The Commentariat -- October 18, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "A frequent companion of Saudi Arabia's crown prince entered the country's consulate in Istanbul just hours before Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident writer, disappeared inside, according to a time-stamped photograph published on Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper. The photograph of the companion, who has been previously identified as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, is one of the most striking pieces of evidence to date linking Mr. Khashoggi's Oct. 2 disappearance and possible death to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.... The Turkish newspaper, Sabah, also showed photographs of Mr. Mutreb outside the Saudi consul general's home, leaving a Turkish hotel with a large suitcase, and leaving the country from Istanbul's international airport -- all later that day." ...
... Alan Rappeport & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has withdrawn from the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh next week after facing bipartisan backlash over his plans to attend despite the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.... It was uncertain as of Thursday morning whether he would still travel to Riyadh, where he was also planning to visit the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center, a joint initiative between the United States, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations unveiled a year ago.... Mr. Mnuchin's withdrawal was announced less than an hour after [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo told journalists that he had made clear to Saudi Arabia's royal leaders ... that the United States was taking the circumstances surrounding Mr. Khashoggi seriously. Mr. Pompeo, the former C.I.A. director, described the matter as 'the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi' -- a striking contrast to a growing assessment among American intelligence agencies that the Washington Post columnist was killed, and that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was culpable in the death." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: These guys really know how to stand up to murderous thugs, don't they? ...
... Mark Moore of the New York Post: "One of the 15 Saudis who arrived in Turkey the same day Jamal Khashoggi disappeared has died in a 'suspicious traffic accident' and the Saudi consul in Istanbul could be the 'next execution,' according to Turkish media reports. Mashal Saad al-Bostani, 31, a lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Forces, was among the 15-member 'hit team' that landed in Istanbul in two private jets from Riyadh on Oct. 2 and headed to the Saudi consulate. He died in a car crash in Riyadh, but few details have emerged, the newspaper Yeni Safak reported, adding that his role in the 'murder' was not clear." Mrs. McC: Don't know if this is true, but I've posted it for what it's worth. ...
... Springtime for Dictators. Max Boot of the Washington Post: "If the Saudis carried out this grisly crime with high-level authorization, as the evidence would indicate, they did so at least in part because they anticipated that the American president wouldn't care about the disappearance of another 'enemy of the people.' Trump has given every despot on the planet a license to kill without worrying about the U.S. reaction. Because, in all likelihood, there will be none."
John Wagner & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "President Trump threatened Thursday to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras making its way toward the United States. In morning tweets, Trump repeated vows to stop U.S. aid to Central American countries that do not disband the caravan and issued a fresh threat to the Mexican government, which said Wednesday that it would treat those in the caravan no differently than it does other migrants." ...
... Mrs. Crabbie: This is why no country should enter into an agreement with Trump. His word means less than nothing.
"Bloody Battle in Affghanistan," Ctd. Taimoor Shah & Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "One of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the long Afghan war killed top leaders of Kandahar Province on Thursday, in an attack that missed the top American commander in the country, Gen. Austin S. Miller. In the provincial governor's compound in Kandahar City, at least one attacker fatally shot the region's powerful police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, as well as the provincial governor and the intelligence chief, and wounded three Americans, Afghan officials said."
*****
Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post: "... Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate. There was a time when journalists believed the Internet would liberate information from the censorship and control associated with print media. But these governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers to harm the revenue of specific publications." ...
... This was Khashoggi's last column, which his translator delivered to his editor the day after his disappearance. ...
... Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is culpable in the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an appraisal that poses challenges to a White House intent on maintaining a close relationship with the kingdom. Intelligence agencies have not yet been able to collect direct evidence of the prince's involvement, American and European officials said. They also have not been able to conclude whether Prince Mohammed directly ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, or whether his intention was to have Mr. Khashoggi captured and taken back to Saudi Arabia, according to one official. But intelligence agencies have growing circumstantial evidence of the prince's involvement -- including the presence of members of his security detail and intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a possible plan to detain Mr. Khashoggi, according to American officials." ...
