The Commentariat -- December 31, 2019
Afternoon Update:
The Democrats will do anything to avoid a trial in the Senate in order to protect Sleepy Joe Biden, and expose the millions and millions of dollars that 'Where's Hunter, & possibly Joe, were paid by companies and countries for doing NOTHING. Joe wants no part of this mess! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet Tuesday ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Trump is now openly calling for his impeachment trial to be converted into something that is purely devoted to serving his own political needs -- one that only includes witnesses that will help him keep smearing potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden, but has no meaningful relevance whatsoever to the corrupt conduct for which he has been impeached.... Incredibly, this comes as Senate Republicans push for a trial that features none of the witnesses who actually do have direct knowledge of that very same corrupt conduct.... They are doing this to protect Trump -- and themselves --- because he's guilty as charged, and they know it.... There's a deep irony here: Biden actually did work for years to root out kleptocracy and corruption in Ukraine, explicitly describing this as essential to drawing it into the Western orbit, and away from Russian predation, serving our national interests. By contrast, Trump actually does not care a whit about corruption in Ukraine. He used it as his cover story for extorting the Ukrainian president to help him advance his own kleptocratic and corrupt designs, subverting our national interests to his own."
Thomas Franck of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Iran for planning an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and promised to hold Tehran 'fully responsible.' 'Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible.' 'In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!' he added.... Trump's tweet came after dozens of angry Iraqi Shiite militia supporters stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad and set fire to a reception area on the grounds earlier in the day. The Iraqi supporters, many dressed in military apparel, pushed into the compound using cars to break through its gate. The protesters hung a poster on the wall saying, 'America is an aggressor.'" Mrs. McC: I'm sure our embassy personnel feel a lot safer knowing Trump is threatening Iran & Iraq from the comfort of Mar-a-Lago.
Senate Race 2020. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski took to Twitter on Tuesday to announced that he will not run for Senate in New Hampshire.... 'After much consideration I have decided to forgo a campaign for the US Senate,' he tweeted. 'While taking on a career politician from the Washington swamp is a tall order, I am certain I would have won. My priorities remain my family and ensuring that @realDonaldTrump is re-elected POTUS.'" Mrs. McC: No, no, I would have won had I run. Corey has figured out the best way not to lose: don't even try. What a jerk. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A December poll showed incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) beating Lewandowski 58%-35%.
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Welcoming the new year in Auckland, New Zealand:
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Mitch "McConnell badly needs the media's both-sidesing instincts to hold firm against the brute facts of the situation. If Republicans bear the brunt of media pressure to explain why they don't want to hear from witnesses, that risks highlighting their true rationale: They adamantly fear new revelations precisely because they know Trump is guilty -- and that this corrupt scheme is almost certainly much worse than we can currently surmise. That possibility is underscored by the Times report [linked here yesterday], a chronology of Trump's decision to withhold aid to a vulnerable ally under assault while he and his henchmen extorted Ukraine into carrying out his corrupt designs. The report demonstrates in striking detail that inside the administration, the consternation over the legality and propriety of the aid freeze -- and confusion over Trump's true motives -- ran much deeper than previously known, implicating top Cabinet officials.... We now have a much clearer glimpse into the murky depths of just how much more these officials know about the scheme -- and just how much McConnell and Trump are determined to make sure we don't ever learn." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To me, the most important effect of the NYT report is that it proves that Trump's top international affairs advisors -- the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense & National Security Advisor -- made him aware that by withholding the Ukraine funding he was working against U.S. security interests. Senators, the supposed triers of fact in the impeachment process, can no longer pretend Trump may have made a bad call but only because he didn't know what he was doing. He knew. All the aides who mattered ganged up and told him so, according to the Times story.
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal judge on Monday scrapped an effort by a former top aide to John Bolton to determine whether he could be required to testify before House impeachment investigators, declaring the matter moot and outside the court's power to resolve. Charles Kupperman, who was Bolton's deputy when Bolton was national security adviser, filed suit in October after he was subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee but ordered to ignore the subpoena by ... Donald Trump. In his suit, Kupperman asked for a judge's help to resolve the conflicting demands. The matter was put before Judge Richard Leon, a federal judge in the D.C. District Court. But before Leon could weigh in, the House withdrew its subpoena for Kupperman's testimony, declaring it a transparent effort to stonewall the impeachment investigation and mire it in months of legal delays. Both the House and the White House asked Leon to dismiss the case, and Leon ultimately agreed." The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Cheney characterizes the dismissal as freeing both Bolton & Kupperman from testifying, which is how I would have interpreted it, too. However, Neal Katyal was on the teevee & said dismissal of Kupperman's suit means Boltonlost his excuse not to testify inasmuch as Bolton has claimed he was waiting for a decision on the Kupperman suit before determining whether or not he would testify.
