The Commentariat -- December 17, 2017
The Trumpification of Hate. Dan Barry & John Eligon of the New York Times: "Last year's contentious presidential election gave oxygen to hate. An analysis of F.B.I. crime data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found a 26 percent increase in bias incidents in the last quarter of 2016 -- the heart of the election season -- compared with the same period the previous year. The trend has continued into 2017, with the latest partial data for the nation's five most populous cities showing a 12 percent increase.... Peppered among these incidents is a phenomenon distinct from the routine racism so familiar in this country: the provocative use of 'Trump.'... Across the country, students have used the president's name to mock or goad minority opponents at sporting events. In March, white fans at suburban Canton High School in Connecticut shouted 'Trump! Trump! Trump!' as players from Hartford's Classical Magnet School, which is predominantly black and Latino, took foul shots during a basketball playoff game." The authors cite numerous other instances, and quote a couple of experts who explain the phenomenon as one Trump invited.
Mike Allen of Axios: "Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained 'many tens of thousands' of Trump transition emails.... The sources say Mueller obtained the emails from the General Services Administration, the government agency that hosted the transition email system.... Charging 'unlawful conduct,' Kory Langhofer, counsel for the transition team, wrote in a letter to congressional committees Saturday that 'career staff at the General Services Administration ... have unlawfully produced [transition team] private materials, including privileged communications, to the Special Counsel's Office.'" ...
... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Officials with both the Special Counsel's Office and GSA, however, pushed back against the Trump campaign lawyer's claims.... GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt ... read to BuzzFeed News a series of agreements that anyone had to agree to when using GSA materials during the transition, including that there could be monitoring and auditing of devices and that, 'Therefore, no expectation of privacy can be assumed.'... A spokesperson for the Special Counsel's Office, Peter Carr, told BuzzFeed News, 'When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process.'" ...
... Warren Murray of the Guardian: "... Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said: 'This is another attempt to discredit Mueller as his Trump Russia probe tightens. 'Private documents' on a US government, public email system? What are they afraid was found? Baloney.' In a series of tweets, Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said the Republicans were 'playing politics -- but this is a bad sign for them. Of course Mueller obtained emails from a third party,' he said. 'Prosecutors in most white collar criminal investigations do that. It's not "inappropriate" or even unusual. Anyone who claims otherwise has no idea what they're talking about.'... 'The reason Trump's lawyers are writing letters to Congress instead of Mueller or a court is because their legal arguments have no merit.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The same gang now screaming "it's illegal!" to read public documents also spent several years demanding that Clinton turn over her private e-mails on her private server. Meanwhile, their capo urged Russia to hack that same private server. Just how much urging he did is a subject Mueller hopes the transition e-mails will help illuminate. There is something fundamentally wrong with these hoods.
... There's Usually a Reason for Stupid Stuff. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Two senior FBI officials who texted each other about President Trump and Hillary Clinton relied on work phones to try to hide their romance from a spouse and made the bureau's probe of Clinton's private email server their cover story..., according to people familiar with the matter. The two officials, senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page and senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, are the subjects of an internal investigation that has roiled the FBI and emboldened its Republican critics who have accused the bureau of political bias. Had Page and Strzok used personal phones instead, people close to case say, it's unlikely their text messages would have come to the FBI's attention." ...
... The E-mails!!! The Texts!!! Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd guess Mrs. Strzok knows now. Not sure how this couple are supposed to be experts at covert ops. Apparently a lot of people -- including the bozos on Trump's transition team -- are unaware that government-owned devices & software belong to the people, & communications generated on these devices do, too. I'm not all concerned about these jerks' right to privacy. They gave that up as soon as they clicked "send" on their USA phones and computers. Hillary knew that. That's why she established a private server. And, yes, she was "extremely careless," as Strzok himself wrote, in also using that private server for government business. He should know from "extremely careless."
