The Commentariat -- July 2, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng of The Daily Beast: "In the aftermath of last week's deadly assault on Annapolis, Maryland's Capital Gazette newsroom, President Donald Trump seemed annoyed. In conversations with those close to him, the president casually aired a complaint and a prediction -- that 'the fake news' would 'unfair[ly]' try to blame him and his demagoguing of the adversarial news coverage for the mass shooting, according to two advisers...." --safari
Uh-Oh. George Stephanopoulos of ABC News: "Michael Cohen -- ... Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney and a former executive vice president at the Trump Organization -- has always insisted he would remain loyal to the president.... But in his first in-depth interview since the FBI raided his office and homes in April, Cohen strongly signaled his willingness to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York -- even if that puts President Trump in jeopardy. 'My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will,' Cohen told me. 'I put family and country first.'" ...
... Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice on the news that Elliott Broidy has chosen to discontinue hush money payments to Shera Bechard (story by Paul Campos linked below): "If in fact Trump rather than Broidy knocked Bechard up and subsequently paid for her abortion, that could prove awkward as the Trump administration seats an anti-choice judge on the Supreme Court. I mean, there's no mass of hypocrisy too large for white evangelicals to swallow in ritual idolatry for their absurd and lumpy Orange Calf, but damn." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: For what it's worth, I think the Cohen interview & Broidy story are tied. Campos couldn't figure out why Broidy would decide to breach his agreement. BUT IF (1) Broidy had received a heads-up that Cohen was about to sing, & (2) Trump was "the real father" in the Bechard affair, THEN Broidy has little incentive to keep paying out on the Bechard charade, since Cohen -- who most likely knows the real story -- would soon be blowing up the Broidy-daddy hoax. It shouldn't make much difference to Broidy who spills the beans -- Bechard or Cohen.
Jeff Horwitz & Maria Danilova of the AP: Konstantin "Kilimnik, an elusive figure now indicted alongside [Paul] Manafort on witness tampering charges, was far more involved in formulating pro-Russia political strategy with Manafort than previously known, according to internal memos and other business records obtained by the AP.... Kilimnik -- who special counsel Robert Mueller believes is currently in Russia and has ties to Russian intelligence -- helped formulate Manafort's pitches to clients in Russia and Ukraine, according to the records." Kilimnik has continued to help Manafort as recently as April of this year.
Trump Doesn't Care if the Markets Tank. Matthew Belvedere of CNBC: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Monday that there's no level on the downside in the stock market that would alter the way ... Donald Trump approaches trade." Mrs. McC: What this means is that Trump & his family don't have much money in the markets. ...
... Ginger Gibson of Reuters: "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business lobbying group and customarily a close ally of ... Donald Trump's Republican Party, is launching a campaign on Monday to oppose Trump's trade tariff policies. The new campaign, detailed first to Reuters, will provide an analysis of the financial hit each U.S. state stands take from potential retaliation to Trump's tariffs. It argues that Trump is risking a global trade war that will hit the wallets of U.S. consumers."
Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: Donald "Trump's Ancestral Village Abounds With His Relatives. Few Will Admit It. 'Practically half the village is [related to Donald Trump],' chuckled Kallstadt[, Germany]'s mayor, Thomas Jaworek, before quickly adding: 'I'm not.' Both of Mr. Trump's paternal grandparents, Friedrich and Elisabeth Trump, were born in Kallstadt, home now to 1,200 inhabitants."
Monetizing Melanie. Andrew W. Lehren, et al., of NBC News: "Since her husband took office Melania Trump has earned six figures from an unusual deal with a photo agency in which major media organizations have indirectly paid the Trump family despite a requirement that the photos be used only in positive coverage.... Donald Trump's most recent financial disclosure reveals that in 2017 the first lady earned at least $100,000 from Getty Images for the use of any of a series of 187 photos of the first family shot between 2010 and 2016 by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux.... [The agreement is] very unusual for the wife of a currently serving elected official. More problematic for the many news organizations that have published or broadcast the images however, is that Getty's licensing agreement stipulates the pictures can be used in 'positive stories only.'" Several news organizations took the pictures off their Websites when they learned of the for-profi agreement. Mrs. McC: The whole Trump family is incredibly sleazy. But you knew that.
Jennifer Rubin has a message for Susan Collins: "it's almost certainly true that a nominee able to pass muster with the Federalist Society and Trump is, in fact, going to vote to overturn Roe.... It should not be more complicated than this: Voting for a nominee on the Trump list (either the original 20, or the wider 25) opens the door to the criminalization of abortion.... [Collins also said Sunday she] "'strongly disagreed with [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's] decision to not proceed with a vote on President [Barack] Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland,' but of course she ratified that strategy when she voted for Justice Neil M. Gorsuch."
Bruce Shreiner of TPM: "Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is cutting dental and vision coverage for nearly a half-million Kentuckians after his Medicaid overhaul plan was rejected in court. The state Cabinet for Health and Family Services calls the cuts an 'unfortunate consequence' of Friday's ruling by a federal judge.... Bevin's administration sought to place the blame squarely on the judge. The ruling means there is no longer a 'legal mechanism' in place to pay for dental and vision coverage for about 460,000 Medicaid beneficiaries, the state's health and family services cabinet said in a weekend statement." --safari
Katrin Bennhold & Melissa Eddy: "Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany struggled to keep her government together on Monday, after her rebellious Bavarian interior minister first threatened to resign, then backtracked, and finally gave her a second ultimatum on creating a hard border with Austria to stem the flow of migrants. The clash between the chancellor and the minister, Horst Seehofer, who is also the leader of the Bavarian conservatives in Ms. Merkel's coalition, escalated late Sunday, after eight hours of talks failed to resolve a standoff over a policy that would affect relatively few migrants but has become deeply political. Failure to end the stalemate could topple Ms. Merkel's government and even end her long run as chancellor."
