The Commentariat -- February 24, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Will Bunch of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's hard not to believe that -- with our ADD-addled ability to focus only on the latest outrage of the last hour -- we are missing the most alarming and important trend of the last decade. That would be the rise of violent, brownshirt-style, right-wing global extremism and the concurrent era of authoritarian-style rulers on every continent, whose angry rhetoric toward migrants, ethnic minorities or women inspires these terrorists.... I'm thinking about the tragic and shocking events that took place on Wednesday night ... in the German community of Hanau.... In all, nine people were slaughtered..., most of Turkish descent.... A German killer ... was fascinated by the rise of Donald Trump and what that said about white supremacy. In addition to supporting ... a wall between the U.S. and Mexico..., he also cited off-the-wall conspiracy theories..., like the internet fake-scandal called QAnon or its cousin, the invented Pizzagate affair.... It's the kind of thinking that screams out for mental health treatment but which, in 2020, might get one, in his or her 'Q' T-shirt, a front-row seat at a Trump campaign rally." --s
Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump arrives Monday in a country featuring the most Trump properties outside the U.S. The White House hopes the visit will advance trade talks and bolster the president's standing with Indian-Americans ahead of the 2020 election. But it's also a trip that will create attention that could help Trump-branded properties amid a slumping real estate market and slowing economy in India." --s
Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Regardless of whether or not Americans are voting for...Donald Trump, almost two-thirds of nationwide registered voters say they think he'll most likely win re-election in November. About 65 percent of U.S. registered voters of all political affiliations say Trump will 'definitely' or 'probably will' defeat whoever the ultimate Democratic challenger is against him in the general election...Republicans are far more confident than Democrats, with 90 percent of GOP registered voters expecting Trump to win re-election." --s
Garrett Graff of Wired: "As Richard Grenell, the current US ambassador to Germany, starts his ... job as the nation's acting director of national intelligence, his arrival also marks the ouster of not only his predecessor, Joseph Maguire, but reportedly also of DNI principal executive Andrew Hallman. By the end of the day, almost all of the roles created after 9/11 literally to prevent the next 9/11 will be either vacant or lack permanent appointees.... There will soon be no Senate-confirmed director of the National Counterterrorism Center, director of national intelligence, principal deputy director of national intelligence, homeland security secretary, deputy homeland security secretary, nor leaders of any of the three main border security and immigration agencies.... No department is in worse shape than the Department of Homeland Security, itself a post-9/11 creation meant to bring together under one roof the key agencies that protect the nation's infrastructure, transportation, and borders." --s
Zack Whittaker of Tech Crunch: "A spyware app designed to 'monitor everything' on a victim's phone has been secretly installed on thousands of phones. The app, KidsGuard, claims it can 'access all the information' on a target device, including its real-time location, text messages, browser history, access to its photos, videos and app activities, and recordings of phone calls. But a misconfigured server meant the app was also spilling out the secretly uploaded contents of victims' devices to the internet.... Although many of these apps are marketed toward parents to monitor their child's activities, many have repurposed the apps to spy on their spouses. That's prompted privacy groups and security firms to work together to help better identify stalkerware." --s
Brian Naylor of NPR: "Historians and activists charge that the White House has failed to keep notes of the president's meetings with foreign leaders, including with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that other papers, including records of alleged abuses of undocumented immigrants, could be destroyed.... The American Immigration Council, an advocacy organization, along with three other groups last week filed Freedom of Information Act requests with ICE asking for the documents, as a way to keep them intact. Emily Creighton, [an attorney for the council..., calls it 'mind boggling' that some documents detailing detention conditions could be destroyed in 10, 20 or 30 years. 'It's almost as though we are, you know, erasing our nation's conscience,' she says.... Historians are fighting on another front with the Trump administration: over the preservation or, in some cases, the creation of presidential records. President Trump is reportedly averse to having note-takers present at his meetings with foreign leaders and is said to have torn up some notes, in violation of the Presidential Records Act." --s
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "President Trump's ongoing purge of his administration is rapidly getting worse.... The real driver here is that Trump is removing officials who committed the sin of trying to defend the rule of law from his efforts to corrupt it. This is forward-looking: It clears the way for more such corruption of the rule of law and sends a message to others about what awaits them if they stand in the way of this as it continues to devolve. Two new reports about Trump's ongoing purge underscore this with great clarity. First, Axios reports that in the view of Trump's aides, the president has 'crossed a psychological line' regarding the 'deep state.' (Axios story also linked below.) He has concluded multiple agencies are filled with 'snakes,' and he wants them rooted out.... A second report [is] a deep New York Times dive into tensions roiling the Justice Department amid Attorney General William Barr's intervention on behalf of Trump confidant Roger Stone.... Trump is raging at officials who constitute an obstacle to his own active, ongoing corruption of the rule of law. And it's working: The Justice Department actually is carrying out his corrupt bidding in many ways."