... Covering up a Brutal Murder. Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "As gruesome details of Jamal Khashoggi's alleged killing and dismemberment at the hands of Saudi operatives trickled into the public domain this week, calls sounded in capitals around the globe for immediate retaliation to the apparent human rights atrocity.... [But President] Trump has repeatedly reached for reasons to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship, according to administration officials and presidential advisers. Trump has stressed Saudi Arabia's huge investment in U.S. weaponry and worries it could instead purchase arms from China or Russia. He has fretted about the oil-rich desert kingdom cutting off its supply of petroleum to the United States. He has warned against losing a key partner countering Iran's influence in the Middle East. He has argued that even if the United States tried to isolate the Saudis, the kingdom is too wealthy to ever be truly isolated. And he has emphasized that although Khashoggi had been living in Virginia and wrote for The Washington Post, the dissident journalist is a Saudi citizen -- the implication being that the disappearance is not necessarily the United States' problem....
... Meanwhile, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said the administration had 'clamped down' on sharing intelligence about the Khashoggi case. He said an intelligence briefing scheduled for Tuesday was canceled and he was told no additional intelligence would be shared with the Senate for now, a move he called 'disappointing.' 'I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia,' Corker said. Based on the earlier intelligence he had reviewed, he added, 'everything points not to just Saudi Arabia, but to MBS,' referring to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 'This could not have happened without his approval.'" ...
... Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president's closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries. But it will be difficult for the young ruler to escape scrutiny, as mounting evidence points not only to the Saudi government's knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, but to a connection by Mohammed to his disappearance. U.S. intelligence reports, accounts from Khashoggi's friends, passport records and social media profiles paint a picture of a brutal killing that at least had its roots in Mohammed's desire to silence Khashoggi...." Mrs. McC: It's not an "explanation," Shane; it's a fake cover story.
... Carlotta Gall & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "His killers were waiting when Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. They severed his fingers and later beheaded and dismembered him, according to details from audio recordings described by a senior Turkish official on Wednesday. Mr. Khashoggi was dead within minutes, and within two hours the killers were gone, the recordings suggested. The leaking of such details, on the same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Turkey, reflected an escalation of pressure by the Turkish government on Saudi Arabia and the United States for answers on the fate of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent dissident journalist who wrote for The Washington Post. Fifteen days after he entered the consulate in Istanbul and was never seen coming out, the Saudis have yet to give an explanation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND our President* is covering for the men responsible for this atrocity. He says they're just as innocent as Bart O'Kavanaugh. (Well, that's probably true.) What are our children to think? What are we to think? ...
... Trump's $100MM Prize. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "This summer, Saudi Arabia promised the Trump administration $100 million for American efforts to stabilize areas in Syria liberated from the Islamic State. That money landed in American accounts on Tuesday, the same day that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for discussions with the kingdom's leaders about the fate of a missing Saudi dissident.... Brett McGurk, the United States envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, dismissed the idea that Mr. Pompeo's visit and the disbursement of funds were connected. The Saudis had committed the money in August, he said, and the United States had expected to receive it in the fall.... But [an] official involved in Syria policy said the payment process had been unpredictable." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Gardiner Harris & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "As he was leaving Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Wednesday, [Mike] Pompeo was asked if Saudi officials had told him whether the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was alive or dead. 'I don't want to talk about any of the facts,' Mr. Pompeo said dismissively. 'They didn't want to either.' That set off an immediate maelstrom of criticism against the Trump administration's chief diplomat. 'The pictures of Pompeo grinning, smiling and laughing with the crown prince -- as if a journalist wasn't just murdered -- are remarkable,' Shadi Hamid, a scholar of Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution, wrote on Twitter.... 'Secretary Pompeo was put in an almost impossible situation from the outset: traveling to meet with people suspected of having ordered a political assassination at the request of a president determined to sweep the affair under the rug, said Rob Malley..., a senior National Security Council adviser ... during the Obama administration. But, Mr. Malley said, Mr. Pompeo 'made the situation even worse by taking on the task with apparent bonhomie and good humor, which hardly seems the optimal way to convey seriousness or demand genuine accountability.'" ...