Dominic Patten of Deadline: "Already facing rape and criminal sex act charges and a potential 25-years behind bars, Harvey Weinstein today was hit with even heavier legal weight from the Manhattan D.A. -- that could see him in jail for life. 'A Manhattan Grand Jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New York's Penal Law,' said District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. today."
*****
Charles Blow: "Trump is like a drug dealer who has addicted his followers to fear and rage and keeps supplying it in constant doses. His supporters have become rage-junkies for whom he can do no wrong." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Blow has got that right. So one should not be surprised that, "Researchers found a geographic relationship between support for Trump and prescriptions for opioid painkillers." ...
People who reach for an opioid might also reach for ... near-term fixes. I think that Donald Trump's campaign was a promise for near-term relief. -- Dr. Nancy E. Morden
Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast: "[A]s of this moment we still have a system of government that might save us from the increasingly dangerous trends of the Trump era. But the moment is fast approaching when that will no longer be possible.... History is full of precedents.... But ... There are cautionary ones all around us in the present. From Venezuela and Nicaragua to Turkey and Egypt to Russia and the Philippines we've seen presidents use their initial popularity to tear apart the institutions that might have checked their power.... The real estate shyster in [Trump] does not believe in a nation of laws, but of lawyers who, if you pay them enough, will allow you to do just about anything. The messianic huckster that he's become just makes up 'facts,' then finds to his amusement that his faithful followers believe them. The innate bigot in him believes minorities should remain minorities, and preferably powerless ones, forever. And, perversely, as a 'reality' television star he discovered he could stitch all those elements together and people would find them, yes, entertaining." --safari
The TrumpenCourt. Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "The whole purpose of Trump's Supreme Court selection process has been to eliminate the possibility of nominating someone who might commit Kennedy's perfidies of moderation.... [Here's] what, if such a nominee is confirmed, a new majority will do. It will overrule Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortions and to criminally prosecute any physicians and nurses who perform them. It will allow shopkeepers, restaurateurs, and hotel owners to refuse service to gay customers on religious grounds. It will guarantee that fewer African-American and Latino students attend élite universities. It will approve laws designed to hinder voting rights. It will sanction execution by grotesque means. It will invoke the Second Amendment to prohibit states from engaging in gun control, including the regulation of machine guns and bump stocks. And these are just the issues that draw the most attention." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps the most sickening part of all this is that Trump isn't nominating wingers out of any ideological belief. He's doing so, as Toobin writes, because "He recognized that evangelicals and their political allies would overlook his vulgar demeanor if he pledged to give them the judges they wanted." Trump is taking away the rights of ordinary Americans for his own personal benefit & for no other reason. ...
... E.J. Dionne: "When Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) quickly tweeted: 'This is the fight of our lives.'... The future of abortion rights is central to the coming battle. But so are civil rights, corporate power and our democratic capacity to correct social injustices. Conservatives should not be allowed to distract attention from the aspects of their agenda that would horrify even many who voted for Donald Trump." ...
The existing Court's assault on voting rights, collective bargaining, and religious liberty is awful enough -- just imagine how bad working people will have it if another right-wing justice joins the Court. This is a red alert moment for the American people -- we need all hands on deck to stop the Court from taking a vicious, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-civil rights turn. -- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) ...
... Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key swing vote on President Trump's next Supreme Court pick, said Sunday that she would not vote for any judge who wanted to end access to abortion in the United States by overturning Roe v. Wade. 'I would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade,' Collins said Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union,' adding that Roe v. Wade established abortion as a 'constitutional right.' In another appearance, on ABC News's 'This Week,' Collins said that any judge who wants to overturn Roe has an 'activist agenda' that she thinks goes against the fundamental tenets of U.S. law and the Constitution." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Hear Susan talk. Hear Susan hem and haw. See Susan fold. ...
... A Reminder of What Janus Was Really About. Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court decision striking down mandatory union fees for government workers was not only a blow to unions. It will also hit hard at a vast network of groups dedicated to advancing liberal policies and candidates.... onservatives have acknowledged as much.... Even President Trump took notice of the justices' ruling, declaring on Twitter that it was a 'big loss for the coffers of the Democrats!'" ...
... **Micro-targeting Death to Unions. Lee Fang & Nick Surgey of The Intercept: "Just moments after the Janus vs. AFSCME ruling came down, several conservative think tanks launched campaigns to leverage the pivotal Supreme Court decision as a means of starving unions of funds and eventually disbanding them altogether.... [T]he advocacy groups will launch decertification campaigns to nullify certain unions in certain jurisdictions.... The well-funded effort is being coordinated by the State Policy Network, an organization that steers a national patchwork of right-wing think tanks to advance policies favored by business lobbyists and GOP donors.... Not all public sector union members are expected to want to opt-out, so the organizers of the campaign developed methodology to target those who might be most sympathetic to withholding union fees." The article lays out the right-wingers' vicious strategy --safari
Obama Derangement Syndrome. Saritha Rai of Bloomberg: "... Donald Trump's plan to ban spouses of high-skill visa holders from working will likely push 100,000 people out of jobs and negatively affect the visa holders and their employers, according to a new research study. The Trump administration has been tightening the rules for H-1B visas, which allow foreign workers to take jobs in the U.S. for several years, and plans to revoke the ability of spouses to work as part of the effort.... The U.S. began allowing spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in 2015, under the preceding Obama Administration." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: My guess is that the majority of married H-1B visa holders are men; thus, this fits in well with Trump's misogynistic policy preferences; most of the spouses will be wives, rendered powerless by their inability to earn their own incomes. Shooing out quasi-Roe supporter Kennedy is part of the same inclination.
