The Commentariat -- August 17, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump weighed in with a public defense of Paul Manafort on Friday, as a jury concluded its second day of deliberations to decide if the president's former campaign chairman is guilty of tax and bank fraud. Jurors signaled Friday afternoon that they were unlikely to reach a verdict before the day ended and asked if they could leave the courthouse at 5 p.m. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III agreed, and the panel is scheduled to resume deliberations Monday morning. At the White House, Trump declined to answer a question about a possible pardon for Manafort, but spoke out against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose office brought the charges against the 69-year-old Manafort. 'I think the whole Manafort trial is very sad. When you look at what's going on, I think it's a very sad day for our country,' Trump said, adding that Manafort 'happens to be a very good person, I think it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort.'" The jury has gone home for the weekend.
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday attacked Bruce Ohr, a little-known Justice Department official, calling him 'a disgrace' and threatening to revoke his security clearance 'very soon.' Mr. Ohr, a career official who has worked on antidrug and anti-gang initiatives at the department, has been targeted by conservative conspiracy theorists who say he helped start the investigation into Russian election interference. Mr. Ohr's wife was at one time a contractor for Fusion GPS, which participated in compiling a dossier about Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump has embraced the conspiracy theory, casting Mr. Ohr and his wife, Nellie, as central players in what he calls the 'rigged witch hunt' and accusing the couple of having what he claims are indirect contacts with Russians -- apparently a reference to Christopher Steele, the British spy who compiled the dossier with the help of Russian sources."
Axios: "Dr. Robert Gates has added his name to a stunning list of former intelligence officials who signed a letter criticizing President Trump's decision to revoke former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance..... Gates has served eight presidents, including stints as CIA director, and later as Defense Secretary for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama." ...
... Update: Sixty former intelligence officials have signed onto the letter, according to MSNBC. No link. Mrs. McC: As I was driving home, I heard NPR audio of Trump's saying he had heard from "many people" who supported his revocation of Brennan's security clearance.
Michael Shear & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "For more than a year, law enforcement officials have repeatedly rebuffed President Trump's efforts to use the power of his office to derail the Russia investigation. Stymied, Mr. Trump is lashing out in other ways against an investigation that he clearly hates or fears. The president said Thursday that he revoked the security clearance of John O. Brennan ... because Mr. Brennan had been part of what Mr. Trump has called the 'sham' Russia investigation. That move, and the threats of more revocations, were the latest signs that the president seems determined to punish anyone connected to the Russia inquiry."
Darren Samuelsohn & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Jurors began their second day of deliberations in Paul Manafort's trial Friday morning as the presiding federal judge outlined his ground rules for how the media should cover the verdict without disrupting the courtroom.... After the jurors exited for a nearby conference room, [Judge T.S.] Ellis acknowledged the trial 'might end soon' and turned to several media-related matters, including the decorum for reporters who plan to be in the Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse when the verdict gets read." ...
... Nancy Gertner, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The performance of U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III in the trial of Paul Manafort on bank fraud and tax evasion charges has been decidedly unusual. During the trial, Ellis intervened regularly, and mainly against one side: the prosecution. The judge's interruptions occurred in the presence of the jury and on matters of substance, not courtroom conduct.... Clearly worried about its outcome, prosecutors went so far as to urge Ellis to tell the jury, in his instructions before they began deliberating, not to let his commentary affect their decision-making. Ellis essentially did just that on Wednesday. It may well have been too little too late."
Luppe Luppen & Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "A Manhattan judge issued a ruling on Thursday that thwarted the Trump campaign's attempts to keep a lawsuit out of open court, with potential implications for the looming battle over fired Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's slow-motion revelations of her experiences in the Trump campaign and White House. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by Jessica Denson, a former campaign staffer who filed a complaint last November that alleged she was subjected to 'harassment and sexual discrimination' while she worked on Trump's White House bid in 2016. Lawyers for the Trump campaign tried to force the case into private arbitration based on an agreement signed by staffers that included nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions. In her decision, Judge Arlene Bluth of New York State Supreme Court disclosed flaws in the wording of the agreement that she said limited its scope. The ruling exposes potential weaknesses in the non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements that staff at Trump's White House, his campaign, and the Trump Organization have been made to sign." The Wall Street Journal story, which is subscriber-firewalled, is here.
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm sure at one of Colbert's comedy writers reads Reality Chex.