Mac Bishop, et al., of NBC News: "Trump's attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden has ... exposed the cracks in the West's response to an emboldened Russia, inflicted permanent damage on Ukraine and heightened the risk of Moscow extending its influence in the country, according to democracy advocates and military experts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: "Lev Parnas ... is looking to share more material with congressional investigators, according to a letter his lawyer has sent to a federal judge.... In the letter, Parnas'lawyer Joseph Bondy said the Justice Department will share materials with his client on Tuesday that it seized from his home and at his arrest. The materials include documents and the contents of an iPhone. Bondy then asked Judge Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York to allow him to share those materials with the House Intelligence Committee.... The Justice Department has said it does not object to him giving the material to Congress."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Two Girls Chatting. Mehdi Hasan of the Intercept: "... [Margaret] Brennan's interview with Ivanka [Trump] -- which was ... pegged to the new policy of paid parental leave for federal government workers -- could be considered a low point in 'Face the Nation's storied 65-year history.... To quote liberal writer Eric Boehlert, 'for most Sunday shows, the blueprint remains the same: book a Republican and let them talk.' When Brennan asked Ivanka to address the cruel and callous policy of family separation at the border and the '900 children who remain separated from their families,' the senior adviser to the president dodged the question, claiming 'immigration is not part of my portfolio,' before quickly changing the subject to human trafficking. Yet there was no follow-up, no pushback whatsoever, from the 'Face the Nation' host.&" (Also linked yesterday.) Related story linked yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... given the way it obscured key facts, host Margaret Brennan's approach to interviewing the president's elder daughter and senior adviser would've fit right in on Fox & Friends.... Brennan described Ivanka as 'vocal in your opposition' to the inhumane family separation policy her father implemented in April 2018, noting that she described the policy as a 'low point.' But Ivanka was not in fact 'vocal' in opposition to the policy -- in fact, the opposite is the case.... Ivanka ... only spoke out in opposition to the family separation policy after her father signed an executive order in June 2018 ending it. She was conspicuously silent in the days leading up to that point...."
Rudy Is Not the Only Trump Ally Messing with Maduro. Joshua Goodman of the AP: "Erik Prince, a major Republican donor and founder of controversial security firm Blackwater, has been referred to the U.S. Treasury Department for possible sanctions violations tied to his recent trip to Venezuela for a meeting with a top aide of President Nicolas Maduro, two senior U.S. officials said. There's no indication that Prince, whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, will be sanctioned for the meeting last month in Caracas with Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. But the fact the visit was flagged underscores the concern of officials in the Trump administration over what appeared to be an unauthorized diplomatic outreach to Maduro.... It also marks something of a reversal for Prince, who earlier in 2019 was thought to have been pitching a plan to form a mercenary army to topple Maduro. A person familiar with Prince's visit said he had been asked to travel to Venezuela by an unidentified European businessman with longstanding ties to the oil-rich nation." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: We will never know how many of Trump's little buddies are running around the world acting as "back channels" for Trump & trying to put together shady deals. But it's fair to assume the level of corruption is staggering.
All the Best People, Ctd. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's White House hired an Ohio telemarketer who twice filed for bankruptcy for his telemarketing company and owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS. The president's 2016 campaign paid $1.2 million to Victory Solutions LLC, which owed the IRS and was facing numerous lawsuits, and its chief executive Shannon Burns went to work last year in the White House as a part-time advance associate, reported The Daily Beast." (The Daily Beast story is subscriber-firewalled.)
Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The United States military on Sunday struck five targets in Iraq and Syria controlled by an Iranian-backed paramilitary group, the Pentagon said, a reprisal for a rocket attack on Friday that killed an American contractor." (This is an update & an expansion of a Reuters story linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Alissa Rubin & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Iraq has been caught for years in a tug of war between its two most powerful patrons, the United States and Iran. In recent months, public opinion began to tilt against Iran, with street protests demanding an end to Tehran's pervasive influence. But American airstrikes that killed two dozen members of an Iranian-backed militia over the weekend have now made Washington the focus of public hostility, reducing the heat on Tehran and its proxies. Iraqi leaders accused the United States on Monday of violating Iraq's sovereignty and expressed fear that increasing tensions between the United States and Iran could escalate into a proxy war on Iraqi soil.... Anti-Iranian slogans have given way to anti-American ones. Demonstrators and others attacked what they deemed to be America's disproportionate response in killing 24 militiamen in retaliation for the death of one American contractor." ~~~
~~~ Update. Washington Post: "Hundreds of Iraqis converge on U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to protest airstrike that killed members of Iran-backed militia. A spokesman for the Kataib Hezbollah militia said the demonstrators plan to remain outside until the embassy shuts down and U.S. diplomats leave Iraq." @ 5 am ET, this is a breaking news story. The Hill has a story here.
