The Commentariat -- October 20, 2017
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump on Friday falsely claimed that a recent rise in crime in the United Kingdom was because of the country's refusal to fight 'radical Islamic terror.' 'Just out report: "United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror,"' Trump wrote on Twitter Friday. 'Not good, we must keep America safe!'... However, as the Telegraph notes, much of the violent crime spike is due to increased gang-related activities, and not because of Islamist terrorism. Given Trump's botched interpretation of the data, many U.K. politicians were quick to slam the president for making faulty assumptions that further revealed his own ignorance."
Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: John "Kelly said Thursday during the White House news briefing that he was shocked that [Rep. Frederica] Wilson was even a part of the conversation. 'It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation,' he said Thursday in the White House briefing room. Perhaps Kelly, who also listened to the call, would be less stunned if he realized that Wilson's primary identity to the Johnson family isn't as a member of Congress. The Johnsons have known Wilson for decades -- most of those years before the former educator moved to Washington to join Congress.... Wilson's connection to the family goes back at least one generation.... These relationships were part of why Wilson was with the family -- not just because she was 'a member of Congress.'"
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An Old Marine Falls on His Sword (and Exposes Another POTUS* Lie & His Own Prejudices). Michael Shear of the New York Times: "John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, delivered an emotional, personal defense of President Trump's call this week to the widow of a slain soldier, describing the trauma of learning about his own son's death in Afghanistan and calling the criticism of Mr. Trump's call unfair. Mr. Kelly said that he was stunned to see the criticism, which came from a Democratic congresswoman, Representative Frederica S. Wilson of Florida, after Mr. Trump delivered a similar message to the widow of one of the [other??] soldiers killed in Niger.... He confirmed what Mr. Trump had alluded to publicly this week: that former President Barack Obama had not called him after Lieutenant Kelly was killed. 'That was not a criticism, that was simply to say I don't believe President Obama called,' Mr. Kelly said, adding that President George W. Bush and other presidents did not always make personal phone calls to family members.... Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Trump had tried, in the call, to express what Mr. Kelly had talked to him about ahead of time." ...
... Video & transcript of Kelly's remarks, via the New York Times, are here. ...
... Adam Raymond of New York: "White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to explain on Thursday what President Trump meant when he told the wife of a slain U.S. soldier that her husband 'knew what he signed up for.' Despite Trump's claim that Florida representative Frederica Wilson 'totally fabricated what I said,' Kelly suggested that Wilson's version of the conversation between the president and the wife of Sergeant La David T. Johnson was accurate. But he wanted to focus not on what Trump said, but on what he meant, along with the impropriety of Wilson politicizing the conversation." ...
When I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred. Looked upon with great honor. That's obviously not the case anymore, as we see from recent cases. Life, the dignity of life is sacred. That's gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. -- John Kelly, Thursday
... Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "Kelly, of course, failed to acknowledge the fact that he currently works in an administration headed by a man who's been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Schmitz is right -- that Kelly "appeared to be referencing the recent slew of sexual assault and harassment allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein." But what grabbed me about Kelly's remark was how offensively archaic it was. "Women are sacred"? That is precisely the excuse men have used, perhaps since prehistoric times, to keep women powerless and dependent upon men. Women must not be defiled sexually; they must not sully themselves by working in the cutthroat business world; they must remain chattel, "protected" by patriarchs, hidden from view in "sacred" rooms. Kelly is in cult-of-the-Virgin-Mary territory here. This view is what has allowed & continues to allow men like Trump & Weinstein to sexually abuse women, while they and other men literally keep women in their socioeconomic place. If you want to know why Kelly was "stunned" by Rep. Frederica Wilson's criticisms of Trump, it was because it is not a woman's "place" -- and perhaps especially not a black woman's place -- to criticize the national patriarch. I am repulsed. ...
... Wait! Kelly showed his paternalistic bias again. Erica Pandey of Axios: "'It stuns me' that a member of Congress listened in on that phone call. 'I thought at least that's sacred,' [Kelly] said." Mrs. McC: First, Wilson had known La David Johnson for years. But more important, it was La David's widow Myeshia who decided who could listen to Trump's call. By letting family members & friends listen in, according to Kelly, Myeshia was defiling her husband's memory. She was denying his "sacred" sacrifice. Kelly believes that a young woman should have no control over how she relates to her family and friends, on what information she shares with them. Myeshia Johnson made a choice. There was nothing wrong with her choice; nor would there have been anything wrong with choosing to listen privately. Kelly's criticism was repulsive. ...
A congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call, he gave the money, the $20 million, to build the building, and she sat down. -- John Kelly, at yesterday's briefing relating a story about a building dedication he had attended with Rep. Frederica Wilson ...
... ** Oops, Kelly Himself Is a Big Fat Liar, Too. Alex Daugherty & other McClatchy News reporters relate what really happened. Wilson did not boast about how "she got the money" for the Grogan & Dove federal building in the Miami area, because she didn't get the money & she didn't pretend to. "Washington approved the money before she was even in Congress," Wilson told the McClatchy reporters yesterday. Rather, Wilson sponsored a bill to name the building after federal agents "Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, killed during a 1986 shootout with bank robbers south of Miami.... In 2015, Wilson won praise from Miami Republicans for sponsoring the bill to name the long anticipated federal building after two agents who became legends in local law enforcement. At the dedication ceremony, James Comey, then director of the FBI, lauded Wilson's legislation, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama three days before the April 2015 ceremony. 'Rep. Wilson truly did the impossible, and we are eternally grateful,' Comey said in his remarks. On Thursday evening, [a Trump] administration spokesman issued a statement that said: 'The White House stands by Gen. Kelly’s account of the event.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, nowhere in Kelly's remarks does he call Rep. Wilson (or for that matter, La David or Myeshia Johnson) by name. It's a "that woman" kind of delivery: Kelly puts distance between himself & the woman he is criticizing & falsely accusing. If Bill Clinton's "that woman" denial was a tell, so is Kelly's. ...
The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson(D), who was SECRETLY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet at about 11 pm ET Thursday ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The one useful thing Kelly did yesterday was confirm that Wilson told the truth about the content of Trump's "consolation call" & that Trump falsely denied it & defamed Wilson. Here was Trump's own chief of staff "defending" him by verifying that Trump, not Wilson, was the liar. But so what? Trump just dug his heels in & insisted she told "a total lie."
... ** Please take a moment to read commentary at the end of yesterday's Comments thread on Kelly's attack on Khizr & Ghazala Khan. Right, right and right. Mrs. McC. P.S. Here again we have a dark-hued couple who don't know their "place," and have criticized a white man for showing disrespect to military heroes.
... Question of the Day. Mrs. McCrabbie: I can see that a reasonable person might find distasteful some remarks by the Khans & Wilson. I don't, but we all have different standards of "acceptable speech." But, excuse me. How can a person who works at the right hand of Trump -- a man who daily makes vile, cruel, untrue attacks on others, sometimes with no provocation at all -- be "stunned" by the manners of others? The same goes for other Trump toadies -- like Huckleberry Sanders -- who regularly express "shock" at people who criticize or question Trump. ...
... Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post reports on Rep. Frederica Wilson's long history of mentoring young people & finding in their untimely deaths reasons to call out "stupid" wars, careless gun laws & other public policy issues. Calling out a grotesquely insensitive president* was part & parcel of who she is. Mrs. McC: Read Hawkins' story & you won't think of Wilson as just some Congressional backbencher. She has been an audacious hero for decades.
... Adam Raymond: "Asked on Thursday to rate the federal government's response to the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico last month, President Trump said it was a 'ten.' ... "I think this was worse than Katrina, in many ways worse than anything people have ever seen.' The American people don’t agree with Trump's assessment." ...
... ** Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "Donald Trump minimizes suffering for which he might be held responsible. That's likely what he was doing in his conversation with Myeshia Johnson. And it's not just insensitive; it's dangerous. As the former Missouri senate candidate, and former army intelligence officer, Jason Kander observed on Wednesday night on CNN, people say, 'He knew what he signed up for' because 'they are seeking emotional distance from the situation. People say that because they want to avoid feeling that pain.' That's worrying, Kander added, because 'I want the president, any president .. when they're making a decision about sending people to a dangerous place, I want them to have as one of the things in their mind, the visceral, emotional feeling' that comes from absorbing a widow's inconsolable grief. That's the key point. Trump's comments bespeak a refusal to face the human costs of violence and war that could have frightening consequences for American foreign policy." Read on.
Trumpity-Doo-Dah Floats New Conspiracy Theory. Tom Embury-Dennis of the (U.K.) Independent: "Donald Trump has appeared to suggest, without providing evidence, that the FBI and Russia may have colluded to fund the infamous dossier that alleged links between his team and the Kremlin. Taking to Twitter, the US President said: 'Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?' Mr Trump's outlandish claim comes after two bosses of Fusion GPS, the firm that helped produce the dossier, refused to answer questions on Wednesday in a private meeting with the House Intelligence Agency.... Fusion GPS had originally been hired by Republican opponents of Mr Trump in September 2015. [Investigator Christopher] Steele joined the team eight months later in June. After winning his party's nomination in July 2016, Democrats took over and began paying Mr Steele and Fusion GPS to look into the billionaire's activities."