... Where's Jared? Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "Facing scrutiny for cultivating close ties with Saudi Arabia's powerful and domineering crown prince, Jared Kushner has remained intentionally in the background this week as West Wing officials feared a more public role would prompt backlash, multiple people familiar with the matter say. Kushner instead has been operating behind-the-scenes to mitigate the fallout but leaving public explanations to others...." ...
... Trump & the Barbarians. Nicholas Kristof: "American presidents have periodically engaged in cover-ups of their own corruption or licentiousness, but President Trump is breaking new ground. He is using the United States government to cover up a foreign despot's barbarism.... Even as Saudi officials lie low, Trump has become the kingdom's puppet and apologist.... Trumprepeatedly denounced President Barack Obama for having bowed to a Saudi king. But today Trump is not just bowing to a king; he's kowtowing to a mad prince.... For decades, we have enabled Saudi Arabian misconduct, including the extremist education and terrorist financing that contributed to the 9/11 attacks." ...
... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "... , if there is any lesson to be learned from this terrible affair, it's how blind so much of official Washington and the American press were to M.B.S.'s true nature.... [Jared] Kushner threw the Administration's support behind him. Not long after, and not least because of the White House's boost, M.B.S.'s chief rivals, including his cousin, the crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, were dispatched. It was ugly, but no one seemed to mind. President Trump's visit to the Saudi kingdom -- his first trip abroad -- was an orgy of mutual admiration and monarchical excess. The truth is that M.B.S.'s violent, impulsive character was visible early on.... The most widely publicized display of M.B.S.'s autocratic streak came in November, 2017, when M.B.S. ordered the roundup of as many as five hundred members of the Saudi royal family. Imprisoned in a five-star hotel, princes and other royals were held captive until they signed over substantial shares of their fortunes.... I heard credible reports that at least some of the men held in the Ritz-Carlton were tortured." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Chris Strohm, et al., of Bloomberg: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure [from Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein] to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation, according to two U.S. officials. Specifically, Mueller is close to rendering judgment on two of the most explosive aspects of his inquiry: whether there were clear incidents of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, and whether the president took any actions that constitute obstruction of justice, according to one of the officials, who asked not to be identified speaking about the investigation.... There's no indication, though, that Mueller is ready to close up shop, even if he does make some findings, according to former federal prosecutors. Several matters could keep the probe going, such as another significant prosecution or new lines of inquiry." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If Mueller wraps up the Trumpy questions soon, I have a feeling his report will be so nebulous that Trump will skate. ...
... Matt Shuham of TPM: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended his oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, saying that 'people are entitled to be frustrated,' but that, 'at the end of the day, the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence and that it was an appropriate use of resources.' 'I have a solemn responsibility to make sure that cases like that [Russian election interference] are pursued and prosecuted, and I'm pleased the president has been supportive of that,' Rosenstein told the Journal [Mrs. McC: with a straight face]." ...
... Matt Naham of Law & Crime couldn't help noting, "The [WSJ] interview drops on the same day Bloomberg reported that Rosenstein was 'pressing' Mueller to wrap up the investigation as 'expeditiously as possible.'" ...
... John Santucci, et al., of ABC News: "Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office have been asking former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- their newest cooperating witness -- about his friend and former business associate Roger Stone, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.... Nearly a dozen individuals close to Stone have been brought in for interviews with the Mueller team, and many of those same individuals have also appeared before a federal grand jury. Mueller's interest in Stone appears to be focused on whether Stone or his associates communicated with Julian Assange or WikiLeaks about the release of damaging emails allegedly hacked from Hillary Clinton's campaign by Russian intelligence officers masquerading as hacker persona 'Guccifer 2.0.'" ...
... Erica Orden of CNN: "Michael Cohen and his attorney met Wednesday with a group of state and federal law enforcement officials investigating various aspects of ... Donald Trump's family business and charitable organization, according to people familiar with the meeting. The group, which included the federal prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York who charged Cohen in August and officials from the New York Attorney General's office, met at the Midtown New York City office of Cohen's attorney, Guy Petrillo, these people said."
