The Commentariat -- March 11, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Lord Dampnut's Proposal. Jim Tankersley & Michael Tackett of the New York Times: "President Trump sent Congress on Monday a record $4.75 trillion budget request that proposes an increase in military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year. Mr. Trump's budget, the largest in federal history, includes a nearly 5 percent increase in military spending -- which is more than the Pentagon had asked for -- and an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a border wall with Mexico. White House officials said the budget would include a total of $1.9 trillion in cuts to mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid. It also proposes new work requirements for working-age adult recipients of supplemental nutrition assistance, federal housing support and Medicaid, a move the administration said would reduce spending on those programs by $327 billion."
President* Changes One Crazy Apple Story for Another: Maybe somebody rolled the videotape. According to a Trumpertweet Monday, Trump didn't say "Cook" & you failed to hear it. Instead, "At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!" Philip Bump of the Washington Post calculates the amount of time Trump saved was 0.27 seconds. Not sure how long it took him to write the whiney-tweet.
Tom Llamas & Kaitlyn Folmer of ABC News: In an ABC News interview, "Keith Davidson, the former attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, detailed his role in negotiating hush-money deals to keep both women quiet about alleged affairs with Donald Trump, claiming a $130,000 payment to Daniels was 'done for political reasons.'... He also described [Michael] Cohen's anger when the nomination he expected for a key position within Trump's administration, such as chief of staff, never materialized.... 'He confided in me that he was just beside himself, and, in his words, you know, he said, "Can you f[uck]ing believe, after everything I've done, he's not taking me to Washington?'" Davidson recalled. 'He felt that it was a personal embarrassment for him, that he was rejected.'" Earlier this month, Cohen told the House Oversight Committee, under oath, "I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs."
Bill Barrow, et al., of the AP: "Democrats picked Milwaukee on Monday to host their 2020 national convention, setting up the party's standard-bearer to accept the presidential nomination in the heart of the old industrial belt that delivered Donald Trump to the White House."
~~~~~~~~~~
Damian Paletta & Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Monday will request at least another $8.6 billion in funding to build more sections of a wall along the Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress less than one month after Trump declared a national emergency. In Trump's annual budget request to Congress, he will request $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of a wall along the Mexico border, three people briefed on the request said. He will request another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department's military construction budget to erect more sections of a wall." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Not Gonna Happen. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated on Sunday that President Trump's reported plan to ask for $8.6 billion in the fiscal 2020 budget to fund a wall along the southern border was a non-starter. 'President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,' the Democratic leaders said in a statement. 'Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,' they added." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "To prevent leaks from Trump's Friday night Mar-a-Lago speech to RNC donors, security guards made attendees put their cellphones in magnetized pouches.... [Mrs. McC: And no wonder!]... Referring to the recent anti-Semitism controversies with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, Trump told the donors: 'The Democrats hate Jewish people.' [Mrs. McC: If true, this would be a bit odd, because many Democrats are Jewish people.]... Trump went off on what one guest called a 'bizarre tangent.' He described being home alone in the White House over Christmas 'while the Democrats were in Hawaii.'... He said he saw [Secret Service] agents wearing night vision goggles. 'They're in blackface,' Trump added, jokingly referring to the masks over the agents' faces. Trump [said] ... maybe 'they have to take [the masks] away'..." Mrs. McC: Trump thinks all this is very funny, partly because, according to Swan, "the crowd roared with laughter throughout." ...
... Jonathan Swan: "Republican donors in attendance called it one of Trump's weirdest lies ever. On Friday night, under a tent erected over the pool at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump claimed the media were spreading "fake news" when they said he called the CEO of Apple 'Tim Apple.' that he actually said 'Tim Cook Apple' really fast, and the 'Cook' part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the 'fake news,' he said, was 'Tim Apple.'" Mrs. McC: Whether because of the natural effects of aging, weird "hair" medications he is taking, or the stress of being hounded by daily reports of his sleaziness, incompetence, lies, corruption & criminality, Trump is losing it. And since he recognizes no personal failings, he has to blame someone else even for his own slips of the tongue. I believe he would be willing to testify that the videographer -- who probably works for "fake news" -- edited out "Cook." If he weren't a horrible person, it would be sad. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice that Trump doesn't pause between "Tim" and "Apple." Trump makes it one word: "Timapple." Yet we're supposed to believe there's a quietly-enounced "Cook" in there.
The Trump Scandals, Ctd.