Elliot Spagat of the AP: "Border Patrol arrests fell sharply in June to the lowest level since February, according to a U.S. official, ending a streak of four straight monthly increases. The drop may reflect seasonal trends or it could signal that ... Donald Trump's 'zero-tolerance' policy to criminally prosecute every adult who enters the country illegally is having a deterrent effect. The agency made 34,057 arrests on the border with Mexico during June, down 16 percent from 40,344 in May, according to the official.... The June tally is preliminary and subject to change. Arrests were still more than double from 16,077 in June 2017, but the sharp decline from spring could undercut the Trump administration's narrative of a border in crisis."
Cruelty for Cruelty's Sake. Paloma Esquivel & Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times: Trump "Administration officials have said repeatedly that asylum seekers who don't want to be separated from their children should present themselves at a port of entry.... But court filings describe numerous cases in recent months in which families were separated after presenting themselves at a port of entry to ask for asylum. This happened even when asylum seekers carried records, such as birth certificates or hospital documents, listing them as the parents of their children, according to interviews and court records."
On June 29, I linked to these two stories: (1) ... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has repeatedly told top White House officials he wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, a move that would throw global trade into wild disarray, people involved in the talks tell Axios...." (2) ... Axios Update: "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo Friday that it's an 'exaggeration' to say President Trump wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization...." ...
... So Now This. Jonathan Swan: "Axios has obtained a leaked draft of a Trump administration bill -- ordered by the president himself -- that would declare America's abandonment of fundamental World Trade Organization rules.... The draft legislation is stunning. The bill essentially provides Trump a license to raise U.S. tariffs at will, without congressional consent and international rules be damned.... 'It would be the equivalent of walking away from the WTO and our commitments there without us actually notifying our withdrawal,' said a source familiar with the bill." Includes text of draft bill. ...
... Massive Trump FART Smelt 'Round the World. Kate Lyons of the Guardian: "A report that Donald Trump is looking to walk away from the World Trade Organisation and instead adopt a United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, or Fart Act, has been greeted with loud amusement on Twitter." Mrs. McC: I'm wating for Sarah Sanders' scowly-face answers to reporters' questions about the FART Act. Hey, it's only a draft. Thanks to unwashed for the link.
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday refused to back down on his administration's tariffs against U.S. allies, arguing that the European Union is 'as bad as China' in its trade policies. Trump appeared on Fox News's 'Sunday Morning Futures,' where host Maria Bartiromo asked if he'd considered teaming up with U.S. allies to combat China's trade policies. 'The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller. It's terrible what they do to us,' Trump said." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Washington Post: "President Trump told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that he wants to 'wait until after the election' to sign any new agreement with Canada and Mexico and seemed to indicate there won&'t be an end soon to the ongoing trade battle brewing between the United States and its neighbors." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alanna Petroff of CNN: "Canada has retaliated against US steel and aluminum tariffs by slapping its own penalties on American exports. The Canadian government confirmed Sunday that it has imposed tariffs on US exports worth 16.6 billion Canadian dollars ($12.5 billion). More than 40 US steel products attract tariffs of 25%. A tax of 10% has been levied on over 80 other American items including toffee, maple syrup, coffee beans and strawberry jam. The response from Canada is designed to be proportional, with the new taxes being based on the amount of steel and aluminum shipped last year from Canada to the United States."
Donald Beats Dead Horse. Emily Stewart of Vox: "The Republican tax cuts aren't even a year old, nor are they particularly popular with voters. And already, President Donald Trump is talking about more of them. In an interview with Fox News aired on Sunday, Trump promised a second tax cut plan would be on the way by October. He said the proposal would be aimed at the middle class -- then offered an example of reducing the corporate tax rate further.... Beyond the promise to reduce the corporate rate..., Trump didn't offer specifics on what this new potential legislation might do.... The [Washington] Post estimates that additional 1 percent decrease to the corporate tax rate would result in an additional $100 billion in tax cuts over the next decade." --safari
Brett Samuels: "President Trump on Sunday blamed his opponents for the division in the country, warning that those who have spoken out against him should 'take it easy.'... 'Because some of the language used, some of the words used, even some of the radical ideas, I really think they're very bad for the country. I think they're actually dangerous for the country,' he added." (Also linked yesterday.)
Brian Wingfield, et al. of Bloomberg [July 1]: "U.S. President Donald Trump's administration backed off an assertion he made earlier indicating he persuaded Saudi Arabia to effectively boost oil production to its maximum capacity, which would have threatened to blow up a fragile truce agreed by OPEC and inflamed the Saudi-Iran rivalry.... The White House statement aligned with one by the state-run Saudi Press Agency saying that the king and Trump, in a phone call Saturday ... stressed the importance of maintaining oil-market stability.... The agency didn't say the leaders agreed and didn't make any reference to 2 million barrels.... If the Saudis had agreed to Trump's request..., Iran's OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, said in an interview..., 'There is no way one country could go 2 million barrels a day above their production allocation unless they are walking out of OPEC.'" --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: So just another phony boast to hookwink his cult. ...
