The Commentariat -- December 21, 2019
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Senior Trump administration officials in recent days threatened a presidential veto that could have led to a government shutdown if House Democrats refused to drop language requiring prompt release of future military aid for Ukraine, according to five administration and congressional officials. The language was ultimately left out of mammoth year-end spending legislation that passed the House and Senate this week ahead of a Saturday shutdown deadline. The White House said President Trump signed the $1.4 trillion package Friday night. The Ukraine provision was one of several items the White House drew a hard line on during negotiations to finalize the spending legislation, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... It would have required the White House to swiftly release $250 million in defense money for Ukraine that was part of the spending package."
Clare Foran of CNN: "... Donald Trump has accepted the invitation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver the State of the Union address on February 4, 2020." Mrs. McC: Yesterday I wrote that a SOTU address in the midst of an impeachment trial would be unique. Wrong: Bill Clinton gave a SOTU speech during his impeachment trial, too. Clinton didn't mention impeachment; maybe we should start taking bets on how many times Trump will complain about it.
James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wants to see the documents being concealed by the White House even more than he wants to hear from the list of current and former aides who followed President Trump's order not to testify during the investigation that led to his impeachment. 'The few [text] messages we did get [from Kurt Volker & Gordon Sondland] were remarkably incriminating,' Schiff said in an interview on Thursday night. 'So you can only imagine, if this is what the small sample of documents that we have shows, just how damning many of the other documents the administration refuses to turn over may be.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
An Academic Question. Jonathan Turley, the House Republicans' impeachment witness, says, yeah, Trump is so impeached: Noah "Feldman has written in Bloomberg News that Trump is not actually impeached until the articles of impeachment are transferred to the Senate I disagree and believe that Feldman is conflating provisions concerning removal with those for impeachment. Frankly, I am mystified by the claim since I see no credible basis for maintaining this view under either the text or the history of the Constitution." ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post cites another Constitutional scholar, Marty Lederman, who explains why Trump is impeached: "... House Resolution 755 says, upon its adoption, 'That Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.' It also resolves that 'the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate.' The House didn't technically vote on the resolution by itself, but the rules for the impeachment as passed by the House declared that 'the adoption of the resolution [755], as amended, shall be divided between the two articles.' Thus, by approving the two articles, they effectively adopted House Resolution 755. And that resolution says that Trump 'is impeached,' not that he will be impeached after the second part of the resolution -- the transmission to the Senate -- is acted upon. Lederman also pointed out that the House's existing impeachment rules indicate such a vote is sufficient for a president to be impeached. Chapter 27, Section 8 says, 'The respondent in an impeachment proceeding is impeached by the adoption of the House of articles of impeachment.'"
White People Matter, Especially Old White Men. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Anyone who pays attention to politics ... knows that Donald Trump got around 63 million votes in 2016. That number has taken on a totemic significance for him and his supporters; any attempts to restrain his power are seen as a sin against the 63 million.... As I watched impeachment unfold, it seemed like ... an assertion of whom Republicans think this country belongs to.... Again and again, histrionic Republican congressmen equated hatred of the president with hatred of themselves and hatred of the sacred 63 million.... All day, Republican speeches delivered by old white men alternated with Democratic speeches from women, people of color and young people.... We face the horror of Trump because the structure of American democracy gives disproportionate power to a declining demographic group passionately convinced of its right to rule."
Elizabeth Dias & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "... when Christianity Today called for President Trump's removal in a blistering editorial on Thursday, it met the full force and fury of the president and his most prominent allies in the Christian conservative world." Mrs. McC: In case you thought some of these so-called Christian leaders could act even the slightest bit Christ-like in the week before Christmas, you were wrong. In the Temptation story, the devil bids Jesus, "All this [-- the kingdoms of the world --] I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said faggedaboud it. Trump wrote Friday, "The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!" I'd certainly question that (see President Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists), but there's no doubt the evangelical pastors have bowed down to the devil. ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "In an unwittingly self-revealing moment, Trump responded to the magazine's indictment of his profound moral failings with an argument that is thoroughly transactional and megalomaniacal: How dare you criticize me, after all the power I've granted to your movement? You're breaking our deal, and now you're dead to me.... Trump has granted evangelicals power in exchange for their unwavering support, but the bargain now includes a requirement that they pretend Trump's wretchedly corrupt subversion of the country's interests to his own simply isn't happening, or that it's absolutely fine.Trump has granted evangelicals power in exchange for their unwavering support, but the bargain now includes a requirement that they pretend Trump's wretchedly corrupt subversion of the country's interests to his own simply isn't happening, or that it's absolutely fine."
Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Over the past dozen days or so, the president has spewed forth an advent calendar's worth of cruelty -- new barbs popping out almost daily..., underscoring the instinctual nastiness that is central to his brand and casting doubt on claims from his aides that Trump is merely a counterpuncher."
Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump has made a habit of injecting his own words into the comments of people he sees on television and then publishing them as direct quotes on Twitter.... In some instances, he simply omits a part of the quote he doesn't like.... Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University who studies authoritarianism and propaganda..., [said,] 'He's challenging them to correct him.... This is how a cult of personality works. The leader will say something that everyone knows is wrong, and no one will correct him.'... Sometimes he attributes something to a private conversation that may not have ever occurred.... The false quotes ... are particularly jarring given Mr. Trump's recent weekslong attack on Representative Adam B. Schiff ... over a statement in which he mocked Mr. Trump's July 25 conversation with [Ukraine President] Zelensky. In his remarks during a committee hearing, Mr. Schiff said he would be laying out the 'essence of what the president communicates,' and made it clear his reading was not an 'exact transcribed version of the call.' But Mr. Trump has repeatedly accused Mr. Schiff of inventing the conversation, going so far as to claim he committed 'treason' for how he presented it."
Colleen Long of the AP: "The Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog found no wrongdoing or misconduct by immigration officials in the deaths of two migrant children last December. The Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security released two brief statements Friday evening on the deaths of Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, who died Dec. 8, and Felipe Gómez Alonzo, who died Dec. 24. Their deaths ushered in a growing border crisis that caught immigration officials unprepared to manage a crush of Central American families seeking asylum in the U.S. and raised questions on medical care and treatment."
Stephen Miller Planned to Spy on Generous Immigrants. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The White House sought this month to embed immigration enforcement agents within the U.S. refugee agency that cares for unaccompanied migrant children, part of a long-standing effort to use information from their parents and relatives to target them for deportation, according to six current and former administration officials. Though senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services rejected the attempt, they agreed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to collect fingerprints and other biometric information from adults seeking to claim migrant children at government shelters. If those adults are deemed ineligible to take custody of children, ICE could then use their information to target them for arrest and deportation.... The plan has not been announced publicly. It was developed by Stephen Miller...."
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Monica Crowley, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for public affairs, committed 'localized instances of plagiarism' in her 2000 Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University found in an investigation that ultimately concluded she did not commit research misconduct. As part of the university's review of Ms. Crowley's work, she was required to make extensive revisions to her dissertation, a 493-page study of how American policy toward China evolved under Presidents Harry S. Truman and Richard M. Nixon. The research misconduct investigation, which concluded this month, was started after plagiarism accusations were raised about her work in 2017 after her appointment by Donald J. Trump, then the president-elect, for a senior National Security Council job." A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The headline on Rappeport's story is "Columbia Inquiry Found Plagiarism in Monica Crowley's Dissertation." The headline of a Breitbart story on the same subject?: "Exclusive: Monica Crowley Vindicated by Columbia University after Fake Plagiarism Accusations."
Ben Collins of NBC News: "Facebook took down more than 600 accounts tied to the pro-Trump conspiracy website The Epoch Times for using identities created by artificial intelligence to push stories about a variety of topics including impeachment and elections. The network was called 'The BL' and was run by Vietnamese users posing as Americans, using fake photos generated by algorithms to simulate real identities. The Epoch Media group, which pushes a variety of pro-Trump conspiracy theories, spent $9.5 million on ads to spread content through the now-suspended pages and groups. 'What's new here is that this is purportedly a U.S.-based media company leveraging foreign actors posing as Americans to push political content. We've seen it a lot with state actors in the past,' Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleiche, said in an interview. The network had over 55 million followers on Facebook...."
