Saturday
Dec022017
The Commentariat -- December 2, 2017
Afternoon Update:
Kristine Phillips & Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In his first public comments about Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with a Russian official, President Trump reiterated Saturday that his campaign did not collude with Russia and suggested Flynn lied for no reason. When asked by reporters before departing for New York if he was worried about what Flynn might say, Trump said, 'No, I'm not. And what has been shown is no collusion. No collusion. There has been absolutely no collusion. So we're very happy.' He later tweeted..., 'I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!'... Curiously, Trump's tweet indicates he knew about Flynn's lie to the FBI when he fired him, but that wasn't reported by The Washington Post until two days afterward. At the time, Trump cited only Flynn's lie to Vice President Pence.... Trump was greeted in New York by protesters chanting 'Lock him up.'..." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: The most interesting part of Trump's comment is his assertion that "his [Flynn's] actions during the transition were lawful." This strongly suggests to me that Trump himself was in on the Russian contacts from the git-go (so his own actions were lawful, too), something I suspect anyway. If Sally Yates, then acting attorney general, thought the "actions were lawful," she would not have warned the White House that Flynn had made unlawful, compromising contacts with Kislyak. ...
... In addition, it was after Trump fired Flynn, which according to the tweet was partly because Flynn lied to the FBI, that Trump asked Jim Comey to go easy on Flynn, & when Comey refused, Trump fired him. That is, Trump admitted again today that he tried to obstruct justice. My hope is that Mueller will send a damning report to the House, at right about the time Democrats take control of the Congress, AND will file a secret indictment of Trump, to be opened upon his forced retirement.
Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "... Robert S. Mueller III removed a top F.B.I. agent from his investigation into Russian election meddling after the Justice Department's inspector general began examining whether the agent had sent text messages that expressed anti-Trump political views, according to three people briefed on the matter. The agent, Peter Strzok, is considered one of the most experienced and trusted F.B.I. counterintelligence investigators. He helped lead the investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on her private email account, and then played a major role in the investigation into links between President Trump's campaign and Russia. But Mr. Strzok was reassigned this summer from Mr. Mueller's investigation to the F.B.I.'s human resources department, where he has been stationed since. The people briefed on the case said the transfer followed the discovery of text messages in which Mr. Strzok and a colleague reacted to news events, like presidential debates, in ways that could appear critical of Mr. Trump."
Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Project Veritas, an activist group that mounts undercover video stings of liberals and mainstream news organizations, received nearly $1.7 million in donations last year from a giant charity associated with the Koch brothers, according to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service." Mrs. McC: The Koch boys aren't just selfish confederates; they're vicious, unprincipled, win-at-any-cost confederates.
*****
Jim Tankersley, et al., of the New York Times: "The Senate passed the most sweeping tax rewrite in decades early Saturday, with Republicans lining up to approve an overhaul that will touch almost every corner of the United States economy, affecting families, small business owners and multinational corporations, with the biggest benefits flowing to the highest-earning Americans.Senators voted 51-49, as Republicans approved the nearly 500-page bill in the early morning hours after lawmakers received a rewritten version, which contained significant changes from the original bill that passed two Senate panels last month along party lines.... Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, voted against the legislation." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you want to know what-all is in the bill, it's better to read the Times' editorial, linked below, because it reads more like a news report on this atrocities. ...
... ** "A Historic Tax Heist." New York Times Editors: "With barely a vote to spare early Saturday morning, the Senate passed a tax bill confirming that the Republican leaders' primary goal is to enrich the country's elite at the expense of everybody else, including future generations who will end up bearing the cost. The approval of this looting of the public purse by corporations and the wealthy makes it a near certainty that President Trump will sign this or a similar bill into law in the coming days. The bill is expected to add more than $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, a debt that will be paid by the poor and middle class in future tax increases and spending cuts to Medicare, Social Security and other government programs. Its modest tax cuts for the middle class disappear after eight years. And up to 13 million people stand to lose their health insurance because the bill makes a big change to the Affordable Care Act." ...
... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "What began as an effort that would favor wealthy individuals and corporations became, in many ways, even more tilted in their favor as the legislation made its way through the Senate.... A series of ... changes that took away from working-class and middle-class families benefits that had been in an earlier version of the bill. When lawmakers needed a way to limit the legislation's impact on the deficit to make it comply with Senate rules, they made the bill's tax cuts affecting individuals temporary -- ending in 2025 -- while leaving in place ones that benefit corporations. The move would lead to a tax hike on many Americans in the middle of the next decade. Likewise, when they needed to find additional ways to finance the corporate tax cut, leaders targeted the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate for elimination. At the same time, changes demanded by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to increase benefits for companies that pay their taxes through the individual tax code -- a mechanism that experts say disproportionately benefits the wealthy -- made it into the final version of the legislation released late Friday." ...
... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) gets his copy of the GOP tax bill:
Dana Milbank: Trump's "pyrotechnics are going to increase now that Mueller has turned Flynn. Trump's distractions will be impossible to ignore. But we -- lawmakers, the media and the public -- need to keep our focus on the real damage Trump is doing.... But the outbursts serve a real purpose. They provide cover.... If this tax bill were to see more sunlight, it would never become law. It adds $1 trillion in debt, ultimately increases taxes on those making less than $75,000 a year, gives most of the breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent, is forecast to add negligible economic growth and would force massive cuts to Medicare and Obamacare. But while Trump distracted the nation, GOP leaders strong-armed holdouts all week." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't think Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan & their pals don't know this. They pretend to laugh off Trump or occasionally to be appalled by his most outrageous antics, but in fact they likely have learned to rely on & appreciate the cover Trump gives them while they do their dirty work more-or-less sub rosa. When Obama was president, these guys had to provide their own cover with endless displays of fake outrage, fake investigations of fake scandals; now the Useful Idiot is taking care of that.
Michael Shear & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about conversations with the Russian ambassador last December during the presidential transition, bringing the special counsel's investigation into the president's inner circle. Mr. Flynn, who appeared in federal court in Washington, acknowledged that he was cooperating with the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His plea agreement suggests that Mr. Flynn provided information to prosecutors, which may help advance the inquiry.... Mr. Flynn's admissions in his plea deal could deeply undercut the arguments made in January by Mr. Trump and his aides that they were not fully aware of Mr. Flynn's discussion with Russians about sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration over the election meddling. In fact, the documents say multiple members of the team coordinated the specifics of Mr. Flynn's outreach to Russia and knew that the conversations were about sanctions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and court records indicate he was acting under instructions from senior Trump transition officials in his dealings with the diplomat. Flynn's admission to the charge Friday in federal district court in D.C. could be an ominous sign for the White House, as Flynn is cooperating in the ongoing probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. His plea revealed that he was in touch with senior Trump transition officials before and after his communications with Kislyak -- rebutting the idea that he was a rogue operator.... Days after former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted, Mueller's investigators warned Flynn's lawyers they planned to indict Flynn and also could charge his son, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Flynn's lawyers, [Robert] Kelner and Stephen Anthony, provided a proffer of what information Flynn could provide and then Flynn met with Mueller's team." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... CNN has readable copies of the court filings. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Josh Gerstein & Theodoric Meyer of Politico report on the courtroom proceedings. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Flynn to Grab Trump by the Facts. Brian Ross, et al., of ABC News: "Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn has promised 'full cooperation' in the special counsel's Russia investigation and, according to a confidant, is prepared to testify that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "After six months of work, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has indicted two advisers to President Trump and accepted guilty pleas from two others in exchange for their cooperation with his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election -- a sign of mounting legal peril for the White House.... [The investigation] appears to have swiftly expanded beyond Russia's interference in the campaign to encompass a range of activities, including contacts with Russian officials during the transition and alleged money laundering that took place long before Trump ran for office. And Flynn's agreement to fully cooperate with investigators suggests that Mueller is not done yet.... Mueller is now expected to explore who knew what in the White House about Flynn's interactions with the Russians -- and whether any other Trump aides lied about that knowledge.... Court filings show that Flynn was actively working to undercut Obama's foreign policy before formally entering government, in consultation with other Trump officials.... There have been signs for months that Trump was particularly nervous about the possibility of the investigation ensnaring his former national security adviser."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: These next two stories, when combined, implicate several top Trump staff (current & former) & get mighty close to Trump himself: ...