Kate Zernike & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "With [ObamaCare's] enrollment period shortened and outreach resources cut under the Trump administration this year..., [facilitators] have been working urgently to preserve one of the major achievements of the health law -- the remarkable decline it brought in the proportion of blacks and Hispanics without health insurance. 'Without question,' said Dr. David Satcher, a former surgeon general of the United States, 'the Affordable Care Act represents the biggest gain in coverage we've seen for African Americans since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid' more than a half-century ago." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: AND this is exactly the aim of Trump & the GOP in general. Their main objection to ObamaCare is "Obama," but his name also stands as a symbol for the minority groups who benefit from ObamaCare & other Obama-era programs. Opposition to ObamaCare begins with racism (or "racialism," as Omarosa would have it).
Sheila Kaplan & Donald McNeil of the New York Times: "The Department of Health and Human Services tried to play down on Saturday a report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been barred from using seven words or phrases, including 'science-based,' 'fetus,' 'transgender' and 'vulnerable,' in agency budget documents. 'The assertion that H.H.S. has "banned words" is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,' an agency spokesman, Matt Lloyd, said in an email.... Mr. Lloyd did not respond to other questions about the news report, which was published late Friday by The Washington Post.... The Times confirmed some details of the report with several officials, although a few suggested that the proposal was ... recommendations to avoid some language to ease the path toward budget approval by Republicans." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Describing censorship as "recommendations" is even more Orwellian than flat-out censorship. In 1984, citizens don't have to adopt Newspeak; it's a "suggestion."
Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "For years, the [Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program has] investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records.... It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo.... The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence.... The shadowy program -- parts of it remain classified -- began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid's, Robert Bigelow...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I see no value whatsoever in all the secrecy surrounding the program & neither does Elizondo. He resigned this year, partly because of the secrecy. In the meantime, I wish the occupants of one of those UFOs would beam up Trumpy -- and keep him for observation or something.
Andrew Van Dam of the Washington Post: "Republicans are paying for a permanent cut for corporations with an under-the-radar tax increase on individuals." Van Dam explains the multiple ways the tax heist raises taxes on individuals, some now, some later, some by fake math. "... the net effect of all individual provisions in the tax bill, according to the JCT, is to raise taxes on individuals by a cumulative $83 billion in 2027. Meanwhile, businesses are getting a $49.4 billion cut that year." ...
The GOP story line is: If we cut taxes, there will be more middle-class jobs and people will get increase in their wages. Everyone knows that story is utter nonsense. I think a tax cut is absurd. -- Robert Crandall, former CEO of American Airlines ...
** Some Are Way More Equal than Others. New York Times Editors: "... growing inequality helped create the [tax heist] bill in the first place. As a smaller and smaller group of people cornered an ever-larger share of the nation's wealth, so too did they gain an ever-larger share of political power. They became, in effect, kingmakers; the tax bill is a natural consequence of their long effort to bend American politics to serve their interests.... As kingmakers, rich families have supported candidates who share their hostility to progressive taxation, welfare programs and government regulation of any kind. These big-money donors have pushed the Republican Party in particular further to the right by threatening well-funded primary challenges against anybody who doesn't toe the line on tax cuts for the rich and other pro-aristocracy policies.... Most political campaigns now rely on a small group of wealthy donors.... About 40 percent of contributions to campaigns during the 2016 federal election came from an elite group of 24,949 donors, equivalent to 0.01 percent of the adult population." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yo, Editors, you forgot to give credit to the Roberts Court. That's okay. The Gorsuch Court is worse. ...
... Let's Call It the Trump-Corker Amendment. David Sirota in the International Business Times: "Republican congressional leaders and real estate moguls could be personally enriched by a real-estate-related provision GOP lawmakers slipped into the final tax bill released Friday evening.... The legislative language was not part of previous versions of the bill and was added despite ongoing conflict-of-interest questions about the intertwining real estate interests and governmental responsibilities of ... Donald Trump -- the bill's chief proponent.... [The Kushners also would benefit.] Sen. Bob Corker, who was considered a potential 'no' vote on the bill, abruptly switched his position upon the release of the final legislation. Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Corker has millions of dollars of ownership stakes in real-estate related LLCs that could also benefit." ...
