The Commentariat -- July 3, 2018
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Trump Sez Photo-Op Stopped War. "All of Asia Is Thrilled." John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that the United States would be at war with North Korea without his efforts and that conversations with the nation's leaders are 'going well' -- an assessment at odds with recent reports that North Korea is working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear weapons program. The president's comments in a morning tweet followed a report Saturday in The Washington Post that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear arms stockpile and instead is considering ways to conceal the number of weapons it has and its secret production facilities. In his rosy assessment, Trump claimed that 'only the Opposition Party' and the news media are presenting a different picture of his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in the wake of his June 12 summit with North Korea leader Jim Jong Un."
Feds Debunk Trump Lies. Again. Shawn Boburg & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors concluded an 18-month investigation into a former congressional technology staffer on Tuesday by publicly debunking allegations -- promoted by conservative media and President Trump -- suggesting he was a Pakistani operative who stole government secrets with cover from House Democrats. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Imran Awan pleaded guilty to a relatively minor offense unrelated to his work on Capitol Hill: making a false statement on a bank loan application. U.S. prosecutors said they would not recommend jail time.... The agreement included an unusual passage that ... cleared Awan of a litany of conspiracy theories.... The case has highlighted Trump's willingness to lobby for specific outcomes of federal criminal investigations and to suggest a coverup by his own Department of Justice. Trump also attempted to tie Awan to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee server -- a breach that intelligence agencies have concluded was directed by Russia."
Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration will encourage the nation's school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, Trump administration officials said. The reversal would restore the policy set during President George W. Bush's administration, when officials told schools that it 'strongly encourages the use of race-neutral methods' for admitting students to college or assigning them to elementary and secondary schools. Last November, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Justice Department to re-evaluate past policies that he believed pushed the department to act beyond what the law, the Constitution and the Supreme Court had required.... As part of that process, the Justice Department rescinded seven policy guidances from the Education Department's civil rights division on Tuesday."
It's a Day Ending in "Y." Scott Bronstein, et al., of CNN: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides have kept 'secret' calendars and schedules to overtly hide controversial meetings or calls with industry representatives and others, according to a former EPA official who is expected to soon testify before Congress. A review of EPA documents by CNN found discrepancies between Pruitt's official calendar and other records. EPA staffers met routinely in Pruitt's office to 'scrub,' alter or remove from Pruitt's official calendar numerous records because they might 'look bad,' according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff for operations, who attended the meetings.... The practice of keeping secret calendars and altering or deleting records of meetings could violate federal law as either 'falsifying records' or hiding public records...."
... Here's Mean Mom Kristin Mink & her young son politely confronting Public Servant Scott Pruitt. Mink has a list, & it's accurate. (Now, doesn't it seems so-o-o-o-o unfair that the White House kicked Scotty out of its staff dining room?) Story linked below:
Marcy Wheeler reveals that she informed the FBI about a person she "believed had already done real damage to the United States as part of the Russian attack.... It infuriates me to observe (and cover) a months-long charade by the House GOP to demand more and more details about those who have shared information with the government, at least some of whom were only trying to prevent real damage to innocent people, all in an attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation.... This investigation is not, primarily, an investigation into Donald Trump. It's an investigation into people who attacked the United States. It's time Republicans started acting like that matters."
... There are few House members more culpable than Jim Jordan. ...
Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students. The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s. Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team. Three former wrestlers ... said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link; see her comment in today's thread.
Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Ali Watkins, the New York Times reporter whose email and phone records were secretly seized by the Trump administration, will be transferred out of the newspaper's Washington bureau and reassigned to a new beat in New York, The Times said on Tuesday. Ms. Watkins, 26, had been the subject of an internal review by The Times after revelations that she had a three-year affair with a high-ranking aide on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which she covered for several news organizations before joining The Times in December. The aide, James Wolfe, 57, who handled classified material for the committee, was arrested last month as part of a leak investigation in which the Justice Department also seized Ms. Watkins's communications...." Mrs. McC: Seems like a no-brainer.
