Sunday
Dec312017
The Commentariat -- December 31, 2017
Sydney, Australia, Fireworks 2018:
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Under Mr. Trump, [the presidency] has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. He has revolutionized the way presidents deal with the world beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, dispensing with the carefully modulated messaging of past chief executives in favor of no-holds-barred, crystal-breaking, us-against-them, damn-the-consequences blasts borne out of gut and grievance. He has kept a business on the side; attacked the F.B.I., C.I.A. and other institutions he oversees; threatened to use his power against rivals; and waged war against members of his own party and even his own cabinet. He fired the man investigating his campaign and has not ruled out firing the one who took over. He has appealed to base instincts on race, religion and gender as no president has in generations. And he has rattled the nuclear saber more bombastically than it has been since the days of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Russia, Russia, Russia
** Happy New Year, Donaldo. You Are So Screwed. Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia's top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.... Two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials.... The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the F.B.I. to open an investigation in July 2016 into Russia's attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of President Trump's associates conspired.... While some of Mr. Trump's advisers have derided him as an insignificant campaign volunteer or a 'coffee boy,' interviews and new documents show that he stayed influential throughout the campaign." If you like cloak & dagger, read on. ...
WOW, @foxandfrlends 'Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.' And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2017
Actually, no. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... Kevin Drum: The tweet above "is Exhibit A in the conservative agit-prop campaign to discredit the Trump-Russia investigation: It was all kicked by the Steele dossier, which was just a Hillary-funded hit job that the Trump-haters in the FBI used as an excuse to go after him.... [The FBI was] shocked -- as anyone would be -- that apparently the Trump campaign had advance knowledge of Russian dirty tricks aimed at the Clinton campaign." ...
... Benjamin Hart of New York: "... the Times article makes it clear that it was Papadopoulos, not Steele, who drove the investigation, at least in the beginning. This blows up an important line of attack for Republicans looking to tar Mueller -- though undoubtedly they'll find other ways to do it." ...
Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. -- Donald Trump, July 27, 2016
Oh, they were listening. And Trump knew it. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ...
... digby: "The rest of the details in the [Times] piece are all fascinating but the one that stands out is the fact that Papadopoulos spilled the information about the Clinton emails to an Australian agent in a bar in May of 2016, long before it was public, but we are supposed to believe he never mentioned it to the Trump campaign. Does that sound right to you? Yeah, I didn't think so. They knew. They said nothing to any authorities. They went on to meet with Russians about dirt on Clinton in June and Donald Trump Jr even said he 'loved it' and would like them to release it later in the summer. Trump even publicly encouraged them to do more. Trump is right when he says this isn't collusion. It's conspiracy and that, my friends is a crime.... Devin Nunes and his crew are covering up something very, very big." ...
... digby also points out that Luke Harding of the Guardian reported in April 2017 that British intelligence learned "in late 2015 of suspicious 'interactions' between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents.... This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added." ...
... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A growing campaign by President Trump's most ardent supporters to discredit the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and the law enforcement agencies assisting his investigation is opening new fissures in the Republican Party, with some lawmakers questioning the damage being done to federal law enforcement and to a political party that has long championed law and order. A small but vocal group of conservative lawmakers, much of the conservative media and, at times, the president himself have launched a series of attacks to paint not only Mr. Mueller but institutions once considered sacrosanct to Republicans like the F.B.I. and Justice Department as dangerously biased against Mr. Trump.... Now some Republican lawmakers are speaking out, worried that Trump loyalists, hoping for short-term gain, could wind up staining the party, dampening morale at the F.B.I. and Justice Department, and potentially recasting Democrats as the true friends of law enforcement for years to come. Straddling both camps is Mr. Trump, who in an interview on Thursday with The New York Times lavished praise on Republican congressmen who have defended him from a 'witch hunt' and expressed confidence that Mr. Mueller would 'treat me fairly.'"
