The Commentariat -- June 27, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Court rules Commerce Department cannot go forward on Census question, but is sending it back to lower court for "adequate explanation." Roberts wrote decision but apparently rumblings from confederate justices. ...
... Ted Hesson of Politico: "The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow today to the Trump administration's move to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census, ruling that official explanations for the move were implausible and legally inadequate. In a surprising ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberals on that point. The high court returned the case to lower courts for further action, raising doubts about the administratio getting the go-ahead to add the question before upcoming deadlines to finalize the census questionnaire." (As of 11:20 am ET, that the whole story.) ...
... Update. The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak is here.
... John Roberts writes 5-4 decision in favor of gerrymandering. Forget "one person, one vote." Huge victory for Republicans and against democracy. Kagan is reading her dissent from the bench. ...
... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday that political partisan gerrymandering cases present a question that courts cannot decide. The justices made the ruling in a pair of cases presented over district maps in Maryland and North Carolina, alleged to be instances of unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's majority opinion that federal courts cannot consider such challenges. The opinion vacates previous rulings on the district maps in Maryland and North Carolina, and requests that the cases be dismissed 'for lack of jurisdiction.'" ...
... Update. The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak is here.
Heather Caygle & Burgess Everett of Politico: "The House will vote Thursday on an amended emergency border aid package, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear that his chamber won't consider the new version, teeing up a game of chicken just before the holiday break." ...
... Andrew Taylor & Alan Fram of the AP: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell demanded Thursday that House Democrats drop their insistence for changes in a $4.6 billion border aid package that the Senate passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and instead give final congressional approval to the legislation."
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race 2020
Tonight's Democratic debate: same time, same place. Here's where to watch, via Wired.
The New York Times' liveblog of the first Democratic presidential debate is here. Mrs. McC: I find it easier to read the liveblog than to listen to ten candidates yelling at me while spitting out words as fast as this guy:
Eric Levitz of New York provides a credible rundown of the candidates' performances. Based on what I heard on the teevee, his assessment represents a consensus, but Levitz says it better.
Charles Pierce has some thoughts about how the candidates fared.
Jim Newell of Slate: Elizabeth Warren "did what she had to."
Justin Peters of Slate: Chuck Todd is a crappy, talky debate moderator.
This tweet came when the debate discussion turned to the photograph of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria who drowned attempting to reach the US this week. -- Olivia Nuzzi of New York
BORING! -- Donald Trump
... To be fair to Trump, here's what he really didn't like about the debate: "David Graham of the Atlantic: "On the debate stage, he was barely mentioned."
** American Atrocity. Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "When Department of Homeland Security inspectors visited several border facilities in the Rio Grande Valley earlier this month, they found adults and minors with no access to showers, many adults only fed bologna sandwiches, and detainees banging on cell windows -- desperately pressing notes to the windows of their cells that detailed their time in custody. The inspectors compiled a draft report, obtained by BuzzFeed News, that described the conditions as dangerous and prolonged. Some adults were held in standing room-only conditions for a week. There was little access to hot showers or hot food for families and children in some facilities. Some kids were being held in closed cells. There was severe overcrowding. The draft report was written by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and addressed to the acting DHS secretary, Kevin McAleenan. It comes after inspectors visited five border facilities and two ports of entry during the week of June 10. It appears to have been sent to DHS officials last week for comments and requests for redactions before being released publicly." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... ** Damon Linker of the Week: "The question is why the United States -- one of the richest countries in the world and one that loves to wrap itself in a mythology of moral righteousness -- would be acting to produce suffering on such a massive scale. One option has been proposed by journalist Adam Serwer in one of the most widely debated essays of the Trump era. The article's title -- 'The cruelty is the point' -- effectively conveyed its argument. Trump's supporters actively enjoy inflicting suffering on those they hate and fear, and his administration is more than happy to give them what they want.... There's just one problem: The Trump administration has been doing nothing to publicize the conditions in which children are being held and abused.... But ... maybe the cruelty, far from being the point, is actually beside the point. Maybe the administration, from the president on down to detention center guards, doesn't care one bit about the health and well-being of the children in its care. Maybe it views them as a nuisance, as an irritant, as a matter of relative moral indifference.... When cruelty is beside the point, the only way to inspire restraint is the fear of political consequences." ...