... Chad Day & Eric Tucker of the AP: "In the hours after Flynn admitted lying about his contacts with a Russian government official, two names surfaced as integral players in his actions. [Jared] Kushner was identified as a 'very senior' transition official, who directed Flynn to contact foreign governments, including Russia, about a U.N. Security Council resolution last December. And KT McFarland, who served as Flynn's deputy national security adviser, was a 'senior' transition official involved in discussions with Flynn about what to relay to Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to the U.S., about the response to U.S. sanctions levied by the Obama administration. Kushner and McFarland weren't named in court papers. But McFarland's involvement was confirmed by two former transition officials who spoke on condition of anonymity....
... Natasha Bertrand of Business Insider: "On December 28, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that imposed new sanctions on Russia and expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the US in response to Moscow's interference in the 2016 election. That day, Kislyak contacted Flynn, the statement of offense says.... The next day, Flynn called a senior member of Trump's transition team [K.T. McFarland] 'who was with other senior members of the Presidential Transition Team at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss what, if anything, to communicate' to Kislyak 'about the US Sanctions,' the document says. Trump was at Mar-a-Lago on December 29. A press-pool report from that day indicates that transition officials at Mar-a-Lago included Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus.... Flynn and the senior transition official 'discussed the US Sanctions, including the potential impact of those sanctions on the incoming administration's foreign policy goals' during their call on December 29, the document says. It adds that they also discussed that members of the transition team 'at Mar-a-Lago did not want Russia to escalate the situation.' 'Immediately' after that call, the document says, Flynn called Kislyak 'and requested that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the US Sanctions in a reciprocal manner.' Flynn then reported back to the Trump transition official [McFarland] about his call with Kislyak.... On December 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a statement saying Russia would not retaliate against the US for the sanctions and the expulsion of diplomats.... Hours later, Trump tweeted: 'Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: McFarland was Flynn's deputy, so she was not in a position to tell him what to do. She was at Mar-a-Lago serving as Trump's in-house national security person. So she consulted with at least one other person at Mar-a-Lago on what Flynn should convey to Kislyak. That might have been Miller &/or Bannon, and it might have been Trump. It seems unlikely, since national security was Flynn's purview, that he would have taken direction on a national security issue from other staffers unless those staffers told him or strongly implied they were conveying Trump's wishes. Trump's tweet suggests he was in the sanctions loop all along. ...
... Oh, and Kushner is toast: ...
... Eli Lake of Bloomberg: "... Michael Flynn's guilty plea Friday for lying to the FBI is alarming news for Donald Trump. But the first person it's likely to jeopardize will be the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. One transition official at the time said Kushner called Flynn to tell him he needed to get every foreign minister or ambassador from a country on the UN Security Council to delay or vote against the resolution [condemning Israeli settlements]. Much of this appeared to be coordinated also with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose envoys shared their own intelligence about the Obama administration's lobbying efforts to get member states to support the resolution with the Trump transition team." The incident is cited in the charging documents released today. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps this explains why the FBI recently interviewed Kushner. Quite a few media outlets have confirmed Lake's report. ...
... The WashPo article by Rosalind Helderman & others, linked above, demonstrates Trump's direct involvement in trying to squelch the December 2016 U.N. resolution condemning Israel's settlements in occupied territories. As the reporters note, Trump & Flynn's actions would be a violation of the Logan Act, as well as the longstanding assumption that the U.S. has only one president at a time:
Events surrounding the Dec. 23 Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements as illegal marked the most overt interference in U.S. foreign policy by the Trump team, and Trump personally, between his election and inauguration. Egypt's abrupt introduction of the resolution on Dec. 21 -- and the scheduling of a vote for the next day -- took much of the council, and the Obama administration, by surprise. As Obama consulted with aides on the U.S. vote, Israeli officials mobilized to head off passage. Trump's position was the same as Israel's: The resolution should be vetoed, he tweeted before dawn on Dec. 22.