Cashing In Again. Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is set to ring in the new year the same way he has for about two decades -- at the lavish party he hosts at his private club [in Palm Beach, Fla]. But this weekend's gala at Mar-a-Lago, his first since becoming president, will be a little different: The security will be tighter. The crowds will probably be bigger. And the tickets will run $750 a guest, a hike from last year...."
Justin Elliott of ProPublica: "The Justice Department is pushing for a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 census, a move that observers say could depress participation by immigrants who fear that the government could use the information against them. That, in turn, could have potentially large ripple effects for everything the once-a-decade census determines -- from how congressional seats are distributed around the country to where hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent. The DOJ made the request in a previously unreported letter, dated Dec. 12..., from DOJ official Arthur Gary to the top official at the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department. The letter argues that the DOJ needs better citizenship data to better enforce the Voting Rights Act 'and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting.'... People are not going to come out to be counted because they're going to be fearful the information would be used for negative purposes,' said Steve Jost, a former top bureau official during the 2010 census. 'This line about enforcing voting rights is a new and scary twist.' He noted that since the first census in 1790, the goal has been to count everyone in the country, not just citizens."
Josh Marshall (Dec. 28): "There is almost no limit to the bad policy included in the new GOP tax law.... I continue to believe that the (near total) end of deductions for SALT [state & local] taxes are likely to have the greatest political impact. They are also stimulating a new debate about the distribution of resources within the US federal system.... From a macro perspective, the SALT change means that the higher tax states (mainly but not exclusively blue states) will be sending a lot more money to the federal government. This is on top of the fact that blue/high tax states already send much more money in taxes to the federal government than they receive back in services, grants, general spending, etc. There are significant exceptions. But by and large federal taxing and spending policy draws money from the blue states and reallocates it into the red states.... This is all by design. This policy is intended to punish states that tend to vote Democratic." ...
... Rubio Opposes Bill He Voted for. Jacob Pramuk of CNBC (Dec. 29): "Sen. Marco Rubio says the GOP 'probably went too far' in slashing the tax burden on corporations. The Florida Republican told the News-Press of Fort Myers that corporations will largely use their major tax cut to buy back shares or increase dividends to shareholders -- which 'isn't going to create dramatic economic growth.'... 'By and large, you're going to see a lot of these multinationals buy back shares to drive up the price. Some of them will be forced, because they're sitting on historic levels of cash, to pay out dividends to shareholders.'" ...
... Josh Marshall: "... the most notable example [of Republicans opposing their own tax law] to me is not Marco Rubio and not specifically about the giveaways to the very wealthy but rather President Trump and his reference to the end of most deductions for SALT taxes.... What's he talking about [in his New York Times interview] with the SALT issue? As usual, in the same passage Trump can't seem to decide whether the change is awesome (Reagan tried and failed; I finally accomplished it.) or whether it's bad, too 'severe', etc. The upshot is that Trump seems to recognize that it's a problem and, because of that, tries to argue that it is Democrats' fault.... What stands out to me is that I think he recognizes that the SALT change is a political negative." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Trump opposes the $10K limit on the SALT deduction. Trump & the kids own personal property in New York on which the pay property taxes. I don't know where they claim residency now, but it very well may be New York City, a very high-tax city in a very high-tax state. No matter how much tax avoidance they're able to accomplish through pass-throughs & corporations, etc., they still have to pay personal SALT taxes on some income, & the amount each pays certainly far exceeds $10K. I'd guess Trump -- who says he knows more about his draconian tax law than anyone -- missed that little provision. Probably Fox "News" didn't cover it until people started rushing to their local assessors' offices to prepay their taxes. But that's the Democrats' fault. It would be in Trump's personal, as well as political, interest to rescind this part of the tax heist. I'll be surprised if he doesn't propose it, though it's not a safe bet he could get it through Congress, even though Congressional Republicans love him. ...