... See also safari's commentary at the top of today's thread.
So ... Ted Hesson & Nancy Cook of Politico: "Hard-liners inside and outside the Trump administration are pressing for the removal of ... Donald Trump's acting Homeland Security secretary amid a rolling leadership purge that began in April and shows no signs of ending, according to five people in the Trump administration and four former Department of Homeland Security officials. Kevin McAleenan, who took over the post less than three months ago, is under heavy criticism from prominent Trump allies, including former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan, who might become the administration's immigration czar.... Like three other officials purged from immigration agencies since the April resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, McAleenan stands accused of disloyalty to the Trump White House's hard line on immigration because of a perception that he didn't support ICE raids targeting migrant families scheduled to begin last weekend." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Get that? Trumpies are not satisfied that McAleenan is cruel or careless enough. Sickos are running this country.
... Congressional Standoff. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday approved $4.6 billion in emergency humanitarian aid for the southwestern border, rejecting House legislation approved Tuesday that sought to rein in President Trump's immigration crackdown by setting significant rules on how the money could be spent at squalid detention facilities. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California rejected the Senate's bill even before the vote was taken, setting up a clash over immigration policy just days before Congress leaves Washington for a weeklong July 4 recess. Ms. Pelosi called President Trump to discuss how to reconcile the dueling measures in a 15-minute phone call early Wednesday afternoon.... The margin of the Senate vote, 84-8, underscored Senate Republican contentions that only their bill stands a chance of obtaining the president's signature." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... AND this from the NYT report: "To make their point, Republican Senate leaders put the House’s $4.5 billion bill to a test vote; it failed, 37-55, with three Democrats voting against the measure. Seven Democrats, all presidential candidates, were not present ahead of the first Democratic debate in Miami Wednesday night." ...
... Trump Doesn't Know What's Going on Down the Road. Sarah Cammarata of Politico: "... Donald Trump complained Wednesday that congressional Democrats 'won't do anything at all about border security' hours after the House passed a funding package worth billions of dollars to address the humanitarian crisis at the nation's southern border." Mrs. McC: Then he told some more lies disparaging Democrats before continuing on to insult "the American soccer player Megan Rapinoe in a three-href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1143892328236687361">tweet blast on Wednesday morning after she colorfully said in an interview that she would not go to the White House if the United States wins the Women's World Cup." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jamil Smith of Rolling Stone: "House Democrats, voting nearly in unison Tuesday night, countered human rights abuses worthy of the Hague's attention with more words and money.... The Trump administration is supposed to spend [the funds] on humanitarian aid.... But there really is no reason to trust the Trump administration with a dime of border funds until it ends the abuse of children there.... Trump's evil actions with regard to immigration enforcement and the catastrophe that is resulting from it are borne from his preternatural talent for discovering where America is not quite so exceptional -- and emphasizing that point even further.... In a nation built on a foundation of genocide, enslavement, and sexual brutalization, it is a wonder how often it seems that we are struck dumb by the horrors authored by our own imperfect American experiment." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, I cringe every time a political candidate claims, "That's not who we are," or "We're better than that." Obviously, they're wrong.
Jarrell Dillard of Bloomberg: "Emotions flared during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday after a picture of a migrant and his daughter who drowned trying to cross into the U.S. underscored the urgency for Congress to address the humanitarian crisis at the border. Democrats in Wednesday's hearing interrogated U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials on the treatment of migrant children within their custody. Brian Hastings, head of border patrol law enforcement, said the actual situation is the complete opposite. Hastings said border patrol has increased food funding for migrants and that the facilities have storerooms with supplies that 'frankly look like Costco.' 'We provide three hot meals a day and snacks are unlimited,' said Hastings. 'I have seen agents on their own go out and purchase toys and bring in for the children to play with.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: There are three possibilities here: (1) Hastings is a sadistic liar; (2) All the advocates AND the DHS inspector general & staff are lying; (3) officials are withholding distributing food & necessities from the stocked storerooms because they're sick fucks. I'm going to guess (1).
Gigi Sukin of Axios: "U.S. asylum officers Wednesday implored a U.S. appeals court to block the Trump administration from requiring migrants to stay in Mexico while awaiting immigration hearings in the U.S., the Washington Post first reported. The Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' policy, which forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until their cases have been finalized, can put migrants fleeing dangerous situations at risk. The labor union for federal asylum officers called the program in an amicus brief filing, 'fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our Nation and our international and domestic legal obligations." Includes brief.
Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo: "The Trump administration portrays refugees from Central America as criminals or economic migrants ineligible even to request asylum, much less win it. Its treatment of separated children held in appalling conditions in, essentially, concentration camps erected along the border testify to the cruelty of Trump's myopic ethno-nationalism.... Branding asylum seekers economic migrants fleeing local violence is oversimplified. They are fleeing deprivation.... The Trump administration's sticks-only approach adding to the humanitarian crisis on the border with Mexico is not only cruel, cost-ineffective, and failing. It is woefully inadequate to the task of preparing for and ameliorating what could become a hemisphere-wide and global crisis the acting president's head-in-the-sandbox nationalism will not solve. Failing to assist neighbors to the south in addressing the drivers of migration is not American leadership, but retreat from it. The result will be greater instability across the hemisphere."
Elliott Hannon of Slate: "Employees at the online furniture seller Wayfair are planning to walk off the job Wednesday afternoon at the company's Boston headquarters to protest its sale of furniture to be used in border shelters for migrant children. Last week, employees discovered the company had sold $200,000 worth of bedroom furniture to the government contractor BCFS, which is responsible for managing camps at the border. That prompted more than 500 employees to sign on to a letter of protest to management; when Wayfair refused to change course, the employees organized a work stoppage.... [In their protest letter,] The employees specifically asked the company to donate the profit from the sale -- some $86,000 -- to the nonprofit RAICES that supports families on the border, as well as establish a code of ethics for future sales. The company rebuffed employee demands to, essentially, vet its customers." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Update. Sapna Maheshwari & Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "Employees at [Wayfair]'s Boston headquarters left their offices Wednesday afternoon to protest Wayfair's sale of more than $200,000 of bedroom furniture to a government contractor that operates a network of the centers. The walkout followed reports of facilities that were overcrowded and filthy, where children and teenagers were lacking clean clothing and sufficient food. The walkout has not led to a full-blown boycott yet, but the situation has drawn the attention of activist groups...." ...
... Lananh Nguyen of Bloomberg: "Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest U.S. bank, will stop lending to companies that run private prisons and detention centers.... The move followed a review by the bank's environmental, social and governance ... committee, which included site visits and consultation with clients, civil rights leaders, criminal justice experts and academics. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender also met with its internal Hispanic and black leaders. The company will stop its activities in the industry as soon as it can, while meeting contractual obligations.... Shares of two of the largest private-prison companies, GEO Group Inc. and CoreCivic Inc., fell as much as 4.3% and 4.4%, respectively, Wednesday."
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, on Wednesday, dredging up false accusations about the conduct of investigators after House Democrats announced that Mr. Mueller would testify publicly next month. The president offered no evidence as he repeated earlier accusations that Mr. Mueller destroyed text messages between two former F.B.I. officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who worked on the Russia investigation. 'They're gone and that is illegal,' Mr. Trump said of the texts in an interview with Fox Business Network. 'That's a crime.'... He repeated that Mr. Mueller's report, released in April, found no collusion with the Russians, and he again offered a false assertion that he was cleared of obstruction of justice. Mr. Mueller emphasized that Mr. Trump has not been cleared of obstruction crimes." (Also linked yesterday.)
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on Wednesday to authorize a subpoena for White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after she failed to appear at a hearing centering on her alleged violations of the Hatch Act. The White House blocked Conway from attending Wednesday's hearing, prompting the Democrat-led panel to authorize Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to issue the subpoena.... Henry J. Kerner, who leads the OSC, testified before the Oversight Committee on Wednesday to defend his report. A former GOP staffer for the Oversight panel, Kerner was nominated by ... Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.... Lawmakers raised their voices at times as they sparred over the allegations, with Republicans asserting that Conway was unfairly targeted. The debate got so heated that Cummings repeatedly slammed his gavel to bring the committee back to order. One Republican -- Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan -- joined all Democrats in voting to authorize Cummings to subpoena Conway." (Also linked yesterday.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "As Fox & Friends talked about Robert Mueller's upcoming testimony before Congress..., Brian Kilmeade said..., 'I don't think he knows the details of the report.... He is like the King of England on this; he assigns the people....'" Mrs. McC: Sounds like a little projection there, Brian. Not that you yourself aren't very good at details. (Also linked yesterday.)
Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "Two women in whom E. Jean Carroll confided about having allegedly been sexually attacked by Donald Trump in the 1990s spoke publicly about it for the first time in an interview excerpted on the New York Times podcast 'The Daily,' describing the conflicting advice they gave their friend at the time.... On Wednesday, Megan Twohey, a Times reporter, interviewed Ms. Carroll and the two women, Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach, who had not been publicly identified until now.... Ms. Martin was a news anchor on WCBS-TV in New York from 1975 to 1995. Ms. Birnbach is a writer best known for 'The Official Preppy Handbook,' a best seller released in 1981. She has occasionally written for The Times." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: No sensible person would think Carroll made up the story a quarter century ago, shared the fabrication with two prominent women, then reported it publicly 25 years later. Trump voters and his Congressional enablers are saying that rape -- or at least rape committed by powerful men -- is okay.
Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: the play "The Investigation," that takes its script from the Mueller report, is still available on the Lawworks Website. If you're never going to read Mueller's report, this is a painless -- actually, quite enjoyable -- way to hear the gist of Part 2.
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Ahead of his expected meeting with Putin on the sidelines of this weekend's G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, the president told reporters that while he expected to have a positive conversation with Putin, he would not divulge whether he will press the adversarial leader about election interference. 'I will have a very good conversation with him,' Trump said, adding, 'What I say to him is none of your business.'"
"Baby Trump" to Reign on His Parade. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The 'Baby Trump' blimp that has followed President Trump around the world will fly just blocks from the White House hours before his Fourth of July address. Mike Litterst, a spokesman with the National Park Service, confirmed to Fox 5 this week that feminist anti-war group Code Pink has been granted a permit to fly the notorious balloon during their anti-Trump demonstration.... Most recently, the inflatable ball[o]on, or one of its six clones, was in Orlando, Fla., for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign kickoff." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nicole Lafond of TPM: "An employee at the upscale Aviary cocktail bar in Chicago's West Loop was taken into Secret Service custody Tuesday night for allegedly spitting on Eric Trump, according to NBC Chicago. Chicago police responded to the incident and assisted the Secret Service, according to a Chicago Police Department spokesperson.... Trump confirmed the incident during an interview with Breitbart Tuesday evening, calling it a 'disgusting' act by someone with 'emotional problems.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... MEANWHILE, Back in D.C. ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce: Some White House correspondents, led by an enthusiastic Anita Kumar, now of Politico, held a farewell cocktail party for Sarah Sanders. "The relentless desire of the elite political media to pretend that what we're experiencing is just politics as usual, that it conforms to the usual forms and fashions, and that, you know, the pendulum always swings the other way, (insert mandatory extraneous platitude here) is almost charming in its hopeful and child-like simplicity. First of all, this is not a normal administration*. It is a larval tyranny. Secondly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not a normal White House spokesperson. She was an embarrassingly bad liar and an embarrassingly arrogant countrified know-nothing running cover for a criminal gang, and everyone who attended this nightmare with canapes should be fired forthwith and replaced with someone who has covered organized crime for a living." Mrs. McC: I wonder if an employee spit in their drinks. (Also linked yesterday.)
Miranda Green of the Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air policy chief is leaving, amid ethics concerns. The agency on Wednesday announced that Bill Wehrum, the head of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, will leave the agency by the end of June. The announcement comes a few months after lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into whether Wehrum and his deputy improperly aided former energy industry clients after joining the EPA. Wehrum along with the office's senior counsel, David Harlow, formerly worked at the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, where he represented Utility Air Regulatory Group." (Also linked yesterday.)
Brian Long Repaid Two Cents on the Dollar. Daniel Lippman & Ian Kulgren of Politico: "Former FEMA Administrator Brock Long returned to the government only a tiny fraction of the costs he incurred for unauthorized use of vehicles while in office, according to previously undisclosed documents provided to Politico. A Homeland Security Department inspector general probe last year found that Long spent $151,000 using government-funded Chevrolet Suburbans for routine weekend travel to his home in North Carolina. After Politico broke the story of the investigation in September, Long was forced to reimburse the expenses, which he agreed to do. But a copy of Long's personal check, obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight through a public records request, shows that the former administrator paid back only $2,716 -- less than 2 percent of the total cost billed to taxpayers. That's because then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw FEMA, did not require Long to reimburse the government fully for his misuse of an expensive program.... The $2,716 bill, Nielsen wrote, was calculated based on a rate of 81.7 cents per mile for 3,324 unauthorized miles driven."