... Anthony Dipaola of Bloomberg [July 2]: "The U.S. president tweeted on Saturday that the Saudi king had agreed to raise production to cut the cost of oil for consumers. While the White House later backpedaled from his assertion, Trump on Sunday compounded the pressure, demanding that OPEC stop what he called its manipulation of the oil market and insisting the group pump more.... 'Saudi Arabia is under massive pressure,' said Jaafar Altaie, managing director of consultant Manaar Group in Abu Dhabi.... Trump's comments could also complicate the planned sale of shares in Saudi Arabian Oil Co.... The initial public offering is the centerpiece of the kingdom's strategy to diversify its economy away from oil.... The U.S. president's involvement ... 'furthers the impression there's a lack of independence in the company and makes it look like Trump is setting Saudi oil policy' [Altaie said]." --safari
Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn of Mother Jones: "President Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at Democrats and activists who have called for abolishing or replacing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.... 'You get rid of ICE, you are going to have a country that you're going to be afraid to walk out of your house.'... [H]e said in a tweet that without ICE, 'crime would be rampant and uncontrollable.'" --safari
Paul Campos in LG&$: "The Elliott Broidy-Shera Bechard-Donald Trump saga has suddenly taken a very weird twist: Broidy is backing out of the NDA he entered into with Bechard last fall. That agreement required him to make eight $200,000 payments over two years. The first payment was made on December 1st, 2017, and the third was due [Sunday]. Broidy is refusing to make it[. According to the Wall Street Journal,] 'A lawyer for Mr. Broidy ... said Ms. Bechard's lawyer at the time of the agreement, Keith Davidson, improperly discussed the hush-money agreement with another lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who has replaced Mr. Davidson in representing Stephanie Clifford....'"... If the last thing Broidy wants is for people to be discussing his supposed affair with Shera Bechard, this is an extremely strange way of pursing that goal. By claiming the agreement is void, Broidy gives Bechard the legal right to do whatever she wants with her story -- whatever it may actually be."
Ian Kullgren of Politico: "White House national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday downplayed reports suggesting that North Korea is trying to conceal parts of its nuclear weapons program.... 'We're very well aware of North Korea's patterns of behavior over decades of negotiating with the United States.'..." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "President Trump's national security adviser [John Bolton] said on Sunday that North Korea could dismantle all of its nuclear weapons, threatening missiles and biological weapons 'in a year,' a far more aggressive schedule than the one Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined for Congress recently, reflecting a strain inside the administration over how to match promises with realism.... [Pompeo's] approach [is] fraught with risk, and runs contrary to what Mr. Bolton, before entering the government, and Mr. Trump had said the North must do: dismantle everything first, and ship its bombs and fuel out of the country. If the North is permitted to keep its weapons until the last stages of disarmament, it would remain a nuclear state for a long while, perhaps years."
Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Littered among tens of thousands of [EPA] emails that have surfaced in recent weeks, largely through a public records lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club, are dozens of requests for regulatory relief by industry players. Many have been granted. In March 2017, for example, a lobbyist for Waste Management, one of the nation's largest trash companies, wrote to two top EPA appointees seeking reconsideration of 'two climate-related rules' affecting business.... The EPA subsequently delayed a rule targeting methane emissions from landfills until at least 2020."
Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "Ronald D. Vitiello, a senior Border Patrol official, will serve as acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the Trump administration announced on Saturday, in a move that comes amid calls by some activists and politicians for the agency to be abolished.... He will replace Thomas D. Homan, the current acting head of ICE, who retired this month. The Senate must approve a full-time director for ICE, with Mr. Vitiello now viewed as the leading candidate." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nicole Acevedo, et al., of NBC News: "U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin of Massachusetts ordered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot end its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program until at least midnight Tuesday, meaning those depending on the aid to pay for hotel and motel rooms should be able to stay at least until check-out time Wednesday.... The national civil-rights group that filed a lawsuit Saturday seeking the restraining order said the end of the FEMA assistance would lead to Puerto Rican evacuees being evicted. The temporary restraining order affects around 1,744 people...."
"Monetizing Poor People." I Never Could Stand Tim Geithner. Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "Mass-mailing checks to strangers might seem like risky business, but Mariner Finance occupies a fertile niche in the U.S. economy. The company enables some of the nation's wealthiest investors and investment funds to make money offering high-interest loans to cash-strapped Americans. Mariner Finance is owned and managed by a $11.2 billion private equity fund controlled by Warburg Pincus, a storied New York firm. The president of Warburg Pincus is Timothy F. Geithner, who, as treasury secretary in the Obama administration, condemned predatory lenders.... The company's other tactics include borrowing money for as little as 4 or 5 percent -- thanks to the bond market -- and lending at rates as high as 36 percent, a rate that some states consider usurious; making millions of dollars by charging borrowers for insurance policies of questionable value; operating an insurance company in the Turks and Caicos, where regulations are notably lax, to profit further from the insurance policies; and aggressive collection practices that include calling delinquent customers once a day and embarrassing them by calling their friends and relatives...."
Katie Moeller, et al., of the Idaho Statesman: "Refugee families at a low-income apartment complex were attacked Saturday night by a man who stabbed nine people -- more than any other attack in Boise's history, police said. Four of them suffered injuries that police called life-threatening. A 30-year-old man was quickly taken into custody at gunpoint, police said. All of the victims were taken to a hospital. Boise Police Chief Bill Bones hinted that some victims may be children...." ...
