The Commentariat -- December 30, 2017
Late Morning Update:
Michael Grunwald of Politico Magazine: "The most consequential aspect of President Trump -- like the most consequential aspect of Candidate Trump -- has been his relentless shattering of norms: norms of honesty, decency, diversity, strategy, diplomacy and democracy, norms of what presidents are supposed to say and do.... If the big story of the Trump era is Trump and his unconventional approach to the presidency, two related substories will determine how the big story ends. The first is the intense personal and institutional pushback to Trump.... The second substory is the sometimes grudging but consistent support -- the critics call it complicity -- that Trump has enjoyed from the Republicans who control Congress." Mrs. McC: A pretty good review of Trumperconsequences."
Jason Auslander of the Aspen (Colorado) Times: "For Vice President Mike Pence, the message was unmistakable and the banner that carried it unmissable. 'Make America Gay Again,' the rainbow banner reads. Neighbors of the home near Aspen where Pence and his wife, Karen Sue, are staying posted the message Wednesday or Thursday on a stone pillar that sits at the end of driveways to both homes, Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Buglione said Friday. 'You couldn't miss it,' he said of the sign off Owl Creek Road, adding that the man and woman who live in the home brought chili and corn muffins to deputies and Secret Service agents posted at the foot of the driveway. The Secret Service agents were not at all perturbed about the banner, Buglione said.... Donald Trump has joked that Pence 'wants to hang' all gay people, according to an October article in the New Yorker."
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Worst People in the World. Eric Levitz: "Donald Trump just made Democrats an offer they can't accept. In a Friday-morning tweet, the president issued an ultimatum: Build me a border wall -- and make it harder for legal immigrants to bring their foreign family members into the United States (a.k.a. 'chain migration') -- or the Dreamers get it.... 'The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!'... On Thursday, Breitbart reported that the GOP's congressional leadership presented a nearly identical deal to House conservatives[.]... Dreamers have allies in corporate America, churches, unions, colleges, and countless local and state governments. The backlash to their dispossession will be huge and unrelenting. Republicans are already poised for a historic rebuke next November. Letting DACA expire without a replacement could turn a wave election into a tsunami." ...
... Pepe Le Trump. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Trump's demands closely track those of white nationalist groups who oppose many forms of lawful immigration and wish to restrict methods often used by non-white immigrants.... 'Chain migration,' which Trump refers to in his tweet, is a derogatory term used to describe the way that family members of current U.S. residents are permitted to immigrate into the United States.... Restricting so-called 'chain migration' would disproportionately impact Latinos and people of Asian origin, who are likely to be recent immigrants and therefore more likely to have close relatives outside the United States. Meanwhile, the 'ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration' that Trump references in his tweet most likely refers to the Diversity Visa Immigrant Program, which allows up to 50,000 people a year to immigrate to the United States from nations that are currently underrepresented in the U.S. population -- a system that disproportionately benefits African immigrants."
** Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "President Trump gave an impromptu half-hour interview with the New York Times on Dec. 28. We combed through the transcript and here's a quick roundup of the false, misleading or dubious claims that he made, at a rate of one every 75 seconds. (Some of the interview was off the record, so it's possible the rate of false claims per minute is higher.)" In the 30-minute interview, Kessler counted 24 false or misleading statements Trump made. Kessler lists a number of Trump's lies & contrasts them with the facts. ...
... Caretakers Unaware Their Patient Was Acting out Again. Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "One White House official, when asked about the president's impromptu interview, was perplexed, wondering aloud, 'What interview? Today?' Another frustrated aide called it 'embarrassing.' Mar-a-Lago -- Trump's manicured, gilded oceanfront retreat here -- is the president’s 'Winter White House,' the villa to which he escapes for rounds of golf and family time. But, to the chagrin of many aides, Mar-a-Lago is also the place where Trump is often his most unrestrained and unfettered, making it harder for his West Wing staff to control his daily media diet and personal contacts as they now try to do in Washington.... Trump was enthusiastic about the [New York Times] interview and liked that the New York Times was at his golf course, people briefed on the interview said. The president, they added, enjoyed the coverage afterward and noted that it dominated TV most of Friday." ...
... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times describes his interview tactics & how he maneuvered to get the interview with Trump. ...
... John Harwood of CNBC: "Over and over during the 30-minute session, Trump cast his performance in terms so grandiose and extreme as to be self-evidently false. Taken together, his comments signaled an inability to grasp conditions in the country, the limitations of his own capacities and the nature of the office he holds." ...