*****
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Trump Plans Secret Meeting with Putin. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump plans to meet one-on-one with Vladimir Putin at the start of their July 16 summit in Helsinki, Finland, according to a person familiar with the plans, before allowing other aides to join the highly anticipated encounter with the Russian leader." Mrs. McC: This is such a good idea, because no one will suspect they're up to no good.
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.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Kate Riga of TPM: Michael Cohen "even went so far as to candidly break with the President's position on special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, saying 'I don't like the term "witch-hunt." As an American, I repudiate any foreign government's attempt to interfere in our democratic process and I would call on all Americans to do the same.' 'Simply accepting Putin's denial is unsustainable,' he continued. 'I choose to believe our intelligence agencies.'... Cohen then hinted heavily that he has information to share on two hot-button and possibly damning episodes for the President: the infamous Trump tower meeting when 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton was promised, and the $130,000 hush money payout made to Stormy Daniels during the election. On both questions, whether Trump knew of the meeting and if he had requested or promised to reimburse the payment, Cohen cryptically refused to answer -- for now." ...
... 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 yesterday): "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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... 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. ...
... Update: Michael Rothfeld of the Wall Street Journal, who has investigated these payoff cases, told Chris Hayes that he doesn't think Trump had any involvement with Bechard, & the story really is about Broidy & Bechard. ...
... Justin Wise of the Hill: "More than 1.3 million documents related to FBI raids of ... Michael Cohen were turned over to the federal government on Monday, according to The New York Post. The report says about 22,000 more documents are being examined by the Trump Organization and must be handed over by Thursday." ...
... Jason Leopold & Anthony Cormier of BuzzFeed: "BuzzFeed News has obtained documents reconstructed by the FBI [after Michael Cohen shredded them]. A close examination shows that the records are a combination of documents that prosecutors already had, handwritten notes about a taxi business, insurance papers, and correspondence from a woman described in court filings as a 'vexatious litigant' who claims she is under government surveillance.... The clearest page documents a payment that has already been reported: a $62,500 wire transfer from March into a First Republic Bank account controlled by Cohen. This would fit with a series of payments reportedly from the Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy."
Emma Loop of BuzzFeed: "The head of the top congressional committee investigating Russian election interference says that the panel has been in 'weekly' contact with lawyers for former British spy Christopher Steele, the author of a dossier alleging years of links between ... Donald Trump and the Kremlin. [Sen. Richard] Burr [R-N.C.] Burr said in October that the committee had 'hit a wall' in its attempts to investigate the dossier's explosive claims and that efforts to interview Steele had been unsuccessful." The committee is seeking to interview Steele.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A pair of legal filings suggesting that special counsel Robert Mueller's office is almost-but-not-quite ready to set a sentencing date for former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn have prompted a federal judge to order Flynn and lawyers for both sides to make an unexpected trip to court next week. The hearing set for next Tuesday would be the first court appearance for Flynn since last December...."
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal investigation into Facebook's sharing of data with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica has broadened to focus on the actions and statements of the tech giant and now involves three agencies.... Representatives for the FBI, the SEC and the Federal Trade Commission have joined the Department of Justice in its inquiries about the two companies and the sharing of personal information of 71 million Americans, suggesting the wide-ranging nature of the investigation, said five people.... The questioning from federal investigators centers on what Facebook knew three years ago and why the company didn't reveal it at the time to its users or investors, as well as any discrepancies in more recent accounts...."
Alice Ollstein of TPM: "A federal judge in Washington ruled Monday that the Trump administration is violating its own policy by uniformly denying parole to asylum-seekers who have passed their 'credible fear' interviews -- a key step in the asylum process. In the decision, the court sided with the immigrants who brought the class action and ordered the Trump administration to restore the practice of granting fair, individual parole hearings to asylum-seekers who have passed that initial threshold.... Under the Trump administration, [U.S. District Judge James] Boasberg wrote, 'parole rates have plummeted from over 90% to nearly zero' and the Department of Homeland Security has shifted from individually considering whether each asylum-seeker should be granted parole until their hearing to uniformly denying such requests." --safari ...