... Jackie Wattles, et al., of CNN: "In a race against looming changes to the tax code, Goldman Sachs handed out millions of dollars worth of stock awards to hundreds employees. The move will save the firm an estimated $140 million on its tax bill next year, a source familiar with the matter told CNNMoney." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll bet many of those overcompensated yahoos -- the majority of whom probably live in high-tax states -- are happy to be able to apply SALT deductions to their 2017 super-booty. And they must be so grateful to former boss Gary Cohn for pushing hard for a tax heist that is going to deprive them of the deduction in future years, even as he & his craven cronies have lowered their tax rate.
Severe Gerrymandering A-OK in Pa. Trip Gabriel & Alexander Burns of the New York Times (Dec. 29): "A Pennsylvania judge said Friday the state's Congressional districts were drawn to give Republicans an advantage, but they did not violate the state Constitution, ruling in a high-profile gerrymandering case with the potential to have major consequences on the 2018 midterm elections. Judge P. Kevin Brobson of Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg noted that Republicans hold 13 out of 18 Congressional seats in Pennsylvania, a perennial swing state that has one of the most extensively gerrymandered maps in the country. Nonetheless, the judge said that Democrats who brought suit had failed to articulate a legal 'standard' for creating nonpartisan maps. The case now goes to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has agreed to fast-track it."
Glenn Greenwald: "Facebook has been on a censorship rampage against Palestinian activists who protest the decades-long, illegal Israeli occupation, all directed and determined by Israeli officials.... As the New York Times put it in December of last year, 'Israeli security agencies monitor Facebook and send the company posts they consider incitement. Facebook has responded by removing most of them.' What makes this censorship particularly consequential is that '96 percent of Palestinians said their primary use of Facebook was for following news.' That means that Israeli officials have virtually unfettered control over a key communications forum of Palestinians.... Facebook now seems to be explicitly admitting that it also intends to follow the censorship orders of the U.S. government.... What this means is ... that the U.S. government -- meaning, at the moment, the Trump administration -- has the unilateral and unchecked power to force the removal of anyone it wants from Facebook and Instagram by simply including them on a sanctions list." ...
... True to form, Greenwald is overwrought here, but I think his argument is an important one.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Thomas Erkbrink of the New York Times: "Iran's leaders were confronted by unauthorized protests in major cities for the third straight day on Saturday, with crowds aiming their anger at the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some demanding that he step down. The demonstrators first took to the streets of Mashhad, one of the holiest places in Shiite Islam, on Thursday. By Saturday, dozens of people had been arrested and the police had fired tear gas to disperse crowds. On Saturday night, the protests turned violent, with at least two demonstrators shot in the western town of Dorud, according to a series of videos posted on social media. At least one of the videos was verified by BBC Persian. It could not be determined who was responsible for the gunfire. The protests, which erupted over declining economic conditions, corruption and a lack of personal freedoms, presented a serious challenge to the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who won re-election on promises to revitalize the economy."
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (9)
Toni & Trump, made for each other!
Anticipating the fab New Year's Eve blow out at Mar-a-Lago is sure to include members of the Trumpettes; e.g.: when birds of the self-promoting variety flock together! Have you read about this lady. She's so famous, I'm surprised that you might have missed her! If you want to know more and enjoy a hilarious self-indulgent read, she's posted her own 'mini-bio' on IMDb...
"...Toni Holt Kramer is soooooo wonderful"
Let me give you a taste with this excerpt:
"Toni Holt Kramer, a woman of major versatility, has had a life as multi-faceted as one can dream. From her childhood days as a cover girl model with the Huntington Hartford Agency to her illustrious career as a renowned Hollywood reporter and on to her present foray into the world as author and Founder of The Trumpettes to support Donald Trump to become President, her diversity and perseverance know no bounds...”
...and her Google images are just darling!
@MAG: Ha ha, thanks for the heads-up. I totally skipped the part of the WashPo story that mentioned Toni. Here's a Politico article from last year about the Trumpettes -- their name is as retro as they are. (Spoiler alert: Pat Boone is still a birther.) This is one over-the-hill gang that is more comical than the original. They should have a reality show on the AARP channel.