We've seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America. We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism. We've seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places. -- President George W. Bush, in a speech, Thursday ...
... Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Former President George W. Bush never mentioned his name but delivered what sounded like a sustained rebuke to President Trump on Thursday, decrying nationalism, protectionism and the coarsening of public debate while calling for a robust response to Russian interference in American democracy. In a speech in New York, Mr. Bush defended free trade, globalization and immigration even as Mr. Trump seeks to raise barriers to international commerce and newcomers from overseas. He condemned the 'casual cruelty' he sees in public discourse and denounced white supremacy two months after Mr. Trump suggested that 'both sides' were to blame at a neo-Nazi rally ... in Virginia." ...
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Former president George W. Bush on Thursday delivered a rare political speech in which he warned of threats to American democracy and a decay of civic engagement, a message that was interpreted as a rebuke of President Trump's divisive leadership style.... The scene was remarkable in part because Bush has largely remained out of the political spotlight since leaving office amid low popularity in 2009 and had made a point not to criticize or second-guess his Democratic successor, Barack Obama. Just hours after Bush completed his speech, Obama also made a veiled critique of the Trump era, calling on Democrats at a New Jersey campaign event to 'send a message to the world that we are rejecting a politics of division, we are rejecting a politics of fear.' That Trump's two most recent predecessors felt liberated, or perhaps compelled, to reenter the political arena in a manner that offered an implicit criticism of him is virtually unprecedented in modern politics, historians said."
Paul Krugman: "Breaking up Nafta would be terrible for Mexico and bad for the U.S. It would horrify major U.S. business interests, which have spent two decades building their competitive strategies around an integrated North American market. But it might be good for Trump's fragile ego. And that's a reason to fear the worst.... We've now seen Trump deliberately hurt millions of people and inflict billions of losses on a major industry out of sheer spite. If he's willing to do that on health care, why assume he won't do the same thing on international trade policy?"
Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "CIA Director Mike Pompeo declared Thursday that U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Russia's interference in the 2016 American presidential election did not alter the outcome, a statement that distorted spy agency findings.... His comment suggested -- falsely -- that a report released by U.S. intelligence agencies in January had ruled out any impact that could be attributed to a covert Russian interference campaign that involved leaks of tens of thousands of stolen emails, the flooding of social media sites with false claims and the purchase of ads on Facebook. A report compiled by the CIA and other agencies described that Russian operation as unprecedented in its scale and concluded that Moscow's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process and help elect Donald Trump. But the report reached no conclusions about whether that interference had altered the outcome -- an issue that U.S. intelligence officials made clear was considered beyond the scope of their inquiry." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Thank you, Greg Miller for calling out a lie right in your lede. ...
... Michael Crowley of Politico: "CIA Director Mike Pompeo drew sharp criticism Thursday after wrongly stating that the U.S. intelligence community had found that Russian meddling did not tilt the 2016 presidential election."
** Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The Senate took a significant step toward rewriting the tax code on Thursday night with the passage of a budget blueprint that would protect a $1.5 trillion tax cut from a Democratic filibuster. The budget resolution could also pave the way for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration by ensuring that drilling legislation can pass with only Republican votes. The Senate voted 51 to 49 to approve the blueprint. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who had complained about what he viewed as excessive war funding in the budget plan, was the lone Republican to vote against the measure.... The House could pick up the Senate-passed budget as early as next week and give final approval to parliamentary language protecting the Republicans' coveted tax effort." Mrs. McC: Time to hold a lawn party, Donnie. ...
... Earlier That Same Day... Niv Elis of the Hill: "Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) lambasted the budgetary process ahead of a key vote Thursday, calling the Senate budget a hoax and saying that he would dismantle the Senate Budget Committee. 'The only thing about this that matters is preparation for the tax reform,' said Corker, who is retiring at the end of the Congress. 'Other than that, these amendment votes, everything about this is a hoax. A hoax. It has no impact on anything whatsoever.... If I were chairman of the budget committee, I would dismantle it. I would move to end it immediately in its current form,' Corker said. 'Unless we create a real budget process, which this is not, our country's fiscal situation will continue to go down the tube, and we have no mechanism to control real spending, 70 percent of which is mandatory, that's not even covered by this,' he continued." Mrs. McC: So then he voted for the hoax. ...