... The Washington Post story, by Spencer Hsu, is here. "A federal judge in Washington on Monday ordered the U.S. government to immediately release or grant hearings to more than 1,000 asylum seekers who have been jailed for months or years without individualized case reviews, dealing a blow to the Trump administration's crackdown on migrants." ...
... Abigail Hauslohner & Andrew Ba Tran of the Washington Post: "As the national immigration debate swirls around the effort to discourage illegal immigration by separating families at the border, the Trump administration is making inroads into another longtime priority: reducing legal immigration. The number of people receiving visas to move permanently to the United States is on pace to drop 12 percent in President Trump's first two years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of State Department data. Among the most affected are the Muslim-majority countries on the president's travel ban list -- Yemen, Syria, Iran, Libya and Somalia — where the number of new arrivals to the United States is heading toward an 81 percent drop by Sept. 30, the end of the second fiscal year under Trump."
Howard Lavine & Wendy Rahn, in a New York Times op-ed: "Contrary to received wisdom..., the immigration issue did not play to Mr. Trump's advantage nearly as much as commonly believed. According to our analysis of national survey data from the American National Election Studies (a large, representative sample of the population of the United States), Hillary Clinton did better in the election than she would have if immigration had not been so prominent an issue. In fact, a liberal backlash seems to have contributed to Mrs. Clinton's victory in the popular vote count.... We found that Mr. Trump did only slightly better than his Republican predecessors among anti-immigration whites. Among pro-immigration whites, however, Mrs. Clinton far outpaced John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.... We think that Mr. Trump's explicit appeals to intolerance are likely to help Democrats more than Republicans."
Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Trump has written sharply worded letters to the leaders of several NATO allies, including Germany, Belgium, Norway and Canada, taking them to task for spending too little on their own defense and warning that the United States is losing patience with their failure to meet security obligations shared by the alliance. The letters, which went out last month, are the latest sign of acrimony between Mr. Trump and American allies as he heads to a NATO summit meeting next week in Brussels that will be a closely watched test of the president's commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance after he has repeatedly questioned its value and claimed that its members are taking advantage of the United States."
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Paul Krugman: "... the scale and the motivation behind the Trump tariffs -- their obviously fraudulent national security rationale -- are something new. They amount to rejecting the rules of the game we created; the E.U., in its warning, bluntly calls U.S. actions 'disregard for international law.' Sure enough, Axios reports that the Trump administration has drafted legislation that would effectively take us out of the W.T.O.... There are no grown-ups in this administration, which basically makes policy by temper tantrum." ...
... OR, maybe the grown-ups have so little power, they've been reduced to making secret 7th-grader FART jokes. Update: s/b "2nd-grader FART jokes." (Thanks, Patrick!) ...
... Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg: "[Regarding Donald's FART]..., political scientist Brendan Nyhan made the crucial point: There are actually two perfectly plausible explanations. The ridiculous title could be just another sign of an administration that routinely botches basic tasks.... But it's equally possible it was a malicious effort to undermine the policy by someone in the White House or an executive-branch agency. So to summarize: The president ordered something inept; he's not going to get what he wanted; and everyone in the administration has egg on their faces over it.... Meanwhile, he'll just keep ordering people to do things that (most of the time at least) will never happen, while the few competent people he's somehow managed to put in place will continue to do things in his name whether he likes it or not. I could add a fart joke, but the whole thing really isn't very funny." --safari ...
... Unwashed suggests an intellectual discourse on the subject:
** Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump is continuing to hammer Harley-Davidson over the motorcycle company's plans to relocate some production overseas to dodge European tariffs triggered by the president's trade war. 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.... 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.... White House senior adviser and Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump 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...." Read on. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his comment in yesterday's thread.