Daniel Arkin & Adam Reiss of NBC News: "Harvey Weinstein, the once-powerful Hollywood mogul, was found guilty of rape in the third degree Monday but acquitted on the two most serious criminal charges, capping a landmark trial of the #MeToo era. The jury in New York convicted Weinstein, 67, of third-degree rape of Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actress, as well as a count of criminal sexual act in the first degree against Mimi Haley, a former 'Project Runway' production assistant. But the jury found him not guilty on two counts of predatory sexual assault, which could have resulted in a life sentence. He was also acquitted on a count of first-degree rape against Mann." ~~~
~~~ A New York Times story, comprised of live updates, is here. "Harvey Weinstein is being sent immediately to jail to await his sentencing." Update: The Times' main story is here.
Here's the Problem. Gabriel Debenedetti of New York: "... the day after a decisive Sanders victory in Nevada, his rivals are all intent on staying in. Given the general agreement among anti-Sanders moderates that the field needs to shrink, why won't anyone drop out?" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's something I can see happening: Bernie gets about 40 percent of the delegates in the primaries & caucuses. Barack Obama & Nancy Pelosi & maybe a few other éminences grises get together & pick a consensus candidate. Then they strongarm all the other "moderate" candidates to pledge their delegates to their chosen candidate. And let's hope their choice is not Hillary Clinton.
Modi Rolls out the Red Carpet for Trump. Anita Kumar of Politico: “Standing alongside Modi, Trump on Monday inaugurated the brand-new Motera Stadium, lined with 110,000 orange, yellow and blue seats -- all filled. Trump is ostensibly in India to help mitigate a long-standing trade dispute while tightening U.S.-Indian relations, but Monday's mega-rally was also designed to appeal to Indian-American voters as Trump heads into his reelection campaign.... It was a political-style rally like no other. Even Trump's popular MAGA rallies couldn't compare to the size and scope of the 'Namaste Trump rally." Mrs. McC: The world's oldest former democracy & the world's largest former democracy keep pretending they're still democracies. Sweet. ~~~
~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited the Taj Mahal on Monday, posing for photos and getting a private tour of the iconic monument to cap his first day in India." Mrs. McC: I guess Trump enjoyed seeing a Taj that didn't send one of his companies into bankruptcy and later sold for 4 cents on the dollar.
Keith Bradsher & Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Stocks on Wall Street plummeted on Monday, following sharp declines in global markets after spreading coronavirus outbreaks in Italy and in South Korea stoked concern among investors about the potential damage they might inflict on the global economy. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 3 percent at the start of trading, after European markets recorded their worst day since 2016 and major benchmarks in Asia closed sharply lower. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 900 points. The number of people infected with the virus has ballooned to more than 79,000 people in Asia, crippling China's economy. Rapidly spreading outbreaks have now been reported in Italy, Iran and South Korea." This is a liveblog of developments related to the coronavirus pandemic. A Politico story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday made a veiled threat toward House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff, claiming without evidence that the California Democrat had leaked information from a classified briefing in which a senior U.S. intelligence official told lawmakers that Russia wants to see Trump reelected. 'Somebody please tell incompetent (thanks for my high poll numbers) & corrupt politician Adam "Shifty" Schiff to stop leaking Classified information or, even worse, made up information, to the Fake News Media,' Trump tweeted. 'Someday he will be caught, & that will be a very unpleasant experience!'" Mrs. McC: Um, how is that "veiled" exactly? Seems like a pretty straightforward threat. ~~~
~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: "As accusations swirled Sunday about Russia's efforts to interfere with the 2020 election, President Trump's national security adviser and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could not agree on what Moscow is, or is not, doing. Their disagreement came as intelligence officials disputed reports that emerged last week about a briefing of the House Intelligence Committee. The officials now maintain that the House members either misheard or misinterpreted a key part of the briefing, and that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not mean to say that it believes the Russians are currently intervening in the election explicitly to help President Trump. They do believe that Russia is intervening in the election, and that Moscow prefers Mr. Trump, a deal maker it knows well. But at least for now, those two objectives may not be linked. The differing interpretations only made it easier for the Trump administration and Democrats to put forward their own version of what the Russians are doing. As the national security adviser, Robert C. O'Brien, defended Mr. Trump and intimated that the Russians favored the Democratic presidential front-runner, Senator Bernie Sanders, Mr. Biden blamed the president and other Republicans for allowing Russia to continue to interfere in the election."