About That Other Trump Tower Meeting. Zachary Basu of Axios: "House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that Erik Prince was lying when he claimed last week that he testified about a 2016 meeting he had with foreign nationals at Trump Tower.... Robert Mueller, who Schiff said is now in possession of all witness transcripts, has charged a number of Trump associates with lying to investigators. Notably, Donald Trump Jr. also neglected to tell the committee about the second Trump Tower meeting during his testimony." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "It wasn't long ago that Trump saw and berated [Paul] Manafort as a nuisance and another expendable former adviser. In the first year of his presidency, Trump and his top aides went out of their way to downplay the former campaign chairman's major role in the 2016 effort, with many on Team Trump privately blaming Manafort in part for federal investigators' interest in the finances of the president's family, and political and business associates.... Nowadays, however, Trump's annoyance towards his onetime aide has been largely replaced with pity and attaboys.... The president's public display of emotional support for Manafort is reflected in private discussions with close associates, who say that Trump has praised 'Paul' for not being a 'rat' or 'coward,' as he views [Michael] Cohen, and has repeatedly expressed agitation over Manafort's jailing, sometimes likening him to a political prisoner. Trump has also encouraged it when his advisers or legal team have made public statements bashing the feds' treatment of Manafort."
Christina Wilkie of CNBC has a long & hard-to-follow tale of how Paul Manafort got $125K through a series of (probably legal) cutouts, then lied about it to prosecutors. ...
... BUT as Steve M. Yastreblyansky points out, the importance of the story may be "that one of the simplest and craziest-sounding hypotheses of the Russian conspiracy -- that Manafort got that polling data to Russia in August 2016 to inform their Facebook voter-targeting activities in October, and may in this way have played a decisive role in turning the election around -- could ... be true. Steve Yastreblyansky notes that Jerry Nadler is on the case. ...
... UPDATE: Oops!
Melanie Stunned Australian Woman Is Top Official. Matt Stieb of New York: "Melania Trump, the allegedly reluctant wife of the president, mistook Australia's former foreign minister Julie Bishop for the wife of a politician, according to a story shared by Bishop on Saturday. In front of an audience at the Adelaide Festival, Bishop -- who served from 2013 to 2018 as Australia's equivalent of secretary of state -- said that Melania thought her partner was the foreign minister, after President Trump began talking to him at a UN event in 2017: 'Melania, standing by, assumed David was the foreign minister and she said to me: "Julie, will you be coming to my ladies' lunch tomorrow?" And I said "No, David's going to the partners' lunch".... So this went on for a while until the president explained that I was the foreign minister.'" Mrs. McC: Kinda reminds you of the time she & Donald had tea with Queen Elizabeth & asked the Queen where King Philip was.
How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency? Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump? -- Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, on mike pence
James Glanz & Zach Wichter of the New York Times: "Two eerily similar scenes have played out in recent months for Boeing's brand-new 737 Max jets: on Sunday, when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed just after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing 157 people, and in October, when a Lion Air disaster killed 189 people in Indonesia.... The rarity of two planes of the same model going down in such a short time span has urgently caught the attention of pilots, passengers, engineers and industry analysts. For Boeing, the questions go to the heart of its business, as the 737 class is a workhorse for airlines worldwide, and the single-aisle 737 Max has been the company's best-selling plane ever." ...
... The New York Times is updating developments. "The newest version of Boeing's most popular jet is under scrutiny after a deadly crash on Sunday, leading several countries and airlines around the world to ground their fleets' 737 Max 8 planes."
Eric Schmitt & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The American military has escalated a battle against the Shabab, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, in Somalia even as President Trump seeks to scale back operations against similar Islamist insurgencies elsewhere in the world, from Syria and Afghanistan to West Africa. A surge in American airstrikes over the last four months of 2018 pushed the annual death toll of suspected Shabab fighters in Somalia to the third record high in three years. Last year, the strikes killed 326 people in 47 disclosed attacks, Defense Department data show. And so far this year, the intensity is on a pace to eclipse the 2018 record."
Kate Kelly & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: The talent agency Endeavor has returned a $400 million investment by the Saudi government in protest over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. "It is one of the few instances of a major company halting business with the wealthy kingdom to protest its agents' assassination of a journalist."
All the Best People, Ctd. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "When MSNBC host Al Sharpton confronted Trump campaign senior adviser Katrina Pierson about the lack of black staffers in Trump's West Wing, Pierson offered a jaw-dropping excuse, asking Sharpton how many black people worked in Abraham Lincoln's West Wing." Mrs. McC: Well now, that puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha.