Jonathan Chait: "'As the commander-in-chief, as the president of this great country, what can you do to bring us together?" [Maria Bartiromo] asked [President Trump in an interview aired Sunday].... 'Our people are so incredible,' he replied..., but ... Trump immediately made clear was a reference limited to the people who voted for him: 'Do you know, there's probably never been a base in the history of politics in this country like my base. I hope the other side realizes that they better just take it easy.'... Trump is being invited to cast himself as the president of the entire country, but he is so ingrained in his gut-level partisanship, he can't manage to utter the required bromides."
Maybe Trump Is Making America Great Again. Michelle Goldberg: "It's too soon to tell whether America will survive Trump in any recognizable form. But if it does, it will be because women ... have realized that no one is coming to save democracy for us, and they have set out to rescue it themselves.... The Resistance has burrowed deep into electoral politics at every level, from school board on up."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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 (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
My prediction is that we will see levels of cowardice and cynicism that will be awe-inspiring. As long as Trump doesn't start offending the evangelical base or step on a land mine when it comes to Israel, they're going to let him do whatever he wants.... It will be easier for Trump to hurt the people he promised to hurt than to help the people he promised to help. -- Faiz Shakir, ACLU political director, ca. February 2017 ...
... ** Joel Lovell in the New York Times Magazine: "In the 15 months that followed the [2016] election, the A.C.L.U.'s membership went from 400,000 to 1.84 million. Online donations in the years before averaged between $3 and $5 million annually. Since then, it has raised just shy of $120 million.... A big chunk of the money that the A.C.L.U. has raised has gone toward hiring more lawyers.... Since Trump took office, the A.C.L.U. has taken 170 'Trump-related legal actions.'... In March 2017, the A.C.L.U. launched [a] new platform, called PeoplePower.org..., a system, with proper infrastructure and resources and personnel, from which you could call people to action and which other groups could tap into.... The second major initiative, which the A.C.L.U. started last October in Lawrence, Kan., was a voting rights campaign called Let People Vote.... This focus on voting rights eventually led the A.C.L.U. to what has been its most controversial transformation: getting directly involved in electoral races."
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-profit agreement. Mrs. McC: The whole Trump family is incredibly sleazy. But you knew that. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jen Kirby of Vox: "This photo deal adds to the list of ethics concerns about the Trump administration, and whether the president and those in his orbit are profiting from his presidency."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "In an interview with Fox airing Sunday and Monday, Trump doubled down on his past rhetoric about sending the issue of abortion to the states, which is another way of saying overturning Roe.... Trump said he would 'probably not' ask potential nominees directly about Roe -- given that such litmus tests are frowned upon -- but then he reiterated his past view of how this issue would play out. '"Maybe someday it will be to the states,' he said. 'You never know how that's going to turn out.... The Roe v. Wade is probably the one that people are talking about in terms of having an effect, but we'll see what happens. But it could very well end up with states at some point.' 'We'll see what happens' is Trump's default when he doesn't want to commit to something but welcomes speculation about that thing. It's what he said right before he fired FBI Director James B. Comey -- but also about many things that didn't come to fruition. It can be a threat or just Trump not having a good answer." ...
... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Sarah Nechamkin of New York: "In the wake of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement -- and in light of Trump';s vow to replace him with someone who would overturn Roe v. Wade -- all eyes are on Susan Collins.... In an attempt to remind Collins of how high the stakes are, women have started sending wire coat hangers to her office to serve as a visceral reminder of what happens when abortion becomes illegal." --safari
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is softening its earlier demand that countries like China, India and Turkey end all imports of Iranian oil by Nov. 4, as a top State Department official on Monday said the United States would allow reduced oil flows, in certain cases.... [The] announcement was a delicate attempt at reassuring oil markets and allies that sanctions are not likely to hit them this fall -- even if Iranian oil continues to flow around the world, as is likely the case." ...
