spending." (Also linked yesterday.)
** Graham Brewer of NPR: "The Cherokee Nation has named its first delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Former Obama appointee Kimberly Teehee's nomination was approved by the tribe's council on Thursday. Although the treaty that created this nonvoting position is almost 200 years old, it had never been filled.... The appointment still needs congressional approval, and [Prof. Lindsay] Robertson says it will likely take time for Congress to figure out exactly how to seat Teehee. But the treaty language is very clear: The Cherokee Nation is entitled to a delegate." Brewer writes a short bio of Teehee. She's an interesting, accomplished woman.
Presidential Race 2020. Adam Raymond of New York: "Even before Friday, when the Washington Post reported that one of Joe Biden's go-to stories on the campaign trail is full of half-truths and inaccuracies, the former vice-president's penchant for gaffes and misstatements were drawing close attention from the pundit class. After the Post published its article, which exposed the problems with a story Biden often tells of pinning a Silver Star on a soldier in Afghanistan, the attention increased. So did the number Biden allies jumping to his defense.... The common refrain from Biden defenders ..' [is that criticism of his tall tales] is an obsession of the media, not the people. And anyway, Biden's heart is in the right place, unlike the current occupant of the White House.... What this analysis misses is that the GOP, and especially the Trump campaign, will not be eager to give Biden the same benefit of the doubt. Instead, if he's the nominee, every slip of the tongue or overstatement will be another piece of evidence of what Breitbart News called Biden's 'cognitive decline.' Trump himself has already started on it." Emphasis added. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe it's true the public doesn't care about Biden's misstatements now, but -- should he be the nominee -- the Trump campaign & their Russian sidekicks will make certain that by November 2020, the gaffes will define Biden. Millions of Republican voters will decide to stick with the liar they know rather than chance it with the doddering liar who might doom them to a future in a socialistic, communistic dystopia.
Anne D'Innocenzio of the AP: "Walmart says it will stop selling handgun and short-barrel rifle ammunition, while requesting that customers not openly carry firearms in its stores, even where state laws allow it. The announcement comes just days after a mass shooting claimed seven lives in Odessa, Texas, and follows back-to-back shootings last month, one of them at a Walmart store. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter said Tuesday it will stop selling handgun ammunition as well as short-barrel rifle ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and 5.56 caliber used in military style weapons, after it runs out of its current inventory. It will also discontinue handgun sales in Alaska. Walmart stopped selling handguns in the mid-1990s, with the exception of Alaska. The latest move marks its complete exit from that business and allows it to focus on hunting rifles and related ammunition only." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: How sad is it when a mega-corporation -- which will lose money coming in from all those aspiring mass murderers -- acts more responsibly in the interest of public safety than do the POTUS* & Republican legislators? Krugman wrote (linked above), "Republicans are no longer willing to spend public money in the public interest." But it's even worse than that. In fact, Republicans are no longer willing to do anything ... Allison Quinn of the Daily Beast: "Kroger has called on customers to refrain from openly carrying firearms in its stores where state laws allow it, joining Walmart in changing its policy after seven people were killed in a Texas shooting on Saturday.... 'We are also joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have been found to pose a risk for violence,' the supermarket chain said. The retailer said it recognizes 'the growing chorus of Americans who are no longer comfortable with the status quo' after a string of mass shootings in recent months." ** David Karpf has a very good essay in Esquire responding to Bedbug Stephens, famed New York Times columnist. (Also linked yesterday.) Beyond the Beltway New Jersey. Kevin Shea of NJ.com: "Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede and her campaign manager have been been charged with publicly releasing an opponent's years-ago and now expunged arrest by posting it on a campaign blog ahead of the June Republican primary, which she won. Authorities say Yaede's campaign manager, Dan Scharfenberger, was the blog's administrator, and he and Yaede controlled the blog's content - even though her campaign has said publicly they had no idea who was behind the online site.... [T]he information from the person's arrest came from an anonymous Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request left in Hamilton's clerk's office, which was ultimately fulfilled." --s North Carolina: "North Carolina's political maps for the state legislature are unconstitutional and must be redrawn before the 2020 elections, a [state appeals] court has decided. A panel of judges struck down the maps Tuesday, in a 357-page ruling that focused on the level of political partisanship used to draw them. The maps were drawn in 2017 to replace previous maps, drawn in 2011, that had also been ruled unconstitutional. Both sets of maps were drawn by North Carolina's Republican-led legislature.... Tuesday's decision may be the final word in this legal battle, since at least one top Republican lawmaker said he doesn't plan to appeal the ruling.... Republicans won a similar case earlier this summer at the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld North Carolina's congressional districts.... In Tuesday's ruling, judges gave the legislature just two weeks, until Sept. 18, to draw new maps." ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Republicans can gerrymander Congressional districts, but they can't gerrymander state legislature districts. Thanks, Supremes! We're so sure you didn't let your political preferences color your judgment. ... ... Rick Hasen: "This is a huge development that will put the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly in a tough position. Because this is decided as a matter of state constitutional law, it would be very hard to find a federal issue to take this to the United States Supreme Court for reversal." ... ... Mark Stern of Slate: "Tuesday's ruling in Common Cause v. Lewis is, in many ways, the most comprehensive judicial opinion about partisan gerrymandering ever written. Issued by a unanimous three-judge panel of the Wake County Superior Court, Lewis is both an exhaustive exploration of how partisan gerrymandering works and a scathing denunciation of its constitutional harms. The court had unprecedented access to the gerrymandering process thanks to the Hofeller files -- a vast trove of information left behind by Thomas Hofeller, the GOP's gerrymandering guru.... the court has relied on [the Hofeller files] heavily to illustrate exactly how Republicans rigged North Carolina's legislative elections." Texas. Brandon Formby of the Texas Tribune: "The 36-year-old man who fatally shot seven people and wounded 22 others in West Texas on Saturday purchased his weapon in a private person-to-person sale, allowing him to avoid a background check, according to multiple reports Tuesday. The shooter, Seth Aaron Ator, was federally barred from possessing a firearm, ABC News reported. But in Texas, person-to-person sales do not require background checks. ... ... Matt Gutman & Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "The suspect who allegedly gunned down seven people and injured more than 20 in a Labor Day weekend massacre in western Texas appeared to have exploited a loophole in federal gun regulations to obtain the AR-type assault rifle he used in the rampage, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News on Tuesday. Suspected mass shooter Seth Aaron Ator, 36, who was killed by police, was able to get his hands on the weapon through a private sale despite being considered a 'prohibited person' barred by law from possessing a firearm because he had been diagnosed by a clinician as mentally ill, federal and local law enforcement sources said." ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So, yes, Donald, despite your repeated assertions to the contrary, a background check did stop the Odessa gunman from buying an assault weapon. The private-sale loophole, which Democrats have been trying to close for years, is what allowed him to purchase the weapon of mass murder. AP: "A South Carolina man who founded one of the nation's biggest conversion therapy ministries has something to say: he's gay. The Post and Courier reports Hope for Wholeness founder McKrae Game came out of the closet this summer, nearly two years after he was fired from the faith-based conversion therapy program. He's now trying to come to terms with the harm he inflicted when he was advocating for religious efforts to change a person's sexuality. 'Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it's very harmful,' Game told The Post and Courier. 'Because it's false advertising.' The 51-year-old also is trying to find his place in a community he's assailed for at least 20 years. Game is one of several former movement leaders who have left the pulpits of heterosexuality, come out as LGBTQ and condemned conversion therapy as a dangerous and misleading practice." -- s ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It is tempting to ridicule or despise this guy for all the harm he's done, but I fault the culture of oppression that led him down the path of denial. Way Beyond U.K. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "British lawmakers on Tuesday rose up against Prime Minister Boris Johnson, moving to prevent him from taking the country out of the European Union without a formal agreement. The epic showdown pushed Britain to the verge of a new election. After losing his first-ever vote as prime minister, Mr. Johnson stood up in Parliament and said he intended to present a formal request for a snap general election to lawmakers, who would have to approve it.... The lawmakers forced his hand by voting by 328 to 301 to take control of Parliament away from the government and vote on legislation as soon as Wednesday that would block the prime minister from making good on his threat of a no-deal Brexit." ... ... Note to Ken W., et al: Boris said, "The public don't...." ... Gregory Katz & Danica Kirka of the AP: "On a day of humiliating setbacks, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a major defeat in Parliament on Tuesday night as rebellious lawmakers voted to seize control of the Brexit agenda, prompting the embattled prime minister to say he would call for a new general election." The Guardian liveblog of Tuesday's developments is here. ... ... Kate Proctor, et al., of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson saw his one-vote Commons majority vanish before his eyes, as a statement by the prime minister to parliament was undermined by the very public defection of the Conservative MP Phillip Lee to the Liberal Democrats." ... We Shall Fight from the Benches ... Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "... a group of renegade lawmakers willing to risk their careers to defy their newly chosen leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and hobble his leadership over their clashing views on Brexit ... [are] a band of starchy grandees of Tory politics that includes Winston Churchill's grandson and a 45-year party veteran and ex-chancellor so colorless that he earned the nickname 'Spreadsheet Phil.'... In setting aside their usual caution and ripping the heart out of Mr. Johnson's Brexit plans, they offered perhaps the clearest indication yet that the party, squabbling for decades over Europe, is now enmeshed in a civil war." ... ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Would that the GOP had "a band of starchy grandees" willing to "rip the heart out of Mr. Trump's corrupt plans." ... ... Update. Michael Holden & Andrew MacAskill of Reuters: "Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Britain's World War Two leader Winston Churchill, will be expelled from the Conservative Party after voting against Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Brexit. The move against the Conservative Party grandee marks one of the most bizarre turns in the three-year Brexit crisis that has gripped a country once touted as a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability. Soames was one of 21 Conservative lawmakers who rebelled, including Ken Clarke, 79, the longest continuously sitting British lawmaker in the House of Commons, and former finance minister Philip Hammond. All are to be expelled." Hong Kong. Austin Ramzy & Elaine Yu of the New York Times: "Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, said on Wednesday that she was withdrawing a contentious extradition bill that set off months of protests in the city, moving to quell the worst political crisis since the former British colony returned to Chinese control 22 years ago. The move eliminates the major objection among protesters, but it was unclear if it would be enough to bring an end to intensifying demonstrations, which are now driven by multiple grievances with the government." CNN's story is here. Israel. Gidi Weitz & Nati Tucker of Haaretz: "Former Communications Minister Ayoub Kara said that during his term he was threatened by a senior public servant that if he did not extend the tenure of a top television official allegedly allied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he would not remain in the Knesset. Earlier Tuesday, Kara said he had filed a police complaint following the release of secret recordings of his conversations with Netanyahu. The recordings revealed Netanyahu's intervention in media regulations despite a High Court petition ordering him to relinquish the communications portfolio while he was being investigated in two media-related criminal cases.... 'It's a mafia, a garbage gang, criminals,' [Kara] said, describing the pressure on him when he was communications minister." --s Italy/Russia. Alberto Nardelli, et al. of Buzzfeed: "In July, BuzzFeed News uncovered an explosive audio recording of longtime [Mateo] Salvini aide Gianluca Savoini discussing a plan to covertly channel tens of millions of dollars of Russian oil money toward Lega's upcoming European election campaign. The revelations have rocked Italian politics, and prosecutors in Milan are investigating the proposed deal. But the Russian men heard discussing the plan with Savoini and two other Italians at Moscow's Metropol hotel last October have remained shrouded in mystery. Now a joint investigation ... has identified two of the three Russian voices heard on the recording: Andrey Yuryevich Kharchenko and Ilya Andreevich Yakunin. They have links to the high-profile far-right demagogue Aleksandr Dugin and to Vladimir Pligin, a politician deeply enmeshed in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.... The identities of two of the Russian attendees will pile renewed pressure on Salvini ... [and] raise further questions about who was orchestrating the Russian side of the deal -- and from how high up in Moscow." --s News Ledes Washington Post: "A massive search-and-rescue operation scoured the islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama amid a growing awareness that Hurricane Dorian unleashed a catastrophe unlike anything seen in this part of the world. The death toll late Wednesday was 20, according to Minister of Health Duane Sands, and it is likely to rise further as emergency responders work their way through the debris and rubble and the drowned neighborhoods. Rescue workers are racing through flooded terrain looking for survivors and the bodies of victims. The U.S. Coast Guard has dispatched nine cutters from Key West and has been deploying helicopters, pre-staged in the Bahamas as Dorian approached, to transport the injured to medical facilities in Nassau -- the capital, on the island of New Providence -- south of the devastation. The British Royal Navy, numerous aid groups, and first responders from Fairfax County, Va., and Los Angeles have joined, or are in the process of joining, the Bahamians' rescue and relief efforts." ... ... Washington Post: "Hurricane Dorian's fury as it stalled over the northwest Bahamas has left shocking scenes of destruction and fears of a massive loss of life. Authorities said Tuesday that nearly three out of every four homes on Grand Bahama are underwater, and recovery from the catastrophic damage will cost billions of dollars. An even grimmer spectacle lies to the east, where the first aerial images of the island of Great Abaco since the storm's retreat showed a pulverized landscape that is little more than a debris field. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out, with houses turned to rubble. Cars and even huge metal shipping containers have been scattered by a storm surge that meteorologists report might have reached 23 feet on islands and cays that are just modestly above sea level." ... ... Washington Post: "Hurricane Dorian is lashing the east coast of Florida with tropical storm conditions, and is now forecast to come very close to making landfall in the Carolinas between late Wednesday and early Friday, spreading its arsenal of high winds, storm surge flooding and heavy rains to at least four more states. As of Tuesday night, tropical storm conditions had reached Florida's Space Coast. Although Dorian is no longer the Category 5 powerhouse it was on Labor Day, it has grown in size, and it's capable of moving more water toward the shore than a smaller storm of similar intensity." ... ... The Washington Post "has removed article limits on coverage of Hurricane Dorian to make these stories available without a subscription." The Post's front page links more hurricane-related stories. ... ... Weather Channel reports on Dorian are linked here. The New York Times' story on the devastation to the Bahamas is here.