Jesse Drucker & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The overhaul of the federal tax law in 2017 was the signature legislative achievement of Donald J. Trump's presidency. The biggest change to the tax code in three decades, the law slashed taxes for big companies.... But big companies wanted more -- and, not long after the bill became law in December 2017, the Trump administration began transforming the tax package into a greater windfall for the world's largest corporations and their shareholders.... The process of writing the rules [that determine how laws are administered], conducted largely out of public view, can determine who wins and who loses. Starting in early 2018, senior officials in President Trump's Treasury Department were swarmed by lobbyists seeking to insulate companies from the few parts of the tax law that would have required them to pay more.... Thanks in part to the chaotic manner in which the bill was rushed through Congress -- a situation that gave the Treasury Department extra latitude to interpret a law that was, by all accounts, sloppily written -- the corporate lobbying campaign was a resounding success." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race 2020
Annie Grayer & Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Sen. Bernie Sanders is in 'good health,' nearly three months after suffering a heart attack, the attending physician at the US Capitol said in a letter released Monday. The physician, Brian Monahan, said in a summary of the Vermont senator's health that Sanders is no longer taking several of the medications initially prescribed to him after the heart attack." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "A Texas judge has ordered [Friend of Donald] Alex Jones and his InfoWars hoax website to pay more than $100,000 in court costs and legal fees, marking the latest court victory for a Sandy Hook family suing Jones for his promotion of conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "On Sunday, the New York Times revised conservative columnist Bret [Bedbug] Stephens' op-ed 'The Secrets of Jewish Genius,' which claimed that Ashkenazi Jews are intellectually superior, due to overwhelming backlash over the column citing a racist study. Shortly after the op-ed was published on Friday, critics assailed Stephens and the Times for pushing the kind of race science favored by white supremacists.... New York Times Magazine contributor Jody Rosen noted that one of the studies Stephens cited, 'Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence,' was co-authored by white supremacist and eugenicist Henry Harpending. In a lengthy editor's note, the Times stated it had removed the study from the op-ed. 'After publication Mr. Stephens and his editors learned that one of the paper's authors, who died in 2016, promoted racist views,' the note read. 'Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors' views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically.' The Times also asserted that it was 'not [Stephens'] intent' to argue that 'Jews are genetically superior.' However, critics pointed out that ... Stephens, in fact, endorse[d] the study on Jewish intelligence by prefacing it with the sentence 'When it comes to Ashkenazi Jews, it's true.'..." ~~~
~~~ Jack Shafer of Politico: "The Times disavowal and re-edit (tellingly neither co-signed nor acknowledged by Stephens) was too little and too late...."
Mike Schneider of the AP: "The past year' population growth rate in the United States was the slowest in a century due to declining births, increasing deaths and the slowdown of international migration, according to figures released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. grew from 2018 to 2019 by almost a half percent, or about 1.5 million people, with the population standing at 328 million this year, according to population estimates. That's the slowest growth rate in the U.S. since 1917 to 1918, when the nation was involved in World War I, said William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution." Mrs. McC: Also in 1918, 500,000 to 675,000 people living in the U.S. died in the influenza pandemic. Obviously, slowing population growth leads to a slowing economy.
Beyond the Beltway
Kansas. Cop Caught on Tape. Ben Kesslen & Doha Madani of NBC News: "A Kansas police officer resigned Monday after fabricating a story that employees at a McDonald's wrote the words "F---ing Pig' on his coffee cup.... The ex-officer, who remained unidentified, is a former military police officer in the Army and had been on the small town's force for two months.... The McDonald's in Junction City, about 25 miles north of Herington near Fort Riley Army Base, said Sunday that after reviewing surveillance video, representatives were confident that was no employee wrote the message."