... Update. Ruth Brown, et al., of the Idaho Statesman: "A brutal attack at a Boise apartment complex on Saturday started with the interruption of a 3-year-old girl's birthday party and ended in the stabbing of nine people, six of whom were children. Timmy Kinner is accused of stabbing them randomly after he was asked to leave the low-income apartment complex ... on Friday.... Boise Police Chief Bill Bones said Kinner has an extensive criminal record in multiple states, including charges for violent crimes, weapons and drugs."
Ericka Guevarra of Oregon Public Broadcasting: "Jason Erik Washington, the man killed by armed Portland State University officers early Friday morning, had a valid concealed carry permit at the time of his death. Two of Washington's colleagues and at least one witness say Washington, 45, was black. Keyaira Smith, a witness who took video of the moments leading up to Washington's death, told OPB that he was 'trying to be a good Samaritan' by breaking up a fight."
Avi Selk of the Washington Post: Politce arrested Shane Ryan Sealy, who claims to be a former high school teacher, for pulling a gun on immigration protesters at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama. A few minutes earlier, an Episcopalian priest was leading a prayer; she said, "We pray for the children of this nation and all nations..." At that point, Sealy yelled, "WOMP, WOMP!" "parroting former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who had uttered the same sound on Fox News several days earlier during a discussion about migrant children being seized from their parents at the border.... [Sealy] was initially arrested for possessing a gun within 1,000 feet of a protest. But he would later be booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of menacing and reckless endangerment." Mrs McC PS: That arming teachers idea is looking so sensible.
Conservative "Intellectuals". Martin Cizmar of RawStory: "Conservative activist Dinesh D'Souza retweeted an anti-Semitic message to promote his upcoming movie, Death of a Nation. The movie argues that Donald Trump is the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. The tweet ... shared the trailer to the movie with the hashtag #BurnThejews. D'Souza retweeted it and then later deleted his retweet when he was called out on it. D'Souza said that he had not seen the hashtag." --safari ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll bet Donald's daughter & son-in-law are very, very proud of the old man for pardoning D'Souza, whose racist bigotry is far worse than his corruption. His racism, BTW, is psychopathic; D'Souza is Indian American.
Beyond the Beltway
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "Environmental activists are slamming two controversial bills signed into law Friday by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), arguing that they will give polluting companies the ability to undermine state environmental guidelines.... The two bills signed by Snyder will allow for oversight of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), which is meant to serve as a watchdog for environmental issues throughout the state.... Both laws have been dubbed 'polluter panels' bills based on the leeway they give to industries known for poor environmental practices." --safari
Way Beyond
Azam Ahmed & Paulina Villegas of the New York Times: "Riding a wave of populist anger fueled by rampant corruption and violence, the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected president of Mexico on Sunday, in a landslide victory that upended the nation’s political establishment and handed him a sweeping mandate to reshape the country. Mr. López Obrador's win puts a leftist leader at the helm of Latin America's second-largest economy for the first time in decades, a prospect that has filled millions of Mexicans with hope — and the nation's elites with trepidation." ...
... Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "López Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City and left-wing nationalist who ran for president in 2006 and 2012, has drawn the support of Mexican voters with his populist policies, many of which mirror those of President Trump.... López Obrador has proposed a policy similar to Trump's 'America First' agenda.... [He] is also an ardent critic of Trump's foreign policy, slamming the U.S. president's proposal for a border wall.... He also has slammed Trump’s family separation policy ... as 'arrogant, racist and inhuman.'" --safari
"Ghetto Children." Ellen Barry & Martin Sorensen of the New York Times: "Denmark’s government is introducing a new set of laws to regulate life in 25 low-income and heavily Muslim enclaves, saying that if families there do not willingly merge into the country's mainstream, they should be compelled. For decades, integrating immigrants has posed a thorny challenge to the Danish model, intended to serve a small, homogeneous population. Leaders are focusing their ire on urban neighborhoods where immigrants, some of them placed there by the government, live in dense concentrations with high rates of unemployment and gang violence.... Starting at the age of 1, 'ghetto children' must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in 'Danish values,' including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language."
Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "Japan has set itself on a diplomatic collision course with Australia and other anti-whaling nations amid reports that it plans to push for the partial resumption of commercial whaling later this year. The country's delegation to a meeting of the International Whaling Commission ... in Brazil in September will attempt to alter voting rules that would make it easier to resume for-profit whaling, media reports said.... Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 IWC moratorium, but Japan has continued to hunt whales legally in the Southern ocean every winter for what it claims is 'scientific research.'... Japan faced criticism in May after reporting that its heavily subsidised whaling fleet killed 122 pregnant whales during its annual 'research' hunt in the Southern Ocean last winter." --safari
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Reader Comments (23)
So we can't expect the Pretender will have his heart in curing opioid addiction any time before 2020. He'd be eliminating his base.
As I hinted in what I wrote yesterday and Bea says more directly above, the same group is particularly susceptible to swallowing Pretender lies in an eager gulp and for much the same reason.
Marvin's NPD and a group of addicts together make one great political party, don't they?
No wonder it's leaving a bad taste in peoples's mouths (and noses). Regarding the Jonathan Swan article linked above, the US Fair and Reciprocal Trade (FART) Act proposal stinks and is causing rumblings in Twitterworld for its silent but deadly ramifications.