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Reader Comments (8)
The new general election Boris felt compelled to call will essentially be that redo Brexit election the Brexiteers were afraid of.
Now that the public has had more than a year of schooling on what Brexit might really mean, the Brexiteers will probably close their eyes and wince while the public does/do decide.
It will also constitute a proxy, if distant, vote on the Pretender.
Time for a bit of a trifle: If Bret Stephens got his boxers in a bunch over the bedbug slight what will poor Ivanka do with her wardrobe disaster. Twitter had a field day with a dress she wore on her first day in Colombia (she's on a South American Trip to help instill civility to all those South Americans and show them how to properly hold their knives and forks).
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-green-dress_n_5d6f55a3e4b0cdfe05778f5f
PD,
Yikes! Is that a dress or a science experiment? I see the defense minister was standing next to Princess Ivanka when she engaged the launch codes. It's lucky he didn't immediately take the country to Defcon 2.
Two questions. How much did this thing cost? I'm gonna guess upwards of several thousand dollars. It would have to be. If you got that abomination at TJ Maxx for $12.99 it would have been used for trash collection, or maybe a tent for the kids in the backyard, but three thousand bucks and it's "haute couture". Haute couture for the rotogravure, don't you know.
Second question. Does she not have friends? How 'bout a mirror?
Oh yeah, wait. Vampires don't have mirrors in the house.
So let me get this straight.
The Odessa, TX murderer was originally denied access to the weapon he eventually used to kill all those people and maim a little baby, because the background check worked, but Republicans gave him the gun anyway.
Is that right?
Wow. Good job, R's.
We really are in the Upside Down when a monstrously ignorant, delusional, narcissistic nimrod like Trump, who flaunts his stupidity, illiteracy, and malapropisms on an hourly basis, attacks Joe Biden as being non compos mentis if he flubs a line. This isn't the pot calling the kettle black, this is the pot calling the kettle covfefe and everyone around him nodding their heads like bobble dolls of the damned and saying all together in their confederate robot voices, "Yessss bossss, you are right..."
Plus she doesn't like garlic––so there, out of the coffin and out in the world to make it just a little more scary.
And speaking of scary: Fintan O'Toole in a piece about Boris Johnson compared him to Trump saying that there are important differences between Boris and Donald; first: Trump has been able to mobilize a visceral American nationalism. Boris cannot articulate the powerful but inchoate English nationalism that has driven Brexit. In part this is because he is not really a nationalist––born in New York and raised for some of his childhood in Brussels, his fantasy world is much more a reconstituted "global Britain" than the little England imagined by many of his followers. O'Toole goes on with more specifics and then comes back to Trump who sustains his base through the relentless repetition of the same slogans while Boris is all over the place. So while Trump's anarchism shades into authoritarianism, Boris shades into a kind of insouciant nihilism.
and so it goes~~~~~~~~
I saw this morning on the TV Warrior Monk Mattis (General, USMC Ret) answer the question, what did he think about the DoD reprogramming of billions to build "projects" along the southern border ... reprogrammed AWAY from planned troop support requirements.
The Monk said that he was not going to start judging the actions of the administration just because he is no longer part of it. He didn't want to feed the controversy. (Words to that effect).
Poor man. Everybody who works for DiJiT is ruined by him.
I used to think senior Marines were sort of crazy (I mean, look at the work requirements ...) but I respected them, in general. After this administration I no longer give respect without checking their work.
Patrick: He is a coward, like all of them. Yeah, thinks a lot about his country—NOT. It’s all about feeling noble. Would not listen to him if I were paid to do so. Sellout.