Confession: It kinda went over my head -- and it should not have -- that one of the knocks against Hillary was that she was going to let another Mooslum -- Huma Abedin -- run the country & really, one Mooslum (Obama) running the country was bad enough. (Toni herself is not a racist or a xenophobe -- just ask her: "I was raised by a black nanny, there’s no prejudice on my side. I’m not bigoted." So that settles that.)
Anyhow, thanks for doing all that research. Another reminder that you have to be stupid & obnoxious to vote for Trump.
Trumpettes? Are we sure that isn’t Strumpettes? Everyone else wallowing in that shit pile is a money and power grabbing whore, including the Strumpette in Chief. Why not them?
And this Toni person? Why isn’t her name on the lips of every American this morning? Simply astounding. I myself feel positively Rip Van Winkle-ish for not already having a lifesize portrait of her in every room in the house. I fear my social credibility is in tatters.
Plus!!!! I see from her IMDB credits (all four of them), that she played —wait for it—Miss Gigi(!) on the TV show “McCloud” back in 1974. In one episode. But what an episode. I remember my friends talking for months after about Miss Gigi. That one line she uttered “Oh, pardon me” was delivered with superlative thespian ability. A veritable Sarah Bernhardt.
And that bio! Why is Robert Caro wasting time on a six volume life of a big nobody like LBJ when he has Toni to write about? This woman needs her own Boswell. Wait, she IS her own Boswell! Eat your heart out, Dr. Johnson!
Oh, the times we live in! Clearly the little king attracts the best people!
Like flies to a corpse.
@Marie: That Politico article on the Trumpettes is even funnier. The picture at the top is absolutely priceless. Hey, Lady Trumpettes, sometimes you got deal with the fact that Botox ain't working for you!
Thankfully I'd had my bran flakes before seeing those pictures of
the Trumpetts and Pat Prune. Trying to figure out what those 3
have been sucking on, maybe exhaust pipes. They have a number
of Rolls-Royces.
From the NYT Peter Baker article- "Will that change the institution permanently?" The chances of finding another demented mentally dysfunctional president is highly unlikely.
Since this is the last day of this last year one usually takes stock, pledges to stop whatever they think is not healthy, drink in the New Year with bells and whistles and celebrate big balls that fall in the New York city square. The word "happy" is always attached to "New Year" hoping that the coming year will be just that, but rarely is. Certainly this year has been fraught with such––am searching for a word here–- and strangely "Potemkin" comes to mind: Fake–-having a false appearance--a sham––and being a Russian word it kind of fits. It has been a pretend presidency with a cabinet that pretends to know what they are doing and what they DO do is ruining our country in small increments and large. BUT––we don't lose hope that this coming year can bring the beginning of transparency to all the ills and start some kind of cure although, that too, I imagine, will come in small increments.
Charles Wright in his poem "The Silent Generation" speaks to our lives being like photographs yellowing in somebody's album and asks what was it we never got to say? As the years go by who can remember––something about the world's wrongs, something about the way we shuddered them off like rain in an open field. He ends with this:
"We're arm in arm with regret, now left foot, now right foot.
We give the devil his due.
We walk up and down in the earth,
we take our flesh in our teeth.
When we die, we die. The wind blows away our footprints"
So to all of you here I am not going to wish you a happy new year, but do wish you the very best life you can muster and hope that you can remain "cheerful" if indeed you display that kind of characteristic plus –––take a big bite of that flesh between your teeth––we need to resemble the animals we are.
Read as much as I could stand of the "Politico" piece on the Trumpettes and was shocked to discover that money, intelligence, and morality are not always the close companions my culture keeps telling me they are.
Maybe it's time for me to confess I was a Kennedette. Unlike the Trumpettes, I was 14 years old & it was 1960. Like the Trumpettes, we were also silly girls who didn't know from nothin'.
Marie