According to court documents, that same day, the senior official directed Flynn to contact foreign leaders, including from Russia, and urge them to do what Obama had decided the United States would not: oppose the resolution or at least delay it. Trump himself called Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to discuss the resolution, the Egyptians announced at the time.
At first, Trump's gambit appeared to have worked. Just before the vote was to take place, Egypt withdrew the resolution. But by the next morning, it had been reintroduced by New Zealand and other co-sponsors, and a vote was quickly held. The United States abstained, and the resolution was adopted with the vote of all other 14 Security Council members. Trump publicly fumed, tweeting, 'We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect.'
... If you enjoy a good political mystery, Rachel Maddow sets up one:
It's All Obama's Fault! Allan Smith of Business Insider: "Top White House lawyer Ty Cobb tried to distance the Trump administration from its former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to federal investigators. In a statement after the guilty plea was announced, Cobb referred to Flynn as a 'former Obama administration official' and noted that he only worked in ... Donald Trump's White House for 25 days. Flynn formerly served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama, but was fired. Obama and other Obama administration officials reportedly warned Trump and his allies not to hire Flynn." ...
Today, Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration, and a former Obama administration official, entered a guilty plea to a single count of making a false statement to the FBI. The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year. Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn. -- Ty Cobb, yesterday ...
... Staff Sequesters Trump. AP: "The White House has cancelled a scheduled opportunity for reporters to question ... Donald Trump about former national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea. The public White House schedule had said that reporters would be allowed to document part of Trump's meeting with Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "For weeks, Trump has vented privately to advisers and confidants about his anxiety over signs that Flynn had flipped. He noted the possibility that Flynn had 'turned on me,' three sources close to the president independently recall him saying.... Sources said that President Trump's flourish in his Thanksgiving speech to members of the U.S. Coast Guard -- during which he said, 'You never know about an ally. An ally can turn' -- was intended as not-so-subtle jab at his former national security adviser." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Martin Longman of Booman Tribune: "Since [Flynn] is only pleading to relatively minor offenses and ones that are easily proven, it will be impossible to claim that he's suffering a monstrous injustice. This makes a pardon unlikely, and it also makes it hard to attack the Special Counsel or to justify firing him. It also makes ... Trump look bad for trying repeatedly to shut down both the FBI and the congressional investigations. In order to build an obstruction of justice charge against the president that will stick and have bipartisan resonance, it's absolutely necessary that there be an underlying crime. Flynn has now pled guilty to crimes, and he'll testify about other crimes. Not since John Dean decided to cooperate with the Watergate investigation has a president had worse news than this.... [Flynn] will provide evidence that implicates Trump and probably his sons and son-in-law, too. Without that kind of testimony, Flynn never could have gotten off so lightly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker writes a thoughtful post on not just the implications of Flynn's flip but also the implication of an extremist like Flynn being chosen as national security advisor. ...
... "Deck the Halls with White House Folly." Gail Collins attended the White House Christmas party for the press. "Trump did show up.... Trump spoke for a couple of minutes about, um, the holidays. He chatted up some Fox personalities and then took a powder.... After all the talk about bringing back Christmas, Trump’s party was way less celebratory than his predecessor’s fetes. The country probably got more holiday spirit from Calvin Coolidge.... It was always going to be Christmas in chaos. Flynn is just the special ornament on our national tree of trauma." ...
... AND Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. digby noticed that the big, breaking story on Fox "News"' home page yesterday morning was something about Hillary Clinton's e-mails & that tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton & Loretta Lynch. (Mrs. McC: Fake scandals featuring a liberal black woman get primo space on Fox. Throwing in both Clintons is a super-schmear of icing on the cake.) Down the page was a link to a story about some guy named Flynn.