Sophie Weiner of Splinter: "A source has told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen initially refused to pay Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. According to this account, Cohen changed his mind after the release of the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape in which Trump is heard describing sexually assaulting women. According to the Journal, Cohen reportedly reached out to one of Daniels' representatives the day after the tape became public. Cohen would go on to pay Daniels $130,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement forbidding her from speaking publicly about the alleged affair. Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has also said that the conversation changed after the 'Access Hollywood' tape surfaced." ...
... Oops! Richard Hasen in Slate: "The new revelation about Cohen refusing to pay Daniels in September 2016 is big, circumstantial evidence that could further open up Cohen to facing criminal campaign finance charges. This could also reach all the way to Trump himself.... Cohen's payment to Daniels, if motivated to help the campaign, would be a likely campaign finance violation.... The Journal reports federal prosecutors view the release of the 'Access Hollywood' tape as the 'trigger' for Cohen's payments to Daniels. That's a big deal.... Daniels' former lawyer Keith Davidson had approached Cohen in September 2016 about securing a payment from Trump to buy Daniels' silence. 'Mr. Cohen was dismissive, saying the story was bogus,' according to a source.... Why should Cohen not care a whit about protecting Trump's reputation ... in September 2016, but be anxious to close the deal -- and shut Daniels up -- right as the campaign faced a crisis involving allegations of Trump's treatment of women?... But for the campaign, it seems that Cohen would not have paid."
The Horse He Rode in on. Craig Unger writes a long piece in the New Republic about Donald Trump's decades-long ties to Russian oligarchs -- and Russian intelligence. P.D. Pepe highlighted the story, which I -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie -- have not had time to read, in today's Comments. ...
... Shane Harris of the Washington Post likes the Unger story, too. "As the theory goes, Putin wanted to keep tabs on the billionaires -- some of them former mobsters -- who had made their post-Cold War fortunes on the backs of industries once owned by the state. The oligarchs, as well as other new-moneyed elites, were stashing their money in foreign real estate, including Trump properties, presumably beyond Putin's reach. Trump, knowingly or otherwise, may have struck a side deal with the Kremlin, Unger argues: He would secretly rat out his customers to Putin, who would allow them to keep buying Trump properties. Trump got rich. Putin got eyes on where the oligarchs had hidden their wealth. Everybody won.... As Unger tells it, Trump can't be totally unaware of the criminality surrounding him, and even if he were, that ignorance is no defense. Trump allowed himself to become compromised by Russia, years before he seriously entertained running for public office."
Another funny post from Jonathan Chait highlights Trump's remarkable duplicity, enhanced by his failure, it seems, to pay any attention to the implications of what he's tweeting. Title: "Trump Admits He Was Underfunding Military Budget to Make Room for Parade." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I'm not sure about Trump & Chait's premise. According to the Trumpentweeter, scrapping the November 2018 military parade means, "Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" But the highest cost estimate published for the parade was $92 million, and that is less than the price of the cheapest U.S. fighter plane, the F/A-18 Hornet.
Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Trump administration is ending funding for Syria stabilization projects as it moves to extricate the U.S. from the conflict, citing increased contributions from anti-Islamic State coalition partners. U.S. officials said the administration notified Congress on Friday that it would not spend some $200 million that had been planned for Syria programs and would instead shift that money to other areas. Nearly all of that money, initially pledged by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in February, had been on hold and under review since he was fired in March. A small fraction of that amount was released in June.... [Anonymous officials] said the cut will be more than offset by an additional $300 million pledged by coalition partners, including $100 million that Saudi Arabia announced it had contributed late Thursday. The State Department immediately welcomed the Saudi contribution, which is intended to help revitalize communities liberated from the Islamic State group like Raqqa."
The Company She Keeps. Ben Schreckinger of Politico Magazine: "The Justice Department is suing a friend and former business partner of Ivanka Trump for his alleged role in schemes to defraud the federal government out of millions of dollars in tax liabilities on his father's estate. Filed last month and reported here for the first time, the lawsuit follows an August 2017 Politico investigation of alleged financial wrongdoing by New York businessman Moshe Lax and glaring irregularities in the Internal Revenue Service's handling of a $27 million lien on his father's estate. The suit, which seeks more than $60 million in unpaid tax liabilities, was brought in the Southern District of New York.... It alleges that Lax, his sister Zlaty Schwartz, and his late father, Chaim Lax, engaged in a series of complex 'sham transactions' designed to fraudulently evade tax liability. The government alleges the family members undertook 10 separate schemes 'designed to hide the Lax family assets from the IRS and other creditors and make it appear as though the Estate was insolvent.' At a time when Democrats are working to make corruption a midterm campaign issue and a jury deliberates over whether to convict ... Donald Trump's former campaign manager for tax fraud, the suit threatens to further the perception that the Trump family and their closest associates operate in a corrupt milieu." ...