"A Natural Instinct for Science." Get Ready to Guffaw. Jonathan Chait: "In yet another of his current spate of lunatic ramblings he has decided to share with various media, this time the Associated Press, Trump was asked about the report [by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change].... Trump asserted that, contrary to the scientific conclusion that pumping heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere has caused an upward ratcheting of temperatures, he sees it as random unexplainable variation: 'I agree the climate changes, but it goes back and forth, back and forth.' When the interviewer noted that scientists have concluded otherwise, Trump asserted his own scientific credentials. 'My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years. Dr. John Trump,' he said. 'And I didn't talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.' So Trump's claim to scientific competence rests on his belief that science is a matter of instinct, and this instinct is passed on genetically, , as evidenced by his uncle. Those lucky few possessed of this gift can look at two competing hypotheses and know which one is correct, without needing to study the evidence, or even having a clear understanding of what 'evidence' means." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Donald Trump Was Always a Crook. Heather Vogell & Peter Elkind of ProPublica & Andrea Bernstein & Meg Cramer of WNYC: "Since Donald Trump's fortunes came surging back with the success of 'The Apprentice' 14 years ago, his deals have often been scrutinized for the large number of his partners who have ventured to the very edges of the law, and sometimes beyond. Those associates have included accused money launderers, alleged funders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and a felon who slashed someone in the face with a broken margarita glass. Trump and his company have typically countered by saying they were merely licensing his name on these real estate projects in exchange for a fee. They weren't the developers or in any way responsible. But ... the Trumps were typically way more than mere licensors or bystanders in their often-troubled deals. They were deeply involved in these projects. They helped mislead investors and buyers -- and they profited handsomely from it. Patterns of deceptive practices occurred in a dozen deals across the globe, as the business expanded into international projects, and the Trumps often participated." Ivanka, too, is an unusually facile liar. Read on. Thanks to unwashed for the link.
Donald Trump Is Still a Liar. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump was in rare form on Tuesday. With no official events, he spent much of the day tweeting, including calling Stormy Daniels 'horseface' and continuing to cast doubt on the idea that he would hold Saudi Arabia's leaders responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance.... Trump was also interviewing with the Associated Press. And arguably more than in his '60 Minutes' interview this weekend, the falsehoods and fanciful claims were flying. Trump downplayed his relationship with Michael Cohen, suggested separating kids from their parents at the border hadn't been that big a deal, and doubled down on the idea that the Saudis may escape blame for Khashoggi. [Following] is the transcript, with our annotations and analysis." (Also linked yesterday.)
Buh-Bye. Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald F. McGahn II departed as White House counsel on Wednesday, ending a tumultuous 21-month tenure where he spearheaded some of President Trump's most significant political accomplishments, including two appointments to the Supreme Court, but also became a chief witness against him in the special counsel investigation. Mr. McGahn's departure was confirmed by two people close to him. Mr. McGahn and the president sat for a farewell chat on Wednesday, one said. Mr. Trump said this week that he will install as Mr. McGahn's replacement the longtime Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone, calling him 'a very fine man, highly respected by a lot of people.'"
Wes Siler of Outside Online: "At last count, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was the subject of 14 separate government investigations. (A new record!) But that number could soon be zero. That's because Zinke just fired the Department of the Interior's acting inspector general.... Not only did Mary Kendall, the acting inspector general, not learn she was being replaced until The Hill broke the news [Wednesday] morning, but her replacement will likely be able to fill the role without needing to go through Senate confirmation. Kendall -- who's served as acting inspector general at the DOI for ten years, and previously spent a decade as deputy inspector general -- is being replaced by Suzanne Israel Tufts, a Republican lawyer who worked on the Trump campaign, and then was appointed to the role of assistant secretary of administration at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Tufts will not need to undergo Senate confirmation to fill the new role.... Tufts, who will now handle oversight of the investigations into Zinke, was appointed to HUD to replace an official who blew the whistle on Ben Carson's taxpayer-funded $31,000 dining set." ...