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday rejected reports that he would soon fire Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson as 'fake news,' but declared that 'I call the final shots' as he acknowledged his disagreements with his top diplomat. The president's tweet was posted a few hours after Mr. Tillerson described reports this week that the White House wanted him to resign as 'laughable.' 'He's not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!' Mr. Trump wrote in a midafternoon tweet defending Mr. Tillerson.... Two White House advisers said the president ultimately decided on Friday to bolster Mr. Tillerson with the tweet to avoid undermining his chief diplomat right before he heads overseas to work on a host of global crises." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: "The president ultimately decided...."? More like, "Staff talked the president into...."
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump is giving a speech Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, according to two sources with direct knowledge." Mrs. McC: Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like causing another huge upheaval between adherents to two other major religions. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update. Mark Landler & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump plans to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital but not to move the American Embassy there for now, people briefed on the deliberations said on Friday, a halfway gesture intended to fulfill a campaign pledge while not derailing his peace initiative. Mr. Trump is expected to announce the decision in a speech next Wednesday, these people said, though they cautioned that the president had not yet formally signed off on it and that the details of the plan could shift." Mrs. McC: So a few days before announcing a momentous decision, and after he's had months to consider it, Trump has no idea what he's going to do. Now that's planning.
How On-Air Misogynists Turned the Presidential Election. Jill Filipovic in the New York Times: "Matt Lauer, like Charlie Rose and Mark Halperin before him, is a journalist out of a job after his employer fired him for sexually harassing female colleagues.... Many of the male journalists who stand accused of sexual harassment were on the forefront of covering the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.... A pervasive theme of all of these men's coverage of Mrs. Clinton was that she was dishonest and unlikable. These recent harassment allegations suggest that perhaps the problem wasn't that Mrs. Clinton was untruthful or inherently hard to connect with, but that these particular men hold deep biases against women who seek power instead of sticking to acquiescent sex-object status.... These 'Crooked Hillary' narratives pushed by Mr. Lauer, Mr. Halperin, and a long list of other prominent journalists and pundits indelibly shaped the election." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you think maybe Filopovic is making excuses, ask yourself this: Would Lauer, Rose & Halperin -- whose political views probably skew closer to Clinton's than to Trump's -- rather go to a private, social party hosted by Donald Trump or one hosted by Hillary Clinton? Yeah, see? It's still a boys' club.
Fahrenthold & friend in happier days.That's Just Ducky. Rachel Bade of Politico: "Rep. Blake Farenthold used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former spokesman -- the only known sitting member of Congress to have used a little-known congressional account to pay an accuser, people familiar with the matter told Politico. Lauren Greene, the Texas Republican's former communications director, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. Greene said another Farenthold aide told her the lawmaker said he had 'sexual fantasies' and 'wet dreams' about Greene. She also claimed that Farenthold 'regularly drank to excess' and told her in February 2014 that he was 'estranged from his wife and had not had sex with her in years.' When she complained about comments Farenthold and a male staffer made to her, Greene said the congressman improperly fired her." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Radio Television Digital News Association: "The nation's largest retailer [WalMart] Wednesday removed from its website a controversial t-shirt that threatens journalists, shortly after RTDNA and its Voice of the First Amendment Task Force sent a letter to the company's top executives requesting its removal. The shirt, featuring the words 'Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED,' had been offered for sale on Walmart.com by a third-party seller, Teespring.com, which also offers on its site a coffee mug featuring the slogan.... UPDATE: Less than 24 hours after Walmart removed the shirt from its website, Teespring.com, the third-party seller that had been offering the shirt on Walmart.com removed it from its site as well." Mrs. McC: Nice that these fine retailers realized (with prodding) that hanging reporters does not reflect the spirit of the season. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ehud Barak, former Israeli PM, in a New York Times op-ed: "For all of Israel's great achievements in its seven decades of statehood, our country now finds its very future, identity and security severely threatened by the whims and illusions of the ultranationalist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I its more than three years in power, this government has been irrational, bordering on messianic. It is now increasingly clear where it is headed: creeping annexation of the West Bank aimed at precluding any permanent separation from the Palestinians. This 'one-state solution' that the government is leading Israel toward is no solution at all. It will inevitably turn Israel into a state that is either not Jewish or not democratic (and possibly not either one), mired in permanent violence."