... Talk about "Process!" Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Almost no one on or off Capitol Hill has seen the tax overhaul bill that Republicans are drafting behind closed doors. Congressional staff members have not settled on many key details. Yet party leaders are preparing to move ahead on a timeline even more aggressive than their unsuccessful attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The swift pace to complete, release and quickly vote on a tax cut is aimed at leaving little time for the type of dissent that has scuttled previous tax proposals.... Republicans have been meeting for weeks in closed-door sessions to debate details of the tax plan...."
Burgess Everett & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "Key Senate Republicans are urgently trying to get ... Donald Trump to reconsider his apparent opposition to a bipartisan deal shoring up health insurance markets, several senators said Thursday morning.... Trump canceled the cost-sharing reduction payments last week, and days later [Lamar] Alexander and [Patty] Murray struck a deal to fund the payments for two years while providing new flexibility for states to get waivers from some Obamacare regulations. Trump has sent contradictory signals about whether he would sign the bill, calling it a 'good solution' the same day he said it amounted to 'bailouts' for the insurance companies. On Thursday, Trump again sounded warmer to the idea. He praised Alexander and Murray but warned that he wants only a short-term solution to keep repeal alive and doesn't want insurance companies to benefit.... The indecision puzzles Republicans and infuriates Democrats.... 'He's for the bill one day, against it the next,' said an exasperated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday.... Schumer later told reporters all 48 Democrats support the bill. With the dozen Republican co-sponsors, that would be enough for passage if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brings it to the floor."
Maureen Feighan of the Detroit News: "U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will not speak at the Women's Convention in Detroit this month, his office announced Thursday, just days after controversy surfaced about the senator's role in the women-led convention.... Critics lambasted convention organizers last week when it was announced that Sanders would be speaking at the convention, which runs Oct. 27-29 at Cobo Center. Some questioned why a male politician would take such a prominent role at a women's convention. Others challenged Sanders' track record as a progressive politician."
Arpaio Is Still Guilty as Charged. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge has ruled that ... Donald Trump's pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio ends his prosecution for criminal contempt of court, but does not wipe out the guilty verdict she returned or any other rulings in the case. In her order Thursday, Phoenix-based U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton rejected arguments from Arpaio's lawyers and Justice Department prosecutors that the longtime Maricopa County sheriff was entitled to have all rulings in the case vacated.... 'The power to pardon is an executive prerogative of mercy, not of judicial recordkeeping,' Bolton wrote, quoting an appeals court ruling. 'To vacate all rulings in this case would run afoul of this important distinction. The Court found Defendant guilty of criminal contempt. The President issued the pardon. Defendant accepted. The pardon undoubtedly spared Defendant from any punishment that might otherwise have been imposed. It did not, however, "revise the historical facts" of this case."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Avery Anapol of the Hill: "A man who claimed to be a Vietnam veteran and Navy SEAL in a Fox News segment earlier this month has admitted to lying about his service and faking his awards, including two Purple Hearts. John Garofalo appeared on Fox in an Oct. 8 segment to show off a massive hand-cut glass presidential seal that he made as a gift to honor President Trump.... Don Shipley, a retired Navy SEAL who outs false service claims first contacted Fox News about the story the day after it aired, and when it was not immediately retracted, he spoke with the Military Times and provided official records that disputed Garofalo's claims.... Fox retracted the story on Oct. 19, eleven days after it aired, and issued an apology." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If a reporter doing a live segment interviews everyday citizens cold -- as, say, for their responses to some disaster -- the reporter is not responsible for any tall tales the interviewees tell. But if a news outlet has invited a guest to be the star of a prepared, non-essential segment, the outlet has an obvious responsibility to make a cursory check of his or her bona fides. But at Fox "News," "vetting" amounts to finding out if the guest supports the Fox agenda. I think I'll call up the Fox "News" bookers & tell them I'm a Democratic state senator from Nebraska (I'm not) & I totally back President Trump. They'd probably book me right then and there.
Richard Winton & Victoria Kim of the Los Angeles Times: "An Italian model-actress met with Los Angeles police detectives for more than two hours Thursday morning, providing a detailed account of new allegations that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her at a hotel in 2013. She is the sixth woman to accuse Weinstein of rape or forcible sex acts. Los Angeles police Capt. Billy Hayes confirmed that the department has launched an investigation into the matter. It is the first case related to Weinstein to be reported in Southern California. New York police already have two active sex crime probes and London's Metropolitan Police is investigating allegations made by three women. The new allegation could be legally troubling for Weinstein because it falls within the 10-year statute of limitations for the crime that existed at the time of the alleged incident, legal experts say."
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