... Corker to Vote for Bill He Had No Idea Benefited Him. Uh-Huh. Josh Keefe of International Business Times: "... U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn, denied knowing about a controversial last-minute provision slipped into the Republican tax bill that could personally enrich him. Corker, the lone Republican to vote against the original Senate bill, which didn't include the provision, also admitted he has not read the final tax bill he announced he will support. A trio of Democratic Senators, meanwhile, slammed the provision, which was first reported on by IBT.... 'I had like a two-page summary I went through with leadership,' said Corker. 'I never saw the actual text.' Despite not reading the bill -- and having time to read it before the final vote scheduled for this week -- he reiterated his support for the bill to IBT, support he announced hours before bill's full text was publicly released on Friday.... Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden ... [said,] 'This new real estate carve out was airdropped in at K Street's bidding, widens the proposed passthrough loophole and gives away an even bigger tax cut to Trump and his wealthy friends.... Combined with tax cuts for the one percent, these breaks create a bonanza for the politically powerful and well-connected at the expense of the middle class.'" ...
... So Much Winning. Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Republicans are on the verge of passing a massive tax cut for businesses that is deeply unpopular with the American public. They are doing it with no Democratic votes and at a moment when the U.S. economy looks pretty healthy (typically, tax cuts are most effective when the economy is struggling and the government wants to revive it). A surprising number of chief executives admit their top plan for the extra cash is to pay shareholders more, not grow jobs and wages. Billionaire chief executive Michael Bloomberg went so far as to declare the bill a 'trillion-dollar blunder.'... Pursuing legislation that most of the country doesn't like is still very risky."
Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Representative Ruben Kihuen, a freshman Democrat from Nevada who has been accused of sexual harassment, said Saturday that he would not seek re-election. He is the fifth member of Congress in the past two weeks whose career has been derailed as part of the national reckoning over sexual misconduct. In a statement issued by his office, Mr. Kihuen, 37, said he wanted to 'state clearly' that he denied the allegations against him. He said that he would cooperate with the House Ethics Committee, which disclosed on Friday that it had opened an investigation into him, and that he looked 'forward to clearing my name.'... Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, had repeatedly called for Mr. Kihuen to resign. But until Saturday, he had steadfastly resisted doing so, insisting he had done nothing wrong. The allegations against Mr. Kihuen, first reported by BuzzFeed News two weeks ago, involve a 25-year-old woman, identified only as Samantha, who left her job as finance director of his campaign because of what she described as repeated unwanted propositions for dates and sex. In addition, The Las Vegas Journal-Review reported this past week that a second, unnamed accuser had come forward.... On Thursday, Representative Blake Farenthold, Republican of Texas, announced that he would not seek re-election. Mr. Farenthold settled a harassment claim filed by his former communications director for $84,000, paid for with taxpayer money."
Sexual Harassment at Fox "News"? Nope, Just "a Bit of Flirting." Yashar Ali in the Huffington Post: "Current and former female Fox News employees say they are 'stunned,' 'disgusted' and 'hungry for justice' after media mogul Rupert Murdoch on Thursday dismissed allegations of sexual misconduct at the network as 'nonsense' outside of a few 'isolated incidents' with former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes. In a televised interview, Sky News host Ian King ... asked Murdoch if sexual misconduct allegations had inflicted damage on Fox News Channel. Murdoch said, 'All nonsense, there was a problem with our chief executive [Ailes], sort of, over the years, isolated incidents. As soon as we investigated it he was out of the place in hours, well, three or four days. And there' been nothing else since then. That was largely political because were conservative. Now of course the liberals are going down the drain -- NBC is in deep trouble. CBS, their stars. I mean there are really bad cases and people should be moved aside. There are other things which probably amount to a bit of flirting.'" Read on. Mrs. McC: Murdoch has an ownership interest in Sky News; its majority owner is 21st Century Fox. It's unclear if Disney will take over Sky News in its deal to purchase most 21st Century Fox assets.
You cannot rewrite history, Mr. Murdoch. The problem was not only with your chief executive. For example, one of your former executives trapped me in his office, pulled-out his penis and shoved my head on it. That's not 'nonsense.' That's criminal. -- Tamara Holder, a Fox News commentator
... In case you think sexual harassment is going to stop or significantly wane as the Murdoch-Ailes generation dies off ...