... Charles Pierce: "In my view, the interview is a clinical study of a man in severe cognitive decline, if not the early stages of outright dementia.... In this interview, the president* is only intermittently coherent. He talks in semi-sentences and is always groping for something that sounds familiar, even if it makes no sense whatsoever and even if it blatantly contradicts something he said two minutes earlier. To my ears, anyway, this is more than the president*'s well-known allergy to the truth. This is a classic coping mechanism employed when language skills are coming apart.... The electric Twitter machine -- and most of the rest of the Intertoobz -- has been alive with criticism of [Michael] Schmidt for having not pushed back sufficiently against some of the more obvious barefaced non-facts presented by the president* in their chat.... I don't particularly care whether Michael Schmidt was tough enough, or asked enough follow-up questions.... We've got bigger problems." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I completely agree with Pierce on this, & for some of the same reasons -- like Pierce, I've seen similar decline in elderly friends & family. I've mentioned my view of Trump's waning mental acuity several times in the past. One sees it demonstrated often. (Yesterday's report by Margaret Hartmann on Trump's inability to grasp Angela Merkel's repeated explanations that Germany, as an E.U. member, cannot negotiate trade deals with non-member countries.) Surely Trump's staff is aware of his dementia, and they do a great disservice to the country by covering it up, just as Ronald Reagan's staff did, which Pierce notes. ...
... Kevin Drum: "This simply is not a man in full control of his mental faculties. He's always been narcissistic and blowhardish, but over the course of the interview he's completely unable to stay focused on a topic for even a few seconds.... I don't know what's going on with the guy, but even by Donald Trump standards he's not all there. This is not someone who should be occupying the Oval Office." ...
... Ezra Klein: "The president of the United States is not well. That is an uncomfortable thing to say, but it is an even worse thing to ignore.... In psychology, there's an idea known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It refers to research by David Dunning and Justin Kruger that found the least competent people often believe they are the most competent because they 'lack the very expertise needed to recognize how badly they're doing.'... His comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed.... Whatever the cause, it is plainly obvious from Trump's words that this is not a man fit to be president, that he is not well or capable in some fundamental way." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that Trump thought the interview went great & was thrilled in dominated Friday's news cycle.
Ian Millhiser: "Shortly before moving into the White House, Donald Trump promised to turn over 'complete and total control' of his business to his adult sons Don Jr. and Eric. 'They are not going to discuss it with me,' the then-president-elect assured the nation he was about to govern -- though, a couple months later, Eric Trump admitted that he would still provide his father with 'profitability reports and stuff like that' at least every quarter. Now, a new report by The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff suggests that President Trump may have far more direct involvement with his businesses than he promised nearly a year ago. Woodruff quotes an email from Jeng Chi Hung, director of revenue management for the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC. 'DJT is supposed to be out of the business and passed on to his sons, but he's definitely still involved,' Hung wrote in that email. 'I had a brief meeting with him a few weeks ago, and he was asking about banquet revenues and demographics. And, he asked if his presidency hurt the businesses.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND as we pointed out here earlier in the week, Trump has spent one-third of his first year in office advertising some of his East Coast resorts."
Jon Meacham in a New York Times op-ed, compares Trump to Joe McCarthy & contrasts him with earlier presidents, who -- unlike Trump & McCarthy -- knew the limitations of media exposure. Mrs. McC: In general, I think Meacham is a bloviating, self-satisfied jerk, but in this essay, he might be right.
Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "... the Trump administration is strongly considering whether to withhold $255 million in aid that it had delayed sending to Islamabad, according to American officials, as a show of dissatisfaction with Pakistan's broader intransigence toward confronting the terrorist networks that operate there.... American officials said a final decision could be made in the coming weeks.American officials said a final decision could be made in the coming weeks."
Frances Robles & Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "For the first time in the 100 days since Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico, the government finally knows how many people still don't have power: about half. The figure released Friday by the island's governor and power utility company indicates that more than 1.5 million people on the island are still in the dark. Experts say some parts of the island are not expected to get power back until next spring." ...
... Joshua Hoyos of ABC News: "On the 100-day mark since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, San Juan's Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz called federal response to the storm inadequate while slamming ... Donald Trump as the 'disaster-in-chief.' In an interview with ABC News from San Juan this week, Cruz said of the president, 'He was disrespectful to the Puerto Rican people, he was disrespectful to the American people who were leaving their homes to come help us here.... President Trump does not embody the values of the good-hearted American people that have [made] sure that we are not forgotten,' Cruz added."