... MEANWHILE. Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "When the Kushner Companies bought the building at 184 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn in 2015, there were 316 rent-stabilized tenants, seemingly protected from eviction and large rent increases. By June of this year, there were 71 left, according to documents filed with the state attorney general.... The exodus of 245 rent-regulated tenants in a building in less than three years allowed the Kushners to promote those apartments as condominiums and to sell, so far, roughly 130 units for tens of millions of dollars. Last month, a group of 20 current and former tenants at the building filed a $10 million lawsuit, claiming that their apartments were made nearly uninhabitable during two years of renovations, when an army of workers trooped through the seven-story building on the Brooklyn waterfront. The tenants say the sound of drilling reverberated through the hallways. A fine layer of dust covered their furniture and clothing at the end of each day.... In a statement, the Kushner companies insisted that they took all the appropriate precautions to protect existing tenants...."
Jericka Duncan of CBS News: "Rep. Keith Ellison -- deputy chairman of the Democratic NationalCommittee and a candidate for Minnesota attorney general -- has denied allegations that he abused his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan. On Thursday, Monahan, 44, spoke on camera for the first time about an incident she said happened nearly two years ago. Monahan said she has video of what happened but that it's too traumatic for her, so she has chosen not to share it with anyone. CBS News has not seen the video." Mrs. McC: Nonetheless, she was willing to talk about the alleged incident. I don't see why it would be so traumatic to let others see the video; Monahan would not have to watch along with them. Not saying the abuse didn't happen; just saying her justification for withholding the video is fishy. An abuser's denial, BTW, is not compelling, either.
Violet Ikonomova of the Detroit Metro Times: "More than a dozen community groups have called on Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) to apologize for a series of racial slurs sources say she used to describe her primary election opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit). Scott is alleged to have referred to Chang as 'ching-chang' and 'the ching-chong' to multiple voters outside polling precincts during last Tuesday's election. She's also said to have called one of Chang's campaign volunteers an 'immigrant,' saying 'you don't belong here' and 'I want you out of my country.'" DMT Update: "Rep. Bettie Cook Scott has issued an apology for her remarks. Find her statement here."
*****
Breaking! Black Robbers Hold up POTUS*! Trump Avenges Them. Details linked below under "He Loves a Parade."
... Wow! Looks as if there were millions of people on the Mall!
... DeNeen Brown of the Washington Post: "The president [Barack Obama] would later write in an email to the New Yorker: 'Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R. & B., rock and roll -- the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha sings. That's why, when she sits down at a piano and sings "A Natural Woman," she can move me to tears.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade -- our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace. -- Barack Obama, yesterday in a tweet ...
... BUT Donald Trump Remembers Aretha Franklin as the Help:
... and he had to read that off note cards. More extemporaneously, he sent "best wishes" to Aretha's family. Who offers "best wishes" to the bereaved? Besides Trump. ...
... MEANWHILE, Trump's favorite teevee network, Fox "News," remembered Franklin with ... a photo of Patti LaBelle. As "Bad Fox Graphics" noted on Twitter, "It's understandable that FoxNews would use a photo of Labelle to announce Aretha Franklin's death. It sure is confusing, because they're both...uhh...excellent singers." Mrs. McC: Yeah, and for all we know, they both worked for Trump, too.
That's LaBelle in the background photo, taken during a 2014 Performance at the White House.
Could He Be More Stupid? Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday assailed the media for editorials in newspapers across the country that championed the freedom of the press, a unified response in the face of the president's relentless attacks.In a series of morning Twitter posts, Mr. Trump said The Boston Globe was 'in collusion' with other newspapers for leading the editorial effort, choosing a word that has become synonymous with the special counsel's investigation into Russian election interference.... Trump also added 'PROVE IT!' in one of the messages, though it was not clear what he meant[:] '... Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!'... [Then there was this:] 'There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
David Nakamura & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has told advisers that he is eager to strip more security clearances as part of an escalating attack against people who have criticized him or played a role in the investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, two White House officials said.... Trump ... could act soon, according to the White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... Trump believes he has emerged looking strong and decisive in his escalating feud with [John] Brennan, the aides said.... As the Russia investigation tightens around the president -- Mueller is pressing Trump's legal team over a potential interview with him -- the president remains impulsive and unpredictable, aides said. 'The [standard] process [of revoking clearances] is essentially meaningless,' one White House aide said. 'If Trump wants to do it, he'll just do it.'... White House aides confirmed that Trump made his decision weeks ago about Brennan.... Senior advisers, including [Sarah] Sanders, recommended to the president that they announce the action Wednesday amid an onslaught of news coverage from former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's new book...." ...