Presidential Race 2020. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "It was the last question of the Democratic debate on Thursday, and the candidates were thrown a curveball. They could give a 'gift' to someone else onstage. Or, in the 'spirit of the season,' they could ask for forgiveness.... The men chose to give.... The women chose to seek forgiveness: for being too forceful. Too passionate. Too much.... These responses, in the final minutes of a two-and-a-half-hour debate, threw into stark relief a dynamic that is not often so visible. Many women feel a sense of obligation, reinforced by daily double standards, to apologize for taking up space. Physical space. Political space. Rhetorical space.... Amanda Hunter ... [of] the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which supports women in politics, said in an interview on Friday that the exchange had highlighted not only political double standards, but also the pressure that ordinary women face to avoid being perceived as angry or unlikable." The Washington Post's story, by Annie Linskey, is here.
Kate Irby of the Fresno Bee: "Sacramento-based newspaper publisher McClatchy fought a defamation lawsuit filed by California congressman Devin Nunes in a Virginia court on Friday, arguing the Republican's case does not belong in the state. 'Put simply, this case is Virginia-less,' McClatchy attorney Ted Boutrous said in court. The lawsuit is one six of that Nunes filed this year againstnews media companies, Twitter, a political research firm that worked for Hillary Clinton and Democratic activists.... Boutrous argued ... that Nunes had engaged in 'a pattern of harassing lawsuits he has brought in Virginia ... meant to chill speech about a public official.' Boutrous contended Nunes filed the McClatchy case there 'to add to the burden of defending the lawsuit.'" The judge will issue a written decision by early February.
Beyond the Beltway
Kentucky. Alfred Miller & Joe Sonka of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Former Gov. Matt Bevin on Thursday defended his controversial last-minute pardon of a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old, saying there was no physical evidence of her abuse.... Bevin also revealed publicly for the first time the victim's relationship to [her rapist] and said that the victim's sister was present during the alleged assaults. The sister has denied the assaults took place, Bevin said. 'Both their hymens were intact. This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me. If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically,' Bevin said. Bevin's claim is flatly incorrect, Dr. George Nichols, who was Kentucky's chief medical examiner for 20 years..., told The Courier Journal.... 'He not only doesn't know the law, in my humble opinion, he clearly doesn't know medicine and anatomy.' Nichols added that he worked for six consecutive governors as chief medical examiner, 'and fortunately I didn't have to report to that a--hole.' According to Forensic Science International, a peer-reviewed journal, a survey of pediatric child abuse rape cases indicated that only 2.1% of subjects examined had visible lesions on the hymen." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (14)
Well, that whiny little girl in Kentucky certainly must be happy to find out that despite what happened, what she reported, and what a judge and jury agreed happened, she wasn’t really raped at all. At least it wasn’t Real Rape ® (Confederate party). Noted female anatomist (aren’t they all?), mind reader, and bigly pal of that other friend to assaulted and raped women, Donald PussyGrabber, Matt Bevin, sez so. And he let her rapist walk.
If you want to know how truly despicable this fucking guy is, just read the line in the linked story where he’s asked about the child rapist he pardoned. “Which one?” he asked.
Party of Traitors is also the Party of Rapist Coddlers. They even put one in the White House.
Can’t wait to hear what Bevin says after this asshole rapes another little girl. We’ll probably find out that it was Obama’s fault.
@Akhilleus: And I keep wondering how many black rapists & murderers Bevin thought it would be a good idea to pardon. I've written to Joe Sonka, one of the Courier Journal reporters who has covered the Bevin pardons and asked him if the paper had looked into possible racial disparity.