New York. Elisha Fieldstadt of NBC News: "Prosecutors on Monday filed federal hate crime charges against the 37-year-old man accused of storming a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in Monsey, New York, with a machete and wounding five people.... Authorities ... discovered handwritten journals in [the suspect's] home that contained anti-Semitic writings. On one page, he had drawn a Star of David and a Swastika, and written about 'Nazi culture' and 'Adolf Hitler,' according to a federal criminal complaint filed Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New York City. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Michael J. Reynolds, a New York City police officer ... who is white, [was visiting Nashville, Tennessee, when he] kicked in a black woman's door in a drunken rage, threatening her and her sons with a racist slur and obscenities. 'I'll break every bone in your neck,' he said in a rant that included two expletives. He then fled to his nearby Airbnb rental just before the police arrived. This month, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail and three years' probation after pleading no contest to four misdemeanors as a result of the episode, court records show. As of Monday, though, he remained an officer, stirring a growing backlash against the New York Police Department. More than 10,000 people signed an online petition demanding his dismissal and supporting the woman whose home he invaded.... The Police Department said last week that Officer Reynolds was on 'modified duty' and that the disciplinary process was awaiting the Nashville case's conclusion. Asked about the matter again on Monday, a top department official said the process 'was moving forward and questioning will take place imminently.'" Read on. Reynolds' actions would terrify anyone, and the victims had done nothing whatsoever to provoke him.
New York City. Trump Was Right: Wind Energy Is Dangerous. Craig McCarthy of the New York Post: "A shoddy wind turbine fell apart in the Bronx on Monday when it couldn't handle its own power source -- gusty winds. The blade damaged a nearby car and an illuminated billboard when it flew off the 250-foot structure in Baychester at about 1:20 p.m., police said. There were no injuries reported. Local politicians rushed to the scene and blasted the 'hastily' constructed alternative-energy source. The turbine started spinning on Dec. 17, providing power to nearby buildings, according to the Bronx Times."
West Virginia. Janelle Griffith of NBC News: "West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Monday he has approved the recommendations from a report calling for the firing of all correctional officer cadets who participated in a Nazi salute during a class photo. The photo of Basic Training Class 18, released by the state's Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety on Dec. 5 with the employees' faces blurred, shows about 30 uniformed trainees posing with their right arms raised, most of them with their hands also extended. The words 'Hail Byrd!' also appear at the top of the image. Three people -- two academy trainers and a cadet -- were fired days after the photo was released and 34 others suspended without pay amid the investigation by the department and its Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.... The use of the gesture began two to three weeks into training as one that the cadets have described as a 'sign of respect' for an individual identified as 'Instructor Byrd.' Byrd told investigators she was unaware of the 'historical or racial implications of the gesture' and reported it was 'simply a greeting,' according to the report. But her statement was contradicted by multiple sources, the report released Monday says." Byrd told a staffer that the salute signified that "I'm a hard-ass like Hitler."
Way Beyond
Japan/Lebanon. Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan who was facing charges of financial wrongdoing in Japan, has fled the country, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Ghosn is currently in Beirut, Lebanon, said two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr. Ghosn is a citizen of France, Brazil and Lebanon. The circumstances under which Mr. Ghosn left Japan were not immediately clear. But he enjoys widespread public support in Lebanon, where he spent much of his youth and retains family connections." A CNN story is here.
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Here's a bizarre story that is funny but sorry at the same time:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/30/recognize-black-history-month-gop-lawmaker-proposes-list-mostly-white-people/
A Wisconsin GOP state rep proposes that they could get a better response to the Wisconsin Black History Month program, from his Republican caucus, if they made the events mostly about white people. And he seems to believe it. (It's funny because it's true, right?)
Explaining his thinking, the GOP rep said: “I’d rather we work together to pass a resolution the Republican caucus can be excited about,” Allen said. “If we can do that one simple thing, then we can start attacking the tougher issues.”
You have to give him credit, the Republican Caucus could get more excited by a Black History Month about white people than about black people.
There it is folks, the GOP blindness to the effects of racism in our society. If blackness could just be whiteness we'd all be OK.
@Patrick: This looks more like a Rodney King why-can't-we-all-get-along story. Scott Allen, the legislator who made the proposal, is married to a black woman & they have children together. He's not much of a racist. The state senator who has been most critical of Allen's proposal is running for mayor of Milwaukee, so she has a political dog in this fight.
According to the story, the celebration from which Black History Month derived was Negro History Week, inaugurated by black historian Carter Woodson in the 1920s to celebrate Frederick Douglass & Abe Lincoln, the latter being a white guy.
Obviously, Allen made a serious mistake in featuring more white abolitionists than blacks on his list. But I don't think if I were black, I'd object to having a few prominent anti-slavery white people honored during Black History Month. I have long admired the white men of my generation who volunteered to give up the exclusive power they held over non-whites & women.