... Julie Davis & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump's decision to revoke [John Brennan's] security clearance drew rebukes Thursday from national security officials and members of both political parties, who called it an extraordinary act of retaliation that reflected authoritarian tactics.... Step by step, from the moment 10 days into his administration that he fired the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, Mr. Trump has overseen the removal of top national security officials who have defied him or worked at senior levels of the Russia investigation. They include James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director; Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director; and Peter Strzok, the former F.B.I. counterintelligence agent who helped oversee the Hillary Clinton email inquiry and the Russia investigation and disparaged Mr. Trump in a series of inflammatory texts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... William McRaven in a Washington Post op-ed: "Dear Mr. President: Former CIA director John Brennan ... is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don't know him. Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency."... William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden." ...
... Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Disconnected from any allegation, let alone evidence, that [John] Brennan abused his clearance, Trump's maneuver struck many intelligence observers and former officials as a naked power play: a message to the intelligence community that the president expects their personal loyalty. But CIA Director Gina Haspel, whose nomination Brennan very publicly supported and whose integrity Brennan vouched for, is remaining silent, even as the White House suggests that the same fate may await other intelligence veterans who consider Trump a danger to the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... BUT. Olivia Gazis of CBS News: "Twelve former senior intelligence officials, including 11 former CIA directors and deputy directors and one former director of national intelligence, have signed a letter of support for former CIA director John Brennan, calling the signal sent by the White House's decision to strip him of his security clearance 'inappropriate' and 'deeply regrettable.' 'We feel compelled to respond in the wake of the ill-considered and unprecedented remarks and actions by the White House,' the senior officials wrote. 'We know John to be an enormously talented, capable and patriotic individual who devoted his entire adult life to the service of this nation.... We have never before seen the approval or removal of security clearances used as a political tool,' they wrote.... The letter's signees include former Directors of Central Intelligence William Webster, George Tenet and Porter Goss; former CIA directors Gen. Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta and Gen. David Petraeus; former director of national intelligence James Clapper; and former deputy CIA directors John McLaughlin, Stephen Kappes, Avril Haines, David Cohen and Michael Morell, who is also a CBS News senior national security contributor." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Trump says that although he has never obstructed justice in the Russia investigation, he does 'fight back.' And, as of Wednesday, he had 'fought back' against a majority of top officials involved in leading, overseeing or making administration decisions about that probe. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, of the more than a dozen officials with what could be construed as leadership roles in the investigation, more than half have been fired and/or threatened with official recourse. The most recent examples were the White House's revocation of former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance Wednesday and the threats to do the same for nine other current and former officials who have run afoul of Trump. In one fell swoop, the White House effectively more than doubled its enemies list -- and served notice that ex-officials who were involved in the probe will not be permitted to criticize Trump willy-nilly." Blake lists the officials Trump has targeted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rachel Maddow made the point last night that Trump's plans to revoke security clearances for his "enemies list" is an effort not to silence critics but to silence witnesses -- witnesses who may be required to testify in criminal and/or impeachment proceedings. If these potential witnesses can't review the classified info they gathered against Trump & Trump Inc., their testimony will be compromised. As John Brennan noted in an earlier interview, the only times he has sought to review classified information since he left government was to refresh his memory in preparation to testify. Brennan & most of the people on Trump's list held high-level intelligence, investigative or DOJ positions while the Russia investigation was ongoing.
Little Dictator Comes "Unhinged." Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "... Trump told advisers that he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to have Manigault Newman arrested, according to one Republican briefed on the conversations. (It's unclear what law Trump believes she broke.) Another Republican recounted how over the weekend Trump derailed a midterm-election strategy session to rant about Manigault Newman's betrayal." ...
... Jeet Heer: "The story of Trump demanding that Manigault Newman arrested is consistent with the fact that Trump has repeatedly made public requests that the Department of Justice investigate his political enemies."
... Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Omarosa Manigault Newman ... on Thursday released exclusively to MSNBC a secret tape of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after she was fired from the administration. The tape -- which, according to Manigault Newma was made on Dec. 16, 2017, just days after she had left the White House -- appears to corroborate claims she made in her new book about receiving an offer from the president's re-election campaign. Manigault Newman wrote in her book that the job offer came with the condition of signing a nondisclosure agreement; she said she did not accept it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Maggie Haberman & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "On Thursday, officials at Simon & Schuster, the publisher of 'Unhinged,' said they had received a legal warning letter against publication from Charles Harder, the libel lawyer whom Mr. Trump has retained in other matters. The publisher's lawyer responded in kind, saying the president was using the highest platform in the land to censor someone.... Mr. Trump's aides have been concerned that they will make appearances on other tapes, of which [Omarosa] Manigault Newman is believed to have as many as 200.... 'All the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors, small-dollar donors for the most part,' [Lara] Trump said [on the tape Manigault Newman gave to MSNBC]. 'So I know you, you were making 179 at the White House, and I think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines.' In a statement, Ms. Trump said..., 'I hope it's all worth it for you, Omarosa, because some things you just can't put a price on.'..." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND apparently there are some things you can put a price on -- like silence, which would go for "along the lines" of $179K, by Lara Trump's reckoning.
Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "Jurors in Paul Manafort's trial ended their first day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... The story has been updated: "Jurors in Paul Manafort's bank- and tax-fraud trial ended their first day of deliberations without a verdict, but posed a set of questions to the judge overseeing the case that could indicate trouble for the prosecution. A note from the jury read aloud in court Thursday afternoon asked about the legal requirements behind four of the felony charges facing the former Trump campaign chairman: allegations that he failed to file reports on bank accounts located overseas. Jurors also asked U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III to provide clarification on what constitutes reasonable doubt. The queries could alarm special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors because they suggest the jurors were not immediately convinced that the case against Manafort is a slam dunk. But it could also mean that jurors have not bought the defense's central argument: that [Rick] Gates was the one actually responsible for Manafort's alleged wrongdoing." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Jurors are considering 18 counts. I think the question could also mean they were having trouble deciding one or a few counts, not all 18. Update: Former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg may more-or-less the same point on MSNBC last night.
Trump Accidentally Gifts the "Fake News." Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump's decision to declassify competing congressional memos about the validity of the so-called Steele dossie means the FBI has lost its authority to rebuff Freedom of Information Act requests about the bureau's efforts to verify the report's intelligence linking Trump to Russia during the 2016 campaign, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta previously blessed the FBI's decision to refuse such FOIA requests by declining to confirm whether any records exist about aspects of its handling of the hotly contested dossier, prepared by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.... Mehta said Trump's actions in February to greenlight the release of one memo from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and a separate memo from the panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, left untenable the FBI's position of resisting disclosure.... The ruling will not take immediate effect, because the case was on appeal to the D.C. Circuit when Trump approved release of the House memos. The appeals court is now likely to remand the case to Mehta...."
Adam Raymond of New York: "President Trump made it easier for the United States military to launch cyberattacks this week by reversing an Obama-era rule that required 'an elaborate interagency process' prior to any such attacks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump signed the order Wednesday reversing what is known as Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD-20), which President Obama signed in 2012. The directive required several layers of interagency sign-off, from parties such as the State Department and the intelligence community, before the military could launch a cyberattack.... As Politico describes, [the Obama rule] could ... prevent agencies from stepping on each other's toes. 'The intelligence community has also balked at some military operations, especially ones that risk exposing the eavesdropping software that U.S. spies spend years developing and planting in enemy networks.'"
He Loves a Parade
Amanda Macias of CNBC: "... Donald Trump's military parade this fall is shaping up to cost $80 million more than initially estimated. The Department of Defense and its interagency partners have updated their perspective cost estimates for the parade, according to a U.S. defense official with firsthand knowledge of the assessment. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. The parade, slated for Nov. 10, is estimated to cost $92 million, the official said.... The U.S. has not held a major military parade in Washington since 1991 to mark the end of Operation Desert Storm. That parade reportedly cost approximately $8 million and was paid for with about $3 million in government funds and the rest with private donations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
So Then. Barbara Starr, et al., of CNN: "The Department of Defense says the military parade originally scheduled for Veterans Day will be postponed. 'The Department of Defense and White House have been planning a parade to honor America's military veterans and commemorate the centennial of World War I,' Defense Department spokesman Col. Rob Manning said in a statement Thursday. 'We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019.'" ...