Marie,
It’s instructive to recall that Bevin, aka Trump Mini-Me, once declared that Fatty’s astounding attacks on four women of color in Congress, that they should shut up and go back to the broken and crime-infested countries from which they came, was a perfectly fine comment, and not in any way racist.
This from recently ousted Kentucky governor who once visited a largely black neighborhood in West Louisville and expressed astonishment that there was a chess club for kids in that community, and he said so.
In a what he thought would be a wonderful promotional video to show black residents what a great guy he was for actually setting foot outside his own wealthy whitey-white neighborhood, “You would never think you’d see something like this in West Louisville!” is how he opened this video.
Mighty white of you, there, Matty. What, did you forget to wear your hood today? Seriously, it’s like he goes into a black community and comes back to announce to his white supporters “You wouldn’t believe it. These monkeys can read!”
When he started to sag in the polls prior to the recent gubernatorial election, he went full Trump, releasing a flurry of fear mongering ads promoting the vision of a Kentucky overrun by black and brown terrorists, rapists, and murderers if his Democratic opponent won.
So, no. I’m guessing his largesse extended to white rapists and murderers only. No wonder Trump loves him.
Best wishes to all on Solstice Day, 2019.
A few more thoughts on the Pretender's vaunted deal-making.
Let's begin with news from farm country.
On the new EPA ethanol fuel rules.
https://apnews.com/88d6c360698aa7ac1d7ab9b20229ad0c.
Short version: Oil companies have more money than farmers, so they get the gravy….but corn growers might have more votes.
And the continuing story of the tariff bailouts...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-19/farmers-say-trump-s-28-billion-bailout-isn-t-a-solution
Another shortened story: The payments to farmers now total more than twice the total to the Detroit auto industry back in the good old Obama years.....but most of those payments are going to agribusiness and mega-farmers, not relatively small family farms.
Again, the small farms likely control more voters.
Because the Pretender has shown a willingness to treat all government financial engagements as an extension of his personal business and the treasury as his personal bank account, it would seem there's enough moolah to make everyone who voted for him happy.
Arrangements that irritate your supporters seem a mite ham-fisted to me. Again, not signs of a great dealmaker.
But wait!
When it comes to making deals with evangelicals, with white supremacists, with greedy lowlifes attracted only to the smell of money, treacherous Republicans who place personal power over neighbor or country, with Putin and other dictators, gotta hand it to the Pretender. The guy's on a roll.
He sure can make deals with the Devil. One after another. There no one should question his art.
You don’t have to be a leftist or a liberal to worry that the demented fascist oligarch Donald Trump might try to negate the United States republic’s electoral process and term limits, writes Paul Street who wants us to consider the following statement from the distinguished conservative scholar and American Enterprise Institute fellow Norm Ornstein last week:
"It seems clear that [Attorney General William Barr] will do or enable anything to keep Trump in office. And Trump will do anything to stay there. Suspension of the election, negation of the results, declaration of martial law are not simply fanciful, alarmist or crazy things to throw out there or to contemplate. Members of Congress, governors and state legislators, leaders in civil society, lawyers, law enforcement figures and the military need to be thinking now about how they might respond”
And meanwhile 12 more "Mitch" judges have been confirmed.
When I was a wee girl and held firm the belief that there was indeed a Santa that knew my every movement and thought instilled by my parents, especially my mother who loved having a stern "naughty or nice" companion to help keep her daughter on the right path was dispelled the day I received–-in the mail–-a card from Santa scolding me for something or other and encouraging me to march in step with the rules of the house. Recognizing my mother's writing I knew then and there the whole thing was a hoax––I never let on that I knew but I remember the thrill of that discovery.
Today I'm waiting for another postcard-like revelation–-the unveiling of such dimensions that no one will be able to dispute the utter corruption and deceit this man has wrought. I like to think we still have a soul somewhere in this country––no Santa, but a goddam soul!
@Akhilleus: And another thing that pisses me off is Bevin's assurance -- "Trust me," he says -- that what the guys in junior high told him about "popping cherries" is true and forensic science is therefore false. His hubris matches Trump's. (I'm not saying that scientists and other experts should not be questioned, of course; I'm saying that the questioner should not start from the assumption that his "beliefs" are right and their studies are wrong.)