I think I never knew that the president of this United States basically has so much power. Maybe it is because no president before has declared himself above the law and a monarch, so the so-called checks and balances were previously in place and used. I'm still gobsmacked by the evidence of Pruitt's evil deeds and the fact that he is still employed. The cabinet apparently enjoys unlimited privilege too-- oh, Founding Fathers and impotent Congress, you have screwed us bigtime...
Gosh, you mean these two "bad guys"–-the kind Trump tells us will run roughshod over our peaceful, probity filled country at large, are NOT from across the border, are not immigrants, but home grown ? Shane Ryan Sealy––name that evokes a famous western film and mattresses––and Timmy Kinner, shooting down all those refugees that are "polluting our space." Timmy? Really? Who keeps such a name like that as an adult. Bastards–-both of them, but it's Timmy who should be tied up in the village square and spit upon–-jail for this guy is too cushy.
I'm been following the news of Mexico's new president Obrador's rise and hope not fall. It will be really interesting to see what will happen here. At one of his speeches he promised the crowd a "radical revolution"–-one that would give them the country they wanted. The word "radical" he said, "comes from the word "roots" and we're going to pull this corrupt regime out by its roots."
Hmmm–-sounds familiar, don't it.
Noah Feldman, in his TNYR re: the S.C. tells us about Scalia's stance on presidential power which I found interesting in light of what we will be up against. Scalia said that under the established doctrinal framework, a president's power ( he was not a fan of Obama) is at it "its lowest ebb" when Congress has directly spoken. He insisted that the extent of the president's inherent powers, as the Constitution originally defined them should be determined by looking at the royal prerogatives that the British King in principle possessed in the era of founding.
But Feldman reminds us that, in fact, by the late Georgian period the King was by constitutional custom unable to exercise many aspects of royal prerogative that textbooks still ascribe to him. Thomas, evidently, seemed blissfully uninterested in the complete historical reality.
I use this example to illustrate the capriciousness of those that set our laws in order––like the Greek and Roman gods they tend to play with us humans in ways that can change a system on a dime. I, for one, am fearful.
This is floating around the inter-tubes, so don't know if it's fact or
fiction, but it sounds good anyway:
If Democrats take the House back in November, their current
ranking member of the Financial Services Committee becomes
chair of the committee, and has the power to subpoena trump's
bank records.
That member's name is Maxine Waters.
@PD
But one undocumented immigrant....Jesper Joergensen was arrested for starting the large wildfire currently raging in Colorado.
Definitely sounds Latina to me.
Can't wait for the tweet, something along the lines of "What this country needs is more Swedes."
@Bea: re talk, hem, haw, & fold:
David Leonhardi in the NYTimes today absolutely nails Susan Collins (W*-Maine).
*whatever
With his piece title: "Susan Collins Tends to Her Image" "Can she get any worse? " Too bad comments aren't available, I imagine they'd be blistering! She's the most wishy-washy dolt in Congress followed closely by Jeff Flake, Marco Rubio, Lindsay Graham, et al.
Welcome to the United States of Weimar
I mentioned last week that one of the bolt upright moments in that Cass Sunstein article Marie linked over the weekend is this:
"When Mayer [one of the author's reviewed] returned home, he was afraid for his own country [the US]. He felt 'that it was not German Man that I had met, but Man,' and that under the right conditions, he could well have turned out as his German friends did. He learned that Nazism took over Germany not 'by subversion from within, but with a whoop and a holler.' Many Germans 'wanted it; they got it; and they liked it.'"
There's plenty of whooping and hollering at Trump's Bund Rallies.
It CAN happen here. If you care to list them, the reasons are many, but among the most important is the fearful connivance and cowardly abdication of the von Hindenburg family in Congress. You know who I mean, Paul von Hindenburg and Mitch von Hindenburg. There are plenty more Confederate von Hindenburgs as well, all of whom, like their predecessor, Paul von Hindenburg, have ceded power and authority to a dangerous demagogue.
The difference is that Paul was feeble, elderly, and in poor health. The similarity is that they all were bullied by the dangerous demagogue and his supporters and gave in without the hint of a fight. Paul and Mitchy von Hindenburg and the rest of their Party of Traitors, instead of standing up for the United States, took a seat and handed the reins of power to a blithering and violence breeding bigot. Plenty of them whooped and hollered along with the rest of the mouthbreathers.
We are in the process now of watching a somewhat slow motion institution of our very own Enabling Act, the bullshit legislative move that allowed that earlier dangerous demagogue to dispense with inconvenient things like civil liberties. The current DD is doing it by rapidly stocking the justice system with goosestepping rubber stamps. As soon as he puts his latest future Nuremberg Trials defendant on the SCOTUS, he'll be able to literally get away with murder. It won't matter what Mueller finds, he'll run to his flunkies on the high court and they'll say "Free at last, free at last, thank Trump almighty, we're free at last!"
But unlike the first Weimar Republic, the dangerous demagogue we have has not yet been able to dispense with democracy altogether. But he's close. Very close to making sure that only the right sort of people get to have their votes counted (those who are still allowed to vote, that is). And here is where Mr. Madison's warning (quoted in the Sunstein article) comes into stark relief.
"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks—no form of government can render us secure." There's been a lot of stunned surprise at how quickly American Institutions that have stood the test of over two centuries seem to have crumbled beneath the heel of the dangerous demagogue. Checks and balances are out of commission for the foreseeable future.