** Faris Bseiso of CNN: "The Trump administration has not sent $600 million in emergency food stamp aid to Puerto Rico two weeks after President Donald Trump approved the funds, and the US territory does not expect to receive the funding until September, according to The Washington Post." --safari: Nothing says "emergency" like a four month delay.
Pilar Menendez of The Daily Beast: "A former House Republican staffer [Rory Riley-Topping] on Wednesday alleged that Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) sexually assaulted her during a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in 2014." --s
Whew! Saved by the Chief. For Now. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The legal drive to rein in the power of federal regulators hit an unexpected stumbling block on Wednesday as the Supreme Court narrowly rejected an opportunity to overturn a controversial legal precedent under which courts let federal agencies interpret their own regulations. Conservatives have been railing and battling against that principle, known as Auer deference, for years, but in the new, late-term ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts split with his Republican-appointed colleagues by refusing to strike down the longstanding legal rule. Roberts did not join all of Justice Elena Kagan's opinion upholding Auer, but he joined enough of it to give the doctrine a reprieve." As Gerstein explains, the matter is not altogether decided, & it will surely come back another day. ...
... Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "Kisor was supposed to be the first in a series of blows against federal agencies' power to make regulations and interpret existing regulations..., leaving behind a dream for radical libertarians and a nightmare for anyone who cares about simple things like clean air. Instead, Justice Kagan managed to convince Chief Justice John Roberts to join a relatively moderate decision.... [T]he outcome in Kisor suggests that there is a meaningful distance between Roberts and the more nihilistic members of the court's conservative majority. Kisor is not a cause for celebration. But it is a cause for hope." --s
Mark Stern of Slate: "The constitutional right to trial by jury won a significant victory at the Supreme Court on Wednesday that once again brought Justice Neil Gorsuch together with the court's liberal wing. Gorsuch's plurality decision in United States v. Haymond places new, important limits on the government's ability to extend the sentences of certain offenders without a jury's input. It may be the first tremor in a coming Sixth Amendment earthquake. The remaining conservative justices seem to think so: Justice Samuel Alito's apoplectic dissent warned that Gorsuch is preparing to demolish the federal scheme that Congress cooked up to let judges imprison offenders for longer than any jury ever permitted." Read on for the explanation. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's appointees, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh, are as right-wingy as they come, but they have showed in their first full year on the big bench that they are also quirky, and occasionally those quirks bend toward justice.
Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Wednesday that, in April, 'U.S. monthly electricity generation from renewable sources exceeded coal-fired generation for the first time.' While coal provided 20% of U.S. power in April, renewables -- which include utility-scale hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass -- provided 23% of total generation." --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a watershed moment and a big Fuck-You to coal magnates' BFF at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Polly Mosendz, et al., of Bloomberg: "As the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist, Chris Cox pumped more money into the unlikely election of Donald Trump than anyone else.... Until his resignation was made public on Wednesday, Cox had spent 17 years as the executive director of the NRA&'s Institute for Legislative Action. He headed its political action committee and was the NRA's power broker and liaison with Congress, the White House and federal agencies, and he oversaw the rewarding of reliable conservative politicians with 'A' ratings for fortifying the Second Amendment.... Cox was placed on administrative leave on June 20, along with his deputy, after being accused of helping former NRA President Oliver North plot to overthrow Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's longtime leader and public face. The group is also in a messy public divorce with its longtime advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen Inc., which produced NRATV and helped transform the NRA into a lobbying powerhouse and cultural force. All told, the NRA is entering the 2020 race with Trump lagging in polls and without the marketing or lobbying power that made it such an effective force for Trump in 2016.