... digby: "This is a primary reason why the Democrats need to take back the house. We have seen what happens when you have corrupt extremists in the executive branch with enablers and accomplices running the congress."
Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The number of migrant parents entering the United States with children has surged to record levels in the three months since President Trump ended family separations at the border, dealing the administration a deepening crisis three weeks before the midterm elections. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest one-month total on record and an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished Homeland Security statistics obtained by The Washington Post. Large groups of 100 or more Central American parents and children have been crossing the Rio Grande and the deserts of Arizona to turn themselves in, and by citing a fear of return, the families are typically assigned a court date and released from custody.... Trump has been receiving regular updates on the border numbers, telling senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and Chief of Staff John F. Kelly that something has to change, according to senior administration officials." (Also linked yesterday.)
Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "A senior Treasury Department employee was charged Wednesday with leaking to a reporter confidential government reports about the financial transactions of Trump associates and others under scrutiny in the special counsel's probe of Russian election interference. The charges reflect the latest move in the Trump administration's effort to punish leakers within the government. Earlier this week, a former senior Senate staffer pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in a separate leak investigation. The Treasury case centers on a dozen stories published by BuzzFeed News that described suspicious activity reports, or SARs, which are generated by banks when a financial transaction may involve illegal activity. Prosecutors charged Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards with the unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports and conspiracy."
David Morgan of Reuters: "Republicans could try again to repeal Obamacare if they win enough seats in U.S. elections next month, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday, calling a failed 2017 push to repeal the healthcare law a 'disappointment.'... 'If Republicans retain the Senate they will do everything they can to take away families' health care and raise their costs,' [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer said in a statement. 'Americans should take Senator McConnell at his word.'"
Election 2018
How to Get a Trump Endorsement -- Spend Money at One of His Hotels or Resorts. Zach Everson of Fast Company: A PAC run by House Leader Kevin McCarthy & mike pence spent more than $200,000 on Trump facilities; McCarthy got Trump's endorsement for speaker -- at a pricey Trump International Hotel gala. McCarthy's main competitor for the speakership -- mad dog Jim Jordan -- lost out. Maybe because Jordan spent only $3,000 at a Trump facility. "The campaigns or affiliated PACs of at least eight candidates for federal or state office have spent funds at a Trump property soon before the president tapped out his coveted tweet of endorsement.... A much higher percentage of candidates who've patronized the hotel have been endorsed by Trump compared to the candidates who haven't spent money at his properties. Additionally, President Trump endorsed many candidates whose campaigns didn't patronize his properties but who were supported by unaffiliated PACs that did." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's all legal unless someone records Trump & Candidate Goober cutting an endorsement-for-cash deal. AND a special shout-out to Anthony Kennedy!
Florida. Rick Scott Is Still a Crook. Kevin Sack & Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: Early in his tenure as Florida's governor, Rick Scott (R) got caught making policy that "would have created vast potential markets for the chain of 32 urgent-care clinics that Mr. Scott had co-founded.... To shield himself from future conflict charges, Mr. Scott, who is now running to unseat the incumbent senator Bill Nelson, created a $73.8 million investment account that he called a blind trust. But ... his trust has been blind in name only. There have been numerous ways for him to have knowledge about his holdings: Among other things, he transferred many assets to his wife and neither 'blinded' nor disclosed them. And their investments have included corporations, partnerships and funds that stood to benefit from his administration's actions. Only in late July, when compelled by ethics rules for Senate candidates, did Mr. Scott disclose his wife's holdings. That report revealed that his wife, Ann Scott, an interior decorator by trade, controlled accounts that might exceed the value of her husband's. Their equity investments largely mirrored each other, meaning that Mr. Scott could, if he wanted, track his own holdings by following his wife's." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
There's Some Kinda Karma Here. AP: "Hillary Clinton was seemingly unharmed when the Secret Service vehicle she was riding in was involved in a crash. The former secretary of state and first lady was headed to a fundraiser for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) in Jersey City on Tuesday night. The vehicle pulled into a parking garage, made a left turn and hit a concrete column. Clinton emerged from the van and walked to the fundraiser, where she was the featured guest."