This is because institutions are operated by people. And currently, some of the people in charge are weak, fearful quislings. The others are conniving, scheming thugs willing to trade the entire American Experiment for short term political power. There IS no virtue on the right. None. And we ARE in a wretched situation. The dangerous demagogue is fomenting fear, hatred, and violence. Knuckleheads show up at peaceful rallies waving guns around. The DD's own insiders go on TV and make fun of the weak and the powerless. He has rubber stamps in Congress and in the courts, and he's ready to ride down what's left.
The only way out now is for women and men of virtue and good conscience to get out and vote. The demagogue's zombies will be out in droves, but they still represent only a minority.
We forget, at our own peril however, that a minority eradicated the first Weimar.
It IS happening here, and après Weimar, le deluge.
There will be no moderate r congressional members willing to buck this, and I guess I am still in disbelief that people don't see through the vicious toad in charge. Maine's sweetheart is blabby because she is invited, but since no one in congress will ask the question re Roe, she doesn't have to answer. Ditto Jeff the Flake and Yukon Lisa. I hope I can eat my words.
Michael Tomasky rages against Justice Kennedy––"He is a total disgrace to America and lists in order exactly why. He also gives a link to the important New Yorker piece by Jeffery Toobin from 2012 which shows how Kennedy pushed behind the scenes to move the opinion as far to the right as a majority would accept on the Citizen's United case. And given the fact that Kennedy's son has been involved with Trump's banking for years sheds another layer of malfeasance.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthony-kennedy-you-are-a-total-disgrace-to-america
By the by––it has been blisteringly hot for days here in CT. with no let up according to the weather reports. Someone said, "It's so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk." True, but would you eat it afterward?
@MAG: Weirdly, there's a blurb at the end of Blow's column that says Leonhardt "is off today." Maybe Leonhardt just could resist taking vacation time to knock Collins, who has it coming. Apparently, she already claiming that Roberts & Gorsuch are chairmen of the Stare Decisis Club, so they're good. Uh-huh. The trouble with being a Republican politician is that you have to pretend you care about things ordinary people care about. So lying is essential.
In the first graf of her Wikipage, there's this: " Collins has been described as the Senate's most moderate Republican. She often positions herself as a pivotal vote, thus becoming a focal point during highly watched legislation. In such situations, having waited until it is clear that an 'independent' vote will not affect the outcome, she sometimes votes against the GOP majority."
So for anyone who is wondering, "Will she or won't she" vote for Trump's Supremes nominee, we have our answer.
Not just drug dependent...
Red states that voted en masse for the Trump Monster have the highest dependency on opioids. But that's not the only statistic that defines the Trumpen State.
They are the most unhealthy, the most dependent on federal aid, they offer the smallest tax contributions, the highest crime rates/most violent, the highest divorce rates, highest teen pregnancy rates coupled with being the most religious, the least well educated, and the most obese. Oh yeah, and--of course--the highest rate of gun ownership.
So unhealthy, ignorant, overweight, drug addled, hypocritical, violent, cheap moochers. And heavily armed.
But they love them the TrumpenFührer. No wonder he loves the poorly educated.
The Trump Court knifing of unions perfectly dovetails with the hypocritical and thoroughly anti-democratic Citizens United decision. On the one hand, increase the flow of money into Confederate coffers by an order of magnitude. Then reduce as much as possible contributions to Democrats from unions. But the destruction of unions has a secondary benefit to the Party of Traitors. It sticks it to working people who might dare to vote for Democrats who have long supported the right of workers to organize against the tyranny of the ruling class Wall Streeters.
Congrats, traitors. Another one nicely played.
@Ken Winkes: Jorgensen is Danish, & he's nuts. Fortunately for him, when he gets deported back home (which might be after a long time in a U.S. jail), he'll fit right in with the majority of Danish legislators who have decided that poor Muslim immigrant kids need lessons on Christianity. Denmark is supposed to be the happiest country on earth, but it sounds pretty Kierkegaardian to me.
@Akhilleus: Thanks for the rundown on "Traits of the Trumpenproletariat." What a lovely bunch of nuts.
@AK: Years ago when we lived in Hamden, I got to know a history professor who taught at Yale and wrote a book on the Weakness of Weimar. She gave me a copy and I still have the notes I took from it. Yes, the right-wing Paul von Hindenburg was full of bluster; at first, after his election, he stuck to the Constitution but had an instinctive belief that the Monarchy was the only legit sovereign power in the German Reich. The Catholic church was heavily involved in right-wing ideology; the Communist party was pushing for seats; but the Social Democrats were the bulwark of democracy in the Weimar Republic yet the political system was fragile and at the brink of breaking. One of the stories she tells in her book has stayed with me ever since:
The trainee Judge Raimund Pretzel was sitting in the library of the Berlin courthouse when Brownshirts burst in loudly expelling all the Jews. "A brownshirt approached me and took the position in front of my work table. 'Are you Aryan?' Before I had a chance to think, I had said 'yes'. He took a close look at my nose––and retired. The blood shot to my face. A moment too late I felt the shame, the defeat––what a disgrace to buy, with a reply, the right to stay with my documents in peace."
It's science, so wingers will ignore it.
A couple of articles on the Popular Science site worth checking out:
The Trump Monster's plan to fuck brown babies will pay off in years of hate dividends for racist scum. Studies are pretty much incontrovertible concerning the damage early childhood trauma, such as separating young children from their parents, has on a child's short and long term development. Changes in gene behavior can have serious effects:
"That sort of trauma [the Trump inflicted kind], and exposure to large amounts of stress in childhood, is linked to epigenetic changes—changes in the way that the body turns genes on and off, and regulates biological processes—that can last into adulthood. Studies show differences in the activity levels of hundreds of genes between people who experienced trauma in their childhood and those who did not, and while scientists don’t know how all of those changes affect health, there’s good evidence for the function of a few.