... Missy Ryan & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The decision to announce a possible postponement appeared to come together in the space of hours Thursday afternoon and evening. It was not clear who made the decision to explore delaying the event, which had been a priority for Trump.... Planning for the parade comes at a time when Trump has boasted of saving money by suspending joint military exercises with South Korea, part of his outreach to North Korea. The affected exercise would have cost about $14 million, far less than the parade's current expected cost."
AND Then. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday canceled plans for a military parade this fall in Washington, blaming local officials for inflating the estimated costs, saying they 'know a windfall when they see it.'... 'The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead... ....attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie Translation: D.C. Officials = corrupt, scary black stick-up men (and women!). They tried to hold up Trump on the streets of D.C. because they hate America. He was too tough to let them get away with it. ...
... John Wagner & Peter Jamison of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday blamed local officials for his decision to postpone a grand military parade in Washington this fall, alleging without evidence that they had unreasonably inflated the price.... About an hour after the president's tweet, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) delivered her own caustic response on Twitter...[:] 'Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad).'... A city official said the planning process for the parade had been difficult to coordinate with White House officials, who had been slow to communicate details of the event, including plans for a specific date. Trump's tweets were aimed at a government run by Democrats." Emphasis added. Mrs. McC: As noted above, I don't think party affiliation was the point.
Adam Raymond: "Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has spent the last week telling anyone who's asked that the wildfires ripping their way through California have nothing to do with climate change. On Thursday, he changed his tune. 'Of course,' he told reporters when asked if climate change is one of the reasons for the proliferation of the fires. The tepid acknowledgement of the obvious comes days after Zinke told a California TV station that the wildfires have 'nothing to do with climate change.'... He [also] blamed 'frivolous litigation from radical environmentalists' for preventing the removal of dead timber, which can serve as a fuel to raging wildfires, from California's forests.... It's hard to know what to make of Zinke's admission Thursday morning. Especially since it came only hours after he went on Fox Business and questioned the very idea that humans are playing a role in climate change."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said his caucus is preparing to sue the National Archives if it is unable to meet the party's Freedom of Information Act request for hundreds of thousands of pages of Kavanaugh documents that have not yet been disclosed publicly. If the Archives has not met Democrats' request in 20 days, Schumer and his members say they will go to court.... The minority leader also said he would meet with Kavanaugh next week, breaking a long standoff between Schumer and the White House over the documents.... Schumer said he would ask Kavanaugh about the documents 'and what he intends to do about it. He can't duck.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Education is investigating Ohio State University's response to allegations of sexual abuse against former athletic doctor Richard Strauss. The probe by the department's Office for Civil Rights will examine whether Ohio State responded 'promptly nd equitably' to allegations by former students that Strauss touched athletes inappropriately during appointments and ogled them in a campus locker room, as well as claims that school officials knew or should have known about the alleged abuse, the school said. Strauss, who killed himself in 2005, was employed by Ohio State from 1978 to 1998. He has been accused of sexually abusing student athletes in 14 sports, as well as patients at the campus health center." Mrs. McC: Let's hope Ditsy DeVos isn't in charge of the probe. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (18)
Glimmers? Could we actually see glimmers? When Ryan Zinke recants his stance on climate change; when that $92 million dollar military parade has been postponed; when a tape reveals pay-off for Omarosa; when twelve former senior intelligence officials, et al. sign a letter of support for Brennan; when a highly respected man like William McRaven asks Trump to revoke his security clearance so he can join the others who have spoken out against the presidency; when newspapers throughout the country yesterday had editorials in solidarity for a "free press" denouncing Trump's stance on "Fake News"; then–––––? I'd say we gots some glimmers here.
Loved to see the clip of Obama wiping tears from his eyes when Aretha sang "Natural Woman" at one of the White House musical events honoring Carole King who along with her then husband wrote the song especially for Aretha. And to read Obama's tribute to Aretha brought a few tears–-such elegance, such passion, such sincerity–-"you'll miss me when I'm gone"–––you bet!
By the way––has the Trump White House had any musical events? By this time in a presidency there would always be at least two by this time.
@PD, there haven't been any musical events probably because they can't get any one to appear. Perhaps, though, Ted Nugent might show up to perform his modern renditions of Free-For-Me and Scat Catch Fever.
The WaPo article linked above says DiJiT is eager to rescind security clearances of more people.
This is sort of like when he started pardoning people. When he learned he could "just do it" as a plenipotentiary, all by himself, he found that "doing it" gave him an endorphin rush, immediate gratification. So he immediately did more of them.
He's just playing with himself. But he wants us to watch.