He's Gonna Find Out Who's Naughty or Nice. Jonathan Swan of Axios writes an uncharacteristically long story on Trump's hit list: "The Trump White House and its allies, over the past 18 months, assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust -- and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them -- according to more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort who spoke to Axios.... By the time President Trump instructed his 29-year-old former body man and new head of presidential personnel to rid his government of anti-Trump officials, he'd gathered reams of material to support his suspicions.... A well-connected network of conservative activists with close ties to Trump and top administration officials is quietly helping develop these 'Never Trump'/pro-Trump lists, and some sent memos to Trump to shape his views, per sources with direct knowledge. Members of this network include Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Republican Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen."
Former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) in a New York Times op-ed: "With acting cabinet secretaries everywhere, the Departments of Homeland Security and State hollowed out, and the recent departure of high-profile, nonpolitical appointees on the National Security Council staff (the Vindman brothers and Victoria Coates), the judgment and experience about who wants to attack us and where is basically gone. This creates an enormous risk to our country.... Allied services also won't trust us if our own officers face constant pressure to politicize intelligence. That means reporting streams will dry up, we won't get early warning on planned attacks and we will lose critical knowledge about the decisions adversaries are making that may not have consequences today, but could have huge ones in the next decade."
Washington Post: "President Trump arrived in India for his first official visit on Monday, the beginning of a whirlwind 36-hour tour that includes a mega-rally expected to draw more than 100,000 people, a visit to the Taj Mahal, and a day of ceremonies and meetings in Delhi. Trump was greeted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom Trump recently described as 'a friend of mine.'... Trump's visit to India comes as the two countries continue to deepen their security cooperation but face stubborn tensions over trade. The Modi government has faced considerable international criticism -- including from members of Congress -- over its crackdown in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, and the passage of a controversial religion-based citizenship bill that has led to protests across the country. In the run-up to the trip, a senior White House official said Trump would raise the issue of religious freedom with Modi in private. Before leaving for India, Trump told reporters the trip would be 'very exciting,' and the 'biggest event' India had ever held." This is a liveblog, so you can check back to catch up on what-all else Trump says or does to embarrass us. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Biggest event," my ass. Apparently our Ignoramus-in-Chief did not read his briefing book where it described the huge protests against Modi way last month. ~~~
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson swiftly and scathingly told ... Roger Stone there's no legal reason he should be able to remove her from his criminal case, two days after he accused her of bias because she said jurors who found him guilty served with integrity.... 'There is no rule and no case law that would justify the recusal of a judge for bias simply because he or she says something about an issue on the docket, on the record, at some point before a reply has been filed, or before a hearing -- which may or may not be required in the Court's discretion -- has concluded. If parties could move to disqualify every judge who furrows his brow at one side or the other before ruling, the entire court system would come to a standstill,' according to Jackson. The judge also defended her impartiality, noting on Sunday that she has insured fairness for Stone throughout his case, including after he posted a threatening photo on Instagram about her as he awaited trial."
Presidential Race
The New York Times has Nevada's Democratic presidential caucus results here. Politico's caucus results are here. It appears only Bernie Sanders & Joe Biden will earn delegates from Nevada, as a candidate must receive at least 15 percent of the vote to do so, and they are likely to be the only candidates to do so.
Natasha Korecki & David Siders of Politico: "Moderate Democrats watched in horror as Bernie Sanders soared to a landslide victory in Nevada. It wasn't the win that was surprising -- it was the walloping Sanders gave his opponents, his ability to dominate among Latino voters, and the momentum he gained moving into South Carolina and Super Tuesday. The performance sent already worried Democrats into a full-blown panic."