Kathy Orton & Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "The steady increase in housing prices in many of the nation's priciest markets ... is expected to slow in coming years, analysts say, as the Republican tax law begins to reshape a major part of the U.S. economy. For generations, the tax code has subsidized homeownership, particularly for people in the upper middle class and beyond. The Republican tax legislation, however, pushed in the opposite direction, scaling back subsidies once thought untouchable. To pay for other tax cuts benefiting individuals and corporations, the GOP tax plan trims the mortgage interest deduction and property tax deduction, which combined allow some homeowners to take tens of thousands of dollars off their taxable income."
Attack of the Ghouls. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "Ambitious Republicans anxious for a shot at a U.S. Senate seat have begun quietly jockeying to be appointed as the successor to Sen. John McCain (R), even as he battles an aggressive form of brain cancer. The lobbying campaigns, described to The Hill by half a dozen GOP strategists and aides, have angered many Republicans, who see any public chatter as disrespectful to a senator who has helped shape modern Arizona. Chief among those upset is the man who would make an appointment, Gov. Doug Ducey (R), who issued a brushback pitch during a radio appearance last week."
Eric Armstrong of the New Republic: "Minnesotans don't want Al Franken to resign. Amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, the state's junior senator announced in early December that he would step down 'in the coming weeks.' But a Public Policy Polling survey released on Thursday reveals that his constituents don't want him to go: 50 percent say he shouldn't resign, compared to 42 percent who say he should. He remains popular not only with Democrats, but independents, who are split 52-41 percent in favor of not resigning. Franken also has the support of 57 percent of women."
Blue Collar World -- Where Sexual Harassment Can Kill. Susan Chira of the New York Times: "Sexual harassment has been endemic in blue-collar workplaces from the moment that women entered them and continues to this day, according to interviews with more than a dozen employment lawyers, academics and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission workers, as well as dozens of women who described such incidents. More than 80 women in these fields responded to a call for accounts of sexual harassment. They, along with several others interviewed, cited sustained, even dangerous, abuse in workplaces from factories to shipyards, mines to construction sites.... Physical danger is one issue that sets sexual harassment in blue-collar environments apart; unions, torn between representing the accuser and the accused, are another. Women in these jobs also often endure deliberate humiliations like not having bathrooms provided for them on construction sites. They can be blacklisted in construction or similar fields where tight networks and referrals are crucial to win the next job."
Beyond the Beltway
Eli Rosenberg & Herman Wong of the Washington Post: "A police officer in Wichita fatally shot a man while responding to an emergency call that authorities now say was a tragic and senseless prank. The 28-year-old man, whom officials did not immediately identify, was killed around 6:20 p.m. Thursday after police responded to a report that there had been a shooting and hostages taken at the house." A police spokesman called "it a case of 'swatting.' Swatting, which has a long history in the online gaming world, refers to the practice of making an emergency call about a fake situation often involving a killing or hostages, in the hopes of sending police to the address of an adversary or random person." ...
... Nichole Manna of the Wichita Eagle: "Online gamers have said in multiple Twitter posts that the shooting was the result of a 'swatting' call involving two gamers. [The victim] Andrew Finch was not involved in the online game, according to his mother and people in the gaming community." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: One would assume that even the mildest form of prank call to 911-- "Prince Albert in a can" -- is illegal in every state. ...
... UPDATE: Mark Osbourne of ABC News: "A 25-year-old man has been arrested over an alleged prank call that led to police killing a man in Kansas on Thursday, Los Angeles police said. Tyler Barriss from South Los Angeles was arrested Friday, according to ABC station KABC in Los Angeles."
Way Beyond
Guy Faulconbridge, et al., of Reuters: "Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive Communist state. The sales of oil or oil products from Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter and a veto-wielding member of the United Nations Security Council, breach U.N. sanctions, the security sources said. The transfers in October and November indicate that smuggling from Russia to North Korea has evolved to loading cargoes at sea since Reuters reported in September that North Korean ships were sailing directly from Russia to their homeland."
Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "Protests over the Iranian government's handling of the economy spread to several cities on Friday, including Tehran.... President Hassan Rouhani began his second term in August after winning re-election on promises to revitalize an economy hurt by sanctions. Although foreign investment is rising, the country continues to survive mainly on oil sales. Youth unemployment stands at more than 40 percent, sluggish state-owned enterprises control significant sectors of the economy, and American sanctions prevent most international banks from providing financing or credit to Iran. Many of the international sanctions against Iran were lifted under the 2015 accord on Iran's nuclear program. But unilateral American sanctions on doing financial transactions with Iran remain in place, and the cumulative effect of sanctions has been severe. Mr. Rouhani, who heralded the agreement as a fresh start, has faced criticism for not doing enough to jump-start the economy."
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