... Juan Cole (May 28th) has more on the open defiance of the Trump administration vis-à-vis Teheran's trading partners, specifically Iraq, China, Russia, and Turkey. --safari
Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Two of Scott Pruitt's top aides provided fresh details to congressional investigators in recent days about some of his most controversial spending and management decisions, including his push to find a six-figure job for his wife at a politically connected group, enlist staffers in performing personal tasks and seek high-end travel despite aides' objections. The Trump administration appointees described an administrator who sought a salary that topped $200,000 for his wife and accepted help from a subordinate in the job search, requested aid from senior EPA officials in a dispute with a Washington landlord and disregarded concerns about his first-class travel."
Whistleblowers reveal that Scott Pruitt had up to three calendars, depending on the level of conniving and corruption he wanted to reveal to the public. --safari
... Amanda Arnold of New York: "In today's edition of Members of the Trump Administration Getting Heckled at Restaurants, Scott Pruitt was confronted by a rightfully angry mother at a D.C. restaurant, where she slammed the EPA Administrator for his disregard for the environment and urged him to resign.... In a statement to Splinter, [Kristin Mink] said she chose to bring her toddler to the table with her to send Pruitt the message, 'you are wrecking the earth THIS KID, every kid, will inherit.'... To conclude her message, she urges Pruitt to resign before his scandals push him out.... Mink says that Pruitt left soon after being confronted.... Long live incivility." -- safari: The tactical pants were no match against an informed citizen.
All the Best People, Ctd. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones: "Writing as BamainBoston, [Trump judicial nominee Brett Talley] commented on everything from race to abortion. He disparaged Muslims, joked about statutory rape, and, most notably, wrote approvingly about Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He defended the 'first KKK' as something entirely different than the racist, violent organization it's known as today.... In his prolific comments on TideFans.com, Talley ... expressed extreme views on a number of subjects.... After outcry about the comments and his general lack of qualifications for the job -- Talley had never tried a case -- he withdrew from consideration for the judgeship in December. But ... he ... continued working as deputy associate attorney general at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy, where he oversaw the judicial nominations unit that advises the president and attorney general on the selection and confirmation of federal judges and conducts the vetting, interviewing, and evaluating of nominees. This spring, he moved to a more junior position at the Justice Department, as an assistant US attorney."
Dylan Scott of Vox: "We told you months ago to watch Massachusetts's Medicaid drug pricing proposal, which would have allowed the state to create a drug formulary and thus exclude certain drugs from its coverage as a way of negotiating lower prices from drug makers. It was an important test for the Trump administration, an up-or-down decision about how far it was willing to go in its promise to bring down drug prices. We now have our answer: thumbs down. The Massachusetts plan is not something Trump officials are going to approve.... But there was something about the Trump administration's [refusal] letter that struck experts who have been watching the Massachusetts waiver as odd: They didn't really explain very clearly why they wouldn't approve the state's proposal." --safari
Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) released draft legislation on Monday that could severely undermine the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a hugely popular law that has helped save the bald eagle and thousands of other species from extinction. The proposed legislation would shift key authority for conserving threatened and endangered species away from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to individual states. States would be granted authority to write species recovery goals, habitat objectives, and other criteria for delisting at-risk animals and plants under the ESA. Many states, however, lack the resources to protect imperiled wildlife and plants. State governors, who often oppose protections for endangered species, also would be granted the power to veto scientific decisions about those protections." --safari ...
... Mrs. McC: I don't see how this even makes much sense. You can't kill 'em in Kansas but you can kill 'em in Oklahoma? Are we going to put up little endangered-species warning signs at state borders so little Kansas critters won't accidentally wander into Oklahoma & get zapped?
Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "Years before Jarrod Ramos sued the Capital Gazette for defamation, before he targeted a specific columnist at the Capital with hateful emails and online threats, before he was charged with killing five people in the small Annapolis newspaper's office last week, one [woman] was living that nightmare every day.... The threats she detailed in court years ago forced her to move out of her hometown, to leave everyone behind, for her own safety. If you dig deep enough, this is the root of a number of mass shootings. Whether it's domestic violence or a failed marriage or a guy who got turned down in high school, a twisted, misogynistic streak helps fuel the violence. The examples abound[.]" When the woman brought suit against Ramos for harassment, Eric Thomas Hartley, then of the Capital Gazette, wrote about it, and Ramos sued the paper for defamation. He lost the suit. "There's the pattern: abuse, denial, embarrassment, rage." ...
... Matt Stevens & Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "The man suspected of fatally shooting five people in an Annapolis newsroom last week sent a letter to the Capital Gazette's lawyer announcing that he planned to go there 'with the objective of killing every person present,' a copy of the letter shows." The letter was postmarked the same day as the mass murder. ...
... Most Hateful President Ever. Danielle Ohl of the Balitmore Sun: "... Donald Trump has declined a request from Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley to lower American flags in honor of the fatal shooting of five employees of The Capital newspaper last week.... Gov. Larry Hogan ordered Maryland state flags to be lowered to half-staff from Friday through sunset on Monday." ...
... Update. Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered that flags be flown at half-staff to honor the five victims of the Capital Gazette newspaper shooting in Annapolis last week.... The president's order comes after the Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Mayor Gavin Buckley, told the Capital Gazette that the White House denied his request Monday to lower the flags." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Is the Bully-Boy-in-Chief losing his nerve? This is the second time in two weeks Trump has bowed to embarrassing press, the first being his so-called "reversal" on separating migrant families.
Trumpbots Don't Read. Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Donald Trump is excellent at selling books that trash him; mediocre at selling books that praise him.... [His own inability to read more than 280 characters at a time] hasn't stopped Trump from tweeting frequently about books -- as long as they're about him or his administration, or by close allies.... These tweets inevitably create sales bumps, but not huge ones.... But there is one area where Trump is great at selling books. Consider the cases of Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff and A Higher Loyalty by James Comey. Trump attempted to trash both books -- highly unflattering portraits of his administration -- on Twitter. So far they are the year's two best-selling titles...."
Brett Samuels: "A record-low number of people in the U.S. consider themselves either extremely proud or very proud to be Americans, a poll released Monday found. Gallup found that 47 percent of citizens are 'extremely proud' to be Americans, while 25 percent are 'very proud.' Both numbers mark new low points since Gallup started polling on the question in 2001." --safari
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Baidawi of the New York Times: "The highest-ranking Catholic official to have been found guilty of concealing sexual crimes against children was sentenced to 12 months in detention by an Australian court on Tuesday. The official, Philip Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, was sentenced a month after being found guilty of failing to report child sexual abuse. Archbishop Wilson is expected to serve his sentence under home detention, if a court agrees to the arrangement. After his conviction, the archbishop gave up his duties but refused to resign. He was convicted of covering up abuse by a priest, Jim Fletcher, in the state of New South Wales in the 1970s."
Beyond the Beltway
Bruce Shreiner of TPM: Kentucky "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 (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Osita Nwanevu of Slate: The Rhode Island Democratic party endorsed alt-right, NRA-backing Trump-supporting Republican bigot Michael Earnheart over Moira Jayne Walsh, a sitting progressive member of its state house. "The state Democratic Party also declined to endorse progressive Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell, who won in an upset primary victory against House Majority Leader John DeSimone in 2016, and progressive state senator Jeanine Calkin." Mrs. McC: Rhode Island politics are infamously corrupt, but this is over the top. The Rhode Island primary is September 12. Be careful who you vote for.