Annie Grayer of CNN: "Former Democratic hopeful Marianne Williamson made a surprise appearance at Sen. Bernie Sanders' rally Sunday in Austin, Texas, to announce her endorsement of the Democratic front-runner.... Ahead of the Iowa caucuses in January, Williamson, who had already dropped out, had said she would campaign for Andrew Yang in Iowa, hoping to keep him in the race, but stopping short of an outright endorsement." She said Bernie has been "consistent" and "convicted," whatever that means.
Rick Klein of ABC News explains the various dynamics that increase the likelihood Sanders will walk away with the Democratic nomination.
News Ledes
NBC News: "Katherine Johnson, one of the NASA mathematicians depicted in 'Hidden Figures,' died Monday, the administrator of NASA said. She was 101." Johnson's New York Times obituary is here. ~~~
~~~ You can rent or buy "Hidden Figures" on YouTube & Amazon Prime.
CNN: "The restaurateur, model and author B. Smith died on Saturday after a battle with Alzheimer's disease, her husband Dan Gasby said in a statement. She was 70 years old."
Share Article
Reader Comments (15)
I suppose Williamson could mean that Bernie is full of convictions about all the things he has convictions about, and is therefor "convicted--" ??
Am sick of all the stories about how horrified Democrats are. I don't know a single Dem who won't vote, or refuses to vote for whomever the candidate is. That includes ole Bernie. I won't vote for him in the primary, but come November, he gets my vote if he is the candidate. I am still, however, horrified that the senator/professor is doing so poorly. She was grand in the debate--
Also am so worried about Adam Schiff and hope he has bodyguards assigned to him still. Idiotface is endangering his life every day.
I have always been fascinated with India ever since Paul Scott's "The Jewel in the Crown." John Oliver does a bang up job of providing some history and now current politics on this country and if you think our country is divided––which it is–-India is many times more.
I found the myth cited in the school books about God's baking bread expertise mind-blowing! Surely this must be a joke but if not, then incredible that it's actually in history books.
Modi is exactly the kind of "leader" that Fatty favors and how precious the pictures of his towering bulk leaning in close to the very small man who came out of the oven "just right."
@Jeanne: Unfortunately, the point is not whom you and I will vote for. It's whom "independents" -- i.e., people who don't pay attention to the election till November 3 -- will vote for. And they're going to pick the person who "looks most presidential." Between Bernie & Donnie, they will choose Donnie. I think the only Democratic candidates still standing who can overcome the "looks presidential" hurdle are Warren & Klobuchar. Both of them, and Klobuchar in particular, can get the soccer-Mom & never-Trumper voters.
@PD Pepe: It's "Goldilocks & the Three Bears" for racists: "This porridge is too white.... This porridge is too brown.... This porridge is just right."
Here's Anand Giridharadas who in a short video says "it's time to rethink and understand the dawn of what may be a new era in America"
https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1231622488204959744
And by the by––he mentions Chris Mathews' despicable comment discussed yesterday on R.C.
In the global battle of East vs. West regarding governance models, "communism" lost and it's now a pretty even match between democracy/authoritarianism.
The big knock on the Chinese model has been that you have to exchange multiple freedoms, particularly the freedom of expression & the rule of law, for economic security. I'm afraid if Drumpf wins reelection, us "freeeedom" loving Americans will be no better than the Chinese we've been carping about for being so beholden to their oppressive overlords. It will be case closed on the "exceptional" nature of the American experiment as inherently opposed to overt authoritarian tendencies, all due to a populace lullabied by a debt-driven standard of living and enough material gains to keep us docile as the Mad King in Washington weaponizes the federal government against his enemies & further cements clientelism and nepotism. As long as McDonald's still has a dollar menu, meat prices remain subsidized, taxes aren't substantially raised, mediocre jobs stay plentiful, cheap beer is readily available and gasoline prices low, living under Monarchy can't be so bad. What could go wrong?
"The Ugly side to the Booming U.S. Economy in One Telling Chart."