Julia Wong of the Guardian: "Reddit has taken steps to 'quarantine' the largest pro-Donald Trump community on its site, The_Donald, due to 'repeated rule-breaking behavior' and, in recent days, 'encouragement of violence towards police officers and public officials in Oregon'... The quarantine restricts the board, known as a subreddit, from generating revenue and limits its popular posts from reaching an audience in other parts of Reddit. It also means visitors are shown a message asking if they still want to enter before they click through.... Becca Lewis, a research affiliate at Data & Society who studies online political subcultures, said that the subreddit has played a 'crucial mediating role' between far-right online spaces, such as Gab, 4chan and 8chan, and mainstream politicians." --s
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Ross Barkan of the Nation: "Tiffany Cabán, the 31-year-old public defender endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is on the verge of a stunning upset in a Queens district-attorney's race that could dramatically impact the direction of criminal-justice reform in America. With 98 percent of the vote reported, Cabán held a razor-thin 1,229-vote lead over Melinda Katz, the borough president backed by the same Queens Democratic machine that Ocasio-Cortez crushed one year ago. Katz has refused to concede, waiting for absentee votes to be counted. Cabán's startling performance may not only redefine criminal-justice reform but also New York's once-ossified, hierarchical political scene. Bold leftists are ascendant, with groups like the Democratic Socialists of America evolving from a curiosity to a preeminent vote-getting force in the city." (Also linked yesterday.)
Pennsylvania. Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The embattled leader of the Pennsylvania GOP has resigned amid a #MeToo scandal, throwing the party into further upheaval in a state critical to ... Donald Trump's reelection chances. The news of Val DiGiorgio's departure follows months of party infighting and disastrous midterm election results for Republicans in the state, including the loss of three congressional seats and double-digit collapses in the gubernatorial and Senate races." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Bloomberg: "Several Huawei Technologies Co. employees have collaborated on research projects with Chinese armed forces personnel, indicating closer ties to the country's military than previously acknowledged by the smartphone and networking powerhouse. Over the past decade, Huawei workers have teamed with members of various organs of the People's Liberation Army on at least 10 research endeavors spanning artificial intelligence to radio communications.... Those projects are just a few of the publicly disclosed studies that shed light on how staff at China's largest technology company teamed with the People's Liberation Army on research into an array of potential military and security applications." --s
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From Damon Linker's piece above: "When cruelty is beside the point, the only way to inspire restraint is the fear of political consequences."
I feel like the hyper-Trumpization of our national conscious, and its invasion of our every waking thought, blinds us at times of seeing the larger perspective. As with so much in Donald Trump's GOP Inc, he's just a sleazy copy cat, repackaging & rebranding ideas as his and turning it up to 100%. This has brought all of the GOP's quiet, subtle subterfuge of Democracy into the bright light of Twitter and teevee feeds across the nation.
I posit that this inhumane, grotesque, fascist-like policy of immigrant concentration camps is but a dark conservative dream come into fruition. The GOP has always scapegoated & demonized them to their base while leaving the door cracked open for Big Business to profit from their cheap labor, leaving the poor, helpless whites to scream, à la South Park "They took our jobs!". For Confederates, immigrants are as good as a Coolie indentured servant, modern-day slavery in all but name, albeit with more freedom of movement. But simultaneously they have spent decades manipulating/shelving legislation to make sure this section of the labor force gets as little federal or state support as possible, viewed as a blood-sucking parasite on government services.
Only a few years ago, "Compassionate Conservative" Mitt Rmoney took the modern GOP mindset towards its logical conclusion when he proposed his "self deport" model, making life so miserable that they'd prefer life back home. How was he going to go about making life so miserable? He never got the chance to let us know. Trump said hold my Diet Coke and "poof" we're literally cramming these same immigrants into concentration camps. Better than "self deport", we've got "Psychological Torture & Turn Around". And you're not even guaranteed to return with, or even know the whereabouts, of your own family members you came with.
Rather than being a shameful Scarlet Letter on their résumé, cruel & unusual punishment of immigrants (the Other) is a Badge of Honor in today's GOP. Not a single Republican has pushed back in any meaningful way, because it's the entire deplorable Trump base pushing this.
Trump only grinds the pre-packaged meat and gleefully tosses it to the wolves.
@safari: WOW! Your "posit" is as clear and concise as anyone who has taken up this "prepackaged meat" scenario. Thank you.
Last night's debate: After reading all the critiques posted here which parsed the candidate's performances fairly accurately ––thought the one who mentioned Amy with only one sentence: "At least she didn't speak Spanish" was given short shrift. This process, as brief as it is, does indeed show who can be a contender and who is already seen as down for the count. And we are just beginning.