Election 2020/Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
An Ominous Note from Steve M. "No other 2020 Democrat has a potential vulnerability quite like [Elizabeth Warren's], but they're all going to have missteps, and when they do, Trump will pounce -- and the 'liberal media' theater critics will be right behind, putting the boot in. Just about every Democratic hopeful is destined to get terrible media coverage, primary because there's no bro-ish New Kennedy in the field (i.e., no 2008 Obama or 1992 Bill Clinton). That's the only kind of candidate who's likely to get good press, except perhaps an anti-progressive corporatist like Mike Bloomberg or Howard Schultz. That's why I think Donald Trump is the odds-on favorite to win the 2020 election. He's not right when he says that many mainstream outlets will endorse him because he's good for the ratings, but it's simply the case that he's the daddy much of the media wants, even if most journalists won't admit it. They admire his media skills and his cocky certitude. We might beat him, but we'll have to beat them too, because they'll effectively be on his side." ...
... AND, as Jonathan Chait writes, the media are congratulating Trump for spreading a lie about Elizabeth Warren. Also too, Chait writes that Trump did not invent the insult "Pocahontas"; when Warren ran for Senate in 2012, "'The term Pocahontas' was 'near ubiquitous in conservative media,' complained one critic. The far more common term of abuse at the time was 'Fauxcahontas,' which at least involves some wordplay. So to the extent Trump can claim any contribution here, it is nudging Republicans away from a somewhat clever bullying nickname and toward the adoption of a dumber version." ...
... Eric Alterman of the Nation: "The publishing of obvious, destructive lies by Trump and his courtiers is standard operating procedure almost everywhere in the mainstream media.... The day after it allowed Trump to lie on its op-ed page [repeatedly, about Medicare for All], USA Today happily passed along another Trump whopper. This one ended up in the headline -- 'I've lost billions of dollars' since becoming president, Trump says' -- and was lifted from a Fox & Friends transcript, thereby completing the circle of lies that begins with Trump, continues through Fox News, and ends up in the mainstream media, with little or no pushback.... Don't expect the men and women of the media to save us. Their job, as they define it, is to be lied to and then to repeat those lies in quotation marks."
Election 2016. Lee Ferran of ABC News: "Twitter has released data on more than 10 million tweets from nearly 4,000 accounts it said were linked to Russia and Iran, which paint a more nuanced portrait of the nations' purported online influence operations. The social media giant previously disclosed the operations and lawmakers released hundreds of suspected account names that Twitter said were linked to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based 'troll farm' that worked day and night to spread propaganda and stoke division online ahead of the 2016 election. But this is the first time the public and independent researchers have been given access to what data analyst Ben Nimmo described as the full 'motherlode' of information. Nimmo, an information defense fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab..., said that ... the data showed clearly that the 'first targets and the first victims' were, in fact, Russian users. 'Particularly in the Russian dataset a lot more of the content was in Russian than in English,' said Nimmo. '... the Russian troll farm started out as a tool of domestic repression. It then became a weapon abroad.... They adapted it to the U.S. audience.'"
Claudia Koerner of BuzzFeed News (Oct. 16): "After four days on the job, former US representative Mary Bono is stepping down as interim president of USA Gymnastics over a tweet speaking out against Nike and its support of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Bono was brought into USA Gymnastic's leadership as the organization works to rebuild after the widespread and long-running sexual abuse by its former doctor Larry Nassar. Bono's hiring was immediately met with opposition because she previously worked for the law firm that helped provide cover for Nassar as allegations were mounting. As survivors, gymnasts, and fans discussed whether Bono was right for the job, they noticed a tweet of hers from September. Bono posted a photo coloring in the Nike logo on her golf shoes, part of the viral outrage against Nike over its ad featuring Kaepernick."
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