Way Beyond
Katrin Bennhold & Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... New Lede: "Chancellor Angela Merkel, who staked her legacy on welcoming hundreds of thousands of migrants into Germany, agreed on Monday to build camps for those seeking asylum and to tighten the border with Austria to save her government. It was a spectacular turnabout for a leader who was once seen as the standard-bearer of the liberal European order but who has come under intense pressure at home over her migration policy."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Arvid Carlsson, a Swedish pharmacologist whose research on chemical signals in the brain resulted in a leading treatment for Parkinson’s disease and earned him a Nobel Prize, died June 29. He was 95."
Washington Post: "The rescue of 12 members of a boys' soccer team and their coach trapped in a northern Thailand cave could take months, the navy said Tuesday, as officials weigh the best extraction options after a dramatic nine-day search.... The boys, aged between 11 and 16 and their 25-year-old coach, went missing on June 23. They were exploring a cave complex in a forest park in northern Thailand, close to the border with Myanmar. Local and international rescuers, including a team of Thai navy divers and cave experts, had spent days trying to locate the team, but muddy waters complicated their efforts and blocked access to the chambers of the cave complex. The search for the boys gripped the nation and the world, and it ended Monday evening when two British divers found the team on a dry patch in one of the flooded chambers."
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Reader Comments (15)
Hearkening to yesterday's discussion of the characteristics of Pretender supporters and their geographic distribution, in the correlation is not causation department one of sons asks the pertinent question: "Are opioid addicts more likely to identify as R's or D's?"
I don't know.... and couldn't find a quick answer...but it raised another question in my small brain: correlation between various drug addictions and gun ownership?
Just as I suspected: The Trumpster, ignorant of many presidential duties including the ways and means of those things called laws, keeps issuing whatever he deems necessary–-FART, one example–-but in the background are a few people who don't make it happen. so with those few saner heads along with judges that curtail edicts that harm, the country hasn't completely gone to the dogs–-although to be fair to dogs, they might just do a better job.
The interview with Maria Bartiromo was pitiful. She's getting a lot of flack for being a hack for Trump.
http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-maria-bartiromo-slammed-for-her-interview-with-trump-2018-7
Re: the Trump family products being made in foreign factories. It's uncanny that this isn't being touted more–-the irony and hypocrisy is so blatant and loud it hurts one's ears. Early on in Trump's campaign he was a guest on Colbert's show, and was yapping about bringing jobs back to the US, opening new factories, etc. Colbert smiled, brought his hand toward Trump's tie, and said, "Hmm–-aren't your ties made in China?" Trump, gave a smirk and said, "Ya got me there!"
I'm waiting on a sunny day for us to get him there!
Marie, the youth today are far more advanced. Fart jokes don't start at 7th grade. I have rising 2nd grader and pre-K granddaughters, sisters, who love fart jokes.
I blame the media. :)
@Patrick: Fart media?
One more racist R invoking the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Jesus. You hear more about Nathan Bedford Forrest from "leaders" on the right than you would at a convention of Civil War historians.
I guess if you want to work for Trump, (another guy up for a judgeship who has never tried a case!), all you have to do is show up for your interview with your hood and a fawning biography of Grand Wizard Nathan under your arm. Hired!
Every cheap, chiseling, corrupt, unqualified pocket-liner who shows up, this guy hires. In fact, I located this video of the Trump White House Employment Office. That first guy would definitely get hired, even without the Bedford Forrest bio.
MAG,
Once we're out of the WTO Trump will only be hiring fart timers to manage international trade.
Rich, religious Bavaria is the Texas of Germany. It is the conservative bastion of the nation–-the new angry center of Europe–-the latest battleground for populists eager to bring down Merkel and the idea of a liberal Europe itself. This is a most informative read.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/world/europe/bavaria-immigration-afd-munich.html
Mr. Jirschik, mayor of Bairbrunn, worries about freedom and democracy as well as a social consensus he fears is wearing thin. He saw the outpouring of sympathy and good will for the refugees in 2015, but his memories are fading:
"When I see these developments and this new language, I am afraid. When I see how quickly it happened elsewhere–-in America, Poland–- I do ask myself could it happen here to us?"