I thought more like Dangerfield than King.
But right, white people have a place in Black History, good and bad.
And the Sons of Italy can march in the St. Paddy's Day parade. But the Hibernians don't make it about St. Joseph.
Even though we all know Paddy was a Roman.
After reading Bret Stephen's column last weekend I immediately went to the "comments" anticipating much backlash which proved correct–-most were outraged. Bret himself is Jewish–-both parents were secular Jews; his paternal grandfather, after fleeing a pogrom in Moldova settled in Mexico City in 1901 and changed his name to Stephens (after the poet James Stephens) from Ehrlich.
Tis a dangerous field to enter when discussing mental acuity especially when it pin points a particular race or ethnicity. One recalls that disastrous book on black's mental capacity being inferior to whites. Yet our current situation of disabusing "the other" has this underlying premise.
So––since my son, the one in Germany, sent me Bret's column in the first place I, today, sent him RC's piece. Here is his response:
These are valid criticisms but I essentially ignored these issues in my reading of the article. I was more interested in “a way of thinking” than in who was doing it.
"But as the story of the Lithuanian rabbi suggests, Jewish genius operates differently. It is prone to question the premise and rethink the concept; to ask why (or why not?) as often as how; to see the absurd in the mundane and the sublime in the absurd."
I don’t necessarily see this “way of thinking” as something peculiarly Jewish, but I do know that it is not ubiquitous, at least in my little corner of the world, and I am filled with pleasure in those rare moments that I encounter it. Who knows? Maybe it’s Jewish, maybe it’s just Jewishish.
You can think about that while eating a knish.
Years ago, on sunday nights, Elie Wiesel, concentration camp survivor and Nobel laureate, would give radio discussions on Judaism. They were absolutely riveting for me, a non believing recovering catholic. He talked about the process of working with one's faith, how it was important to challenge one's belief, to challenge the "whirlwind" itself.
Oh, I thought, one could explore one's thoughts and feelings about what was right or wrong with one's religion - or god - not simply leave it if it turned out to be inadequate for one.
He emphasized the value of discussion, thinking, challenging one's position about things. And he never encouraged anything like a "come to jesus moment."
I never returned to any religion, but I did value what he had said about the Jewish traditions of thought.
So, when seeing only the headline of Bret's column, I knew I could avoid reading the column: Bret's thoughts are to Wiesel's as a pond fly is to the pond.
Much for naive me to wonder about as we enter the New Year.
Like: what kind of church has armed security guards? Is the practice common in Texas? Elsewhere? I'm wondering about my own county, state?
And did the murderer know there were armed guards? Did we just witness one of those DBC suicides--in a church?
Weird.
Can't wait for 2020...
@PD Pepe: The "way of thinking" the rabbi is talking about is the Talmudic or rabbinical method of inquiry in which a rabbi leads rabbinical students in interpreting sacred passages by asking them to answer questions or a question about the meaning of the text and having the students work out answers. The rabbi may make suggestions or ask follow-up questions that direct students toward reasonable interpretations. It is similar to, and maybe indistinguishable from, the Socratic method, and the two methods of philosophical inquiry were developed at about the same time. That is, the "way of thinking" is not unique to Judaism.
By coincidence, I mentioned an example of the Talmudic method in yesterday's comments when I wrote about the frame around the parable of the good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37) Here Jesus is the rabbi (in fact, he is called "rabbi" in various places in the New Testament) and a lawyer/scholar (he is called a "lawyer," in that he is an expert on sacred Jewish law) asks Jesus a series of questions that center on God's commandments. Jesus answers with a question, which the lawyer answers, but that also leads the lawyer to ask yet another question about his answer: "But who is my neighbor?" Jesus responds by telling the story of the Samaritan who helped a Jewish man who has been accosted & left half-dead on the side of the road. After he tells the story, Jesus asks the lawyer to answer his own question: who is your neighbor. The lawyer says it is the Samaritan, thus answering his own question. Thus Jesus has led the lawyer to a deeper understanding of the meaning of the commandments.
It is kind of worth reading the passage I cited to see a simple example of how the method works. You've probably used it yourself, say, in helping your children figure out how they should act in a certain situation.
Reading Bea's description of the rabbinical way of thinking made me wonder if there was a kinship between it and the Socratic method.
Found this: https://www.myjli.com/why/index.php/2016/11/30/the-art-of-asking-questions/
A clear and vital distinction emerges here between those who value questioning and those who prefer received wisdom or truth revealed from on high.
Implications here that go far beyond religion or philosophy, methinks.
Might even touch on the political...