Just finished reading a fascinating article on TNR that was adapted from "House of Trump, House of Putin" by Craig Unger: "When a Young Trump Went to Russia." We even get to read about the usual suspects involved early on with Trump–-Roy Cohen, Manafort and Roger Stone. But the main thrust of this excerpt is how Trump naively became involved with the Russians who had his number and started putting the strings.
https://newrepublic.com/article/150646/young-trump-went-russia
Isn't Lara Trumps offer to Newman a bribe?
Not a bribe when the trumps do it. Bribes would be illegal, or
immoral, or undignified. Only criminals or mafia types would
do that.
forrest morris, your post makes sense for Trumpworld, but maybe we should identify the new criminal entity, Trumpfia.
If I were a Trumpbot, would I be more upset if I found out my $15 political donation (a) had been used to pay a bribe; or (b) went to a black woman?
Marie,
If the bribe went to an honest white, Trumpian style grifter, it would all be jake.
Round about this time every year, as fall gets closer, I find myself wishing summer could hang around for another month or so. And this thought brought me to look up Tom Rush's cover of the gorgeous Joni Mitchell song "The Urge for Going". Okay. Mission accomplished.
But, as too often happens in internet searches, where you can get from an article on the political implications of operatic librettos in 17th C Venice to one explaining the antioxidant properties of grilled avocado in one jump, you run across stuff you hadn't even been looking for.
That's how I found out what's wrong with America.
But first, I learned why I occasionally spend time looking for my reading glasses (accompanied by choice blasphemous fulminations) only to discover them in my hand.
THEN I learned what's wrong with America. You'll never guess.
The Poor Have Too Much Money.
Of course, if you're one of Trump's billionaire cabinet members, you already know this. Because then you're in that select group that understands the zero-summiness of the whole business. If one miserable, undeserving poor moocher gets a penny, then you lose. Automatically. Therefore, the only way you win is for you and your pals, the Betsy DeVoses and the Wilbur Rosses and the Trumps, to have everything, and the poors.....nothing.
Sorry, poors. You're destroying America. You gotta go.
Now where the hell are those glasses?
Friday This and That
Ryan Zinke, charged with overseeing the Interior Department has been spending an inordinate amount of time in the interior of his very weird brain. After being forced to admit that maybe, possibly, could be, not-out-of-the-range-of-the-likely, global warming has an effect on the vast forest fires we've had (and will continue to have) for years, Zinke blamed environmentalists for everything. Because why not? Also, they're terrorists. But willfully ignoring rising CO2 emissions for decades, thus condemning billions of people around the world to rising sea levels and extreme, life threatening weather conditions isn't terrorism at all.
Poor little rich boy donnie. Mean ol' blackies are not letting him stand on his balcony and do his Hitler-Mussolini thing as all his extra-cool neat-o army guys march by in his honor. I know, he can get Junior and Little Dracula and John Kelly and Kellyanne and Liarbee and a few more mooching hangers-on to don Halloween store army uniforms and parade around the Oval Office, shouting "Heil Trump!" That oughta soothe the wounded fee-fees.
And speaking of Trump and black people, does anyone really doubt that Trump used (uses) the N word? He's an unrepentant and unreconstructed racist from way back (dad was in the KKK for fuck's sake). This is a distraction. Who cares? Let's all worry about something else. Like the Supreme Court.
So Chuck Schumer sez "You guys at the Archives have 20 days! Or else!" Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Twenty days? Why not a hundred? If these people don't completely suck at their job they shouldn't need more than 20 hours to get you something. Maybe not everything, but something. And I don't mean something Kavanaugh jotted down on a cocktail napkin. Don't they have those computer thingies? What the hell kind of archive are they if they can't do a search and come up everything you want in....okay, I'll give them a week. And oh, by the way, when you say "He can't duck!" , meaning Trump's next future Nuremberg Trial defendant, oh yes he can. And Mitch McConnell will let him. He can duck and shuck and jive and wiggle his little Ken Starr pee-pee at you all he wants and no one will do anything about it. Get with the program, Chuck.
And Trump's brownshirt supporters didn't waste any time. The Boston Globe got their first bomb scare yesterday, courtesy of some nice Trumpbot. How you like them First Amendment apples, libtards? Lots more where that came from! Yeah! PROVE IT!
Just wondering if T.S. Ellis's "clarification" to the jury in the Manafort trial went something like "And if you are not absolutely certain that Paul Manafort was in cahoots with John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, you must find him not guilty. Also, if you don't think he was personally responsible for Mitt Romney's garage elevator, let him go. If the Mitt don't fit, you must acquit".