Sorry, had to do it. In memory of George Carlin.
Now that Mickey (the Fixer) Cohen seems likely to flip like a burger on a hot grill, the bulwark and protector of Trumpian treason and his assorted band of crooks and criminals (Fox, natch) is questioning his reliability as a witness against the little dictator.
"'If he knows something that is so important and yet he’s willing to sort of taunt the president by seeming to go against him, what does that say about this person as a witness?' [Fox host Harris] Faulkner wondered aloud. 'It gets difficult to kind of even see him as credible at this point. I don’t know what he knows, just based on the way he’s acting.'
Later, she added, 'The one thing we know about Michael Cohen is that he’ll throw anybody under the bus.' Faulkner pointed to the moment in court when Cohen gave up Fox News’ own Sean Hannity as his mystery 'third client.'" As if it was Cohen's fault that Hannity lied to his viewers about his connections with Trump's fixer as one of his very few clients.
Man, they don't waste any time, do they? The little dictator is in trouble, they come a-runnin' with made to order smoke screens.
Last week I wrote abut Jim Jordon, mentioned that his sport was wrestling and was once the Ohio State wrestling coach. I was hoping there was some dirt buried in lucky Jim's past that could be dug up cuz he be such a pain in the ass. Well, we are in luck–-here's the headline:
Jim Jordon accused of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse when he was Ohio state Wrestling Coach.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/powerful-gop-rep-jim-jordan-accused-turning-blind-eye-sexual-n888386
Sometimes wishes come true.
Marie,
About the Big Bully buckling under pressure, that possibility is always there. He feels empowered to act like a prick and unleash his worst instincts when he thinks he'll get the thumbs up from his base, but at heart, he's a not very smart, astoundingly unqualified fraud who operates from moment to moment based on feedback from Twitter and Fox and he will react accordingly. He's a follower.
He pretends not to read the "fake media" but it's clear he does and if he comes off looking like a schmuck, he'll back down. Look at his demands about countries not buying oil from Iran. As oil prices shoot up and his base has trouble filling their tanks to go see their opioid dealers, he is now saying that well, maybe it's okay to buy from Iran after all.
Remember "Mexico will pay for my wall!"? Now it's "Congress better pay for my wall, or else!" He was going to replace the ACA, Cheaper, better. Yeah, okay. I guess that was Congress' fault too.
Oh, he'll still be a prick as long as the knuckledraggers and Fox cheer him on. But without that, he's a lost, fearful little boy. A nasty, disgusting little boy, but still lost and fearful.
Poor little Scotty Pruitt. A lady yelled at him. Call out the Marines! Jesus, get him to a safe house, asap!
I'm guessing this will mean he'll need another 50 heavily armed bodyguards now. Another million dollars worth of tactical pants. Might as well throw in a few grenade launchers as well. Irate parents, you can never be too ready for immediate and lethal responses to DANGER.
Does this mean he'll need a vacation, like, say, on some private island the EPA will buy for him, to recover? The poor man. How these Confederates suffer for their grifting, er, patriotism.
PD,
Sounds like ol’ Jim is a devotee of the Ken Starr “Pretend to See No Sexual Assault” strategy. This case (the Ohio State/Jim Jordan situation) and the horrible one at Michigan State involving hundreds of young women and girls, for decades) could simply be allowed to go on (the Penn State case as well). It blows my mind that, at Ohio State, a team doctor whose activities seemed well known by everyone, was allowed to keep his job and continue molesting athletes. I guess all you need are “good Christians” like Jordan more concerned for his own skin than protecting students from a sexual predator. And now he’s a supporter of Trump. Another sexual predator.
Are we great yet?
Akhilleus: maybe Jordan just likes gladiator movies?
Patrick,
Funny you mention that. I was watching clips from "Airplane" last night. Be hard to make a movie like that today with a line like "Joey, do you like hanging around gymnasiums?"