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/proof-that-the-booming-economy-isnt-working-for-a-chunk-of-the-population-2020-02-23?mod=home-page
Today in Fattycentric Fatuity
So the Orange Menace trundles off to India for some much needed addled adulation from a dangerous, intolerant, Islamaphobic, religious nationalist and his epigones (couldn’t he get the same shit in Kansas?), where, using his much beloved royal “we”, he proclaimed, in that wheezy whine that “We love India” and “from this day on India will always hold a special place in our hearts [as long as they continue to treat me like a god]”.
So, what, before this the US had a give-a-shit attitude about India? We barely knew it existed? Leave it to Fatty to reinvent the world to make it seem like we were all running around in animal skins eating dung beetles, with no economy, no healthcare, no education, and living in hovels before he waddled up to show the world how a Macho Man (the song that accompanied his entrance) billionaire tough guy does it.
What must the world look like to this virulently insecure, historically ignorant fraud?
And needless to say, here he is, yet again, with a huge crush on a nationalist strongman who sees religious persecution and murder as legitimate tools of domestic policy.
Fatty’s not far off. Hey, so far he’s only killing babies and the occasional immigrant, but every third day or so he’s sure to suggest to his more crazed minions that the country would be better off (get it?) without certain people.
It’s enough to make Gandhi burn his spinning wheel.
Just imagine the foaming spittle outrage if the spouse of a SCOTUS judge appointed by a Democrat was engaged in a decades long battle of character assassination and making hit lists of confederates he or she hated and wanted purged from the government. There would be non-stop demands for impeachment and imprisonment. But a winger does it? Great. No problem. Needed to be done anyway.
Just another of the myriad examples of how intellectually dishonest and morally reprehensible is the whole sick notion of bothsiderism.
@Akhilleus: Good point. And the Democratic president who acted on the list -- as Trump is doing -- would be impeached, too. There would be an impeachment lollapalooza. Everyone must go!
I found this interesting blurb inside the jacket of a book last week,
which was spent sorting out books to give away or donate. Now I can
see the floor of the office/library. Twenty shelves to go!
"We have a White House that favors the rich and well-connected,
lavishes tax cuts on big businesses and pushes through unfair tax
legislation.
It provides no regard for the balance of powers or the role of Congress.
It displays little regard for our environment.
This book is a ringing call to action by one of the country's longest-
serving and most respected legislators, one who does not shrink from
warning the people of the sinister agenda of a power-seeking White
House"
Can anyone guess how old this book is?
That's not fair, so I'll tell you. It was a 2005 gift and was written by
Senator Robert Byrd.
Has there been an improvement since 2005 or have things gotten
worse? Don't answer that.
@Jeanne et al., Sanders may be just the one to crush Trump, AND take back the senate. Elections in the US are mostly about turnout. Bernie-or-busters elected Trump in '16 by sitting it out or third party vote. Not this time, and if he is the candidate, their turnout may approach an unheard of 100%. Then, I can't imagine even a right of center Dem staying home, irrespective of the nominee, in the face of Trump on the ballot. And I've seen little evidence of swing independents.
Only puzzling Sanders bamboozlement: Why in the world does he describe himself as a socialist, when he is nowhere near one? Of the MSM pundits, only Krugman, whom I hope Sanders reads, seems to understand this.
If there's one thing we ought to have learned in the past five years, it's that democracy is no way to pick a candidate for the country's top job. One might think the party conventions would do the job better. But Warren Harding, etc. What about a parliamentary system? Boris Johnson.
I don't know what the best system is, but both parties should at least establish a floor as to who is eligible to run in their primaries (and it shouldn't be based on raising money): like having served in high government office and been associated with their party for, what, six years? That would probably get rid of Trump & Sanders & maybe Bloomberg -- and certainly Andrew Yang & Marianne Williamson & Tom Steyer. If mayor counts, it has to be of a city of more than 500K people, or something like that. Yes, there are plenty of incompetents who would meet all of the criteria (mike pence), but these free-for-alls are ridiculous.
@ Bea
What?! Party qualifiers for office other than the constitutional minimum of age and citizenship? You should add passing a psych evaluation and disclosing tax returns to your list - that should winnow it down. You'd think that these qualities might have some currency with the electorate. But no, we pick business leaders who are inexperienced in running democratic operations - the more autocratic the better.
Apologies if this is a duplicate recommendation. Timothy Snyder of On Tyranny expresses what we all know, especially what a phony POS #45 is, was and always will be. A little under 14 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej_D0YkDjy8.