Most research has focused on changes to genes involved with the receptors that regulate the stress hormone cortisol. The changes in those genes, noted in both human and rodent studies, cause cortisol levels to stay elevated for longer during stressful events, and make it harder for the body to relax. 'Childhood trauma, then, reshapes how the body responds to stress long-term, across the lifetime,' Ressler says. That deregulation of the healthy stress pathways leaves people at risk for depression and other psychiatric disorders."
I can't even comment on how evil this shit is. But never fear, the Trumpies are never at a loss for more evil. How about this?
Here's what America looked like before the EPA, and very likely could look like again with Pruitt and Trump "in charge". In the city I grew up in, the major river running through it was so polluted, swimming areas that had been opened since the 19th century were permanently closed. We used to joke that you didn't have to wait until it froze over to walk across it. Which was good, because there was so much crap in it, it never froze anyway. When I first moved to New York City, I had a rule of thumb for outdoor activity. If I went out to run in the morning but couldn't see buildings twenty blocks away through the smog, I went back inside, because fuck that.
We don't have those problems anymore, but we could. Easily.
Take a gander at these pictures. Hooo-wee.
Damaged children and a return to environmental disaster. Just two benefits of having an evil piece of shit in the White House.
PD,
The man you mention in your Weimar story is also included in the Cass Sunstein review. Sunstein writes about the book
"...Defying Hitler [written by Sebastian Haffner], which gives a moment-by-moment, you-are-there feeling to Hitler’s rise. (The manuscript was discovered by Haffner’s son after the author’s death and published in 2000 in Germany, where it became an immediate sensation.)... Haffner’s real name was Raimund Pretzel. (He used a pseudonym so as not to endanger his family while in exile in England.)
...he interrupts his riveting narrative to tackle a broad question: 'What is history, and where does it take place?' He objects that most works of history give 'the impression that no more than a few dozen people are involved, who happen to be 'at the helm of the ship of state' and whose deeds and decisions form what is called history.' In his view, that’s wrong. What matters are '[we anonymous others' who are not just 'pawns in the chess game,' because the 'most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large.'"
And that's still the case today. Thanks for that anecdote. The difference today it that I seriously doubt that few on the right experience the tiniest bit of embarrassment at proclaiming their undying loyalty to the Trump Monster.
"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) quickly tweeted: 'This is the fight of our lives.'... "
No, Madam Senator - the fight of our lives was in 2010, when the GOP took over, in a census year, and the Democrats slept, basking in the glow of Obama's victory.
Trump rips Harley-Davidson for doing what he and his daughter do.
While whining that Harley-Davidson is not obeying his direct orders, the little king leaves out a small point:
"What Trump isn’t mentioning is that the president and his family own businesses abroad and that most Trump products are produced in foreign factories.
During a GOP primary debate before the presidential election, Trump was challenged on outsourcing products overseas. He defended the practice then, arguing: 'We’re allowed to do it...So I will take advantage of it,' he added. In a unit of 'study' in the now-defunct Trump University, Trump wrote that outsourcing jobs is sometimes a 'necessary step.'...An investigation by The Washington Post confirmed that. Import records revealed that Trump shirts, suits, sports coats, eyeglasses, home goods — such as furniture, lighting fixtures and mirrors — and hotel amenities including shampoo, towels and laundry bags were all made abroad. Factories used are located in China, Germany, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea, among others."
The little king is not the only Trump benefiting from leaving American workers behind.
"White House senior adviser and Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump [the 'moral core' of the administration] has not manufactured a single product for her business operations in the U.S. She relies exclusively on low-wage workers in foreign factories in countries including Bangladesh, Indonesia and China, according to another investigation by The Washington Post."
Didja get that? Not a single product. Not one.
So, pay no attention to their actions. Just do what Donaldo sez. He's the king, after all. He makes the laws, he breaks 'em too.
Hypocritical, corrupt liars, the lot of 'em.
Celebrate Trump's Amerika. Outsource your business on the Fourth to a few foreign countries. Venezuela is nice. So is Russia. Plenty of slave labor in third world despot controlled meccas.
For the record, I don't believe Michael Cohen as far as I can throw him. His whole life has been immersed in the corruptive bosom of various quasi-mafia wannabes. His sudden declaration of virtue for the good of the country is grandstanding on the grandest scale. He's a POS until he goes on record against Donald and then disappears into secret service protection. He's royally fucked either way. I hope he gets whatever's coming.
Bea,
Thanks. That may explain the vowel-laden spelling of Jesper's last name in the version I saw reported. Didn't want to rush to judgment, but in the picture I saw of him, he did look nuts.
@Akhilleus
It's a plot.
Fascist/capitalists need a poor, undereducated, resentful, deranged underclass given to addiction and violence. The poor and undereducated are desperate enough to work for measly wages; the violent, deranged and addicted justify the police state; and stupid resentment can always be conveniently directed at the troublesome elites who interfere with the plan by supporting social uplift.
Safari,
You know what they say about the last refuge of a scoundrel...Cohen updated it by including the wife and kids. They're all suddenly proper principled patriots when pondering penury and prison.
Another cheese-eating chump.