... Kathy Lally in the Washington Post's "Outlook": "There's more than one way to harass women.... Twenty years ago, when I was a Moscow correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, two Americans named Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames ran an English-language tabloid in the Russian capital called the eXile.... The eXile was juvenile, stunt-obsessed and pornographic, titillating for high school boys. It is back in the news because Taibbi just wrote a new book, and interviewers are asking him why he and Ames acted so boorishly back then. The eXile's distinguishing feature, more than anything else, was its blinding sexism -- which often targeted me.... 'We dragged . . . Lally's charred [corpse] through the dust-and-fly-infested streets of our newspaper for all to have a laugh,' Ames wrote [in the new book].... Bullying, treating women with contempt, freezing them out of the lunches and meetings that build networks and authority: All are damaging, insidious and difficult to root out. That will take time -- and more women who call men out. That's why I'm saying #MeToo." Mrs. McC: You have to read the whole essay to get a picture of what assholes Taibbi & Ames are. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Murdoch & Taibbi are poster boys for the way men explain away sexism: "a bit of flirting," "nonsense," liberals picking on conservatives, "satire," "a laugh."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Nicholas Kulish & Michael Forsythe of the New York Times: "The 2015 purchase [of a $300MM French chateau -- reputed to be the most expensive home in the world --] appears to be one of several extravagant acquisitions -- including a $500 million yacht and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting -- by ... Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi throne ... who is leading a sweeping crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the Saudi elite and preaching fiscal austerity at home.... The ownership of the chateau, in Louveciennes, France, near Versailles, is carefully shrouded by shell companies in France and Luxembourg.... He has come under even more scrutiny since the arrests last month of nearly a dozen of his royal cousins and hundreds of other businessmen or officials, who have been detained at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, now the world's most luxurious jail. The government characterized the arrests as a crackdown on corruption but critics have called it a political purge and a shakedown." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's not be all surprised when Prince Mohammed loses not only some of his money but also first place in the line of succession to the throne. After all, Mohammed just won first place in the beauty pageant this past June because King Salman deposed his predecessor. These things happen.
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Reader Comments (11)
It's quite an astounding spectacle to watch the GOP get their ire up and their tighty whities in a bunch over the FBI's means of investigation. During the George W. Bush administration we saw an unprecedented reach for power. It systematically attempted to defy, control or threaten the institutions that could challenge it: Congress; the courts, and the press. It attempted to upset the balance of power among the three branches of government provided for in the Constitution. We lived through those years aghast at the results. What we have now is a hodge pudge of absolutely crazy, desperate grabbings at what is left of normal and legal proceedings. This, along with the despicable tax bill, is showing full frontal the shrunken "two sizes too small" hearts of our republican brethren. You can almost hear the squeak, squeak of the rusty valves.
And I was thinking: Given all the sexual harassment accusations and swift removals from... Why not do this with guns. Every day print in big bold letters in papers and on-line the victims of gun violence. Keep this violence front and center. Worth a shot.
If Paul Ryan does say bye, bye, the guy in Wisconsin that is aiming to replace him is a right-wing fanatic, lover of Moore and Trump and stumped for them both. His name escapes me.
Happy Sunday
I succumbed. Read Douthat this AM. Typical twaddle. Manufactured something (beating ISIS) he could twist into Pretender praise, something even Douthat himself finds to be a bit of a stretch.
No surprise, the comments interested me far more than the article. Even in the esteemed NY Times it seems Pretender supporters display the same sense of undeserved injury, make the same empty claims and avoid fact at all costs. Sounded like my local newspaper letter column. They were so deplorable I couldn't help myself.
"Didn't read them all, but of those I did, it seems most head-nodders who agree with this Douthat piece are typical of Trump supporters everywhere. Specifics are no where in their arsenal.
What exactly did Trump do to deserve praise? How did he change our anti-ISIS strategy from what began Douthat himself says began under the Obama administration? I know Trump fulminated about labeling them "terrorists" (misleadingly as always, pretending he was the only one who was brave enough to do so), but what else did he do, besides live a year in the White House?