Tucker Carlson Is as Creepy as You Thought He Was. Madeline Peltz of Media Matters: "Between 2006 and 2011, Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to Bubba the Love Sponge, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in sometimes-vulgar terms. During those conversations, Carlson diminished the actions of Warren Jeffs, then on the FBI's 'Ten Most Wanted Fugitives' list for his involvement in arranging illegal marriages between adults and underage girls, talked about sex and young girls, and defended statutory rape. Carlson, who was hired by Fox News in 2009, also used sexist language to talk about women, including then-co-workers at NBC and public figures. He referred to Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis Stewart as 'cunty,' called journalist Arianna Huffington a 'pig,' and labeled Britney Spears and Paris Hilton 'the biggest white whores in America.' He also said that women enjoy being told to 'be quiet and kind of do what you're told' and that they are 'extremely primitive.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Lest you think Tucker can write off these comments as "youthful indiscretions," Carlson had a (terrible) CNN "shouting" show with Paul Begala prior to his radio call-in career. Jon Stewart pretty much blew up the Carlson-Begala show in 2004 when he appeared as a guest & told the hosts they were irresponsible (he called Carlson a dick, which is accurate). CNN cancelled the show, called "Crossfire," a few months later. ...
... BUT Carlson Tries the "Youth Indiscretion" Defense Anyway (AND Promotes His Show). Daily Beast Update: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson has refused to apologize for a string of derogatory comments he made about women on a radio show years ago, including dismissing women as 'extremely primitive' and 'like dogs.'... Carlson ... post[ed] on Twitter: 'Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I'm on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.'"
Daniel Politi of Slate: "Fox News host Jeanine Pirro openly questioned Rep. Ilhan Omar's loyalty to the United States during her show on Saturday.... 'Think about it, Omar wears a hijab, which, according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they won't get molested,' she said. 'Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?' Pirro then continued to press the issue when talking to guests later on in her show.... Update: 'We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar,' Fox News said in a statement [released Sunday]. 'They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.' As for Pirro, she doesn't think she did anything wrong. 'I did not call Rep. Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don't support the Constitution,' Pirro said."
Beyond the Beltway
Missouri. Daniel Politi: “Police in western Missouri got a call reporting a marijuana smell and they decided to investigate. The fact that the smell was apparently coming from the hospital room of a Stage 4 pancreatic cancer patient wasn't going to stop them. Video posted on Facebook shows officers from the Bolivar Police Department going through Nolan Sousley's things at Citizens Memorial Hospital.... Sousley told [the police] that all he had were pills with THC but the officers insist someone said they could smell marijuana in the room.... The officers specified that if they found marijuana, Sousley would receive a citation. When Sousley reminded them that Missouri will soon legalize medical marijuana, the officers were unconvinced.... Although Missourians voted to legalize medical marijuana in November, the regulations are still not in place."
Way Beyond
Canada. Rob Gillies of the AP: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a controversy that seems trivial by comparison [to Trump's scandals], but it could topple him in elections later this year. Two high-profile women ministers in Trudeau's Cabinet, including Canada's first indigenous justice minister, resigned in protest, and his top aide and best friend quit too. The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake.... He denied applying any inappropriate pressure, saying he and his officials were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of jobs."
Israel. Amy Spiro of the Jerusalem Post: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel 'is not a country of all its citizens,' hitting back at criticism from an Israeli actress who said the government treats Arabs like they are less worthy. 'First of all,' Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook message Sunday morning addressed to actress Rotem Sela, 'an important correction: Israel is not a country of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish nation -- and its alone. As you wrote, there is no problem with Arab citizens -- they have equal rights like everybody and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government.' The prime minister was responding to an Instagram post from Sela, a prolific and popular TV host and star of The Baker and the Beauty. Sela took to Instagram Saturday night to criticize Culture Minister Miri Regev and a journalist who interviewed her that evening."
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Reader Comments (15)
"Trump is losing it" says Marie. If that is the case, and we sincerely hope it is, then it won't matter how many crimes he has committed and we won't have to go through impeachment proceedings or any other maneuver to get rid of this guy. He will be hauled off to the looney bin after being found hiding in the cellars of the White House claiming that Mueller is out to kill him with a large machete and yelling loudly that he never said "Tim Apple."