@PD Pepe: When I was four and happily telling my maternal grandmother what I hoped Santa would bring for Christmas, she quite gruffly told me that there was no Santa. It was a shock that I'm pretty sure I told my mother about, and as best as I can recall, she responded with an answer that was nebulous enough that I could make up my own mind. I do recall that she told me not to tell other kids there was no Santa.
Years later, when I told my father about this, he said that when I was seven and came into the living room on Christmas morning to find the bicycle I had hoped for, I exclaimed, "He brought it!" So I guess fantasies die hard, even when, in theory, we know better.
Here's another assault by the President** according to the WaPo.
"The Energy Department made a final determination Friday that it would not impose stricter energy efficiency standards for “general service” lightbulbs set to take effect Jan. 1, on the grounds that they “are not economically justified.” The move affects roughly 3 billion — nearly half — of the bulbs in sockets in U.S. homes.
Consumer groups estimate that the reversal of tighter standards, which stem from a bipartisan 2007 energy law, would boost energy costs by $14 billion a year and will generate 38 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The Natural Resources Defense Council said the regulatory rollback could boost consumption by an amount equal to the output of 30 large power plants."
I would rewrite it to say "...would boost fossil-fuel company earnings by..." and point out that the switch from incandescent to LED bulbs more than pays for itself having just done the math.
Per the article, a 60W traditional bulb costs $0.97 at Home Depot, where a 60W-equivalent LED one is $1.24, for a whopping difference of $0.27.
How long will each take to consume that 27-cents worth of power? My electricity rate last month was $0.226 per kWHr. The 27-cent delta will buy 1.2 kWHr of juice. The 60W incandescent will take 19.9 hours of On time to use it up. The LED (rated at 9W on the package I have) will take 132.7 hours. As the LED uses up the "extra" hours, the incandescent will consume an additional $1.28 of electricity - more than the cost of the LED bulb in the first place.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. I'll have to spend the afternoon now checking to see how many bulbs I haven't yet changed to LED and take a walk to my local hardware store.
@unwashed: May the Dim Bulb in the White House along with the other dimmers surrounding him will someday have to sit in the dark contemplating their mistakes––by that time it will be too late.
@Marie: " So I guess fantasies die hard, even when, in theory, we know better." That kind of sums up our predicament, don't it?
@PD, it gets even better when you factor in the rated life of both types.
Your old incandescent lasts about 1000 hours. New LEDs are rated at 15,000 hours. You'll go through 15 of the old while using only 1 of the new.
My sums for the total cost of the bulbs and electricity usage would be:
incandescent - $207.58
LED - $30.19
This excludes sales tax, the cost of carbon, and externalities like worsened health of people and the planet.
@unwashed: In recent months I've busily been switching to LED bulbs everywhere. They've come a long way from when they first appeared on the market and are certainly far, far better than the atrocious CFL bulbs. The new LED bulbs are available for 3-way lamps, chandelier-type flame bulbs, and most importantly to me almost all are dimmable! You can get soft white or warm white that makes room settings comfortable. (Remember the first ones, harsh blue-white brilliant glares) The initial cost is a bit higher, but these last much longer and cost less to operate. Yep! I'm a convert. Don't understand what Trump's issue is...but, then that's what being uninformed says.
Don't want to simplify overmuch, MAG, but since around 80% of America's electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, I'd guess that even the dimbulb Pretender has figured out that the old bulbs are much better than the new ones...for, as Unwashed says, his fossil fuel lobby.
Another good deal with the Devil.
Ain't math fun!
trump is even going against a large supporting block with this light bulb thing. My utility company has been emailing me coupons for LED bulbs for months now. They understand that reducing demand in sensible ways means they can delay expensive upgrades to their generation and distribution infrastructure. So I think this delay is purely to piss off sentient beings.
Maybe those old-style incandescent bulb manufacturers are Russian-owned?