Douthat admits as much, saying he turned it over to the generals, but what did the generals do? No mention of that either. Again vagueness pretending to be argument.
Looks like the "success" Douthat attributes to Trump here is the same as the "success" Trump has claimed with the economy:
Riding an unacknowledged Obama wave.
But those pesky facts. So inconvenient."
In Trumpland everywhere apparently, not just in Northwest Washington.
The hot topic in NJ now is property tax payments. With the new deduction rules for 2018, a lot of people will make 2018 property tax payments this year. Play the new game.
Ken, from what I gather, the primary change this year in U.S. anti-ISIS in Syria was to loosen constraints on potential targets, allowing stand-off weapons to hit targets with less concern for collateral losses (civilian deaths).
That means you can grind to dust an opposition that doesn't possess equivalent stand off weapons. I.e., can't retaliate.
It works every time when what you want to do is clear territory.
But a lot of civilians die in the process. Which they do in every war, even when you try to limit those deaths.
Thanks, Patrick
Exactly.
Just what I had understood, and not surprisingly one definite fact omitted by both Douthat and other Pretender defenders.
Even most Muslim haters know "To hell with the innocent civilians" doesn't play well in the media.
And by "leaving it up to the generals" the Pretender conveniently played Pontius Pilate.
@Ken Winkes: Did you mean Pompous Pirate?
Naw. But I like it and can only wish I had...
A bunch of goodies in the recent "New York Review of Books," this by Timothy Garton Ash prominent among them. Turns out Germany's and the United States' nationalist bents are not exactly alike..... not quite.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/07/germany-alt-right-kultur-stupid
Another problem of giving all the political power to a lucky few rich fanatics is the rules of political risk get skewed beyond recognition. Everyone keeps pointing out that Republicans are taking huge "risks" by shoving through their ridiculously unpopular corporate tax bill, but the risk is falling on the shoulders of easily replacable bought and paid for pawns.
1) The few fanatical donor families poisoning our politics have built such a formidable political machine outside the RNC that their reelections depend almost wholly on the nod of the MoneyMakers. They make and they break.
2) with a stable full of submissive sheep ready and willing to do their bidding, the Mercers/Kochs are finally able to drive through their most extreme fantasies of drowning government, and a good part of the public, in their metaphorical bathtub. It's approached as a long-term investment. For the richest donors, they're setting up their Randian Utopia for their grandkids, positioning them to soften the nest egg, and counting on the election cycle to give them another whack at the trunk of representative democracy in a few electoral cycles.
I believe the donor class knows they're sacrificing a good part of their current seats with this reckless move, but the windfall heading their way with still be paying off by the time the GOP inevitably returns to majority public favor again.
There's no need to hold permanent control of Congress if that means only getting half of what you want. With bipartisanship dead and a public that doesn't even desire it, everything's in place: Swing for the fences and poison the well once the democrats take control, obstruct and wait for inevitable reelection.
The only risk taken on by the real political players, the donor class, is breaking the system they depend on. Their arrogance couldn't register such an absurd idea.
Kinda liked this from the NYTimes this afternoon.
On Meet the Press ".... Marc Short, the White House’s legislative affairs director, said....
'....Taxpayers have spent millions and millions of dollars on this investigation that has not yet proven any sense of collusion with the Russians,' he said. 'I think the American* people are ready to turn the page.'"
Yeah, we want to get back to Benghazi.
*in the White House?
Yes, Ken. We were enjoying French toast when Baldie came on the scene in Chuck's home for the criminally lying goopers, and he didn't disappoint. That on top of the attempted roast of Howard Dean on NPR this morning (Lulu tried but Howard escaped her clutches--)made me decide to spend the rest of the day with Hallmark movies. I know: they are hopelessly pedestrian in scope, lily white, full of blondes skating on rinks and wearing a lot of cute winter duds and the women all reject the faceless corporations they work for in favor of love and family and friends and cookie-decorating. Not a Hillary in the bunch. It's mindless but doesn't play with my anger issues like MSNBC. And they are shot mostly in Canada, so it's good for THEIR employment, etc. So a Merry Taxmas to us all!