Until then here is a list of Ninety-Nine Names of D.J.T/––my favorite is Der Gropenfuher––like the way it just slips off your tongue.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/03/01/1838500/-The-Ninety-Nine-Names-of-Donald-J-Trump?detail=emaildkcs
Tucker Carlson wants to describe his incredibly insulting comments as "naughty"? And to dismiss them because he said them on the radio "a decade ago", as if he were a young greenhorn, still wet behind the ears?
Sorry. First, referring to women by the C word and calling them dogs and primitive is not naughty. Naughty refers to a playful or impish misbehavior. The sort of derogatory, disparaging comments Carlson made are degrading, insulting and startling offensive. Not "naughty". What is he, six years old? And to try to blow it off because it was "a decade ago" as if he WERE six years old is almost as insulting. A decade ago he was 39, about twenty years past the point of any actions that could legitimately be passed off as youthful indiscretions.
Just another misogynistic asshole who doesn't have the spine or the moral rectitude to apologize when he's in the wrong. There are any number of ways he could have tried to explain it, but without the "I'm really sorry I said such stupid things" part, it means nothing.
And here I always thought that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Come to find out, he's as racist as Trump!
Damn. Well, I suppose it's not an excuse, but I'd probably suggest that as of 1860, about 90% of African-Americans in the United States were in chains. But I'm sure the Trumpies would not take that as an excuse. They could have pried those chains off, run away, and knocked on the White House door for a job. Lazy bastards.
I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around people in Alabama clamoring for a serial adulterer, con man, cheat, inveterate liar, and possible traitor to sign their Bibles. Isn't this a bit like FBI agents begging John Gotti to sign their field agents manual? Or asking a crude, lewd shock jock to put his mark on your Shakespeare First Folio? Or maybe like asking David Duke to stamp his name on your copy of the original 1964 Civil Rights Act?
And rather than open it up and sign a frontispiece or the title page, like a normal person, he scrawls his gigantic John Hancock on the cover, putting his signature on a par with the title of the book itself.
It would be funny if it weren't so appalling.
Omar and AOC being attacked by Faux News, the presidunce,
trumpbots, certain politicians, and other trolls must mean they're
doing something right, maybe going about it the wrong way.
And thanks for the laughs PD. Reading the comments in the article,
the 99 is now over 400.
@PDPepe & @forrest.morris: Yep, the names are great. Glad I read the comments; Lord Dampnut in an anagram for Donald Trump.
Leonardo DiCaprio did a Netflix (streaming) documentary about
2 years ago "Before the Flood", which he worked on about 3 years.
It is most enlightening and well worth the watch if anyone hasn't
yet seen it. The images relating to climate change are amazing.
I kinda liked Tweety Amin.
@Akhilleus: Me, too. I'm planning to steal it.
Nancy hit the target again. She knows that Trump can be defeated and many members of Congress can go down with him. With Trump gone and an acceptable Republican like Kasich nominated, the base that has been courted and the sixteen percent of upper middle class and the real wealthy defending their tax position may total more than fifty percent of voters.
Trump can be impeached only if his sins are so egregious that the Republicans must support the action.
I really like the Mayor of South Bend, IN, Peter Buttigieg. I have seen him on the TV a couple times and he sounded the best at explaining the current situation we are in and mapping out his plans for the country if elected. I know he probably has about a zero chance, but this is the type of fresh voice I am looking for from the Democratic Party.
Agreed, Carlyle. Under most scenarios I can imagine, while richly deserved, impeachment would be a gift to the R's.
Eschewing it might also set the bar a bit higher for future impeachments theater than fudging under oath about not having sex with that woman. The country didn't buy that one, but the R's are brainless bulldogs and can be expected to seek immediate, unreasoning revenge if (fates forbid!) given the opportunity. Benghazi!
Need help with your numbers, though. If the Pretender is not primaried out are you saying that the R's would lose, but if he is, they would not?
Ken Winkes: Unburdened by Trump the Repubs can claim innocence of everything and nominate an electable candidate and the anti Trump Dems will have missed the boat with their issue gone and no legislative victories.
With Trump on the ticket ,the Repubs are apt to lose. With a traditional Republican on the ticket the Repubs are apt to win.
@pathmann: I agree. The first time I heard Buttigieg being interviewed, I was struck by how sharp he was. And he has good ideas. He hasn't disappointed since. What a stunning contrast to Trump!
Thanks, Carlyle.
Got it.
And you're right. The Dems will not have many legislative victories to run on. The Mitch will take care of that.