This is pretty good. Sounds of Silence during this age of drumpf.
I may have mentioned this before, but don't you guys think that little donnie looks really bad? Check out the screen grab in the MSNBC clip Marie has linked above. Bags under the bloodshot, squinty eyes, hunched over, the guy looks like he just woke up from a four day bender, was poured into his billowing Brioni and led to the chair by a minder who is standing aft in case he keels over.
In other pictures, you can see the white rings around the eyes where the spray tan hits his goggles. That look is funereal. Not to mention those pictures of him with his mouth hanging open and facial expressions that range from Screaming Mimi to haggard and barely sentient.
Given his horrible diet, lack of exercise, stress levels (which must be stratospheric) and constant state of demonic anger (some of which may be a put-on, but not all), I'm surprised he's upright half the time. That must be partly why he needs all that Egg-Zecutive Time in the morning and why he only works a couple of hours a day (the rest of the time he watches Fox and re-plays clips of himself yelling and screaming and patting himself on the back...he makes Norma Desmond look good).
Fox News fucks up Arethra Franklin's remembrance because they're willfully ignorant of everything outside of white, xenophobic America. African-American culture might as well be African for the simpletons over at "False News". It's bad enough they make ridiculous assertions about any cultures outside our borders ("no go zones", European 'shocialists', shithole continents...), but they completely ignore, dismiss, or the contributions that any non-"white" Americans make to the great American experiment. And this, it must be remembered, is sanctioned, molded, and propagated by the racist ideologies of Mr. Murdoch and his mini-me kids.
On another note, leaks to Sam (shitstain) Numberg say that the previously-assumed "Adult in the room" but now outed as fellow petty bigot John "empty barrel" Kelly is pushing Trump to arrest Omarosa for supposedly national security reasons. But we all know it's actually because, like Drumpf, he can't stand to have Omarosa embarrassing him in public. Surely the tape of him got him all hot and bothered, undermined by a black woman.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/sam-nunberg-reveals-that-john-kelly-is-prodding-the-president-to-arrest-omarosa/amp/
Oh, the irony!
Actually this has to register as post-ironic.
So class, next week we all need to head on over to Rockville, MD, where Melanie will be giving a lecture on the problems of cyberbulling.
I am not even kidding.
"Melania Trump will address a government summit next week on cyberbullying — days after her husband tweeted that his former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman is a 'dog,' a 'crying low life,' a 'loser,' 'wacky,' 'deranged,' and 'crazed.'"
Needless to say, Twitter responses to Melanie's decision to talk about cyberbullies are choice.
"Will $he be di$cu$$ing why $he cho$e to marry one?"
"With or without the jacket?"
and...
"First breakaway session: When it is okay to refer to females as dogs in a tweet to the world."
Hey, I know First Ladies need a project and a cause or two, but c'mon. How about littering, or public safety, or Russian orphans? But cyberbulling? Mrs. Donald Trump? Isn't that a little like Mrs. John Gotti giving a lecture on law and order? It really is a non-stop clown show.
I can see it now, little donnie reads about the Twitter response to his wife's speech about how cyberbulling demeans and debases the public discourse, then spends his Egg-Zecutive Time blasting out a gusher of attack and insult tweets.
QED, Melanie, QED.
I can never be sure what to think about this Manafort trial, mostly because of this whacky judge.
The jury sent a note to Judge Ellis asking him to define "reasonable doubt". I'm inclined to see this as a bad sign. If they don't think Mueller's guys made their case, they might want to be sure that they can let him off the hook based on the judge's definition. (Although they could want to be sure that the reasonable doubt standard has been met...)
And wouldn't the judge have already instructed them as to the parameters of what constitutes reasonable doubt?
Maybe they want to....
Oh, who the hell knows? Gotta wait for the decision.
So the jury went home for the weekend! And, of course we all know that some of them just might happen...just accidentally hear that the judge was threatened...AND he fears for the jurors safety so he wont release names and addresses.
This is all so reassuring! Not!
MAG,
And I’m wondering who, or rather, what group might have threatened the judge? Liberals? Or Trump Nazis? Who called in a bomb scare to the Boston Globe because they were pissed that its editorial stance might implicate the Glorious Leader as a hater of the US Constitution? And who might the same thuggish clan believe could be jeopardized by a guilty verdict for the oligarch assisting, campaign director who helped, with the aid of Putin’s hackers, to ram that weasel into the White House?