Watched a good part of the hearing on the Hatch Act which Conway was a no show. What did show was the same play in that theater of the absurd: Old white haired white guys (and one Jittery Jim Jordon with his main man Mark Meadows who lingers in the field of GOP dreams much too long) against the democrat's feisty, knowledgable , articulate young females who proceeded to steal the stage. Loved that Alexandra actually showed videos of Conway doing exactly what she is accused of doing. It gives me great pleasure watching these women steal the show from those bit players from the other side of the aisle.
So tonight another debate––we can hardly call it that at this point; it's more of a "Hi, I'm so and so from someplace and here's my sound bite on what ever you will be asking" kind of thing. And yet––there were snippets of it last night that were illuminating.
So much for Little Johnny morphing into a voice of reason and potentially the new Anthony Kennedy vote on the Court. He and the other far rightists on the Supreme Court have decided that their party should win no matter what the electorate wants. Once they decide that Trump should be able to frighten millions of Americans into not responding to the upcoming census, right wing power will be increased dramatically. The Supreme Court is now just another cog in the Confederate anti-democracy rage machine. The machinations of Mitch McConnell and Trump’s choice of wildly partisan justices has guaranteed a diminishment of the Court’s place as a balancing force in the nation. It has become just another debauched partisan hack factory.
A full examination of this deserves much more time and space than a quickie comment, but Safari's reference to the inhumane, vicious sensibilities informing Trump voters demands that we spend time considering where such hatred comes from and where it's taking us.
The quick answer is that hatred has been an elemental force on the right for decades now. It's not just a difference of opinion. It's a belief that those who don't go along with their nationalist (and white nationalist) tendencies have no business governing and deserve nothing but spite, enmity, and, yes...violent repression.
A review of the sort of outrageous stuff that's been spewed by the just deceased NRA TV service is a reminder of how close some wingers hold the possession and use (and abuse) of firearms to the rest of their political hatreds. For a service (if you want to call it that) that purported to support the prime aim (so to speak) of the NRA, guns for everyone, and upholding the primacy of their belief that the Second Amendment is being trampled upon by pinko-commie-liberal lovers of blahs and gays, NRATV widened its purview dramatically to include all the usual boogeymen despised by the right. Not just gun control advocates, but the LGBTQ community, immigrants, women's rights groups, Black Lives Matter, the Me Too movement, Obama voters, environmentalists, supporters of universal healthcare, and on and on...none of which have anything to do with the Second Amendment.
But by bringing the usual potpourri of winger hate objects under their umbrella, the NRA media screamers connected the more general beliefs and confederate hatreds with deadly weapons in about as visceral a way as you could imagine.
It's not an accident that Trump has many times cajoled his crazier supporters to assault those he considers his (and their) enemies.
But the hatred has been there and has been counted upon by the GOP for many years now. Trump is just a much more obvious proponent of the violence and fierce hatred. Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell rely on it just as much as the Orange Menace does. The media must also share a large part of the blame for the spread of the sort of vicious mindset that thinks that immigrant kids kept in worse conditions than dogs, with bad food, no healthcare, unhygienic cells, open toilets, sleeping on concrete floors with glaring lights on 24 hours a day is a good thing.
Trump may have lit the latest bonfire of the insanities, but there was plenty of fuel already available.
More later...
I see that John Roberts has peed in Trump's White Nationalist soda by sending his request for the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census back for more work. His ruling stated that the rationale for the addition was suspect (ie, slapdash, questionable, and, well, stupid). The June 30 deadline for the completion of census work is, apparently, arbitrary and I'm betting that he tries to jigger this process the same way he messes with everything else to give him and his racist horde every advantage.
So, in order to slip this question into the census, thereby screwing Latino communities and enhancing the power of the racists and white supremacists, he has to come up with a more "reasoned rationale". Easy! The reason this question should go on the census? The little king wants it that way.
Any questions?
(I'm only half-way joking, by the way. That IS the real reason. Never put the tiniest bit of skullduggery and illegal manipulation beyond the Orange Menace. I'm going to say that he extends the deadline for the census and tries this bullshit again. No judge is going to tell Donaldo he can't stomp on brown people.)