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Reader Comments (9)
Little king: “I call the shots!”
Oh, Jesus. Another Decider. Just what we need. Because the last one made such wonderful decisions. Look for this one to try to out-decide the previous one. It looks like he’s already got it down. On Monday he decides “A”, then on Tuesday, he decides “Not A”. Half an hour later, “Maybe A. You’ll just to wait and see! Big announcement soon. Biggest ever!” Next day “A. Definitely.” Kelly Ann slithers onto a Fox TV set and declares amazement that anyone would think “A” was likely, pointing to a Trumpy tweet saying “A? I never said A! Fake news!” A week later?
A.
That’s half a dozen “decisions” about the same thing. Good going Donnie. You’re one decisive sonovabitch.
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD LADEN WITH GREEN BACKS AND GOLD:
This despicable tax bill adds new deductions for Blackstone CEO and GOP donor Schwartzman among others whose millions were donated to the Republican coffers. The loophole benefits hedge fund and private equity managers––you know the ones, those that are struggling hard to make a living, reside in houses that are barely functional and drive a broken down truck. This is senate amendment 1715, introduced by none other than that blatant liar from the great state of Texas, John Cornyn. The ramming through of this bill and the bill itself is beyond shameful––-these Republicans are charlatans peddling poison dressed up as an antidote for this country's ills.
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/tax-bill-adds-new-deduction-blackstone-ceo-gop-donor-schwarzman-2622738
The Flynn confessions will expose whom and what and we wait with anticipation. We have a long way to go, I think, but the pieces of the puzzles will come together in the end and that end might very well be the beginning of something we have been waiting for–- "believe me!"
Trump is about to finally arrive with a result to put him the history books.
First POTUS to have 5 members of his team in jail!
And BTW, I am sure you noticed that the GOP's that were against the tax bill all changed the minds after 'adjustments' (BRIBES) were made.
Hum a few bars of: Call him irresponsible. Call him delusional. Call him insane.
A day after Flynn’s plea, Trump says, ‘There’s been absolutely no collusion’ with Russia (see WaPo :
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/12/02/trump-on-michael-flynns-guilty-plea-theres-been-absolutely-no-collusion/). Uh huh! That's exactly the message the plea deal sent.
@ Marvin S. & to psychiatrists everywhere: Just like Crazy Eddie's prices: Trumpvs is nutso!
The photo on the front page of the NYT showing the tax bill with scribbles added to the typing is proof of the most disgusting, disgraceful behavior of Republicans in modern history. And having said 'the most' requires serious evaluation.
@Marvin S. Take a look at Jon Tester's reaction.
@Bea, thanks, I looked Tester's reaction. Well done but not 'hilarious'.
I often wonder, doesn't this bull* get old for the journalists who apparently just suck it up from T and his spokespeople? Maybe someday someone will say something about their lies to their face. Maybe.
I'm in awe of the Special Prosecutor and his strategy. This has been brilliantly crafted and is a thing of beauty, I especially like the sort of minimal serious charge for Flynn--as you say, T looks dumb for railing against the injustice of it all (!), so no pardon, and yet that iceberg below the surface is, shall we say, unmoved.
However, Rachel M. had a segment about Mueller's office now having to go back to Congress for continuing funds, and I hope part of Mr. Mueller's firm but modest process so far is lulling the R's into letting him continue the work, adequately funded and unimpeded. But don't spook the wabbits!
@Ak: you nailed it with your early morning comment. Because just a short while ago this article appeared.
Trump waffles on corporate tax cut, hours after Senate bill meets his demands, Damian Paletta, over on WAPO notes "...eenie, meenie, miney, schmoo"